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dozens of town halls today. multiple opportunities for lawmakers to explain their platform. just as many for americans. we're watching live at an event in maryland. senator ben cardin taking questions there. glad to have you. i'm contessa brewer. this hour, we get real on health care reform. i'm looking at your twitter questions and comments and talking to viewers about what's top of the list concerns. plus, some americans are so fed up, they're taking action. they're joining michel ining mi. researchers say it's because of resentment and having a black president. we'll talk about what people get out of joining a militant group. but the big story right now, town halls taking place, dozens of lawmakers answering questions and trying to calm concerns. many took to the mike and didn't just ask questions. many are making bold statements

about what they think are in this bill. >> it does want to kill people like myself. i'm 73. i'm one of those throw aways, but i want you to know, i'm not afraid of dying. >> mick viqueira joins me now. mike, here was senator cardin putting himself in front of a town meeting that is conservative. voting for mccain. he's had a lot to shout back to i suppose. >> reporter: you're right. people got here four hours in advance. that bite you played coming in was a gentleman who had a lot of facts wrong. he was talking about how this would cover illegal immigrants. it would not cover illegal immigran immigrants. he talked about come pull sor

abortions. there is nothing in the bill to cover that. there are a lot of people here, a lot of people, the majority of people -- the gentleman in front of meji has a copy of the bill legitimate anxiety and it's much broader than the health care bill. many have brought up the stimulus package. there is a lot of the anxiety here. granted, this is a red area of a blue state. there are many, more angry people here. one woman set a point on the way the majority of the crowd feels. she said your government has lost the faith and trust of the american people. she was greeted with thunderous applause, contessa. >> the fact of the matter is, when we're talking about these statements, you have a lot of concerns. some are outrageous. when you're talking about them,

senior citizens, i don't know where that's coming from. when you're talking about big government, they're seen the t.a.r.p., stimulus, big budgets and now, they're talking about health care reform. is senator cardin explaining about the deficit neutral part of this goal? >> reporter: oh, yeah, but there are certain things people aren't going to accept. he says it will be deficit neutral and won't vote for it otherwise. there are some here who won't let up. let's have a listen at some of the back and forth we've heard over the last hour. >> they're going to provide reimbursements for participating plans for retirees, spouses,

surviving spouses and depents of such retirees for one -- that are maintained by more employers, former employers or employees of associations. this basically looks like they're going to, the government is going to pick up the health care for the ree ttirees of the companies that should have gone bankrupt that were bailed out. are you going to support a plan that is going to let the american taxpayer pick up the tabs for companies that went bankrupt and those americans and their health care? is that something you would support? >> this is not about companies. this is about individuals. if an individual no longer has an availability of health insurance, they may qualify for one of our public plans. we are a cobra law that provided

public health for people who have lost their jobs. >> reporter: and as you can hear, a lot of the questions are based not simply on the health care bill, but anxiety on other things. even cash for clunkers, people have a lot of anxiety here in western maryland about government and to put a fine point, one gentleman said government wants to control our lives. that is what's driving a lot of the anxiety we're seeing here today. >> you just wonder what that woman was getting out. does she want some secretary at aig who's now retired not to have health insurance? sometimes, it's hard to get at what would be acceptable to the people showing up and expressing concerns. i'm going to move on. we have a lot to get to. but we're going to keep an eye on cardin's event.

in the meantime, you have robert gibbs defending how peaceful president obama's town hall meeting was yesterday. he said the media was disapointed the president was not shouted down. >> the president wanted to have what happened. which is a rational discussion about health care reform legislation. i think that's what ensued. did everybody agree? i think the answer to that is obviously no. >> as a member of the media, i can honestly say i was not disappointed that there was an honest dialogue happening in new hampshire, but he says it's actually highlighting the rowdy protest. here are some of the big questions i'll try to get answers to this hour. is this really about the government getting too big and too powerful? will the vocal protests impede

performance or inspire lawmakers to get this done and get this done right. we're going to get real. later this hour. and remember, if you have questions or comments, let me know on twitter. i want to hear from you and i'll read your messages on the hour. stuck on a plane for hours on end even though you're at an airport gate. is there any excuse that would justify trapping passengers on board? transportation secretary wants to know if any laws were broken. passengers complained. there were screaming babies on board, a toilet that stunk and even the kids were fed up. >> it was a horrible ride and every time my mom had to get up, i was just uncomfortable.

