appreciate it. that is shu"the ed show," listen to me on the radio, follow me on twitter @edshow. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. good evening, ed. thank you to you at home for staying with us this hour. university of california at davis, november 18th of last year. university police decided to clear away protesters and occupy-style encampment on campus and when some of the student protesters refused to move, this happened. campus police lieutenant doused a row of seat prod testers with pepper spray fired out of an extinguisher from nearly point-blank range. people did watch it and the pepper spraying cop became a further spark for the occupy movement. with instant iconic status.

the pepper spraying cop became an online mime, started showing up all over the place. people inserting him in historic image, pop culture settings. the day after that happened, the very next day, the day after the pepper spraying, there was an almost equally resonant that happened on campus in response. the chancellor of the school who sent in the police to break-up the occupy protest on campus, gave a press conference about the pepper spray. students who came to listener take part were not allowed in the building. in the midst of confusing reports about public safety concerns and the chancellor may be being intimidated by the presence of the students, what ultimately happened is the students gathered outside and this is the way they protested when the chancellor emerged.

this was an emotional, intense time on the campus. and in that context, in that environment, the silent protest, students lining that walk there, not saying anything to the chancellor. was a resonant and powerful thing. we saw this happen again today in a totally different context. in the state of virginia. watch. this was the silent protest at virginia capitol. it was silent because of the rules for gathering on the capitol grounds. rules for gathering this prohibit assembling without a permit and flags and banners, they don't mandate that you be silent but the organizers looked at what they wanted to accomplish decided to organize this as a silent protest.

they said "these people" state representatives, "they are used to signs, yelling, chanting, et cetera. it is not new, they are not used to silently being stared at and looking us in the eye" that is what the protesters did and it was powerful way to protest. in part because it's not typical it grabs your attention. this was also a way of showing rather than telling one of the complaints that people have particularly that women have, this was a mostly female group of protesters today, one of the complaints, you can show it rather than explain it. about this round of controversy right now in american social conservatism. >> what i want to know is where are the women? >> from the outrage over house republicans convening a hearing on the issue of insurance coverage for contraception, where the table for the first panel of witnesses looked like this. to the overall dynamic of the wave of new restrictions this past year on abortion rights,

the new wave of restriction shuns even on access to contraception, it's politicians making decisions for american women. because american women suddenly this year can no longer be trusted to make these decisions for themselves. so, in this case, in virginia today, this is a political tactic that conveyed the message in two ways. all of these people being willing to show up to make feelings known about virginia's proposed legislation, to mandate forced medically unnecessary vaginal ultrasounds for women seeking an abortion without the woman's permission and over the objection of her doctor, a way to show up and say "i am against this proposed law" but they are also showing up in a way that implicitly makes their case. these protesters are being seen and not being heard. for today at least, this protest worked. the house in virginia was supposed to vote on the state's now famous anti-abortion mandatory trans-vaginal sonogram

bill but the sponsor of the bill had it held for the day. was two bills that the silent demonstrators were protesting today, forcing those state legislators to walk past them while they looked at them. it was the trans-vaginal ultrasound bill not voted on today but hb 1, hb 1, house bill number 1, the first bill filed in the virginia house of delegates after republicans took over all branchs of virginia state government this year. the very first thing republicans did when they got full power in virginia was file hb 1, a bill to ban all abortion and likely ban hormonal birth control, personhood measures, personhood has passed in the virginia house, it has not yet passed in the senate. we learned that pennsylvania republicans are moving ahead on their own version of virginia's ultrasound bill. that bill that earned the protest now starting to get national attention including a mention on "saturday night live" this weekend. like virginia's forced

ultrasound bill, this bill being pushed in pennsylvania not only mandates that women have a medically unnecessary ultrasound, but because of the detail required in the ultrasound, in some of the same language it would likely require in most cases, medically unnecessary internal vaginal probes. forced by the state against your will. in the lehigh valley newspapers, it's noted that in the decade, in the ten years before republicans took control of the house in pennsylvania, over ten years, there were a total of 19 abortion bills voted on in pennsylvania. 19 over ten years. less than two a year before republicans took over the house. after republicans took over the pennsylvania house, there were 34 anti-abortion votes just in one year. this is what it's like in republican politics right now. this is what it's like in pennsylvania republican politics this, is what it's like in virginia republican politics. this is what republican politics are like across the country.

