bishop of new york. being shouted down and overwhelmed by a belligerent, organized crowd of hecklers that had no interest in letting him get a word out as he attempted to answer their questions. this could just be a one-off thing, a one-off experience of badly behaved constituents somewhere mad at their congressman about something or other. turns out this was not at all a one-off bad meeting. it turns out this is happening around the country. here's texas democratic congressman lloyd dogit. he is facing a similar scene at a town hall event over the weekend. this one took place at a grocery store in austin. [ chanting ] >> what you may or may not be able to make out there is the

crowd yelling "just say no, just say no" holding signs depicting congressman doggit as the devil and there's one sign that reads, no government counselor in my home. the u.s. senate doesn't take its recess for another week but democratic senator arlen specter got a taste of what his time off might be like at recess during a town hall event he held in philly yesterday with health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius. >> i am not a member of congress, have never been.

>> we actually had to narrow down the pile of footage that we had like this from just the last few days in order to figure out what to show in the time we had available on the show. we could have spent the entire hour showing tape like this. the more time you spend looking into this seemingly organic outrage at the town hall meetings the more clear it is that this isn't organic at all. this is orchestrated outrage. there is a script for this stuff. it was written before these events happened and it appears to be instructions to people to shut down these efforts at civic discourse. the website think progress obtained a leaked memo from a group that calls itself right principles. the three-page memo details how protestors should behave at town hall events under the heading "inside the hall" it says, quote, you need to rock the boat early in the representative's presentation. watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the representative's statements early. if he blames bush for something or offers other excuses, call him on it. yell back.

and have someone else follow up with a shout-out. the goal is to rattle him. also, quote, when the formal q & a session begins get all your hands up and keep them up. the balance of the group should applaud when the question is asked further putting the representative on the defensive. who is giving these instructions like this? that memo was written by a man named bob macguffie who is affiliated with an organization called freedom works, a washington, d.c. lobbying firm run by former republican majority leader dick armey. corporate lobbyists are organizing far right hooligan tick ticks to disrupt civil meetings about health care reform. this is the organized use of intimidation as a political tool and i don't mean it euphemistically. i mean literal intimidation. new york new york congressman tim bishop who we showed you earlier ended up having to be escorted to his car by five police officers for his own

safety after his town hall event was over. this type of harassment is not just reserved for elected officials. check out what happened at a syracuse, new york town hall meeting when a man who supports a single payor health care system stood up at one of these events to ask why his congressman wasn't supporting single payor. >> is it cheaper? it would cover everyone. we have 45 million people uninsured. we have all these people who have signed on in the united states. >> sit down. sit down. sit down. >> the single payor universal health care. >> this type of tactic and intimidation is a deliberate choice. and it appears to be stoked and organized by corporate lobbyists and it is not something that is happening in a vacuum. let me give you another example of what's being passed off as politics right now by lobbying

interests on the political right. when the climate change bill came before the house last month, the democratic congressman named tom parello of virginia received a letter purportedly from a nonprofit hispanic group in his district and the letter urged him to oppose the cap and trade legislation. he received similar letters from what were purportedly his local branches of the naacp only these letters weren't actually from that hispanic group in his district or the naacp. a republican lobbying firm in washington has admitted to impersonating those local nonprofits and sending congressman ferello fake letters to get him to oppose the climate change legislation. congress is investigating this incident. this is a lobbying firm, the establishment. this isn't a lone nut job passing himself off as a group he doesn't belong to but well paid lobbyists doing this as a strategy. it's the same thing with the deathers. the scare your grandmother that the whole point of health care reform is secretly to kill old people. this patently, patently false

rumor about health care reform as we've talked about earlier on this show was started by a woman who sits on the board of directors of one of the nation's biggest medical device companies. everybody says oh, politics ain't bean bag. right? obviously this is not bean bag but this isn't hardball either. no offense to chris. this just isn't even politics. this is orchestrated mob mentality intimidation. this is called hooliganism. joining us now is eugene robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor for "the washington post" and also an msnbc political analyst. thanks very much for being here. >> great to be here, rachel. >> let me start by giving you a chance to challenge the premise here. you are more wise in the ways of washington than i am and you know how the august recesses work. what we're seeing to me seems extreme. does it seem extreme to you or am i just being naive? >> no. this seems extreme, extraordinary. you could almost say shocking.

