thinking about other ways we can get around. >> okay. >> don't get me wrong. the volt is cool. so are a lot of the other electric concept cars. it's just that, at this point, i thought i'd be flying. everywhere. as a kid, i rode around in big, american cars. but i assumed it was only a matter of time when me and the rest of america would be airbor airborne, just like my heroes. the jetsons. in the future, i would accept into a glass contraption own go where i wanted to go. earth? walking? that was for suckers. the score's still, gravity 1, humans 0. it's not that no one is trying. this dutch aeronautics student, built a bicycle, that uses pedal power. he managed to stay in the air

for several seconds. nice effort, buddy. and there were are some jetpack aficionados. it's cool. but what about this? you want to fly around with this thing at night? and what about dating? pick you up at 8:00. for the inventors out there, here's the kind of thing i'm looking for. ♪ oh. and i'm going to need a trunk and an extra seat for astro. >> excellent, kent. i have a transportation cocktail moment for you, too. >> oh, very good. >> i'm an average parallel parker. >> average. all right. >> and i wanted to be able to lift up the back of the car and scoot it in sideways. >> wouldn't that be great? >> this dude in egypt figured out how to do it. a retractable wheel that swings

it in and out of a parking place. it says, an employee invents a unique way to park his car. i have no idea who he is. but i'm in love. thanks for watching tonight. which oaf these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? the tale of two town halls. and one rumored administration deal with big pharma. >> i do hope we will talk with each other and not over each other. >> it can't be about who's the loudest. >> somehow, it's gotten spun into this idea of death panels. i'm not in favor of that. >> the debate. the blowback. the denied deal with the health care sector, with lawrence o'donnell. the continuing town hall undercurrent. the racism, with professor

melissa lacewell. the palin pullback. she may have done it because her negligence as governor resulted in a real-life de facto death panel in alaska. investors business daily, editorials on the nightmares. we got a version of britain's national health. people such as scientists, stephen hawking, wouldn't have a chance in the u.k., where the national health service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless. you do realize that dr. hawking is from the u.k. and the national health has helped to keep him flourishing these last 45 years. and worst. dick morris on how to influence democratic congressmen. >> if they are not terrorized during august by the public outpouring, and they don't have thousands and thousands of handwritten letters on their doorstep, waiting for them, when

they return from the august recess, they'll fold. >> he actually said it. he actually said democrats should be terrorized. and he didn't get fired by fox. all that and more, now, on "countdown." >> they will not mess with you. good evening, from new york. no questions were out of bounds. no people were screened out. today in new hampshire, pennsylvania, in missouri and elsewhere, we saw the president and other democrats face the real america. real supporters of health care reform. real opponents of health care reform. and other americans too ignorant or scared to realize that they let themselves become for megaphones for lies that do not serve them. but serve only those who profit off of them. our story tonight, president obama's faceoff at a health care town hall. returning to new hampshire, recognized as a birthplace of american town halls. mr. obama got a warm welcome. courteous questions.

skepticism. that was inside the hall. outside, one protesters found it necessary to show up armed, which he was allowed to do under law. and the law kept him under close watch. picked up on sarah palin's warning. debunked by elected republicans, that mr. obama's health care reform would involve decisions about when old people should die. inside another child, posed a questions about these lies. >> walking in, i saw a lot of signs outside, saying mean things about reforming health care. how do kids know what is true? and why do people not want a new system that can help more of us? >> well, i've seen some of those signs. let me just be specific about some things that i've been hearing lately. we just need to just dispose of here.

the rumor that's been circulating a lot lately, is the idea that somehow the house of representatives voted for death panels that will, basically, pull the plug on grandma. because we've decided that we don't -- it's too expensive to let her live anymore. and there are some variations on this theme. it turns out that i guess this arose out of a provision in one of the house bills that allowed medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end of life care, setting up living wills, the availability of hospice, et cetera. >> in missouri, senator claire mccaskill did not fair quite as

well as the president. this was the reaction. daring to begin by announcing she would pick unscreened questions out of a goldfish bowl. >> i think what we're doing is fair. i don't want this to be who talks the loudest. hey. hey. hey. >> the senator succeeded on selling the crowd on goldfish bowl democracy. but on matters of other matters, those that do not appear central to the health care issue, consensus remained elusive. >> i believe that global warming is real. and that it is a huge problem. >> the crowd also asked about other pressing health care matters, such as whether money will go to a.c.o.r.n., or whether illegal immigrants will take coverage back to their homeland. one pressing issue came up more than any other. >> here's this question. can you promise that my tax

