it would be a pre-existing condition. is it not going to get his insurance canceled? >> well, i think obama's going to take care of that with his new health plan. believe it or not part of the plan calls for if former politicos go on a reality show and deal with pre-stress it's covered. and don't say you lie, keith, because i'm truthing. >> i'm sure you are. but were you ever an immigration lawyer? >> i'd rather do that than work for sarah palin. >> karl rove, a guess appearance as a voice on "family guy," calling the original script tasteless and the creator of the show mindless and -- >> duh, that's why i love it. >> but is it possible to have lived in the last decade and not realize that seth mcfarland and "family guy" were far more successful than the bush administration, and certainly were drawn much more realistically? >> well, karl's favorite show is bugs bunny, he's not that plugged into the family guy world and he's going to wet himself when he finds out that stewie is gay. and the dog drinks martinis.

but i think his other offer was to do a two-step and he had a whole bunch of pre-stress over that. >> i was going to say pre-stress, indeed. the one and only michael musto, thanks as always, michael. >> thanks. >> and send your complaint letters to me. that's "countdown." the 2,230th day since the previous president declared mission accomplished in iraq. as julia child used to sign off, this is keith olbermann bon appetit. and now one-third of new jersey republicans believe obama might be the anti-christ. to discuss whether considering the source he should be offended or complimented, ladies and gentlemen, here is the 14th most influential pundit in america. rachel maddow, good evening, rachel. >> good evening, keith. i'm still sort of hung up on the brokeback texas two-step. >> michael will do that to you. >> i might ask him to stick around to elaborate on that. thank you very much, keith. appreciate it. and thank you for staying with us for the next hour for what i have to warn you it turns out is going to be a rather purant hour

of cable news. i did not intend it to turn out this way, but we ended up with warrior robots, comic book heroes come to life by terrorists, people calling me funny names, drugs being snorted off toaster ovens and polling on the anti-christ. i will admit this is a very, very weird hour of television we have coming up this hour. but that's because it's been a very, very weird day of news. we begin in d.c. where republicans fighting against the reprimand of congressman joe wilson for ascre ascreaming "you lie" at the president insisted they did not want to spend time on that reprimand because they had better things to do. today we learned what it was they were so eager to spend their time on instead of censuring mr. wilson. >> as you can see, we have a team effort to get a handle on this issue of the czars. >> what i found is hr-3569 which is called the sack act. this bill would sunset all czars

effective december 31st of this year. >> the sack act, get it? sunset all czars, sack the czars. genius. that's what republicans have been working on. more surprising than a midday press conference called to address the czar epidemic that republicans have just noticed has struck the country. what's perhaps the reaction that this republican attack elicited from the white house today. >> i think it's been somewhat remarkable that in previous administrations the so-called criticism of this has been a bit deafening. the silence has been deafening, only to have it come around as a political issue now. i've noticed that you read senator bennett was pushing for a y2k czar he didn't think was powerful enough. you've seen lamar alexander call for a manufacturing czar. so, you know, somebody referred to in the bush administration as

the abstinent czar. >> also known as president bush's aid czar. as aids czar, insisted that countries who wanted any of america's aids funding had to promote abstinence and denounce prostitution. that turned out to be very awkward when randall tobias' name turned up on the d.c. madame's phone list. they also singled out lamar alexander and bob bennett back in 2003 when president bush was the one appointing the czars, this was lamar alexander's stance then. >> the president of the united states yesterday in a labor day speech in ohio talked about jobs and specifically manufacturing jobs. he talked about appointing a sort of manufacturing job czar in the commerce department,

which i would welcome. >> which i would welcome. manufacturing czar, sure, sounds great. but now that president obama is the one appointing the czars -- >> these czars are an affront to the constitution. they're anti-democratic. they are a poor example of a new era of transparency which was what was promised to this country. >> senator lamar alexander. as for senator bennett, he's written a letter to the obama white house complaining about the proliferation of czars in your administration. if you go to senator bennett's website at this very moment, you will see one of the things on his brag list of his accomplishments in the senate is "successfully urged president clinton to appoint a year 2000 czar." but that was for y2k, that was huge. that totally needed a czar. czarism is auditioning to be the new birtherism on the right. it's a fact-free but exciting

