very clearly demanding information. that there's only one place you can get it. when you get to the democratic headquarters or inside the democratic organization somehow. >> presumably the 18-minute gap on the tape is the last big one to be decided. is it conceivable that something about this is on that 18-minute gap or -- >> it's possible. there's no doubt -- there's a mystery as to what's in that 18 1/2 minute gap. there's no mystery to me as to why we have an 18 1/2 minute gap. there's only one guy -- >> you can see it, right? >> that would take eight, nine times to get that machine to erase. it wasn't steve bull, who had access, it was a man who could barely get the on top of his medicine bottle where you had to push it down and turn it. >> play, record, play, record. i'm sorry to laugh. this is extraordinary stuff and kind of you to share it with us. this will be in the revised version of the book, right? >> it is in the revised version. >> the rerelease of "blind ambition" starts hitting bookstores tomorrow.

i can't wait. john dean, great thanks as always. that's "countdown" since the 2,235th day since the previous president declared mission accomplished in iraq. play and record, play and record. now to discuss the discourt between the state who senators are the states with the worst health care reform, here is rachel maddow. good evening. >> thank you for that. thank you at home for staying with us for the next hour. during which we will report some stop you in your tracks news about something very wrong in the state of south carolina. it is something that you will not hear anywhere else. until every other news story takes our story and runs with it. george bush's cabinet member is under formal investigation for corruption.

we'll tell you who it is and how damning that case is. all ahead. we begin tonight with an unexpected and dramatic appeal today from the most powerful figure on capitol hill. just days after a republican member of congress screamed at the president while he addressed congress, and thousands of conservative protesters descended on d.c. on the occasion of the anniversary of 9/11, some threatening to return with weapons, speaker of the house nancy pelosi, who ordinarily present an iron-lady facade, today emotionally urged her fellow politicos to tone down the rhetoric. >> i think we all have to take responsibility for our actions and our words. we are a free country and this balance between freedom and safety is one that we have to carefully balance. i have concerns about some of the language that is -- that is being used because i saw -- i

saw this myself in the late '70s in san francisco, this kind of rhetoric. it was very frightening. it created a climate in which we -- violence took place. so i wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statement that are made so understanding that some of the people -- the ears that they are falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statement might assume. >> speaker pelosi's office confirmed today that the violence to which she was referring there were the assassinations that rocked california and her home district of san francisco in 1978. on the morning of november 28th that year san francisco mayor george moscone and harvey milk were murdered.

harvey milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to office in california and mascone was one of his political allies. they were shot by a man named dan white. senator dianne feinstein who found harvey milk dead on the ground at city hall and then had to deliver the shocking news to the city. >> both mayor moscone and supervisor harvey milk have been shot and killed. the suspect is supervisor dan white. >> as a person who grew up in

the bay area, whose earliest memories included that statement by dianne feinstein and the news reports of riots that followed white's sentencing, i personally can tell you that it is rare and striking for a california politician who lived through that era to bring up that violence today. it's especially striking to hear it brought up this way, the speaker of the house, a politician who rarely shows that type of emotion. it was her response from the republican party john boehner. >> a little while ago speaker pelosi grew pretty emotional describing how our political climate is growing increasingly hostile, especially the rhetoric. do you believe our political climate has grown hostile? what's your opinion on that? >> as you heard me describe before, i do believe we're in the middle of a modern day political rebellion. the american people are saying enough is enough. they're scared to death that the country they grew up in is not going to be the country that their kids and grand kids get to grow up in. >> modern day political rebellion.

