traditionally been given to judges and juries. during the anti-crime frenzy known as the war on drugs, the power was taken away. instead of judges and juries with sentences lawmakers made it for trifl trivial offenses, a policy responsible for the 500% increase in the number of inmates over the last three decades and egregious racial disparities. throughout his presidency president obama has made several attempts to curb abuses on manned taker minimum sentencing. february 2010, signed fair sentencing act, reduced disparity between crack and powder cocaine but does not apply retroactively. so for an estimated 8800 federal inmates that remain in prison for earlier crack cocaine sentences, the fair sentencing law came too late. among the eight inmates sentences commuted was clarence aaron at the age of 24 was sentenced to three life terms

without parole just for being present during a nonviolent drug transaction. even though it was his first offense and he did not personally buy, sell or supply the drugs. now 43 years old, clarence aaron spent 20 years of his life in prison. another inmate was stephanie george, who received a life sentence in 1997 at age 27 for hiding a boyfriend's crack cocaine in her house. she's now 43 and as well eight prisoners commuted by the president, she and others will be released from prison in april. commuting the sentences of the eight americans is an important step toward restoring fundamental ideas of justice and fairness. that is what president obama said yesterday but it must not be the last. joining me today politics editor and business insider josh berra, host of "disrupt" karen finney, ezekiel edwards, business and economics correspondent. josh, it does seem to me this is one of those issues that unites

all the way from libertarian right to left. this idea it does seem insane that we sentence people to mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenses, essentially a crime against yourself. >> this has become a less partisan issue than it was 15 or 20 years ago. senator mike lee, conservative from utah co-sponsor of a bill to actually make some of the provisions of the fair sentencing act retroactive. some look back at those in prison and decide whether they have been there long enough. not just libertarians on the right, broader thinking among some conservatives, seen it among state houses in the south, partly driven by -- >> it's costly. >> texas saying we need to build more prisons if we keep putting people in prison. how can we do that. alternatives to incarceration, shorter sentences. i find this small bore. we're having population slightly declining but the 500% run-up over the last few decades.

people in prison for fundamentally nonviolent things. it's incredible eight people are having their sentence commuted but a small start. >> obviously symbolic on the part of the president. he doesn't use it very often. it's important symbolic act because he's using it this way for these offenses. are we seeing a retrenchment on the war on drugs that's real. >> it's more than symbolic. it's part of what this administration is doing recognizing we've been fighting a failed expensive war on drugs and cost a lot of lives and money. attorney general eric holder said in august mandatory minimums have been waistful. we're only punishing people with serious offenses not low level nonviolent offenses. i think it's important, however, as you indicated in the top of the show that there are almost 9,000 people who are still

serving sentencing under rashlgrashlg -- racially biased laws. life without parole for nonviolent offenses, 2,000 in the system. crimes at state and federal levels like being middleman in $10 marijuana sale, siphoning gas from a truck, stealing coats from a store. life without parole, many of them mandatory. those people need relief as well. our report doesn't cover people who got life with parole, serving sentences of 100 years. it's only life without parole for nonviolent offenses. this is a start but there's a fundamental change that has to happen this country with how we sentence people, how we deal with social problems not just by first in cars rating people and also ending the drug war. >> matt, there were a couple of examples. vincent wins low sold a couple

of $10 bags and life without parole. shoplifting $159 jacket, life, because of four strikes law. they sound in sane but this is the reality for so many people. it's expensive and doesn't make sense. where is the political will coming from on the other side. >> a lot of politicians don't want to get in front of this. people don't want to be seen as soft on drugs or encouraging it. symbolism and bipartisanship, i think it's striking the second president in a row, one in each party, who admitted to using drugs, including cocaine in the past. what does it really say as a society that we're sort of okay with that. if you use some drugs when you're young, we're okay with it and you can go on to become president of the united states. if you're from the wrong side, we throw the book at you.

