bracing for another round. 55 million americans are in the path of severe spring storms this afternoon and we're all over it with the weather channel. >> political storm clouds are gathering over the u.s. senate ahead of a new run of hearings into the irs scandal. >> i'm crystal ball, and here's the silver lining. is up sort still raining down on him from the american people. it looks we're in the calm before the storm because president obama is fighting support today from an unusual ally. >> you are more likely to be struck by lightning than predicting the twists and turns in the jodi arias trial. all of the breaking news live from phoenix. ♪ ♪ ♪ if you were hoping and by

hoping, the irs scandal would die down this week. >> why would i hope that? >> all indications are that the exact opposite will happen. the senate finance committee gets its turn to hold the hearing tomorrow. the bush-appointed former irs chief who was with at the helm when the practice first started. also testifying will be the inspector general behind the audit and the soon to be former aking irs chief. russell ford and steven miller were at the house hearing friday and if tomorrow's hearing was anything like that one, we're not going learn much. our friends at buzzfeed threw together some of the things that miller did not know. here is a sample. >> so, i don't have -- i don't have names for you, mr. brady. i don't know whether we knew at that time or not. i did not know the topic. actually, i do not know that. i would have to look back on my notes on that. >> you have notes on that? >> why did you say you have notes if you don't think you have notes. >> sir, please. >> no, sir, you please! the white house still insists

the president learned about the i.d. report when we all did if you were watching "the cycle," but the head of the white house counsel was told weeks earlier and didn't let her boss know. jay carney was grilled on it again last hour. >> the white house counsel did and she informed other senior staff and with that -- in informing she also made clear it was her view and others shared this view that there was not a need in a situation like this with an ongoing investigation or audit that the president should be notified. >> plus the deputy treasury secretary knew last summer before the elections, and also kept mum. let's start with someone you can't keep mum, "washington post" political columnist dana willbank or as they call him on snl, diana. >> what is this about? >> once again, they're taking a real problem and attacking unreal political motives about

it. >> okay. but i want to know what is this about. i mean, you're a man, but your name is dana. >> well, al, there are lots of men named dana. >> i don't trust it. you what? i'm going to call you dan a. >> that's an excellent question. how shocked you to see yourself on snl? >> it was really frightening because i wasn't actually watching and suddenly twitter was exploding. >> that was so scary. >> i have to watch this right away. >> to get to the business at hand, many are saying the irs is underworked, understaffed and was unprepared for the rise in c4 applications and they responded inappropriately without a doubt, but there's no evidence that the targeting was intended to be politically based and there's no evidence that irs higher-ups were part of it and much less white house higher-ups. so what do you think about that conclusion and where we are now that the evidence that we have

at this moment? >> well, to paraphrase the irs, i don't know, but here's where i think things are and that is you are never in a good position if you are saying this scandalous behavior was not the result of something sinister, but mere incompetence. that's just not an excuse that's going to fly on capitol hill. so i think they've just begun to do this sort of probing. yes, it's true, and there's no fdz directly linking it to the white house right now, but there's evidence that the people at the treasury knew earlier and it is a very perplexing thing with what the clip you just played from jay carney because they had said something very different from that leading it right up through yesterday. i don't know why they're having this kind of problem, but even if there's no there there as the president likes to say they're making it look like there is something so they'll certainly keep getting the questions. >> dana, i was hoping you could dig into some of the poll results with us. we see president obama's

approval rating has stayed steady or maybe ticked up a couple of points and it's 53% according to the cnn poll. meanwhile, you have people saying by and large they don't feel the congressional gop is overreactioning either on this irs issue or on the benghazi attack. when i look at those what i see is a public that, yes, wants to see some sort of investigation of these different issue, but isn't finding culpability with the president, is that what your take is as well? >> i think it's also a case of, you know, give them time to overreact. we're beginning to see that that's what the republicans are prepared to do, but the public at large won't see that yet because it's only just begun to happen. so the president's ratings are holding up reasonably well given what's been happening here and if the economy continues to improve, he'll be fine regardless of what happens with these various scandals here, but i think the public's appetite

