"snl" takes aim of the lack of the president's accomplishments. >> is it better? no, i think it's actually worse. how about health care reform? hell no! >> do the comedians at "snl" have a point. and the death of free choice? it never even came to a vote. are lobbyists the ones deciding who lives and who dies in the country? and an olympic sized blame game erupting from chicago's loss. right wing republicans are rejoicing, and some are saying it's unpatriotic. it's 9:00 a.m. pull up a chair and join the

"morning meeting." good morning to you. president obama is meeting with senior advisers this morning. and the topic likely at the top of the agenda how to respond in afghanistan. the president's dilemma underscored by a deadly attack over the weekend that killed eight american soldiers at at remote out post along the border. and does it have any relevancy to u.s. policy? jim in kabul, afghanistan, with the latest. >> reporter: good morning. u.s. military officials say they have proof the taliban was behind the deadly attack that killed the eight americans. in fact, they say they have new intelligence that shows among the 50 or so taliban dead during that six-hour battle, it included some of the high ranking taliban leadership for the region. by all accounts this was a fire

fight, heavy gun fire rained down on the remote area 10 miles short of the pakistan border. the fire and the fight was so intense some of the enemy fighters breached the wire and the u.s. military had to retreat inside the base itself and set up a new inner parameter. and after six hours apatchy attack helicopters, and heavy fighting from the americans, the enemy was beaten. the u.s. military already informed the area tribal elders they were getting ready to shut down the combat out best and withdrawal the forces from the region as of tomorrow. so those in the area knew that this was going to happen. and u.s. military officials are convinced the taliban organized this attack in an attempt to score some kind of propaganda

victory, not only here in afghanistan but in the united states where the debate over what to do about the war in afghanistan is raging almost as intensely as fire fights as we see here. >> thank you. dan senor here with us. and i want to start with you, dan. karen finney also along with jonathan capehart here, and we'll come back to them later. and what is the mission? are we winning a football game here or are we attempting to deploy american resources to accomplish some objective, and if so what is it? >> well, it's three fold. one we want to prevent taliban from repromoting, and then the

wanting to make sure neighboring governments are not in jeopardy. and a destabilized afghanistan could destabilize pakistan, and they have nukes. >> how do you begin a conversation about the west bay -- best way to achieve the objectives? >> well, it's the plan that mcchrystal set out. you have to make sure the bulk of the population have a common denominator. and you have to create a situation in which the afghan government can enforce sovereignty within its own borders. it's not going to look like our constitution by any stretch.

>> what solutions has general mcchrystal outlined for stability as opposed to those that might argue a reevaluation and a special operations strategy that would fight the war, and then karen, i will get you in here. go ahead, general? >> we have a grone special forces. you will shut down a number of the sources of the intelligence upon which that campaign relies. secondly, if you are going to cover population centers, we do not have the forces now capable of doing that. for six years we fought the campaign with one u.s. brigade and similar pieces of force from our nato allies. it was not enough. >> karen, go ahead? >> mcchrystal talked about some of the developmental things we need to do. there is a larger table of

options that we need to be considering that are not part of the discussion when people are talking about the mcchrystal report. >> if we accept the surge strategy, which evidenced itself is one of the decisions we made here, and manifests there in iraq. they push for the surge and got the surge and created civilian stability, and it was one of the few things that truly they argued it and did it and executed it, unlike almost everything else in iraq. what would the surge look like in afghanistan? >> karen's point, when president obama announced the first increase of troop levels. he put it in the context of a comprehensive strategy. it included building capacity within the government. and at the end of the day, if the civilian population feels they cannot step up and take

risks with their own lives to cooperate with us, we will fail. that's what we learned in iraq. let me give you one data point. the history of successful reconstruction efforts throughout the last 50 or 60 years, the average ratio of forces to u.s. local occupation, there are 50 local civilians. in baghdad in 2003, the ratio was 700 to 1. we were invisible. ultimately with the surge strategy in iraq, the reason it was successful, we decided we would protect the civilians and we would have the forces to do it. we don't have the forces to protect the civilians and get them onboard and working with us, we don't have the forces. >> but to the western border of ira iran, this is iraq over there. can you still look at the map and see as we have all the iran

conversations, and we are not having one right now, they find themselves between afghanistan and iraq and a lot of u.s. forces. how is it that you institute that surge, and you have the situation in iraq and don't have that entire region. again, israel just west of iraq for that matter desolve in total responsibility being borne by u.s. military forces -- >> well, if you have what could solve the divide between sunni and kurds, if you have an afghani government, the same rule applies about iranian influence there. those are the two keys to settling down that part of the real estate. the other part of the real estate, it's absolutely

critical, and it's helping the pakistani government not to fail and create a situation in which islamist have access to the nuclear weapons. >> thank you so much for your time. a pleasure and nice to see you again. karen staying with us for the balance of the program along with jonathan capehart. up next, the olympic blame game. monday morning quarterbacking the president. chicago was a dark horse to begin with. was he dammed if he did and d damned if he didn't? karen laughs, but trust me, go to some of the foreign nations and you look at the pathetic government structure. we are back with the olympic blame game right after this.

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some conservatives celebrating the failed mission for obama to bring the olympics to chicago. the olympic blame game in full swing. some of the reaction predictable. >> barack hussein obama has been running around the world telling how much our country sucks. why would anybody award it to the united states, if it's so

terrible. >> some blame bush. rio won the olympics. clear it was somebody's fault that chicago did not win it. savannah guthrie here. >> reporter: a lot of people wondering how it happened. valley jarret was pushing for the olympics and was instrumental in having the president travel to copenhagen, although it was his decision. i will read a quote. she said "the intelligence we have from the u.s. olympic committee and bid team was very close." >> reporter: in the end it was not enough. there is probably no one factor that led to the lost, but it's portrayed as a political defeat for the president. listen to what a prominent

republican strategist had to say on "meet the press" yesterday. >> i think last week was pretty clear that valley jaret is running the white house. you never send the president of the united states around the world to something where you do not know the out come. >> liberals are taking issues with the way some of the people celebrated. >> reporter: illinois senator, rolin bur is had another take. a lot of different perspectives on this. providing a lot of fodder, dylan. >> yeah, and our guests, the

