it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. in june, a man named dimitri isakoff stood on a street corner in his hometown and held up a sign that said this. being gay and loving gays is normal. beating gays and killing gays is criminal. that is all the sign said. the sign did not look like we're showing on the screen though. in real life, it looked more like this. a ha. because he is russian. and the place where he held up the sign was a street corner in the central russian city of khazan. about 500 miles east of moscow. yesterday, a russian court convicted mr. isakoff for holing up that sign holding up the sign

because of what the sign said. because in russia now, it is illegal to express that sentiment. it is illegal to say out loud or write on a sign that being gay is an okay thing and that liking gay people is a normal and okay thing. saying that is now illegal propaganda and so, he was convicted of that yesterday. two other russians were convicted and sentenced for doing something similar two weeks ago. yesterday in uganda, central african nation that's been a pretty close ally of united states, we have particularly close military ties, yesterday, the parliament there after years of on and off debate and controversy and international attention, yesterday in uganda, they finally decided to pass their kill the gays bill. you may remember that we had the sponsor of that bill, the guy who wrote it, on this show for a

very, very uncomfortable interview. one of the times that he was bringing it up in parliament. but this time, it has passed. the last time it looked like it was going to pass was in 2010. president obama called that law odious. others weighed in, essentially telling uganda, do not do this to your own people. this will change your standing among nations if you do it, but they just did it and now that the parliament has passed the law, uganda's president has to decide whether he is going to in both uganda and russia, it is obviously domestic politics and home grown prejudice that is mostly driving this new aggressively antigay legislation in those countries. but for us, watching this happen from here, from here in the united states, we should note that in both of these instances,

in both the case of the russian so-called propaganda law and uganda's kill the gays bill, in both of those cases, it was american evangelical antigay activists who visited both those countries and met with members of parliament in both those countries in official capacities to encourage them and advise them that they ought to pass those law, so it's an interesting dynamic. on the one hand, there's hillary clinton in 2011 giving her blockbuster speech on gay rights as human rights. not just as hillary clinton, but as the american secretary of state -- as one of the factors that the united states of america will consider in our relations with other nations around the globe. there's president obama not being shy about weighing in against what russia is doing, what uganda has now adobe done and on the other hand, our country is the source of antigay

internationalists lobbyists essentially, that travels around the world meeting with parliament in other countries trying to get those other countries to pass super antigay laws. so, when you are mitt romney and donate money to this organization because you want to support their fight against gay people getting married in california or whatever, don't be fooled by the word national being in the name. they really are international now. if you are donating money to the national organization for marriage, you are also supporting their fight to get guys on the street in russia arrested because of a sign they're holding that says gay people are okay. that is what the national organization for marriage has been spending its american donation doing. that is what their paid staffers

spend their money on. and as this is happening around the world, right in the middle of this very complicated relationship we have with the rest of the world on these issues, here at home, we are also undergoing some rapid change of our own. it was ten years ago, 2003, when supreme court struck down laws that made it criminal to be gay in this country. the antisodomy law in texas. scalia wanted to laws kept in place, but he famously predicted that that decision would lead to future supreme court decisions that would okay equal marriage rights for gay people, too. and indeed, this summer in two landmark cases, his prediction came true. the supreme court upheld same-sex rights in california and on the same day, struck down the clinton era, defense of marriage act. those twin decisions this summer

were basically an earthquake that have since shaken all the remaining antigay laws in this country right to their foundations. and the remaining antigay laws and policies in this country, ever since those rulings, have been falling. one by one. first, it was new jersey. the state's supreme court there ruling in favor of same-sex marriage rights in late october. days later, new jersey's conservative governor withdrew the state's appeal of the matter. that allowed same-sex couple to get married the next day. then it was hawaii, where major equality bill passed the state legislature, people started getting married in hawaii this month. then it was illinois. governor pat quinn signed a bill passed by the legislature that legalized same-sex marriage in illinois. then yesterday, new mexico's supreme court ruled in favor of marriage equality, making new mexico the 17th state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. but then came today. and i don't know why this one feels different.

