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how u.s. air strikes could help saves lives. now the skman 18-year-old i. what happened? nascar star tony stewart hits a fellow driver who ran out onto the track. the incident is being investigated. hey there, everyone. it's a bit past high noon here out east and 9:00 a.m. in the west. air strikes resumed and american drones and fighter jets struck near erbil, the site of the u.s. consulate. earlier air strikes targeted militants firing indiscriminately. officials say the aircraft delivered more than 3800 gallons of water and more than 16,000

meals. the uk has made its first airdrop in iraq. one of the planes completed the mission overnight. meantime, the debate is playing out here at home. >> this isis threat in syria and in iraq is growing and toubl troublesome. the big question is, what can the united states do to stop it? if the iraqis come together, oust maliki. we cannot send the troops. we must not send the troops. >> isis is a direct threat to the united states of america. what dick durbin and president obama just said is really a shame for american leadership. we can't wait for maliki or the iraqi leadership. this is becoming a direct threat to the united states of america. they are more powerful now than al qaeda was on 9/11.

so dick durbin says, we're not going to do this, we're not going to do that, i want to see what he's going to say when they attack the united states. >> keir simmons is joining us. hello, keir. >> reporter: dozens of refugees grasping for aid from a kurdish helicopter. one boy clings on. just 20 made it on board. thousands are cut off by isis and families are fleeing any way they can in temperatures of more than 110 degrees, this child just five days old, 4,000 have taken refuge in a church. there are just crowds of families here, people just carrying their children down the side of the church. parents struggle to hold it together. nadal holds her 10-month-old baby. isis told her to wear an islamic

shawl or be killed. please, they beg, help stop isis. >> army, army america. >> reporter: the president's promise, no boots on the ground is not what they want here. >> a plane to bomb. okay? >> all right. now, that was keir simmons reporting there. joining many he is michael sang. he's now a senior fellow and managing director at the washington institute. michael, welcome to you. on "meet the press, " michael leiter, i know you know him, he described the threat from isis as he sees it. let's listen to that. >> this is now the biggest terrorist organization with the most money getting more and more recruits. they are threatening iraq but there are also serious stability

threats and other elements in the opposition in syria are absolutely looking to attack the west. >> do you agree with that assessment? >> well, i think that the threat this group poses is in fact a broad threat. we've seen that they've targeted threats not just in iraq which is the focus of a lot of news medias these days but they've taken over the opposition in syria to a great extent. they've attacked lebanon. they pose a great threat to saudi arabia. a lot of our officials, including jeh johnson, have said that it has attracted foreign fighters from the west and elsewhere who may return to the places that they came from. >> yesterday the president called this a long-term project. so when you look at isis and their fighting capabilities and the supplies that they have, can you put any sort of estimate on the timetable? >> well, it depends on what you mean as the objective.

timetable for what, in a sense? i think the president has defined the mission of u.s. forces in iraq now very narrowly just to protect u.s. personnel and facilities in erbil and baghdad which means essentially keeping isis from further advances towards those cities and then providing humanitarian relief. if all we're going to try to do is hold isis in place, that could be an open-ended mission because without defeating the group you could be trying to hold them in place for a long time. the timetable depends. isis is a jihadist organization. i think that isis has a desire to attack the west. isis' main sort of focus right now seems to be upon governments there in the region. and so i think the main sort of worry right now is, number one, about those foreign fighters, that they could return and

conduct plots either at isis' direction or on their own, as lone wolves or the territory that isis controls could be a safe haven for other groups that then themselves want to attack the west. >> should the u.s. be conducting air strikes in syria as well, targeting their headquarters there? when you look at the advances on the 17th of july, isis struck in syria and took so much in terms of artillery and munitions and it's extraordinary the arsenal that they are developing. >> well, i do think, alex, the mission that the president has chosen is too modest, too narrow. number one, we should be doing other things in iraq, like providing weapons to those kurdish forces so they have a better chance of defeating isis on the ground and rolling ooiis back. helping the syrian rebels, we've been talking about this for years, helping the syrian rebels

perhaps conducting air strikes in syria but really organizing a more regional and international effort to not just hold this group where it is but to really deal it a blow. that is what it will take to really change the equation there. i'm not sure why we are not doing that. we keep saying no boots on the ground but that's really a strong arm argument because that's not the only option here. >> michael, thank you for weighing in. >> thank you, alex. well, new today, nascar championship driver tony stewart -- actually, we're going to go to that in a second. how effective are the u.s. air strikes against the militant? could the u.s. wipe them out from the air? i'll get a read on the effectiveness and scope of the military strikes. could more be done? it's coming at the bottom of the hour. now let's go to police in ferguson, missouri, following the deadly shooting by the police. michael brown was shot dead saturday afternoon two days before he was reportedly set to

begin his first day of college. here are more details of the incident. >> our ferguson police officer had an encounter with two individuals on the street. in fact, one of those individuals at the time came in as the officer was exiting his police car, allegedly pushed the police officer back into the car where he physically assaulted the police officer. it is our understanding at this point in the investigation that within the police car there was a struggle over the officer's weapon. there was at least one shot fired within the car. after that, the officer went back -- came back out of the car, exited his vehicle and there was a shooting that occurred where the officer, in fact, shot the subject and the subject -- there were fatal injuries. >> in ferguson, missouri, for us, let's talk about other details that we got from this

news conference. what did you learn? >> reporter: well, alex, outside of what you just heard from st. louis county police chief, we did learn that the victim mike brown was apparently unarmed at the time of this shooting. that's what witnesses have said all along, that brown and his friend dorian that were walking down the street were never armed and they claim that the officer was the aggressor. this has been a developing story for the last 24 hours now. you see behind me a large group of protesters that gathered here outside of the ferguson police department and fire department. they began their demonstrations last night. this community is enraged at the fact that this 18-year-old young man was shot and killed. and they are very upset, frankly, at the fact that police have not been very forthcoming with a lot of information. the two stories, as you heard, completely clash with one another and they have been outraged again at the fact that mike brown's body laid in the

street for 4 1/2 hours yesterday while investigators were out there. i was at that scene. it was a very uncontrolled chaotic scene with hundreds of protesters out there, people upset about what happened and it has just continued to go on and on. the protest leaders here calling for 10,000 more people to come out tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. they are calling for a boycott saying that's the way they will bring justice to this cause to hit the city and their leaders in the wallets. it's a very interesting situation out here that's crossed really racial divides. there are white protesters, black protesters, you name it, everybody is out here making their voice heard. alex? >> greg, can you just kind of give me the subtleness and there

was a police officer clearly armed ready just in case. i mean, those two images are troubles. >> reporter: they do jux ti pose very strongly against each other. i was not at the protest but one of my colleagues took a photo. yes, he was on top of an armored s.w.a.t. vehicle with a rifle in his arms. there were heavily armed officers at the scene yesterday and a second round of gunfire. we're not sure who fired or why. but that did bring in a lot more officers. they were at that point wearing bulletproof vests, had assault rifles, a number of k-9 officers were brought in. you can't help but draw comparisons in your mind to the actions taken by police in the civil rights movement.

