there you see the gathering right now at the steps of the lincoln memorial. it is growing as well. thousands are expected to show up to make history to sound a call for help. a plea for jobs, for education and for a just america. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt. it's 11:00 precisely here on the east coast. welcome to msnbc saturday. we'll take you live to the nation's capital. we have brian mooar standing by for us just beside the stoeches t steps of the memorial. and they were hoping, brian, for tens of thousands of people to show up. it's looking like they just might get there. >> right now we're going through the sound check. we're seeing people continue to stream in. we'll show you pictures taken about 15 minutes ago of probably a few thousand people gathered right in front of the lincoln memorial. they're continuing to stream in. ben jealous of the naacp says

that they have confirmed 2,000 buses coming here and other people coming by various means, but we're going to wait and see how many people do show up for this rally. it is expected to be a very eclectic group. we're talking about civil rights groups, gay rights groups, some church groups. they're all here with varied message as well. part of the agenda is talking about jobs, putting americans back to work. they're talking about education and then they're also going to be talking about equality for everybody. we're talking about various people from different races, religions, different classes, but at the end of the day, the organizers say this is not an anti-tea party rally. these are people on the left, progressives, who are very worried about what's going to happen in the november election. these are sort of, you might look at them as the get out the vote voters, the die-hard true believing democrats who really want to make a difference at the polls in just about a month.

>> brian mooar, thank you for that. things get under way about an hour from now. we'll see you this afternoon. msnbc will have live coverage of the one nation working together rally in washington, d.c. keep it right there for that. we have developing news to share from europe where a british airways flight on its way from london to new york has made an emergency landing at london's heathrow airport. our british broadcaster itn is live with more for us. rupert, we hear the a door was not closed? what's happened here? >> well, the 117 flight took off around 9:30 this morning. as it did, warning light came on in the cockpit indicating that there was an issue with one of the doors. now, apparently a handle was moving. b.a. say there was the door was never opened. anyway, it was enough of a concern for the pilot to need to get the plane back on the ground

as soon as possible. there were more than 300 people on board. and it didn't even reach the cloud level. for the next ten minute, he circled from here, heathrow, out over southwest london and came back in. now, people on the ground in southwest london, who are very used to seeing planes coming in and out of heathrow, were amazed at just how low this aircraft was. some people say it was obviously in trouble. others said that it looked actually quite scary. one of the passengers on board, a regular flier across the atlantic, said the situation was unnerving. he knew that there was an issue because usually you wouldn't plateau the moment you took off. you keep going up. but in this case, they kept level. and they came back in. apparently, on board the passengers were not unduly concerned by what was going on. they were kept informed. and just to add another raft to kind of the problem that was

happening, on landing, because the 747 was fully laden with fuel, they had to use maximum reverse thrust. now, b.a. tell me that what happens when you do this, you can get something called and engine surge. as a result, you get flames coming out of the engine. that is what happened. b.a. said that would not be an unusual occurrence. obviously for parents looking out of the window, the sight of flames coming out of the engine and any suggestion that the door may have been not open, makes a rather unnerves few minutes in the air. >> i think you're right, rupert. you address the issue because in situations like that, where you take off and you have to land quickly, oftentimes you have pilots take those planes, go circle, dump fuel, but that's because they've got on the certain altitudes where they're able to do this. in this case you can't just dump the fuel over london. >> that's right. a 747 carries an awful lot of fuel when it's on a transatlantic flight. because they hadn't reached the

safe altitude to dump that fuel, it would have been wholly inappropriate to dump it on people living in southwest london. therefore, the pilot had to take a landing with full fuel. it's unusual. it's not something that is advised because it puts undue stress on the aircraft frame. but it's not something that is dangerous. aircraft can do it and indeed today they did quite safely. >> thankfully nobody injured as far as reports thus far. but in the meantime, rupert, thank you for your report. both parties try to claim the lead on the economy. in dueling internet addresses president obama and the senate's republican leader each blame the other side of the aisle for the nation's struggle to create jobs. >> in a pledge they recently released, the republican leadership is promising to scrap all the incentives for clean energy projects including those currently under way, even with all the jobs and potential that they hold. >> virtually every single piece

