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new! nutrisystem d. lose weight. live better. call or click today. crack it open. how will three guys sitting around the picnic table throwing back a couple cold ones concur the controversy? plus, why are union reps and lawyers going to be present. the deal is done. michael jackson's mother and debbie rowe work out an agreement. is there money being exchanged? more importantly, is the deal a good one for the children. the liberals in the drive-by media once again are trying to ignite a race war between obama and me in talk radio. >> some of the conservative voices going after the president calling him a racist and saying he has a problem with white people. why aren't republican leaders

speaking out and is this creating a divide in the gop? wheel of misfortune. police in mississippi are using a game show formula to bust drug suspects. it is wheel of fortune meets cops, but is it crossing the line? good afternoon, everyone. i'm tamron hall live in new york. >> i'm donny deutsche to fill the big shoes here. >> the big picture. just three hours to go until the heavily much anticipated beer summit at the white house. president obama, henry louis gates and jim crowley. the three men at the national firestorm over race will finally sit down at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. that is show thyme, you might say. the president convened the summit after calling both men last week trying to defuse what became a tense situation and escalated into a national discussion after the white police sergeant arrested the prominent black harvard professor, but there has been one change of plans.

the meeting will no longer take place at a picnic table outside the oval office, instead at a table in the more beautiful rose garden. the white house press secretary just spoke about tonight's big meeting. >> i think many people would have hardly imagined something like this happening this time last week. i think that kind of dialogue is what has to happen at every level of -- every level of our society if we are going to make progress on issues that have -- we have been dealing with for quite some time. >> nbc's savannah guthrie is joining us from outside the white house. there are reports there will be no apologies exchanged between the men. and there are reports of lawyers and a union official being there as well? >> reporter: that's what we have heard, but the white house is really not giving out a lot of information about this meeting. there's a lot of stuff floating out there, but it is not necessarily coming from here. and from their perspective, they want to get in and get out. you know, the president, obviously, is welcoming the two

to the white house. this is sergeant crowley's idea, but this is not the story that the white house wants the world to be focused on. they would rather be focusing on health care and the academy, that kind of thing. that really explains why we are going to have such limited coverage of this. it is just going to be about a 20 to 30-second shot. they are going to hustle the cameras in and hustle them out. the president is not expected to make remarks. professor crowley and gates have an opportunity to come to the cameras outside the west gate if they choose to, not clear if they will, but from the white house, it is let's do the story and just move on to the next thing. >> and is there any possible chance for a backfire? one of the two participants getting pissed off? any possible sparks? >> reporter: i suppose it is human beings. it is certainly possible. one would expect that, you know,

the men would be on good behavior before the president. if they got into the facts, they may get angry again, but i don't think that will be the tone of the meeting. the notion is to sit down, have a beer, get to know each other as human beings. even the press secretary robert gibbs said this won't be an after-action report. it won't be going over the events of over a week ago. i'm sure they are hoping this brings temperatures down not raises them again. >> thank you very much. both men are getting private tours of the white house with their families there as well. now the bigger picture. who is in and who is out? while the boys get together for a beer, the one woman who many people say was the only person who acted responsibly won't be there. lucy made the original call to the police, but there was never a discussion about her coming to the beer summit. she suggested her client was being snubbed. >> the three highly trained guys who reacted badly are getting

together tomorrow for a beer at the white house, and that's a good thing, but the one person's actions who were exemplary will be at work tomorrow in cambridge. >> ouch. both professor gates and crowley will be taking along their lawyers and they will be joined by a union official. joining us now, josh, doesn't the whole tone of the meeting change with lawyers and union reps there? >> reporter: yeah, it will. i'm not sure if all of them will be present during the meeting. it will be interesting to see if they saddle up with their lawyers. >> to bring along your lawyer and a union member, certainly, i think it makes a statement of some sort. i'm not sure what it does, but it does. >> it makes the statement it is not ironed out yet. remember, gates was thinking of filing a lawsuit. if you are in a situation where

