new customers, or, a new location for my next restaurant. when we all come together, my restaurants, my partners, and the community amazing things happen. to me, that's the membership effect. >> jeb bush says he would, says he would consider being vice president. he said he would consider it and then he told bloomberg news i will not consider it. put it to rest. mitch daniels said everyone should consider the vice presidency. so maybe that means he wants it? he said just because everyone should consider it doesn't mean he wants it. mario rubio gave a speech that seemed like a vice president audition and in the middle of the speech he lost the last page of it. was that on purpose to try to

make him seem vice presidential-like? that's the kind of thing that people ask in the inane but fun game of vice presidential speculation that we get to play every four years. rob portman got all but appointed vice president by the common wisdom beltway bible, politico.com this week. who is rob portman? exactly. that's supposed to be good this year, they say. who knows. the vice presidential guessing game is fun in the way that car bingo is fun. oh, barn. amc eagle wagon. semi weighing station, bing go. vice presidential guessing is like car bingo. it passes the time, it's pointless, it's fun. it's more about the process than the outcome in that the speculative handicapping in the choices for vice president seems to have no affect on who the campaigns pick. honestly, nobody knows who the campaign will pick more mitt romney until the pick is made. and more importantly, perhaps,

the vice presidential pick usually means nothing to the campaign, other than the first initial blip once the announcement is made never has a fact on the presidential horse race except very occasionally in a negative way, john mccain. this is all unavoidable in election years. it's fun. i think it does have one useful and substantive purpose, which we are experiencing right now. watching people jockey to try to get picked as vice president turns out it can be a really clear window into something that's otherwise hard to figure out which is what are the limits test. what are the bright lines on policy within a party? what policies are acceptable or desirable to a particular political party? what's a policy position that you're not allowed to have if you want to rise in stature in your own party in way that being picked as vice president would

mean? we're good in this country at covering the horse race. the who's ahead side of politics. we are less good in this country of covering why people are supposed to be in politics in the first place, which is to make policy. but watching the republican merry-go-round of ambitious wannabe vice presidents pretending they don't want to be president, watching that turns out is showing us where the republican party is internally on policy that they don't otherwise like to talk about in clear terms. any big public appearance that a president does during an election year feels like a campaign event, right? but the obama cam pain announced this week that the first official obama campaign re-election event, an event that is not just the president being the president but the president overtly cam paining, the first re-election campaign events will be held next week at universities in ohio, naturally,

the swing state of all swing states, and also virginia. virginia a very, very important swing state this year. supposedly one of the top assets that any vice presidential prospect will bring to the ticket is the promise they will win their home state. it's kind of dubious but supposedly that's the promise. in the case of virginia's governor, republican governor bob mcdonald, that dubious thumb does not seem to apply to him at all. the recent polling out on the subject was a quinnipiac university poll last month. it showed that head-to-head in virginia, president obama meets bit mom mitt romney by eight points. if you add virginia governor mcdodge to the romney side of

the ticket, then obama still beats romney by seven points instead of eight putting governor mcdonnell on the ticket does give mitt romney a one-point boost in virginia. obviously that's not enough. that said i'm sure the romney campaign expects the numbers to tighten and maybe a one-point bump from governor ultrasound might be good enough. even though he's not allowed to run for governor and he's not declared any other office, he started running, i'm bob mcdonald, vote for me tv ads. vote for you for what, big guy? he clearly wants to be picked for vice president. and nestled within the obviousness of bob mcdonnell's desperation of what the republican party is doing. what they are acting like in policy making terms, it's impossible to figure that out. republicans have introduced more

restrictions on abortion rights than at any time since roe versus wade. this year another 75 anti-abortion bills have passed. democrats are taking note of this trend. democrats are taking note of the anti-abortion, anti-women's health climate in the republican party of 2012. in the broad view of what the republican party is making in policy terms, it is impossible to figure out. more restrictions on abortion rights than at any time verse roe versus wade. last year was a record for new anti-abortion laws enacted in the states and already this year another 75 anti-abortion bills have passed one legislative chamber. democrats are taking note of this trend. democrats are taking note of the anti-abortion, anti-women's climate in the republican party of 2012.