of major legislation democrat leaders in washington have proposed over the past 19 months has made it either harder for businesses to hire new workers or retain the workers they already have. >> let's bring in nbc's mike viquiera. one month away that you've been touting for us. exactly one month to the day. are these the battle lines that you perceive for the next month? >> these parties are trying to make any distinction they can to motivate their base voters to get out and vote. those are voters that turn out in nonpresidential years. the term is the midterm election. you're right, hoist the balloons, strike up the band, november 2nd today, october 2nd, we're one month from this election where republicans are expected to make big gains. the only question now is how big are those gains going to be. a lot of experts -- i was checking around this morning -- believe that republicans are the odds on favorite to take the

lead in the house. it would seriously thwart any legislative ambitions that the president has over the course of the next two years. mitch mcconnell there attacking the president today because democrats left town. they're not going to be back until november 15th well after the election. for a lame duck session to take up those tax cuts that need to be extended before december 31st or else taxes will be raised across the board. at first they could not agree. a lot of democrats agreed with the republican position to continue those cuts for at least another two years. even for the most wealthy americans. that, of course, is what the president and democrats have opposed very strenuously for the last couple of weeks. >> so what about the recent shake-up? we've got rahm emanuel leaving the white house, now the news about robert gibbs' future. >> our friends in the politico posted that about an hour. they said that democratic officials are touching base with top democratic donors with the possibility of sending robert gibbs from the podium here in a

white house west wing briefing room as white house press secretary to the dnc to be the chairman leading up to the last two years, gearing up for the president's re-election drive. a lot of sources are pooh-poohing that possibility. he took to twitter, robert gibbs took to twitter and he said the following. i have not had any conversations about the future. it is a great honor to have the job i have right now, and i am very happy doing it. so no indication there that gibbs is going anywhere at least for the foreseeable future. we've had a number of people leave. obviously rahm emanuel tops among them. christina roamer, larry summers, thoughts that david axelrod will leave next summer, no surprising news. bank of america now says it's joining two other big banks in delaying foreclosures because it may have rushed that process for thousands of homeowners. gmac and jpmorgan are reviewing

tens of thousands of cases after it was reveal that employees at some companies signed foreclosure documents without even reading what was in them. bank of america is not saying how many cases will be affected. new developments this morning in the terror threats targeting big cities across europe. u.s. counterterrorism officials now say osama bin laden may have had a key role in the planning. let's get the details now from who is live for us. what have you learned about osama bin laden's connection here? >> basically intelligence officials are saying this plot was known to al qaeda central. that's the term they use to describe bin laden's operations. they said that senior leadership know about it too and that bin laden must be aware of some of the plans. the plot involved launching coordinateded attacks in major european cities in the uk, germany and france. and that would have involved shooting rampages like the mumbai attacks in 2008, but

they're not ruling out the types of attacks, too. counterterrorism officials say that lk slk out to prove that it can still flex its muscles despite being weakened in its support base and finances. these officials say they won't reveal what evidence they have that bin laden was so involved but they say the plot was in its early stages and the timing of the targets were not known as yet. >> tazeen ahmad, from london. many american voters are angry and they'll express that at the ballot box. a new poll indicates whether it will play out that way.

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the rescue of those 33 trapped miners in chile may come sooner than expected. officials in chile say they hope to get the miners out this month

instead of in november. rescue crews tested a specially designed capsule that will be used to lift them out of the shaft. currently all rescue shafts are being widened to accommodate that capsule. how voters view the upcoming elections. while democrats may be feeling some heat, new polling shows they have a big edge. they lead republicans on everything from afghanistan to energy to education. voters also give them higher marks on spending, taxes and the economy. gop's core concerns, of course. the only place republicans rank higher is on the issue of terrorism. let's bring in pat buchanan, republican strategist and msnbc political analyst as well as democratic strategist and kare. democrats are leading republicans on all the issues. why all the dire predictions about democrats losing the house? >> i think at this point i'm perfectly happy to have the republicans continue to crow about how they're going to take

over. let them be arrogant and we'll keep doing our work. again, we're not surprised to see polls are tightening up in the generic ballot race. over the summer there was a period where the republicans were leading. now we're seeing that even itself out. we're seeing individual races tighten up. and not surprisingly we're seeing that americans trust democrats on the issues that they care about in part because i think democrats have really stepped up their message and are really making it clear to people what's at stake in this election. so we'll have to keep doing our work and hope we get there on election day. >> a month from today. and pat, there is conventional wisdom out there that anger is what's driving this election. but there's a new poll that shows that angry drivers are no more likely to go to the polls than others. >> i think people have gibbon up on politics. they may be very angry, but they don't think that politics can solve their problems. they voted anti-republican and anti-bush in 2006 and 2008 when only 27% of the country thought bush was doing a good job.

