have to go broke to have a mammogram. it's upsetting, women are fighting back this is going to kill them. >> lizz winstead keep up the great work. that is "the ed show" i'm ed schultz, the "the rachel maddow show" show starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> have a good weekend, my friend. thank you for staying with us for the next hour. a terrible, horrible, no good very bad couple of weeks for newt gingrich. think about it mr. gingrich won the south carolina primary, right? good news, then the next contest after south carolina was of course florida and everybody was sure mitt romney was going to win florida and he did win florida. newt gingrich did well. look at the map from florida, right? these were the final results in florida everything in green on this map are places where mitt romney won but the whole top of florida and even some of the bottom, the top of florida is like the rest of the south, that went to newt gingrich. he won more counties in farr farr than mitt romney did even though mitt romney run overall.

even though the florida contest was suppose eldly winner take all in terms of the delegates, that assertion by the state republican party was always on shakey ground, newt gingrich is now challenging the winner take all thing, mr. gingrich may end up getting half of the delegates out of florida. as of two-and-a-half weeks ago, things were looking good for newt gingrich, right? then things fell apart. after florida the center ceased to hold. he received the first five million dollar check from sheldon adelson before the south carolina primary. got a second check from his billionaire's wife right after the south carolina primary. after newt gingrich won south carolina and after he did well in florida reverybody was wondering if he was going to get more money from the billionaire. everybody was expecting more money to come but it did not

come. there were reports that mr. gingrich's billionaire might be cutting him off. in the next contest in nevada, newt gingrich came in a deep distant second place to mitt romney. lost to mitt romney by nearly 30 points in nevada. and then national newt just kept right on losing. remember the saturday caucus was on a saturday night? we didn't get the final results until monday after the caucuses in nevada. and then the very next day there were three more contests, minnesota, colorado and missouri. not only did newt gingrich face plant in all three of those states, he wasn't on the ballot in missouri. that night after getting wiped out in three states, newt gingrich was invisible. all the other candidates gave speeches that night, but not newt gingrich. at least after he lost in nevada he didn't give a speech but held a press conference to announce his strategy going forward but after he lost colorado and minnesota and wasn't even on the ballot in minnesota, he went to bed early, didn't show up. he also then disappeared from

the campaign trail, ostensibly to raise more money. and he disappeared from most of the media coverage of the campaign. in what is almost a perfect metaphor for the gingrich campaign at this point this was the only thing newt gingrich could get any media attention for this whole week. did you see this? newt gingrich's broken down on the side of the road in west hollywood. west hollywood, not exactly newt gingrich country, if you know what i mean, my brothers and sisters. over the last week or so, this race has sort of left newt gingrich broken down on the side of the road. nobody is bothering to attack newt gingrich anymore, really. the death star smear machine has moved to put h the badge of hor of being a possible target of the obama campaign. so far the obama campaign has exclusively trained their fire on mitt romney aloning now they are starting to size up rick

santorum as well. they never did that for newt. you look at the numbers, newt gingrich is back down in the dumps. managed to pull off the ro remarkable polling feat of having a double hump, forgive the phrase. he came out of no where and sushlged heading in iowa, fell off a clip. surged again coming out of south carolina and now back down off the cliff again down in ron paul territory. so, newt gingrich gave eight go -- gave it a good run. newt gingrich billionaire benefactor is contemplating digging in his pockets for another $10 million for newt! happy days are here again! that news, that $10 million for newt news is the best possible news for mitt romney. because mitt romney is the person who benefits the most here. mitt romney is in a fight for

his life in of all places his home state of michigan. mr. romney's campaign is in such trouble right now he's in danger of losing the state in which he grew up. the state where his dad was a very, very popular governor. here is how it looks in michigan. look. mitt romney trailing rick santorum in practically every poll that has come out of michigan in the last week. listen how republicans are reacting to the possibility that mr. romney does not win there. a senator telling jonathan carl, "if romney cannot win michigan, we need a new candidate" he believes he will ultimately win but publicly call for the party to find a new candidate if he does not. "we'd get killed" the senator says, if he wins the nomination after failed to win the state in the which he grew up. in other words, if mitt romney can't win michigan and ends up the republican nominee, the republicans have no chance in november. also in other words if you're

