begins right now. i'm dylan ratigan. the olympics have come to a close, but in america today, the game's just getting started in both houses of congress. democrats simply trying to use the rules at this point to their advantage, if it means getting a win on health care by the final buzzer. we're learning that the white house appears poised to move ahead with budget reconciliation, a process that could pass the current senate bill by a simple majority 51 votes instead of the 60 required to break any republican filibuster. here's the obama team on the stage of the play today. >> the base senate health care bill passed the senate, not with 50, or 51, but with 60 votes. right? >> we're not talking about changing any rules here. all the president's talking about is, do we need to address

this problem and does it make sense to have a simple up-or-down vote in we want to fix these problems. >> fixing the problems would mean passing health care. the democrats want to get the political ability to cover everybody. political fun. quick and dirty. here's how reconciliation would work. 20 hours of debate. here's where the republicans can use the rules to their advantage. using what we'll call for purposes of our metaphor, unlimited time-outs to do this. to cease this period and continue to call time-outs. they could offer dozens, even hundreds in theory, of amendments to this health bill to stall the process effectively. they could say, i amend it, make the entire thing out of orange paper. i amend it to turn the whole thing into bubble gum. the game clock ex spirs after 20 hours of debate. there would be an overtime of debate on any remaining

proposals. at that point vice president joe biden would be the referee and would have the power to effectively blow the whistle on republican filibusters, making rulings on those amendments after the 20-hour period is completed, as long as vice president biden has 50 votes to support his call. theoretically the democrats can stop the tactics easily. but the process grim. we know the political process in this country allowing politicians to allow special interests so they can skree you over. the starting lineup believes that this is not the way they wanted to get the win through this reconciliation process. take a listen. >> we just had a conference where republicans -- >> as we expect in the next few hours -- >> only possible role i can see for reconciliation would be to make modest changes in the major package. >> and if you were making millions and trillions of dollars and keeping your job by

rigging the game that is health care in america, you would want modest changes or no changes and just more people covered, too. not good for our country. but good for politicians and finance institutions and health insurance. let's not forget there's another pit fall for all of them that could sideline the democrats later, especially the republican amendments could include some controversial issues. again, them "try to add to the controversy as well. as long as there's not reform, it's all kibuki theater. dems are hoping to avoid things like abortion, et cetera. the idea is to put hot potatoes in democrats' hands going into the election. from politico, and this is a quote, this approach to moving health care has a lot of problems, but one democrats haven't yet focused on is the number of bad votes that they would have to take to get there. that's what the republicans are

hoping. make the democrats look like bad guys. the republicans get to take over and special interests don't care as long as they control both parties. republicans seem to really like the game plan so far. the gop has forced 40-plus votes in the first two months of this year. their game of screw over democrats and the heck with america going well for the republicans. compare that to 112 that we're on pace to shatter the record for filibusters. again, this is how they play this game. the infinite time-outs in the debate perhaps. if americans understood each team's tactics, both sides, have more transparency as to which politician is bought by who like a stock car driver, for instance, perhaps then the voter would be more inclined to change the rules of the game. as our good friend points out, only a quarter of americans can identify 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. another 25% of americans think it's 51 votes. the rest of americans honestly have no idea.

which makes it very easy for a special interest to control our government at your expense because the voters are like, i don't know. the members of the team democrat could be playing, however, for themselves the games of their careers whether they get this through or not. problem for democrats is even a win and reconciliation with a bill that expands health care and doesn't reform the system, which is obvious if and when it happens, could provide a loss all the same. it looks like there are two possible results when this final buzzer sounds. one, the perception that the majority party had a layup and then chose to accommodate special interests to railroad some sort of expanded coverage without reform through. the other is a straight-up did feet at the hands of the republicans who then maintain the status quo. either way, the insurance companies are aoa as it stands right now. are the dems left with any choice here that leaves them with a path to political victory. let alone any benefit to america. should they throw in the towel? should they try to seek a

legislative victory? it's important to point out this is much more than a game obviously for americans who are dying because they're deprived of health care, because of the game rigging facilitated by our government and by those whose costs are rising because there is no health care reform but there may be a mandate to force everybody to buy health care into an unreformed insurance monopoly. families usa confirms earlier research by the institute of medicine predicting 275,000 premature deaths over the next decade in this country if we do not do something, anything now. remember, the united states already ranks number one in costs per capita. 37th in quality. and number one in preventable death. that's pretty insane for the richest nation in the world. i want to bring in ezra klein who has been front and center on the health care fight. and editor for hotline oncall. is there a political path for

