money from the surrounding states trying to get us to kill it. the ones who want it here will be here. >> the politics gets tricky. thank you. that's all in for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. >> thank you to you at home for joining us this hour. when they dig up the sean hannity time capsule, an entire section of that could be filled with this stuff. >> they are mad these borders aren't sure. they are mad the 700-mile fence hasn't been built. they are mad at the amnesty aspects of this. >> they will no longer deport young illegal immigrants. >> without the consent of congress through this unilateral, president obama made amnesty the official policy of the united states of america. >> the house this very night passed 216, the dream act which is basically amnesty. a bill would grant amnesty to children of illegal immigrants

who join the military or attend college for at least two years. >> the amnesty, the anointed one, giving away the country to the illegals. only sean hannity could really tell you what was going on here. sean hannity was going to tell you the truth and he was not going to put up with it it. night after night, month after month, for years sean hannity railed against the idea of any kind of amnesty, any path to citizenship, any sort of immigration reform that did anything other than kick everybody out. then this happened. latinos voted against mitt romney almost as a block. latinos voted against mitt romney and for barack obama and barack obama won a second term. the day after the election, the world met a whole new version of sean hannity. this version of the fox news host was all for immigration reform. he even had a plan of his own.

>> we've got to get rid of the immigration issue altogether. it's simple for me to fix it. you control the border first. you create a pathway for those people that are here. you don't say you got to go. home. that's a position that i've evolved on. because, you know what, it it just -- it's got to be resolved. the majority of people here, if some people have criminal records, you can send them home. but law-abiding, four years, their kids are born here, first secure the border. pathway to citizenship, done. but you can't let the problem continue. it's got to stop. >> it's got to stop because it's costing republicans the white house over and over and over again and that's not likely to stop either. at the time of his very dramatic conversion, it seemed as if mr. hannity immigration opponent it turned into immigration reformer because mitt romney had just lost the election the day before.

and i think at core, that really is why mr. hannity flipped so dramatically from one side of issue to the other. but it turns out something else was going on behind the scenes at fox news. we now know that republicans had been lobbying fox news on that issue. ryan liz is a reported that republicans have talked privately to top hosts at fox including bill o'reilly and sean hannity who are sympathetic to their bill. god bless fox, lindsey graham said. republicans in congress decided to forget lobbying each other and started lobbying the real power in republican politics, which is fox news. and it seems to have worked because this time on fox news they are sitting around interviewing republican lawmakers who want immigration reform. they are spending their air time talking about how great immigration reform will be. you know that sci-fi subplot in a lot of war movies where the war ends, the war is actually

over, but there are some people on the fringe who have not heard that and they just keep fighting the war because they don't know? that's what it's like in right wing media right now. all that lobbying to get fox news channel hosts on board it worked, and in so doing, it cleaved off part of conservative media from taking part in the anti-immigrant drum beat that we're so used to from the american right. what remains having not heard the news still fighting the war is the part of the conservative media that no one bothers trying to reach. people like the commentator ann coulter on the right-hand side of your screen and internet conspiracy guy glenn beck on the left side of your screen. comparing immigration reform to the clan. the clan? yes, the clan. as in ku klux klan? yes, that clan. when you subtract the mainstream from the argument, even as mainstream as fox news, what

remains is crazy town. and it is crazy town on the right that's leading the media charge against immigration reform. the more normal part of the conservative media world has been sort of brought over to the other side. the same kind of cleaving between the mainstream right and the way far cooky right is happening not just in the media side, but also in the raw politics. in south carolina senator lindsey graham a few weeks back faced this ad airing in his home state attacking him for supporting reform. the ads ran across the state of south carolina. you can see here the ad is paid for a by a group called numbers usa. they were founded by roy beck who is described as an expert on sprawl and global population. you can also find roy beck here on the site of something called the american renaissance urging people to run to their phones and call congress to stop immigration reform. he's using american renaissance

to reach his audience, which makes sense because american renaissance is the place to explore opportunities for white advocates. it's a place where races are more different than previously thought and they do not mean that in a good way. the races are different. blacks and whites are different. when blacks are left entirely to their own devices, western civilization any kind of civilization disappears. white panic, everybody freak out. now that fox news has essentially called a truce on immigration reform, that kind of neonazi, white supremacist is where the rump opposition on this issue has hunkered down. last month another group with ties to american renaissance launched a new ad against senator graham. five minutes later, buzz feed reported on the other warnings like the one against the war on white america and the war on white heritage. same thing happened with the