deck is stacked on this segment for the democrats. joe lockhart, i would argue that the best thing we could do here is acknowledge the emergence of brazil and the other nations as viable locations for economic activity, social development and innovation and the real wake up call was not the politics of left or right and who won chicago, but are we aware of the fact as a country as we sit here hanging on too big to fail and competitive practices in health insurance that there are other countries on this earth that want to move forward in some potential way, and one of them is brazil, joe? >> i think that's a legitimate question, and brazil has been a growing economic powerhouse over the last decade. they have their own challenges. but i think you are getting at

some of what the ioc was thinking about, which they were trying to expand the olympic movement. they went to china for the first time. they wanted to go to latin america. the debate has been silly in the last few days about the blame and the white house and i am happy to talk about that. i do think that brazil, you know, and latin america is an important economic both competitor and cooperator with the u.s. but i would venture a guess that this is the only place on television right now where we are having this conversation and not talking about whose finger is getting pointed where. >> this is a new peculiar television show, and we could be cancelled by lunchtime, but for the meantime we are here. >> if you look at so much of the corporate communism to make sure there is no competition and no

choice for americans in health care, and a political system interested in playing finger-pointing as we watch economic powers around the world, whether it's brazil or china or india that may not be anywhere near this country yet, and they are coming. and we are doing everything in our power, it would appear, to try and basically turn ourselves into a bunch of corporate communists that have no choice or competition. this is for karen, and she is used to it from me. >> yeah, i used to do sports in college, and we lost, and it's done. move on, not a big decision. >> my point is it's a bigger conversation. >> i do think the reaction that we saw with, you know, rush limbaugh and the others, i think that speaks to something that tom friedman talked about last week, and we talked about the thug politics of, you know, rush

limbaugh is the same guy that said he was rooting for obama to fail. when you are rooting for the president to failure rooting for the country to fail. that's not a good place to be. i agree we have to wake up and know that there are other countries that are moving forward whether we like it or not. >> how do we get back to the path of political conversations that even have the remotest air of wanting to solve any problem that this country has? >> i would say the first thing you do is start ignoring people like rush limbaugh. there are french people that speak loudly and get ratings and are entertaining, and at best are irrelevant to the politics and are poisoning the politics. the more we pay attention and talk about them, the more we r perpetuate that cycle. people are not saying they will

not vote for the president next time because the olympics wouldn't be here in 12 years. >> i agree they are not talking about that, but it does feed into the anti-obama sentiment that they are pushing, he cannot get anything done and losing all the political capital, and what a dumb move -- >> all that might be true. >> or it might not be true. but i think there is another agenda here, which is to undermined the legitimacy of the presidency. i hear jonathan. >> i want to say flat out that the video that you showed earlier of the people -- i think it was a gathering of conservatives, where they applauded when chicago was eliminated. i want to say flat out that that was unpatriotic. could you imagine what would have happened if it were george bush or any republican president and democrat or progressives, liberals, applauded the loss of the united states.

how do you root against the president of the united states. he wanted to bring an event to the country, that would mean starts pretty much starting right now leading through 2016. >> but if we are will be to strangle innovation with too big to fail -- >> well, it's part of a larger issue here. the president came into office pushing really hard to try and create jobs because we are losing them as a nation by hundreds of thousands of jobs every month. so for conservatives to cheer the united states losing, i think it's -- i think it's devastating and unpatriotic. we are plugging into what is making news here. another golden parachute setting up for goldman sachs. they are down to $2 million.

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time for a little plugging in with contessa brewer, who is back from a break. >> the finance times has a story about the trouble that cit is in, and how goldman would be owed a billion dollars. american taxpayers would be holding the bag here. we would lose $2.3 billion. why? golden bailed out cit in 2008 for $3 billion, and that called for golden sacks to get a billion back if they closed. now, there you are, goldman would get a billion dollars

back. >> when they represent the taxpayer, they give our money away, and everybody else gets terms. that's why they call it stealing. here we have unemployment at 9.8%, and greenspan predicts it will hit 10% and stay there for a while. a lot of jobs that pay great salaries are going unfilled like nursing and engineering and accounting jobs. the problem is those jobs require a specialized set of skills, and so employers are worried about taking a year to train somebody that, say, worked in the auto industry, and then they can do the job. you have millions of job seekers applying for jobs, and they are applying for jobs that requires specialized knowledge. >> we would not want to educate anybody in the country to do it? >> that would require sitting on an employee for a long time to train them. >> much better to payoff

congress so you don't have to compete. >> yeah, it's extreme. >> thank you, contessa. coming up next, "saturday night live" taking on president obama and his lack of accomplishments during his promises. or is it just a joke? >> torture prosecutions? nope. looking at the list, i am seeing two big accomplishments. jack and squat. >> we are back here right after this. ♪

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welcome back to the "morning meeting." nice to see you. time to reset the agenda. first the finance committee set to bring the health care bill to a vote this week. of course they could not bring choice to a vote. democrats are not happy and could force the committee to go back to the drawing board. if you want to reform it you have to do that. if you want to just jack the taxpayer, carry on. and we will take a closer look at who is writing the legislation in the next hour. looks like the lobbyists are the deciders of who lives and dies in the country. and then the president came

up empty in his trying to get the olympics in chicago. and william buckley versus glenn beck, and crystal versus colter. can anybody save us from the corporate communist controlling our government? so far not so good. and then we will look at the market, thanks to the trillion-dollar subsidy, we have a stock market. speaking of agendas, the president taking heat in late night for making no progress on his own to-do list. >> "saturday night live" making light of the tough spot obama is in right now. so much to do and nobody to help him do it. >> there are those on the right angry. they think i am taking this country into something that

resembles the soviet union or germany, but when you look at my record, it's clear what i have done so far, and that is -- nothing. nadda. almost one year and nothing to show for it. >> the polls show the president remains fairly popular with the americans. and the news is not all good. the president's approval rate dropped ten points over the summer. he does have a 51% approval rate right now, dylan. financial regulation, too big to fail untouched, and health care reform a joke. and mark mckinnen, a republican strategist, and he worked for former president george w. bush and john mccain. and democratic strategist, karen

finny, and jonathan capehart. and chris bowers, the most politically involved in this conversation, walk us through the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of what you have gotten from your president since he came into office? >> at this point i would have thought much more would have been accomplished from the employ-free choice act, or to passing health care reform which was supposed to be done by september 15th to a much larger stimulus package. there are many areas where even though i was in many ways wary and critical of the obama administration from the left coming into the obama presidency, i thought more would have been accomplished by this point. >> mark, from a more conservative perspective, and particularly forget your politics as a former bush strategists, walk us through your assessment of how this man, this president, is attempting to get things done, and how things

