it happened, we covered it. it's an episode involving a dozen agents out of 175 agents that weekend. it's not the stories of these mens careers and the justifiably proud of the secret service. that's "hardball" for now. "the ed show" starts now. good evening. welcome to "the ed show." i'm michael eric dyson who will be appearing on realtime with bill maher tonight. tonight we're going to prove republicans wrong. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. he's trying to divide america. he's pitting one american against another american. >> republicans try to paint president obama as the divider in chief. >> he's blaming one street or one type of person. >> we prove how the president is the uniter in chief. >> the forces that divide us are

not as strong that unite us. >> dr. james peterson will weigh in. >> he's a capable individual. >> mitt flops around the controversy. >> ted nugent loses his cool once again. >> if you can find a screening process more powerful than that. >> i'm an extremely loving passionate man. a former teammate of junior seau estimates the linebacker has 1,500 concussions during his career. the nation magazine's has the latest. beastie boy's co-founder is dead tonight. a look back at the life of a hip hop pioneer. >> the only way change will come about is through mass public wareness. the right wing noise machine

is working overtime to cast president barack obama as the divider this chief. here is mitt romney directly accusing president obama of being divisive. >> he's taking to dividing the american people. this nation was not made great by americans castigating and demonizing one another. >> it's a theme romney has been pushing since he became a candidate. here is romney as he pivoted toward the general election campaign. >> instead of taking responsibility and acknowledging what he's done wrong, he casts about looking for someone else to blame. he tries to divide the american people. that's what we're in for. you're going to see one person after the other castigated. this is a president who is dividing america. >> oh, boy. this is a classic republican campaign tactitactic. they want to paint obama as the divider so rom can cast himself as the unifier.

today conservative columnist wrote that the entire obama campaign is a slice and dice operation. it makes a mockery of obama's polls as the great tran sernds, uniter, healer of divisions. the right ring are operating from some sort of parallel universe. after obama was elected he met with them to the chagrin of many progressives. we know that on the night of president obama's inauguration, gop leaders were plotting gejs him at that very moment. here is the president today pushing for congress to extend the low interest rate on student loans. >> my message to congress is going to be just saying no to ideas that will create new jobs is not an option. there's too much at stake for us not to all be rowing in the same direction. >> think about that for a moment. a president that has had too

deal with an obstructionist republican party since day one and still trying to speak in the theme of unity. john boehner says president obama is picking a fight on the student loan issue and republicans pounce on everything that he does. when president obama talks of shared sacrifice and tax fairness, the right cries class warfare. president obama has soundly rejected trickle down economics. >> i'm here in kansas to reaffirm my deep conviction that we're greater together than we are on our own. i believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets fair shot. when everyone does their fair share. when everyone plays by the same rules. these aren't democratic values or republican values. these aren't 1% values or 99% values. they're american values, and we have to reclaim them.

>> the right calls that class war fair. jesse jackson told me something. he said when we were kids you'd see a poor guy coming toward you trying to borrow money for you so in order to beat him, you'd say give me some money so you would ask him before he asks you. that's what the republicans are doing hear crying class warfare because they intend to practice it. they call president obama divisive when he's anything but. mitt romney gave a prebuttal to president obama's state of the union address. he said obama's speech would be divisive rhetoric from a desperate campaigner in chief. the main theme was unity. he pointed to the armed forces and the navy seals as a symbol of that unity. >> they don't obsess over their differences. they focus on the mission at hand.

they work together. imagine what we could plush if we followed their example. the seal who is charged up the stairs, more than that the mission only succeeded because every member of that unit trusted each other. each time i look at that flag i'm reminded that our destiny is stitched together like those 50 stars and those 13 stripes. >> the right wing uses projection politics. they try to saddle the president with the divisive claim. we don't believe you. you need more people. they have even castigated the president for being divisive on issues of race. newt gingrich said president obama's remarks on the trayvon martin case was disgraceful. trying to turn it into a racial issue is wrong. here is president obama on the trayvon martin case. >> i think every parent in

america should be able to understand why it's imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together, federal, state and local to figure out how this tragedy happened. my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin. if i had a son, he'd look like trayvon martin. >> how much more reasonable, calm and emp thetic do you have to be. it's not just words. the president's record is replete with instances of him finding common ground with the reactionary right which most of us on the left find pret rep prehenceable. even the most recent legislation he signed was opposed by many progressives. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, who is dividing the country. text a for mitt romney.

