if one wins a nobel prize and the other gets robbed by a hooker, you fail. the twitter sensation has written a book. pressure? get married when you want. your wedding is just another day i can't wear sweat pants. justin halpern joins us. all the news and commentary now on "countdown." good evening from new york. the man accused of trying to detonate a car bomb blocks from here in times square under arrest tonight formally charged with terrorism and tried to use a weapon of mass destruction. authorities in pakistan adding that they had arrested seven or eight people in connection with the bombing attempt. in our fifth story, if it looked like the american suspect faisal shahzad might have been able to leave the country undetected his own mistakes seem ultimately to blame for bringing him down. last night shahzad who lives in bridgeport, connecticut, on his way to jfk airport when he made a reservation on an emirates

airline flight to dubai, then headed to pakistan paying for the ticket in cash. when he got to kennedy having boarded the flight, the doors having closed before they were abruptly opened and shahzad hauled off by customs and border patrol agents. the plane pulling away before this further command from ground control. >> i have a message for you to go back to the gate immediately. so make the left turn when able. >> uh, 22, 202. turning around. >> hi, emirates 202, making the left turn on to echo, alpha, back to the ramp. i don't know why. you can call your company for the reason. >> i'll do that. left on to echo, then on to alpha and back to the gate. >> yes. whatever is convenient. >> after that mundane exchange, two more passengers taken off the plane questioned about their travel documents, a criminal search that began at 6:30 saturday night at times square ending at midnight at kennedy

airport 53 1/2 hours later. many questioning how shahzad was able to board that flight in the first place having been placed on the no-fly list monday morning. a senior u.s. official saying the reservation and ticketing process alone should have been enough to keep shahzad off the airplane, if not then when he was issued a boarding pass. it was only after the airline submitted its final man i fest that an alert agent caught the name and the doors were reopened. how did they know who they were looking for? the agents knew from the wealth of clues he left behind. the vehicle registration on the car still there. because the poorly designed bomb never had a chance of going off and destroying that evidence. the accurate e-mail address shahzad gave to the college student who sold the vehicle to use as a murder weapon. once they knew he was the man they wanted they found out what he looked like from a photo he posted himself on facebook. in the undamaged suv keys to his house and another car.

a prepaid phone card was left behind. it was used to arrange the purchase of the car and call a fireworks dealer in pennsylvania. fireworks having been a key component of the bomb, including fertilizer. only he got the kind that did not detonate. in custody today, shahzad providing evidence before and after he was read his miranda rights, including he recently received bomb-making training in pakistan. the fbi saying shahzad was questioned under the public safety exception to the miranda rule, later read his miranda rights and he continued to cooperate after that reading. >> suffice to say he provided valuable information and intelligence during that time, and at the attorney general noted he was mirandized later and continued to cooperate and provide valuable information. >> president obama saying if the aim of terrorism is to stoke fear this attempted attack failed in more ways than one. >> we know the aim of those who try to carry out these attacks is to force us to live in fear

and thereby amplifying the effects of their attacks. even those that fail. as americans and as a nation, we will not be terrorized. we will not cower in fear. we will not be intimidated. we will be vigilant and we will work together and we will protect and defend the country we love to ensure a safe and prosperous future for our people. >> let's turn to nbc terrorism analyst michael sheehan, former counterterror official for the city of new york. thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> what does this saga tell you a, about the quality of training being given at these so-called camps and elsewhere, and b, the quality of the trainees? >> well, clearly, the trainee was a good recruit, a naturalized citizen, a guy with a master's degree. he was able to travel. how he bungled this is a mystery. the training camps, some of them are very, very good. they are conducting sophisticated attacks in afghanistan and pakistan. suicide bombs all the time. this guy, whatever training

program he went to failed or he was asleep during class. it obviously didn't work. >> do we assume he was working off verbal instructions and forgot key details or was it possible that the level of the instruction wherever he was was so poor they didn't know what they were doing either let alone he didn't know what he was doing? >> keith the design of the makeshift bomb wasn't good. to start with. using firecrackers to ignite a bomb just wasn't very sophisticated. this was clearly not the "a" team courses they have in pakistan and afghanistan. they do have capability there. he didn't get his way into up with of those courses. he was new to the organization, self-recruited, self-identified and didn't get the training or forgot something in his panic. by the way, keith, that happens in some attacks. in my book i talk about how some killers can bungle their way and still have violent attacks. it is not that unusual a guy makes mistakes. >> the more mistakes you make, the more likely you are not to accomplish your goal, but you

