do we have a right to feed the hungry? do we have the right it say no matter what your status, we are going to do our work? you are, in my judgment, wrong to make church and state the same. but you're wrong to interfere with the work of the church. i read about man that once told a rich man, give all he had to the poor. i wonder what they would have called him on the right wing. his name was jesus. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. >> the best defense is a good offense. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in

washington. from day one of obama's presidency they have been coming from him. rush limbaugh wanted him to fail. mitch mcconnell says the number one goal was it make obama a one-term president. the tea party claimed obama was a big government socialist that there was something unamerican about his healthcare plan. the attacks became ethnic. even racist with birthers questioning whether he was born in the country. the u.s. congress got into the game spending millions to defeat him. same companies earning record profits by minimizing and squeezing their pay rolls. now, conserves are going after the poor saying they need to be taxed more while asking the rich to contribute nothing. all the while charging obama with engaging in class warfare. well, they accuse obama f creating divisions when they went after him and that's our top story tonight. the same republicans talk about the need to cut spending during tough economic times.

surely some of them know history but doing so now threatens to choke the fragile recovery and throwing us back into recession. you have to wonder if this doesn't bother them so much, so it doesn't make obama a one-term president, their number one goal. taking a stand and buckling the bush tax cuts, he is still the most progressive president since lbj. . across the aisle, rick perry is making noise and republicans want him to get into the race. finally let me fin wish horror in somalia and what you can do about it. let's begin with the partisan attacks on president obama. howard fineman, joan walsh. as a bit of a reer from esh course i'm going back over o who started in warfare. during this administration of president obama. senate majority leader mcconnell told national journal?

2010 that our top priority should be to deny president obama a sec term. let's keep going with this. rush limbaugh told senator that when the president was inaugurated he wanted him to fail. >> so i shamelessly say, no wib want him to fail. if is t is tar left collectivism, why would i want socialism to succeed? >> at the conference earlier this year, michele bachmann named her number one goal for 2012, let's listen to her. >> the all important must-have for 2012 is this -- making barack obama a one-term president. howard fineman what i'm hearing in the aftermath of the debt fight is that president obama is somehow engaging in class war far politics when from day one, from second one, the goal of the

republican party of the right of corporate america of the tea party. whole what sha bang has been to eliminate this guy's presidency. it's been personal, about him and it is about high hey interested. >> well i think in a situation like that, people off then think that. your political foes think that. but they didn't used to say it outlied. >> what, we hate you, we want to kill you. politically. >> politically like they did. at the very beginning of the obama presidency. i was there on the mall when the president was inaugurated. you thought that perhaps all of america was there. there were a million aefr a half people there. but it wasn't all of america. it was barack obama's people. the corporate leaders for the most part decided from day one that that crowd and that president they saw taking oath was not their president. >> it was like the successionist. you know the way you phrase that

because of your history sense, it was almost like he was being inaugurated. right? and divide. >> well, that's my view of it. i think the president made some efforts to reach out. i don't know how wholeheartedly debecause i think he felt from the beginning that his overtours would be rejected. the way the things started here in washington from the very beginning was quite icy and quite distant from the get-go in the beginning of the obama presidency. >> and the positive side of that day is the first time that real washington, ash an washington, a city we both lived in for years joined in the national television. >> turns o out a lot of people weren't celebrating. >> letsz a he good to joan walsh. i hate to say, the racial part of this later. but it seems to me that enemies of barack obama didn't need to be told this is class warfare. they were ready to go after this guy for his very being from day

one. >> yes, they absolutely were. i would differ with howard a little bit in that i think he was con sill torre. you're on the scene howard, in washington. but i just remember the president holding a dinner, president-elect, holding a din forjohn mccain. to honor john mccain. i believe the night from inauguration. and i tlaut how wonderful that is. they add very spirited battle. it got ugly at times. but john mccain has served in many capacity and this is the way it is. i'm always to his left. i don't always like his style, when i would like him to fight but you can't say that he didn't try from the beginning, from the campaign. he talked about ree krooeating obamacans. he was more moderate than hillary clinton like a health reform plan. he was not a fire brand. not the socialist. not the ultra leftist. so this attack came out of

