o feel that they're sharing in my success. we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card. so we can accumulate as many points as possible. i pass on these points to my employees to go on trips with their families. when my employees are happy, my customers are happy. vo: earn points for the things you're already buying. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. rebels claim to close in on the libyan capital. where moammar gadhafi and his troops? we bring you a report from inside libya coming up. gun fire at a pre-season nfl game. what led to the bloodshed that took place in the parking lot? a president mapping out his jobs plan, what needs to be in it to help get americans back to

work and off the market for you, kim kardashian ties the knot. we'll bring you the details about kim's lavish wedding her dress. i'm thomas robert, welcome to msnbc sunday. developing right now, attacks off the libyan capital of tripoli. if confirmed, it would be the first time in the six--month-old uprising that the libyan capital has come under assault and richard engle is in libya with the very latest for us. good morning j. >> reporter:. the battle for tripoli has begun. we've been seeing rebel fighters moving through here to reinforce a front line they've established just about 15 miles on the outskirts of tripoli. we've seen tripoli digging in heavy weapons and rocket, but behind it is front line, inside the city of tripoli itself, thomas they were fighting pockets of resistance in several

neighborhoods in tripoli including one just about 500 yards from moammar gagadhafi's presidential palace and we can confirm there was fighting in tripoli itself including right on the doorsteps of gadhafi's palace. gadhafi himself gave an audio speech in which he denied that the rebels are making this kind of progress. he said the rats have been eliminated, but from what we've been able to see the fighting is advancing and it's advancing very quickly and building strength in the center of tripoli. thomas? >> richard engle in libya for us. president obama continues his vacation on martha's vineyard today and officials say he is being regularly briefed on the developments as we speak in libya. while the president remains out of washington he can't escape attack from 2012 hopefuls targeting him on the economy. joining me now is nbc white house correspondent john vacera.

>> the president begins his fourth day of his vacation at martha's vineyard with his family. while it is a working vacation, they're attacking the president and the economy. rick perry was back on the campaign trail in south carolina, just seven days after joining the race, the conservative texan is considered a top-tier candidate. >> getting america working again is the focus -- i mean, it's like a laser on our campaign. >> 16 trillion -- joo perry's rise has come at expense of another front-runner, michele bachmann. one who won a straw poll just a week ago. >> the race to the right might end up pumping president obama with key independent voters next year. >> and to the extent that the republicans playing up their

differences, their positions and some of which are pretty conservative. that's good for the president. >> reporter: but the economy remains bad. three days into his august break on martha's vineyard, mr. obama used his weekly address to pledge more action and to slam congress. >> we need them to put aside differences to get things done. >> since world war ii, no president has been reelected with an unemployment rate over 7.5% and that now stands at 9. % and it will be 8% on election day 2012. >> we're looking for an economy on 2012 that will feel recessionary and may actually be in a recession. >> reporter: with the weak economy a big target, republicans have not let up on their attacks with the president. >> the fact that it went on so long and has been so difficult from which to recover, a lot of the blame lies at the feet of lack of presidential leadership.

>> reporter: republicans are in an all-out fight that could be weakening under a struggling economy. >> reporter: you hear no president in the post-war era has been reelected with 7.5%. there was one reelected with 7, and that was one and that was ronald reagan. the unemployment rate that year was 7.2%, but you know, it's a question of comparison in politics and a matter of expectations. just two years before that the unemployment rate had been way up at 11 so it was on its way down and that's the trend that the white house hopes to see and emphasize at any rate toward the end of next year. >> mike, when will we get more information about the economic plan, the rollout of what the president wants to put out next on month? >> reporter: the president a bit of a tease. he'll have the three-day bus trip to iowa and his home state of illinois early next week, outlined some of the things that he's been talking about all

along and they'll repackage that. we don't know a lot of the details other than the president will push for an extension of the payroll tax cut and more spending in infrastructure and highways and pushing trade agreements through congress. he'll put out a detailed deficit reduction plan that the super committee that was agreed upon in the debt ceiling fight a couple of weeks ago. the president trying to push that even further. a lot of this is a political agenda. we don't have details as to when, other than it will be when he returns from martha's vineyard and some tima after labor day and all of the details are being kept close to the vest at this point. you have to remember, thomas, that whatever the president does will have to go through congress and it will not provide the immediate jolt to the economy that will boost the gdp and bring down that unemployment rate. that's a process that even the president says is going have to work itself out. >> mike viqueira at the white