for congressional probes is very limited. so i think if republicans take that as a cue that they should have seven house committees going after president obama right now they'll probably make a mistake. >> seven is a big mistake. >> in "the washington post" you talk about the conspiracy of the unproductive. president obama remains in one crucial category, his opposition that they can definitely overdo this and i'm sympathetic to that argument and i'm wondering what the mechanism is for that because short of waiting for the next midterm in a murder after that when the president would be much more of a lame duck, what accountability is there for the republicans taking this too far? >> well, i mean, let's think of 1998 being the closest comparison to this. they could be punished next year, but forget about it in

terms of an electoral punishment. it's just everybody reads the public opinion polls and if they're seen as being unfair or going over the top if michele bachmann and her colleagues want to begin talking about imbrief am, if they have another 37 so thes on repealing obama care and suggesting that that is the remedy as they have already suggested to the irs flap. people will get tired of that pretty quickly and it doesn't require an election and it requires bad polls for people who have to reverse course. >> dana, let's go back to what the president knew and knew for a minute. what blows my mind about this was an election year so in the middle of a presidential reelection campaign, no one on his campaign staff, we're supposed to believe told him that the irs was being investigated by the treasury for targeting conservative 501c4s to

get him ahead of the story in case it cape me up to prep him t so he was aware in case he was asked about it. i really can't believe in that master mind world no one brought this to his a attention and that brings to the karicization that they're very insular and isolated. is that going to be a potential problem for the president going forward? >> well, i think that's sort of what we're getting at at the beginning there and sort of the excuse that the irs is using which is also something that the administration is using generally and the white house is using as saying we didn't do anything sinister. we just didn't know what was going on. that may be true and it's better that they're ignorant than if they're willfully doing something wrong, but it's not a ter believy good excuse and i think that the best criticism that conservatives have leveled

through fr this administration is that the president is not sufficiently in charge, nixon was a kcontrol freak and he sees to not want to do anything for all of these people. he hasn't been cracking down on them. i think that's the fairest criticism. >> it's better than saying the president himself has been doing something sinister and it doesn't get him off the cook. foot senate finance committee gets involved and how is that going add with one more circus. >> i think this and the clowns on bicycle, but i'll be there, and it can't be as good as theantics in the house and darryl issa's committees. >> glad to see dan a. getting the snl love he deserve. thank you very much. >> thanks so much. >> do you know what i think is the rell joke that the scabbals will be the president's

wrongdoing and i think s.e. agrees with me if. >> what? >> another punchline that has us talking as "the cycle" sails on. it's monday may 20th. okay. this, won't take long will it? no, not at all. how many of these can we do on our budget? more than you think. didn't take very long, did it? summer's here, so are the savings. that's nice. post it. already did. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get memorial day savings, like 3 bags of earthgro® mulch for just $10. ♪ there you go. come on, let's play! [ male announcer ] there's an easier way to protect your dog from dangerous parasites. good boy. fetch! trifexis is the monthly, beef-flavored tablet that prevents heartworm disease, kills fleas and prevents infestations,

and treats hook-, round-, and whipworm infections. treatment with fewer than 3 monthly doses after exposure to mosquitoes may not provide complete heartworm prevention. the most common adverse reactions were vomiting, itching and lethargy. serious adverse reactions have been reported following concomitant extra-label use of ivermectin with spinosad alone, one of the components of trifexis. prior to administration, dogs should be tested for existing heartworm infection. to learn more about trifexis, talk to your veterinarian, call 888-545-5973 or visit trifexis.com. you don't have to go to extremes to protect your dog from parasites. you need trifexis. visit our website to save up to $25. available by prescription from your veterinarian. big time taste should fit in a little time cup.

new single serve cafe collections from maxwell house now available for use in the keurig k-cup brewer.

really, obama you said you heard about the scandal when you saw it on tv? you found out on tv, really? i don't want to live in a world where you have the same sources as my aunt. you're the president. i didn't think you had to watch tv for anything. i assumed you knew how breaking bad ends. >> suddenly reunited on saturday night live thisec wooend because let's face it, this irs story called for a special edition of

