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while staying well within your budget walls. i want to paint something else. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the the home depot. right now get $5 off one-gallon cans and $20 off five-gallon buckets of select paints and stains javaris. it's friday, july 5th. and this is "now" live from essence festival in new orleans.

good afternoon. we are live in new orleans, kicking off a full afternoon of broadcasts from the 19th annual essence festival. but first we begin with the george zimmerman trial. the prosecution began by calling what could be their final witnesses today, including members of trayvon martin's family. sybrina fulton, martin's mother, took the stand and said her son is in heaven. the prosecution played a 911 tape where screams could be heard in altercation between zimmerman and martin. here is the end of that reporting and fulton's response. >> can you hear him yelling help? >> yes. >> there's gunshots. >> you just hear gunshots? >> yes. >> ma'am, that screaming or

yelling, do you recognize that? >> yes. >> and who do you recognize that to be, ma'am? >> trayvon benjamin martin. >> in the cross examination, defense attorney mark o'mara asked about factors that could have influenced fulton's impression of the tape and suggested a hope that her son might be the victim rather than the aggressor. >> if you were to listen to that tape and not hear your son's voice, that would mean that it would have been george zimmerman's voice. correct? >> did not hear my son screaming? >> correct. >> is that what you're asking? >> yes, ma'am. >> i heard my son screaming. >> you certainly had to hope that was your son screaming, even before you heard it. correct? >> i didn't hope for anything. i just simply listened to the tape. >> the meth medical examiner who performed the autopsy on

martin's body also testified this morning. the witness said martin may have lived between one and ten minutes after the shooting and said there were no injuries to his right hand. just one abrasion on his left hand. that abrasion, he believes, could have happened several hours before the altercation, or after the fight. zimmerman has pleaded not guilty and says he shot martin in self-defense. joining me now from los angeles is msnbc's legal analyst, lisa bloom. and right here on set with me, nbc's own reverend al sharpton. reverend al, first to you on this. let's talk first about sybrina fulton taking the stand for the first time. a very relatively short amount of time. i think she was on the stand for 4:30 the first time and just had a single question the second time. how important do you you think it was to this trial to have trayvon martin's mother on the stand and get her account this morning? >> i think it was very important. i think that, one, it gives the human element of trayvon that

here's his mother, a woman who works for the city of miami, a woman who has a b.a. degree. so it gives some kind of sense to the jury of this type of young man came from a good family, a good mother, same with his brother who's a college student. and then for her to identify that she was sure that that was her son on the tape. i think it was also important she didn't go for the bait of getting into an argument or combative with o'mara when the defense attorney, o'mara, when the defense attorney was trying to say to her -- in inference. he was respectful in ways -- that maybe you wanted it to be your son. and she was firm but it didn't get into a kind of combative exchange and i think that that was very good and very important for the jury to hear. >> when we talk about the emotional aspect to this, o'mara apologized at the beginning of

this and said i truly apologize for your loss. let's play the back and forth between o'mara and the prosecution. >> firstly, truly apologize for your loss. >> thank you. >> objection. improper question. >> you need to ask questions. >> excuse me? >> you need to ask your question. >> what did you make of that exchange where the judge says you need to ask your question, don't get involved in sort of the emotional aspect of -- >> well, i think that the judge was saying, wait a minute, let's move on with the trial and hear about evidence. i think clearly mr. o'mara was trying to offset some of the things the jury's heard, particularly when mr. zimmerman did an interview that has been played where he said, "vy i havo regrets about what happened that night and that it was god's will," which is a very kind of cold, insensitive statement to make, no matter what you are saying happen.

saying i have no regrets of what happened that night and it was god's will could have an impact -- could have an impact on the jury. who knows. i think that the defense attorney was sensitive to that and was trying to show some kind of compassion. but i think that the jury was saying, fine, but we're going to move on, ask your question. >> lisa, i want to ask you about the stand your ground back and forth that happened last week. zimmerman was asked if he was familiar with the law and said that he wasn't to fox's sean hannity, at all. then it came out that captain alexis carter, who is zimmerman's former professor at seminole state college, specifically talked about this in the class that zimmerman took and got an "a" in. how much do you think that affects the jury's perception of zimmerman and his truthfulness? >> i think that's one of the strongest points the prosecution has made so far. they have seem to have george zimmerman cold on a lie, on the videotape, with a very friendly