somebody is going to file a lawsuit, your lawyer wants to go with you before there's discussion of the facts. i do think it is interesting that the white house is allowing so little coverage. i take that to mean that, unlike some as they do with foreign leaders where there's long preparation periods and a lot of meetings in advance, this is a tight rope walk. a little bit of a tight rope walk without a net under you to go into this mighting without knowing exactly what's going to be discussed. >> josh, mary mitchell has followed the now president through his career in chicago. she wrote it was a political stunt of no solution to racial profiling or no solutions to the hard conversation of race will come out of this. she is slamming it saying it is a political stunt. are we hearing that echoed by critics? >> you hear that from some quarters. we just don't know what it is yet. they are having this meeting and the white house won't say what's on the agenda or what they hope to come out of it except for a vague can't we all just get along and talk about things message.

i think it is just too early to tell whether this is going to be any sort of a serious session that moves race relations forward or whether it is just an effort to put a cap back on the exploding baht of the beer and push it down the road. >> we heard lucy wayenland's attorney suggest this was a male bonding thing that her client would be intruding on and she was the only one who acted responsedly. are women's groups going to start reacting? >> well, i don't think you are going to see it, but there is a notion it is sort of a boy's club. they have not told us they have reached out to miswayland, at least to calm her feelings and tell her they understand she acted responsibly here. gates says she appreciates she was just trying to do what she thought was the right thing. >> thank you, josh. i don't think any women's groups will be putting their heels down, but i do think it would

have been nice to have her here. >> i do think it would be nice. also, there are some groups protesting thinking there should be lemonade there. there are just some people -- another story. custody has been reached in the michael jackson's children case. >> the children will leave with their grandmother, katherine jackson. debbie rowe, though, this is interesting information. the biological mother of the two eldest children will get visitation, no custody and no extra money. another key element of the deal, debbie rowe now wants to develop a meaningful relationship with the kids, prince and paris. for more on the deal, we are joined by courtney hayes. before we get you to that custody information, courtney, when i was walking in the producer said there was a report of joe jackson confirming that michael jackson has a 25-year-old son. >> i wrote about this last week as well. we saw the photos of this young man who looked exactly like

michael jackson. >> old michael jackson or new michael jackson. >> very good question, donny. i called some people close to the family and their first response was, it was not supposed to get out. apparently there's this guy and for all intensive purposes, they consider him a son. i said, is he michael jackson's biological son. their answer is we have no reason to believe he's not. >> he was at the funeral with family. front row. >> what does he do? >> he rocks on to the scene at neverland. actually, he showed up at neverland in the '90s and introduced himself as michael jay, his name is omar, but he said, that guy is my dad. he said it to one of his cousins and said, there's a guy who says

uncle mike is his father. it was just a very strange thing. >> who is his mother? allegedly? >> i'm told that the woman known as elizabeth taylor. >> this goes right under what donny likes to talk about with michael jackson, which is the craziness. >> they were very good friends. >> elizabeth taylor kept the secret. >> i was told by her publicist if she has something to say about it, she will twitter it. >> i'm sure elizabeth taylor is twittering. >> the report for debbie rowe was engling. she denies that. the custody settlement has nothing to do with money, correct? >> her spousal agreement put into place when she exited stage left, so to speak, is in effect. i know, though, they were making sure that the terms of that agreement would be upheld. there's a lot of state issues to be considered here.

>> as jackson's attorney, he said it is not about money, the custody, but they say the estate is closer to half a billion, but it is closer to $2 billion. i'm still the money guy. >> he is not liquid. there's a big difference between housing or having a pile of assets and a pile of real money. there's a huge discrepancy. >> even if you own cash, you can do what you want. >> he had a lot of bills month to month. now that he's died, the bottom line has increased substantially. there isn't so much cash going out the door. >> there's another attorney who was overseeing some of mm michael jackson's stuff and said, i have $5 million i got from michael jackson. there are pieces of -- >> here's the thing to consider. donny, you are sure of this as well. in the state of california -- i'm a lover, not a hater. >> as opposed to some people on