anywhere republicans have power. they moved abortion and even opposition to contraception up to the top of the political agenda. i recognize this is state politics and the national media is generally not that great at covering state level politics. like we can't talk about anything going on until it happens at the federal level, to be honest, this is happening at the federal level, too. >> from the moment they came in to power, republicans in the house of representatives have been waging a war on women's health. if you don't believe me, just look at the first bills they introduced after they arrived here in washington d.c. and were sworn in office. the first three bills they introduced were direct attacks on women's health in america. the very first bill, hr 1, would have totally eliminated title x funding for family planning and teen pregnancy prevention. another one of their opening round of bills more than a year ago would have permanently codified the hyde amendment, the

original version of the bill didn't include an exception forthe health of the mother. finally they introduced a bill that would have rolled back every single one of the gains that we worked so hard to get for women in the health care reform bill. would have removed the caps on out of pocket expenses that text women from losing their homes or life savings if they get sick, it ended the ban on lifetime limits on coverage. it allowed insurance companies to once again discriminate against women by charging them higher premiums. or denying women access for so-called pre existing conditions that by the way include pregnancy. >> senator patty murray putting it in context. suddenly the beltway media is be

will bewilderd by the guy ahead is the guy who staked his career on being super anti-gay and super anti-abortion. the guy whose primary legislative record from his time in the senate is his anti-abortion record. the guy main streaming his long time opposition to contraception. the guy who this weekend argued women should not have pre-natal testing covered by insurance. rick santorum has always been like this. this is not a new fangled version, this is who he has been as a politician. remarkable that a major party would pick a guy like rick santorum to be their nominee. but not remarkable for any of the reasons the beltway pundits think. it's not like they are choosing him for the potential nominee because they don't understand this. because they don't know his social conservative views. not like social issues are a hidden agenda that he has and actually people really like other things about him. this is what rick santorum has to offer as a candidate.

and this is what the republican party is looking for this year. this is what the republican party is like right now. and yeah, mostly been playing out in the states, but house republicans have been doing it too, to the extent it's surprising we have not been watching the republican party close enough as they take this hard, hard right turn on social issues this year. joining us now is senior editor for slate magazine, dahlia, good do see you, thanks for being here. >> hi, rachel, thanks for having me. dplfr >> looking at the protest in the virginia capitol, i wonder if the size of it and speed with which it was organized tells us anything important about the reaction to this virginia bill, this trans-vaginal sonogram bill. >> i was amazed, this appeared to have come together on facebook, largely on facebook, over the course of just a few days, rachel, and watching the footage and hearing you talk the other thing i found poignant

about this is if you think about the purpose of the ultrasound bill and all the ultrasound bills in the states, the whole objective is to force people to see that which they don't want to see. i find it very, very profound that all these folks just stood there in front of their state legislators and said "i'm here, look at me, look at my children, look at my pro-life spouse." tell us that you really are going to violate our bodies and that you can cavalierly do that for no medical reason based on some notion that we don't know what is going on. so it really does sort of flip the premise of the ultrasound itself on its head. what it says is you want to see who is really there, you want to see real people with real consequences? here we are, and i think that is very very poignant. >> dahlia, you i think more than anybody have done more to help non-lawyers understand the legal means by which some of these issues have been approached by

the right. the way that abortion rights have been sort of chipped away at. from the edges. by the anti-abortion movement and conservative movement more broadly. when you look at the approaches to the legislation, trying to state change laws, the approaches they've taken in terms of federal legislation, is there any connection that i just can't see because i'm a liberal? between the way they have approached this issue as a policy matter and the rhetoric about supporting small government? >> you know, there is none. it makes no sense for a party that purports to want to shrink government down to the size that you could drown it in a bathtub to then sort of insert it in your uterus, it makes no cognitive sense but it's important to see where this comes from and you and i talked about this over the years. this is an invitation from just continue anthony kennedy, the swing voter on the court, who in 2006 in the gonzales case, the partial birth abortion case,