mitt romney you really, really need to win michigan. otherwise some senators will say publicly how they need to 86 you off the ticket. so michigan, very important. if you're mitt romney you really, really, really need to win michigan. how do you do it? you bury rick santorum under a tidal wave of negative ads. this week the romney campaign plan to spend $1.2 million on ads in michigan. want to know how much rick santorum and his pac plan to spend on ads this week? $42,000. that's it. rick santorum leading mitt romney in all of the recent polls out of michigan but outspent by mr. romney by astonishing 29-1. then news yesterday that the san store r instead of outspending 29-1,

it's like 3-s. mr. romney did drown newt gingrich in negative ads but a different thing to try to do that against rick santorum. when you're attacking a guy with negative ads as mitt romney is dw doing now, it's one thing to look at the ads and seem like strong enough attacks to achieve intended goal, by really hurting a guy. but even more important than the ad is the context. the context in which the ad is received and heard by the republican electorate. when mitt romney was tearing newt gingrich apart, mr. romney benefitted from the fact that the entire republican establishment, including most of the conservative opinion leaders in the country, all hate newt gingrich. anything mitt romney said against newt gingrich the whole establishment would say um-hmm, yep and reinforce it. mr. romney was attacking as

""the washington post" put it the most disliked politician in america. that phrase isn't an attack it's what the polling shows. newt gingrich enjoix a 16% favorability rating among americans. 16. atta attacking newt gingrich was beneficial for mitt romney because newt gingrich is unpopular. that well of hatred does not exist when it comes to rick santorum. to be clear, mr. santorum does not seem to have of a rooting section or base, he did lose his own state by 18 points when he was last running for office. but he does not appear to inspire the same kind of loathing newt gingrich does particularly among conservative opinion leaders. rick santorum enjoys remarkably high favorability rating, that is at least in part a result of the fact that nobody has ever taken him seriously enough as a candidate to go after him in the race before this week.

mitt romney's strategy in the all important state of of michigan is shakey right now. he has been in coherent at best on the rescue of the auto industry, detroit should go bankrupt, his renewed attacks on the bail out of detroit, are to the point in siders are openly panning him all over the press. the head of the largest auto dealer attacking mitt romney as reckless and dishonest. the ads that romney is running against rick santorum in michigan are not that compelling for one. but more importantly, they don't tap into any previously existing well of hatred for rick santorum on the republican side, the way his attack ads did against newt gingrich. now, rick santorum and his billionaire, the aspirin breach between your knees, he's beginning to cut down mitt romney's overwhelming financial advantage when it comes to ad spending. mitt romney is in trouble. mitt romney is in trouble. this is a crisis moment.

the single best thing that could happen top mitt romney in michigan and therefore for his presidential campaign overall, the single best thing that could happen would be for something to come along to split the vote against mitt romney. to split the anti-mitt romney vote, to split the support that for these last couple weeks has been going all to rick santorum. the only thing that could save mitt romney right now is something like a $10 million injection in the newt gingrich campaign. tada, thank you sheldon adelson, casino guy. thank you for keeping alive the one guy that can split all the anti-romney vote that is out there. newt gingrich may have had a terrible, horrible no good bad couple of weeks. at this stage, newt gingrich is the single best thing mitt romney has going for him. steve schmidt, senior strategist for the mccain campaign and msnbc contributor, thank for being here, nice to

sigh. >> great to be with you, rachel. >> you have played this game from the inside. you have run a campaign that won the nomination, what am i getting wrong or what am i missing about the three-way dynamics? >> i'm not sure at the end of the day, rachel, ten million dollars will help newt gingrich very much, no matter where he spends it. at the end of the day, newt gingrich came from no where, to the top of the polls, he crashed, he came back up again, he won south carolina, then went over the cliff again. i think two looks is all you get in the race and totally unclear to me where that money is going to be spent. will it be spent in michigan or spent for example in newt gingrich's home state of georgia that he could potentially win and exit the race with some degree of grace on an up note. i'm not sure that this donation is going to have much effect in michigan where tonight, you have mitt romney really fighting for

