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look at this. an estimated 30,000 people protested in the state capital of madison today. 30,000 people. this is a fight for the democratic party. that's why wisconsin looks the way it does right now. that's why the streets of madison were shut down to traffic today because of the here is number of people who turned out. that's why people slept in the capital rotunda overnight. that's why the state legislature looked like this today. democratic legislators wearing orange t-shirts that read assembly democrats working for fighting families. and that's why 14 democratic state senators in washington went a-wol today. they refused to turn up for the anti-union vote scheduled in the state senate today. around noon, the democrats disappeared. in their absence, the

republicans could not get a quar rum and they were unable to hold the big anti-union vote which they plan to hold and they plan to win. to avoid the threat of being forcibly returned to the state capital, democratic senators did not just not turn up at the state legislature today, they fled the state. joining us now is a democratic wisconsin state senator. namtd john named john your ben bok. he joins us from a reportedly secure but alas undisclosed location. >> this is systemically dismantling some of the best parts about the state of wisconsin. the republican employees, they plow our roads and clean our streets. they are teachers and prison guards and the people who run our great state parks. and you're saying to them what you do doesn't really matter. not only do we want you to pay your fair share, which they're more than willing to do, we want to bust your union. and that tears at the very fabric of the state of wisconsin. >> last night in the blink of an eye republicans in the wisconsin senate wiped away most union rights from most of the state's public employees.

today republicans in the state assembly did the same over the loud and vocal protests of those who gathered outside the chamber as well as the democratic representatives inside the chamber. republican governor scott walker pledged to sign it into law as soon as possible. recall petitions are filed against six state senators now if only three of those succeed this fight will have turned the state senate in the middle of the perm from republican controlled back to democratic controlled. six incumbent republican state senators face re-election. two democrats did unseat the republicans they targeted yesterday. jennifer schilling beat republican incumbent dan kapanke and jessica king defeated randy hopper. jessica king's rally captured

the spirit of a lot of democrats in the state last night. they were pumped up. they reduced the number republican majority in wisconsin senate down to one. that said, had democrats prevailed in just one more race, they wouldn't have just narrowed the majority, democrats would have been in control of the state senate. they didn't get that. so bottom line, republicans were delighted they didn't lose control of the senate. democrats were disappointed they did not win that. but democrats are happy that they picked off two republican senators and they are happy that the margin in the senate is at least for now down to one republican vote. but also, democrats say today that they are happy with what last night's numbers might mean for a planned effort next year. >> recall walker, they are saying. republican governor scott walker. folks celebrating at jessica king's victory rally did not

wait a day to turn their focus to the next target, governor walker. chair of the democratic party confirmed he would like to recall the governor as soon as is feasible. the governor can't be recalled until he has been in office a full year. that requirement will be met this coming january. a new poll out this week on governor walker's prospect shows 58% want him to be recalled from office. that's not good for him. today in ohio, the senate voted wisconsin style to strip union rights. the measure passed 17-16 even though six republicans jumped ship and voted with democrats to protect the unions. in ohio, democrats couldn't block a quorum. they didn't have the option the democrats had to stop the bill. they said over to the assembly now where republicans will probably pass it too. that said, the protests in the streets in ohio and the wild unpopularity of what republicans are doing and the republican defections on this do not make passage a sure thing. if it does pass, democrats say they will get it repealed by a public vote this november. this is ohio governor john

kasich, a republican freshman governor just elected in november. after governor kasich signed sb-5, people that support it started collecting signatures to put it on for repeal. they delivered box after box after box of petitions. today the ohio secretary of state that said 900,000 of the signatures are valid. that is four time the amount needed. to qualify the referendum. the vote happens in november. in ohio, the most high profile race in the country, the bid to recall the union stripping law there, it lost by 22 points, a blowout. all the polls predicting impossibly high margin of victory for the pro union right side in ohio, those impossible margin of victory poles turned out to be exactly accurate. the occupy wall street protests in new york have been going on for 12 days now. most of the media attention they have received has been because of violent and outrageous police tactics used against the