americans are rightly scared for their country. i guess that means that congressman boehner doesn't agree that political leaders should try to not escalate the situation toward those sorts of things. it wasn't just congressman boehner, the top republican in the house today. it was also the chairman of the national republican congressional committee, pete sessions of texas, who responded to speaker pelosi's plea of de-escalation by saying, quote, speaker pelosi is right the american people are upset but it's her own words that continue to fuel voter frustration in america. voters are justifiably frustrated with washington. when politics becomes what it has become cently. when protestors are regularly brandishing guns at appearances by the president, politicians have a choice. they can use their influence and the megaphone of their stature

to further escalate the rhetoric. to try to stoke it further to see what just might happen. or they can use that influence, that mega phone, to try to de-escalate, to try to get the threats of force out of our political debate. to use leadership to ask everyone to take a deep breath before someone gets hurt. who's doing that right now on the american right? is anyone who is influential on the conservative side of american politics going to step up to do that? what are they waiting for? joining us now is cleve jones, a great friend and colleague of the late harvey milk. he was one of the first to discover milk's body in city hall. he's now with the hotel workers unite here. thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> do you think it was appropriate for speaker pelosi to raise the spectre of those murders in the context of extremism in today's politics? >> i certainly do. i certainly understand the speaker's emotions on the issue as one who was there that day and saw what those bullets did.

it's hard not to hear the residents, again, in the words and the action and signs we're seeing all over the place right now, and it's important for people who understand this kind of rhetoric, many times in the past, in our country, has led to violence. so i was particularly disturbed by representative boehner's response, which seemed to me to be a passive endorsement of the kind of things you described as you led into this, the carrying of firearms to town hall meetings. when did this become a legitimate part of political discourse in our country? >> do you think that there's a cavalier attitude about the risks of political violence today? i mean, it feels like there's two ways to think about this. either it doesn't seem like a real threat to people and so it's okay to sort of flirt with it or the a real threat and people are still soaking this use of violence rhetoric knowing that real possibility is there?

what do you think it is? >> i think it's a very frightening, cynical, deliberate attempt to manipulate the fears of many people in our country. and u you know, i'm certain that representative boehner is old enough to remember, as i remember, how it felt to be an american following the assassination of president kennedy, how it felt to be an american following the assassination of dr. marlin luther king. i remember as a child when the cities burned. i remember tanks going down the street in front of my school. is that the kind of america that these people want to lead us into? it is, i think, becoming inevitable we're going to see political violence. that is a terrible thing for everyone in this country, regardless of your position on these issues. >> cleve, i know you've been an activist for decades, worked at the grassroots level, still do, worked with a lot of different politicians. is the situation now where

political leadership could really make a difference? could someone influential on the right use their leadership to calm things down right now or is this a self-propelled thing? >> i would hope the republican leadership would take a deep breath and look clearly at what's happening. i don't see any sign of it. what i do see is every single day now, in the mainstream media and blogosphere, the fanning of these flames, the deliberate use of words like kill and death. this does not bode well for our country. and, you know, i am a protester. i have a long history of marching and protesting and confronting politicians. i'm going to be marching in washington on october 11th. i certainly won't be bringing a gun and i certainly won't be bringing racist, overtly hateful placards and signs every time these tea baggers get together.

and what are not genuine grass roots movements by any means. they're well-financed and orchestrated by consulting firms with clear ties to the republican party that you on this show have done a good job of demonstrating. >> cleve jones, activist, great friend of harvey milk. great to have your insight on this. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. in some states are conservative politicians cutting off their noses to spite their faces by opposing health reform? there is some appalling news today about some of the red states, which shows that if reform doesn't pass, those states are going to want their proverbial noses back. that's next. chocolatey taste in 60 calories? ♪ ♪ oh, so delicious who cares? jell-o sugar free pudding. every diet needs a little wiggle room. garth, you're up. hold on, i'm at capitalone.com picking a photo... for my credit card.

here's one from my prom. oh, what memories. how 'bout one from our golf outing? ( shouting ) i know, maybe one of my first-born son. dad, mom says the boys gotta go. personalize your card by uploading... your own photo at capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? ♪ what's in your wallet? (voice vibrating) the amazing scent of gain comes in detergent... and fabric softener. ah-h-h-h-h. (machine switching off) gain. sniff, sniff, hooray. occasionally you come across something reading the news that can't be improved upon with comment. so here without comment is today's "wall street journal." quote, protesters who attended saturday's tea party rally in washington are unhappy with the level of service provided by the

subway system. republican congressman kevin brady asked for an explanation of why the government-run subway system didn't, in his view, adequately prepare for the rally to protest government spending and government services. seriously? that's not me saying seriously. that's in "the wall street journal." quote, the texas republican released a letter he sent to washington's metro system complaining the taxpayer-funded subway system was unable to properly transport protesters to the rally to protest government spending. i said i wouldn't comment, but if you're wondering how mr. complain about the metro congressman voted on the last metro funding request. he voted no. i'm not commenting. i'm just saying.