house. thank you. a programming note. we want to invite you to be on "meet the press." among her guest, robert gibbs and she'll speak with indiana governor mitch daniels and check your local listings for time where you are. moving on to weather where the cleanup continues in wisconsin. the national weather service confirms a tornado touched down in the northern part of the state on friday. one man died in the storm, making it the 57th killer tornado so far this year across the states. rain was the story yesterday in illinois. a heavy shower sent thousands of people looking for shelter at the chicago air and water show. portland oregon finally getting summer heat. temps rising above 90 degrees saturday for the first time there in 2011. so what is sunday going to look like around the country for us. the weather channel's alex wallace has the details for us been hi, alex. >> how's it going, thomas? tracking it farther east. we'll watch a line of showers

and storms moving from the eastern great lakes toward some of the east coast cities. so as we head into the afternoon storms impacting new york city, d.c., philadelphia and boston as well. this is around 11:00 and still seeing storms up and down the 95 corridor. the thing is some of these storms could pack quite a bit of a punch as they make their way east. all of the way down to the carolinas, you could be looking at damaging winds and large hail and can't rule out a risk for a tornado. also the heat. that has.story all summer long. the big ridge of high pressure keeping the numbers in the triple digits and dallas, 105 for this afternoon. houston, 101 and even into monday and still keeping things hot in these areas and one last thing that we're watching, the tropics. it's tropical storm irene right now impacting portion of the caribbean and maybe the projected path as we head toward this week. florida, implicated. we will continue to track it.

thomas? >> all right, alex. thanks, buddy. appreciate it. moving on, a violent night in sports. in san francisco, several fights at a 49ers game sent three people to the hospital and two with life-threatening injuries. several fights that the 49ers game after people say that a 24-year-old man wearing a t-shirt with a derogatory remark about the 49ers was shot outside the stadium. this was after the game with the oakland raiders. that man was critically hurt. another man has superficial wounds to the face. police say they pulled that suspect off a party bus. also in a separate fight a 26-year-old man was severely beaten and knocked unconscious in a bathroom inside the stadium and that man has serious head injuries and listed in critical conditi condition. in kansas city, missouri, a pilot was killed and it happened saturday afternoon. the event was shot by a 12-year-old with his cell phone. the video showing a red byplane,

tailing downward and nosediving into a grass field. >> i was watching the plane, and it went up and did the little roll, and it was kind of coming down and still spinning and, you know, it was kind of crazy because it was getting close to the ground, and i thought he was going to take off 15 feet above the ground and as it started getting close it hit the ground and exploded. >> it's still unknown why the stunt went wrong. the air show was canceled immediately following that. in wildwood, new jersey, a 13-year-old was sent to the hospital and four others treated for injuries after a partial ride collapse. this comes a little more than a month when a girl died. a steel center mass snapped while the ride was moving. authorities are investigating the exact cause of that accident. in arlington, virginia, a nod to what may be the most

important parking garage in u.s. history. a historical marker was put outside a parking structure where "washington post" reporter secretly ran deep throat it led to the resignation of nixon. it was the nixon administration's obstruction of an fbi investigation. against two american hikers. two men now have 20 days to appeal an eight-year prison sentence that was handed down yesterday by the country's high court. u.s. officials continue to push for the young mens' release, but their families have yet to speak about this. nbc's ali aruzi, one for crossing over into iran and the other suspicion for spying. >> that's right. there was a five-year sentence

for spying and a three-year sentence for illegally entering the country and that was all confirmed by tehran's chief prosecutor. he also mentioned that sarah shourd hadn't shown up for the trial and that the court was considering all its options including trying her in absentia. by the end of ramadan in about ten days' time. >> ali, explain the fact that the american government thinks there might be a pardon coming especially when such harsh sentences were handed down and not really talked about. because i know that the media didn't report on this and there wasn't a statement from iran about what the sentences were. >> no. there was no statement about the sentence were. there was no evidence that we've seen of espionage or anything like this, but this has also become a very, very political situation. there's no doubt that the iranians have certain notions in

