and you're okay. pink floyd said it best. unfortunately the only good job these days is on wall street. stocks have slid below record highs. make no mistake about it, the money party rages on pt fed is keeping the cash coming but congress threatens to be the party crashers. a government shutdown looms with just a handful of working days left and once again we're dancing on the debt ceiling. america's credit card maxed out in a matter of weeks and plernty of swipes in washington, none in1r0678ing an amex. >> let me be very clear. republicans have no interest in defaulting on our debt. none. we just want to find a way to may it off. >> legislative arsonists are at work when they start using the debt limit for their own agenda. no lifting the debt limit is something we, is torrent, a river of no return. it is beyondcataclysmic.

>> move over to the senate where the it belongs. i expect my senate colleagues to be up for the battle. >> ready for battle, from "business insider." seizing support from the stimulus. it reminds me of this. ♪ >> whew! ♪ >> some fun, huh, bambi? >> taking that first step as we know is never easy. eventually you have to. someone has to arrive. just not now, i guess. and, you know, with all the unt certainty in washington, seems that played a huge role in bernanke's decision. >> the first time ben bernanke's ever been compared to bambi.

>> and people at the fed know they have to ease off the program, $85 billion in bonds every month. can't do it forever. problem, they're waiting for economic improvement self-sustaining to stop stimulating the economy like this. and one of the things we saw in ben bernanke's statement yesterday when the fed said, no, we'll keep doing what we're doing, he sees down side risk and fiscal policy. that means congress might go and screw everything up in the next month'sthe fed can't pull back yet, because it may be needed to clean up another mess created if we don't close the dead crebt c or have a government shutdown. >> screwing it up, 100%. when you pull out the free monies the markets react negatively. >> well, that's -- that's true. and we saw the inverse of that yesterday. the markets didn't expect that the fed was going to keep doing exactly what it's doing, and we saw this big surge in the stock market, but i think the markets were mostly pleased, because washington was for once doing

something that it was supposed to be doing. the fed talking about pulling back. the consensus of most economists they needed to wait several months before that did that pap pleasant surprise. get another surprise out of congress, we might see more economic growth. >> yeah, a good bet. look to congress for pleasant surprises. >> that's why it's a surprise. >> you said you've covered because you said surprise. >> yes. >> something in the "new york times" business column by edward edwardo porter. household median income for most people, fairly steady. not a good sign for an industrial democracy over a quarter century and contrasts that to spending on health care, skyrocketed as we know. put aside the politics and explain from an economic policy perspective what these long-term trends tell us about our market economy. >> sure. one thing is that a lot of those measures don't include the value

of health benefits. health care gets more and more expensive, spending more everybody year on health insurance, we can't afford wage increases. it's true and the reason we need to control the growth health care spending. the last few years, people are not working. not so much about slow rises in wages for people who do have jobs. the people are not back at jobs. if we had an economic policy that got employment back down, labor participation back up, you'd see an improvement in that median family income, even without dealing with the broader multidecade trends pushing up income and inequality and stagnating the middle class. >> how much has what we've all been watching approaching a possible government shutdown and if we get through that, possible default on our debt, how much are those congressional shenanigans weighing in to the fed's decision not to taper? >> the key driver of the fed's

decision. there were multiple drivers. the fed saying, we're waiting for the employment situation to improve markedly. another fullback, inflation starting to spike and seeing inflation remains low, remains below the fed's 2% target. on the unemployment side, improvement but a lot driven by the fact people are no longer looking for work. not so much creating jobs. the fed statement, they're looking at those broader measures. see it as a problem, declining, another reason to continue easing's they're all in there. the congressional action was one of the things in there. if we had a functional congress coming up with a replacement for the sequester, replacing short-term budget cuts with longer term reforms is a are the supporting, another thing. >> mortgage lending, five-year high. not what it used to be but rising up better than the last five years. housing starts are up. good signs here. right? >> yeah. i think we've seen a lot of

