disagree should vote against representatives they don't like. >> melissa harris-lacewell of princeton, thank you for your unique insights into this subject. that will do it for this tuesday edition of "countdown." i'm lawrence o'donnell in for keith olbermann. our msnbc coverage continues now with "the rachel maddow show." good evening, rachel. >> good evening, lawrence. tonight the republican party tries some novel strategies to score political points on the issue of health reform. even as their opposition of the bill fails to stop it from becoming law. ed rendell of pennsylvania and amy klobuchar of minnesota join us. the congressman who admits to screaming baby killer on the floor of the house apologizes for having done it and immediately tries to fund raise off the fact that he did it. another texas congressman proposes ending your right to vote for your united states senate. senator scott brown's best available fund raising weapon

turns out to be a big surprise. apparently senator scott brown best available fund-raising weapon, um, is me. he is trying to raise money using me. that very strange story tonight will make me a guest on my own show for the first time ever. that is all coming up. we begin with an historic day in washington. today president barack obama did what generations of presidents before him only dreamed of doing. he put his pen to legislation which officially made health reform the law of the land. mr. obama joined by a huge audience of democratic members of congress and a celebratory ceremony marking a year's worth of legislative wrangling and a century's worth of aspiration finally coming true. vice president joe biden allowed his excitement to show when he swore a little too close to an open microphone while congratulating the president on the enormity of this

accomplishment. that was what was going on above the surface in politics today. hugely consequential legislative win, part of paragraph one definition of barack obama's presidency no matter what else he does in this term or a potential second term that is the huge news going on above the surface visibly in american politics right now. what is going on below the surface in american politics is something very different. we reported on three separate incidents across the country in which it seems people opposed to health reform abandoned the debate and decided to express their opposition to health reform through violence and intimidation. we described last night incidents at two democratically elected official offices in new york state and one in arizona. all three were attacked over the weekend. today we are updating our reporting on what is turning out to be a much more serious story.

it wasn't just the three incidents we described last night. it was more. sometime on friday a brick was thrown through a window after luiz slaughter's district office in niagara falls, new york. late on friday or early saturday another brick was thrown through a window at the sedgwick democratic party office in wichita, kansas. that brick was reported to have anti-obama and anti-health reform messages on it. a day later on saturday or early sunday, another brick shattered glass doors at the democratic party headquarters in rochester, new york. shortly after the health reform vote on sunday a fifth rock was thrown through the hamilton party in pleasant ridge, ohio. after the health care vote the front door and front panel were

smashed out of gabrielle gifford's office in tucson, arizona. five separate attacks on democratic party offices in the span of four days. since the initial reports we have learned that the fbi is now investigating threats reportedly left at congresswoman luiz slaughter's campaign office. a recorded message threatening to assassinate the children of lawmakers who voted yes on health reform. the fbi now reportedly investigating that reported death threat against luiz slaughter's children. we can show you what was used to smash out the door in new york. it reads extremism in defense of liberty is no device.

presuming they meant extremism, quoting conservative u.s. senator barry goldwater when he accepted the nomination for president in 1964. in last night's report on this show on some of those incidents we said that nobody yet had taken responsibility for any of those incidents. that is the one thing i said in reporting on this i would have most guessed wouldn't change over 24 hours. well, that's changed. the rochester democrat and chronicle newspaper reporting after their initial story on the attack on the monroe county office somebody did contact the newspaper to happily claim credit for that incident. his name is mike vanderboegh, the former leader of the alabama constitutional militia. he has been advocating specifically that people throw bricks through the windows of democratic party headquarters all over the country and he wants credit when anyone follows his advice. on his blog last week he wrote

an anti-democrat manifesto. we can break their windows before we have to resort to rifling to insist their well intentioned tyranny. these windows are not far away from where you are right now in virtually every city and county there is a local headquarters of pelosi's party. they have windows so if you wish to send a message that pelosi and her party cannot hear, break them, break them again in broad daylight. break them with rocks, break them with slingshots, break them with baseball bats, but break them. the time has come to take your life and liberty and that of your children and grandchildren into your own two hands and act. it is more humane than shooting them in self-defense. if we do a proper job, break the windows of hundreds of thousands of democrat party headquarters across the country we might wake