conservative heritage foundation in may. it's supposed to be a mainstream respected conservative think tank leading the conservative push against immigration reform. the heritage foundation last month produced a report saying it's going to cost the country $6 trillion. the heritage report co-authored by this senior policy analyst at the heritage foundation, where he writes the average iq of immigrants in the united states is substantially lower than that of the white native population. and the difference is likely to persist over several generations. the consequence are a lack of socioeconomic assimilation. \ the theory is that not only do white people have higher iq than this immigrant underclass that we're stuck with as a nation, but native white people will always be superior to the

nonnative white people because it sticks, this difference between us as humans, generation after generation, it sticks. somehow despite hiring that guy as a senior staffer, the heritage foundation says they never read those words from their senior policy analyst. they also managed not to see their senior staffer writing, quote, hispanics are substantially more likely than whites to commit serious crimes. he was writing that for the same aryan nation supremacy of the racist back water of the interwebs that published a piece for holocaust remembrance day that showed a pile of dead bodies saying i can't believe it's crept up on me again. i discovered that today is holocaust memorial day and i'm fresh out of onions. that's where the heritage foundation found their senior policy analyst to present their anti-immigration reform policy report to the american public. also the congressional budget office has now studied the

immigration reform bill at the request of republicans in congress and it turns out white supremacist guy can't count. shocker. it turns out that at the republicans saying it will cost $6 trillion, reform would save us $700 billion. save us that money, not cost us that money. and that is just how the anti-immigration groups are faring right now inside the beltway, in d.c., on the neo country club end of anti-immigrant politics. the rougher side, though, the sort of leading bloody edge of the anti-immigrant movement has never been in d.c. it's been folks like these, the self-proclaimed vigilantes of the border, guys in camo and desert pants and stuff. plunge off into the desert look ing for somebody to round up. the leaders of the posse that you see here is j.t. ready, a

founder of something he tried to make sound official by calling it the u.s. border guard. but it was just his thing. you can see him here in his nazi uniform. not halloween. here he is at an anti-immigration rally in arizona. and political figure, actual figure, actual arizona anti-immigrant politics being applauded by his friend state senator russell pierce, the phoenix new times chronicled this collaboration between j.t. ready and senator pierce right until he killed himself and four people. he turned the gun on himself just over a year ago at his home in gilbert, arizona. but before he met that bad end and took those innocent people with him, he was just another anti-immigration guy with camouflage and nazi suit in regular clothes to wear to rallies where he could be

applauded by officials in conservative politics. the arizona bill that russell pierce and those guys tried to pass and did succeed in passing was known as the papers please law. that pioneering experiment in state mandated profiling was struck down by the supreme court. the author of the bill, russell pierce, got turfed out of his job in the senate. he got recalled by the voters, the first lawmaker in state history to suffer that humiliation in arizona. he was the first horseman of the anti-immigrant movement in arizona and he lost his job. the second horseman, you could say, is sheriff joe arpaio in maricopa county. his office engaged in racial profiling against latinos. in 2008 the sheriff spoke at a meeting of the minute man civil defense core.

he was a guest speaker and joked about the pink underwear he makes prisoners wear. he walked over and awarded him a minuteman plaque of appreciation. then the minute man founder guy told the crowd that he himself would be meeting with russell pierce to write some new bills for arizona. you can see the same founder of the minute man civil defense core here. we have a newer photo of him. this is his mug shot. he was arrested yesterday in phoenix and accused of sexual misconduct with three girls under the age of 10. founder of the minuteman civil defense core. the anti-immigrant groups are having a really bad day. and with the news today out of washington that republicans and democrats in the senate have reached a breakthrough deal on a reform bill, who is left on the anti-immigrant side to lead the fight now? joining us is john stanton, bureau chief at buzz feed. thank you for being here. it's good to see you.

i'm sorry you had to watch me reading the whole time. my teleprompter broke. so the deal in the senate today on immigration reform make s it seem more possible in the senate. but the thing that's unspoken and i'm curious about is who is against it and how powerful are they? >> well, in the senate, they are not very powerful. that's just folks like ted cruz, potentially rand paul, although he's a bit squishy on it, i think. chuck grassley, they are opposing it. they come up with a bunch of reasons. we need stronger border security. jeff sessions does not like the idea of having a pathway to citizenship. he sees it as amnesty. but in the senate, i think it's definitely the tightest turn. >> there will be no votes, but there are not enough to stop it. >> they can't at this point.