improvement in the housing markets. mortgage lending very big from the beginning of year, because rates were low. seen a big spike through the summer. seeing fewer refinances but haven't seen a big drop-off caused why in in financings for new purchases, a good sign. on the construction side, we actually have a long way to go. normally the u.s. builds about 1.5 million new home as year, went down to 500,000 in the recession. back up to 900,000. people wondering if the economy getting better and people are getting mortgages, why aren't people building more houses? goes back to jobs. people aren't building houses because people can't move out of their parents' houses because they don't have work. in time that will have to improve. americans have to live somewhere, it has to get back up to the pace of construction. question, waiting one year, two, three years for that to happen? because that is inevitable, that's a reezing for optimism about economic growth. >> feel free to disagree, looks likely janet yellen, the next fed chiefal toing ben bernanke.

what do we know abouter in terms of what her fed policy may look like coming in somewhere as aggressive as bernanke has been? >> the expectation, basically continue bernanke policies. she's been a key architect of the quantitative easing the fed has been doing over the last year and a major voice of the dovish policy more concerned about job creation and we see that in the market reaction when larry summers withdrew his name, a big drop in interest rates reflecting an expectation that the fed will ease longer and keep interest rates longwer longer. i think the white house will pick her. i think the president really wanted larry summers. personally enamored of larry summers. >> which is weird. that's weird. >> a lot of the people who work closely with larry summers adore him and think he's, you know, an irreplaceable economic mind. she a brilliant man, but i don't know he was the right person to lead the fed at this time.

>> i don't know that his position on deregulating derivatives market, the commodities area, repackaging. before we let you go, something more fun. >> sure. >> going to secretary of state john kerry, a new announcement. >> good. thank you. um -- as you all know, before i became secretary, i spent 28 years in the united states senate, and i witnessed some great debates, and some of the best senators there produced some of the best debates that i've seen. sometimes. and some of the senators i learned liked to debate about just about anything, as my pal john mccain was fond at saying, a fight not joined is a fight not enjoyed. but it was also in the senate where i personally heard former

ambassador to the united nations turn senator from new york, daniel patrick moynihan end more than a few debates with his own bottom line reminder. you are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts. and those words are really worth using and focusing on as we head into next week's general assembly meeting in new york with the united nations. we really don't have time today to pretend that anyone can have their own set of facts. approaching the issue of chemical weapons in syria. this fight about syria's chemical weapons is not a game. it's real. it's important. it's important to the lives of people in syria. it's important to the region. it's important to the world. that this be enforced, this a agreement we came out of geneva with, and for many weeks we

heard from russia and from others. wait for the u.n. report. those are the outside experts. that's a quote. that is the independent gold standard. that's a quote. well, despite the efforts of some to suggest otherwise, thanks to this week's long-awaited u.n. report, the facts in syria only grew clearer and the case only grew more compelling. the findings in the report was as categorical as they convincing. every single data point, the types of munitions and launchers that were used, their origins, their trajectory, their marketings, and the confirmation of sarin, every single bit of it confirms what we already knew, and what we told america and the world. it confirms what we have brought to the attention of our

congress, the american people, and the rest of the world. the u.n. report confirms unequivocally that chemical weapons including the nerve agent sarin were used in syria. and despite the regime's best efforts to shell the area and destroy the evidence, the u.n. interviewed more than 50 survivors, patients, victims, health workers, first responders. they documented munitions, and subcomponents, they assessed symptoms of survivors, analyzed hair, urine, blood samples, and they analyzed 30 soil and environment samples. what did they learn? they returned with several crucial details that confirmed that the assad regime is guilty of carrying out that attack.