protesters. the reason this is growing and spreading to other american cities is not because of some message about police tactics. that is not the larger point. the larger point is the basic message about who caused the mess the country is in right now. who has figured out how to benefit from it? who is stopping us from fixing it? police arrested hundreds of occupy wall street marchers on the brooklyn bridge. hundreds of people arrested. occupy everywhere in america. occupy boston. occupy chicago, occupy portland, maine. occupy seattle. >> this is a fantastic, beautiful, bountiful land that is hopelessly in debt. what happened? you know, what happened? >> the idea of the occupy protest is that people stay. that's the occupy party of it, right? you don't go anywhere. like hoovervilles, these are supposed to be semi-permanent,

living reminders of what's wrong with the economy and the political system. the permanence is part of the pressure. and city officials around the country are not handling this well at all in oakland, california. police cleared out protesters early tuesday morning. later when they returned to reclaim the space, the police response was fast moving, loud, and ultimately violent. it involved tear gas and shooting at the protesters with nonlethal projectiles. today, thousands of oakland residents took to the streets for what were reportedly by local press calling these things the largest demonstration in the east bay since the day of the vietnam war. today in new york city, very, very early in the morning, new york city police raided and tore down and cleared out the

"occupy wall street" encampment that has been at zuccotti park for nearly two months. the raid happened at 1:00 a.m. roughly. most of the protesters were there asleep. new york's city police officers dressed in riot gear and handed out a notice to the protesters telling them where their personal articles from the encampment could be retrieved. there were reports that police used knives to cut up the sturdy military grade tents that were the best hope of surviving winter down there. you can see police cutting down the protesters tent polls with hand-held saws. this is a massive police action. there were 200 arrests this morning. zuccotti park was totally cleared. >> i'm going to stay here. i'm going to put my tent right back up. we show them that we're not just words on the internet screen. we are people. and we are willing to put ourselves in pain and misery to get our point across. >> there's no reason to believe

that the mass protests in the midwest against republican governors and republican legislators and laws stripping union rights, there is no reason to believe that those led to the occupy movement. these things emerged in different parts of the country with different goals, different tactics. it's different people. but if you want to understand the politics of 2011 overall, it is republican governance in the states sparking huge backlash in the streets. it's the streets all over the country coming alive with a dissatisfied, energized, organized, creative message from the left. more on that ahead[ .un you lose through diet and exercise, alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. let's fight fat with alli. ♪

rarely do you have to interview somebody in disguise. after that, the world changes enough that it becomes safe for that person you had to show in silhouette to reveal who they are. to show their face.

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today's day one of the united states military after don't ask don't tell. in the runup to repeal day to day an 88-year-old world war ii veteran spoke at a ceremony marking the policy's repeal in georgia. hours after the repeal became effective, two active duty service members spoke out about being gay in the military during a press conference with the service members legal defense in washington. last night in san diego, service members and their supporters celebrated the repeal as it happened, as it took effect. tens of thousands of gay people have been serving in the united states military during this whole debate while the policy has existed. now that the policy is gone, they can make their own decision about whether or not and how to say who they are. it can no longer be used against them. why it is worth it to you to take the risk to speak out like this and to do the work that you have done without serving? >> i think why it's important for me is that at some point while you're serving under the

military and under this policy, you see some of atrocities that occurred to people across the world including myself who is blackmailed with this policy and at some point you have to see there is something larger than yourself out there and you have to take these risks to do something like this to help others and create the change that's needed. >> i did that interview last year with an air force lieutenant using a pseudonym. he started the underground network of active duty u.s. military personnel called outserve. his pseudonym was j.d. smith. now joining us live from washington, d.c. from the legal defense network for the first time not in silhouette is united states air force lieutenant josh

