obama court. it's time to fill her up. good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. ever since president obama first became president obama, the story of his legacy as the country's first african-american president has been a narrative under constant rewrite. he doesn't do much of the damage caused by his predecessor, george w. bush, ending the war in iraq, stopping the youth of torture and bringing the economy back from the brink. he would sign into law transformative social policy in the form of the affordable care act and, yes, he would have frustrating round after frustrating round after frustrating round of stalemates with republican foes on the hill. there's one place perhaps more than any other where a president can leave an indelible mark that continues its impact for decades

after that president leaves office, the courts. appointments to the federal judiciary are there by law until they want to leave or they pass away. president obama's impact is already clear on the supreme court where he has successfully nominat nominat nominat nominat nominat nominat nominated sonia sotomayor and the court has more than double the amount of women than ever before. bravo. compare the appointments to federal judgeships through 2012 and you'll find his total of 173 lags behind everyone from jimmy carter on. that's not because there aren't judgeships to fill. there are 80. 16 in the u.s. court of appeals and 64 in u.s. district courts.

the way republicans are talking, they like to see it be for 11th seat d.c. court that this judge would actually be the court's eighth judge and that would be it. there are still three more openings on that very important court but now republican senator chuck grassley is pushing the court efficiency act reducing the number of authorized judgeships from the u.s. d.c. court. it would mean four judges nominated by republican george w. bush, three nominated by president clinton and our most recent nominated by president obama. those extra three openings that he has a constitutional duty to fill, senator chuck says forget them. the iowa senator calls the d.c.

circuit court "the least busy circuit in the country." "the new york times" editorial board on the other hand calls grassley factually inadequate and the judicial conference of the u.s. led by chief justice john roberts told the senate judiciary committee to keep the 11 positions. president obama appears ready to oblige. the president, the "times" reports will nominate three judges to the d.c. circuit court of appeals all but daring republicans but grassley to stand in the way and know this. we are talking about a major political fight here. the d.c. circuit court is known as the second highest court in the land and for good reason. two-thirds of the court's case load involve the federal government in some civil capacity far more than any other appeals court in the country. it's also known as a feeder court to the big bench. four of the current nine supreme

court justices previously served on the d.c. circuit court. so let's get real about what's happening here. it is not an overzealous staffing plan. it's the potential of a lasting and meaningful legacy left by president obama long after he leaves office that they seek to stop at all costs. joining me now is a panel chalked full of experts on this topic. carol frederickson. and we also have a law and political signs professor at yale university. we have nan, president of the alliance for justice. lovely to have you all here. so start by telling me why the d.c. courtney hazle of appeals important. they're not doing thing. take it from 11-8. what happens on that court? >> it's a farm team for the u.s.

supreme court and you mentioned four of the current justices. we could also mention robert bork dominado donominated to th court but didn't get through. doug ginsburg who was considered for the high court and didn't get through. there's a history of manipulating court size for political reasons claiming efficiency. franklin roosevelt was frustrated when the court said no to his plans expanding the u.s. supreme court from 9 to 15. he said it's about efficiency because the court is behind his docket. that wasn't a very honest explanation. the real problem was the court was out of sync with the time that in his first term he got no appointments whatsoever. something at that point had been unprecedented and he thought the court should sort of reflect the country but he wasn't quite honest about that.

when abe lincoln dies and the radical republicans don't like andrew johnson, they shrink the size of the court to prevent him from having some appointments. the outgoing federalists when thomas jefferson was elected in 1801 shrank the size of the supreme court so he wouldn't have a first appointment. there's a history here. >> i feel like for students or viewers who took their last american government class in whatever 11th grade and they think what is it that the court does again and when we say the court, we tend to mean the supreme court of the united states. we sort of get what's going on there. explain why these lower courts, why something like a circuit court, district court, the court of appeals matter. what is sort of the structure that matters? >> it's a great question. the supreme court hears very few cases. the vast majority of cases are decided in the lower courts. the d.c. circuit is of particular importance because people don't realize the number of cases that have to go there.

major cases involving regulations whether we want to protect our health or our environment, workers rights, major national security cases and voting. these are cases that most of them are required to go to the d.c. circuit and they have a large amount of power. i would say one other thing that people don't realize about this court. now even if you said it's sort of divided 4-4 in terms of republican appointees and democratic appointees, senior judges hear a great number of those cases and those are divided 5-1. >> there's a quirky structure. these 11 are not equal players that nine on the supreme court are. so you actually end up with a bias. part of what the language has been over the course of the past couple of decades around court appointments has been this discourse of fear of activists judges and typically that is conservatives making a claim that liberals will be packing courts with activists judges. what should we make of a claim

like that? is it a presidential attempt to make a liberal activist court out of the d.c. court of appeals? >> first of all, we haven't heard that claim by republican senators recently because in fact most of president obama's nominees have been very moderate. >> this is one of the quirks of the entire obama administration experience is that they actually do moderate policies that enrage the left because they're so moderate but somehow get characterized by the right as insanely liberal. >> they've been supremely qualified. i would say that you have to look at the d.c. circuit in context and that is that republicans have had a plan for the circuit. going back to ronald reagan presidency and that is to put individuals, put judges on that d.c. circuit, hostile to women rights, civil rights, individual liberties, worker and environmental protections and they have gone about this with a

vengeance. but during times when there's a democrat in the office, all of a sudden republicans are saying, okay, let's wait. let's not confirm any of the democratic candidates and then of course when george w. bush came in, he put four on easily. now we have president obama, we have three more vacancies and republicans are again playing a game with the d.c. circuit. that tells you just how important that circuit is. >> so both the d.c. circuit but also when we look more broadly. i guess part of my concern here is this sense that we're in a position where the very fundamental structures of our democracy are being -- it makes me feel better to know there's a history of manipulation. on the other hand i keep

thinking this is somehow more important than the permits themselves. >> i think politics are being played here. when we talk about efficiency, this is republicans gearing up to make partisan points and keep the court in their direction. there is a problem which is that the second term around we have a lot of appointments that frankly are not seen to be superstars. this is the b team. we had hillary clinton. we had geithner. we had extraordinary folks around obama who weren't just moderate but were supremely competent. you saw what happened to susan rice this time around when she was almost floated and pulled back. you look at treasury and commerce and you look at state, these are big high profile appointments. people don't think they are supremely competent. >> so looking at administration confirmations in general, you think there's something going on with a second term malaise a little bit. >> not with judicial. >> when we pull the camera back

and talk about efficiency, let's talk about the efficiency or lack thereof of the senate itself. let's talk about filibuster reform and that is an important ingredient in the conversation. >> that's exactly where we're going to go. before we get to filibuster, which we'll talk about the nuclear option, i want to talk about specific people who are being nominated and sort of how supremely qualified and competent they may. who are these folks that the president is looking to help him have a lasting legacy when we're back. ok s o i' 've been having ok s an affair of sorts o i' with greek nonfat yogurt, loaded with protein 0% fat that thick creamy texture, i was in trouble. look i'm in a committed relationship with activia and i've been happy and so has my digestive system. now i'm even happier since activia greek showed up because now i get to have my first love and my greek passion together, what i call a healthy marriage. activia greek. the feel good greek. ♪ dannon