not that they were agressing at the scene at all but police officers with dogs, it was a very striking scene. this has been a very calm and peaceful protest. a lot of anger but no violence to this point. so there has not been a lot of physical altercations or anything of that nature between the protesters and police here. >> really good reporting there. i appreciate that. nascar champion driver tony stewart pulling out of the race today after his car hit someone. stepping on track and moving towards stewart's card when the collision happened. it sent ward nyiflying 50 feet o the air and he died from his injuries. >> mr. stewart has, again, fully cooperated with the police officers that are investigating.

he was visibly upset. >> nascar's most well-known drivers, tony stewart, a three-time champion and a regular at spint car events but at this morning he's at the center of an investigation after a fatal car crash that took place in upstate new york late saturday night. officials with the ontario sheriff's department says his car struck another driver who was walking on the track moments after spinning out. the sheriff department has said that this is not a criminal investigation at this time. and that stewart has been, quote, fully cooperative. >> a second sprint car operated by driver tony stewart, age 43 of columbus, indiana, struck the operator of the sprint car that

was on the track. >> this is stewart's third crash in just over a year. in july of 2013, stewart was involved in an accident that injured a 19-year-old driver. on the same track as last night's fatal accident. weeks later he broke his leg in a crash in iowa, something he tweeted about just last week, writing "one year ago today my life changed. thank you to everyone that worked so hard to get me back to where i am today. it's your life. live it." >> that was msnbc kristen dahlgren reporting. president obama has asked israel to help against the war crime charges. is that claim true and, if so, what was the reaction. d thank yu for your bravery. thank you colonel. thank you daddy. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance can be one of them.

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the ultimate threat is an american who goes to syria or iraq, gets experience on weapons, comes back to the united states, we didn't know they were there and they set off improvised devices in new york. that's a real threat. michael leiter outlines the very real and direct threat that isis faces with the united states. we're going to discuss your visit to israel in a minute but i'd like to get your reaction to what you heard michael leiter said there. do you think there is a real and distinct and direct threat to this country? >> yes, i do. i don't know who the gentleman was who just said radicalized people going to syria, iraq, fighting isis and coming here to intend mayhem here are a threat to the united states.

of course, that threat can be met only by counter intelligence and by border security of people coming into the country and finding out where they went. countering isis' military success or fighting isis, et cetera, may or may not be valuable for its own purpose but does nothing with respect to the threat posed to the united states because whether isis does well or poorly in combat, those people still can come back. >> right. i want to weigh here the difference. how important is it, as the president outlined, for the u.s. to get militarily involved versus how necessary it is? >> i don't think it's necessary for the u.s. to get involved but i think it's right to provide support to the yazidis and the

kurds because they have a well-organized army and they are being opposed. we should help to prevent genocide by helping the kurds here especially since isis is armed with the tanks that we gave to iraq. we can't determine who wins the civil war in iraq but we can help the kurds maintain their independence and, frankly, they are probably going to declare independence and i would support that declaration of independence. they've had a well-functioning democratic state in iraq. they are tolerant. they don't percent cute the yazidis or anyone else. in addition to which, as bad as

isis is, the other side is to say that iran and hezbollah is just as bad. >> look, i know this has only been in effect for 48 hours but do you, sir, have any sense from your constituents as to whether there is an appetite for u.s. military in iraq on this level or beyond? >> well, it's hard to gauge my constituents but i'm sure they don't want -- i thought the consequences would be bad and they were. but the kind of intervention that the president has supported so far, that is to say, humanitarian aid to 40,000 people who die on that mountaintop and military aid to the kurds, that i think we can tolerate. and support.

>> i know, sir, you've been in meetings with israeli officials. how has this latest conflict affected peace? more likely or less likely? >> that depends on what comes out of it. the negotiations are really quite separate from hamas. hamas has no interest in a two-state solution and no interest in negotiating with the israelis. they say that they want israel destroyed and every jew in the world dead. they are, in that sense, absolute absolutely genocidal. if, as a result of this conflict, the results are reduced, if some sort of an agreement is reached to bring in material and concrete and humanitarian aide and make sure that that is done through international group in which the

palestinian authority participates but to make sure that is kept from hamas, then to the extent you displace hamas and bring in the palestinian authority, you increase the odds that you can make a peace agreement down the road between the israelis and palestinian authority. i don't think you can make any sort of long-lasting peace agreement with hamas because their intent is to destroy israel and you can't deal with that. you know, they have been saying that they want a seaport open and free commerce. everyone forgets, when israel withdrew in 2005, they left all kinds of economic access there. there was basically free access and the freedom of access is only curtailed after hamas took over and started using gaza as a base for attacks on israel.

if you can arrange a situation in which there is -- you can bring in the material that the gaz zans need, then you increase the odds that you can make a peace agreement down the road. >> may i ask you about this one report that we read that prime minister benjamin netanyahu was appealing to cross to help israel avoid crimes charges in the international courts. did he make that appeal and what's the likelihood of such charges? >> well, i think the likelihood of such charges is minimal because i think israel has made a lot of -- you have to start by saying the suffering of the gazans and the palestinians has been intense and it's horrible but the israelis have tried to minimize that given that the

hamas keeps -- launches their rockets and their attacks from civilized -- from civilian areas. i can't see war crimes charges against the israelis because they'd have to show that they deliberately -- >> sure. but did he make that appeal to you? >> one other thing, before you can have war crime charges against israeli, you'd have to have it against hamas. now, there was a discussion in which some members were there, some of the congress mentioned or brought up what they regarded as the unbalanced news coverage and how the hamas seemed to want civilian casualties. so as to talk about the israeli actions as disproportionate and criminal and that it's part of a

campaign to delegitimatize israel. that was really the extent of it. >> okay. i thank you for answering all of the questions and all of the other ones. safe travels when you come home. >> thank you. can isis be wiped out with air strikes alone? new questions about the strategy in iraq. great for frank, who's quite particular... russian jazz funk? next to swedish hip hop. when he knows what he wants... - thank you. do you have himalayan toad lilies? spotted, or speckled? speckled. yes. he has to have it. a cubist still life of rye bread... sold. it's perfect. which is why we'll ship a canary yellow jeep with leather seats from dallas to burbank if it's the one frank wants. carmax. start here. i'm d-a-v-e and i have copd. i'm k-a-t-e and i have copd,