went in past presidents in the first few months. >> well, i am -- >> if you want to get into a choice conversation, and you are in favor of corporate communism and in total control, so you can criticize labor, i would love that conversation. so if you want me to rebook you sometime to talk about that, i would love to do that. but what i am talking about here is the president's ability to get things done in the first few months. i am not asking your opinion on any piece of given legislation. do you understand that, mark? >> well, i was just answering -- >> i don't care what you were doing. you need to answer the question. >> the fact that both president bush and president obama promised to try and change the tone in washington. they have had a great deal of

difficulty doing that. i think that we have seen a lot of dialogue that is just outrageous from both the left and the right in terms of any sort of civility, and i am afraid if the civility is not dead it's in the intensive care unit. and so i think the chicago incident, i think it was bad political instincts and judgment, but i was disappointed it didn't come to america. i was very disappointed to see talk show host coming out with just jaw-dropping hate language about the president, and, again, echoing what one your panel said about refling in the president's failure. that is very disappointing to see on both sides. >> i agree with mark that there is political thugry going on in the discourse.

and the president has an unprecedented number of and complex things on his plate. are we asking the right questions when we try to evaluate success or failure? is it a matter of just picking off a list of issues or is it making the best decision on these things? the stimulus package, for example, and i don't know you don't like it -- >> that's okay. >> we don't know whether it has been successful or a failure. if we judge that now we may have a different answer than if we wait a year. >> what i see about you two, because of the thugry that has taken over the dialogue on both sides, the ability to get anything done for the middle 80% of us that would like to see reasonable advancement and updating the list of americans systems, nothing happens because of the nature of the dialogue. i don't know if that's the

media's fault because we show the most extreme people. >> yeah, we know what the problem is, and we amplify it. the key thing is the thugry and the political discourse is one thing, but the president is facing an unprecedented workload. the economy to two wars and everything else on the plate that needs attention now, all of them need attention now. what i found devastating about the "saturday night live" opening skit was that, remember, these are people who were perceived to be, you know, the president's backers. for them to turn on him like this, and i think, actually, in a rather effective way, should make folks in the white house at least pay attention to the fact that there are people out there that are concerned that all of these things on the president's checklist have not gotten done. >> sure. obvious one is going back to he still does not deal with it, and

the more he pushes it under the rug and doesn't deal with anything in my opinion, the less creditability he has that comes up. health care becomes a fiasco, and now what is the next problem? the war. that's the biggest problem that he has. >> i think that's true. but there is something about what is jonathan saying, using your cabinet and going out and talking about what you have accomplished. at this point what part of "saturday night live" was tapping into, people are not sure what has been accomplished. people don't know what he has accomplished. there is a sales job that goes along with it. >> and also, you know, for another time. contessa, what is going on. >> a suicide bomber walk into the a funeral tent and blew himself up today. the death toll from the attack 120 miles west of baghdad is expected to rise. we are following news where 65 defendant's have been charged

with federal drug trafficking. they went in and arrested 38 members of a vazquez organization, the biggest drug trafficking organization is puerto rico. they were distributing drug, cocaine, and oxycodoan, and bringing it into the united states. david letterman expected back at work today after the stunning admintion last week, where he announced somebody tried to blackmail him to saw suppress that secret. peter alexander is following that story. what are you learning, peter? >> reporter: we will see what happens as the story continues to move forward. a lot of the employees are setting up for the taping of tone the's david letterman show. and one employee described it as

being a strange day. and the suspect is out on bail, and he has been suspended by cbs. he is facing grand larceny charges. if convicted he could face 15 years behind bars. he was seen this weekend at his home in connecticut, a home that until recently he shared with one of the letterman's assistants, and he had a past sexual relationship with letterman. >> i will say the case that has been described by the prosecution makes no sense. in the history of extortion attempts, there has never been, as far as i know, somebody paid by check. i assure you that the public should not rush to judgment. >> at the end of his rev liela s revelations, letterman says he will not talk about the topic any more. we will have to see what he does talk about at the taping set for

4:30 today. a suspected stalker that posted video of a reporter. he used a cell phone and recorded her through a peephole in her hotel room. bring us up to speed. >> reporter: barrett is due back here in court this afternoon. he was ordered back to california where the charges were filed against him. the judge will decide if he makes that trip as a freeman on bond or in custody and transferred by officials. >> i am dying. my career is over. i am done! and i get it off -- get it off the internet. get it off! >> reporter: the 33-page

criminal complaint against garrett has scary details, one being that he could find out where andrews was by calling the hotels, and then he could get a room next to her. they say on one website he posted 35 videos apparently of naked women shot through peep holes. contessa? >> john, thank you. dylan, john brings up a good point, the fact that hotels would let you call up and say i would like to stay next to erin andrews? come on! >> makes letterman look good. you get a peephole guy, and david letterman was having sex with his staff. when we get back, helping you cut back the calories.

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time for trend or talk for a look at the stories folks love to talk about. they are talking about them today, in fact, but are they part of a trend or just a way to pass time. and our waist line. weighing in this morning, and forgive the pun, karen finney shs and jonathan capehart. you heard all you can eat, but more and more cafeterias say it's what you can carry. some may eliminate trays, and the thinking is students will not pile on the food like there

is no tomorrow if they have to make multiple trips to the buffet line. and some schools are seeing a 30% reduction in food waste. >> i was an either laet in college. i was impressed, the soccer players and volleyball players, and my own teammates, we found creative ways to pile it this way if we could not pile it that way. >> don't rule out the vertical. >> yeah. >> next up, eating your fruits and vegetables, the nutrition program known as wic. coupons soon to be offered to allow them to buy fruits and vegetables, as well as jarred baby food and bread. more than eig8 million people

receive wic. and they hope new guidelines will address concerns about growing obesity? >> thank god somebody reformed wic, and somebody needs to understand real oranges are better than orange drink, and until then it's not going to do any good. coke says it's the first beverage company to make a move, and one long-time critic not so impressed. this is what the director of the public interest has to say, listing calories on the front of the coke is like putting lipstick on a big. coca-cola is basically liquid

candy. is there a bigger trend or are we going to see politicians talk about this? >> they say on cigarettes, how bigger sign that says, you know, this is 300 calories is going to stop people. >> i agree. i smoked a pack a day for 20 years when i used to travel we would be in london. london, they say smoking kills you and put a picture of like somebody killing somebody on the front of it. i will get three of those. >> you know what they need to do with coca-cola? put a slobbery picture of jaba the hut on the can of coke with the tack line -- drink up! >> until you do, pricing or prohibition. >> but looking to put a taxes on soda. low income people will not like that. >> tax it! >> still ahead, time to head to the break room. toure is here. he doesn't us to attack his