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the d.c. circuit court of appeals has its hands full and not just because it's missing 3 of its 11 judges, it could soon determine the fate of obama care. a federal lawsuit filed in may in washington argues that the

only state run exchanges, not federal ones, can provide tax credits and subsidies to enable lower income individuals to afford the mandated health insurance. if the d.c. court of appeals files in favor of the lawsuit that federal money is not available, a lot of the poor folks will have to buy federally mandated health insurance and it's now going to be gone tossing a big wrench in the obama care works. as emily noted last week in "slate." climb change, immigration and dodd-frank financial reform are also in play and that's why these three rumored contenders

to the d.c. court may prove to be very important indeed. all right. what do we know about these three? >> just to go back, the two distinct reasons why these are so important, the d.c. circuit itself hands down important rulings and to repeat it's the farm team for the u.s. supreme court. john roberts was nominated for a very long time ago and they stalled him. elaina kagan way back when was nominated for this at the end of the clinton administration. some of the action are the people we talked about which are possible supreme court nominees if they got on the d.c. circuit. elaina never got it but that wasn't the end of things for her. >> got it. so what do we know about these folks? >> i just want to clarify that we're not sure these will be the people who are nominated but they are certainly the names that have been talked about or in the news. what i can say is these are

three extremely well qualified people. brilliant. great lawyers. exactly the kind of people you would want on the court. some of our country's best supreme court litigatolitigator. they are hands down qualified. i'm happy to see those are the people obama may be considering. >> they have litigated so often before the supreme court. they understand the supreme court which is what you want the d.c. circuit to go because it's supposed to think about what the supreme court wants and would do. these guys do that every day. >> i'm looking at ms. pillard. ms. millett argued 32 cases before the supreme court mostly on behalf of the federal government. i am wondering on one hand that strikes me is extraordinary competence and also noted there's two women there. i also wonder if words like

aclu, naacp and the fact there are two women there that could shift what the courts look like. >> i think they are so extraordinarily qualified that the fight -- they can't make a fight over any of these individual candidates. they just can't. all three are amazing and prestigious lawyers. that's why republicans are focusing on the seats because they know they cannot -- >> eliminate the seats. >> much easier to do. and of course it's so hypocritical the republicans because when george bush was appointing judges, senator grassley and others voted to fill all of those seats on the d.c. circuit. they can't -- >> if you want to be optimistic, we would take heart from the fact that the one with the same record as these three and is a possible person for the supreme

court and in interest of demographic diversity and excellence was confirmed 97-0. they were able to agree here is a person supremely well qualified. if we want to be optimists, maybe that could happen again. >> if i could just say something to pick up on nan's point about the hypocrisy and the republicans and grassley in particular. they fought like hell to get george bush's nominees on the d.c. circuit when the case load was not only lower but they wanted to go right up to the 11th seat and now they say eight is plenty. we know the case load is higher than it used to be but that court doesn't have enough to do. >> we've heard the history. this is not -- yes, it's hypocritical. the implication is only republicans are hypocritical in this behavior. no one here would believe that, right. >> democrats filibustered on previous judicial nominations when there were republican

presidents. >> across the board. the reason we don't get rid of the filibuster because folks understand they like to use it when they're not in power. and life would be easier for obama if he could sweep in a bigger way. he won the presidency but we have a balanced government. >> democrats used the filibuster but in extreme situations. they filibuster a handful of judicial nominees. i know i was there at the time. at the moment, now that president obama is in office, they have demanded 60 votes meaning almost everyone -- >> hold the filibuster fire. we'll come to that as soon as we come back after commercial. there's so much on this question of does it protect the rights of the minority party or does it have such an ugly history that we need to blow that filibuster

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natural energy from green tea plus fruits and veggies. need a little kick? ooh! could've had a v8. in the juice aisle. senate majority leader harry reid is putting his dukes up. >> republicans have chosen to pay partisan political games with dozens, dozens, scores of president obama's appointees. >> the former boxer is promising a fight. he's bobbing and weaving at the moment but the fight is over the senate filibuster rules, which essentially makes a 60-vote majority necessary to get anything done which is why in part nothing gets done. when it comes to presidential appoi appointments that could change quickly if harry reid chooses the nuclear option by which we mean taking away the ability to filibuster the judicial nominations.

is this a reasonable way to address this problem? >> i think there would be a preferable way which is republicans to do their constitutional duty and fill the vacancies on the many courts we have. >> there are many. we're talking about 64 overall. >> 10% vak acancy rate on the federal courts. we talk about government efficiency. we should look to fill those vacancies. >> and executive branch as well. >> half of the state department seems to be empty. there are a lot of things that need to be done. when it comes down to a cost benefit analysis should we keep the filibuster for tradition or should we think about maybe getting some work done in the government, you know, you start to wonder. the balance starts to tip. >> here's the situation. it's not just the judicial nominees but the head of environmental protection agency, it's apoipointees to the nation labor relations board, it's richard still waiting after two years for a vote to the consumer

financial protection and then you have judicial nominees. harry reid, mitch mcconnell came to an agreement a couple weeks ago over the course of how these nominations would be handled. days after that agreement was signed, mitch mcconnell sent a fund-raising letter home to kentucky saying, yeah, me. i kept the filibuster. so at the moment i think if we want government to run and run smoothly and effectively, we've got to fill these seats. >> there are different versions. >> i see bigger difficulties in terms of all of these open positions with the inability of our government to attract capable people because of the level of scrutiny and background checks because of the difficulty of ethical conflicts and all of that that so many people with real background private sector background and the rest aren't

