next. good evening, rachel. >> chris, i have no idea where he got that candid photo of me in my weekend hairdo. >> usually you're wearing a bandanna. >> thank you very much, my friend. have a good weekend. thanks for you for staying with us for the last hour. we are beginning our show today with a special debate issue of debunktion junction. can we make the train thing go? i love the little train thing. thank you very much. debunktion junction, what's my function? first up, herman cain, herman cain was asked about his assertion american communities have the right to ban mosques if they want to. herman cain responded by denying he had ever said that. here's how it went. >> you said that communities have the right to ban muslims

from building mosques, before you later apologized. >> the first point you raised saying communities have the right to ban mosques, no, that's not exactly what i said. unfortunately, the people who helped you put that together have misquoted me. >> i have been misquoted, and you don't come up with your own questions, obviously. is that true or false? herman cain said communities have the right to ban mosques, is that true or false? that is true. >> the people in the community know best and i side with the people with community. they have the right to do that. >> yes, herman cain did go on to apologize for having said that later, but there is saying it clear as day, he said it to chris wallace, the same guy who he denied it to last night. the communities have the right to ban mosques, which, of

course, they don't. denying he said it doesn't deny the truth that he said it. jon huntsman asserted last night the obama administration has no high-level contact with china. mr. huntsman made the point in the context of china allegedly hacking into u.s. computers. listen. >> not only have government institutions been hacked into, but private individuals have been hacked into, it's gone beyond the pale, we need a strategic dialogue at the highest levels between the united states and china. that is not happening. >> that is an empirical insertion from jon huntsman there, it is the sort of thing that can be checked. is it true or false that, as jon huntsman said, the obama administration is not talking to china at the highest levels? that is false. as josh rogan at foreign policy

noted today, huntsman must know there have already been two rounds of the u.s.-china strategic economic dialogue, led by secretary of state hillary clinton and treasury secretary, timothy geithner. in fact, jon huntsman himself participated in the dialogue in 2010 and wrote a blog post about it. i couldn't agree more. not only has this strategic dialogue that jon huntsman says isn't happening, not only has the dialogue been ongoing, but jon huntsman himself has been part of the dialogue and said it's going great, his assertion there is false. sticking with foreign policy for a moment, true or false, this right here is a word. afghanistanees is a word, is that true or is that false?

i'm sorry, rick santorum, it is false. here it is in context. >> iran is a country that has been at war with us since 1979. iran is a country that has killed more american men and women in uniform in iraq and afghanistan than the iraqis and the afghanistanees has. first says than afghanistans has, then corrects himself. afghanistanees, not a word. being outgunned by iran in their own country is also frankly dubious, but we'll have more on rick santorum in just a moment. first, though, true or false, this is a person. >> general mullen. >> true or false, general mullen is a known and relevant person in u.s. politics and policy? that is false. there may be a general mullen somewhere, but i don't think it's who tim pawlenty meant when he invoked this person in this context. >> i was there last summer with

governor perry, by the way, and met with general petraeus, he thought it would take about two years from last summer to have an orderly and successful wind down of our mission in afghanistan, president obama has accelerated that faster than either general mullen or general petraeus recommended. >> what he means there is admiral mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs, admiral mullen is a navy admiral, not an army general. next up, michele bachmann, minnesota congresswoman michele bachmann accused tim pawlenty last night of republican heresy on the environment. listen. >> governor, when you were governor in minnesota, you implemented cap and trade in our state. >> michele bachmann said tim pawlenty implemented cap and trade in minnesota. is that true or is that false? false. tim pawlenty did, in a previous political life, endorse the idea

of cap and trade. back in 2007 when he was governor, he signed a bill into law that would require a task force to recommend how the state could adopt a cap and trade system, but he did not put a cap and trade system in place in minnesota. that, michele bachmann, is false. next up, former utah governor john huntsman was singled out last night as the only moderate of all the candidates on a whole host of issues. >> you supported a stimulus package in 2009, in fact, you said the obama stimulus package was not big enough. as governor, you signed on to a regional cap and trade market. you endorse civil unions for same-sex couples, and you served as president obama's ambassador to china. some people have suggested that maybe you're running for president in the wrong party. >> no other candidate got confronted in that way by the fox news people last night.