up enough of them by defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary. break their windows, break them now. he made this solicitation from alabama. a suburb of birmingham, alabama, where he resides and expounds about the federal government's secret plot to assert control over your life and kill you. he is an ex-militia guy anti-government enough to call for this type of crime and physical intimidation. he is anti-government enough to promote this sort of thing and claim credit for it. he is not so anti-government that he is turning down the social security disability checks that he lives on. maybe he could throw a rock through his government check and see how that goes over at the bank mr. vanderboegh's action led by his belief he leads millions of people who think the same things he does. >> we are 3% of american gun

owners. that is the muzzles of 3 million rifles who can be if required pointed directly at the hearts of anyone who wants to be a tyrant in this country. >> define tyrant, mister. he is also calling on like minded anti-government people to prepare themselves for a new civil war. >> folks, you need to be getting ready. you need to be forming neighborhood defense organizations. you need to be looking to your larders. you need to be looking to your arsenals. you need to be looking to your physical fitness. you need to be looking toward your neighbors and who can you count on how do you build small fire teams and things like that. these are the things you must be doing now because events will overtake you if you do not.

>> claiming credit for the recent attacks on democratic offices around the country, he offered this not very veiled threat today during a radio interview. >> there are rifles being cleaned right now. >> being what? claimed from where? >> there are rifling being taken out of the closet and cleaned. >> organized attacks on democratic offices are crimes designed to intimidate political actors in changing their policies. that is pretty close to the legal definition of domestic terrorism. mr. vanderboegh is comfortable with that. he can't claim credit for bricks that flew or threats made before he made his blog post. who knows if he is toothing his horn to get famous. he is tied into an organized movement. he is a featured speaker at a forthcoming event, the restore the constitution open carry rally. this is a gun rights rally

scheduled for april 19th at ft. hunter national park in virginia. why ft. hunter national park, they believe that is the closest location to washington, d.c. they can legally, openly carry their fire arms. again, what these people are doing is very explicit. they are trying to get publicity. they admit they are just trying to get media attention. the other goal is intimidate the political process in this country. because they can't get people to do what they want through the voting process they are instead using guns as a means of intimidating our national politics and fellow citizens along the way. this gun theme has been a consistent threat over to past year. this tea party sign we kept seeing. we came unarmed this time. remember the people showing up at politics events last year with guns strapped to their side. the guy in new hampshire who showed up at one of president obama's town hall events

brandishing a nine millimeter pistol and the t-shirt with the sign about replenishing the tree of liberty with blood. this gun fervor we've seen, this effort to intimidate through the show of force carried on this past weekend in the lead up to the big health reform vote. this sign showed up at the capitol, if brown can't stop it, a browning can. the armed and dangerous theme isn't just in the streets and the protests. it is the vernacular by which mainstream conservative politicians address their fol w follow followers. sarah palin tweeted today commonsense conservatives and lovers of america don't retreat and instead reload. please see my facebook page. she was showing this.

20 districts she is targeting with rifle scopes over each of them. one other thing to note about what is going on at the edge of politics and why this is a big deal. show your guns rally on april 19th, the throw your bricks through the window of democratic party headquarters guy is going to be speaking, that event is symbolic in its timing. april 19th isn't just some convenient date for these folks to get together. it is not a random monday in april. we mentioned before that mike vanderboegh is a former militia leader back in the '90s, a heyday for the militia movement, gun rights movement in the country. april 19th is like christmas day for the militia movement. the first day of the american revolution, the battle of lexington and concord, it is the anniversary of the branch

davidian siege in waco, texas, in 1993 which these groups see as a call to arms against the american government. april 19th is the day timothy mcveigh deliberately chose for his bombing of the murrah federal building in oklahoma city. april 19th, that is when the guest speaker is throw bricks through political office windows guy at the bring your guns to washington rally. we'll be right back. run out of. when we built our first hybrid, more people had landlines than cell phones, and gas was $1.75 a gallon. and now, while other luxury carmakers are building their first hybrids, lexus hybrids have traveled 5.5 billion miles. and that's quite a head start. ♪

massachusetts senator scott brown was lebted to replace senator ted kennedy and became a republican party rock star. as a national republican party rock star senator brown decided the best way for him to raise money is by using me. i am the subject of senator brown's latest fund-raising campaign. i know a lot of weird things happen to me in my life. this is right up there. right up there. transitions is your best playing partner.