what do we mean to be achieving with these drug laws. >> karen, that's a good point. you can't avoid the racial component. blacks, 20 times more likely than whites to be sentenced to life without parole for nonviolent crime. 2001 to 2008 white applicants more than four times likely to receive presidential pardons. this is one of those cases where the president is wading into this issue squarely about race. >> when we talk about sentencing there's one word, afluenza. yes, can you be president if you're a black man who goes to harvard and does these other things. we're talking about a lot of these kids getting these very hard sentences. they don't have the afluenza to lean back on, going to harvard. what happens, so many kids in the system, it's a cycle that repeats. it's not rehabilitative. they end up in some instances

picking up worse habits than they may have had when they went in. this idea we need to totally rethink the structure of the system but also what is rehabilitation and how do we make sure especially when you're young to put you on a different path instead of focusing on the punishment. >> so many issues involved in extremely divisive, this feels like one that isn't, when you talk about the substance, unfairness, people believe those things are ridiculous. i wonder where the pushback is coming from. i wonder if it has to do with the profit cycling people into prison. 2010, 8% was in private facilities, one in 10. corrections corporation of america, which is the largest private prison company owns and operates 66 different facilities with a total revenue of $1.7 billion. they spent $17.4 million in lobbying in a decade. is that really who at this point you're fighting. >> i think absolutely. i think for a long time it was rhetoric and political gain.

now we see bipartisan support we've talked about for rethinking our insane sentencing practices. now you've got to deal with the profit. we live in a capitalist country. there is a lot of money to be made by putting people in prison, building private prisons, private probation companies. there's a huge incentive driving a lot of our criminal justice policies. so you've really got money versus justice. >> this isn't just about private lobbies. when you had fights in california over three strikes reform. public lobbies fighting against that. police unions, district attorneys. there's a lot of people in the business of in cars rating people. most work for the government. i think we're getting better pushing back partly because you've had this drop in huge violent crime. in 1990 people were deeply afraid of crime, easy to play on fears saying soft on crime. i think politicians are realizing it's possible to stand up. >> lets go back to what the driver is. this started in large measure in

california and or places because of overcrowding. the real problem they were trying to solve is we have too many people in jail. hey, a lot of people we have here shouldn't be here, shouldn't be here that long. a number of these cities and municipalities, great reporting done on this, actually have contracts with private contractors where they are even paying when they have empty bed. profit margin is an important part of it. >> it's important to note the role, we talk about commutations and federal prison. the role of the federal government in funding what is happening in the drug war, essentially subsidizing the drug war, federal grants local and state agencies to essentially carry out the drug war, there's still billions of dollars that goes to those agencies and using it to fight the drug war. while there have been steps and rhetoric, sometimes you don't have the two sides talking to each other. you can't say one thing and fund another. >> obviously this obviously started, too, when the crack cocaine epidemic started.

everything from nancy reagan, just say no, to real implemented drug war that turned millions through the system. now that that's not there, this random crack cocaine ep dem i, we're in a lot of cases talking about marijuana, legalization and seeking legalization on that side the answer to get around that entrenched money lobby. >> i think it is under the right circumstances. we do need to think about what are we trying to achieve. there are real public health problems with drug addiction. there's a reason parents don't want their kids to have easy access to heroin. what's a cost effective and humane way of achieving the goals. i think there's better ways than rounding people up giving them decades long prison sentences. we know that. we see with adults who have background with drug use when they were younger, nobody thinks it would be better if barack obama had been sentenced to prison. >> last word. >> on marijuana, we put out a report in june. in 2010, 50% of all drug arrests

in the united states were marijuana. blacks were almost four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession despite comparable usage rates with white. that's part of the drug war -- part of what we're talking about with the drug war. talk about marijuana legalization, it would do part to alleviate those injustices. >> thank you so much. after the break, a parade of conservatives came to the defense of phil robertson about controversial comments about the gay community. one thing they are not talking about is robertson's remarks about the african-american community. we'll discuss next on "now." [ male announcer ] here's a question for you: the energy in one gallon of gas is also enough to keep your smartphone running for how long? 30 days? 300 days? 3,000 days? the answer is...