is it true or is it false that jon huntsman is the only candidate who on the issue of gay rights voiced support for gay rights in last night's debate when he defended his record on civil unions? jon huntsman was the lone pro-gay rights voice of all the republican candidates on stage last night. is that true or is that false? false. from an unlikely source, actually, there was an unsolicited pro-gay rights testimony in the republican debate last night from a man named santorum. >> i don't apologize for the iranian people being free for a long time, now they are under a trampling of the rights of gays and people all throughout their society. >> to be clear, rick santorum has not changed his position on whether or not he supports gay rights in america, but he did plant himself last night firmly on the side of gay rights in iran. so that statement exists in the

world now. i don't know what else to say about it. next up, true or false, on the debate stage in ames, iowa, all of the republican candidates running for president last night, is that true or is that false? false, when you see somebody like newt gingrich on the stage, you may be tempted to conclude this is a completist view, but no, there were a number of real live declared republican candidates for president who were not invited to participate in the debate last night, long-shot candidate fred karger said he watched in an ames, iowa, restaurant and pub and blogged his answers on "the huffington post" website, freddy romer, who was renting a one-bedroom apartment, he said he planned to watch from either his campaign headquarters apartment and would make himself

available at the debate's conclusion. he said "it's kind of a non-event for me." true, actually. a spokesperson for gary johnson said gary johnson would talk about the debate afterwards on fox business channel. representatives of governor rick perry, who joins the race tomorrow, his representatives told msnbc news he had meetings scheduled for last night but he may "catch up with the highlights afterwards." earlier this week, a article covering 13 other texans who are not rick perry who are all technically running for president. they have all filed the paperwork to run. aside from ron paul, who was, of course, on stage last night, the other dozen texas presidential candidates were not in attendance. there were lots and lots of other republican presidential candidates who were not on stage last night. this one has to be in its own category. it's strange, sort of on the same topic, but different.

here it goes. true or false, republican congressman/presidential candidate thaddaeus mccotter was not at the debate in iowa last night. was that true or false? false. thaddaeus mccotter was at debate last night. he turned up in the so-called spin room afterwards. according to "the daily beast," thaddaeus mccotter was not allowed into the republican debate but somehow rangeled a media pass and showed up. speaking of media passes, true or false "the rachel maddow show" was represented. false, but i could understand why you might think otherwise, even though you might recognize anthony terrell from "the rachel maddow show" in times past and might have seen him in the post debate spin room. there he is last night. anthony terrell does not work at

"the rachel maddow show" anymore, he has left the confines of this show for the much more sober journalistic duty of covering the presidential campaign for nbc news. even though it looks like we were there in the spin room and everybody knows anthony, that wasn't us anymore. turning to economic policy, we all know the republicans are driving some hard bargains on tax hikes these days, right? even for the richest people in the country. even for corporations, which is, if you ask some republicans, actually are people. they just really don't like the taxes, they are feeling absolutist about it. back in march, republicans released a report on growing the economy and a successful plan for reducing the deficit, they said, was one made up of 85% spending cuts and only 15% tax increases. that's all they are willing to give in the way of tax hikes, 15%. so true or false, at last night's debate, you saw that same hard lined republican

approach to spending cuts versus tax hikes, like the one we saw outlined earlier this year. is that true or is that false? false. the republicans vying for the 2012 presidential nomination, turns out, have a much, much more hard-lined approach to spending versus tax cuts. watch. >> say you had a deal, a real spending cuts deal, 10 to 1, as byron said, spending cuts to tax increases, speaker, you're already shaking your head, but who on this stage would walk away from that deal? would you raise your hand if you feel so strongly about not raising taxes you'd walk away on the 10 to 1 deal. okay. [ cheers and applause ] just making sure everybody at home and everyone here knows they all raised their hands, they are saying they feel so strongly about not raising taxes that a 10 to 1 deal they would walk away from, confirming that.

>> republican hard-lined position in march was that 85-15 would be the appropriate ratio for spending cuts to tax increases. now not even a 10 to 1 deal could get the attention of a single republican presidential candidate. taxes, smaxes. finally, back to rick santorum. >> you'd see me in your hometown, but you probably wouldn't see much of me on television, so it's holding true tonight. >> i understand you have the next question. >> while plaintiff and sort of adorable, that was also an empirical claim from rick santorum. he said he and some of us over here on his side of the stage, here's the stage, rick santorum is standing next to herman cain. there's everybody else. rick santorum said some people over here are not getting to talk enough.

this is quantitatively testable, but that point in the debate, the point which rick santorum raised his hand and said pick me, pick me, i haven't been able to talk. rick santorum had uttered roughly 250 words in the debate. herman cain got in roughly 528 words. the average number of words per candidate at that point in the debate was 678 words. i'm going to go with true on this one. and after rick santorum complained that people on his side of the stage weren't getting to talk enough, did it get any better? let's consult our rough transcript word count. post-complaining about it, rick santorum uttered approximately 1,809. herman cain, 846 words. the average word count of all candidates on stage after rick

santorum's complaint was about 1,327 words. so we can also say that it is true that complaining pays. if you over there on that side of the stage have not gotten a chance to say a lot, be charmingly cranky about it and new opportunities to speak will present themselves and you will equal out with the other candidates. debunktion junction, what's my function, i cannot wait for the next debate. there's another way to minimize litter box odor: purina tidy cats. our premium litters now work harder to help neutralize odors in multiple cat homes. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home.