they see it in this election year as a real political weakness. want me to prove it? here is president obama speaking today at a white house forum on women's issues. >> this contraception fight, in particular, was illuminating. it was like being in a time machine. republicans in congress are going so far to say that an employer should be able to have a say in the health care decision of its female employees. i'm always puzzled by this. this is a party that says it prides itself on being rapidly anti-regulation. these are folks who claim to believe in freedom from government interference and meddling. but it doesn't seem to bother them when it comes to women's health. now we have governors and legislate sores across the river in virginia, up the road in pennsylvania, all across the country saying women can't be trusted to make your own decisions. they are pushing and passing bills forcing women to get ultrasound, even if they don't

want one. if you don't like it, the governor of pennsylvania said you can close your eyes. look at some of the debates we've already had this year. instead of putting serious plans to help more americans back to work, a lot of those folks in the other party have chosen to fight battles we settled long ago. >> president obama speaking today at a white house forum on women's issues. as republicans are becoming way more radical on this issue than they have ever tried to be before in modern times, watching bob mcdonnell, the guy who president obama described as the governor across the river, watching bob mcdonnell try to get the vice presidential nod has given us the best shot yet we've had of figuring out the republican politics on this issue. after 15 years in which he sponsored or co-sponsored 35 anti-abortion bills, "the

washington post" reported this week that bob mcdonnell's spokesman was insisting that the paper's described the governor's view on abortion differently than they had before. he now wants it to be known that bob mcdonnell is super anti-abortion, but victims of rape and incest, he'll give them a break. this is new. throughout his career in running for governor in 2009, it was clear. bob income donnell was so anti-abortion that if you became pregnant by being rapped or were the victim of incest, throughout bob mcdonnell's career, even if that's how you became pregnant, he would insist that the government force you to bare the child as a result of that pregnancy. now he can smell the east wing of the white house. his spokesman told "the

washington post" under his leadership rap desk e victims and incest victims will be getting an exemption. interesting, right? it seems reveals an important truth that having the government force rape victims and incest victims to do something with their body counted as too far for the republican party, at least at the national level. that's what we thought we learned at the beginning of this week. thank you bob mcdonnell for making it clear where the line is. he's now moved the line. going after rape and incest victims we thought was too far for the republican party this year. turns out it's not too far. governor mcdonnell after that

piece was posted went on to the radio and said, no, his spokesedness man was mistaken. if you're raped by your father or by your uncle, bob mcdonnell does want the government to force you to bare the child that is the result of that rape. his whole giving rape and incest victims a break thing, that was totally a misunderstanding. he's not giving them break. >> i've said this for 20 years. as a pro-life catholic, my personal moral view is that abortion is wrong. that it should not be permitted, except in cases with the life of the mother is in jeopardy. >> period. he won't force you to give birth if doing so will kill you but other than that rape victims shut up. he's in charge. bob mcconnell is kind of a window into the broader republican party on this issue, it is not just him. in south carolina republicans

are trying to pass a rule that would ban state health insurance from covering abortions specifically for women who are the victims of rape and incest, singling them out. if you're the victim of rape or incest in south carolina you could get an abortion. the republicans in the legislature there want to repeal that rape and incest exemption. that rule was approved by a senate subcommittee this week, so it is officially part of the budget debate in south carolina. in florida, republican governor rick scott line item vetoed 1.5 million dollars set to fund rape crisis centers. the governor spokesperson saying the reason he vetoed the rape crisis center funding because the funding governor scott's office claims, quote, dupe duplicative and nobody was able the make it clear why they needed the funding.