siegfried who is no longer known as j.d. smith. longer known as j.d. smith. he is author of "our time: breaking the silence of don't ask, don't tell." and victor farnbach came out after this program. he fought it and won as he saw the policy crumble this year. gentlemen, i have to say congratulations and thank you both for joining us. lieutenant sigfried, formerly known as j.d. smith on this program, let me start with you. how has it felt to you personally to be able to say who you are and to spend this first 24 hours in the new military? >> it feels like a huge burden has been lifted off your shoulders. i mean there's not a single day that you cannot think about this policy while serving in the military. and knowing today that there's a career that i have an opportunity to have where i don't have to be scared of who i am and who i love, that i can be part of the military family. i'm so excited about it. and i think every other gay

person in the military feels the same way. >> are you anticipating that there are going to be problems with implementation of repeal? the military is very firm. the pentagon is very firm in saying there are not going to be problems. we are prepared. we're trained. we're ready for this? having been in the air force for 20 years and seen what you have seen, most of that time not being a man who people knew was gay, do you think is going to be trouble? >> i think will there may be isolated cases. the think the way this was done, i was the most impatient man in the world having this threat of discharge hang over me for the last three years and four months but what i learned from that over the last two years, again, i've been able to serve openly. i shouldn't be surprised by this. but, you know, the military people are professional. they're disciplined. they're dedicated. that's all they care about. so there may be isolated cases. across the board, we took our time. we got everybody trained. i think people have been expecting this for the last ten months or so. so i think we're ready. i think the cases will be very isolated. >> first lieutenant josh siegfri

de and lieutenant victor faren back, thank you for your activism and for joining us. i sense the cost of that viscerally. i release you both. congratulations you guys. have a great night! >> thanks, rachel. cheers to you. >> thanks to you both. >> the republican candidate's for president this year made some noises about reinstating don't ask don't tell if they're elected president. meanwhile, in the military, even military leaders who criticized the idea of scrapping the policy before we did it, now say that getting rid of it has caused no problems at all. the marine corps ball this year included some same sex couples this year. the sky did not fall. when this navy ship came home this week to virginia from being deployed, the first sailor ashore, the first kiss upon returning home was this female

sailor greeted by her partner who is also a female sailor. guys like tim paulenty and rick santorum is saying they would force everyone in the military back into the closet if they were elected president. at this point, i would kind of like to see them try. "hey wrinkle face!" that's what people could say if you're still using a liquid foundation that can settle into your lines and wrinkles and make you look older. covergirl and olay floats above lines and makes you look younger. can your anti-aging makeup do that? simply ageless from olay and easy, breezy beautiful, covergirl. my high school science teacher made me what i am today.

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in a year filled with radical republican politics in the states, the multistate attack on union rights, biggest rollback of abortion rights in the state since roe versus wade, supposed small government conservatives mandating hair and urine samples to test citizens for drugs even if those citizens

were not suspected of using drugs. in a year filled with radical republican politics in the states though, my vote for the single most radical thing that happened in american politics anywhere was what happened in the state of michigan. republican legislators and newly elected republican governor rick snyder took an existing michigan law concerning something called emergency managers. they took that existing law and they dramatically changed it. they changed it into a way to override local democracy. michigan republicans gave their governor the right to void local elections, to overrule what people vote for in their cities and towns in michigan. it's democracy begone. before this happened this year, i would have never thought somebody could get away with this in the united states of america. >> one of the signature policies of governor snyder has been his emergency manager law whereby the state government can declare any town or school district to be in an emergency situation. and then the state can install

somebody to replace all locally elected officials. under rick snyder's law, the state government can even abolish whole michigan towns, take them over and declare them no more. dolgd mad tub doesn't matter who you elected to run your town, who you elected for mayor, governor snyder reserves the right to take it over. the first town to feel the tender administrations of governor snyder's new law is little benton harbor. one of the poorest towns in the state. despite the decline that benton harbor is home to the global headquarters for whirlpool appliances. among the heirs to the whirlpool appliance's fortune is fred upton. a former fred upton staffer, he represents benton harbor in the state house, he is the person that introduced the emergency state takeover bill that governor rick snyder signed. this is their ceremonial reenacting of the signing there. until last year, he served on the board of directors for a