moreorless announces to america in a 5-4 decision that women are going to have regrets about their abortions, that they don't really fully appreciate what they're doing and that more information is better, and that the government is entitled to do what it can to make them understand the consequences. and bracket how sexist it is, it opened the flood gates for any law including trap laws, that determined the size of a janitorial closet in an abortion clinic, but opens the door for any kind of legislation by any state that thinks they are helping women understand that which women are cognitively not able to understand. >> do you think that this ultrasound law in virginia, there is a number of ultrasound laws around the state, the virginia is notable for having language that would likely force it to be an internal ultrasound, invasive one, if you want to think about it in those terms. do you see that it would be

challenged on specific legal grounds that might differentiate it from the other ultrasound bills that we've seen or other restrictions we've seen? >> you know, it's a really interesting question and since you and i have been sort of thinking about this in the past week a lot of points pointed -- folks pointed out it's similar to the texas ultrasound law, challenged but not on the grounds of a woman's right to choose or undue burden under the supreme court jurisprudence, it was challenged by doctors, the texas law, who sailed they didn't want to be commandeered in reading a script that wasn't true and terrorizing their parents. it was a choice to challenge on those grounds, it failed and failed at the fifth circuit last month. but that was the decision, the decision was for the physicians to go forward and challenge it. not the women themselves. >> we will see all those doctors line up alongside the walkway to some state capitals. dahlia lithwick, thank you very

much, i appreciate it. >> thank you, rachel. at long last, somebody is sticking up for the rights of a very, very, very tiny minority. the people sticking up for the minority are billionaires, the minority group going stuck up for is billionaires. that story coming up. here is michael moore, please stick around for that.

the self appointed arbiter of truth they call it a day. i rate that statement mostly not really but maybe true. stay tuned for the details.

it has been three weeks since st. louis, missouri hosted the parade to mark the end of the eye iraq war. 100,000 people showed up in st. louis to say welcome home and thank you to the men and women who fought in that nearly nine-year war. since then, since the successful parade organizers say there are 20 other cities working on hosting their own parades to mark the end of the war. almost every case it's regular people, regular citizens, pushing their local government to let them throw a parade to welcome home the veterans. the most recent city to add the name to the list of confirmed parades is richmond, virginia. the virginia parade set for may 19th, a saturday, also armed forces day. richmond's welcome home our military parade has the page. we linked to that. the white house is planning to go mark the end of the iraq war with a gala dinner later this month.

a dinner they have given the name "a nation's gratitude" held in the east room of the white house. attendees hand picked group of veterans of all ranks from allstates representing all branchs. some families will be there, too. in total, 200 people will go to the white house dinner, that is a great honor for those 200 veterans and military families, nothing wrong with that at all. what about the other million-and-a-half americans who served in iraq? what about us average americans, the rest of us civilians who want a chance to say thank you and welcome home. whether or not we agreed with the reasons for fighting it. wishing the iraq war had never happened is one thing, pretending it didn't happen is another thing. iraq and afghanistan veterans of america is the nation's first and largest organization of veterans of the wars before the white house dinner on february 29th, iava is asking the president to convene a meeting of mayors nation-wide, a meeting

of mayors and leading veterans groups to plan a national day of action to recognize iraq war vets now that the war is over. now, as for whether or not there will be a new york city ticker tape pa the way we've done for previous wars except for viet nam where we snubbed the vets because of the unpopularity of the war, we didn't recognize them after ten years after viet nam, will there be a new york city ticker tape parade for iraq veterans? the pentagon still says they don't think there ought to be. the pentagon line they are all for the st. louis parade that was such a success, and they are all for other cities doing parades or whatever they want to welcome home troops but the pentagon says they are against new york doing it. i've talked to them directly and i still don't get it, either. now more cities after st. louis are apparently on deck. richmond, virginia on may 19th. good for them. i hear we're about to have other new parades announced soon.

personally, i have to say i think the new york question still is not settled. we will keep you posted. this thing is still in motion. ♪ dave, i've downloaded a virus. yeah. ♪ dave, where are we on the new laptop? it's so slow! i'm calling dave. [ telephone rings ] [ sighs ] i need a new i.t. guy. [ male announcer ] in a small business, technology is all you. staples easy tech experts are here to help. you must be... ...dave. [ male announcer ] with everything from new computers, to set-ups, to tune-ups. stapes. that was easy.