but this one feels different. today, a federal judge in utah, yes, that utah. struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage. the very first federal ruling since the supreme court's landmark rulings this morning. this summer. state's law prohibiting the law was unconstitutional and violated the right of the people of utah. in his ruling today, less than two and a half weeks after he first heard arguments in the case, the judge set himself a self-imposed deadline that he would rule, make a decision by january 7th. it's nowhere near january 7th and he surprised everyone when he just went ahead and ruled today in a sweeping ruling. he thought apparently, there was not only no rational reason to uphold utah's gay marriage ban, but that there was no reason to wait and so, the ruling came

down. surprising everyone at 2:00 local time in utah and by 3:00 local time in utah, people were getting married in that state. people who probably thought they would never, ever, ever in their entire lives ever be able to get married in utah let alone today. does this utah decision today just feel like it's a bigger deal than all the others because forgive me, it's freaking utah? or is the fact that this is a federal court ruling and that the reasoning of the ruling, does that mean this is more than just the next step? that this could be a harbinger that antigay laws around the country really are more done than we thought they were? joining us now, the chief justice professor at nyu law school. thank you for being here. am i just having an emotional reaction to the word, utah? or did something qualitatively different happen? >> i think something different happened tonight. and two regards.

one is if you look at the polling with these back to which states favor same-sex marriage, utah's always on the bottom five. they never thought they would get utah in the next decade. the other thing goes to what you said, i remember sitting here in this studio on june 26th of 2013. we were sitting in adjacent chairs waiting for the supreme court to hand down the windsor case. which was admittedly somewhat ambiguous, what it would mean for same-sex marriage and this is the first time a judge has clarified. you can debate whether it was a state's decision. leads me to think of this as a gay rights. >> let me explain the why i

understand what's qualitatively important about this today compared to other states. and you tell me how it got wrong. it seems to me that when we've had previous rulings, it's been state supreme courts. state courts ruling on state laws. ruling on the tenants of their own state constitutions. or like in new mexico's case, the sort of awkward situation where some courts, some clerks are going ahead, but no state law that defines it either way. seems like we all thought those types of rulings were going to run out quickly. there's always a constitutional ban that written into the state constitution that says marriage does not include gay people and so, i did not know that the windsor ruling was going to mean that those states, those more than 30 states in their constitution would see those vulnerable. >> so that is amazing. can i just start by saying i'm really sad here because i think

you'd make a lot better of a law professor than i would make media anchor. you were great. and just to recap, you know, the bullets there, is exactly this notion if we were running out, same-sex rights, marriage advocates are running out because if it's in a statutory level, so that plays keep away from the united states supreme court. which we don't think is ready. so, in so far as these were statutes, it could be struck down under state provisions, but if there's a big dent, there's no way that a court could actually use a institution. >> so, all of those state amendments passed like in 2004 when everybody thought it was a big republican get out the vote effort, that was the consequence of that. there can never be a state court ruling that gives gay people equal rights. >> exactly. so what you need in these 30 states is the nuclear option of bringing a federal constitutional claim. where federal law clashes with

state law, but the danger is if you litigate on federal constitutional grounds that can go to the united states supreme court. >> is that what's going to happen here? >> there are so many after windsor and hollingsworth, there have been so many. they have already joined a case in virginia, so they're betting that case will get to the supreme court before this one does or others will. the big deal about this case is they've used a nuclear option and said we're going to bring a federal constitutional challenge to this. but also, we're going to use windsor, that windsor case and if you remember, windsor was not about a state ban on same-sex marriage. it was say if you were married in new york, will they recognize that.