slander against the obama white house, one that bridges the ever-narrowing gap between conservative conspiracy theorys and the beltway republican agenda. even as the birther theory that the president is secretly foreign is considered debunct in polite circles. 12 of them are still trying to push birther legislation in the house. and what might have been a disappointment today, a federal judge appointed by president bush in georgia just issued a hall of fame-quality smackdown to the birthers denying yet another one of their lawsuits challenging the legitimacy as president and saying in the process "unlike in alice in wonderland simply saying something does not make it so." if she keeps filing these same frivolous lawsuits in federal court. they evenen orly taitz if

she doesn't take this to court. so even as birtherism rapidly converts to a punch line, the overall idea of challenging presidents -- challenging president obama's legitimacy is so attractive to the right that they're no longer reserving this technique just for president obama. today, get this, a three-judge panel in d.c. heard a case brought by a group called judicial watch, which alleges this time that it's hillary clinton who is ineligible to serve in office as secretary of state. a provision in the constitution says you can't take a job if you also had a part to play in raising the salary for that job. hillary clinton was a senator when the secretary of state job got a pay raise. to avoid the constitutional issue, that was posed by that, the salary was dropped back to its lower level when secretary clinton took the job. of course it's always possible that she is secretly getting paid the difference in kenya. if the czar thing and the birther thing and the hillary clinton can't really be

secretary of state thing, aren't cookie enough for you, consider one last development in today's news. today public policy polling released results from its new poll of residents of the great state of new jersey. the poll found that 18% of new jersey conservatives say they are sure that president obama is the anti-christ. no questions asked. another 17% of new jersey self-identified conservatives say they just aren't sure, but they're not willing to rule it out. what do you think the white house strategy is going to be to rebut the fact that more than 1 in 3 conservatives think the president might be the anti-christ? at least in new jersey. that is a pr challenge. joining us now is frank schaffer. he grew up in the religious far right. hooz author of "crazy for god," helped found the religious rights and lived to take all or almost all of it back." mr. schaefer, thank you for

coming back on the show tonight. >> thanks very having me on. >> i do not know what possessed this polling firm to ask whether or not people thought the president was the anti-christ, but they did. does the response rate among conservatives surprise you? more than 1 in 3 saying yes or they don't know? >> well, i was a child when president kennedy was assassinated and my mother thought because he died of a head wound foretold in scripture of the anti-christ he would be resurrected as the anti-christ. she thought this might be a possibility. so those of us who come from the evangelical subculture have been weaned with ore mother's milk on a changing cast list of villains. it might be kennedy to one generation, obama to the next, but i think the larger point this brings up is that the mainstream not just media, but culture doesn't sufficiently take stock of the fact that within our culture we have a subculture which is literally a fifth column of insanity. that is bred from birth through

home school, christian school, evangelical college, whatever to reject facts. as a matter of faith. and so this substitute for authentic historic christianity and i may add as a caveat, i'm a church-going christian brings up the question, can christianity be rescued from christians? and that's an open question. and when you see a bunch of people going around thinking that our president is the anti-christ, you have to draw one of two conclusions. either these are racists looking for any excuse to level the next accusation? or they're beyond crazy. and i think beyond crazy's a better explanation and that evangelical subculture has rot it had brain of the united states of america and we have a big slice of our population waiting for jesus to come back, they look forward to armageddon. good news is bad news to them. when we talk about the "left behind" series of books that i talk about in my book "crazy for god," what we're talking about is a

group of people that are resentful because they've been left behind by modernity, by science, by education, by art, by literature. the rest of us are getting on with our lives. these people are standing on the hill top waiting for the end. and it's a dangerous group of people to have as neighbors and they're our national neighbors and this is the source of all of these insanities that we see levelled at the president. one way or another they go back to this little evangelical subculture. it's a disaster. >> it is one thing to think about these as cultish views, views on the fringes of beyond the edge of mainstream christianity. it's another thing to look at the numbers. in this same poll, the numbers are also really high on the question of whether or not the president was born in the united states. 61% of mccain voters in new jersey expressing doubt that obama is american. saying he definitely wasn't born in the u.s. or they're not sure. the birther thing has been disproven, the anti-christ thing is a whole other kettle of fish.

