alan of the politico. thank you very much. go herons, go states men, i'll see you tomorrow. that's "hardball" for now. thank you for being with us. "countdown with keith olbermann" starts right now. which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? not dead yet. while senate democrats will run on a platform of we assume you know we only want tax cuts for the middle class and there's nothing wrong with us note voting on them until after the midterms, the speaker of the house, still pushing for actual quotes on the cuts before the recess. >> we will retain the right to proceed as we choose. america's middle class will have a tax cut. it will be done in this congress. >> arbor kline on the maturations, arianna huffington on the coward es in the senate. the first bush tax cuts postmortem. the first quantitative analysis of the real economic impact. this from may 2001, this was nonsense.

>> this tax relief helps all taxpayers. especially helps those at the low end of the economic ladder. >> the colbert report, he testifies at congress. first, the funny. >> my great grandfather did not travel across 4,000 miles of the atlantic ocean to see this country overrun by immigrants. >> then, the deadly serious. >> the least powerful people in the united states are migrant workers who come in and do our work but don't have any rights as a result, yet we still invite them to come here and at same time ask them to leave. >> then the incredibly stupid. >> what the hell was he doing before the u.s. congress? >> he was telling the truth. you wouldn't know about that. fridays with thurbur, the conclusion of the day the dam broke. worsts, liz cheney's insult to the pre turns out to be dumber than we knew and what's wrong with this picture? your eyes do not deceive you. all the news and commentary now

on "countdown." >> how do you spell that? good evening from new york. the idea and the spectacle of forcing republicans to vote against tax cuts for the middle class is still on the map, but it has not been counted out. our story amidbackground level white house dismay, the senate democrats bailed out on such a fight, some encouragement because of the evidence that speaker pelosi will schedule the vote and the fight in the house before it adjourns next week. to the speaker first who today said the house retained the right to proceed as we choose on middle class tax cuts. >> america's middle class will have a tax cut. it will be done in this congress. there is no question about that. a guarantee that we will have a tax cut for the middle class. members overwhelmingly support that.

there isn't a person in our caucus that isn't for tax cuts for the middle class and it is not about the election, it is about the policy and we're all very strong on that and members with a vote or without a vote can go home and talk about their commitment to that, especially with the leadership of president obama being out there on it. >> now, speaker pelosi could schedule two separate tax votes and do so under a suspension of the rules which would require a two-thirds supermajority for passage. the tax vote would put all members on record. the tax cuts for the wealthy would fail under this theory because even if conservative democrats sided with republicans, two-thirds would not be reached. there is evidence that house democrats are still trying to reach consensus on some kind of vote, a proposal from congressman michael capuano of massachusetts and big pacific rell of new jersey would include a one-year extension of tax cuts on income under $500,000 as well as a five year extension of current middle class tax rates.

according to sam stein, blue dog democrats are pushing for a temporary extension of additional tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of americans offset by spending cuts. meantime, what almost happened in the senate, key democrats pushed for a vote according to greg sergeant of the plumb line blog. among them, senator chuck schumer, former chair of the senatorial campaign committee and robert menendez, the current chair of the committee. schumer believed that republicans were wary of such a vote, quoting sergeants' source it became clear that mcconnell didn't want to have a vote. if mccome sensed it was a tell for democrats, that there i was political advantage for having it, that's why chuck was privately pushing for it. yesterday, we learned through a spokesperson that senate leader harry reid will wait until after election day. and an unnamed aide telling sergeant, quote, people felt like why rock the boat on a good situation? people weren't sure how having a vote would affect that dynamic. we would have lost democrats on certain aspects of the vote, who knows if the media would cover that as democrats being

splintered in a way, the good polling gave people faith that we don't need to do anything on the issue because we're already winning. on that note, let's bring in washington post staff reporter newsweek columnist and msnbc contributor ezra kline. good to see you. my understanding is that the white house is still holding out some hope about speaker pelosi. is she determined to have the vote, testing the waters? >> she's definitely testing the waters. this is an interesting rule. what she's worried about if she brings it up normally, she brings up the middle class tax cuts they pass, but the republicans use a procedural move to bring up the other cuts and she doesn't want that. if she uses a suspension rule, then you need two thirds on both and won't get that on one, but may get it on the other. that is a pretty rare move. it is part of the 111th congress' ongoing effort to show us every congressional rule that could conceivably ever be used, but it would be a way to end it. >> my parliamentary procedure professor at cornell would be