the democrats pushing health legislation that leads to a political victory for democrats at this point? >> define political victory, right? >> keep your job. >> the democrats are looking for seats in 2010. they could turn the plan into bubble gum for all americans and still lose seats in 2010. unemployment is 10%. there have been only two presidents since the civil war who gained seats in the mid-term after migration. the point of having a super majority isn't to keep it forever. it is to actually get something done while you have it. if you get health care reform done, they can say, on my way out i brought health insurance to 30 million people. >> how do you look at it, reed? if you accept that the democrats are going to get tossed in november, as they lose seats, and the debate is how many, how do you look at the politics of

this health reform decision in that context? >> i think the important part is for democrats to actually get something ton on health care. i think they can save a number of seats if they get health care passed and off the table. it hurts democrats every single day when we talk about health care politics. voters don't understand, given that study you just cited. >> that was ezra. >> look, the old saying is, two things nobody wants to see being made are laws and sausage. now we're seeing the sausage making of lenl slate tur. >> what's so disheartening for so many in america is because it's 2010 and we have such a visible environment. the internet makes it easy to see the web quotes. as a result, you really can see the game rigging in the health care debate, in the financial reform debate, the game rigging in education. pick an issue. you're like, hang on a second here, that is obviously not a

decision nad in the interest of the beneficiary of the decision would be. how much is that the fault of these politicians, and how much of it is really a revelation of how it's always been but now we can see it? >> on the one hand, you're right. people are seeing things that they do not want in the legislative process. we've got cable news channels, blogs, twitter, like we never did. one other thing on this, though, we are doing something interesting this year, which is calling out of bounds very important parts of how legislating as a job is done. making deals. the level of transparency we're imposing on the process, you're not supposed to be able to negotiate if people can't see you doing it on television. these may not be pretty things, but they are how people got things done for many, many years. we're sort of saying, you know what, we're going to make legislating harder which will create worse bills down the road. once they opened it up, the other party will be exactly this way. america will suffer for it. >> what will add to that,

though, is i would say america will -- i don't know if it will suffer or not, but in the short term it will struggle through the transition is how i would characterize it. in addition to the deal-making brought into the light of day, hopefully we're going to see all of the special interests money flowing to individual politicians brought into the light of day. so you'll know, it's not democrats and republicans, it's this guy bought by health care, or this guy bought by finance, this guy bought by unions. and once you have that level of transparency, i actually think the political debate in this country will get much healthier. although i agree that the transition is going to be a humdinger. thank you both for the conversation. coming up here on "the dylan ratigan show," we'll break down that massive earthquake in chile. one of the largest recorded in history on this planet. why is that quake so strong and are we dealing with a series of ripples along the so-called ring of fire that runs up the west coast of the americas over the

illusion islands. gutting financial reform, this may be disappointing, but certainly not a surprise. our leaders are not serious in preventing another meltdown, but serious about presenting false reforms so the banks can continue to use the government to steal from us. what nancy pelosi says she has in common with the tea party. oh, yes, it just gets stranger. so many arthritis pain relievers --

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welcome back. time to mix it up. some of the day's other top stories. the imminent failure of financial reform, the legislative fraud in our country continues. it's stunning. but what the heck, it's an easy way to steal money if you take over a government. people have been doing that since there have been banks in government. the tea party has a crucial role in a big election tomorrow. forget this fall. but first, a plan from chairman chris dodd that may torpedo any real progress toward financial reform, separating banking and investing, adding transparency. you actually have to have money if you want to take risk. apparently not. dodd's latest proposal dumps the idea of a consumer protection agency and instead creates a new bureau of financial protection within the treasury department, which we all know is the willing provide of taxpayer funded bailouts without any strings attached. and works in close collusion with the federal reserve to print money by the trillions in