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hawaii time. we expect to see a 10 to 15-foot surf. heed all warnings and exercise all caution. this is for the north and east-facing shores. here's a look at julio's track, a category 1 hurricane. it's 150 to 200 miles north of the hawaiian islands. once it reaches cooler waters, hawaiians are in the clear. here's a look at what is going on across the lower 48s. a beautiful day in the northeast with high pressure in control in the southeast. there is still a risk for thunderstorms. these thunderstorms could produce heavy rainfall. flash flooding is a threat in sections of georgia and south carolina. these areas, especially near the coast, could easily pick up 1 to 2 inches of rainfall. the heat is on in texas. temperatures in the triple

digits. heat advisory for dallas and other areas as well. there's a fire threat in northern california and oregon. the heat is on in the pacific northwest. a heatwave in the seattle area. temperatures near 90 degrees. >> i couldn't believe that when i saw that. i thought it may be a mistake. thank you, jeanette. what are the prospects of the u.s. military striking a death toll to isis? oduces up hee creates something else as well: oduces up hee jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. where the reward was that what if tnew car smelledit card and the freedom of the open road?

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." militants approached erbil this morning and fired on kurdish troops. over the course of the next five hours, the u.s. hit isis targets four more times taking out several armed vehicles. joining me on the phone from erbil is ben lando. with a welcome, i'd like to ask first up, what have you been hearing about these latest air

strikes? >> thanks, alex. what we've been hearing is that it's contributed to the kurdish forces taking back two key towns 60 kilometers from erbil city. it was not under any direct threat. but it's helped restore nonisis control or nonanti-government control over these two towns and has allowed the kurds and coalition forces, especially those in the air, to again the next stage of planning for whatever comes next. >> and to that end, is the iraqi government capable of that? >> there is almost no iraqi government right now. there is a prolonged government formation process and that's a little bit of a leadership vacuum that has prohibited reconciliation that is necessary

to tackle this. the problem is that you have two sets of groups. one is isis. there's only a military solution for isis but the vast majority of people involved in the fighting is a collection of varying degrees of disenfran disenfranchised people or tribes that have allies with isis. that's where the process, the political and social issues come into play and that's where the iraqi government needs to create a unified vision and strategy for that. >> so kurdistan's significant oil reserves have always been a geopolitical how is that playing into the crisis? >> it's not oil production remains as it was prethe surge by isis and exports to turkey remain at what it was as well, 120,000 barrels a day.

it's lowered on the broader global priority list because saving people's lives has definitely become a top priority by far. however, the issue remains and it's a major stumbling block, a major factor in the government formation process. >> but ben, has isis taken over any oil production or oil reserve areas? and, if so, is isis getting any money from that? >> absolutely. they've taken over a limited amount of field and production depends on what kind of skills, engineers and technicians they can employ to those fields. we did a story about a month, month and a half ago now and we saw isis making around $1 million a day by our calculation. but the situation on the ground is very fluid and now that it's become more violent with air

attacks and the iraqi forces and kurdish forces have really tackled that issue. it's unclear how much money isis is able to make. >> pretty extraordinary monetary expectations, $1 million a day for isis. thank you, ben lando. so can the u.s. beat isis? good friend to our broadcast and with a welcome to you, folks. you've got the ones near erbil and the details of these two regions alone are what? >> they are focusing on weapons, principally. anything that will threaten erbil. we're not shooting on isis

troops which is a bit odd because there are plenty of opportunities. when they see artillery, trucks, so on, we'll drop bombs on them but we are not dropping a significant amount of ordinants. >> with those there, the president did speak about getting them off the mountain. how could that happen without some boots on the ground and could those ever be u.s. boots or do they have to be iraqis? >> well, we have to remember, we probably already have boots on the ground in the form of special operation forces. if we take a look at sinjar itself, it's a fairly large town. that's not where the refugees are located.

this is about 15 miles long, this ridge line. these are the mountains. and they can come down a number of passes in order to get out. but there are 15,000, maybe even more. you're right, it's going to take some effort on the ground to get them out because there's no leadership among the refugees. what's going to have to happen is that depesh merga is going to have to get in there and do that. we're going to have to suppress the fire at the bottom of the mountain. >> here's the big question. can the united states wipe out isis, reportedly 15 to 20,000 fighter strong just through air strikes? >> the short answer is no but i think over the short period of time you can dissuade them from moving forward and give up some of the areas that they already

have, like the dam, for example. >> how big of a problem is that, that they've taken control of the big hydroelectric dam? >> it's a big problem for the iraqis because it controls the water and electricity and they can hold hostage the lower part of iraq. but controlling it is really easy. they have forces at either end of the dam. we shouldn't be concerned about destroying the dam. all you have to do is hit assembly areas where isis is located and on either side of the dam you wouldn't damage the dam but we're not doing that and i think we're not doing that because the president doesn't want to look like he's taking a really forceful approach to the isis problem. he just wants to look like he's reacting in some way. anything more than that, he's going to get a lot of political flack. >> okay. colonel jack jacobs, thanks for weighing in. appreciate that. >> you're welcome. coming up next, the history of "time." the person in charge of mining it for a new generation.