delighted by this entire process. but to what point does it increase the theatrics while reducing the chance of the tax cut actually going through? doesn't change anything in the senate. they'll still ride this out and pretend, right? >> she's used to that. there are 372 bills at the house has passed, the senate is sitting on. they will try passing it. they'll see what they can get done. the senate, they sort of have operated all year under the understanding they can control the senate, they can only control the house and pelosi tries to move when she can move. she's always said she'll move when she gets votes. if she goes next week, it is because she thinks she's got the votes. >> my further understanding is the white house was disappointed in the decisions by senate democrats to mail this in, as i phrased it before, they want to campaign on the you know how we're going to vote on it, it doesn't matter that we didn't vote yet. it is dandy that the white house is being disappointed, but is there not some knocking of heads to be done in this situation? are they really that impotent when it comes to the senate moving at something slower than a snail's pace? >> generally they are.

reid is concerned the worst thing for all of them is they campaign against the extension of the rich tax cuts, hold the vote and lose it and lose it because the democrats move over, ben nelson move over, a couple others move over, maybe that would happen, main it wouldnybe. we're very disappointed, but it is reid who has to bare the brunt of losing or winning this one. the scary thing is democrats may think they're winning on the politics, but they're not sure they have the votes. they're not sure they can repel the republicans plus a couple of splintering democrats to extend the bush tax cuts for the rich. >> are they whistling past the actual campaign graveyard, though, to assume they can get this point across to the electorate in every quarter? not we're going to do this, you know where we stand, the polling is so good that we don't have to take the vote because you trust us without the vote and you don't trust the republicans on this. is that -- does that make sense anywhere outside of the washington zip codes? >> it looks awful and even

before the election, even with the majority, they can't govern. even with a popular issue, even with something where most of the caucus is united, they can't govern and they're not courageous enough. you have a situation where you have a enthusiasm gap in the election, republicans say we want the cuts, our people are promising it to us, and the democratic base is hearing, yeah, we're with you, we're with you in theory but we just, you know, the rules of the senate. a tough game up here. >> speaker pelosi brought in the plate spinners we used to see on the ed sullivan show who will do a demonstration for us and show us new rules we didn't know about before. ezra kline, pleasure to see you. >> thank you. let's turn to the co-founder and editor in chief of the huffington post, arianna huffington. good evening. >> good evening, keith. >> several days running now, trying to figure out what democrats are doing on what should be a fairly easy win has proved to hurt my head. have you figured this out? >> i sort of have.

but you have to stay with me because it is complicated. here you have an issue where the democrats are winning on all fronts. they're winning on supreme support. that's what a democratic principle is about. they're winning in terms of what's good for the economy because you have major economies arguing that expanding the tax cuts beyond $150,000 isn't going to help the economy, but it is going to decrease the deficit to the tune of $700 billion. they're winning on polling, especially when it comes to that particular desirable voting bloc independents so they have a trifecta. and yet they decide to kind of dodge a vote on the grounds that they're already winning and therefore they have a vote, especially since any aspect of that would be taken as mischaracterized in a 30-second commercial or on fox news or any of these kind of boogie man that they go to bed worrying about

every night. this is truly a very alternate through the looking glass universe. >> and more practically speaking, even if you accept that universe, they have gone from convinced that the subject of tax cuts would kill them to the subject that tax cuts will now make them sur vivive, so yo have a switch within the through the looking glass world. there are a few things that come through there. what about pelosi's idea that we just heard enumerated, the prospect of doing the suspension of the rules and have a two thirds vote so you couldn't pass the high end cuts but could pass the middle class cuts in the house so the democrats have something to run on? >> the only concern about that, as i've talked to some people on the hill, is that already they have 31 democrats on the record. and in favor of extending all tax cuts, including the ones for

