as an american express cardmember you can expect some help. but what you might not expect, is you can get all this with a prepaid card. spends like cash. feels like membership. >> here in our nation's capitol it has been a particularly lovely spring friday. but also kind of a sweaty one. not because it is unseasonably warm or humid but it is a season for friday night nervousness in washington, d.c. and there is flop-sweat nervousness in washington tonight because tomorrow is the washington, d.c. nerd prom. god forgive us. tomorrow is the white house correspondents dinner in which the president, and lots of politicians and reporters and people who work in the media and celebrities who have inexplicably become attached to this event, they all cram into the same giant room in

washington and appreciate each other. honestly, it is kind of a nightmare. that this even exists, let alone that it exists every year and seemingly every year keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. however, there is one thing that i have always believed as sort of uncomplicatedly excellent about both the nerd prom itself and the huge and increasing amount of attention that it garners each year. and that is that the nerd prom is funny. it is all organized around comedy. a comedian acts as emcee, which is usually where the best jokes come from. but the fact that it is hosted by a comedian morphed into the expectation that president himself will also be funny or at least try to be. what started as an expectation of a sort of standard presidential speech with a few jokes thrown in for the occasion has now become the expectation that the president of the united states will do stand-up. it is a full-on comedy routine. yes, it is kind of weird that we expect the president of the

united states to perform a standup routine on c-span once a year while wearing a tuxedo. but as far as weird things we do in our country, this is kind of a good weird thing. we could do worse as a country than to spend one night a year trying to make the leader of the free world to be funny and make funny things happen around him. >> as you know, i always look forward to these dinners. it's just a bunch of media types. hollywood liberals. democrats, like joe biden. how come i can't have dinner with the 36% of the people who like me? >> dick cheney was supposed to be here. but he is very busy working on his memoirs. tentatively titled, how to shoot friends and interrogate people. >> remember, if you really want a friend in this town, get yourself a dog. i wish somebody told me that before i showed up with a neutered cat.

>> nuclear proliferation. nuclear proliferation. nuclear proliferation. nuclear proliferation. >> i am not doing so bad. at this point in his administration, william henry harrison had been dead 68 days. >> no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald. and that's because he is finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. like did we fake the moon landing? we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. for example -- no, seriously, just recently in an episode of "celebrity: apprentice," at the steakhouse, you, mr. trump,

recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership and so ultimately you didn't blame little john or meatloaf. you fired gary busey. and these are the kind of decisions that will keep me up at night. >> that last clip there of president obama saying funny things about donald trump, which donald trump did not find funny at all, that last little set of jokes is probably not the most hilarious thing ever said by a president at the white house correspondents dinner but it will always make the best-of reel anyway because we learned after the fact that while president obama was there at the podium that night, dissecting this creepy bill they're with the conspiracy theory about his birth certificate, while he was doing that we later learned that he was also in the middle of overseeing the operation, the super risky high stakes operation that sent navy s.e.a.l.s into pakistan to secretly kill osama bin laden. they thought it would raise

suspicions that something was up if president obama skipped the dinner that year. so they had him show up, tell jokes as usual, and everybody was none the wiser. puts a different spin on how the president handles the responsibility of getting the timing right on the implied hair do donald trump related gary busey joke. in one instance there was a presidential joke at one of the fancy washington dinners that did not just look different with the passage of time, it became kind of a permanent artifact in a bad way. a permanent bit of evidence of something that was very wrong with that whole presidency. >> those weapons of mass destruction got to be somewhere. nope, no weapons over there. maybe under here. that was march 2004.

almost exactly one year into the iraq war, which we were of course told at the time was necessary because saddam hussein was supposed to have weapons of mass destruction. nuclear, chemical, biological weapons. and we had to go get him and invade his country and topple him before he used those wmds or before he gave them to al qaeda. that's what we were told. of course it's not true and we never found the wmds that were supposed to be there. we did get an 8 1/2 year long war though. that part of the recent american history looms hugely over what is going on in our politics right now. not only because the same president bush is now opening his presidential library in texas. but also because simultaneously the current administration, the obama administration, is now saying that the intelligence community is saying, and i quote, to some degree of varying confidence, that the country that is just to the west of iraq, syria, not only only has