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in the great state of maine this weekend they voted some more! republicans in four places in maine met and caucus and tried to settle whether maine republicans meant to give most of the 24 delegates to the establishment candidate, mitt romney or congressman ron paul. maine republicans tried to

settle this at a state-wide caucus two weeks ago when the party chairman declared that night, mitt romney the winner. he said mitt romney had won over ron paul by 194 votes. at the time this seemed like great news for mitt romney. he was coming off losses in missouri, minnesota and colorado. but then, the maine republican chairman announced romney won in maine, right? turn around. he announced romney had won, even though an entire county and several towns had not yet voted. and a dozen towns that had voted nevertheless got recorded in the official republican tally as having zero votes. and other towns results had landed unnoticed in the chairman's e-mail in box. he asked the towns to e-mail him the results and some end up in junk mail. when confronted, he told people to go stick their heads in an ice fishing hole. then the chairman said he recorded the results from the county that voted that showed up with the zeros, he counted those

votes, he had them but wasn't going to tell anybody what the results were. to avoid stirring up more drama, he said. the maine republican chairman said he would not count the votes in washington county. where there are 7000 registered republicans, and where they postponed the caucus because of a forecast for snow. washington county could still caucus, the chairman said but the results wouldn't count. in the end, the chairman caved on that, and now, he says washington county might count. turn out was heavy in washington county this weekend, nearly three times what they have seen in recent year, no where near the crowds that had been predicted, and then as, he told us last week on the show that he would do the county chairman told the world what happened there. >> we had four votes for newt gingrich, we had 57 votes for rick santorum, we had 80 votes for mitt romney and 163 votes for ron paul.

>> ron paul skunked mitt romney in washington county, maine. he doubled him up. ron paul also won the caucuses held in three small towns in other maine counties this weekend. but ron paul did not win in those places by enough overall to overtake mitt romney state-wide lead. if you have been following this, what started in maine as mitt romney winning by 194 votes was then revised to mitt romney winning by 239 votes. now after washington county we expect that mitt romney will have won by 156 votes. but maybe it's 117 votes if you count like the bangor news counted. who could possibly know? the next time maine republicans tell you they should be trusted to fix voting problems of some stripe in the state of maine, remember, this is how the state party runs their own elections when left to their own devices. we have michael moore for the interview coming up.

today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online.

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until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are, and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does so you can get a deeper understanding of what's going on with your portfolio. we know all this because we asked you, and what we heard helped us create pnc wealth insight, a smarter way to work with your pnc advisor, so you can make better decisions and live achievement. little history i was born and raised here i love the state. trees are the right height, i like seeing the lakes.

i love the lakes. something very special here. the great lakes but also all the little inland lakes that dot the parts of michigan. i love cars. i grew up in love with cars. >> when mitt romney went to donald trump's hotel in las vegas to bask in an endorsement, hard to believe i was february 2nd. it was the beginning of a month of february that has not been kind to mr. romney. this is the graph we showed last week i still think is the most important thing in the horse race. the navy blue line is mitt romney's unfavorability rating. then there is michigan. the primary a week from tomorrow being cast as a do-or-die moment for the romney campaign. mitt romney grew up in michigan. his dad was a popular governor there. mr. romney the younger won the primary in the '08 election, campaigning there intensely this year. if he can't win in michigan it will be a shock to the system.

the most recent polling in michigan shows mr. romney behind rick santorum. closer than he was but still trailing. hence, michigan mitt romney ads featuring mitt romney with his dad, also ads showing mitt romney driving a car, he has been doing that as well. do we have the car ad, too? he's driving a car, notable thing about the one he's driving the car it's him driving a car made in canada. but still you get the idea. he meant it to look american. what can mitt romney do in michigan to turn around his fortunes on his campaign? we got word the next campaign move for mr. romney in michigan was going to be to bring back donald trump, mr. trump doing radio interviews on behalf of mr. romney in flint and traverse s s city. it made me wonder what the romney campaign expects from that. how the donal trump endorsement has worked so far for the romney