time for a magic map trick. ready? watch this. here are the three states with the highest number of people getting vaccinated for hpv. three out of every four american women will get hpv, the leading cause of cervical cancer. unlike other types of cancer, cervical cancer can largely be prevented by this vaccine. these three state are doing the best in the country at administering that vaccine on a relatively wide basis. they're doing a good job with that part of health care. good. here are the three states doing the worst. the lowest proportion of teenage girls are getting vaccinated for hpv. one very effective form of

health care is lacking. when that data about those states got us to thinking, we wondered what other states are sort of blowing it on women's reproductive health care. turns out, here's the teenage pregnancy stats. here are the states with the most teenagers who are now also moms. in these states, more than 15% of babies are born prematurely. and here are the states where the babies are born with the lowest birth weight. if you want to map the infant mortality rate, here are the nation's worst three state. now, magic map trick. if you put all of this data into a big computing machine, which states are offenders in all the above categories? which states are the worst of all of these worlds? they are, mississippi and south carolina. south carolina, the palmetto state, also home of lawmakers who perhaps more than in any other state have staked their

reason for being on preventing health reform. >> the reason you're not going to have a government-run health care pass the senate is because it would be devastating for this country. >> if we're able to stop obama on this, it will be his waterloo. it will break him. >> i will not be muzzled. i will speak out and speak loudly against this risky plan. >> more than 20% of south carolinians don't have health insurance. teen pregnancy rates are among the highest in the country, among the worst at getting young women vaccinated for a nearly preventable cancer. infant mortality, among the highest in the country. if anyone might want to get a little help with the disaster that is health care in their states, you would think it would be these guys. but they're the ones fighting hardest against it. we're going to -- we're supposed to be joined right now by donald fowler, former chairman of the

dnc, a great south carolinian. we're going to be joined by him right after this. ( birds chirping ) ♪ ♪ mmm! ♪ and i would do anything for love ♪ a.1. makes meat loaf sing. a lot of other beef too.

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if you've been wrong on as many national security issue as joe lieberman has, it takes a special something to call the president a wuss because he didn't listen to you and instead took the unanimous advice of the joint chiefs of staff and the defense secretary. joe lieberman and mitt romney and a bunch of other national security geniuses are going after the president on defense. that's next.

plus, kent jones has a shocking report that involves a anchorman and a defenseless chicken. first, time for a couple of holy mackerel stories. >> i've also said that one of the options in the insurance exchange should be a public insurance option. >> wild applause! president obama gave a raised high speech at the university of maryland today before a huge crowd of students who packed the school's 1,000 seat basketball arena to see him. the crowd is very enthusiastic. the president repeated his most crowd-pleasing, crowd-rousing rhetoric on health care. it all went about how you would expect it to. a very positive rah, rah experience until, a surprise moment. listen to this. >> four out of five committees in congress have completed their work. yesterday the finance committee under the leadership of max

baucus put out its own bill. each bill has its strengths and there are a lot of similarities between them. >> okay, two things. one, american college kids right now are really psyched about the minutia of health policy. they cheered the public option. two, american college students now know enough about the minutia of health policy to boo when they hear the name of the chairman of the senate finance committee. they booed when he said max baucus. kids today with their rap music and baggy pants and their hatred for the chairman's mark to the senate finance committee's health bill. kids today. get off my lawn. i have a college degree in health policy and i have to say my college experience was not like that. wonk on, university of maryland. wonk on. the geeks shall inherit the earth. as schalken salazar. when president obama appointed him secretary of the interior.