are likely to get caught while doing it, as is the case here, correct? >> exactly right. in many cases these terrorists make mistakes and get caught. and that leads to the cell. in this case, hopefully it leads back to the groups that prepared him in pakistan. we've got a few arrests in pakistan. it remains to see if they can roll up some of that infrastructure. >> speaking of mistakes, was there a mistake being made with him getting as close as he did to getting out of the country? are we clear what that that happened there? >> you know, keith, the last check is when the final manifest is prepared. it changes at the last minute, the final manifest is always checked against the no-fly. and it worked. however, there were opportunities to check before that that failed, and that needs to be scrubbed. but fortunately the last check worked and we were able to pull this guy off the plane. >> was anything improved in that process from detroit where they

know they missed keeping him off the flight to detroit by a matter of minutes? was there any information from that? >> i have some concerns, keith, that this needs to be reviewed. why wasn't this guy's name, that was on the no-fly list a good day before the plane took off, why hadn't he been picked up by the tsa during the booking? it is not a catastrophic failure. they found him in the last check. they've got about three strikes to find the guy, and it worked. getting civil aviation right you have to be really focused. needs to be reviewed and correct any errors that might have happened before. >> one assumes the idea of him getting away and free to dubai, just a matter of minutes, however, there's a long flight to dubai, that time plus the landing. the emirates would have turned him back over, would they not? >> absolutely. if his name had been identified anytime between when the door closed to when he was in dubai, we have a good relationship with them. he would have been sent back. >> what do you infer about our ability to be proactive and reactive to circumstances like that, based on the elapsed time? >> the reaction was tremendous.

nypd and fbi guys were all over that car. they knew to go to the vin number. they knew that would lead to the owner of the car. that went to the sale, back to the internet, to the individual. it went like clockwork. the cops worked around the clock. it worked pretty well, keith. >> i don't want to get too political, but as a function of tamping down fear, what did you think of this president saying -- congratulating the police in this city, the residents in this city and saying this is not a country that's going to be terrified or terrorized. >> i think he got it right on. if we overreact to an attack, we amplify the attack of the terrorism. terrorism is an instrument of the weak and cowards. they are attacking our psyche. if we overreact to a terrorist attack we are playing into their hands, amplifying their power. we're building them bigger than they are. i think he got that message right. by the way, keith, new yorkers get this. they know they live in a city of risk. you can get hit by a bus walking across the street.

there's a terrorist, anything can happen. it is a city, life is full of risks. new yorkers get it. we shouldn't be cowering in fear. this city, the day after this attempt there were 10,000 bicycles riding through times square. i thought that was great. >> former counterterrorism official michael sheehan, also now of nbc news, thank you. >> thank you, keith. authorities questioned shahzad before and after having read him his miranda rights using the public safety exception to the miranda rule as grounds for their initial questions. republicans not letting the facts stand in the way of their rapid attempt to politicize how the arrest has been handled. senator cornyn of texas saying, quote -- if someone acts like a terrorist and cooperates with people intent on war against the united states, they should be treated as terrorists and not as a common criminal and know they should not be read their miranda rights. the suspect, shahzad, though born in pakistan, is a citizen of the united states. he was naturalized april 17, 2009. in an interview, senator john

mccain said it would be a serious mistake to remind shahzad of his right to remain silent until all the information is gathered. congressman peter king, the top republican on the homeland security committee telling politico.com he wants to know whether the justice department consulted with the intelligence community, before they decided to hold his trial in civilian court. shahzad an american citizen to which pete king said, i know he is an american citizen, but still. lots to talk about with major general paul eaton, who was in charge of training the iraqi military 2003 and 2004 and a senior adviser at the national security network. general eaton, thank you for being here. >> keith, thanks for the invitation. i'm surprised we are here to defend our constitution against a republican senator and republican representative's attack on it. >> you heard those remarks. they were short of demanding the times square suspect should not have been read miranda.

