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. this morning the rise of sighborg and the coming reality. plus, the united states makes the best of kicking the best and brightest out of the country, but that's about to change. and the world holds its breath as greeks and egyptians head to the polls. greeks and egyptians once again? once again, global stability is in their hand. but first, two men, one path of their choice. it is the path in all its nerdy glory.

good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. before we begin, the united nation observers this morning say that they are suspending their activities in syria because of escalating violence there. and this may be the latest sign any efforts at a peace plan are deteriorating. we'll get more from richard engel later this hour. but now to the top political story. this week the candidates made it plain. 550 miles apart, both candidates for president laid out very different visions for revving up the american economy. and no surprise, they did it in the battleground of ohio. mitt romney spent most of his time outlining what president obama hasn't done. but he did note a few things that he would do if elected in november. take a listen. >> i happen to like the sources of energy that we have in abundance in this country. oil, coil and natural gas, and i'm going to take advantage of those to get the energy costs low to have more jobs,

manufacturing jobs and bring them back to this country. i'm going to get rid of obamacare. number three, i'm going out to the deficit. >> minutes after governor romney finished his speech in cincinnati, it was president obama's turn in cleveland. he left, no doubt, out what the number one issue in the election is. >> this election is about our economic future. yes, foreign policy matters. social issues matter. but more than anything else, this election presents a choice between two fundamentally different visions of how to create strong, sustained growth, how to pay down our long-term debt. >> now what the president wanted to make clear this week is how we got here in the first place.

>> from 2001 to 2008, we had the slowest be job growth in half a century. the typical family saw their incomes fall. the failure to pay for the tax cuts and the wars took us from record surpluses under president bill clinton to record deficits. >> the president's framing is clear. the economic problems he's facing, that we're facing, are the ones he inherited. but his challenge is to have that message resonate with the american people who right about now don't necessarily want to hear that argument, even if it is accurate. for many voterses, the thinking is actually much more like this. >> show me the money! >> that's it, brother. >> show me the money! >> i need to feel you, jerry. >> show me the money! >> jerry, you better yell. >> show me the money! >> now who are people blaming? according to a recent gallup poll, 52% of americans give

moderate blame to president obama for the economy, but 68% blame president george w. bush. don't celebrate too quickly, when the same question was asked in july of 2009, 80% gave moderate to a great deal of blame to president george w. bush while 32% blamed president obama. and the thing about bush? he's not on the ballot. so those numbers aside, here's what else we need to know. no president since the great depression has been re-elected with an 8.2% unemployment rate and the only one to come close was ronald reagan re-elected in 1994 with a 7.2% unemployment rate. that was an improve from the 7.5% rate he inherited from jimmy carter, who was defeated in the 1980 election. so numbers, even as stark as these, are not destiny. the president still has an economic argument to make, accomplishments to out the and a vision to offer, but do americans have a clear grasp on

the economic accomplishments of the obama administration? quick, name three. right, you see, he's got them, but if you cannot name them, that's part of the problem. i'm not blaming you, this is a fundamental part of success. branding. time for president obama to start tooting his own horn because his challenger is framing the conversation like this. >> look, if there's ever been a president who has not given a fair shot to the middle income americans of this great nation, it is barack obama. >> and then there's the gaffe, at least as some people called it that was heard around the political world last week. >> the truth of the matter is that, as i said, we created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months. over 800,000 just this year alone. the private sector is doing fine. >> the president later amended his remarks to note that the economy was not doing fine but the opposition was already

making it into commercials. so did he go far enough this week? after all, the private sector really isn't doing that bad, but the public sector, that's another story. as noted by this chart, corporate profits are no longer plummeting. in fact, they are at a steep incline. and the assumption that corporations aren't doing well at all, well, that's false because the assumption of them not hiring because they don't have enough money is false. why should they hire people if they can make huge profits without doing so? so the president will have to translate how he plans to continue to pull us all back from the brink of economic disaster, whether through direct government job provisions, more small business loans or simply holding the line and seeing if it gets a more cooperative congress in his next term. one thing's for sure, he cannot afford for his message on the economy to get lost in translation. he needs to be crystal clear with where he wants the economy to go so that voters can decide if that's the vision that they would like to choose. at the table is israel ortega,

he is in charge of libertada.org. and my friend, msnbc anchor, thomas roberts. thank you for joining me this morning. okay. so, the economy is the central issue in this election. did president obama go far enough this week in making his claim? >> it was interesting because we got to be on the air together after the presidential briefing and the president said the words, the private sector is doing just fine, but he followed up by creating the contrast of what that statement was meant to represent. the private sector is doing fine, talking about job growth, but the public sector, the real estate market, it is sitting in front of me, real estate. the president was setting up the three conversations but saying, this is what our administration needs to focus on and in setting up the contrast with what's going on with the public sector. did he do a good job of it? maybe not because the statement can be utilized and used over

and over again to drive home that statement that the private sector is doing fine. >> that's the whole thing about it, it was a much shorter speech than we heard in ohio, but it was a pretty complicated speech. one trying to explain our connection with europe and what was going on domestically, but the thing that came out of it was the private sector is doing fine. >> go ahead. >> i have worked on a large number of campaigns and the question of gaffes when they stick and don't stick, they stick when they are a larger story than they have to tell. i worked for john kerry. and when the clip of john kerry saying, i voted for the war, before i voted against it, stuck. there was a larger story going on about that, but nobody believe that is the president thinks these are fine. >> but why not double down on the fine. there are those record profits. why not say, no, seriously, when i said it is doing fine, maybe there's no room for growth, but i do mean that compared to the public sector our problem here

is not corporations with sufficient tax breaks, private corporations with enough money to hire workers. let's get our focus on the public sector. >> well, that perception continues to exist. the president has not done enough to fix the economy. as you eluded to earlier, that's part of the challenge for the president right now, trying to sell this as soon as possible. bottom line, if you look at this, we have tried to spend our way out of the recession and it has not worked. essentially if president obama is going to be reelected he will finish those policies. >> we did start trying -- he had strong evidence that the stimulus package was moving us in the right way. then we saw this move backward. we only tried for a minute -- we didn't do a sustained stimulus. >> you make a great point about the fact that the president needs to be unapologetic about the fact that private businesses are sitting on $2 trillion in

financial resources that they could open up to hiring and allow that to happen. if they learn they can do and earn more by doing less, that's capitalism at its best. so they are going to continue to bank away on this cash. so the president, if he wants to be unapologetic, he could be. but that's going to hurt people in the middle class, people that have been struggling through all this. we don't need a reminder how bad it was in the early 2000's. we don't need a reminder how bad it got in '08 and where we are coming up to the election. >> it is interesting about the reminder n 1994 david axelrod was so unimportant to the american public that you'll see on this clip we are about to watch, his name is spelled david axleron. here's what he had to say about things being okay when people are still hurting. let's look at dave axleron. >> as you cite the statistics saying the economy is improving, you almost do political damage to you're yourself. if you stand up and claim great progress, you are only

frustrating the alienating middle class more. >> the president takes credit for doing good things without doing what his own senior adviser in '94 said. >> i think that's what he did this week. he did three things. talked about where he came from first. we were at the edge of the cliff. then we were hearing him talk about what we were trying to do and what we did. the stimulus has mixed results. even a republican strategist who worked for mccain agreed that 80% of the economists think the stimulus worked. we have 4.3 million jobs created in the private sector in the past 27 months. >> yeah. part of what i want to ask you about here is, if, in fact, we say, there are two visions here. one is the president who laid out education, energy, innovation as his vision, and then we have small government on the part of republicans. what is a president who will be the head of governments, not the head of a corporation, the head

of our government, what is he meant to do if government is supposedly incapable of restarting and creating jobs and the economy? >> there's a role for the government to play here, which is to provide an environment for private sector to grow. what makes this country thrive and unemployment to eventually go down is small businesses growing, and that includes regulations. the fact that the president has imposed a heavy burden on small businesses. obamacare is another element to it. >> stop there. because i hear that a lot. the obamacare is part of that. why would a federal program that says every individual need to buy into health care. why would that be a burden on small businesses? >> well, if you're a small business owner now, you'll have to provide insurance to employees. you have to provide health insurance for all the employees. that's part of the way the law is written. >> except for the part that exempts small businesses.