their minds that these guys could be used as bargaining chips. the iranians have given a list of iranians they want released from prison. there's a lot of bargaining here and they a lot of -- conventional wisdom here seems to point to the fact that these guys may be released by the end of ramadan in ten days' time when prisoners are traditionally released. if they're not released in ten days' time, thomas, they could be here for a very long time. >> the sentences were announced by iran's state-run media. shane bauer and josh fattal were charged with entering the country illegally. they were arrested along the iran-iraq border they denied they were spies saying they were hiking and crossed into iran by mistake. sarah shourd flew back to the

u.s. and never returned to iran to face trial. she recently spoke with lester holt expressing hopes that her friends would soon be released. >> that's what we're praying for. we pray that the time for compassion has finally come. they hope that they will be freed with time served. now friends were concerned about the long prison term would take. >> you are a pawn in a game that it is unclear what that game is. it has to be very tough. >> reporter: the case has highlighted differences among the ruling elite in iran, while the judiciary has taken a hard line it was only two weeks ago that the foreign minister said he hoped butter and fattal would be freed. the u.s. state department issued a statement saying we continue to express our hope that the iranian authorities will exercise a humanitarian option of releasing these two young men. observers believe the obama administration will continue its backdoor diplomacy to pressure tehran to free butter and

fattal. at this point a humanitarian option may be the best hope for the two americans. it's the holy month of ramadan in iran and traditionally prisoners are pardoned during it. >> reporter: they've given these guys a very hef sentence and then -- magnanimous. there's also another point that's being raised here is that there was a question of putting sanctions against iran's central bank. iran was very upset about that and they could be waiting to see what the results of that would be before they decide what to do with the hikers. thomas? >> ali, has there been any news coming out of the fact sarah shourd did not go back to face trial and many people understand her reason yes she would aren't go back, but did people think maybe they got a harsher sentence that they were trying to punish them more so because sarah didn't show up in court? >> reporter: i don't think so. the iranians must have thought

about it. they must have known when they let her go she wouldn't come back here. -- so that was all very convenient, but this is -- we weren't expecting them to hold on to them this long. we thought two weeks ago the sentence would be handed down and they'd be pardoned, but this seems to be stretching out into quite an interesting and painful game for the hikers? certainly is and for their families back here in the states as well. ali arouzi in tehran, thank you. straight-talking rick per se sticking to his guns when it comes to his controversial statements, but will this approach help or hurt him in the end? msnbc continues in three minutes. stick around. i need to reach peter, who's falling behind. and push janet who's 6 chapters ahead.

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gop presidential contender rick perry is doubling down on a controversial comment he made about ben chief ben bernanke. the texas governor said bernanke would commit treason by printing more money by 2012. a comment that rattled congressmen in his own party. perry stood by his statement. >> i'm compassionate about the obama administration's monetary policy. that's what that conversation was. that was what my remarks were about, and i think americans are concerned about the monetary policy, and, un, i'm sorry if i offended a congressman, but the fact of the matter is i'm about representing american people out here. >> eleanor cliff is a contributing editor from "newsweek." good morning. what do you make of perry's strategy in he's not backing down. he's sticking by his statement. >> yeah, but he's not using the

word treason and he's not saying that the fed chairman ben bernanke came to texas he might get an ugly reception which was a threatening statement. and i think the reporters who were covering perry noticed that he got noticeably more scripted after making this remark saying it's treasonous behavior to print money. you oned whoert enemy is. ben bernanke was originally a republican appoint see, but the targets are emerging in the republican field and ben bernanke is one of them and the epa and environmental regulation is one of them and it's an evolution to the list. they're popular subjects for republican primary voters, but if mr. perry does get -- if governor perry does get the nomination he'll have to do a lot of scrambling to get back to the middle where he will not get votes from independents. these are extreme view snoops that's what i wanted to ask you

about because he is emerging about one week in, is that the real risk here is alien eighth the independents that will not bring them in under the tent. >> rick per se a big personality, a colorful figure and in the field that's been lacking someone who is colorful and has a record and he's the longest-serving governor in the country and these kind of remarks i don't think women will gravitate to them and i think independents are not looking for views that satisfy the extreme right of the republican party. he's very reminiscent of former president george w. bush, but he's even more swaggering than bush was, and i thought the country went the opposite direction with president obama. i don't know if the voters as a whole are ready to go back to the texas imagery that governor perry represents. so i think he's going have some work to do to appeal beyond the