they said we're going strike that down. but that was ambiguous because on the one hand, it was like did he do that because it is for the states or because he believes in the equal dignity of gay people. what the judge in utah said, this is just the logic of the opinion. is this is about the dignity of gay people. so it doesn't matter if it's a federal act or a state act. >> and states can infringe. >> exactly and i can't resist saying that justice scalia helped us out again. you know, this is going to lead to marriage being struck down in all 50 states. >> and he said it like it was a bad thing. he's making that case and you see what the slippery slope is, this means there's going to be same-sex marriage in utah and utah's going, yep. >> you've got to love him. he's like the truth teller of the court, right.

in the court asked justice scalia do i look fat in this dress, he'll say, yes. but if the court says did we just legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states, he will say yes. >> and ends up being a gay rights anti hero. >> he's laying out the road map. >> thank you so much for being here. we always need you to explain these additional steps happen. today was a big one. thanks. >> thank you. >> those pictures today of salt lake city city hall full of tearful couples who raced down there in their hoodies and whatever it was they were wearing so they could get married real quick before utah appeals, which they did, it's just the kind of thing you don't ever think you're going to see. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] at his current pace,

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may 1st, 1998, a bombshell story broke in the press and it seemed like it might implicate the president of the united states and first lady in something that was maybe criminal. it involved a once close associate of bill and hillary clinton. webster hubbell. a lawyer who worked at the same law firm as hillary clinton in arkansas. he served time in prison from embezzling money from that law firm and the story broke that he could be heard in taped phone calls from prison, sort of maybe indicating the clintons, especially hillary clinton, in

bad things. maybe even criminal bad things. >> now on tape, phone calls from prison. >> we're on a recorded phone. >> did he say anything damaging about his friends, the clintons? >> in one tape, the issue is protecting the first lady. hubbell's wife says he can't sue his old law firm over a billing dispute because that might expose hillary, his former law partner. >> makes it look like you really don't give a [ bleep ] and that it's wrong that you're opening hillary up to all of this. >> i would not do that. i won't raise those allegations that might open it up to hillary, and you know that. >> congressional investigators, specifically the chair of the house government reform and oversight committee, dan burton, had acquired 54 tapes of web hubbell's phone calls from

prison and from the very carefully edited portions of those conversations, it really did seem like something fishy was going on. that hubbell was maybe secretly trying to protect hillary clinton from getting in trouble for some thing. some bad seeming maybe even criminal thing and that maybe hillary clinton had bought off her former close friend to keep him quiet about her misdeeds even as he went to prison. the tapes that congressman dan burton released made it seem like there was just a bombshell about the first lady. but then two days later, this happened. >> as you know, your office released 27 pages of transcripts. and i went through them very carefully. we have obtained the full transcript and audio tape and there's a major portion left out involving hillary clinton. mr. burton, that is rather ex culpatory and you left it

out. this was such a critical tape and the language and hillary came very next in line and your transcript just ended right there because it seemed to be favorable towards hillary clinton. >> well, i know what you're getting at and you're trying to make it look worse than it is. >> tom, the 27 pages in transcript left out of the hubbell saying he was not being bought. he left out the fact hillary clinton had no idea what was going on with her firm's finances. those are two important points. >> dan burton got caught. got caught. got caught on tape by tim russert releasing partial transcripts that had been edited, but those comments were not incriminating. they were taken out of context. >> stung by charges that hubbell's prison phone calls were edited to make the first

lady look bad, chairman burton vows to release all 54 conversations in their entirety today. the move came after "meet the press" contained an excerpt. not previously released in which hubbell said-harrisburg was not part of any wrongdoing at their former law firm. >> so, the whole secret prison tape story was a scandal. but not because of anything hillary clinton had done. but because it was a fraud. it was a totally debunked snow job. and when it was revealed that dan burton's office had edited those phone calls and released those partial tapes to the public, the congressman had to admit that quote, mistakes and omissions were made. he did not lose his job. he did not resign. he did not get fired. but one of dan burton's employees, his top investigator, david bossy, did get fired. congressman burton blamed the whole thing on david bossy and fired him.

