lynched in effigy by an anti-health care reform protestor outside his own office. lynched in effigy, because of health care reform. meanwhile, the rhetoric behind the anti-health care reform movement is also taking a radical turn. here's a protest outside democrat congresswoman betsy marky's democratic office, a protest including the sign with the president's name underneath a swastika. a protest outside a town hall meeting by a democrat of texas this past weekend. look closely at that sign there, notice the nazi "sf" lettering. another congressman that day brought along a doing duggett tombstone. and talk show host rush limbaugh is pushing the nazi theme, comparing on his website the obama health care logo with the nazi swastika and devoting plenty of air time comparing the president's the united states

and house speaker nancy pelosi to adolf hitler. >> the obama health care logo is damn close to a nazi swastika. there are far more similarities between nancy pelosi and adolf hitter than between these people showing up at town halls to protest a hitler-like policy. that's being heralded by hitler-like logo. oh, another similarity. obama is asking citizens to wrap each other out, like hitler did. >> he's just like hitler. you know what that means? he deserves, right? that's where the actual republican party, the would-be responsible adult, opposed to health care reform. rnc chairman michael steele is going for the, who me? approach saying there is absolutely nothing to do with encouraging angry town hall protests. mr. steele said in a conference call, we're not encouraging people to be angry. some people that's how they express frustration, but that's

not something deliberately coordinated by me or any one state party. you know it is being celebrated and publicized by the national republican congressional committee, which is the part of the republican party that's responsible for racism in the house of representatives, promoting the disruptions on public events on their websites calling them recess roastings, and taunting the democrats accosted and shouted down at these events. house minority leader john boehner on his website is gloating specifically about the way the texas democrat lloyd duggett was treated during his town hall. the congressman was treated to an image of his own tombstone, you recall. congressman boehner concludes, "it will be a long, hot august for democrats in congress." the republican party of texas has produced a video for the front page of its website, which includes footage of congressman

doing doggett being screamed at and bullied. and the share of the senate campaign arm of the republican party cease an electoral advantage in these demonstrations of hostility. told a newspaper, "fear, i would say, precedes anger, and i think there are a lot of people who tell me they are scared of what they see coming out of washington. i see real opportunities for us." we've got fear, anger, frankly we're psyched. another congressman, another republican congressman, is actually making jokes about the death threats and the other threats of violence against democrats. little known congressman todd aiken of missouri, now officially has something that he will be known for. >> a different people in d.c., come back to their districts and town hall meetings and almost got lynched.

and so the people -- if you are not approving lynchings because we don't want to do that, but the point is people were really upset at some of this legislation. >> that video was shot at a forum held by congressman aiken earlier this week. jokes about lynching and getting big laughs. i don't want to step on the joke or anything, but i do sort of worry about threatening violence and saying it would be justified for political reasons, given even our just recent history as a country. when dr. george tiller was murdered in turned out his alleged killer was seeped in extreme rhetoric and reasoning of the extreme anti-abortion movement and their supporters in the conservative media who vilified dr. tiller so harshly and so repeatedly as to make his assassination seem like a logical next step to some of the unhinged fringe of our society. on fox news channel, bill

o'reilly not only attacked dr. tiller as a killer, but repeatedly called him a nazi, a particularly resonant metaphor people like to hear acting on their fantasies of violence against those who disagree would somehow be seen as justified. public figures have two options, reach a point between extreme rhetoric and physical violence, you can condone the threat and risk being seen as complicit and whatever comes next or step up and be an adult. try to do something to restore civility. for example, to his credit, senator john mccain posted a message on his twitter account, of all place, saying, "town hall meetings are an american tradition. we should allow everyone to express their views without disruption, even if we disagree." twitter isn't the floor of the united states senate, but good for john mccain. meanwhile fox news host glenn beck, yes glenn beck, also did the right thing recently, before

undoing it just as quickly, but on his fox news show recently, mr. beck called on his viewers to choose prayer over any violent impulses they might be feeling. kudos to glenn beck for having said that. then he said this -- >> you have three people in the white house that are in love with eugenics, or whatever you call it today. of course it's not eugenics, because eugenics have been so horribly maligned. we have quotes, not ancient 1960s quotes. the oldest from 1995 and some of them have been written or said this year by people who are advising this president on health care. >> eugenics, of course, the philosophy, philosophy, cited by the nazi in hitler's germany as justification for their racial policies.