it makes them sound tough on national security. what is the practical result of saying something like the? >> from a national security perspective it is damaging. you're going to have -- right now the fbi and police forces are looking over their shoulder every time they hear a republican come off with a remark like that. we've got to reinforce our men in blue and our men in suits that they're doing a great job, they're doing the right thing, following procedures, they are following the law. we are a nation of laws. so we know what we're doing. >> do you have a sense of the motive for comments like these? obviously, my tendency is to attribute this to pure politics. do you see anything else behind it? >> it is a purely partisan approach. they are after trying to frustrate the president and his role as providing for the national security. in so doing they are attacking the viability of the national security of the united states. so rather than rallying around the flag, rather than avoiding a

divisive approach, they've chosen to go off the reservation and they are doing a bad job. >> attacking the national security viability of the united states. break that down for us. what exactly do you mean by that? >> one of the most important things we have going for us, before our own citizens and the citizens of the world is our judicial process is our state of law, our constitution. and the president is demonstrating strength and honor. he is demonstrating strength to get after these terrorists and he's demonstrating we do it in a context of honor, that we follow our laws, that we support and defend the constitution of the united states the way every legislator and every soldier, airman, seaman, marine out there swears on entry into service. >> general eaton, if the obama administration wanted to try ofz this man in some sort of military tribunal would there be justification?

materially, legally, as an aspect of state of war, how might he be different from the unabomber or the faln, which planted bombs throughout new york in the '70s, or anything else? how? >> spot on, keith. this is a civilian court venue. it is not a military venue. the military commission approach is absolutely inappropriate. this is an american citizen. he will be tried in civil court as the criminal that he is. >> if you are the fbi agents and the police officers who spent 53 hours straight on the manhunt that was successful and as mike sheehan pointed out, you throw in the time of the flight as a pad to dubai, they didn't catch him at the last second before he got out of the country. they got him a day before and after about two days and a few hours' work. what would it feel like to have

done this job and have lawmakers back at home of any stripe criticizing you in the job you just did? >> not good is the answer. since january of 2009, we have seen a relentless attack on our fbi, on our armed services, on our policemen by the republican party. any opportunity that they can find to see a seam to get in there and lay in attack, they have pursued. frankly, as a retired soldier and as a guy who supports my police, who supports my fbi, i want them to cut it out. >> what -- what do you think -- is there anything psychologically behind this, this idea we have heard comments we haven't killed enough terrorists, we haven't made them fear us, we shouldn't be respected the way you just described, we should be feared. is there something else you and i don't understand viscerally people are trying to achieve by

positing the idea they should be handled with force and military effectiveness and torture and everything else we have seen rolled out since 9/11? >> keith there is a retired navy j.a.g. admiral out there named john hudson, who said it about as well as i could find anywhere. he said, you know, the use of torture and these techniques is, that's the tool of the stupid, the lazy and the pseudo tough. that's, i'm afraid, what we've got going on in the republican party playbook to excite their base and it's an unfortunate attempt and it is counterproductive to the national security of the united states. >> you had it right. the stupid, the lazy and the pseudo tough. general paul eaton, u.s. army retired. once again, thanks. >> thanks, keith. special comment on senator

mccain's remarks and on senator mccain next. for strong bones, i take calcium. but my doctor told me that most calcium supplements... aren't absorbed properly unless taken with food. he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. citracal. that's for oreo cookies only. dad, there are no rules when it comes to dunking. i shoot from the hip. i'm hip. [ cellphone rings ] what up, dawg! it's your mother. [ male announcer ] dunk or don't dunk. choose your side.