>> is there anybody in terms of outside pressure who might be able to flip more senators against it? right now it looks like it's going to pass. >> i think the senate is solid. i'm not sure how many votes they are going to get, but they are probably beginning to get close to 70 votes. and i think that's a big deal. but the problem for them is the house. and the media, the switch by fox and some of the other members of the media on the conservative side to a certain degree didn't happen soon enough. people are hearing from people back home, it's become an engrained thing in conservative politics. members of the house are hearing it from constituents every day. we don't believe in it. there's a lot of pressure on a lot of these members. even members that i think are predisposed to vote for this that believe they need to start dealing with the issue, if for no other reason to get off their

back so in a generation they can win back latino voters, they are still feeling that pressure. >> i believe that a certain vocal portion of the republican base is hard wired because of years of the old sean hannity and the whole preconversion media to call everything amnesty and argue against it. that the republicans went through post george w. bush, a failed effort at this. it it seems like there's not much bolstering that except muscle memory. in a way that's more powerful on even the republican side than the people who are arguing the opposite. >> i think that's right. the tide has shifted, but it hasn't taken effect yet. maybe that effect you would see in two years. the republican leadership is not in any kind of a position to force this issue and to really quarterback this. if you look at what happened with the farm bill today,

speaker boehner came out and very abnormal for him to take a position on a bill at all. he does not speak about bills generally. he said he wanted this bill to pass. >> kiss of death. >> sort of like the owner of a football team saying, full confidence in coach. sort of what happened here. and that, i think, speaking poorly for the chances of something like immigration, which is a much bigger deal than the farm bill and much more controversial in republican ranks. >> it it seems like what's important with the farm bill is not that republicans didn't vote for it, but the fact that john boehner had no idea it was going to fail, brought it it up expecting it to pass and we're blind sided by the thing they were supposed to be in control of. >> part of the problem there, and i think this is what could happen with the immigration bill, they kept moving it further and further to the right. the democrats said we're not going to vote for this. they didn't have votes on some amendments that would have been poison pill early on.

the last one was a work for food stamps program. that was the straw that basically broke the camel's back. this is what sort of killed this thing. we had this vote, democrats abandoned it and we no longer had votes. >> when we made things too right wing and they told us if you do that, we won't vote for it. whacky. the only rule i could never be speaker of the house, i i know what rule to abide by. you have to be able to count. john stanton, thanks for being here. >> it's a pleasure. >> we'll be right back.

so wof the house?hink it's got a great kitchen, but did you see the school rating? oh, you're right. hey babe, i got to go. bye daddy! ...but what about when my parents visit? ok. i just love this one... and it's next to a park i love it i love it too. here's our new house...

daddy! you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. zillow i once interviewed a man named richard cohen and how he wrote books to become ungay. he was using the idea of that endeavor to promote a law in uganda to sanctify the death penalty as the penalty for homosexuality. my conversation with the therapist about that implication of his work led to this awkward exchange. >> page 72-74. among the list of factors that could lead to homosexual desires, adoption, religion, race. >> race, that's not in there. >> yes, it is. i got to ask you. every single one of those ideas

is insane to me. divorce makes you gay. >> no, no, no. >> you described it as a factor that contributes to homosexual desire. >> you're taking it out of context. >> i'm reading it from your book. >> if you don't mean it, you can't put it in your book. i'm sorry i called you dude. today came big news from his study. if by study, you means quack. that news is ahead.

this outstanding young man is a rising junior at the university of wisconsin. he has a double minor in math and business administration. he's a tech guy who works for the tech services on campus fixing problems when some piece of classroom equipment doesn't work. he's in a young entrepreneurs start up launch club. he has personally started two small businesses already at the age of 20. one a travel company and one a computer company. he's a wisconsin native. joshua inglett is his name. as a young ambitious guy, he applied for a seat on a statewide board on wisconsin. ae plied to be one of the representatives for college students on the board that governs the excellent public schools of the university of wisconsin. there's 13 campuses. he would be one of the two

student reps on the board that governs those schools. joshua applied for that job. this is his letter of application. he applied for the job. he got the job. scott walker says i'm pleased to appoint joshua to the board of regents. his school puts out a press release. the paper does a proud story. he got the gig. we're so proud. and then scott walker took it back. this was the initial story posted by the local paper. this was the updated story. he resended the offer. because a conservative activist group in wisconsin noticed that joshua had received the appointment and once they saw his name, they decided to comb through the list of wisconsin residents who had signed the recall petition against scott walker a year or so ago. he was one of the million people who signed that petition and scott walker went back on the