soda. "snl" cat fight getting under way. the real madonna, the real lady gaga going at it on "snl" next here on the "morning meeting." ♪ excellence is right on time. it's gmc truck month. shop sierra 1500 slt with the 403 horsepower 6.2 liter v8. it's the most powerful half ton v8 in its class. step up to the best. it's gmc truck month. get 0% apr for 60 months on 2009 gmc sierra or get $6,000 total cash back on select 09 sierra 1500 extended and crew cabs in stock. see your gmc dealer today. really bad. then we learned that a flu shot can reduce the risk of getting the flu by up to 70%. we got our flu shots at cvs pharmacy. best thing we ever did. yes, indeed. [ laughs ] come in to get a flu shot today and get a $100 coupon book

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talking sports but not in the break room, are we? >> no. i was asking you your favorite time. >> pass the time. about the 49ers? talking about the 49ers some. >> no. >> but they've been terrible for so long. >> they have. >> as soon as eddie debartollo did that thing with the casino gambling. what do you got? >> my gay friends, madonna and lady gaga got together this week on "saturday night live" for hair pulling, name-calling and wrestling and good cat fight make straight men so. so roll it! >> yes, i'm madonna. i'm totally hotter than you.

>> hey, guess what? i'm totally taller than you. what kind of a name is lady gaga? it sounds like baby food! >> the number one on the billboard charts! >> keep showing them wrestling. i'm surprised that madonna would team up with gaga but maybe she she's her stronger self in gonja! >> what is that? >> karen knows! imagine great joes when you're out there and going all the way, you know? it's not a word you can use every day. >> anything more for us here? >> john gosselin is getting that if you ask me. he seems determine to destroy his public image. first helped himself to another woman while the wife was at home to eight kids and now helping himself to their loaded joint bank account. >> once the court arbitrator stepped in, i felt like the money -- i had to put it back. i didn't feel like it would be safe, to be honest, and he took

$230,000 of the $231,000 that we have liquid and i have a stack of bills in my purse, i can't drop in the mail. >> whoa! >> he left a thousand bucks! why did he leave the thousand bucks? why bother? >> even the grinch left a crumb for the mouse! >> if you're coming for 230, take the money! or leave half. it's crazy. >> lawyers are telling me legally, jon cannot bar the show from filming at the house because it's joint property so we may see new episodes yet. despite being on the jay leno show, the bill marr show, michael moore did not have a good weekend. more sicko did 4.5 million on far fewer screens in its opening weekend. fahrenheit 911 did more. so this is his worse opening

since bowling for columbine. quentin tarantino is doing "kill bill 3" yes! >> who is writing health care reform? president obama is hosting doctors at the white house this morning but have lobbyists already hijacked the legislation? you bet they have. in fact, they are writing the legislation. we're back after this. >> good monday morning. i'm meteorologist bill care irns. we have some stormy weather out there today. but we also have some nice weather from boston down i-95 to new york, philly to washington, d.c. should be a really nice day. showers, though, and very cool in atlanta right through south carolina. the other wet spot, minneapolis. the west coast is looking great! ♪

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good morning. i'm dylan ratigan. here are the top stories this hour pr the senate finance committee set to vote this week on its bill but lobbyists appear to be the only ones deciding what goes in and what doesn't and if it has to do with diminishing the power of a health insurance company or a union or large employer or in any way helps a washt or a doctor, you can bet it's not in there. eight american soldiers

killed along afghanistan's dangerous border with pakistan and nbc pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski is live in kabul with the latest as the gop appears to be fighting a war within itself. rush limbaugh versus david brooks, mccain aides slamming palin and can the republican party be safe from itself? plus america, the great. our national parks among the country's greatest treasures after all. we are talking to ken burns about his latest documentary on america's natural wonders. it's 10:00 a.m. pull up a chair and join the "morning meeting." just about hour from now, the president joining doctors for health reform at an event at the white house and if you thought the debate was heated so far, just wait. the senate finance bill one step closer to the floor in what promise be to be a heated defeat but if you're looking for choice

to break up the corporate communism that burdens our country and preventing us from finding work your senate not working for you. there will be no competition nor any choice. nbc chill little correspondent kelly o'donnell on how the corporate communists pulled it off. >> good morning. i think everybody had a break over the weekend to rest and recharge to take to their sides and battle it out again. as you know, the president will be talking about health care today and gives him another opportunity to try to keep this front and center. and to focus on the things that are his biggest priorities. a couple of the things that are coming out of all of this that seem to have some staying power are the fate of the public option, can that go forward and whap to those who get their insurance through their employers and unions? a huge part of the american working force get their insurance that way. as you've pointed out, what we see right now with the health care blueprints that are being worked on, there is not an opportunity for people to get their insurance that way.

to participate in what they are calling the exchange. what would eventually be sort of a menu of choices that you could pick the plan that works best for you. so as we await, the final numbers, what is happening now is we expect to get a real cost and a real estimate on taxes and expenses for the baucus blueprint. when we have that, that will give us a whole new thing to talk about. this morning, chuck schumer of new york is a democrat and strong advocate for the public option. he says it still has life. >> the overwhelming majority of the democrats in the senate are for. whether we get 60 or not depends on where it's put in the bill and how that all works. there are a number of compromises, i'm talking to some of the moderates and they are very open for. the house is all for and have it in their bill. you have a house conference committee where the house has it strongly in their bill and the sna senate we could have it in the bill and it's done. if we don't have it in the bill there are 45, 56, democratic

senators how will they report back a bill without it? >> chuck shum ser part of the leadership team on the democratic side and trying to get people together but ron wyden of oregon, also a democrat, has been taking risks and speaking out against some of the democrats, frustrated, as you know, dylan, about the fact that his idea to get people who get their insurance through their employer a chance to choose. that didn't get to committee and daet get a vote the. he is frustrated about that. he put out a statement and gives you a sense. he felt it was more of a tactic and he has been frustrated by it as you know. >> what a great tactic it was. it protected health insurers from having any competition. they do have an exemption from antitrust. these literally are people who are paying off our government to make sure they don't have to