dollars will not fund abortion? i can tell you that there is not one word in this bill that would allow federal tax dollars to be spent on abortion. christine brewer says, i do not support government health care. thank you. taxes should not be used for abortion. cynthia, this is the abortion question again. would you like to ask a different question, cynthia? okay? >> despite a crowd that booed the news that unemployment is down, that their own 401(k)s were doing better than they were, senator mccaskill did seem to sneak a few salient points under their radar. >> can i see a show of hands of everyone in the room who has medicare. everyone who has medicare. okay. now, let me ask you to raise your hands if you have medicare and you want to get rid of it.

okay. we did very, very aggressive tort reform. and there's been a dramatic drop-off in malpractice lawsuits in missouri. yeah. now, i'm wondering how many of you that are clapping saw your health care costs go down. yeah. >> and despite so many interruptions, booing, cat call, so on, that mccaskill felt compelled to claim, quote, we got good matters in missouri. i swear we do. the proceedings remained relatively orderly, with one disruption, a fight in the crowd, leading to law enforcement action. in pennsylvania, senator specter had a protester being led away. but specter had to deal with questions just as far field, even more so, than senator mccaskill. >> did you ever read the koran? senator? >> the koran? >> the koran. >> no. >> back in new hampshire, mr. obama solicited questions from skeptics of health care

reform. some of the questions came from the left. one man identified himself as a republican, asking a reasonable question in reasonable fashion. >> good afternoon, mr. president. my name is ben. i'm from maine. and also, florida. and i'm a republican. i don't know what i'm doing here. but i'm here. >> we're happy to have you. we're happy to have you. >> mr. president, you've been quoted over the years, when you were a senator and perhaps even before then, that you are, eventually, a supporter of a universal plan. i'm beginning to see that you're changing that. do you honestly believe that? >> president obama clarified, not single payer. but yes, universal, at least in everyone ought to be able to afford it. the key elements of the plan were emphasized by him, before he took the first question, as

he did. some seek to drown out these simple facts. >> for all of the chatter and the yelling and the shouting and the noise, what you need to know is this. if you don't have health insurance, you will finally have quality, affordable options, once we pass reform. if you do have health insurance, we will make sure that no insurance company or government bureaucrat, gets between you and the care you need. >> with us tonight, once again, msnbc, lawrence o'donnell. also, former chief of staff, to the senate committee. thanks for coming back in. >> thank you. >> what should we make of obama in new hampshire? skeptics, reasonable to his face. others with vile things to say sort of at the perimeter. >> now, you see why senators want to be president. if barack obama was doing a town hall meeting in juliet, as the

senator from illinois, he'd probably be talked down a bit. we also saw the most masterful political communicators of our time taking the stage in new hampshire, with a respectful crowd. that republican from maine, seems to be a mainstream republican. he has strong doubts about what the president is up to. respects him completely, as both president and a human being. and was able to have that exchange with him. that is very difficult for senators and congressmen. >> if the specter and mccaskill town halls prove the norm, she let them down several paths to which there was no getting out of, no matter how loudly they booed. what does that do, though, if that's the predominant shape of this debate? what does it do to the shape of health care reform? >> it pushes it into a softer direction. there were e-mails going out a few weeks ago from organizations on the left saying, let's push for reconsideration of single payer. let's push for public option.

those people aren't at these meetings or being heard at these meetings. what's being heard at the meetings is push away from a public option. push into a softer direction. that's where the political momentum is going right now, through this town hall process. >> where are they? where are the people pushing for that? >> they are probably there. and they're probably waiting their turn to speak. and they are getting drowned out. to some extent, this may be working the way the town hall things work. congressmen and senators recognize this is a couple of hundred people. sometimes in a state of several million people. and they are the activists. and they tend to be there for reasons that do not represent the whole state. so, they have to be doing polling state-wide, to see what their states are thinking and districts are thinking. >> do we expect -- and obviously, we'll get to the uglier side of all of this presently. but do we expect the prospect of a backfire on this from the opponents? might even legislators see that

they -- what they're hearing is exactly as you described it? it is an incredibly vocal, incredibly minority minority. and people don't have their facts and are not bringing stuff that the germane to the debate? or would oppose anything that had obama's name on it? is that sense coming through at all? is the legislators being bullied? >> it's much trickier now to make that calculation than it used to be. 15 years ago, 20 years ago, in a senate office, you might get 1,000 telegrams in a day. they were all identically worded. they would be counted as one by a smart politician. now, it's much trickier to figure out what's happening. it's very clear there's an astroturf phenomenon on the opposition side of this health care thing. but it's not easy in a place like missouri to figure out how much of that is fake -- is organized and astroturf and how much is genuine uprising.