"really." while the president claims he learned of the scandal with the rest of us last week, he later informed other senior obama staff members, but not the president. mitch mcconnell leveled the strongest accusations yet at the administration. take a look. >> there is a culture of intimidation throughout the intimidation. the irs is just the most recent example. >> it is no wonder that the agents in the irs don't get the message. the president demonizes his opponent and the head of the union -- >> but senator, that is a leap that you can make as argument, but you don't have fact to back it up. you can create -- >> well, the investigation. >> you can talk about a cult ur. do you have any evidence that the president of the united states directed that you call a culture of intimidation at the irs to target political opponents. >> i don't think we know what the facts are. >> joining us now, a man who deals only in facts. former congressman joes is tack,

three-star navy admiral. >> thanks, s.e., good to be with you. >> i'm going to be blunt. i don't give a hoot about what this means for the president. he's not up for re-election, i don't neat need to make this about obama, and frankly, i feel pretty confident the republicans are going to keep the house and maybe even take over the senate, but what i care about is systemic government overreach and bureaucracies like the irs or the doj or the state department that might have gotten too big and disconnected from accountability for their own good. you know, krystal actually says on this program all of the time, as a democrat she doesn't need big government. she wants efficient government, and i want to know where other democrats are on calling for government reform like she does? >> you know, s.e., what they have to call for and you used the exact right word,

accountability. a captain of a a ship is given more authority and responsibility than any other man or woman on the ship, but with that goes accountability and if anyone finds themselves beyond accountability than you lose responsibility and finding the end of trust in a leader because who will believe someone whether in the administration or in congress who just feels they're above accountability and the issue is this, that people now in the senate, in the administration want to be judged for their word, for what their intentions are, not for their deeds. not for their results or the lack thereof. it's not, and i do agree with that statement and the government that is accountable to, we, the people. never has a government of the people been held in such low regrd by the people and that's why we careen from crisis to crisis rather than preventing a crisis we react to them and it's harming america. >> how should congress try to draw that line? you mentioned deeds and intention, but of course, there

is a big difference between an accident that results in someone dying and a murder. our law recognizes that difference primarily through the mental state of the actor. so as we analyze the mental state of the irs or the various people in it, it's a difficult process what should senate finance committee or these other oversight bodies do to get to the heart of that, what we've seen in the irs case with the republican running it, it doesn't appear from what we know now to have been a deliberate orchestration from the top as bad as this scrutiny based on ideology would be. >> well, i have to, even though it's well stated disagree with the premise of what you just said. whether it's a crime or whether it's an accident, we at sea are held accountable for that by a proper investigation. for example, i had an aircraft carrier during the war in afghanistan. i lost an f-18 plane and its pilot. there were two investigations done to figure out how high up that accountability should be and it was an accident. if you don't even hold

accountable well-intentioned men and women you will will lose the confidence of the crew because no one will be held accountable. that's what they should be doing with the irs. they should be having the proper investigation done by the admip stragdz and by congress. there's nothing wrong and it's right to have congress want to do oversight in benghazi and the irs and then hold people accountable. look, it's cruel this business of accountability, but it's either that or the loss of confidence in our think goment and that's what's be onning sxurd sometimes good-intentioned men and when the ship goes aground needs to be relieved for cause. >> i want to get you to forecast how you think this will impact the 2014 house races because the movements like this do affect how people do parties in general and mrpolitico writes about thi today and love their congressmen, how do you think this will affect the us. >> >> i think s.e. said it well. i really don't care. when she talked about the

presidency and the impact on it. what i most care about is how is it impacting us? we citizens. i go around everywhere in pennsylvania and the biggest deficit in america today is not the debt. it's the trust deficit. >> will that impact therefore your own personal congress person? i think it may because i think people are getting fed up. this new generation that's coming up that they call the millennium generation is representing to where they don't resent authority, they just don't respect it. they're not of the establishment, they're outside of it and they're beginning to r impact on the institutions where the president may have favorable ratings, but what do people think about the presidency and that's the same way in the congress and ultimately without the trust of a crew, you have a purposeful ship of state, the united states, for example, begin to careen from crisis to crisis because we have leaders that only care about the politics of it and that's the shame down in d.c. today, it's

just gotten out of control. >> congressman, what does it do to the trust deficit, as you put it when you have, excuse me, members of congress who have basically decided on theest is facts that they want to see, for example, in the benghazi matter and then they work backward to try to find the evidence to support that view. it's one thing to have congressional oversight and the partisan witch hunt which is what the investigations have come to. >> this is a great point, and i'm not trying to pick on one person here and an example is rand paul when we went in iowa that day and said secretary clinton had dereliction of duty and should never hold public office again. i think what americans would have liked to have seen is rand paul hold a mirror up to hips and said you what? i never wn to the senate floor and i didn't bother to vote yes or no when with we cut the appropriations by hundreds of millions of dollars in the last