it should be noted that the director of the council, the group that was to distribute the money around the state says she gave the governor's office information about the number of new survivors they are dealing with and showed them that the rape crisis centers now have waiting lists. it's kind of hard to imagine rap crisis center waiting list. we'll get back to you. that apparently was not proof enough for rick scott that rape crisis centers needed any funding. in iowa, they passed a measure to repeal the provision that allow medicaid funds to be used. by women who are rape or incest victi victims. it was a tie vote. a tie vote to block poor women who are the victims of rape or incest, singling them out from having access to abortion. it's a targeted bill to go after rape victims and incest vick the victims to make sure they don't get something they might otherwise get. this is what's going on in republican politics right now around women's rights and abortion rights and the proper

role of government. not to put too fine a point on it, but you have to ask is there a problem the republicans are trying to address? have rape victims just been coddled too much? have rape victims had it too easy in america? have they not had enough of other people doing things to their bodies that they don't want them to do? is that a pressing problem that is calling for republican legislative intervention? they're cracking down. they're not cracking down on rape and incest. they are cracking down on the victims of rape and incest. if you think that the victims of rape and incest have been getting away with way too much in this country and it's time to put a stop to it, then have i got a vice presidential candidate for you. joining me is sharnell, it's good to have you with us. it's nice to meet you. >> thank you for having me.

>> your governor made a double reversal on the issue of rape victims and incest victims and abortion. what have you understood his position to be and has it arisen in virginia state politics? >> i've always understood his position to be, the only exception would be life of the mother. then i hear there's an exception for rape and incest. now i'm wearing something back to where he originally was. it's actually causing my neck to get whiplash because we're going back and forth so much. it's a little shocking. rachel, yes, it has been an issue. the governor amended mandatory ultrasound bill in virginia. he had an opportunity to let his views be known. he did not build an exception into that bill. that was actually a democratic legislature who put an amendment onto the bill to give an exception for rap desk e victims. he has been consistent on that that he only believes in life of the mother. it's a little disheartening to see him flip and say rape and incest because it leaves

virginians note knowing where he stands. >> in terms of how his, i would say apparent vice presidential ambitions are affecting virginia state politics, do you think that the governor has been either describing his positions or legislating and governoring in a way that reflects national ambitions, or has he been doing the same thing all along? >> right now it's that he has national ambitions. he campaigned on jobs in the economy then supports extreme social agenda and legislation when we are in session in the legislature. right now he spent several hundreds of dollars for tv commercials and then stomping around for mitt romney and other extreme republicans on their elections and on their campaigning. it's a difference message is being spent. i know that he's trying to make up for all the bad publicity that he's gotten for the mandatory ultrasound bill. he's trying to cover it. it's unfortunate for virginia

because he needs to be here talking about jobs in the economy and actually working with us and working with small businesses. >> as a person who has been covering virginia, i think we have been covering virginia more intently than other national outlets, mostly because the attorney general and governor mcdonnell were elected and came to power at the same time with such interesting very far right backgrounds. one of the things that's been interesting covering it, i'm curious to your perspective as somebody in the legislature, but governor mcdonnell always talks about how his priority is jobs, jobs, jobs. he only wants to talk about jobs and the economy. that's all he answers. he turns his answers around, but it seems like inside the legislature there's a ton of social issues in the legislation that's being moved. he moved 35 anti-abortion bills

himself as a legislator. what do you see as the distance between the articulation that jobs, jobs, jobs is the agenda and what your real agenda is living as a delegate? >> exactly. they articulate jobs, jobs, jobs don't want to debate on social issues we know they will take votes on and, in fact, introduce bills on. so what happens as a legislator, and they still don't have their polls on middle america. when they file those extreme bills, what happens is my office spends an enormous amount of time responding to team that are calling frightened to death about what they're seeing and what they're hearing. and that's very true and it's very honest. it's very interesting that they always want to minimize these social issues. we're talking about constitutional rights, voting, access to reproductive health care, very fundamental things to americans and they seem not to get that this is something serious and that people will take it serious, and they can't just turn it off and say i want to talk about jobs. we got to hold them accountable. >> virginia house delegate,

charnelle herring, ma'am, thank you so much for joining us. i hope you'll come back sometime. >> thank you very much, rachel. this very day, not very long ago today, a few hours ago, we at the rachel maddow show got a note from rick santorum. it's not a form letter. it's not a fund-raising letter. it was addressed to me. it just shows you that you never know who is watching. stick around. renerist microsculm also unscented. women love it. in original and also fragrance-free. hey, dad, you think i could drive? i'll tell you what -- when we stop to fill it up. ♪ ♪

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and a half weeks ago. before mr. santorum suspended his campaign, this is one of the things he said on the campaign trail. >> i was just reading something last night from the state of california, and the the california universities, i think it is seven or eight of the california system of universities, don't even teach an american history course. it's not even available to be taught. >> the california university system, uc system, does not teach american history. american history is not taught and cannot be learned in the university of california system. why? why would you think that was true? why would it be? it doesn't even make sense. why, could you elaborate? >> it's not even available to be taught. just to tell you how bad it's gotten in this country where we're trying to disconnect the american people from the roots of who we are.