it's hard to be shocked in politics but this is so clearly an organized campaign of intimidation, of theater. i mean, it's not theater in all the world's at stake and all the men and women merely players metaphorical sense but the let's put on a show kind of sense to not just shout down any individual congressman or congresswoman who happens to be holding a town meeting but to create this videotape that gets posted on websites, that gets on television, that creates this sort of atmosphere of health reform. the very idea of health reform being on the defensive and it's, you know, this is something that strikes me as particularly noxious and out of bounds. >> we know now that the lobbying

firm freedom works is involved to some degree in organizing this disrupt the town hall strategy. they were also the lobbyists who organized the very first tea parties back in the tea party day. do you see this strategy as being all of a piece? is there a connection between the tea party movement and what we're seeing here about health care reform? >> the tea party movement didn't really go very far. perhaps for the right it was an organizing tool but it didn't really have much of an aim except, you know, we're mad as hell. and not going to take this anymore, whatever "this" is. this, on the other hand, you know, health care is the subject. and so there's a definite aim here which is to stop in its tracks the most serious attempt at actual health care reform that could make a difference in millions of people's lives and also make a difference to the

bottom lines of insurance companies and others that make money off the health care industry as it is. but this is the most serious challenge in, you know, certainly in many years. and they're taking it seriously obviously. and, you know, it's almost like the old cold war arms race days but this is a tactic that's sort of almost mob intimidation at these meetings. you never know where they're going to pop up, when they're going to pop up, that i don't think anyone quite knows how to respond to at this point. i mean, do you bring in your own side to shout down the shouters down? do you bring in the cambridge police to enforce the disorderly conduct laws? i'm not quite sure what you do. >> democratic senator dick durbin today said the town hall ambushes were a sucker punch because they are orchestrated by corporate interests who are

against health reform. we know "the wall street journal" is reporting this weekend be that the health insurance industry association has deployed its corporate staff to 30 different states to track these town halls. i wonder if at some point there ends up being a political cost to them to being associated with this kind of raw thuggishness. i'm all in favor of rabble rousers and people even being disruptive and using their first amendment rights even if it is an untoward, unfriendly way but when it is part of a corporate strategy organized by lobbyists who are sort of astroturfed do they ultimately get in trouble when that is exposed? >> i think there certainly could be some blowback as those connections get made and get written about and are made obvious to people who are paying attention to this debate. but at the same time, i think people who are advocating health care reform or who even advocate an honest and constructive

debate about health reform proposals that are being considered have to find a way to go on the offense in this debate and not be caught on the defensive and there is a sense that this new tactic has put health care reformers on the defensive or at least wondering exactly how to respond, so i would suggest that they kind of put their best strategists or tacticians in a room and figure out, okay. if they're going to be doing this how do we counter it and how do we go on the offensive to get our message across so people can hear it? >> gene robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist, associate editor for "the washington post", it's great to have your insight on this tonight. thank you. >> great to be here, rachel. okay. why is it when a policy is so successful, so popular, so overwhelmingly good at achieving its overwhelmingly good goals, it must therefore die? senator sherrod brown joins us

next to explain how it is in some parts of washington today a policy that works is a policy that must be stopped. ♪

(announcer) regular kool-aid. goes almost three times further than soda. kool aid. delivering re smiles per gallon. former president clinton is already enroute to north korea to try to negotiate a release. there is no word on when he arrived. secretary of state hillary clinton of course has already been calling on the north kraens to grant amnesty to euna lee and laura ling. this is a breaking news update and we'll bring you more details on this story that just broke minutes ago as they become available. (announcer) this is nine generations

of the world's most revered luxury sedan. this is a history of over 50,000 crash-tested cars... this is the world record for longevity and endurance. and one of the most technologically advanced automobiles on the planet. this is the 9th generation e-class. this is mercedes-benz. how far can you see? at pnc, taking the long view is how we help you

take the right path. even to change it when conditions demand. keeping you on the road to achieving your goals. it's something we've been doing for over 150 years. let our strength and stability be the basis for yours. pnc. leading the way.

let's say you had a policy in mind that had a few interrelated goals. number one, stimulus. get cash money into the hands of americans who will definitely spend it, buying stuff that will keep businesses humming, that'll keep more people employed which will give those employees more money to spend which ultimately means our horrific recession doesn't become a horrific depression. that's one goal. stimulus. second goal? inspire demand specifically in the car industry. which the american government has decided to try to save because of millions of american jobs that depend on that industry and because of how inconceivable it is that america would no longer have the national capacity to make cars.