when my mom would go to the back of the plane, i would lay down and when she would come back, i would say, oh. it was very uncomfortable. >> we had them on this morning. the airport manager says inside the terminal, restrooms were available and delta's ground crew offered to help the passengers, but continental turned down any help. nice to know. the remains of five tourists will be flown back to their countries today. they were killed over the hudson river in new york. new york city mayor michael bloomberg attended this memorial service today for the people who died. two more bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the plane. investigators looking at michael jackson's death are looking at propofol and whether that played a role.

jeff rossen is in los angeles. what are you learning? >> reporter: they're trying to establish the chain of custody. they want to figure out what drugs were in michael jackson's home. they know that. they look at the lot numbers on the drugs. they tell you where it was manufactured. they go back there, find out what pharmacy it went to. then that's what led them to the pharmacy. they've also learned that according to ap, that dr. murray got his propofol there. that may have been one of his suppliers. law enforcement sources tell nbc news that it was dr. murray of course who gave michael jackson the propofol the day he died. unclear though because the toxicology report and autopsy report remain sealed.

exactly what was the manner of death? the thing is, the coroner knows it, the lapd knows it, they just won't tell us because they say they need more time to build a criminal case. but this search warrant was the sixth involving dr. conrad murray. >> if there had been an admission by dr. murray that he gave jackson the propofol, is there anything criminal about doing that? >> what he has admitted to giving, the reports are, that he gave michael jackson propofol the day he died, but his lawyer does maintain that's not what killed him. of course legal experts say -- right. you can read into that any way you want. there's a difference, a very fine line between medical

malpractice and a crime. >> propofol's not a controlled substance, so there's no crime associated with the administration at the house. >> that's right. it wasn't like it was illegally obtained. that is something that the dea is now looking into. they've created this new division to go after that. >> jeff, thanks. the federal reserve is about to announce whether it will raise the interest rate minutes from now. and a well-known college baseball coach, allegedly the victim of a $10 million extortion plot by a woman he says he had sex with at a restaurant. and the unbelievable story of a television host so desperate for ratings, investigators say he literally killed for them. we'll explain. stay with msnbc.

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we're waiting right now, watching the dow jones industrials, waiting for a decision by the federal reserve to raise that key rate. it was expected to remain unchanged. let me bring in neil. why do people pay so much attention to whether the fed makes this move? >> as you say, they've already cuts rates to zero and are going to leave them. that's probably going to continue today when we get this announcement. the question now is what they do with the other programs they've put in place to stimulate the economy. these millions in treasury bonds

and mortgage-related securities. >> we've just learned they have left this rate unchanged. >> right. >> the decision has been made and announced. so interpret for us. >> that's what we would expect. even though the economy's showing stines of stabilizing, that's not a full recovery. they don't want to move too fast. they want to do everything they can. >> so it's been at this rate since what? december at this point. what kind of growth are we seeing to indicate it's time to consider raising interest rate sns. >> it's clear they're not going to raise the target rate anytime soon. they're going to keep the rate low for some time. they may end up pulling away these other tools to support the economy. they're trying to use other tools to make credit available.

the question now is how quickly to remove those other things. >> does this signal is economy is leveling out? we look at things like media home sales, but up from what we've seen on the jobless numbers, it's our first drop in the unemployment rate that we've seen in quite some time and we're seeing growth in other areas as well. are they looking at this saying it's not strong enough yet to take other step sns. >> the sense now is that the economy is not as bad as it was a few months ago, but that's not the same as it being good. as long as unemployment remains high, there's a lot of uncertainty in the next few months, you're not going to see any aggressive move. they want the economy to get back on its feet before they start pulling things away. that's the mistake japan made in

the 90s. they kept trying to pull away the support. >> it's good to see you. thank you for putting this into perspective. here's a story about the tv host so obsessed with ratings, police say he killed for them. literally. police say the host of the crime television show in brazil ordered murders to boost his ratings. police say he ordered the killings, then would tell his tv crews to get to the scene first, which tipped off the cops. he's a former cop, he's denying all charges. they, you know, might lead police to the scene if you're the first crew there all the time. rick patino has been caught up in a sex scandal.

reportedly told police he had sex with a woman years ago who is now trying to extort millions from him. in boston, a bench-clearing scuffle. all bets were off after rick porcello, he charged him out, both players were ejected from the game. up next, we'll take a look at whether nbc is fuelling the debate over the president's health care reform plans by calling -- what exactly did she call un-american? the people's protesting or the fact they're trying to stop the decent, trying to stop the discussion? we'll clear it up. and the family of the first person to die from swine flu in new york is going after the city for millions. we'll explain. stay with us. go and check my cr♪