compete whether it's too big to fail banks or, in this case, the health insurance companies. when i say paying off your government, here is what i mean. take a look at baucus' pie chart from lobbyists and re-election campaign and leadership pacts, et cetera. it is absolutely spectacular. the imagery will blow your mind. even if you average it back to 1989 which is a long time, max baucus on average each year receives 3 1/2 times more money from pharma and health care from the u.s. senators so if you wonder why he is protecting his plan, look at that. helping to identify corporate communism in our country has is a cancer on our nation the folks at the sunlight foundation, jake brewer, a little sunlight is a very powerful thing for those who like to use money to steal from us. sheila crumhotel and its website

open secrets.org which is where we are able to find out who is getting bought off by here. then you can see, jonathan and karen. walk us through how it is as the lobbyists are controlling this process. >> the thing with the lobbyists they are not able -- we're not able to track the real influence that they are having or at least we weren't until last week. we were finding that they are coming together to form these clusters of influence. along with see sheila and her team they are getting together in large numbers and giving large sums of money having a much more influence than we were able to track. again, we're running up into a case we have a 19th century government process or practically so coming up to a 20th centuriry that demands this type of accountability and transparency and able to track that now through new investigation that we've been able to uncover. >> sheila, how does this work? in other words, if i understand

correctly, lobbyists are actually giving their own money and then lobbying firm has a lot of lobbyists, i go to karen and all of the other lobbyists i work with and say everybody give as a syndicate to max baucus to make sure the corporate communists don't have to compete while everybody else in this country does have to to prevent competition so our health care companies can continue to take money without having any real competition. >> it's interesting. this research, i think, puts the fine points on the connections how the lobbyist contributions echo and compliment those of their clients. it is a smoking gun, however. i should say there is no proof of coordination by the fact that there are all of these contributions coming from and really representing the same sources. we don't know if it was raised through a fund-raiser or by the lint or the lobbyist. we don't know the direction and motivation necessarily, but we can say these lobbyists who are marching up to capitol hill to lobby on behalf of their clients have a big dollar sign on their

back. they represent so much money from themselves, their leagues, their family members and their clients. >> well, politically speaking, though, too, you have to ask yourself. you look at the committees and dollar donations they are getting. this is how business is done in washington. maybe we'll get a little bit of change but not so much change. and that is sort of what we are seeing i think with wyden. >> jake, the more i learn and see this the more i suspect we don't have a two-party system but one-party where those who have the money to control democrats and republicans so insure they don't have to compete and they get tax loopholes and the rest of the country gets screwed. >> the problem we're not able to track who is having the real influence on this bill, at least we haven't been. so there is a real onus now on congress to release more information about who is having that influence on them and so that when it comes time for us

as a citizenry who sent them to washington to really represent us around these truly vital and important issues to this country, that we're able to track who is, in fact, influencing them. that's what it's really about. money and influence and now for the first time we're starting to see who is actually having that with numbers and dollar signs through this new work. >> senator baucus actually told us who was influencing him when he refused to bring competition and choice to health care. take a listen to his comments at 1:00 in the morning last thursday. >> i cannot think of a major member, either so opposed by both business and labor. both. there must be some wisdom there if they are both opposed and i just think that it's -- you've done a lot, senator, but i don't think this amendment really is the right thing to do. >> the wisdom, of course, is that again, business and labor accumulates more power and more money by perpetuating a version of corporate communism as opposed to having to compete like everybody else in this

country. and again, if you look, sheila, i've been using open secrets to do this, at the multiples. forget the dollars. if you look look at which senator and which congressman gets nor money than the average senator or congress person it tends to be very telling as to their voting record. do you have the technology you can calculate people's voting records with the multiple? in other words, those who get the most from health care and this is how they voted and those who get the least from union, banks, whoever it may be, can you do that? >> we do that on specific bills where we think there is an interesting pattern of contributions going to the no vote versus the yes vote. there is an organization that utilizes our data. this is an interesting way to look at the money and the votes to see whether or not it's a party line split or, in fact, if the money is telling about potential motivation behind the vote. >> how often is the money telling? >> you know, it's interesting.

it's not always the causal effect here. if it's a party line is split, i think that is more interesting, more kind of the factor than the money. but, on occasion, particularly where it's an industry fight, where the consumer and the constituents aren't really at the table but maybe it's the banks fighting against the credit card companies or very arcane issue, that is where the money really has the potential to speak and speak loudly. >> understood. >> that is where corporate communism makes its money so god bless them. contessa, what else is going on. the president is expected to meet with top advisers any minute and expect afghanistan a hot topic particularly in light of saturday's assault that killed eight american soldiers. nbc's jim miklaszewski is in kabul for us with the very latest. jim? >> contessa, you know, u.s. military officials here have now determined that the taliban was behind that deadly attack over the weekend and, in fact, there

are some elements in the u.s. military on the offensive today in that region. there are indications that some senior taliban officials were, in fact, killed during that offensive and counteroffensive over the weekend. the tragic part, of course, is eight american soldiers were killed when as many as 50 of the taliban and other militant fighters assaulted that forward operating base there in the far eastern reaches of afghanistan in the worse possible terrain imaginable to fight rugged mountainous territory. but the intriguing part is that the u.s. military had already informed the leaders in that area that they were preparing to strike camp, pull everybody out of there, as part of stan mcchrystal, general mcchrystal's new strategy and so there is some speculation that the taliban went ahead and attacked those soldiers as they were preparing to leave as early as

tomorrow in an attempt to gain some kind of propaganda coup. as we know, general mcchrystal's new strategy is to start withdrawing the forces electric their smaller more vulnerable outposts and put them in higher density population centers in an effort to gain the confidence of the afghan people which is ultimately necessary for any kind of military success here in afghanistan. contessa? >> jim, thank you very much for that. dylan, we're keeping our eye on the developing situation at the white house with the president and his advisers and afghanistan as well. >> thank you. some within the gop reveling in president obama's olympic failure. but is the republican right simply an unpatriotic bunch of dumb nut jobs? what would happen if democrats cheered the defeat of an american city? how do we resurrect actual politicians who actually want to actually solve problems in this actual country?