nonfrost frost that wants to build a half billion dollar, 530-acre lakefront jack nicklaus designed golf course and luxury real estate development that would span both rementively wealthy st. joseph and benton harbor. a development that eats the one collective asset that benton harbor had, the beautiful beach front park. it would turn it into a place where caddies carry bags for whirlpool executives and rich folks that drive in from chicago at their new lovely signature home. i don't know what a signature home is. they're very expensive and part of the whole golf course deal. the park was deeded as a gift to the town. one of the poorest towns in michigan. it was deeded to the town in perpetuity in 1917. perpetuity i guess is not as long as it used to be. benton harbor residents are looking at a golf course where the cost of an annual pass for a family to play there is $5,000.

$5,000 is half the actual income of actually families living in benton harbor. this golf course development thing is not for them. neither is democratic local government. on friday the new state appointed emergency overseer joe hair is, issued an executive order that restricted the mayor and city commissions to three duties, they can call a meeting, approve the minutes and adjourn the meeting. three things the elected officials of benton harbor are now allowed to do. that's it. >> the fact of the matter is city manager is now gone. i am the city manager. i replaced the finance director. so i'm finance director and city manager and mayor and commissioner. and i don't need them. >> benton harbor's manager told the local tv station this week in michigan that people of benton harbor probably love that their local officials have been replaced by him. he said although he hasn't polled anyone, he bets the people in benton harbor see him as an angel of common sense. is that true?

does benton harbor love their new autocrat instead of their old democracy? despite this week's protest, is that accurate? is that true? it does not matter! remember, they don't know you're going to say in anything about their town. benton harbor residents voted this week on tuesday. they voted down all seven of the ballot measures that this emergency overseer guy unilaterally designed to put on the ballot. according to the votes, benton harbor let the new mayor and new counselors. but, of course, the votes are all pretty much mute. they went out and went through the motions of voting. thanks to rick snyder's emergency manager law, votes in that part of michigan just don't have any effect anymore. local elections are overruled by the state for your own good. so hey benton harbor. thanks for playing. democracy the game. the people you voted for, they'll take power when and if this emergency overseer from the

state running your town ever decide to leave. 2011 is the year when republicans in the great state of michigan decided that small deed democracy is a problem in michigan. it's not the way that michigan solves its problems. democracy is itself a problem. it needs to be done away with in the name of efficiency. governor rick snyder and the republican legislature did in michigan this year gets my vote fort single most radical thing in american politics this fairly radical year. the fight back against what happened in michigan this year has also been intense. it has been intense and at times it has even verged on inspiring. that's coming up. [ laughing ] [ cat yodeling ] honey, check your email! [ cellphone chimes ] [ cat yodeling ]

kids! [ cat yodeling ] sing, larry, sing! [ cat yodeling ] we should have got a cat. [ male announcer ] get low prices on gifts to stay connected. order your last-minute gifts at walmart-dot-com and get free same-day pickup on select items. save money. live better. walmart. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits

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so we're back to tide. they're cuter in clean clothes. thanks, honey. yeah. you suck at folding. [ laughs ] [ female announcer ] just one cap of tide plus bleach gives you more cleaning power than six caps of the bargain brand. visit facebook.com/tide to learn about special offers. that's my tide. what's yours? this is katherine ferguson academy. if you were in high school in detroit and you got pregnant or you had a baby, since 1988, katherine ferguson academy was designed to keep you in school and keep you from dropping out and to get you in college, real course work, high expectations and help with parenting classes for the moms and childcare and early education for the kids. right in the middle of a hollowed out inner city, they have land and the school has used it to have the girls tend beehives and take care of animals. that is part of the role of katherine ferguson, the girls learning to grow food and