his life up there. >> if you put yourself in the shoes not of the campaign strategist, which you have been but if you put yourself in the shoes of the eccentric billionaire who wants to run the world by proxy, let's say sheldon adelson, we know he does not like rick santorum, we think he doesn't like his policy positions and that he doesn't think he could beat president obama, we know he likes newt gingrich historically liked him and he likes mitt romney. he said he would be perfectly ham happy to support and give money to mitt romney. if you were sheldon adelson and you wanted mitt romney or newt gingrich to be president but mot rick santorum where would you spend the $10 million? >> you would spend it in michigan. look, at the end of the day, i'm not shire -- sheldon adelson makes $3.7 million an hour. this isn't a huge amount of money for him if he goes to the 25 million dollars which he pledged would be potentially his

maximum. i just think that increasingly now mitt romney's in a race, rachel, that was the one thing he couldn't have happen in this contest was to get in an ideological fight with someone a plausible commander in chief candidate which rick santorum is. newt gingrich never was, on the basis of the fact that he has roughly a 65% disapproval rate in the country. he was never going to be the republican nominee. i'm not sure you can say the same for rick santorum, that is a problem for mitt romney. >> one thing i have been noticing, impressionistic, i feel nobody is all that interested in what rick santorum thinks. he was in the congress and senate a very long time you read philadelphia and pennsylvania journalists who covered him for a long time sort of raising their hands and saying there is a lot of scandal, there is a lot of oppo, doesn't anybody want to cover this stuff, nobody is

jumping for it. i'm sure the romney campaign has it but the country does not seem all that interested m what might be the weaknesses in rick santorum as a potential command near chief. that makes me feel iets not a mitt romney vote. >> santorum's strength is more of a function of romney's weakness than rick santorum's compelling message. here is the interesting thing in the race, if you look at the comments that rick santorum made about contraception where he committed him receive to be a president who talks about the dangers of contraception, talks about the fact that sex should be for procreative purposes and peering in the bedroom of the american people it disqualifies him in the general election. one thing voter also have to give serious consideration to, somebody with those views is not electable in a general election

contest. the problem for mitt romney he can't call rick santorum out on that because there no appetite for conservatives to hear mitt romney attacking rick santorum on these social issues. so it's a really interesting point in the republican primary, where i think you have a very, very weak front runner mitt romney but after the santorum comments, he's the only possibly lengthed republican electable republican but voters may not have focused on that. >> are you available to be drafted if they ask, steve? >> no, absolutely not. >> i had to ask. steve schmidt republican strat at t at the gist, good to see you. >> i thinking that when i walked past one story tall poster for the game change movie, that is coming out, somebody put a one story tall poster by my house,

there is woody harrelson as steve schmidt, why didn't they ask steve? today the most predictable and unlikely day in the resen history of the cheney family, that is coming up, plus, best new thing in the world, stay with us. plip plip

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feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for excellent fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion, also refreshing plus tea. could've had a v8. tomorrow republicans in maine will try to finish what has been a disaster of a nominating contest. they said mitt romney won the

main caucuses even though he had a tiny margin of victory over ron paul and had not counted whole swaths of the state. after a week of achaos, they did a recount and released new vote totals, but they are still not final results. the margin between mitt romney and ron paul is still tiny, was slightly less than 200 votes before, slightly more than 200 votes now. but washington county, maine is due to vote tomorrow. even though the state partly last weekend said washington county's votes would not count toward the total, now they will, probably, maybe, depending on the result you will decide? washington county, maine, tomorrow all eyes on you as the nation waits to see whether even after iowa, yet another state is going to be taken out of the mitt romney win column this year. we will be right back. i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel.