92% thought the economy was in the tank. but the problem here is the perception that the democrats have completely failed, that all the hopes that obama raised, haven't been realized. and despite what the democrats say about their stimulus package did this, we prevented a recession, depression, the very fact that obama -- they fired or gotten rid of their three top economic guys, the budget director, the council of economic advisers and miss romer, that that tells you that the democrats themselves believe that the people have lost faith in the democratic party. that's what this is going to be a vote to throw the democrats out. >> pat! >> comparing this cycle to 19 94. republicans took control of the congress. they did throw the democrats out. the in your poll, 1994, you say 70% of the voters said they were dissatisfied with the country's direction. today that number is at 68%. when it comes to the economy in

1994, just over half said it was the reason for their discontent. look at today. that's jumped to 75%. >> but you know, alex there are differences between what was happening in 1994 and what is happening now. i was in the clinton administration at that time. unlike then, this cycle i think democrats got a wake-up call pretty early on in the cycle that we better get out there and do our work. again, i think the differences between what the gop is offering and what democrats are talking about are very different. the republican party -- i mean, newt gingrich had a strategy of actually putting out a plan. you really haven't had that from the gop. i mean, their own critics said a lot of rhetoric, no new ideas. what you've heard is a lot of policy ideas that make it clear that the republicans want to go back to the same policies that got us into this mess. when democrats actually contrast that with what they want to do and with what's been happening in the country, yes, people are angry and frustrated. but at the same time when asked the question, do you want to go forward or do you want to go

back, i think that's why you're seeing the race tightening. there are real differences in terms of the conditions on the ground that make it not a direct comparison. >> pat, how about all the heat the president's been taking over the last 20 months? because he's still relatively popular. he's got much stronger marks than the last two presidents had when it was a major shake-up in congress. republican, do you worry at all they're getting ahead of themselves here? >> my rue is i do think the republicans are getting to talking themselves so if we don't win 60 seats, it was a failure. i do think there's a lot of that. but take a look -- the president personally, he's probably running even negative/positive. but the you look at nancy pelosi the other day, the national polls, 22% positive, 50% negative. we talked in the last hour how harry reid is at 41% in his own state, the great majority leader that did all these things. this election, what it is about, it's not pro republican. what it is, the people said these guys were given this

chance. they talked big. they didn't deliver. the country's in a mess. the economy's in a mess. get rid of this crowd. i do agree with karen to this extent. now, maybe i disagree. the republicans should get out of the way with the new ideas and all that nonsense and just say, what we're going to do, our ideas, we're going to get rid of them and we're going to start new. that's what the country wants to do. >> but here's part of the problem. they haven't been able to say that. how can someone like john boehner who was giving out checks to lobists from the floor of the u.s. house, that's not something new. that's more of the same. i don't see how this crop of republicans can actually say they're going to do things differently when so many of them were a part of getting us into this mess in the first place. >> but karen, let me ask you. you mentioned john boehner, i agree with you. a lot of comments about his can and the rest of it, but stories that he's going to be the next speaker of the house! how can that be -- >> you tell me, pat. >> if people are disgusted with pelosi. i mean, pelosi at 22% positive.

nobody knows who boehner is and that's a good thing. >> that is a good thing for your party. >> oh! >> and he's been spending a little -- >> he's at 15. >> i think we know this game, right? it's about trying to create a sense of momentum and enthusiasm on the gop side. if you guys are happy with the idea that boehner will be the speaker of the house, i say, keep pushing it. >> all right, guys. >> i'm afraid that's what's going to happen. it's boehner and pelosi. there is no choice. >> good to see you both, as always. karen finney, pat buchanan, see you again. thanks. still ahead, 50 years of the flintstones and their early beginnings. fred and wilma join their favorite cigarette? huh? i'm coming to take over the world,