chemical weapons, that much we already knew, but in some small-scale way, syria has used them. >> and yesterday, some of you saw that i asked my peopo brief congress about the fact that we now have some evidence that chemical weapons had been used on the populations in syria. now these are preliminary assessments. they are based on the intelligence gathering. we have varying degrees of of confidence about the actual use. but there are a range of questions around how, when, where these weapons may have been used. so we're going to be pursuing a very vigorous investigation ourselves, and we're going to be consulting with our partners in the region, as well as the international community and the united nations to make sure that we are investigating this as effectively and as quickly as we can. but i've meant what i said and i will repeat, that it's obviously

horrific as it is when mortars are being fired on civilians and people are being indiscriminately killed. to use potential weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations crosses anothe line, with respect to international norms and international law. and that is going to be a game-changer. i think all of us, not just in the united states, but around the world, recognize how we cannot stand by and permit the systematic use of weapons like chemical weapons on civilian populations. >> in that press conference today, with the king of jordan sitting right by him, president obama said, if it is true that chemical weapons were used on a civilian population that would be a game-changer. in terms of potential u.s. involvement in the war in syria that we have thus far basically stayed out of. how differently is this administration handling an issue

like this, as compared to the last time around we were handling an issue like this with the previous president? and how does the previous president's experience affect this one's? joining us now is nbc news foreign correspondent riis prod were kidnapped in syria in december by pro-government militia men loyal to the syrian government. a rebel group freed them after a checkpoint gun battle after being held five days in captivity. richard, thank you for being here. >> it's a pleasure. how are you? >> i am all right. but i am -- >> are you going to this prom tomorrow? >> i don't go to the prom. >> you don't? >> i told them, i'm like a dog. i like to have a job to do. so i told them i wouldn't go to the prom. i wouldn't go and schmooze. but they want me to work so i tend bar -- >> you bus tables? >> i tend bar at the after party. i'm not very good at it. i'm really slow. >> do you get tips? >> no, actually. it never occurred to me. >> i will leave you a few dollars. >> if you tip me, i will keep it. it is deja vu. because, it's contested intelligence, or at least

unclear intelligence about wmd in the same neighborhood where we had these fights over iraq. what do you know about this intelligence about chemical weapons? and how solid the evidence is. >> the evidence seems pretty solid. that at least on two occasions, maybe one, but probably two, some sarin gas was used. now this is the evidence in favor of the case. now i will tell you about the holes because there are holes in this as well. that sarin gas was used. a few people died. when i say a few, i mean less than dozens. and which when we are talking about chemical weapons is a very small number. and that these samples were taken from tissue samples that were from victims. that's pretty much agreed upon by several different governments and several different intelligence agencies. >> the tissue sample is important because you need physical evidence to test to determine whether these things were used, right? >> you can use soil samples. and there have been some soil

samples taken, and tissue samples are more definitive because some of these things, if you get a very minor exposure to chemical agents like sarin you can survive it, and then like if you survive an exposure to other chemicals you'll have an impact. there will be a residue. >> sure. >> what doesn't make sense, however, is why. and how. you don't use weapons of mass destruction to do minimal killing. it is like launching a thimble sized nuclear bomb on a city. why bother? was this a message? was bashar al assad trying to send a message to us, to the opposition? why risk so much to send a message like that when we already know that he does have chemical weapons. huge stockpiles of weapons. so that part doesn't really make sense. the other part is, where does he hope to go with it? so yes, something happened. but we don't exactly understand why and what the message might be. there is a theory this may have been a mistake. the way chemical weapons work,

they're often binary agents. there are two chemicals. the missile goes up into the air. they mix in flight and it becomes even more caustic and deadly, and then when they explode, there's the exposure. maybe there was an improper mix. maybe these were supposed to have been more devastating attacks that didn't work. there are questions still unanswered. >> sarin doesn't have the longest shelf life in the world either. so you can have decayed materials around for unknown reasons and shouldn't have been on the shelf. >> exactly. maybe they were mixed improperly. maybe something went wrong. there are a lot of questions about that that i still think are unanswered. >> given -- the tactical issue to me has been bugging me. because -- >> it doesn't make sense. >> the whole reason you have chemical weapons tactically is so that you can kill a large number of people and end still terror and all of these different things. >> and terrain. you use these things, if armies are coming at you and rebels in force, hundreds of thousands of rebels which there