there's a reason why comparisons to nazis and lynchings and effigy and death threats are unacceptable in public discourse, or at least are supposed to be. they implicitly condone, if not encourage, violence. it's time to stop before people get hurt. joining us now is congressman brian baird, democrat of washington state. congressman, thanks very much for coming on the show tonight. >> great to be with you, rachel. >> do you think there is a danger of real violence being a fringe offshoot of what we're seeing now in our political discourse? >> well, the first violence that's happening is violence in the democratic process. if people set out to disrupt town hall meetings, to intimidate people who sincerely want to discuss important issues, the first victim is democracy itself. beyond that, some of the rhetoric we're hearing is eerily reminiscent of the thing that drove tim mcveigh to bomb the federal building in oklahoma. this is not about health care. democrats and republicans alike should have been disbursing to our districts over this august

to have serious, honest, open discussions including hearing from people who have legitimate concerns, and there are legitimate concerns. but when a concerted effort is made to intimidate, suppress discussion, intimidate people, that crosses the line and actually blocks the democratic process of informed debate. >> i mentioned earlier, you decided not to hold any in-person town hall meetings during the august recess. you're getting criticism from that from among these protesters on the right. do you feel like you would be putting yourself in physical danger at a public meeting? is that why you made this decision? >> first of all, i've had over 300 town halls in the ten-plus years in congress. more than most members have. there's no question i actually welcome a civic debate and welcome discussion. we're actually going to have town hall, 4,000, 5,000 people on the line having a real discussion. what i'm opting not do is create a venue where people can purposefully intimidate other members of the community who

want to be heard and want to express their views. when you read the websites, rachel, it's all about attack early, shout them down. don't let them get a word in edgewise. i've had town halls where that kind of thing has happened and average citizens have said, this is frightening to me. this is not what i'm country is about. i'm not coming to these anymore. if you get a point where the only purpose to have a town hall is to have it disrupted, and reasonable people can't be there, what's the point of having the town hall? >> do you think that the republican party has a role in encouraging this movement? we've seen from john boehner, from other specific members of congress, republicans in the house in particular, and now senator jon cornyn talking about the political advantages of this and trying to promote disruptions and publicize them is to my mind to explicitly encourage them? do you think they have a responsibility to call for

civility? >> they absolutely have a responsibility to call for civility because this is a question of our democratic process itself. remember, they will have town halls as well. and we don't really want a situation where our side decides, well we've got to show up and scream and shout them down, because then you basically resort to mob rule, and that's not what a constitutional democratic republic is about. it's not enough for them to say we're not coordinating it, not condoning it. they must do as john mccain did and vigorously oppose this. the other thing, rachel, it's time for folks on the progressive side to contact their representative and say, look, whether you're a democrat or republican, this is not acceptable conduct, and if your representative happens to be republican, call on them publicly to denounce this and go to their town halls, not to disrupt this at all, but to have a respectful debate and discussion of heath care and confront those who would respond as mr. aiken's constituents did, with laughter when the topic of lynching members of congress is raised.

congressman brian baird, democratic out of washington, thank you very much for joining us tonight. good luck to you. >> thank you, rachel. last night i reported on two groups who have been promoting ideas about health care, and promoting the idea of those opposed to heath care reform going to town hall meetings. ordinary concerns going to these town hall meetings. coming up next, the president of one of those groups, tim phillips will join us here on this show with a first amendment palooza coming up. stay with us. i've been growing algae for 35 years. 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.

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during the bush year, quite a few administration officials were forced to leave their jobs under dark clouds. there was claude allen, president bush's domestic policy adviser who left after shoplifting a whole bunch of stuff from target. there was bush's aides czar, tobias, famous for telling foreign countries they couldn't get american money to fide unless they cracked down on hookers. mr. tobias resigned, of course, after his name turned up on the client list of the d.c. madam and the head of procurement at the white house who was busted in the jack abramoff scandal and the number two guy at the interior department who was also busted in the jack abramoff scandal. if i keep listing how officials were busted in the abramoff scandal we'll be here a long time. a lot of dark clouds over the bush administration resignations.