interested at playing the role where 30 or 40 years ago, there wouldn't have been that scrutiny. no question if you got rid of the filibuster you would speed the process. it's true. do you want to speed the process? how much government do you want? the u.s. economy is doing better than other economies. >> it's a question of whether or not our founders actually meant for the process to move forward quickly or not. >> which is the constitutional issue. here are key points. the founders had no filibuster. no important piece of legislation prior to the civil war would ever fail because of a minority filibuster. not one. this is a new development. the framers believed in majority rule. constitution doesn't say on the supreme court -- hang on. the senate operated by majority rule and so did the house and in each state majorities ratified the constitution and the supreme court always operated 5-4 and

the key point is at any moment a simple majority of the senate can change the rules. that's the nuclear option. the so-called constitutional option. the question is how broadly do you want to change it? do you want to change it just for judicial filibusters? for judicial nominations? for all nominations or legislation as well. the current version that's being proposed wouldn't effect the filibuster for legislation like immigration reform and other things but maybe just for nominations. >> which is a key point. >> as a smaller nuclear constitutional option. >> it's meaningful. we do expect if a president is selected to office on the question of the administration pieces, right, we expect him to pick the people he'll work with within some sort of reasonable kind of background there. but then the judicial piece is as much as policy piece seems like maybe we could draw a hard wall there, as we started out saying the judicial piece is the part that lives past the

president 20 to 40 years especially with life spans now. these people can be on many years after the president is gone. my bet is that's exactly what they don't want to draw the line in those legacy positions. >> and the public really wants the senate to act. over 2.5 million people have weighed with their senators. people are fed up. i can only imagine what the senators are hearing from constituents back home. >> i think one of the things we haven't talked about is a very disastrous ruling by republican members of the d.c. circuit saying that the president really can't fill vacancies through recess appointments. when you put the filibuster together with the inability now it's unconstitutional. the president is now hamstrung and cannot fill vacancies through any avenue. they'll filibuster if he tries to use recess appointment power

and he says i'm going to appoint someone because i need someone in this position and unconstitutional. >> i learned a lot from you all today. we'll keep our eyes on this question because obviously with this many positions to fill, this is not going away. thank you. we are going to talk about china and they're coming for virginia ham. i grew up in virginia. first, mitt romney once again talking about minority voters. wow. seriously? you have the potential to do more in business.

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buy smithfield foods. the headlines that left us shaking our head saying wow? seriously? mitt romney. remember him? super witch, robotic type ran for president last year. he's back and he's hosting party leaders and donors at a retreat. they can exchange ideas about the future of the republican party. here's one of the hard learned lessons romney will share with the class. as he told "the wall street journal" "what we have to do is a much better job appealing to minorities. we have not been able to effectively translate our message in a way that minorities understand that it is designed to be of the greatest benefit for them." excuse me? in a way minorities understand. wow. seriously? is it just that we're thick and didn't understand you? or could it be that we understood you all too well and took our business elsewhere. if you ar fellow republicans listen to your advice, you'll

continue to lose the votes of the minority population in this country. thanks, mitt. seriously. a cheerios commercial brought the races out of the online woodwork this week when general mills began airing this commercial featuring an adorable child and her parents. >> mom? >> yes, honey. >> dad told me that cheerios is good for your heart. is that true? >> says here that cheerios has whole grain oats that can help remove cholesterol. that's heart healthy. >> kim! >> the apparent races of the girl's parents promoted hate speech online. i know i shouldn't expect much

from online commenters but seriously. the spot received more positive attention than negative and general mills is doubling down on it saying they will absolutely not pull the ad. now, louisiana, where i live, i love you, but sometimes, wow, seriously. this week state lawmakers refused to repeal a law that forces schools to teach creationism whenever they teach evolution. one republican state senator tried to repeal the old defunct law but his fellow lawmakers said no thank you which is funny since the law was struck down by the u.s. supreme court in 1987 but it's still the louisiana law. apparently it's going nowhere. speaking of louisiana it yeah, fbj. forget bobby jindal. what did he do this week but sign a bill into law creating lifetime conceal carry gone carry permits. in case you forgot, louisiana has the highest rate of gun violence in the country and not three weeks ago 19 people were

shot at a mother's day second line in my neighborhood. seriously, louisiana legislature. could you have been like the u.s. congress and just done nothing but fresh off the heels of a mass shooting you had to go and make it easier to carry guns around. fbj to that and wow, seriously. and finally, in florida this week. the mother of 14-year-old is accusing miami police of using excessive force with her son. he was at the beach on memorial day when police saw him rough housing with friends. when police approached, he turned and walked away and that's when the report says police felt threatened by his clenched fists and other body language. they tackled him and put had the 14-year-old child in a choke hold. he and his mother say they did nothing wrong and he couldn't have been clenching his fists

because he was carrying his 6 week old puppy dog at the time. there are parts to this story we don't know yet but the police tackled and frightened a 14-year-old boy after a nonphysical encounter. it made him feel sad so, wow, miami police. seriously? we are going ham when we get back. i want to make things more secure. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat more dogs.

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[ grunting ] [ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate, or an annual fee, ever. go to citi.com/simplicity to apply. mommy's having a french fry. yes she is, yes she is. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. 100% vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings in every little bottle. ask any southerner and they'll likely tell you of holiday dinners spent anticipating the moment that they would get to slice into one of the most beloved southern delicacies, the smithfield ham. it begins its life in a small virginia town where it's been salt cured and aged for a year before you can buy it. any true southern cook can detail the time, love and attention that goes into getting one ready for the table.

24 hours of soaking it in water. washing off a layer of mold that accumulated during the months of ageing. seasoning with cloves and brown sugar and then after baking in a 500 degree oven, six to eight hours to complete the cook cycle. what ends up on your plate is a delicious sighs of the south which is authentically american. at least for now. there's a multibillion dollar investment deal on the dinner table. pending the outcome, the next time you bite into a salty slice of southern american ham, what you could be tasting is bittersweet taste of chinese economic expansion. smithfield foods, the american company that's been the source of smithfield ham since the turn of the century, is the target of a $4.7 billion cash takeover bid by the largest meat processing company in china. now, it's not quite a done deal. china's bid first goes to the review for the committee on foreign investment in the united states. that's the body responsible for

making sure foreign acquisitions of u.s. assets don't compromise our national security. unless the committee can make a good case for why chinese ownership of american pigs won't fly, the deal would be the biggest chinese buyout of a u.s. company ever. in fact, this year alone, chinese acquisitions have accounted for more than 20% of the 484 american companies that have been bought by foreign interest. going whole hog with the smithfield acquisition would be a win-win for china. smithfield food is the world's largest producer of paork. china is the world's largest consumer of pork. it's a match made in hog heaven. the demand for all that pig has to offer is also driven in part by china's middle class which explode over the last three decades along with higher income and standard of living of the average chinese citizen. the chinese would acquire the american secret sauce that goes along with all that pork. when china invests in american