offer for him to be on the board and they rescinded the appointment. the amazing thing here is there's no competing explanation from scott walker or his administration. no other story about why this qualified kid, who they selected for the job, had to be unselected after the fact. they haven't come up with some other story. if you signed the petition saying there should be a recall election, you're out. the kid did not even vote in the actual election. he just signed the petition saying there ought to be an election. the conservative movement in wisconsin are going to use that list to retaliate against people from wisconsin for as long as they control state government. for what it's worth, state law says no sectarian or partisan tests based on race, religion or sex shall be exercised in the appointment in the employees of the system, but scott walker and republicans in wisconsin say screw that. if you signed the recall petition, you are blacklisted in

the state from public service. a million people in wisconsin signed the recall petition against walker and apparently as long as republicans are running state government, that million people in wisconsin, one in every four registered voters in the state, will be blacklisted indefinitely. kind of pitiful, right? petty. the word you might be looking for is small. scott walker, small. but another republican governor elected in the same tea party way is actually giving scott walker a run for his smallness. get this. it's one thing to blacklist a million people in the state and bar them from public service because you have decided they are your enemies. but how about the governor of a state deciding that three of the largest newspapers in his state are no longer allowed to cover state government? he's issued a government-wide blanket, indefinite no comment on all matters in all agencies for state government. newspapers are no longer allowed to government cover the

government because the newspapers made him feel bad. if you thought scott walker was small for blacklisting a kid who signed the recall petition, scott walker has nothing on this other guy. this story is mind bending and has just started to unfold and we have it here, next. >> my comments going to be we withdrew the nomination and there are plenty of other candidates to look at. i wasn't involved in that directly. in the interest of not pulling him through the details of this, we withdrew the nomination and will be submitting another name.

the state of maine is lovely this time of year. the governor of maine, however, not so much. >> senator jackson said today's event was a last ditch effort to override. >> that's who he is. senator jackson claims to be for the people, but he's the first one to give it to the people without providing. that comment is not politically correct, but we have to understand who this man is. this man is a bad person. he doesn't only not have brains,

he has a black heart. people like jackson ought to go back in the woods and cut trees and let somebody with a brain come down here and do some work. >> that comment about the vaseline is going to offend people? >> good, it ought to. >> thinking of how. the exact comment was he claims to be for the people but he's the first one to give it to the people without providing vaseline. the guy has a black heart and for good measure -- >> he's the first one to give it to the people without providing vaseline. >> so that's how the governor of maine talks about people he disagrees with. in this case, a state senator who wanted to veto the budget. that's what the analysis from the governor means. the same said to the naacp they should kiss my butt.

he also shared his theory that windmills are fake. they secretly have little electric motors that make it look like they are wind-powered, but really they are a conspiracy. one of the lines from the governor that made national waves because of its bizarreness that i never understood before now was his line about growing little beards. >> take plastic ball and put it it in the microwave and heat it off. it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. and so women might have little beards. >> worst cases, some women might have little beards. this is your governor, state of maine. what he was on about there was maine's effort to ban a chemical called bpa from baby bottles from health risks posed by the chemical.

when maine passed the law that let them ban those chemicals in 2008 companies opposed that law. to argue against that law, to argue against the kids safe product act, those corporate interests hired a lobbyist. that lobbyist lost the fight. so the bill became law. but then paul lepage became governor and hired that same lobbyist to run environmental protection for the whole state. the bottom fell out of that program. the career employee got reassigned to a filing job is and got investigated for testifying to have about what the governor denounced as a problem of causing the little beards. a 7-month long investigation shows that by picking the lobbyists who fought against

most of maine's environmental policies to be the person running maine's environmental agent circumstances the agency that implements those policies, the person in charge had been the lobbyist for a texas-based group of four chemical companies that make flame retardants. before he was elected those were set to be blocked in maine as carcinogens. but their lobbyist got put in charge of environmental protection for the state so the plan to get rid of the flame retardants got shelved. she was also the lobbyists for these companies wanting to block the recycling laws. she was their lobbyist against the state's recycling laws. and then when paul lepage put her in charge, she recommended eliminating those programs. the most incredible is about this lake. when full it's the fifth largest fresh water state in the state of maine. it is lovely except when it's not because florida power and