interviewer, sean hannity, on fox news. and he was not only asked, are you an expert on stand your ground, do you know about sedan your ground, he was asked have you ever heard of it? and he said no. and then we have his college professor talking about a class that he had just recently taken where that topic was covered it would be some extent, stand your ground, and self-defense. and george zimmerman was one of his best students. so the jury can infer from that two things. number one, that he lied. and number two, that he had enough knowledge about self-defense law in the state of florida that he could have concocted a story right there on the spot, in between the shooting and the arrival of the police. and i think those are some very strong points for the prosecution. >> rev, i want to also talk about jahvaris fulton, trayvon's brother who also took the stand today. at first he said he wasn't sure it was his brother's voice on the call and today he said he

was initially in denial about his brother's death. what did you make of that? >> i thought it was something that was logical because having throughout my civil rights work met a lot of families that go through trauma and different variations, people can understand that, and i think he explained it well. what i thought was interesting is that with attorney o'mara saying to the mother, well, you wanted to make it look like trayvon. well, it was the opposite with the brother. so are you saying the brother wouldn't have loved his brother as much much as the mother loved the son? so you almost had two opposing theories between the mother and the brother, which i think was -- if i was on the jury, i would say, well, one kind of cancels out the other. doesn't it? if it was the family wanting to make it va von, then why didn't his brother have the same view of his mother? you can only conclude that the defense attorney was doing what they do, or that maybe the family had different reactions

at different times and therefore maybe telling the truth. >> you are talking about an inherently incredible moment as a brother, as a mother and the sort of capitulations the mind goes through -- >> clearly by them having two different responses at different times, it clearly would lend to some to say this was not a family meeting deciding on this is going to be our line. they were giving their honest views at the time they felt. >> lisa, before we let you go. john good, the neighbor who witnessed the fight, testified on friday that freddie mac was on top of george zimmerman and he was "raining blows down" on george zimmerman. that would seem to support the defense's allegations. how damaging is that to the prosecution's case in your eyes? >> i think he was the best defense witness so far. and the defense hasn't even begun to put on the case. you're right, he testified that

based on the color of the jackets, we know that george zimmerman was in the red jacket and the red jacketed person was on the ground and the man in the dark jacket, which we now know is trayvon martin, was on the top raining down blows mma style, ground-and-pound style. john good's testimony was lim d limited though because he did insist he was not 100% sure that was the case and he also said did he not see george zimmerman's head getting pounded on the ground as george zimmerman maintained. so he supported the essence of the self-defense theory that's put forward by the defense, but not all of it. alex? >> rev, we know that the medical examiner today said there were no injuries to trayvon martin's right hand which is his strong hand and presumably the one woe have used if he was landing blows on george zimmerman. >> see, i think the testimony by the medical examiner about there were no injuries would lead to

the prosecution being able to raise doubt on the statement by good. because if he was raining blows mma style, you would think there would be some physical evidence of that on his fists. secondly, it was testified to zimmerman had mma training two, three times a week. good testified by the colors on the bottom were zimmerman, he said he could fight back. so if zimmerman had mma training and there was an mma attack going on, why didn't he use his mma training to defend himself? so i don't think good at the end of the day is going to be as helpful as a lot of people thought. >> certainly the medical examiner's testimony is complicated, a very twisting narrative, as all things go. nbc's lisa bloom, thank you. of course, the reverend al sharpton, thank you, as always, for your time. catch a special edition of politics nation today on msnbc at 3:00 p.m. eastern.

after the break -- supporters of ousted egyptian president mohamed morsi call for a day of rejection across egypt. while the world debates what to call morsi's removal. we will talk revolutions and coups with "the new york times'" peter baker around get the latest from msnbc's ayman muhyeldin next on "now."