order to cover up the theft being perpetrated against our country by bankers. the bureau are the treasury would have to consult with the same bank regulators that allow the banks to go 101 on everything and hide risk by the trillions without any money. those regulators would have to consult now with the treasury agency before writing new rules. i know it's funny. those regulators, again, the same people that failed to enforce any consumer protections before the meltdown, they would not only have the power, but under the new dodd bill, they're looking to add power to the federal reserve, which was the seat of the cheap money giveaways to the banks that allowed the massive bubble to inflate. the original dodd bill was going to take power away from the fed, now it's going to make the fed apparently more powerful. we bring in our panel for not only this, but also for that election in texas. democratic strategist chris, and matt, a pleasure to have you

both. why do you think the democrats are so willing to accommodate whatever the bonks want on finray? >> i don't have a good answer to that. part of it is the political reality they're facing, that this notion that you have to compromise in order to get things done. i think this is the conundrum some democrats are ignoring. that sometimes it's better to put up a piece of legislation for a vote and have it fail, force the republicans to vote against strong reform than passing watered-down reform. i think it is the political environment in right now that it's better to get something than nothing. when it comes to the banking issues and anger out there towards the banks, towards wall street, my personal preference, my advice or counsel would be, you know what, err on the side against the banks on this. pass tough rules. tough regulations. >> banking regulation is not about political issue. you either have money and have transparency, and you're lending

and investing, or you don't have money and you don't have transparency, and you're utilizing the government to steal money using investment banking schemes. this is not a political issue, it's just turned into one because banking is phenomenally profitable when you transfer the risk to the government. you look at the -- manhattan is like a little singapore island at war with the government extracting money. matt, when you look at this issue, i look at the republicans and the democrats, both are so sucking on the teet of money that is perpetrated on the singapore of the west, manhattan island, that i don't know that either party qualified to reform the banking system. do you see any political fak son that looks like they're actually willing to deal with it? >> i would really like to see republicans come up with a better idea. i think this whole debate missed the point. i think you're spot on in your analysis. what we should have been doing is talking about accountability.

accountability in the residential housing sector and in the banking sector and for regulatory failure. we missed that opportunity. and what we've done instead is we've offered the regulators more regulations, and a new agency, we've offered bailouts to the bad actors -- >> everybody gets it. everybody except for the politicians and bankers seem to get it. $3.7 billion in the mid-term elections are going to cost, and only people with those people are the ones extracting it. i swear to god, manhattan island, little singapore at war with america extracting money, quite effectively actually. let's head to texas, shall we. a tea party darling could play spoiler in tomorrow's republican primary for the texas governorship. incumbent governor rick perry, governor of texas, squaring off against a long-time, very powerful political rival, seen as an underdog in this instance, senator kay bailey hutchinson.

most polls show governor perry leads by a pretty healthy margin. enter a tea-party-backed business woman may split enough of the perry vote to at least force a runoff and maybe give senator kay bailey hutchinson to actually get a chance to get in here. me dina released a television ad in time for tomorrow's vote. take a gander. >> the wheels of big government are turning, but it's just not working for texas. rick perry and kay bailey hutchinson are career politicians determined to sell texas to the highest bidder. >> meantime, house speaker nancy pelosi op the tea party itself, which she was once writing off as a creation of the gop. she now says democrats and tea partiers have more things in common than you might realize. take a listen. >> you know, we share some of the views of the tea partiers in terms of the rules of special interests in washington, d.c.

it just has to stop. some of it is orchestrated from the republican headquarters. some of it is hijacking the good intentions of lots of people who share some of our concerns. >> it's almost as if we've lost democrats and republicans, and you have some politicians who are basically bought by one special interest or another. many of them. and others who really try to look at some sort of constitutional democracy. ala teddy roosevelt or anybody in the history of this country that has done such a thing. you can't tell them apart. some democrats are really corporatists in democrats' clothing. some republicans are the same thing. as a result, the voter doesn't know who to trust or where to turn. do you get any sense we'll really start to be able to differentiate between ds and rs as to who they really are as opposed to who they're pretending to be? >> we're talking about november. it depends on what kind of message candidates run on. there's a lot of talking about what the election is going to be about.