there's that piece that you have to take into consideration. >> i sometimes feel like this language of the obamacare is -- the one thing that republicans did beautifully here that president obama and his administration and re-election campaign did right was to brand. we hear obamacare and believe a bunch of things about it that may or may not be true, but the gop did a great job of setting it up as scary and job killing. >> it has become a dirty word like moderate is a dirty word. compromise is a dirty word. but you can't forget that mitt romney is basically the godfather of obamacare and what e the did in massachusetts. the conversations they are going to have in the debates, boy, i can't wait. >> i really am going to love the health care question that will undoubtedly emerge because it will be tough for governor romney to, part of what he's wanted to do is say i'm the business guy, but the fact is he does have a governing record that includes a health care plan for massachusetts that looks like the one that was passed by

the u.s. congress for the overall country. >> the thing about the conversation that we heard this week in ohio, which was really interesting, the fact that both of these candidates are in ohio giving these speeches and the closest they have been in proximity on the campaign that we have seen, 250 miles apart. and the president is choosing to go to cleveland to speak to a community college and students. i grew up lower middle class in a row home in baltimore, maryland. i whatted a lot of friends that went to community college as a transition to go to a four-year institution. it's a great thing the administration has done. the first time the administration has focused on the importance of community colleges in this country. and the students that go through, you end up with a lot of kids in your classes. it started out with them getting two semesters or so at the community college. mitt romney going to cincinnati talking to manufacturing to get that arm of the kentucky border closed there. they know ohio is going to be so

important, but speaking to manufacturing and the people that are blue collar workers and are looking for a bigger, a bigger leadership vision from whoever the president is going to be. >> coming up, mitt romney's economic visions as we talk about the president's. but first, a trivia question. what was the unemployment rate the month before george w. bush was re-elected in 2004 and the month before bill clinton was elected in 1996? the answer is coming up right after the break. i haven't thought about aspirin for years. aspirin wouldn't really help my headache, i don't think. aspirin is just old school. people have doubts about taking aspirin for pain. but they haven't experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin. in fact, in a recent survey, 95% of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. what's different? it has micro-particles. enters the bloodstream fast and rushes relief to the site of pain. visit fastreliefchallenge.com today for a special trial offer.

blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees? it's the one you store in the freezer. same medicated pain reliever used by physical therapists. that's chilly. [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on. 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.

right before the break i asked you what was the unemployment rate before former president w. bush was in october

of 2004, 5.5% and with bill clinton it was 5.2%. the unemployment numbers are just one area of concern in november's election. until then president obama has to make sure his message is clear on what he's going to do to improve them so things like this just don't happen. ♪ >> the private sector is doing fine. the private sector is doing fine. >> that was a pretty clear attack message from mitt romney and one he drove home all week long. and president obama, the idea that president obama has not kept hid promises and doesn't understand the dire economic situation. back is israel ortega, tara

mcginnis and thomas roberts. mitt romney said in pennsylvania just a few moments ago, real quickly, let's listen to what he's saying because he likes this economic story. >> now i know the president wants to talk about the economy a little. not as much as i want to talk about the economy. he -- last time around, as you recall, his campaign slogan was hope and change. now i think he would like to change it to hoping to change the subject. >> yeah. he wants to talk economy. is this the winner for romney? just stay on the economy? >> it's a tough issue. it continues to pull people and the economy is the top issue for americans. absolutely. that's why romney is just talking about it as much as he can and the president does want to talk about other things. that's part of the challenge for the president. >> isn't it hard to believe that he's the guy who more feels our pain that president obama does? >> it is just not that sticky. back to things that stick, i think there's more in the $10,000 bets and i like to fire

people and other off-handed remarks that romney has made. some people don't believe he feels what most people feel. >> the big thing is he wants to get the president fired. i have a hard time not bringing papers, so i have romney in his soundbyte, in my experience of who works for me, whether it is my doctor or the person painting the house, i want to make sure they do a good job the first time. if they didn't, i want somebody else who did a better job. he didn't say, i want to fire him. donald trump, his buddy, he likes to fire people. the whole thing is about firing president obama. but has mitt romney framed a narrative of why hire me best? that's the distinction people are looking for in the short speech that he gave to compare to president obama's 54 minutes the other day in ohio. has he framed that conversation best to say, this is why you need to hire me instead of, i'm just not president obama. the other thing that

happened around this question of the economy was the jamie dimon testimony in front of the u.s. senate. and i feel like, okay, here's a moment where president obama can take this and say, hey, if you want a businessman for your president, then what you're going to be getting is the guy who is going to and go light more of this kind of behavior and sort of the lovefest going on between members of the u.s. senate. >> isn't that good stuff, though? >> but it felt like, go there and maybe these guys the bad guys, not the government. >> it was interesting, we had pete williams on to ask him -- and i put him in a tough spot, i said, how much of this the political theater and how much is worthwhile stuff? pete was great and didn't want to answer that, but i think people can draw their own distinctions from that. i don't know if we have video of jamie dimon in his presidential cuff links? what kind of message is that sending? i thought that was really fascinating. >> it's a little like, i'm running this, folks.

>> i'm running the show. he has a really stellar business record and reputation. he made a joke, i think, when someone said, what about your business reputation, it's so great? he said, well, not anymore. this is a minor hit for them. certainly something they need to turn around p.r.-why, but it was a cordial reaction. >> it didn't feel like anybody wanted to hold that wall street group accountable. wall treat is not a domestic issue but one that is connected to the larger global circumstances. so coming up next, we'll talk about how tomorrow's election in greece might, in fact, mean her more about our november election in the u.s. than you think. later we'll also talk about immigration. why do we talk about it all wrong all along? not once in my life did i ever think i would have heart disease. she just didn't fit the profile of a heart event victim. she's healthy, she eats properly. i was pushing my two kids in a stroller

when i had my heart event. i've been on a bayer aspirin regimen ever since. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone. so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i know if i take my bayer aspirin i have a better chance of living a healthy life. [ male announcer ] learn how to protect your heart at i am proheart on facebook. [ male announcer ] learn how to protect your heart what happens when classroom teachers get the training... ...and support they need? schools flourish and students blossom. that's why programs like... ...the mickelson exxonmobil teachers academy... ...and astronaut sally ride's science academy are helping our educators improve student success in math and science. let's shoot for the stars. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this. ♪ ♪

