dissent into renewed chaos. it's monday, june 16th and this is "now". >> this could be the most decisive week in iraq's modern history. >> the battle for baghdad may be on the horizon. >> chaos is spreaded across the middle east. >> al qaeda linked militants are prepared to take the fight to the heart of baghdad. >> making claims of mass executions. >> the latest in a campaign against northern and western iraq to the doorstep of baghdad. >> a city ha has taken its gun out and locked and loaded it. >> it's almost inconceivable. >> john kerry said president obama is viewing a range of options. >> the u.s. is groping to understand what a sensible strategy is. >> iran may be partners in this fight. >> iraq might be the biggest foreign policy crisis the president has faced. >> a sectarian conflict, not simply a government that is fighting against an invading force. more sophisticated in that.

>> is it possible to dip your toe into iraq and not be pulled into deeper into the conflict? >> to understand what is happening in iraq today, it's worth looking back to december 18th 2011 when quts the norkz times ran this headline, last convey leaves iraq ending a war's end. a war's end. it didn't run that headline on a one or two or three. it ran on a six and it included this amazing detail. as an indication of the country the u.s. is leaving behind, for security reasons the last soldiers may no time for good-byes for iraqis who they became acquainted. the photo is beautiful and feels final. it's a lone american soldier walking across a sand swept landscape. but that wasn't final. it wasn't the end. the very next morning, iraq is

back in "new york times," front page. arrest lewarrant for sunni leader -- iraq's prime minister nuri al maliki, a figure america lifted to power because he seemed the best among a set of very bad options. he arrested the country's vice president or tried to, who happened to be the country's highest ranking sunni politician. to even begin to understand what's going on in iraq now, you need to understand that iraq has three main ethnic groups, sunnis, majority shiites and kurds. under saddam hussein, the sunnis o pressed the shiites terribly. and then shiites took power and prime minister maliki has been o pressing the sunnis. maliki has aliened and in some cases arrested the most reasonable sunni leaders and

embarrassed on mass arrests of young sunni men. in the process he has to a great extent driven the sunnis back into the arms of the extremists. those extremists bring us to the group you've been hearing about a lot lately, isis, you might remember them better if i use al qaeda in iraq. this is a group so vicious, al qaeda kicked them out of the al qaeda club because they were slaughtering so many civilians they were actually hurting the al qaeda brand. think about that for a second. they were so vicious that they turned al qaeda's stomach. but isis is crucially a sunni terror organization. and as maliki's oppression increased they rebranded themselves as protector of iraq's sunnis and taken over the second largest city in iraq and trying to take over much more. now, they are not that big. but when 800 isis soldiers face 30,000 iraqi soldiers in mosul,

the iraqi soldiers turned and ran because many of the iraqi soldiers in the unit are sunni and didn't want to fight and die for a government that they hate. this is iraq. there are no easy good-byes or easy good answers. but we can at least get good information. joining me now is nbc news foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin and spencer aker man. thank you for being here. ayman, i want to begin with you. let's start simply, who is isis? how did they get to a point where they could pose a threat to the iraqi government? >> reporter: isis as you mentioned were originally a group of sunni arab militants in the western part or northwestern part of iraq over the course of america's occupation of this country that rose up really predominantly to fight the american occupation. that ultimately gave birth to

isis, the group known as islamic state in both iraq and sometimes referred to as syria. their objective is to build a trans national islamic state in the modern middle east. they have 3,000 or 4,000 core fighters that includes some foreign fighters that have come from abroad. but in iraq specifically over the course of the past several days or weeks, their rank in file members have grown to include sympathizers and been able to tap into the ground swell of resentment that exists among the arab sunni population. getting a lot of support from arab tribes in the area and getting support from former badgei bathists. but the core of isis is an extreme idealogical group. it is a group that wants to impose sharia law across the region. they want to take the middle east back to the time of the