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just in time for the holidays an outbreak of culture wars, black santa, panelijama b and duck dynasty, self-described bible thumper phil robertson asked in a gq interview phil robertson asked what was sinful, start with homosexual, go from there. bestiality, sleeping with this woman, that woman. don't be deceived -- the right was predictably outraged by a & e's decision. >> knee-jerk reaction kicking phil to the curb. >> the fact is sexuality immorality whether it's homosexuality, heterosexual

relation out of marriage, that was the point he tried to make. quit trying to hold to those that hold to a natural view of marriage and morality. >> freedom, free speech. so many american families have spilled blood and treasure to guarantee phil robertson and everybody else's right to voice their personal opinion. once that freedom is lost, everything is lost in our country. >> all about freedom. sensing an opportunity to exercise their bona fides some presidential contenders weighed in. you should be dismayed over the treatment of phil robertson. louisiana governor bobby jindal defended his home state hero. >> to me this is an issue about religious liberty, freedom of expression. it's about the fact left keeps saying they are for tolerance except for people that disagree with them. stunning to me after all those ant ins miley cyrus is still on tv and phil is the one getting

kicked off. >> robertson's offensive homophobic remarks obscured his remarks about race, how happy they were inch the jim crow south. i never saw with my eyes mistreatment, not once. where i live, the blacks they worked for the farms. i hoed cotton with them. across the field, singing and happy. i never heard one person say, i'll tell you what, white people -- pre-entitlement, they were happy. no one was singing the blues except that's where the blues came from was the south. joining me from buzz feed kate adding to the panel. nobody singing the blues in the south where the blues came from because they were happy. why is it the right went over the remarks on his comments with

homosexuality but i notice a distinct absence of commentary about the black people comments. >> you notice a distinct absence of commentary around the homophobic remarks as well. they want to talk about religious liberty. there's been a shift in social conservatism to not talk about social conservatism. this is religious liberty issue. they don't want to talk about gay marriage and homophobia and racism, the whole gop reranting. that's difficult to do when you have the governor of louisiana and senator ted cruz coming out to talk about duck dynasty. >> when you have the view that phil robertson put forward, karen, is sort of a rewrite of the history of the united states on race that i find to be common on the right. this requirement that everyone from president obama to everyone else rewrite their view of the country to only talk about how

awesome america is and any mention of the history that wasn't awesome for anyone, gays, lesbians, african-americans is heresy and they police that. >> for starters, he should go see "12 years a slave." that's a whole different picture. the singing was not so happy. as you point out, if he really was in the field with the blacks and they were singing, if you were listening to the words of those old negro spirituals that became the blues and became jazz music, the lyrics were not so happy. they were about like this world sucks and jesus going to take care of me in the next one. first of all, he wasn't paying attention to what was going on. the other piece of this is, part of the way you can justify slavery, the cruelty, viciousness and just treating another human being as an animal, have you to have some kind of rational as to why that was okay. once it became cognitive dissidents that's not working,

they were singing, they were happy. you only sing when you're happy. you don't follow the drinking gourd when you're trying to escape. that's part of it, we have to have this veneer, then it's acceptable the horrible things done. >> i will point out phil's son, will and his wife corey have a biracial child. jonathan capehart wrote about this, they adopt children is a wonderful thing. i fear for that biracial child being raised in an environment where there's no understanding of the nation's complicated history and that kid's place in it, which is disturbing. there is this other part to it, josh, where he did talk about his views on the sinfulness of homosexuality, which is a view held by 40, 45% of the american people. you wrote about two americas, two americas, one of which is better than the other. it's instructive who is speaking up for the worst america. which in your view is the worst america? >> i think the worst america is the america you get to say pearl

harbor is a result of shinto buddhists not accepting jesus. there were so many things to different groups it was easy to gloss over things. i think the reason conservatives are not focusing on racial remarks weren't as offensive as homosexuality. they were crude. just because you say it's my religious view gay people are evil doesn't make it okay to say that. he is expressing a religious view held by a number of people. it's nonstandard on the right to defend the jim crow south in the way phil robertson did. conservative by and large understand in the 1950s legal and social structure surrounding race in the south is unacceptable. >> do they understand that? >> partly they like to talk about that to talk about how much progress we made since then and people shouldn't complain today because they are not like they were in the 1950s. >> i think politically speaking,

