question, it is, but if these attitudes stay, it really is going to change things. thank you all. that was fantastic. happy friday. the one and only rachel maddow. >> have a great weekend. one of the best things about fridays, if you work in the news business, one of the best things about working on fridays is the proud tradition of the friday news dump. the saturday newspapers are the least read of the week because programs tip over into weekend programming schedules after friday night. has always been a great time to hide news that you technically have to put out, but you don't want it to get a lot of attention, so during the 2012 campaign, mitt romney finally releases a single year of his tax returns, but he does it late on a friday afternoon, hoping

the smallest possible number of people will be looking. this year, when the white house had to release a report about that keystone pipeline project so hated by progressives around the country, white house turned that vaguely report loose because they had to, but late on a friday afternoon. last month when chris christie got ready to veto a ban on .50 caliber weapons, a ban he had suggest suggested in the first place, when he changed his mind and decided he should overrule the legislature to ensure that new jersey residents could keep stockpiling weapons that shoot bullets the size of carrots, he dumped that news into the abyss on a friday night. it's a little weird, but if you were in the news business, you kind of look forward to come tog work on a friday because you never know what's going to get dumped. principle does not only apply on

fridays. when the basic idea is that when you're trying to slip something in -- news events. that it will probably crowd your story right out of most people. so, for example, a formal address to the nation on the white house, going into another war in the middle east, you can be sure that's going to be a biggest news story, maybe even the only news story in the country for that whole news cycle, therefore, the night of that speech would make for an excellent time for you to announce say that you have been questioned by federal law enforcement authorities in conjunction with a major corruption scandal in your state. seems like as good a time to mention it as any.

the biggest political race in the governor's race in virginia. ken cuccinelli sat down for a local news interview on tuesday night before president obama's speech to admit he had been -- into the bob mcdonnell corruption scandal. ken cuccinelli said he was questioned in that scandal months and months ago, but is just admitting it now. he also announced in the same interview he is paying back the 1800 in gifts he and his family received from the same generous business man whose gifts are at the center of the mcdonald case. the federal and state investigation is going to try to determine took the governor to help one virginia company had anything at all to -- gave mcdonald and his family a check

for $10,000, then $20,000. then $50,000. and an engraved rolex watch and another $10,000 for another daughter's wedding and then a trip last labor day weekend and the trip for the governor and first lady that same weekend to a fancy hotel and $7,000 worth of golf and golf gear for the governor and his sons and some staffers and a $15,000 shopping trip in new york city for the first lady -- and a very nice designer dress. actually, i don't know if the dress was nice. i'm just guessing. we know about all of these gifts from the virginia business man to the virginia governor and his family. because of tireless reporting, mostly by "the washington post" and it is thank to that reporting we learned just the other day that the same generous

business man who gave the governor and his family all that stuff, that same business man also bought the virginia first lady a second $15,000 shopping trip to new york city, which she apparently did not use. maybe no more room in the closet. but the timing on attorney general ken cuccinelli coming clean this week on his gifts from the same guy, the timing on this is a little weird. it has been two months since the governor finally apologized for his role in this scandal and paid back some of the loot he took, but ken cuccinelli, he also took a bunch of loot from that same guy which he says he is only paying back now. two months after bob mcdonald did. ken cuccinelli took rides in a private jet and a vacation for himself and his family at a lake side villa and a big catered thanksgiving dinner. he also took thousands of dollars worth of the tobacco

related somebody. also held $10,000 worth of stock in the company. he later went back and amended those forms saying he had just forgotten about the stock. he also did not initially disclose all the thousands of dollars of gifts from the company. he waited until gifts from the company blew up as a huge scandal and only then did he come forward sand and say, yes, too, had thousands of dollars worth of gift frs the same guy. but bob mcdonnell at least has paid them back now. he says it's everything. he paid some stuff back and apologized. that was two months ago, and ken cuccinelli did not. ken cuccinelli for the past couple of months, has refused to pay anything back. the democrats in virginia put up this billboard on interstate 95 in virginia saying ken, pay back the gifts with a handy picture of the turkey in case he forgot