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in today's "office politics," editor nancy gibbs is the first female in that powerful position and she'll share her thoughts on what it means big picture. first, i asked her the impact of digital journalism as well as "time"'s place in history. >> it's really interesting because i'm the first editor of "time" and it's partly our print audience has stayed very stable over the years. we've doubled our traffic in the last year. and so -- >> online? >> online. >> uh-huh. >> and so as the digital audience grows and the nice thing is it allows you to reach -- the overlap is not enormous and in most cases it's a global audience. so it really does mean that we have to be thinking on all platforms at all times. it is very different to be in

this job now than it was, you know, even three or five or certainly ten years ago. but it's also liberating. we're not constrained. on the one hand, you know, the print, the power of print, the power of this red border of what we decide to feature and sign the spotlight is immensely important. there's much more in what we are doing digitally that we capture and point to in print. >> talk to me about what you think "time" magazine's role is in history, the iconic red border and the banner. >> the genius of it from its founder on was to create an institution that, at its core, was about explaining a world. this is your world explained. and it's comprehensive in the sense that it isn't just about politics, just about medicine or technology. we can write about anything.

but it is not just about information. it is always explanatory, pulling the curtain back and saying what really happened in the oval office when that decision was made? it was always trying to take people behind the scenes and inside the important events of their lives and explaining why it matters. >> speaking of history, it's important to note that you're the first female "time" imagining editor. >> that's right. >> it's a big weight on your very capable shoulders. >> a big weight, a big privilege, a great opportunity. i think -- i think this time in our history, partly because of technology, partly because our whole industry is changing. i don't care if you started out in newspapers or magazines, the great convergence of media and storytelling is what i love. we have a particularly great

storytellers, that's just tremendous fun. >> yeah. i've always said i love my job. i get paid to keep track of what goes on in the world and talk about it. it's a privilege. >> it's a luxury. >> through someone who is trying to emulate your style and follow in your foot steps, is there one tip that you can give that says, this make as great story. >> that's a really interesting question. and what comes to me is the advice that one of those mentors gave me, which is, make sure you know what the story's about before you start writing it. which seems so obvious but i've often found when i started writing a story and at the end it was a mess, it's because i didn't know what it was about. i think of stories as living things. they should not only ideally

surprise your reader, they should surprise you. and that in the process of talking to people and gathering information and going down the road towards whatever you think the story's going to be, you should be just prepared that the road is going to fork. if you set outthinking you already know everything and there are no surprises in store, it's hard for me to know where it's going to end up with as rich and surprising the story the best ones are. >> that's a great tip from nancy gibbs, one of the best writers in the business into community outcry and an investigation underway as to why an unarmed teenager was shot and killed by a police officer. who's more excited about back to school savings at staples? the moms? or the dads? with guaranteed low prices on flash drives, it's definitely the dads. staples. make more happen for less. you drop 40 grand on a new set of wheels, then... wham! a minivan t-bones you.

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at 53 past the hour, we're getting this video just in to us. this is of gaza where there is a soap factory fire, the result of an israeli attack there after

hamas launched into israel. this was a retaliatory strike. at 1:00 p.m. eastern time, there is supposed to be a cease-fire put into effect. we have not heard of official word of acceptance of a cease-fire by israeli officials yet. palestinian officials will agree to it. we're going to watch very closely. i'm sure you will as well as we see if a cease-fire goes into effect. as has been the case in the past, you're seeing things run up to the edge with rockets being fired and strikes from both sides. this is a soap factory fire in gaza. let's get to another developing story. a protest and demand for answers in a st. louis suburb. about 200 people gathered outside of ferguson a short time ago as investigators held a news conference. michael brown was killed saturday afternoon and the report says he was to start college tomorrow. family members and neighbors want to know what happened.

>> you're not good. you don't decide when you're going to take somebody from here. if that was the case, i brought him here, i should have taken him from here. that's mine. that belongs to me. >> joining us now is msnbc faith jenkins. let's take a look at the explanation this morning from the police department as to what happened. here it is. >> took a very long time yesterday to process the scene. we only get one opportunity to take a look at these scenes. there are only these scenes one time. and there were a lot of folks down there. their emotions were running very high. we felt like we had to practice our due diligence down there and neas why it took as long as it did. >> that's not the sound bite

that we were looking for. let me read to you what the officer said. a police officer had an encounter with two individuals on the street. i'm told we have that now. let's play that. >> a ferguson police officer had an encounter with two individuals on the street. in fact, one of those individuals at the time came in as the officer was exiting his police car, allegedly pushed the police officer back into the car where he physically assaulted the police officer. it is our understanding at this point in the investigation that within the police car there was a struggle over the officer's weapon. >> so does that answer questions or raise more questions? >> faith, did you hear what the chief said there? >> yes, did i. >> okay. so he's saying there was a fight there literally inside the squad car? >> and i can't tell if he's talking about the other individual that was involved or michael brown, the teenager who was shot.

because any time a police officer uses deadly force, the legal question is, was that force justified? and in order for that force to be justified, deadly force has to be about to be used against that officer or be used against that officer or someone in the public. and so here when you have a teenager who is shot and killed and it turns out the teenager was unarmed, the question is, what kind of force was this teenager, michael brown, using against the police or about to use against the police or what they thought. because in terms of what we heard from the witnesses, including michael brown's grandmother and another teenage witness who was interviewed, when michael brown was shot, he was running away from the police. that raises a question because just because someone is perhaps resisting arrest or running away from the police, that does not mean deadly force is then justified. officers had a range of force at the very spectrum of the rang of force they have to use is deadly

force. every other means of force should be used before they use deadly force. >> talk about how difficult it is going to be to ensure that the crime scene was preserved to gather evidence. because before we heard the police chief talking about the emotions running high and all of the people that were there. it took officers a while to get there to cordoned off the scene and get what they need for evidence. >> well, the crime scene was kept in tact for a number of hours and i know a lot of people were complaining about that because this teenager was dead on the ground for a number of hours but the officer said they were trying to preserve the scene and the integrity of the investigation. from what we've been told or heard, a number of people had their cell phones out. so there may perhaps be videos or photos of the incident or the immediate aftermath. and if that's the case, certainly people are going to try to submit those videos or the police are going to try to get them to try to make a determination as to what happened here. there may be a number of

eyewitnesss. this happened at 2:00 in the afternoon in broad daylight in an apartment complex. there may be a number of witnesses being interviewed right now as to what they witnessed as well. >> and we know they've asked the st. louis county police to investigate. what, in your mind, is the likelihood of this becoming a federal investigation? >> it's probably not likely at this point. but with the number of cases that we've talked about lately involving police brutality and the use of excessive force, if this goes down that road, i think the department of justice has to step in with these investigations because can police do an independent investigation of their own officers in cases like? i'd like to see them take a more active role in terms of civil statutes, they can use in terms of prosecuting excessive force cases. >> faith jenkins, thank you for weighing in. i appreciate that. >> sure. >> leaving al qaeda to join