lets be frank about what's going on here, part of the reason you're not hearing reaction is the calculation is the base of the party loves duck dynasty. they are thinking if i say the wrong thing, than i'm going to upset the base. for a lot of these guys already terrified of the tea party and i'm not saying the tea party is racist, i'm not saying all the base of the republican party is racist, they know this is a popular show. you don't go after a popular show and a popular figure if you think the people who want to vote for you -- >> that's a perfect point. i want to get matt in here. the politics are very interesting. it's now becoming almost a chick-fil-a moment. where were you when phil robertson was cruelly put aside by a & e, political currency on the right. >> a deep desire and real sentiment among white christian america to see themselves as an oppressed minority. duck dynasty before this

controversy came out people felt observant christian families underrepresented in the media. this show was an example of southern christians. they don't like the idea of these people being put off the air. they think this is the real framework of oppression in america, that there are things you can't say. you can't talk about the good old days. i think most people, as josh was saying, would not go as far as he did in terms of the specific racial element, that kind of nostalgia element, things were better before the '60s when everything was ruined, that's a very common sentiment on the right. people don't specifically say, specifically what was better. when you drill down into it, obviously that's a very white perspective to have that kind of view. this talk about the good old days and down home values that's real to a lot of people. that's why this is potent. >> triggered something without being specific about it. >> it doesn't hurt ted cruz, sarah palin, anyone who comes

out to defend them. >> bobby jindal. those guys are not like active politicians necessarily that we know. okay. well, ted cruz is the cartoon version. somebody like bobby jindal, he said i want this to be the smart party. this is what he needs to do, right, to be a contender in 2016. does he need to weigh in and put his bona fides. >> i was concerned why -- bringing a lot of money to louisiana. >> the taxpayers of louisiana. a participant in their film and tv production tax credit program. he's actually in some sense defending -- hawking his own book. >> this has brought back ralph reed, quoted in the "washington post," make no mistake voters are paying attention and they are going to remember who stood up. so this actually has become political currency.

>> just the same way i think on our side when rush limbaugh went after sandra fluke, we were paying attention to who was willing to come out and stand up for her. both sides do that. i don't mean to make an equivalency statement because lord knows their too many of them. certainly it goes to the politics. they know the people they are trying to get to vote for them, make up a large part of the base watch this show. have you to be careful what you say. come out and say something. if you say nothing, you can defend that better than say something stupid. again, if they are trying to be the smart party, there is no stupid for them. >> what the blues mean. there is a sense, matt, you have a the lo of people on the right. this can be for anyone. they talk about being policed as christians. they do a lot of policing as well. i don't know they would agree with karen both sides do this. they have the sense when they are policing even president obama talking about race that that's okay but in this case they don't think a private company has the right to police

someone they are paying. >> absolutely. i thought bringing up of miley cyrus in this somehow, i guess some people don't like her dance routine? >> you don't like wrecking ball? >> i don't know. she didn't say anything. there's no comparison whatsoever in terms of the policing going on. but america is changing. people don't like various manifestations of that. this is what this is about. >> the moral of the story is be very careful if you're going to do an interview with gq. coming up, we'll see you in the new year. congress is leaving tonight with a to do list. we will look back at capitol hill's unfinished 2013 and look forward to its less than ambitious 2014 just ahead. if i can impart one lesson to a

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shoppers, senate lawmakers trying to check off the list. congress hasn't delivered a bounty of legislation this year. we'll discuss whether that will change in 2014 next on "now." life with crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis is a daily game of "what if's". what if my abdominal pain and cramps come back? what if the plane gets delayed? what if i can't hide my symptoms? what if? but what if the most important question is the one you're not asking? what if the underlying cause of your symptoms is damaging inflammation? for help getting the answers you need, talk to your doctor and visit crohnsandcolitisinfo.com to get your complimentary q&a book, with information from experts on your condition.