companies, it's not just adding a china new asset to its economy, but the technical know how and process related knowledge that goes along with it and yet even as the united states and china, the world's two largest economies are increasingly intertwined, the necessary partnership between the countries often isn't an equal one or a two-way street when it comes to investment and fray trade opportunities. thank you all for being here. so here's the question. why does china want smithfield ham? what is useful here about this acquisition? >> they are the largest consumer of pork. they are also the largest producer. talk about bringing home the bacon, right. >> good. >> the drinking game. >> the fact is they do need

access to as much food stuff as possible. this is a $4.7 billion deal. largest acquisition ever made by the chinese into an american corporation takeover. we're going to let it happen. we're going to let it happen in part because we export a lot more than we actually need. there's not a national security issue here. not a big telecom company. and also we do want the chinese to have stake in american growth. >> is it important there is really no national security issue here because we've been doing all of this gmo and that sort of thing. is it possible pork is a national security problem? >> i don't think it is. i don't think that the chinese want smithfield because they want to be able to buy pork. you don't spend $7.1 billion -- and that's the price tag of this when you add in assumption of debt to be able to buy stuff and

the idea about food safety technology they've been talking about doesn't make sense either. i think what the chinese really want to do long-term is to be able to sell pork in the united states and what they are really paying for is the distribution channels of smithfield because eventually they realize that their population in china will level off if five or six years, maybe even earlier than that, and i think the chinese economy isn't as strong. we are starting to see real problems there. so essentially i think the chinese realize this is what they need to do. >> it's about us being a market and not them. >> and they want other things from us like exposure to western standards of corporate governance and capabilities they don't already have. these are things they're not used to managing. they're not also used to managing any kind of complex international operations. i think this would be a big boom for them. it's not just about the market.

>> i was taking this to a silly level of nationalism making it about the virginia ham. even though i was being silly in this case, we hear it all the time. the sense that chinese are coming. they are acquiring our goods. most importantly they are acquiring our debt. should we be nervous about it? >> we should be nervous that so much debt is held by the central bank that by the push of a computer mouse could sell some of it and send the dollar plummeting. that's not likely to happen if the chinese central bank decided the saudis were nervous or that jihadist were arguing and pressuring that somehow bankrolling was not good politics and the chinese -- my point is here we have a situation where there's a national security imperative that we embrace a deal like this. as ian says, the same entity that owns so much of our debt and could unload it very easily is talking about getting seriously invested in our

economy. you can't simply sell off a bunch of pork farms and production plants and distribution network with a click of a mouse. you're in for the long haul when you're in a deal like that. that's a much more stable situation for americans to be in than to have so much of our debt -- >> we rather have them own the companies than just owning the debt. >> this deal was announced the week before the first meeting with barack obama. clearly that was vetted at the top levels of the chinese government and they want to show they are bringing something to the u.s., something that is not going to be hugely partisan, hugely problematic. it's a deal meant to get done. i think it feels pretty good. but let's be clear. there are lots of places where chinese investment into american equities would be problematic because of the technology grab and the state would use it because they don't have rule of law and they'll squeeze american corporations and chinese hold a

lot of our debt but they're not number one. japan is number one because the japanese are more politically orientated toward the u.s. and the china is trying to get direct buy of debt. >> there are areas in which foreign direct investment from china would be inappropriate but all of the more reason to embrace the ones where we don't have problems. auto parts for instance. >> i'm concerned about the political direction from beijing on this one and also acquisition of amc theaters. in both cases you had a chinese company number one in its market, supposedly the fastest growing market in the world, pigs on one hand and theaters on the other but they invested the united states in declining markets for pork and theaters. there's a political direction we have to sort through. i'm not concerned really that much about pork but on the other hand i'm concerned about the general issue of political direction. >> there are these images of the pig carcasses and this notion

that maybe the food standard safeties which we are meant to as a country we're supposed to be making sure that no matter who owns the company that they are addressed but we don't do a good job of it. there's an angst that if there's an outside entity that doesn't have the same national interest that we have a food safety concern. >> we do have a real food safety concern because in march and april the authorities pulled out nearly 20,000 pig carcasses from the river that runs through the middle of shanghai and some of that meat ended up on chinese supermarket shelves. there is an issue. we do not inspect enough. we inspect maybe 1% of the chinese stuff that comes across. the chinese -- it's not a question of technology. they have food safety scandals one after another because of corruption in the political system which means you cannot inspect in china. >> there's a lot more. necessary partnership with china will go beyond the economy and there's fundamental questions of our international safety. more when we come back. [ jackie] it's just so frustrating...

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we've been talking about china and looking at the relationship through a prism of economic growth. is there any essential relationship between the two countries when it comes to foreign policy and it can be summed up into two words, north korea. not only as economic partners but also if we're talking about the interest to not devalue the american dollar, what are the chinese interests around north korea? >> i think one of the things is that every time north korea engages in provocations, we rush to beijing and say please, please, will you do something about your north korean allies and the chinese are pragmatic and they get concessions from us. this year we had treasury secretary and secretary of state kerry go to beijing after north korea acts up and we ask for help. the chinese like this dynamic. they are reconsidering their north korean policies but i

don't know if we'll see a fundamental change. >> they like the dynamic of being asked for help. the north koreans have been annoying the chinese senselessly and the fact is that the troubles that the chinese are having with north koreans and the fact that it's been difficult for them to actually ease those provocations has hurt the china/south korea relationship driving south koreans closely toward the u.s., something they assertively don't want to have happen. it's true that there's some informal advisers that have said recently that the chinese have provided a great gift to the united states by getting the north koreans to come to the table on negotiations. the reality is that the gift they brought is the gift of beijing. and we do need to make clear that you guys have a lot more to lose and at stake around north korea than the americans. >> fascinating. i love this ruthlessly pragmatic and deeply avoid and trying to think about how that's going to impact the conversation that these world leaders are going to be having very soon. this idea that what we think of

as the fundamental economic concerns of these two countries that are so similar in many ways that are the greatest polluteors and the biggest markets and also need the strategic alliance. there's more on this and we'll talk about the summit that could redefine u.s./china alignment and we'll look at the protesters taking on walmart and hottest show on broadway is coming to nerd lane. the stars of "motown" the musical are coming here. there's more nerd land at the top of the hour. alec, for this mission i upgraded your smart phone.