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the single most important thing to know about what's going on in american politics today, the day after the republican debate in iowa, the day before the ames, iowa, straw poll. a person not at the debate last night and who is not in the straw poll tomorrow is nevertheless dominating all republican presidential candidate nudes todkan candidate news today. there are more reporters around americans for rick perry than around the romney surrogates. the guardian reporting although rick perry was not in the debate, mr. schuhman in the spin room attracted as much media attention as representatives of other candidates and even some candidates themselves. dave weigel wrote "there were more candidates pointed at -- at americans for rick perry's representatives than they were

at, for example, representative thaddaeus mccotter, republican from michigan, even though mccotter is a presidential candidate." to be fair, another candidate getting more attention than thaddaeus mccotter, not candidate rick perry getting more attention than candidate thaddaeus mccotter. this is candidate thaddaeus mccotter getting overshadowed by a man you have never heard of that's associated with a pack that's associated with rick perry. joining us now on the eve of rick perry's announcement, wayne slater. great to see you, thanks for being here. >> great to be here. >> in terms of news conference and, i think, presence, rick perry is dominating the republican presidential field right now before he's even in it. do you think that represents a lack on the other candidates or do you think rick perry is

campaigning well? >> strategically he's done a great job, stepping all over the iowa straw poll and forcing all my colleagues in the media to share in their attention not only to the republicans who were actually in the field, but to perry, as you said, who's not. but this isn't just about perry's sort of strategic genius and getting the story, this is a reflection of the republican field. rick perry told a friend about two months ago, three months ago, one of his best friends, this field is very weak. i can beat these guys, and that was part of the motivation for him to get in. so if the field had one or two republican candidates that you had a sizable enthusiastic force among the republican base, then this wouldn't be happening. the republican base doesn't like this field. it's lackluster, they are looking for something new. >> wayne, a lot of people from outside texas looking at rick perry as a potential candidate,

they make a big deal about the fact that the george w. bush network in texas supposedly doesn't like rick perry. is that true and do you think it matters? >> it is true. the network is not happy about rick perry. we saw evidence of that with virtually all the bushees were supporting perry's opponent in the primary, and i think where it could really be a problem for perry is if, in fact, the money guys, the big campaign contributors in the republican establishment who were very much a part of bush's success when he ran and ran for reelection, if they don't climb on board the rick perry campaign, it could be a problem. perry knows that and has made a real effort, especially in the last few weeks, meeting privately and at dinner with some of the big money forces on wall street to california, los angeles, so if he's successful

there, then this sort of tension between the perry side and the bush side won't mean that much. >> i know that as you say, he's been trying to build a national network of fundraisers, which, of course, he'll need. you can count on texas billionaires to a certain extent, but do you think he's been successful at courting folks nationally? i think of kyle rove having to unlock a lot of doors and as far as i understand it, there's no love lost between carl rove and rick perry. >> that's correct. carl rove is not going to be opening any doors for rick perry in terms of fundraisers. that tension exists, so what rick perry is going to have to do is go around carl rove in the effort. one thing we have to find out, we're going to look at his actually campaign reports in the months ahead, does he have a number of bundlers? big money contributors who were with bush, that will be evidence

perry has made there. more significantly, i think that what's going to happen is, because of this relationship, the strain between the perry and the bush forces is that perry will send the word to starve carl rove's superpacs, the cross roads gps and american cross roads act and give big money, unlimited donations, to those superpacs that are going to be aligned and supportive of rick perry. if that happens, then carl rove, who for years has dominated rick perry and his allies in texas now will find himself on the short end of a very long stick. >> wayne slater, senior political writer from the "dallas morning news," i have to say, happy perry eve, thanks a lot. >> thank you. >> we will be right back. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has