the set. >> this is a safe place. in the state of california, if you are the executor of the estate, you stand to collect 2% to the 4% of the assets of the state as a fee. as the assets come in the door, you dole out 2% to 4% to the ad minute stray or thes and settle the liabilities. the reason you want to be one of the guys to find the $5 million is because it is more money in the door, more money for your fee before you pay off all the debts. >> she is more than pop culture. she knows her money. courtney hazland. thank you. she is a lover, not a hater. you need that as a t-shirt. >> you need to read your piece. still ahead, controlling the message -- get off me. controlling the message in the health care debate. we are going to tell you who democrats say launched a shock and awe campaign against health care reform and the latest on

where this all stand. we continue from the show known as tamron's house. i kind of like that. plus, why the gop could stage a big comeback in midterm elections. and today's crossing the line, as if we didn't already cross several lines, should police use a wheel of justice? this is an actual real wheel and they are putting the names of suspects on there. come on. is it crossing the line? before you gym, wait until we give you more facts. this is msnbc. talk about a wake up call. i had a heart attack at 57. my doctor told me i should've been... doing more for my high cholesterol. what was i thinking? but now i trust my heart to lipitor. when diet and exercise are not enough, adding lipitor may help. unlike some other cholesterol lowering medications, lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk.. of heart attack, stroke, and certain kinds of heart surgeries...

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welcome back to msnbc. another day of closed door meetings on health care today. >> senators say there's no way a

bipartisan deal will be reached before the august recess. missing from the senate plan, a public option. that's not sitting well, as you can imagine, with many, including house speaker nancy pilosi. >> we want a strong public option in the legislation. insurance companies are out there in full force, carpet bombing shauk and awe against the public option. >> don boehner says the democrats' plan is in trouble. >> it is pretty clear that the more americans hear about the president's health care plan that the less they like it. i think it is safe to say that over the august recess as more americans learn more about their plan they are likely to have a very, very hot summer. >> well, the president's plan is losing support among americans. look at this. according to a brand new nbc news wall street journal poll, 36% say it is a good idea. that's down 3% since last month. now 42% say it is a bad idea. that is up 10%.

17% have no opinion. that number was 30% last month. is the president's message getting lost? john harwood is cnbc's political writer for "the new york times." many are saying after the august recess, the numbers we are seeing in the poll will only be worse for the president. >> reporter: i just got off the phone with one of the moderate democrats from tennessee, jim cooper, he says it will be a rocky august as people go out to hold town meetings, the lobbying kicks into full force, that doesn't mean they will lose the fight. one of the things interesting about the nbc wall street journal poll is if you simply ask people if the obama plan is a good idea, you get the numbers you mentioned. 36%, yes. 42%, no. if you flush out the details, you get a solid majority saying i like the plan. what that indicates is that obama has the potential to make the sale on this plan, he just hasn't made it yet. >> john, along those lines, 41% said it is a bad idea.

66% say they are concerned they could eventually lose their insurance in the government had a new system. 75% are concerned their health care could go up if there's not a new system. that clearly says obama has not sold it yet. it's that simple. >> reporter: exactly. one is the public option on the tax plan and the democrats in the house have taken a lot of heat on taxing people over $350,000 a year or over $1 million a year. the public said, yeah, let's do it and make them pay. there are so many cross currents going on. one of the things that was interesting to me from jim cooper, the moderate from tennessee, he said this time around compared to '93/'94 when he was in the congress, much less hostility from the interest groups and providers, but more hostility from average people absorbing the information on cable television, on talk radio, from the blogs, and that presents a different kind of challenge for memberses.

