>> washington hot seat. >> do you believe that you're ultimately responsible for all of this. >> i am. >> eric shinseki testifying in front of the senate veterans affairs committee. >> answer questions about allegations. >> administrators gamed the stomach make it look like patients were seen by doctors in just days. >> v.a. just didn't give a damn. >> any adverse incident like this make me mad as hell. >> high time that the v.a. take this dead seriously. >> i've also -- it saddens me. >> a political problem for the administration. >> president obama took some action. >> asking deputy chief of staff to oversee this crisis. >> the v.a. went to computers in 2013. the irs did it in 1990. >> the system is a world war ii system. >> simply trying to take on too much. >> the v.a. is more bureaucratic than the pentagon. >> let's get this right. let's make sure that no veteran

dies because of failure of the system. >> highly anticipated moment on capitol hill today, secretary of veterans afathers eric shinseki appear before senate lawmakers to address a potential scandal that has rocked his department. there to answer allegations that employees at a phoenix v.a. facility, as well as several others around the country, that they falsified official waiting list records to conceal extended and in some cases deadly wait times for veterans seeking care. >> any allegation, any adverse incident like this, makes me -- makes me mad as hell. i could use stronger language here, mr. chairman, but in deference to the committee i won't. if any allegations are true, they're completely unacceptable. if any are substantiated by the inspector general, we will act.

>> shinseki's dismay stopped three republican senator and the american's legion from calling on the secretary to step down. he defended himself this afternoon. >> would you explain to me, after knowing all of this information, why you should not resign? >> well, i'll tell you, senator, that i came here to make things better for veterans. this is not a job. i'm here to accomplish a mission that i think they critically deserve and need. i intend to continue this mission until i have satisfied either that goal or i'm told by the commander in chief that my time has been served. >> while most lawmakers believe the v.a.'s problems are systemic and not the fault of its top official, the frustration is clearly at a tipping point. the v.a. wait list is the latest allegation in a long line of

failures. while a full accounting of the ways in which we as a country have let down our veterans in recent past is unavailable, the list probably begins with our increased reliance on a small somewhere smaller segment of the population to fight our wars for us. there is also the inadequate treatment they receive when they return home, famously brought to light in 20070 when the. "the washington post" exposed shoddy conditions and poor health care at walter reed army medical hospital. the enormous backlog of disability claims for wounded warriors, which reached a peak of 611,000 claims in march last year. that backlog has since declined but the number of veterans seeking treatment has skyrocketed. soldiers returning from the wars in iraq and afghanistan placed a burden on the v.a. health administration, one that it apoorntsly cannot fully handle. the v.a. services 8.9 million veterans and sees 236,000 daily

visits at its 1700 hospitals, centers and clinics. it was this onslaught that led the v.a. last year to institute a policy for, quote, new patients seeking primary care to be seen in 14 days of calling f an appointment. a laudable goal but serious unintended consequences. joining me now, a member of the senate veterans affairs committee, richard blumenthal. thank you for joining me today. >> thank you, alex. >> you suggested one point during secretary shinseki's questioning that the inspector general was not adequate enough or perhaps did not have adequate resources to fully carry out the investigation and suggested the involvement of the fbi, to which the secretary said that is up to the inspector general. do you still think that it might be time to have the fbi get involved in this? >> very much so. and it isn't the v.a.

secretary's decision to make. it's the attorney general of the united states who can decide whether there is sufficient evidence of criminal wrong doing. and here what we have is evidence of destruction of documents, false statements, obstruction of an investigation, in phoenix and possibly elsewhere. there are ten places around the country where this wrong doing, more than inpropriety and misconduct, but criminality may have occurred and that's the reason, the lack of resources, the lack of authority, and prankly lack of expertise on the part of the inspector general i suggested the department of justice and the federal bureau of investigation ought to be involved and as a former united states attorney in connecticut as well as state attorney general i know well that the fbi has expertise in this area that is very important in sending a message and bringing to bear the resources so we get answers and more importantly, we get action. >> do you think the white house has been aggressive enough in

its pursuit of the truth and finding out what happened here? ewe know rob neighbors was appoint to assist in the investigation. was it more than adequate. >> the response has to begin and not end with rob nabos, he's the deputy chief of staff in the white house, attention is high ranging but the president's leadership has to be direct and immediate and obviously the involvement in the attorney general of the united states could be at direction of the president. but you have really mentioned the profoundly important core point here which is the commitment of the nation by the resources involved in keeping faith with our veterans. the resources or the lack thereof 0 are the reason that perhaps these deadlines, 14 days and so forth, were not met by the medical facilities and the nation is in danger of failing to keep faith with our veterans