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we just heard from standard & poor's, when they dropped -- when they dropped our credit rating, what they said is we don't have an ability to repay our debt. that's what the final word was from them. i was proved right in my position. we should not have raised the debt ceiling. >> whatever you may think of the decision standard & poor's made to downgrade our nation's credit rating, one thing that is clear about it is why they did it. this is not something you have to speculate on, wonder about, this is not something we need michele bachmann to interpret for us, these guys overtly, publicly explained why they did it. go coating from s&p's press release. policy making becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable. the debt ceiling and threat of default have become political bargaining chips. the following day, in case that wasn't clear enough, a top official from s&p did an

interview, in which he spelt it out more starkly, the conclusion was pretty much motivated by all of the debate about raidsing the debt ceiling. it involves a record of brinkmanship. today s&p tripled down, a senior director from the firm telling politico one of the reasons for the downgrade, certain politicos expressed skepticism of the serious consequences of a credit default. "that a country even has such voices is something notable. this kind of rhetoric is not common among aaa sovereigns." the credit rating of the united states was lowered because of these guys talking this way. >> if a bondholder misses a payment for a day or two or three or four, what is more important that you're putting the government in a materially better position to be able to pay their bonds later on.

>> there's no question that sometime in august that some government contracts, some payments for things that the government's doing could be delayed, standard & poor's could call that a technical default. >> standard & poor's says that kind of talk is why we got our national credit rating downgraded. s&p is not being shy about this. will that change republicans' behavior, and does it strengthen democrats' hand, joining us now, jeff liszt, anzalone liszt research. the reason i want to talk about you with this, this is something we need pollsters to understand. republican politicians believe intransigence is what republican voters want. the white house and democrats think that what voters in general want is conciliation and compromise, a willingness to be reasonable and work things out. are those two perceptions accurate? >> i think they are accurate. i think if you look at the country as a whole, you're going to get a misleading idea of what

republicans' behavior is going to be like in congress. i had a hard time understanding what was going on in the debt ceiling debate until i looked at polls 20% of americans wanted to balance the budget by cutting spendi ing spending. the truth is, extreme elected on tea party craziness who either don't know or understand the consequences of their actions, but also members who watched their moderate colleagues lose in primaries in 2010. the memory is fresh in their minds. they watched castle lose in delaware, lawden lose in delaware. they know it's a minority of a minority that's going to vote them out in the primaries. you can't look at the polling among the general public and predict the behavior of the republicans in the house, but that said, i think a lot of moderate voters when helped put the republicans in power in 2010 didn't expect this, didn't want this, and are going to punish them for it in 2012.

>> on the democratic side, anecdotely you see columnists and bloggers encouraging a more confrontational posture from the white house and democrats in general. do you see that reflected among democratic voters and liberal voters more broadly? >> i think that is affected in the polls. what republicans want is for washington to work and get results. the public understands obama is trying to work with the republicans and they are not trying to work with him. i think voters want the president to take a harder line against congress. >> yeah. jeff liszt, pollster for anzalone liszt, this is the thing i needed you to answer, you really helped me understand it. thanks. >> thanks for having me. 9 out of 10 economists surveyed showed the stock market swings can only be rectified by a cocktail moment. naturals from purina cat chow.

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iowa caucuses are first in the nation, those are not happening tomorrow. what's happening tomorrow is the thing that happens before iowa's first in the nation caucuses. tomorrow is the ames, iowa, straw poll, and msnbc is going to be having coverage of the ames, iowa, straw poll all day tomorrow beginning at 7:00 a.m. chuck todd and andrea mitchell will be hosting beginning at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow. we hope you'll check it out. kind of a circus, but always a super entertaining circus. [ man ] i got this new citi thankyou card

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in march 1995, the new republican majority in congress that year was poised for a big victory. they were on the cusp of passing one of those balanced budget amendments you hear so much about, a bill to amend the u.s. constitution so republicans could essentially starve government down to a size small enough to be drowned in a proverbial bathtub. they did not get the balanced budget, they didn't get it because of one vote, because of one republican vote, because of one of their own guys. the balanced budget bill was one republican vote shy in 1995. it was one senator mark hatfield of oregon short of passage. >> there's still time to repent. there's still time. >> there's still time, says bob dole, but republican senator

mark hatfield of oregon in 1995 did not repent his position on the balanced budget amendment. he voted against it, so the republican's plans on that failed because of one of their own votes, and senator hatfield's colleagues were not happy about it. >> i think it exhibited an awful lot of arrogance for him to reject the feelings of his own constituency, own legislative leaders, his colleagues in the senate. >> by then, republican senator mark hatfield was in his fifth term in oregon, but the republicans were just about ready to drum him out of the party. >> i have strong principles, and i am willing to stand by them and not yield to political pressure. >> former senator mark hatfield was also a two-term republican governor of oregon. mark hatfield died this past weekend, he was 89 years old, two memorial services set for tomorrow in oregon. before he infuriated trent lott,