prophet mohammed because they really believe that it is only through an islamic state that this part of the world can rid itself of corruption. they are very idealogically driven organization. >> spencer, when you hear those kinds of estimates that there's a core of 3,000 to 4,000 fighters and 700 faced off, as driven as fighters might be, it does not seem plausible that this few could pose a serious threat to baghdad or frankly to all that much of iraq. the iraqi army has hundreds and thousands of fighters and many of them u.s. trained and armed. how is this group actually such a threat? >> this is what they can do. al qaeda and its brand when it acts in different countries aren't necessarily front line fighters. a lot of times they are facilitators and trainers and a lot of times they are experts and providing other fighters

often indigenous fighters with information, connections and access to material, to money and so forth to make them efficient fighters to make them better capable of posing this kind of threat. right now it doesn't look like there's much of a chance of isis overrunning all of iraq, of getting into real shiite areas, including bagdad which is as a result of the iraq war, mostly shiite. but it looks like what they can do as we've seen over the last two or three days is consolidate a lot of control over what they have in places like tikrit and mosul and it looks like they've basically redrawn the map of iraq and map of syria. they've been able to do that. >> ayman, does it seem the redrawing can actually stand? it seems surprising again given the numbers here and given that there are loyal soldiers to the iraqi army elsewhere in iraq and iraq is sending soldiers into iraq, there's not been sort of

serious counter offensive. is the issue there is support for isis door to door and it's considered -- why haven't they been routed? why haven't they consolidated this control? >> you know, in the classic sense of asymmetric war fare, they have found an environment where they can exist among the local population in urban settings. they blend in with the local population and have the ability and luxury to strike when they want. they are able and capable moving about this part of the world with low profile for them to be easily identified. and then ultimately targeted, let's say, by the iraqi army. more importantly, yes, definitely sectarian tensions play a very important real. why that matters is because it has allowed or given isis the eco system for the ideology to exist. this doesn't mean rank and file members or any of the residents in the sunni dominate the parts of the country agree with everything isis wants to do from

a religious or social or political perspective, but they have legitimate grievances and those legitimate grievances have dated back for close to a decade against the shia led government in baghdad. they felt those grievances have not been addressed. they have been ignored and isolated by the international community. and as a result, they have now found a component within their society that is willing to fight for them and can actually change the dynamic and balance on the ground and even the politics of the country to have a bigger representation for them. so they don't feel they are being targeted or don't feel they are being o pressed. that is where they are getting their status, if you will as liberators among the local population. down the road perhaps when the population here sees what isis is really about or what they really want to impose, that can change. but the dynamic right now or perspective is the population sees this in the context of the larger fight for iraq and that is one that right now has them

lending their support to isis, at least material. >> how many credit does al maliki take for this. >> to have less of an authoritarian and open up his government into an inclusive organization and done the opposite for the last couple of years. to the point where it looks like maliki is interested in maliki and not in governing the country and as been pushed to a breaking point. >> ayman, when you talk about theiris is' ability to move through the population freely. what is the role with the border of syria they've obliterated and iranian soldiers? what is the role of outside reinforcementses coming in on both sides? >> reporter: one of the

interesting reports i've heard from people in the region, the crisis in iraq is almost as much about the situation in syria as it is about what happened here. the border in syria and iraq over the last three years has been somewhat decimated. there is no official border anymore. there's a free movement of people and arms and goods and weapons and explosives. this has allowed the kind of violence to happen on both sides of the border. in fact a lot of fighters fighting in syria are returning to iraq and originally came from iraq when the revolution in syria began. that is how they want to maintain their presence. they want to be a trans national organization across these borders. they want to even expand their operations to neighboring countries in the la vant, which includes lebanon, palestinian territories and jordan, all of that they believe has to be the core of the future islamic state. when you talk about the presence of iranian special forces arriving in iraq to fight, they say this is the same fight they were fighting in syria. iran has maintained a presence inside syria for some time. they have fought them on those

battlefields and feel they'll be fighting them on the battlefields of iraq as well. in their eyes they feel they are fighting a larger sectarian conflict. they don't make the distinction between iran and shia led government in iraq and the a aloite that dominates syria. to get the support of some of the biggest sunni countries, including saudi arabia, turkey, egypt and others in the gulf. >> thank you and stay safe out there. >> after the break, president obama ran for office promising to get the u.s. out of iraq. so what does he think the u.s. should do now? that's next. sfx: car unlock beep. vo: david's heart attack didn't come with a warning.