[ male announcer ] we believe you're at your best when you can relax and be yourself. and at thousands of newly refreshed holiday inn hotels, you always can. holiday inn. stay you. and now stay rewarded with vacation pay. stay two weekend nights and get a $75 prepaid card. sven's home security gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! how does this thing work? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back

on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!! so that's ten security gators, right? put them on my spark card! why settle for less? testing hot tar... great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? here's your invoice. our cloud is made of bedrock. concrete. and steel. our cloud is the smartest brains combating the latest security threats. it spans oceans, stretches continents. and is scalable as far as the mind can see. our cloud is the cloud other clouds look up to. welcome to the uppernet. verizon. tomorrow is election day in greece. and why does that matter to our

conversation of president obama and mitt romney's economic visions? well, what president obama has try to make clear is what happens here in his re-election efforts are definitely achblgted affected by what's happening across the pond. with a deepening financial crisis in spain, what happens to our economy and in the november election may be determined by factors beyond our control. back with me our israel ortega, tara mcginnis and thomas roberts. all right, so europe and its connection to what's happening with us. just give us the briefest way of thinking about what it is. >> europe is our largest trading partner for obvious reasons obama and everyone else realizes what happens in europe affects our economy. they are the largest foreign investors alongside china and other asian countries. we have a deep economic

dependence. that doesn't mean greece's economy is smaller than some of our smaller southern states, but that alone is going to torpedo our economy, it's not. in the unfortunate way we talk about greece as if this proposition falls outs out of the require row eurozone, it is over. >> if they do come out of the eurozone, we have to watch for other pieces coming out. >> i think of it like jenga. we know this from college or however you played it, but when you take out that piece, you have to find a way to make everything continue to balance. and with the eurozone, it is all physically tied together. does that mean, okay, you might potentially lose greece, but does that mean it is easier to then lose spain and portugal. it then creates the ripple effect. whereas it was a brilliant idea to tie together now this proves it was faulty and we can move

these big blocks out, which then create that is crumble. >> to be honest, i cannot believe you can unscramble the egg. most greek voters going into the polls right now, with respect to who they vote for, 80% of them believe greece should stay in the eurozone. they have absolutely no idea and not even the smartest economist on earth can tell you in confidence how the exit from the eur oshszone would play it. it would be tougher and you would have the fiscal union and the stronger european treasury. all thing that is they should have. let's be clear that greeks despite the tough conditions they are facing right now do know better. >> it is better to stay in and face even more austerity measures over the remainder. >> over economic suicide. let's be clear what an exit would be like, economic suicide. >> it is a jenga game or a scrambled egg, that's a different way of imagining what's possible. even as i'm listening to you all talk, i think, if i'm an

american voter and listening to the conversation, greece, eurozone, how is this connected to who we are? the president last week tried to do this. he shows up and gives his speech where he explains the role of europe. and part of what we hear immediately is he's whining and blaming europe for things that are failures in his administration. is there a way for professor obama to explain to us what is going on in a way that is politically relevant and savvy for him? >> listen, i think to some large extent, we are not immune in any way from what's happening to greece. it will be a real consideration. greece is going to be part of it. greece has an outside presence in the media compared to spain and italy. but the fact of the matter is, it isn't the way i think mitt romney describes it. he is making a strong case that we are going to be greece. you know, we are a long way from being greece.

>> but, is this -- i think this is a question of part four. as professor obama tried to explain it and the businessman with the understanding of the international global, not connected to nation way that capital moves, doesn't mitt romney have a responsibility to acknowledge, not just a will to become greece, but the willing of the complexity of the circumstances? >> ultimately europe has to decide this for themselves. we can only offer advice and we can say what we want, but ultimately this is a decision europe has to take on its own. for a lot of people watching this and what's happening in europe, it can be a cautionary tale. you have to look at the fact that some states spent more money than they were taking in. i think that offers to us in california, for example, they were spending a lot more money. they were accumulating a tremendous amount of debt and are now facing the consequences of that. that's the real question we'll

have. >> is it a debt story or is it a stimulus verse? i mean, we will do this collectively story versus the german us a ster austerity stories. >> this has to remain broad out of all of this, but i think it is for us to consider what it means domestically. and the president reminded us last week as we watch this unfold, the fact that europe is our largest business trading partner. there is going to be a major cause and effect as we continue to watch this go forward. >> we should not see europe collapse. >> people here at home are worried about dance lessons for their kids, picking up the dry cleaning, gas in their cars. they don't realize, here it is percolating over here. while again, the greeks will go vote tomorrow, we'll watch how the markets react on monday after what we see happen this weekend. >> it has become a classics

course. we are talking about the greeks and now will talk about the egyptians. because the egyptians are voting today and tomorrow to elect their first president since the downfall of hosni mubarak during the arab spring. but why are some people saying another revolt is brewing there? richard engel is joining us from cairo right after the break. [ fabric flapping in wind ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at nissan, our ideal is innovation. 5 all-new models over the next 15 months, including a completely reimagined altima. welcome to our most innovative year ever. nissan. innovation for all. ♪

but when i was diagnosed with prostate cancer... i needed a coach. our doctor was great, but with so many tough decisions i felt lost. unitedhealthcare offered us a specially trained rn who helped us weigh and understand all our options.

for me cancer was as scary as a fastball is to some of these kids. but my coach had hit that pitch before. turning data into useful answers. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. egyptians are going to the polls right now for the first day of voting to pick their next president. in the runoff for the conservative muslim brotherhood candidate against the former prime minister who served in the mubarak regime that was toppled last year. this week's voting has been overshadowed by the high court's decision to suspend parliament this week. and with such insecurity, many are uncertain of what remains of the promise of the arab spring that brought 16 months ago even the possibility of the election. richard engel is nbc's chief foreign correspondent covering the events from cairo for the

past year and a half. richard, what is the turnout like right now? >> reporter: so far the turnout has not been overwhelming. it is still early in this process. voting takes place both today and tomorrow. on a practical note, it is very hot today. it is the over 100 degrees. a lot of people could be waiting for the sun to go down. turnout has been moderate to light, but i don't think we can write it off quite yet. >> turnout could be one way to think about the level of enthusiasm about what this new possibility is, but it really feels as though in the past 16 months since the arab spring, for those of us watching from here in america, what has been established in terms of actual democracy and moving towards a more democratic form of government in that country? >> well, what is happening right now is the result of this arab spring and the egyptian revolution. the egyptians now have a very

real, very difficult choice between two boll already a opposites. on one hand you have ahmed shafiq. the last prime minister to serve under mubarak. and they call him here just a remnant of the mubarak regime. his opponents call him that. on the other side you have muhammed morsi from the muslim brotherhood. that has been banned from the country for the last eight decades. he wants to change the very nature of the country. egypt for decades has been western leaning and had an open western focused economy. it is in a peace deal with education. that could change under democracy. the egyptians gave them this huge choice. one reason we are not seeing a huge amount of people running to the polls is a lot of egyptians do not like either of these choices. and there's a sector of society that chose to sit out the election.

>> exactly. the choice between a remnant of the mubarak regime, as a result resulted in the revolt against this resolution. and what feels like sort of the sense of military coup emerging is is this revolution dead? was it truly revolution and these are the choices people end up with? >> i think that talk of a soft government is a coup. others were reporting to this court illegally. and the way you run for parliamentary election in this country is declare your party affiliation and put yourself on a party list and then you get elected based on your party affiliation. or run as an independent. what happened was many members of the muslim brotherhood who are known members of the muslim

brotherhood, including the head of its political party, ran as independents. one they were into the party, they started voting. it was canceled and dissolved and particularly members of the brotherhood are now crying foul saying that the military is trying to stack according to the election. but there are two issues here. if it is an election that goes off and is free and fair. then the parliamentary action is almost a moot point. >> i don't want you to go without asking you about the developments from syria. they are scaling back activities there ands watching violence. what do you expect there? >> these are unarmed monitors

contribute contributed by driving around in armored vehicles and taking notes. the monitors themselves have been blocked and shot at. so today the u.n. mission decided to suspend operations. this will be a decision that's made on a day-by-day, case-by-case basis. right now the u.n. is senting the world to the whole end. it cannot continue like this, so for now u.n. monitors are going to see the base in hotels and not go out in certain directions. at least there were some credible eyes on the ground and right now they have behinded themselves. >> richard, thank you so much for the information. both from egypt as well as your viewpoint on syria. thank you for being with us this morning. >> my pleasure. up next, major news out of the white house yesterday. the overall of the country's immigration policy.