if the name sounds familiar, he ends up returning to prominence years later as the head of citizens united, which led a lot of rich guys waste a lot of their own personal money on the last election when it got rid of finance laws for david bossy to air his i still hate hillary clinton fake documentary during the 2008 election. things worked out fine for david bossy. his legacy it turns out lives on in the different way besides just the supreme court. because the partial transcript trick he pioneered under dan burton in the 1990s, it's now happening again. in this congress. just this week on tuesday night, we did a report on this show on the legacy of dan burton and the guy who inherited his job as chairman of the oversight committee in the republican controlled house. a report was titled putting the

civ back in civil servant. more of a homophone joke. has the power to subpoena documents, so he can get his hands on all kinds of private stuff. i'm sure it's very exciting to have that power if you are a member of congress. but it has national conscious quenss for us as a country. if the guy who has that power in congress to get all of those private and sensitive documents also leaks everything he gets his hands on as soon as he gets his hands on it and darrell issa really is a human sieve. because the stuff he wants the stuff that for security reasons really shouldn't be publicly leaked. and they pretty much can guarantee darrell issa will leak

everything gets his hands on because that's how he has behaved since he has been chairman. darrell issa, human sieve. he leaks everything. two days later, ding, ding, ding. he leaks something else. last night, turns out there was a private transcribed interview before his committee and somehow, somehow, abc news exclusively obtained that testimony. which was supposed to be private and just for the committee, but it was darrell issa's committee so now it's on the news. it's like webster hubbell all over again. darrell issa likes to let the private stuff go public. but his favorite way to do it is with partial transcripts. so last night, he told abc news and abc news just published it, that the federal government admits they know, they told him that healthcare.gov has huge security vulnerabilities. really? can we see the full transcript of that?

no? just the parts you want us to see? okay. should we publish this? they say if you could see it, you would see the whole testimony. if you could see the whole thing, you could see what the testimony actually was was that security vulnerabilities had been identified early in the process, but had been fixed. the whole transcript would show that. but of course, darrell issa won't release that. it's just the carefully leaked partial transcripts. same goes with his partial leak a couple of weeks ago on another issue related to health reform. the guy who darrell issa has supposedly quoting in his leaked partial transcripts said himself those transcripts were not an accurate character saix of his remarks. in that case, it was cbs news that ran with it any way because darrell issa fed it to them and they swallowed it whole. darrell issa did the same in june on the irs issue. again, partial transcripts,

which he says show political bombshell testimony, but he won't release the whole transcripts, so it's impossible to know whether the darrell issa version is what we should believe or whether he has leaked it to specific journalists. the easy way to check these things is to look at the full transcript of what the irs witnesses said, right, cnn? but darrell issa wouldn't release it. he said it would be reckless to do that. he just likes to leak little pieces out of context that tell the story he wants to be told. without the full transcripts, you can't check to see if the excerpts are true. that's why he leaks it that way and cnn fell for it on the irs story in june and cbs fell for it two weeks ago, then abc fell for it last night with a new health reform story.

with every one of them, it's the same trick. the webster hubbell trick. and they all read it as oh, exclusive access, the scoop. why do you think he's giving you the scoop? if he was leaking the gettysburg address, it would be a bombshell about how four men conceived and gave birth. true, those words are excerpts of the text. but shame on anyone who takes your word for it, not after all these times. it's donut friday at the office. and i'm low man on the totem pole.

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tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 of your trading. there's been a lot of news today, especially for friday in december. we have changed the show at least half a dozen times already because of the changing news today, but throughout the day, one thing in the show has remained. the one project we have begun

and reviewed and screwed up and started over and fixed and then i think finally perfected is how to transform a super boring arrow like this one into an exciting alluring arrow with an eerie pulsing yellow glow. turns out this is very important for understanding today' news. i personally think we nailed it. it took all day and i'll show it to you in action in just a moment. [ male announcer ] the new new york is open. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here