couple of years for the security of our embassies and consulate oversea. so what it gets back to is people are looking for that person that john f. kennedy almost who said hold me accountable, you know? and that is what they want more than anything. >> former congressman joe sestak, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me on. >> speak of playing politics, i missed you friday and i was slaying dragons on "real time with bill maher" who is a big fan of the show. >> the co-host of "the cycle," the show that i wake up to s.e. cupp. >> i enjoyed spending time with michael soshgin. >> i particularly enjoyed meeting zack galifianakis which you may not know is a big farmer and an all-around nice guy. he offered me his jacket as you see here. i promised him i would not smoke

anything in it. i kept that promise. thanks to bill and the whole team at realtime we have much more cycle straight ahead. >> who wakes up at noon? i do a lot of research on angie's list before i do any projects on my own. at angie's list, you'll find reviews written by people just like you. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list for bringing us together. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. what makes a sleep number store different? what makes a sleep number you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. if you want a soft bed you can lie on one of those." we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. the sleep number memorial day sale. not just ordinary beds on sale, but the bed that can change your life on sale. the sleep number bed. this is your body there. you can see a little more pressure in the hips. take it up one notch. oh gosh, yes. you get that moment where you go, "oh yeah" ... oh, yeah! ... and it's perfect. they had no idea that when they came to a sleep number store, we were going to diagnose their problems and help them sleep better.

and right now save on the closeout of our classic special edition bed set. just $1299-a savings of $600-and discover the only memory foam bed with dual air adjustability. once you experience it, there's no going back. wow. don't invest in a mattress until you find your sleep number setting. sale ends june 2nd. only at the sleep number store. sleep number. comfort individualized

>> back now with breaking weather news on the cycle. a huge swath of tornado alley is bracing for another rash of sthorps from dallas to chicago. forecasters are concerned today's outbreak could be worse than yesterday's which killed two people in oklahoma. weather channel meteorologist carl parker is tracking it all for us from atlanta. carl, what have you got? >> a lot of the same parameters are in place again today and that's why we think there could be tornadoes again and already super cell thunderstorms are popping up across parts of oklahoma and let's take a look at the radar picture and show you these cells. you can see them from oklahoma and right down to areas south of

the city. these cells have the super cell characteristic and you see a curvature to them and that indicates the presence of a super cell thunderstorm. they tend to produce large hail and damaging wind and tornadoes. that's exactly what's going to be occurring we think during the course of the afternoon. right now there are no tornado warnings on these cells, but we do think we could continue to get more organized and produce tornadoes. they just popped within the last half hour here. also severe thunderstorm warning for oklahoma city for golf ball sized hail and for damaging wind. >> farther northward, more cells have popped up in southwestern parts of kansas. here, too, there is a chance for tornados and these storms are just starting to get going this will last for several hours through this evening and the reason why we're seeing these rotating storms is you have winds that are coming out of the south and at the same time as you go up in the atmosphere

about half way, about 18,000 feet, the winds are coming out of the southwest and the change in wind direction with speed and height creates a rolling motion in the atmosphere which can be tilted into the vertical when thunderstorms develop and that's what we expect to see more of today. so the best chance of these super cell storms is going to be in oklahoma and parts of kansas and farther northward it will be a damaging wind and hail threat all of the way into the western lakes and chicago, and tomorrow we expect to see a tornado threat across parts of the plains in particular and a hail and wind threat into the middle mississippi valley, but with each successive day that severe threat is going to be coming down just a little bit. back to you. >> carl parker, thank you very much. turning to another breaking news story this afternoon. dramatic twists and turns and it's the final phase of the jodi arias trial. >> jodi's defense attorneys are trying to get a mistrial and

then asked the judge to withdraw from the case and ultimately say they're not going to call any witnesses to defend arias' character, but we may still hear from the convicted murderer herself tomorrow as jurors consider whether to sentence her to death. in a post conviction interview she looked at death as the ultimate freedom. diana alvear will explain what went down in the last hour. >> reporter: a lot happened very quickly in a matter of minutes and this is what happened. a childhood friend of jodi arias was supposed to take the stand on her behalf to serve as a character witness and how arias had an abusive childhood and that the jurors should think about sparing her life. she felt that she'd been intimidated and she felt there were threats on her life and she felt conflict about it. this is something that she told nbc news directly. she said she felt there was a