and people talk about how it's anti-incumbent. my take is a little different. it's anti-politician. if you're a democrat or republican and out there talking like a politician and making these deals and not explaining why you're making those deals, if you're on the wrong side in terms of what the american people want, you're going to have a tough race. i don't care if you're a democrat or republican. but this is where i think the democrats have a real opportunity. to take a stand and make it very clear to the voters that there is a distinction between one party that's going to fight for them and the other party, republicans, that is constantly trying to make deals with a very special interest being upholded. >> that may be the democrats' opportunity. as far as i can tell from looking at the health care and the finregular which allows the most vulgar practices of the banking system to be in secret and wealth creating the democrats as far as i can tell, that horse has left the barn, matt, how do you look at the tea party's relationship with both

parties, particularly when it comes to that real sort of constitutional conservative definition of democracy? >> i think the tea party movement and this broader grass roots fiscal conservative movement in america today is defined, not by politics, but by good policy. and there's a sense going back to the founding of america that we can never leave our country to the political process, to political decision making. we've got to have the people involved. you talked earlier about money buying politics and money buying votes. the one thing that trumps money in politics people. and we now have this massive movement of people showing up and holding people accountable. and you've got to understand, after this election, the tea party movement will have failed, if it doesn't remain organized and hold both republicans and democrats accountable for the promises they made during the election. >> yeah. listen -- go ahead. real quick, chris. >> here's, i think, one important distinction. i think people are confounding

the two. there is the tea party which i consider the fringe and there's a populist rage out there that is angry about politics as usual. that is, i think, the area where democrats can go out and exploit. if they do that, they'll be in the best position as they can be come november. >> i would argue some of those people are also tea partiers. there's all the crossovers in that thing, we're all saying the same thing. a good conversation. we'll have both of you back soon, i hope. thank you, guys. up next, what is the secret behind team usa's record-breaking medal haul at the winter olympics? maybe it was a lack of jet lag. i don't know. today's "by the numbers." you don't think it was jet lag? the crew is looking at me, they don't think it was jet lag. in "busted," the senator who single handedly delayed a bill costing 2,000 workers a pay day triggering a 21% cut in medicare

fees to doctors. we are, of course, looking at you, jim bunning. but i'm sure it could be another senator on another day, or another congressman. but it's jim bunning today. [ drew ] time's like these,

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just ahead, breaking down that massive quake in chile, looting in the streets today. does a quake along the so-called ring of fire in one location mean a higher probability of other quakes in other places like the east coast and asia, and the west coast in north america? we will talk to some experts and get a live report from santiago. host: is ed "too tall" jones too tall?

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welcome back. the aftershocks continue after yet another quake, more than 700

dead, 2 million displaced. think about that. 2 million. in the wake of an 8.8 magnitude quake in chile over the weekend. the strength of that quake could make it the sixth strongest earthquake ever recorded by world record keepers in this world. right now the search for survivors is under way in concepcion, which is the largest city affected by the quake. fire officials there say rescuers at a 15-story apartment building, you see it here, heard trapped victims knocking on debris and have begun drilling through thick walls to try to save them. 42 bodies pulled from that wreckage thus far. meantime, the other big story unfolding, widespread looting. officials say food and water are now in short supply. and nearly every market has been struck. troops and police have arrested dozens for violating a curfew designed to restore order, particularly after sundown in that country. chile's government has scrambled some 10,000 troops to quash looting in the country.

journalist cecilia covering the fallout from the quake. live by way of skype. what is the latest information that you have? >> reporter: yes. well, there are no really good news here in concepcion. actually, looters after ransacking a department store in concepcion, just set it on fire. and now the fire is out of control. and firefighters can do absolutely nothing, because they have no water to fight the fire back. the situation is getting absolutely out of control. and the government is not doing really nothing really quick to solve this situation. there are also looting and assaults on houses and neighbors are trying to defend themselves with guns. >> how effective is the government in any regard? not just in security, which obviously they're not doing a very good job there, but in basic resources and power restoration, service

restoration? is there any sense that the government is effective at this point? >> reporter: not that good really yet. they're trying to organize a distribution of the help. and they're trying to restore the services as soon as they can. but this thing has gotten so big, and it's bigger and bigger as time pass by, that they're really being overwhelmed. and surpassed by the situation. we are having, as you said, 2 million people displaced. and we are having even more people that are appearing dead, or missing. so it's becoming a big problem. almost out of control. >> yeah. cecilia, thank you so much for the reporting. of course, the quake comes less than two months after haiti was shaken to its core. that one was a 7.0 magnitude quake. to put the two in context, this most recent jolt in chile this weekend was 500 times stronger than the one in haiti.