yesterday, as we reported, he announced that he would shut down the interior department office, known as the bush administration as the place where department staffers snorted meth off of toaster ovens. the inspector general reported that in addition to the toaster oven meth-snorting, employees of one middle management office had sex with, did drugs with and took embarrassingly small bribes from people in the oil and gas industry they were supposed to be regulating. the secretary of the interior during the time of the toaster oven, meth-snorting, what's known as the department's orgy era was a person named gale norton. during the orgy era at her department, gale norton awarded shell oil a bunch of extremely lucrative leases to squeeze some oil out of federal lands. two months after the big present for shell oil was announced,

gale norton quit the department of the interior. where did she go to work after that? you guessed it. shell oil. dear, miss norton, thank you for submitting your resume. then-secretary talked to them about taking a job with them she will have broken the law. the los angeles times reports today that it has now been turned over to the justice department in a formal criminal referral. that makes gale norton the first bush cabinet secretary to be the subject of a formal corruption investigation. she, of course, is also the first to have multiple results show up when you goggle her name along with the words meth, toaster oven and snorting. finally, one last story in "the rachel maddow show" crime blogger. a suspected identity thief in hinton, west virginia, has been charged with inpercent nating a

public official, a public officer and forging a public document. he has not been charged with poorly impersonating a public official and doing a spectacularly inept job of forging public documents, but he may also be guilty of those. with the help of a man he met online the suspect allegedly sent out letters posing as a law enforcement officer, offering jobs with the state of west virginia. in order to apply for the jobs, people had to hand over their social security number, birth certificates and some fort of i.d. if you're afraid you might have been a victim of this scheme, here's how you can tell your job offer letter is a fake. it does have the signature of the governor of west virginia, joe mansion on it. but it's missing the governor's seal. also, the text of the letter makes the last text message you received from an 8-year-old look like tolstoy. from the letter, it's nice to have you as an employee of west virginia.

your super boss matt talk a lot of thangs about you. i hope you stay with us a long time. if you got? please ask matt. love, governor of west virginia. we're trying to find copies of these extraordinarily forged letters. if we're successful, we'll let you know. ual friday with nordic tuesday, was it really for fun, or to save money on heat? why? don't you think nordic tuesday is fun? oh no, it's fun... you know, if you are trying to cut costs, fedex can help. we've got express options, fast ground and freight service-- you can save money and keep the heat on. great idea. that is a great idea. well, if nordic tuesday wasn't so much fun. (announcer) we understand. you need to save money. fedex

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president obama today made worldwide headlines by dropping president bush's planned fantasy missile defense plans for europe in favor of a new plan that actually might work. now, missile defense is one of those buzz terms that's widely known but not widely understood, that's because not everyone saw this episode of "the west wing".

>> you know what you are? you are the charlie brown of missile defense. the pentagon's lucy. >> i'm not familiar with the reference. >> peanuts, charlie brown. >> i've heard of him. >> why? >> i never read the comics. >> leo, were you born at the age of 55? >> i know there's a dog. >> charlie brown wanted to hold a football and lucy would hold it but she would pull it a at the last minute and charlie brown would fall on his butt. >> that's funny? >> no. but each time she would find a way to convince charlie brown that this time she wouldn't pull the ball away and they would and charlie brown would fall on his butt. >> that's funny? >> it's satirical. >> about what? >> the d.o.d. bringing you in every time. >> there you go. >> four, three, two, one. >> is that silence a pretty good sign? >> no. >> negative intercept.

>> we've had sensor readings. >> no. the warhead overshot its target. >> it was enthusiastic. >> by how much? >> colonel. >> 137. >> we missed it by 137 feet. >> miles. >> we missed it by 137 miles? >> when you consider the size of outer space, leo, that's not so bad. >> sir -- >> the word you're looking for are, oh, good grief. >> that was the best pretend president in tv history, explaining that as neat as it sounds, missile defense doesn't actually work. it sound like a magical force field that missiles bounce off but it's more like trying to shoot down a bullet from the other guy's gun using a bullet of your own. report out this week from the government accountability office is highly critical of the entire missile defense program over the last eight years. president obama said he's