so first goal, stimulus. second goal help the car industry. third goal? reduce the amount of gas that we guz l and the emissions we pollute our own country with by helping americans switch to cleaner, more efficient, newer cars. all of these interrelated goals, these three, are the thinking behind cash for clunkers. you trade in your old car that doesn't get great mileage and because of all those goals, stimulus, helping the car industry, and cleaning up the joint, the government gives you in exchange for your clunker a big, fat 35 or $4500 check toward buying or leasing a new car. a simple program. a totally cogent policy idea. the only question was, would it work? would americans take advantage of it? the answer to that question is a technical policy term which is oh, boy doggie did it work. the program only made it about a week before it ran out of money because so many people took advantage of it. by saturday more than 85,000 car transactions had already been

registered with dealers saying they hadn't been able to get to the paperwork yet on perhaps hundreds of thousands more. americans are apparently loving this program. car dealerships are mobbed for the first time in years. ford says their sales are up this month over the same month last year, the first time they've been able to say that since 2007. the average fuel economy of the clunkers being traded in about 16 miles per gallon. the average fuel economy for the new cars being sold back to people? nine miles per gallon higher than that. which means it will have a big impact on the amount of gas we use as a country. in other words this is a hit. this is a huge success. stimulating the economy, helping the car industry, cleaning up the joint. people love it. therefore, it must die. >> this is crazy to try to rush this thing through again while they're trying to rush through health care. we've got to slow this thing down. >> it's working. it's working. slow it down. senator jim demint of south

carolina. republican senator john mccain of arizona was reportedly considering a filibuster against any effort to keep this program alive but he has since backed down from that. senator mccain does say that he remains strongly opposed to the program. even centrist democrat claire mccaskill of missouri is saying she wants to kill the program. because it works? why? because it works for business? because it works for the economy generally? because it works for the environment and because people love it? therefore we must make sure we kill it? joining us now is democratic senator sherrod brown of ohio. it's nice to see you. thanks for coming back on the show. am i right cash for clunkers is working as intended? >> yeah, not quite. it's actually working better than intended. this town is full of ideology and sort of this knee jerk reaction generally from the far right that if this is a government program by definition it can't work. and this as you pointed out so well in each of those three or

four points, it's clearly worked every bit as well or better than expected. it works for jobs. it works for creating demand. it works for the environment. it works to put people back to work. it's the best, it's in some sense the best stimulus that we've seen. the money goes out in people's pockets. it's spent. it's back into the community exactly what we want to create demand in the auto industry. >> well, republicans in congress on the issue of stimulus have been critical of the economic stimulus issues thus far in part by saying things weren't happening fast enough. now we just heard that argument from senator demint saying we need to slow this cash for clunkers program down. we just need to -- not even necessarily arguing it isn't working. he's just saying it should work more slowly. we should make it take a break. what's your take on this issue of timing and his argument there? >> well, it goes back to what i said at the beginning. i think, rachel, it's a question of ideology. they just, you know, they don't like the public option health care because it's a government

program. they didn't like medicare. we had waited for bipartisanship and medicare we never would have had medicare. they don't like a government program. whether it works or it doesn't, what really aggravates them is when it works. when we do something like this it works better than expected, ten miles per gallon better, 85% of the cars turned in or the vehicles turned in are trucks. only 40% of them, the new vehicles are trucks, much higher mileage ones. we're seeing success all the way up and down in this for the environment, for getting money in people's pockets, for helping dealers, for helping the largest industry in america, the car, auto component manufacturers, the largest industry we have. if we're going to get out of this recession more quickly we need to stimulate the auto industry and all the auto suppliers and dealerships in every community in america because we know recessions typically, the auto industry drives us, leads us out of a recession. that's why this program is working so -- the effectiveness of this program is so good for the economy. >> there is a little late

breaking news on the politics of all of this. if some republicans, some individual republican senator or a group of them decides to try to stop this program in its tracks, they may have to block the senate from going into recess in order to do that. they would have to delay the recess if they wanted to stop the program which means they'd be taking a big public political stand on this issue. would that be an opportunity for the democrats and republicans to have a great ideological debate about whether or not the government should actually try to be good at doing stuff or whether the government shouldn't do anything at all which is i think what the conservatives are arguing here? >> sure. and i think if they want to block it and, you know, into next week, we stay as long as we need to. this is an example of this is working, this is good for the economy. obviously especially good for my state. i don't deny it for a second. it's good for the economy overall. the auto industry leads us out of recessions historically, can help lead us out of this one. we'll stay as long as we need. but that debate needs to happen.

