we'll explain or at least let the words speak for themselves. it may not be a sign of the apocalypse. twerking makes it into the oxford englishdictionary. history, please be kind to us. this is "way too early." a low barred for the oed. maybe they're trying to be a little more hip. good morning, everybody. i'm brian schactman. wednesday, august 28th. a new name with a major upset. and in the cooler, two separate stories both involving world leaders and paintings. all i have to say is putin and bush. it'll become clear a little bit later in the cooler. we really need to begin with syria. senior u.s. officials say airstrikes against the assad regime could begin as soon as tomorrow. leaders from both england and

france reportedly are also considering joining the u.s. in a joint military action. however, attempts by the white house to build a broad coalition seem unlikely as several leaders of arab countries as well as the arab league have declined to back military strikes. but for members of the obama administration, there's no doubt the so-called red line has been crossed. >> the options that we are considering are not about regime change, they are about responding to a clear violation of an international standard that pro hibltsds the use of chemical weapons. >> there is no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in syria. the syrian regime. >> the united states department of defense is ready to carry out those options. if that would occur, that would occur also in coordination with our international partner. >> but if you were to come, you

are ready to go like we will actually speak to senator mccain about the crisis in syria a little bit later on "morning joe." here in the states a syrian hacker group is taking credit for the shutdown of "the new york times" website yesterday.

it is the second time this month the times site has gone down. for several hours the syrian army warned them of the malicious external attack and advised staffers to be careful about e-mailing sensitive information until the site was secured. the issue was reportedly resolved around 6:00 p.m. eastern time. meanwhile, outgoing secretary of homeland security janet napolitano delivered her outgoing speech. she added that a major cyber attack was inevitable. the president's health care plan getting a victory in michigan. the michigan senate voted to expand medicaid under the affordable care act essentially extending health coverage to more than 400,000 low income residents. michigan joins a number of states led by republican

governors. elsewhere on the health care fund, the big news out of walmart is that the company planned to offer health insurance to doe mess stuck partners with no questions asked. they calling this a historic move. the announcement comes as other employers are becoming more restrictive. according to walmart spokesperson, partners of employees can be. same or opposite sex and married or unmarried, quote, as long as they've been living together in an ongoing exclusive relationship for at least 12 months and intend to stay that way. cory booker's run in the senate rice, he spoke about his private life, including rumors that he is gay. booker, who is single, was quoted as saying, how unfair is it to a young lady to put them in the spotlight if they haven't signed up for that yet. and people who think i'm gay,

some part of me thinks it's wonderful because i want to challenge people on their homophobia. i love seeing on twitter when someone says i'm gay. so what does it matter if i am. so be it. i hope you are not voting for me because you are making the assumption i am straight. steve lonegan calls it weird. he likes to go out at 3:00 in the morning for a manicure. i like a scotch and a cigar. that's my fetish. we'll compare the two. later lonegan speculated he was avoiding the question because it helps get him the gay vote by acting ambiguous. they're both contending for the senate seat previously held by frank lot tenberg who passed away this past june. it was 50 years ago today

that civil rights icon martin luther king jr. led the march on washington and of course delivered the i have a dream speech. take a look at the front page of "the new york times." 1963. the language itself is just dramatic. you see the picture. it's funny to see on the left, president kennedy signed the bill to a vert a rail strike. kin did i was shot to death a few months later. the march helped pave the way for the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965. it wasn't until the year 2,000 that all 50 states officially observed martin luther king dare. there are a number of events planned today. just before 3:00 p.m. president obama will speak at the lincoln memorial. preceding him will be speeches by former presidents jimmy carter and bill clinton. and in exclusive video provided to "meet the press," president

bill clinton took the opportunity to reflect on the march and martin luther king's legacy. >> on august 28th, 1963, i was 17 years old. i knew that martin luther king was scheduled to give the speech so i made sure i was home. it was during summer vacation between my junior and senior years in high school. so i was home sitting in this white leather reclining chair in our den and i turned the speech on. >> let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of new york, let freedom ring from the heightening alleghenys of pennsylvania. >> i don't think the fundamental meaning has changed at all. i think it is power full and poetic and wise. an update on the wildfires in california, the so-called rim fire which is burning for 12 days now. still only 20% contained.