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just past the top of the hour, 1:00 here on the east coast, i'm alex witt here with "weekends with alex witt." 18-year-old michael brown died a few blocks from his grandmother's house in the city of ferguson. the st. louis police department held a conference saying that the incident started when one of the suspects assaulted the police officer inside the police car. >> there was at least one shot fired within the car. after that, the officer came back out of the car, exited his vehicle, and there was a shooting that occurred where the officer in fact shot the subject and the subjects, they were fatal injuries. >> grant is joining us. what else did we learn from that

news conference, grant? >> reporter: well, alex, as we talked earlier, we do know that mike brown was not armed at the time that he was shot by that police officer, which is a very disturbing fact for everybody that has been involved in covering this story and the community involved. what we don't know, there are still a lot of questions leading up to what exactly caused that confrontation. in speaking with a witness yesterday, he claimed that the officer was the aggressor. obviously you heard the st. louis county police chief saying that that was not the case. so two stories that are really conflicting at this point. i was listening, as you were speaking with your previous guest, speculating whether there may be cell phone video, things of that nature. we talked with a number of witnesses yesterday who were interviewed by police and they said they had their cell phones confiscated because of photo or video evidence that they may have on their phone. i saw videos taken shortly after

the shooting but i didn't see any taken during the shooting. the question remains, what exactly was mike brown doing at the time that he was shot? witnesses say that he was surrendering. we know that again he was unarmed but some said he had his hands in the air and was surrendering to the officer. we have not heard the police side of that story just yet. so there are a lot of questions to be had. the investigati the officer will undergo a psychologic psychological investigation and to determine whether he's fit to be a police officer at this point. here in the neighborhood, the crowd has moved from the police station and they are now gathering at the spot where mike brown was shot. a very emotional scene out here, alex. >> grant, a couple of things here. i'm thinking about the research that i've done, listening to the

police chief and listening to you, i'm still not clear with the genesis is of this confrontation. it's been almost 24 hours. do you know what started all of this? >> reporter: we have the report from the young man dorian who was walking a i long mike brown who says they were walking down the street, not committing any crimes and that the officer approached them, told them to get on the sidewalk. he said they rebutted saying they are just a few minutes from their grandmother's house. the officer turned around and reversed and tried to hit them with his car. again, that's the witness' perspective of it. we have not heard the police perspective of it. in short, no, we don't really have a good answer on what exactly caused this whole thing. >> okay. grant bissell, thank you. turning to iraq now, the u.s. military is stepping up air strikes against isis launching

five new strikes to defend kurdish forces in erbil. drones and jet fighters carried out four air strikes near sinjar. the u.s. military has made a third airdrop of food and water to thousands of refugees in those sinjar mountains. chris jansing is traveling with the president and is joining us from martha's vineyard. key lawmakers are reacting today to the president's decision to launch air strikes. what are they saying? >> reporter: hi, alex. well, you can expect that there is criticism on the right and there was some pushback even on the left as well as a defense of the president. look, this is what the administration expected. this is a difficult decision, one that clearly the president didn't want to make. but what the republicans are saying, three in particular on the sunday talk shows, is that there is a clear and present danger not just in iraq but from isis coming to the united

states. in fact, peter king, who represented many constituents on 9/11, says that he believes isis is more powerful now than al qaeda was on 9/11. the kinds of comments that caused some democrats to defend the president. take a listen. >> we should take nothing off the table. we start off with massive air attacks. we should use bases in the area to have much more sustained air attacks and we should be aggressively arming the kurds. the president says that once as a unity government in iraq, we will fight alongside and work with the iraqi army. start doing that now. we need to make certain that not as many argue that we should be in every theater in every war. that is not the united states' role. we need to be certain that what we do has surgical precision to it and a clear goal of success. the bottom line is this. there is so much that we can do to help the iraqis help themselves. ultimately, they have to save their own country.

>> reporter: progressives have been largely quiet on this. but they are expressing some concern. this is not something that the president is going to say will happen in the next couple of weeks. this will become something much wider and this is a president elected at least in part to get americans out of iraq and they are concerned about a much broader engagement, something that he tried to put to rest when he spoke just a few days ago. he spoke twice in the last several days saying there will be absolutely no boots on the ground, no circumstances under which he sees that happening. but this was something that he was forced to do, both because of the humanitarian threat of the folks up on the mountain there but also the threat to americans. alex? >> chris jansing, thank you so much, traveling with the president at martha's vineyard. joining me now is ambassador chris hill, served as assistant secretary of state and he's

author of a soon-to-be released memoir "outpost." the first question is, the air strikes that the united states is conducting, would those be enough to stop isis if they were to go for some time? >> i think the indications that they are being well-coordinated with the fighting force. what they lack, of course, is equipment. so i think there is evidence that there's a lot of coordination and it seems like in the last 24 hours the peshmerga have began to push isis back. i think ultimately we'll need the iraqi army back in the picture. they did not perform very well. much of their commitment is in the hands of the isis militants. i think there is an indication that we can coordinate with ground forces and therefore we do not have to send in any ground forces of our own. >> ambassador, the president and

others in washington have said that iraq can only be saved through a political solution but it would seem that isis could careless about politics. >> you got it. i don't think isis could care less. iraq needs a new prime minister. through sunni outreach they get the sunnis to through a shia-led government. there was success in '07 but a lot of that had to do with giving tribal leaders money rather than motivating them to support a shia-led government. i think isis is really beyond the questions of governance in baghdad and what we need to see and the president alluded to this the other day, is to get

some of these arab governments to be clear in their own denuciation and so far they have not been. >> this is going to be a monday morning quarterbacking question but do you, sir, think that the united states should have attacked isis in syria before they were able to reach to this point? do you think that could have been a vie blg option? >> i must say, where the u.s. has fallen short in syria is a complete failure to articulate a future for syria. it's not going to be run by bashar al assad in the future and it's not going to be run by the 15% majority. there's got to be some sort of federalist structure, et cetera. to speak to shortcomings or monday morning quarterbacking -- and by the way, having been in the government, you get awfully sick of that stuff. we need to step up our diplomatic and political enge

engagement. i think there are enough weapons in syria. the real issue is we need to articulate along with other interested states what is a future for syria beyond just fighting on and on, which is what is happening now. >> if you were occupying your former office there as the ambassador to iraq right now, what would you be doing? >> oh, i'd probably be working with a lot of politicians in baghdad. one of the first things to do is keep the door open so i'd be talking to maliki and telling him two terms is enough and the thrust of it should be to find someone else. maliki is not an easy foeperson deal with. you work these relationships. but i'd also be talking to the sunni community a lot in baghdad and telling them, if they think this isis crowd is somehow

preferable to maliki or to a shia government, they ought to think about because this isis crowd wants to served the head of most of the sunni leaders. i think they know it and i think they really need to step up on this. that's what i'd be doing. >> ambassador chris hill, thank you for your expertise. appreciate that. breaking news to share. israel and hamas have reportedly agreed to a new 72-hour cease-fire brokered by egypt. this was coming after the peace talks broke down earlier this weekend. we're getting ready for a live report from tel aviv coming up. this video we showed you earlier, an explosion in gaza just moments ago. that is a soap factory in gaza. this happened just before the cease-fire was to take hold and we are getting word that martin fletcher is confirming there's a new cease-fire. i will get to martin at the half hour for you and we'll do a live report for you. how would the feds conduct