as promised the briefest of special comments on the statements by the senior senator from arizona after the arrest of faisal shahzad. the suspected times square terrorist. don't give this guy his miranda rights until we find out what it is all about said john mccain. that would be a serious mistake at least until we find out as much information as we have. mr. mccain, following your advice could mean that because of you shahzad could walk free on technicalities. it is clear that your comments reveal your utter lack of faith in the system of justice that has kept this country free and safe for 234 years the laws are not there to be switched on and off at your discretion, senator. they are they are not there to be applicable to all, except when you need to boost your poll numbers with the lunatic fringe in arizona. this man, whatever other reprehensible thing he appears to be, is an american citizen. and if you can decide that he shouldn't have the same rights we would give to the man that

shot president reagan or to serial killers or to bernie madoff, the precedent you set in doing so can someday end thusly, someday for some crap reason somebody will be able to arrest you mr. mccain and claim you are not entitled to your miranda rights and perhaps you should be tried by a military court. while you pander to a group that tries to dress up bitching as paying their fair share of taxes that the government is taking away freedom, you propose that government should take away freedom. you shame yourself in the eyes of your fellow veterans and the honored dead who gave their lives to protect the freedoms and the laws. you have today suggested should be optional. freedom-loving americans look back with horror at what could have happened on saturday night six blocks from here. and we also look back with horror at how a man who thinks america is some kind of brand name who does not respect the

laws and honor of this great nation could have come so perilously close to becoming its leader. every six months you go without an accident. [ judy ] what are you waiting for? call or click today for a free quote or to find an allstate agent. i thought you said carl was our best presentation guy. [ worker ] well, he is. last week he told my team about fedex office print online for our presentations. we upload it to fedex office, then they print, bind, and ship it. the presentation looks good, right? yes, but -- you didn't actually bring carl with you. good morning! but i digress. [ male announcer ] we understand. you need presentations done right. and right now save 20% on all online printing purchases. visit fedex.com/print. that's my choice. because with national, i roll past the counter... and choose any car in the aisle. oh, buck chooses the blue one! [ male announcer ] go national. go like a pro. choosing your own car?

now, that's a good call. at a public forum yesterday, texas governor rick perry said the deepwater horizon oil spill should not cause a knee-jerk reaction that says we are going to shut down drilling in the gulf of mexico." according to thinkprogress.org, governor perry rejected that deregulation should be blamed for the spill or the massey mine disaster. or the financial meltdown. he said the spill might have been "an act of god." the forum was partly funded by

bp to promote regulation. deregulation. house republican leader john boehner not backing down for from the republican position for pushing for more drilling onshore and off. nor is it just republicans democratic senator mary landrieu who represents thousands of louisiana fishermen whose fishing season came to an end tonight is unmoved by the implications of this spill, budging not at all for new drilling, even after jon stewart pointed out on "the daily show" that her position on the safety has budged from the days when she lined up to defend it. along with a long line of republicans. >> it is safe to drill and we need to do more of that. >> we can do this in an environmentally sound way. >> our company's done a wonderful job making sure we are environmentally sound and able to produce energy. >> they do drill today in an environmentally safe way. >> oil rigs generally don't cause spills. they are technologically very advanced. >> the environmentalists are wrong, actually. we can drill safely off the shores of america.

>> spoken like true scientists. from the first reel of a disaster movie. if only they pre-spill politicians like senator mary landrieu, louisiana, had listened to post-spill realists, like senator mary landrieu of louisiana. >> no one has ever claimed including myself, unabashed proponent of the industry, that drilling is risk-free. >> no. you never claimed it. you emphatically stated it. >> dallas morning news reports monday also at that conference funded by british patretroleump perry defended the safety record bp compiled prior to the death of 11 people. bp historically had a good safety record. it would seem sarah palin never

mentioned to governor perry in her brief tenure bp pleaded guilty for criminal charges for which bp is still on probation, after neglecting a pipeline for eight years including palin's entire term on the state's oil and gas conservation commission, allowing bacteria to buildup and erode within it, spilling 200,000 gallons on the alaskan tundra. less clear is why governor perry did not include his own state. march 23, 2005, texas city, texas, just last year the occupational safety and health administration issued its largest fine, $87 million to bp, not only the massive explosion that killed 15 and injured another 170, but for 270 violations of its agreement afterward to clean up its act, plus 439 new violations. four people died at the texas city refinery in separate incidences after that blast.