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. welcome back. some republicans and conservative celebrating obama's failed attempt to bring the 2016 to chicago. down with chicago! contessa brewer has the latest. >> can you imagine this that some people went as far as to cheer? >> sure. there are people that are actually trying to derail health care to take down obama even if it means half the country dies so of course they don't care about the chicago olympics. >> i think it's pathetic when the international olympic committee announces chicago gets eliminated first round and then we get a video. just watch. >> they were out on the first

vote. that awe applause was from some members of americans for prosperity, one of the main conservative groups involved in the tea party protests. of course, rush limbaugh is weighing in on the president's setback. >> folks! worse day of his presidency! this is the guy who is going to talk iran into giving up its nukes! barack hussein obama, um, um, um. >> here is what "the new york times" columnist paul krugman had to say. not all conservatives were cheering for the setback of the president. joe scarborough thanks the president for going to talk. >> middle americans that swing the election look at that and

say that and say my god, republicans have gone off the deep end. >> you may remember during the bush presidency, republicans labeled some democrats unpatriotic for challenging the administration's iraq war policy and post 9/11 strategy. dylan? >> i do remember that, actually. thank you for the reminder, though. bring in our panel, kron christy and karen finney, democratic strategist and jonathan capehart, editorial writer. how do you utilize the opportunity that exists for conservatives in general for this country to restore the most basic spirits of competition and freedom and all of the rest of it and get away from the foolishness that we see from the deep right and, for that matter, the deep left? >> dylan, i think there are plenty of opportunities for republicans to engage in policy matters and i think when you look at this olympic example, i want the united states to win. i think we all wanted chicago to. the olympics bring millions upon millions of dollar to the host

city. it's a very good thing and spot lights american values. i don't think there is any glee taken from america losing. i think the issue with republicans, they might have policy disagreements with the president. you can't make this personal because it makes you look spiteful, frankly. >> karen, you probably agree with that. >> i can't believe it, ron, i agree! this is a historic moment on national television. >> mark the time and date. >> ron, certainly you have to knit that, you know, when people see images of, you know, rush limbaugh and others and commentary from your republican counterpart gleeful, joyful and talking about wanting to make health care the president's wootloo that is unpatriotic. at some point we have to come together as a country and it starts to look like the republicans are more interested in politics than getting something done. >> we've seen the democrats say the republicans aren't interesting in policy debate. it has to stop --

>> when half of the republicans come to -- >> republicans have come to the table with several good ideas as it relates to health care being able to purchase insurance across state lines, making sure to have meaningful tort reform and a lost democrats say that is a stall package. >> i think the president has said both of those ideas should be in. >> actually they are not in the bill, karen. in fact, a lot of the democrats in the senate are reluctant to have meaning tort reform. i think when you talk about patriotism i think both sides need to stop the bickering and realize the americans are in a serious crisis. two wars and let's -- >> don't you think there is an opportunity, ron? as i see it, for the republicans if they can get their act together, to go straight at those in our congress who are currently enabling any competitive practices to perpetuate themselves and the reality, we can go through this another day on the show.

as long as you perpetuate failed businesses in any competitive structures are you going to have massive job losses. do you think the unemployment data in this country is an accident? is it a direct result of corporate communism which has not been forced to adapt as every other industry in this country has but the banks haven't been forced to adapt and the headlight insurance companies haven't been able to adapt. technology companies had to adapt and yet the corporate communists have a strangle hold on innovation and adaptation in this country. i don't understand why the republicans are not more aggressive in demanding the release of this country from the hostage state it is in from the possession of thee communists. >> is there anything about communism i think i'd look at the anti-competitive practices the government has done. the government has become involved. the government now is major shareholder in gm and the government -- >> i know. ron i don't need the list. i know the list. why are the republicans not fighting to end the corporate

communism that is costing this country its economic future? and no one is doing it. >> very wise -- dylan, we would be very wise to do so. i think people are looking around this country and saying what in the heck is government doing so much in private enterprise, and why is the government trying to take over the health care sector? why is the government trying to take over so many things. >> why is the government not releasing the true and fair market of free choice? they can't even -- the health insurance companies have antitrust exemption. i have to go. the ethics allegation is out against south carolina governor mark sanford heading to his state supreme court. a little scandal in the south after this. this is maggie. a very smart little girl. and this is a seat from the seven passenger toyota highlander. this is a little seat, i'm a big girl.

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plugging into politics. >> governor sanford of south carolina has asked the supreme court in his state to squash a report from the state ethics commission. he says if the commission releases the investigative report to lawmakers it could be used against him politically or undermine his ability to defend himself. state law says only prosecutors can see it. the commission says if the house of representatives starts impeachment proceedings which it promised to do it then becomes an prosecutor. a lost back and forth what should or should not go into the health reform bill. jon kile from arizona is slammed by the democratic national committee saying health insurance companies shouldn't have to -- >> first of all, i don't need maternity care. >> i think your mom probably does. >> the hill reports the dnc will

air that ad in arizona today. stephen colbert is taking on max baucus for killing the bill in the senate finance committee. >> don't worry. if you can't pay your medical bill, max baucus has a plan. >> i want the bill. >> so send max baucus your health care bill! all of them! >> and why not? because colbert is highlighting the $3.2 million max baucus collected from the health insurance industry and he suggests that baucus would be able to help those who aren't able to afford their health care. >> he is on to something. no competition, no choice whatsoever for anybody so god bless him. nice to see we know who is in control anyway. you got anything else? >> that's it. >> we're back here at the "morning meeting." david brooks taking on rush lame baugh. mccain's campaign manager saying

palin would ab disaster. can the gop be saved and can they save our country from the corporate communists? i think maybe they can actually. we're back an after this. you've worked all your life. as the decades have past, the promise of medicare has always been there. and aarp has fought to guarantee none of the benefits you earned were ever taken away. today we're continuing that fight by protecting your freedom to choose the doctors and treatments you need. and to have your tax dollars go towards your care-- not insurance company subsidies. you've done your work. and we'll keep doing ours. learn more at aarp.org. having to go in the middle of traffic and just starting and stopping. having to go in the middle of a ballgame and then not being able to go once i got there. and going at night. i thought i had a going problem.

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clearly at war with itself. cab contessa brewer hat details.