one of them was president bush's administrator of health care. mr. john scully. took a turn for the infamous after he ordered another government official to withhold information from congress. that information was how much president bush's medicare prescription drug benefit would cost. publicly the bush administration was saying no more than $300 billion. privately, they knew was more like $600 billion. but thomas scully made sure the congress never knew. a bush administration investigation found that mr. scully threatened to fire the actuary who came up with the real cost figures if that actuary gave those real cost numbers to congress. and while he was doing that, mr. scully was also busy getting himself a special waiver, that would allow him to get a job as a health industry lobbyist soon as he left government. think about this. he helped that prescription bill guess passed by hiding its true costs, then he immediately went to work for companies who stood to make a mint from the fact

that he got that bill passed. nice work, if you can get it. right? you know, it is technically illegal to interfere with a federal employee who is trying to communicate with congress, but mr. scully was never charged. he just became a lobbyist and started raking in the d-o-u-g-h, dough. suckers. where's he today? scully is a general partner at a venture capital firm investing in a whole lot of different medical companies, everything from kidney dialysis centers to nurse temping agencies to manufacturers of heart and vascular defect devices. one of the companies they recently invested heavily in is solantic. not only did they invest in solantic, tom sully is now a member of their board of directors. a florida based urgent care provider taking a walmart-like for-profit franchise approach to health care.

the chairman is a man named rick scott. rick scott. rick scott? why does that name sound so familiar? >> i think you've had groups today, conservatives for patients rights that have bragged about organizing and manufacturing that anger, i think you've got somebody who's very involved, a leader of that group that's very involved in the status quo. a ceo that used to run a health care company that was fined by the federal government $1.7 billion for fraud. >> that's who he is! that's the guy. rick scott! right. the disgraced medical fraud profiteer who's now head of the organization conservatives for patients' rights, which is proudly promoting his effort sow disrupt town hall events across the country, at which health care reform is supposed to be discussed. their website has a running list of all the town hall events and a special page for video of these events, bragging about which members of congress they've been able to rattle and

who's events they've been able to shut down. rick scott, the chairman of a chain of for-profits, many inside walmart, actively taking credit for the organized and intimidating chaos that is trying to stop even discussions of reform for health care. after call out by robert gibbs of the white house, mr. scott told the conservative website cnf news, "no one needs to manufacture anger or concern. it's a shame mr. gibbs chooses to dismiss these americans and their very real concerns." these americans and their very real concerns, that the chain of for-profit clinics that they set up inside of walmart might some day get some competition. my elderly relatives are worries their clinics setting up in walmart might be threatened, too. rick scott is a regular american, one of the largest health care frauds in human history, and now senses a threat

to his for-profit health care which is being overseened by a disgraced bush administration official whose own record is so vile that he actually makes the word corrupt look so bad. how dare robert gibbs suggest he's not just a regular guy, and totally unrelated news, america's health insurance plans, the national association that represents more than 1,000 insurance companies just put out a list of talking points. the things they want real americans to say at these town hall events. here's your script, real people! written for you by the health insurance industry. which isn't trying to manufacture the appearance of grassroots opposition at all. if you don't feel like taking your talking points directly in the health insurance industry, how about a middleman? like, say, the organization freedom works. which sounds really grass roots. they have now published their own august recess action kit. your handy dandy guide for disrupting town hall meetings at a location near you. the kit actually begins with, dear friend of freedom, and it

provides suggested questions that you might ask your local congressman. there's also very helpful google maps of upcoming town hall events. this kit brought to you by the head of freedom march, of course, former republican house majority leader dick armey, in addition to fronting that group, dick armey is a senior policy adviser at a law firm called dla piper, that just happens to have received $830,000 this year so far from a giant pharmaceutical firm called medicines company. this after the $1.5. medicines company paid mr. armey's firm last year. the fact that dick armey and freedom works are standing alongside regular joes like rick scott to lead the charge against health care reform could be just a coincidence. or it could be a stark reminder of who we're dealing with here. who is actively organizing the campaign against health care reform? scaring real americans with increasingly paranoid and cook kooky lies about health care and providing a script ho to express

that fear.kooky lies about heald providing a script ho to express that fear. these are the pros, very well compensated pros, they do it all the time. it's a p.r. industry, it's a lobbying industry and there is a clear vested financial interest in seeing that the health care industry not reformed. not now, not ever. but the prospect of health care reform is up against a big, expensive corporate p.r. effort. as i said before, should be reported as such. ♪