text b for president barack obama to 6226239 or go to our blog at edmsnbc.com. i'll bring results later in the sh show. joining me now is dr. james peterson. professor, thanks for coming on. it's so hard to know where to begin here because those on the right call this president divisive but the pattern seems to be clear, they do it themselves to try to blame obama for the mess that they have gotten us into with their divisive politics. >> you're right. it's projection politics. i think a certain point the american voting populous is going to grow tired of the karl rove play book. this is what he tries to do all the time. the romney campaign is taking a page out of that play book and the republicans are rallying around this idea that this president is divisive. we don't have to be too smart to understand the ways in which president obama has moved toward

consensus with every policy he's started. there's no policy that we can point to where president obama wasn't more interested in consensus and consensus building in getting what he wanted for his base and the democratic party. >> what value do the republicans get where creating a narrative where obama looks like he's the divisive figure and they are coming in as the party to save the day? >> they're trying to throw anything up against the wall and see what will stick. the poll numbers are not looking good. mitt romney hasn't done a good job to get the party to rally around him. they are trying different things to see what the voting populous and what the media will cling to here. >> let's take another example, the war on republican. the republicans are claiming it's really the obama administration that's waging a war on women. let's look at who is being

divisive here. the president wants to divide necessary help and health care for women and they are the party, the republicans that talk about transvaginal ultrasounds. what gives there? >> the attempt to roll back reproductive rights is what we're talking about. we can talk about the politics that are being played. the republicans have trying to make political moves to challenge women's rights to satisfy their base. the president is leading in the polls still double digits amongst women. with that kind of gap the campaign is desperate and that's where you get this projection politics. >> in november 2008, the weekly standard recommended seven ways oba he did all that and more. why is it they are able to get

or are they able to get any traction? >> this is challenge to the american viewing public and the folk who follow politics. it's about us having the conversations and discourse that really enlightens the viewers and the voters. we've got to talk about these things because in the sort of minute to minute media sort of state of our lives we kind of lose some of the things. we have to understand what you've laid out for us. politics is more like poli-tricks. it's way people move a demographic one way or the other. we have to be much smarter than we think they are. >> thank you very much. remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter. we want to know what you think. a new report shows 26 straight months of private sector job growth but republican attack ons the public sector are holding the economy back.

former secretary of labor joins me next. one of the great linebackers of all time is dead. his family says they will donate his brain to science. stay around. [ male announcer ] capri sun has 25% less sugar than leading regular juice drinks. because less sugar is a better way to fly. ♪ just not literally. capri sun. respect what's in the pouch.

26 months of job growth, but it's not good enough for republicans. former labor secretary joins me on the latest numbers in the gop reaction. you won't believe who is questioning mitt romney's leadership skills after the resignation of an openly gay advisor. we'll bring you the details. later, we'll take a look back at the life and legacy of

the baeastie boys. share your thoughts with us on twitter using the shash tag ed show. tag ed show.htag ed show. a. show. htag ed show. ♪ ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

this morning we learned that our economy created 130,000 private sector jobs in april, and the unemployment rate ticked down again. after the worse economic crisis sense the great depression, our businesses have now created more than 4.2 million new jobs over the last 26 months. more than one million jobs in the last six months alone. >> president obama is slowly but steadily turning things around after 26 straight months of

private sector job growth there are for the first time more private sector jobs in america than there were when obama took office at the height of the recession. the bureau of labor statistics reported a net gain of 115,000 jobs in april and unemployment rate fell from 8.2% to 8.1%. even mitt romney admits social security good news. he wants to be president so he had to come up with why more jobs and unemployment is bad thing. >> there was some news that came across the wire that said the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1%. normally that would be cause for celebration. in fact, anything over 8%, anything near 8%, anything over 4% is not cause for celebration. >> we should be seeing number ls in the 500,000 jobs created. this is way, way off. >> the reality is 500,000 job a