light, which owns the dam that the lake is on, when they drain the whole thing too far in order to use the outflow from the lake to make power downstream, flagstaff lake is not very pretty anymore nor does it smell very good. the dam is florida and light's dam so they get to do what they found. it's also surrounded by homes. it's the swimming and boating lake for that part of maine. the state has an interest too. the people who live in that part of maine have an interest too. they have been fighting to try to limit some of the deep, deep draw downs of the lake water at least in the summer months. you lose a couple feet here and people have to haul in their boats. you get big mud flats. you can get sand storms if they drain too much. federal energy regulators are involved in setting the rules for something like for so much they can draw the lake down. they play a part in balancing the energy-producing demands of the company and the environmental needs and the

other needs of the state. but here's the thing. when paul lepage took over the state, the state suddenly said that they do not want the needs of the state to be considered at all anymore in the regulation of that lake. the regulations governing how much water can be drained should only consider what the power company wants. just what they want. she did not file to have the state's needs considered about the lake because it was a clerical error. she got mixed up. "something that was lost sight of during the transition in leadership." oops, we forgot to file the paperwork and now we lost the lake. turns out the person paul put in charge of the environment for the state worked as a lobbyist for the law firm that represented florida light and power. represented the power company. and the portland press herald

said she met with the guys from her old firm who were representing the power company before she made the decision to opt out, to opt the state out and let the power company take what they want. that decision she made to essentially, forgive me, screw the lake and let the power company take it. that decision is locked in place for 25 years. maine will not have a chance to undo this disaster and try to save the lake until 2036. so good-bye flagstaff lake. hello tea party governance in the great state of maine. in response to that reporting the administration has decided that their response is going to be no comment. but it's not a normal no comment. they are instituting a blanket no comment indefinitely on everything for the portland press herald. and for their related papers. one in augusta, the state capital and one in a city where paul used to be the mayor.

their response to reporting on the way he's running the state is to try to block three of the largest papers in the state from reporting on state government at all. the way they found out they are being blocked from covering state government is when a reporter called the state house to get a copy of the public events calendar. not exactly deep throat stuff. the governor's public events calendar. the answer was no. then another press herald reporter asked for a comment on medicaid expansion and obama care in the state. the response from the spokesperson was not no comment, but no comment specifically to the portland press herald, ever, on anything, forever. you are not allowed to cover the government anymore. touchy. [ female announcer ] are you sensitive to dairy?

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senator jackson said today's event was a last ditch effort and they have the votes to override. >> that's who he is. senator jackson claims to be for the people. but he's the first one to give it to the people without providing vaseline. >> that's the governor of maine. the governor of maine is trying to block from covering state

government by issuing a blanket indefinite no comment on all matters including even the most basic stuff like public documents. something i have never seen before. thank you for being with us tonight. >> thank you. glad to be here. >> when his office said they would no longer talk to the press herald, did they explain why? did they make a more explicit complaint? >> no, we heard it from other people. they didn't tell us. and the reason was they claim bias. and this isn't about bias. this is about them being really uncomfortable with us doing investigative journalism that showed how these powerful forces affect the lives of rel citizens. >> have they raised complaints about your reporting in this investigative series? are there things you want you to correct? >> no. in fact, this thing had 15,000 words over three days.

we have not gotten one complaint about one factual error. not one. we have overwhelming response from the community from, from readers thanking us for doing this. >> seeing the chief executive, seeing a powerful politician who likes confrontation, seeing them upset with press is not unusual, but it is unusual for a governor to try to stop large newspapers from covering his administration. is it just the governor's office that will not talk to you and your sisters papers or is this the whole government that's under orders not to talk to you about anything? >> well, if you listen to his spokesman, it's the entire government with the exception of public safety and emergency situations. that means health and human services, the biggest department in the state that takes care of the needy, housing, department of transportation, every state agency other than state police. >> does this work?

>> but i have to say -- practically they didn't talk to us much any way, the governor's office. the other agencies have been helpful. if we ask for documentation, they have to give it to us even if we file freedom of information requests. so at most, it will slow us down a little, but we have a room full of a lot of talented journalists, as you can see in the series we did. i have to put a plug in for collin woodward. this will slow us down a little. >> to that point, i mean, obviously they feel like they can effectively block you from covering state government by refusing to talk to you about anything. the way you learned you had been blacklisted was by a request for the governor's public events schedule. there couldn't be anything more publicly available than that. they seem to think they can give

your competitors such a speed advantage in terms of finding anything out. they think they will be able to shut you down in terms of your state government coverage, but you think that's not true? >> it's outrageous. they are not going to be able to shut us down. people are getting hurt in the end are the people in maine. the fact that we would even be slowed down at all. that they don't want to be transparent, that they don't want to share the information with us, the largest news organization in the state is outrageous. i do think eventually they are probably going to see their ways are wrong and start talking to us again. >> but in the meantime, you do not plan on changing anything about the way you cover this agency other than the fact you're going to have to go through round about means? >> we're going to do more of this kind of coverage. the response was so good, we're dedicated to do even more of this kind of investigative journalism on how the state conducts its affairs and how good a job these public servants are serving the public. >> everybody in the country

right now watching this interview was really hoping that was going to be your answer. cliff, executive editor of portland press herald, an excellent newspaper that has done a remarkable series. thanks very much for your time tonight. good luck. >> thank you very much.