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when i look out over this crowd today i know there is no shortage of patriots or patriotism. what i do oppose is a dumb war. >> iraq made barack obama his early opposition to the war fueled his candidacy and enabled his triumph over hillary clinton in the 2008 primary. once in office he made good to his promise to bring u.s. soldiers home. >> tonight i'm announcing that the american combat mission in iraq has ended, operation iraqi freedom is over and iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country. >> but president obama isn't a

peacenick his aggressive use of drones shows. that often means letting terrible things happen in the world and he often seems baffled by washington's codery of hawks who want to vofl the military and america doesn't understand and there's not even a clear idea of what it would mean to win. >> the question i think i would have is, why is it that everybody is so eager to use military force. there are going to be times where there are disasters and difficulties and challenges all around the world. and not all of those are going to be immediately solvable by this. there are occasions where targeted, clear actions can be taken that would make a difference. then we should take them. but we don't do them because somebody is sitting in a -- an office in washington or new york, think it would look

strong. >> now with isis gaining ground each day, the question for president obama, is there a targeted clear maneuver that could somehow make a difference, something to be gained by american involvement? would american involvement even work? the u.s. tried to intervene in iraq before. many in washington seem to have forgotten. it didn't go so well. back with me now, national security editor for the guardian, spencer ackerman. does obama see u.s. interests at play here in what is happening in iraq? >> you could sort of see on wednesday his deep reluctance to say that. the way he phrased it was to say the advance of isis implicates interest that the united states has that will eventually come into play. thn he started talking about both contemplating military action, meaning air strikes, no troops on the ground, but also trying to tie it to some commitment to the maliki

government to act in the one way it never acted since coming to po power in 2005, which is to be less of a sectarian force. these are tensions that really show the degree to which, whatever obama will ultimately decide militarily is likely to be rather limited because he doesn't believe massive american interests are immediately implicated with isis in iraq. >> last night i was surprised it came over the wires that there was a possible of u.s./iranian cooperation to beat by isis, today that got walked back a bit. is there an idea that iran which is already on the side of essentially on the same side we are of the iraqi government, can take the lead on this and there could be cooperation? >> one side that is definitely going to lead, one third country that is going to take the lead looks like iran. they have an extensive network inside iraq. it probably views the fall of baghdad as well as really crucial shiite holy cities like

samarra to be unacceptable to them, the trouble from the u.s. is part when secretary of state john kerry started to opening the door and visiting u.s. iranian military cooperation of some sort, is that you can just imagine what that sounds like to sunnis who they have to convince -- at least passively not to support isis or not to cheer them on against the maliki government. it really sounds to what we were reporting in iraq heard a lot through the u.s. war, the sum of all sunni fears is helping a shiite government in iraq. right now even though the iranians are the players on ground going to come to the rescue in many ways along with shiite volunteers in iraq of the maliki government, the u.s. probably does not want to reif fi that fact. that will make it difficult for

the gulf states and saudi arabia to come to u.s. assistance here. >> whether or not there is iranian cooperation, does that mean essentially the u.s. can't do much at all? because it seems i am plausible that people would see a u.s. operation and iranian operation and believe they are entirely separate. >> you might see a circumstance, if this is the sort of thing obama decides, to bring in air strikes and u.s. being essentially air combat -- close air support mission for iranian forces on the ground, whether just defacto, that probably will look like the case if it comes to pass, the reality of close air support do demand cooperation. that probably won't be explicitly the case but the perception matters a tremendous amount and it might look a whole lot like that. >> are there sunni politicians and sunni leaders in the iraqi