month is far from normal. the economy has only created at least 500,000 jobs a month 16 times since 1939. it's only happened four times in the last 50 years. incidentally, 13 of those 16 months were during democratic administratio administrations. the last time the unemployment rate was below 4% was december of 2000 under a republican who raised taxes. while mitt romney protects tax cuts for the wealthy, there's an entire category of jobs he's eager to eliminate. >> people asked me what will i do to help create jobs. one thing i know i'm not going to do is hire a bunch of more people in the federal government. the president's put about 150,000 more people in government. of course, you're paying for them. that doesn't lift the wages and create the jobs in the private sector that employ the american people. >> you know governor romney, i'd like to know who you think is employed in government jobs if

it's not the american people. the republican demonization of public sector jobs is impending and impeding of overall job growth. let's turn to robert riech, former secretary of labor under president bill clinton. now a professor of public policy at the university of california at berkeley. he's also the author of "beyond outrage". thank you so much for joining us here today. >> good evening. >> let's do a bush-obama comparison. under president obama the private sector jobs are up 35,000, under bush they failed 646,000 jobs. why did republicans start demonizing government jobs and what are the ramifications of

public sector job loss? >> the biggest problem we face right now, the reason the economy, at least the recovery is slowing a bit and we saw a slow down is because of the cuts in government employment and also the cuts in government spending that higher private sector individuals to build roads and bridges and erect coocool schools and so forth. this is not what the democrats wanted. the president did not want to send the stimulus this way. because of what the republicans have insisted on, we're seeing a slowing down of the economic recovery. this is exactly what europe has done. this is the kind of austerity economics that got europe into deep, deep trouble. when you have so many people unemployed and so much underutilized capacity in the economy, you do not want to

slice government jobs and slice private sector jobs that are depending on government expendituexpend expendtures. >> because of budget shortfalls, a lot of local state economies are slushing public sector jobs and those have an impact on african-americans and women. who happen s they get even hardest and the most vulnerable to begin with. tell us about how destructive that practice is. >> it has a negative multiplier effect. when you are cutting jobs and a lot of them are african-americans and latinos and women. look at the teachers that have been cut across america, you are hurting people who are the back rock of their communities. the backbone of their communities. these are people whose money

turns around and buys things on main street. if they don't have money in their pocket, a lot of other people don't have jobs. also, the assumption that all government spending is on government employees is a myth. we're talking about contractor and everybody else. they employ a lot of people. if you cut back on that spending when you have high unemployment you'll make things worse. >> the unemployment rate has been dropping. mitt romney said that would be a good thing. why can't he admit it's a good thing? is it pure politics. >> he doesn't want to admit anything is a good thing. he doesn't want to come up with ideas how to do it better. mitt romney says president obama has a leadership problem, yet romney cant stand up to the religious right or ted nugent. later has president obama

prepares to kick off his re-election campaign, mitt romney pin a op-ed about the president's economic record. we'll set mitt straight. stay tuned.

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the fall out continues over the abrupt resignation of a romney campaign spokesman raising the question if mitt romney can't stand up to his own party, how can he lead the entire country? last month the romney camp hired

former bush administration official to serve as a policy foreign spokesman. the radical right took issue with the hiring because he's openly gay. earlier this week reresigned. one gop advisor said it's not that the campaign cared whether ric grenel was gay. they believed it was a nonissue but didn't want to con front the religious right. mitt romney went on fox news, not to defend him. instead he offered this reaction. >> we wanted him to stay with our team. he's a very accomplished spokesperson. we select people not based upon their ethnicity or sexual preference but upon their capability. ♪ we are the world >> really. his senior advisor gave a more passionate defense. >> there were voices of