harvest crops and learning farming. the formula seems to have worked. at katherine ferguson they can brag on their graduation rate and on their college acceptance rate. there is no place like katherine ferguson academy in the entire country. >> i want everybody to have the same opportunity that i had. oi got out of here. i want you to graduate. i have two kids. you can make it with one, two, or however many other you got. they are going to make it happen. last month there was a new emergency manager law which is emergency manager on steroids. if you don't like it, call it emergency manager law. this new bill contains more than a dozen new triggers for getting put under emergency rule. it gives an emergency overseer in a town or school district, district, it gives that overseer astounding amounts of new power. the detroit's school manager told the detroit news he had been frustrated under the old manager law. detroit was still allowed to have an elected school board and those locally elected officials

did not always want what he wanted which he found frustrating. the new law would do away with that complication. before the new law went into effect, the school's emergency manager said he wanted to close katherine ferguson academy. it was slated for closure last year. robert bob's plan to downsize the school system but protests from students and community members kept it open. manager wanted to shut down the city's special school for girls who were pregnant or who had kids. but protests from students and community members kept it open. now with expanded unilateral power, all teachers in the deceit schools just got layoff notices from this person and the girls at katherine ferguson academy found out that their school is put on this list. look. closures or charters with a big asterisk on it. the asterisk means, proposals will be requested to operate the schools as charters if an acceptable proposal is not submitted for a school, then it will be closed during the summer of 2011. the girls got the news about what was going to happen to

katherine ferguson academy, they went to their school and gathered inside. they made a collective decision to say this is our place and we're staying. and then, of course this is what happened next. the police turned on the sirens to drown out their voices while they were getting arrested for refusing to leave their school at least one teacher was arrested beside them. we've been expecting today to be katherine ferguson's last day ever. that was what the emergency manager had ordered. the principal had been told to say good-bye to the students today, to hand in her keys to the school tomorrow. there was to be a protest at noon today at the school. the actor, danny glover, was expected to be there as well as lots of other people. principal andrews went to bed

last night thinking that was it, her school was done. early morning, her phone rang. the emergency manager wanted to see her for a meeting at 10:45 a.m. then, another call, meeting changed to 10:00. no, another call, please get down to the emergency managers office right away. miss andrews walked in to find them finishing up a deal to keep the academy opened. i asked her if she minded and she said no. the fate of the katherine ferguson academy is in this private company's hands now. but this time yesterday this school was due not to exist. as to have day, the academy has a tomorrow. joining us now is the principal, athena andrews. thank you for interrupting what i imagine is your celebration to be with us tonight. >> i just can breathe. thank you for having us. >> let me say congratulations. i feel like i am very invested in you as a principal because of all i have learned about this school. am i right you had no idea this was coming at all? >> not at all.

everybody had some scheme or some way they were going to save us. i got really excited and then i got deflated. and so i couldn't -- i couldn't imagine that they would wait so long. my office is packed. well, sort of packed. i just thought i would be gone and my girls were thrown to the wind. so we're excited. we're excited. >> catherine ferguson academy still exists for now as a charter school. and that's the important fine print here. charter schools sometimes work, sometimes they do not. sometimes they give teachers more freedom and better pay. sometimes they pay less and do less. teachers with detroit public schools are union. teachers with the new company there are not union. but catherine ferguson academy is open because the girls and the teachers and the principal and the community of supporters of catherine ferguson fought to make that so.

on a personal note, i have to tell you, when we aired that story, particularly the part of the story of those girls getting arrested trying to keep their school open, i get feedback from people i know who watch the show all the time. that was the only time the feedback after watching one of our shows from a lot of people that i know was them asking me how to get there, how to physically go there, because they wanted to go help. we have got more ahead. we have more ahead including what happens when you mix me and the daughter of a senator and a whole lot of guns. that's coming up. so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right, i will take a chance with the two of you." and we've been loyal to bank of america for the last 71 years.