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>> big news here at msnbc. melissa harris-perry debuting her show tomorrow. that time slot, after "up with chris hayes" the new shows i could not be more excited about. >> i have long been proud to work alongside but know that these two, two of the smartest people i have ever known in any

context in my whole life, these two folks are now going to be hosting cable news shows at this company, i got to say it makes me very happy about this field that i work in. makes me happy about this part of our national media, really hopeful about the direction and future of cable news and what cable news has to offer america and our understanding of who we are as a country. not to be too sappy, chris hayes, 8:00 to 10:00, followed by melissa harris-perry. really exciting and awesome. me lisa, break a leg. [ tom ] we invented the turbine business right here in schenectady.

without the stuff that we make here, you wouldn't be able to walk in your house and flip on your lights. [ brad ] at ge we build turbines that power the world. they go into power plants which take some form of energy, harness it, and turn it into more efficient electricity. [ ron ] when i was a kid i wanted to work with my hands, that was my thing. i really enjoy building turbines. it's nice to know that what you're building is gonna do something for the world. when people think of ge, they typically don't think about beer. a lot of people may not realize that the power needed to keep their budweiser cold and even to make their beer comes from turbines made right here. wait, so you guys make the beer? no, we make the power that makes the beer. so without you there'd be no bud? that's right. well, we like you. [ laughter ] ♪

for fastidious librarian emily skinner, each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come.

well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. ...which meant she continued to have the means to live on... ...even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. this has been a bad week for trying to get republicans to be guests on the show. yesterday we renewed our on-going pleas to my senator from massachusetts, scott brown, to be a guest on the show, as usual, not even a no from senator brown's office. we can't get a response. we can even get the courtesy of a no. virginia governor bob mcdonnell, we have been talking about him all week, he told a conservative

radio host he wanted to come on my show, asked laura ingraham if she would help book him on the program. i was so excited i thought that meant we would get him, he wanted to do it. apparently he didn't mean it. bob mcdonnell will not return our calls! this week is the anniversary of me trying in person to get a cheney to come on the show. remember when i chased down liz cheney at c pac? >> this is as close as i ever get to interviewing liz and dick cheney many. >> hi, rachel. >> i think that was it. >> i don't know what she said. she smiled at me. >> at cpack that was 2010, after giving me that nice smile and chaki shaking my hand and never returned my calls, she went on to give a speech how horribly dangerous and wrong it was for the obama administration to try the underwear bomber that kid

who tried to blow up a plane on christmas day in 2009, how dangerous it would be to try him in a civilian court. >> wants to give terrorists constitutional rights, including the right to remain silent. >> liz cheney sort of made a little cottage industry for a while after -- out of telling everybody when a disaster and danger it would be to what she described as setting the underwear bomber free by trying him in civilian court. because she implied that is what civilian courts do. they look at people and set them free. >> military court. >> not effective tool for fighting terror. >> telling the world we are going to try terrorists in the civilian court system. you want to talk about a recruiting tool it's saying you attack america and the ahere cans catch you the worst you can imagine is they will give you a lawyer, they will give you a trial in civilian court. >> that is exactly the wrong way

to win the war. >> you-given a trial in civilian court and now have a situation with the christmas bomber where instead of questioning him, we are now in a position as a government where he has a lawyer. >> liz cheney professionally setting her hair on fire over and over again in multiple venues over the prospect of a si sill -- underwear bomber. he was sentenced yesterday to life in prison. after yelling danger, will robinson, how the guy was going to get off scott free because of the civilian system, the reaction from liz cheney to him getting a life sentence, the reaction from liz cheney has been? nothing. oh, wait, there was something in the in box from liz cheney, what is that? liz cheney signed to a letter demanding america bomb syria.

literally calling for an american war on syria. it's her and bill crystal and karl rove and the good news only spokesman from the iraq war, they got the whole gang back together, even michael ledeen signed on. he's the guy who said if we invaded iraq our children will sing great songs about us years from now. do these people still have jobs? are all these members of the starting the iraq war alumni association, do they think people are looking to them for leadership and advise what to do with foreign policy? does somebody like karl rove or dan seymour or liz cheney, if i put the name on this then surely america will be speaker wabe pe the next war. like rick perry saying his next career will be debate coach.