nowhere. it is really ideological and very deliberate effort to undermine him from day one. >> you know my executive producer said for a while new that republicans cannot stand the idea of a democrat bringing president. >> i was thinking, that goes back it eisenhower. when they d they lay claim to the presidency? back in 2009 as president addressed the congress on his healthcare plan. here is south carolina's republican congressman joe wilson shouting out the wonderful words we will never forget. let's listen. >> the reforms i'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally. [ crowd booing ] >> wonderful talk. >> just a few weeks ago, first term tea partier joe walsh. another joe, calling on the president to quit lying. let's listen. >> president obama, quit lying. you know darn well that if

august 2nd comes and goes be there is plenty of money to pay of o our debt and cover all of our social security obligations. but have you no shame, sir? in three short years, you have bankrupted this country and destroyed job creation. you're either in over your head. you don't understand what makes this country great. or your hell bent on turning us into some big european government waist land. >> you know, there's another part of this, not just that he is a democrat but he is fatally foreign. even the gentile, mr. romney, referred to him as awfully european. what is this about? that he is not really one of us? a relentless point here. >> congressman wall also said you don't understand what makes america great. the implication being that you are somehow not american because only americans can really understand what makes this

country great. i do think that our politics and discourse has been coarsened over recent years but there is a personal enl to this. that you don't usually see. there's some sense in which for these people that the president just kind of sticks in their craw in a way. it is not that they've accepted them and rejected him, they never accepted him from the beginning. and that was a difference with george w. bush for example who after 9/11 had the whole country gather around him. however momentarily. and everyone accepted him as leader for that moment, then he lost a lost his political capital. this president, he never started with the full out asechbt whole country. >> he could be mighty house everyday of the week saving the day. like on the cartoon. he could be catching bin laden every two hours and these people wouldn't think he was worth much, joan. not as an american, not as a lib

cal, conservative. >> as an american. one thing i think we are leaving out perhaps inadvertently because the three of us talked about it before. is remember dick cheney's attacks and all that he left america safe and soft on terror, when in fact he has gotten bin laden and a lot of other people aep criticized from the left on some foreign policy. he has been a very strong president in that way. but he was untrust worthy from the beginning. the only thing i would add and 20 go back to your brilliant executive producer because all of your staff is brilliant, he is right. this also goes back it bill clinton. bill clinton had his problems. but the effort to delegitimize him, to say he is involved with drugs, with murder, with foster coming from jerry, coming from the project be a even from congress, it was similar. it wasn't the same but it was similar.

there is a real dehuman. anization of this man. the worst thing that someone can say is that he is not american. they usually accept that the other sides is american, they just usually call them idiots. the worst thing you can say about a right winger. the worst thing to say about a left winger, he is not one of us. here he is talking about the president using street corner hustler term saying he conned us into believing he was a citizen. this is con ald trump thought here. let's listen. >> i would like to have him show his birth certificate. and to be honest with you, i hope he can. because if he can't, if he can't and if he wasn't born in this country. which is real pollity. i'm not saying it has been.

but it is possibility. then he pulled one of the greatest cons in the history of politics. >> there is donald trump betting on black and it came up red. >> chris you made such a great point about the fact that that when democrats attack on the left they said of george w. bush, he is not bright enough for job. he has shrunk in office, not grown in office. he misspent money. he started us on the wrong path but they never questioned whether he was american or questioned his patriotism. whether he somehow at some level understood what america was all about, even if he was wrong in the policy peps that is not the case here 37. there is a fundamental threshold that for a third of country, he never crossed, not that he lost it, but he never crossed it. maybe because of the race or name or rumors of islam. but for whatever reason he never crossed.

>> i want to get to joan. here hatch. he is not worried about liberals. he says he is tired about the president arguing for shared sacrifice. this is new. would he are hearing from the right they started it. here is proof. orn hatch saying we have to tax the poor more. >> i get tired of hearing the obama about tax hike. the rich paying 38%, the other side spends and spends and spends and they want to tax and tax and tax so they can spend some more. my gosh, when are we going to wake up in this country and realize they are spending us into owe oblivion. the poor need jobs and need it share responsibility. >> they need it share

responsibility. tax the poor, joan. i never heard that in politician. let's go sock it to the poor. this is a new one. from orrin hatch. >> right. it was a bipartisan program. a program under the first george bush. earn et income tax credit that says, okay, we are creating low wage jobs. last people are working, working hard, but they are still poor. so a republican began funding people money, duting their taxes and that is accepted. mitton friedman thought that was good idea. that's how far the country has come is that it was time no bash the hard-working poor people that weren't working to get out of poverty. it is so mean spirited. >> you know in terms of ideol y ideology, in terms of corporate power, squeezing of the labor force. to not bring on new hires, but to squeeze the mem who are working and that's how we avoid