we'll talk to two undocumented immigrants who could face deportation and what the president's this week might be for them. ands a great presenta. so at&t showed corporate caterers how to better collaborate by using a mobile solution, in a whole new way. using real-time photo sharing abilities, they can create and maintain high standards, from kitchen to table. this technology allows us to collaborate with our drivers to make a better experience for our customers. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ sorry. sore knee. blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees? it's the one you store in the freezer. gives that instant cold sensation. that's chilly. same medicated pain reliever used by physical therapists. and it lasts for hours. [ sigh of relief ] [ short breath ] [ longer breath ]

[ short breath ] [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on. throughout our entire lives. ♪ one a day women's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. ♪ it has more of seven antioxidants to support cell health. that's one a day women's 50+ healthy advantage. thought they were dead. huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back.

roundup. no root. no weed. no problem. support team usa and show our olympic spirit right in our own backyard. so we combined our citi thankyou points to make it happen. tom chipped in 10,000 points. karen kicked in 20,000. and by pooling more thankyou points from folks all over town, we were able to watch team usa... [ cheering ] in true london fashion. [ male announcer ] now citi thankyou visa card holders can combine the thankyou points they've earned and get even greater rewards. ♪ [ creaking ] [ male announcer ] trophies and awards lift you up. but they can also hold you back. unless you ask, what's next? [ zapping ] [ clang ] this is the next level of performance. the next level of innovation. the next rx.

the all-new f sport. this is the pursuit of perfection. president obama made news yesterday by announcing the immediate end to the deportation of some undocumented immigrants. undocumented immigrants 30 years old or younger who meet a basic set of criteria who will be eligible for deferred action. the change could affect 800,000 young people now within u.s. borders. one of them is with us today. heidi mckeela came to the united states from guatemala when she was 4 years old. now 18 heidi is at the top of her class, decorated in an award from the national honor society with a key program and the governor of virginia. she just graduated from the meadowbrooke high school in virginia. but five months ago her bright future was cast with an unsettling shadow when immigration officials raided her family's apartment and issued

deportation papers for heidi and her mother. "the washington post" wrote a story on heidi and her mother giving them a one-year reprieve from deportation, but what was only a temporary fix might now with the obama administration's new policy be a long-term solution for heidi? joining me from richmond, virginia, is heidi and he lawyer, ricky. and here is antonio. his new book is "we are americans: just not legally." heidi, i want to start with you. i read your story monday in "the washington post"." and then president obama's position yesterday feels to me like it might absolutely impact your story. what is your reaction to it? >> i think it's incredible, everything that's happening

right now. this new policy that may be accepted is going to benefit everybody. and i was very happy to hear what was going on with me now that everybody gets a chance is incredible. >> heydi, i love that you said it that way. when i was reading your story, it really hit home because you graduated from meadowbrooke high school. and i just want to tell you i graduated from thomasdale high school and thomasdale and meadowbrooke were virginia rivals. i just kept thinking, this may work out for heydi, but what can we do to make sure it works out for everybody. what would you say to the president if you had his ear at this moment? >> i would say that this policy is going to help everybody out because this is what a lot of students have been waiting for. i know there have been students like the dreamers activist group fighting for this for a long time. and there are students who graduate from high school not knowing what to do with their

lives afterwards thinking that their life is going to end or that they have no hopes and dreams. but now this is like a new beginning. it's a new dream for them. >> heydi, i want to follow-up on that. for me, the most important part of your story is what happened to your plans for the future from the moment you thought you were going to be deported. can you talk to us a little bit about how you felt during the months moving up to your high school graduation? >> those months were very hard for me. i felt, in a way, like i wasn't going forward with my life when i found out about everything. i felt like i was reversing. i felt like i couldn't dream about more. i felt like i had to put a pause on everything because i didn't know if i was going to stay here or not. i have always wanted to stay here. i love this country. i want to be given an opportunity to go to school

here, to have my career here. and i felt like everything was coming down on me at that moment. >> yo are a pulitzer-prize story teller. when you listen to heydi's story, what resonates for you? >> everything. so i publicly came out about my undocumented status in "the new york times" and spent the past year, i have done about 60 events in 20 different states. alabama, virginia, iowa, texas. and you just hear -- i just remember graduating from my high school in 2000, the year before the dreams act was passed in 2001. back to her point about how to you say yes to yourself when the world says no, right? i mean, how do you do that? and that is really, i think, my

biggest -- you know, i'm 31 now. and -- >> which means you are outside the policy. >> yes was the first day i felt old. that was the first time. i was like, oh, i missed it by four months, but i cannot even imagine the kind of terror and the kind of anxiety that young people -- you know, every year heydi knows this, every year of 65,000 undocument ed kids graduate from high school every year. 65,000 every year. even though the president announced the policy yesterday, that doesn't impact financial aid, right? financial aid is not able to most undocumented students. to me, this is where the "time" article comes into play, it becomes a question of, you know we are here. undocumented americans are here. we are almost invisibly visible. what do you want to do with us? and more than that, when are you

going to realize that we are actually one of you? >> heydi, i want to come back to you on antonio's point here, this idea that i am one of you. your family is already divided, is that right? you feel yourself -- obviously to be an american, this is the country you grew up in since you were 4 years old. you went to high school in the town i grew up in. we are very much alike. what does your family need, not just you, but to be able to be your full family? >> my family needs to be together. be given the opportunity to not be scared and to feel free here. >> heydi, let me ask you one more question. now that you have a bit of a reprieve, what's your plan now? >> my plan now is to go to college and continue studying nursing. and i want to leave it all in god's hands because, thanks to him, he has done this miracle in

my life. and i want him to guide me through all of this. and if i have this chance now, i want to do whatever i can to enjoy it to the maximum. >> heydi meija, listening to you makes me feel hopeful about what's possible next. thank you to your attorney, ricky, for being there with you. coming up, the president's plan could change the lives of 1.4 million people like heydi. the magnitude of the new immigration policy by the numbers when we come back. and antonio is staying with us, don't worry. [ male announcer ] they were born to climb... born to leap, born to stalk, and born to pounce. to understand why, we journeyed to africa, where their wild ancestor was born. there we discovered that cats, no matter where they are... are born to be cats.

and shouldn't your cat be who he was born to be? discover your cat's true nature. purina one. 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.  [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can come from any faucet anywhere. you want to save money on car insurance? no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it.

this is new york. hey little guy, wake up! aw, come off it mate! geico. saving people money on more than just car insurance.

it makes no sense to expel talented young people who for all intensive purposes are americans. they have been raised as americans. understand themselves to be part

of this country. to expel these young people who want to staff our labs or start businesses or defend our country, simply because of the actions of their parents. >> that was president obama friday afternoon in the white house rose garden announcing his new policy for immigration reprieve for undocumented immigrants. this applies to those who wage to the united states illegally when under the age of 16 and continuously resided in the united states for at least five years before the change in policy. and are still living in the country. if those immigrants are now no more than 30 years old, have no criminal record and are either in school, have a high school diploma or served in the military, they can now apply for a deportation deferral for a period of two years. subject to renewal. now they will also be eligible to apply for work permits. and this is huge news for the 11.5 million undocumented immigrants in the united states.