the rich. and they think they may have another 30 or 40 democrats who will go along with them. so they're also worried about whether they will be able to hold tcaucus in the house becaue everybody is so jittery and so concerned about how any move is going to be interpreted b eed b other side that there is real paralysis. as ezra kline said, even with a majority, democrats are now demonstrating a complete inability to govern. >> if they're standing pat in terms of the election, is that because they think the losses in the midterms aren't going to be as bad as everyone else thinks they are? >> i think right now honestly keith, i don't think they're thinking beyond the election. i think that they're so terrified of what may happen, and on election day, that they're worried about any step they take, which may increase the chances that they will lose a particular seat or lose the house and maybe even lose the

senate. >> all right, having exhausted our minds on this, let me change subjects on you. today there was yet another ruling against don't ask, don't tell, a federal judge in tacoma said that the air force had violated the constitutional rights of the former major margaret witt, she was discharged for being a lesbian, the judge ordered that she should be reinstated as soon as possible. is there any chance this lights the fire under the white house to do something on don't ask, don't tell, before the election rather than just let congress kick this can down the road as well? >> well, robert gibbs said that any defense of the current policy by the white house is pro forma, those were his words. and, you know, that, to me, keith, kind of summed up what has been wrong, that obama came to washington to change pro forma things to change the way washington works. that's why he was elected. that's why there was so much passion and enthusiasm behind his election. and now when they come out with statements like that, it

explains perfectly the enthusiasm gap that everybody is concerned about. and when you have actually a log cabin republicans now and challenging the administration's policy, you see why this is getting really disturbing. >> i'm going back to russ martin at parliamentary procedure class, that's what this seems to be. the entirety of the democratic majority in the senate seems to be a parliamentary procedure class, an experiment of some sort. in any event, rachel maddow's guest at 9:00 is major margaret witt. arianna huffington of "the huffington post," a pleasure. have a good weekend. >> thank you. to get back to the tax cuts, we have tonight exclusive practical mathematical analysis of the impact of the bush tax cuts for the rich on the economy from 2001 to 2008. david k. johnson crunched the numbers and they are pretty sad numbers next on "countdown." at remax.com, you can find the experts you need, whether you're trying to sell of hoping to buy.

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the economic report card is now in. straight fs. comedy gold, and the truth, not the truthiness about immigration as he testifies to congress and the radical right does not like either. a power of public panic illustrated for us again as we conclude his epic the day the dam broke. and speaking of public, that's what it says, yes, it's a sign about education. replant a forest? maybe you want to rebuild homes for those in need?

or, maybe you want to help improve our schools? whatever you want to do, members project from american express can help you take the first step. vote, volunteer or donate for the causes you believe in at membersproject.com. take charge of making a difference. republicans who want to extend all the bush tax cuts and even the democrats who just want to extend them for income under a quarter million a year say the economy needs to lower tax rates to recover and, in fact, when

the first bush tax cuts were passed in 2001, that's what president bush said. the economy would benefit from having the lower tax rates. but on our fourth story tonight, for the first time, america and the history of mr. bush so often refers to as hiss ultimate judge with see for femthemselves the l extent of the bush economy. authored by a friend of the show, david cay johnson, who joins us presently, his story, a first look at a full economic data set from 2008, the portrait of the bush economy is now complete. in 2001, when president bush passed the first package tax cuts, more than $1 trillion, he talked about how they would help to grow an economy that was then in recession. >> my plan is good for the long-term health of our economy. it is good for the businesses that create jobs. this tax relief helps all taxpayers, it especially helps

those at the low end of the economic ladder. it helps american workers by letting them keep more money and it helps small businesses so that family owned restaurants and startup software companies can hire more workers and provide more jobs for americans. >> helps american workers, helps small businesses, provide more jobs. nine hard years later, the verdict is in. the average american taxpayer made less adjusted for inflation in 2008 than in 2000. the average income in 2000 was more than $61,000. in 2008, after the bush tax cuts had several years to help american workers, $58,000. in only two years during the bush administration, 2006 and 2007, did americans make more than they did in the last year of the clinton administration. how much more? 500 bucks more in 2006. 1500 bucks more in 2007. those gains more than wiped out after the housing bubble burst there after.