>> a couple of days after he said that american history classes do not exist in the university of california system, something almost as incredible as that statement happened right here in this room. a republican, a real life republican, agreed to come on this show. he was john brabender. a senior strategist for the rick santorum campaign. republicans of nis substantial potential in american politics never agree to come on this show. we ask and we ask and we beg. sometimes i ask on tv thinking it will increase the leverage but the answer is always i'd love you to but i can't. pencil me in a quarter after never. no. but john brabender appeared a couple of times and we had a nice civil discussion. i'm glad he was here for agreeing to speak with me. he deserves credit for being here. john rabender also deserves credit for saying that if rick

santorum had been wrong about the no american history in the university of california thing then mr. santorum who you would sewerly admit fault. >> i would guess if that somebody he felt was credible gave him information that he thought was credible and he felt he misspoke, i think he would be the first person to say i was wrong, and i'm going to tell you. that's the type of person he is. >> i will follow-up with you on that. these are easy ones. >> they were easy ones, i was not lying. a cursory search revealed that uc davis alone debunks rick santorum. there's lots of american history classes being taught at the uc davis campuses. a further search showed that not just uc davis but all of the other campuses also teach american history. we did follow up with mr. santorum. today, just a few hours ago, he responded. he sent us a note. here's the whole thing. quote, rachel, on a recent show you discussed a statement that i made that american history was not being taught at a number of california state universities. it is actually the university of

california system, but you know what i mean. you questioned the accuracy of my statement. based upon your broadcast i went back and reviewed the facts. it's clear my memory about what was at all times was faulty. what i should have said is that none of the uc campuses teach a survey course in western civilization. rachel, i appreciate your efforts pointing out my misstatement and giving me the opportunity to set the record straight. signed rick santorum. senator, if you want to talk about this in person, you're so welcome here any time you want. my chair is your chair. any time. the letter was polite and straightforward. it was very kind of senator santorum to respond. i have to say, sadly, he's still wrong. mr. santorum said from his note what i should have said is none of the uc campuses teach a survey course in western civilization. to the google. this spring at the university of california santa barbara you can take western civilization 1050, 217.

and western civil zags 215 at the present. at the university of los angeles you can take introduction to western civil zagsization, 815 to the present. at the university of california davis you can take three courses on the history of western civilization from the renaissance to the 18th century and the 18th century to the present. at uc berkeley, you will find a course in the roots of western civilization. then down south at uc san diego where my brother went you may, if you choose, partake in a course titled foundations of western civilization. it took mr. santorum a couple weeks to write that letter claiming what i meant was that the uc schools don't teach survey courses in western civ.

it took us 15 minutes to find all those courses on western civ. you can tell from the tape where rick santorum is saying the thing about uc is he is really tired and the campaign trail is exhausting. i have empathy for the exhaustion factor and the too much going on factor affecting what people say on the campaign trail. so getting things wrong can be embarassing, trust me, i get things wrong. it doesn't make you bad person. you just have to correct it. you got to correct it. if at first your correction goes horribly wrong then correct, correct, correct again. you just keep doing it until what you say seems true because we will fact check you. .anduppo? schools flourish and students blossom. that's why programs like... ...the mickelson exxonmobil teachers academy... ...and astronaut sally ride's science academy are helping our educators improve student success in math and science. let's shoot for the stars. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students.