intolerance that expressed themselves during this debate. that was unfortunate. mitt romney has confronted the voices of intolerance. he did it last october on stage at the values voters summit where he denounced some of the poisonous language that's being used by some of the same people who had criticized ric's appointment. >> makes a lot of sense to me but that response didn't sit well with bryan fisher. earlier this week he called the departure a huge win for social conservatives. now fisher's attacking romney's botched response calling it a classic romney etch a sketch moment. >> people have raised this question. if mitt romney, if mitt romney can be pushed around intimidated, cohearsed, coopted by a conservative radio talk show host in middle america than how he is going to stand up to

the chinese? how is he going to stand up to north korea if he can be pushed around by a yokel like me? i don't know he's realizing the doubts this raises about his leadership. >> there's more problems for romney. ted nugent isn't backing down from comments he made about president obama. he claims the romney campaign supports him. >> you had a conversation earlier this year with mitt romney. >> i did. >> you endorsed him? >> i did. >> have you heard from them after the comments? >> i have. >> and? >> i have to say the wap i say it. >> were they unhappy? >> no. they expressed support. >> did they say we appreciate the support, tone it down? >> nope. >> they didn't. >> i got the sensation it was not from mitt himself or mrs.

romney, stay on course, ted. freedom of speech is a beautiful thing. >> indeed it is. i'm joined by the literate, lovely, melissa harris mer perry. nerd land comes tonight land. >> it's nice to be here. >> mitt romney claims president obama has a leadership problem but it appears he's the one. he can't get his own party in order. he can't get his own campaign in order. >> let me give the most fair reading of romney that i can on this. it's two things. it's not surprising to me that somebody has come out of primary is not in control of their party. it doesn't say anything about his leadership per se. there will come a point post-gop convention where romney will be much more a leader of the party

where he can put his own voice forward. the second thing is even among some of the most progressive voices in american history, we have had people, leaders who have walked away from gay and lesbian supporters because of the ways in which we as a country have made it possible for that to happen. we will talk tomorrow on my show about martin luther king jr. walking away because of rustin was openly gay. what i want to push on here is romney, to me this is not so much an issue of leadership, it's about his actual issue positions, his actual policies, his actual perception around inequality and the fact that it's okay, it's acceptable to romney that whole groups of people will be fundamentally second class citizens. >> right. it's good you're going to talk about that king stuff. of course it wasn't in the high water mark of his career but you had adam clayton powell in the

background threatening and blackmailing king. the romney campaign having contact with ted nugent, but guess what, here is more of nugent defending himself. >> i'm an extremely loving passionate man and people who investigate me honestly without the baggage of political correctness acertain the conclusion that a nice guy. if you can find a screening process more powerful than that i'll [ bleep ] or [ bleep ]. how does that sound? >> like a bleeped out rap record. >> that looked like love to me. i'm a very nice person. deeply loving. >> you are very loving. i'm from detroit and the madman from detroit is making me look calm. how big of a problem is this for mitt romney? >> it's a real problem. the folks who are trying to decide whether or not mitt romney is going to be their

candidate, it's no problem for the people who have decided. no problem for those that are decided he is. there's a group that is trying to make up their mind. they are trying to decide who is this guy? who does he surround himself with? this sort of extremism is not good for that middle voter. >> how do you think they handle the richard grenell situation? he did he miss an opportunity to bring in new folk under the republican party? >> he did just do a george w. bush. what is surprising to me is why this crop of republicans won't be as good as george w. bush was in terms of big tent politics saying there's enough room here. we may not support marriage equality. he's missing an opportunity to talk about his lds mormon

identity as an identity that could link him to people that's been oppressed. he could say i'm from a people who were pushed out of their homeland, who were pushed out of their state, who were made to flee under dooet. i'm not going to treat a member of my staff. >> melissa harris-perry. we appreciate her coming on. there's a lot more coming up on "the ed show." stay tuned. i've talked to guys who are in their early 40s who have been diagnosed with dementia. president obama is kicking off his campaign tomorrow. romney is writing a letter full of lies. we'll have the latest. hip hop legend mca, adam yauch is dead at the age of 47. tonight a look back at a