and yet, of course, chile seems to have fared much better than haiti did in the face of overwhelming force from the earth. why is that? joining us now from colorado, rob williams, geophysicist at the geological survey. and captain richard gorman from the new jersey fire department's search and rescue team, was also with us during the aftermath of the haiti quake. captain, a pleasure to have you back on the desk with us. >> thank you. >> before we get into the physics and ring of fire. quickly, you have some equipment here. give us any distinction you can make between the search and rescue mission that was being serviced in haty and currently being serviced in chile. >> some of the video footage, if you can go back through some of the triangular breaches that there's making -- that is called a dirty breach. that would mean they have formal urban rescue training. you will see they're cutting these triangular areas, they're

going to get into these areas. this is just to get access to it. >> but those pictures tell you that the people orchestrating that strategically know what they're doing. >> exactly. they do have formal training. there is footage of also canine dogs. >> yeah. >> going in. into these areas. as soon as they can get the hole big enough, they'll get a dog in there, and the dog with the trained response will alert them if there's a victim or not. >> very quickly, this is search gear. it looks like a long rifle, but it is not. this is a camera used to look into debris, correct? >> yes, it is. >> how does it work? >> instead of creating such a big triangular hole, you cut a two-inch core drill hole and you can stick this at the end, right into the end of the other side of the concrete. >> of the hole that you've drilled in the wall. >> the hole that you've drilled in the wall. you can see what's in there. this is quick down and dirty. you can see if anybody's in there. and if any long-term --

>> i would think the advantage is, you could drill lots of holes, look in lots of rooms as opposed to having to do bigger holes and learn you're basically digging into dry wells. >> exactly. they conduct night operations. we have thermal imaging cameras that would enlighten it for us. night vision glasses would allow us to work well into the night, if we had the security afforded to us. >> i want to get into the seismology, if you will. rob, is there any correlation that can be made as a trigger effect between the haiti earthquake and this earthquake? >> not really. people have asked that question a lot. but we just don't know in this case. the distances are too great and we don't know the plate interactions that well. >> let's look at the plate interactions that we are familiar with. specifically the ring of fire which runs obviously up the west coast of sufficient america, west coast of north america, across the aleutian islands and

around new zealand. is there a probable connection or potential domino effect for the chilean quake triggering other quakes along the ring of fire? >> that has not been observed before. nobody is making that kind of forecast at this point. so it's really the -- the distances, as i said, are just too great to understand the interaction of the plates in those cases. >> going to this specific quake, captain, and i'll ask you, how is it that a quake of this size, 500 times in terms of energy release, 500 times bigger than the quake we saw in haiti, and as terrible as those pictures are and as terrible as the destruction obviously is, relative to what we saw in haiti, and relative to the magnitude of this quake, the damage seems substantially lower. i suppose that speaks directly to construction quality. >> we have a strong government

in chile and a weak government in haiti. you have a lot of disparities between the two. you have good emergency management in chile, and they had a major quake in the '60s, i believe. and they learned from their mistakes. so they had improved construction codes. and if you look at that 13-story building that collapsed, it collapsed 90 degrees onto its side and is in relatively in good shape. it stayed intact. they used good construction, good rebar, good concrete. >> what is your concept of american construction as opposed to chile? >> i'm not an expert in west coast -- again, they built these to withstand hurricanes. they've taken their lessons learned from the past and applied them to the present. it seems to be working just fine. >> rob, any thoughts before i let you go? >> california had some -- probably the strongest, most strict building codes in the world. so i would expect the response of buildings in california and

the west coast to be -- to do pretty well, as they did in general in chile. >> understood. listen, thanks for the time today, rob, captain. thanks for bringing the gear, showing us some of the tools of the trade, as it were. thank you, both. if you want to help the people of chile, you can. go to chile.msnbc.com. there are a string of resources and links there that will lead you to organizations that have been vetted. at least by msnbc. and nbc news. and we'll direct funds to chile much as we have been through this most recently and ongoing truly with haiti. moving now to some other stories that are making our dig list today at the show. aig doing a deal. a wonder aig is allowed to do anything other than subordinate itself to the u.s. government and maybe give back the bonuses and maybe the ceo go to jail. but none of that seems to be happening. instead, they did sell their asian arm. prudential of britain buying