and what about deepwater offshore drill something is there any evidence suggesting stricter regulation rather than a less angry god might have prevented or mitigated this disaster? cleanskies.com reports bp was cited in 2007 for poor training in well control. fined $41,000 fined $75,000 for lacking adequate water pressure, in one rig's firefighting system, fined only $80,000 for bypassing safety alarms. regulators honored bp for an outstanding safety record. a record bp trumpeted to have the government safety audits replace the industry's voluntary self-audits. according to lawsuits filed by the 11 missed and dead in the gulf, the oil services company halliburton improperly and negligently sealed the deepwater horizon rig itself. and it's been reported that improper seals responsible for more than a dozen previous blowouts in the gulf. "the wall street journal" saying the deepwater horizon did not

have a remote control shutoff valve that is mandatory in at least two other countries and is used voluntarily by two other drilling companies. in 2000 the minerals management service began considering making that and other backup measures mandatory. the oil industry pushed back against the device. three years later, an administration led by two oil men, including the former ceo of halliburton, decided not to mandate any new backup systems. the shutoff valve being "not recommended because they tend to be very costly." they cost $500,000. less than mary landrieu has received from the oil industry. far less than the $5 million that bp's ceo tony hayward makes per year. his company reporting $5.6 billion for the first three months of this year, not revenue, profits. the kind of profits that can prophesize a future free of regulation but full of acts of god. ♪

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the twitter sensation spit my dad says joins us. he will count as the tweet of the day. we have a lot to do here. let's play "oddball." philadelphia, hello. phillies hosting the st. louis cardinals. teenage phillies fan calls dad, quoting, can i run on the field. dad responds, i don't think you should. spit my dad says this is the result.

youth, 17-year-old whose name we chose not to reveal, tasered by police officers. the boy's father described the phone call as an effort to get permission, the boy's mother apologizing for his actions. the city councilman's quote, people who come from the suburbs think they can act like idiots. by the way, he would only get a b minus in the city of brotherly love. >> elsewhere in the nl east, senate bipartisanship. with republican senator jim bunning of the 1968 pittsburgh pirates honoring bobby cox of the atlanta braves who is scheduled to retire after 29 years as a major league manager, 25 of them in atlanta. we think he might have batted against bunning when cox played third base for the yankees. anyway, the senators extold bobby's leadership, and he produced the mo juiced. >> one thing i want to ask you

gentlemen to do, speak at my funeral. >> to menominee, wisconsin and the deer crashers. two deer blasted through the glass doors of the ale house. deer like beer. the bar/restaurant was not prepared for the unexpected guests, the hooved ones, therefore wrestled down to the floor for their own protection. since the regular patrons were watching a basketball game at the time. a milwaukee bucks game. that's sports. i'm vip burns, now back to lou waters and bill zimmerman in atlanta. sorry, i had a flashback. the crisis continues in nashville. off the back burner newswise, thank goodness, but the death count in tennessee alone is now 19. we go there next. [ female announcer ] breathe right asks... [ woman ] could i ask you to strip on the street?

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[loud music playing and yelling] with chase sapphire you always get an expert advisor immediately. man: chase sapphire, this is brian. hi, brian. we're on vacation and would love to change hotels. you call. we answer. [faint music playing] problem solved. is the music too loud? ♪ ♪ go to chase.com/sapphire. you said you bought a digiorno. but the pizza came with cheesy breadsticks. new digiorno pizza & breadsticks. taste. believe. it's not delivery. it's digiorno. she found the box. maybe 'cause you left it right on the counter.

just in here and of great sadness to baseball fans. ernie harwell, a major league baseball announcer principally with the detroit tigers, in a career that spanned 1948 to 2002

has died of cancer. he was diagnosed a year ago. he was one of the best people let alone one of the best broadcasters in sports. as the gulf coast grapples with the flood of oil, tennessee has been blindsided by a fatal natural disaster a flood. rescue, recovery and the emergency federal response continues. 29 people dead in tennessee, mississippi and kentucky. 19 in tennessee alone. after a weekend record-setting rainfall caused flash flooding of the cumberland river cresting 12 feet above flood level. that followed 14 inches of rain. a two-day record for the nashville area. rescuers expect more bodies to emerge from muddy flood water. but at least the waters are now receding. police were able to evacuate some from a tent city of homeless people. they are bracing for the possibility of finding bodies there as the water ebbs. authorities fear finding fatalities in remote areas. the fire chief saying we hope it is not a large number.