even though that was not the mandate of the u.n. report. but anybody who reads the facts and puts the dots together, which is easy to do, and they made it easy to do, understands what those facts mean. we, the united states, have associated one of the munitions identified in the u.n. report. the 122 millimeter improvised rocket, with previous assad regime attacks. there's no indication, none, that the opposition is in possession or has launched a cw variant of these rockets, such as the kind that was used in the 21st of august attack. equally significant, the environmental, chemical and medical samples that the u.n. investigators collected provide clear and compelling evidence

that the surface to surface rockets used in this attack contained the nerve agent sarin. we know the assad regiegime possesses sarin and there's not a shred of evidence that the other side does. and identified at the ground photos taken at chemical weapons location areas are associated with the unique type of rocket launcher that we know the assad regime has. we have observed these exact type of rocket launchers at the assad regime facilities in damascus, and in the area around the 21st of august. so there you have it. sarin was used. sarin killed. the world can decide whether it was used by the regime, which has used chemical weapons

before. the regime which had the rockets, and the weapons, or whether the opposition secretly went unnoticed into territory they don't control, to fire rockets they don't have, containing sarin that they don't possess, to kill their own people, and that without even being noticed, they just dissembled it all, packed up and got out of the center of damascus controlled by assad. please -- this isn't complicated. when we said we know what is true, we meant it. and now before i head to new york for the u.n. general assembly, we have a definitive u.n. report strengthening the case, and solidifying our resolve. now the test comes. the security council must be prepared to act next week. it is vital to the international community to stand up and speak out in the strongest possible

terms about the importance of enforceable action to rid of world of syria's chemical weapons. so i would say to the community of nations, time is short. let's not spend time debating what we already know. instead, we have to recognize that the world is watching to see whether we can avert military action and achieve through peaceful means even more than what those military strikes promise. the complete removal of syria's chemical weapons is possible here through peaceful means, and that will be determined by the resolve of the united nations to follow through on the agreement that russia and the united states reached in geneva. an agreement that clearly said, this must be enforceable, it must be done as soon as possible, it must be real. we need everyone's help in order

to see that the security council lives up to its founding values, and passes a binding resolution that codifies the strongest possible mechanism to achieve the goal and to achieve it rapidly. we need to make the geneva agreement meaningful, and to make it meaningful in order to eliminate syria's cw program and to do it with transparency and with the accountability, the full accountability that is demanded here, it is important that we accomplish the goal in new york and accomplish it as rapidly as possible. thank you all. >> could you -- >> that was secretary of state john kerry at the state department reactioning to this week's u.n. report confirming chemical weapons in syria. let's turn now to nbc's kristen welker live at the white house. kristen, you know, this kind of came out of nowhere. still pushing, though, the need to rid syria's chemical weapons? >> reporter: right. in a couple of highlights, i

would say, abby, one you heard secretary kerry call on the u.n. security council to pass a resolution next week making the point that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not everyone is entitled to their own set of facts. that, of course, a reference to the fact that syria's president bashar al assad and russian officials continue to dispute the fact that the syrian regime was behind that chemical weapons attack on august 21st. so secretary kerry trying to get ahead of the conversation before he heads to the u.n. with strong words making the point and urging the u.n. security council to pass a resolution which would require syria to turn over its chemical weapons. so that is sort of the background to those comments. i can tell you, to give it a little bit more context, abby, just yesterday a state department official said that the first deadline which arrives this saturday, in which requires assad to turn over a full

accounting of his chemical weapons by this saturday is not a hard and fast deadline. that statement raised some eyebrows. we asked jay carney, the white house press secretary, about those comments during the press briefing which just wrapped up a short time ago, and he said, look, they want assad to adhere to that deadline, but they are going to reserve judgment for the time being, allow him to turn over the information and then they will judge it. so secretary of state kerry really trying to enforce that deadline to make sure that assad turns over his full accounting of chemical weapons and also with a strong message to the u.n. security council that is, i think, part of why we saw him come out today in what was sort of a surprise appearance by the secretary of state. back to you guys. >> kristen welker, thanks for your reporting. >> thank you. josh is here, two points. one, on the deadline, interesting. we've seen some former u.s. defense officials say it should