>> john, also interesting but not surprising, obama's ratings go down to 53%, that seems spooky, but if you compare it to clinton at this time, was at 45% and george w. was at 54%. he is still riding higher, comparatively. >> reporter: he is still riding high. he is high in the polls for likability. peter hart, the pollster who does the journal poll conducted outside of baltimore, you still have the reservoir for the hope for obama's administration. they were all calling him by his first name, i voted for barack. hes not out of gas at this point. we are at a tough point in the debate. >> the debate has many levels, but, john, governor dean was on and he said that if this turns out to be just insurance reform, this will be a mistake. this has to be health care reform, meaning public options,

some of the early ideas we heard from candidates obama, what do they do when they return after august recess and more importantly, what does he do over the resays because time waits for no one. >> reporter: tamron, you just identified the chi decision points for people. it will be refining what is real health care reform. is it covering everybody? is it cost control? is it public option? and various groups are jockeying to define what is sort of the minimum components of reform, but i can certainly see a bill coming out, for example, in the senate finance committee, a bipartisan bill that doesn't have the public option. they are going to argue its reform and the obama administration could take them up on that. it will be a real balancing act. >> don, john, great to talk you. >> a lot of people have seen the recession as a black hole. we have seen it in the past with other issues, i think this will be a good thing for obama. he need to reboot at this point and to disappear and get this

off people's minds and come back fresh. he has played with his food too long. he needs to come back focused and show people what it means specifically. >> i think the town hall meetings were a wake-all call for the obama team because some of the questions being asked of the president at the town hall were talking points that we have seen from republican strategists and from republicans. now they have to adjust their game to see if they can get the direct message out to what it means to you at home. up next, how one lawmaker could be full of hot air when it comes to earmarks. we'll tell you about blimps and nearly $20 million and an outspoken senator. and stealing a car to avoid church. that's right. you will not believe who is behind the wheel. you are watching "big picture" msnbc. it can be tough living with copd... but i try not to let it slow me down.

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new reasons, as if we need new reasons, for outrage on capitol hill. >> a congressman spending your tax dollars on blimp research, literally giving the money to a company that knows nothing about government contracting, let alone blimps. it is an exclusive investigation from politico.com. they say there was a $6 million ear mark for blimps to a company named gym g. ferguson and associates. you may be wondering what is wrong with that. well, the number one -- here's the list. number one, the company hired one of the session's former aids to be their lobbyist and an aid with a criminal record. number two, the company was giving $500,000 to the company three years ago. number three, the company doesn't build blimps. the company has listed his occupation as a lobbyist, rancher or self-employed investor. >> and a former aid for the

company. >> the spokesperson says the money could create jobs back in his own home district of dallas. the company is based in illinois. as for the congressman himself, he plans to stand against this kind of abuse, the earmarks that hurt taxpayers. on his website, he writes, quote, earmarks are a sense of broken economy. >> they put what seems to be kind of a false texas address in front of that illinois thing to make it seem -- that's nasty and smells really stinky. >> well, we are going to stay on top of that and get more details on it. i believe we showed the wrong picture, i'm being told we just showed the wrong picture. we apologize for that. we'll make the correction as necessary. again, we apologize. up next, rush limbaugh pouring gasoline on the fire. what he said today about president obama.

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wouldn't have had an accident in the first place. and we're walkin'! and we're walkin'... making it all a bit sier -- now that's progressive! call or click today. this is your market wrap. right now the dow is trading up 145 points. the s&p 500 is trading up 28 points. i'm sorry, the s&p 500 is trading up 18 points and the nasdaq is trading up 28 points. the number of newly laid off workers filing for unlomt benefits rose by 25,000 last week, but they said the continuing benefits dropped to the lowest level since april. exxon mobil says its second quarter profit fell 66% in the last quarter. earnings for the april/june period came to $3.95 billion down from $11.68 billion a year

ago. new york's attorney general says one of the biggest recipients of government bailout money gave employees more than $5 billion in bonuses for 2008. citigroup gave more than 700 employees bonuses of $1 million or more. one-third of citigroup is owned by the government as a result of the bailout. this is msnbc first in business worldwide. welcome back, everyone. i'm tamron hal. >> i'm donny deutsche. >> just moments ago, we showed you a picture of jeff sessions. again, we apologize for the video mistake. in the meantime, boston officials are outraged over a racially-charged e-mail written by a boston cop, justin, who used a racial slur in a letter to colleagues in the national guard. he is suspended and is pending