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unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere, every single day. so ask yourself, what's in your wallet? a last minute deal in the senate ensured all lawmakers will be home in time for the christmas holidays. despite blustery rhetoric at the end of the day personal concerns of senators have a way of trumpeting political grandstanding. prior to the departure, senate confirmed new commissioner of irs, a florida federal judge and ended debate on janet yellin to be head of reserve. a full confirmation vote on yellin will have to wait until january 6, a full nine weeks after she was nominated by president obama. at a news conference senate democrats laid out priorities, namely unemployment benefits and

raising the minimum wage. too many americans find themselves on the sidelines watching the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and middle classes getting squeezed and squeezed. there's no greater challenge this country has than income inequality and we must do something about it. >> it's been years since we raised the minimum wage. americans know this intuitively regardless of political party we've got to give these working families a fighting chance to survive. >> issues like job creation, minimum wage and unemployment insurance good morning weigh on the minds of voters far more than obama care. >> better smell the coffee. the world is changing. the 2010 elections don't govern any longer. >> president obama i guess sure to address many of the same issues at a 2:00 p.m. news conference today before departing for hawaii. so panel, the president ends the year and we always do year end

approval polls. underwear 43-55 abc "washington post" poll which led to favorite media pastime of comparing president obama to president bush and president clinton, particularly bush. jonathan martin had a smart fa, barack obama is not george w. bush. the bush comparison state or implied broader forces at work than sagging approval rates. this is a pregnancy with a new inflection point beyond which credibility severed and agenda broken. that conclusion falls apart because it misses how power works in the obama era. did you concur with that snch i think that's interesting. i think the president going into the 2014 elections does have an opportunity with the budget out of the way that does sort of, excuse me, open up an opportunity for democrats and republicans to fight it out over what their priorities want to be. i think that's what we're going

to see in january and february. we'll probably hear a lot more about immigration reform, too. that will be something that will come up. >> isn't there a sense, karen, that presidencies in a sense they go along a time line. there's a certain point the media is done with you, right? they are so focused on the next president you're fighting a narrative that is sort of set against you. any mistake, george bush in his last term, nothing to be done as exciting, seen as the agenda was over, of course, katrina. there is sort of presidency against the narrative that happens, too. >> i think part of what happens is the reporters who have been covering six, seven years, the longer it goes, they know the stories. there's nothing knew-of- new, like third sequel to a movie. a little laziness. why in regard to health care we've had all this obsession about a website rather than talking about the policy in and of itself or talking about

what's good in the policy, what's not good. >> medicaid expansion. i do think you're right there's a narrative that sets in, an obvious easy comparison to look at the numbers, who was the last one. i think you see this pretty much every time we get to this point in a presidency. >> a focus on the website for two good reasons, one, a failure of confidence in an administration. they thought it was going to launch. >> not the best metric to say whether or not in 20 years health care reform will be a success. >> no, a good metric for understanding why the president's poll numbers have fallen, not just job approval numbers that have fallen but personal favorability numbers, honest. >> it's in this environment. i have the question karen has, whether or not losing the forest for the trees. in a sense kids reading about affordable care in history, i somehow doubt the overall

trajectory matters, harder to cover but that's something the president short-term really can't stop fighting. >> that is true. it's also true, i think, reporters have a tendency to sort of get board with the president been around too long not running again. but to stand up for george w. bush for a moment. >> hold on. >> a lot of significant things happened in his second term. an important stimulus bill, minimum wage bill, compromise, enormous bailouts associated with t.a.r.p. those weren't popular things, not a ton of attention, major fannie mae freddie mac. by the same token important things will be happening in the obama administration whether he's popular or not, whether reporters care about it or not. it's worth trying to care a little bit. for example, the epa. there's going to be some major regulations. >> what's happening with gitmo. i'm struck by the fact this

president has been declared down and out before. after the shellacking in the 2010 midterms, agenda over, then you had incredible lame duck congress at the end of 2010 got through don't ask, don't tell treaty. it is the president being sort of in the doghouse in terms of public perception, that doesn't mean nothing will happen. >> democrats have priorities and republicans have priorities, too. i think what happened over the last three years, a lot with republican obstruction especially in the house, people have grown really weary of that. very tired. so they have taken a hit as well in terms of not being able to get stuff done. boehner doesn't necessarily want to go out being known as the guy -- >> never know. >> who couldn't do anything. that's not how he wants to leave it. >> might be a little too late for that. >> there is still time for them