campaign and prospects. turns out, there is an app for that. this is the realclearpolitics.com versus obama versus romney head-to-head race starts in october. president on top, mr. romney the red line, the point at which things start to go badly for mr. romney, that date, february 3rd. february 3rd, why is that date -- what was going on for mitt romney february 3rd? oh, right, that was the day after the donald trump endorsement. it may just be a coincidence, but that eastbound doorsment does coincide exactly with mitt romney's poll numbers being thrown down the dark well with no rope. the romney campaign nevertheless doubling down on giving michiganers all the donald they can handle and more. joining us is film maker,

and michiganer michael moore. >> happy president's day. >> do you love trees and cars and lanes of all sizes? >> he does have that right. the trees in michigan are just the right height. in wisconsin, they go way you can't even see the top, in ohio just a bunch of shrubery. >> that is not a michigan joke. >> it's not a joke at all. and he likes the great lakes but all the little lakes. the poor guy, i start to feel sorry for him on some level, not too much. but you know, when i was in grade school, his dad was the governor of michigan. all through grade school, all growing up, george romney. and romney, george romney was the man who supported the civil rights movement, when he was the ceo of american motors, he took a pay cut he thought ceo's shouldn't be paid this much. he came back from viet nam after

a tour there to see what was going on, came back and said we're not being told the truth. that cost him, he had to drop out of the presidential race. >> he initially had been positive on the war and said i was brainwashed parroting what the generals told me we ought to leave. >> that ended his chances yet had america listened to him when he said that, think of all the lives that possibly could have been saved after '67 that was his dad. his mom, lenore was our senator for a short period of time and the chief backers for equal rights amendment for women. those of us 45 and older remember the romneys, even if you're not a republican you remember them somewhat fondly. and this apple has fallen far from the tree. it's mind-boggling to see who he has become or whoever he thinks he is. >> is the romney name so sort of

gold-pa la gold-plated he should be earning it? >> even if you weren't alive then, the name carried on. it was the lieutenant governor under romney, governor mill kin was a liberal republican, pro-choice, republicans in michigan have been fairly liberal until the recent era. now there is two michigans. this is something people need to understand, not just the upper and lower peninsula. there is the michigan that is -- has the long history of populism, union movement, sit down strike 75 years ago this month, uaw the first contract, so there is a lot of -- that is the majority of michigan. there is this other part of michigan, especially on the west side and a lot in the northern part of the state, where i live up in this red part of the state, that always seems very

upset what the rest -- what the majority of us are doing. they don't like the liberal senator, it's too liberal, they hate detroit and flint, moved out of there to get as far away sometimes as they can from these areas they don't particularly care for. i think this is why santorum is probably doing so well with them, because it's a very -- i mean just to give you squi schizophrenic nature of the state, the union movement began this, the state of the right wing anti-semitic radio preacher before world war ii, the school district next to mine is where terry nichols went to school, was the participated in the oklahoma city bombing. tim tebow, the goalie, we went

to the same high school. >> that high school produced me and him. that is michigan. >> you're saying rather than thinking of michigan as a state that is any one thing if you can have a conservative state that gives you a specific kind of conservative politics, if you have a state that has a lot of liberal populism you end up with a combative form of conservatism on the republican side? >> yes, it swings way to the right. because it's trying to fight -- >> they are afraid. >> trying to fight the nucleus of thinking. so santorum probably will do very well with them and it is surprising, i think a year ago nobody would think this was even a contest, why bother, it's romney, michigan equals romney. and i don't think that is the case. i don't think it's because of the auto bail out thing, the polls have shown republicans

actually in michigan are opposed to the bail out to some fairly large extent. they hate anything to do with unions, auto workers, african americans, racial element to this, detroit, then there is the rest of us. and i think that romney i think the people just -- this is -- here what is i want to say. president obama i mean i have been laughing alot during this whole republican thing, and thinking why are we even having an election, obama has another four years. i think that is a mistake to feel that way. because i remember us laughing at george w. bush when he mispronounced things or said things wrong, santorum was saying this weekend theology, i didn't mean theology, he said black -- i didn't say black

people, i said black. but it's always code with them. but yet he does mean to get that in there to say those things, islamic policies, if he said obama was a serial killer they would come back later and say i didn't say that, i meant he likes cereal. so i think this is going to be very interesting next week m michigan, and the trees, the trees will be happy i think with the eventual outcome until november. >> if michigan is swayed by donald trump, i will be surprised. >> that is the weirdest thing sending trump to michigan. a state had 15% unemployment, here comes donald trump. >> you're fired. >> gold cuff links. >> michael moore, thank you very much, will you come back talk to us again? >> yes, i will. >> thank you.