>> there's a practical thing behind the loudness of the noise. there's unanswered questions on how much the president gave away in conversations, negotiations. somewhere along that spectrum, with the drug companies, in return for voluntary cost-cutting. congressmen show deference to that deal if there was a deal? and was there a deal? >> this is exactly the kind of question that would be coming from the left in these town meetings if they weren't getting drowned out. there is -- it's very murky as to whether there was a deal. "the new york times" felt there was confirmation there was a deal. the white house is officially saying there's no deal. it's a very weird deal because it can't be scored by cbo and the way they've talked about it. the theory is that drug companies would cut their prices by $80 billion, saving the government on prescription drugs. there isn't a way to hold them to that deal. there isn't a way for the

pharmaceutical industry to hold the government to that deal. the reason we know as much about it as we do, is the pharmaceutical lobbyists got upset when waxman's committee violated the deal. and legislated what they don't want. >> what would have been given up for $80 billion worth of drug company cuts? >> well, the deal theoretically gets the pharmaceutical companies support for the bill, which really functions as a lack of organized opposition. these companies don't really get out there and push and support, in a way that helps this legislation. they simply don't attack. i don't think you could expect much more from the pharmaceutical company for this kind of deal. >> same premises. protection money but there's no breakage own no protection. >> a similar type. probably once or twice, thanks. >> i've been there. >> i figured as much. once again, there is that sub text. push back against the lynching imagery. the racism imagery.

and gets louder and uglier. towards david scott of atlanta, who pushed back against all of it as a town hall last week. overnight, somebody spray painted something on a sign, bearing the congressman's name outside one of his district offices. the graffiti was in the form of a swastika. and the congressman, is african-american. the daily double of hate.

a fox commentator calls upon america to make sure that

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? not to make more of this than it deserves. this is just from the city manager's office and police chief office, where the president was in a town hall meeting. you saw a man bearing a firearm with a license. this is a separate story. the city of portsmouth, arresting a terry young, for carrying a pistol without a license. mr. young, it says, located inside of the high school, where he was detained by the secret

service, arrested by the police for that offense. carrying a pocket knife. a search of his vehicle, police say parked on school property, revealed a loaded gun. that's the mug shot of richard terry young, arrested today. that's the basis for the second charge, in addition to those offenses. according to police. randall -- richard terry young, is being investigated by the u.s. secret service for possible federal crimes, resulting from the same series of events. bail had not yet been set. and mr. young, according to the police department, remains in the custody in new hampshire, for aparentally, carrying a pocket knife into the senior high school in portsmouth, new hampshire, at the time of the president's town hall today. and having an unlicensed firearm in his vehicle, as well. if there are further updates, we'll keep you posted on them. to this point, no one congratulates themselves on power of perception, when there is a sinking feeling that racism

is at the town halls, when a decision is borne out of a display of hatred. an effigy or sign of racial slur. it may not be the only motive. it does exist. it cannot be ignored. it's an undercurrent that connects the birthers to the national deathers. the people that believe there's an obama death panel. congressman david scott, he accused his participants of trying to hijack that offering. his office has been vandalized. a four-foot swastika pointed on the office sign overnight. that, and what congressman john dingell at town halls, has reminded dingell of something from a very long time ago. >> the last time i had to confront something like that was when i voted for the civil rights bill. and my opponent voted against it. at that time, we had a lot of ku klux klan folks and white supremacists.

and folks in white sheets and other things, running around, causing trouble. >> there's nothing more illustrated than an account sent to "the atlantic" magazine, from someone that planned to be attending the meeting. i was to attend the health care summit. i never made it into the building. never experienced in my life, really experienced outright racism in a public place. racial slurs on science. people chanting words, too many many to list. and outright screaming at obama supporters. the hatred was in their eyes. it scared me for a moment. at first i was shocked. then, a little scared. and then, i got outright mad. and in the span of one minute, i left. melissa harris layswell. good evening, professor. >> good evening. good to see you. >> we have no idea what extent it is people. but they're there. and when racism becomes blatant and no longer hidden behind euphemisms, how much is the

damage to people's safety? >> certainly, i think the greatest danger to people's safety, is people coming armed to these meetings. and the biggest problem in terms of conversation is the shouting. talking about race and labeling individuals as racist is the fastest way to shut down a conversation about what's really going on around questions of race. and it shuts down quickly because people start saying, i'm not racist. i have black friends. i never used the "n" word. i think what we want to focus on is the tactics the strategies been used by the hate groups, like the ku klux klan. heck, by even southern governments. during the civil rights movement, these strategies of massive resistance against change. what we want to see is similar tactics have been used by those who are clearly racially bias.