including the 150,000 currently enrolled in high school according to the pew hispanic center. and up to 1.4 million children and young adults who stand to benefit directly from the president's change in policy. a change of particular note, because 396,906 people is how many people were deported by i.c.e., the immigration and customs enforcement in 2011. a figure in mind with the nearly 400,000 unauthorized immigrants deported in each of the first two years of the obama administration. which is 30% more than the annual average of deportations during the second term of the bush administration. now 59% of hispanics opposed the previous deportation policies of the obama administration. so at the risk of sounding cynical, this is a figure not likely lost on the white house. 12.2 million. that's the number of hispanic/americans expected to cast ballots in 2012. although i wonder if the number just ticked up a little bit. there's no doubt the immigration

debate has been reset. coming up, the right or maybe the left wing to talk about immigration. 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. every communications provider is different but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company. ♪ we link people and fortune 500 companies nationwide and around the world. and we will continue to free you to do more

and focus on what matters. so i test... a lot. do you test with this? freestyle lite test strips? i don't see... beep! wow! that didn't take much blood. yeah, and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. yep. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra. really? so testing is one less thing i have to worry about today. great. call or click today and get strips and a meter free. test easy.

laces? really? slip-on's the way to go. more people do that, security would be like -- there's no charge for the bag. thanks. i know a quiet little place where we can get some work done. there's a three-prong plug. i have club passes. [ male announcer ] get the mileage card with special perks on united, like a free checked bag, united club passes, and priority boarding. thanks. ♪

okay. what's your secret? [ male announcer ] the united mileageplus explorer card. get it and you're in. yes president obama issued an executive order to lszen the threat of deportation and grants work permits to undocumented immigrants. the president has partially achieved the goal of the dream act, which the republican-led congress refused to enact. the new policy provides two-year long reprieves from deportation to those brought to the u.s. illegally under the age of 16 but not yet 31 years old. if they meet the eligibility criteria, the youth may extend their stay indefinitely. hearing the statements in the white house rose garden yesterday, president obama was careful to emphasize this is not a measure or path to sit accidentship. >> over the next few months eligible individuals who do not

present a risk to national security or public safety will be able to request temporary relief from deportation proceedings and apply for work @ @rization. authorization. this is not amnesty or a path to citizenship. it is not a permanent fix. >> what i love about the rose garden discussion is that the birds seem very excited. by the immigration shift. good job, president obama, you go. but this is just a stop-gab measure that could become the new front on immigration reform. israel ortega is here with the spanish language website and the executive director of the applied research center and publisher of coloredlines.com. and the writer of this week's

"time" magazine story. thomas roberts. and we'll talk later about your work in the show. you have been doing great work on immigration, trying to get us to shift our conversation. did president obama help us in shifting away from a borders and fences mentality towards a thinking about the human realities of immigration? >> i think he did help us a lot. and i think his announcement yesterday and the tone of it reflects the debate that we are starting to have in the country about how closely our current approach to immigration policy matches up with our national values. so we say we value enterprise, we value families, we value acceptance and unity. what i thought was great about his talk yesterday, his speech yesterday, was that he really elevated some of those values when he talked about why he made the decision to really explicitly add people who are eligible for the federal dream

act, which obviously has not passed yet. he explicitly added them to the discretionary policy. >> it is interesting, on the one hand the president is taking the leadership role and changing the discourse on it, but this is the same president whose deportation records exceed that basically of george w. bush, who in total as president deported 1.6 million people. president obama who has not been president for four total years has deported 1.2 million people. and so this is definitely a two-sided narrative on immigration from this white house. >> absolutely. and i think what you're seeing here is -- this is one of things i talk about in "time" magazine. we are living in the golden age of coming out. more undocumented people will come out. this started in some ways, there were four walkers that walked from miami to washington, d.c. debbie bochenko was the leader

back in 2010. and i remember being an editor at request "the huffington post" and watch them on youtube do this thing and feeling incredibly inspired and guilty at the same time thinking, wait a second? i was in their shoes just six years ago and here i am living this life. how dare i not join them? >> just a couple weeks ago here we highlighted threen documented them activists arrested in new york. janet perez and sarah martinez called themselves undocumented and unafraid. when we heard the news, we wondered if it would impact the three young women who were doing exactly this kind of coming out activity. >> well, this is a great step by president obama. as an immigrant myself, i think that immigrants who come to this country feel positively inclined to the economic development of the country. i think the key now is that we

just don't extend this visa for two years but we do something with the immigrants. ma kenzie said 160,000 jobs is what the u.s. will need and cannot cover. why are we not bringing the high school students there? let's give others the incentive and show that immigrants who are undocumented or immigrants who come can really increase job growth in the country. >> it feels like immigration is a bit of an issue even within the context of the republican party at the moment. we obviously have mitt romney who is taking a pretty hardcore right line on immigration, a very fence line. and then we have marco rubio who is undoubtedly up and coming, still on the short list for vice president. i just wanted the listen to mitt romney yesterday talking about president obama's immigration policy and ask you a little bit about this within the republican party. let's listen. >> i believe the status of the young people who come here through no fault of their own is an important mat tore be considered and should be solved on a long-term basis so they

know what their future would be in this country. i think the action of the president today makes it more difficult to reach the long-term solution because an executive order is, of course, just a short-term matter. it can be reversed by subsequent presidents. i would like to see legislation that deals with this issue and i happen to agree with marco rubio as he lifted this issue. >> okay. so he's in a bit of a border here saying, i would like to see legislation. i said, we had some called the dream act. where does romney go politically in a moment like this? >> it will be a difficult challenge for him, but rubio is working on something. we'll look at it in more of a long-term perspective. that's sort of being lost right now. in the legislative branch, this is where it should have happened and there's a question about congress and the legitimate criticism on the president and what he did yesterday. if you think, the next president could do something like this, that is troubling. that aside, i think what this

did is a short-term measure, but there needs to be more leadership from the president and congress to do more on immigration. >> so it rings so hollow to me to hear he didn't end-run around it when dream act was up and the push from the administration to get this pushed. >> here's my question about it then. where then, it is interesting to just listening to mitt romney circle himself around him in this conversation, because at the end of the day, you know, the president has said that he needs the help of congress. but the republicans in congress, time and time again, have not been on the right side of history on this. >> they are democrats, though. claire mccaskill -- >> of course, but look at the pure numbers. and to me, this becomes a question of, look, we are all looking at the same demographic map. we are all looking at the fact that, what, every 30 seconds a latino in american turns 18 and becomes an eligible voter. every 30 seconds.

you know this. so if you are -- in the reality of the vision of america is that 17 million people live in a mixed status, meaning, for example, i'm filipino. we are like the italians of asia. i have like 15, 20 nieces, nephews, grandmothers and aunts. i'm the only one of 20 people undocumented. >> because you were sent here by your parents. >> right. and now everybody in my family is a voter. if i was an undocumented immigrant and i'm in a family where my brother, my brother, everybody is a voter and your casting me -- by the way, this is the important point to make. immigration is not only a latino issue. >> yes. >> this is really in the past year of what has killed me as i traveled around the country. because i have met undocumented canadians, germans, undocumented swiss people. >> we were looking at the cover

of the "time" magazine story and part of what's beautiful about the cover, there are 50-some different countries -- >> there are some from germany. there was a man sent here when he was 3 from israel and lives in brooklyn. we need more people. 300,000 out of the estimates 11.5 million people are from europe, undocumented europeans. >> how do we do the american story? how do we do we are the country of immigrants and yet address issues very much about border control, national security, while not sort of crushing the dreams of young people? >> well, i think we have to focus on highly-skilled immigrants. and immigrants already here, we have to turn them on that path. as you were pointing out, this is not only a latino problem, this is not only an american problem. why are we only thinking about america? australia, canada, singapore, they are all absorbing the immigrants that used to love to come to america. >> i want to focus on the highly skilled. i hear you and feel that turns

