love wherever the road takes you. wow, there it is. this morning my question -- is anyone actually doing anything about the embarrassing state of child poverty in america? plus the supreme court will soon announce the most anticipated decision since "bush v. gore." and speaking of voting will politics undermine one man, one vote, and the backroom billionaires and the rich white guys buying the election. good saturday morn, i'm melissa harris-perry. before we begin, i want to bring you up to speed on a couple of stories we have been following

for a while. in egypt former president hosni mubarak has been sentenced to life in prison for killing protest protesters in the last spring's arab uprising. his aides were found innocent in their involvement. scuffles erupted in the courtroom after the verdicts were read and sources say that mubarak suffered a health crisis when he arrived at the prison where he will be kept. and george zimmerman who killed teen trayvon martin in florida will be returning to court this week. a judge dismissed his bail after he learned of how much money he earned over the website. he has until monday to turn himself in. now to the top story. finish this sentence, the 2012 e

election an epic election by barack obama and -- did you say mitt romney? well, the election is not a head-to-head battle, but a he will be facing frank van der sloot, and john paul paulson and david koch. these billionaires won't have their names on the ticket, but they will be determining about whose names are there. and think of the men who are shelling out $1 million on the con s conservative super pacs this cycle. do you notice anything? central casting of the role for "the man." if you were inclined to believe in conspiracy theories, and i'm not, it would not be hard to imagine that these guys would be sitting around the fine tables with a tumbler of scotch and cigar while they plot the election, but the realities of what they do and will and how they affect our political

outcomes are stark and complicated. to tr most part, they are not giving directly to republican candidates, but using the super pacs and other groups. politico.com reported that through them, they will likely spend $1 billion for the november elections for white house and congress. koch organizational loan plans to spend $400 million for the election is season, which is $300 million more than john mccain raised for his entire presidential campaign in 2008. about one-third of the billion dollar spending, some $300 million will be under the direction of karl rove through his americans crossroads and crossroads gps, and he might as well be the poster child for the rich white man conspiracy theory. i know, it is duis seductive an disempowering to see the small group of diversity-challenged uber rich men to assume they are buying the election and stripping the democracy of

meaningful choices and acting as policy puppet masters, but here is the thing, it is way more complicated than that. what motivates a sheldon adelson or foster freeze or on the left, a george soros to throw millions into the political arena in a global economic world where money crosses the national boundaries with little more than a tap of the finger, why do these guys care who the president is, or what laws govern rural counties or what sits is on school boards? what are the motivations? some say they want to maintain their wealth, but how much does that explain about the political actions in maybe the titans of industry want power for power sake, and maybe ideologically driven and want to create a world that mirrors their own world views, be as we wring our hands in distress about how their money is buying our elections maybe we should push pause on the conspiracy theories and try to understand what is

going on here. here at the table is mattia gold, political reporter for the los angeles times and the "chicago tribune" who has been covering big money in politics, and also msnbc contributor and nerdland friend karen finney who is the dnc communications director. thank you for being here. so today i am inclined to say i don't belief in conspiracy theories and i know there is a zombie apocalypse happening in america, right now, but what are the actual motivations of the uber wealthy to engage in the political sphere in this way? >> well, "le roing stone -- "rolling stone" had a great piece to stow what they are interested in. they have given big money not just to the campaigns directly, but to the super pacs but they have different issues. say you have been sued many times because of the toxic cleanup and you will say, those

regulations are crippling my business and mitt romney are going to say, regulations are crippling my business. so a lot of the billionaires have specific business interests that they want seen taking care of and it seems they are buying the outcomes. >> but it is odd to me on the question of money in that sense that we are talking about enormous amounts of money person personally. >> millions. >> and that these individuals have, and yesterday we had the disappointing jobs number and ordinary american citizens are having tight budgets and yet we are seeing the billions and literally billion dollar election coming up, and how should we understand how important it is for the household extra $100 or $1,000 traex government policy might impact us versus the regulations that might impact the businesses? >> well, there is no question that there is an array of motivations behind a lot of the folks. some of them have specific business interests as karen

mention and some of them are ideologically driven and what it does is to put the impetus on voters to be more informed about who is putting money in the election and how they are trying to influence them. the voters are going to be bombarded and they have been with ads paid for by groups and many times we don't know who is actually financing them. that is going to go a long ways to shaping the actual narrative of the election and what issues are being talked about. so it is really changing the dynamic in a way we haven't seen this any time in our lifetime in which individuals are powering this election and powering the debate, and in a way that is altering the dynamic. >> and i think with shelly adelson, and essentially his money was put before the will of the people. the will of the people said that newt gingrich should have been out by the voting, but what happened is that shelly said, i will give you $5 million to keep him. and that changed the dynamics of the republican primary for several weeks, but more importantly, he could write a single check to overthrow the will of the voting public. >> i have a dirty little secret.

i have 1% or porn on the ipad and what i mean by that is that i love the forbes app, and the forbes lists app and i have like the 400 richest people in america app and i go through it and i am face nated by who is john paulson and click on him on the forbes app, and tied for fifth on the forbes 400 which i spend a lot of time just trying to figure out what their motivations might be, tied for fifth are the koch brothers at $17.5 billion apiece, and what we are looking at is the percentages that occur if you look at a sort of the amount they are going to spend for them, right, for their net worth, and their $200 million, and what they are going to spend out of $25 million for the net worth of an average household, and median household in america which is $768,000, and that would mean for an ordinary

family spending $768, and the amount of money they are spending is the same as $768, and who wouldn't spend that much to change the outcomes of american politics? >> yes. and it shows that while these are eye-popping figures for us, forred alemen and others in dallas, this is pocket change, and they are taking advantage of what is a change in the law through several court decisions that has really amped up the influence in a way that we have never seen before. what is so fascinating is that forbes 400 list has gotten more click views than it has in the last five years combined. >> right. >> and we have now been introduced to the cast of characters that the average americans didn't know the billionaires in america, and now we are getting to know them on a boldfaced names in american politics, and people, and the koch brothers are talked about constantly, and obama and the campaign are makeing them part f the issue. these are figures now. >> and let me ask the question,

if i'm on the right, and i believe that the government is either inept or evil and i want to drown it in the bathtub, then doesn't the very desire to influence politics, the willingness to spend even if it is for them $768, isn't that evidence that they don't think that the government is so inept, so inkcapable like they do believe that government has an important role, because they are willing to invest in it? >> yes, sure, but they believe that government has a role for them, and they have a specific belief of how government should function, and that where you get a lot of the government out of our business and the femaleness and out of the bedroom and other things, because it is a message framed for lower taxes, smaller government, although i would argue if you look at the state governments that are a lot smaller, they are not doing much better these days being so much smaller, but here is the other thi thing, and matea talked about this is the fact that we will never know who some of the people are, because it is not