>> doesn't race nichl this country today, largely because of what we went through in the '60s and '70s in particular, and the '50s, doesn't it have built-in self-destructiveness? not to society. but to racists who maintain that stance? or is there a still a reverse tipping point? could it regain not just an influential foothold, but a decisive one? is that plausible? >> i think there's no doubt that part of this anxiety around taxes, around health care, around all of these sort of issues that are some coming together in this anxiety, have to deal with fear of an african-american president. a woman at secretary of state. a latina on the supreme court. you can remember the final four contenders for the democratic nomination. a white woman, a black man, a white southerner. and a latino. that kind of change in america produces a great deal of anxiety for people who are not quite

sure that governing among women or brown and black people is not real governance. the klan did march against the civil rights movement in the 1960s. they did push back against legislation. and the congress had the courage, the moral courage, as well as the democratic courage, to push forward with those reforms because they were necessary. we have the hope that this congress will be similarly morley courageous. >> and to that point, there seems to be a strategy to protecting the town halls from agitation that serve no, sir purpose. even health care may go through unscathed. what happens to this hate that has been tapped into? does it just move on organically to the next presidential initiative? or does it have to be prompted to move there by agitation? by media? does it -- could it die between events? or is it with us? >> i suspect it won't die.

i suspect that agitation around race, we're going to simply fall apart of its own accord or die. we would have seen that in the 1870s or in the 1970s. you know, i have a father who went to jim crow public schools. from the time i was a small child, he signed my birthday cards, the struggle continues. so, we are part of a continuing struggle. and we need not lose courage on that front. >> melissa harris-lacewell. of princeton. thanks for your time on this. the story that there are wild elephants in the subway. and a talking head on fox promotes terrorism. he used the future tense of the word terrorize. he's not reprimanded or asked to rephrase.

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now, best liars about health care reform. thank goodness for stephen hawking that he's not british. first day in 1946, was t woman having the world's largest i.q. savant does mean person of learning. and i'll still bet on hawking. let's play.

to thailand by why did the elephant cross the street? it didn't. it fell into a manhole. people gathers around. and they encouraged the elephant out. more practical minds prevailed. and the big machinery was brought out. bulldozer, baby. it was freed unharmed. to the nether lands. not a bird. not a plane. but a flying bike, if you count four seconds and four feet off the ground as flying. the dutch aeronautic student counts it. it uses pedal power and a good shove. making him the first dutchman to fly a bike. after that he said, quote, that

was super. and it might really help him in impressing the ladies. why did sarah palin look at health care reform and see death panels? guilt, perhaps? because health care in alaska when she was governor was so bad, the governor found that the state could not ensure the health and well being of the citizens she was supposed to be protecting. and there's only room for one conservative queen bee. meghan mccain versus michelle valkin. but our "best persons in the world." best liars about health care reform. dateline los angeles, investor's business daily, home of fascist editorials that would make attila the hun blush. but this is priceless. it is an explanation of the british system of national health, which has been in place since 1945. people such as stephen hawking wouldn't have a chance in the u.k. where the national health service would say the life of this man because his physical handicaps is essentially worthless. you geniuses do know that stephen hawking is from the u.k., right? he's actually been treated by

the british national health service, right? with its services, he's lived through about 45 years of als, right? the goofballs at investor's business daily were presumably confused by the fact his voice synthesizer did not have a british accent. dateline new york. gregg jarrett of cluster fox about the speaker of the house. pelosi sort of suggested that any american citizen who dare voice an objection in protest is say nazi, apparently based on one isolated incident. but now she stepped it up and she's labeling protesters un-american. isn't that destructive rather than constructive? oh, my god, is he dim. pelosi never called anybody a nazi. she noted correctly that people had showed up at several town halls carrying swastikas and symbols like that, like the one today. and she never called protesters un-american. she wrote that drowning people out at town halls was un-american. people who were for reform or against it. and "dateline" pineville, louisiana. senator david vitter of that state held his own town hall on health care. said he was totally and unalterably opposed to it. then he mocked democrats whose