aren't hundreds of thousands, of rubbles but in theory they're all marching toward damascus, you could launch chemical weapons to create a deadly cloud and prevent them from advancing. that's sort of what they're designed to do. >> does not seem like that's at all what happened here. >> no. >> so, as you're saying, for no apparent strategic or tactical advantage -- >> unless you are trying to send a message or it was a mistake. >> could be a mistake. if it is a message, you know that the message that you're sending is, okay, i'm going to cross the red line that praez barack obama of the united states keeps talking about. why does the u.s. say there is a red line on these issues? tens of thousands have been killed in the war. why a red line on this. >> because if there were to be an incident or there was a massive attack, chemical weapons are used and 5,000 people die, or even 200 or 400 or 600 people die, and this is the first recognized use of chemical weapons against a civilian population in a decade and half, and there is no response, then you are encouraging every regime in the

world that has these horrible weapons to use them. and this is the danger. that the president, because he put this red line out there, could make himself look weak. could make the united states look weak. and could encourage others to use these things. >> right. >> that if you use chemical weapons and there's no response, then bashar al assad could feel emboldened. well i could do this more and more. maybe that was the message his trial balloon, if you will. it seems ridiculous to use a trial balloon like that. imagine, nuclear weapon, we're just going to make an acorn sized one and throw it at a city. >> and see what the world does. >> and see what the world does. it seems strange. >> there's something going on here that we don't know yet. the political way in which i'm encouraged right now is to see the caution with which the white house is moving on this and cautious is warranted. better than the alternative. >> there is movement. >> certainly. in the last couple days. >> they're going to try and use this to get the russians on board. they're going to say, look, vladimir, see what he's doing? you see what could come --

>> whose side do you want to be on. >> yes. >> richard engel, nbc news chief foreign correspondent. thank you very much for being here. >> i will leave the tip. >> and future tipper when i make you a manhattan. >> right on. >> all right, lots to come, including president obama doing something kind of bold that no american president had ever done before. that he did this morning. a doozy of a follow-up story on the bp oil disaster in the gulf. and some helpful hints for the love lorne conspiracy theorist. kind of an excellent friday night combo platter. please stay with us. you sensit? then you'll love lactose-free lactaid® it's 100% real milk that's easy to digest so you can fully enjoy the dairy you love. lactaid®. for 25 years, easy to digest. easy to love.

with the innovating and the transforming and the revolutionizing. it's enough to make you forget that you're flying five hundred miles an hour on a chair that just became a bed. you see, we're doing some changing of our own. ah, we can talk about it later. we're putting the wonder back into air travel, one innovation at a time. the new american is arriving.

the fact is, after decades of progress, there are still those who want to turn back the clock. to policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century. and they've been involved, orchestrated and historic effort to roll back basic rights when it comes to women's health. in north dakota they just passed a law that outlaws your right to choose starting after six weeks. even if a woman is raped. a woman may not know she is pregnant at six weeks. in mississippi a ballot initiative was put forward that could not only have outlawed your right to choose, but could have had all sorts of other far-reaching consequences like cutting off fertility treatments. making certain forms of contraception a crime.

when you read about some of these laws, you want to check the calendar, make sure you still live in 2013. that's why no matter how great the challenge, no matter how fierce the opposition, there's one thing the past few years have shown, it's that planned parenthood is not going anywhere. it is not going anywhere today, not going anywhere tomorrow. as long as we've got a fight to make sure women have access to quality affordable healthcare and as long as we have the fight to protect a woman's right to make her own choices about her own health i want you to know that you've also got a president who is going to be right there with you fighting every step of the way. >> that was president obama today addressing planned parenthood in washington. says a president who will be right there with you fighting every step of the way. of course, the obama white house and democrats broadly, have almost always supported the pro choice side of women's reproductive health argument. almost always. since 2010, republicans,

particularly in the states but also in congress have made anti-abortion legislating one of their party's top priorities in governing. in response, democrats have a decision to make. democrats the last couple of years had to decide what they were going to do. would they say with the kind of silent partner they had been for a long time or step up and let their position be known more loudly? they have stepped up more loudly. more publicly, in a way they haven't been comfortable doing in a long time. and today president obama put a new capstone on that when he became the first ever sitting u.s. president to address the organization of planned parenthood. joining us is president of planned parenthood federation of america and the planned parenthood action fund. thank you for being here. how important is it to have the sitting president address planned parenthood and why has it not happened before? >> i don't know why it hasn't happened before but yes today was history for this organization. it was extraordinarily important, particularly given the attacks on women's right to