canceling the plan toe put ten missile intercepts in poland and one in the czech republic that was widely opposed by the czech people. the bush plan is being dropped in favor of another system bhr likely to work and which happens to target the kind of missiles that iran actually has. not the old fantasy ones the old system targeted. nixing the plan was a bold move but not a surprise. senator obama campaigned on the fact that he was going to do this. now, you can guess what the republican response was to it. you got. they all basically said what former mass pass governor and '08 republican mitt romney also said, which s quote, president obama has made a dangerous and alarming decision to shelve our missile defense system in europe. the pentagon's missile defense agency has worked long and hard to secure a site for the system to thwart a potential iranian strike against our european allies. his decision is wrong in every day. mitt romney's foreign policy

experience consists of having been a missionary in france during the vietnam war. and he owned a house in new hampshire when he was governor of massachusetts. that's kind of foreign. we do appreciate his analysis. joining us is the president of the plow shares fund and author of "bomb scare: the history and future of nuclear weapons." thank you for being here. >> my pleasure. >> i'm sure mitt romney is a nice man. to the extent you have any interactions with him, i want you to know that you had nothing to do with me making that crack against him, fair? >> that's absolutely right. fair. >> let me ask you why it is the joint chiefs of staff and the secretary of defense made a unanimous recommendation to president obama to drop the bush missile defense plan? >> because the military has always been skeptical of missile defense. it's a huge money sink. we spent about $240 billion over the last 50 years trying to create a missile defense that works. we're very, very short of that goal.

we do know have a missile defense system that can protect the united states from a ballistic missile attack. the joint chiefs would rather put that money for systems that actually do work. and now they've recommended to the president that we scrap this plan to spend $5 billion to place ten interpreters in poland in favor of a plan that for half that amount can put hundreds of interceptors right up against the iranian coast to counter the actual threat that iran represents with its short-range missiles. >> the idea of the bush plan was that they would target long-range missile -- long-range nuclear missiles iran doesn't actually have. the obama plan is to target the type of missiles that iran already has but has successfully tested. >> exactly. president bush was promoting a technology that doesn't work against a threat that doesn't exist. obama is replacing nothing with something. instead of building indefinitely for a system that might defend against a system that the

iranians might field 10 or 15 years from now, he'll put more hardware on target quicker in the next two years against the iranian missile threat that exists, defending more countries in europe than the bush plan would have. >> joe, in addition to mitt romney coming out about this, calling it dangerous and alarming today, and then later in his statement calling it alarming and dangerous, which i thought was a big escalation, a lot of neoconservatives, what's left of them, came out and criticized this today. people like joe lieberman, john mccain, not thought of a neoconservative, but taking the nec-con line on this. why have they been very whetted to the idea of the bush system? >> two reasons. they have a deep distrust of arms control agreements. they think these are paper

agreements that sacrifice u.s. security. they don't want to give up any american military system. even if the other side's giving up theirs. two, therefore, they think the only way to protect against a missile threat is not to eliminate the missiles, eliminate the weapons, but to build up a technological shield. and 50, 60 years of experience in failing to do that hasn't dissuaded them at all. but the third reason i think this is really what motivates them most is that it's politically useful. there's a conservative hate machine out there that takes any defense issue now and turns it into an attack on president obama. they want to portray him as weak. as an appeaser, unconcerned about american natural security, maybe not even an american. any defense issue that comes up now, whether it's missile defense, iran, nuclear policy or north korea or relations with russia, it will also be used to try to portray obama as an appeaser, as weak, and missile defense is that -- in order to make that, they have to make up facts. they make up, as you say, this myth, this fantasy system that it can work.

they exaggerate the iranian threat. they use words like ominous. and appeasement all the time. you would think having these people being so wrong about so many international issues they would have no credibility, but they still find tv stations and newspapers that will give them time. >> what about the allegation that this is somehow going to appease russia? this is something russia didn't want. russia will be happy this isn't there. somehow this will embolden them at a time when russia has been so aggressive internationally. >> one, the russians are pleased with this. they see this as a return to rationality. they never thought this system made much sense. they did see it as a threat to russia. the system did have some capability against russia. they are pleased, no question about it. and there will be some politicians in russia that will