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nascar champion tony stewart pulled out of the race after he struck and killed someone on the track. thank you for being with me. can you explain what happened last night? >> reporter: sometimes he goes down to real local levels, like the minor leagues of racing for a hobby and he was doing that last night at a local track in new york and basically he got into it with this 20-year-old driver and as drivers do sometimes when they get into it

on the track, sometimes they get out of their car and show their displeasure by pointing or gesturing. it's tough to tell from seeing what happened with the video but as the driver was pointing and gesturing at tony stewart, he either got too close to the car or stewart got too close to him and he basically got run over and was killed. >> so -- so jeff -- >> reporter: it's a huge tragedy. >> obviously. it's horrible. what i understand, tony stewart's car nudged another car and that puts him out of the race and as tony stewart was circling around the track and he also had to avoid another car that swerved that preceded tony stewart's car coming towards them. is that true? and when you say this happens when a driver gets out of his car to express his displeasure, this is a dirt track in a very

rural area. the lighting isn't great. this happens all the time under these circumstances? >> well, the thing is, i think most of the time, if a driver gets out of a car, he -- they hope they don't get that close to a car. sometimes you'll see drivers even in nascar, tony stewart a couple of years ago was really mad at another driver and threw his helmet at the guy and was fairly close to him. he hit his car with his helmet but he was not really in harm's way. and i'm sure this kevin didn't think he was, obviously. you wouldn't think he was that close. but either he miscalculated or tony miscalculated somehow. it's really tough to tell in the video. i'm thinking that somebody out there will have a better angle to explain. what i can tell right now, it's inconclusive. >> jeff gluck, thank you for giving me the latest.

appreciate it. happening now, family and friends are asking for answers. michael brown, who was unarmed, was fatly shot by a police officer just a few blocks from his grandmother's house in ferguson and today we're learning new details about what happened a short time ago. brown says her son didn't deserve to die and her son was a good person. >> my son just turned 18 and graduated from high school. he didn't harm nobody. >> he was a good kid. he was a cool kid. you know, he wasn't no trouble maker. he was always quiet. >> let me bring in msnbc analyst jim cavanaugh. this is a heartbreaking story. the st. louis police chief said that an officer encountered two men on the street when one of them pushed him inside his police car. let's listen to this. >> there was at least one fire shot inside the car. after that, the officer came back out of the car, exited his

vehicle and there was a shooting that occurred where the officer in fact shot the subject and the subjects, they were fatal injuries. >> okay, jim. this directly counteracts eyewitnesss who say the victim was running away with his hands in the air unarmed trying to run away from police. we have two totally different stories and the timing may be making up the difference here. give me your reaction to this and where the investigation goes from here. >> alex, a lot of times when people see someone fall, they think that is when the person is shot. that's not always the case. sometimes a person is shot and even shot a few times and can turn and run. one of the concerns here is was he shot close to the officer? was the confrontation struggle, as the chief describes, ongoing. was he shot in the front and is there ballistics or tattooing from gunshot residue on his

clothes? what was the prom proximity to the officer. if it's a closer and struggle over the officer's gun, the questions still have to be answered. >> jim, do you think that would be the problem? because it's reported that michael brown was unarmed and yet these shots fired. >> he was unarmed. that's true. i believe his mom and i believe he was unarmed. i don't believe there's any evidence that he was armed. but every officer faces the control of their own weapon. one of the first things you learn is you're never in a situation that is not dangerous because there's always another person. there's you, the officer, and there's at least one firearm. and you know, most patrol officers carry two. i always carry up two. a lot of officers do. as people try to get your gun and they said there's a struggle over the gun, if someone is shot during a struggle over a policeman's gun, that can be a justified shooting. but if someone is shot after that confrontation is over and

they leave the vehicle, for example, the officer is not justified to shoot them if the person is unarmed. they are not justified to shoot just because there was -- >> i hate that we lost him right there. he was in a good point. jim cavanaugh, thank you so much. coming up, everyone, it was a mission to save sharks. you're going to find out what a young boy did and we speak with him in just a few minutes. (daughter) i'm really tired. (vo) the transfers. well, that's kid number three. (vo) the co-pilots. all sitting... ...trusting... ...waiting... ...for a safe arrival. introducing the all-new subaru legacy. designed to help the driver in you... ...care for the passenger in them. the subaru legacy. it's not just a sedan. it's a subaru. while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can ease arthritis symptoms.

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if energy could come from anything?. or if power could go anywhere? or if light could seek out the dark? what would happen if that happens? anything. welcome back to "weekends

with alex witt." >> former director of national counterterrorism director michael leiter issued a warnings about the emissions. >> this is now the biggest terrorist organization we've ever seen with the most control and most money getting more and more recruits. they are threatening iraq but there are also serious threats to the stability of the neighbors in jordan and the intelligence community believes that with other elements in syria it's absolutely looking to attack the west. >> and now "the washington post" reports that u.s. intelligence agencies are seeing fighters from the al qaeda offshoots in yemen and north africa joining up with isis after its notoriety and territory widens. joining me, greg miller, "the washington post" editor. thank you for joining me. >> sure. >> how many factions are we talking about? >> these are a small group of

fighters. no specific numbers and officials tell me it's not enough to really undermine the effectiveness of the al qaeda group and those praises. they say the trend is growing. >> is this one of the inherent results of the military action, can't really be avoided? you almost have to expect it? >> well, yeah. i think what's driving this, obviously, is the success that isis has had. so first success in syria and then expansion into iraq. so you have lots of fighters wanting to join this winning organization. now there's this question, as the u.s. takes on isis and carries out strikes against isis, what effect will that have? will this be seen as another motivation to join this group? >> you write, the analysts said the islamic state had shown an