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>> back in april, megan mccain took me to the nra convention in

pittsburgh. after that, after going to the convention, i met up with a counselman from pittsburgh, ricky burgess, who was not at all excited about his city hosting the nra and the 70,000 of its members this year. watch. >> i represent the eastern part of the city of pittsburgh. i represent the poorest area of the city of pittsburgh. unfortunately, the most crime infested, the most homicides, the most drug infested area in the city of pittsburgh, the lowest economic standards. and it is unfortunately a very difficult place. it is a place that has been plagued by violence, by gun violence. i myself, in fact, my whole life has been the consequence of gun violence. my aunt was murdered. and my mother had a nervous breakdown. and for 30 years had a mental illness she never recovered from. my cousins have been shot and killed. my wife's father was shot. my wife's mother, my

mother-in-law was shot and killed who lived with us. her brother killed someone and spent 20 years in the pen ten tary. i have adopted his son and have raised him as my own son. i actually went into the ministry after my mother's sickness to figure out this thing. so all of my life has been really affected by violence. my wife's cousins have been shot and killed. i had children in my church shot and killed. i ran for council in fact because i couldn't take the shootings anymore. the ease of which you can buy guns in this community is frightening. you can buy a gun from a gas station. i mean, why does individual citizens need ak-47s, m-16s? ar-14s, three and four of them? there is no gun manufacturers in my community. these guns are not being made there. they're being brought here through straw purchasers, gun shows. and it's turned my community into either a combination of the

old wild west or a ghost town. it's killed the businesses, it's killed the residential community. the area i represent lost almost 75% of the population since 1968. it's gist been devastating and almost all that leads directly or indirectly to gun violence. >> you said you used to play here when you were a kid? >> this was my alley. i learned to play basketball, football, baseball, track relay was right here. this was for many years the most dangerous place in the city of pittsburgh. one of the local record producers called it pittsburgh pistolvania. >> pistolvania. >> these houses were used to store guns and to store bodies. what they did was they put holes because they're all connected, they put holes in the walls interconnecting these buildings so they could go into one door here and if the police were chasing, they would go in this door and then run down through the holes in the walls and come out further down in order to escape police.

you know, bodies were found in here, guns. guns were found here. almost any vacant building you have the danger of finding guns. that's where they hide. rather than hide them in their house, they hide them in places like this. it is one of my great, great interests. i have the mayor to agree. we're working on tearing this down. it has to come down. as you see, empty lots, vacant lots. and even it being here this way is dangerous. >> yeah. >> even though they concreted some of it, some of it you can come in. how you doing, baby? you okay? good to see you. how are you doing? >> jay archer. >> do you live around here? where you live? on your way home from school? >> this is your city councilman. >> i'm your city councilman, good to see you. >> there was a young girl her age shot and killed on the front side of the street on her way home from school.

it is dangerous, because there is a school about two blocks that way. but the school is surrounded with property like this. >> seeing her go home through these lots is hard. >> it's hard for me. i see it every day. i see it absolutely every day. >> what happens to -- >> this is a result -- make no mistake, this is economics. these were closed because of gun violence. they got this way because they were shooting people on these streets every day. this alley was known as for a while the most dangerous place in the united states, this alley right here where you're at. this was the most dangerous place. they had the highest incidents of homicides right here in this alley in the united states. so that's why this is like this. >> and so people had to move because of the violence regardless of what else was offered or not offered. >> they had to go. they just had to go. >> the only thing i've ever seen with this many houses boarded up is natural disasters. it's been flooded, hurricane damage, that sort of thing. but this is a natural disaster.