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welcome back to nerd land. i'm melissa harris-perry. the fraught relationship between the united states and china will be the big pink elephant in the room along with president barack obama and the chinese president when they meet for talks. foregoing the pomp and ceremony of a white house meeting for a private setting of a california mansion, the two leaders will try to make nice amid looming tensions about the onslaught of alleged chinese cyberattacks against the united states. the chinese government denied responsibility for the hacks. just yesterday defense secretary chuck hagel placed the blame for the attacks on a single source.

>> the united states expressed concern about the growing threat of cyberintrusion tied to it the chinese government and military. >> the united states and china agreed to launch talks beginning next month to tamp down the decision tensions from the hackings. with me, ian bremer, and gordon chang, peter goodman, and lisa cook, a former member of president obama's council of economic advisers now teaching at michigan state university. what should we expect from? summit between the presidents? >> they will discuss this deal with smithfield foods even because what we have to do is to make sure that we're credible in terms of our own businesses getting into other markets and so that's the economic side and

we are going to need them for many different things that we talked about in north korea just before the break. syria and sudan and iran and other countries we need them for. this partnership has to develop and they have to come up with a rapport and be able to work together. >> as i read your writings around this summit, i would say your general stances, cooperation between the u.s. and china is crucial. gordon, i feel like as i read your writings around this topic, you say that's all wrong and in fact in many ways it's important for the u.s. to assert itself over china in this meeting. can you all fight that out? >> sure. >> of course. >> i don't think it's possible to have cooperative relations with china right now. the point is inside the political system in beijing there is disarray. the military is becoming ascendent and we have political factions fighting and a lot of stuff we don't know but what it

really means is beijing is not able to deal with the crisis. yesterday "the new york times" talked about china claiming 80% of the south china sea as an internal chinese lake. this is international water. there's all sorts of things that china has been doing recently that's unacceptable and what we need to do is stop engaging the chinese and start telling them they have to act responsibly and we do have tools to do that because our economy is so much stronger than theirs. >> it's not like i disagree with stuff that gordon is saying but it's one side of the equation. when hagel flames the chinese for cyber, there's the cyberwar of chinese government against american critical infrastructure and corporations because of the state capitalists are winning it and cyberwar of the u.s. against the chinese in terms of direct espionage against their military systems. we're winning that war. we're better at it.

we never talk about that one. the chinese do. we are as exceptionalists as they are. no doubt that we're heading toward a conflictual relationship. and they are both prioritizing domestic affairs. it's a good summit. a lot has been done in advance to ensure that it's going to be a good summit on north korea, on smithfield, on a few other issues as well. but after they get through it, they're going to ignore each other again. >> now, there are real issues now. much of the conflict for years has been directed at domestic political audiences in both countries. in china, yes, there's a lot of corruption and dissatisfaction with that corruption and private sector enterprises that get ripped off by the state sector and they don't have courts for redress and there's grievance there. nationalism is the traditional way that this party that washed connection to the ideals that

spawned a revolution has been able to maintain a decent level of public support. in this country, china has become the explanation for every conceivable reason why a dysfunctional political system that can't reckon with the crisis of the middle class and can say blame the people 1,000 miles away. there are real issues in this relationship. we've talkeded abo ed about som already. we can expect both sides at the table when they meet in that summit fully understand that dynamic and understand that sorry, gordon, that option, let's not engage, that's not on the menu. >> i want to push a little bit on exactly this point about the demonizing of china a minute. this was really important in the gop primary. we saw this happen both with the kind of mocking, huntsman and even speaking mandarin which became part of it and language on the right saying i'll tell china what to do. i want to go back to senator

obama when he was senator obama in 2007 in iowa. i want to play a little bit of sound for you here. >> china can send in toys with lead in them or tainted foods and nobody is protecting american consumers and american workers because somebody else is setting the agenda. that will change when i am president. >> this was a co-sponsored bill. get the lead toys out. but fast forward 2013, he's president and he's got the very serious realities of the globe and of his economy facing him and it's no longer don't worry, i'll set the agenda. it's we're going to have to address this. >> the problem is getting bigger because china is getting bigger but not becoming more like us as they get better. the presumption is when they become the world's largest economy, they'll become more

free country. that's not true. you see that with the brits and the united states. you look at preindustrial germany and when they industrialized with an authoritarian system is what we'll see in china. we won't like that. and the question of how we're going to deal with each other as those companies become truly competitive with american firms is -- >> they can open their market without opening their governoring. >> they're closing the markets over the last four or five years. the whole thing about smithfield, i don't worry about it. the question is whether we could buy all of the pork companies in china. i don't think that we can. the problem here is, yes, we demonize china but china is demonizing itself. they do attack the pentagon and defense contractors but they attack the free press and other institutions of our society and that's completely unacceptable. they were interfering with american ships in international waters. >> the china seas question. >> the chinese have been

grabbing territory from the philippines with military force. they are trying to take japanese territory away. this is really irresponsible destructive behavior. we've got to do something about it. and although we've engaged the chinese for four decades, things are getting worse. i think we do need a new paradigm for chinese relationships because a lot of what we know about beijing is just wrong. >> is this new -- is there any reason to think with the new president it will make a difference? >> the dynamic has already changed. if we get back to north korea for a second, traditional dynamic was china was in the american view the key to solving north korea because china supplies the food and the fuel and a lot of the aid that goes into the northeast from northeastern china into north korea. the feeling was you can't press china to shut down that border and apply sanctions. well now we have a dynamic where

we're back to ian's part earlier where chinese were more concerned with relations with korea, worried that japan becomes a nuclear power if nuclear proliferation but they are taking -- i don't want to idealize. i don't disagree with your critique, gordon, there are problems in this relationship and a lot of ways in which china falls far short of a responsible global citizen. that said, there are ways in which we now see china behaving in a global fashion. taking heed beyond the short-term dimensions on north korea specifically. >> strategic interest in this case. thank you. there is so much more here and the summit will give us an opportunity to not just think about what might happen but we'll see what is going to happen. peter and lisa are both sticking around in order to talk about the place that you can go buy a bunch of those chinese goods. walmart when we're back. [ female announcer ] the best thing about this bar