lot of good in jodi arias to be saved and she felt terrible that someone's life had been taken and she was speaking about travis alexander. she decided she couldn't go through with it and the defense decided to launch a motion in the penalty phase and they asked to withdraw from the case entirely and that was denied. then they said we're not going to call any witnesses and court was adjourned and what does this mean for jodi arias to take the stand? we still expect her to take the stand tomorrow and she may be speak about her art work and trying to show the jurors that there's more to her than just being a convicted murderer. we've learned anything and anything can happen in this c e case. >> diana, do you know any more about her art work? >> reporter: you know, i've seen a lot of it online and she has a friend that will tweet links out so that people can take a look at it and from what we've been told from that friend, she was hoping to raise money by the

defen sale of her art work. i'm not sure what kind of an effect that will have on the jury. >> exactly, diana alvear, thank you very much. up, in, leaks, lies and secrets amid the a.p. scandal. the author of a new book on government secrecy says what we know isn't even the half of it.

are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers.

has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy.

constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. tell me this isn't happening. tell me those men in my office, those men if my house the ones putting my entire life into boxes and bags -- >> it's happening. >> i am not the mole, si. i did not leak those do you means. >> no? >> no. >> it's happening. life's imitating art in washington these days and maybe

not quite that dramatically, but when reported and the justice department obtained phone record, the political world has gone into a frenzy. how far is too far when it comes to protecting national security? the administration has found one unlikely ally in a top senate republican. >> the national security leaks are very important and it looks like this is an investigation that needs to happen because national security leaks, of course, can get our agents overseas killed. >> now it's not likely that these phone seizures will be classified as unconstitutional, it could lead to criminal charges and the national security reporter and co-author of deep state inside the government psyche resy industry. thanks for being here. >> good to be here. one of the things you talk about in the book is the idea that there are two levels of sort of leak use going on in the government. one is what we think of traditionally, stopping leaks

and investigating leaks and the other is a massaging of unofficial leaks. what do you mean by that? those two layers? >> in general for the 99.9% of the 5 million people with security clearances. >> wow! >> if they leak information, when they leak information they're the ones that the justice department and the general councils and internal mechanisms inside these national security agencies will come down on very, very hard, but there is an exception and it's an exception that seems to be a common law privilege which is that you're a political appointee or if you're a general or been in government for a long time and you have these sort of teflon, get out of jail free cards for being able to discuss classified information with journalists which is,

incidentally, i think, a good thing, and if congress wanted to criminalize the publication of classified information which, by the way, it is not a violation of the law to publish information that's classified, it's a violation of a lot of published national security information, but defining national security is a term of art, it seems as if the two layers i talk about, the layer for the workers, the people inside the establishment who do the least leaking, but who get punished the most for it, and a permissive environment for those who do the most leaking. >> and i want to jump in on that especially important point because sometimes you see people who are doing the hard work and they're not at the political level and they can get caught up in these investigations and let's talk about one example in your book. a very interesting critique of a very famous picture and when with the united states national

security team was overseeing what would amount to the killing of saum. there it is. it is the most popular picture on flicker, a seminole image and you write that classifying the actual photo of bin laden's body which you say the cia wanted that photo out there and instead it was classified and you write that that ensured that the defining moment of the operation was the obama security team resolute and astride in armchairs. why was that? >> this is what gets to the heart, i think of what bothers people generally about leak investigations, about secrecy and overclassification is thatta i lot of the decisions made to classify things that might be in the public's interest or the public would at least have a right to know, but certainly have an interest to know are made for political reasons and this was one of them not so much, the administration could

not have classified the picture and not released it, but they classified it and it was national security information and the argument is if the picture got out as one administration official described to me way back when it could inflame tensions in the muslim world because it would show a very graphic image of a dead person. >> sort of like killing hill. >> right. but national security information, at least from my perspective shouldn't be premised on a lot of what ifs. there are measurable ways to see whether something will cause harm or not cause harm and if you do things based on what if, then you'll get into these situations where the politics of the moment will dictate whether something is classified or not. >> speaking of the politics of the moment not only does that dictate what will be classified, but you also indicate that it dictates which sorts of leaks will be investigated regarding this latest a.p. investigation. you wrote that politics, not