what they were. still, he resisted. he said those gifts were like a bell that you cannot unring. he even had taken gifts from this guy while his own attorney general's office was fighting that guy's company on a large state tax dispute, but before this week, he was unembarrassed by that. not planning on giving anything back. now, he has, with no explanation other than he wants to wipe the slate clean and it is understandable that he wants to wipe the slate clean. it is probably going to take more than this weird tuesday night news dump to do it though. the election in virginia's only eight weeks away now. absentee voting starts. and if the idea is to put the mcdonnell gift scandal we hind him, that is not going to work because next week is when they are supposed to go back again to meet with federal prosecutors again to plead their case again about why the governor shouldn't be criminally indicted for

corruption. that's next week pross say they want to talk to them again. so this story is staying in the headlines regardless of ken cuccinelli's strategically timed efforts to distance himself from it. the head to head match-up between mr. cuccinelli and his opponent in the race is looking worse and worse for ken cuccinelli with each new poll. the political report has now moved this race from a toss up to leans democratic. the latest poll in the races from purple strategies, they have ken cuccinelli losing by five points. but look at this. this is really interesting. this is one of the biggest gender gaps i have ever seen in a governor's race. there's a five point split between ken cuccinelli and terry mcauliffe, but look at the split with women. cuccinelli is losing virginia women by 18 points. and if that gender gap persists, it does not matter what else happens in the campaign. that is fatal for the cuccinelli campaign and the democrats and progressives know it and they

are doing everything they can to press that advantage. they started with the issue of the violence against women act, which cuccinelli would not sign on for as attorney general. >> when congress failed to renew the violence against women act, attorney generals from 47 states spoke out to protect women, but cuccinelli refused. the times wrote virginians should remember -- ken cuccinelli. he's focused on his own agenda. not us. >> so, ken cuccinelli losing women by 18 points in virginia. democrats and progressives have also gone after him for making it harder to get divorced in virginia. >> if cuccinelli had it his way, a mom trying to get out of a bad marriage over her husband's objections, could only get divorced if she could prove adultery or physical abuse or

her spouse abandoned her or was sentenced to jail. >> making it harder to get divorced. they've also gone after cuccinelli for trying to make it harder in virginia to get an abortion or birth control. >> ken wants to cut access to planned parenthood's preventive health services. he thinks your boss should be able to decide whether you have access to affordable birth control and ken wants to outlaw safe and legal borabortion -- >> on the issue of your boss getting to decide whether you get access to birth control through your health insurance, democrats have also pressed him about him sponsoring a bill that likely would have outlawed most popular forms of contraception. now, he's trying to deny he took that stance. it's designed to outlaw abortion. and of course, this all dove

tails with his history as a hard lined antiabortion activist and his role in the draconian crackdown on abortion rights that's happened in virginia under ken cuccinelli and bob mcdonnell. it was cuccinelli who led the fight this virginia to ram through these new changes in regulations. he threatened members of the sate health board if they tried to let more clinics remain open, but the rules he wanted went into effect this year. they are already shutting down abortion clinics across virginia, including the businessest clinic in the state. here in the final stretch of the campaign with terry mcauliffe leading among women by 18 points, this is becoming an issue on the campaign trial. yesterday at a campaign event, told supporters that he would take action if elected governor to reverse those regulatory changes, to try to keep the clinics open. the whole reason we found out

about those remarks yesterday is that activists in virginia starting pushing on this issue. this is their campaign tracker's cell phone video. they're trying to make a campaign out of this. antiabortion activists from virginia are calling to cuccinelli from the right saying hey, ken, come back to us. start running your campaign based on the fact that you have shut down the abortion clinics. start bragging about that, ken cuccinelli. that's how you'll win. ken cuccinelli is going to lose the governor's race is things keep going as they are and he keeps doing what he's doing. is the hard right in virginia, the antiabortion hard right in that state, are they correct that returning to his roots as a hard lined antiabortion crusader might help him turn this race around? both sides seem convinced they've got a winning issue. joining us now is karen finney, host of disrupt with karen finney.