by providing the health care that they deserve. they put themselves at risk, many on the battlefield. now they're put at risk of substandard medical care, inadequate access, and that is the core question, will our nation meet its obligation to the veterans. >> senator, before we let you go one of the most distressing aspect, 14-day turnaround period was intended to be a reform to get veterans faster hope and it's had an adverse effect. when we talk about what is needed to solve this issue, i mean, where do you see it? where do you see reforms happening? i know on budgetwise the v.a. budget this year, 6.5% increase from last year. policies that were intentions were good, results were bad. i wonder, speaking to the american public, what should be done? >> system exchange so there is real accountability.

you're absolutely right falsification of records to make the v.a. secretary and the upper management blooev thelieve they meeting deadlines when they were putting people on secret waiting lists so they wouldn't be counted in the queue until they could be within 14 days that kind of system has to end. accountability and a new management team has to come forward. >> connecticut senator richard blumenthal, thank you for your time and thoughts. >> thank you. >> joining me, senior military correspondent for "the huffington post" and pulitzer prize winner dave lloyd. we talked about this last year. having heard the swekt his testimony today, do you feel like we're getting closer to the truth of what went down here? >> i think we are slowly getting closer to it. the problem, there's a culture at the v.a., i think it's safe to say a culture of fear. people are afraid to disappoint

the secretary, retired army general, and war hero, who so clearly feels deeply about veterans and wants to make sure they're taken care of. people are afraid of disappoint him. so afraid that they're willing to cheat and hide and cover up, you know, their inability to get people in on time it's a real mess. but i think the critics who have said there needs to be a cultural change at the v.a. have hit it right on the head. >> dave, why are numbers so high? we know that primary care visits, accord together "new york times" at v.a., rose 50% over the last three years. what do we attribute that to? >> well, look, this is an aging population of veterans, wore war ii, korea, vietnam veterans are increasingly in need of elderly care, things that go wrong with people as they get older affect veterans population.

also, the -- this new generation of iraq and afghanistan war veterans are much more demanding, much more likely to come in and want health care for the problems that experiencing. that's behind this huge increase of demand for v.a. health care. let me also say, only about half of the veterans eligible for v.a. health care come in to get it. the problem could be a lot worse ironically. >> dave, you're done great reporting on the veterans, health concerns, life after combat. do you get a sense the veterans like the v.a.? so many difficult, opinions, people at odds with each other over whether the v.a. should be done away with entirely. >> we can't do away with the v.a. indoorly. what i hear from veterans, health care they get is superb, for amputees, burn patients, people with ptsd and mental

health ailments, the care they get is superb. the problem is getting in to get the care and it can be frustrating and they feel they don't deserve to be made to wait in line as long as they have been. >> dave wood, thank you. after the break, dismissed. jill abramson unceremoniously fired as top editor of the "new york times." would the ax have fallen differently if she was a man? next on "now." cars are driven by people. they're why we innovate. they're who we protect. they're why we make life less complicated. it's about people.

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news flash! you cannot abruptly oust the top editor of the new york sometimes without having a bunch of nosy journalists investigating what went down. no surprise, we are learning there is a back story to yesterday's stunning announcement that the times' executive editor jill abramson fired less than three years after appointed as the first woman to lead the paper. the publisher arthur saltsburger told a newsroom that he made the decision because of, quote, an issue with management in the newsroom, the new yorker reported that part of the problem involved abramson's paycheck. a letter writes, abramson discovered her pay and pension benefits both as executive editor and before that as managing editor were considerably less than the pay and pension benefits of bill kel, male editor who she replaced in both jobs. today a letter related what happened when abramson confronted "the new york times" top execs. >> went to raise a polite protest and it fit into

narrative that had been forming in arthur saltsburger's mind and mark thompson's mind, she was a difficult person to deal with. >> difficult to deal with. or as an unnamed source told him, it fed management's narrative she was, quote, pushy. difficult, pushy, brisk, polarizing, we have yet to get the full story behind the upheaval but words to describe jill abramson tell a story of their own. joining me now is the co-creator of the daily show and cofounder of lady parts justice, liz winstead and correspondent at the chicago institute of politics anna marie cox. liz, the words pushy, difficult, polarizing mercurial, i can't remember the last time a major male figure was ousted for character issues like that in such an unsceremonious and transparent fashion.