only take a couple of days to get a preliminary accounting on chemical weapons, and the idea that they're going to get extra lag time raises, i think, ate l of eyebrows to quote kristen there. why are we hearing so much debate and not the broader question of intervention? >> because of the russians. the russians have been taking this line that we don't really know if the syrians have chemical weapons or have been using them. in his "new york times" op-ed, vladimir putin raised the possibility it was really the syrian rebels gassing themselves and then you have the russian deputy foreign minister this week saying they think the u.n. vort biased. they don't believe its findings. if they are -- the administration is trying to put pressure on the u.n. security council, really means pressure on russia, they have to push back on the factual claim before you even get in to the bigger idea what do we do about syria having chemical weapons? they first have to win the arguments over the facts. >> do you think the reason for making this statement today is

really to show that the u.s. is not going to be sort of strung along for a long time? that these deadlines are hard and fast and they really need to meet them or else we're going to have to go to another process? >> i think that is the intent and i think that's because the fear here really is that the russian and syrian's strategy is to stall the u.s. frankly, the administration probably wanted to be stalled a little bit because they wouldn't get a syria authorization bill through congress. being stallaled by the russians may buy them time to implement their own strategy but want a signal they won't be jerked away. >>s they entire noman's land we're in, we're not operating with a defined weapons inspection regime nap is a kron forecast to iraq. some point to the that saying that makes the united states job and this administration's job so much harder, because we're not dialing up u.n. resolutions that have been passed and agreed to and leaping on weapons inspectors. they're making up the process as they go.

wherever you stand on intervention, no question that is extremely difficult that on the one hand you want significant pressure that drives you through the security council, but on the other, al tell me wh and tell me what you think, on the other hand you can't make every deadline a deal breaker and expect to get anywhere, if there's going to be real diplomacy and bargaining? >> doesn't sound like it is. doesn't sound like saturday is a hard deadline? >> broadly, points to the fact it's not clear there was anything producter we could do about the situation in syria bp the president needed a military strike and pushback came based around rejections that what's the strategy for how the air strike improves the situation on the ground? advances u.s. objectives. now a new diplomatic approach that has all these problems with, are our partners in this negotiation actually negotiating in good faith and how do you implement this program in the middle of a civil war in syria to secure fees chemical weapons even if you have the

cooperation? it's not clear this approach works but people are wedded to it, because what is the alternative? nobody has an idea that really seems like a -- >> nbc's ayman in beirut, lebanon right now, and ayman, what do you make of the latest statement from secretary of state kerry on the situation in syria? >> reporter: well, crystal, to put it in the context what has been happening here in the past day is -- really going all the -- offensive, keeping in the -- obviously -- [ inaudible ] from the u.s. -- taking the -- the fact that -- deem that used chemical weapons attack at -- august 21st. keep in mind the syrian president himself has given a variety of -- to print media, international outlets and to american outlets. he will keep, clearly -- trying to compete hearts and minds of the international community. [ inaudible ] questions raised

in the month [ inaudible ] international community to thwart a possible military threat and not boding states as -- [ inaudible ] syrian government -- help out either militarily or through the national -- [ inaudible ] ahead of -- >> i think we've lost the connection there with ayman in lebanon. thanks to ayman and thanks to josh also for helping us understand the broader context here. we'll be right back. but you had to leave right now, would you go? man: 'oh i can't go tonight' woman: 'i can't.' hero : that's what expedia asked me. host: book the flight but you have to go right now. hero: (laughs) and i just go? this is for real right? this is for real? i always said one day i'd go to china, just never thought it'd be today. anncr: we're giving away a trip every day. download the expedia app and your next trip could be on us. expedia, find yours. i'm on expert on softball.