recession. that's the new tool. now to have the citizen's united skaul bit the supreme court to use all their power on television. this is a real he assault on barack obama. >> what the implication of what orrin hatch is saying is that we aren't all responsible for each other in the end. and he's right. have we spent unwisely sometimes? yes. is spending out of control? no doubt. but that's accepted. what orrin hatch is saying, is we question whether we are in the same boating to at this point. that some people conned us. that there are people in it for something other than the common good and questioning the motives of poor people who basically are only trying to get by is not generally something that you have heard from politicians. >> i don't think it will sell in utah in the long run either. that's not the culture out

there. >> no, it isn't. >> there is a sense of society looking out for poor people. >> thank you, we agree. i've been saying for months that president obama is vulnerable in the states. on the eastern side up to the we wisconsin, now the president is doing some about it. he is getting in the but gus. this is something. he trying to offset to cut all this spending. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy?

so i took my heartburn pill and some antacids. we're having mexican tonight, so another pill then? unless we eat later, then pill later? if i get a snack now, pill now? skip the snack, pill later... late dinner, pill now? aghh i've got heartburn in my head. [ male announcer ] stop the madness of treating frequent heartburn. it's simple with prilosec otc. one pill a day. twenty-four hours. zero heartburn. no heartburn in the first place. great. the senate brought in another stalemate. this one involving the faa. 4,000 faa employees are out of work and safety inspectors are working without pay because democrats and republicans can't agree. one is slashing funds to rural airport. democrats say republicans are

trying to make it harter for airline workers to unionize. president obama is urging both to end the stalemate bit end of week. we will have ray lahood on "hardball" tomorrow. we'll be right back.

welcome back to "hardball." republicans may have gotten their way in the debt ceiling fight, something they won in many ways, but is there any evidence that cutting spending is the way to revive this slagging economy? senator casey, i guess there's a battle that's over, and i'm just wondering who won. when you cut spending, usually that's a sign you cut jobs. is that your view? >> well, chris, i don't think there's any question, when i talked with people in pennsylvania, they want us to cut spending. we cut by a report amount in the 2011 budget, we will be cutting as a result of this recent agreement. i think the debate now will be when you propose budget cuts,

what effect does it have on the economy? but also what's the difference between a smart cut and one that hurts investments and jobs? and i think that's where some of the debate it. i think they did see a different this spring where they cut medical research by a billion. that's a bad idea. when they slash law enforcement by hundreds of millions of dollars, that's a bad idea, so i think the debate will -- but how we do that. is president obama viewed in pennsylvania as an aggressive or passive democrat? >> it's hard to categorizes it, but i think pennsylvania right now has kind of a mixed point of view about the president, and i think that's a result mostly of where we are in the economy. when i go across the state, people say focus on jobs, work things out, and try to come

together and compromise. if we do that, especially those of us who happen to be democrats, i think we'll do just fine, but right now is a tough time for the country. people are leading tough lives, and we've got to be able to understand that if we're going to be effective at leading them. that's what i hear, about spending and getting things done. >> today's august 3rd, 2011, senator. what's the federal government doing today? what's the obama administration, the president, doing today besides taking a bus trip to create jobs? what program is hiring people, putting people to work, coming up with public works project? where is all that happening? i just don't see it happening. >> chris, i think we made a good decision last year, and it actually was bipartisan to use the tax code, the payroll tax cut was a very good idea. i think it had a very positive impact in the early months of

the year where we're getting private setter growth the 220, 230, 240 every month. that worked well, i think. i think the earned income tax credit, using the tax code is one way to create jobs. i would hope, and i'm not sure our republican friends would go along with it, but i would hope we can't come up with a focus and targeted but effective infrastructure program. i think in pennsylvania, you know our state well, at both ends of our state and in the middle as well, we've got a lot of jobs and a lot of activity around medical research, the life sciences, a tax credit like that i think is a good idea, but i think there's still some work to do to either reinstitute strategies that have worked to create jobs, but also introduce new ideas. >> the problem, senator, is the first three months created 200,000 job jobs a month. last month it was 18,000. >> you're right. >> i just hope the news coming out friday is another turnaround.