>> first up, conservative "the new york times" columnist david brooks says the idea men like limbaugh have real power is a myth. brooks went a step further on "meet the press." >> even on the republican side, we've got, you know, frankly people i consider loons and harmful for america, glenn beck, rush limbaugh and all of these guys. they don't control the republican party. >> limbaugh responded to an e-mail and called brooks jealous and said he wouldn't even mention brooks' comments on the air. glenn beck had his share of distractors as well but rare people like lindsey graham piles on. here is graham on fox over the weekend. >> i'm not saying he's bad for america. you got the freedom to watch him if you choose. he did a pretty good job on acohen. what i am saying he doesn't represent the republican party. you can listen to him if you like. i choose not to. >> "the washington post" op-ed

columnist stephen hayward summed it up this way. so where are the real lawmakers? the answer may be still trying to find their footing. a recent straw poll found huckabee leading the pack and barely pulled in a quarter of the vote. john mccain says handing sarah palin the 2012 nomination could be catastrophic. john mccain is active behind the scenes recruiting candidates that can reshape the party in his image, a kinder, more moderate gop and whether or not he can pull it off, dylan, that is the ending of a story waiting to be written. >> jacobs wisburg is joining us. he says republican party has become fundamentally brain dead in his latest article. also with us is democratic strategist karen finney who i

suspect is kleined to agree with jacob births of her profession. >> i don't know what you're talking about. >> jake, i am going to quote you. i feel like we've watching how they dealt with the banks, our congress and how they dealt with and dealing with health insurance is constructive for all of us in america to see who it is these people work for, left and right, democrat and republican. you say congressional gop equates problem solving with treasonist collaboration. elaborate. >> we've had a series of problems this year, the financial crisis and banking cries and a series of longer term problems, the structural budget deficit, the health care problem which is both a problem of people being uninsured and unsustainable cost inflation. you have a republican party that simply obstinate about not working to solve those problems. have you a democratic president who i think can be fairly described as someone open to compromise who is willing to make deals and sees himself as a

moderate figure, and he hasn't been able to attract any republicans willing to work with him. >> isn't that because those who support republicans, in other words, don't politicians go wherever they feel the wind blows and feel if they can get more power taking out the president than they can by solving a problem and get more lobbying money by destroying reform as opposed to by participating in reform, aren't they incentive that jacobs references because the system rewards them when they per at any rate these treasons. >> i think wa we're seeing within the republican party is a sincere shift. there is the far right wing, the becks and rush limbaugh and far right wing membership who sort of represent what is the dwindling base of the party. they do have something of a strangle hold on the party. then lindsey graham and john mccain who recognize to win a national election you have to be able to appeal to the moderate middle which means the party has got to publicly be seen coming

back towards the center. they are trying to do this dance, at the same time, they have a party chairman who was in politico today smacked down and said you go focus on race. we don't want you talking about policy. the war sort of continues. in the interim, yes, they go for where is the money some but within the republican party, i think, there is a real disconnect who is in charge and what direction they are trying to go in. >> the money is to be made by perpetuating against systems that basically exploit taxpayers for the enrichment of the few that can control the government, corporate communism, how is it that the republicans can actually be part of the solution as opposed to part of the problem, considering they are in the minority and you would think they could get popular support by fighting the communists in control of our congress right now. >> the money factor that is bigger than it used to be, but the tradition of moderate, reasonable conservatism going back at least to the 1960s. >> brooks, people i admire.

>> there are even some reasonable conservatives now. and that tradition seems to have been totally lost. i was thinking this week about irvin crystal who died a couple of weeks. he founded a political magazine i loved from the '60s and '70s and what the neoconservative movement came out of originally. these were people of government overreaching and of government programs that didn't work but their goal was to make government work better. and somehow, i think it started to happen really in the clinton era, they've lost touch with that and they are really all about political damage to the democrats, not about serving goals of the country. >> or improving the government at a time when, again, we've got baskets of outdated systems, all in desperate need of updating and we have job losses at 25-year highs in new york and unemployment is crazy. i feel like i've walked into crazy town. >> you have walked into crazy town and you haven't gone on the train to washington, yet? >> no. i feel like i've arrived in crazy town. >> the problem is when you're so

beholding to pushing an ideology you're not going to solve problems because you're saying this is how we want it and why the other guy is wrong and why the other guy is bad instead of, as you say, coming to the table with some ideas where we can hash it out and maybe we disagree but at least we're trying to have a conversation about ideas. >> a debate what we consider to be the american value system which is do we believe in freedom and do we believe in choice and do we believe in competition and do we believe in equal opportunity for all people and we're not even having any of those conversations. we're trying to figure out how to destroy somebody on the other side of the room like it's a cheap paintball game. >> i think the health care is the test really. when you look at the land mark so far of improving health care, medicare and medicaid, those things passed with some republican opposition but basically with republican support and now there is social acceptance that those things are heart of the landscape. republicans are part of their campaign and obama is going to damage medicare or take it away. there has to be an acknowledgment the status quo is not acceptable.

i think the republicans are singularly failing to do right now is present a conservative alternative. what is the conservative way of dealing with this problem of controlling costs and perhaps focusing more on controlling costs and making the university coverage a longer term goal but you're not seeing any of that. >> understand that as long as you have no competition, as long as you have money paid for risk taken but no responsibility for the risk and as long as you have no competition in health insurance you're going to have terrible systems? >> i think -- >> for a country that went to war to fight communism to then louisself itself to basically adopt the most basic principles of communism which is no choice for anybody and singular control strikes me -- i feel like i've walked into crazy town because we had a cold war with the soviet union against the communists and now communists have taken over our own congress and currently raping the taxpayer for no apparent reason. >> a lot of these republicans do

understand the problem and can talk sensibly about it and you've had a lot of them on this show and you can have a conversation with these people and they understand what is wrong and maybe have constructive ideas how to fix it. >> you talk to the individuals and they say, yes, yes, yes. >> but collectively, the party is so politicized that as i say, it's considered treason to try to cooperate or constructively towards a solution and all they are trying to do is prevent something from happening because they think the democrats will get the credit for it. >> understood. contessa, god forbid anybody gets better for taking somebody down. breakings in out of pakistan. a suicide bomber described as a paramilitary soldier blew himself up inside the headquarters of the united nations world food program. that blast killed at least four u.n. workers and forced the official to close the office temporarily. al qaeda linked militants set off explosions around that

country and leader of the pakistan taliban is vowing new attacks. reno, nevada, police found a missing 16-year-old girl and new leads led investigators to the hotel where the girl was found with her brother-in-law. the girl is not hurt and in police custody and police investigating the circumstances of her disappearance. a federal appeals court calls it a controversial execution in ohio today and said the failed attempt to execute a different inmate last month was the reason for halting this one. lawrence reynolds scheduled to die thursday by lethal injection for strangling his 67-year-old neighbor but the sixth u.s. court of appeals delayed it to hear arguments over problems with the previous injection. ohio's governor stopped the execution of broom after an executioner tied for two hours to find a usable vein. swine flu vaccinations begin this week across the country but don't bugging your doctor about an appointment just yet. 600,000 doses of the nasal spray

will be divided among 21 states by tomorrow with more small shipts expected later in the week. the actual h1n1 shot won't begin until the middle of the month. >> thank you very much. jacob, when they do an execution like that, it's not even a doctor that is administering the shot is what you were telling me? >> doctors generally say it's a violation of their oath to help to kill somebody as opposed to keep them alive. the people performing these are technicians of different kinds. >> not necessarily well trained and they spent two hours. unbelievable. next up at the "morning meeting" from sea to shining sea in our latest installment of america, the great or the unbelievability and all of the problems. one of our country's greatest treasures, our national parks. yes, surprisingly, the government actually created them! documentary filmmaker ken burns joins the meeting. yes, the government is actually capable of helping us! ♪ what's our favorite part of honey bunches of oats?