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back to the rest of "the cycle" now. the navy yard, a gunman killed 12 people on monday. one man doesn't expect to see normalcy for a very long time. others really apprehensive about returning on this first full day back. and the post master general says the agency's cash balance

over the next month will only cover five days of its weekly expenses. they're looking at ways to reduce costs. one way, cutting saturday delivery. there are 400 million reasons to wish you can in south carolina right now. one person won last night's massive powerball jackpot. fourth largest in history. still no sign, though, of the winner. who will take home a lump sum of $238 million after taxes. >> a lot to spruce up your wardrobe. if you're not watching, fashion police coming to a department store. bloomingdale's cracking down on wardrobing, a thing. the practice of wearing an item and returning it. maybe you've done that. the company has placed very visible tags on dresses that cost more than $150, making it impossible to now wear them without letting the world know what you're up to. all right. from one crime another, yesterday, we showed you, the senator held hearings on proposals to reduce jail time in the war on drugs. the push is important.

building on attorney general eric holder's august announcement the obama administration would cut the use of mandatory minimum sentences for certain non-violent offenders. at this hour holder is expected to speak about that issue to the congressional black caucus. which for years has criticized racial disparities in sentencing. the effort is getting a boost from unlikely places, which is the subject of our newest presumed guilty report out today. >> this idea that one size fits all, this idea that federal sentences should have no discretion. our federal mandatory are heavy handed. >> not representing the gop, sign as new thinking is spreading. writing for "reason" a libertarian magazine. >> at the state level, texas, would you think being tough on crime state, we've started to see sentencing reform where there's alliance between progressives and conservatives, both agree this is a wait of money and agree it's not right.

>> reporter: and in the past year, alabama, tennessee and georgia have each reduced harsh sentencing and each are republican-run legislators. >> tim leech, yore voice on the iss issue. from the cato institute. libber taryn think tank and author of "after prohibition." and a member of the d.c. and supreme court bar. let's get right to it. what is the libertarian critique of these high jail terms in the war on drugs? >> well, one of the things that has happened is you have a lot of tea party people coming and joining forces with liberals, because the tea party people and libertarians start with a basic proposition we're in the middle of a fiscal crisis. and we have to take a cost effective approach when it comes to policies in the criminal justice system, and we spend a lot of money on prisons in this country. we spend about $80 billion a year, and what the new consensus is that we've got to make sure we're spending this money smartly, and locking up the right people, and stop spending

money locking up the wrong people. >> hmm. >> and speaking of libertarians, rand paul, a leading voice in this effort. testified in front of the senate judiciary committee yesterday. a little of what he had to say. >> the majority of illegal drug users and dealers nationwide are white. but 3/4 of the people in prison for drugs are african-american or latino. why are arrest rates so lopsided? it's frankly easier to go into the urban areas and make arrests than to go into suburban areas. arrest statistics matter when applying for federal grants. it doesn't take much imagination to understand it's easier to round up arrest and convict poor kids than it is to convict rich kids. >> tim, obviously highlighting, more of a structural issue than political fight saying it's it's a cost and justice. how important, though, is it to have a voice like rand paul leading the way in this fight? >> very important, because one

of the points rand paul made yesterday was that the federal government throws money at state law enforcement people for like drug task forces, and one of the criteria for whether or not that money is being well spent is how many arrests have they made? rand paul makes the point that law enforcement people sweep in to poor communities, arrest poor people who are not in a good position to defend themselves and we've got all of these people coming in to the criminal justice system and then hit with mandatory minimum sentencing and point that conservatives and lishitarians are beginning to make is that this doesn't deliver public safety, which conservatives put a premium on. >> right. >> just throwing money and getting people in to the system. we're not getting public safety as a result of these policies. so people are beginning to rethink it and it's not just liberals anymore. it's conservatives and tea party people. >> yeah. i think that's right. also starting to see noises from the religious right about the moral component of all of this. but i wanted to ask you about something you were writing about, tim.