we need another one. thank you, senator bob casey, senator from pennsylvania. >> thank you, chris. talking about the uphill battle across the rustbelt, is chris lizza. he's sees as sort of a sherrod brown labor democrat. president obama is not like that. tell us what his problems is in terms of political connection with rustbelt guys and women and a lousy jobs outlook which the business community isn't do much about despite the bush tax cuts? >> chris, let's start with the 2008 presidential primaries process. ohio, pennsylvania, hillary clinton won, it's not as those these areas have ever been great for barack obama. yes, pennsylvania by double digits, ohio by five, more of that was the national wave.

to your point, why is it tough? these are older states. these are whiter states in terms of overall population these are states. >> we're looking at pennsylvania to wisconsin. >> michigan, throw iowa a bit in there. you know, all of those states -- indiana, illinois in the northeastern corner, all these are places where the economy is very, very tough. now, the economy is tough, of course, across the nation, but these are places where the manufacturing sector has either disappeared or taken a massive hit. they feel the economic age site and pressures more. they were never totally sold on barack obama to start. i think that's an important point. >> but that's news, this is this week, one of the reasons the market dropped this week is because the bad manufacturing numbers in the older industrial states where people are old -- is obama seen as a guy looking

out for medicare for the people who don't have the money to go to arizona or florida or wherever. >> i would say going to this trigger, this super committee if they can't decide on these tax cuts, that old jack murtha district southwestern, pennsylvania, one of the things he was known for was bringing defense money into that district. so it's knolls as simple. it could be in the places in that region in that region can't decide if it was bad for barack obama, defense and medicare. >> we don't have time to go through the poll numbers. >> that is the battleground bottom line, isn't it? >> look, your scranton-oshkosh thing was true in 2010, it will

be true in 2012. just four states, ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, and indiana, 64 electoral votes, chris. that's one quarter of the 270 you need. he won all of those states in 2008. he doesn't need all of them in 2012, but he'll need some. the argument in favor for him is history. the last time a democrat was george herbert walker bush. if you look back at history, it would suggest that democrats will rally to the cause by the end. but barack obama would rather have his number be higher than lower at the moment. >> i think you're optimistic. i don't think history is much of a guide right now. i think people are angry, but you know as much as i do. >> never. >> thank you, chris. what's up on the satan

sandwich? he's going to add to that. he elaborates on his big metaphor. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. uh, i'm in a timeout because apparently riding the dog like it's a small horse is frowned upon in this establishment! luckily though, ya know, i conceal this bad boy underneath my blanket just so i can get on e-trade. check my investment portfolio, research stocks... wait, why are you taking... oh, i see...solitary. just a man and his thoughts.

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back to "hardball." now to the site show. first up the most unforgettable description of the debt ceiling agreement might just be the quote -- satan's sandwich. cleaver now seems to have turned it into an entire meal, which he described on "morning joe" today. let's listen. >> you've got a bit of sourdough on one side of the sandwich for poor people, and then you have some onions for, you know, people who are unemployable benefits.

you of course serve it with a demon drink. >> i'm not sure i want to know what's in a demon drink. up next, it's known that richard nixon was no natural on tv, but we know he did try to solicit some help. now up for auction by his former joke writer is a ten-page long critique that he requested to help his on-camera image back before he ran again in '67. some of the highlights s. quote, loose financialer hanging downward from bent wrists moving toward the camera in a swimming motion are confusing and have grotesque connotations. quote, his frequently clenched fists indicate tension, even bling reins. a greasy preparation to keep his hair in place gives a slick, foreign look, unbecoming in his role. no sugar coating in those

recommendations. the pages also suggest that he exercise, quote, a more pleasant facial expression. wow. up next, progressives say they're unhappy with president obama for folding on the debt deal. does the left realize that at his core, he is the most liberal president since lbj? we'll argue that when we come back. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. [ jasmine ] i want to be a pediatrician so i want to major in biology. miss gopie is the best teacher i ever had. she's amazing, i love her. [ jade ] i'm teaching jasmine ap biology. i knew she had the talent... i always pushed her. [ jasmine ] her class you literally have to think, like it takes so long to do her homework. [ jade ] she's gained the confidence that she can achieve anything. [ jasmine ] i'm going to be a pediatrician... and i'm going to make this dream come true. a 100 percent. ♪