into an east asia and south asia narrative around immigration because it feels like the other piece of this is so easily stereo typed as the idea that particularly latino and mexican workers who come to the u.s. and do critical $the high-skill needed is literally making sure that this food can be available on this table. that we don't get to a place where we think of some dind kind of work valuable and not as valuable as other kinds of work. >> it is not that high-skilled immigrants contribute so much to the economy and people with other kinds of skills, what we call low-skilled immigrants don't. every immigrant who works in any kind of job generates more jobs. so my father, for example, was an engineer who started a small home improvement business and hired all native-born american workers, white men for 20 to 30 years. if he was picking an apple, that apple would have to be cleaned and delivered and sold. and all of that other range of

jobs are being done by americans. so i also want to point out that we can't make our immigration policy just on the basis of the economic contributions. immigrants are full human beings. they have intellect and are civically active and care about their communities and bring their cultures. we need to think about whether we are willing and what the long-term consequences would be of putting immigrants into an only economic box saying you are only a worker, we don't want the rest of you. keep that other stuff to yourself. immigrants need to bring their whole selves to the country and be integrated. coming up, are we stealing from our immigrant workers? i'll talk about that and we are also going to answer this trivia question. what percent of all children living in america are children of immigrants? that answer after the break. our cloud is not soft and fluffy. our cloud is made of bedrock.

concrete. and steel. our cloud is the smartest brains combating the latest security threats. it spans oceans, stretches continents. and is scalable as far as the mind can see. our cloud is the cloud other clouds look up to. welcome to the uppernet. verizon. more than 50 times a day? so brighten your smile a healthy way with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only rinse that makes your teeth two shades whiter and two times stronger. ♪ listerine® whitening... power to your mouth. but when i was diagnosed with prostate cancer... i needed a coach. our doctor was great, but with so many tough decisions i felt lost. unitedhealthcare offered us a specially trained rn who helped us weigh and understand all our options. for me cancer was as scary as a fastball is to some of these kids.

but my coach had hit that pitch before. turning data into useful answers. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

welcome back. before the break i asked you what percent of all children living in america are children of immigrants. well, the answer is 25%. now, according to this poll, undocumented immigrants contributed to $11.2 in local and state taxes in 2010 alone. that's almost $1,000 for each of the 11.5 million undocumented immigrants living in the united states paying into the collective pot. so if the pair dime of the wage-cuts and tax-draining numbers were valuable, are they focusing on the blameless unauthorized immigrants?

i have israel ortega, jose antonio vargas, and aesha kahn. think about immigrants stealing our jobs somehow. tell us a little bit about what wage theft is and the vulnerability of undocumented workers. >> well, ill grant worker who is don't have papers are extremely vulnerable to all abuse. wage theft is essentially when you do work and don't get paid. in the restaurant industry, for example, there's been a lot of documentation of workers not getting paid the minimum wage, not getting paid overtime, not getting breaks, and in domestic work and in that industry, also a huge problem in day labor, a huge problem. the problem really is that when you don't have papers and you don't have the right to organize or you do have officially the right to organize, but if you don't know that you have it and are easily punished for it, then people cannot -- they have no

recourse if they don't get paid what -- >> in alabama or arizona or one of these other states that have passed the lawses on immigration, if your foreman is telling you, oh, you are going to get $10 an hour for this but at the end of the day gives you $6 an hour, the likelihood of you going to local authorities is extremely low because you are almost more vulnerable than the employer is. >> i do want to say that even undocumented workers have the right to get their wages and can go to the labor department. there are community organizations, worker centers across the country that will help workers in that situation deal with it. so it's worth going because under the law you do, in fact, have the right to get paid proper wages. and it's worth coming out as people who aren't getting that. >> well, to that point, i want -- it is important to talk about this in a larger conversation in the sense of that's why we need to have a process to allow more temporary workers to come to this country. we need to streamline the

process so that we have more legal immigration because there are jobs out there that need to be filled. this is going to happen as long as we continue incentivizing illegal immigration. we need to focus more on ways of looking at the visa caps, are they the right number right now. these are topics that are in congress and that congress doesn't want to talk about because we are in an election year and we are in a recession. >> right. and the green card caps are literally decades old. so we have a long list of folks who are trying to come to the country legally. enormous difficulties around. even with the green card question, i love that -- >> in your article, mgm elliott capped this. going through the green card process and the waiting list and the family -- there are two ways that people can come from outside the united states to america. family base or employment base. and understanding the complexity

of this. it tells me that if you think the tax code is studying the immigration code, i remember sitting in my apartment and trying to figure out how to explain this to people. how do you explain the fact that certain countries with a population of 3 million people have the same cap as countries like mexico that has like 100-something million people. the question i got asked the most as i traveled around is, why don't you just make yourself legal? >> just do it. >> sometimes you have to get a list sarcastic. >> i would rather live on the edge and the anxiety of i.c.e. showing up at my apartment. >> i can't be like sandra bullock saying in "the proposal." i'm day gay and that's not available to me. the media can talk much more eloquently about this. the media, in general, has not been helpful in the way this

is -- color lines, by the way, please make sure you read it. they do the most con texual work on this issue. please read it. >> there are the president's did cushion discussion yesterday on tim grags policy. the immigration policy. a buddy of the show tweeted about this because the very idea we are talking about human beings, he says, can the media resist the temptation to turn a big "newsday" for policy into a story about the media. and the idea that you are yelling at a so-called reporter yelling at the president while he's trying to address the country about immigration reform. is there any possibility of us getting to -- you begin to talk and say, okay, we have a long-term issue here. we need to deal with high-skilled workers and low-skilled workers. just bringing down the heat a bit to address the very real

xrexty of the issue. >> i think the problem with immigration policy is primarily about being whether we let people in or not in. and i think what a recent report by donald hernandez from nyu shows us is if you don't take care of immigrants, their children actually suffer, both healthwise and educationwise compared to children of those born in the u.s. if you are going to let people, and you have to help out with the process. immigration is a marathon for any person who has been an immigrant. >> there's a huge point, the hispanic high school dropout rate is close to 50%. this is a real crisis. and i think that now that we have an opportunity to do something about education, which you said affects the immigrant community particularly hard is another thing congress should be looking at. >> i like hitting on that point. if we are going to provide amnesty for young people, then you have to also make sure they have high-quality public schools to attend because that's --

thank you to israel ortega and jose antonio vargas. up next, we have a new book that's convinced me and argue that is machines are about to take over. i don't think we should let them. rage against the machine. rage! rage! that's next. time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. nicholas brand of seattle wanted to start a window-washing business. the standout was he wore a scottish kilt made for him. he called the company men in kilts and went door to door offering his services. that attention-grabbing idea has grown to seven franchises with more in the pipeline. for more, watch "your business" on sundays at 7:30 on msnbc. [ male announcer ] research suggests the health of our cells plays a key role

throughout our entire lives. ♪ one a day men's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. ♪ it has more of seven antioxidants to support cell health. that's one a day men's 50+ healthy advantage.

if you have been watching closely, you may notice two of our guests today share a last name. and it is not just a coincidence. these two are the first married couples in nerd land. we kept them apart for most of the show but now they are together to talk about the new book, "hybrid reality." they lay out the future where truth sounds like science-fiction. we move past the information age and into a new age.