also the former communications director at the dnc and aren't you still on the board of --. >> i am. >> bob mcdonnell and ken cuccinelli come from the hard edge. they've seen this huge role. >> vaginal ultrasounds. >> and he has the kuch. that actually has nothing to do with that, but you've got to say it. how is the governor's race affected by those rights? >> remember that in 2012, one of the things we saw was that in battleground states for women voters, access to abortion care was a higher intensive issue than the economy. in virginia, both in 2012 and in the last governor's race, women were more of the electorate. if terry can get those women voters out, the kuch is probably

going to be packing his bags. this is the other thing and we saw and talked about this last year. republicans completely underestimated the intensity with which women are so offended. not just by the policies. if you're going say to me you don't trust me to make a decision about what medicine i can take, it's got to go to my employer, why should i think you trust me to run a company or a country? they really fundamentally don't understand how invasive and connected to just basic human rights this feels like for women and women have stayed very active in paying attention to these issues. >> that is sort of a best case scenarnarcenario from the democ side. you call him terry because you know him. do you think he as candidate and that democrats in general get how to run on that issue? you're not running.

you can articulate it. you're an activist on these issues, but do democratic candidates get it? the reason this made public attention right now is the right sent their tracker and caught him safe. they're not publicizing it from the democratic side. >> which is probably a mistake, but what i'm say uming they're doing, just going to give them the benefit of the doubt here because there's all these fancy tools you can use now. the 18% that terry, the gap that terry has, i think that's grown over the last few weeks, so clearly, they must be doing something right. it seems to me that as long as they keep pushing cuccinelli to have the talk about these issues, which he's been trying not to talk, as you pointed out, he's been trying no not talk about. what are you talking about, vaginal ultrasound? so, for terry, they have got to very, very carefully make sure they are targeting those women voters, activating them and getting them out to the polls. in a nonpresidential election year, you tend to have lower turnout, so he's depending on high turnout of women voters.

>> we're in the last eight weeks. what's going to be fascinating, i think you're right, but you can see now the republican side panicking. cuccinelli upended his campaign staff this week. he's done this hail mary, i'm sorry for t gifts and you can see the hard right where ken cuccinelli comes from, pressuring him to start campaigning as an antiabortion crusader and go back to his base. >> i would like to see democrats also take a harder line on what's happening in these crisis pregnancy centers where you're saying it's legal to lie to women. they could be doing a lot more to message on that because that's when you get more kim gaznell cases. when women don't have good choices, don't have access to good health care, they are prey to those kinds of people. that's the kind of thing that terry could be talking about. >> karen finney and the host of disrupt, karen, thank you for being here. so, this week, american

conservatives have decided that they have a new man crush and we have scored some shirtless pictures of him. i know you would not expect that from me in particular, but we've got it. that story's coming up. but first. one more thing about virginia politics and friday night news dumps. we just got word, thanks to a late friday night press announcement, that the spokesman who bob mcdonnell has hired to handle his corruption scandal is leaving. this just broke late tonight that the scandal handling pro who's an old republican hand who worked for newt gingrich and dan quyale, that guy hads left tonight. "the washington post" reporting that he says his departure does not mean anything one way or the other about whether bob mcdonnell of virginia is about to be indicted. ask if his leaving meant an zimt is not expected, he said it means what it says. see, this is why it always pays

to work friday nights in the news business. never know who's going to quit or confess or whatever else they don't want you to notice. [scream] ♪ don't tell mom. don't tell mom. don't tell mom! don't tell mom. okay. don't tell mom. don't tell mom. don't tell mom? yeah. the best stories you'll ever tell start with, don't tell." don't tell dad. start yours in the new santa fe. from hyundai. ♪ [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all... into the future.