>> first that is my twitter file. i keep going back to is that it is -- it is -- it's simply feels like, oh, she's difficult, pushy, blah, blah, so she gets to go. forget about the three years, forget about the publishers, the talent. i was trying to think how many men have i ever heard were let go of a major media institution on that high level because they were pushy or difficult. >> when those were not actually attributes that were celebrate in some way. >> exactly. >> as executive editor of "the new york times" one wow think you'd have to be pushy to get a story. >> do you know what you have to do to get a newspaper out every day in be pushy. you've have to push people all the zblim anna, you know, what struck me is a lot -- there's a lot 0 swirl why exactly jill abramson was fired. but among the things that stood out to me, particularly egregious was her good-bye or

lack thereof. the fact there was no sort of ceremonial kind of eulogy, if you will, for her career at the "times" which was storied, eight pulitzers for the paper in the first quarter of the year, scored a $22 million operating profit, a 3.4% increase in ad revenue for papers these days, that's a really big deal. >> yeah. she didn't get an awkward good-bye cake. >> exactly. >> you know, i think it's pretty, as you said, unceremonious, it is dumping. i can't think of male ceos treated like that. they didn't look at her record. he was changing the "times" newsroom and mast head, bringing in more women, push ily bringing in more women and one of the people that i think saw a future for digital. i think she was the future of the paper. it's kind of hard to see why

personality problem would make you let someone go who was actually contributing to the success of the institution. and again, you pointed out, but vie to say it again, all editors are pushy. i have not met an editor in my entire ti en entire career that wasn't pushy. it's celebrated when it's men. woodward and bernstein, one word to describe them, pushy. >> pushy. lizz, the other corrosive part is the way, the sort of tacit acceptance that it happened, the guy replacing jill abramson said at the announcement, when she was not present he thanked her for teaching him value of great ambition and that -- and then added that john carroll, whom he worked for at "l.a. times," told him that great editors can also be humane editors. well, isn't that like just a tidy summary of sort of the

devil wears prada in the newsroom. >> we've all heard that. >> but we talk a lot about cheryl sanburg, being bossy april movement to change afoot we dialogue around women that are successful and something like this happens in the real world outside books and initiatives online and i feel like it rewinds it all over again. >> i feel like part of it is, when -- when we look at situations where, again, i keep going back to when we are all part of a process, where deadlines are creative you don't allow a lot of women in these circles, you don't see that women are strong and tough and we can deal with things. i think there's so much assumption women are supposed to be a certain way and the apology to everyone around you, even men who aren't that way themselves, that's the part that freaks me out. it's like, wait, you plow forward, you expect me to have a thick skin and understand yet

you expect me to really value everything you're saying at all times and i value you because i pay you a salary. that means you've got to take all of it with it. sometimes people are pushy -- pushy bugs me. but aggressive -- >> value of great ambition. >> the value of great ambition, you have to make sure that you also organizations. probably expected her to organize her own good-bye cake. why don't you get your own cake? isn't that part of your job? >> ann marie, the other piece that is inconclusive whether pay equity was at issue. suggested there might have been a disparity in term of pension payments the timing could not be better/worse. better for the broader dialogue about pay transparency, workers' rights, paycheck fairness, women making less than men for every dollar earned but it couldn't be

worse for the "times" the paper that is aware of all of this, knows what's in the ether and be potentially guilty of something like this. >> other people have made the point before, but i'll make it again, it's a good one, how would "the new york times" cover this story? >> right. the bigger question, i guess, when you look at how they have handled this, i guess we'll call it a scandal, i mean it's fairly shocking that a paper that traffics in investigation and messages that may or may not be sincere, that they would manage it like this. >> right. would they take no for an answer about being transparent? i don't think some the i think the reporter at another paper would be pushy about it. >> thank you both for your time. coming up -- louisianan governor bobby jindal hones his resume only as a republican with presidential aspirations can, appearing on

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culture, you may have taken note of the recent flap between the robertson family of "duck dynasty" fame and the a&e network that produces and broadcasts the "duck dynasty" show. you may think i was defending the robertsons because i'm the governor of their home state, the great state of louisiana. you may have thought that i defended them because my boys are huge fans of the show. you would have been wrong about that. i defended them because they have ever right to speak their minds. however, indelicately they may choose to do so. >> that was louisiana governor bobby jindal at liberty university in virginia singing praise of phil robertson's first amendment right to say gay people are doomed to hell for being gay.