this is policy disaster. >> right. this is unnatural. this is policy. this is gun violence. tell me thank you for this gift. this is what guns have done to my community. and i have more vacant houses, more empty lots than any other city in the city of pittsburgh. i have 5,000 of them. i can show you house after house, houses that have furniture in them. you could move into them tomorrow. >> why doesn't the democratic party and people who represent urban districts have a say in gun debate? the gun debate is dominated by the nra, people that are fundamentalists about gun rights? why doesn't the other side surface in gun debate? >> we are controlled here in pennsylvania by the republicans, our house, our senate and our governor are all now republicans. they are not interested and the nra spends a lot of money in b

lobbying and they control our state. i think we don't have the power in the state in order to make it happen. in pennsylvania, we have two major urban centers, a lot of rural communities who are represented by rural representatives but i challenge them to come here with me, let me show you my community. i will show you the victims of gun violence. i'll show you what is left and you tell me what good your lobbying has done for my community. tell me what those guns have done in good for my community. i'll show you the deaths. i'll show you the people. i'll show you the houses. i'll show you the abandoned buildings. i'll show you the flight. you tell me what good the overwhelming number of guns on my streets have done to my community. what good has it done for us? >> councilman, thank you for

this tour and this time. >> thank you. >> actually getting to see and therefore getting to show you what i snau pittsburgh is sadly a little bit unusual for us. i like to get out there more. i got to say. that is my resolution for 2012. most of the time on this show from the confines of this studio, we instead rely on a whole party bag of tricks to try to illustrate what is going on outside the walgz. some of the tricks work well. others not so much. luckily, we have no shame or self discipline or restraint. and that will be on full display next. [ laughing ] [ cat yodeling ] honey, check your email! [ cellphone chimes ] [ cat yodeling ] kids! [ cat yodeling ] sing, larry, sing! [ cat yodeling ]

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>> when we get together as a staff every day to try to figure out not only what stories to cover in this news hour but how to cover them, we inevitably try to figure out metaphors, ways to

explain what's going on through the magic of story-telling, using television and the risk of hume il lation through props to try to make stuff clear. sometimes our visual metaphors work. sometimes looking back over the hundreds offer shows we did in 2011, more often than not, things end up like this. >> you are getting a rare look at what's called an american liberal. the liberal appears to be upset, angry even about plans to abolish medicare. we can't know why. with this liberal ear tag tracking device, we will be able to observe any other strange outburst that occur in the liberal's natural habitat. >> senator mccaskill, you are always very welcome to back on the show. until then, we are going to mail you this life side cutout of branch lincoln. >> you want to know what happened today? ding. actually, it doesn't look right without a breeze i don't think.

hold on. that's nice. ♪ >> this ring tone is newt gingrich's ring tone, dancing queen by aba. >> never raises his voice but seldom takes no for an answer. not in it for the balloons. the world needs new. america needs fresh. >> come on, puppy, stay awake, stay with me, puppy. no. up, up, not down. wake up, puppy. come on. it is going to be up. wake up. come on. no matter how adorably sleeping federal monetary policy is -- yes. >> the percentage drop i was, l

number there on the right, ah, 6.66%. seriously, 6.66%. 666? just incase the newerer logical gods were not clear enough, it had to be 666. >> dead birds are clearly not the scariest thing to fall out of the sky in america. >> you may be wondering what is up with the really loud cow bell. you know who rings cow bells besides will ferrell, ski jumping fans. michael wolf joins us live. that's not michael wolf. that's richard wolffe. >> that's not michael wolf. that's not michael wolf. that's michael steele. do we have michael wolf? do we? seriously. come on. that is bill wolf in a wolf t-shirt. all right. forget it. forget it.

>> meet plus caffeine equals the best new thing in the world today. >> here is the scene. where are we? we are on a street. here, wait. what was i doing? i was driving a car. what's that? person i just ran over in a crass walk. >> there is one thing to understand about the case for rick perry that is being made so far. that it looks like will be the basis for his presidential run. one thing to understand about that. it's ba low any. >> i'm often criticized about the fact that i have never held public office, criticized that i don't know this and i don't know that and i don't know that and i don't know this. a leader doesn't have to know everything. >> i don't think i have to try to prove this anymore. i think the