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hop l hello, i'm page hopkins. here's what's happening. justice department announced 72 people have been arrested in 14 countries in connection with an international child pornography ring. meanwhile prosecutors in texas rested their case against religious leader warren jeffs after playing an audiotape of him having sex with a 12-year-old girl. the cdc and usda identified

the source of ground turkey linked to deadly salmonella outbreak. cargo meats is voluntary recalling 36 million pounds after one death and 76 illnesses. cities across the country activating emergency heat plans as blistering temperatures stress the national power drid. haiti bracing for proerm emily with thousands of people living tents in the wake of january's devastating earthquake. bubba smith is found dead of natural causes of california today. he was 66 years old. now let's go back it "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." liberals say they're unhappy with the president for what they see as folding, but he's also being hated by conservatives. they call him a socialist. doesn't the left understand they

have a progressive president? we'll argue about that right now. joining me is jonathan alter, and alex wagner. john, you have a lot of history under your belt. this guy's a progressive, the stimulus package was pure keynesian economics, pure roosevelt. it was aggressive industrial policy, and clearly the health care bill, the first since trouping to deliver on a longtime progressive goal. then to afghanistan where he went right of the middle. he's sticking in there in force, and the bush tax cuts where it's very hard to read while we have tax cuts in the well off. we still have bush's tax policy. is the shot he's too conservative from the left right? >> i don't think it is.

liberals have to be careful about making these kinds of charges when hubert humphrey was too centrist for them, they sat on their hands in 1968, and we got nixon. when carter was too centrist, we got the teddy kennedy challenge which helped sink him in 1980, so you have to look at the report. the record is most lid quite progressive until his reaction to the mitt terms. then he made a conscious decision to move abruptly to the center to start talking more about deficit reduction, than about stimulus, and he took his eye off jobs. i think that might have cost him. >> did he think the recovery was under way? or did he get the numbers wrong? bob casey, senator from pennsylvania was just talking

about it. we all have a.d.d. in this country. the first of the year looked pretty good. the second quarter was terrible, we have an 18,000 new jobs last month. we don't know what will happen this friday. did he get the idea we're already rolling in the recovery? alex, did he get the idea we're rolling in the recovery, therefore could start to put the brakes on? >> forget the car in the ditch >> the tide has turned. >> and now unemployment is ticking back up. i think to the earlier points, look, it is about jobs, and vis-a-vis the base? loose what's happens with the black and hispanic communities? 16.2% unemployment among the black community? there is a real feeling, if not that he's a tool of the right, people are mea do recallized. i think the white house loves talking about inflection points,

this was an inflection point. i think the debt war changed a lot of people's perceptions about what he's capable of. >> is he capable of turning the country's direction to the issue of jobs? even though a 1.7 trillion $deficit, it may be time for the government to creates jobs even with that deficit? all i hear is about trade with korea and green jobs, i don't see anything in terms of a big push for jobs. >> i think there's a create activity gab action and working the problem harder. i floated an idea recently that's been a around for a while, too, to allow those who are getting unemployment compensation to turn that into a voucher, to take to an employer, and say, if you hire me, you know, $40,000 job will only cost you $20,000, because i can use the unemployment voucher with no extra costs. it doesn't have to be a big spending programs.

there might be problems in terms of workability, but they need to think of things like that to do what franklin roosevelt suggested -- bold, persistent experimentation, take one method and try it. if it doesn't work, try something else, but try something. that was the new deal, and we're missing that spirit right now. >> we're talking about the president who just announced today, the white house did, and conveyed that he's going to get in a bus and drive around the midwest. he is vulnerable i would think to picketing, shouts from the crowd. >> sure. >> we don't want you on the bus here. we want construction jobs. we want the roads and bridges fixed. we don't want you campaigning this august. >> yeah, and there's a bit of hucks terrism to it. i think to jonathan's earlier point -- >> what does the phrase green jobs mean? >> renewables. if we see obama? another battery plant, i think everybody is ready to give up on wind, solar and hydro.

the idea that that will pull us out of the ditch we remain in. i was talking with emanuel cleaver earlier this week, and we were saying, look, there's bound to be disappointment, but at the end of the day, people don't understand what these green jobs are. if that's the only plan he has, i think the white house is in serious trouble. >> what stops them, jon, from proposing -- why don't they have a well-advertised program to put 2 or 3 million people to work on public works projects. put out a list of bridges below closed nationwide, all the subway systems, put out the lest, on numbs, on tv, show it, use the advertising ability, and say we want these jobs done. it's the republicans who are stopping it. let's talk about it in the next election. at least they put out in public what they would like to do. i don't know what the president would like to do.