geographical confines of his own state where he's very popular. >> everything's bigger in texas. >> that's right. >> in the latest article you put out there you called mitt romney the front-runner that nobody likes or wants and you go on to write he's run before so he understands how the game is played and avoids getting drawn into the petty battles that consume the media and trivialize the candidates. in your opinion, do you think he'll be able to stay out of the fray and the motto that he who cares the least has the most power especially when it comes to perry and bachmann? >> right now perry and bachmann will fight it out to see who is the alternate testilternative t romney and he's done a good job looking like the grown up in the field. he'll have a fight on his hand when the race moves to new hampshire. so he's not going to be able to be totally above the battle. . iy think he's playing it very smart. he doesn't need to have everybody love him that the

point. he just needs to, un, keep from getting bloodied up and if he should win the nomination, iy think his goal would be not to be so damaged in the primary fights. >> right. >> that it hurts him going into the fall. >> let's talk about michele bachmann, she leaves the tea party caucus in congress which is the far right and you write that she fares the worst in the matchup with president obama. can she change that and broaden her appeal among the moderates across this country? >> i think she's done some of that because she's behaved in a rather disciplined way in the race so far which people who had watched her in congress didn't think she was capable of. so she's done really well and she's gas proep. she's now worried about the ride of the soviet union. she's missed the ride that the soviet union collapsed and we're now dealing with russia. her lack of experience on the national stage will come to haunt her, and i think the

expectation is that it is conventional wisdom is that she will not last and that governor per se likely to draw from the same votes that -- where she's doing well and that he's a more credible candidate. >> do you think thaeshgs merges john huntsman up the middle somewhere? >> john huntsman is every democrat's favorite republican, and he needs to get noticed. he just gets lost in the field. i think that, you know, i haven't given up him. i still think he has a chance to emer emerge, but he's got to start doing it soon and new hampshire will be his testing ground. he's got to do as least as well or come close to mitt romney there, otherwise he'll be out of contenti contention. it's a lot of fun of handicapping all these fellows. >> john huntsman, the jan braid of politics and always going miche michele, michele, michele, instead of marcia, marcia,

marcia. more coming up on the american hikers in iran sentenced to eight years in prison. it's an alarming, alarming sentence. how their families are taking this news. we'll hear from a journal whoiso spoke with them next. that's coming up on msnbc. [ female announcer ] water was meant to be perfect. crisp, clear, untouched. that's why there's brita, to make the water we drink, taste a little more, perfect. reduce lead and other impurities with the advanced filtration system of brita. a network of possibilities.

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includi including four children. the violence has prompted calls from the u.s. and european union for him to step down. in mexico, remarkable video as shots rang out during the a soccer match. players scrambled off the field while fans ran on to the field in near panic. the gun fire was a police confrontation outside the stadium. no one was hurt. the game was suspended. in england, police made the

unusual decision to release surveillance video in an effort to find out who shot at police during britain's riot. it's heightened concerns that some of the seemingly random violence was conducted by organized criminal gangs. police are investigating the shooting now as attempted murder. there were sunny skies in madrid as more than a million young people gathered for pope benedict's final mass. a fierce thunderstorm saturday night forced the pontiff to cut short his speech to a crowd at a prayer vigil. unemployment in america, with some out of work for years, the lines at the cbc jobs fairs around the country are out the door. look at the lines. tomorrow the caucus heading to miami. we'll bring you a preview of that event. plus rick santorum and rick perry both highlighting their skepticism when it comes to evolution and global warming, but john huntsman isn't so sure. your gop 2012 update straight ahead. five chicken breasts individually wrapped,