it's moving deeper threatening thousands of homes. nbc's miguel almaguer brings us a unique perspective 10,000 feet above the fire. >> reporter: this fire is 230,000 miles bigger than the city of the city of chicago. all along we can see spot fires. there's no doubt this fire is growing and certainly quickly on the move. you can see from the fuel load down here, there is just hundreds of thousands of acres that could still burn. the dc-10 is one of the biggest assets the crews have on the ground. it can drop 12,000 gallons of fire retardant. you can see how hot the fire is burning. behind all of the smoke and ash in the air you can see there are hot spots. there are flames towering hundreds of feet into the air. the blaze here is still very active, still burning very quickly. of course, very, very dangerous. fire managers are looking forward to a cooling trend in

the forecast at the end of the week that would bring some much needed relief. go to business where a potential strike by syria took a toll. the dow is down 170 points. the s&p is down 26 points. investors worried about a military operation. jeff cut more is with us. are we seeing a global selloff because of this? >> absolutely, brian. they're taking a bite out of the bulge of the market. we've seen a sell theoff in equities but you've seen people moving to the sidelines in cash and also buying some fixed income safe haven trades. the treasury has benefitted from people just trying to get away from what they perceive as a risky investment because we don't quite know where this syria story is going. obviously the pundant suggesting we will get some military action at some point. taking you away from the market and some of those declines that we've seen, interesting story

for groupon here. this is another dotcom, a bricks and mortar type story. they're buying up physical warehouses. they want to start stocking a limited range of goods to take on the kind of costcos of the world, that's the model. amazon like. they'll start selling goods from those warehouses. they want to put the goods in the warehouses. an interesting diversion from how the coupon business started. >> pretty limited. a.m. amazon is huge though. we've talked about blackberry's struggles. what's the latest they're trying to do to get things going? >> yeah, well, the stock is down 19% year to date. maybe blackberry are getting the message and it's all about bbm. it's going to be spun off. it's strange, you know, the new handsets don't seem to have

moved the needle on this business. they are looking at other ways of realizing value. perhaps spinning out bbm will do that. there are business analysts say a way also of positioning the company may be through a sale or splitup of further divisions. that vital speculation. bbm does look like it's going to get hived off, brian. >> jeff cutmore live for us in london with cnbc. we gauge everything in life how close we come to the "jetsons." nissan said it will have a self-driving car. good fodder for twitter. what other every day activity would you want fully automated. please use #waytooadvanced. still ahead, the fourth place mets make a trade. this is classic, but they did it in a way that, well, only the mets could do it. we'll explain.

>> a new unofficial trailer for the movie superman. that story and a check on weather when we come right back. they moved today, 200,000 strong, down a broad avenue in washington d.c. in what is easily the most massive demonstration in the capitol or in the nation. [ kitt ] you know what's impressive?

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the house caught fire and we were out on the streets. [ whispering ] shhh. it's only a dream. and we have home insurance. but if we made a claim, our rate would go up... [ whispering ] shhh. you did it right. you have allstate claim rate guard so your rates won't go up just because of a claim. [ whispering ] are we still in a dream? no, you're in an allstate commercial. so get allstate home insurance with claim rate guard... [ whispering ] goodnight. there are so many people in our bedroom. [ dennis ] talk to an allstate agent... [ doorbell rings ] ...and let the good life in. time for sports. a little bit of baseball. yankees, blue jays. robinson canoe. 90-mile-per-hour fastball off his left hand in the first inning. he leaves the game. the mri came back negative. he's okay. listed day to day. an amazing player. alfonso soriano, a pair of home

rungs, that shot to left. the yankees win it 7-1. shane victorino, what a night. pair of homers. drove in a career high 7 rbis just eclipsing mike barnacle's performance in a softball game. victorino goes three for three and you went what? >> i went three for four with two rbis. the only difference is victorino is faster than i am. >> can't make it down to first. >> keep on going with your sports. >> all right. check this out, the angels taking the field. pitcher c.j. wilson. he just face planted. he was okay, by the way. the angels beat the rays, 6-5. that's funny. the mets, this is great, outfielder marlin byrd.

the mets get infielder. it was supposed to be byrd free t-shirt. he would no longer be on the team. you can't script this stuff. by the way, they beat the 0s, 5-6. >> the jets siem graham harrell. he was released. now he's expected to report to the team today. that means mark sanchez, geno smith, greg mcilroy, already on the roster. rex ryan says he may not name a starter until opening day. i don't think he wants to name any of those guys. u.s. open, first major upset. 296th ranked victor yo duval stuns 11th seeded samantha stosur. love to see that kind of stuff. the u.s. open is a great time of year here in new york, dylan. hopefully the weather will