bob dole, and the rest of his party in 1995, mark hatfield had spent a life time in politics taking stands that sometimes meshed with the interests of his own party but sometimes really flagrantly did not. mark hatfield was even willing to change his mind on issues over time as the factsd. he had an open mind as a politician. in 1965, mark hatfield became the first republican to speak out against the vietnam war. he said at the time, i cannot support the president on what he has done so far, signing the deaths of noncombatant men, women, and children, the bombing campaign in vietnam merits the condemnation of mankind. in 1982, he teamed up with ted kennedy on an effort aimed at freezing the nuclear arms race. in 1991, senator mark hatfield was one of two senate

republicans to vote to authorize the gulf war. >> let's not be conned into thinking war will be quick, easy, and clean. maybe it will be over in a matter of hours or a matter of days or a matter of weeks at the outset, even if it is, at what cost? at what cost in human lives? we are told that the loss of life would be minimal. minimal compared to what? the loss of life in war, no matter how short it might be, would not be minimal when compared to the alternative. even in the best case scenario, the loss of life would be unacceptable to me. >> in the navy in world war ii, mark hatfield fought at iw iwo jima. mark hatfield was against war. he was deeply religious. he did what he thought was right for the country and although he did not go out of his way to aggravate his party for aggravation's sake, he did not

shrink from aggravating them either. i'm a liberal and disagreed with a lot of positions he took. he was a republican. but he was not a doctrine of anything. even if mark hatfields don't come along very often in republican politics, they do come along. mark hatfield moments happen. it is possible. it is possible even in today's republican party. no matter what you hear from the beltway press about how remarkable this tea party phenomenon is in republican politics, this is not a new thing. what gets shorthanded now is the current incarnation of the thing the republican party has been dealing with for nearly two generations, it's the conservative movement. conservative base voters and interest parties, because it exerts great influence over the party, republicans have purges every so often, purges for ideological purity to try to

assuage the conservatives among them. it's a cyclical thing, it's what happens in republican politics, particularly when republicans are out of power, so they don't have responsibility for governing. republicans like to occupy themselves with litness tests and pledges and getting everybody totally in line with the conservative opinion on whatever and throwing out whoever descends. but let mark hatfield be a reminder it is possible there are brave republicans who buck what their party has to do. they buck that insistence from the party when they think that insistence isn't right, not good for the country. that sort of independence can happen. it can happen even now, it can happen in 2011, even when all the republican presidential candidates say they'll reject ten times as many spending cuts as tax hikes. it can happen even when

republican fanaticism did get the nation's credit rating downgraded for the first time in u.s. history. even in this republican party, even this year, random acts of mark hatfieldness can still happen, even in the era of the tea party purge, individual republican once in awhile will set aside party purity and stand in what they believe in just because they believe it's right. take, for example, chris christie, earlier this year he nominated a muslim attorney to be a superior court judge. that gave right to nonsense about sharia law taking over new jersey, and here's what chris christie had to say to that last week before the judge's swearing in. >> sharia law has nothing to do with this at all. it's crazy. it's crazy. the guy is an american citizen who has been an admitted lawyer to practice in the state of new jersey, swearing an oath to

uphold the laws of new jersey, the constitution of the state of new jersey, and constitution of the united states of america, has never been accused of doing anything but honorablebly and zealously acquitting the oath he took when he became a lawyer. license to practice in this state, so this sharia law business is crap. it's just crazy. and i'm tired of dealing with the crazies. >> not only does chris christie not pander to islam phobia in a time when they really are still holding congressional hearings on how america's muslims are so radic radical. i quote chris christie, this is crap, and moreover he's tired of dealing with the crazies. who declared shutting down the federal aviation administration was maybe not the most responsible way to deal with

political negotiations. she was reportedly the only congressional republican who was serious about working out a deal to fund the faa, to get furloughed employees back to work and allow the agency to start up again. she was not afraid to say why she disagreed with her republican colleagues who were willing to let the faa stay shut down. she said "i am a fiscal conservative and i'm trying to make the cuts that are necessary, trying to do the things that are right, but i have to question those who are saying we are going to not be in favor of essential air service. we are going to waste a billion dollars to not let a bill go through that keeps the aviation trust fund and faa going. that does not add up." kay bailey hutchison not afraid to do the math and say when her own party's fanatical decision on the faa doesn't make sense to her. she said i'm not going to play this, it makes no sense. then there's mitt romney,