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sign. then drive. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on any new 2014 volkswagen. hurry, this offer ends january 2nd. visit vwdealer.com today my nominee for the strangest politics story we covered all year in 2013 was the story we did last month about idaho. in idaho in southwest boise last year, the voters of district 15 elected a new state representative. it was ron paul guy in idaho, staunch conservative. he had the endorsement of the high profile tea party congressman labrador, but soon after mark patterson was elected, things seemed off kilter. he said in campaign materials he we went to usc. reality, he never went to usc. also said he was a petroleum engineer.

he was not actually an engineer at all. petroleum or otherwise. said he had been a professional bicyclist, but the local press in boise figured out he had never had a professional cycling license. he does own a loom company. he did get elected last year. this picture shows him having some sugary snacks. there are a number of things that have been verified, but there was a lot about him that just seemed made up. and then came the part about the rape charges. turns out that republican state rep mark patterson in idaho had twice been arrested and charged with forcible rape. the second time was in ohio and he was acquitted of those charges, but the first time in florida, he pled guilty. he was initially charged with forcible rape. he pled guilty to assault and intent to commit rape. years later after moving to idaho, he applied for a

concealed carry permit for a handgun. now, under idaho law and pretty much everywhere, you cannot get a permit to carry a gun if you have committed a violent felony, like say assault with intent to commit rape, to which this guy pled guilty, but he did not admit that on his gun permit application. which means he lied on his gun permit application. and when the sheriff found out about this lie, the sheriff revoked the guy's permit. and then, then, then comes the part of the story that makes it the single strangest politics story we covered all year long. i mean, it is one thing for the citizens of boise to know they just elected this guy with a violent felony conviction related to rape and he got his gun permit revoked because of it. the bottom line of the story was that the guy didn't actually get his gun permit revoked.

the guy got his gun back because the laws that say you can't have a gun if you're a violent felon or rapist, those laws don't apply in idaho if you are an elected official. dude got his gun back because he is a state legislator. so, thank you, idaho, you're like a self-esteem boost for other states. as far as i know, nobody else has a special law on the books just to make sure their elected officials who are rapists can have all the guns you want. with that, you guys make all the other states feel normal. now, this story has a new choose your own adventure ending for idaho because now, mark patterson has decided to resign. southwest boise will have to choose his replacement.

and that means he will no longer be an elected official in idaho, which means at least technically, that he should lose his gun permit now. the sheriff wanted to revoke it for his felony and lying on his application. he was protected from that, but now he's quitting, will idaho take away his guns? they have a decision to make on that. idaho also has to make a decision about whether it wants to keep on the books its law that says if you're an elected official, laws don't apply to you anymore like they do everyone else in this state. more ahead. stay with us. [ female announcer ] we give you relief from your cold symptoms. you give them the giggles. tylenol cold® helps relieve your worst cold and flu symptoms. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol cold®. [ female announcer ] let betty do the measuring and get a head start on delicious homemade cookies. visit bettycrockercookies.com for fun holiday ideas.

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the threat was the result of a what i believe to be an appropriate disciplinary action related to the debate team. again, the shooter was not removed from the debate team and the teacher that was responsible for that disciplinary action was his, was the shooter's main target. we still have to visit with a variety of people to determine what the outcome or interaction relative to the threat was. >> prepared to -- >> we will release the date of birth within the next day or so. i will tell you that he's 18 years old.

he was 18 years old. but i will also tell you and this is a bit of an editorial comment on my part. this is my personal perspective followed by my professional responsibility. i will share his date of birth, but i will tell you that i am no longer inclined nor will i speak his name in public. he is someone who victimized an innocent young lady by an act of evil and in my opinion, deserves no notoriety and certainly no celebrity. he deserves no recognition. the issue here is the victimization of claire davis. and the victimization of this community and this school. so, it is my professional and my personal perspective that although i realize your responsibilities, i also understand my perspective on

life and i choose never to use his name again in public. >> that was arapahoe county sheriff, grayson robinson, briefing the media the morning after the arapahoe high school shooting which took place on the eve of the anniversary of the sandy hook elementary school shooting. the focus in arapahoe since the shooting there last week, the focus has been on the victim of that shooting, who was grievously wounded. the sheriff's commitment as you just heard that, to not deliver notoriety or recognition to the gunman who perpetrated the crime and then killed himself, the sheriff's refusal to speak the gunman's name, that turns out to be catching on. "the new york times" today, some survivors of mass shootings and victim's family members are advancing the argument that gunmen in this incidents should be written out of the coverage of these crimes.