to accomplish bigger things, i just don't know exactly. >> very quick lightning round, another shutdown showdown. >> no. >> shutdown showdown. >> i will never say we wouldn't because i don't trust these guys. >> in february over the debt ceiling. >> not in the next two years. >> all right. interesting. thank you very much, guys. coming up in, a world of instant gratification, lack of -- self-control comes at a premium. we'll talk with deepak chopra about the mind-body connection when he joins us next. puffs knows winter is hard on your face. [ sneezes ] [ female announcer ] the start of sneeze season. the wind-blown watery eyes. [ sniffling ] the sniffling guy on the bus. and, of course, the snow angels with your little angels. that's why puffs plus lotion is soft. puffs plus are dermatologist tested to be gentle. they help soothe irritated skin by locking in moisture better. so you can always put your best face forward. a face in need deserves puffs indeed.

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hungry for "deepak chop what gives a manual of better health. why we overindulge often to our own detriment. in the book, "bad habits like bad memories stick around stubbornly when we wish they had go away. but you have a great motivation working for you, your desire for happiness. you keep you're eye on the basic motivation the question is what am i hungry for. true desires lead you in the right direction. false desires lead you in the wrong direction. joining us deepak chopra, such an honor to talk to you. what led you to this book, the mind body connection. >> i was at a conference president clinton was hosting health matters. the topic of obesity and diabetes is big, 70% of americans are obese or overweight and it's directly

connected to diabetes, cardiovascular, many types of cancer, infections and so on, yet there's a diet book every season. if there was something that worked on that level, we'd have it by now. >> what is missing then? when you talk about the control, obviously the mind has tremendous control. what is that connection what is it in us that stops us. >> the first thing i think self-control is a really bad control. whenever you resist, it's more about self-awareness. self-awareness means knowing yourself as you really are. knowing yourself as you actually are. it means awareness of your body, awareness of your emotions, your thoughts, your feelings and awareness of relationship. if you're just aware of that and take one second, not even one second, half a second, to push the pause button and ask yourself what am i really hungry

for, the key to weight loss and transformation is there. people put food in their bodies for one of two reasons. one is they are hungry for physical food. two is they are hungry for something else. before this show, the word comfort food was mentioned. so when a baby is very small and she wants to be picked up and kissed and hugged, if a mother is busy what does she do, throws a bottle of milk or a cookie. the brain learns to associate that with comfort. that's what we call comfort foods, sugar, salt, additives. actually food industry is paid to do research into food that makes us addicted. >> it's so difficult particularly this time of year. we're trained to sort of associate the holiday season with happiness and joy. for a lot of people this is an extremely stressful time. it's the time they may do the most comfort food eating. it's available, all over the table and you may have that psychological problem. give us one step people can

take. >> i'm writing a great book, what am i hungry for. before i put food in my mouth, i look at that. that's my pause button. i feel my body. then i say on a scale of one to ten, am i famished, i'm empty, some feel it after thanksgiving. three or four a time to do it, five or six time to stop. if i loved myself right now and wanted to be happy in the next one hour, would i put this in my mouth. >> this is such a huge issue because obviously obesity and overweight including in children. talk about a little bit as adults we're able to center ourselves if we try hard. for younger people, kids, it's a lot more difficult because they do act on impulses. >> it's true but younger people's neurons, especially when they are young, they mirror the neurons of their parents and

caretakers and siblings. it's a whole family thing, not just kids by themselves. >> what do you think is the connection between spirituality and faith and these issues of centering yourself. >> the more self-aware, the more aware of the other, more aware of the ecosystem of life and spirit. spirit is the highest form of human intelligence. it means to observe yourself without judging yourself. when you do that, you spontaneously make the right choices. >> i do feel like this is such an important issue you're tackling, i feel like i've taken all the time. we have very little time but if anyone wants to jump in. while you guys think about your question i'll ask one more. for those people who also are dealing with loss this time of year. we just had the anniversary of the sandy hook shootings, so tragic for so many people. there's a lot of searing pain out there and a lot of indulgent sort of behavior is going to come from that need.