choose and women's right to access abortion in this country. but it was also important because the thousands of men and work at planned parenthood all across the country heard from the sitting president that the work that they do is important and that he stands with them and that came at a very important time. >> one of the things you and i have talked about before is the morale issue. that this -- it has been a very, very pointed legislative and rhetorical fight from the republican party for whatever reason really over the last three years. there's been a sort of, a standard level of hostility to reproductive choice, reproductive rights that we've seen in a long time. but the last three years has been intense. you described how that brought people who have maybe been silent supporters of reproductive rights out of the woodwork so people felt they need to declare themselves more. how does that manifest in your organization? how does that manifest for planned parenthood? >> i think a couple things happen. when the house of representatives, when the tea party took the leadership of the house of representatives, they

voted to defund planned parenthood. it was sort of like the great alumni association came out in force, because the one in five women who have been to us for health care, they were everywhere. that's what i think we saw is a lot of folks who thought that these were issues that they didn't have to worry about anymore and realized they were. then of course we saw a presidential campaign where literally the right of women to go to planned parenthood, even for basic healthcare, for cancer screenings or breast exams, for well checkups, that was on the ballot. i think that you saw in the past election, women and men who cared not only about planned parenthood, but women's access to healthcare come out in droves. we saw the largest gender gap ever in the history of gallup polling on these issues. >> do you think state by state, as these things get fought out. we have seen north dakota, arkansas, mississippi, and other states just this year, since the election, push things farther than athey've ever been pushed since roe v. wade. do you feel like we are entering

a patchwork area in states where reproductive rights are not protected? >> that's our concern. that your right to safe and legal abortion, your right to birth control, shouldn't depend on your zip code. yet we are seeing the worst bills. one bill that i don't think that many folks are aware of was just signed into law in kansas where literally allows medical practitioners to lie to women about ultrasounds, about other genetic testing, refuse to give them information if it -- you know, that would influence their decision about their pregnancy. this is now signed into law. it goes into effect in july. basically allowing doctors to lie to women in order to influence their decisions about pregnancy. this is the most incredible invasion in women's privacy and their ability to make their own healthcare decision we've seen. >> why are those fights being lost, though? laws like that, proposals like that, have been around for a long time. but all of a sudden right now, particularly right now in 2013, we are seeing stuff pass and get signed into law that they've never been able to pass before. what's happening?

>> i think we are seeing the results of the 2010 elections where state legislatures were reshaped across this country and we're seeing unfortunately a republican party that's being held hostage by the most extreme wing of the party. it is extraordinary. we had many, many visits with republican members of congress yesterday on the hill. there are republicans who are deeply concerned about this -- not just shift but right word total direction. that does not represent really where the moderate wing of the republican party is. but unfortunately i feel like that part of the party is being completely silenced in states like arkansas and north dakota. >> places where, especially where there's brand-new allred control of the state is where we are seeing the furthest leaps. and i don't know that there is -- i don't know if there is a strategy to stop that except lawsuit by lawsuit, state by state. it's going to be a long, hard, slog. >> you look at north dakota, bad legislation, incredible legislation being passed and just last year with a ballot

initiative on these issues of north dakota, we beat it summarily. so it's not that the people of north dakota have changed, it's the -- >> the republican party, yeah. >> cecil richards, thank you for being here. congratulations on your coup, getting the president at your gig. >> it was great to have him. good to see you, too. >> lots ahead including some really horrible dating advice. please stay with us.

whoo! yes! ♪ it was the best day ♪ ♪ it was the best day yeah! ♪ it was the best day ♪ because of you [sigh] [echoing] we make a great pair. huh? progressive and the great outdoors -- we make a great pair. right, totally, uh... that's what i was thinking. covering the things that make the outdoors great. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about...by the bowlful? campbell's soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

on september 11th, 2001, two boeing 767 aircraft crashed into the world trade center towers in lower manhattan. 11 years, 7 months, and 13 days later, this was found. today wedged in a narrow gap

between two buildings not far from ground zero. this is believed to be part of the landing gear of one of those planes. police say they can clearly see a boeing identification number on this newly recovered part of the airplane. the nypd secured the scene as if it were a crime scene. after a health and safety evaluation is made a decision will be made about whether they should be shifting the soil in this very nary alley between these two buildings for the possible human remains of victims of the crime that was committed on 9/11. the part was found about three blocks from the site of the world trade center towers. it was found by accident. there was a surveyor inspecting the rear of one of those two buildings between which the landing gear was found wedged. surveying -- inspecting one of those buildings and totally unexpectedly made this very, very dramatic find. we are posting links to the pictures from the site and the parts themselves at maddowblog.com. you hurt my feelings, todd.