america may want advice on the subject of foreign policy but not from you guys. not ever again. you had your chance. ixnay. no. we're done. you tried it. speaking of cheney family, did you see what dick cheney was in the news for today? dick cheney has reportedly been lobbying for pass age of a bill in maryland to legalize same sex marriage. a republican legislator who voted against the bill in committee telling the baltimore sun that he had received a voice mail with an offer to talk it over with former vice president dick cheney. the same sex marriage bill passed in the maryland house of delegates an outcome not certain. the same house voted against the measure last year but passed tonight. 71-67. that sends it to the senate which did pass a similar measure last year, no senators are expected to change their votes this time. also maryland's governor, has promised to sign it. maryland is poised to legalize

gay marriage. on the strength of a bipartisan vote and after reported pro-gay ma marriage lobbying from dick cheney. this week both new jersey assemblies approved a measure legalizing, today it landed on the governor's desk, widely speculated because of his hopes to be a vice presidential selection, mr. christi vetoed it. on this issue they thought of major unifying strength, on foreign policy, we have seen a complete collapse in credibility if not ambition among remembers. the guys calling for a war on syria? anybody who thought a war on syria was a good idea will have to pause and reconsidering giving your endorsement of the idea now. but also on their sort of

standby platform of electoral strength on social issues, the republicans are becoming split. time has passed. the river has rise n, today not all republicans, not even all really conservative republicans are on board. if you are a republican in 2012, yeah you can use gay rights as a way to hit democrat, when do you that you are hitting dick cheney. joining us now for the interview is republican candidate fred carger, first openly gay candidate for the office of the president. he has had a tough time but stuck it out thus far, thank you very much for being here, nice to see you again. >> thank you, rachel, great to be on your show. >> i as a liberal will never look at dick cheney and not think iraq war, iran contra, torture all this other stuff but do you think his advocacy on gay rights on which he has been more

vocal recently even though he long held the views, do you think that changes his legacy in a meaningful way when you think about him as a republican? >> absolutely. there are two words why he is supporting so great -- been such a great supporter, mary cheney, whom he loves who is a lesbian and her partner and they have two children. he stood up to george w. bush and opposed the amendment. he has been a hero because he has a family member he loves and cares about and he is taking it up another notch and doing lob b bying -- lobbying. >> do you think there is a split or do you think that there is just a few dick cheneys out there who for family reasons are -- the vast majority of conservative republicans r are anti-gay and a few people stand out from the crowd, how do you

see it? >> i see it as good news, as you said there is a split, there wasn't even a might. gerald ford came out for gay marriage in 2001 at 88 years old, first former president to do so. within the republican party, we're starting to get some numbers like laura and barbara bush, their daughter, cindy mccain, the list goes i'm the only candidate running for president of the united states with fully kwaulity. >> nancy pell low sigh said marriage equality should be part of the democratic party's national platform, president obama has still not said he favors same sex marriage rights, but the justice department is not defending the dedpens of marriage act. today they won't defend doma for same sex married couples in the

military. they won't fight same sex getting all the rights opposite sex married couples have in the military. do you think the president's treatment of gay rights issue is an asset to his reelection campaign, that is something he should run on against the republican nominee? >> absolutely. we're seeing the poll numbers that have change sd where americans are supporting gay marriage, i would give him a c-plus with the move today, he's done a lot, he could have worked a little harder on the repeal of don't ask don't tell, but it got done. we're making progress, we're taking the offense this time which is so nice. washington state just passed marriage, maryland is poised, had a set back in new jersey today but we are back on the ballot in maine, we won in new york, this is the way it should be. the state legislature should be making these decisions.

should not be left to the will of the people, this is a civil rights issue. >> i don't know if you buy the sort of wide speculation that chris christi vetoed this because to have signed a gay marriage bill would have ixnayed his chance for being a vice presidential choice. do you think that motivated him and was that a proper calculation his part if it did motivate him? >> i'm one of the six republicans still standing in the race. i got on the california ballot, poised to get on the new york ballot. one of four it looks like maybe in the new york primary. this will discourage me from picking chris christi, as far as the other candidates, i think he's content. he made a bad decision, he said he would do this, he is a man of his word, the veto override looks difficult i'm optimistic we have the opponents on the run, national organization, running out of moen kn en -- ouy

starting to get republican votes, becoming a pi sart i son issue. bipartisan issue. >> you are a good sport and always a pleasure thank you for being here, thank you. >> thank you, rachel. today is one of those day the beltway media take the economy is getting better horrible news for republicans now they have to run on god, guns and gays, maybe that is why they will pick rick santorum that is a reliable electoral strategy for 2012. run on hating gay people in 2012. not even the path the nomination let alone the victory. beltway is totally wrong about. this. best new thing in the world still, stay with us.