partisan politics, but just politics often determines what the fbi pays attention to. so what are some of the factors that go into how aggressively the government investigates these leaks and whether they investigate them at all. i do think the level of harm is one thing. you can't -- in this case the government said that the publication of the information stopped them from monitoring an al qaeda operation that they had an inside track on that could have led to them rolling on other al qaeda sources, so that was the level of harm that they say and that's not an insignificant claim. however, at the same time, if you'll recall, was there enormous outrage in congress that the administration was not sharing enough classified information with them and was selectively leaking it to reporters. so when they came out it was the perfect chance to say we'll crack down and we'll be really tough on this. >> and also, let me ask you about that more specifically,

mark. it also is worth pointing out that the white house was also probably pretty pissed that this leak contradicted earlier statements from the white house that there had been no credible threats imminent from al qaeda. so i want to know how much of these investigations by the doj or elsewhere are -- are meant to have a punitive effect, a silencing effect on whoefl blowers? >> it's hard to say there because the justice department and the career people inside the national security division who initiate these investigations are somewhat insulated from that. they don't particularly care whether the white house has a particular spin or not. what they're looking for, though is broad political cover to be as aggressive as they can. so the context of this was more they could do what they needed to do and they would not get pushed bah being from congress and they would not get pushback from the white house and indeed the attorney general and eric

holder himself would strongly defend the leak probe and you're absolutely right. the white house is not an insignificant thing for the white house to say we want this leak prosecuted and it doesn't mean that the justice department would do it and it's an incentive for them to do so and the fact that they were angry that indeed it exposed the fact that they didn't have their story straight and essentially they told the associated press at one point, okay, no longer would the publication of this represent an imminent threat. well, clearly there were some people inside the administration who disagreed and a lot of that -- i think a lot of that contributed to this. >> i love your writings. i'm really glad you're here. i want to read you a line from your book and the intelligence community is darn good at what they do, but one man and his flash drive could throw away the fundamental dynamics of the system on whose behalf they work

and it all adds up to the inescapable truth of today. the american state is over. that sounds a little chilling. we look at an information age where all of us are emitting electromagnetic signals and obviously i'm on television, but it is also emitting my location up to a phone tower where anybody any number of people could know exactly where i was at the time. there's enormous amounts of information out there so that should scare people in one since, but the u bibbing witty of the information issue the ability to share information openly on the internet makes it very, very difficult for the government to conceal very large things. that's what i mean by that. it doesn't mean they won't be able to keep secrets that utsch future governments wouldn't do,

it would be much harder. >> up next, something pretty cool happening near you and you may not even know about it. the growing number of all-girls clubs threatening to disrun the old-boys network and it's called the stiletto world and the business world may never be the same. [ female announcer ] from more efficient payments. ♪ to more efficient pick-ups. ♪ wireless is limitless. ♪ what that's great. it won't take long, will it? nah. okay. this, won't take long will it? no, not at all. how many of these can we do on our budget? more than you think.

didn't take very long, did it? summer's here, so are the savings. that's nice. post it. already did. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get memorial day savings, like 3 bags of earthgro® mulch for just $10. ♪ even superheroes need superheroes, and some superheroes need complete and balanced meals with 23 vitamins and minerals. purina dog chow. help keep him strong. dog chow strong. that nasty odor coming from your washer. say farewell to the smell with tide washing machine cleaner. it goes straight to the source of the stink to lift odor-causing residues off your washer's drum. tide washing machine cleaner. to appreciate our powerful, easy-to-use platform. no, thank you. we know you're always looking for the best fill price. and walk limit automatically tries to find it for you. just set your start and end price.

and let it do its thing. wow, more fan mail. hey ray, my uncle wanted to say thanks for idea hub. o well tell him i said you're welcome. he loves how he can click on it and get specific actionable trade ideas with their probabilities throughout the day. yea, and these ideas are across the board -- bullish, bearish and neutral. i think you need a bigger desk, pal. another one? traders love our trading patterns, now with options patterns. what's not to love? they see what others are trading -- like the day's top 10 options trades by volume -- and get ideas! yea i have an idea: how about trading that in for a salad? [ male announcer ] so come trade at the place that's all about options and futures. optionsxpress. open an account today and get a $150 amazon.com gift card when you call 1-888-280-0159 now. optionsxpress by charles schwab.