through just the super pacs, but they are through shell organizations or profit organizations passed through like money laundering, and so we won't know when we are looking at some of the ads and at least with the koch funded ads attacking obama on the energy issues, all right, you know they have energy interests and they don't like what obama is doing, and they have a sense of the motivation is coming from, but for a lot of the groups, americans for prosperity, i mean, that sounds good, who is not for prosperity. >> and this is my constant question, what are the motivations? because i feel like if we think that they are all just rich white men sitting around a conference table with the cigaring plotting the end of democracy, then we feel so disempowered by that versus trying to understand how they are motivated to use the apparatus of government because that then builds to start making changes in how we make structures, right, so that it shuts off the valves. >> that is what congress van

holland is trying to do with legislation to say, we have to know who these people are, and you have to el the us who they are. what is interesting though this week at the christian science monitor breakfast the u.s. chamber of commerce said that we might essentially change a few things here and there in the ad or the wording of the ad or how we fund the ad to get around those kinds of regulations, so that to the point, we know there is a structural problem, but we have to see down the road to see who is going to come up with the way to get around the fixes we come up. and up next, freedom of elections and freedom of speech, and why the golden year of yesteryear wasn't so golden. ♪ hey big spender ♪ spend a little time with me went out already? [ sighs ] forget it. [ male announcer ] there's more barbeque time in every bag of kingsford charcoal. kingsford. slow down and grill.

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welcome back to the dissection of all things money and politics. want to know when it all changed? it was the election of 1896 when republican strategist mark hannah was determined to make mckinley the next p united stat. his tone is still crucial in po politics today. two things that matter in politic. the first thing is money, and i can't remember what the other one is. william mckinley defeated william jennings bryant. and joined us, karen finney and matea gold is douglas brinkley who has written the book "cronkite" and this book has given me shoulder injury car

carrying it around. and i want to point out from the opening salvo of the text, he is the great trusted person, and yet some of the practices that cronkite engages in are some things that we now would consider criminal at worst and certainly unethical at best, and mattia w t matea was saying before of the break, this is the first but i am saying that is not true, because is money driving it? are we in the nostalgic of some good democracy in the past that never existed? >> well, we always are, and as a historian the first rule of history is to remind us that our own times are not uniquely oppressive. do you want to be alive in the civil war going on and 600,000 dead? alive in the era of the 1950s when some people called the golden age of tv when there were jim crow laws throughout the

south, and one word, dentistry, and we have modern medical miracles and right now is the best time to be alive. and if i could say one thing and being a historian and talking about mark hannah, and hannah also said when mckinley was shot, and theodore roosevelt came in, he said, oh, no, that damned cowboy is president, and t.r. came in to lead a progressive movement in the country. >> and this is when you got to the question before i got there, which is, yes, the story of money and politics coming in right there at the dawn of the 20th century, but then the very next thing that happens is an enormous progressive movement, and good government movement and clean this thing up, and somewhat more pop ulist movemen, and is that possible that we are potentially about to go over the cliff where americans say, enough, we live in a democracy. >> well, it is possible, but t.r. got in on a fluke way and for starters back then, and then

you have to organize the people, because the unions have to speak up. if there is a women's movement today and what is the women's movement, they have to speak up right now, and people have to rise up, but in the "cronkite" book, walter cronkite in 1988 tried to be objective and mr. center, and in '88 when dukakis lost the presidency to george herbert walker bush, he said that liberals are backing off of liberal, and he spoke for barbara jordan and cronkite said open up the windows and scream it, i am pro choice, i am pro environment, and i'm against nuclear weapons and i am against war. so you have to have a true fighting spirit in the democratic party and not one that wants to triangulate like it did in the clinton years. >> and interesting of looking at the people with a voice, and looking at the donors and at this moment president obama's doer for thes are still much

more likely to be small donors than mitt romney's. so when you look at the numbes s and a lovely pie chart of this, the small dollar donors and in other words, folks giving $200 or less for romney is only 10% of the folks. for barack obama, 45% of his donations are coming from the folks who are giving under $200. and that may change as we saw it change from the big money liberal donors like bill maher who may counter act that, but does that increase our sense of the stake or silly that we can never get up to the adelson level? >> well, i make the argument that the democrats would like to have more seven-figure checks written right now, and obama really boxed himself in, because he spoke vehemently against outside money in 2008 and critical of the citizens united decision, and then once the advent of huge dollars really was facing the campaign had to

reverse himself, and we have seen that has been difficult to do. a lot of the democratic donors feel just on principle very uncomfortable with the idea of giving to the super pacs. >> is that why there is no oprah here? if i am looking through the forbes list, you know, i'm like, okay, where is oprah? we have bill maher there and what about bill gates who has individually maxed out the kind of $2,500, but hasn't given to as far as we can tell to the super pacs some kind of enormous amount? >> well, that is part of it, but at the fundamental level it is the idea that money is speech that is the real problem, because essentially, and going back to the shelly adelson example, one guy writing a $5 million check is a lot more speech than the $250 donors, and even if 1,000 of them vote, still their will was overturned by one guy writing a big check. that is the fundamental problem. and sure we can have the war of i'll get big donors and you will get them, and we will spend a

lot of money, and at the end of of the day, and i thought that, you as the historian, one person, one vote, and that is how we lekt people, and the will of the people, and the voice of the people, and the problem is that right now that is not the way it is workinging and for most americans and that is what is frustrating is that my voice doesn't count. consider that we had record turnout last time, and record engagement and involvement, and yet again at this point somebody with millions of dollars can essentially drown out those voices. >> and that is part of what was exciting to me about 2008 is sort of whether you were a supporter of president obama or not in that moment, he brought a lot of the people in as financial donors to the system who never thought othemselves as giving money before, right? it was pavlovian, and the red donate button on the bottom of the e-mail and it felt like you could make a difference with $10 or $100, and so folks were not only standing in the long lines to vote, but doing the slightly higher level of participation by

giving money, and if it feels like i am giving $10 and foster freeze is giving $1 billion, i worry about the core of the democracy and not the re-election of democrats who seem to be unable to get the seven-if ig -- seven figure do. >> well, when al gore lost to the hanging chad in florida that proved that voting matters. everybody has to register and not just getting the $10, but getting as many friends to register, and that has to be a big drive for the democratic party right now sh, and the big point, and i will pick one, because i care about it is that the are big problem of the democrat ss have sometimes is b energy. all of this oil. and who do you suppose is opposing the drilling of anwar or more drilling? it is the environmental groups,

and the sierra club, and the ability to stand up to some of the billionaires, and som s mso the power groups who do sloetvo and they will vote, and they have trouble getting that money. >> we are "star wars" fans in nerdland and trying to figure out if the democratic party is bunch of ewaks battling the embattled republican party. if you wonder if this is a horse race, well, there is a lot of a horse race going on. this is the horse race that marks the queen's diamond jubilee. t she attended this event this morning along with many hundreds in the crowd, and along with member

members of the royal family. this is a huge milestone of the queen's milestone and made possible by her longevity which might be a result of the universal health care system in great britain. we will talk about our own health care system, and stay right there as we have more on the ruling class right here at home. it's time to live wider awake. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system... from beautyrest. it's you, fully charged.

yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall. [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can come from any faucet anywhere. the brita bottle with the filter inside. on tuesday, retired justice john paul stevens received the presidentialal of freedom for his long service on the supreme court, and months before stepping down from the high court, he presented the dissenting opinion which ushered in campaign contributions. and just this week justice stevens warned that the citizens united case had to be inevitably revisit and it is necessary why the first amendment protection provides greater protection for some nonvoters than to that of o

other nonvoters. here with me is karen finney, and mattia go teand douglas bri kenji yoshino. >> well, this struck down the mccain feingold act which said that campaigns were restricted on what they could spend and it opened up the door to say this corporations are people, and protected under the first amendment and second, people are guarant guaranteed a certain amount of speech, and therefore could spend unimt willed amounts of money in these elections. >> what i have found interesting in the post citizens united moment is that frank rich drew our attention to this in his co column suggesteded that people are corporations, and it is not the corporations, because they

are risk-averse as corporations, and our big worry should be the sugar daddies which the forbes 400 and is that right? we should be less worried about the corporations and more worried about the sugar daddies? >> well, we are seeing the p publicly traded corporations shy away from the party pags and i want to debunct one myth about citizens united and since we are in nerdland we can go into the super pacs. citizens united did not create them and they simply endorsed the disclosure, and it is a second speech that then created what we have now, super pacs and built on the citizens united decision, so it is important to separate the two, and one thing that is an outgrowth and unintended of the citizens united is the explosion of the third party advocates who are not super pacs who might get

corporate money and we don't know because they don't disclose the donors and they existed before of the decision, and because of the freedoms allowed by citizens united we have seen a real explosion in the participation in the campaign. >> part of the problem that people don't understand, because corporations if they believe they can remain anonymous that deals with the ris ak little k bit, and few of them have been burned by that. part of that, and the constitutional scholar will correct me, but you have advocacy where you are not supposed to say that you are for a candidate or not, but close up to the lines and you can say this you are clear about the occupant of the white house or the challenger, and the third party groups who are essentially operating as pass-throughs for the larger corporations or the big sugar daddies who don't want to be known, and the argument is which i find ironic, and if we disclose who they are, we are afraid of retribution, and if

people know that we give this money, isn't that free speech and my right to know if i don't want to patronize a company who gives money to something i don't agree with and if money is spee speech, then i can't i use my money to make it known. >> and what is shocking is the level of penetration. one thing to say that they are on the side of, you know, some group of people on the side of barack obama being re-elected and some group of people on the side of mitt romney being elected and they are both rich. and i went to grad school in north carolina and to me it was the koch brothers if you tracked it back far enough to the school board decision in wake county schools and i kept saying to myself, why do the koch brothers care what is going on in the wake county schools and why does this matter? and so because i don't believe in the conspiracy theories i am saying, they don't care. they don't actually care and one of the koch brothers saying we

should resegregate, and we asked the brothers and we did ask them to respond why they care about it, but it seems that the money is diffuse, and it is everywhere and in a.l.e.c. which is helping to write the policy in the state legislatures and impacting the school board elections and almost scarier, because it isn't sort of one person's motivations. there's this dif fugfusion of h the money is operating in the very local places and impacting us in way tas s that we don't k about. >> and with sets of laws that precarious and loopholes that many of the corporations and donors have big fancy lawyers to skirt around them. and i mentioned earlier in the u.s. chamber of commerce has basically very open in a press briefing about how the figure out how to skirt the law so they can do a little bit mored a voe ka is i in the election, and they are spending millions. >> we want to come back to talk

about the third party candidates and billy roamer did drop out this week, and we will talk about the money issue and how it influences the very structure of our democracy when we return. well hello, welcome to hotels.com. summer road trip, huh? yep uhuh let's find you a room. at hotels.com, you'll always find the perfect hotel. because we only do hotels. wow. i like that. nice! no. laugh...awe hmm nice huh ooh, yeah book it! oh boy call me... this summer, we're finding you the perfect place - plus giving you up to $100 at hotels.com without freshly-made pasta. you could also cut corners by making it without 100% real cheddar cheese. but then...it wouldn't be stouffer's mac & cheese.

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my job is to bring up issues that americans care about. it is my responsibility to ask the tough questions. no matter who is leading the country, they need to be held accountable, and i have unique access to the president and the advisers and the candidates and the members of congress and i better use the access for a greater good. use foit for people who can't g through the white house gates and people who cannot be heard. the american people deserve answers. [ grunting ]

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to point to the attention to the money and politics and for that reason buddy roemer can't actually win an election. for me here at the table talking money and politics is karen finney, mattia gold and kenji yoshino and douglas brinkley. >> yes, buddy roemer is right. when the third party was created, he already had name recognition and came out with a great progressive agenda and got shot in milwaukee and came in second, and you say he did not win a third party movement, but the platform of barack obama in kansas talking about the platform for health care in f.d.r., and he adopted it for

the new deal and put ideals in the american culture even though he lost. and in the recent third party, ross perot in 1992 got 19% of the vote, but he was a billionaire. >> and he was not really a third party, but really an outside candidate. it was not the creation of another organization that was challenging. >> but look at who we are talking about and bloomberg people saying that they could run a third party, because he is a billionaire, but it is the part of the third party is supposed to be a grass roots movement, and instead, only the people with the billions of dollars can do a third party run, and that is sad. >> at the practical level the whole conversation ignores the fact that you need an infrastructure and people in the ground, and on the states and getting you on the ballots and doing the grass roots work and if we were to have a third party, they swruld to start now for the next election and unless you are a billion nashgs you can't waltz in and say, okay, i'm a third party candidate, vote for me. >> and i question if there is a yearn oinge or hunger for ameris

for a third party. buddy roemer had a great platform, and he had money to help him build the platform, a nd he would have had to have made an awful lot of money if he had made it, and there is a little bit of high perly abo ll ll lly about the scenter which is very small, and people on the other ends of the spectrum. >> and we have to go here in a second, but i don't think that the third par i tties in the sy are stable, and they cannot replace a party, and you can't have three parties when you have 50% plus one person. >> well, if you have the third party person in a debate in the fall and had a three-person

debate, more ideas would break loose, because the third party person would be a rogue and not so scripted and make for more interesting dialogue. >> well, for the sake of the argument, the money is driving out the third party candidates and it is going on the list of unintended on the citizens united marks is that whether facts have been changed or come to be seen so differently, and earlier in the year justice ginsberg issued a snippet opinion to justice breyer saying some unintended consequences here that may affect citizens united and goes with shadowy billionaires as room for modifying the contour of the campaign. >> and i love it, sugar daddies and buddy roemer might get us a revisiting of the citizens united issue. and thank you, panel.