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i have to do a little housekeeping here. last night i reported on the sophisticated corporate efforts to make it seem as though the opposition to health care reform in this country is actually a spontaneous grass roots movement instead of a sophisticated well funded corporate effort. in that reporting i said two groups, patients united now and patients first, were both busting people around the country to demonstrate against health care reform. i apologize for being wrong when i said that. it's actually just patients first bussing people around. that's one of their very fancy buses right there. the photo was actually sent in by a viewer from north carolina, who i thank for that. patients united now may not be bussing people around to serve as mobile anti-health care reform crowds, but both groups are part of americans for prosperity. so you can see the americans for prosperity patients first bus out in your town, say. or you can use the americans for

prosperity patients united now website to, like, watch videos, like this clip from fox business channel that they labeled government health care plan not necessary. or this one called how obama will ruin health care. why either patients united now or patients first, it's really americans for prosperity, which is located at, on the 1700 block of m street, right smack in the middle of downtown washington, d.c. you know, where the grass roots grow. the man who runs this, the president, tim phillips, and he'll join us live in a minute. mr. phillips made a career out of, to my mind, creating the impression there is grass roots support for the agenda of his corporate clients. americans for prosperity projects include not only those awesome buses we just showed you, and i understand it's not just one, but a bunch of them.

it's also the company that hired joe the plumber to travel around the country opposing the employee-free choice act, called the save my ballot tour. they set up nostimulus.com to, obviously, oppose the stimulus and flew a hot air balloon around to make the case that the concern of global warming was just a lot of hot air. get it? with the balloons? called the hot air tour. americans for prosperity is the m3 washington, d.c. of campaigns that are supposed to look like they're not at all coming from m street in washington, d.c. joining us now is tim phillips who is the president of americans for prosperity, which launched both patients united now and patients first. mr. phillips, i know you're under no illusions about our show. i really thank you for agreeing to come on this show. >> i did see you last night and know what i'm getting into. >> very good. let me be as fair as i can be. have i got my facts straight thus far? did i just say something that was factually incorrect? >> when you say we're bussing folks in, that we're not a real

group, that's an exaggeration. i was in evansville, indiana, we had 260 folks there on a steamy, hot summer morning. they are real folks. none of them were bussed in. these are real people. >> what are the buses for? >> to go around and deliver our message. a really good prop. a good way to dramatize what's at stake in this health care debate. we do have two of those running. one's in nebraska. one's in north carolina. i'll be in pennsylvania again with it next week. it's a good way to dramatize what's at stake with health care in washington, d.c. right now. >> in trying to understand your strategy and the way that americans for prosperity works, when you go to the website of patients united now, it notes that it's a project of americans for prosperity and has a focus folksy feel to it. it says, we are people just like you.folksy feel to it. it says, we are people just like you. you went to d.c. with questions about reform, but what we found shocked us. radical discussions, discussions

behind closed doors, patients like us not included. just big company, lobbyist, unions and politicians. so that's, patients united now, americans for prosperity, saying that it's patients like us and not lobbyists? that's why i'm confused. who are the major funders for american prosperity. >> let's answer the question in sequence. we are very upfront. it is a good way to quickly cut to the chase on this issue that it is about patients first. i'll tell you something. we have over 700,000 activists in all 50 states. i was out on the road this week in places like el door raid oh arkansas and monroe, louisiana. a lot of these people, and we are patients. i'm a patient, you're a parent. we're all patients and we all have something at stake here. >> when you say it's patients like us, and not lobbyists or big companies? >> i'm not a lobbyist. i'm not a lobbyist in washington, d.c. i'm a community organizer.