>> i think that's a great idea, you know, they rejected direct hiring, wpa-type programs at the beginning, for very good reasons, but they should lay down a marker that they're going to do what it takes to proposal big, bold ideas. the american associate of civil engineers issued a report that said if we don't fix or infrastructure, it's going to cost hundreds of billions in productivity over the years, because a great nation must have a great infrastructure, but they have to stop talking about its, quote infrastructure. it doesn't mean anything to people. it should be we want to put people back to work rebuilding this country. the other side doesn't. frame the issue squarely. >> why do we have a penn station in new york fit for rats to go on, really a dump. the ugliest train station in the world, probably, and was once penn station, now it's a dump. we have the l.a. airport, which

is the ugliest older airport in the world i think compared to south africa's airport. you go to europe they go 300 miles an hour on trains, we go 50 miles an hour 789 has anybody done a comparison of how we live compared to the rest of the world? in china they 2, 300 miles an hour. everything here is old and out of date, and republicans say we don't like the public sector. who will take responsibility for it if not the democrats? just a thought. jonathan, you know history. he party to jump on board, he's absolutely important. now, i realize that's early next year but between now and the vetting process of november, december, he's the top guy in the race. >> he looks like a secretary treasury the president should have. the guy who likes like the guy who makes money, even though conley didn't have money, he looked like he did. >> they call him good hair

perry. >> how about below the hair. how's he doing inside? >> not to well. he's not very popular in texas. >> she got ran out of the race from this guy. >> that's in part because governor perry had to go far, far right to beat her. >> how does that hurt the republican party of 2012? we can have this argument, lawrence o'donnell was making a point with the critics that the parties move so far over that it's a different party. >> yes. >> and it's a tea party now more than a conservative party and therefore somebody like this guy could be just perfect for this year in a fight. >> he could be. the problem is it's about an inch deep. even in may -- >> you're not going to cut him a break. why don't you wait until he wins the nomination. i'm touting the guy. i want these guys in the race. here's rick perry criticizing president obama.

perry says "this president is trying to engage in class warfare and shooting high-powered bullets at people with corporate jets but they hit blue collar workers who rely upon the wealthy individuals who risk capitol to create jobs. don't they know to stop using bullets? stop it. >> it bothered me when i saw it as well, but i'll tell you, the kind of rhetoric, that kind of rhetoric, as you said, is the rhetoric that's going to win the primary -- could win the nomination next year for the republicans. rick perry is running a primary race, all these things that appeal to the christian conservatives or tougher rhetoric against obama, it's a dog whistle for the constituencies who are going to name the nominee and go after the general. >> do you think he has the message that sells on the right?

>> the far right, absolutely for right now. the question is if he gets anywhere, if he can stand the scrutiny of a presidential campaign. i don't think he can. >> that's back to my point. i already advanced that question. if he's the man for the fall, mr. october, mr. november, mr. december. if he sweeps into the early primary, it could be the best break president obama got. >> who's boxed himself so far to the right, and frankly could be paying disingenuous at that if you look at his long legislative history. this is a guy who shared al gore's presidential campaign at one time in texas, you know, just passed a, you know, $10 billion debt increase in the state of texas in may. >> good stuff, good research. eric burns, thanks for joining us. alex, as always, thanks for joining us. we vice president talked about it, i'm going to do it tonight. we ought to be focusing on the worst part of the world right

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let me finish tonight with a part of the world that is having a truly horrible time. right now the region of somalia, you can't call it a country, is experiencing one of the worst of east africa's droughts of modern times. the fact there's no real government there adds to the desperate situation. the area of worst drought is

under the controlled forces loyal to al qaeda, making it a triple whammy of devastation. the u.s. government has declared no one will be punished, however, for helping the starving people in somalia or helping indirectly the terrorists who rule the famine area itself. we can see past the terrorist loyalties of the insurgents running the famine area to the people who are suffering miserably from it. suffering food, medicine, what's necessary to sustain life. the pictures tell the story. young kids starved to the bone, their mothers watching it living with the withering death of their own children. maybe this is the future of this planet for millions more i wonder. i sometimes wonder if what we're watching here is the unending predatory growth of desert in africa with more and more people trying to find a life on less and less farmable land.

the need to help people to keep them from starving to death. children in their mother's arm. if you want to help, one of the best agencies is us aid. go to their website at