the hybrid age where the already-fuzzy boundaries being human beings and technology fall away completely. he or she rules the technology and rules the world. if you think it sounds a little bit like "the borg" seen here and the idea they have one resistance. they are futile and back with me now. so this book became -- it was like nerdland book club for us. some folks were deeply disturbed by the idea that we are going to become even more interrelated with our technology. should we be distressed about that? >> it is incredible that you are disturbed by mobile phones, because that's just the beginning. there are two dimensions to the reality. this is our engagement with robots, avatars and other social service technologies. but then there's the human

technology co-evolution, the way in which in our bio medical existence we are incooperating technology more and more and more to enhance ourselves. two dimensions such as this. >> i'm not going to have to worry about leaving my cell phone because it is going to be implanted in my wrist. is that where we are going? >> yes. and there's nothing bad about that. in fact, we have seen the miniaturization over this over the years. and the cell phone used to be like a mini briefcase. >> first the wall street movie he's walking out with it, yeah. >> but i think that it is going to improve our health in the way that you are able to have security for your children, but there's a dark side, obviously. we have already seen this in places like kia and japan. that example of a young couple who let their real baby starve while they were basically giving virtual milk and virtual food to the virtual baby because they were so addicted to the virtual life. but it is very disturbing and is

a good example for us to stay away from that this in technology. >> i first read the book and said, well, they are just making a point. this is what we have and where we are going. but then the other piece is the normative. should we be? so i'm a little obsessed with the john malkovich commercial. i wanted to look at that and ask you what you think about this commercial. >> life. >> try and be nice to people. avoid eating fat. read a good book every now and then. get some walking in and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations. >> it's a good answer from seeri, but the primary emotion now seems to be with his iphone is distressing. >> it doesn't have to be primary interaction. and we can use these things much more rigorously.

we saw this piece recently about behavioral modification through discipline and watching your behavior and how you should eat and exercise. it is better than medicating yourself. you have this nike band that you can put on that monitors how you are dealing with your day-to-day health and improve results. what if you phrase it that way scene say, use this technology, it is going to lower the expenditure and people are going to modify their behavior without the help of the whole medical system and doctors and so forth. >> like another example, for instance, a lot of us are busy moms and dads and yet we have parents who are aging. that's the problem the whole world is facing. now the japanese have developed the robotic furry seal. and if you leave them with the elderly, it automatically responds to them, touches and purrs and responds.

it is our instinct as human whatever responds to us regardless if it is an inanimate object. >> my mom who is retired has an actual cat. the biocat is a good friend to bio grammy. what i'm wondering is why would robocat be an improvement over bio cat? >> it doesn't have to be. you just have to remember to feed it. the robo cat can send an e-mail to you if your mom fell on the carpet. >> i wonder if i can train bio cat to send an e-mail. i want to ask you the political side of this. there's this incredible chart, like everyone who reads this book is going to stop at the chart. and it's a chart where you have kind of the breakdown of the american nation. in fact, the world nation state and the idea, for example, that someone like mayor bloomberg,

mayor of new york city elected only by the people of new york city, and yet his dot on this global interconnected reality is as big as the dot for at&t, and for all of africa. this idea that he just there is that powerful. i want as a democrat with a little d, i want a one man, one boot check on the power of technology. is that possible? >> no, it's not. and what this chart is showing is that technology determines who has power. it is not just about constitutions and we don't have a global constitution either. throughout history, whether we are talking about the nation state being the most powerful unit or empires or cities, it is because they are harnessing technology better than others. we call it the info state. bloomberg is there separate from new york city and separate from the united states and separate just from wall street because of the fact that new york has this almost awe ton autonomous

policy. it is better that way. >> on that, because i'm not sure, and it makes me anxious to hear you say that, yes, i want to come back and talk more about exactly that. and whether or not technology is, in fact, changing the way we do politics. it's changing how we donate to our favorite candidates. what else is about to revolutionize with our technology? that's next. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] there it is ! there it is ! where ? where ? it's getting away ! where is it ? it's gone. we'll find it.

any day can be an adventure. that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you. wow, there it is. 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.

 let's get our creativity great tasrunning. water can come from any faucet anywhere. then get some blades spinning, paper sanding, and bits turning. let's motor to the only place that carries our favorite tools... for our favorite people... armed with a budget and a mission... and see what happens when we put those tools to work for us. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get this ryobi 18-volt drill kit for the new lower price of just $69. the federal elections commission is making it easier for you to donate money to political campaigns through text messaging. this allows voter and politicians who count them to get even closer, but the texting of a donation to a campaign or signing a change.org petition

engages in political engagement. i have ayesha and her husband here. and we have msnbc host thomas roberts. if you go on twitter right now, you can see a picture of thomas' nerdland socks, which he tweeted out. so i want to ask a little bit about the politics of this. asking whether or not we can get democratic with a little d check on technology. but the democrats with a big d started using technology in 2008 in a way that felt game-changing. the joe biden text message, who cares who the vice president is. and yet just the cool idea of the campaign communicating with you via text message so that you can scoop reporters about who the vice president would be. it felt like a technological way to draw you into the campaign. >> it was a dramatic change. i think the obama campaign, in particular, embraced what was

new about technology. they personalized it. this was the first time millions of people were friends. it was mybarackobama.com. as a much more intimate relationship of people talking to him through facebook. >> and yelling at him through facebook. go put it on the facebook page, right? and tell us, obviously technology always impacts politics. this is actually the day in 1972 when people were caught breaking in to the democratic head quarters at waitergate. we are on the anniversary of that. and also water gate is a form of the technology in politics. should we feel nervous about this? is there something about the actual sort of electoral campaigns and their use of technology that we should try to harness? >> no. i think the only thing we should feel nervous about are the people in mitt romney's campaign don't know how to do spellcheck. >> that's weird, huh? >> because of the apps with the sneak peek and a fickle.

i think they have an issue. you talk about 1972 and we'll talk about 1982. i don't think we have seen misspellings from the right like we are seeing right now, but should we be concerned? no, this is great. this is allowing that conversation to build, whether people are on their phones or at their desks. and then it brings people around the table, whether it is the kitchen table or the dinner table to have conversations. did you see this tweet? did you see this link? did you hear what was said at this press conference? >> is that what it does? does it facilitate real-life interactions, does it make us lonely. if we think we are having a revolution online, do we bother to have the actual revolution in the streets? i love the idea of facilitating but worry about it taking the place of it. >> facebook was a tool towards a broader revolution and i think that's important to point out. in the american context, the

goal is not whether or not you're on facebook or giving your views on television, we wanted the more i formed and educated to debate the issues. just because you are debating on facebook, you still have to go in november to vote. it is very important to make that clear. but yes, this is actually -- this is technology with facebook or twitter in the second wave. media saturation itself was the first round of governing politics. that's when we started talking about meters and gochblging by public opinion polls. and there's a second wave that we have not been talking about, the way technology is helping government be more efficient. that's code for america and apps for government and these kinds of things coming about as well. >> what about voting? if i can text message my donation, shouldn't i be able to voton line? >> ryan seacrest can host election night like "american idol." never have we mad more votes in the history of the presidential

election. like every year on "american idol," there's never been this many votes. people can access that way. i think there would be potentially a great way to streamline that, but when we think about twitter and all these other great avenues for information getting out there, perception is reality when it comes to how many followers people have. so it makes you think, does newt gingrich really have the amount of followers that he said he had? so then people either -- he picks up followers because, wow, so many people are following him. he must be sending interesting stuff. or you have to think about which came first. >> i want to stay on exactly this point and also give an agenda twist. sarah palin actually became more important to the political sphere when she got rid of the actual government job and just got a really good job facebooking what she thought, right? >> she's the person asking the questions so you don't really have to answer face to face.