and i hear republicans complaining on the senate floor tonight, dodd and harkin were talking about the public option. on the other side republicans were trying to scare senior citizens about medicare and about the health care system and the government takeover. and it's clear that government can't do everything but government does some things very, very well. medicare, cash for clunkers, the list is pretty long. and bring them on. let's have the debate and the discussion. >> senator sherrod brown of ohio, thanks very much for your time tonight, sir. >> thank you, rachel. >> so it turns out that when nevada senator john ensign put a teenager on the republican party payroll as a policy consultant republican party staffers knew at the time that ensign was sleeping with that kid's mom. classy. also classy? the republican party still not explaining whether it had an official role in covering up ensign's affair or in paying off his mistress's family. even classier than that?

senator ensign still planning to run for re-election. stay with us. 3... 2... 1. ever wonder how cheez-it bakes... so much real cheese in such small bites? ♪ baking complete! well, now you know. cheez-it. the big cheese.

oh, my god did you hear that barack obama was born in kenya? for real. they put it on the interweb. yet another new birth certificate from him from kenya? also did you hear elvis's cat is still alive from the 1970s which is weird enough? but it totally just gave birth to an alien and now has to wear a little cat helmet it avoid being mind controlled by the alien kitty's babies and

ancestors from mork. we'll have all the exclamation points and omgs in a moment. but first time for a little holy mackerel stories in today's news. his very first day in office after being elected senator virginia democrat jim webb introduced the post 9/11 veterans educational assistance act. better known as the new gi bill. one of his original cosponsors was then senator barack obama of illinois. the two men were together again today at george mason university in fairfax, virginia, to celebrate the fact that the first checks have now been mailed out to veterans under the new gi bill. this is the first major update to the promises that we make to veterans in this country since world war ii. >> we do this not just to meet our moral obligation to those who sacrificed greatly on our behalf and on behalf of the country. we do it because these men and women must now be prepared to

lead our nation in the peaceful pursuit of economic leadership in the 21st century. >> president franklin roosevelt signed the original gi bill in 1944. almost 8 million world war ii vets used that educational benefit afforded them by the gi bill to attend college. the middle class in the mid and late 20th century was neat? you think america did a pretty good job turning our massive war time mobilization into the 1940s into a massive economic and scientific and educational jugger nut in the 1950s and 1960s? say thanks to the gi bill in large part for a lot of that. the new gi bill offers new vets up to 100% of tuition and housing as well as things like books and supplies. if there is a cloud in the silver lining, it's that the website created to guide veterans through the paperwork morass of this new benefit is not user friendly. to help the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization iraq and afghanistan veterans of america has set up their own website to try to help veterans navigate their new benies.

check it out at new gi bill.org. we've posted a link at rachel.msnbc.com. also, as the republican party searches for meaning in the political minority, a characteristic affliction of some of its most senior members appears to be the inability to connect big, obvious political dots. case in point? senator john mccain. senator mccain, how important is it for the republican party to try to appeal to latinos? >> on the issue of the hispanic voter we have to do a lot more. and i am of the belief that unless we reverse the trend of hispanic voter registration we have a very, very deep hole that we've got to come out of. >> okay. that's political dot number one. the gop not appealing to latinos puts the gop into a deep, deep hole. so says john mccain. ready for political dot number two? >> i am unable to support judge

sotomayor's nomination. >> okay. just to recap here, dot number one, john mccain says the gop is desperately searching for ways to increase their appeal to latino voters. dot number two? republican politicians must decide how to vote on the first latino supreme court justice nominee and john mccain has decided to vote against. he's decided to make the first latino nominee ever, the first ever supreme court nominee, he has ever voted against. he's never voted against a nominee for the supreme court before. sonia sotomayor will be his first no vote. is there any way that these dots can be connected? can anyone help senator mccain with the shortest distance between two points is a straight line idea? this is humiliating. stand still so we can get an accurate reading. okay...um...eighteen pounds and a smidge.