ari referenced in the lead eric holder has made reforms in mandatory minimum sentencing, calling at the federal level for them to be used less. you called those reforms puny. i wanted to know what you would like to see him do? >> well, the one of the reasons i said that is because eric holder gave a speech talking about the number of people locked up in america. when you look at the way in which our system operates, our system is decentralized. he has made a change in federal law but is that going to have a dramatic impact on the number of people locked up in america? no. because most of the action is at the state and local level, by state and local law enforcement. also, eric holder put in a lot of criteria about whether people would qualify for his scaling back on mandatory minimums. we'll see how federal prosecutors interpret that criteria to see if his proposals is going to have much of an impact at all. what i would think, what's going to have greater impact is the states like washington and

colorado that are going even further than eric holder in rethinking the war on drugs. voters in those two states approved referendum last november that is going to end the war on marijuana in those states. that's going to have a dramatic impact on their state systems, and we're going to see more movement in that direction in the coming years. that's the type of thing that's going to have a dramatic impact on our system. >> tim, i absolutely agree with you on almost frg you said. i love you used referendum. doesn't get into the conversation enough. in a lot of states these convictions lead to permanent loss of voting rights and a lot of times an inability to get a meaningful work for the people convicted. michelle alexander in the new jim crow writes about the pain that this leads to. she says many ex-offenders experience an existential anks-the-associated with permanent social exclusion. shep spoke to one convicted, he feels like he broke the law,

bang, you're not part of us anymore, and part of what's happening is that attaching this sort of scarlet letter to these folks the rest of their lives, we're losing a lot in human potential in america. >> absolutely. i mean, just again going back to marijuana. we arrest about 800,000 people a year just on marijuana offenses. so this becomes a part of their permanent criminal record, even if they don't go to prison for long periods of time. that hobbles their efforts to get a job and to enter the mainstream economy. hurts their lives in many other ways. the proper reforms are not just to look at the back end of the system and help them re-enter, although that's a step in the right direction. but we have to look at the front end of the system. stop this war on marijuana. stop the war on drugs, and that will stop the hoards of people coming in to the system at the front end. that's where we need to go. >> yeah. tim, we should mention, three of the states that have actually rolled back some of this harsh sentencing, alabama, tennessee

and georgia, all republican-controlled legislatur legislatures. a lot of scrambling going on. thanks for spending some time on it today. >> thank you. coming up, you won't want to miss this. the author of "fast food nation" taken on nuclear safety. why the biggest threat isn't iranian president mouhan . >> eenie, meenie, minie, moe! th? says here that cheerios has whole grain oats that can help remove some cholesterol, and that's heart healthy. ♪ [ dad ] jan? we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all...

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>> translator: we are not going to do so for the nuclear bomb. we have time and again said that under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever. nbc's ann curry snagged the first interview granted the with a u.s. journalist. iran is not seeking a nuclear

weapon. okay. i'll believe that. iran is one. nation's, washington believes, pursuing a nuclear weapon but the u.s. still has an 7,700 are their own. the majority overseen by the air force. lieutenant general james kowalski said the greatest risk to my force is an accident, someone doing something stupid. and it's this threat of human error and accidents that investigative journalist eric schlosser explores in his new book. also the guy behind the best seller "fast food nation." from fast food to nuke, you're a pretty unique guy. you say if this book has a message to preach, it's that human beings are imperfect. and what is the concern? they'll succeed in biddingi ibu

warhead or might accidentally explode in the process? >> if you believe the iran president's statement, i have some florida real estate that i'd like to sell you. there's no question that they're pursuing a nuclear weapon and's no question that we really don't want the world to have iran with nuclear weapons. as few a countries as possible should have nuclear weapons. the book i've written is a way to remind neem these weapons are still out there. we invented this technology and probably build better and safer nuclear weapons than anyone else, but we've had so many problem and near misses with our own weapons, the notion of iran having a nuclear weapon is terrifying. and right now india, pakistan, if you look how these countries manage their own industrial operations, these are complex and we don't want nuclear

weapons spread throughout the world. >> anybody can make a mistake on any continent. tell us about the worst human accident involving nuke colocle weapons in american history? >> the central narrative of my book, it so happens by some strange convince den today is the 33rd anniversary of the explosion of one of the biggest missiles that we ever built with one of the most powerful warheads we ever built, and in the book i do a minute-by-minute account of the unfolding of this accident that could have destroyed the state of arkansas and put lethal radioactivity throughout the eastern seaboard of the united states, and it all began when a workman was doing a typical routine maintenance procedure, and dropped a tool, and the tool fell down the silo. bounced. hit the missile, pierced the skin of the missile and created a fuel leak and no one had ever