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the latest on one great american state's fight not to be completely own the by billionaires is coming up next.

in the 1890's after montana became a state there was a debate where their capital should be. there are two city, helena and naconda, they each had a copper kings of montana in order to win

the vote and benefit their own companies and their own fortunes, they did stuff like sponsor parades and speeches and fireworks. distributed free cigars and drinks and $5in peoples millions were spent in e 1890s, the city of helena won. decades after the people decided to pass something called the corrupt practices act to keep that sort of influence out of their state politics. because of the history of the copper kings, montana has long thought about things differently than the rest of the states and they still do. the supreme court thumbed their noses at the u.s. supreme court by up holding the state's ban on corporate money in state politics. regardless of the citizens united ruling. this past friday the u.s. supreme court stopped montana from enforcing the limits they want to put on corporate donations in politics at the state level. until the supreme court can decide on the montana case. we don't know if the supreme

court will hear the case or when it will decide whether to hear it but until then, post citizens united and pre whatever they will decide about montana we are all still living in a billionaire's world. today is the day we got the bit of disclosure we greet from the super pacs that have overtaken our elections. why you might think as a human before writing a $5 check or $15 or $15 check to a candidate, these guys funding the pacs run $500,000 checks. for their given candidates because who knows. the only thing we know for sure they have that kind of change sitting in their checking accounts. money being given in chunks that big means individual decisions by individual named billionaires can make all the difference in the world to a presidential campaign. the whole reason we still think of newt gingrich campaign as alive is because of the news one guy, his casino billionaire guy, is reportedly thinking about pumping another $10 million in

the gingrich side over the next few days. mr. gingrich doesn't need other humans to donate to him, one guy's decision can keep the presidential campaign at least vaguely viable. same thing with rick santorum, his billionaire started doing the media rounds last week talk how women need to keep an aspirin between their knees to avoid getting pregnant, he tried to deflect the fall-out by saying i can't believe held accountable for what my supporters say. that is broadly true. you can't hold a politician for everything said by a supporter. foster friess is the person who makes rick santorum possible. he is rick santorum's sole major don donor, his billionaire. ron paul has a billionaire, a libertarian-minded, the founder of paypal donated nearly $2 million to congressman paul. then there is mitt romney.

naturally, he has a lot of billionaires. given who he is, he doesn't need one. but glenn greenwald has been writing about an idaho's billionaire who is the financial co-chair. looks like an act of bravery for glenn and salon.com to publish anything about the gentleman. frank vander sloot, lives in idaho, in addition to being the finance co-chair for the presidential campaign runs a company which sells all sort of household products. he has involved himself in a number of political causes in idaho over the years, in what would seem to be a very high profile kind of way, but he has taken a very aggressive stance toward anybody reporting on his political involvements. for example in 1999, idaho public television planned to air a documentary how elementary school kids were being taught in school about issues of sexual orientation. mr. vander sloot led the opposition to the documentary

being aired by paying for bill barreds to be put up railing against the documentary and warning lifestyle. in 2005, a local newspaper called the "post register" ran an award-winning series about how the boy scouts organization tried to cover up abuse. the salon.com revealed how a mormon bishop knew of one scout leader's pedophile history yet recommended him as a scout master. mr. van der sloot responded to is that series in that local idaho paper by taking out this full-page ad in the same paper, attacking the credibility of the reporter, and outing the reporter who broke the story, outing him as a, quote, homosexual. that reporter, peter zuckerman, had not come out to his friends and neighbors in idaho, yet, and according to his editor, after those full-page ads started