a judge in wisconsin told the republican governor scott walker there, times's up. under wisconsin law elected officials facing a recall can

raise unlimited money while the petitionsare being validated. since this time last month when wisconsinites turned in a million signatures to recall scott walker he has been trying stretch it out. got the initial ten days review period turned into 20 days, then in 30 days, but today a judge said no mas. the review of the signatures will be wrapped up by february 27th as will scott walker's time for raising unlimited money. then, since so many more signatures were turned in than the number that was needed for the recall it's likely the recall signatures will be certified and the governor's name will go on the ballot so wisconsin can decide whether to turf him out in the middle of his first times as governor. but this delay so far has given governor scott walker time to raise unlimited gobs and gobs of money to fight the recall. about a dozen million dollars raise sd so far and still countg on top of the largesse he has

enjoyed from the koch brothers. he also has grass roots support. earlier this week we told you about a call from scott walker activists in wisconsin a call for a march. the pro-scott walker crowd would take their outrage to the government accountability board where they are verifying petitions. it was to emulate the brooks brother riot at the county clerks office at the 2000 presidential election. use physical show of force to scare the bejesus out of the people downing the counting. the wisconsin march started with a facebook page for a group that real republicans in wisconsin assured us was a real group. turns out they are a real group, they are just not real big. i don't know if this picture captures everything but i think there are seven people here in evidence at the government accountability board standing up for scott walker. the other two people, see there, by themselves? they look to be from some other

movement, like the one to get governor walker out of office. the recall walker sign being a tell-tale give away. there we will be right back.

there is snow on the ground in ben done harbor, michigan, mucky gunk, the new golf course said nobody could play there now, but come spring, benton harbor will host the senior pga championship. a major tournament for pro golfers over 50 years old. held at exclusive harbor shores

golf and residential development. the course backs up to the beaches of lake michigan designed by jack nicklaus, the manager said pga.com, to this day i will not forget the first time we toured jack through the land going to be used for the course. he looked at me and said "where did you find this place." where did they find this water front paradise with rolling dune seven, tall grasses, giant sky, lake goes on and on, where did they find it? they found it part of it in the one publicly owned civic jewel of the very tiny, very poor, very african american city of benton harbor, michigan. found it in the publicly-owned park. for generations families went for baptisms or pass summer's night or teach swim. the park was a gift to the town in 1917 from john clock, who founded the local newspaper and served as mayor. the family named the park after

their daughter,as an infant. they told the town when they gave the park over, "the beach is yours. the drive is yours. the dunes are yours, all yours. not so much a gift from my wife and myself it's a gift from a little child. see to it that the park is the childrens. the people of benton harbor did for nearly a century in a town without much, they at least had this one thing, didn't matter how much money you had, wasn't a private thing, was a public thing you walk out on the beach and the natural beauty was yours to love. now, what used to be the park looks like this. harbor shores golf course carving out a 22 acre slice of it. a family pass to play golf at the private course is $5000. which is about half the average per capita yearly income for people who live in benton harbor. even as the klock family was leading the way in benton harbor way back when, another family was making their name in benton

harbor, the upton family founded the company "whirlpool appliances" people don't get much work from them anymore but still home to the corporate head quart hes -- quarters. up ton for a congressman. former congressional staffer, for their state legislator used to serve on the board called the cornerstone alliance. the cornerstone alliance a non-profit supported by whirlpool one of the largest players in town. the way they built the golf course they started a public-private partnership and the public part of that was cornerstone, right? they anchored the public part. they used the partnership to take over the 20 acre slice of the town's park. put it together with industrial land whirlpool wanted to get rid of, tada, fancy golf course. great deal for whirlpool, not for the people in town who thought the park was for them.