one of the strangest forgotten mini scandals of the george w. bush administration was involving his aid czar, president bush's aide czar got fired from his czar-ship.

one of the issues was in order to get funding for aids related programs, you had to denounce prostitution. the bush aids czar was all about this. they need to have a policy opposing sex trafficking, i don't think it is too difficult for people to be against that. he resigned. turns out he was on the client list for the d.c. madam. today they struck down that policy, predicated on the funding for aids on making them swear they wouldn't work with the population that was among those most affected by the disease. because as you know, prostitution icky, chief justice roberts said the government

can't compel a grant recipient to adopt a belief for funding. she had worked on the issue, justices scalia and thomas voted to keep the policy in place. but chief justice roberts and kennedy voted for it. it is a good reminder of the bush aid czar, but that was not the biggest decision that everybody has been waiting for from this court. next week is the last week of this session is from the supreme court. and they still have 11 more cases in which they have to hand down rulings. everybody is expecting some of the rulings to be handed down on monday, but with so many cases to be announced, the justices will have to add at least one day after monday in order to make the announcements. the big cases everybody is waiting on, are still

outstanding, affirmative action, called fisher versus texas, the court has to look at the admissions, justice kagan had to recuse herself from that. also still outstanding, a backbone civil rights law in our country, the voting rights act by which certain parts of the country with a legacy of rigging voting, they have to get any changes in their election systems cleared by the justices. that is the voting rights case. then the two same sex marriages case, united states versus windsor among them. the california case, the ban on marriage, which the state of california is refusing to defend in court. and then the windsor case is about the federal law that blocks recognition of same-sex marriages.

and that is the federal law that obama administration is refusing to defend in court. so one note on the two marriages cases that are now expected. there are standing issues and technical issues not the least of which related to the fact that the laws are not being defended by the government that is supposed to defend them. one question is whether the mistreatment of gay people under the law should be strictly scrutinized. whether it should be hard to be against the law which discriminates against gay people. and part of the legal determination of that is the justices will have to decide, whether or not being gay is a thing, whether being gay is something you just are or you can change if you want to. that part of the legal fight has led to some weird back and forths in the courtroom. >> when did it become unconstitutional to exclude

homosexual couples from marriage? 1791? 1868 when the 14th amendment was adopted? sometime after baker where we said it didn't even raise a substantial federal question? when -- when did the law become this? >> you say it is now unconstitutional? >> yes. >> was it always unconstitutional? >> it was constitutional when we as a culture determined that the sexual orientation of individuals -- >> when did that happen? >> there is no specific date in time. >> well, how am i supposed to? >> he says at the end we are evolving. we are trying at least to evolve out of the idea that gay people are only gay, people are only part of this discriminated against group because they want

to be, and if they would only beat couches with tennis rackets, watch, or whatever, if people would only have enough aversion therapy, or if you hit enough balls with a tennis racket, then you don't have is to be gay. the idea of being gay is part of why the justice department said it wouldn't defend the anti-gay law at the level, part of the two supreme court cases. the argument to keep anti-gay laws in our country depends in part on whether or not you are gay is a choice, and you can choose whether or not you want to be gay. today, the largest high profile group in the country changing people from gay to straight, closed its doors. they have not been changing gay people to straight people for the past 37 years, but now they will stop trying.

there are certainly going to be other groups taking up the mantle, but as of today they are done, and they say they are sorry. and the supreme court rules next week. good friday morning. right now on "first look," south beach is in a frenzy after the heat captured their second consecutive nba championship. stocks tank with the dow losing 560 points in two days. we'll tell you what's ahead today. tensions are rising as a million people turn out to protest brazil's government. plus, the gift of hearing for one little boy after a one-of-a-kind surgery. more details on the death of james gandolfini. and a traffic cop gets the shock of a lifetime. good morning, i'm mara schiavocampo. what a night in south beach. game seven of the nba finals proved to be one for the ages.