surveillance program and why the agency says it is absolutely necessary. governor christi's surprising response to senator rand saul's beer summit offering and the companies changing rules on credit card companies and how much they can charge for retail purchases this is "way too early." ♪ hey, everybody, good morning, i'm thomas. it's thursday, believe it or not august 1. we have new developments in on the a-rod saga and anthony weiner allies. first, the u.s. is restarting dialogue with pakistan. secretary of state john kerry is

in islam babad. some pakistani officials want to end drone strikes all together. now the latest on the nsa and its surveillance programs. glenn greenwald dropped another revelation on the nsa ability to spy on millions of people. according to a reporter, the agency uses a program called x keyscore which gives analysts access to megadata. the nsa claims this program is its widest reaching television system. the program collects activity. e-mails, browser history can be searched by name, or keyword. this is critical for protecting america. internal documents say 300 terrorists were captured using information from x-keyscore. greenwald spoke about the program last night on msnbc. >> there's no oversight on these

analysts, they click the clickdown menu. we think he's foreign, we think he works for a foreign government. they're often running with extremely evasive surveillance. >> meanwhile. both sides are questioning the nsa programs. patrick leahy lead the committee hearing said he's seen a list of terror events. but was not convinced the nsa tactics are effective. later today president obama intends to meet with congress to discuss programs as fell as the controversy fisa courts. president obama is not done trying to reboot his economic message. first, they were called that then went behind closed doors on capitol hill yesterday. the president with sessions to rally across the middle last plan. the house speaker didn't miss an opportunity to take a dig. >> i'm not going to speak for what the president is doing or

why he's doing it. if i had poll numbers as low as his, i would be out doing the same thing if i were him. if i were him. >> now, just for comparison sake here, boehner's favorability, 18%. president obama, 48%. during one of the sessions the question about the next fed chairman bubbled up. according to reports, the democratic president walked up to the microphone saying larry summers, bad choice. they were told not to believe everything they read in the huffington post. the president added summers was the rock of guibraltar. the white house is making it clear that witch scandals, things being cooked up by critics while discussion the second term agenda, president

obama alluded to phony scandals calling them a parade of expressions. jay carney signaled two in particular that congressional leaders tried to use to score points. >> as time has passed, more facts have become known, whether it's about the attacks in benghazi and talking points, or revelations about conduct at the irs. attempts to turn this into a scandal have failed. >> so, for the first time in seven years, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms finally has a permanent director. president obama's nominee byron todd jones was confirmed yesterday by the senate, 53-42 and the vote was not without a fair share of drama, arm-twisting as well. lasting about five hours. members had to wait for senator heidi height camp to ply back from north dakota to push the

nomination to a final vote. he's served the acting director of the atf since 2011. it appears the time-tested beer summit won't smooth over a rift between two republican presidential candidates. the rant between rand paul and chris tisty. now the senator from kentucky is looking to put differences aside but doesn't seem to be a high priority for the new jersey governor. >> we're going to have to patch things up if we can sit down, invite him for a beer. if he would like to sit down at the pub around the corner from the senate. we'll formalize it and put it in mighting. at times people have said chris christie has libertarian leadings so it's ironic we see him criticizing libertarians in the party. the offer to have a beer with

chris christie stands, if he wants to break bread to find common ground. i think it would help the party not to be feuding. >> he suggested you sit down and have a beer. >> i am running for re-election. i don't have time. i've got work to do here. >> christie went on to say he's not surprised by the attacks saying he's not the first politician that's used me to get national attention by the media. i'm sure he won't be the last. looks like christie and paul will be having the beer summit. i want to know from you, who would you like to see have a beer together. it could be anybody. use the hashtag "way too early." san diego's mayor is accused of coming on to eight women. according to his lawyer the city may be held liable for not training him about sexual

harassment. the democrat's attorney said the city is object gated to provide employees on guidance what sort of behavior is acceptable which he said the city never did. the attorney said lack of training department excuse inappropriate behavior. the lawyer par phrased bowl dylan's lyrics. you don't need a weather person to tell you which way the wind blows. earlier this week the city council voted to sue filner for any damages it will incur from the lawsuit. the president is considering a complete exit from the troops in afghanistan by 2014 but a deal well beyond then isn't close to being done. afghanistan will need a significant military presence and financial resources far into the future. secretary kerry said the u.s. is drawing down not withdrawing. afghanistan is in a renewed state of fraj it.