authorities and volunteers in fishing boats have been rescuing residents and tourists. 500 people were rescued from the windh windham resort alone. the flooding was not limited to the cumberland. lakes, rivers and drainage systems were deluged, bridges washed out, thousands of homes damaged, nashville businesses hit hard include the grand old opry house, hotel and convention center with 1,500 guests rushed to shelter. that prompted a wave of twitter postings by country stars appealing for help. the president offering federal disaster assistance. he sent fema's administrator to tennessee to review the damage firsthand. the governor declared 52 counties were disaster areas. let's speak now with a reporter for "the tennessean" in nashville, brad shraed.

thanks for your time tonight, sir. >> hi, keith. how are you doing? >> well, how are you doing? what is happening with the rescue and relief efforts? >> it has been quite a harrowing few days in middle tennessee. today the effort moved from a rescue to more of a recovery effort. they're trying to restore power in the downtown district, but floodwaters are still at some stations there so the power company is -- could be days before some of those areas downtown are restored to power and there is still some residents, 3,000 to 4,000 in the nashville area that do not have power. the army corps of engineers is focusing on trying to strategically bring down some of the reservoirs around nashville without creating more flood problems. the concern there is that if additional rains were to come, that you could have more flooding because they -- without the -- the dams are very full right now, so they want to bring

those waters down to be able to control the river if additional rains were to come. >> is -- i can't imagine any natural disaster like that is not a surprise no matter what forecasts might have been made or forecasts not been made, but is there a particular history that should have suggested such a thing was possible in this day and age for nashville and the environs? >> in nashville we have a lot of rain this time of year. what is of bigger concern generally is we are in kind of a tornado alley here. so i think that was the big fear among residents over the weekend as the storms were coming in from the west. so really the flash floods and the flooding caught a lot of people off-guard, because we just haven't had this level of rains. i think a congressman here said it is a 500-year event. so the rains, while we don't usually have this amount, this level of intensity and the way it just hung over and wouldn't pass through created major flooding problems. >> what is needed?

i mean, people who are seeing this for the first time in this unfortunate confluence of news stories that kept nashville off the radar for the last few days and what has happened here, not getting the publicity until today. what else needs to be done? we have thrown up the texting number for the red cross who set up 30 stations. are there other things people can do that are seeing this and are appalled by the circumstances? >> well, there's a lot of -- one of the issues here is a lot of these homes that flooded are not in the floodplain, so there are a lot of homeowners who just didn't have home insurance and they're afraid they're going to lose their homes or not be able to rebuild. the news out of the white house today was a good first step but i think the city and the region is really just trying to first get the waters to recede and then kind of come to grips with what our next step is. >> the situation in nashville as

described for us by brad shraed, reporter from "the tennessean." great, thanks, brad, and good luck with the community's effort to recovered from this. >> thanks, keith. thanks for having me on. >> my pleasure. >> from tweeting to a tv pilot to a book? like paper? the march of a bit my dad says. george wills cherry picking data about bird deaths to argue for drilling and nuclear -- against wind power. maybe it is cherry pecking. we'll see it in "worsts." when rachel joins you live from new orleans, new testing at the gulf suggests the oil might be thicker than originally thought and thus tougher to disperse. ♪

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lipitor is not for everyone... including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications, or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. my dad learned the hard way. but you may be able to do something. [ male announcer ] have a heart to heart with your doctor about your risk. and about lipitor. i switched to a complete multivitamin with more. only one a day men's 50+ advantage... has gingko for memory and concentration. plus support for heart health. ( crowd roars ) that's a great call. one a day men's. did you know after 9/11 there were no terrorist attacks? he says so. forgot the d.c. sniper and anthrax and stuff, or just lies. guff my dad says.

the twitter sensation takes a huge step backwards. a book? a book. can i have some ice cream please ?

no, it's just for new people. hey ! chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry ? chocolate ! chocolate it is ! yeah but i'm new too. umm... he's new... er... than you. even kids know it's wrong to treat new friends better than old friends. at ally bank we treat all our customers fairly. with no teaser rates... ... and no minimum deposits. it's just the right thing to do. justin halpern is not well known. his dad and the spit he says and the way justin disseminates these priceless pearls are very well known. we'll introduce you to the man behind "stuff my dad says." only it's not stuff, next. first "worst persons in the world."