despite the republican party's current orthodoxy that global warming is a made up conspiracy theory, mitt romney went on the record this year in defiance of that orthodoxy. >> i believe the world is getting >> i believe the world is getting warmer. i can't prove that. but i believe that the world is getting warmer. number two, i believe the humans contribute to that. >> sort of hard to believe that that counts fr counts as a republican encourage, to believe in science. but, frankly n. this republican party, that does count as an act of political courage and should be seen that way. then there's jon huntsman taking to the left of president obama on afghanistan, also saying alone, among the presidential candidates, that is it right to have raised the debt ceiling and not defaulted on our national debt. jompb munts man is the only one that took that, which says something about the other candidates. jon huntsman didn't go along with everyone else on that. he said what he believed. none of this is to say that any

of these politicians is not wrong or cowardly in some other way. i'm not saying that these guys are paragons on virtue in their entire careers. but in a sea of bad news and really radical, political trending on the right, that sometimes makes you feel like there's no hope for something constructive or civic minded coming from the republican side right now. it is worth noting that there can be mark hatfield moments, even among today's most ambitious republican politicians, even in this environment, sometimes you see a little mark hatfield in an unexpected spot. every once in a while courage sticks out of the soil. for the country's sake, when that happens, we ought to water it and hope it grows. [ male announcer ] before you take it on your road trip...

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happy friday. my aunt joan is a nun. she lives in canada, which is where my mom is from. right now my dear aunt joan is visiting my parents. she's staying with them in california for a couple of weeks. i went to really great lengths today to try to come up with some kind of justification for doing this mojito clip that we're about to do on our show. diana trying to swim from cuba to florida but sadly not making it. maybe this drink could be for her. mint season, it's august 12th. none of these really count as an excuse. there is no real justification

for doing this. it's friday and a long week. the weather is gorgeous. frankly, if you want me to level with you, i want to teach my mom and dad how to make aunt joan a real mojito while she is visiting california. it's cold in canada and it's nice here. and nuns deserve good drinks. so for no other reason than to liberate us all from bad mojitos and show you how to make one, here goes. there's not obama one way to make one but this is my way and i think it works. a sturdy glass, fresh lime, an actual lime, cut it in half and then cut the half in quarters. drop all four quarters of that into the glass. you want about six leaves of mint. if you can get it from the garden, spectacular. if you can get it from the bodega, so much nicer. about that much. you don't need a ton. here's the thing that's going to freak you out. sugar.

it's an important part of this. three teaspoons of sugar, which is a tablespoon of sugar. oh, my gosh, that's bad for you. mojitos are not a health food. it's a ton of sugar. it's true. i don't even like sugar that much but it's supposed to be delicious. and then you muddle and you muddle it a lot. you're not just like trying to bruce the mint to release the aromatic. you're actually juicing the lime. you've got to get all of the lime out of there. and you are squishing the mint leaves while you're doing it and dissolving the sugar but you're trying to get the lime juice out of there. okay. and now here's the part that i want you not to quibble with, even though i can already tell that you want to. crushed ice. either get crushed ice or crush some with a thing like this. and if you can't get crushed ice, at least get cracked ice.

and -- oh, come on. come on. there we go. and the water that comes out of your ice from the crushed ice is what puts the water in the drink which is actually part of the drimpg. nobody is going to make a dry mojito. that's not how it works. here's the secret part. we're almost done. you want to have a bar spoon ready because you're going to need to do some stirring after you add the rum. now, if all you can find is bad white rum, usaged rum instead. this happens to be good white rum. that's awesome. two ounces. okay. and now it's almost a mojito. i know you're thinking, wait, what about the thing with the soda gun, when the bartender puts the bright green mix in and i get the crazy straw?

that's not what you need to do there. stir it up. it's nice, soft ice and puts a lot of water into the drink. it's starting to look -- look, it's starting to look like a full drink. then all you do is you add way less seltzer than you think you need. just a splash. if somebody pours you a three-quarters of a glass of soda and then splashes in some mint, that's not a mojito. nuns love garnish, lots and lots of garnish. then you take a straw and a pair of scissors. nuns love this, too. it's very fizzy. you put the straw ends down and then you make mojito happiness for all of the nuns in your life. this is not the gospel of mojito. none of them involve a mix,