crow about it. some are concerned about the obama plan. my friend in college is complaining -- is warning about this plan in an article in "the washington post" website tonight saying that this system, if it proceeds the way obama wants could be a bigger threat to russia than the bush plan. the reason is simple. bush -- as long as it's a few interceptor missiles on cruisers and destroyers off the coast of iran, not much of a threat. if it multiplies the way secretary gates and general cartwright laid out, you could have hundreds of interceptors on dozens of ships with extremely capable systems that could threaten u.s. strategic systems. so the russians are not just going to give obama a free pass on this. >> of course, if that happens, then the conservatives will attack obama as needlessly provoking russia, our great ally, right? >> that's exactly right. any issue will be used to portray obama as weak, over-reaching, as vacillating. the facts don't matter here. just like in the health care debate. the conservatives and the

neoconservatives do not care about the facts. in this vitriolic attack they're doing more harm to national security than anything they could hope to gain. as you pointed out in the beginning of the show, this is the great curse we now have in washington. this vicious, vicious fight that sacrifices domestic issues or international issues on this partisan altar of hate and vitriol. >> thanks very much for joining us and helping us work this out tonight. >> my pleasure. thank you. a quick programming note. nbc's ann curry interviewed iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad today after president obama's announcement on the missile defense. her interview will air in part tomorrow on the "today" show and

in its entirety sunday at 1:00 p.m. eastern. coming up on "countdown" the late senator ted kennedy's son, teddy kennedy jr. will be joining keith to discuss the health care debate. coming up, the one issue in today's news that deserves everyone's attention. ( birds chirping ) ♪ ♪ mmm! ♪ and i would do anything for love ♪ a.1. makes meat loaf sing. a lot of other beef too.

spend 10 minutes a month with natural instincts. it's the healthier way to blend away gray. how? it's antioxidant rich and ammonia-free. in fact the more often you use it, the healthier your hair looks. natural instincts, it's all good. have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. at legalzoom, we'll help you incorporate your business, file a patent, make a will and more. you can complete our online questions in minutes. then we'll prepare your legal documents and deliver them directly to you. so start your business, protect your family, launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. you can learn to switch off hungry and lose weight. right now weight watchers is offering a whole month free. join and get a month of unlimited meetings and online tools. so all you'll need is 45 minutes a week to take control,

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every dime that the state of minnesota doesn't give to a.c.o.r.n. is going to be cut off. right now. their imaginary state budget, we're imaginary slashing it. it doesn't get imaginary tougher than that. many conservatives who governor pawlenty is hoping to woo with the imaginary tough guy act will be convening in d.c. tomorrow for the start of the fourth annual values voter summit. for the low, low price of $99, you can sign up to listen to speakers that include representative michele bachmann, actor stephen baldwin, and former miss california kacarrie prejean. you can sit in on breakout sessions like obama care, rationing your life away. or, global warming hysteria, the new face of the pro-death again that. how about thugocracy: fighting the left-wing conspiracy. i'm not making up these titles. this is really what they're

doing. here's my personal favorite, true tolerance: countering the homosexual agenda in public school. this is a pregame warm-up to the black tie gala with the james dobson vision and leadership award. so see you there? i'll be announced as a proceed promiscuity zealot by the pro-abortion catholic people.

by their deeds, they challenge every american to ask this question -- what can we do to be better citizens? what can we do to be worthy of such service and such sacrifice? >> out of all the stories in the news today, if you only hear one, if you only pay attention to one, this is the one. our country did something today that we do very, very, very rarely. and this is the story. >> june 21, 2006 in the remotest northeast of afghanistan. near the border of pakistan. sergeant monti was a team lead other a 16-man patrol. they'd been on the move for three days. down dirt roads, sloshing through rivers, hiking up steep mountain trails, their heavy gear on their backs. moving at night and in the early morning to avoid the scorching 100-degree heat. their mission, to keep watch on the valley down below in advance of an operation to clear the

area of militants. those who were there remember that evening on the mountain. iraqi ridge, not much bigger than this room. some were standing guard, knowing they had been spotted by a man in the valley. some were passing out mres and water. there was talk of home and plans for leave. jarod was overheard remembering his time serving in korea. just before dark there was a shuffle of feet in woods and that's when the tree line exploded in a wall of fire. one member of the patrol said it was like thousands of rifles crackling. bullets and heavy machine gunfire ricochetting across the rocks. rocket-propelled grenades firing down. fire so intense that weapons were shot right out of their hands. within minutes, one soldier was killed, another was wounded. everyone dove for cover. behind a tree, a rock, a stone wall. this patrol of 16 men was facing a force of some 50 fighters.