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this is what it looks like when a state attorney general gets famous. at least this is one way to be famous as a state attorney general. you are looking at protesters at virginia's george mason university. they are protesting their state attorney general ken cucinelli who was speaking inside. when governor bob mcdonnell was elected in november the party treated him as a candidate with instant national stature. who could appeal to moderates not anything he did or stood for

but he looks very moderate or something. governor mcdonnell and his attorney general have worked hand in hand to drag virginia back, back, back out of the 21st century. they have rolled back protections against discrimination against skatate workers, universities to drop anti-discrimination policies and same-sex workers could not get benefits for their partners and now they are teaming up to kill health reform for rest of virginians. beyond the lawsuit filed by 13 other state attorneys general mr. cuccenelli is is filing his

own lawsuit with the backle of governor bob mcdonnell. the relationship between an attorney general and the governor is fascinating. it is fascinating between ed rendell and his state's attorney general tom corbett. get this. mr. corbett, the pennsylvania attorney general signed pennsylvania on to that multistate lawsuit against health reform even though the governor of pennsylvania mr. endell, is totally opposed to what mr. corbett is doing. must make for interesting cabinet meetings. joining us is pennsylvania governor ed rendell. nice to see you. >> hi, rachel. i was listening to your story and happened to be on another network when the vote was being taken. the governor's residence was bombarded with calls attacking me for supports the health care bill, bitching because i was

smiling and suggesting i perform some obscene acts on myself and others. the trooper on duty had an interesting night. it is shocking what is going on. tom corbett is independently elected. let me start out by saying i like tom corbett. we have had a good working relationship. he is a good lawyer and too good of a lawyer to have filed this suit. any good lawyer knows the federal supremacy clause is here. each state doesn't have separate passport or immigration laws. there are some things the federal government has the absolute power to do. this is one of them. this is a waste of taxpayers money and done for political purposes. he is too good a lawyer to have joined this south. >> when you say he is doing it for political purposes. he is running for the republican nomination for governor.

do you think this is about the primary fight? >> he doesn't have a major primary opponent. tom is a slam dunk to be the republican nominee. frankly, at this stage, probably the favorite to become the next governor. he's always been a fairly moderate person in his approach to things. again, he is too good a lawyer to file this suit. i will tell you that i think this tactic that the republicans are taking, filing the suits, people promising, former congressmen toome said he vowed to repeal the health care reform act. they would have to pick up 113 seats to have the power to repeal the health care reform act to be veto proof. it is not going to happen. they are looking, i think, mean spirited and irrational. do they want to reform the rule that says you cannot be denied health if you have a pre-existing condition? do they want to take that back? do they want to repeal that?

do they want to repeal the rule that says your health care company can't drop you if you become sick. i think this is a strategy that could turn what looks like a good year for them into a pretty bad year. >> i wonder what you think about the specific thing you've identified there, the futility of this. nobody really seriously thinks any of these lawsuits, the one in virginia or the one your attorney general in pennsylvania has joined. nobody thinks these suits are going to go anywhere. it seems like an open and shut constitutional case. same for repeal. even if repeal was wildly popular it is not going to happen. they are futile cases they are making. in the political calculus, why do you run on something you know you are never going to achieve? >> because it feeds the base. as far as the lawsuits are concerned i wouldn't care because they are futile except they waste taxpayer dollars

there is a petition drive in pennsylvania signing a petition to urge attorney general corbett not to go forward with this suit and not to waste taxpayers' dollars. i hopes he listens. tom corbett is a decent guy. he has been a moderate before. he doesn't need to do this to win the primary. he is pretty home free. i think the republicans are making a big mistake. i think the mean spiritedness -- i happened to be on the air and listened to the boehner speech and pelosi speech, the mean spiritedness, the american people don't like that. even if they agree with substantively, they don't want mean spiritedness in politics, they don't want extremism in the way you express yourself. in a sad way it is the best thing that happened to the democratic party but a sad commentary of the state of politics in the country. >> governor, did you lobby?

did you call members of congress to vote for this? in pure political terms but not in terms of the policy, how do you make the political argument to members of congress when in some cases this is a difficult vote. >> i said basically two things, rachel. i'm going to support you whatever you do. i said, number one, this is good policy. as people understand what's in this act it is going to become more and more popular between now and november. number two, hey, all of us and i'm an elected official and lost two elections, all of us got elected to do something. if we are going to lose let's lose doing something that will change the fate of 32 million americans. there are some things risking losing is about. we are here to change the fate of citizens. don't be afraid. if you lose you are losing for

the best of all possible reasons. >> pennsylvania governor, ed rendell, thank you for your time. really appreciate it. the scariest thing you can say about the fate of a piece of any legislation is and now it goes to the senate. dysfunction junction. next stop. our guest is minnesota senator amy klobuchar. please stay with us. client comes in and they have a box. and inside that box is their financial life. people wake up and realize i better start doing something. we open up that box. we organize it. and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think, "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach.