robertson was suspended for a few weeks. but about you heard it from jindal two months robertson's mouth had been taped shut by liberals. >> i stood up for their right to speak up and articulate their beliefs because i am tired of the left, i'm tired of the left that claims they are tolerant, claims for diversity, and they aren't. they're tolerant and there for diversity except when you dare to disagree with them. >> we must not let them silence the robertsons. after conferring some sort of vague jindalesque brand of martyrdom on the robertsons, the governor is now getting rewarded. in just a few weeks, on june 1th, bobby jindal will appear on the premiere of "duck dynasty." for the republican governor who once told republicans to stop being the stupid party, it seems he's now just decided to get on the bandwagon. because what better way to prove your 2016 than to appear on a show of a man who hates gay

people what governor jindal is up to. over the weekend, jindal continued to raise his profile as champion of the religious right, prerepeating his claim a silent war is under way against christians. unclear whether a candidate who called his entire party stupid will be able to sell himself as younger, hipper mike huckabee and unclear whether the rest of the country has any interest in electing the younger, hipper mike huckabee. ahead a new round of violence kills dozens in syria, a war that has claimed more than 150,000 lives and left the world wondering how and when it will ever end. author and presidential historian john meech ham joins me. i'm their mom at the playground

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united states and yet every day when i wake up and i think about young girls in nigeria or children caught up in the conflict in syria, i think drop by drop by drop that we can erode and wear down these forces that are so destructive that we can tell a different story. >> president obama last week if a rare moment of reflection on the human toll of the civil war in syria. which has killed over 150,000 people. the bloody conflict is now in its fourth year and the news out of seyria continues to get wors. earlier today a car bomb exploded on the turkish border killing 43 people and 2 kidnapped british reporters were released after being badly beaten and shot by members of the islamic front.

in 2013, 9,500 people a day were displaced inside syria, which is about one family every 60 seconds. this report came one day after the u.n.'s top diplomat, the person assigned to mediate a solution to the conflict, after he quit out of frustration over lack of action. despite recent news of the syrian government turning over chemical weapons supply, two reports from french officials and human rights watch thaelg president assad's forces crosses the proverbial red line more than a dozen times since october last year, specifically the report asserts the syrian government has repeatedly dropped chlorine gas on its own people. but perhaps the most distressing pictures out of syria this week, images of the old city where naer naer insurgents departed last week but residents able to rush after two years of blockade. a place that has been brought to

ruin by the civil war. joining me jon meacham and sarah m margone. rhw put out the report, a red line established but sounds like it's been crossed and crossed again. can you give us more details on what the syrian government has done to its own people. >> sure. the scale of abuse is incredibly staggering. what we've seen is the use, apparent use of chlorine being dropped out of barrel bombs from helicopter and evidence suggests it's the reegime because they have the aircraft, the helicopters. it civilians who are stuck while barrel bombs this time of chlorine rain on top of them and they have little defense. >> john, you recently wrote a piece about the president's foreign policy. on syria and specific, one gets a sense that he is a man

conflicted and it weighs on him, that piece of sound we played at top of the segment i think speaks to that. you wrote obama's choosing limit action in many snee spheres bec more expansive action would create more problems than it would solve. we should not seek out monsters to deploy, you compare that to cowboy diplomacy or lack thereof of the bush administration. when one reads egyptian diplomats are quoted as saying the u.s. officials openly tell them, we have no policy on syria, one thinks, is this a sort of now nuanced foreign policy or nonexistent foreign policy? >> we're in a moment where we've overcorrected, which institutions tend to do and countries tend to do. many people believed that the experience, particularly in iraq, of american projection of

power was -- shown a certain limitation to our capacity to effect change around the world. and i think that a lot of folks at this point are believing that now in the sixth year of the next presidency, that perhaps we have been too gun shy, if you will, about projecting that power. i have enormous sympathy for the president on this because there is a question of would you send forces in directly? would you arm the rebels, which has been more conversation about. there are different decision points in -- within the crisis and those of us sitting far away from responsibility can pop off with impunity but the president has the responsibility for this decision and i think is honestly struggling with it. >> sarah what -- there's obviously no easy answer to this, right?