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there's a caucus for almost everything in the united states congress. caucuses are the small groups of legislatures that meet together because they share some commonly vaguely interest. one of the best known caucuses is the congressional black african-americans in the house and senate. there's also a congressional bike caucus chaired by earl blo bloom bloomin. there's a congressional bourbon caucus by members of congress from kentucky. i'd prefer a rye caucus. there's all sorts of caucuses for all sorts of causes. this week we got word that a brand new caucus is forming in the republican controlled house of representatives. it's a republican only women's caucus called the women's policy committee. this is not just a caucus for the ladies, it is a caucus

specifically for the republican ladies. of course, this doesn't arise right now as a coincidence. the republican caucus has a real problem among women voters scaling heavily toward democr s democrats. there's a yawning gap. republicans appear to be trying to burnish their cred among the women folk. last night we mentioned that the 5-year-old republican young guns caucus formed by eric cantor, paul ryan and kevin mccarthy have just unveiled a new young guns program just for women. it's called yg woman up. woman up. they are proposing a slate of female republican candidates along their much larger slate of male republican candidates. so young guns is proposing a gender equality in congress that's slightly worse than the

gender imbalance is now. but still, they're doing it in pink. as the republicaning struggle to come up with ways to be more appealing to female voters, congressional republicans are pushing back as loudly as they can, angrily on the idea that they need be doing any of this. they are trying to get away from the idea that they have a problem with women that they have to be trying to make go away. they don't understand why everybody keeps saying they have this women problem. it's just made up. >> my friends, this supposed war on women or the use of similarly outlandish rhetoric bipartisan operatives has two purposes and both are political in their purpose and effect. the first, purely political. the first is to distract citizens from real issues that really matter and the second is to give talking heads something to sputter about when they appear on cable television.

i don't believe the ludicrous pardoning posturing that's conjured up this imaginary war. >> there's no war on women. it's imaginary. totally made up. there's no shred of evidence to support it. today house republicans decided to hold their big vote on student loans. did you see this? they caved into the president's pressure this week. they did a u-turn on their previous position, they agreed to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling this summer. house republicans passed their bill today and the only real drama here was how are they going to pay for it. what are they going to find in the budget to pay for the student loan rate extension? they decided to pay for it by repealing something called the prevention and public health fund. what does that prevention and health fund do? it provides for hundreds of thousands of screenings for breast cancer and cervical cancer. really you guys? right when john mccain is giving his whole -- you could have picked any government program to

cut from, any one at all, with any symbolic red dense whatsoever, and you picked specifically the one that caters to women's health? you picked the one that pays for breast cancer and cervical cancer screenings? seriously? >> this is the latest plank in the so-called war on women. entirely created by my colleagues across the aisle for political gain. >> aww, aww. congressional republicans, this is not a style issue. the whole war on women thing did not emerge from some democratic attack machine focus group. it's not a baseless but a literal political attack. this came from observation of what you have been doing. this is about policy. it's about gutting women's preventive health care in order to pay for something you didn't

want to pay for. it's about threatening to shut . which you did. it's about campaigning on jobs, jobs, jobs and to roll back women's reproductive rates in a general ration. last night the united states senate passed the violence against women's act. the violence against women act. voting against that bill were 31 senate republicans. 31 senate republican men voted against the violence against women act. among them proudly standing against the violence against women act was potential republican vice presidential nominee marco rubio. i don't know if there's a divide here in terms the way the democrats and republicans think about this. when republicans turn away from policy, they turn toward messaging. when democrats get mired in policy, they go from policy into messaging. they try to turn whatever their

policy concern is into a message. it's like looking through both sides of a telescope. in this case the republicans are convinced that they are doing everything perfect about women. what they don't understand is the democratic and the female critique of them on this issue comes not from something that they are pronouncing wrong or some wrong collar they are waging or whether or not they say nice things about their wives. it comes from an observation of what they are doing in policy. joining us now is steve carnacky. thank you very much for joining us. >> you're welcome. >> let's explain this one. congressional republicans are accused of waging war on women. they are very angry about this accusation, so let get rid of breast cancer and cervical cancer screenings. i don't think that republicans are dumb. i think we have different cognitive abilities as liberals and conservatives. how do you defend yourself pounding yourself on the table