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we have breaking news here. a victory by sarah palin of alaska. a judge has ruled that the alaska governor's office can use private e-mail accounts to conduct state business. there is in provision in the use of private e-mail accounts when conducting state business. a lawsuit was filed by a resident against the governor for using her private e-mail and that of course keeping her e-mails private instead of subject to the public information act. >> i'm an american citizen. i'm a voter, a taxpayer. i don't like the fact that my elected officials are running around calling me un-american, a rabble-rouser, a mobster. >> one town haller reacting to nancy pelosi's op-ed. the general accusation is that she thinks it's un-american to protest, but here's what she wrote -- the cory spon dant with

the nation, doug, why do people want to insist she's calling the protest un-american? >> it's a word that was fully vetted from the speaker's office. you can't imagine the white house didn't see it. they use those words on purpose, to draw a reaction. >> let me ask you, if we would call the muslin of speech un-american, so is it any different if citizens are trying to do that? if the whole goal is to disrupt the discussion and now allow the decision even to happen, isn't that un-american? >> i've seen a lot of discussion on this network the last couple of days. these words were used on purpose and they were fully vetted and that's troubling because

democrats, remember four years ago -- >> i want to get at this. if you are stopping someone else from their ability to exchange ideas, ask questions, express concern, isn't that un-american? >> i don't think anybody's had their views muzzled. we've seen a lot of the people, more people participating really, on an issue like this. >> what's your take? >> doug, how many town halls have you been to? >> in my career? >> this month. >> this month, i haven't been to any. >> wait. but he doesn't need to because we show them on tv all the time and he's right. even in loud town halls, there are a lot of opportunities for people to express their views, but what we saw initially, some of the people standing up and shouting, it was just ending the discussion. it wasn't allowing anyone to

express even their own opposition. >> if you look at the footage from these town halls, if you read the reports, obviously, there are problems coming with people coming to cause havoc. >> did nancy pelosi and steny hoyer misstep when they wrote that drowning out the opposing views is simply un-american. did they use an incendiary word on people who are already tinderbox dry? >> they wrote it and said it in a way that refers to a whole set of first amendment traditions. we have robust protections for speech, but have areas that to allow speech, there have to be some rules. it's totally understandable that citizens who heard that as an

attack don't like it. >> she seems to be a big target. when we had a guy on yesterday, he was on "morning meeting" this morning and said he doesn't like nancy pelosi or steny hoyer or the president for that matter. >> people are coming to these things to disrupt. they want to attack nancy pelosi. it's not clear how attacking her gets us to resolve. that's the point robert gibbs is making today. even if you disagree, let's hear that. >> can i go on the record and say i at least think it's rude to drown out the discussion. >> absolutely. >> contessa, nobody's saying your anti-american. militia groups with gripes against the country on the rise and president obama may be the reason why. and we're getting real. when we talked to one american,

self-employed and can't afford insurance because it's too darn expensive. we're going to get to the bottom of this. will reform help him? bicycle, what are we waiting for? the flowers are blooming. the air is sweet. and zyrtec® starts... relieving my allergies... 2 hours faster than claritin®. my worst symptoms feel better, indoors and outdoors. with zyrtec®, the fastest... 24-hour allergy medicine, i promise not to wait as long to go for r ride. zyrtec® works fast, so i can love the air™. but i did. you need to talk to your doctor about aspirin. you need to be your own advocate. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. you take care of your kids, now it's time to take care of yourself. the sparkly flakes. the honey-baked bunches! the magic's in the mix. my favorite part? eating it.

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and even the ford escape hybrid. the all new chevy equinox. welcome back to msnbc. i'm contessa brewer. we're spending a lot of time on accusatio accusations, heated arguments and the rumor surrounding the health care reform debate, but millions of americans have questions about how it would improve their medical care. roger bentley is a self-employed husband and father who lives here in manhattan. i know you follow these details regularly. you're glued to these town halls to get details. give you the set-up of your situation with health care. >> two years ago, i was let go with gray advertising in san

francisco. went about starting my own agency here in new york city. right at the point where the market started to turn, i realized that cobra was good for me at the time. we were able to afford that on a monthly basis, my wife and i and my 6-year-old son, owen. hi, owen. then, when the market really start today tank, my clients also started to tank and people pulled back and i haven't been able to make any money for quite some time now, so we ended up losing cobra. >> people are telling me that it's absolutely unaffordable. part of the reason is because you don't have an employer picking up the tab. did you go online to research other options? because i've said before we already have an exchange of health insurance and it's called