upon his termination in a hearing. they call the comment unacceptable. >> the comment was racist and inflammatory. these feelings have no place in our department or in our society. >> his apologizing for the racial slur saying it was not about race and that he did not mean to offend anyone. he said it is not about race. >> and the words he used -- i won't repeat them. it is disgusting. beyond the racism of this guy is the stupidity and the judgment of a police officer, in general. >> we have seen a lot of people have to step down after forwarding an e-mail of watermelons over the white house lawn. is right-wing racism on the rise? here's what josh wrote, quote, limbaugh and beck continue to

ratchet up their alarming and increasingly racist ahead treat for the president. and look for this kind of crazy to escalate with the party base. >> president obama is so race-obsessed he writes a book about the father he never really knew. subtitle of the story race and inheritance. he marries a woman lucky enough to get into princeton but writes a book about how she is an outsider in a white culture. the two of them said in reverend white's hate temple for 20 years and i am the one with the race problem? >> john walsh, we have more on obama saying beck is a racist and hates white people. i think they are hurting their party and i think we are in a nation tired of hate. yes, there's always going to be a fringe, but if i'm president

obama, the more they do this the better for the democrats. am i just looking for a silver lining here? >> reporter: i think you are right. you, am tron and i all know racial progress in the country is a two-step forward, occasionally one-step back. we elected a black president. an awesome time for us. many republicans were very proud and now, especially as the reverend hits the road and is endorsing policies that some people disagree with, it is not racist to disagree with him, but some forces opposed to him are using race to -- >> why not are we hearing from those who are more moderate within the republican party or those who are elected in office speaking out rush limbaugh and others like glenn beck saying these things if they want the mike, it is there. >> reporter: yeah, tamron, we have talked about that before. i wrote about that in my blog.

the whole phenomenon is somewhat related. there's a racial tinge there, too. i'm afraid that too many republican leaders are ambivalent about it and they don't believe these things themselves, but they don't want to alienate their base, the fringe of their base, let's say, by coming out and saying stop it. it took michael steele who happens to be african-american until yesterday to say the birthers are crazy and the president is a citizen. they are trying to have it both ways. look, we all know this is a party lost in the wilderness. they don't know in the answer is to play to their base, bring out a sarah palin, throw the base red meat around race and division, or what the answer might be to move a little bit towards is center and play for independence. we all know independence is if the important con stitch whenty, obama won them, but there are not many who have faith in

moving away from this really kind of prothe-pro-magnum garbage. >> the republicans are really stupid because if any one of them was smart, mitt romney, namely, this was a moment in time because a lot of the independents who voted for obama are swinging in the other direction. the most recent polls show us somebody could grab the mantle right now. you don't need the fringe base to get elected and say, this has to stop. i'm a new republican and that's what people are waiting for. if i was running these campaigns, that's where i would go right now. >> reporter: i agree with you. i don't know if it is romney or huckabee, i don't see it being sarah palin, but who knows. it would be a wonderful time for a kind of race speech, a kind of resetting of what the party stands for. and somebody big with big ambitions to distinguish himself or herself from this rabble and from people like limbaugh, but, donny, what we see is people

occasionally will -- michael steele again, will stand up to limbaugh and he smacks them down and then they run cowering into the corner crying like little puppies. you know, they are afraid of him. i mean, he called me, he went on to call me the magic honkey today. the president is the magic neegro. >> i'm going to call mr. limbaugh a putz. >> i'm with you. >> i don't know what it means, but i know it is not good. joan, always a pleasure speaking with you. we'll talk to you through twitter as well. could there be another republican measure in the works in next term's midterm congressional elections? we have a long way to go until 2010, but democrats are still holding 78 seats in the house. the new wall street journal poll finds 24% of the job congress is doing while 63% disapprove of

it. the current congress had its highest approval rating at 31%. the drop comes with the poll also showing growing dissatisfaction with the stimulus package in efforts to reform health care. meantime, the new gallop poll suggests midterm elections could be competitive. 50% of rem stered voters said if the election was held today they would vote for democratic party candidates in their district while 44% say they would vote for the republican. joining me is liberal blogger jane hamshire, founder of firelake.com. also, ryan is here who is the author of a new book. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having us. >> ryan, i'll start with you. many people said the republicans have been a party of no for this very reason, hoping that 2010 unemployment would still be high. the stimulus would not be working and that would give them the edge to stage the revolution