political establishment who the u.s. can work with on this? are there folks who can help negotiate some kind of better solution? >> there probably are but right now that seems very far afield. when isis is moving in on a variety of different cities, when it's moving in on baghdad, the strong impression i've been getting, u.s. policy here and frankly several governments here including iran's is extremely reactive and changing with the circumstance on the ground. if that happens, it's going to have to happen probably after big military setback that isis will have to feel. >> do we think we have a targeted way of making a big difference? would targeted air support matter? >> it's a question of what targeted means and what the mission actually is. this is something that the pentagon has been really vague about. after obama starts opening the door to military action, the response from the pentagon is to what it would be for would be to help stop isis' momentum, that should sound familiar because it's how the u.s. under obama defined the mission in afghanistan, stop taliban's

momentum. the virt tu of the phrase is also its weakness. if isis starts advancing more slowly, you can claim you helped stop their momentum. also the same thing if you take steps that have really discreet military meaning, taking territory and cities away from isis and killing its command strubl structure will matter a lot more. the fact we got a lot of vagueness says volumes you about how they are piecing this together. >> thank you very much for joining us. >> thanks, ezra. >> coming up, there is no place like git mo. what's in store for the 149 detainees who still call it home. the alleged 9/11 master mind ksm faces a major setback. that's next. so when we asked tt composites horizons to map their manufacturing process with sticky notes and string, yeah, they were a little bit skeptical. what they do actually is rocket science. high tech components for aircraft and fighter jets.

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lawyer for khalid sheikh mohammed said he would resign if a judge did not look into the fbi secret investigation of his legal team. a move that would further delay the process of trying the five men accused of planning 9/11. at issue is the fbi's questioning of members of the legal team representing these men and whether that created a conflict of interest for the defense. the fbi won't say what they were investigating and they insist these investigations are now closed but the defense teams at gitmo are demanding their own investigation to ensure their ability to represent the men has not been compromised. speaking to the associated press, an attorney for one of five defendant summarized the fbi strategy as such. the government's position now is that having been caught with its hand in the cookie jar, there is no problem because even though it ate the cookie, it put the lid back on the cookie jar. this is just the latest drama the in 12 years gitmo has been open. only eight prisoners have been

convicted. for comparison since 9/11 more than 500 terrorism suspects have been prosecuted in federal court. just ahead, hillary clinton really, is she really the key to the democratic party's future? republicans certainly think so but matt ig glas yas isn't so sure. ust. unitedhealthcare's innovative, simple program helps moms stay on track with their doctors to get the right care and guidance. (anncr vo) that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. means keeping seven billion ctransactions flowing.g, and when weather hits, it's data mayhem. but airlines running hp end-to-end solutions are always calm during a storm. so if your business deals with the unexpected, hp big data and cloud solutions make sure you always know what's coming - and are ready for it.

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the 2014 midterms are still months away but already republicans have turned their attention to the next election. for them that election is all about one person as conservative columnist argues, hillary clinton's iconic status is increasingly the only clear advantage the democratic party has. the entire coalition risks collapse. is hillary clinton the only hope democrats have going into 2016? my colleague matt inglas yas

organizes it is the opposite. clinton can only demand so much support because they are unusually united. in 2008 the primary centers around one issue the war in iraq. namely hillary clinton's initial support for the invasion and barack obama's initial opposition. they really did disagree. >> i think it is much easier for us to have the argument when we have a nominee who says i always thought this was a bad idea, this was a bad strategy. it was not just a problem of execution. >> but inside the democratic party, those disagreements have mostly sub sided and hillary clinton was obama's secretary of state. the president ended up adopting hillary clinton's mandate for his health care plan. sure, progressive democrats and their colleagues do have disagreements about how much banking regulation is necessary in the wake of the financial kris ses. they both think the answer is more than the republicans will agree to. there are real disagreements on