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it's the most popular social networking site on the web with more than half a billion members in the world. now the man who created facebook along with the controversy surrounding its origin are the

basis for the new movie "the social network." >> who are you? >> i'm marilyn dobie. i introduced myself -- >> i mean, what do you do? >> i'm a second year associate at the firm my boss wanted me to sit in on the deposition phase. what are you doing? >> checking in to see how it's going in bosnia. >> bosnia. they don't have roads but they have facebook. >> joining me live now, the columnist with the "village voice." it makes a good point, that clip there. what about the buzz this is getting? >> i saw it open at the new york film festival. some critics are saying movie of the year. et will get oscar contention. i thought it was a good tv movie. directed by aaron sorkin. it is strong. it's the store toef man who took credit for creating facebook, which is a world network for friends. meanwhile, he back stabbed all his own friends. this is the place where you can tell a complete stranger, i want to make potato leak soup and i'm

going out to my carpet cleaner. it's revolutionized the way people would communicate. >> i knew we'd go down that road with you, michael. but that having been said, how accurate is the film's portrayal. if you listen to mr. zuckerberg, he's like not so much. >> this is based on hearsay sources, based on a book. of course zucker berg wouldn't contribute or cooperate with a movie that will slam him. the two twins who say they created facebook, they couldn't cooperate because they received a huge settlement when they sued zuckerberg and they signed a nondisclosure. just like anything you watch nowadays like bio-pics, there's fudging. and in the process some things are exaggerated and some things played down. it seems accurate. it has the feeling of a crackling news story. you get into the back stabbing and the power struggles. >> we teased the flintstones. >> much more important. >> 50 years of the flintstones. a cultural icon. yabba dabba doo. >> much better than dyn-o-mite.

remember the jackie gleason show? fred and wilma were the first prime time couple to be shown in bed together. not much sexual heat between two cave people, cartoons. >> and they're smoking. that was then, this is now. >> that wouldn't be on x-tube right now. >> but it was aimed at an adult audience. >> it started for an adult audience, but then became for kids. everybody watched it. as we grew up, we kept watching the reruns because guest stars like anne margrock and everybody wanted a pet dinosaur. >> it has evolved to being one of the greatest cartoons of its time. here we are talking about it. >> a sitcom in cartoon form. it will be up against social network for the oscar this year. no! just it will have much more resonance in the -- >> you, michael musto, you are a classic. that's why we love breing you on. >> yabba dabba doo, thank you. >> still ahead, we'll have more

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it's msnbc saturday. i'm alex witt. half past the hour. two train crashes in indonesia today killed 37 people. 36 of them died when their train crashed right into another one parked at a rail station. for a second straight day there's a tape reportedly from osama bin laden. in today's audio release on the internet, the al qaeda leader called on muslims to do more for people in flood ravaged pakistan. people in jamaica today are cleaning up and trying to recover from tropical storm nicole's fury. that storm killed at least a dozen people. arnold schwarzenegger and state legislators have agreed on a new budget deal. no details have been released, but both parties tried to come up with ways to reduce california's $19 billion budget deficit. and the fdic have shut down

two more banks which makes 129 bank failures so far this year. memorials are set throughout this weekend for tyler clementi, the 18-year-old who jumped to his death from the new york bridge after a sexual encounter was streamed live on the internet. prosecutors say that two of clementi's classmates at rutgers used a video cam to broadcast a sexual encounter between clementi and another man in his dorm room. the university will hold a vigil tomorrow. meantime, the case is raising some new legal questions as prosecutors pursue invasion of privacy charges against these two. those being dahren vavi and karen wei. welcome to the both of you. the facebook page, manslaughter charges for dahren ravi and molly wei. do you see this ticking upwards?

are you seeing a call for something more than just invasion of privacy? >> there's certainly forward momentum on this. but whether you would get to the point of a murder or manslaughter charge, i don't think so. in order to charge somebody with manslaughter, you'd really have to prove that there was an intent of some kind of a reckless degree of negligence and it was foreseeable that the suicide would occur. hard to prove here. on the other hand, this may be a hate crime. it's certainly an invasion of privacy under new jersey law. and the statute there calls for punishment as high as ten years in prison. so there are serious criminal penalties available to punish for this offense. >> so karen, you're a defense attorney. put on that hat and tell me what you would do to defend these two? >> obviously, i would say what i would be most worried about is them upgrading it to a third degree plus the hate crime, because then you're looking at double the time. but really from a common sense point, even if this was a third or fourth degree crime and my clients had perfect records, then there's a presumption in