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the president signed sweeping health reform legislation into law today.

the job still is not quite done. the senate promised the house a majority of senators would vote to pass a package of fixes to the health reform bill, fixes the house demanded as a condition of their passing the senate's version of health reform. senate majority leader harry reid has a letter signed by 52 senate democrats who agreed to pass those fixes through the budget reconciliation process, the process underway right now. the debate over the house fixes kicked off in the senate this afternoon. if, indeed, senator reid has those 52 votes it should be a matter of time before the fixes are passed and health reform is comb pleatly and once and for all or until next time done. it is inevitable if he has the 52 votes. the health reform is already law and the fixes should soon become law as well. republicans are taking every opportunity to show themselves

off as very opposed to health reform. they are very excited about their senate strategy about obstructing further progress. republicans in the senate know they are going to lose on this issue essentially. they decided they want to look good losing. they want to stake their reputation and image as a party as being seen opposing health reform every single step of the way no matter how futile. they decided to flood the senate with amendments to the package of house fixes. the problem is when you combine futility with desperate showiness, you tend to get awkward results. case in point, it's time for the republicans' last stand against health reform now. they want all eyes on them. time to unleash the amendments. who among them leads the charge at this critical moment when they want the nation's attention on them as they demonstrate the opposition on health reform.

who is first up? >> this fight is not over by a long shot. i'll be on the floor regularly all this week fighting the separate reconciliation bill. >> i can't tell you how happy democrats are about that. for some reason it's senate david vitter of louisiana and d.c. madam phone list fame who has been given the privilege of sprucing the first two symbolic republican stall tactics show offamendments to the reconciliation package. one is a repeal the bill thing, which, of course, in the near term would mean letting insurance companies deny kids health coverage because of pre-existing conditions. good luck selling that one. the other amendment that senator vitter introduced was about a.c.o.r.n. seriously, that was the second amendment he introduced. an amendment aimed at prohibition on funding for a.c.o.r.n., which you might have

heard doesn't really exist anymore. that is the republicans' big high-profile rollout of last ditch anti-health reform strategy that is what they want american to see them doing because they think it makes them look great. senator vitter, lead the way against a.c.o.r.n. or whatever. joining us now is senator amy klobuchar, democrat of minnesota. it is very nice to have you back on the program. >> what was you called us? live from dysfunction junction. a nice way to introduce me. >> do you deny is where the the senate takes legislation to die now. >> we got our air traffic modernized. we are starting to get things done in a big way.

you will see a big thing with health care. as you pointed out, they are going to delay and obstruct every step of the way. you can call it the voter-rama-drama. it will be going on into the night. our people, despite you poke fun at us, we will not waiver and get it done. you saw this in december when we got every single one of us together to vote about that bill. harry reid, dick durbin, our leadership were able to unite our caucus on that bill and you're going to see that again as we go forward. we are going to be hit with difficult amendments. the most important thing is to get health care done for the people of this country. i was looking at our letters in the office to get me going. the one that sticks out is a woman who wrote named sherry. she was writing for her daughter, mickey. mickey just called me, sobbing so hard i couldn't hear what she said. her husband's company just cut

them off their health insurance, it is a small business. they couldn't afford it. here's the deal. she said, my daughter, mickey, has cystic fibrosis and won't be able to get insurance anymore. she has been fighting her whole life and we need someone to fight for her. we need to get this done. and so all of us that go to the floor this week that have to vote on these just horrific amendments that are just meant to hurt us politically are meant to delay things are going to have one thing for our guiding light, the people of this country that need health care but people who have health care that see it gets s astronomical more costly. >> senator, let me ask you about one, not altogether procedural, but whether the fixes will pass.

the idea originally the senate would pass the house fixes exactly as is. and health reform would go to the president and be done including this package still pending. senator baucus said there might be changes to the reconciliation package in the senate. that would mean it would have to go back to the house again which opens up another can of worms and opens up to republican delaying tactics in both houses. are you worried about that? >> you always have to worry about that. the hope here is to not have that happen. to pass this bill pure. we have made some major fixes in this bill that needed to be made. from the left to the right people agreed that nebraska deal should get out of there. that is the major fix, to extend the same benefits to the people of this country. some of the changes to the excise tax necessary to be made. from the senate perspective we are simply taking a bill that

had some very good things in it, making it better, fixing the bill that is what reconciliation is done. as you have done so beautily on your program pointed out reconciliation has been used 22 times, 16 times by republican congresses and gives you an ability to fix a bill. >> senator amy klobuchar from minnesota. thank you for your time tonight. i promise not to use the dysfunction junction next time. >> it was a nice rime. >> i'll use the vote-aram one. >> i gave you one. super conservative texas congressman louie gohmert is famous because he is the guy who made an overt toilet joke about the health reform bill. we like bathroom humor. the good congressman has one upped even himself now. upped even himself now. that's next.pendix he couldn't ! the abdomen-ator dr. bob bergowitz! yeah, woo!