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does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? don't wait to ask your doctor about spiriva. in northern illinois there's a lovely medium sized city called rockford. biggest in illinois outside chicagoland and even with that distinction, it's not that big,

but it is home to something called the world congress. the world congress of families. if you are unfamiliar with it, the world congress of families calls it an international network of profamily organizations that seek to restore the natural family as the social unit in the seed bed of civil society and when they say natural, what they mean is no homo. now, because they fancy themselves a world congress, this group in rockford, illinois, hosts international meetings every few years to do what they do. to promote natural families that definitely are not gay. they met in 1999 in geneva. in 2004 in mexico city. 2009, it was amsterdam, that must have been hilarious. last year, it was madrid. but next year for the big world congress of families 2014, they have gone out of their way to

schedule their next world congress of natural families in russia. and not just in russia, but specifically at the kremlin in moscow. you might have seen the reuters reporting this week that some far right groups in italy, the national front, the ultranationalist party in italy, they've put up posters around rome praising vladimir putin, saying we stand with putin. and then you go to the website associated with the poster and they claim they stand with putin because of his courageous positions against the gay lobby, so as he's becoming a hero to literally fascist groups, russia under putin are also becoming kind of a north star for antigay forces here at home in the united states. since he signed a series of laws that essentially criminalize the gays in russia, rockford's own -- declared it was kremlin

bound. another group declared they admire putin's stance against gay people. the quack group that claims to be able to cure people of being gray, americans for truth about homosexuality, they publicly applauded the decision to sign saying he was rejected quote, the negative lesson of american homosexual decadence. remember scott lively? the american guy who pushed in uganda for the kill to gays bill? he is now suggesting american conservatives should move to russia, specifically because of russia's awesome new antigay laws. ahead of the russian vote on the antigay law that putin eventually signed, he published an open letter to the russian people -- he said if they pass those antigay laws they were

considering, quote, i believe people from the west would begin to immigrate to russia the same way russians used to immigrate to the united states and europe. american conservatives should move to russia. antigay activists in this country embracing russia and the kgb's on vladimir putin. this has been one of the weirder and more unexpected turns in our own domestic politics this year, but it turns out that the antigay part of the american right, those folks were just ahead of their time because now, a big chunk of the rest of the right in this country have chosen themselves a new hero. it is not just the far, far, far right antigay right anymore. it is the right in general. both in congress and in the conservative media pe peanut gallery who have decided real americans should show how much

they love our country by maybe moving to russia. because putin is the kind of strong and decisive leader that we want and we love. we love here in a totally different country. the role that putin has taken in the diplomatic negotiation in syria, the big op-ed he wrote "the new york times" this week, the way he has tried to throw his weight around, it has made the american political right suddenly get very hot to trotski about him. >> vladimir putin is coming to the diplomatic rescue here. >> putin is riding to president obama's rescue. >> russia is the player here. it is the big player, not the united states. i think frankly in the last week, vladimir putin has looked like a statesman. >> he's a statesman, a partner in peace. he can lecture the united states of america. >> if this were a tennis match,

the umpire would be shouting, advantage, putin. >> he has filled the leadership gap because obama and kerry can't make up their mind. >> i don't like putin. but i respect that guy. he is tough. he delivers what he says he'll deliver. he presents himself as a real he man, but he lives up to it. our president talks tough, but in a clinch, he's gutless. >> you know, there was a moment in the '08 presidential campaign when the american right got so hot for sarah palin that it actually became a little nc-17. remember, there was this writer who said that when he saw sarah palin she sent star bursts straight through the tv screen. it sent little star bursts through the screen. it's either something you have or you don't and man, she's got

it. he said, i'm sure i'm not the only male in america who wen palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, hey, i think she just winked at me. no, conservative magazine guy, she was not winging at you and neither is vladimir putin taking his shirt off just for you guys at fox. it's one thing for the right to fall in love with its own politicians, to make reagan a saint, sarah palin their own collective girlfriend, but the president of russia, he is not that into you. seriously, i know you guys hate president obama, so it feels good to have a man crush on somebody else, but this guy is a president of russia. zip it up, you guys, seriously. have some respect. [ female announcer ] we lowered her fever.