the internet. >> sure. the first thing you notice is that you're immediately inundated by the number of offers. it's almost like you spend as much time getting rid of crazy offers as you do looking for something affordable. one of my family members has a preexisting condition. so we are almost precluded from any plan out there and if we do find on opportunity for something, it becomes so cost prohibitive that we can't handle it. >> so right now, you, your wife and owen have no health insurance. >> right. >> and i want to point out, you're a very successful professional. at every point in your life, people who have considered you wealthy and now, you're in the same boat with people in mississippi, wisconsin and manhattan. are there ideas that appeal to

you, that yes, if this was passed, it would help me and my family in a way that makes sense? >> absolutely. i think the first order of business is being able to have affordable health insurance and that would be something under $1,000 a family. for us, even precluding the preexisting condition, we would be at about $1200 a month. under cobra, that almost was not a doable thing for us. that would break just about any family out there. if we were looking at something in the neighborhood of 3 to $400, that's doable. also, to not have this stipulation of not being able to be insured because of previous conditions is ridiculous. >> i want to bring in the managing editor of

factcheck.org. when we're talking about preexisting conditions, for roger, that's a big deal. what role does that play when talking about the legislation currently being considered? >> well, the both the house and senate bills would call for preexisting conditions to be covered. that's one of the industry regulations. >> all right. on twitter, i'm getting some responses here as well. number one, if a small business cancels a business and plans to send them on a public plan, how is that keeping the insurance you like and also, what would make employers keep employees covered if there was a public option. is anybody talking about if there's a public option, what encourages employers to keep paying for their employees? >> sure. the public option, the federal health plan is a controversial part of the bill and some small employers may decide to buy into

it. as far as i understand it, they can't really cancel your insurance and send you on a public plan. they would essentially buy into a public plan like they would buy into another insurance option, and there are some different versions of the house bill. depending on how it's structured, it may be more affordable and very attractive to small businesses and individuals who would be eligible to buy into it. another house version, not so much. it would be more on par with what private insurance would charge. >> let me bring in roger. here you are, self-employed. you could get to the point where your ad agency at some point, employees other people. your wife just started a small business. are you concerned about the burden? >> no because i think that it's always a matter of cost. i've been in companies before where the insurance plan was changed because the company

found a more -- >> affordable. >> affordable health plan. it wasn't my choice, they just did that. >> let me talk about another big concern that keeps coming up. how much of a financial burden this places on children. >> we are in debt up to our eyeballs and you all are doing nothing but putting more debt on us and our children and it's got to stop. >> lori, true or false? more debt? >> we, yes. right now, the president continues to say that he won't sign a bill unless it's paid for, but the major bills in the house and senate right now are not. the congressional budget office says both would add hundreds of billions to the deficit over a decad decade. >> and we're hearing a lot from these people at town halls. they're very concerned about the direction the country's heading

and here's how they're phrasing it. >> i don't believe this is just about health care. it's not about t.a.r.p. it's not about left and right. this is about the system attic dismantling of this country. i don't want this country turning into russia, turning into a socialized country. >> the plans currently being debated in congress, do they look like the plans in russia? >> we haven't looked much at what russian health care is because i've never really heard anyone speak to russia being a model for us. but it is a type of government-run system where health care is free, everyone has it. most of the criticism has been that we're heading towards canada or britain, which is similar. and none of the bills that are being debated now call for that. there's no you know, single-payer is also what it's referred to. >> so roger, given the fact you care about making a profit, but

also providing health insurance for your family, what's your take on that? >> well, i think it's out of line because first off, i did ten years in the us navy and i loved the health care i received then and would love to have that back. if there was a way that i could re-up in the military and still be an advertising guy, i would do that. i think that the government has shown that they are very capable with things like medicare and medicaid and certainly, there are plenty of people who love that. so i think that it's something that would only benefit small businesses. >> i appreciate you coming in. lori, thank you for your time. now, let's get a big check of the economic stories we're track today. the federal reserve declared that economic activity is leving out. the central bank signalled it would end one program.

home sales are up, but prices still way down. prices fell in 80% of u.s. urban areas. right now, the median price for a single-family home is about $174,000. that's down more than 15% from a year ago. and customers not really shopping. macy's has improved its bottom line by cutting costs and inventory. this comes a month after retailers said same-store sales dropped more than 10% in july. let's see how the market is reacting. the dow jones up. let's get more on the fed's decision and talk to matt nesto. >> it's interesting because typically when we have need fed decisions, we'll see a holding

pattern. but today, we are unusually strong before decision. investors looking to buy into it ahead of it and then we've softened up afterwards. still strong, a positive across the board. it's up about 90 points right now. you mentioned the fed's statement and reaction to it. they're also saying not only is economic activity leveling out, but they say that consumer spending is going to remain tight and constrained by ongoing job losses for the foreseeable future. that low rate range of zero to a quarter of a percent, they're going to anticipate to stay in place and is warranted to be low for an extended period of time. that is the same as before. so the market, in terms of the stock market, softened up. we saw treasuries get weaker on that as well. >> do you think that the taste