and who benefitted from the short-lived gains? american workers, small businesses, 30% of the gains knead 2007 went to those making $1 million or more a year. all told, americans took home $2.74 trillion less during the bush years than they would have if salaries had stayed stuck where clinton left them. on an individual level, if the average american's wages adjusted for inflation stayed where bill clinton left them, they would have made almost $50 more a week, $21,000 more over the whole eight years. and the kicker, republicans claim the tax cuts pay for themselves by boosting the economy so much that even at lower rates more money gets paid in taxes. except that washington took in less money in 2008 than it did in 2000. just over a trillion dollars in 2008 from what had been $1.2 trillion in 2000. maybe it is just because mr.

bush's original rationale for the tax cuts he is wanted the american government to have less money, no matter how much it hurt the american people. >> i don't believe like the vice president does in huge government, i believe in limited government. by having a limited golf and a focused government, we can send some of the money back to the people who pay the bills. i want to have a tax relief for all people who pay the bills in america because i think you can spend your money more wisely than the federal government can. >> on his promise, let's bring in david cay johnston, professor at syracuse university's law school, the author of "free lunch" and economist for tax notes. thank you for your time. >> good evening, keith. >> we're being told now that extending the tax cuts will translate to jobs next year. we were told in 2001 the tax cuts would create jobs and increase wages. what happened? >> well, the policy failed if you just look at the data and the numbers. and you -- it is unmistakable

what happened? during the eight years the bush administration there were only 3.5 million jobs created. seas the same number created in the eight years of the eisenhower administration when we had a lot smaller population, population grew faster than jobs. and people's incomes went down. people are getting 94 cents on the dollar in real terms for what they got in the year 2000. clearly this didn't work. >> but even if the job creation promise failed and income did not go up, that promise failed, were not people at least better off because as mr. bush liked to say they got to keep more of their own money? >> well, there are two groups of people who were better off because of this. one of them is parents who pay taxes, they make enough money to pay taxes, who have children under the age of 16, and are not under the alternative minimum tax. which generally means make less than $100,000. they were beneficiaries because the republicans championed a thousand dollar per child tax

credit. but one out of every $8 of the tax savings went to the 1 in 1,000 in the top 100th percent. they make several bill dollion dollars a year they got one a eighth of the tax cuts. the way it was distributed was focused on helping a narrow group of people at the top. >> let me apply to the bush administration that which the obama administration has requested in terms of its handling of the economy. in fairness, lots of things happened during the bush administration aside from taxes going down. how do we know the bush tax cuts did not keep things from getting worse? >> keith, that's a very good and fair question to ask. here's what i did. president bush had two rounds of tax cuts. 2001 for individuals and 2003, the one he said was really important to stimulating the economy. we reduced taxes on capital gains and most dividends by a

quarter. so what happened? if you just analyzed the five years from 2003 to 2007, the peek year, throw out the other years in the economy, the results are still awful. americans made almost a trillion dollars less income than if we had stayed at the income levels of 2000. >> so the last point leads back to today, why exactly is there any debate over whether the richest people in america should pay 35% or 39% on their income above a quarter of a million when so many of them don't seem to be paying any percent on any taxes at all? >> keith, there are a lot of people with large incomes who have a responsible view of the welfare of the country. unfortunately there is a group of people who are determined to cut their taxes and at the top you could benefit, if you made $100 million a year, you're saving somewhere between close to $5 million and close to $25 million a year in taxes under the bush policy. those people who don't care

about the country but about themselves are willing clearly to spend a lot of money in private meetings held on capitol hill with those politicians they give campaign donations to do get their way. these are what i call the political donor class and they're willing to distort the truth and anything else so that they personally can gain and all the rest of us can take the burdens. >> the column is available at tax.com. david cay johnston, columnist at tax notes, thank you for sharing what you have and have a great weekend. >> thank you, keith. if you thought sharon engel had offended everybody, wait until you see the tape of her attacking autistic kids and maternity leave. and funnily to profoundly serious, the testimony of stephen colbert on immigration ahead. hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa... lafayette: just got to get through the day. how do you stop this? being used to doing something with a cigarette makes it hard doing it without one. but if i can re-learn to get through my workday without cigarettes,