a smidge? y'know, there's really no need to weigh packages under 70 pounds. with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service, if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. cool. you know this scale is off by a good 7, 8 pounds. maybe five. priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. most people try to get rid of algae, and we're trying to grow it. the algae are very beautiful. they come in blue or red, golden, green. algae could be converted into biofuels... that we could someday run our cars on. in using algae to form biofuels, we're not competing with the food supply. and they absorb co2, so they help solve the greenhouse problem, as well. we're making a big commitment to finding out... just how much algae can help to meet... the fuel demands of the world.

when we're in a sandwich you'll know it we are our own mixed up blend of one of a kind spices we are miracle whip and we will not tone it down five co-workers are working from the road using a mifi, a mobile hotspot that provides up to five shared wifi connections. two are downloading the final final revised final presentation. - one just got an e-mail. - what?! - huh? - it's being revised again. the co-pilot is on mapquest. - ( rock music playing ) - and tom is streaming meeting psych-up music

from meltedmetal.com. that's happening now with the new mifi from sprint, the mobile hotspot that fits in your pocket. sprint. the now network. deaf, hard of hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com. the 2008 election. any excuse. sorry. the results? still not actually finalized until last month were that the republicans essentially got creamed. they lost the white house to barack obama. the size of the democratic

majority in the house went from 37 seats to 79 seats. and the truly shocking defeat was how badly the republicans lost in the senate. republicans before the '08 election had 49 seats in the senate. in the '08 election they lost eight of them. not a single seat switched from democratic to republican. not a single democratic senator lost his or her seat. and five, count them, five republican incumbents were beaten by democrats. the entire 2008 election was a disaster for the republican party but for the republican party in the senate, it was worse than disaster. they lost everything they tried for and then some. that was even before arlen specter added insult to injury by flipping parties to the democrats. now, who is responsible for the republican party's fiasco in the senate in the 2008 election? who was in charge of the republican party's efforts to hold on to its seats in the senate, efforts that failed so epically? hey, it was senator john ensign

of nevada. he was in charge of the national republican senatorial committee for 2007 and 2008. that's the campaign arm of the republican party responsible for the senate. while he was supposedly getting busy then overseeing the runup to his party's 2008 shellacking in the senate you may recall he was also getting busy with a staffer, putting her son on the nrsc payroll, finding jobs for her husband, and asking his own parents to give financial gifts, lots of them, to his mistress's family. that's a lot to do while you're trying to get folks elected to the u.s. senate. i wonder if he's a good multitasker. tonight there is new evidence ensign was not the only one at the national republican senat senatorial committee who might have been distracted by his extra marital affair while preparing fort ill-fated election. "the las vegas sun" has obtained e-mails from the political director and finance director of the nrsc and the e-mails are from their nrsc e-mail accounts

and they are written to senator ensign's mistress and to her husband and, yes, they are e-mails that refer obliquely but fairly obviously to the affair and its fallout. these are e-mails that were sent while the national republican senatorial committee was also employing ensign's mistress's son. back in march, 2008, the nrsc started paying the teenaged son of doug and singt ya hamiltcynt. they were paying him as a policy analyst. the month after that senator ensign's parents gave the hamptons $96,000 in gifts in april and the elder hamptons then left senator ensign's employ. the month after that doug hampton the husband of the couple started working for november inc. as a consulting firm run by the political director of the association.

mr. slancher said he had no knowledge of the affair when he hired mr. hampton. the implication being he found out when the rest of the world did. during senator ensign's june 16, 2009 public confession. in july of 2008 nearly a year before then mike slanker and his wife who is also the finance director of the nrsc were e-mailing with doug and cynthia hampton about the affair. that means when you put it all together that at least three people in the national republican senatorial committee, senator ensign himself, the chair of the committee, plus the nrsc's political director, plus their finance director, all knew what was going on. while they had ensign's mistress's son on the nrsc payroll. joining us now is the reporter who obtained these telling new e-mails, columnist for "the las vegas sun" and the host of face to face and thanks very much for coming back on the show. >> thanks for having me. >> what do these e-mails tell us about the republican party's