had to deal with that sort of problem before, and in the book i go through again and again instances of very simple mistakes by very well-intended people, that lead to potential catastrophe, and if we've had these problems with our arsenal, then other countries, as i said earlier, that are less technologically proficient, are bound to have major, major accidents. >> yeah nap that is pretty terrifying. lighten it up. playing something from "the turtle." >> the nuclear warhead found intact about 200 feet from the missile itself and there was no radiation leak. but for ten mimes around the silo, about 1,400 people were evacuated and some are still not permitted to return to their homes. >> actually, i can't play "burt the turtle for y" for you. if i can tell you about him, one

of those cartoon guys that helped people duck and cover. there's been a big shift in the public imagination from the way people used to fear these kind of nuclear attacks in the cold war. there he is. there's burt the turtle right there. from the way people used to be afraid to the way we think about it now. what can we learn from these shifts? >> the united states, either was not born yet or were small children when the soviet union vanished. there are millions of americans who don't have that memory what it was like to live with the threat of nuclear annihilation literally any day. i'm glad we don't have that threat from a country like the soviet union, but there still are thousands of these weapons out there that are ready to go, and it's really important that the public understand how they work, where they're aimed, and, you know, my book goes into how they can go wrong. and, you know, ultimately, the fewer weapons that we have in the fewer hands, is probably a

good idea. >> you're exactly right. interesting stuff. eric schlosser, thank you for joining us and writing about it so we can better understand it. ever drink too much at an office party or send the wrong e-mail to a person? straight ahead what not to do in that situation, coming up next. oh, my breath. what should you do? >> never, ever, gomywhere without these. >> thanks, elaine. you're such a super lady. i'm a careful investor.

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treatment options and estimates for how much i'll pay. that helps me, and my guys, make better decisions. i don't like guesses with my business, and definitely not with our health. innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. oh, no. rod, you center of this e-mail reply all. you hit reply all. >> no! >> ah! >> ah -- >> ah! >> you know, i was wrong. you just september this e-mail to me. can you imagine? ah, that memorable super bowl commercial capturing the gripping fear and anxiety many actually experienced. your palms sweat, you feel the need to act right then but are

helpless to take back the words you sent out into the universe. don't try to recall it. a career-ending mistake you just made. what do you do? the answer to that and many more modern workplace conundrums can be found in the new book "reply all: and other ways to tank your career." richey freeman joins us now. a lot of great stuff in this book. you've had a lot of jobs from pro wrestling to mr. manners, working fon a tyrannical print shop guy out of college. >> yes. >> do these sorts of guidelines actually a ply to all workplaces or did you have to get to know the culture where you are? >> twofold. one, you, of course, always have to walk in and get to know the lay of the land, see how the culture is. whether you work for a company of 5,000 people or 5 or 10 people, everything applies, just on difficult levels. >> a famous story of a guy who was a summer associate at a top

law firm and was trying to write an e-mail to one other person. and he wrote, about his work there, i'm busy doing jack shh i went to a nice busy doing jack, went to a nice two hour sushi lunch and spent two hours bs g with people and i accidently did the auto fill of the entire management committee and this went to all of them, and then to add insult to injury, it was forwarded around to law firms around the country, made it on blogs and became a huge thing and he didn't just hurt himself with as bosses, he became semi famous for being an idiot. how do you avoid that? >> unfortunately being the one, the witness of having to go all the way out to the world, that was out of his control. the first one was totally his screw up. once you do, it it is done. like you said. it was passed on this guy and that guy and this company and that company. it happens. you have to own up. i doubt he got a promotion.