a reminder, you can see who did not make the cut on twitter. follow me. the name is -- keith olbermann, one word. the three tworst people each night. the tv version, meanwhile. the bronze to charles krauthammer. i'm assuming he's not mentally impaired and wasn't drunk when he said this -- the bush administration has seven years after 9/11, no successful attacks in the united states. there's already been one successful attack under the obama administration. the bush administration excoriated for its tough interrogation kept us safe. attack at north carolina, the el al counter in 2002, the d.c. sniper, anthrax. the last three were pronounced terrorist attacks by the bush administration. charles krauthammer is a stone cold liar. runner-up, james e. glassman, senior economist at jpmorgan chase, wrote a letter to his clients yesterday insulting the senate hearings.

the financial reform debate is in the final innings. it is time for the grown-ups to step in. flip assertions about what is and is not socially valuable, reflect a confusion about our market economy. showed a graph of job losses in carl levin's state. it was titled people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. say, mr. glassman, which is the following statement is the closest to the truth, the u.s. government ran out of money in 2008 and wall street had to bail it out to save the national economy? or wall street turned itself into a casino and in 2008 the senate and the rest of the government and u.s. taxpayers bailed out your sorry overpaid asses to save the national economy? in short mr. glassman, what jon stewart said. our winner, poor george will. operating in those dear, dead days when people could not easily check his facts and find he scrubbed them of so much context they were left laughably misleading. media matters reported mr. wills said wind farms kill a lot more birds daily than are probably going to be killed in this oil spill. in "newsweek" he wrote birds

beware, the american bird conservancy estimates that the existing 25,000 turbines kill between 75,000 and 275,000 birds a year. imagine the toll that 186,000 turbines would take. my god, that is terribly disturbing. each wind turbine might kill from 3 to 11 birds per year, and if we achieved obama's goal of 20% energy from wind turbines and safety measures were not improved we could kill as many as half a million, two million birds a year. that is terribly disturbing, but if you look at the site will quoted here, the byrd conservancy, which supports the wind turbines, its estimates for bird deaths in this country right now. communications towers, 4 to 50 million, power lines, 75 million birds, collisions with buildings, 100 million birds, cars, 200 million to 300 million. cats 365 million a year. you left out the cats. by the way, the buildings, the

towers, the lines, the cars and cats rarely also destroy all the other flora and fauna in the area and damage the ecosystem for years and become an excuse for nature to raise the price of wind. george "once again i was hoping you wouldn't go to the website i quoted" will, today's "worst person in the world." gecko: uh, you wanted to see me sir? boss: come on in, i had some other things you can tell people about geico - great claims service and a 97% customer satisfaction rate. show people really trust us. gecko: yeah right, that makes sense. boss: trust is key when talking about geico. you gotta feel it. why don't you and i practice that with a little exercise where i fall backwards and you catch me. gecko: uh no sir, honestly... uh...i don't think...uh... boss: no, no. we can do this. gecko: oh dear. vo: geico. fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. yeah, this trip is way overdue. i just can't wait to see all those crunchy flakes in action.

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he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. citracal. that's my choice. because with national, i roll past the counter... and choose any car in the aisle. oh, buck chooses the blue one! [ male announcer ] go national. go like a pro. choosing your own car? now, that's a good call. ext if y had a choosing your own car? hoveround power chair? the statue of liberty? the grand canyon? it's all possible with a hoveround. tom: hi i'm tom kruse, inventor and founder of hoveround. when we say you're free to see the world, we mean it. call today and get a free hoveround information kit that includes a video and full color brochure. dennis celorie: "it's by far the best chair i've ever owned." terri: "last year, 9 out of 10 people got their hoveround for little or no money." jim plunkitt: "no cost. absolutely no cost to me." breaking news...when you call today, we'll include a free hoveround collapsible grabber with the purchase of your power chair.