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stephen colbert starts funny and ends heart breaking and the fox knee jerks attack him for both. first, the tweet of the day from me. good old at keith olbermann from this afternoon. i've been out of pocket until just now. anything new in my tv news industry today? that's an inside joke. let's play oddball. in india, the international robo soccer association world cup. really need a governing body for robot soccer? it is their 15th annual robot world cup. teams from all over the world brought their best terminators in the hopes of getting more 1s

than 0s. after the cyborgs were done not moving it was time for rubiks cube soccer. organizers hoped to have a robot ready to compete in the 2050 human world cup to join the refs who already screwed up this year's. todd mentally is channeling the flintstones. he meets a woman in desperate need of a hip replacement and promises to help heal her. the power of emeril lagasse compels you! >> a brand-new hip, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. >> and out in the parking lot, she found herself a brand-new ship. nice work, dumb dumb. london england, oh, eyeballs continuing coverage of the spring fashion shows in fall. this time the burberry blad plad is causing more problems than just hurting your eyes. down goes fashion. she tries to get up and regain her pride but can't keep the shoe on.

she makes it off shoe in hand, but that ankle looks a little sore. let me see if this works. bam, bam, bam, no. well, we march on. stephen colbert gives the most hilarious opening statement to congress then he is save athd for bei for being there and being funny and then he gets serious. it is almost like they're working from a script at the radical right. >> big oils and their backers are spending millions to scare us, saying it costs too much to break our dependence on oil. what they're really doing is putting our security at risk. my big brother went to iraq to keep us safe. he came home in a flag-draped coffin. america lost another hero. big oil wants to talk about costs? don't let big oil lie to you about what our dependence really costs. ♪ a harmonica and a box guitar ♪

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after the breathless leadup to comedian stephen colbert's testimony to congress today, the knee jerks got what they wanted, stephen colbert as the demented pundit he plays on tv did a few minutes of shtick at a meeting. then there is the rest of the story that few bothered to cover, the truth he spoke, not the truthiness. along with being funny, he was also serious, even eloquent when testifying about the plight of america's migrant farm workers. this week on his program colbert aired a two-part series about the migrant workers. colbert spent a day alongside some of them at a farm in upstate new york. he was asked to testify today at

the meeting called protecting america's harvest. colbert agreed to appear in character and remain as a witness. leading up to the hearing, the people on fox news freaked out. >> they couldn't find anyone else. >> an expert witness? >> come on, guys this is serious business. >> i don't get it. this takes the cake. >> you have got to be kidding. >> you cannot be serious. >> you wonder why the approval ratings are where they are. >> one of the most ridiculous things i've ever heard. >> the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard. >> this is so ridiculous. >> this is ridiculous. >> said the moron from fox. david corn of mother jones pointed out the humorous in mark twain set the standard for funny men testifying before congress at a hearing on copy rights and casey stangle spoke gibberish on antitrust exemption for baseball. as colbert noted, he's not the

first to appear in character to congress. elmo perfect sesame street testified to the house after a request of then republican congressman randy duke cunningham. didn't hear fox complaining about that. mr. cunningham is now serving time for tax evasion and bribery and hasn't seen elmo in years. this morning, the media swarmed on colbert as he entered the meeting room. john conyers asked colbert to submit his opening statement in writing and leave. colbert deferred to lofgren the chairwoman for call. she said he should stay. conyers retracted his request and colbert delivered his opening remarks. >> this is america. i don't want a tomato picked by a mexican. i want it picked by an american, then sliced by guatemalan and served by venezuelan in a spa where a chilean gives me a brazilian. because my great grandfather did not travel across 4,000 miles of the atlantic ocean to see this country overrun by immigrants.