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[ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. a newly released unicef amo developed countries the united states has the second highest rate of children living in po poverty at 23.1%. falling short only to romania at 25.5%. does that surprise you? well, one former new york times journalist isn't stunned and in fact, he recently accused both parties of being silent on this issue and predicted that americans wouldn't hear about it at all in the presidential race, but guess what? that call to action received a response from the white house. at the table is bob herbert distinguished fellow at demos and the author of the article that got the white house attention. so we are talking about the rich men for the hour, and let's talk

about poor children instead. clearly, you care about the impoverished children, and felt like in the piece that you wanted to draw attention to the piece, but level a critique against both parties and tell me about why that decision? >> well, quickly, i had met with a group of school kids from the bronx, 13 and 14 years old and talked to them for about an hour and hour and a half, and by tend they are telling me the stories, and four or five are weeping and crying, because they are sad tales. so i was writing about them, but i said that we are not hearing about this in the campaign because neither obama or romney has made the kids in the intercity or the rural areas front and center in the campaigns. >> but then valerie jarrett said, sure we have. and i mean, i thought this was stunning actually. and you write this piece, and jarrett comes out to say, bob, with you are wrong and we do. and in fact, it is understandable that you are

frustrated but that the american dream is closed off to so many americans and goes on the talk about food stamps, and what is your response? >> well, it had a sense of a boilerplate about it, and ticked off of all of the ak complishmecomplish me -- accomplishments, and that is not an attack on obama, and this is a plutocracy, and the politics are geared towards the wealthy people in the atmosphere, and without leadership from the high ranking public officials the poor kids don't stand a chance so that the upward mobility is cut off. if you don't have upward mobility, and if you don't have shared income, and shared wealth in this country, shared in an equitable way, it means that the american dream is essentially gone. >> well, let me ask you about the kids' piece, because one of the shocking rates of the poverty rate here in the united

states is the percentage of children in poverty, but i worry when we break off the poor kids from the poor adults, because the kids are deserving and we want to help them, but you have to look at the whole family, because the kids are one part. >> that is reit. and people don't understand how widespread this is. there are 50 million officially poor people in this country, but then if you add on the people who are a notch or two above the poverty level, you will get to 105 million people which is one-third of the entire american population, and these are folks that very little attention is paid to. >> and yet, if you were to say, and of course, these folks are our candidates are not saying the word poor. it seems to be part of the reason that candidates don't use the language of poverty on both sides, because americans will rarely self-identify as poor even when they are, and the folks believe themselves to be middle-class even when they are many tens of thousands of

dollars outside of the middle-class. sometimes, the policy work is going on, but we don't get the discourse, bau we don't hear it in that way as americans? >> well, i think that is true. that is very true and what is also true is that the politicians will tell you that the poor people for the most part don't vote. i think that more poor people vote than people think, but that is not the point. the people on the congress and the supreme court represent all americans. so i do think that it is true that the people shy away from the poor and in denial of the extent of the poverty, and they fear that they are going to be linked up with this in some kind of way. when you have poverty to this extent, and it is expanding in this country, it hurts the entire society, and hurts the middle-class, and ultimatally, because you don't have the buying power in the society as a whole, and ultimately hurts the very wealthy as well. >> so the one thing that gave me a lot of anxietying, as i was reading the piece is that some

of what you were talking about here and talking about the stories of the young people were telling are things that, yes, impact poor kids, but you also talked about for example sexual assault and other sorts of things that don't exclusively happen in poor communities. i am thinking of the young women on college campuses who have endured sexual assault and i want to make sure that if we are going to and i hope we do and think we should refocus the attention and energy on thinking of addressing the american dream through addressing poverty that we don't go to a police where we assume that poverty equals all of the social ills. >> absolutely not. and also in the piece did not suggest that. it is also wrong the convey the impression that because people are poor that everyone who is poor is putting up with all of the terrible things that these young people that i was talking to are putting up with, and that is not the case at all. the poverty in and of itself is a problem. the fact that you don't have

enough money to build a future and put together the kind of family, a nd to realize the american dream. that in and of itself is a problem. >> i so appreciate you, bob, that you first of all wrote it and that you got a response and now we can talk about poverty and i'm appreciative to you for setting the agenda. >> thank you, melissa. >> and history is about to be made this month by the supreme court and we want to arm you with a few facts before the court makes a decision on the health care reform. and our notes on affordable health care, and death panels up next. maybe it's time to recharge the human battery. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system from beautyrest...

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the supreme court is very close to the decision in the most anticipated case since they answered the question, who is the president in "bush v. gore" and actually the justices have already decided, but they haven't told us yet. by the end of this month, the

court will hand down its decision about whether or not the affordable health care act labeled by the opponents as obama care is unconstitutionaliunconstitution and uphold it or overturn it? that is the big question and whose answer we are waiting to hear. but it is not the only question raised to the challenge of president obama's signature piece of legislation. if they overturn the law, will they outlaw all of it or part of it? if all but not all parts are overturned is that a defeat or victory for president obama? what does this mean for the re-election chances for the president? could the ruling for the act be seen as political referendum against the president from the court which is afterall apolitical, and if so, what does that mean for the relationship between the president and the court? if the court upholds the law, it must survive attempts by mitt romney and others in congress to repeal it. if it is overturned, will the republicans recognizing the popularity of some of the laws'

provisions vote to reinstate some of those parts that are wildly popular with the voters, and while the affordable health care act is not slated to go ul ifly into effect until 2014, some parts like the coverage of those 26 and under on the parents' insurance have been put into place. if the court overturns the legislation, what happens to the 2.5 million young adults who now have access to coverage? what about the 45 million women who have enjoyed the recommended preventative care? or the 50,000 americans with the pre-existing medical conditions who now have health insurance? and many of us still don't know what the law says or have yet to take advantage of the benefits, but if it gets struck down, will we even know what we are missing? the supreme court won't give us any of those answers. but coming up, we will. first up, we will ask what does mitt and ann romney's personal story have to do with the court's decision. stay right there. in one easy step

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probably the toughest time in my life was standing there with ann as we hugged each other and the diagnosis came. >> my life was in jeopardy, and i was like, as vulnerable as a person could be. >> that was an excerpt from a new video releasedesased just t week from the mitt romney campaign and it tells of ann romney's struggle with multiple sclerosis and what mitt romney say says his sole mate was put to the test. and now on this "the new republican" website, johnathan cohn says that facing the vulnerability of m.s. is a re reality for 400,000 americans is compounded when you don't have the way to battle this disease which is exactly the problem that many of those facing m.s. could face if mitt romney becomes president, and repeals

the affordable health care act. johnathan cohn is author of that act, and author of "sick" the untold story of the american health care crisis and back with me is kenji yoshino and karen finney, the former d.n.c. communications director and author douglas brinl lkley and t is to make us feel like mitt romney, and the whole issue of her ability to deal with m.s. is nothing what most folks have to deal with. >> that is right. if mitt romney were running for husband or father, it is a great ad. it is a moving video, and everything i have always heard about him is that he is a jep winly devoted family man, and that is fantastic, but most people need more than a supportive spouse if they have a m.s. or chronic cancer or something less debilitating like diabetes, because they have to pay the medical bills. people with ms are exactly the kind of people who even if the they have health insurance, the