it reaches, it grabs, it's collapsible and it's portable. it goes wherever you go. get it free while supplies last. call the number on your screen to get your free video, brochure and your free hoveround collapsible grabber. call the number on your screen. just eight months ago writer justin halpern made lemons out of the proverbial lemonade after being dumped by his girlfriend. and having to move back in with his parents. he started a twitter page called stuff my dad says. only "stuff" is actually a word that rhymes with "spit." the page's content is remarks made to halpern by his father. a sample tweet, november 8, 2009.

here's a strawberry, sorry for farting near you. hey, either take the strawberry and stop bitching. or no strawberry, that's the deal. the number one story, junk my dad says is a runaway hit. spawning over a million twitter followers, also a sitcom pilot starting william shatner, and a book. how ludite. he joins me in a minute. first, his biosays, i'm 29, i live with my 74-year-old dad, he's awesome, i just write down stuff he says. he tweeted 118 times. i do that in an hour, he has 1.3 million followers waiting for a nugget from his dad on the left. before we talked to the son, one more tweet, february 22nd, a parent is only as good as their dumbest kid. one wins the nobel prize the other gets robbed by a hooker, you failed. joining me now from los angeles is the tweeter and now author of sugar my dad says.

justin halpern, welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> there was a period during which your dad did not know he was a sensation on the internet. can you explain that and how did he find out? >> yeah. i had started this page just to show friends and then it exploded without me having any control over it. at that point, i started getting calls from book agents and people like that. at that point i pretty much had to tell my dad. i called my brother first and he was like, no, destroy the page. don't tell dad. it is not worth it. pack all your stuff. get ready to leave. i thought, no, i have to try this out. i went and told my dad. i thought he was going to explode. he laughed for a couple of seconds and he goes, i can't find my cell phone. i need you to help you find my cell phone. i was like, are we good? he said, yeah, i need my cell phone. that was kind of it. i don't know if he gets the scope.

>> i'm sure he will. >> the book would do it. wouldn't the book get the point across to him? >> you'd think. he's starting to get the scope now, yeah with the book coming out in stores. but, yeah, he is excited about that. >> another great -- they run the range from great is the low end to unbelievably spectacular, the one from september 7th, the worse thing you can be a liar. okay, fine, yes, the worst thing you can be a nazi, but then number two, liar, number one, nazi, number two, liar. do you provoke him or prompt him or is this organic? this process. >> that was like an hour-long argument that ended with that statement. no. i don't provoke him. he says whatever he wants whenever he wants to say it. >> that's based on the idea that that's the end of an hour, maybe you provoke him more than you know. have you considered that possibility? >> i definitely provoke him quite often, never to get the tweets, though. >> i know you are a writer by

profession. it would seem having dabbled in this for three weeks, going from a limited space that is a tweet or a series of them to turn it into a book. how difficult was it to do that? >> it was actually a pretty interesting process. i had all these stories i always told my friends about my dad. when i got to write this book i got to sit down and think about the times in my life where probably if you had a normal parent, it might have been a little bit of milquetoast, but in this case it was my dad. it was a lot of fun to sit back and relive traumatic moments in my life that maybe i can laugh at now. >> how does the, we had to use euphemisms to describe to your twitter name. how is that going to translate to a television pilot with william shatner? >> obviously we will not use that word, or we are not going to use that word or drop any "f" bombs.

we try to keep the honesty of the page. we tried never to change the "s" word to poop or something like that. so we made the rule, if my dad wouldn't say it, we wouldn't put it in the show. >> was shatner your first choice? is that a good match realistically? does it provide verisimilitude? describe the differences or similarities. >> shatner is basically a refined version of my father. they're both sort of older gentlemen who don't really want to engage in any unnecessary conversations with people they don't know, but, yeah. mr. shatner was definitely our first choice. he is every bit as awesome as i hoped he would be. >> well, i think he also, if it hasn't occurred to you, he may provide you with the euphemism. in the way of a title if you want to go this direction, from one tweet guy to another. shatner my dad says. it's sort of -- all right, it wasn't that good an idea. justin halpern, things my dad

says, it is not things. great thanks and good luck and thanks for making the twitter world that much more exciting for the rest of us. >> thanks for having me. >> good luck with the book. that is "countdown" for the 2,560th day since the previous president declared mission accomplished in iraq.