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at the essence festival. but in egypt, a chaotic situation this week. country's military opened fire on supporters of deposed president mohamed morsi today as they held counterprotests in cairo as part after nationwide day of rejection. despite defense ministry denials, according to the ap, at least one morsi supporters was killed and several were shot when they approached the headquarters of the republican guard where it has been reported that morsi may be held. earlier in the day, in a show of force, egyptian military jets flew over tahrir square trailing the colors of the egyptian flag, a clear signal to opponents of the military's actions made as the country's interim president, chief justice adli mansour announced the dissolution of the islamist led upper house of parliament. tens of thousands of morsi supporters who have gathered

outside a cairo mosque claim the army ouster is far from benign pointing to the scores of muslim brotherhood leaders who have been arrested and the pro-morsi media outlets that have been shut down. the unfolding situation comes as observers debate whether or not the military's actions backed by a clear majority of the egyptian populous are a demonstration of democracy or a breach of it. when is a military coup not a military coup? when it happened in egypt, apparently was the analysis of a skeptical robert fisk, one of great britain's leading opinion writers. on the other side, the "times'" david brooks said the coup was justifiable, writing, radical islamists are incapable of a running a modern government." president obama spent part of his fourth of july with his national security team. the administration has been careful to avoid describing wednesday's takeover as a coup. doing so would complicate the distribution of nearly $1.3 billion the u.s. currently gives egypt in military aid.

instead the president has said he remains deeply concerned about the military takeover and has called for swift an fair elections to hand power to a democratically elected government. joining me now from cairo, nbc news foreign correspondent ayman muhyeldin and in washington, nbc news white house correspondent david baker. ayman, give us the latest on the clashes between morsi supporters and those in support of the military's ouster. >> reporter: sure. well, we knew going in to today that today was going to see large demonstrations in various places across the capital cairo as well as other cities. shortly after friday prayers here a lot of the supporters of former president mohamed morsi heeded those calls and marched on to a part of a cairo neighborhood where they had been staging a sit-in for the past several days in support of their ousted president. it was shortly after that point that they then began to march on to headquarters of the republican guard. that is where they believe

president mohamed morsi to be held, or at least that's where he was last time they had any type of communication with him and also an area which in recent days had been extremely fortified by members of the egyptian military. there were gunshots exchanged. the egyptian military insists it did not use any live ammunition, simply using teargas but footage has emerged from eyewitnesses and social media showing in fact casualties taking place. we don't have a specific number but various media outlets are reporting that at least three people have been killed in those clashes. not only in the capital cairo but also in the second largest city in alexandria, there have been clashes between pro supporters of president morsi and the egyptian military. so it is a tense situation across the country. meanwhile you can probably hear behind me egyptian helicopters have been flying overhead over both of these crowds as well as the egyptian air force which continues to fly in formation

over tahrir square and elsewhere. >> peter baker, i want to go to you for the view from the white house. the white house released a picture of the president and his advisors in the sit room going through what was clearly a tense series of discussions over egypt. a lot has been made, a lot of parsing and analysis over the president not using the word "coup" to describe this. david brooks makes the case when you elect fanatics you have not advanced democracy and that the military service has been in charge of the military democracy so maybe it is not right to use the word coup as far as that might have ramifications as far as u.s. support for egypt. president seems to be in a delicate situation right now. how much action can we expect from the white house in the coming days in terms of statements or decision making? >> i think the white house is basically trying to keep a little bit of a distance from what's happening there. certainly as you say, they met in the situation room yesterday on the holiday.

secretary of state john kerry, susan rice, national security advisor, defense secretary chuck hagel made calls to the region, to their egyptian counterparts and counterparts in israel which are of course watching this with great concern. at the same time they aren't anxious to go out and rattle the cage too much yet on the aid front. the law is very clear. the only question is how you interpret it. the law says if a military coup is imposed against a duly elected leader of a government, then no u.s. aid shall go there. this is certainly in a lot of people's eyes, looks like a military coup but people aren't anxious in washington to apply that section of law if they can avoid it because i think they want to use the white house as leverage for the moment to avoid greater violence and greater undemocratic acts by the military. >> ayman, the president wants, as many folks i think in the international community would like, to see a peaceful

transition to a democratically elected government if morsi does end up being sort of taken out of office by the military. but how realistic is that wish? mohammed al bar die writes the executive branch has no clue. it is a question of people who have no vision or experience. they are simply not qualified to govern making the case that there is no there there. there is no one to step into the vacuum effectively. is that accurate? >> the white house has been frustrated with morsi's government for a number of reasons obviously that -- his decree last november seizing more power for himself, later rescinded, very much upset people at the white house. they didn't see that as being a helpful action. they don't feel that his government has necessarily been the most competent government they'd like to see there. having said that, they were working with him. they did hope that they were