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famous collins street bakery. if you want to send me a texas fruitcake for christmas, that's where you'd send it from. the fruitcake is famous for a reason, but the bakery has been in the news this week unrelated to its gorgeous pecans. the guy in charge of the money at the bakery was indicted yesterday for allegedly embezzling almost $17 million. who knew it was possible to embezzle $17 million from a bakery? according to the complaint, he allegedly spent those millions on 43 luxury cars, bought a luxury home, 60 watches and bottles of wine. when managers of the bakery found out, they fired him and called the police, but the police turneded around and called the fbi. the fbi was tasked with nabbing the alleged fruitcake embezzler because this kind of crime falls

under the per view of the fbi. the fbi led that investigation as part of their white collar crime division. we think of the fbi has going after terrorism suspects or kidnapping suspect, but the fbi has a pretty braud mandate from international terrorism to art theft to all kinds of white collar crime. the fbi is busy, but because of the self-imposed never supposed to happen federal budget cuts, the fbi has decided to close. for ten days this year, all of its offices and hq in washington closed. for those ten days, quote, the bureau will only have a skeleton crew on hand, which raises questions about how effectively it can respond to crime. according to an unname d fbi official, those will probably fall on fridays or mondays. fruitcake embezzlers, take note. this is on top of a hiring

freeze the fbi has had to put in place. oh, and also, no more cars for the fbi because why would they need cars? they can get a bus pass. back in july, there was news of a bluegrass army depot in richmond, kentucky, that name might ring a bell give in week's events. >> welcome to the beautiful rolling hills of kentucky. home of the bluegrass army depot. located on 250 acres, the chemical activity safely stores a stockpile of nerve agents. >> a blister agent. because of the highly sensitive nature of the more than 500 tons of chemical weapons that are stored at the bluegrass army depot in kentucky, that site has their own specialist firefighters, which seems like a good idea except that a few months back because of the budget cuts, they got scheduled for furloughs, sent home. don't come to work.

>> we spoke with a firefighter at the bluegrass army depot. he expressed concern for the community's safety. they regularly detonate conventional weapons and also stores weapons of mass destruction. >> ammunitions might leak. potentially, they could explode. that hasn't happened. >> security personnel received an exception from the furlough. firefighters appealed for one. >> firefighters protecting our nation's chemical weapons arsenal having to bell to do their jobs. thanks, congress. at the last minute, the week before the furloughs were supposed to begin, those firefighters did get a last minute exception. we came within a week of canceling our firefighters abilities at the place we store our chemical weapons.

genius. do not have to look far to see examples of the dumbness of the sequester. there are 41 countries, you think there's a reason to investigate theft, 41 countries, because of the sequester, we're only following up on one. the other 40 ripping us off, we're just letting them slide. and this is not even to mention the 50,000 american children who have been forced out of preschool because of cuts to federally supported programs, leaving those kids to have to try to raise money for preschool by decorating tiny little toddler sized chairs to pay for their preschool tuition. trying to see this as an opportunity, otherwise, i would have to sit in the corner and cry. the situation here with these dumb threats and threat of cuts, this is what we ended up with because of the last round of budget negotiations that happened in washington. we ended up with the dumb

sequester thing in part because republicans said they were so worried about the deficit. we had to take this drastic action even if it was going to be in nonsensical ways that were going to hurt the country and the economy. we had to do something as drastic as furloughing the firefighters who protect our chemical weapons arsenals. turns out actually the deficit is on track to be the smallest it's been in five years, but that apparently does not matter. and now, it is that time again. congress is due to pass spending bills to keep the government running. by mid october, congress has to vote to raise the debt ceiling so we don't default on our debts with all the economic disaster that implies. democrats are saying they not only want to move forward with not defaulting on our debt, they say they would like to undo the sequester in making children auction off the art on their chairs so they can go to