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more now this morning on rebel forces attack the libyan capital of tripoli. more explosions and gun fire were heard in tripoli. if confirmed, it would be the first time in the six month-old uprising that the libyan capital has come under assault. joining me is michael singh, washington director of the policy and formerly with the middle east council. what are you hearing about the current situation in laibya? >> indeed the news is tightening around moammar gaed of ay and tripoli. they are to the east, west and south of tripoli and it remains to see what they can do now. they're sending in reinforcements and my expectation is that they'll lay siege in tripoli hoping there will be uprisings or fourth fur

high-level -- there is a city of 1 point 7 million people in a country that has 6.4 million people. this is a big, big target for the rebels. >> as i understand it, former number two of gaed ofdhafgadhaf has suggested army troops turn over or start to work for the opposition. so it seems like things are starting to crumble around moammar gadhafi as they have been any it's anyone's guess where this will go and where is even moammar gadhafi today? we don't even know. >> that's right. we don't know where he is. we can't say for sure that he's inside the country. his recent addresses have all been by phone. so i think it is important that we've seen these high-level security defections and that people around the regime hopefully start to question is gadhafi here? can he hang on because that will leave them to throw their lot in with the rebels. when we talk about the rebels what does it mean for this government working with what's going to come into power there

because it seems that it's just a matter of time until gadhafi does lose control. so what is the u.s.' position on trying to work with whatever comes next? >> well, the u.s. has recognized already the transitional council as the legitimate government of libya. we no longer recognize moammar gadhafi as leader of libya. the first question following the fall of gadhafi would be security. can the rebels actually maintain security in this country? they've obviously skipped over certain parts of the country in their advance to tripoli like cirque cl is gadhafi's hometown and we've seen divisions within the rebel forces themselves. the military leader was killed by his own forces not too long ago. there are questions as to once they get rid of gadhafi, will they remain united and that preoccupies u.s. lawmakers. >> do you think this will vindicate the president and nato forces in their plan of what they were trying to do if this is a tactical success with the

rebels being able to take control of tripoliy? >> i think that if gadhafi falls and the rebels take control of tripoli that president obama will breathe a big sigh of relief because obviously he took a roll of the dice on this one and said he would be for days and not weeks and it hasn't panned out that way. so i think what we're seeing is not the end of the story. it's sort of the end of the beginning in a sense, and it will still require a lot of effort from the united states to make sure this goes well following the fall of gadhafi so there won't abe letup in the pressure on the united states and nato to continue working on this. >> michael singh, great to talk to you. appreciate it. >> thanks, thomas. we want to turn to the news overseas of the two u.s. hikers sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of espionage and trespassing. they now have 20 days to appeal that ruling. their fate is uncertain to both them and their families. senior writer for "newsweek" and

contributor of "the daily beast." i know you've spent time with josh's family as well as sarah shourd and her family. she's the freed american hiker that was part of the threesome there that were hike through the hishlgs but explain what you learn order glean from knowing the family so well now that you have been able to, i guess, communicate with them privately about the rulings. i know that they're not talking about that yet on the record pp, but what do you think this means to them? >> you know, i've known them for just over a year now. i've been working on the story for a long time. it's been a very hard process and it is hard for me as a journalist getting to know them and getting close to them and seeing how hard it is and just waiting and waiting and not having an offensive when the decision will be made. they were in prison for two years before they even got meet with their lawyer and they're not staying -- the conditions in the prison are very tough.

this is just another blow to the families and they've become very good at just becoming very zen and just waiting and not getting too emotional. it's still unclear what's going to happen to the men. >> as we understand right now, shane and josh have 20 days to appeal this court decision. it's a combined decision. five years for espionage, three years for trespassing. that's the combined -- >> yes. >> prior to the ruling there was talk that the two men might be pardoned because they're in the holy season right now in ramadan. is there -- or i guess the family his hopes that maybe that would happen because historically there has been times where people have been pardoned during this holy season. >> i was with the families -- the final trial date was july 31st and i was with the families all up until the last date and they were hopeful iran would show compassion and would pardon the men and let them come home, yes. >> what do you think about the appeal process that they're going to have to face?

the court system of iran know these two men are going to appeal it. how do you forecast playing out. i know you know the rules of the country well. >> it's hard to guess what exactly iran will do. i know the families had said they would appeal it if the men were aren't coming home immediately and there's a hope that, you know, when they do appeal it they could be released. so, you know, they've been hopeful, the families have been hopeful for two years now and they're hopeful that their sons will come home. >> i know you're in communication with sarah. how is she doing? >> she's been really tough. she's very strong and she has no ill will toward iran. she just wants her fiance and 14 to come home who have been gone for so long and she's hoping for good news. >> she attempts to communicate with them, by writing e-mails. >> they got engaged in prison.