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>> we're fired up! >> can't take it no more! >> we're fired up! >> can't take it no more! >> we're fired up! >> can't take it no more! >> there's nothing like a good social movement protest chant. the momentum for change at megachain walmart is building once again. on tuesday roughly 100 walmart workers in cities across the country went on strike. that number is small compared to november's black friday walmart walkout but it is growing. tuesday was the start of the first prolonged protest by walmart workers. actions include the ride for respect, a caravan stopping in nearly 30 cities. the protests will culminate in arkansas where workers plan to voice their concerns at walmart's annual meeting this

friday. don't feel bad for walmart. the company that earned more than $466 billion in revenues in the 2013 fiscal year has enlisted none other than sir elton john to perform as part of the events surrounding their annual shareholders meeting. walmart will also have to use some of their earnings to pay $82 billion in fines after pleading guilty on tuesday to improperly dumping hazardous wastes in california and missouri. for walmart, that's pocket change. so is change reallying co incom walmart? ed is joining us, mayor of allentown, pennsylvania. i want to start with you, peter, because we've been talking about china and this notion that china might be a threat to us and their business practices and all of that. i keep thinking or it could be our own businesses that sell

themselves as deeply american heartland businesses are the most dangerous to us. what is the threat that a walmart business practice represents to our economy. >> the two threats that you explore are inseparable because in one sense walmart and china represent the largest joint venture in history. china has global procurement system over the border from hong kong and they have a tremendous percentage of their goods produced inside chinese factories where they are incredibly effective at pushing for lowest prices at that global procurement center where they will have representatives from multiple factories seeking bids on the same deal. they need x number of t-shirts. they'll have five different people from five different factories sitting in uncomfortable seats knowing full well that the walmart agent if they don't get the price they like from you will go get one of your competitors out there sipping room temperature tea in an uncomfortable chair.

and so there's no question that the walmart force is the one that we ought to be talking about in terms of what we do about the decline of middle class opportunity in america. this is a company that is paying its executives at the same rates as every other publicly traded company in america. this is a company that has extraordinary revenues, tremendous market share, and they are paying their workers, many of them, poverty level wages. we are surrounded by people who get up and they go to work and they work a full week and they have to take care of their families and they bring home paychecks that make them poor by any standard. >> i think it's not just the microeconomic issues. this company versus that company. the origins of those companies. as a macro economists, i see 1.3 million workers as a component of consumer spending. i also see a fragile recovery. they need to be able to make something so they can spend something. so i think this is a critical

time and it's not just now. so now we're in a fragile period but this is going forward. these wages have got to change in order for them to be fully participating in this economy. >> so i'm wondering though because you talk about the macro and micro. i think that on the submicro, on the level somewhere in between where you are a decision maker and you have a walmart in your town and we had a 9-year-old on from chicago who said if you ever became mayor of chicago, first thing he would do is kick out all of the walmarts because walmart is bad. how do you make the decision? how do you make a decision about i need low-cost goods in my community and i need jobs in my commute and they are willing to site here versus demands that we see. >> that's the dilemma. walmart provides needed goods at an affordable price for the working poor. obviously that distribution network they have that massive global distribution network allows them to keep the prices

low. i was talking to a friend of mine the other day looking for a grill. every other retailer that he was looking at whether home depot or target or kmart had the same grill for $299. walmart had it to $248. that's a $51 difference. that's a significant difference. they provide lower cost products. obviously those same people that are low income are buying products and they obviously have less -- they have more money to spend on other types of goods which obviously helps to stimulate the economy in other ways. at the same time what you were suggesting is 1.3 million workers, largest single private employer in the world globally it's 2.1 million. they are paying employees at many of them at below poverty level rates and there was just an article out just recently in "the huffington post" that the congressional democrats did a study in one supercenter, just one supercenter in wisconsin and

because those folks are being paid at such the low poverty rates, we have to pick up additional subsidy because of food stamps and because of other section a housing, medicaid, they're not paying proper wages. we pick that up. that's one supercenter. let's say they are off by half. that's $450,000. >> we paid for that. >> you know what? >> let me ask you a question then. yesterday on the show we talked about walmart and costco together much of the consternation of costco lovers in the world saying costco is not walmart. they do provide low cost goods but there is a membership entry fee but then they also provide reasonable working conditions. why doesn't a walmart go to a costco model in the sense of

providing reasonable working conditions because they seem to do all right. they have big profit. >> a study not too long ago said if they paid $12 an hour, $12 an hour to all employees, that would cost the average consumer 46 cents additional. 46 cents. >> i'm willing. >> you can't buy one product at mcdonald's for less than 46 cents. i think they need to think about how they can be an impact in the global economy. we talked about china recently in the last segment. china, 196,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in this country since 2006 because of walmart imports. if they put that same global distribution network in play and really focus on american made products, maybe just have a section like a lot of supermarkets had, organic section in their supermarkets, if they did that, they could probably stimulate manufacturing back in this country.

>> this is the model of how walmart works. i think there's an alternative. i'm flying in from michigan. henry ford did this. what he said was we're going to pay workers a wage that they can buy these cars. you know, you have to make sure that your workers can actually buy what you're selling or buy even better than that. >> they can can food stamps. they can with food stamps. >> that's because we're subsidizing them. this wasn't henry ford's vision. it wasn't with all of this government intervention but the wage that is being paid to those workers they can afford the things that are consistent with middle class living. >> irony. we'll take a quick break. i want to actually tell you this. we did beat up on walmart a bit. we did reach out to walmart's national media office for someone to take the fourth chair and speak on the program with us to comment about the story, any of those things. we would have read the comment on tv. they did in fact decline. but when we come back, someone

who did take us up on the offer. we'll hear directly from walmart workers who are planning to protest. we're going to arkansas when we come back. [ lisa ] my name's lisa, and chantix helped me quit. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. it put me at ease that you could smoke on the first week. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. tell your doctor if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, or if you develop new or worse symptoms.