new jersey of nonincarceration, meaning they're not going to jail. of course, i'd be worried about them now with the high profile of all of this, oh, great -- >> their futures. >> not only their future, their reputation, but now what else are they going to throw at them? thankfully there are no federal laws yet because those are still in the pike. >> how about those futures when tyler clementi has no future? >> i think this case should be the poster child to send a message out there that there are consequences to this kind of conduct. we've got a whole generation of young kids out there who live their whole lives online, who post terrible things like this. >> if you can't put your name on it, if you can't put your name on it, you can't say it to the person's face and you won't say it in front of a group of people, then maybe you should think twice before you post it. >> it is not posting it also. but we're talking about filming sexual conduct between two other people. and any human being knows this is wrong. but i think what kids don't understand is that it's also

criminal. >> so where is the breakdown here? is it that laws have not been developed enough with our perpetual forward motion with technology and society? are the parents not doing their thing? culture not supporting -- >> i think there are two things going on. number one, this is sort of the perfect storm of social media. you've got twitter, facebook, ichat, webcams all involved in a situation where you can instantaneously broadcast -- >> and be anonymous. >> as being anonymous and you can be cruel and get away with it. normally, i won't walk up to you and call you all kinds of names and then post -- >> you might do that. >> you will think twice. >> you might do it in the backyard or the school yard. in the old day, people would gossip about each other. the bullies would pick on somebody else, but it stayed within a two, three person group. it didn't get broadcast over the internet. >> no consequences. >> and nobody committed suicide as a result of it. >> what do you think of the likelihood of a hate crime being added? >> i think it's a difficult

prosecution for prosecutors here. they've got to prove this was motivated by animus to gay people. i think it was a malicious, horrible prank, i don't know that prosecutors will be able to prove that -- >> calling it premeditated. >> it's got be motivated by hatred for a racial group or a gender group or sexual orientation. >> that's the problem with hate crimes because a lot of times when they're doing hateful things, they'll say hateful things. that doesn't mean that was their intent. it's difficult but we'll see when the federal legislation comes down the pike, then we'll start applying that law. >> there may be evidence out there. prosecutors are interviewing friends of these kids. maybe they made statements that they're homophobic. who knows. >> along with the rest of many people in america so -- >> yes. >> all right, paul callan karen desoto. the search is on in florida for two men who police say were involved in an armored truck heist. one security man working for the brink's security company was shot and killed as they transfer cash yesterday. police arrested one suspect but

two other men are on the loose after they crashed their getaway car and fled on foot. police warn those robbers are believed to be armed. the brink's company is offering $75,000 to anyone with information that leads to further arrests. a new section of the gulf of mexico is reopened to fishing for first time since the bp oil disaster. the more than 5500 square mile chunk of the golf is 7500 miles from the formerly blown out well. other waters remain closed to fishing. some big shoes to fill in the white house as the president's very brash, very vocal chief of staff steps down. rahm emanuel is leaving washington to run for mayor of chicago. he's being replaced, at least for the time being, by the president's longtime aide peter rouse. let's bring in anne kornblut, reporter for "the washington post." good morning. >> good morning. >> what do you think this will do to help or hurt political strategy as far as the white house is concerned? >> i think there may actually not be much change between now and at least the midterms which

is only a month away. pete rouse, along with rahm emanuel, before he knew he was leaving, put together a strategic plan that would carry them through the midterm. every assumption is that this will be followed through just because rahm has left and pete has taken his place, that won't change. pete is working on an assessment of the west wing at this point figuring out if there's something they need to do to streamline it once they see what the midterm results are and if there's a great republican takeover, they may have to reshape things. but the big changes to come will probably come after november 2nd. >> talk about the relationship between rahm emanuel and the president, how far it goes back and how different it is from that which the president has with pete rouse. >> these are both longstanding relationships. rahm emanuel has known the president from his chicago days. hey was in congress when he was then senator obama. they knew each other then. pete rouse has been the president's chief of staff since he first came to the senate.