he proposed using thread from the towel and he got down on one kneo one day and they only saw each other for one hour a day and they were in separate cells for 23 hours a day and got engaged in prison so they're waiting for their wedding date. >> certainly a lot of hope and prayers going out to their families. great to see you. thank you so much. gop candidate are sparring over the issue of global warming. he said he did not believe in man made global warming and that prompted a tweet from john huntsman on thursday, he said to be clear, i believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. call me crazy. yesterday perry fired back directly referencing huntsman's tweet. >> john will make his own decisions. i just happen to believe that, un, the earth's temperature has been moving up and down for millenniums now. for us to spend billions of

dollars on a theory that is not proven and that you have skeptical science against that is not in america's best interest. >> rick santorum also weighed in on this debate speaking to andrea mitchell. he said he would be the first to take huntsman up on his offer to call him craze. >> i've been very, very clear that the science just simply doesn't back up the issue of global warming. yes, does the climate change? of course, it does. it's changed for thousands of years. i'm glad john huntsman buys that. i don't, and i think most americans do anymore. >> today rick santorum is campaigning in new hampshire where he holds three, vents and joining me now on the phone is nbc news campaign imbed. we're a week out from the iowa straw poll where santorum finished fourth. what did that do to the campaign? give it a boost or what? >> reporter: tom a they told me they were in the top five finish

and they basically cracked the door open to the campaign. there was an uptick in donation and potential issues going into the fall is whether or not santor imcould stay in the game. the next step will be on the radar, he'll be fund-raising in his home state of pennsylvania and moving into places more aggressively in north carolina and new hampshire. joe ling, is that the biggest strat moving forward, the cash campaign? >> it's on difficult to campaign without funds behind you and he'll be campaigning like he did in iowa. he'll be across new hampshire today and trying to get name recognition and going after 41% of the the independent voters in new hampshire. >> you make a great point. cash is king. jo ling kent, good to talk to to you this morning. i appreciate it. >> thank you.

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so 45,000 striking verizon workers will be back on the job this week. the two unions walked out august 6th after reaching a contract impasse with the telecommunications giant. the deal still has not been reached, but the workers have agreed to return to their jobs while negotiations continue with verizon. white house aides say that president obama is hard at work

on a new job pros poefl which he'll unveil next month after he gets back from vacation, but in the meantime the president is facing tough questions and growing criticism from prominent african-americans who want to know exactly how he plans to help unemployed black americans find jobs. what the african-american jobless rate standing at 16.8% nationally, that's twice that of white americans, the congressional black cause us is continuing now to hold the series of massive job fairs around the country. the next one starts tomorrow in miami and more than 13,000 job seekers showed up to events in cleveland, detroit and atlanta. goldie taylor is a columnist and joins me now by skype from atlanta. nice to see you today. give me your reaction when you see the long, winding lines for the cbc job fair? do you think it provides hope or a bigger picture about what's going on in this country and the desperation for so many unemploy unemployed?

>> it's done two thing especially in a place like miami where their tourism market has been hit very hard. they have little or no manufacturing base. the service economy there is on stilts and many, many foreclosures are sweeping through poor minority neighborhoods and some of the upper middle class neighborhoods. so miami is especially hit. when you open these job fairs and 5,000 people wrap around a building looking for very few opportunities that may or may not be inside that says something about where we are economically. so that's the one thing. number two, it says something about the cbc that wants to come together in a meaningful way that wants to bridge people together with very real opportunities out there. so if one says something about the declaration, or two it says something about the cbc willing to step up to do this. >> in your estimation, is the president doing enough to help the black community when it comes to the jobless issue? >> if you listen to maxine waters who is only one of 12

african-american women in congress, she does not have a direct connection with this president. that says a lot, but the second thing is if she comes out and says, you know, unemployment for african-americans is 16.2%, almost double the national average for everyone else and for african-american men up to 40% to 45% and those aren't calling those who have fallen out of the job market or who are underemployed. that says something about then viernment, but it does say something, too, about this administration and whether or not they are able to, in that sound policy decision to pass a very obstructionist congress to put america back to work. that's the real question and not just is barack obama doing enough -- president obama doing enough, but is this congress willing to allow him to do enough. >> on your website you write about the reluctance of many black americans to criticize the president. here's what reverend jesse jackson had to say on msnbc.