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walmart workers protesting because of low wages. they plan to picket walmart's annual shareholders meeting on friday. joining me now are two protesters who are on their way to that meeting. vanessa worked at a florida walmart for eight years decorating cakes in the bakery. she was fired in may. she says in retaliation for her efforts to get better wages. colby harris has been working for a walmart near dallas for three years. she has participated in many protests. he works full time but at $9.30 an hour he says it's not enough to even move out of his mother's home. vanessa and colby, thank you for joining me. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> so start by telling me, vanessa, why did you first decide to strike? >> because i didn't like the respect or lack of respect they were giving us.

the company changed like overnight three years ago. their managers were walking by us with their head down and playing with people's schedule and they were -- it was just terrible how they were treating the people. i couldn't stand for it. >> so colby, tell me, what are the sort of key concerns are issues that you want addressed? i know that respect is part of it. i hear that there. what else? what are key things you feel like you need to make walmart a decent working environment? >> first off, i would like to start off by saying i lost my voice yesterday while protesting. some of the changes we would like to see would be consistency with scheduling and for managers to start respecting us as far as the way they talk to us. the fact that a lot of people are making a poverty wage and can't afford to even have enough gas to get back and forth to work. not just that, but the working equipment. a lot of us don't have decent

ways to pull our trucks and things like that. it's not just about the money. there are several issues especially the fact that those of us who are in the organization have been retaliated against for asking for those things. a combination of all of that is what we would like to see changed. >> vanessa, you say on that retaliation point, you were working for eight years in the cake decorating. you say that it felt like it changed overnight and you feel like you experienced retaliation. it's your belief that's why you were fired. >> most definitely it was retaliation. a couple of months ago we did an action in a store and my district manager was there taking video of it and right after that, a week later, i was called in the office for soliciting. a week after that i'm called in the office telling me they can't give me my schedule. they can't give me my vacation. and i've never had that refused

before. a week after that i'm in the office because of extended breaks. i've never heard of extended breaks before. >> so let me ask you a question. colby, if i'm watching this and i say, look, i want to support these folks. i see what's going on here. does that mean i ought to be boycotting walmart, i ought to be supporting and shopping at walmart, should i be writing a letter to someone? how can people support the efforts to make sure that you, that vanessa and other walmart workers get the respect and wages that you're seeking? >> well, first off, i would like to say that we're not anti-walmart. we're pro-associate. we're for the associates and people can get online and they can check out what we've done so far and what they can do to help. also, you can go to our walmart page on facebook and post your concerns because even if you

don't work at walmart, everyone is being affected by this. if you don't work there. there's plenty people can do if they want to help. send letters into home office let them know we want you to treat workers better because this is the community and we are the community and we would like to see these changes made. people can also just check out the website and see what they can do and what we're going to do protests and pickets and things like that and help us support us through that way. >> vanessa and colby, i can hear from the intensity of the loft of your voice that you are working hard and you're in little rock because that's where there is camera but you have to go hours away. i know you're committed. i appreciate given the circumstances of retaliation, i appreciate so much the ways that you are standing up for yourselves. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> thank you for joining us. folks, you don't have to take my word for it. there's a new congressional report that says walmart is leeching off the american taxpayer as the mayor was just talking about. it does impact you even if you

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>> if you think with a walmart workers are fighting for have nothing to do with you, think again. the low prices walmart workers earn force them to rely on food stamps and other forms of government aid. one wisconsin walmart supercenter employing 300 people cost taxpayers $1.7 million. they are triple dipping. they pay low. we have to pay for food stamps for their employees and then employees use those food stamps to buy products and food at the walmart. is the dream of the american middle class where you can

graduate from high school, get a job at the local retailer, earn enough money to buy a home and educate your children, is that over? >> defunct. we had a story about a guy that works at a kentucky fried chicken here in new york in brooklyn. he's an immigrant and he's being supported by cash infusions from his grandmother in ecuador to pay the bills. talk about a reversal . that's the immigrant story. and those born here who stay out of trouble, get a job, work hard, i'll be okay, that's simply not true for large numbers of people. >> this is vanessa working eight years at his walmart. colby is in his 20s. i'm trying to work. get out of my mom's house but they are earning poverty wages. >> and he's living in his mom's house. it shows that household formation is going to be one of the big things that takes a hit because of college debt.

he can't get out of his house. >> he won't get a wife. >> he can't get out of his house. this is a big deal. each household generates about $450,000 in other benefits to the economy. it's a big number. >> if colby could go out and purchase a home and vanessa could buy new kids for her kids, you are the car lady, all of those would have major effects. >> if colby gets an extra dollar an hour, he's not sending it to the caymans. it's going out in the local economy. >> the disparity is so great. the average walmart employee makes 15,100. the ceo made 20.7 million. if you do the math on that, that's 137,000 percent difference between the average employee and it's hard for people to compute it. >> what people will say to that,

well, you must be a communist. if you want to take these good people's money at the top and redistribute it down to the bottom. >> that's not what i'm saying. i think we have to figure out ways to work with walmart and get them to provide a meaningful wage. if they just pay $12 an hour, ufcw, there was a survey like i said earlier that 46 cents per walmart consumer. i think i would pay 46 cents. i think would you pay 46 cents. >> why pick on walmart? let's have a minimum wage that's a living wage across the board. >> there's a political answer to that the president did stand in the state of the union and say how about raising -- he suggested 12. other folks are asking for 15. that's gone nowhere because as we were talking about at the top of the show, he can't get judicial nominations where there's a constitutional requirement that it be done. is there any possibility that since it's not happening with policy makers at the top, that the work of fast food workers

who are striking and walmart workers who are striking will create the pressure from the bottom? >> this is growing. this is not going anywhere. it was people thought it was morbid at the end of the year and then all of a sudden they come out of the ashes and this has grown according ining to o walmart by 20% since protests last year. this may be where it comes from. that's been the obama administration's strategy with support from the ground up trying to get policies put in place that they want in place and they have no room to maneuver through congress. >> get that pressure built in. >> we know status quo is not sustainable. >> not in we'll have the america we expect to have. >> or even an america that's stable. you can't simply have tens of millions of people generation after generation added to the ranks of the poor and not have consequences. you don't have to have a crystal

ball to see that. >> the income gap is so out of control. you know, we can't just keep vilifying them either. if you just keep vilifying walmart and not figure out a way to work with them, we're never going to get anywhere. if you look at -- i looked at 466 billion was -- the next highest retailer in the world only had 113 billion in sales. they are three times larger. they're not going away. we have to praise their efficiency and what they do well and we have to challenge them on deficiencies and figure out a way to go forward or else we're never going to get anywhere. >> i will ask again. i know we asked on the phone all the time. i'll ask again. i think the mayor is right here. i would like to have a conversation. i would like for walmart to send someone to nerd land. if you want, we'll clear the rest of the table and have a conversation just you and i. i would love to hear from mcdonald's. join the nerd land fun.