i did? when visa signature asked everybody what upgraded experiences really mattered... you suggested luxury car service instead of "strength training with patrick willis." come on todd! flap them chicken wings. [ grunts ] well, i travel a lot and umm... [ male announcer ] at visa signature, every upgraded experience comes from listening to our cardholders. visa signature. your idea of what a card should be. visa signature. i've always had to keep my eye on her... but, i didn't always watch out for myself. with so much noise about health care... i tuned it all out. with unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters... my individual health profile. not random statistics. they even reward me for addressing my health risks. so i'm doing fine... but she's still going to give me a heart attack. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

hey, guess what? corporations are not people. if you are a corporation, and you get into trouble, you cannot go to prison as a corporation.

sure, your executive officer or something can go to prison but in terms of you as a corporation, paying for your crimes is usually, literally, paying for your crimes. you pay money. you pay a fine. so our happy friday pop quiz tonight is this -- what is the single largest fine ever imposed on a corporation in the united states? what's the largest amount of money that any u.s. court ever made a company pay for its crimes? the answer? ding. $4.5 billion. 4.5 billion to be paid by the company that does not want you to pronounce the petroleum in their name. they just want you to call them by their initials. bp. think of this green, green sun flower when you think of them and not say british petroleum. bp earned bragging rights for being charged the largest fine ever in american history. they earned it in part for lying. bp caused the largest accidental oil spill in world history three

years ago this week. and their full culpability for that spill is still being worked out along with the other companies that are responsible. they are currently on trial in new or lean. but the bp lying part of it, that part has been adjudicated. bp admitted in court that while they said publicly and to congress even, that their gushing well in the gulf of mexico was only leaking 5,000 barrels a day, that was it, merely a flesh wound. while they said that publicly, not only was that wrong, but they knew it was wrong. bp as a company internally was having all sorts of discussions about how it wasn't 5,000 barrels a day. it was more like 60,000 barrels or maybe even 140,000 barrels a day. but publicly, they kept assuring everybody that it was no big deal, it was only five. the important part was not just that bp was wrong or that they didn't know the answer and they were guessing. the important part in their culpability, the reason they ended up paying the largest corporate fine in the history of corporate fines was not because

they got it wrong. it's because they did know what the truth was, and they lied about it. they lied about it publicly and lied about it to congress. in the three years since the worst oil spill ever, there is a slow unfolding in the courts and the gulf of things that we, the public, did not know at the time of the spill. some of them, it turns out, the oil companies knew what the truth was and kept it from us. other unanswered questions, three years down the road, maybe we are knew it all along or if they were in the dark until now just like we were. this week, "newsweek" published remarkable new reporting on the question that i frankly was asked the most when i was down at the gulf covering this story. the worry that was expressed to me the most by people who live on the gulf coast and make their living on the water there, three

years ago in the middle of the spill, this is what folks worry about more than anything. now three years later we are starting to get some answers about it. for now crews are relying on the tried and true method of chemical dispersants. these are chemicals you have seen dusted offer the oil slick. bp has already sprayed 160,000 gallons of dispersant on the oil slick not to mention the 6,000 gallons pumped down to the leak well beneath the surface of the ocean. that's more dispersant than has ever been used on any oil spill ever. the chemicals in the dispersants are themselves toxic. probably. we don't really know what's in them. >> what are the long-term impacts of breathing this? of touching the oil? of touching the dispersant. these are all questions that nobody really knows the answer to. so we need scientific data. we need doctors to help people when they do come in contact with this. >> one of the response technologies so controversial for this disaster, congressman, is the issue of dispersants.

and one of the complications around dispersants is the fact that dispersants are seen as proprietary technology, that the companies who make them don't disclose what's in them. >> we cannot allow for these companies to be using dispersants, chemicals in ways that could ultimately have profound impacts on not only the food that is provided from that region, from the fishing, but also the impact that it could ultimately have upon human beings. >> are you also hearing concerns voiced about the long-term impacts of dispersants? that's one thing that i know a lot of fishermen when i was down there were talking to me about and the government saying yeah, they're doing long-term studies but they don't know. >> right. very much so. they don't know the long-term impacts and that's what is what really scares people here. >> that is what really scares people. now, three years down the road, some of the very ominous unanswered questions asked on the gulf coast when that spill was happening and dumping all of