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yocan talk to a real person 24/7. it's just the right thing to do. still ahead, senator scott brown is already raising money for re-election by blasting his presumed democratic opponent for massachusetts senate. someone i know really, really well.

watch me get dragged into the political arena kicking, skrooming, et cetera. that is all coming up first a couple of holy mackerel stories in today's news. when congressman "you lie" joe wilson screamed at president obama during a joint address to congress last year what did you think the effect would be on joe wilson's career? his outburst was roundly criticized but on the far right joe wilson became a hero for screaming at the hero during a joint congressional session from the floor of congress. that lesson has not gone unnoticed by the latest very conservative member of congress to have shrieked out an epitaph at the top of his lungs in the middle of someone else's speech. texas congressman randy neugebauer admitted he screamed the words baby killer at

congressman bart stupak on sunday night. >> those who were shouting out are out of order. >> common wisdom holds that the person who screamed baby killer in congress would look back on the incident with regret, he or she would be embarrassed. that common wisdom would be totally wrong. congressman neugebauer trying to use the indent to raise money for himself. >> hello. i'm randy neugebauer. this is my wife. last night a very historic vote took place on the floor of the house of representatives. not only did we see the government take over your health care but the lives of unborned children used as a bargaining chip to get the needed votes to pass this legislation. i feel very passionately because i believe what was going on was not right for america. i'm never going to quit speaking on behalf of the unborn. i'm never going to quit speaking on the behalf of the people of texas and the people of the

united states of america who find this policy up acceptable. i will speak with the same passion that i spoke last night, maybe with a different form but with the same intensity. i want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of support and more importantly for the opportunity and honor of representing you in the united states congress. >> i'm randy neugebauer. if you want more screaming baby killer on the house floor, you can donate right here. oh, and also i'm really sorry for the screaming. the congressman vote for me i'm the screaming baby killer on the house floor randy neugebauer is not the only member of the texas delegation making news. louie gohmert is genius enough to combine his vitriolic fervor of health care. it is hard to make the theme fit the book but if anyone can do

it, louie gohmert can. >> this should not be passed by anyone unless they eat it. if they eat it i'm in favor of them passing it. >> if you eat it, you can pass it. it took me all day to practice saying that without turning beet red as i am now and losing my composure. his go ahead eat it and then pass it mr. gohmert decided the democratically elected senate is tactual problem. his proposed slooux is we don't democratically elect senators. so state legislatures would pick senators from here on out instead of the regular citizen riffraff in the states choose their own senators by voting. >> the 17th amendment took out the last check and balance on

usurpation of states rights. we have 39 states upset, wanting to do something and not have another unfunded federal mandate coming down their throats. this will do it. let's get an amendment that gets the balance back into the country and the constitution before this congress destroys what's left. >> in other words take the 17th amendment to the constitution, chew on it for a while, swallow, allow it to to travel through the narrow passage of the legislative process where it is broken down to smaller molecules, wait 24 to 27 hours and dump it out. only then would you have a louie gohmert style democracy where democratically elected legislators no longer take votes in favor of something they campaign to do-do. we can't move forward until you mail it back.

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senator scott brown is my senator in massachusetts and i

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for the first and probably the last time i hereby recuse myself from hosting this segment. >> good evening. good evening i'm bill wolf the executive producer and one time proxy host of "the rachel maddow

show." senator scott brown is not up for re-election until 2012 but taking nothing about his extraordinary popularity or perceived megapower in the u.s. senate for granted. senator brown has begun raising money. to motivate his base he chose the sinal most frightening opponent. the consequences to scare cash money out of massachusetts wallets into his war chest. who could instill that populist mania? tv's rachel maddow. she hosts a show on msnbc. senator brown sent this communique to potential donors. friends, the political machine is looking for someone to run against me.