i'm goining to dream about t that steaka. i'i'm going toto dream about thatat tiramisu.u. whwhat a nightht, huh? but, u um, can thehe test drivie be over nonow? head b back to the d dealership?p? [ mamale announcncer ] it's praractically y yours. but we stitill need yourur signaturere. volklkswagen sigign then dririe is back. anand it's nevever been eaeasir to get a a passat. that's's the powerer of german n engineerining. get $0$0 down, $0 0 due at sig, $0 depososit, anand $0 firstst month's p pt on any n new volkswawagen. vivisit vwdealaler.com tododay. [ female announcer ] from meeting customer needs... to meeting patient needs... ♪ wireless is limitless. >> our next guest his tapped interest a phenomena that may just swing the balance of power

in the boardroom from men to women. denner groups, hold on, hold on. these groups are spending billions in transactions and leveraging friendship into power in industries ranging from tv and film to banking, to non-profits and it's part of the growing underground trend one author calls the stiletto network. the all-girl groups called themselves babes in boyland, chicks in charge and harpies and they're using these to not only make themselves very wealthy and mentor and support the next business leaders. pamela has written for "the new york times," "the financial times" and fortune.com and she is the author of stiletto network, inside the women's groups that are changing the face of business. thanks for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> i want to start with your story. how did you stumble upon these networks and decide to write a beco book about it. >> a few years ago i was

researching an article and i walked into a conference and they denied the age-old ster stereotypes of high-powered ladies in the workforce. they were not wearing the blue and gray pinstriped suits that we see. in fact, they were if fashionable dresses and shoes and hairstyles. and they were interacting in a very feminine way. >> hay were hugging each other hello and clasping hands. so what i found out was enabling these women to be so successful and which was owe am cofortable in their own skin. >> if everyone in congress would just get together and have a drink and get dinner this would solve a lot of problems, but -- so to this, the idea of getting together for dinner is lovely, but i understand that you've seen some actual, practical results and consequences, tell us about some of those. >> huge prak cal results. >> so what i discovered was an underground movement of dinner groups and networking circles

all across the u.s. most groups have no more than ten women and they number in the tens and hundreds of thousands of women nation wide and i found this activity in all age groups and all industries from ceos toic entiring millennials to moms launching businesses in their basements and i've charted billions of dollars in transactions and corporate board seats attained and companies founded and funded as a result of the female friendships. >> i can give you a couple of examples. >> cool. >> these women have cree afted the most downloaded app in the history of warner brothers. they have overseen the largest high-yield bond deal in 2010 and they have created the single most successful fund-raising pilot in the history of the red cross all as a result of these groups. >> i fully appreciate and support and understand the values of these groups and i would fully urge my wife and my daughter to get involved and my cyst tore get involved with them, but isn't it equally important for women like

yourself, like these women to also infiltrate as best they can those old boys networks, the boys clubs to also access power in that way? >> yes, and they are doing that, but what they found is strength in numbers which women never had before. traditionally had before. traditionally at work, there was no room for more than one woman at the top of any department or company or even an industry. so women had to look outside of their industries to find friends. to find those people who understood their unique business and personal issues. ment men only had to look right and left to find their buddies and were all going to rise up together. you can see why these groups of women actually came together and what they've done for each other. >> it's the cross pollenization that makes all the difference? >> it absolutely is. these women engage in hilarious debates. they exchange information, guidance, intelligence, insight. they're constantly exchanging ideas and those ideas are now creating innovation, game-changing innovation within

industries and the junction of those industries. >> and pamela, why now? you know, these groups are sort of springing up all over the place. unbeknownst to each other basically. what do you think is the c confluence of events that makes right now the time right for women of all levels of their careers to be forming these little groups? >> what we are seeing is two things happen at the same time. finally after 40 years in the workforce there are enough women in positions of power with their own self-made wealth willing to take chances in that wealth. they're willing to invest it in other women and willing to spin their rolodexes on behalf of other women. the same time in history, we're having all these young women starting their own companies who don't see there's anything they can't do. what's happening, the reason the explosion is going to occur, is the generations are increasingly coming together. the young women bring technological know how, passion, moxy, insight into innovation that is targeted at their generation. the older women bring