jeffrey goldberg suggests it might be too late, that the shape sof the rebellion is such that it would be too complicated to try to solve it. i think when looking at the staggering numbers around this situation, 2.8 million syrian refugees, 9.3 million people in syria in need of humanitarian aid, something has to be done. i mean, from your perspective, humanitarian perspective what should the u.s., western powers be doing at this point? >> i think it is complicated, and certainly a number of senior officials in of the government feel particularly upset about the fact there -- more hasn't been done. two things can be done, at least move in the right direction and the u.s. wis behind one of them a resolution to refer syria to the international court. there may be two vetoes, russia and china but it's good to see the united states, obama administration, behind this resolution and coming out in

support of. the other one is it's not just kel cal weap chemical weapons, it's conventional weapons in general international norms. we're proposing an armies embargo pushed by the u.n. security council ideally but that might run into problems with russia and china, and nen you think about maybe others coming together in agreement on an arms embargo because it's ongoing sale of weapons and provision of weapons to the regime and other abusive actors on the opposition side that could cause some lessening of the crisis perhaps. >> john, not too belittle infrastructure investment which i think is critical but the likelihood of republicans in congress doing anything on it is almost close to zero. the president was given a speech on the tappan zee bridge yesterday. i was struck by the magnitude of problems facing country and the tiniest of levers that are still available to him to deal with them. foreign policy in terms of

second terms tend to be an area where presidents feel like they can do more. the new york sometimes had a headline yesterday that read, u.s. envoy zero wanda moment in syria's escalating crisis. do you get the sense there will be an increasing appetite for think through foreign policy and pursuing a robust, aggressive foreign policy position in the coming years from the administration? >> exactly right. presidents always find foreign policy, they come in running on domestic policy and then suddenly realize there's a thing called congress in town that they have lots of ideas about domestic policy and they have lots ideas of foreign policy but fewer levers of control for them. if president obama is like his two-term predecessors, he will spend the next 24 months or so or more spending more time abroad because he is less constrained if he has a clear

vision of what he himself wants to do. >> john, really quick, this is a president who was brought into office for a number of reasons, but his international perspective was one of them. it's actually interesting so much so far has focused on the domestic given his level of comfort with international affairs and international diplomacy. >> it's very hard, as you know, to explain in this climate what a foreign policy is. there are enormous humanitarian problem but was at what point does it rise to a level of national interest, as opposed to humanitarian interest? this is something that every president has dealt with for a long time. so these problems are not unique but that doesn't make them any easier. >> thank you both for your time. >> thank you. >> coming up, senator lindsey graham launching a new push to ban abortion after 20 weeks but graham's got nothing on republicans in missouri. michael steele and msnbc's aaron

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i've been here ten times, arrested for peaceful protests at abortion clinics standing up for what is right. we need leaders now with courage and resolve to stand against washington's abuse of power. >> that was a campaign add for from south carolina senate candidate richard cash. cash is one of three republicans challenging incumbent senator lindsey graham. if touting one's double digit arrest for an ad for national office seems out of the

ordinary, richard cash is a little out of the ordinary. this image invokes martin luther king's jr. i have a dream speech to celebrate opposition of reproductive rights. ranging from slim to none, but he's having a notable effect on the race and in turn having a notable effect on sllegislationn the congress. an abortion ban after 20 weeks based on disputed claim that a fetus can feel pain after that period. >> my legislation would ban abortion at the 20-week period, the fifth month, based on the theory that the child can feel pain that the point in the pregnancy. >> while graham's bill is political maneuvering intended to shore up the conservative vote at home, attempts to slowly

but surely peel away reproductive freedoms are succeeding at state level a 72-hour wait period between a dr. vis it and abortion, contains no sengss for victims of r aape or incest. it is only the month of may, nearly three dozen laws, even though there's only one clinic still providing abortion services in the state of missouri. this afternoon, jay nixon released a statement calling the bill an extreme proposal, but if the governor signs off on it the 20-week ban could force the clin to shut down and the women left behind only options to cross state line order worse. joining me now, national reporter, erin carmone and from chicago, former rnc chair, michael steele. i understand that some people will have issues relating to you

know a woman's right to choose abortions, et cetera. but the targeting of this one clinic in the state seems a little bit extreme to me. >> well, yeah. i guess at a certain level, you're right. effectively, as we've seen in texas and elsewhere, winnowed a lot of the companies of businesses out of business. the states are trying to put it on the question of abortion. that's probably how it should be. this is a mat that should be decided by the states that is, you know, like other matters, gay marriage and other issues decided by the states more and more. a federal law on the matters, i think, is more problematic in that you see the politics of south carolina, for example, and in kentucky with mitch mcconnell playing it self-out on a national stage where decisions, i think are going to be more and more in the future decided at