bills they get are going to blow through the benefits and hit an annual limit, and lifetime limit, and if they have the buy the insurance on their own, they can't get it, and the people of the affordable health care act and the health reform will change the reality for these people, and already starting to change it, and this is a law that mitt romney says day one, he wants to take it off of the books. >> my sister has ms and diagnosed in her 30s with it, and the way that it manifested initially for her is that she lost her sight, but she was an accountant and that meant that her work was gone and when we tie the health insurance to employment, something like a chronic disease like ms, your ability to pay for it goes right away. kenji, i am interested because when people hear these stories they say okay, there are aspects of the affordable health care act that i like to keep, and get rid of the individual mandate. and the individual mandate goes, and the affordable health care act goes, because of the insurance moral hazard, you

can't cover the pre-existing conditions unless everybody is in the pot, right? >> well, the answer to that, melissa, is whether you are approaching it from the economic or the legal angle. the answer may be yes economically and we may not be able to pay for the affordable health care act if the mandate dos down which is the position of the administration, but the legal analysis would depend on the issue of separatability which is something that was argued in the supreme court. and separatability has to do with the issue of one part of a congressional piece of legislation that is struck down and the entire thing goes down with it or is it severable from the part of it that is unconstitutional and surgically remo the part that is unconstitutional and let the rest of it stand. what governs is the piece of congress that is in the severability clause and there is no severability clause this the health care act which tips the mand of the administration's desire say, and congress'

desire to say, that if you strike this e thing down, you have to strike down the whole thing, but the absence of the severability clause is not depositive, and so if there is not a severability clause, the court could say it is unconstitutional for the individual mandate and let the other provisions stand. >> so we have a court who could say, individual mandate is down and leave for example being able to cover your kids on the insurance and we are going to leave the pre-existing conditions, but economically right, and politically, you know, is this -- in trying to sort of save the pop ular parts of the law, is this actually making the law, itself, unworkable? >> well, potentially. that is part of what the justices are grappling with is the whole issue of severability, and the political implications are dramatic, because if you keep one piece and then the other pieces go away and you have a couple of problems. one, what do you do about the people who were starting to be

covered as the law is implemented, because now they are without and what do you do about those folks and do about the people who under the plan would have been covered when we get to the full implementation, and the political question is that americans don't want to go through this again and as much as people don't like the law, every single poll i have seen, that people do not certainly want to have to negotiate this, a nd politically, what is interesting is that regardless of the decision, if it goes down, then team romney has to have an answer to, okay, what are you going to do? and for them the liability is that means that we are going to talk about romney care, and that is the last thing they want to talk about. >> and so on the question, and the sort of we have to do something. i am fascinated by the idea that the court here is somehow in a political fight. like, there was a time it feels like when the court had a higher level of sort of trust of the american public and we can see the kind of public opinion polls

around the court have declined pretty dramatically and pretty rekre recently, and the ratings are about the same, and the favorable have gone down in the recent years, but it is because the court is not in a political fight, and they are getting us into the thing that we find exhausting rather than getting into the situation that is legal questions of kenji raising. >> and it used to be that the supreme court being an icon clast was a good thing and maybe a leaning one way or another but we never know and i'm thinking of people like william o. douglas or felix frankfort or louie brandeis. i think it is a political court, and we le soo it -- we will see it coming up here, and the big decision as you are calling it loses the affordable act, president obama will have to fight it all over again and fight it now this summer and in the fall and say this is not an entitlement and a human right. that is one of the things that

conservatives have done is to put the medicare and the medicaid as an entitlement instead of a human right. and lyndon johnson did that in the '60s because he had so many rubber stamp senators on his side, and president obama has been operating at best with 59 or 60 senators or 50, and it has not been easy on this one. >> and in both cases, the idea of not having the super majority of the democrats in the house and the senate of lbj, but the point of the 5-4, and any chance that this is going to be something other than a 5-4 decision, and any chance that the court comes back to say seven of us are very clear about what this act is? >> well, it could be a 6-3 on this legitimacy point, and 6-3 to validate and uphold the law on the ground that if kennedy goes with the liberal bloc then justice roberts may join to prevent another 5-4 decision. i want to pick up on something

that you said that is really important that i don't think that we should let go of, because you mentioned patricia schorr, and that was a 5-4 decision and so was united -- citizens united was also a 5-4, and this really in the wake of "bush v. gore" this monolithic look of the court slipped off of the podium in a way, and the justices became individuals and we heard individual stories of justice o'connor said this in "bush v. gore" and instead of the monolithic decisions of the court. >> and i want to go pack to the point of can we get to the point where we as americans think of as a entitlement but as a potentially fundamental right to protect and provide. up next are millions of americans' health care dramatically impacted by the

high court decisionk, and so is the health of the decision, and so we have a lot more with the health of the court coming up next if you're one of those folks who gets heartburn and then treats day after day... well, shoot, that's like checking on your burgers after they're burnt! [ male announcer ] treat your frequent heartburn by blocking the acid with prilosec otc. and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. if you want a soft bed you can lie on one of those."

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we are talking about the supreme court ruling of the health care affordable care act, and joining us are doug brinkley and karen finney and kenji yoshino, and so we are talking about what health care is, and whatever decision the court makes if we have to go back to the fight in the fall and the spring, any chance of americans thinking of health care as a fundamental right and something that we have to do? >> well, you know, it is a funny thing, because if you look at the polls and the affordable health care act, it will get mix ed opinions and a lot of people don't know what is in it and a lot of people don't like it and when you break it down to say, if you like the parts of health

care reform and the idea that everybody should have health care and you should get insurance even if you have a pre-existing condition and if you cannot afford it the government will give you help in getting it, they like it. to the extent that people think about it, they like the idea of universal health care and we have had medicare and had universal health care for over 65 for a long team and people love it. >> the funniest part of the town hall meetings was the tea party people saying hands off of my medicare, and you were thinking, where do you think that medicare is coming from, my friends? >> it is a slap your hand on the head moment. the people are there and the law is complicated, but in retrospect, delaying the imple ple mentation, because some people have been helped, but a lot of people don't realize it and don't realize what is in store. >> that brings up the brilliant

text of submerged state, and the idea that we experience the government benefits all of the time, but because they are submerge and invisible to us, we don't realize that we are benefiting from the government, and we start to talk about the wanting small government because we don't have a clear assessment, and medicare is one thing, but talk to me, kenji, about the medicaid, and how this affordable health care act talks about medicaid? >> well, it is a sleeper issue in the case, because everybody is so focused on the individual mandate, but the medicaid issue is a big clause. the articulation in english is can the government condition large sums of money on the states doing certain things like expanding eligibility for medicaid and the states are saying this is coercion and federalism problemb and the federal government is saying it is our money. all of this goes back to 1987 supreme court opinion that basically gives the federal government much more power to sort of incentivize with a carrot of funds rather than, you