preschool. republicans held their 41st vote to defund obama care. their speaker has gone to the white house now asking for the democratic party's help and the democratic president's help to please help him somehow sort out the problems he is having on these budget negotiations. he's going to the democrats for help. yes, this feels like ground hog day, but this is all upon us all over again. as we go through this again right now, is in any chance that any of this stuff is going to get better and get resolved? or are we at risk of things getting even worse than they already are? joining us now is jonathan capehart, thank you very much for being here on a friday night. so, the threat of the sequester was not enough to bring congress around to any sort of long-term budget agreement last time we were in thissi inposition.

will the reality of how dumb it is do the trick this time? >> i don't think so. matt bennett at third way when the sequester was put in, called it sort of a slow roll disaster and as you showed in your intro, lots of communities around the country had been hit by elements of the sequester until enough members of congress hear from enough people in their districts about the real world impagts of sequester, nothing's going to happen with it. the other thing we have to keep in mind is that when we were facing sequester before it went into place, there were people in the building behind me who were saying out loud in public, maybe sequester wouldn't be a bad thing. after all, we need to cut spending. we do need to get our financial house in order. we have to get the deficits under control, so the idea that you're going to get the republican controlled house in

any way to do anything substantive on sequester is really wishful thinking. >> so, the republicans are threatening to shut down the government again, threatening to bump up against the debt ceiling, which is scary in the long-term because of how expensive it is for us to borrow. the democrats have tried to open up the menu of options to include ficking the sequester. this needs to be decided in very short order. seems like democrats getting what they want is unlikely. republicans getting what they want is unlikely. what's the default position if things go the way they are? if nobody scores a hail mary, what do we end up with? >> in the short-term is a government shutdown. as you said earlier, october 1st is that day. right now, if memory serves, there are only nine working days that congress will be in

session. now, they could come back into session i believe september 19th or september 26th so that later this month when they're supposed to be off, there have been noises made about having congress come in and try to get some of this done, house majority leader eric cantor to show some real leadership because if they think they're going to strike some kind of deal to keep the government open and running by handing the president a bill that says he will delay the implementation to have affordable care act or defund it, they're crazy. >> and that's actually the right way to end that. because i feel like that's where we're at. jonathan capehart, thank you very much. appreciate your time. >> thanks. >> i know it feels like ground

hog day when ever we talk about this government shutdown. the sequester, we're going to have a debt ceiling. it's just because we never fixed this problem and we have to go back and try to fix it again now. i don't know when this starts getting better. just feels like it's getting worse. a much needed best new thing in the world is coming up. stay with us. thanks to her double miles from the capital one venture card. now what was mrs. davis teaching? spelling. that's not a subject, right? i mean, spell check. that's a program. algebra. okay. persons a and b are flying to the bahamas. how fast will they get there? don't you need distance, rate and... no, all it takes is double miles. [ all ] whoa. yeah. [ male announcer ] get away fast with unlimited double miles from the capital one venture card. you're the world's best teacher. this is so unexpected. what's in your wallet?

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ugh

. when dictators commit atrocities, they depend upon the world to look the other until the horrifying pictures fade from memory. but these things happened. the facts cannot be denied. the question now is, what the united states of america and the international community is prepared to do about it. to my friend on the right, i ask you to reconcile your commitment to america's military might with a failure to act when a cause is so plainly just. to my friend on the left -- i ask you to reconcile your belief in freedom and dignity for all people with images of children writhing in pain and growing still on a cold hospital floor. for sometimes resolutions and statements of condemnation are simply not enough. >> president obama making the case this week in his address