he did it because he killed a man back in ireland. that's the rumor, i don't know if that's true. i'd like to have 2have that stricken from the record. the number may increase in the near future, as i understand many democrats may be looking for work come november. this brief experience gave me some small understanding of why so few americans are clamoring to begin an exciting career as seasonal migrant field worker. so what's the answer? i'm a free market guy. normally i would leave this to the invisible hand of the market, but the invisible hand of the market moved production and over 22,000 farm jobs to mexico. and shut down over a million acres of u.s. farm land due to lack of available labor because apparently even the invisible hand doesn't want to pick beans. now i'm not afan of the government doing anything. but i've got it ask, why isn't

the government doing anything? maybe this ag jobs bill would help. i don't know. like most members of congress i haven't read it. maybe you can offer more visas to the immigrants who, let's face it, will probably be doing these jobs anyway. and this improved legal status might allow immigrants recourse if they're abused and it just stands to reason to me that if your co-worker can't be exploited, then you're less likely to be exploited yourself and that itself might improve pay and working conditions on the farms and eventually americans may consider taking these jobs again. or maybe that's crazy. maybe the easier answer is just to have scientists develop vegetables that pick themselves. the genetic engineers over at froot of the loom made great strides in hybrids. we have to do something because i'm not going back out there. at this point, i break into a cold sweat at the sight of a salad bar. >> colbert was seated with a panel of witnesses still in character he had several exchanges including this one with congressman lamar smith of

texas. >> by the way, i do endorse your policies. i do endorse -- you asked me if i endorse republican policies. i do without question. >> including the requirement that members have 32 hours to read a bill before we vote on it? >> absolutely. >> thank you of your endorsement, your pledge to america. i yield back. >> congressman darrell issa tweeting steven holme just endorsed our pledge to america. of course he did. california representative judy chu got her chance to question the median. she took the opportunity seriously as did colbert. >> considering the conditions, why would any american worker want to work on jobs like this? >> i don't know if americans would or would not want to work on jobs like this. i believe that americans are tough, i agree with the congressman, americans are tough and they do tough jobs. it is not a job i want to do and not a lot of people took mr.

rodriguez up on his offer, and it seems from the statistics that my researchers found that there is a lack of labor in parts of the united states and that seems to say that americans don't want to take the jobs, but i don't want to say definitively that they won't. >> mr. colbert, you could work on so many issues, why are you interested in this issue? >> i like talking about people who don't have any power. and this seems like one of the least powerful people in the united states are migrant workers who come and do our work, but don't have any rights as a result. and yet we still invite them to come here, and at the same time ask them to leave. and that's an interesting contradiction to me and, you know what so ever you do for the least of my brothers and these seem like the least of our brothers right now, a lot of people are least of the brothers right now because the economy is so hard and i don't want to take

anyone's hardship away from them, but migrant workers suffer and have no rights. >> note to the right, quoting christ there if you didn't recognize it. from one comedic genius to the other, the warning. remember when liz cheney complained that president obama said we could absorb another terrorist attack? guess who else said that? and rachel will have a look at the court ruling that demands a nurse discharged under don't ask don't tell get her job back. that nurse will be her guest. ♪ [ male announcer ] every business day, bank of america lends billions of dollars, to individuals, institutions, schools, organizations and businesses. ♪ working to set opportunity in motion. bank of america. working to set opportunity in motion.

we're part of nature, and as we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves. it's a selfish thing to want to protect nature. i never intended to be a businessman. we made the world's best climbing equipment out of here. we realized that putting in and taking out of all these pitons was causing damage to the rock. so, i made these little soft aluminum chalks that you just put in with your fingers. and i'm a dam buster. we've been working for years to take this dam out. the reservoir behind it is only 4 feet deep-- the water gets real warm, kills a lot of the life in the river. when you take out a dam, that's a real victory. i mean, a concrete victory so to speak! when i get an idea to do something, i like to take the first step. if that feels good, i take another step. to do good, you actually have to do something. no matter what you want to do, members project from american express can help you take the first step. vote, volunteer or donate at membersproject.com.