outnumbered, the risk was real. they might be overrun, they might not make it out alive. that's when jarod monti did what he was trained to do. with the enemy coming, he got on his radio and started calling in artillery. when the enemy tried to flank them, he grabbed a gun and drove them back. and had they came back again, he tossed a grenade and drove them back again. and when these american soldiers saw one of their own wounded, lying in the open some 20 yards away, exposed to the approaching enemy, jarod monti did something no amount of training can will. his patrol leader said he'd go but jarod said, no, he is my soldier, i'm going to get him. it was written long ago the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them.

glory and danger alike. and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it. jarod monti saw the danger before him and he went out to meet it. he handed off his radio, tightened his chinstrap and with his men providing cover, jarod rose and started to run in all those incoming bullets, into al started to run into all those rockets. upon seeing jarod, the enemy in the woods unleashed a fair storm. he moved low and fast yard after yard. a moment later, he rose again and again they fired everything they had at him, forcing him back. faced with overwhelming enemy fire, jarod could have stayed where he was behind that wall. but that was not the kind of soldier he was. he embody that had creed all soldiers strive to meet. i will always place the mission first. i will never accept defeat. i will never quit. i will never leave a fallen comrade.

so for a third time, he rose. for a third time, he ran toward his fallen comrade. said his patrol leader, it was the bravest thing i have ever seen a soldier do. they say it was a rock propel grenade that jarod made it within a few yards of his wounded soldier. they say his final words there on that ridge so far from home were of his faith and his family. i've made peace with god. tell my family that i love them. and then as the artillery that he had called came down, the enemy fair slowed. then stopped. the patrol had defeated the attack. they had held on. but not without a price. by the end of the night, jarod and three others including the soldier he died trying to save had given their lives. >> sergeant jarod monti of

massachusetts today was awarded the medal of honor. the highest honor that we give in this country. while sergeant monti's family received his medal today, they named it in his honor. since vietnam, no medal of honor has been awarded to a soldier, a sailor, an airman or marine who has survived the fight for which he was honored. (announcer) time brings new wisdom

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earlier in the show we presented some new and appalling data about the state of health care in parts of the country. which states in our union have the worst rates of teen pregnancy, premature births, and the rates of young women who were given the vaccine for hpv and who is at or near the bottom of though lists? the states of mississippi and south carolina. and who represents south carolina in the health reform debate? that would be waterloo senator jim demint and you lie congressman joe wilson. both of whom are hell bent for leather that we will have no health care reform. it is one thing to be against health reform and it is another thing to be against it when you have the disastrously bad health care of in the country. to talk about this, we were supposed to be joined by national committee chairman and proud south carolinian don fowler from south carolina. what else was in columbia, south carolina tonight?

really, really bad weather. huge thunderstorm which interfered with our satellite feed and cost us the chance to hear from mr. fowler. what can you do? we apologize to him and to you. we think it is a story worth talking about and aware hoping to do so as soon as it stops raining in south carolina. we turn now to our unplanned media event correspondent, kent jones. >> tv is an inexact science. statements things go wrong and sometimes things go terribly, terribly, terribly wrong. >> okay. >> this is one of those. the filter between private thoughts and public declarations can be perilously thin. case in point. here in new york, a local news anchor is exchanging pleasantries with the weather man on last night's newscast. >> it's tough to make a tender

forecast. >> excuse me? >> based on the reaction of his co-anchor -- yes. he really did say that. >> clearly the word plucking was in his head. but the word right next to it came out. what a difference a couple kons nants can make, especially when a chicken is involved. with that he join a long rich history of tv chicken plucking moments. >> to up the cost of heating your home. >> let me talk. >> translate that for us. what does that mean? >> if would you let me talk. it will be one of the largest snakes you feigned in the metro plefl area. >> he climbed the highest mountain in the world. mount everest. but he is gay -- i mean, excuse me, he is blind. >> i got my balls screwed up. >> as you can see --