from the east room of the white house. that what happens in syria matters. and that our country ought to not just care about what happens in syria but we ought to act. because he made the case that we can act in ways that are not to till, that can make a difference there. this is interesting. before the speech and after the speech book ended polling done by cnn, the president's speech shifted americans' views to be favorable of american involvement in sear yeah. it wasn't a huge shift. it was a shift among people who watched the speech. the polling broadly shows americans do not want our military involved over there at all. the fight in washington and the fight at the u.n. now is about the maybe of international military intervention. or international diplomatic intervention to at least seize and secure all of syria's chemical weapons. not all of the action that might make a difference in syria has to happen through governments and militaries. to the extent that president

obama's attention and all debate and news coverage this week about what syria is going through, to the extent that is motivating regular american citizens who want to help, want to help the people there in some way. there are nonpolitical ways to help. individual people, us random civilians of course cannot negotiate with the russians or with the assad regime. but there is stuff that we can do. the u.n. refugee agency has made an urgent appeal for donations even just from individuals to help the more than 2 million syrians who have fled their country because of the violence there. the world food program also from the u.n. they're seeking donations to help feeding families who are still in syria. people can also donate to the syrian crisis fund at save the children, which is, setting up temporary schools in refugee camps. the international rescue community, international rescue committee is doing work helping displaced people inside syria and in the cross border refugee camps they have fled to. a british charity, hand in hand for syria that has also been

helping at three field hospitals inside of syria. the inspiring and intrepid group, doctors without borders, won the nobel peace prize they need help. if you so choose. if you are so moved by what you are hearing out of syria and you want to help there spa sieve li -- there specifically, you can designate that their work goes toward syria. a big overwhelming story about a big overwhelming crisis. beyond the politics of it. beyond the international wrangling between countries of it. if you personally are moved to help in a small way there are ways you can do that. we will put links to all the places and a few more, tonight at maddowblog.com. check it out. we'll be right back. especially today, as people are looking for more low, and no calorie options. that's why on vending machines,

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the motor city great city of detroit produced lots of great cars, art, music over the years. and now the great city of detroit frohas produced this. behold the light dragon. this is the brain child of two artists, detroit based artist royian doyle and hong kong born artist, teddy lo, the light dragon made of salvaged metal and rubber and lights. apparently 60 feet long. it weighs 17,000 pounds. it sits on top of a stripped down 1963 dodge dumptruck. 2,500 feet of color changing l.e.d. lights. because it is a dragon, naturally it can breathe fire. no, really it can shoot a 20-foot burst of flame through its dragon nostrils. that part is going to be really important later in the story. put a pin in that for a second. the city of detroit as you may be aware is going through a

rough stretch. city filed for bankruptcy in july. under the control of an emergency manager who makes all the decisions regarding the city's finances. that has rendered local democracy essentially dead in democracy. one of the things that emergency manager did in city recently he hired christie's action house to appraise the art that is house the inside the amazing, iconic, detroit institute of arts. one of the greatest art museums. a world famous collection of rembran rembrandts, and rivero. it is owned by the people of detroit, municipal owned, the city owns the collection and belongs to the people. when the emergency manager was having the entire place appraised to find out its cash value in case he was going to sell it off, detroit started fighting back. part of the way they have been fighting back is with art. and that is where the fire

broeting dragbroet ibroet -- breathing drag gun comes in. last night, the l.e.d. dragon equipped with its own d.j. booth on the back, rolled through city of the detroit, pulled up to the detroit institutes of art and only as a fire breathing dragon can do it left the message for the city manager about how the city feels about its art museum. watch this. save the art. if you are going to try to send a message to the powers that be in your city. that is the way to it, send your fabric wrapped metal flame on fire, and with flame out of dragon nostrils. the artists made their escape shortly after setting the protest sign alight. the sign was extinguished by drag gun artist supporters and

also by the fire department. however, you have been making your political case, however you have been trying to convey your political feelings. you need to know that out there somewhere there are dudes in detroit who are getting their political point across with fire breathing l.e.d. 60 foot dragon that breathe fire and have a d.j. booth on the back. the bar has officially been raised, america, step it up. that does the for us tonight. see you again monday. now you must go to prison. >> been down for shooting my mom. >> an inmate with a hau