establishing a good relationship with him and now they realize they have to sort of start from scratch. they're hoping at the white house that the military recognizes the lessons of 2011 when they helped push out hosni mubarak and will in fact want to put the country back on a democratic track in the near future. but obviously that's no guarantee of that. >> ayman, as far as the road forward here, "the new york times" does an analysis of what this portends for islamic leadership and radical islam in the middle east and says, one of the most important political developments of recent years was the decision of islamist parties to make peace with democracy and commit to playing by the rules of the political game. given what is happening in egypt right now, how much does that change the calculation? >> well, we're already hearing the ramifications of that decision. already a lot of prominent

writers and scholars here who subscribe to political islam and those that support it have already come out and made the argument that say, look, democracy didn't work. when they got a government that was led by the muslim brotherhood, when it was a conservative islamist government, it did not sit well with the international community and it did not sit well with the country's military which felt pressure to push them out of power. so already we have seen some initial indications that there are those within the hardline and perhaps more conservative elements of political islam who are making the argument that democracy will not accept a conservative islamist political institution like the muslim brotherhood or perhaps even those that are slightly even more to the right of that. the problem right now is trying to convince them to come back into the fold. that he that is going to be the challenge for the interim president and the process going forward. muslim brotherhood maintains a very strong support here in this country, they are still part of the fabric of egyptian society. to try and tell them listen, this first time around democracy

didn't work out for you, we'll make new rules but this time we'll respect it and recognize it, it is going to be a very tough sell. already the leaders of the muslim brotherhood have come out and said that they will reject any type of agreement with this current interim government, and more importantly, they are insisting this was a military coup and that the legitimacy remains in the hands of president morsi who they want reinstated. >> it is a situation with massive implications for both the region and the globe. nbc's ammyman muhyeldin, thank you. peter baker, thank you you. republicans downplay the demographic impact on the party's future. we will discuss a gop in denial and other faces of immigration when we continue our coverage at the essence festival in new orleans just ahead. with the spark miles card from capital one,

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we are back live from the essence festival in new orleans. next week when congress returns from its fourth of july recess, the legislative fireworks will shift from the senate, which passed an immigration reform bill last week, to the house as the raucous caucus grapples with its own version of immigration reform. and while the white house, the gang of eight and america's 11 million undocumented immigrants are hoping the lower chamber is feeling patriotic, many signs point to international reksurre. house speaker john boehner has insisted any immigration bill will require a majority of the majority, also known, around here at least, as the dreaded hastert rule. the xhisz poseconomists posit g immigration bill through will be harder than climbing the border fence. but as negotiations play out, millions of undocumented workers, real people, will be

waiting. though the conversation around immigration largely focuses on hispanics, there is, of course, more than one face of immigration in america. in the july issue of "essence" magazine, 1 of america's 11 million undocumented immigrants tells her story an gives voice to a lower profile group of immigrants. 400,000 black undocumented immigrants whose story has been mostly lost in a broader debate. it is a story that provides a glimpse of the uncertainty and fear that haunts so many immigrants in america. "i've realized that i have to become more active in the fight if i want this current bill to pass," she writes. "i helped arrange an immigration forum at a church in brooklyn and i attended a rally in washington, d.c. sure, sometimes i'm afraid of being found out and deported if i speak out. but i'm living in purgatory. i can't really work. i can't get an education. so i have to fight for my life." joining me now, president and ceo of the national urban league, mark morial. economist, author, doctor,

julian malvo, and acting managing director of "essence," vanessa bush. the really important part of this debate as we said -- vanessa, congratulations to you and "essence" for writing about this, which is a really -- it is a story and narrative that's not discussed enough. i want to talk to you first just about the piece and read another excerpt from it. in the piece your author writes, "people don't see the black immigrant whether it comes to immigration reform. i'm grateful for latino whose have passionately fought for immigration rights but the media's constant focus on borders and speaking english makes immigration reform just about latinos. i'm saying what about us, what about us? >> i think this woman was so courageous in putting her story out there because the truth of the matter is there are millions of people who would like to be able to contribute to this country. actually this young woman is paying taxes. this is someone who's contributing to the country already. she's willing to make the