what do you think about that? that ought to qualify me for president. >> awesome. who are the major funders for americans with prosperity? >> over 50,000 donors across the country. all 50 states. over 88% our money comes from private individuals and foundations. >> is one of those foundations the coke industries foundation? >> yes. >> as far as i understand, you are one of the largest recipients of the coke industry's foundation and they're the largest privately held oil company in the country, one of the largest companies in the country, and it seems odd to call yourself patients like us when you're a huge recipient of funding from a big company, and you're trying to distinguish yourself from one big company? >> we applaud all americans for getting involved. you don't hear us a talking or complaining about george soros pouring hundreds of

millions of dollars. we even applaud that. we think the american democratic process is a good thing, that every american ought to be involved, whether there is a lot of money, whether they don't have a lot of money. call americans to come out to the rally, go to town hall meetings, rachel, i do think -- that's demeaning. >> i'm not calling anybody any individual american a front group. i'm calling it a subgroup, a b subgroup for the corporate interest. >> that is the -- the corporate are a minuscule of our funding. we would like to have more corporation funding. more corporations watching, feeling free to give. we'll be happy to have their support as well. >> your hot air tour, which used this excellent visual of the big hot air balloon, with the words global warming on the side of it. i think americans for prosperity also did a free our energy tour promoting domestic drilling, right? didn't you do that as well? >> i don't think so. we were the hot air tour. >> okay.

the hot air tour. are you funded in part by exxon or have you been? >> no. absolutely not. >> no exxon money. >> again, though, we would be happy to take funding from broader groups like that. we haven't in this case, but they have a stake just like average americans have a stake in this. this was a huge issue that will kill job, raise taxes. in evansville, a guy walked up to -- actually, el dorado, arkansas, all these kids, said this is my first political event. i want these kids to know their dad's working hard to keep his job. that's what's at stake with this cap and trade issue. we're happy to hit the road on that. i'll be on the road in two weeks on that issue. >> exxon does list the americans for prosperity foundation as recipient of in some years tens of thousands of dollars and other years hundreds of thousands of dollars, but you are saying america for prosperity, no exxon money? >> this year, no exxon money.

i'd be happy to look at our records and get back to you if we have. again, we're happy to take corporate money. if you're watch tonight and want to give to us in your corporation, you want to protect freedom and the economy and the ability to go out and earning a living, live the american dream, it's the issues we're focused on. >> my point, the reason i wanted to talk to you, a feel like while the corporations need to know, you would be a happy recipient of their funding, people who identify with patients like us, should also know that you are guys are as much big companies as you are patients like us. i recognize that i'm a patient, too, but would never refer to myself as somebody who was aggressive, patients' advocate here. one last question. in your official bio there's no activity listed for you between 1997 and 2006. where did you work during that decade? >> centuries strategies. >> which was -- did you co-found that with ralph reid? >> sure did. ralph's a good friend. >> when ralph reid wrote a memo to enron in october 2000, it ended up in the "washington post."

it says your company should get enron's business lobbying for energy deregulation because of your track record in getting the face community and face-based activists to embrace the agenda of your company's clients. i would love to hear you state or explain to me what the particular interest of face groups is in energy deregulation? >> first of all, i'm proud to work with century strategies. it's a good company and a good company today. ralph's a good friend of mine. if they have an interest in chief, abundant energy. any time you have energy costs going up it kills jobs, takes take-home money away from people paying utility bill, higher gas prices. we've seen $4 a gallon. we've seen the havoc from that reap just last year. americans have an interest in cheap, abundant energy, just like everyone else. >> one last question for you. i want to clear this up.

i read it and never totally understood it. you worked for a candidate named steven martin in the 2002 republican primary. did you set up a 527 called the faith and family alliance in virginia? >> initially i was helpful in doing that. we weren't involved once the campaign came back up. >> when they made robocalls calling senator martin the only christian in the contest because senator cantor was jewish, was that you? >> i've never heard of that actually being documented. that occurring. so, a, i wasn't involved. if it did occur, i've never seen the documentation that did occur and eric cantor is a good friend of mine today. we're working hard to stop this and this health care bill as going through. i'm glad to count erik as a friend today. this kind of gutsy politics, rachel, is the reason we're winning on health care now. we're worried about it, focusing on what this health care program can do to people. >> wait.

what kind of gotcha politics? >> discussion we're having right now. look, the american people want to know what's going to happen to their health care system and the obama administration and their allies are losing on that point. >> i think the people also want -- american people also want to know who's the organizer of the fight? and who the players are. and just spontaneous efforts happening organically by americans who are angry and not coordinated by industry and by lobbyists and political campaign groups associated with the republican party. that's why i want to talk about who you are because you have such an important role in coordinating these events, and i think the american people are curious. i hope you don't think i'm being unfair. >> i'm not saying you're unfair, but that's a good example why we're winning this debate right now. 47% of the american people, according to the poll, are against the president on health care because we're focusing on what this plan's going to do, rachel, to health care. driving costs through the roof for a budget which can't be rescinded and opponents are setting up their attacking mob violence.