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that nfl legend junior seau committed suicide, there's major developments today. his family says they will donate the linebackers brain to science and a former teammate is shedding light on what seau may have been suffering through. he was one of the best linebackers to put on a uniform. he played 20 years in the nfl mainly for the san diego chargers. he was a 12-time probowler who had only been retired for three years when he committed suicide on wednesday by shooting himself in the chest. his former teammate gary plumber said multiple grade one concussions are part of every game. if you don't have grade one effects each game, you were

inactive the next game. junior played for 20 years. that's five concussions a game easy. how many in his career? that's over 1500 concussions. i know that's startling, but i know it's true. former green bay packers running back dorsey made it sound work. >> we thought having a concussion meant you were unconscious. we now know that every time you get your bell rung or a dinger is a concussion. that's a shocker to me. for it to happen two or three times a game early in my career and training camp when i played full back, four or five times a practice. we're talking eight the ten times a practice. >> that's really pretty stunning. welcome to the show. >> hello. >> seau is now the third nfl player of last year to commit

suicide. dave shot himself in the chest and left note asking for his brain to be researched. tell us what's going on. this is pretty startling. >> what's going on is 1,500 former players are suing the national football league. what's going on is the level of consciousness amongst nfl players about what they may have gone through and contrasting that with what they were told by team medical staff is sending shock waves amopg fong former players. they all say the same thing. they say if i had known the risks going in, i may have made very different decisions about how long i played and about certain safety precautions i may have taken as player. one player said i knew going in i could lose my knees or my hips. i didn't know i wouldn't be able to remember the names of children. >> that he could therefore lose

his mind. do we know any details make us believe that seau believed he had a problem with concussions? were there symptoms? >> we know four things. the first is his ex-wife said he had many concussions. a good friend of his who played in mayor league soccer and junior was complaining b about his on concussion problem and junior said i had one and it lasted for 20 years. it's like a headache that's never stopped. the other thing that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt and this is what's truly damming is that in junior seau two-decade career he was not publicly diagnosed with a concussion not once. there's only one of two conclusions, either an angel was on his shoulder for two decades

of playing or there was some sort of collusion, maybe between junior and the team doctors about not reporting these injuries when they took place. that was the mind set forever in the league. according to junior's family they believe he paid a price. >> dorsey is suing the nfl. obviously this is new information. roger goodell has something to do. what do they do in light of this? then you have the bounty program with the saints going on. it's an extraordinary stew that's quite chaotic. >> the slang for it is the shield. i'm seeing a lot of people in the sports media lining up to protect the shield. who is the shield protecting right now? it's protecting roger goodell

and a multibillion dollar industry. it's the largest form of entertainment in these united states. roger talks a good game about being concerned but at the same time he wants it to be an 18-game season. he wants to make the seasons longer. it makes him not an honest broker when we talk about player safety. he's trying to stone wall the 1,500 players that are doing the class action lawsuit. if he was serious is he would impanel a team of neurologists so we can get some true answers, not just for nfl players but for children as young as five years old who play in tackle football leagues so we know without a shadow of a doubt what the real risk factors are in playing tackle football. >> all right. all very interesting. we'll stay on top of this. thanks so much for joining us. coming up, mitt romney pins

a letter to the president on the eve of his campaign kickoff. the governor couldn't get through a paragraphs without lying. stay with us. recently, students from 31 countries took part in a science test. the top academic performers surprised some people. so did the country that came in 17th place. let's raise the bar and elevate our academic standards. let's do what's best for our students-by investing in our teachers.