that dispersant into the sea it make it better, some of questions are finally beginning to be answered. joining me is mark hertsgaard. independent journalist, contributor for the daily beast. his latest article for "newsweek" is called what bp doesn't want you to know about the 2010 gulf spill. thanks for joining us. nice to have you here. >> thanks for inviting me. >> i know you've been in the gulf coast talking to folks who came into physical contact with this dispersant which is called corrects-it. what did you find? >> that people are still suffering from this and that the illnesses at the time were very, very severe. basically, an odd combination of illnesses. striking the skin, lungs and brain all at once. and above all, what i found, is that bp knew this at the time. bp was told that this corexit dispersant, told by the manufacturer, exactly what was in those chemicals, what chemicals were in there, and that the workers and anyone who

came in contact with it, this was extremely hazardous stuff and that they needed protective gear. they needed training and information and bp buried that report in order to further its goal of basically making the oil appear to disappear. to cover up this oil spill and to get it off of tv screens in the front pages. >> that is always been one of the political conundrums, thinking about the use of dispersant, literally from a political perspective, there is an impact to seeing oil that is lessened if you don't see the oil, even if it's still there, and it's maybe been made into something that you can't see by addition of another chemical that might be just as toxic. but isn't there an argument to be made for using dispersants simply for the purpose of breaking the oil down, like they say, dispersing it, allowing it to be exposed more to the elements that might make the spill actually go away faster? >> well, to be fair, i interviewed the epa

administrator lisa jackson who was in charge at that time. she said we faced a choice between bad and worse. we didn't like the idea of the dispersant but we thought it was better to apply it in order to keep the oil from hittinged coastlines. to keep it from hitting the beaches and the oyster beds and so forth, and epa administrator jackson also said that the national commission appointed by president obama did not find fault, quote/unquote, with the decision to use dispersants. hardly a ringing endorsement of it, but not finding fault. let's remember, epa did not have the legal authority to force bp not to use this. administrator jackson wrote them a letter. we write about this in the story, on may 19th, asking them to stop using this toxic dispersant, but she did not have the authority to force them to stop it, and bp wrote back the next day and essentially said, sorry, we're going to continue. >> the people made sick by exposure to corexit, and again

a lot of the ways they were made sick were exactly the ways, i should point out in your reporting, that were predicted or described by the company that makes it, which is why they said that they should be used in such careful ways. are the people who were made sick by this chemical seeking redress? what are they doing to get their medical expenses covered? and are they covered in some of the settlements with gulf coast residents that covered the rest of the oil spill? >> they are trying, rachel. but it'll be an uphill path because, now, you know, bp set aside last year, roughly $8 billion for medical claims. but unfortunately most of the illnesses that these people are suffering from are not covered under that settlement and that's partly because they were not well represented by the plaintiff's committee, the attorneys handling that. so it is a kind of a tragedy that goes on. some of them have already taken buyouts from bp but they are paid pennies on the dollar and at $60,000 and their medical

bills are way beyond that. so you know, i think that is part of the reason that i felt so strongly about getting this story out is that these people were basically treated as collateral damage by bp. as part of bp's coverup, they were willing to sacrifice the health of the workers, hundreds and possibly thousands of them, and also coastal residents, a little 3-year-old boy we write about in this story who was fine until he started breathing this stuff in. and now he got terribly sick. let's not forget the eco system where 33%, one-third of the seafood we americans eat come out of that gulf. that too was terribly damaged by this use of corexit. which is an orwellian term, by the way, if i've ever heard one. corexit as the name for a dispersant. once you put that with oil it becomes 52 times more toxic. >> mark hertsgaard, also the author of "hot." living through the next 50 years on earth.

mark, this is an important story. thanks for your reporting on this. thanks for talking with us tonight. >> thanks for airing it. >> i appreciate it. >> are you a deeply suspicious, deeply suspicious person, but you can't seem to find your soul mate? i have some very bad advice for you, just ahead. one... more... step! [ mom ] my little girl...she loves to help out on big jobs. good thing there's bounty select-a-size. it's the smaller powerful sheet that acts like a big sheet. look! one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. ♪ i got it! [ mom ] use less with the small but powerful picker upper. bounty select-a-size. and try bounty napkins. why are 8 million people sleeping better tonight? why are 8 million people they went to a sleep number store. the only place in the world you'll find the sleep number bed with dual air technology. it allows you to adjust to the support your body needs. each of your bodies.