>> in some sense our silence has not helped the president. we've been trapped between protesting against him when it is not. our protest empowers him and it helps determine the direction of the floor of america's agenda. >> goldie, what do you think about that? could criticism of washington and of president obama empower the president especially on behalf of the african-american community? >> it's in our culture. back sense talk is not allowed. putting our so-called dirty laundry in the street is not allowed. bill cosby will tell you your dirty laundry walks home every day at 3:00 and shows up on your doorstep. i would portend that african-americans if this president were white would be holding him to a very different standard. we tend to circle the wagons when we feel someone is being

attacked from quote, unquote, the outside. we will say in a moment that he ain't perfect, but he's ours, it's about time that everyone starts holding everyone to the same high stand arse of putting this country back to work. goldie, nice see you this morning. >> good to see you, thomas. >> thanks so much. wall street's wild ride has traders on an adrenaline rush. is there any sign of civility coming your way. a live report from cnbc coming up. you what? kim kardashian had her big day and we'll bring you the guilty details of the dress, the bash, and the rest of the tv reality fanciness affair. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. ank of americawe know the impact that local businesses

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welcome back, everybody. despite some optimistic rhetoric from some people, recovery from the recession may be a long and very difficult period with the unemployment rate at 9.1% in

july, it may not be easy to turn around the economy so quickly and joining me now to talk about the stock market and the economy is cnbc contributor ron insana. nice to see you here. >> you, too, thomas. >> it's a long and winding road, but haven't we been on this road for a long and winding time already? >> people make a mistake in the environment that we're in a recession that is continuing. it's not. we did recover. gross domestic product topped its prior peak from 2007 earlier this year. retail sales got above where they were several years ago, but it's very uneven. you have those who have jobs and who are doing well are doing quite well. when you look at airports and you look at restaurants and busy cities like manhattan and those doing poorly are getting crushed and let out of any economic activity. we have separate economies functioning at the same time right now. let's talk about the euro bonds and i just got back from a trip

overseas and the euro zone and what's going on financially with the euro zone and it's dominating news coverage. what do you think will happen? >> one could make the argument that they're in danger of a lehmanlike moment where there are worries about the solvency of french banks in particular, european banks more broadly because they have so much exposure to the bad european debt among portugal, italy, spain, the so-called pigs. the economy is weakening at the same time and they're cutting the budget and you have a perfect storm of thing going wrong that if a bank in europe becomes insolvent you'll have a scary moment that will obviously bleed back over here. >> and when we talk more about what the president is doing right now, he's getting criticism for being on vacation and the white house says the white house always travels with the president and he's talking about unveiling the jobs plan next month. will that give people some hope

in the next few weeks? it's not the dramatic stimulus that is in the current environment and not the type that would translate to much stronger economic growth. quite frankly, ben bernanke is at list and sisyphus, he has the world on his shoulders only to have it come back down because he has no fiscal ongs. he doesn't have control of those and we can't create a hoover dam-type project. that's the type of stimulus that is needed with construction engineers and the like who represent 20% of the unemployed back to work on some large-scale project. the feds can hold rates down and mr. bernanke will be speaking at the end of the week and he'll outline serious efforts. >> i wasn't smoking earlier this morning -- >> are you having an anderson cooper moment, are you? >> no, i'm not. i just the on ives on a plane,

you know, was there a movie coming out -- >> my water. i'm vague choking fit. excuse me. ron, stick around. you may have to read the speech. >> you could probably do it, but anyway, go ahead. i didn't mean to cut you off. >> i don't think the program that's currently being bandied about or floated in the press would be nearly strong enough to get the economy going. we need some grand gesture like rebuilding the nation's power grid and something along those lines and clearly no one thinks there are the funds for it and that's the problem. quite frankly -- >> sorry. >> with very few adults in the room in washington or in europe the risk a policy mistake here, there or in both places raises the risk of recession, and i think that's what the market is working about now. >> i'm sorry. this is a very serious topic and i didn't mean to have a coughing fit. >> we'lle