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♪ this morning, we make a return visit so america, the great. you know how it works. we call tongs the innovations and displays of american ingenuity, imagination and innovation and workers working together to make things happen and that, of course, is what makes our nation great going back to the light bulb and airplane and automobile. our latest edition to the segment more than a century in the making. i'm talking about america's national parks the focus of a brand-new documentary series from famed filmmaker ken burns. >> when we enter a park, we are entering a place that has been at least the attempt has been made to keep it like it once was and we cross that boundary and, suddenly, we're no longer masters of the natural word, we are a part of it.

>> and this uniquely american institution conceived to give all of us equal ownership and access to one of our greatest natural treasures. our nature. to preserve those treasures for future generations, living proof of the saying that we do not inherit this world from those who came before us, it is on loan to us from those who will come after us. >> what could be more democratic than owning together the most magnificent places on your continent? think about europe. in europe, the most magnificent places, the palaces, the parks are owned by owe aristocrats and by monarchs and the wealthy. in america, magnify cancel is a treasure. >> highlighting this contribution is a six-part 12-hour miniseries titled "the national parks, america' best

ideas." straddling the line between preservation and exploitation, national parks provide the country's purest glimpse at a simpler time. >> wildness is an essential part of ourselves that our ordinary lives tempt us to forget and by losing touch with that essential part of ourselves, we risk losing our souls. >> with volatility of the current political climate we are tempted to forget the passing of our good and our very own country and very own ability to come together to do what is right and not simply to try to explate one another. to protect the institutions we hold in the highest regard and makes us america, the great and one of the great americans joins us right now. filmmaker and enthusiast ken

burns. a pleasure and honor to meet you. i, myself, a child of the adirondack mountains and park which is not a national park but is a state park but this drives home for me the value of these assets and how -- and the government's role in protecting those assets. walk us through the relationship. >> our series is not a travel log or nature film. i think they are beautiful images of nature in the film. it's a history of this institution of setting aside land not for kings or noble men or the rich for for everybody all time so it mirrors the largest national hero. the democrats and republicans and famous and unknown and come from every conceivable background. while we say america's best idea, the best idea is thomas jefferson but once you created a country with that in mind, then you'd be hard-pressed to find a better idea. the thing is for most of our history, the argument has been not over government itself. it's been over whether my

version of government is better than yours. people contributed ideas to making this collective thing better but the last 25 or 30 years government has been the enemy for a lot of people. i think we have to look back and just stop. we can go backwards and forwards and say the space program, the civil rights act, the interstate highway system, the gi bill, social security, tva, you know, antitrust laws and home stead act and land grand college act and bill of rights and declaration of independence, they have made us the freest people on earth and, yet, weave allowed the argument today to be strangled by those who believe that somehow the failure of the other side is what is wanted. we want the country to succeed and we will have to be mindful of the fact that our government is responsible for so much of human happiness in the world. >> what lessons can be learned and applied to the health care debate which is the debate right now? particularly as we watch

decisions made against the interest of patients and against the interests of doctors and against the interests of america and in favor of a status quo that is hanging on to a 50, 60-year-old model what lessons constructive here can be applied now? >> when thomas jefferson said all white men are equal. the vagueness pulled us into our future and the whole history of the united states could be said to be continually enlarging that narrow definition. the parks also was fluid and elastic. we started off by saving spectacular natural scenery. yosemite valley and we saved diverse habitats that were swamped, the everglades and set aeye archaeological sites and set aside our complex historical thing and including the stuff that makes us great because we are willing to acknowledge those things. i think we could learn by elastic and tolerant political discussion which isn't about going to your trenches and

lobbying grenades to the other side. >> don't you need a shared sense of common values to do that. if you don't agree freedom and choice and competition are american values which apparently don't agree to that because we have a government that is per pet situating the communism i was referencing earlier for a couple of industries in our industry. >> i think anybody who stands on the rim of the grand canyon, republican, centrists and far right and left we want the same thing for our families and thrilled we have this sense of coownership. particularly the people whose interest it is for certain agendas to fill a road to this policy i think is already there. people are smart enough to know that the national parks represent not just these great spectacular natural settings that we set aside but represent the best of us and who we are and that is what i'm interested in highlighting. this is a history. we began in 1851 and stopped 25 years ago. we're not trying to argue the

contemporarily things but think embedded in on our past is a key to what we are dealing with today. not the issues the parks face but the whole history of the history is embedded from the sound of the park idea to the early conservation movement. these were vast school rooms of americanism. the first director of the park service said to complex economic models. a while the local opposition is tremendous, we're getting bad but they've been economic boons to every location that added a a national park. >> a great artist and great story teller you are. you make this country great. >> thank you very much. >> ken burns, again, take a look at the book here and then, obviously, the documentary series. "the national parks america's best ideas." i'm sure this is loaded not only with beautiful imagery but a capturing of the story you so

eloquently told to us here. thank you, ken. i'm okay with cutting back a little, but i still want to put my best face forward. with crest whitestrips advanced seal, i get whiter teeth that lasts for 12 months. all from one little box, i say that's a pretty good deal. crest whitestrips advanced seal. the no slip white strips. home run! (announcer) he's sweet. even with one third less sugar than soda. kool-aid. delivering more smiles per gallon. .

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right now on msnbc, embolden taliban will it force president obama to make a quick decision regarding afghanistan? eight americans are killed. many others injured following a weekend ambush. >> after months of waiting, help is finally here. the first doses of swine flu vaccine are arriving today across the country, but some say don't start lining up for them just yet. the white house, president obama's prescription for health care reform gets the full checkup from doctors. the president is hoping to enlist docs in his overhaul bid. he'll make his