you'll only find sleep number at one of our over 400 stores nationwide, where right now save $400 on the only memory foam bed that adjusts to each of you. plus special financing on all beds sleep number. comfort. individualized. [ agent smith ] i've found software that intrigues me. it appears it's an agent of good. ge has wired their medical hardware with innovative software to be in many places at the same time. using data to connect patients to software, to nurses to the right people and machines. ♪ helping hospitals treat people even better, while dramatically reducing waiting time. now a waiting room is just a room. [ telephone ringing ]

[ static warbles ] [ beeping ] red or blue? ♪

programming note, we are about to air something on msnbc here tonight in just a few minutes. that we have never aired before. right after this show tonight, you should stick around. because we are premiering a special about what happened in the boston marathon bombing last week. but it is using material that you likely have not seen before. it is the story of what happened in boston told using surveillance camera footage, video available from the scene and still images, a lot of which you will not have seen. essentially the visual story of what happened in boston and how that bombing went down. it is striking material. put together in a way that you will find striking. and it is premiering tonight right after this show. so we've got something important coming up, but you have to plan to stay here on msnbc thereafter. okay, good. deal? okay, we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] are you sensitive to dairy?

then you'll love lactose-free lactaid® it's 100% real milk that's easy to digest so you can fully enjoy the dairy you love. lactaid®. for 25 years, easy to digest. easy to love.

♪ the middle of this special moment and i need to run off to the bathroom. ♪ i'm fed up with always having to put my bladder's needs ahead of my daughter. ♪ so today, i'm finally talking to my doctor about overactive bladder symptoms. [ female announcer ] know that gotta go feeling? ask your doctor about prescription toviaz. one toviaz pill a day significantly reduces sudden urges and accidents, for 24 hours. if you have certain stomach problems or glaucoma, or can not empty your bladder, you should not take toviaz. get emergency medical help right away if your face, lips, throat or tongue swells. toviaz can cause blurred vision, dizziness, drowsiness and decreased sweating. do not drive, operate machinery or do unsafe tasks until you know how toviaz affects you. the most common side effects are dry mouth and constipation. talk to your doctor about toviaz.

governor of getting it done. you know how to dance... with a deadline. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. this is awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is, business pro. yes, it is. go national. go like a pro.

happy friday. okay. so this is not exactly best new thing in the world territory but it's close. because starting last night, and then carrying on all through the day today this -- can i point at it? yes, i can. was one of the hash tags trending on the twitter machine. even if you do not use twitter and so the idea of something trending doesn't resonate with you as a measure of volume, telling you, you will still get this, i promise. the hash tag is info wars pickup lines. people are making up imaginary pickup lines for conspiracy theorists. the idea is that if you like info wars which is a show hosted by alex jones, if you like glenn beck and alex jones who says we faked the moon landing and that 9/11 was an elaborate hoax and that it was secretly the white house that bombed the boston marathon, michelle obama was in on it and there was no massacre at sandy

hook elementary school, all of those things were hoaxes, they were all faked by the government so we could be enslaved in fema concentration camps with helicopters and have our organs half vested for the aliens or whatever. if you are one of those folks, if you are a conspiracy theorist who believes in the glenn beck alex jones view of the world, well, that doesn't mean you don't need love. and so hash tag info wars pickup lines. what's your sign? mine is trespassers shot on sight. info wars pickup lines, girl, are you a secret government orbital mind control laser because i can't get you out of my head. or this one, have we met somewhere before? no, seriously, who sent you? the whole thing started when someone outside the conspiracy theory world realized last night within the conspiracy theory world, within specifically the conspiracy theory online alex jones world there is a dating service called dating freedom lovers. so you can browse all the

publicly available profiles at this dating site to find guys and gals who might think to advertise in their dating profile that they live just far enough outside the major cities to relocate easily with multiple safe routes to the less populated parts of the continent or that this woman says she experienced her political awakening in 2006 after a flu shot. it's a little different than most dating sites and some folks identify themselves geographically in unfamiliar ways. this gentleman is holding a big fluffy kitty says he lives in fema region nine. so you have to know where that is if you want to meet up with him. it's a whole world out there. life is a rich paranoid tapestry for the conspiracy theorists among us. the fact that they have a conspiracy theorists only dating site organized as part of the online scene for this website and talk show, it is a reminder that there's money to be made here. right? there is money to be made in