town halls had been disrupted by paid agitators. the angry mob, he said, is always welcome at my events. and the best security is to do what the people want you to do. very nice. except for this one note about the nature of vitters, no-holds-barred, tough-talking town hall which comes from the pages of the alexandria louisiana newspaper "the town talk." quote, the panel of speakers all joined vitter in opposing the reform package being debated in congress. questions from audience members were screened and selected in advance of the event. here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty. ♪ you could buy 300 bottles of water. or just one brita filter. ( drop plinks ) brita-- better for the environment and your wallet. if you're using other moisturizing body washes, you might as well be. you see, their moisturizer sits on top of skin,

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it was a state-run program intended to assist the elderly and disabled with basic needs like eating, bathing, getting to the bathroom. it was deemed so poorly managed as one news report put it, the state could not ensure the

health and well-being the people they were supposed to serve. the mismanagement was fatal with heartbreaking and stunning frequency. the state in question? alaska. the third story, never mind palin's fictitious death panels, the governor of alaska presided over some virtual death panels of her own. a federal court in june found health panels designed to keep people out of institutions were plagued with problems. "the anchorage daily news" reporting in 1 2 1/2-year stretch, 227 adults already getting services died while waiting for a nurse to reassess their needs. the centers were medicare and medicaid services. banned the states from admitting more patients into their programs until improvements were made. the suspension on admittance to one program has been lifted but the ban remains on another alaska medicate program which provides another wide range of services for people with severe needs. it might be assumed such a program in any state would have these type of issues. but, no, it's just alaska. it was the only state in the union to be put under a federal moratorium. one time another republican lashed out against the palin

death panel talk. the senator from georgia, supporter of expanding medicare's end-of-life planning coverage speaking with "the washington post." i just had a phone call, he said, where someone said sarah palin's website talked about the house bill having death panels on it where people would be euthanized. how someone would take an end-of-life directive or a living will as that is nuts. you're putting the individual rather than the government. i don't know how that got so mixed up. joining me from anchorage, talk radio host and huffington post contributor, shannyn moore. shannyn, good evening. >> good evening, keith. >> first to senator isaacson's point. isn't the reason why things got so mixed up in this health care debate because former governor palin might have been registering some guilt over how many people died on her health care watch in her state? >> i don't think that sarah palin registers guilt. i really don't. there is a very, very long list of whose fault everything has been. whether it's the johnston family, whether it's the

bloggers in alaska, will whether it's campaign people. it's never her fault. so, i don't think this is part of a registration of that. i think this is really a cry to her base. >> palin would have you believe that the medicaid system is flawed. but in this particular case, isn't part of the problem, or wasn't at least part of the problem during a considerable period of time here, the incompetence of her administration, not of some sort of systemic problem with medicaid? >> isn't it interesting that people keep running for office, they keep telling us the government's bad and then they get in and they prove it? she's a classic case. she talks about how bad the government is and that bureaucrats are bad. and yet, she's spent a lot of time on the road last year running to be a bureaucrat and being part of government. she got in and she proved it. and i spent a lot of time today talking to this department. i talked to four or five different people there. and my understanding is they actually requested funds, they requested more resources and were denied. all of this in a year of huge

surpluses. and, you know, alaskans already have a permanent fund dividend check that we get from oil royalties, which she put out an additional over $700 million in just checks that was above and beyond. and so, in a time where we had budget surpluses, she didn't choose to fund this department. it wasn't important to her. she's had multiple people quit because they didn't agree with her parental consent. her parental consent bill that she was trying to put through. so -- which is a, you know, pro-life i suppose or you can say anti-choice act. so, in looking at this, you know, i don't know that it was the department's fault. i think they were underfunded. and i did talk to several legislators today who said that they are -- there's a very good chance that they're going to open a hearing and find out exactly whose fault this was. >> putting aside the governor's redistribution of wealth, did she pull back on the death panel rhetoric between friday and sunday because of this story of her own poor track record on this subject, because that was

out there and could get national attention? were these things interrelated in some way? >> well, you know, someone called me and read me her facebook entry, which is now how she is putting out any information, via facebook. so, they read it to me. and i thought it must be a hoax. i didn't think it was possibly true that she would go as far as say that obama's health care was, you know, death panels. but she did. and she did pull it back subsequently on sunday night, to a certain extent. and i'm not sure if it was the backlash or what. but she -- she has this sort of word salad that she uses that is sort of palin-speak, that is really like a pavlovian response that happens from her base. and they react. and they show up. and they shout down. in fact, yesterday i was at a gathering of people for various different reasons in downtown anchorage.