role in the ensign affair that we didn't know before? >> well, as you said, i think the implication was from mike slanker's original statement was he didn't find out about this until june 16th when ensign disclosed it. now it's clear that he and his wife, two top officials of the senatorial committee knew about it. now, when exactly did they find out about it? certainly before those july e-mails and the question is how distracting can that be when they find out that this has occurred and they have doug hampton essentially with their mothball company in las vegas where they've just handed him this job essentially where he is trying to bring in clients but not doing much and they know these e-mails i obtained are full of this raw emotion. it had to be distracting. imagine how they felt. how they felt, rachel, about their boss, john ensign having done this and then essentially thrown doug hampton to them to take care of. >> what we know at that time in terms of the way this timeline goes as best as i understand it

that the political director and finance director of the nrsc at that time knew about the affair between ensign and mrs. hampton, knew that doug hampton had been essentially recommended to them, nod, nod, wink, wink, for employ in their company and they knew they had the teenage son of that couple on the payroll of the nrsc in some sort of policy role. has the republican party ever explained why they had this teenager on the payroll? >> well, mike slanker when i talked to him several weeks ago, rachel, said he hired the doug hampton son as he would any other intern. that it was no big deal. again, this revelation, you know, raises all kinds of other questions. what mike slanker told me today when i confronted him with the e-mails was he never meant to mislead the media but he meant he didn't know about the affair when he hired doug hampton for november, inc. so that version of events if true and by the way that

comports with what doug hampton told me, that john ensign's wife, listen to this, john ensign's wife, darlene ensign, called mike slanker and said do you know why essentially you were told to hire doug hampton? it's because of this affair. think about how sordid and tawdry that is and think about this, too, rachel. this is the most important point that comes out of these e-mails. john ensign was willing to sell his top finance and political person at the nrsc down the river to cover up this affair to use them, to use them without telling them the full truth, to take on this man that he wanted out of his office and he wanted to continue to pursue his wife. that's what those e-mails really reveal to me. >> and this is all happening in the summer of 2008, leading up to the fall of 2008, when in the senate the republican party lost eight seats and john ensign was the man in the republican party who had responsibility for overseeing the republican party's efforts in the senate. are you hearing from any republican sources about

dissatisfaction with his level of perhaps focus at the time? >> well, i think that's going to start happening. there were rumbles of that before but when you see again those e-mails and how distracted obviously mike and lindsay were. seeing a u.s. senator running the nrsc and chasing this woman who doesn't live in washington anymore, how could he possibly have done a good job? now, i think what really john ensign should be worried about now is this all starts to percolate up and they're, there are not just recriminations about his performance in 2008 but what about now? the republicans don't need this. i think they hope that the last shoe has dropped in this. they don't want to keep hearing this drip, drip, drip of revelations about john ensign. the question for him is how big will this bubble up inside that caucus where there's tremendous

pressure for him to get out of the way so he's not a liability for them? >> i would only add the other question that now needs to be answered and we have to watch for the timing on i guess is when the republican party will feel compelled to answer whether or not they were involved in actively covering up this affair or in paying hush money to this mistress's family in the form of a make work job for her teenage son. we have continually tried to get a comment from the republican party on these issues. we'll keep it up and keep talking about your reporting on the subject, john. thanks for joining us. >> thanks, rachel. >> a columnist for the las vegas sun and hosts a program called "face to face." okay. you want lame? the birther movement. lamer? the latest unearthed photo of obama's kenyan birth certificate. which is so accidently lame as to be hilarious. the lamest is the

rumor-mongering that barack obama isn't president and it is catching on big time. anna marie cox will be here to help me make sense and possibly a little fun of it all coming up next. (announcer) that ball is going, going, gone! home run! (announcer) he's sweet. even with one third less sugar than soda. kool-aid. delivering more smiles per gallon. i switched to a complete multivitamin with more. only one a day women's 50+ advantage... has gingko for memory and concentration... plus support for bone and breast health. just what i need. one a day women's.

olesterol. get the picture. the president is turning 48 years old tomorrow.

have you seen the birthers' handiwork on the network? in the last fake birth certificate, obama was revealed to have been born a canadian certificate.

this new one shows the president to have been reportedly born in oregon. good luck. the evidence of forgery uncovered within hours' of the debut includes, but not limited to the incorrectly age of the president's father, incorrectly official name of kenya and the official location of the hospital in question, which at the time was not actually in kenya. the amazing part of the story is not the record number of countries which the president has been fake born, but the number of republicans who buy into this stuff. a new research 0 two poll shows a combined toll of 58% republicans either don't believe the president was born in the u.s. or aren't sure whether or not he was. 58% don't know or think he wasn't.