education and those play out at the local and state level where most education policy is made. on the major challenges of the day, democrats are more united than ever. that's why he argues hillary clinton is in such a strong position going into 2012. there simply isn't an obvious and deep fault line in the democratic party for her candidacy to fall into the way there was with iraq. joining me now is executive editor and reporter for the washington examiner, betsy woodroughwoo woodruff. i'm curious how the democratic party looks to you, fractured but being held together with the bern persona of clinton? >> one thing that really stands out about how the democratic party looks right now, a lot of progressives don't seem to be falling in line with hillary clinton. the fact that hillary and her husband and then the governor

took lots of free flights on walmart corporate jet, the fact when she left the board she had $100,000 in stock options. i almost wonder if there's any sort of tea party envy on the left as progressives see eric cantor getting pushed out in part because the dhal challenger emphasized he was too corporatesque. >> the tea party speaks a little to your point. what you don't have example on the democratic side are those kind of tea party maneuvers. you don't see that and primary you don't see that in the general elections. do you think things like walmart can doom or be a nonpolicy but political scandal based case? >> you know, i think that one of the big things that's a factor, republicans have made it very difficult for the obama administration to make any deals or get stuff done through congress. if republicans were more interested in compromise, you might see disagreement among democrats.

some people might want to make those deals and others might want to be more purists. it's very easy for democrats to kind of all hang together and say, you know, we might want different things in abstract but whatever hillary clinton's ties to walmart may or may not have been, all democrats, any democrat who can conceivably leave the party for higher taxes on wealthy, for a higher minimum wage and more string ent regulations and republicans are blocking that stuff. in the obama administration had been able to get more of its agenda done, you might see more disagreement about what's the next agenda. those colors unite everyone. >> you include things like universal pre-k and that goes to the question of about 2016, which is there is this kind of democratic agenda that i don't exactly know how exciting it is to democrats but it has been articulated and laid out through the obama administration what they couldn't get done through

congress. at the same time you have much more of a battle to come over the republican agenda. and it strikes me that there i think there's a somewhat open question, what agree unity is a political strength but the fractures there are more obvious and more severe. >> i think we spend a lot of time absolutely talking about the fractures in the republican party and i think it's going to be interesting to see those play out. those are more dramatic when you don't have the white house. that's a historical fact. i think it's very easy for democrats to understate potential fractures in their caucus. keystone pipeline is a perfect example. on sunday the daily globe out of canada published an article in which they interviewed clinton about the keystone pipeline and she didn't respond and didn't want to talk about it. that's an issue. on a state level, grims in kentucky has come under fire when she had a fundraiser with harry reid, she didn't talk about -- even though she had promised to have an anti-washington anti-epa stance.

on energy issues democrats have some trouble. if republicans can capitalize on that, that could be a rallying cry for the base. >> the question is to what degree the issues are salient to the party. i think betsy is right, there are dimensions of different issues that absolutely divide different members of the party, particularly when you look at different regions, you have grimes in kentucky, which is a coal state. you need a crack in the party, an issue that is not just divisive but deeply, deeply important. i think you kind of identify wall street and education. i'm curious why you don't think those will be big enough. >> well, education is something democrats absolutely disagree about. you see this all the time. sort of state local levels and it was a big deal in the new york city mayor's primary and big point of disagreement between the mayor there and governor of that state. it doesn't sort of bubble up to federal politics because the school systems are run by local governments and run by states in the u.s.

but it's something that the democrats have very passionate disagreements about, about charter schools and about sort of tests and their role in those things. then wall street is another big one. this is definitely in the journalist journalistic world that the three of us inhabit that people talk about all the time. my doubt is that it really plays over into mass politics. that you've seen the obama administration, whatever you think of them, did pass this very big bank regulation bill. the banking industry really hates it. they are fighting against the dodd frank rules all the time and white house and agencies are pushing back. to a normal time you look at it and see these are the players, banks on the one side and obama on other side and elizabeth warren has a more far-reaching agenda than obama's or probably hillary clinton. but they are pulling in the same direction. that's different from sort of classic party splits like you had in decades past. >> thank you both for being here

today. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> coming up, third time is a charm? team usa seeks redemption in the world cup rematch against ghana. catch the football fever just ahead. ♪ this is interesting.