feeding the ragged edge of america's long-standing conspiratorial mindset. if you can get enough people freaked out enough to believe that you are the only person who will tell you the truth, that is a captive audience that kind of needs you for everything. so, you know, dating. if you're on the glenn beck side of the conspiracy theory empire, that means pants. literally glenn beck will sell you patented glenn beck freedom pants. congressman ron paul who has a lot of interesting things about him, but who is almost always counted on the conspiracy theorists to be part of his base, now that he's left congress and out of office he's decided to go back into business with the conspiracy theory guys who used to do his overtly racist ron paul branded for-profit newsletter in the 1990s. he's kept those guys on board for his new institute that he's starting. and then naturally today ron paul went on the alex jones radio show. remember the chief alex jones conspiracy theory right now is that the white house bombed the boston marathon. the government did it as a false

flag attack as part of a new world order conspiracy involving marxism and fascism and helicopters and something about mexico. honestly, i got lost trying to figure it out. that's what ron paul did today, he spent the day with alex jones. i'm sure it's good for business. these guys have a good racket going and they have all been in the racket for decades. you know, it's always the end of the world but not quite yet. subscribe for one more month, because then it will be the end of the world, only $19.95 and yes, you can pay in gold. what do we do when it is not just the hilarity on the internet, when it is not just your personal sadness that your crazy uncle sends glenn beck part of his social security check every month because he's terrified? what do we do when it seeps out of the edge of your a.m. radio dial in the morning, seeps out of that lucrative fringe market and leaks into, say, the u.s. congress? last week, four republican members of congress sent a

letter to the department of homeland security demanding that the department of homeland security respond to the latest glenn beck/alex jones conspiracy theory, which is that the real boston marathon bomber was being protected by the white house, by michelle obama. the republican chairman of the homeland security committee in the house signed on to that letter. they moved on from that last week to now this week the republicans convened a whole congressional hearing, a house committee on government oversight hearing on the right wing conspiracy theory that the government is stockpiling ammunition to kill us all or something or to at least buy all the bullets so that you can't get me, you can't stop them from killing us all. this is a long time favorite cause of the info wars world. now it's playing in congress. the congressman you see on your screen is republican kerry bentovolio. of michigan. you'll remember him as a reindeer herder, last sheen on this show shirtless and kissing a stuffed reindeer. you may also remember his role playing a doctor in a movie about how 9/11 was an inside job.

now that same man plays a republican congressman in real life. >> i have a lot of people calling me up and saying that there's all these conspiracies and so forth and so forth. you probably heard them. doomsday events, civil unrest, you're preparing to are that. do you have operational plans in the event there's civil unrest that you'll arrest innocent civilians and put them in fema camps. do you have any plans like that? >> no plans. >> the answer is clear, you have no plans whatsoever. >> none. >> great. how about anything else like that. >> no plans at all. >> congressman bentovolio got the guy from homeland security on the record admitting no plans to enslave the people of america. yet. but they better not try. because today oklahoma senator james inhofe introduced a bill to block government agencies from buying ammunition. along with oklahoma congressman frank lucas because, you know, i live in fema region nine or

whatever, want to meet my kitty? conspiracy theories are not new, they're not even the exclusive providence of the american right. they're left-wing conspiracy theories, too. but right now anti-government conspiracy theories are anti-the obama government. and that appears to be too convenient and too appealing for the supposedly mainstream right to leave unharvested. so the fringe has become the center. so the republican chairman of homeland security is writing conspiracy theory letters about the real bomber and they're convening conspiracy theory hearings and republican senators are introducing conspiracy theory legislation that actually posits that the government is stockpiling bugates so it can kill us all. they're doing it on the advice of the folks that say the newtown shooting is a hoax, and that michelle obama is shielding the real bomber of the boston marathon because it was an inside job like 9/11. i guess that the guys who sell this stuff for a living have a reason to sell this stuff, there's always going to be a very, very, very exciting market for these things. when a political party sees

profit in it, when a political party decides to seek political advantage by trafficking in this stuff, and courting it, and popularizing it, that is a different thing and i am not sure we know how that ends. "weekends with alex witt" starts now. unexpected discovery in a new york city alley. a remnant of the 9/11 attacks, all these years later. why was it found now? face to face for the first time. we're hearing from the man who looked the boston bomber in the eyes, and what he noticed moments before the blast. flooding fears rise. why there's new alarm this morning in the midwest as some rivers head for record highs. another face-lift. the u.s. is being forced to create new $100 bills, again. we'll explain in our big money headlines. good morning, everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." let's get to what's happening right now out there. it is a race against t