know, the mandate saying that thou shalt do this, so there is a much broader spending power than say under the commerce clause. but if we revisit this, it is a huge deal, and the supreme court goes back on "south dakota" 1987 opinion, which tips over to coercion, that is a major, major deal. >> so the conservatives is not wrong in the assessment that it is on the one hand about health care, but in a fundamental way about the role of government? sglel wshg it >> well it is interesting having survived the clinton version of trying to get it done, and i can tell you that at that time the message that worked the best were the interpersonal talking about the people, and talking about, you know, that child that has x-disease that we can cure, and everybody should have health care, and that feeling good, cut to the obama experience, most of the polls particularly because of the economy, those arguments didn't work. yes, because we don't want kids to be sick and all that, but the

economics were really what people were more concerned about, and part of the problem is that the conversation in the framing of this conversation has not found a way to talk both about the human side and the economics, and the truth is that like we forget with all of the rhetoric, companies were moving ow of the countk because of heae costs and reforming health care is an economic issue that is a muddled conversation over who controls the dollars and instead of what are we trying the accomplish here on the human and the economic side. >> that happens here on the table when i have conservative commentators contributing to the conversation and frequently they will say that businesses are telling me that the obama care, the affordable health care act is going to cost me so much money and put them out of business and honestly, i find it difficult to find out what about the affordable health care act would make it harder on the businesses, because it feels to me over and over again it is simpler and certainly universal

health care would. >> and millions and millions of dollars were spent to get the message out. this is another example of money in politics influencing the conversation. >> and it can take you back to the fundamental right issue, and i like to come on the show and bring up a couple of cheerful points, but i happen to be deflationary of this one, because when we think of the fundamental rights, we think of the constitutional rights, but unfortunately the constitution is a constitution of negative liberties and not positive liberties so we are a outliar of the other constitutions. >> free from interference. >> yes, other than the entitlement of the well flourishing of well-being and so even though we believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that is not a constitutional guarantee, right. >> it is too bad that in the declaration of independence that they had the visionary moment that property became a vision of

happiness. >> and when you go into the constitution, you have to really pore over to find that fundamental right. so if this is a fundamental right, i don't want us to be confused that this is going to happen in a constitutional landscape, but maybe in legislation, and that is when it will. >> in terls of leadership, right? >> look at franklin roosevelt in terms of the social security, and you won't hear mitt romney trying to cut social security in the campaign, because people think of it as a right to have social security, so some day in this country, there will be health care via that wind, but when, we don't know. you made an interesting point, and i want to be bleak and say that the supreme court says good-bye to obama care and nixes it, this is barack obama losing a cigsignature achievement and guy like me in history thought it was a big hoistorical bit, ad

then he will have to fight that again and because of romney care in massachusetts and because of all of the people criticizing him, it could be an opportunity for president obama to have this fight once and for all, and it would get aw waway from the job jobs, jobs and if the economy is not doing so well, reenergizing people as a right, health care might work. he is going to have to have that fight. >> you went from being grim to most optimistic thing i have heard is that if the supreme court strikes down the health care act, we might endb up with the once and for all universal health care argument. thank you, jonathan. my one man, one vote is not just an idea or reality, but something that you have to fight for everyday. i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin.

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of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. it was nearly 50 years ago that supreme court chief justice earl warren declared one man,

one vote. he was speaking in 1963 when the court was grappling with the equality of voting representation, but the idea he was expressing that inside of the ballot box all voices are created equal is at the very heart of american democracy and only in a presidential election one man, one vote is just that, an idea, because the truth in practice is this. individual voters the one man or one woman do not actually choose the leader of the nation. that decision falls squarely on the hands of another american institution, the electoral college. a presidential candidate does not dream of 51%, but the number of 270. 270 electoral votes to secure the white house and this means that many americans are effectively disenfranchised in presidential elections. are you a democratic voter living in the deep red west? well, your vote for the school board or congress might matter a lot, but the vote for president, not so much. your blue vote in a solidly red state is obliterated by the winner take all electoral

college and the same for you republican voters living in the blue beacons along the american coast, and kind of oone man-no vote their owe. but if you are a voter in one of the nine states highlighted on the map representing a total of 110 electoral votes, your vote matters a lot. these battleground states and those who could reasonably go to president obama or to mitt romney carry the weight of choosing the president for the entire country. it is almost like battleground voters are one man, two votes. and of these critical states, those voices that are usually relegated to the margins and the people of color, the poor and the elderly and ex-felons they don't just matter, but they matter in ways that can decide the outcome of the election which is why this next map is equally if not more important than the electoral map in understanding what is at stake in 2012, because this is how the voices in the margins could be silenced on election day.

all of the states highlighted in green and impressive number introduced legislation in 2011 that will restrict the access to voting in this year's presidential election, and that is 34 states introduced photo i.d. laws and at least 12 states with the new legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register or to vote, and at least 13 states with the laws that would end election day and same-day voter registration, and limit other registration efforts and nine states to introduced bills to reduce the early voting periods and two states, florida and iowa, have disenfranchised the majority to citizens with past felony convictions after previous legislation that rights. according to the brennan center for justice, those laws will disproportiona disproportionately impact low income and minority citizens and students, all eligible voters who already face the biggest hurdles to voting. and interestingly, all people who tend to vote democratic,

because you see, this is a question of strategy, and what this isn't is the new jim crow, because the old jim crow, and the only jim crow was about the subrogation of black people under the system of white supremacy, and black and white, and voter suppression in 2012 whether it is purging thousands of voters from the rolls or stripping the rights, it is not about black and white, but two colors, red and blue. reading the system to take the meaning away from the majority. coming up, i'm going the tell you how the voter suppression efforts have gotten so ugly in one state that the justice department had to step in this week, and the strategy of keeping you from voting is ahead. [ music playing, indistinct conversations ] the charcoal went out already? [ sighs ] forget it. [ male announcer ] there's more barbeque time in every bag of kingsford charcoal. kingsford. slow down and grill.