investment. she just wants our country to make that investment in her. >> i think we often -- we definitely do this with the hispanic community, speak monolithically as if all hispanics and latinos think one thing or will vote one way. we've done that in some part to the many facials of immigration and immigration reform which is to say 59% of undocumented immigrants are mexican. that's a large share. but 1% are asian. 4% are from the caribbean. this is very much a multi-faceted group. >> yes. when you hear about immigration reform, you hear a lot about border security, you hear about english speaking. you don't really hear about black, caribbean and african immigrants who are also a part of this larger picture. in doing this article in essence we wanted to broaden the conversation a bit so that people understand that it is touching and impacting in many, many, many different areas of society. >> not only is it blind to the other faces of immigration, but

also actually penalizes african immigrants. they used to have a program that was called the diversity program -- believe that -- that allowed imgranmigrants who were being admitted in large numbers to come in under that program. thau under that program you got lots of nigerians, but now they want to change that program in favor of people who have education. well again, as the sister who wrote the piece in "essence," if you don't have an education -- but senator schumer allows a provision that will allow 10,000 irish people with high school diplomas to come in for no reason. that's his constituency. in other places in north carolina they're looking for meat packers. in florida they're looking for people in the hospitality industry so they get a pass. but the congressional black caucus, frankly, and now "essence" magazine have been the only ones that's talk about

immigration in the context of people of african decent. >> and the sacrifices that have been made. it has been widely hailed because it got through the senate with large bipartisan support but at the end of the day, concessions were made and were looking towards the house. the question is where does it go from there? >> well, it is an imperfect bill. it has flaws in it. it was the subject of difficult political compromises in the senate. one thing that comes in to play in the house is the voice of the congressional black caucus. what that means is, people like evette clark, charlie wrangle, people from new york, south africa, that's their constituency. no bill can get through the house of representatives without the strong support of the cbc and a broad coalition. let me say this -- the civil

rights leadership sees immigration reform as a civil rights, human rights an social justice issue. because the status quo is a very bad status quo. we've got to move something but it's important that while we hail what the senate has done, that we do point out that in many respects, for black, for african, for caribbean immigrants, there was a provision in the old law that was taken out in the proposed new law that may not be so good. >> well -- >> i want to say one thing about that. i think so much has been done to appease the far right wing of the republican caucus. >> yes. >> and you really look at sort of the concessions that are made to the progressive, liberal wing of the democratic caucus. and there have been very few. as we look at the sort of path of this bill and we look towards the house, three more days -- >> the thing is that the compromises have been made, essentially so the republicans

can pose themselves as open to latino immigration. and so -- of course this is the growing population of voters. and so they're positioning themselves to pay attention to that group without understanding other groups. no african-american i think of the leadership like mark opposes immigration reform. but the issue is what kind of immigration reform. the good news is that congresswoman marsha fudge is a fighter. i mean she is a scrapper and she is ahead of the congressional black caucus. so even though boehner has his position, there are a whole lot of other people that have positions. >> we have to just focus on the speakary little bit, vanessa. there's been a lot of talk about whether or not he will even introduce the senate bill into the house without a majority of republican support. which it doesn't look like he has. i mean there are still republicans in the party who are debating whether there should even be immigration reform, whether there should and path to citizenship. and if is all as we are to assume, a bid at republicans gaining a greater foothold among

people of color, then the conversation has been rewound even at this point to a very basic argument over whether or not 11 million people should have a path towards citizenship would not seem to be furthering the goals of the republican party if they do want to make those inroads with people of color. >> i think it is just unfathomable that we are even having this conversation. i mean clearly, clearly this is a constituency that must be paid attention to. and we can't roll back the time. you can't roll back the clock. but i fell like in many ways it is just kind of one step forward, three steps back. >> that's also a congressional sort of redistricting has played a huge role in this. because you now have 84% of house republicans represent districts that are 20% or less hispanic. minority populations that are very low. they have no reason to care about the struggles -- >> though if you are a small politics, you don't look at where your constituency or how

your district is made up today. are you also concerned of how it is going to be made up two, four, six years and how population growth is changing the political map all over the nation. it changed the electoral map in the '08 and '12, if you will, presidential election. so this should not be seen as a static issue. let me say this. i also think and hope that politicians wouldn't look at this issue simply through the lens of their own political self-interests and that we're going to have a conversation -- really a conversation about what's best for the nation in the 21st century. but let me tell you of some hypocrisy. 20,000 new border control agents. and the price tag on that, it's funny to me, interesting to me, how fiscal conservatives can embrace all this new spending on a security surge plan, yet at the same time want to cut back