her palinistas, as we call them, were out in force with bullhorns shouting down anybody who had anything to say about health care, anything that they had to say about this moratorium, and about the energy surplus or the energy stimulus that was actually overturned yesterday by our legislature. >> well, don't ruin their reasons for living. don't tell them she resigned. shannyn moore, radio host, contributor to huffington post. thank you, as always. >> my pleasure, keith. not even seven months in the wilderness and the conservatives are already devouring each other as meghan mccain says to michelle malkin, my twitter following is bigger than your book sales. "worsts." can you really suggest democratic congressmen be terrorized and not even retract it? you can if you work for fox. and when rachel maddow joins me at the top of the hour. strings are not pulled and phony protests are not created for nothing. this costs money. her special report on where it's coming from, coming up. ...or if you're already sick... ...or if you lose your job. your health insurance shouldn't either. so let's fix health care.

if everyone's covered, we can make health care as affordable as possible. and the words "pre-existing condition" become a thing of the past... we're america's health insurance companies. supporting bipartisan reform that congress cabuild on.

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first it was poltergeist versus meghan mccain, and then laura ingraham versus meghan mccain. today, mccain has taken on all three of them. and in "worsts" getting away with saying democratic congressmen should be terrorized. getting away with writing that obama was comparable to a lucky black cat. and the magic number is ten, the number of times frank burns of news referred to his own ratings or own magazine cover during his own show last tonight. you're slipping, bill-o.thro ng . why? you seem to really like it. i do. my wife wants me to. she says there can't be any fiber in it. (mr. mehta) it's got a third of a day's worth of fiber. it tastes way too good to have fiber! ten crunchy little layers frosted to perfection. i eat what i want. she's here, isn't she? she is. hey. (announcer) fiber one frosted shredded wheat. cardboard no. delicious yes. for depression still have depression symptoms. talk to your doctor if your antidepressant alone isn't enough, one option he may consider is adding abilify. abilify is fda-approved to treat depression in adults

when added to an antidepressant. call your doctor if your depression worsens or you have unusual changes in mood, behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens and young adults. elderly dementia patients taking abilify have an increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor if you have high fever, stiff muscles and confusion on abilify, as these may be signs of a life-threatening reaction. or uncontrollable muscle movements, as these could become permanent. high blood sugar has been reported with abilify and medicines like it. in some cases, extreme high blood sugar can lead to coma or death. other risks include dizziness upon standing, decreases in white blood cells, which can be serious, seizures, impaired judgment or motor skills, or trouble swallowing. if an antidepressant alone isn't enough, talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of adding abilify.

conservative pundit old media, new media cat fight next. first, tonight's "worst persons in the world," brought to you by fixed news, which today saw geico and sargento cheese. join the advertiser boycott of glenn "lonesome" beck. tonight's lead story, bill-o the clown and his ratings. his second story last night, bill-o, the clown, had a guest on to talk about his ratings. his fourth story last night was bill-o the clown, about the picture of him on the cover of "parade" magazine. his last story last night was bill-o the clown, about his ratings again. he did briefly suspend his televised self-gratification. but then, it was back to the ratings. he notes their increase and asked a salient question -- why is this happening? well, a major reason is the health care debate. while the other network news broadcasts downplay the dissent and promote the government takeover of the health care industry, fox news highlights the intense debate.

he hasn't talked about the ratings since last year when he was complaining that they altered them to make fox look bad. haven't heard much about that lately. since he has asked why fox's ratings are up, let me answer it for him. the answer is because what they do at fox news is not news. they bailed out of a live coverage of the obama's town hall meeting today. both sides of an issue are covered with balance. one is treated as the revealed word. and to balance that, the other side is dismissed as smear mongering and government takeovers and the work of loons. there's no news on fox news. and bill o'reilly is not a journalist nor a newsman nor a reporter. in fact to borrow somebody else's phrase, as a reporter, i wouldn't send bill o'reilly to cover a john overflowing. the silver to niel furgeson in harvard professor and columnist of "the financial times," scholar, counterintuitive and, oops, cliche imagery user. his new column begins, president barack obama reminds me of felix the cat. one of the best-loved cartoon characters of the 1920s, felix was not only black, but he was also very, very lucky. and that pretty much sums up the 44th president of the united states. the column concludes, even felix the cat's luck ran out during