but how do you work to move people off that position? it doesn't seem like facts are relevant in trying to move people away from these beliefs. >> you don't work to move them off this position. you move past them. look, a village cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot. it's as simple as that. and we have to understand, we have a village idiot in this country, it's called fundamentalist christianity. and until we move past these people and let me add as a former lifelong republican. until the republican leadership has the guts to stand up and say it would be better not to have a republican party than have a party that caters to the village idiot, there's going to be no end in sight. the next thing they'll do is accuse obama of being the anti-christ and then who knows what comes next on and on it goes. there is no end to this stuff. why? because this subculture has as its fundamentalist faith that they distrust facts per se. they believe in a younger of

6,000 years old with dinosaurs convorting with human beings. it all has to do with the end of time and christ returns. this is la la land, and the republican party is totally enthralled to this subculture to the extent that there is no republican party. there is a fundamentalist subculture which has become a cult, it's fed red meat by the fools rush limbaugh, glenn beck, and other people who are not terribly bright themselves and they are talking to even stupider people. that's where we're at. that's where all of this is coming from. and it's becoming circular, a joke, unfortunately a dangerous joke because once in a while one of these looney tunes brings guns to public meetings. what knows what they do next. it's a serious think we all have to face. but the democrats and sane americans just have to move past

these people, say, go wait on the hilltop until the end. the rest of us are going to get on with rebuilding our country. >> is there anybody on the right who could be constructive here if they wanted to be? to the extent that people could be moved off of these conspiracy theories? and i understand your point that they not -- it's not true that all of them could be. is there anybody who could be influential to try to stop the impact of these conspiracies? >> look, in the year 2000 i worked for john mccain to try to get him elected in the primaries instead of george bush, but john mccain sold out by nominating sarah palin who comes directly from the heart of this movement. and carries with her all of that baggage. he sold out. i don't see anybody on the republican side of things these days who has the moral standing to provide real leadership or who will risk their position to do so. >> frank schaefer, author of "crazy for god." thank you very much for your time tonight, sir. it's always fascinating and a pleasure to have you on the show. thanks. >> thanks a lot. the terrorist group al qaeda

appears to have adopted an american as a new spokes model. an american whose image they have modelled on a comic book hero. true story, very weird true story coming up in just a moment. but first, one more thing about fact-free indulgence in our politics today. opponents of health reform first said that it was a secret plot to kill old people. then they said it was a secret plot to take away veterans health care, then a secret plot to take away health care coverage just from republicans. then they said it was a secret plot to kill women with breast cancer. casting around for another group of hopefully scarable americans to turn against health reform. it's possible reform opponents have hit a new low this week, targeting disabled children. republican members of congress held a press conference this week warning that kids with disabilities would somehow become victims if there is health reform. pressed by reporters as if she could point to any language in proposed health reform bills that would deny care to disabled

kids, congresswoman rogers said, no, but she did say that parents of disabled kids are worried it'll happen anyway. i wonder why on earth they'd be worried about that? maybe because people like kathy mcmorris rogers are telling them to worry about it? it may also be useful to note that kids with disabilities in this country right now by and large have government-run health coverage. the s-chip program is kids' health insurance, the medicaid covers people with disabilities. so when kathy rogers and trent franks tell people with disabilities to by be afraid of government-run health care, they're telling them to be afraid of what you've got now. but don't let the truth hold you back from a good scare though, right? ( birds chirping )

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in the wake of congressman joe wilson being reprimanded by his congressmen yesterday, the signs are proliferating that his decision to scream "you lie" at the president during a speech to congress is making him that hero on the right. and by signs of that, i mean that literally. this sign has just gone up

outside the office of republican congressman jeff miller of florida. i am a friend of joe wilson and steve king of iowa continues in his efforts of screaming you lie at the president step one in becoming a new republican hero. >> because this health care bill has gone down because of who? joe wilson. god bless joe. he said what we were thinking. joe's a man of honor. he's an officer and a gentleman and he's a patriot. >> conservatives are now actually asking congressman joe wilson to autograph photos of himself yelling at the president. the congressman has been happy to oblige. did i mention how sorry he said he was for doing it? >> the truth is had joe wilson not spoken, it's very likely that this legislation 3,200 in the house would've proceeded, which has no enforcement at this point even now of the prescription against health insurance against illegal immigrants. he did a public service.