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eat up. keep heart-healthy. live long. for a healthy heart, eat the 100% natural whole grain goodness of post shredded wheat. doctors recommend it. president obama calls out climate change deniers at the college commencement speech. you can find out what happens when potus stops being polite about science. up next. here's a look at how the stocks stand going into tomorrow, end the day slightly hi higher. the nasdaq closing ten points higher. that's it from cnbc, first if business worldwide. 're the dayf business. when possibilities become reality. with centurylink as your trusted partner,

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over the weekend, two weeks after the administration announce the ambitious epa rules to cut carbon dioxide at power plants. he took the climate change message on the road. on saturday the president spoke with the urgency to act ton climate change before it is too late. this sounded a little different from your typical obama speech on climate change. this wasn't a president who thought he might be able to pass a bill or win republican cooperation. it was a president fighting a war for the next generation of american voters. president obama spent a good deal of his team basically mocking republicans for their denial of science. >> when president kennedy sets us on course for the moon, there were a number of people who made a serious case that it wouldn't be worth it, it was going to be too expensive and too hard and take too long. nobody ignored the science. i don't remember anybody saying

the moon wasn't there or that it was made of cheese. today's congress though is full of folks who stubbornly and automatically reject the scientific evidence about climate change. they will tell you it is a hoax or fad. >> so that's the part of the speech and the gop climate change strategy that gets the most attention. the deniers. but if you look at top republicans, they are rarely deniers, they know better. it's an embarrassing position to be a denier. so you have seen the creation of a bit more slippery and sophisticated of an excuse. instead of saying they deny the science, they say this. >> listen, i'm not going -- i'm not qualified to debate the science over climate change. >> i'm not a scientist. >> neither he nor i are a climate scientist. >> i'm not a scientist. >> i am not a scientist. it's a mean which is true and popular even among younger more formist members of the party.

marco rubio told gq, i'm not a scientist, man, when asked if the earth was created in seven days. on saturday president obama turned his fire directly on this strategy. >> there are some who also duck the question, they say when they are asked about climate change, i'm not a scientist. i'll translate that for you, what that really means is i know that manmade climate change is happening but if i admit it i'll be run out of town that thinks climate science is a liberal plot, i'm not going to admit it. [ applause ] >> i'm not a scientist either but we've got really good ones at nasa. >> joining me now is senior editor at the new republic brian boyler, neither of you are science. something that always strike me about this, this is not a formulation you don't hear much in washington, get out and say, i'm not an iraq expert or i'm

not an economist. there's actually fairly little expertise among members of congress and yet people are confident about the positions they hold. but not here. why? >> they are confident about the position that they hold on the flip side of saying they are not a climate scientist. i'm enough of an economic or environmental economist to say we shouldn't take any measures of any substance to avert the possibility that maybe the scientists who do weigh in on this are correct. as you say, it's completely common for legislators and it's their job to evaluate expertise outside of the realm of legislative politics. and apply legislative politics to them to come up with answers and say i'm not a scientist is to say for coalition management purposes, i can't say this is real. if it does, it will really anger the actual deniers in my caucus. this is the wall they are up against. >> so brad, what's happening among the i'm not scientists is they are arguing what they are is sort of experts on the constitution. and constitutionally having the

epa aggressively put forward these rules is an ab ro gas station of congress's jurisdiction, despite the fact the supreme court put this in motion. there's an effort to take it away from the epa. how likely is it that they succeed in doing that? >> part of the power that the epa has comes through the clean air act passed by congress in the '70s and the supreme court has basically said you have to apply that to carbon dioxide if they find it endangers public health and well fare. they have to have repeal it through congress. it would probably take a super majority, 66 votes in the senate to overturn a presidential veto. so unless they get 66 or 67 votes in the senate, it's pretty unlikely. >> brian, when you get into the coalition management side, you've seen since 2008 a really sharp turn in the republican party. 2008 you had john mccain and