executional expertise, operational expertise and money. they're coming together. they're forming companies. they're investing in one another. >> and maybe there's a critical mass now that there's so many women in powerful positions that they're not sort of competing and afraid of sort of competing with each other. >> that's absolutely right. historically, i think backstabbing did occur and women got a bad rap in the workforce, again, because there was only room for one. >> yeah. >> when that's the case -- >> right. >> -- we can share information and resources. it's you or me. we finally have gotten to a place, even in stallwart industries where it can be you and me. >> and us. >> women are learning it's easier to do this together than apart. >> if krystal and i start a girl group, will you come to our meetings? >> i would love to come to your meetings. >> absolutely. it's happening. toure, you're not invited. pamela, thank you so much. congrats on the book. we asked our facebook fans today what they think of your thesis and specifically whether women are becoming more powerful in the business world. timothy miller says yes because

the quality in the workplace is good for morale and excellent for the u.s. economy. >> hear, hear. >> now that you heard from pamela, herself, and timothy, like us on facebook and let us know what you think. up next, back to the arias case. it looks more and more likely jodi could be sentenced to death. toure says, let her live. he'll explain next. >> good job. [ male announcer ] frequent heartburn? the choice is yours. chalky... not chalky. temporary... 24 hour. lots of tablets... one pill. you decide. prevent acid with prevacid 24hr.

jodi arias has been found guilty. he's now in the penalty phase of her murder trial. i know she says she wants to die, but should she? should any of the three recent high-profile defendants who appear likely to join death row for acts so heinous, you could announce that they'll be electrocuted or injected or even hung in front of pay-per-view

cameras and cost to watch them die will be $49.95, and who would complain as america revels in the painful last moment of monsters? well, i would complain. i would say, wait a minute. maybe the state shouldn't put these people or any people to death. yes. they've done horrible things and deserve to suffer. but when the state executes, what's in it for us? an exorbitant price tag, for one. death row inmates cost us a lot more largely because their trials and appeals are longer and larger. we can put someone in maximum security for 50 years for less than it costs to try a capital murder case and house them in a special wing and then kill them after 20 years. do we get a crime deterrent for extra money? doesn't seem so. in recent studies, over 85% of criminologists agreed the death penalty does not deter crime. in a survey of 500 police chiefs find they also don't think it deters crime. and a "new york times" breakdown found states without the death penalty tend to have lower homicide rates than states with the death penalty.

it makes sense that death isn't a deterrent. it's geographically arbitrary. three states killed more than half of all those executed in recent years while 17 haven't killed anyone in years. the system is biased against those who kill whites and in favor for those with a more expensive defense. if your defense and expert costs are over $3 20e 20,000, you have a 19% chance of death. if they're under, it's a 44% chance. is this any way to run the mechanism of death? can fallible humans even be trusted with this much power? over 142 people have been sentenced to death then exonerated. if death can't be administered without the possibility of error, then it shouldn't be applied at all. despite the many flaws in the system, we do get an emotional dividend. vengeance against those who have put us in fear. doing cruel things to the cruelest among us. that's supposed to make us feel better. supposed to make the politicians look tougher and supposed to make the families file by iey i. society and allow the grieving

family to sentence the guilty. we know of stories of mothers who found peace by forgiving their kids' killers. we would want to kill those who harm our family and still know it's not effective or appropriate for the state to be in the business of meting out revenge. the state can be humane to those who do not deserve it, especially in america which sees itself as a moral nation on a hill. we can be bigger than our basis impulses. but we're a blood-lusty nation. though there's nothing about life in prison and nothing about death that's helping, we're going to go on killing. all right. that does it for us. martin, it's yours. thank you, toure. good afternoon. it's monday may the 20th. as a new week begins, a simple truth is crystalizing. nothing is going to break this man's stride. ♪ >> the controversy isn't hurting the president's poll numbers. they're up slightly. it's not stopping republicans,

though. >> there is a culture of intimidation. >> this is big government cronyism. >> trust is being eroded. >> part of it has to do with the intimidation that the administration is leaving. >> the assertions from the republicans that the president allowed this to happen is offensive. >> the nancy stathananny state what to do. >> political hate. >> if we start criticizing, you get targeted. >> they try to drag washington into a swamp of partisan fishing expeditions. >> really, obama, you said you heard about the scandal we you saw it on tv? i don't want to live in a world where you have the same sources as my aunt. >> i have a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing. one of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years is there's no longer any room for excuses. ♪ nobody going to slow me down >> we're actually going to go now to a live image from the midst of a tornado. you can see it there. obviously a large swath of