and wishing that decision to go away? >> i think not to oversimplify it but the big rally is they didn't read the bill. read the bill. i don't think the republicans actually read the bill. the give-away on this has been that the republicans took an issue of health care reform where they proposed what obama ended up coming with. they originally proposed it and turned on it and called it socialism. the details were never really going to make sense. one of the talking pints to emerge from their fight against health care reform was this preventive care money amounted to a slush fund. it just became something that was repeated, talk radio repeated it, blogs repeated it. there's a slush fund in there. we've got to get the money away from her. this looked like a good opportunity for boehner to say i've got to get the conservatives to go along with kind of giving in a bit on an obama goal. extending the student loans. i've got to sell this to the conservatives. what better way to sell it to

conservatives than to say we will stick it to obama on his slush fund. i think that's where this came from. i don't think anybody looked at what this exactly means and everything you just explained. i don't know they looked at that until right now. >> it's one of those situations where if you listen to only fox news and right wing talk radio you thought this was totally noncontroversial she decision from the conservative perspective. if you're willing to break out of that bubble you would have seen the political peril here. what republicans are warning these guys of these pitfalls that may lie ahead? a lot of liberals watch fox news in order to find out what the truth is on the other side so they can be forewarned. a number of democratic elected officials told me they do that usually by way of apologizing that they have not been watching me. but is there anybody who is being sort of farsighted about this if only for their own political benefit? >> it's tough. when you have voices that do this occasionally that are immediately oster sized.

they are treated as sellouts for going over to the democratic side and selling out the movement. you have stories like lisa murkowski who was going along with there is no war on women and she went home to alaska and talked to her constituents and heard from women. she came back sounding a very different tune. the more that happens, the more it's possible they start to get this message. the other part is sometimes it just sort of takes them wandering into the traps through their own obliviousness and it takes getting this blow-back for it to register. the comparable thing may be the payroll tax where republicans started to pick a fight over how to pay for the payroll extension and realized it wasn't a good idea. that may be where this ends up now. it will be interesting to see. >> on the violence against women's act thing. i have a piece of republicans in congress. go talk to lisa murkowski. you don't have to be persuaded by them but hear their reasoning. you're never going to hear it

from me. talk to republican women. you might be surprised about some of the political pitfalls you can avoid. steve carnacky from salon.com, msnbc analyst, thank you for being here. appreciate it. this week is a very big anniversary for a very big and important thing. and it's gone unmentioned in the news. i have a personal connection to it. i'll talk about it here in just a moment. stay tuned. and on small business saturday they remind a nation of the benefits of shopping small. on just one day, 100 million of us joined a movement... and main street found its might again. and main street found its fight again. and we, the locals, found delight again. that's the power of all of us. that's the power of all of us. that's the membership effect of american express. i'm here to unleash my inner cowboy. instead i got heartburn. [ horse neighs ] hold up partner. prilosec isn't for fast relief.

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programming note, this sunday, day after tomorrow, i'll be a guest on "meet the press" with david gregory on nbc. very excited about that. i'm going to be part of a roundtable can congresswoman kathy mcmorris rogers and alex castellanos and hillary rosen. sunday morning, nbc, "meet the press." i'll be there, hope you'll watch. we'll be right back. if you are one of the millions of men

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women love it. in original and also fragrance-free. madge it's a wednesday afternoon, just after 5:00 p.m., close of the business day. you're one of thousands transiting through grand central terminal. in the huge, cavernous main terminal of grand central and like everyone, are you looking up at the arrivals board for when your train home is due. the harlem, hudson, new haven lines, metro north.

and at 5:07 p.m. on a wednesday, as you and other commuters are looking up at that huge board, you are seeing a huge black banner, all of a sudden shouting activists everywhere. it says one aids death every eight minutes. january 23, 1991. the united states was at that moment in the midst of going to war in iraq and kuwait in gulf war i. and in grand central terminal the place is just taken over. this banner mounted on balloons saying money for aids, not for war, goes up to the ceiling of grand central, a huge crowd of activists there. ultimately, 263 aid activists would be arrested that day. when they moved on marching to the headquarters of the u.n., they had marched on wall street that morning. the night before, the same activists disrupted the "cbs evening news" with dan rather.