on food stamps, at the same time want to cut back on domestic programs. the public needs to understand with there is a bit of hypocrisy inside this conversation. >> we're seeing a 7.6% unemployment rate steady for last month. we see job growth. but this congress has refused -- has absolutely refused to do job creation. it hits this african-american population so much more hard than other populations. have you money for border patrol. have you no money to hire people. and if you had more people working, our economy would come out of the slump much more quickly. >> even though the house speaker has said repeatedly that their number one focus is on jobs. i want to ask you about this stat. cbo report, talking about small businesses, a major talking point for the republicans. if you look at business ownership rates between immigrants and native-born americans, 10.5% of businesses

are owned by immigrants. 9.3% are owned by native-born americans. the republican party could be making the case for small business and advocating having a pro-immigrant platform but they are not choosing to being a nonl t acknowledge the reality of that. >> that's are entrepreneurial people who open businesses when they can't find work, who will do economic expansion. what this congress has done for the department of commerce has actually cut the money that they've used in the past to encourage small businesses. look at the increase in minority businesses. still too few an increase, but an increase again because an unfriendly labor market, people are likely to go out and do their own thing. if congress -- never mind. i was going to say if they had a speck of sense. but never mind. but if they were looking at the economic trends in our nation, they'd be much more responsive. >> and respectful perhaps, as well. we, unfortunately, have to leave

it there. a very lively discussion on a very hot topic. mark morial, dr. julian malvo and vanessa bush, thank you all for joining me. coming up, we are live in caress accident city and city and mogul's melissa harris perry and julia reid join us here at the essence festival just ahead. ♪

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orleans and the boo yoo is back. it has been almost eight years since hillary clint hurricane katrina katrina devastated the city of new orleans. things are looking up. forbes ranks the city number four in the country for job growth. a new orleans comeback has made the city the fastest growing metropolis in the country since 2007. joining me now, journalist and author julia reed, "but mama always put vodka in her sangria." the host of her own show on

msnbc, my friend and colleague melissa pa melissa harris perry. >> i'm so excited you you're in new orleans! >> i'm moving into your home. please. i want you to first weigh in on the story of new orleans. nationally we hear about how slow economic recovery's been but those stats point to a new orleans that's on the up and up, though perhaps the economic recovery has not been equally distributed over all parts of the city. melissa, your take? >> i think that's always the question is that new orleans is always a tale of multiple cities. that was true before katrina but it is particularly true in the recovery period. so the question isn't just is there job growth in general, but the ways in which whether or not what we're seeing is economic justice in the city. so when we talk about, for example, population growth, you have to remember our city has been declining in a sort offer is collar way. th secular way. then a huge outflux because of katrina. now folks are coming back, but

it is not necessarily the same group of people. those shut out had greatest economic justices done to them. >> i want to talk about the cultural implications. you write in your book, as southern cuisine acts as leveller by reduces differences in race and class, the culture itself reduces the distinctness of other cuisines into our myth. >> kree yo cuisine iscreole cuisine. african-american, french, spanish, some italian throw in. after katrina we had this huge influx and i think the culture was always even when the city was sort of slowly sinking into the river long before katrina came and walloped us, but the culture was always our big calling card. in fact, it almost hurt us. because new orleans could still be this great sort of fabulous city to the outside world

because we had all this culture but our economy was only a tourist economy. now the great thing about it is the culture is still intact and people realized right away, whether it was ground musicians coming back, people realize, whoa, if we lose the music and the food and all the people that made that happen we're going to be in trouble. but the economy has got an lot more diverse. it is not just hotel maids and restaurant workers. >> alex, that's the big question that the city is facing post-katrina, even nearly a decade now post-katrina, how to not just turn the culture into an item for sale. but to actually allow the culture to exist so the number one on that is music. right? here you have a school system who in the midst of all of these reforms being heralded is actually taking music out of the schools. at the same time that we're telling everybody come on down to new orleans to hear the great indigenous music. well, it will die in this generation if our children don't

have music in our school. >> not just a part of the new orleans legacy but american legacy, and luckily will there be some music happening here at the essence festival. it is a vibrant city for arts and music and food and good living generally speaking and putting vodka in your sangria. thank you, julia reed, and mechanical sis is a harrir ris harris perry for hosting us in your home city. ♪

live from the essence fest in new orleans, this is "hardball."