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according to the analysis by "the miami herald" the result is more likely to separate latino and democratic voters from their voting rights. the herald reported that all of the names on the florida list hispanic democratic and independent-minded voter s as a the most likely to be targeted in a state hunt to remove thousands of noncitizens from florida's voting rolls. the list is filled with so many errors that hundreds of u.s. citizens in florida have received letters like the one of one veteran. according to think progress, the 91-year-old world war ii veteran fought in the battle of the buved a bronze star for bravery and voted for 14 years in florida and then received a letter from the county of broward saying that you are not a u.s. citizen. so problematic for rick scott that the state ordered them to

stop the purge, and they are reviewing the letter. we bring in myrna perez, and karen finney and brinkley. >> tell me! >> like i don't believe in conspiracy theories and i sid ate in the top of the show, but ever if i were this purging and the voter i.d. laws in all of the states that we saw. >> well, we have to remember that the purge process is being the context that it is in. first we had florida enact a restrictive law trying to impose the restrictions on the voter registration drives making it hard for people to get on the rolls. then they reduced the early voting people making it hard for people to actually vote. then they rolled back the clock with respect to really restoring the rights of people with criminal convictions and now they are making it harder for people to stay on thele rosb and fortunately the people are fighting back and succeeding. there was a preliminary injunction late last week that enjoined much of the most

restrictive and onerous parts of the florida law to restrict voter drives and the justice on the same day said we will be watching the purge process and we expect you follow the federal law. so it is important to remember while there are suppressive tactics, people are pushing back against them. when the people are pushing back, they are having success. the people in maine said we want our election day put back, and the federal court and state court in wisconsin said we will not tolerate this voter i.d. law, and the department of justice has stepped in, in several states. >> well, you can run on the flat treadmill and get up to what, 8:00 mile, and you can still do that if you push the incline up one, two, three, but it is harder and harder to main tin the speed the farther up the incline, and it feel likes the restrictions and fewer than 600,000 votes in florida and it would not take much of an incline to get rid of the 600

votes at the margin? >> well, the barriers at the voting box compound on each other and then cumulative and one one barrier cutting out this segment and another cutting out this segment, so that is important for the voters to stand up to talk about the supervisors of elections and the members of the congress step in to make sure that the federal and the state voting rights are protected. >> well, karen, i was in ohio in 200 h 4 and saw the lines that many of us felt like were imparted by decisions of secretary of state ken blackwell and others and to recognize that voting, and there is the voting restrictions and also voter technology and how many machines to vote in each precinct and how do we get to the point where we have uniformed voting technology and conditioning for all americans? >> well, supposedly in 1993 we had motor voter to make it easier and then we had halo to

address the problems, but what happens is that traditionally the gop-led states where you see it is about where the machines go. it is restricting voter registration. it is voter i.d., and these things are not new as you say. going back to the '80s if not before we have seen this, and remember that back in the bush administration tim griffin, a protege of karl rove was implicated in a vote purging scandal, or scheme from the 2004 election. carl roef happens to be one of the biggest funders to the super pacs and why are we surprised here again it is the same thing? why don't we, and your point is well taken, but we need an ongoing national strategy, and how did some of the voter i.d. laws get passed in the first place? why weren'ter were fighting them back harder when they were proposed? why weren't we fighting harder in florida and in a lot of groups doing a lot of great work, but it feels like the piecemeal and then we get to the

point where it is may or june, and we realize now that we are worried, oh, my god, people can't vote and same-day registration, and where with are the machines going to be, and have it happen as it happens and rather than the forethought to get ahead of it. >> i like the idea of people power and we can push back against this, and i also think that the whole reason that the sorts of laws work is that it is the folks with the fewest resources in a variety of human and financial resources who are the most easily discouraged and now we are saying not only do you have to do the work of voting and you are to have the work of having a social movement to maintain the voting rights, and we are asking some sorts of citizens to do much more work to be citizens, and it always feels to me that it happens in part because of the fundamental inequities in the y s iies in including the electoral college meaning that some states count more than others.

>> and what is funny, and not ha-ha funny, but funny peculiar is that we did have the social movement, right. it was called the social movement that led to the voting rights act of 1965. >> oh, yes, i remember that. >> and what is frighting about all of this is that the last eyes to have looked on that movement and there is a voorhees line that says that the last eyes looked on jesus christ's eyes and we are looking at the last generation who experienced that movement of equality in voting. john lewis was someone i was speaking to and he was leading the charge on it, and civil rights activist and bloody and be beaten to a pulp on the bridge, and his incident led to the voting rights act in 19 65 on his point of view, and he has been on the show the talk about this, but deja vu and his age, this is tragic for him to be witnessing, and very soon fewer

witnesses who have actively participated in the first social movement. >> and that is a key example and i want to ask you a little bit about this, because obviously, it is his work, but my colleague writes that what happens is that we see the bloody sunday happen as americans and they write letters to lbj and they say we are not this kind of country. whatever else we are, we are not this, and that provides the president to make a stance in front of the joint sessions of congress, but part of what i'm shocked at is that this idea is just happening to these people over here and i want republican voters outraged by this, and not who may or may not win as a result of this, but the republican voters and the republican members of the house of representatives, and i want us to feel as a country like we are not the kind of of people who take, who purge veterans from voting rolls. >> the media can play a role in this. when i worked on "cronkite" the

big thing of selma and lewis was cbs went from 30 minutes to 60 minutes and covering selma and montgomery, and dr. king getting into the people's homes and our conservation is great and cable needs to talk about this issue, and we are doing more. there is a museum in selma for the voting rights act, and everybody should visit if you can, but people have forgotten about it. it is bipartisan, because mayor daley used to do some cemetery voting. and there is all kinds of chi canary -- so what happens in ohio cannot let 2004 happen again. bobby kennedy, jr., the best environmental lawyer for the last decade wrote a piece in the "rolling stone" and you might want to pull it up of what happened in ohio in 2004. >> i want to hold for a moment,

because there are real on the ground things to do, and maybe we are not john lewis. >> and there are things that john lewis is doing. >> yes, to make sure that we are protect i protecting the voters' rights. more on that coming up. but new crest pro-health clinical plaque control reduces plaque and is clinically proven to help keep it from coming back. new crest pro-health clinical plaque control toothpaste. do you have any idea where you're going ? wherever the wind takes me. this is so off course. nature can surprise you sometimes... next time, you drive. next time, signal your turn. ...that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you.

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it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall. [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can come from any faucet anywhere. the brita bottle with the filter inside. we were talking about voting and the dream of one man, one vote. still with me at the table is myrna perez and kenji oyoshino and karen finney and johnathan cohn. >> well, there is an tie depression component of it and there is a component of it that makes it all, such that all people who are out of of prison but have criminal convictions are able to vote in the federal elections. >> i want the pause, because sometimes the voters and walter

cronkite trained himself to speak in 204 words a minute, and that he had to train to slow down because people could not understand him. and tell us about the caging. >> well, caging is the idea of taking a list and using that list to either remove the people from the rolls or challenge the people to vote on election day. we think that the origin comes from the old days when they used to use mailboxes and literal ly look like cages when some piece of mail would come back and it would be put in a particular thing that looked like a cage. one of the really important aspects of the voter empowerment act is voter registration mod n modernizati modernization, and it takes the responsibility of registering all eligible americans and puts it on the government and includes very commonsensical and reasonable ways of making it easy for people to register to vote. we use technology as opposed to this ramshackle paper system.