david cullen, who's been a guest on this show before, he's done some of the long-term reporting on what happened at columbine. he feels like disappearing the perpetrators from the news coverage, it may be helpful. it may take away the whole point of the crime for the perpetrator who's looking for recognition. he's essentially perpetrating the crime as a performance, so that he may be seen, so maybe never mentioning them could be deterrents. maybe changing the way we cover shootings and respond to them is a good idea. it's a small idea, but maybe an important one and one that's a little bit outside the box and little outside the box ideas like that that may be important ideas, they are being advanced around the country now. especially in the past year since newtown and they're being led in many cases, by mass shooting survivors and their families and by victim's families. at sandy hook last december, the two classrooms where the 20 kids

were killed were first grade classrooms. when the shooting started, a second grade teacher thought that the pop, pop, pop she was hearing were some folding chairs falling over. she looked down the hallway and saw that wasn't what it was. she saw the janitor sprinting toward the front of the building and realized it was gunfire. in addition to the janitor, there were two kids. because they were walking the attendance to the main office. i used to try to get that job, too. when she realized they were this danger, she pulled them into her classroom to save them. locked the door, read them stories and sang christmas carols to muffle the sound and keep everyone calm. that is abby clemens. her daughter sarah, her outside the box thinking has led her to start a whole new wing of the gun reform, anti gun violence movement. it's the junior naa.

newtown action alliance. the first major gun prevention group in the u.s. to start its own student branch. the mother of one of those two kids is the group's adult adviser. think about what this might mean. how would the reform movement change? how much power and talent and infrastructure would it build for the long run if there were student chapters of that organization and others like it in high schools across the country. if kids everywhere, if kids in high school, college, could join it just like you join 4-h or boy scouts or the junior nra. joining us now is sarah clemens. founder of the junior newtown action alliance. thank you so much for being here. >> thank you so much for having me. >> why did you want to form a junior version, a student version of the group? >> about two months after what happened in our town, i was the youngest member of newtown action alliance and i saw over

the -- a few weeks that my peers and neighbors, especially in the high school and in the middle school, also wanted to do something right after it happened, we got millions and millions of donations, whether monetary or whether you know, hundreds of thousands of teddy bears. but that didn't exempt people in newtown. we also had to do something. so i founded the junior branch not knowing that like you said, it was the first major gun prevention group with a student branch. it was just to give students a voice because i found that the best thing for me right after the tragedy was just to tell my story. right after about two or three months after, we had newtown action alliance hosted sort of a panel discussion to sort of discus what's next in terms of gun prevention. and one of the panelists is now my good friend, colin goddard, who survived virginia tech.

afterwards he told me something i will never forget. that changed the course of the rest of the year for me. which is don't let anybody tell you that your story doesn't matter because your story is what makes you unique. it might sound cliche but it's not. anybody can look up these facts, anybody can read statistics and reports. but what makes this is real issues is students's voices, and moms and dads and faith leaders who have had to go to hundreds and hundreds of funerals for their congregation members in just the span of a year because of gun violence. those are the voices that we have been projecting for the last year. and those are the voices that are really going to change this movement. >> one of the things that i have heard people especially from the town of newtown say in a way that sort of feels more grounded and solid than when i have heard other people say, is we need a