>> this is the "cbs evening news" with dan rather. we'll take a break for a commercial, we'll break for commercial, we'll be right back. >> they are saying fight adds, not arabs. mr. rather apologized for the eruption in the studio and then started his newscast. the same protesters got into the studios of the pbs nightly newscast that night, trying to chain themselves to one of the anchors. they tried and failed to get into the "nbc nightly news" newscast. six months before that day, that same group of protesters launched a massive protest at the national institutes of health. watch tom brokaw here. >> this was a major day of aids activists in the country. 1,000 of them converging of the national institutes of health, demanding more research on the disease. 81 arrests. robert bazell with more on a group that's taking the struggle to the streets and beyond that.

>> reporter: today demonstration by the militant group, act up. it has increasing influence on aids policies. the weekly meetings of the new york chapter attract hundreds, and the loose organization counts 10,000 members nationwide, mostly young, mostly gay. >> let's do a big demonstration there and keep it there. >> reporter: the atmosphere at the meetings and group's headquarters characterized by enthusiasm and belidge rans toward established institutions. playwright larry kramer started act up to accelerate the aids drug approval process. >> what right does the fda and nih have to tell a dying person what he or she can do with her or his body. >> reporter: act up's tactics often offend. many catholics were angered by this demonstration at st. patrick's cathedral in new york. to criticize the church's opposition to homosexuality and communism.

sometimes the group attacks individuals. act up proclaimed former new york city health commissioner steven joseph was more dangerous than the aids virus. >> well, i think their goals are the right ones and the tactics are very much the wrong ones. it's the brown shirt, stormtrooper, unwillingness to see any other point of view and a willingness to condemn any other point of view as an evil one. >> i am so sick of hearing about our tactics offending people. the vietnam war was not ended by people being nice. nice people walk into gas chambers. >> reporter: act up members do morn demonstrate. mark harrington has made himself an expart time on aids and serves on an advisory committee even though he helped organize today's demonstration. >> i call that the inside/outside strategy. that act up does very well. >> reporter: act up's strategy

has been successful in getting the food and drug administration to loosen the regulations on new drugs for aids. now the activists are trying to force scientists to work faster and to test new treatments. in the past scientists have strongly resisted such pressure. actup thinks the scientists can be made to listen. robert bazell, nbc news, bethesda. >> that was in may of 1990, that report. a few months earlier, in the fall of 1989, seven members of the same protest group had chained themselves to the balcony at the new york stock exchange and the opening bell and unfurled a banner that said sell welcome. welcome was the company that made azt, the only real aids drug available at that time. available, technically, at a cost of $10,000 a year in 1989 dollars. the new york stock exchange had trade halted that day for the first time, that was not due to wartime. the company dropped the price of azt soon after the demonstration. the group that did all of this was act up, and it was founded 25 years ago this week.

in a speech my playright larry kramer. the medical journals were writing about something that would later be called aids, killing people in every-increasing numbers as early as 1981, by the time 1987, when act up was founded, 37,000 had been diagnosed and 20,000 americans had died. and the president of the united states ronald reagan had never said the word aids in public. 20,000 dead americans, all in his time in office, before he ever said a word about it. this week to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of act up, one of the most effective activist groups in american history, long-time members of the group, some new supporters they have gaped from the occupy protests, they marched again on wall street, again, using the group's trademark rather bad ass graphics, they demanded a less than a penny toll, essentially a tiny tax on every wall street financial transaction.

they want it to be used to finance medication and needed services for people with aids and to get access, get people access to health care. aids has killed more than 30 million people worldwide. even in the united states, right now, there are thousands of hiv positive americans on waiting lists for treatment. on waiting lists for what is called the aids drug assistance programs in the states. programs that do not have enough money to get hiv treatment to americans who need it. in this country, in 2012. with adequate treatment and health care, hiv can be a chronic, manageable condition now. and that's mostly the way we think of it in this country now, even though around the world and here at home not everyone is there yet and more needs to be done. but the reason aids can be a a chronic manageable condition, the reason it's possible to imagine it ending, the reason ending it is within reach even now, in significant part is due to a very radical group called act up, which i belong to for a big defining chunk of my life before i was in media, and which has a deserved place in american