almost i mpulsive character in its actions. that's bad for the region but is that good news for the united states? >> you just ran a segment and we've had other enintelligence officials talk about they believe isis has ambitions, is part of its agenda to carry out attacks against the west but we haven't seen a plot come out of this group yet. you're right. this group is mainly focused regionally. its agenda is a regional one at this point. it does not have the patience so far of al qaeda of putting together a plot that could take months or years to develop. >> what do you know about the relationship between isis and core al qaeda. is there a rivalry there? >> isis used to be part of al qaeda and it broke away because it did not want to abide by the instructions saying, look, you

guys need to get out of syria. there is a big fissure there. they split over that issue and there's a split over tactics. isis is a group that, even for al qaeda, engages in a sort of brutality that is beyond the pale. it also chaffed at instructions from al qaeda to tone things down, not to kill so many civilians. it's a very violent group. >> but is that what makes it so effective and stoke more fear among people? >> yes, and the impulsive nature that you spoke about. it doesn't sit back waiting to see what develops. it launched -- it's already declared itself a calafate which al qaeda has never gotten close to doing. it's a bold, aggressive nature that reflects its leadership and that, i think, draws a lot of recruits. >> and it seems to be moving fast, being very effective.

they are stealing incredible amounts of artillery and ammunition. it's remarkable what they are doing in their launch across -- march across iraq and syria. in essence, is isis more powerful in some areas than al qaeda ever was? >> well, it's more powerful regional military force, for sure. just as you said, the fact that it has rolled across all these iraqi cities and meanwhile, as it did so, picks up recruits, support from sunnis, runs over banks, grabs cash, stockpiled a significant amount of weapons, just the strikes we've seen in the last couple of days have been aimed at armored carriers, that they have grabbed from depots in iraq and al qaeda has never had that kind of stockpile. >> so, as you think about it, is isis actually more dangerous to the united states ultimately than al qaeda was?

if there was their ideology and they just go and attack -- >> i think that that's the big question. i think that -- so it's focused on a regional agenda now. the real concern among u.s. counterterrorism officials is, if this group develops and establishes a safe haven and holds on the territory it has seized, yeah, and if its agenda includes attacking the united states and its allies, it's a huge, huge worry. >> thank you for that. >> thank you. israel and hamas have agreed to a new 72-hour cease-fire. joining me now from tel aviv is martin fletcher. what have you heard and when will it begin? has it begun? >> reporter: that begins at midnight local time, in about three hours from now. and the details are very sketchy

at this point. israel didn't respond for a few hours but now we're hearing from israeli officials that -- there's been no public announcement but we're hearing from israeli officials that they have accepted the cease-fire, too. it goes in effect in three hours. it's pretty much an unconditional cease-fire in that it's a humanitarian cease-fire for three days. during that time, they are hoping that they'll be able to come together and work out a longer term truce. i know i'm sounding a bit like a broken record. >> right. >> because we've been saying this for the past ten days. you don't have to agree, alex. but that's what is happening. it's very much a stop/start situation. each side pulling back from the edge -- from the ledge of the last moment. not to say that those -- that the cease-fire is changing things dramatically on the ground. there's been quite a significant

decline in violence over the last couple of days since it broke down, since the cease-fire ended friday morning. today there's been about 30 rockets fired from gaza into israel. but they haven't been long-range rockets. they've been mostly small rockets, mortars fired at the local communities aimed at the israeli communities near the border. almost as if hamas is trying to keep the conflict alive but not wanting to provoke israel too much. in other words, each side really has been hoping for a cease-fire and now it looks like it's going to start again in three hours and last three days. >> martin fletcher, i appreciate the humor in what is a miserable situation. thank you so much. joining me now is the chief representative of the palestinian delegation to the u.s. welcome, mr. ambassador. glad to have you here. do you, sir, know details about this new cease-fire? >> well, i think the egyptian

proposal was to extend the cease-fire, whatever you want to call it. i agree with martin. for 72 hours starting at midnight. and then the israeli delegation is expected to arrive in cairo this evening in order to resume negotiations with the egyptian sides who have been talking to united palestinian delegation in cairo for the last four days. hopefully to try to deal with the underlying issues, such as lifting the blockade, allowing the palestinians to have a breather and opening to the outside world and a long-term agreement that will call for quiet and peace at the borders. >> israel walked away from the talks on friday because hamas would not stop firing rockets. will the plo publicly review the

tactics if it could end the air strikes on gaza? >> we have to be careful. the israelis have been shuffling back and forth from cairo to tel aviv to consult with the prime minister and other higher officials. so with their holiday on saturday, they had to go back. so i wouldn't characterize that as walking away. the second thing here, people should not forget the fact that even with the israelis calling to return to the 2012 understandings that were signed between israel and hamas in 2012, the third item called for israel to lift its blockade of the gaza strip. so the united states, the united nations, europe, egypt, regional powers are all concurring on the importance that any long-term agreement must including lifting of the blockade. >> but mr. ambassador, does the plo always speak on behalf of

hamas as well or does hamas have its own agenda? >> well, first of all, it's true that the hamas is not part of the plo. it's been in kcairo and has bee there for a few days as organized by president abbas. i speak myself on behalf of the palestinian people, the demands that have been put forth in cairo to the egyptians are palestinian demands and, therefore, this cease-fire should be a cease-fire palestinian/israeli cease-fire and not hamas/israel cease-fire. we are trying to work with the egyptians to translate these short-term truces, cease-fires into a permanent one that will deal with the issue of the blockade and hopefully the more festering issue, we need to end that occupation in order to

provide for peace and security. >> sir, as you are a spokesperson and representing the views and what is the leadership and lack thereof. >> let me tell you something, the palestinians have been appalled, have been horrified by all of the things that came from gaza as a result of the israeli brutal campaign against palestinians and civilians over the last month. the seize of children, women, the destruction made the palestinians feel very strongly. nobody is viewing this as a war against hamas or other factions. every palestinian is viewing this as an attack on the palestinian people. part of israel continuing to deny the palestinians the right to be free, independent, and live in a dignified life.