change to lessen gun violence, especially the kind that results in these crazy mass shootings is the kind of change that will take longer than any of our lives, than any of our activist careers, than any of our legislators's time in office and we need to think long term about big time change. you are much younger than me. do you feel that way too? or do you feel a sense of urgency that's different than adults are settling in for the long haul. >> i think it's both. i absolutely am in this for the long run. tragedy doesn't define who i am but it's part of my story now. and part of the last year for me has been moving forward and trying to honor those that we lost with action. but i think there also is a sense of urgency, especially in the youth community. you know, one of the big initiatives that junior newtown action alliance that we're working on is bringing together

urban students and suburban students. sometimes i kick myself, you know, when i'm doing this work because i realize that all of these incidents happened whether it was in the town next to me that experiences urban gun violence or whether it was the aurora shooting that happened five months before. i remember those things happening. i remember hearing about them but i didn't do anything. and i think, you know, now that my eyes have been opened and now that we are trying to open other students's eyes we are starting to see if we can bring together young people with different backgrounds, and what i was tag about with our stories, with different stories, we still want the same things to come from our tragedies. we experienced different types of gun violence but that doesn't mean we want common sense legislation passed in honor of those we lost. it doesn't mean we don't want to continue to share our stories and teach compassion in high

schools and implement after-school programs that teach those things. that's one project that we're working on. i think, like going back to your question, there's an urgency all around the country we teach workshops to students, mostly high school students. just sort of the gun violence prevention one on one and how students can go back to their schools and communities and work on it. and no matter if we're in the south, in florida, we have taught it there. we have taught it in hartford. those stories are much, much different than the students's in florida. it doesn't matter. they always say the same thing. one, they're tired of seeing their friends lost to gun violence. they're tired of hearing those stories and carrying that burden on their shoulders. two, they want to hear different things coming out of both sides really of the argument. they are tired of the redundant rhetoric. three, they want their voices to be heard. they want to be at the forefront of this debate.

because really my generation is the most disproportionately affected. the average age of gun violence is 31 years old, which is the tip of the mill menial generation. so that means more than half of gun violence victims are young people. so you will see this connecting students all around the country to come together for this one goal. our opponents always talk about our agenda. really our agenda is just to make our community safer so we don't have to fear crossing gang lines to go to school. or just attending school in a place called newtown, connecticut. >> sarah clements of the newtown action alliance. you make me feel both expectant and hopeful for the pros expects of this movement that you are both part of and building. you're a very impressive person. thank you for being here. >> thank. >> probably helps being the

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talk to your doctor and visit crohnsandcolitisadvocates.com to connect with a patient advocate from abbvie for one-to-one support and education. we now have got the final numbers on what actually happened in washington this year. house went home. senate went home. now we have the final numbers. and it is astonishing. it is gasp out loud astonishing. if you are drinking a beverage, right now, put it down. it will end up on your couch via your nose. here we have the number of bills passed by congress starting with the in famous do nothing congress of 1947 and 1948. you see the red arrow there? the do nothing congress got its name for passing at the time what seemed like an embarrassingly small number of bills. here we have the congress of the

newt gingrich era. the last full congress, the first congress under john boehner was the last productive in modern history. look at this. put down your drink and look at this. look. now we only have half of this current congress. they have all of next year to get their numbers up, right? that is as poor a start to the naked eye. what they have done is almost as invisible to the naked eye. we debut the official rachel mad dough show arrow that sparkles or blinks. they have passed 58 bills. they could triple their output next year and still set a new record low for utter futility about a complete u.s. congress. we had to invent a new thing to show you how bad they are. we posted a link to the miracle arrow and to the pitiful

congress on our blog today, along with a chart that doesn't have the blinky version. we will see you again on monday. have is an excellent weekend. "weekends with alex witt" starts now. bringing you pictures from space at this hour. astronauts are ready for a complex operation at the international space station. what are they fixing? back on earth, a huge travel weekend. in large parts of the country, a trek to your holiday destination could be a tough one. moving target. the retailers decides to take dramatic action after revealing millions of its customers's credit card numbers were stolen >> assessing 2013. the president reacts to some tough questions in his year-end news conference. how did he respond and what's he saying about 2014?