they get big things done, that is the big picture in benton harbor. day-to-day life in benton harbor, that would be the work of the state rep. in his first months in office, it was that months in office, it was that guy who sponsored and pushed through michigan's new emergency manager law. under the old version of that law in michigan, benton harbor had already had a manager. but this new souped up version gave unprecedented control, nearly unilateral authority to the emergency manager. under the new law signed by republican rik snck snyder. actual unilateral authority. they are the government. that one person can tear up contracts, fire the local officials elected by that town. they can even move unilaterally on their own say so to dissolve an entire town.

to just take the town off the map. one person's say so. after rick snyder's new law passed, benton harbor stripped the city's mayor. they can't even do anything symbolic. when the commission declared a constitution week, the emergency manager cancelled it because under the emergency manager law, he is in charge. and he'll say whether there's a constitution week. the law also gives him the power to sell off public property. to sell off the town's assets. nobody else gets a say. these are the town's assets. they can just be sold off with nobody in the town getting a vote. last week, as we reported the emergency manager put the city's low-power radio station up for sale. microphones, cd players, the license, everything. all for $5,000, cords included. it's wbhc, b-h for benton harbor. bhc formerly broadcasts from benton harbor city hall. .

they had been stripped of all of their power as elected officials, but at least they still had this one voice, right? now it has been shut down, too. emergency manager put it up on e-bay, exercising absolute, personal, unelected control. over the weekend on e-bay, there were three bids for wbhc. the initial asking price was $5,000. and then there was a bid for 5100 and 5200 and then the listing disappeared. turns out federal law says you can't sell a radio station licensed the way that the overseer was trying to sell it. so this listing on e-bay is against the law. the fcc has to approve any sale of a radio license, even a tiny station like benton harbor's. we know from talking to the emergency manager over the last few days, he still thinks he's selling the town's radio station. under federal rules, it can only go to a nonprofit or a local government. local government and the emergency manager guy is, himself, a one-man local government now. who else can it go to?

after reporting on this story last week, we heard from a nonprofit group called public radio capital who said they want to find a benton harbor nonprofit and help that nonprofit to buy the station. they tell us they have tried for days to to get through to the emergency manager. meanwhile, the emergency manager wrote to us to say that he had a "bona fide buyer" and that it might take a couple of weexs to go through the legal steps. he also told the town newspaper that he hadn't heard of this radio group. he wants to give the radio station back so it can be used by the town again. so who is the emergency manager guy talking to about buying benton harbor's town asset, it's town radio station. it does not seem to be the public radio capital people who want to give it back to the town. they're only now just getting their calls returned. so it's not them. is it the other big nonprofit in town? is it the corner stone alliance?

the whirlpool nonprofit with the executive that wrote the emergency manager law and the fancy golf resort where most of benton harbor can't afford to play or live? the emergency manager will not say. nor do we know what the people of benton harbor want done with the station. this is the point. they have no say. sometimes in politics and civil rights, we talk about losing a voice or having a say. we used to use those terms as a metaphor. this picture of benton harbor's radio station up for sale illegally is not a metaphor for the people of that town having their voice taken away from them. they have their vote taken away, their elected officials taken away, their democratic means of decision-making taken away and now the means by at least which they could broadcast their voice to speak to one another, that, too. one more thing, the guy in charge of benton harbor says that when the sale is over, he will issue a press release or hold a press conference or do something that lets the public know what he has decided to do with the public's property. he will talk and they will listen. states orders. [ male announcer ] capri sun has 25% less sugar

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publicity, the campaign ended successfully. mission accomplished. awareness raised. the walkways, seemingly cleaner than usual. end of story. or was it? we have just received word that the simultaneously disillusioning and instructive "don't believe in the pop fairy campaign" is expending now to boise, idaho. we'd like to think they heard about it from us. they are planning to unvail their own poop fairy this spring. the boise folks are reportedly still working on their version. but as long as our coverage, we at least hope may have been helpful in spreading the word here. i feel honor-bound to point out that the poop fairy did not get invented in colorado. it was unvailed in a psa that ran on local tv including msnbc. watch this.