their life insurance business in asia for $35.5 billion. some of that money will go to the federal reserve. again, every time i see one of these headlines about citi or aig and their stock, it just -- it's stunning to me that these enterprises are allowed to be private when all of their risk of operations resides with you and your labors. as long as you pay taxes, aig will be fine. meanwhile, in the wake of the assassination of the senior hamas operative in dubai, like the oceans 11 kind of thing, using facial and voice profiling to detect israelis arriving on foreign passports. there was a big scandal in england especially with the use of british passports. that continues to percolate. meanwhile, something you might have in common with the president. cholesterol that is too high. white house press secretary robert gibbs explained that the finding from obama's first presidential physical exam was a little bit like this. take a listen. >> i think he would be also the

first to tell you that he has probably had a few more cheeseburgers and i think he would admittedly he's had more desserts in the last year. >> also, reported from the checkup, the president currently using nicorette gum as he continues to try to kick the smoking habit. i tried nicorette four different times. honestly it didn't work for me. finally i just had to quit. what are you going to do. overall, the white house chief physical gave obama a good bill of health and deemed he is fit for duty. off to yale we go. they have a plan to combat the reputation as the ivy league promiscuous hookdown hot spot. you can't of want it and you don't. anyway, a few ways to look at that. the university website post says essays written by students on their sex lives, called sex at yale, aims to show the monogamous and ab sti nat side

of the university, too. i have captain over here. do you have a piece of equipment that -- no. up next, jim bunning, we're going to bust jim bunning. just another example of how any politician can use a filibuster for their own self-interest at the expense of everybody else. in this case he kept a couple thousand federal workers at home without pay. goldman sachs exec who has seen the light is aware and conscious of how destructive some of those business practices, if you want to call them business practices, really are. demanding real financial reform from our congress. can you imagine if we actually had transparency in capital requirements. i know it sounds simple, and yet almost impossible to get done. ] come on, kiddo, let's go. [ laughs ] hold on a second... come on up here where your brothers sit. [ birds chirping ] wow!

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welcome back to "by the numbers." i mentioned olympic glory and all that. team usa bringing home more medals of any country in the history of the winter olympics. but the cynics are already out. we're talking "by the numbers." the final results, u.s. taking home an impressive 37 medals. seven more than perennial winter olympics germany. canada and norway and austria rounding out the top winners. russia, great embarrassment in that country post-winter olympic.

but back to the u.s., critics point out that the majority of the u.s. medals come from events, 20 of them, come from events that weren't even included in the olympic events 20 years ago. sports like snowboarding, free style skiing. crazy short track speed skating. what the medal count would have looked like this year without all those new-fangled contraptions on the schedule. sports, i guess. the u.s. still would have made an impressive showing, mind you. but perennial powerhouse germany would have finished first in the count of the all these new sports clearly helping the sufficient and for that matter asia at the expense of eastern bloc countries used to dominating the winter games. the way we see it, the numbers speak for themselves. everyone gets to compete. we've got the hardware to prove when it comes to snowboarding. can't touch us.

turning now to "busted." topping our list today, kentucky senator jim bunning, the republican kept 2,000 federal employees home without pay today. but hey, by blocking legislation that would have extended federal highway programs. the fwact that those things are all attached to each other is also part of the problem. we all know they jam all these little things -- right, ne way. bunning's filibuster held up the renewal of benefits for 400,000 people and trig rd a 21% cut in medicare fees to doctors. i laugh, because you don't want to cry. bunning says he blocked the legislation because he's worried about the deficit. good pr. but i'm not sure. abc news.com did a great job trying to get a bit of information from him today. bunning oddly less than receptive to their questions. >> excuse me, this is a senator-only elevator. >> can you tell us why you're blocking this vote? >> i already did explain it.

>> what is the issue? are you concerned about -- >> excuse me. i've got to go to the floor. >> senator, can you just explain to us why you're holding this up? i'm sure -- >> excuse me. >> are you concerned about those that are going to lose their benefits? >> oh, yes. the politicians work for you, don't worry. today vice president biden took the senator to task for his filibuster. >> look, at a time when so many families are in so much pain, we shouldn't be shutting off the few valves of relief that are available out there for people. we should be opening that spigot a little wider. >> this line of criticism seems to have somewhat of anfest to jon kyl now saying the gop will in fact vote to extend unemployment benefits this week. disposable people, kind of a new thing in business, right? make money, disconnect yourself from human beings, take their houses, their jobs, their money, their health care, let them die,