24% of afghanistans were killed or injured in the first half of the year than during the same period last year. all right. so, here's some positive news, two more states in america are now allowing gay couples to be marry. in minnesota dozens of weddings were held shortly after midnight. budget officials estimate 5,000 gay couples will tie the knot this year and rhode island will begin holding marriages this morning, being the 13th state to do so. both minnesota and rhode island will recognize marriages performed in other states. george zimmerman was pulled over for recently speeding outside of dallas, texas. zimmerman informed the officer he had a pistol in that truck. when asked zimmerman where he was going he said nowhere in particular. why do you say that? he then asked if the officer

knew who he was looking at the license. when i saw the name, he said what a coincidence. after getting a clearance it there were no outstanding warrants the officer let him go with a warning. saying he needed to slow down. and we'll look at the month of august on wall street with a kind note. yesterday ended pretty flat but still had the best july since 2010. for more on this, let's check in and say good important to steve, who is live for us in london. steve. >> reporter: >> yeah. it was a good month of july. whether there were head winds remain to be seen. seemed to be a quieter month than august. 1.7% growth in the second quarter. it was heartwarming for the market but wasn't downward revisions from the previous quarter. that said, pretty cagey, talking about previous modest growth. so slight down-ticking in

sessions of economic growth although they do expect to pick up the growth. no word on tapering as well which is when we get the removal of stimulus. elsewhere a victory for the retail industry which had gone to court over federal reserve rule which said the credit card industry could charge 21 cents per transaction, swipe fees per transaction. they said this was set too high and now a lower swipe fee transaction cost may well be fed to consumers. victory to retailers over banks and card companies there. thomas. >> let's talk about wireless contracts. there are over 325 million wireless customers. how difficult is it to switch carriers the onus is out there and the burden is on us. >> it's hard to switch. a lot of people, whether businesses, families are locked into two-year contracts. a large number of them are with at&t and verizon.

reinvigorated sprint and t-mobile u.s. have hard work on their hand. only 19 million americans switch their contracts anyway. of those very few of switching out of the big joints, at&t and verizons of this world. the only net 3.3 million customers. that's how tough it is to reinvigorate the business against the big players in the broader market. >> we get dependent on the cell phone service, blackberries and iphones and tend to forget because it is so hard. still ahead on "way too early" a leak from mlb on a-rod. when can we finally expect new information. and it's a tough week being anthony weiner. that story when we come back, same bat channel, same bat time. my mother made the best toffee in the world.

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all right. time now for sports in the ongoing game of chicken between alex rodriguez and major league baseball. that continues. yesterday mlb leaked it had enough evidence against the yankee slugger and is considering a lifetime band. a-rod said he would fight whatever punishment was handed down. in light of that new information, sources told espn that rodriguez has changed his mind and is considering a possible settlement. this announcement of more suspensions is expected today or tomorrow. let's move on and get you to the highlights. dodgers, and yankees, top of the

right side. so. miscommunication and two runs scored. yankees walk away with a 2-0 win. it happens. let's walk off with the rangers, indians and red sox. let take a look. >> beltran, a drive. i don't believe it. good-bye. they've done it again. >> the pitch. fastball drilled. deep right field. he's out of room. it's out of here! >> drew lines it down the right field line. up in the seats, red sox win. the red sox win it and back into first place they go! >> there you have it. red sox win it in 15 innings to

retake first lace in the al east. moving on to football. reilly cooper has apologized for comments he made at a kenny chesney concert. he used a racial legislature that was caught on amateur video. michael vick said i believe in forgiveness and forgive in him. . finally on a much lighter note. wait until you see this. the uconn woman's basketball team made another trip to the white house to celebrate the championship win. s it ate huskies eighth trip to the white house in 20 year and third time president obama congratulated the team. at this point the players aren't even taking it seriously anymore. check out stephanie and kia. commander in chief, bunny ears for the cameras there. that really takes some serious guts from the you cohn husband kiss. obviously they know the president is a good sport.