it is like an outcrazy the other one competition. another prophetic warning, james thurbur lived it in 1913 and wrote it in 1933 and works as a metaphor in 2010. conclusion of the day the dam broke ahead on "countdown." [ female announcer ] it starts with you falling in love

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friday's with thurbur and the conclusion of the day the dam broke. that's next. but first, time for tonight's worst persons in the world. president of the blue waters group, they do publicity and promotion work for the redevelopment commission of south bend, indiana. he's issued the full mea culpa. i feel terrible. it is a mass take we made and we're guilty of it and responsible for it. we take full responsibility for the error. four people looked at it, eyeballed it and didn't see the mistake. we simply blew it. we did not see the missing l. what is mr. strickler talking about? this.

15 best things about our -- oh, oh, boy. oh, boy. the sign went up near the intersection of ironwood and indiana route 23 on thursday and was still there on monday. and it implies that one of those 15 best things about south bend schools is not spelling. the runner up, sharron angle, she's already offended just about every right thinking american but had yet to lose expectant mothers or the family of autistic or similarly challenged children. >> take off the mandates for coverage in this state of nevada and all over the united states. but here you know when i'm talking about, you're paying for things that you don't even need. they just passed the latest one is everything that they want to throw at us now is covered under autism. so that's a mandate that you have to pay for. how about maternity leave?

i'm not going to have any more babies, but i sure get to pay for it on my insurance. >> better check your insurance, madam. health insurance doesn't pay for maternity leave. on a macro level this woman revealed herself detailed by detail and issue by issue to be utterly despicable. speaking of which, our winner, again, liz cheney, you might remember her loud showy cheney-esque arrogant umbrage over a quote attributed to president obama. president obama is reported to have said we can absorb a terrorist attack. this comment suggests an alarming fatalism on the part of the president and his administration. once again the seems either unwilling or unable to do what it takes to keep this nation safe. the president owes this american people an explanation. turns out i was being easy on her. think progress found an interesting item cached from the white house website during the bush administration, under the heading proer ing heading, protect the american

people, critical infrastructure and key resources, a 19 paragraph document describing its national strategy for homeland security. the relevant part reads, "we must work to ensure the ability of power, communications and other life sustaining systems to survive this an attack by terrorists, we must focus on the resilience of the system as a whole, an approach that centers on investments that make the system better able to absorb the impact of an event without losing the capacity to function." . so liz cheney attacked the president during what she has described as a time of war for using the term relating to terrorist attacks, absorb, it was also used during theial adm which her father was the second most influential figure. liz cheney, today's worst person in the world. i do a lot of different kinds of exercise,

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we close as we always do on friday with the works of the great james thurbur. tonight i read as always from the library of america, thurbur writes and drawings. this story was first published in my life and hard times in 1933. it is thurbur's exaggerated but only slightly exaggerated story of the march day in 1913 when he and other residents in ohio became convinced that the dam had broken. we rejoin pure mindless panic already in progress in the conclusion of the day the dam broke by james thurbur. 2,000 people were abruptly in full flight, go east was the cry that arose. east away from the river, east

to safety, go east, east, go east. black streeams of people flowed eastward, the streams whose headwaters in the dry goods stores, movie theaters, were fed by trickles of housewives, childrens, cripples, servservan dogs and cats, shouting and screaming. people ran out leaving fires burning and food cooking and doors wide open. i remember, however, that my mother turned out all the fires and that she took with her a dozen eggs and two loafs of bread. it was her plan to make memorial hall, just two blocks away and take refuge somewhere in the top of it in up with of the dusty rooms where war veterans met and old battle flags and stage scenery were stored. but the throngs shouting go east threw drew her along and the rest of us with her. when grandfather regained full consciousness at parsens avenue, he turned upon the retreating mob like a vengeful prophet and extorted the men to form ranks