he probably had a lot of asking for forgiveness to do. you really have to own up to it, go to the person, apologize for what you did. he can't go to every single city and say that was me, i am the guy although he was known for the rest of the time as the reply all guy. >> and in today's world it is all over the place. have you a list of faux pas or things you should avoid doing. no one wants to be the office clown or the drama queen or the loud person. >> or the over confident new co-host. >> that's right. >> or the over confident co-host, the political junkie, you know, you always hear never mention politics at work which obviously that's all we talk about here. it seems like in today's environment it is almost impossible to avoid talking

about politics. is that a no-no or is there a right way to handle it? >> i talk about this a lot. in a situation like this, this is politics and what you talk about on a daily basis. for the majority of offices out there, it is not part of the every day career. it is almost like sports teams. you are really amped about the team. if you don't like them, you feel bad about it. unless it is involved in the office, of course you can talk with people and don't bring it into the center core of the office. >> good advice. thank you so much. up next, keeping it in the family with the newest member of our office family. ready to run your lines? okay, who helps you focus on your recovery? yo, yo, yo. aflac. wow. [ under his breath ] that was horrible. pays you cash when you're sick or hurt? [ japanese accent ] aflac. love it. [ under his breath ] hate it. helps you focus on getting back to normal?

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i want to commend speaker boehner for listening to the american people and for leading, for the house of representatives to stand up and vote to defund obama care. is a tremendous victory to the american people. >> here we go again. extreme tea party voices holding the republican party in congress hostage. let me take you back a little bit, february 16, 2009. it may have just been a typical president's day but it was something much more for a young woman named kelly caringder with a pierced nose and you may have mistaken her for the kind of person that cam mained for president obama. as the saying goes, don't judge a book by looking at the cover. she was so frustrated she decided to hold a protest against what she called the

porkulis. a day before the stimulus was signed into law and six weeks later 1,200 people gathered for a tax day rally. this is what we all know today as the tea party. at that point their intentions were what our democracy is about, citizens organizing for a common cause using their right to fight for republicans they believe in and for them that represented disen chantment with the deficit and a ballooning national debt and collective voice grew with an instant reaction against obama care to elect numerous candidates in the fall of 2010 solidifying themselves as a force to be reckoned with. over time the movement has grown beyond the original focus. for most the tea party is looked at in the prism of crazy. >> it is a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> they weigh 130 pounds and

have calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. >> repeal the failure before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens. let's not do that. >> all right. stuff like that has polled rep an presidential can't dates so far to the right they are unelectable and if you dare to work with the president on anything, dare to even agree with him, or dare to go against their core beliefs, you become their enemy. news flash. we're not still fighting the american revolutionary war. it is also deepened the dividing congress make being it impossible for speaker boehner to align republicans against a common set of legislative priorities. finally and potentially most damaging as at a time of key demographic and generational shifts, the republican party is branding itself as exclusionary and closed minded. unfortunately this has a double negative effect.

not only does it push out less extreme but historically party loyalists and makes the platform less attract active to many fast growing constituencies. my dad tried to speak up in the 2012 gop debates. >> the person that should represent our party running against president obama is not someone that called him a remarkable leader and went to be his ambassador in china. this nation is divided, david because of attitudes like that. >> the way to regain the strength of the republican party is not going to happen on its own. it will require an intensive effort and an effort focused on ideas around our core principles and less on political theater that only strokes a few egos along the way. i am all for change in the broken political system and standing up for your beliefs but you i can't imagine that's what kelly was hoping to accomplish president's day 2009. that does it for this 150ik he will. martin, it is all yours. >> you said it,abbey.

it is thursday, september 19th and beware, speaker boehner, lightning strikes twice. ♪ >> it defund the national health kair lieu for keeping the government open. >> we'll deliver a victory and the fight will move to the senate. >> zero chance of surviving. >> this is a question should be directed to john boehner. >> they have been asking for this fight. >> today is a victory for house conservatives. >> i want to applaud john boehner. >> we'll give him a fight. >> what he is set being up, it is stunning. >> the president is happy to negotiate with vladimir putin. >> legislative arsonists are at work. >> i expect my colleagues to be up for the battle. >> we'll let our party. >> we have 233 members all of whom have