>> he did a public service. cnn's lou dobbs joins the canonization of the "you lie" screaming congressman, also serves to remind us that wilson screaming at the president has also served as sort of a kick-off event for the resurgence of anti-immigration politics on the right. texas governor rick perry this week used a press conference with rudy giuliani to pound his chest about his decision to send the texas rangers to the border. not the baseball team formally run by george w. bush, but rather a texas rangers law enforcement unit that if you squint looks a lot like a military commando group. their mission at the border and governor perry's words will be to "go to where the bad guys are." you know, the electoral potency of anti-immigration politics for republicans can't really be denied. after all, without the salient motive demonization of immigrants, we never would've elected president tancredo.

joining us now is chris hayes, washington editor of "the nation." chris, thank you very much for coming on the show. >> thank you, rachel. >> are we seeing a resurgence of anti-immigration politicking on the right? >> yeah, absolutely. i don't know if it ever went away amongst the base. this is something that has tremendous, tremendous resonance with the certain portion of the republican and conservative base. it has for a long time. i think it was sublimated largely because the vehicle for the conservative movement sort of awkwardly for much of 2008 was john mccain who doesn't fit quite so comfortably with that portion of the base, and now we're seeing it be resurging right now. there's no question that it has exploded in both intensity and profile in the last six months are so. >> is it weirdly an electoral blessing for democrats looking ahead to 2010? how has anti-immigration politics fared for republicans in recent election cycles?

>> it fared terribly and because of a basic fact, the country grows more latino by the day and shockingly, latino voters are not super psyched about voting for a party that has as part of its coalition a percentage of the population -- a portion of the population that seems to hate them. >> so -- >> yeah, shockingly. so it's proved disastrous and there's all sorts of people who are, i think, bad people but have, you know, sort of basic faculties of math and reason, like, say, karl rove, who understand it's absolute, you know, political suicide for the republican party to continue to be associated in the minds with the growing latino population with this totally intolerant and demagogic portion of the base, and when you see joe wilson, that's exactly what's happening. >> well, fantastical success of president tancredo aside, why is it that republicans then are going back to this well? first of all, health reform bills don't benefit illegal

immigrants. that hasn't stopped republicans from repeating this is a myth, from taking up wilson's cry as a battle cry here, and as you say, we've seen how how this has fared for them in past electoral cycles. why can't they help themselves from doing this? >> they can't help themselves because it plays incredibly well for the base. it's one of these things that gets people's blood boiling and it gets people's blood boiling for all sorts of thing. i won't speculate on, but the fact of the matter is it does for a certain percentage of the population. it's really important to piggy back on what you said. there are two things to think about in terms of the health reform bill, right? the accusation is that it's going to subsidize the purchase of health insurance for illegal immigrants, absolutely 1,000% not true, right? it's stat toestatutorily barrede bill and the mechanism, the tax returns which the legal immigrants will not file. but max baucus went and made sure that illegal immigrants cannot purchase health insurance in the exchanges. this is a totally venal and criminally stupid idea.

and what's more frustrating than how politically backwards this is that in a round about perverse way joe wilson has won through his outburst. >> because they decided to come up with a whole new idea of preventing illegal immigrants from buying stuff. >> from purchasing insurance. look, presumably congress could pass a bill, right, that would prevent illegal immigrants from purchasing food and maybe that would chase them out of the country, but really, really? is that the kind of country we want to be? >> and how is that going to fair fare for republicans politically, honestly? chris hayes for "the nation" magazine. appreciate it, chris. >> thank you, rachel. all right. dead on arrival. pretty much describes the reception today to max baucus' health reform proposal. senator baucus, personal note you and i, feel free to come on the show to talk about it any time, or at least to please return the calls our office keeps placing to your office. meanwhile, the congressman who declared senator baucus' bill doa, anthony weiner will join us shortly.

stay with us. how does jell-o sugar free pudding fit all that rich, chocolatey taste in 60 calories? ♪ ♪ oh, so delicious who cares? jell-o sugar free pudding. every diet needs a little wiggle room.