and stand off the rebel dogs, but at length he too got the idea the dam had broken and roared go east in his powerful voice. he caught up in one arm a small child and in the other a slight clerkish man of perhaps 42 even we slowly began to gain on those ahead of us. a scattering of firemen, policemen and army officers in dress uniforms, there had been a review at ft. hayes in the mother part of town, added color to the surging billos of people. go east, cried a little child in a piping voice as she ran past a porch on which a lieutenant colonel of infantry was, used to quick decisions, trained to immediate obedience, he bounded off the porch and running at full tilt soon passed the child, bawling, go east. the two of them emptied the houses of the little street they were on. what is it? what is it demanded a fat waddling man who intercepted the colonel. the officer dropped behind and asked the little girl who it was. the dam has broke, gasped the girl.

the dam has broke, roared the colonel. go east, go east, go east. he was soon leading with the exhausted child in his fleeing company of 300 persons who had gathered around him. nobody has ever been able to compute with any exactness how many people took part in the great route of 1913, for the panic, which extended from the winslow bottling works in the south end to clintonville, six miles north, ended as abruptly as it began in the velvet gowned groups of refugees melted away and slunk home, leaving the streets peaceful and deserted. the shouting, weeping, tangled evacuation of the city lasted not more than two hours in all. some few people got as far east as reynoldsburg, 12 miles away. 50 or more reached the country club, eight miles away. most gave up exhausted or climbed trees in franklin park four miles out.

order was restored and fear dispelled finally by means of militia men wrriding about, brawling through megaphones, the dam has not broken. at first this added to the confusion and increased the panic for many stampeders thought that the soldiers were bellowing the dam has now broken. all the time the sun shone quietly and no sign of the oncoming waters. a visitor in an airplane looking down on the masses of people below would have been hard put to it to design a reason for the phenomenon. it must have been a peculiar kind of terror, like the site of the marie celeste abandoned at seas, tranquil decks bright in the sunlight. an aunt of mine was in a movie theater on high street when over and above the sound of the piano

in the pit there arose the steadily increasing tromp of running feet, shouts rose above, an elderly man sitting near my aunt, mumbled something, went up the aisle at a dog trot. this started everybody. the audience was jamming the aisles, fire shouted a woman who was always expecting to be burned up into a theater. now the shouts outside were louder and coherent, the dam has broke ci broke cried somebody. go east. and east they went pushing and shoving and clawing, knocking women and children dow, emerging into the street, torn and sprawling. inside the theater, bill was calling some bluff and the brave girl at the piano played row, row, row loudly and outside men were streaming across the state house yard, others were climbing trees. one managed to get up into these are my jewels statue, whose bronze figures of sherman stanton grant and sheridan

watched with cold unconcerned going to pieces of the capital city. i ran south to state street east on straight to third and out east on town my aunt has written me. a tall spare woman with grimmize and termed chin ran past me down the middle of the street. i was still uncertain as to what was the matter in spite of all of the shouting. though she was in her late 50s, she had a beautiful easy running form and seemed to be in excellent condition. what is it, i puffed? she gave me a quick glance and looked ahead again, stepping up her pace a trifle. don't ask me. ask god. when i reached grant avenue, i was so spent that dr. h.r. mallory, the man with the white beard who looks like robert browning, dr. mallory, who i had drawn away from at the corner of fifth in town passed me. it's got us. you know what conviction dr. mallory's statements always carry. i didn't know at the time what he meant, but i found out later.

there was a boy behind him on roller skates and dr. mallory mistook the swishing of the skates for the sound of rushing water. he collapsed, expecting the cold frothing waterss to sweep him into oblivion. boy skated past him and he realized what he had been running from. looking back up the street, he saw no signs of water but after resting just a few minutes, he jogged on east again. he caught up with me at ohio avenue where we rested together. i should say that about 700 people passed us, a funny thing was that all of them were on foot, nobody seemed to have had the courage to stop and start his car. but as i remember it, all cars had to be cranked in those days which is probably the reason. the next day the city went about its business as if nothing happened but there was no joking. it was two years or more before you dared treat the breaking of the dam lightly and there are few persons like