joining us now is anna marie cox. you are better with the eyebrow than i am. very nice to see you. >> always good toe see you, rachel. >> should we be making fun of this or is this the sort of thing we should be totally serious? >> we should be making fun of this. just because you are making fun don't mean you also don't take it seriously. in some ways, the stuff going on underneath the surface of the birther phenomenon is pretty deadly serious. we should be talking about it. that don't mean they aren't ridiculous, it means when we talk about it, and not only should we mock it with all the glory we can, tea bag away at it, if you will, but we should be addressing the factual errors. you don't have to do one or the

other. i'm a firm believer of mocking and debunking, as well. >> what do you think of the darker realities of this? >> it goes back into a very dark and ugly sort of strain in american history, which is the attempt to deperson black people and treat them as something less than full people. it's hard not to notice one major difference between these two allegations. one difference is one is black. it's hard not talking about the

history of thinking about one type of person inherently american. >> ana marie cox, contributor of air america and contributor to "playboy" magazine. >> and much more mocking. >> keith's special comments about blue dog. next here, the mirror opposite of what comic-con used to be. '. 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. robert shapiro: we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side.

and make your business dream a reality. car insurance company in the nation. but, it's not like we're kicking back, now, havin' a cuppa tea. gecko vo: takes lots of sweat to become that big. gecko vo: 'course, geckos don't literally sweat... it's just not our thing... gecko vo: ...but i do work hard, mind you. gecko vo: first rule of "hard work equals success." gecko vo: that's why geico is consistently rated excellent or better in terms of financial strength. gecko vo: second rule: "don't steal a coworker's egg salad, 'specially if it's marked "the gecko." come on people. against plaque and gingivitis vs. the leading mouthwash. it kills 99% of germs, helps prevent plaque and gingivitis, keeps teeth cleaner longer, and freshens breath... ...without the burn of alcohol. crest pro-health

it was tough news to hear. everything changed. i didn't know what to do. right about then, our doctor mentioned the exelon patch. he said it releases medicine continuously for 24 hours. he said it could help with her cognition which includes things like memory, reasoning, communicating and understanding. (announcer) the most common side effects of exelon patch are nausea,

vomiting and diarrhea. the likelihood and severity of these side effects may increase as the dose increases. patients may experience loss of appetite or weight. patients who weigh less than 110 pounds may experience more side effects. people at risk for stomach ulcers or who take certain other medicine should talk to their doctor because serious stomach problems, such as bleeding may worsen. mom's diagnosis was hard to hear, but there's somethi i can do. (announcer) visit exelonpatch.com for free caregiving resources. we turn to our undead appreciation correspondent kent jones. >> hi, rachel.

there was a twilight convention held in dallas over the weekend called twi-con. i didn't go because i'm a dude and, two, not a vampire, still, fun was had. the it's been the right of every adolescent boy to disappear into a subculture of dorkdom. i'll show you a man with a set helmet in his garage. you have a fan boy cult of your own thanks to the phenomenon that is "twilight," the geek class ceiling has been shattered. superteen lover who is a vampire. love so pure and eternal, they will never, ever have s.e.c. the first movie made $375

million. clearly not sex sells. everything i know about show business is wrong. at twi-con, necessity forked over $250 a piece for workshops and vendors and an estimated 3.2 million pg-13 fantasies about robert patton. twi-con climaxed with a masquerade ball. >> guys don't get into it as much because it's about true love and it's about dedication, everything a woman, a girl dreams of. >> so many men, so few vampires. >> girls come at that story so many few directions. i said obama was born 1861 when

i meant to say 1961. >> he looks great for his anal. . "countdown snflt "starts right now. >> which of these stories will you be talking about? tomorrow, the status quo at any price. for rate, big pharma. move to disrupt anyone who stands up for the patient instead of for the corporation. >> the desperate last-ditch effort to derail health care reform and ensure moon opization today, moon opization tomorrow or forever. inside the senate deliberations with bernie sanders of vermont. inside the so-called great rights protest.

there's been a truth leak. the president's stimulus plan is working? >> i think you could say it is a short-term improvement in the economy. >> fortunately, mr. mccain still thinks we are all doomed. the smoking gun has been found. barack obama's birth certificate from kenya in 19 1. it says republic of kenya, which it wasn't until eight months after the date on the document. the registar's name, e.f. lavit. a special comment on the urgency of health care reform, the millions spent to prevent it, republicans