cooperate. >> it should. today maybe a couple of showers later on this afternoon, but it actually looks okay in the northeast. the show is on across parts of the midwest. it's getting better. instead of the upper 90s, we're in the lower 90s. 80 degrees in chicago. we have heat advisories and warnings posted again across especially southern minnesota where it will feel like it's up around 100 degrees especially this afternoon where you factor in the humidity. it will be in the mid 90s. most of the midwest will see the heat all the way until sunday. that's when we are going to see some improvements. we are keeping an eye on rain. it does look like for all the activities in washington, d.c., it looks like after 3:00, 4:00 we could see scattered showers and storms. in 1963, brian, it was so hot that they had all of these heat emergencies and first responders were out to deal with some of the heat that was going on. >> i think obama is supposed to

speak before the rain comes in. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," it's been 50 years since the march on washington and martin luther's i have a dream speech. reverend al sharpton will be on set to talk about the progress we've made and the problems that remain. when we come back here, we will huddle around the cooler. pictures of putin are ripped from the gallery. louis has it next. i love it! how much do you love it? animation is hot...and i think it makes geico's 20 million drivers message very compelling, very compelling. this is some really strong stuff! so you turned me into a cartoon...lovely.

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at the top of the show we talked about the hacking of "the new york times" website leaving readers unable to access the site for several hours. if you want to sound smart today, tell your friends the times has an average circulation of 1.8 million placing second behind "the wall street journal." that includes both digital and wall street journal readers. let's go over to louis and get the real news. the cooler. good morning, bud. >> good morning, brian. just when you thought the obvious for the dictionary had reached its peak, they're

include twerk. its definition, a verb, means to dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low squatting stance. that's putting it mildly. miley cyrus didn't invent the dance, she brought it to the front screen. it was just enough to put it over the top. moving to vladimir putin now, a leader with a key sense of humor. he found some paintings that were on display. one shows putin's prime minister while wearing women's lingerie. police confiscated the painting. another shows the president most comfortable under a halo. since the others were less controversial, they were not confiscat confiscated. russia has a law against insulting authorities. paintings, george w. bush

has been the subject of paintings. he's taken to actually doing the painting. the latest release from w's gallery comes to us via the hacker that comes from guccifer. first work. two dogs on the grassy knoll. his art teacher has reportedly said that president bush painted more than 50 dogs. as for the second portrait, this may be the beginning of a feline period. will cats be a new fascination for bush? probably we'll keep on john meachem's job to stay up on these things. we'll check back with him on that. now to the new batman/superman movie isn't due out until the summer of 2015. it isn't stopping the buzz. brian cranston and ben affleck will be in the move. they used 20 sources to create a mock trailer. take a look.

>> look at you. what have you got in your lifetime? nothing. nobody. oh, wait, yes. >> as much as i want to focus on cleaning up the attack, the protection of our citizens will always come first. >> i do things other people can't. >> that doesn't mean i'm your enemy. >> death doesn't discriminate. it comes as a cold embrace. >> maybe he flew too close to the sun. >> mika, twerking, presidential painting and batman. i doubt that "morning joe" has anything better than this. >> and mediev. >> thanks, louis. coming up on "morning joe," a

strike on syria may be imminent as the obama administration tries to find allies in the region. we'll get the latest on the ground from there straight ahead. also, senator john mccain will be joining us to comment on this later in the show. in politics, a strange turn in the senate race in new jersey. a weird conversation. cory booker's rival makes comments about the newark mayor's personal life that's raising some eyebrows. later, new york city police commissioner ray kelly will be on the set to discuss the latest on the major legal battle in new york city. the rev randall sharpton is here. john meachem, david axlerod, chuck bernstein all here on "morning joe." >> thank you, mika. way too early and "morning joe," both live from the factory floor of the ford auto show in detroit all morning taking a hard look at the financial crisis gripping that city and the innovators who are working to fix it. still ahead here, aside from

driving, what everyday activity would you want fully automated. your best and most creative tweets coming up on "morning joe" just moments away. it's a reality check. i had my reality check when i'd be sitting there with my friends who had their verizon phones and i'd be sitting there like "mine's still loading!" i couldn't get email. i couldn't stream movies. i couldn't upload any of our music. that's when i decided to switch. now that i'm on verizon, everything moves fast. with verizon, i have that reliability. i'm completely happy with verizon. verizon's 4g lte is the most reliable and in more places than any other 4g network. period. that's powerful. verizon. get the nokia lumia 928 for free.

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nissan says they'll says tha fully automated car by 2014. we wanted to know what you want in your car. mary jo says the vacuum cleaner. "morning joe" starts right now. i have a dream. my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content