sarah palin ran on a platform that included a cap and trade bill. it's fair to say in 2016 that would be absolute suicide in the republican party. i think the question given that while the epa rules are ambitious, they are not nearly enough whether there can be a sharp change in the republican party in the coming years. what are the conditions if you think any actually exist by which the republican party can kind of get back to its pre-2008 status quo, where even if not every republican favored action, it was plausible and okay for some republicans to do so? >> i have a theory about this, which holds that climate politics in 2014 are a side show, they won't matter very much because the rules are proposals and there aren't a whole -- there's areas where they are unpopular in the country but democrats aren't running at greater risk because of the rules. come 2016 the politics will be really important and rules will be implemented and at the same time conservatives will be demanding that the presidential

candidates don't say i'm not a scientist but call into question the whole thing. that's a very unpopular opinion. if it is coupled with another sort of big republican presidential loss, then i think they can come to terms with it. the only way i can imagine that happening is if -- this is just brewing now, is the republicans in congress are going to try to repeal the authority for these rules during the appropriations process. if they get really dug in, and start another government shutdown fight over this and it costs them the senate majority they hope for, then grown-ups might arrive on the scene and say it's time to rethink our position on this. >> brad, what are the long-time theories, was that epa rules would create a spur for republicans to come to a different view on climate change. even if you don't want to necessarily do anything, the fact there are executive agency enforced rules coming out will create industry pressure, you'll

have people who run the coal plants and energy sources come into and saying you have got to come together with the democrats or some kind of broader deal that is better for us. do you think if they actually go into effect, there is any possibility of that? that even if you're not a scientist, the fact you are friendly to the industries in your state could lead to some action? >> so, one thing about these particular rules is i actually don't think that's a real possibility. the epa seems to have designed these rules to be pretty accommodating to different states and take into account what their energy situation is and what realistically they can do to reduce their emissions. so you've actually seen a lot of electric utilities say, okay, these are not quite as severe as we thought or we're still studying these or yeah, we think we can do it. so at least for the time being, it doesn't actually look like these rules are strict enough or are inflexible enough to really push utilities to say, okay, we

need to make a big lobbying campaign against congress to try to replace them with carbon tacks or something else. one place you could see a little pressure is from coal country, back in 2008, 2009, democrats wanted to pass this sweeping cap and trade bill and one of the provisions with a that it contained a lot of money to help coal communities that were hard hit by reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. these new epa rules don't have anything like that. there's nothing to help out coal communities who are hit hard by a reduction in coal burning. so that's something where congress could step in and legislation could really help but the epa can't do anything about that. >> brthank you for joining me. after the break, you can catch the fever. why soccer and team usa are prime for a long awaited comeback.

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fever continues to grow every four years. >> before you could ignore and say it's just a handful of people on the east coast. not any more. not true anymore. it's a lot of people. it's growing rapidly. >> the u.s. may be a 251 ranked outsider when it comes to taking home the famous trophy, let alone making out of the group of death. in the world cup as spain found out you never know. the quest begins tonight. good luck team usa. "the ed show" is up next. good evening, americans, live to "the ed show." i'm ready to go, i'm back. let's get to work.

>> if baghdad falls, if the central government falls, a disaster awaits us of monumental proportions. >> we're not going to allow ourselves to be dragged back into a situation. >> the seeds of 9/11 are being planted all over iraq and syria. >> this is the greatest threat national security threat since 9/11. >> also unknown unknowns. >> bad things happen as a result of inaction. >> you don't have to believe me. this is what they are telling you they are going to do. >> fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. you can't get fooled again. >> good to have you with us tonight. thanks for watching. here we go again. america got fooled once by going to war in iraq. republicans are now trying to fool us