still to come, i interview a surprise crucial player in the health care reform fight that you have never heard interviewed before. trust me. plus, robots, robots, terrifying soul-sucking robots in a scary movie moment of geek. that's all coming up. but first, it's time for a couple of holy mackerel stories in today's news. one of the funny things about al qaeda, not ha ha funny, but more

like that's really embarrassing funny, is that they keep trying to promote american guys, purported western converts as al qaeda spokes models. first it was a zombie american, a kid who was a dorky deaf metal fan who was raised on a goat farm who ended up in pakistan who ended up running pakistan's av club. he makes propaganda and has himself appeared in al qaeda videos in which he speaks english with a fake foreign accent. and invades against the american infidels. >> it's crucial for muslims to keep in mind that the americans, the british, and the other members of the coalition of terror have intentionally targeted muslim civilians and civilian targets both before as well as after september 11th. >> if that message wasn't hard enough to take anyway, there's something about it coming from a chunky kid who was raised in orange county that makes it all the more ridiculous. mr. pearlman, a zombie american

is now on the fbi's most wanted list. faces charges of treason and providing material support to al qaeda. and al qaeda's now marketing another purported american al qaeda dude. a man who they've given the name of, i kid you not, rakan ben williams. this week rakan ben williams issued an essay titled -- again, i kid you not, it was titled -- "obama, what up?" it was noted by terrorism expert evan kohlmann, the essay devolves from its genius title into a bunch of racist name calling. "do you remember who he is now mr. hussein obama?" this is you know, mr. obama, who has failed to understand the true mentality of racism. al qaeda is attacking president obama now with references from "roots." i wonder if they mean the lavar burton miniseries or if they

read the original? but that's not the most incredible cultural reference of the supposedly american al qaeda -- people who study al qaeda and its communication say rakan ben williams is probably fake, he's probably not a real person like goat farm deaf metal boy on the fbi's most wanted list. part of the reason we think this guy might be made up is the name. rakan ben williams. rakan is a comic book character that's really popular in the middle east. he is rakan the lone warrior. and according to comic book legend, his family was killed by roving amongle mongle hordes, leaving him to be raised by a saber tooth tiger. so to recap, a probably fake al qaeda american convert named off a comic book character raised by a saber tooth tiger wants president obama to not be like lavar burton, or at least like the fictional character lavar burton portrayed in the american miniseries in

1977. al qaeda is never funny, americans will never laugh with them. but sometimes being nihilist murdering medieval dirt bags also means being incredibly stupid and embarrassing. and then i think it's okay to laugh at them. finally a quick programming note, or at least a quick request for future programming note. by now, you will have probably seen images of this sign, which was distributed at the 9/12 process over the weekend. it says bury obamacare with kennedy. that sign stood out at the 9/12 march not for being gut churching, a lot of the signs were gut churning, but this one was gut churning and well made. this was not some off the cuff message one person scribbled on the cardboard at their kitchen table, this is a professionally designed and printed sign. and the group that had it professionally designed and printed and distributed it, they printed their name on it. it's the american life league, which you can see there.

they describe themself as a catholic organization. a catholic pro-life organization that printed and distributed signs that said "bury obamacare with kennedy." the cackling over the senator's death is just implied. even though the sign was distributed for saturday's march, we haven't talked about it yet this week on this show because i had been hoping that the american life league would come on to the show to defend or try to explain the sign. so far they won't. we ask them to on monday, they said no, we asked them again yesterday, they said no. since the american life league's president judy brown has also called me names in her column. calling me a pro-promiscuity zealot, i thought that she would like to have a chance to talk this out like adults. i would love to hear the catholic pro-life explanation for the bury obamacare with kennedy signs. so farther they are afraid to defend it. so consider the invitation extended for a third time. we have all this energy here in the u.s.

we have wind. we have solar, obviously. we have lots of oil. i think natural gas is part of the energy mix of the future. i think we have the can-do. we have the capability. we have the technology. the solutions are here. we just need to find them here.

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we have a very special exclusive guest tonight you will not see anywhere else. joining us now is health care reform. hi, bill.

are you okay? i have to say you don't actually look very good. >> i've had a bad august, rachel. people said so many mean things. i don't want to kill old people. come on. >> well, things did seem to be going pretty well for you as recently as july. you were approved in the three house committees, approved in one senate committee before the recess. you only had one committee to go, what happened? >> max baucus happened. he thought delaying me would make republicans like me better. yeah right. and this. >> bill, that cough sounds pretty bad, maybe you should get that looked at. >> i would, rachel, but i can't afford it. i got to go. i got a cracked rib too. see ya, rachel. >> are you actually going to make it? i'm very worried about this. >> i don't know, rachel. you tell me. >> oh, max baucus, what have you brought? back in november last year,