>> just put it out there. so when we come up next, we'll talk about, maybe not just sarah palin but women in general. why are the women of tomorrow seeming to be so male and what can we do to change that? that's when we come right back. ♪ pop goes the world ♪ it goes something like this ♪ everybody here is a friend of mine ♪ ♪ everybody, tell me, have you heard? ♪ [ female announcer ] pop in a whole new kind of clean with new tide pods... a powerful three-in-one detergent that cleans, brightens, and fights stains. just one removes more stains than the 6 next leading pacs combined. pop in. stand out. but when i was diagnosed with prostate cancer... i needed a coach. our doctor was great, but with so many tough decisions i felt lost. unitedhealthcare offered us a specially trained rn who helped us weigh and understand all our options.

for me cancer was as scary as a fastball is to some of these kids. but my coach had hit that pitch before. turning data into useful answers. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

for a cookout with world champion grill master brett gallaway. he's serving his guests walmart choice premium steak. but they don't know it yet. they will. it's a steakover! the steak is excellent. very tender... melts in your mouth... so delicious... tonight you're eating walmart steak. what? it's good steak. two thumbs up. look, i ate all of mine. it matches any good steak house if not better. walmart choice premium steak in the black package... it's 100% money back guaranteed. try it for your father's day barbeque.

we have been talking about the future of technology. one of my questions, where are the women? it's a question that the industry is representing by the acronym s.t.e.m., science, technology, engineering and mathematics have had trouble answering. women fill half of the jobs in the u.s. economy but hold only 24% of the jobs in the s.t.e.m. industries. still with me are ayesha, tara and thomas, if we are moving into the future of technology, everybody has to come together. and if power is going to lie in

the hands of those who have technological power, women not having it makes me very nervous. >> absolutely. i think that this is a big problem in silicon valley that we have an underrepresentation of women. only 5% of start-ups are funned in silicon valley are those funded by women. and across the board you see that 60% of college graduates and women, only 20% of the computer science graduates are women. so it's a question about supply and demand, but this is a great opportunity for us. this is a leading sector of the 21st century where we have to get more women involved in the sector and have got to encourage them culturally in silicon valley. we have to fund them, mentor them and provide them a better working environment. >> in part, if technology is meant to solve problems, then the things people think of as problems are, in part, related to where they are in the gender hierarchy or the class hierarchy. it was interesting to me in your book that this is on the cutting

edge of tech noblg, there's a lot of money in porn, but that could be a different kind of money than the kind of problems women want to solve if they had s.t.e.m. access. >> you move away from porn into something everybody is participating in like facebook. facebook came under fire for people talking about charles samberg as the ceo, but they have no female members on their board. and 55% of people on facebook are participating in this and facebook has been one of the pioneering brands in this space tells a story about the problem. there's been a campaign underway by a group of women who run an online organizing event called we are ultra violate to bring this to light. maybe that's a promising prospect. >> the leaders of technology and innovation and best buy, go get your technology there, but every single person in the ad that we think of as technological

innovator is a man. let me ask you, just quickly, just a bit off the gender question but still on the politics of it, if i am a candidate for city council to president, how do i best harness technology in this moment? the existing technology, not what's coming, for my campaign? >> i would say there are three big things you need to do. you talked about this earlier, it is not just about can we get this technology engaged by make the technology part of traditional campaigning. if you are a facebook friend, you can knock on the door. can you use technology to connect these things together. thing two is raising money. this is one place you can see dmak aization by serious interests. small donations to barack obama was a way people participated in a bigger way. now you can just text him. thing three is how it affects the media. twitter is not an organizer

vehicle, but twitter is a great source for breaking news. with campaignses being so much about the earned media cycle as well, twitter and we found now some of my colleagues on pinterest can impact the society. >> what should we snow in. >> for a lot of people, for those involved in politics and interested in politics, sometimes it can be channeled through your family and just in your blood and you are nationally interested in it. what i think is so great about social media is it gives people the access to get engaged and take the baby steps to get more engaged and more engaged. so if they weren't, you know, raised in a family that was politically active or feel they are passionate, they can get involved in the steps to take to be involved. >> this is a gateway for an addiction to politics. in just a moment, a project to grow little girls into nerds. but first it is time for a

preview of "weekends with alex witt." new economic messages from president obama and mitt romney today. we'll hear from both in a matter of minutes. more reaction to the rose garden heckler. i will ask two seasoned journalists if they have seen anything like this before. and a new twist in florida's rules to purge in the state. and in office politics, our buddy chris hayes is going to tell us why he bikes to work and give prediction about election 2012. it may not be what you think. >> i love chris on his bike. thank you. up next, another example that geek is good. eat good fats.

avoid bad. don't go over 2000... 1200 calories a day. carbs are bad. carbs are good. the story keeps changing. so i'm not listening... to anyone but myself. i know better nutrition when i see it: great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more processed flakes look nothing like natural grains. you can't argue with nutrition you can see.

great grains. search great grains and see for yourself. for multi grain flakes that are an excellent source of fiber try great grains banana nut crunch and cranberry almond crunch.

quick. if i ask you to imagine the iconic face of technological innovation, who do you think of? the creative genius behind apple, the late steve jobs or bill gates, the mastermind

behind microsoft? maybe the recent headlines about facebook's ipo have mark zuckerberg on your mind. i propose you think of these faces. don't adjust your television set. if one woman has her way, the little black girls will be moving up. her mission is to give girls the ability and confidence to become the new faces of nine ovation and leadership in the tech industry. she is a biotechnical engineer in the bay area who spent a decade working in leadership roles at fortune 100 companies. last year in the hopes of her own tech start-up, she noticed a few faces that looked like hers. she told us, "there was a huge deficit in terms of diversity. i started to wonder why that was. so instead of starting my own company i decided to do something to address t especialo

the pipeline." in april of last year she launched black girls code with afternoon and weekend workshops where girls of color from the bay area learned how to create their own mobile apps and to understand web languages like html and java and to develop video games. this year they ared aing robotics to the mix and the girls build their own robots and visit the offices of ibm and others in the robotics industry to learn firsthand from the pros. so kimberly says the core from focus of black girls code is to grow from consumer technology to become creators of their own. today, the black girls code mission is moving beyond the bay area. this is the first day of the organization's summer of code campaign. their mission? over the next 90 days to teach computer programming to more than 300 girls and some boys from low-income communities of color in more than seven cities across the united states. she says she would like to see

the new generation of tech leaders bring their skills back home and translate technology into action and change in their communities. and she hopes that they add diversity to the ideas and products that we'll all be using in the future. for changing the color of innovation and teaching girls that geek is good, kimberly bryant is our foot soldier of the week. that's our show for today. thank you too ayesha, tara and thomas for sticking around. thank you at home for sticking around and watching. see you tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. when the naacp president is going to join me. coming up, "weekends with alex witt." fr capital one, thor's couture gets the most rewards of any small business credit card. your boa! [ garth ] thor's small business earns double miles on every purchase, every day! ahh, the new fabrics, put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? the spiked heels are working. wait! [ garth ] great businesses deserve the most rewards!

[ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? [ cheers and applause ] mine hurt more! mine stopped hurting faster... [ female announcer ] neosporin® plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria. neosporin® plus pain relief. for a two dollar coupon, visit neosporin.com. who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products differ. women and children should avoid contact with application sites.

discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or, signs in a woman which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. men with breast cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women who are, or may become pregnant or are breast feeding should not use androgel. serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs. tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. talk to your doctor today about androgel 1.62% so you can use less gel. log on now to androgeloffer.com and you could pay as little as ten dollars a month for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news. 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. hello, everyone. it is high noon here on the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." here are the fist five stories trending this hour. new immigration fight. battleground tour.