>> mr. ambassador, the disarming of hamas, which hamas calls inconceivable, what are the more realistic things that they are putting on the table. >> limited military capabilities. israel cannot occupy people and they have a right to defend themselves. israel cannot ask and occupy people to guarantee its security. in order for this and other proposal that would consider peace between the two people, israel has a genuine intention to resolve the conflict with the palestinians once and for all based on a two-state solution ending its military occupation, allowing the palestinians to live in dignity. >> ambassador, thank you for your time. appreciate it. >> thank you, ma'am. rescuing iraq's refugees. that's next. acrifice

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the u.s. military is carrying out new strikes against isis in iraq today. five new strikes occurred this morning near erbil and that comes after u.s. forces carried out four air strikes on saturday using fighter jets and remotely piloted aircraft near sinjar. joining me now from bluenationreview.com, jimmy williams. weigh the reality on the ground in iraq versus the president's promise not to send in ground troops. >> certainly the american people have fatigue. let's call it what it is. the president knows more about what is happening on the ground than we do from the intel reports and military personnel but i don't think the american people can handle the idea of sending more troops into iraq. >> how about air strike fatigue?

>> that's the sort of thing. what he's doing, for all intepts a and purposes, it's two-fold. it's to help the christians on the mountaintop and the sw gentleman from "the washington post" said earlier, that's a terrifying group of people. it's al qaeda. if we can wipe them out and get rid of them and stop them from getting near our folks in that city near there, they are so close to, then that's something that is good for us to do. >> you're picking up on that. "the washington post" greg miller suggested that they are even worse than al qaeda, isis is. you're getting it, i'm getting it. people watching this broadcast are getting it. isis may be a danger to u.s. security. >> he's got to make it not just to the american people. he has to make that case to the american people and he has has

to make that case to congress. congress has a role here, both republicans and democrats. they are sitting on vacation. not vacation but they hold the purse strings and control the money. the president is only limited so far and the amount of time and effort he can put in these air strikes. at some point, congress has to be involved. and you have some on the right calling for more and some on the left are saying no, et cetera, et cetera. it's a two-fold thing for the president to convince. the american people and the congress. by the way, both have the right to know what is exactly happening in iraq. after all, it is a mess that we left. no one can deny that. that's not a political statement. it's a fact of reality. we left a mess there. nouri al maliki is there running the country into the ground. we have to fix the problem with isis. >> here's the irony of the mess that we've left here, as you so

aptly said. sudan hussein while in power would have an iron grip on iraq, for better or for worse. some people were being horribly grip. iraq was not just blowing up. in his absence, was this what we should have expected? >> well, america doesn't have a very good track record on getting rid of leaders and putting in new leadership. you can look at cuba down to the south and other countries where we've gone in and taken out people and then put in people we thought were going to be friendly to us and they turned on us. we don't have a whole great track record as a country of doing that sort of thing. i think that there's a greater irony here which is think about the fact that we're now taking u.s. military hardware, drones, bombers, et cetera, et cetera, and we're literally destroying the very material and equipment that we left on the ground that's american -- that was american material, stuff we left behind in iraq. that's -- eamon javers, our colleague from cnbc mentioned

this the other day on cnbc.com and that's a fascinating idea. our bombers are taking out our tanks. that's one heck of a way to conduct a short-term military war isn't it? >> yeah. i'll leave it there with you. saving sharks, how an amazing 9-year-old boy set out to do just that. ison household. but one dark, stormy evening... she needed a good meal and a good family. so we gave her purina cat chow complete. it's great because it has the four cornerstones of nutrition. everything a cat needs for the first step to a healthy, happy life. purina cat chow complete. share your rescue story and join us in building better lives. one rescue at a time. can you fix it, dad? yeah, i can fix that.

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they call him spark boy. 9-year-old sean loves shark. he's on a mission to protect them. he sent a letter to his congressman asking him to introduce a bill banning shark finning. it's how shark fin super is made. sean's bill is law and he join it's me to talk about his accomplishments. sean, you're a pretty remarkable guy for being 9 years old, although you're turning 10 in a couple weeks, but sharks are super scary for most people. you think they are magnificent. >> they don't want to eat you. they want to eat seals.

when you're on a surf board, it kind of looks like you're a seal from below in the ocean, so their favorite meal is saleals. if they're in the feeling of a seal, they're going to go right after that. hopefully that's not a surfer. >> yeah. pretty cool that you got your letter to the congressman to be the start of a bill that's now law. how do you feel about yourself? >> i feel pretty proud of me, myself. >> i bet your parents are too, your teachers. i understand you're also working to help sea turtles now. what's that about? >> yes, i am. when people catch saea turtles and they take off their shells to use them as jewelry. >> right and they die. they have no protection. that's it. i want to know what a young man like you wants to do when you grow up. could you maybe work with marine life, might you think about entering politics or is it something totally different? >> i'm thinking of maybe doing a couple years of nhl and then

going to be a shark biologist. >> of nhl? >> yes and then being a sharp biologi biologist. >> that sounds like a good year. you're only 9 years old but you've made a huge difference by helping to get shark finning criminalized. what advice do you for other kids? >> write a letter to me and i will try to take care of it for you. >> oh, boy, you might be getting a lot of letters. can i ask you how excited you are about the premiere of shark week on the discovery channel. >> i can't wait. >> you have a picture, right? >> yeah. >> show me the picture. >> that's a shark you drew. what week is this for shark week? >> yes. >> it's number 27? >> how many of them have you seen? >> ten. technically this is the tenth year i have seen shark week. >> and you're 9 years old so you have been watching for a long time, since you probably didn't even know what you were watching. i'm sure you're going to be watching this as will i because shark week is awesome. sean, so are you.

stay in touch with us. >> okay. >> that's a wrap of this edition of "weekends have alex witt." we'll see you next sunday on the show. who's more excited about back to school savings at staples? the moms? or the dads? with guaranteed low prices on flash drives, it's definitely the dads. staples. make more happen for less. my motheit's delicious. toffee in the world. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love.

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try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. next on "meet the press," as president obama vacations on martha's vineyard, the dog days of summer have turned into a new phase of america's war in iraq. u.s. air strikes targeting isis militants. how does the u.s. avoid mission creep in a country president obama said was stable and self-reliant when u.s. troops left. we'll speak with influential voices from congress this morning. plus, hillary clinton weighs in. we'll have exclusive new details on how she's distancing herself from president obama's foreign policy. impeachment talk is here in d.c. once again. two key players in the fight over the impeachment of president clinton, newt gingrich,