senator baucus released a call to action where he outlineded his big plan for reform with the number one goal of universal coverage. and he said there would be a public health insurance option to compete with the private companies and bring down costs. health care for everyone. that sounded like a good idea to a lot of democrats in congress and lucky for them, they had huge majorities in both houses of congress. so practically they didn't need to spend a lot of time worrying about trying to get republican votes, they could get a move on. and health care reform generally chugged right along. it passed the senate health committee chaired by ted kennedy on july 15th with all democratic votes. it passed the house ways and means committee and the education and labor committee two days later with all democratic votes. and then it passed a third house committee, energy and commerce on july 31st with, spoiler alert, all democratic votes. this was the little bill that could. thanks to the democratic majorities in congress in both houses and the widespread belief

that this was necessary, needed, and going to happen this year, it was moving along. it only had to get through one more committee. the senate finance committee chaired by max baucus, the same max baucus who back in november wrote his manifesto. but instead of proceeding like all of the other committees had, like all of the other committees that health care reform had zipped through, senator max baucus decided to do things differently. in his committee, he decided to take republicans from the minority of the committee and put them into a small bipartisan group of six. to see if those six could get republicans to vote for the bill instead of it just being voted for by democrats. and that's where everything came to a halt. instead of passing the bill before the august recess, which would have been probably possible if the finance committee had just done what all of the other committees did, senator baucus instead starting hundreds of hours of bipartisan negotiations. while republicans and

anti-reform forces lux you'juyo luxuriated in the time they were granted to crusade against reform. he negotiated the way the public option and made the bill anti-immigrant and made it anti-abortion and in the end, what did he get? >> no republican has offered his or her support at this moment. >> so was it worth it? all that time senator baucus spent watering down the bill and negotiating with republicans who weren't going to vote for it anyway? that's time you'll never get back. joining us now is congressman anthony weiner, democrat of new york, member of the house energy and commerce committee. thanks for joining us again. >> it's my pleasure. >> you said today that senator baucus' proposal is quote dead on arrival. what makes you say that. >> i don't say it with any pleasure. but if you don't have something containing costs, something providing competition, the public option, for example, in the bill then it doesn't have the support in the house of representatives. but it's not just in the house.

it doesn't seem to have the support among the president or the public of the united states of america. so after all the time i'm glad they put so much effort into it. it is an important part of the process, but frankly if the bill was intended to move this forward, it really didn't accomplish that. >> the reason i highlighted the procedure by which we got the baucus bill in our kind of stupid little intro that we did here is because i think it is worth knowing that the finance committee, senator baucus' committee did this differently than everybody else did. they tried this experiment of doing this bipartisan committee within a committee, this group of six. now that that bill seems to have -- or the outcome of that process seems to have produced something that nobody's necessarily going to vote for, should that process just be worked around? should the whole senate finance committee look at it the way the whole committees and of all the other committees have done so thus far? >> well, let me correct one thing, i think all of the committee began with the idea of

let's try to do a bipartisan bill. but i think in every case we learn that many republicans if not all of them came to the conclusion they want to be no part of solving this problem, whether it be for political or substantive. they don't believe there's a problem to solve. the problem with the group of six and senator baucus is we can't see bipartisanship as an end. it has to be seen as a means to getting good legislation for the american people. and at no point should we allow the people to say we're against it or john kyle who is the whip of republicans say there shouldn't be a single republican vote. we shouldn't let them stand in the way of doing what the american people want us to do. and clearly, people in this country want us to solve this problem. >> in terms of what is ultimately going to come to pass this year and it seems like something will happen even if we can't say exactly what it's going to be now. do you think that a bill without a public option won't pass the house? >> i think that it won't. i think that it won't because i think that fiscal conservatives

who say they want to hold costs down or quickly realize that if we just say to the insurance companies go cover all of these new people but we have no cost containment, it's going to bun affordable. i think people are in the more progressive side who believe that competition for insurance companies makes good sense. i think the -- if you put those two groups together, you've got well over 150 votes in the house who believe in one form or another that you need cost containment. look, let's explain what this is about. if there are three parts, one part is covering the uninsured, the other second part is making sure the people who have insurance get treated well by the insurance company. the third piece of this is so important and that's cost containment or else the other two things won't be possible. >> let me ask you about a sticky political wicked here. political wicket here. house speaker nancy pelosi says that senator baucus' proposal will move the debate forward. she has previously said, been a real champion of the public option saying that something without a public option won't pass the house, which is what you just said. are you confident that she is still an ally for your position