running, strangers started ringing his bell at midnight and his partner of five years was fired from his job. his rise to prominence has led other people to report on his political activity and raise questions about whether or not his politics, particularly on gay rights issues, are shared by the candidates that he supports. a number of reporters who have raised those questions have very quickly found themselves to be targets of mr. van der sloot's lawyers. in february, a blogger with the website called "the idaho agenda" wrote a piece titled, "romney receives big money from idaho's not-so-gay-friendly melaleuca company". after publishing that piece, that blogger accused an accusetory letter. and then he received a follow-up e-mail demanding compliance. when the blogger e-mailed back to say he was working on a response, the lawyer responded, we really need to address this

issue today or else we will have to consider escalating this issue to a much more serious level. similarly, back in 2007, an independent journalist in idaho authored a piece on mr. van der sloot's support for idaho's current republican senator, james rich. she talked about mr. van der sloot's involvement in that gay documentary that was to be aired on idaho public television. for that dip into true history, she, too, said she received a warning letter from mr. van der sloot's lawyers accusing her of defamation. she also included the official photograph of van der sloot taken from the melale kuca's website. and then she received a letter accusing her of copy right infringement for using the fright. after another website writing about mr. vandersloot, melaleuca responded by obtaining an

after-the-fact copyright certificate for the lawyer's letter, then demanded that the hosting company remove the letter from the website on that website. then they sued for having published the now copyrighted lawyer's letter without their concept. this is the national finance cochair for the mitt romney for president campaign. and this is what we know about his activism, his political views, and his apparent strategy for dealing with people who report on him. but he also serves as a good general reminder, billionaires have always had a ton of weight to throw around in this country, going back to the days of the copper kings of montana, right? and they have always used that weight for all sorts of reasons. including, trying to shape what we are able to know about how exactly they throw their weight around. but now in this post-citizens united world we are living in, these billionaires, who frankly have never been wanting for influence in the country in the first place, now in this post-citizens unite world, they are the one we've decided to also hand our elections over to. because they needed that too. tada. [ male announcer ] that. right there -- reminds you

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hey, good news! politifact is quitting. at least, i think politifact is quitting. okay, whether or not they're up and going out of business, politifact is at least letting us know, i think, that they are giving up. that they are at least no longer trying. here's what's going on. my colleague, lawrence o'donnell, has an ad running about the gi bill. the gi bill, of course, provided tuition and other benefits to soldiers returning home from world war ii. lawrence describes the success of that program and then says its critics derided it as welfare. >> it's the most successful educational program that we've ever had in this country and the critics called it welfare. >> now, the group politifact decided to fact check that statement from lawrence. the statement that critics of the gi bill called it welfare. politifact looked at that record and they found that the chairman of the veterans affairs committee in the house at the time criticized the gi bill by

saying, "the bayne of the british empire has been the dole system." what's the dole system, what's the dole? the dole is welfare. that's what british people call welfare. it's an english language, slang term everywhere for welfare. so case closed, right? lawrence's ad says that critics of the gi bill called it welfare. politifact finds that they did call it welfare. politifact fact checks historical claim "a," finds it to be true, and therefore rates the claim mostly false! they found it to be true, but they rate it mostly false. they print the evidence that it's true, "the bain of the british empire has been the dole system," and right under that they say, "we found no evidence of critics referring to the gi bill as welfare." dudes, you just published the evidence of critics referring to the gi bill as welfare! it is right there, on the same

page. you wrote it, in your same article. what do you think the british dole system is? do you think it's a pineapple program of some kind? maybe something having to do with bananas? everybody gets a little sticker? did you seriously print this piece without once googling "the dole" to see what that meant? "british the dole." you don't even have to use quotes. did you check to see if maybe it meant welfare, which is what you were supposedly fact checking. in space, no one can hear you scream. this is why flit fakt has to go away, or at least they need to stop using the word "fact" as their name. everybody should do fact checking. politifact should go away. i have not talked to lawrence o'donnell about this, i have not talked to anybody on lawrence's staff about this, i have not talked to anybody else in the building about this. but as a nation that cares about the word "fact" and ought to demand it back from these people abusing it, i thinks there a silver lining here. i think politifact is giving up. this is so bad,