this you have in music is just a reflection of how old you are? >> no, i do not. that's a good question. >> you think that's a trick question, don't you. >> i think how old one is, maybe you could say, then i would say yes. but myself, i think it has to do with your nature. >> it turns out you're probably not the only one because we're looking at the new survey, just thought i'd survey you. we have these popular music artists. they were asked across generations. turns out that some musicians fans weren't even born before the artist was popular. those younger than 30, michael jackson is the number one artist. i wonder if there's a function of the news coverage? >> i don't know. i'm just itching to break into a

cory us. >> and people over 65 -- frank sinatra. you're probably not getting too many 17 year olds saying they love frank sinatra. >> i'd love to see the survey questions. >> all right, matt, see you soon. ♪ - hello! - ha! why don't you try a home cooked meal... with yummy hamburger helper? oh! tada! fantastically tasty, huh? ummm, it's good. what would you guys like? hamburger helper. what?! one pound... one pan... one tasty meal! - oh, come on. - enough! you get half and you get half.

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numbers actually mean nationwide. >> well, the numbers are a little unclear. what we know is that there have been, one of the things we cited as a law enforcement in the recent past has identified 50 new militia training groups. we, in addition to that, have found, although we haven't started a formal, annual count, 50 other groups we've discovered. that's really just in the last few months. there's a lot of evidence to show these groups are kind ofr e resurvey gent. we're also getting reports from the field that are seeing the same things we are. >> in april, homeland security put out this report warning about the vulnerability of returning vets and others to the

recruiting tasks. secretary napolitano got a lot of criticism about it, but does your study validate what the justice department with the homeland security department was predicting in terms of people feeling disgruntled, resentment, and then choosing to take that to a militia group as on outlet? >> that's right. in my opinion, the pushback to the report was complete and utter hogwash. this came from the right wing of the republican party and the other spectacul other similar quarters. reports were false, that this defamed veterans and it did nothing of the sort. in my view, and i've read the report, it was a sober and accurate assessment of what was really going on out there on the

ground. that report didn't dwell specifically on militias. >> can i ask you then because we've been having these conversation on twitter. joy said it's about racism, pure and simple, a feeling that race has been taken away from white people. then air wolf says -- what do people get out of joining a militia? >> what the first person said was very similar to what we've been saying, you know, there is behind all of this, the difference between the militia movement as wooe seeing now and the middle of the '90s, there's an obvious racial development. they were not animated by rac m racism. but by a strong antigovernment

was taking over the world. but now of course, you know, once again, the federal government is seen as the primary enemy, but today, the face of the federal government is the face of a black man. of president obama. so that tied in with the fact that we still have quite levels of non-white immigration, the fact that the census bureau predicts the loss of a white majority, all of those things are feeding into this idea as the person you quoted said, that sort of white americans are losing the country their forefathers built. >> and at least in this case, it's taking action in some way in areas where people might feel otherwise powerless. i appreciate your perspective. thanks for sharing your research. we have video that's difficult to watch. an 84-year-old woman slammed to the ground in ohio.

the woman was wandering the parking lot with a stake knife. police officers weren't able to get her to drop the knife, so they slammed her to the ground. she was taken to the hospital and had head injuries then was treated and released.

what's the white house plan for reclaiming the debate? let's go to chuck todd. what is the plan, chuck? >> i think part of it started yesterday with the president to have these town halls and to maybe suck some of the attention away from other town halls. they didn't get that yesterday. i think part of it is the presidency itself. you're just not going to get the same type of behavior issues with the president of the united states as you're seeing with the senate and with members of the house. just look at the polls.

respect for congress these days is near all-time lows and that almost has made it easier for these folks than to simply yell. >> yelling. always a good option. >> i'm going to yell at you right now. >> that's going to wrap it up. i've got to get out of here before chuck yells too much. long weekend for me. see you back here on monday. tamron hall and david schuster pick things up next. could the fiery debates actually backfire now on conservatives? quick break. we'll be right back. into an incredibly strong, healthy cat. his coat is incredibly shiny and soft and very thick. everybody thinks he's the most handsome cat they've ever seen. [ woman announcing ] purina one for indoor cats... unlocks the brilliance of nature... with a natural fiber blend that helps minimize hairballs... and maintain a healthy weight. [ laurie ] he's a character. he brings so much laughter into this household. and he's the best-lookin' cat there is.

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