on this? are you confident that the house leadership is still an ally for getting a progressive bill through the house? >> 100% because nancy pelosi can count. she is our speaker because she understands what's going on in the democratic side of the aisle, and i think she's got a pretty good sense of what's going on out there in the country, as well. look, this public option is not just a progressive pipe dream. what it is is a fundamental element, and to many of us a compromise. you know and i've come on your show before to say i think the way to do this right, to do least expensively and to do it more clearly is to extend something like medicare for all americans. i'm prepared to compromise, to say, listen, maybe not an entire government single-payer plan, but there at least has to be some element, some tiny sliver. and that's all that's left. nancy pelosi, i think, understands without at least that, there are at least 100 of us, maybe as many as 150 of us that won't vote for a bill. >> congressman anthony weiner, democrat of new york, thank you very much for your clear statements on the matter for your leadership and thanks for joining us tonight.

>> i appreciate it. i just want to know if the guy who does the voice of the bill is now in the union? >> we took care of him, don't worry. coming up on "countdown," keith's special guest is the insurance industry whistle-blower wendell potter. he explains why the insurance industry is reacting to the baucus proposal like a 7-year-old reacting to getting a real live pony for christmas. next on this show, we'll talk about how i wasted my afternoon. two words, jumping robots. moment of geeks. stick around. sugar-free gelatin. ♪ ooh, yeah it's 10 tasty calories... loved by lips and hips alike. ♪ shake it, shake it, ooh, yeah ♪ jell-o. because every diet needs a little wiggle room. your hair mixes with pollen and dust. i get congested. but now with zyrtec-d®, i have the proven allergy relief of zyrtec®, plus a powerful decongestant. zyrtec-d® lets me breathe freer, so i can love the air™. (announcer) zyrtec-d®. behind the pharmacy counter. no prescription needed.

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troops, admiral mike mullen, told congress yesterday that the insurgency in afghanistan is strengthening and that "a properly resourced counterinsurgency probably means more forces." president obama said today he isn't rushing to send more troops. >> you don't make determination determinations about resources, certainly you don't make determinations about sending young men and women into battle without having absolute clarity about what the strategy will be. >> year nine of the war in afghanistan starts on october 7th. it would be nice to have a clear strategy for the anniversary. xww

if you can spare 12 seconds, i want to you watch this little video. it is only 12 second long. this is post at the danger ram blog. and i cannot stop watching it. it is like it's a metaphor for something but i can't yet tell what. >> so here's a tiny little whaled robot. obviously this little guy has an obstacle to get over. that curb in front of it is like three time his size, rate? how will he ever get over that curb. okay. let's see that again. hear i am all worried about how this little dude will get over the curb, and boing, not only over the curb but over the giant

fence behind it. it is call the precision urban hopper. the latest military spec robot built by the lab, developed by a company called boston dynamics. they call at this time big dog. kit carry cargo. the rise robot which climbs up wall along the scariest gecko ever. also, the h-hex which can cover rough terrain which makes me wonder why our cars don't have flopover treads lake it and it is unexplainbly scary. also, the israel snake robot, with a camera for a head. there is the bear robot. standing for battlefield extraction robot. and of course, the infamous drones. our deadly flying robot that's allow us to say we're not really at war with pakistan, even though our robots are. that's tonight's moment of geek. the little jumper guy, the

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we turn now to our advanced correspondent. hay, kent. >> you know the da vinci code, right? well the writer dan brown has a new one called the lost symbol. a jay began particular harry potter type hit right now. take a look. in the lost symbol, symbol gist robert langdon los angeles for symbols with traz about a powerful secret society that will rock the world to its very foundations.

obviously, it is nothing like the da vinci code. totally different. there time around, langdon delves into the free masons, who are responsible for all the freaky thing on the dollar bill. and these guys. okay. that is kind of sinister. if only we could penetrate the secret, we could take down the man and all of that. this gives me an idea for the next installment. the lost document. the vast left wing conspiracy wants to canada robert langdon from finding obama's really birth certificate. and the "huffington post" and are jealously guarded by a fan at a timic priestly order called the registered order of the united states of america. we would have gotten away with it, at a, if it weren't