the depression. his creator, pat sullivan, drank himself to death in 1933, baffled thad audiences now preferred mice, like mickey and jerry. president obama should take note. as should harvard. not only is he making an imagery comparison between the president of the united states and a black cat, but maybe worse. he is suggesting that obama needs to take note of somebody drinking himself to death. but our winner is dick morris. not only insisting that those opposed to health care reform ignore the pleadings, even from some republicans, to be mrits polite at the town hall. but encouraging them to, well, influence the blue dog democrats, who might yet delay reform. if the blue dogs, quote, are not terrorized during august by the public outpouring, and they don't have thousands and thousands of handwritten letters on their doorstep waiting for them when they return from their august recess, they'll fold. terrorize. dick morris actually used the word terrorize to suggest what should be done to u.s. congressmen to u.s. citizens. this is the second time in a

month fox has put somebody on who has either advocated a terror attack by bin laden in this country, as if it would be good for this country or he used the actual term terrorism as if it should be directed towards any american, ever. and nobody's been fired. nobody's been suspended. nobody's been reprimanded. nobody's been made to retract or correct the comments on the air or off. probably because fox's executives have spent the summer trying to suppress criticism of their worthless product, or because they agree with dick morris. today's "worst person in the world." it's quiet on the home front-- not a lot of activity. you read the news. and yet, some people need to sell

and other people want to buy. this is a moment of challenge and opportunity. fortunately, re/max agents have the experience to help you meet the one and recognize the other. thanks. because the future's counting on us. nobody sells more real estate than re/max.

a few months into the wilderness years of the republican party, besides wingnut birther and deather conspiracy theories, it is not entirely clear what the gop plan is for a triumphant return. our number one story, what is clear, if you peered into the wilderness today, you caught a

glimpse of the latest round of a three-on-one knockdown cat fight among the daughter of the last presidential candidate and what she calls a trifecta of extreme female conservative pundits. there they are right here. last friday during a live chat on politico.com, extreme right wing commentator and author michelle malkin responded to the following question from matthew. who is a conservative political figure or commentator who you think needs to shut up? malkin's response, hmm, interesting question. on the right, less meghan mccain. she responded to her column in "the daily beast." so, michelle malkin rounds out the trifecta following me and laura ingraham and ann coulter saying that people like me and i need to get out of the party. is this surprising? not really. malkin has the number one book on the "the new york times" bestseller hardcover nonfiction list but i have nearly twice as many twitter follower as she does. and trust me, twitter is more of an indication of where young people are than books published by the hyper conservative publisher rendergy.

back in march, mccain used her blog to throw ann coulder on the carpet. subsequently, radio talk show host ingraham knee-capped the card for playing the moderate card, effectively calling her a fat valley girl. >> ann, do you think anyone would be talking to you if you are kind of cute and you weren't the daughter of john mccain? or do you think they would just think you're just another valley girl gone awry? okay, i was hoping i was going to get that role in "the real world." but then i realized that, well, they don't like plus-sized models. >> laura's doing that helium stuff again. joining us from washington, chris. good evening. >> good evening, keith. >> let me start with the republican plan that i don't really see. throw out the moderates. alienate the minorities. asked for i.d. before letting anybody in the big. get rid of the young people, ignore anyone as nuanced as meghan mccain.

or more nuanced than meghan mccain. the goal of this is what? >> it is apparently to lose. everything he mentioned is not a recipe for electoral success. the republican party and ideological track, the moderates, as you indicated, have been pushed out. the ones who are left are the screamers, whether they're at town halls or whether it's people like michelle malkin and ann coulter and others. and what ends up happening is the louder they scream, the more they alienate moderates, and i would say independents. so, overall, you have a serious problem in terms of being able to reach out to the critical new demographics that any party needs to be able to reach out to and attract if you're going to be competitive in elections. so, there's a reason why republicans keep losing elections. and if they keep this path up or this strategy up, it's only going to get worse and worse and worse. >> what is the thing with meghan mccain, though? is it the name? is it the message? what is it? >> it's both. i think part of this is a visceral dislike of john mccain. apparently, some conservatives didn't think he was conservative