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motown was the sound that forever changed music and reflected our changing times. acts like smoky robinson, little stevie wonder, marvin guy, the temptations and of course the jackson 5 and diana ross and the supremes all became household names under the guidance of legendary music producer and motown founder barry gordy. his story has come to life in broad way in motown the musical chronicling the story of the ma label famous. ♪ stop in the name of love

♪ before you break my heart ♪ think it over >> and i am pleased to have in nerd land the director of "motown musical" and the actor who plays barry gordy and an actress nominated for a tony award in the role of diana ross. i want to start with you as the director. tell any what it meant to try to bring this story to life. >> it's outrageous. he was my idedol growing up. we didn't have a lot of role models in the south and heroes of color and to see a person like him gave me permission to dream and to walk out of the door and be anything that i wanted to be. so working with him was extraordinary because i really got to see how he did it. how he thinks. he knows more about entertainment than all of us combined. >> he might watch this. >> so gordy is extremely

sympathetically portrayed. you don't become that person without having a lot of rough edges as well. how do you play the sympathetic part but maintain the edge that is part of who he is? >> the deal is not to focus on doing one or the other but look at our scenes and look at our story and try to portray the man as honestly as we go throughout all of the circumstance and not coming to it with preconceptions of how he is but listen to how he was forced to handle certain situations and navigate the scenes with scene partners about what this scene means and what conflicts are arising here and what are those conflicts about, what do they mean and what are our goals? i wasn't looking to portray both

sides but portray the man as honestly as i could. >> the full humanity of him. i know this is going to sound like a lie because i would not have believed it had i not lived it. last night when i went to see the show the person in the seat directly in front of me was the diana ross. the natural diana ross. it was insane. i had the experience of not only watching your extraordinary performance but watching ms. ross -- she's seen it before. watching her and her lovely daughter watching you and it was really outrageous kind of experience. >> motown. >> it was motown. >> that's our next show. >> so what does it mean to embody not just a legend but a living legend sitting in the audience watching you? >> having her in the audience is very comforting to me because i always feel like she's with me. but to know that she's there and she's publicly coming out to

support mr. gordy and the show means a lot tremendously. but i truly do love her. to be able to bring her story to life is such a gift for me because i want everybody to know that, one, she's just like us. she's human. i wanted to tell the truth of who she is and how mr. gordy felt about her and how he still feels about her. and so to be able to portray her from the time she's 15 to 39 is a magical experience because she started eoff an unknown and became a megasuperstar so you get to see her hard work paying off throughout the time line and you also get to see this beautiful love story between mr. gordy and ms. ross and we don't get to see that a lot with african-americans and so here we are promoting such a wonderful thing but not just love but also friendship and forgiveness and that is what i love more than anything. >> the moment that i felt the audience respond just overwhelmingly was when the jackson 5 comes out. and i thought, wait a minute. this is something more than just

a performance. this is people in mourning. this is people in remembrance. the young boy who played him was amazing. you could feel the people were saying that there was a sense of loss and joy and celebration at the same time. >> there's a t-shirt at the motown museum that says live it again. and what we see every night, the audiences come in and they have this experience. i remember when we did the first preview and smoky and marvin came out and the audience started screaming. they know these aren't the people, right? >> that is marvin gay. it's something that happens that's visceral. >> it's about heros. with michael i think about it a lot lately watching it because of the reaction for him is so strong. i think to myself michael has always been my artistic inspiration. what's lovely and interesting about this is that he is a legendary figure for us and this is -- everybody knows this scene. the second the boy comes out --

>> everybody knows it. >> that's the myth of a hero. >> i said everybody loved this guy. there was trouble and at the heart even though they wouldn't come out and say it, we loved him and that's what he gave us. >> you are going to perform for us in just a moment. nerd land is going to broadway next in one moment. before that we need a quick preview. >> i'm going to make it quick. here we go. terrorists overseas new information today on an unusual plot targeting the u.s. and europe. you'll see how children's toys may have played a role in that. new twists in the search for the suspect in the ricin terror letters. why haven't officials been able to track down a culprit yet. saving school. i'll talk with a 9 year old who fought back after chicago officials said they were going to shut down his school. he said no way. some of the most stunning images of climate change you will ever see. quickly, back to you. >> thank you, alex. up next, a live performance. we're going to dedicate it to belinda's mom. it's her birthday.

happy birthday, mom. "motown the musical" live when we come back. (announcer) at scottrade, our clients trade and invest exactly how they want. with scottrade's online banking, i get one view of my bank and brokerage accounts with one login... to easily move my money when i need to. plus, when i call my local scottrade office, i can talk to someone who knows how i trade. because i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. (announcer) scottrade. awarded five-stars from smartmoney magazine.

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i'm thrilled to have a little motown magic with me this morning. tony nominated actress and brandon dixon singing "you're all i need" from the motown

musical now on broadway. take it away. >> and you own the company. what if it doesn't work? >> one of the most important things in my life is to make you the biggest star in the world. and i will never let our relationship get in the way of that, i promise. >> i'm the luckiest girl in the world. >> mm-hmm. >> why me? ♪ like sweet morning dew ♪ i took one look at you ♪ and it was plain to see you were my destiny ♪ ♪ with arms open wide ♪ i threw away my pride ♪ i sacrificed for you ♪ dedicated my life to you ♪ i'll go where you lead ♪ always there in time of need ♪ even if i lose my will ♪ you'll be there to push me up the hill ♪

♪ there's no looking back for us ♪ ♪ we've got a love that's enough ♪ ♪ you're all i need to get by ♪ yeah, yeah ♪ ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ like an eagle protects its nest ♪ ♪ for you i'll do my best ♪ stand by you like a tree ♪ and dare anybody to try to move me ♪ ♪ don't know what's in store ♪ but together we can open up any door ♪ ♪ come on, baby ♪ oh, i know you can ♪ i'm a soul who didn't have a goal ♪ ♪ because we've got the right

foundation ♪ ♪ a love indeed ♪ oh, yeah ♪ you're all i need ♪ we are all we need ♪ you're all i need to get by ♪ yeah, yeah >> and that is our show for today. thank you so much. join us again next week. here in nerd land. we are going to be taking on the

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is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate, or an annual fee, ever. go to citi.com/simplicity to apply. at this hour, more violent weather expected as the flooding problem grows in the midwest and the plains. more than one congressman just back from russia says the boston bombings could have been prevented if one action had been taken. the 9-year-old activist who saved his school. you're going to meet him. how he took on chicago's mayor and won. in office politics, tod"tod show's morales. it is high noon here in the east. 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." an apparent terror plot targeting the u.s. and europe, it has been foiled overseas. iraqi officials say they've arrested a terror cell that planned on using chemical