that's why we are winning here. >> i will always attack mob violence. >> you are going to keep doing this, but it's part of the reason your side is losing this issue. >> if you think mob violence is why you're winning it, i look forward to the end. and it has been real fair to come on the show. >> thanks for having me. >> let me know if you find out about that exxon funding. >> one thing. please come on the road with us. go to our website, dozens of events listed. i would love to have you as my guest. >> i can't bear the conflict of interest with your corporate funder. >> oh, come on. >> thanks for joining us. that was great. and president obama's supreme court pick, sonia sotomayor was nominated. showing everybody's card what kind of supreme court will we have with her on it now? stay with us.

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still to come this hour, kent jones helps uncover the scariest anti-health care reform bill ever. if you love anything, or ever have, you and your family must watch.

first, a couple holy mackerel stories in today's news. if you enjoy the twitter like me there was a gaping hole in your procrastinating soul today because twitter was twacked. twitter was crippled today by a denial of service attacks that left the site inaccessible most of the day. charles arthur explained it today, thises like ringing the site's door bell and running away thousands of times. facebook also reported on its own facebook page, of course that it, too, was hit. although that appeared to be less severe. part of what makes the twitter crash story so sad, tragic, really, is that not only couldn't we track the thoughts of millions of strangers, 140 characters at a time. not only could i not become the 10,000th person to post a link

to the awesome fake kenyon birth certificate generator, but also because we could not keep up today with the tweet of john quincy adams. the massachusetts historical society, god bless them, is tweeting the diary of our sixth president. it was a diary he started exactly 200 years ago yesterday when he was working as ambassador to russia. john quincy adams left boston harbor august 5, 1809 headed for st. petersburg and each entry is a single line, which means it's well under twitter's 140 character limit. john quincy adams serves add president of the united states from 1825 to 1829. where upon the american people decided not to retweet him. instead chose andrew jackson, fdw. (announcer) that ball is going, going, gone!

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an historic day in american law and politics today. the first-ever latino justice confirmed by the united states senate to join the supreme court. the vote was 68-31 as nine republicans joined 59 democrats in voting for sonja sotomayor. that puts her overall tally of support smack dab in between what sam alito got and john

roberts got. the saga to this point has been about the politics of sotomayor's nomination, particularly the use of her confirmation hearings to accuse the judge of being prejudiced against white people. that part of the process is all over now. good luck in the 2010 elections, republican senators. now we have a new supreme court with sonja sotomayor but without david souter on it. joining us is jonathan turley, professor of constitutional law at georgetown university law school. >> hi, rachel. >> nice to see you. who do you think judge sotomayor is going to be a surprise to once she settles in on the court? >> i think she is going to surprise both sides of our political debate. the entire controversy over her nomination was remarkably

detached from her actual opinions. your show is one the of the few shows that dealt with real opinion. in fact, sonja sotomayor is not nearly as liberal as either the liberals or conservatives seem to think. in fact, if she votes the way she did on the second circuit, liberals will lose ground on the supreme court. the funny thing with the charge she was bias, quite to the contrary, she voted on both sides of the political controversy in many cases. i think liberals might be disappointed with that voting record if she continues it on the supreme court. >> do we know where judge sotomayor stands on issues of executive power? you and i talked about those so

much over the past few years in terms of the bush administration. do we know where she is on those issues? >> we don't. she's had over 500 opinions. the second circuit simply did not deal directly with the type of executive power questions that the court's been dealing with in the last eight or so years. they are going to come to the court. there is a lot of unfinished business that remains out there, to the surprise and disappointment for many of us, the obama administration has not simply embraced many of the bush doctrines, but pushed them further. so we expected that many of these issues would die out because obama would abandon these positions, but he hasn't. he's actually expanding them. >> there is any way to look at the immediate horizon of what the supreme court will be deciding, based on what we know of her as an appellate court judge and david souter's record, is there any way to predict where we are going to see the first manifestations of the changed court? the kinds of decisions we get with her, but wouldn't have got