keep money. it's good for politicians and rich people anyway. next, our allies in the afghan government -- i say allies loosely -- censuring the press in their fight against the taliban. yeah. who knows. the place is so corrupt anyway. the heroin-dealing state, they do what they want. today, after two blasts claim six lives, the afghani government announced saying the attention has emboldened islamist militants. and no attacks can be covered while they are under way. live broadcasts of any attack even from a distance is banned completely. not only that, but they're also threatening to detain any journalist reporting or filming without permission instead of using information to combat terrorism, afghan fighting the taliban with blind folds and earplugs. not as bad here. but you could argue that there's

definitely meaningful resource and information deprivation from the american people when it comes to this war. still ahead, demanding real financial reform from congress. good luck with that. they're bought by the banks. but that doesn't mean there aren't more of us than there are of them. a goldman executive who is taking up the fight in today's "town square." and then on "hardball," chris matthews talking to howard dean about the great health care debate in this country. and whether it's right to expand coverage, reform coverage or leave the whole darn thing alone. and whether any of it can be done with 51 votes.hem all. adding it helps us use less salt than before in campbell's tomato soup while keeping the famous flavor. ♪ so many, many reasons ♪ it's so m'm! m'm! good! ♪ due to diabetes it would frustrate me. in a basketball game a couple minutes could mean a big momentum shift. my bayer meter is very important. (announcer) only bayer's contour meter has programmable personal high low settings. it allows me to be able to look at my highs and lows

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today's "town square," top

goldman exec going to washington for financial reform. high-powered business women will sit down with top senators tomorrow asking them to do away with an outdated regulatory system that has left all responsible for the banks and their wild gambles completely unaccountable and with control of the government. joining us now, deborah jackson, spent 25 years on wall street. familiar with the difference between banking and investing, for instance. including a decade as a managing director at goldman. what is your point tomorrow? >> well, first of all, i want to thank you very much for giving us some time to talk about this important issue for consumers. >> sure. >> tomorrow i am going with a group of eight women from wall street, very senior women, and we are going to meet with senators to talk about the consumer financial protection agency. there are four parts to regulatory reform. and things like systemic risk, and the regulation of derivatives, those topics have gotten a lot of coverage. what hasn't gotten a lot of

coverage is what's really happening to the consumer. and the consumers are massive, massive numbers of women and men all around this country who have every day experienced some type of issue with their credit cards or loans. >> for instance? >> for instance, a very good example, i actually crossed out the name of the bank to protect the bank. but this is an example of what i personally received recently about my credit card. >> that's mail to you from your credit card company. >> this is disclosure. it goes on for four pages of tiny print. in order for me to determine what has changed from my original consumer agreement -- >> you have a credit card. they sent you this as an amendment basically to your credit card agreement. you're a big-time ha fa luting wall street executive. you know how money works. you pick them, you can follow the money, so to speak, and yet -- >> for me to actually read this, every single word of it and go back to my original agreement is really not appropriate. >> and contrast between the

other four pages -- what did they change? >> absolutely, very difficult for consumers. so one of the things that the consumer financial protection agency would do is it would make one organization that would be responsible for looking out for the consumer. and right now, we don't have that. we have different organizations that basically represent industry. and those organizations look out for the industries. this is something -- >> can i see that agreement for one second? >> sure. >> if the objective of the business is to make money, i can either do that by delivering a quality product to a person. >> correct. >> then you give me money and you say, thank you, dylan, thank you for that quality product, whatever it may be. that's a valid economy. there's also an economy in which i manipulate the government to allow me to do whatever i want so i can then scam people ten different ways from fine print to open -- more reasons of scamming. isn't the credit card industry the home of the captured government fine print scam? is it the reason we don't have a cfpa because it will destroy

this business if they actually have transparency? >> i think what we have to learn from what we've experienced the last several years is that not giving proper information to consumers so they can make educated decisions is a real problem. and so we need to have this to -- >> and we all know it's a problem. but an easy way to make money if the consumer is stupid of the that's the problem. >> but it creates crisis. we don't need that. >> but it's good for the guy making the credit card deal. thank you. that does it for us. "hardball" is up right now. 216 votes. that's what it's all about. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight. reality bites. democratic leaders are charging ahead on health care refm