you ore not going to believe who they are supposedly trying to recruit, liberal msnbc rachel maddow. it recently was reported the chairman of the state democratic party had apparently tried to reach out to her in an attempt to coax her into a race against me. the party bosses in massachusetts want a rubber stamp who will vote for their plans to expand government, increase debt and raise taxes, someone like rachel mad down. i'm sure she's a nice person. i just don't think america can afford her liberal politics. she has a nightly platform to push her far-left agenda. what about you? though it's not entirely clear, senator brown's motivation likely derives from this tweet by party chair john walsh on march 5th. some of you some are talking about you runs versus brown in '12. i'm the chair of m.a. dem party.

he did not specify who "you" was, though there was speculation he meant rachel mad dowd. in the world of fund racing for statewide office, anything about which some been talking is presumed to be absolutely true, as is everything on twitter and all internet speculation. joining me now in studio for the interview is the host of msnbc's "the rachel maddow show" rachel maddow. thanks for making time -- >> i didn't know i was going to be the interview. that's awesome. >> we appreciate you making time. we know you're busy this time of night. first, the obvious question, in his e-mail to supporters, he says i'm sure she's a nice person. is senator brown right? are you a nice person? >> i am a bewildered person. i have to say, you know, supposedly -- not just the democratic party, supposedly try to recruit maddow. why didn't they just call and ask me if it was true before

sending out the letter? >> let me take this opportunity to clear things up. to what degree is the democratic machine in massachusetts recruiting you to be the democratic candidate for senate in 2012? >> if they are doing so, it's a silent invisible machine that hasn't yet contacted me through any means. >> that happens more often than you think. >> i mean, there's a facebook page. my friend bill did it, i think as a joke. >> a different friend bill. >> no, actually there's a facebook page, but there's a facebook page for a lot of things. if that's the basis for famous senator scott brown making me the fund-raising pitch, it surprises me. >> is there any chance whatsoever you are running for senate in 2012. >> you know me well enough to know -- what do i think about my current job? >> she's left some wiggle room, folks. >> no, i have the best job in the world. i'm not running for office. i never said i would. nobody has asked me to run for

office. scott brown doesn't ask me if i was planning to run for office before he decided to write a fund-raising letter. no it's completely made up by him. >> what's most interesting is you are the scariest possibility he could think of. >> yes, exactly. i mean, think about -- you think about all of the things he has to run on, the fear of rachel maddow is what he's raising money on in massachusetts? massachusetts donors, open your wallets, maddow's coming. >> sounds like an effective campaign. >> any plans for your non-campaign. >> yes, julie, are you here? we've made a t-shirt so far. it says i'm raising money for my nude model u.s. senator ask me how. we're thinking about branching out. thank you, julia. >> excellently done. we're going to put something extra in your non-check. you are the host every weeknight

here on msnbc, we're all big fans of the show. we sure appreciate you taking the time to be here with us. >> this is so weird. thanks, bill. >> i find it to be extremely weird as well. coming up on "countdown," sarah palin's violent rhetoric. and next on this show, rachel maddow returns to the host position, thank god, to explain how president obama's it 2 different pens, you can know more about exactly what you eat. i implore you. stay with us. okay, class, our special guest is here -- ellen page. hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! we're going on a field trip to china! wow. [ chuckles ] when i was a kid, we -- we would just go to the -- the farm. [ cow moos ] [ laughter ] no, seriously, where are you guys going? ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! [ female announcer ] the new classroom. see it. live it. share it. on the human network. cisco.

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normous drink before you order it and put it in your mouth. new york restaurants have been displaying this for a couple of years, in an attempt to help people make healthier choices. expect conservatives to begin seeing maoist plots in every menu any minute. it turns out that art has been no help at all in this fight against the fat. kent jones has the story. hi, kent. >> good evening, senator. [ laughter ] >> you know, art looks at life and says back to us eat more carbs. here's the scientific proof right here. >> we live in the golden age of big, stupid food. portion sizes have ballooned and ballooned until voila, we are absolutely flab-ulous. this professor wanted to know if

this was a new phenomenon or something that's been expanding over time, like we have? so he analyzed the food shown in 52 of the best-known paintings of "the last supper" from 1,000 a.d. until today. >> we measured the size of the food, and measured the size of the plates, the bread, we indexed them based on the size of people's heads. >> he found the main courses grew by 69%. the plate size by 66%, and the bread size by 23%. as it was written in the gospel, according to olive garden. basically more feed in the real world means more food in the paintings, and that