been souter? >> the most obvious came to her confirmation hearing. her hearing like previous hearings for roberts, alito and others was virtually devoid of contact. there was only one moment which there was something constructive. that was very surprising when judge sotomayor, soon justice sotomayor, said she did not believe foreign judgments and sources should influence decisions of the court. that really was quite surprising because just in the case involving simmons this was a case involving the execution of juveniles, the supreme court voted 5-4 and relied upon those types of foreign authorities. she said she doesn't believe the court should rely on those sources. that decision was 5-4. the person she is replacing was in the group of five, so many people are looking, many civil libertarians are looking with great concern whether she will add a fifth vote to the conservatives in rejecting foreign sources, particularly of judgments. >> wow. the distance between her legal applications and politics couldn't be more starkly demonstrated by that.

jonathan turley, it is great to see you. we haven't had you on in way too long. thanks for being on the show. >> thanks, rachel. coming up on "countdown," stunning allegations of killings of iraqi civilians and a reported child sex ring in iraq. eek. next on this show, kent jones will show a shocking ad. we turn now to our reform k, sir. boss: but i think there are a few other things you can say about what a reliable company geico is. gecko: right. uh, well maybe how geico's the third-largest car insurance company in america? nice tidbit there. boss: exactly. and i've been thinking, looking a bit more businesslike might he too. gecko: oh my. uhhh, no it's, what's, what's the word... vogeico. 15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance. - oh, come on. - enough! you get half. and you get half.

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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 knhy i sell tools? we are miracle whip tools are uncomplicated? nothing complicated about a pair of 10 inch hose clamp pliers. you know what's complicated? shipping. shipping's complicated. not really. with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service shipping is easy. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that's not complicated. come on. how about...a handshake. alright. priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. all: hi, john! going to college and need a laptop. what do you got?

you, in the top corner. our next class laptops could be perfect for you. we got student feedback and designed them specifically for college. are they legit brands, though? boom! we partnered with hp, toshiba, sony and dell. okay. uh, what's the square root of 841? 29. announcer: laptops designed for college and thousands of people eager to help. we turn now to our reform resistance correspondent kent jones. >> good evening, rachel. there are all these ads that are against health care reform, but i found one of them that's unbelievable.

>> okay. >> as in you probably shouldn't believe it. >> okay. fair enough. >> we all know that barack obama's reckless 75 gagillio trillion dollar health care scheme will kill old people, but that's only the beginning. obama, nancy pelosi and other liberals in congress have an even more sinister agenda. they want to kill your pets. obama's scheme will dictate lady sparkle's treatments, lady sparkle's medicines, even when lady sparkle conceives. beloved family members stolen from their beds. obama's plan will eliminate private insurance in favor of a so-called public option. translation? lady circles dies, and so will jingles and she biscuit and sir bunnington fluff iii. obama says he'd like to model his plan on canada's system where the government has been killing off pets for decades. america, we have a choice.

stop obama's deadly health care reform scheme or kiss lady sparkles good-bye. paid for by the community to stop obama from killing her pets. not paid for or authorized by any candidate or political party in public. >> the problem here is i feel frightened. i'm so susceptible to the music that plays in things like that. that makes me scared even though it's you. >> and how do we know? >> thank you, kent. terrified.

thank you for watching tonight. we'll see you tomorrow night. a month of troubles. let's play "hardball." > good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, the dangers of august. if february is the cruelest month, this one is no day at the beach. for barack obama this august could be the month of storms. his approval numbers are dropping as the health care debate grows hot. the president's 50% approval rating is down seven points in a month now to his lowest mark yet. other polls have obama higher, but the pattern is definitely downwards everywhere. will this be the month the health care debate and worries about the economy sink the president's approval number

below 50% or can he rally against his opponents and make the sale? things got a lot uglier with rush limbaugh comparing nancy pelosi and the democrats to the nazis. that comes on top of those anti-obama town hall that is featured at least one person carrying a sign that accused obama of having a nazi-style health plan. >> just say no! just say no! just say no! just say no! >> this is a well-organized set of protests. those mob scenes are supported in part by a group called freedom works, and today the afl-cio, the labor organization announced it's going to send people to town halls as well to confront the anti-obama teams. we have organizers on both sides tonight to show the fight right here on the set. plus, the battle for ic