and people would be surprised. >> and puts it on the federal government, because on the one hand i want to say it is the mean and the evil and bad republicans which it is in certain ways, but also if states have to do the work of voting, of voter day, it is expensive. states are going broke, and states can't get the, you know, the cities can't get the garbage picked up and the states are having trouble covering the medicaid rolls and they are not going to make major investments in the voter technology, and it has to come from the federal government. >> yes, and supposedly where it is happening the state of tennessee passed a voter i.d. law which is expensive for the law, and that is the irony of the voter i.d. laws, because they are not, and they say that the i.d.s themselves are free to the people, but we know that is not how it is working out and the states themselves do incur a cost just to implement the laws, so you would think that the state level they'd say, we'd love the federal government the do it, but there are efforts and teachers and why not let

teachers who have high school seniors help the kids to register to vote, but you can't do that in florida or a lot of states. >> and so people are willing to pay a self-tax in order to suppress the vote? >> well, the flip side then it is oh, it is too expensive and we can't do it, and the logistic, but it is plenty easy to suppress the vote it seems like. >> well, the best thing about the voter identification modernization is that it uses technology that is available to try and make things more efficient. imagine that we were talking about the explaining to the voters what happens on a normal scenario, and a person at the dmv has to fill out a piece of paper. they have to give to a piece of paper to the person who works there and then sent to the election office and someone needs to do the day entryta entd you have so many pieces talking to each other, and if it were

electronically transmitted you would put so much more efficient, and less errors on the rolls and those are the things that we have to be looking at that those kinds of investments are easy and we can use the existing mechanisms and service delivery systems that we have at public service agencies at dmvs with the selective service to make it possible for all americans to be on the rolls. >> i have an incentive question here which is that every person who holds office from dog catcher to president won that office under whatever the current rules are, so does that mean there is a fundamental d disincentive for elected officials to broaden the electorate, because afterall, if they have made it to the office, they have made it to the office under what these rules are? >> well, i guess so, because you could think about the changing demographic of the electorate so it is not the stable entity that is constant over time, and one

of the things that happens is suppression laws is the real fear that america is more and more diverse and people of racial minorities or the national origin minorities tend to vote democratic, and that is forcing the suppression, and i guess i would also add to that just so that we don't lose the direct line between the voting rights act of 1965, and today, you know, that d.o.j. letter that myrna was referencing earlier is a letter from the d.o.j. saying that look, florida has fife counties covered under the voting rights act and before those counties make any change in their voting practices, they have to get preclearance from the federal government and that preclearance was not obtain and therefore this voting purge is illegal. >> looking at the florida map at which counties are doing sort of the most work in purging where we are expecting the largest voter purges to occur, and they

are undoubtedly correlated with the demographic changes, but this idea of preclearance of the federal government does actually have a say over the former confederate states because of the behavior in the context of the jim crow system. >> exactly, and looping back to the original question, what i would want to say is that one of the fascinating things about don't incumbents want to enforce the laws that would favor them, and i actually feel like it has taken an incredibly long time for the democratic d.o.j. to enforce this law that has been on the books and one thing that is shocking about florida, too, is that speaks to the collective memory about the voting rights and i don't think that florida thought it needed to do,ed a i de -- and i defer to myrna. >> well, it works as a bull wart against discrimination of all kinds, and particular provisions of it are being challenge and

the wave of the suppression laws that we have seen around the country and the incident that i have is critical. >> and the last word on this topic, and if we look at our historical sense of ourselves as americans in voting, is there a message that is useful that might lead you to be bipartisan that we can use. >> we all have to be hawks on the voting rights. there are always people willing to chip away at them, and i have learned that everybody should write a letter to myrna, because she is on it and i'm proud of her. andis simple and not just the technology and the laws and we need easy places to vote. in austin, i am surrounded by five options to vote, but in cities and poor neighborhoods, people have the go miles fand it is raining and it is difficult, so we have to restore and focus where people are going to vote in ohio and have as many voting areas and booths as possible.

>> am so sorry that you used to live in austin but you used to live in new orleans, because it is a that was a nice save. >> we like texas. >> you did it. anyway, boy, one strange week in politics, everyone. in fact some comments we heard may change the course of the election for the president or mitt romney. we'll look at that in strategy talk. and massachusetts senate candidate elizabeth warren fights back. she defends her heritage. it's a new interview you may not have heard. a huge celebration in london for the queen. what connection does camelot have to do with today's festivities? we'll explain all that. in office politics, the "today" show's matt lauer tells me how he presses politicians for street answers even when they don't want to give any. and new details on the disappearance of amelia earhart, just remarkable information coming in. super cool if you like those kinds of mysteries. it's a good one. >> alex, did you find amelia

earhart? >> what? >> did you find amelia earhart? >> oh, no. i wish. i've always been fascinated by that story. up next, how being a mentor to one teen is the first step in changing a whole community. ♪ power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. want to start the day with something heart healthy and delicious? you're a talking bee... honey nut cheerios has whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol. and it tastes good? sure does! right... ♪ wow. delicious, right? yeah. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... ♪ well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. what's the rush? let'"that looks hard"oject from to "that didn't take long". let's break out behr ultra...

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sometimes one person with a passion can impact an entire community. the founder and director of the women worldwide initiative spends her wednesdays at a high school in east new york for one specific reason, to provide a safe space for teenage girls to learn to vent and grow. her new young women rock mentorship program cult vats sisterhood bonds between mentors and young women in a neighborhood where more than 30% of the population lives below the poverty line and approximately one in ten teens becomes pregnant. because of her dedication and vision, she is this week's foot soldier, and we sent a camera out to brooklyn to see her in action. take a look. >> so everyone stand up and get in a circle. we're going to do a trust circle

exercise. >> my name is orida, the founder and executive director of the women worldwide initiative. the program is dedicated to strengthening the lives and communities of young women in underserved neighborhoods. today we are at watch high school in east new york. it's actually the neighborhood that has the highest percentage of its population living below the poverty line out of brooklyn and new york city as a whole. so young women rock really provides a safe and stable and positive relationship for them with people that they can open up to. >> the program keeps me sane. it's good to open up and talk. my mentor is bianca. i love her, she's the best. she's like a big sister. >> today's session is on drugs and alcohol. >> i think that they're benefitting from it because we're showing them that it's positive examples, especially me who comes out of the community and we can relate to them. a lot of the things that we talk to them about, i actually went

through it and didn't have anyone to go to, to talk to about it. >> my close friends do drink alcohol. >> we're talking to these teenage girls about self-esteem and self-confidence building. this idea of your personal identity and your self-worth. the consequences of being sexually active and also the undeniable pressure they will face to engage in sexual activity. >> we've done a lot of different sessions on a lot of different things. one was on food. we talked about better eating habits and a lot of the girls have changed their eating habits. some of them said they never drank water. now they're starting to drink water. >> the girls are slowly starting to understand their own importance. it's those moments where the girls feel self love that i feel extraordinary and it's actually a feeling that i can't really describe.

>> she has seen the power of mentors in creating the light of self-love. and for that, she is this week's foot soldier. that's our show for today. thank you to myrna and ken, karen and doug for sticking around. thanks to you at home, in texas, for watching and i'll see you tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. former virginia governor doug wilder is joining me. coming up next, "weekends with alex witt." [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter.

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