as we saw with newt gingrich. >> i will say that there is a sense that the republican party is getting it back together and that they are recruiting candidate who is fit the regions they are running in. for example, rob simmons in connecticut. you have mark merk in illinois. many look like they are fairly favorable because you have republican candidates running in tune with their states and their c constituenci constituencies. that's a positive step forward. >> you say bizarre and that struck me as a bizarre comment because you have a senator saying they want health care to be mr. obama's waterloo. rush limbaugh is somebody not i elected but still a powerful voice saying he wanted the president to out and out fail. >> sure. i think the senator wanted a health care plan that he agrees with, he doesn't want it to fail. i don't think anyone does. >> the republicans have targeted

8seats they think have vulnerable. they need 40 to turn the house around. if i was a democrat, i'm concerned if for two reasons. midterm elections for an incumbent is difficult. a 6% spread between democrats and the republicans. you would think the republicans would be so much further behind of where the country is and what george bush did. right now that's starting to take kind of the ownership -- all this is going on and obama -- i'm very concerned with that spread. >> i think, as you say, this is typically what happens in the first term of a presidency. you know, typically, they lose seats in their party in congress in the first year, so in the first midterm, i don't think that the swing is actually that anomalous. i think you also, in analyzing things relative to 1994, you have to remember that john

mccain ran a poor campaign and did not focus on the ground and did not build up the voter id base. obama did a spectacular job, so there's already an advantage, an election advantage for the democrats in 2010. i think that the republicans are going to have to work very hard to overcome that and the problem they are having with national messaging. the birther phenomenon is very much -- >> jane, the national message is that they are not a united front when you hear, for example, health care the big obstacle. democrats are fighting democrats. the american people spoke so clearly and gave so much power, if you will, to democrats and now we are having the headlines that there is in-fighting and they can't speak with a united voice, as we saw with the republicans, so you unite with george w. bush. >> 75% of the country wants a plan and you have all the lobbyists, the industry health care lobbyists dominating the

blue dogs and the senate demanding that we have something that satisfies blue cross. obama really does need to step up and push his message during the month of august. i think that that is why his poll snurms with regard to health care have been bumping down. i don't think that means the democrats are in bad shape. >> guys, thank you so much. tamron, this is all talk. it is very simple to take clinton's words, if the economy -- in a year from now, the if the unemployment is going the wrong way, it is bad news for the democrats. >> when you had the problems on wall street and senator mccain did not want to debate, president obama said we have to handle both at once and juggle all the problems, and it was the economy. all accounts, not the war as we thought going into it, it was the economy. >> it is always the dollars and cents. even if the republican party is nothing but the no party, the

economy is going south. coming up later in the show, william shatner is back and he has a new tribute to former governor sarah palin's twitter skills. we have the tape to prove it. you are watching msnbc. it is the place for politics. 100 potato chips... or 100 pringles. both cost the same, but only the new pringles super stack can makes everything pop.

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the center for politics from west virginia. thank you for joining us. >> happy to be with you. >> talk to us. people are making a lot of the facts that this is the beer summit, but these kinds of things have happened, maybe not a cop and a guy he arrested, but certainly unusual ways to bring the sides together. >> yes, i would say today's summit is small beer compared to pasts of it. when we think about presidents bringing togethered aerer airs, we think of jimmy carter bringing in the egyptian president. we think of president clinton in 1993 bringing together prime minister ravine and yasser era arafat.