>> the best healing comes from compassion and empathy. so if you are grieving, try and offer solace to somebody else. the more you do that, the more you're with other people who are suffering, interestingly enough it heals you. >> deepak chopra, this is wonderful. the book is "what are you hungry for?" i will hold it up so you can see it. chopra solution to permanent weight loss. it's wonderful to talk to you. i feel like i've been helped in these couple of minutes. >> lightness of soul. that's the key. >> thank you. after the break ron burgundy is back. talk about a turn of newsroom hi jinx, leather bound books and lots and lots of scotch. [ female announcer ] arms were made for hugging.

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lets just say it's kind of a big deal had holiday season, ron burgundy and his hollywood miss fits are back. what to expect from the motley news crew nearly 10 years since the release of the first movie. ♪ ♪ >> so how did it come together? what's the back story? did you call the gang back together. >> i realized they can't hear a conch, it's impossible. >> then he did it into the phone. what is this. >> hello. >> it's a conch. >> you knew what that meant all these years later? >> just triggered something. >> the assault has been relentless, ron burgundy is everywhere. >> are you married? >> no. >> well, i am. so don't give me ideas.

>> we left the channel 4 team in good shape at the end of the first movie. how have they been since? >> ron is down and out of the game announcing at dolphin sea world. he's drunk and chastising dolphins in front of children. a producer comes to him with the idea -- >> we're starting a 24 hour news channel, first of its kind, gnn. >> that is without a doubt the dumbest thing i've ever heard. >> so the gang is back together. >> fan tana, what has he been doing. >> the years have been good to him. right there that makes no sense because there's no way that could possibly happen. i'm photographing cats. >> why do you leave that behind? >> logic has never been one of our strong suits. >> things got dark. >> he had a good business going. >> a business with intermittent bouts of homelessness. >> what's veronica see in ron burgundy. >> there's such a vulnerability

about him. he's malleable and i could fix him. >> feels like she hasn't fixed him yet. >> she's so close. another 10 years and she will have fixed him. >> what about brick. it's amazing brick is still alive. >> why? why did you take him from us? >> brick, you're not dead? >> i'm alive. >> he doesn't even know what he's been doing. i don't think he could really tell you. >> nice thing in this film, brick finds love. >> i like your hair. it looks like wet popcorn. >> thank you. >> he definitely finds his soul mate in this movie. how does it come together? he's struck by lightning. he sees the woman who is the perfect fit by him. >> because they were both struck by lightning literally and figuratively. >> that was nbc's willie geist. all right, panel. karen, anchorwoman, what's the deal, are you going going to go

see this movie? >> of course. >> what are we going to learn from this? >> i think we're bog to learn new techniques how to deliver news and information on msnbc. >> moustache, big hair. >> '70s garb. >> does this movie have any social significance? >> they flashed it forward to '80s. >> lets get physical was a hot song. what was good about the '80s we want to bring back besides mustaches. >> i loved the first one. >> what's your news anchor perspective? >> i think i need to go and see this movie and emulate every single thing in it because i think that's the key to success. it's all about having big hair and moustache. that's all for now. thank you so much to josh, matthew and karen. you can catch karen finney every weekend at 4:00 p.m. on "disrupt" right here on msnbc. i will see you monday at noon

eastern. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. ♪ through 12 blizzards blowing ♪ 6 snowballs flying ♪ 5 packages addressed by toddlers ♪ ♪ that's a q ♪ 4 lightning bolts ♪ 3 creepy gnomes ♪ 2 angry geese ♪ and a giant blow-up snowman ♪ that kind of freaks me out [ beep ] [ female announcer ] no one delivers the holidays like the u.s. postal service. priority mail flat rate is more reliable than ever. and with improved tracking up to 11 scans, you can even watch us get it there. and look for our limited edition holiday stamps.

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another bump in the road on health care, they change the rules three days ago before the enroll men deadline. why another late change. chuck todd tried to get answers from the white house. >> is there going to be a single person in 2014 that is going to pay the penalty? a single uninsured american that will pay the penalty at this point? >> chuck, i want talk to you about how many people are going to be subject to the penalty. >> getaway day. before the president flies off to hawaii tonight, he'll "meet the press" and face tough questions just an hour from now. only a year after launching his second term with so much hope and optimism, what's gone wrong? we'll talk to chuck todd and the