local level. >> erin, i find it disconcerting what's happening at state's level, in particular, in missouri, this clinic has been under constant surveillance by anti-choice activists. their goal to document anytime an ambulance comes to the clinic. we talk a lot about conservative theory and conservative ideology and how in some cases it can be hypocritical given the fact it's about freedoms and personal liberties. here's an example of conservative in the far right wing targeting women for a procedure that is constitutional, legal, sanctioned by the supreme court. >> right. there's also an inconsistency, you know, michael steele mentioned the federal level. republicans have repeatedly introduced on the federal level as well these curtailments. >> lindsey graham with his big chart. >> and passed many under the bush administration. it's all about state's rights until it comes to a woman's body. when it comes to the state level where they have control, because the president has said he would

veto the 20-week ban, you're seeing absolute devastation of access to reproductive health care abortion, contraception is something they've come out for, you've seen the hobby lobby case. in missouri there's a lot of resistance there was a 72-hour filibuster, the women filibuster protest on the steps, pushing for governor nixon, his statement encouraging, to veto it. there are pockets of resistance in the states. where republicans are v. taken over government entirely, that is generally bad news for women's reproductive rights but still room for pushback. >> michael, the other thing this does is get republicans not talk about the economy or jobs or you know economic policy and an area where maybe there could be debate and collaboration. it's once again this becomes a party that is trying, that is focused on women's issues. i will say from a pure optical

perspective, lindsey graham on the floor of the u.s. senate with a chart of 20-week abortion bans, that is a good thing for the republican party? >> i don't think that's the conversation america's engaging in. it doesn't mean that issue is not an important issue, certainly it is for a lot of americans. but as a national party and as leadership in the congress and the senate, we have to focus on what is pushing american's buttons now. it's lack of jobs, lack of economic ability, focus on poverty, focus on those type of issues. and choices that individuals are making this their likes as a national party, we should be, as we've argued, support innive of individual freedoms make choices is that's where the state comes in and that's where the state right's argument comes in. we're good on guns but not other issues but people see the hypocrisy and are repealed by it. we need to back off of that, let states work it out.

in missouri, texas, elsewhere, tides turn. people decide what they want their state to look like on the issue and act accordingly. the national level we have bigger fish to friday and we need to focus on that. >> jay nixon was almost impeached because apparently state workers released a list of concealed gun permits, he's under fire, he's a democratic governor, the state has swung far to the right. is what going to happen here? this statement that he thought the bill was extreme, seems to suggest he's going to veto it. >> this is a battle about extreme. we see republicans focus on this 20-week abortion ban, trying to get back from the magic of 20 years ago that lost democrat seats. each side is trying to portray each other as extreme. it's a credit to the kind of pressure that being put on. i want to address what former

chairman steel said, states need to decide this. the only thing allowing women in mississippi and texas and alabama and wisconsin, where all of the laws have been passed allowing them to exercise constitutional rights is the supreme court, the federal government pushing back on access to contraception and birth control -- sorry, to abortion. if you -- it's great to talk about states' rights but there's a saying that your rights should not depend on your zip code and that's in play here as well. >> it's a testament to the judicial branch being where everything is happening in america now. thank you both for your time. >> okay. >> after the break, what with all of the name calling, fearmongering and race baiting rush limbaugh has a lot on his plate. where did he find time to pen an award winning children's book? ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you outlive your money?

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racial dog whistler, rabid right winger, affront to women everywhere and award-winning children's book author, rush limbaugh awarded author of the year by the children's book council. rush took home at ward last night for his tale of narcissism, patriotism and talk horses. paul rush revere and the brave pilgrims. >> on behalf of rush revere and his talking horse liberty, time traveling i want to thank all of the children who voted i love america. i wish everybody did. i hope everybody will. >> if everybody loved america the way rush did, what a strange, sad country we would be. that is all for now. see you back here tomorrow at 4:00. "the ed show" is up next. >> good evening, americans, welcome to "the ed show." live from new york. i'm ready to go. let's get to work!

>> workers united. >> fast food pay fight going global. >> raise the wage. >> we can survive on 7.25. >> next to nothing. >> calling on lawmakers to raise the minimum wage. >> mirrors 15 bucks an hour the group's working for fast food workers. >> businesses would love to help the most vulnerable members of society. >> relying on the taxpayers. >> their question is just, what's in it for them? >> we are fed up. >> shame on you. shame on you. >> ronald. >> barely enough to have food on my table. >> no union recognition. >> i fear for nothing because we have make a difference, we have to change. >> good to have you with us tonight, folks, thanks for watching. when was the last time you just