even to get them to sit together and more or less snake shake hands and play nice. that's what we think of in terms of summit. this is unusual. >> what would be the dream summit for president obama? what would define his terms if you get the two people in the same room. what would be the dream sum it in. >> i think the dream summit would be the middle east. >> specifically who. if you could cast the meeting and set up the invitations for the summit, who would be ideal? >> the prime minister of israel, whoever is in the position at the time. you would get the poo authority leader and possibly other middle east leaders to have some xind of xre hepsive east. the middle east is the source of more problems internationally in the modern era than any other part of the world. >> back to what we are seeing today, you are a historian, how would this event being remembered? this is the first time we talk about this very serious and difficult situation. you have eric holder saying that americans were too coward es to

talk about this. you have three guys having a beer, but how might this be reflected upon in history? >> if it is just a little meeting to sip a beer, you know, with these three fell las, it won't be very sumgtive. if this begins a real national conversation, not just about racial profiling, but race, generally, it will be well remembered because, you know, i disagree with those who say we don't need to talk about that issue. i think we all need to talk about it constantly with one another and not just with members of our own race. so this is a great opportunity to start the conversation. this being america in some places the conversation will go on nicely and in other places people will avoid it terribly. i'm sorry to say. >> this would never have happened if we didn't have an african-american president, right? or is it his comment, that he misarticulated his thoughts on it? >> well, yes, good can come from

bad. sometimes presidents make mistake. the key for a presidency is not whether a president makes mistakes. they all make mistakes. the question is what did they do to correct the mistakes or do they even admit they made them. president obama has admitted he made a mistake. >> thank you so much. do you know what we haven't done? let's take advantage of a fact we have an african-american southern woman, white northeast male, give me your take -- your first reaction when this went down as a black woman. >> i didn't know. i mean, did i think it was a great possibility, it was a case of racial profiling? yes, based on my reporting. i have interviewed people who were put in prison for 25 years for crimes they did not commit. i, myself, have been racially profiled, my brother. but i honestly didn't draw any conclusion about what did or did not happen. mary mitchell, a writer for the "sun times" says this is based on your interactions in the past with police. if you have had a situation

where you've been racially profiled, you think, well, it's possible. if you're a guy who has never been arrested or a white person maybe in iowa who never had a bad experience in a cop, you won't think that way. it doesn't make either side right or wrong. it's your experience. >> i went right to cop in a sense of -- i know just keep it down with the cops. so i could see what happened -- >> which is interesting your being a white wealthy guy that you instantly went to that because you're not the person who was typically profiled. >> we all bring some prejudice. you can be the most liberal person in the world. >> can i tell what happened earlier today? donny walks into an office. there's an african-american female. he sees her from the back. he instantly thinks it's me. >> i thought it was you. she looked like you from the back. it wasn't -- please, not people look alike. >> from the back. >> up next -- >> and i learned today what putz

means. i'm not going to say what it means. >> up next, "crossing the line." 14 should the police use the wheel of justice to make decisions about arrests. >> this is msnbc, the place for politics and just about everybody else the last three days. >> the big picture. 4m4m

welcome back. in today's "crossing the line" we know police departments are forced to be creative when looking for suspects on the run. but what's happening in mississippi is certainly a controversial way of handling the search for fugitives who are wanted on outstanding warrants. police in this small town in mississippi have created a wheel of fortune-type system. real wheel. look at them unveiling it. the officers placed the name of people who have arrest warrants or foam this. once a week they will spin the wheel. narcotics officer decide which

drug suspects to put in the running. many are asking if this is even legal. the police chief told a local paper that police departments in other parts of the country are using similar devices. he's not found any evidence of legal issues with them. why not do bingo next time? wednesday the pd made their first wheel of justice arrest. it was a 24-year-old man wanted for the sale of crack. he was also out on bond for murder. within an hour spinning that wheel he was back in jail arrested. so are they crossing the line with this idea? you tell me. let us know twitter.msnbc.com. we certainly love to hear about the show, any of the things that are happening -- >> you're looking real vanna white over there talking about spinning the wheel. it's almost 4:00 in the east coast. two hours from the white house beer summit. we'll have more on that and we have a lot more to talk about it. also, new violence in iran, riot police cracking down on

demonstrators one month after a protest that nearly toppled the government. and the day madge dieichael died. an msnbc exclusive. -pl plus a wild joy ride to avoid church. you're watching big picture, your watching msnbc. (announcer) before they give you the lowest price, some pharmacies make you work for it with memberships and fees. but not walmart. they have hundreds of generic prescriptions for just $4