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republican nominee wrotean open letter to president obama in the cleveland plain dealer today. president obama will be kicking off his campaign in the state tomorrow. "the ed show" usually ignores this blather. we felt it required a response. mr. romney went thereupon his

normal distortion on job creation and how the president should be held accountable before he entered office and before his policies could pass. he did get closer to reality when he said i recognize, of course, as do all americans that you inherited an economic crisis, but you've had three years to turn things around. the record of those three years is clear. your policies have failed not only in ohio but across the nation. nice of you to recognize what everybody else has long known but you don't admit the economy was in free fall. let's take a look at ohio and job creation in the country in the last three years. ohio has gone from 10.6 unemployment in july 2009 to 7.5% of march this year with help from the auto industry that you wanted to let go bankrupt. the nation has seen 26 months of

private sector job growth. nobody is satisfied. it's better than under your party's rule that was killing jobs at an alarming rate before president obama got into office. mr. romney also attacked president obama claiming he was inexperienced, quote, mr. president forgive me for being blunt but when it comes to economic affairs you're out of your depth. i'm not a career politician. unlike you i've spent more than two decades working in the private sector. starting new businesses and turning around failing ones. mr. romney forgive me for being blunt. you're a career candidate. the only reason you're not a career politician is because you can't win elections. loser. your time in the private sector was spent outsourcing and destroying companies so you could personally profit. bluntness hurts especially when truth is attached.

finally, as always, addressed in a vague way how he would make changes, quote, i have a path forward to accomplish that. i will cut individual tax rates by 20% across the board to jump start job creation. i will reform a corporate tax system that drives american jobs overseas. i'll slash the needless regulations that krimpb our energy supply and inhibit so many different kinds of businesses. governor romney, you do not have a path forward. you have a direct road map back to the past fp your policies are nothing more than an expansion of the bush policies that put us in the ditch to begin with. deregulation only made the rich stronger and the economy weaker and protecting big oil didn't improve our energy production or national security. as you said, welcome to the campaign. welcome to "the ed show" where

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. ♪ you got to fight for your right to party ♪ >> that's classic stuff, man. tonight the world is mourning the loss of the hip hop legend, adam yauch. he cofounded the group along with mike diamond in the early 80s. the band was punk but soon began experimenting with hip hop and rap. in 1986 they went mainstream. their album license to ill was the first hip hop album to hit number one on the album's chart. the group helped define the scene in the '80s and stayed

popular for over a quarter of a century. yauch was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and unable to see his band get inducted just last month. his letter read i'd like to dedicate this to my brothers. they walked the globe with me. it's also for anyone that's been touched by our hand. this induction is as much ours as it is yours. adam yauch lost his battle with cancer today at the age of 47. his mother telling the new york times he was hopeful to the very end. yauch leaves behind a wife, daughter and millions of fans, including me. i'm joined by dr. scott heath. he's a professor of african-american literature. welcome to the show. >> hi. >> this is a big loss for the music world. give us a sense of how huge it is. >> it's huge because of what

adam yauch mca represents and what the beastie boys represented in terms of the development of hip hops during its early stages of expansion. the beastie boys keenly represented the inner section of punk and rap music. something that def jam was pushing that was central to the development of def jam. def jam was a seminal label in development of hip hop and globalization of hip hop culture. >> not only they are white guys, but they are jewish black guys. tell us about how they bridged the gap and took the message of a black art form into the broader world as three hip jewish guys. >> they hip white guys who are working through a black based

genre. i think the timing mattered and also their skill-set. they're excitement as artist, their enthusiasm as artists out stripped the criticism they received for being white. criticism that other people working in the rap genre have experienced in recent years and still continue to experience as non-black artists. the beastie boys were important also because of what they were suggesting as a model for a generation who attaches itself to hip hop culture. adam yauch was an artist and producer working across media. he was not just rap you are but someone defining himself as a freedom activists. these are things that hip hop artists 20 years later would be aspierg toward for themselves. >> isn't it interesting there

was a big outpouring of elected officials, the beastie boys were political punching bag in the 1980s. they were one of the targets of tipper gore's resource center. what kind of impact have they had on pop culture? >> they were targets because of their range of influence. if they're not influencing nobody, if nobody is seeing then then nobody will care. they were targeted largely because of their reach. they contributed very much to the diversification of hip hop's audience and globalization of hip hop itself. they took it around the world at a time when hip hop was really deciding what it wanted to be. >> all right. thank you so much for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> that's "the ed show." don't forget ed will