hopefully when he sees those pictures he'll be all right with it. >> as a father of young daughters he'll probably be very forgiving. >> i say he is. but i wonder if she regrets doing it? ever do something you regret. >> who, me? oh, gosh. >> let me think. >> good morning. hi. >> it's early. let's talk about your morning commute. we're going deal with some rain this morning. i don't think the airports will be too brad. grab umbrellas. down to d.c., on and off showers. we have numerous areas of rain. in southern portions of alabama, jo. a little rain, too. it won't be a bad first day. but there will be storms. temperatures op the cooler side. not a bad beach day anyway from the mid-atlantic through new england. cloudy with on and off showers of rain. hot spot is definitely still in

texas. easily 100 in dallas, all of the way down to san antonio. we're still warmer on kansas city. chicago remains on the cool side. not many weather headlines. i guess that's a good thing. >> can you believe it's august already? >> going quick. >> coming up on "morning joe" the war of words between two presidential hopefuls that continues and chris christie said he's not planning to get together with rand paul any time soon. when we come back. we huddle around the water cooler. and steven colbert is talking board games and the important lessons they caught our kids. "way too early" is coming right back. [ school bell rings ] ♪ school's out for summer ♪ [ male announcer ] from the last day of school, back to the first. they're gonna need a lot of stuff. for everything kids need to everything they want

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♪ so, the top of the show, we talked about the latest updates from glenn greenwald involving nsa surveillance programs if you want to sound smart today tell your friends since 2012 the nsa gathered and stored 500 billion records of internet data, e-mails and phone calls. in addition, facebook said in the final six months they provided the private data of 20,000 users to various law enforcement officials as well as the nsa. let's lighten things up around here and check in with

louis was we go around the water cooler. what have you got? >> thanks so much. steven colbert has news on a good trend especially when it comes to kids. he said board games are coming back. >> board games are coming back but in shorter versions, scrabble, boggle and monopoly are releasing shorter games because kids don't have enough time and attention span. >> it's about time. kids today have tight schedules. how do toy makers cut down all of the time kids waste enjoy themselves. >> the new monopoly empire game led players by coke and mcdonalds. to speed things up there's no more go to jail command. >> that's right. no jail, so it's faster and it teaches kids what it's really like to work on wall street. >> now, even though he's on the west coast. jimmy kimmel has been following

the mayoral race and he thinks anthony weiner's name is holding himming ba. >> i don't know why a family sticks with the name weiner. some of them said they've had enough of that. >> i'm a weiner. >> i'm a hard-work american weiner. >> my father was a weiner. >> my kids of weiners. >> good weiners. . we don't deserve to be knocked because we're a weiner. >> it's time for a change. >> enough of the weiner jokes. >> we're weiners and we're weiners too. >> when you say weiner, it never gets old.

>> one graffiti artist is known for these bad kitty stencils. hours after he finished his work someone was already removing the art. so he snapped the photo. then he returned to stencil the man's image where the picture was. a month later it's still there. >> that's fine. i like the don't go to jail one. >> louis, thank you, coming up on "morning joe" the return of the beer summit. rand paul wants to bury the hoopity but will chris christie have it? and senator tom coburn will join us, he we'll ask if he believes with his colleague, ted cruz that any republican that doesn't want to fund obama is running

scarce. and comments aren't making members of the progressive party happy. we have a lot more ahead along with howard dean. steve, mike. wake up, mike. are you awake? >> all right. thomas, it's time. thomas. >> it's going to be a great show. >> stay ahead on "way too early," the beer summit that never was. we'll talk to you about who you would like to see have a beer together. we told you to get creative. so your best tweets coming up on "morning joe" just moments away. [ male announcer ] it's a golden opportunity to discover the heart-pounding exhilaration beyond the engineering. ♪ come to the golden opportunity sales event to experience the precision handling of the lexus performance vehicles, including the gs and all-new is.

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it's high performance skincare™ only from roc® earlier in the show, we asked you in honor of the beer summit that never was between governor christi and senator rand paul, who would you like to see have a beer together. our producer, natalie sgro. is that how you say your name? . sgro. call me batman. >> wren said i would like to see weiner and spitzer have a chat.

and morgan miller said ann colter and chris matthews. >> and i got this one, say miikka and you think? we'll find out from mika coming up. "morning joe" starts right now. >> i want to understand. >> why? >> why were they playing batman? >> i love that show. have you -- did you see batman when growing up? >> i did. >> i like catwoman. >> the daily news this morning. >> no. >> this is shocking. >> good morning. >> no. >> no. >> men being preyed upon. men being preyed upon again. simon cowell apparently gets his best friend's wife pregnant and he is stunned. >> he thought it was being friends with benefits. >>