and pete rouse has a much deeper institutional knowledge of washington than the president himself, having been on capitol hill for more than 30 years. so both of them i think it is safe to say have close relationships. and i would not expect that to me a major difference between one to the other. the biggest difference will be stylistic. pete rouse is not somebody who has been a principal. he'sless been a staffer, although a very powerful and prominent one, he's still a staffer and someone whose demeanor is described as much calmer and quieter. >> do you see a difference in the way the white house will deal with republicans with incoming pete rouse? will it be less contentious? more behind the scenes? what's it going to be like? >> you know, a really good question. i think in addition to being too soon to tell, i think it's probably too much to put the relationship between the parties between the white house and the republicans on any one person at this point. it's become so fraught, as you know. and it's become that way at a

national level. and i think it's really difficult to say that it would really only be rahm emanuel's fault or something that pete rouse himself could fix. especially if there is a republican takeover of either house after november 2nd, where it would probably only grow worse. but time will tell, as always. >> all this natural christine romer, larry summer, peter orszag. we are almost two years into the administration. time for a change? you got to figure the burnout factor. these people work 24/7. >> they are at the office before the sun is up, they go home long after the sun is down. two years is long enough for many of them to get out and go back to their normal lives and have lucrative jobs. we'll see a few more prominent people go around the end of the year. and then people really need to decide are they there for the long haul? are they going to be there through 2012? because what is damaging for any administration is to have staff members decide right at the last minute they want to go. it would be very difficult for

the president to lose a chief of staff a month before his own re-election. one thing to do it before the midterms. that can't be the case in 2012. they'll lock in their staff and have it remain stable. >> anne kornblut, good to talk to you. up next, checking the mail may never be the same, from your bills to birthday cards. we'll tell you about big changes that can by delivered. the needs and frustrations of the shrimpers and fishermen, hotel or restaurant workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. bp has taken full responsibility for the clean up in the gulf and that includes keeping you informed. our job is to listen and find ways to help. that means working with communities. restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund to cover lost income until people impacted

can get back to work. and our efforts aren't coming at tax-payer expense. i know people are wondering-- now that the well is capped, is bp gonna meet its commitments? i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here. i'm gonna be here until we make this right.

it's a troubling breach of the medical code. first, do no harm. a secret american program that intentionally infected hupds of people in guatemala with sexually transmitted diseases. newly revealed documents show that in the 1960s, american doctors infected prison inmates, mental patients and soldiers with syphilis and gonorrhea to test effectiveness of penicillin. that happened in the 1940s. in some cases funds went to prostitutes who were paid to sleep with unknowing test

subjects. the guatemala government is instituting an investigation. check your mailbox. today could be one of the last saturdays you'll get mail delivered by the national postal service. a new report in "the washington post" says the mail agency is anticipating $6 billion in losses this fiscal year. in fact, the postal service has lost money three years in a row now. as more and more customers are turning to the internet to pay their bills and purchase goods and send personal messages. let's get the details now from "washington post's" ed o'keefe. good morning. >> good to see you. >> i'm glad to see you. but interesting to think it may be one of the last saturdays that we see mail in our mailbox? how likely is that? and would that be a permanent change? >> it wouldn't happen certainly not this year, but if congress perhaps takes this up during the lame duck or early next year, there's a good chance that about six months later saturday mail deliveries might end. unprofitable post offices might close. you might find the ability to send and receive packages at a nearby supermarket or pharmacy.

all sorts of different things that the post office wants to do in order to stop losing money and to sort of create new business in order to make more money. >> so saturday delivery is cut, how much does that help the post service? i mean, would that really save all that much? >> the thought is it would save them at least $3 billion, which is not nearly enough to close what's expected to be something like a nine-figure budget gap in the next ten xwreerps they've got to do all sorts of things. the biggest thing they've got to do is cut back on labor costs. they pay much more for health benefits than the federal government does for its health workers. a lot of these folks make good money because they do a labor intensive job which is sorting through the mail, delivering it, walking the streets. but labor negotiations under way right now they think might be able to fix some of that. the other thing they've got to think about doing is consolidating a lot of the regional offices and post offices they have in areas where there isn't as much mail being delivered any more. they could save a few million by

doing just that. >> are you worried this is a slippery slope. we've got saturday potentially being cut, what about friday? move into every other day service, monday, wednesday, friday kind of thing? >> saturday's the only goal right now. you talk to people, they say the other day they would cut is tuesday because that's the second slowest day after saturday. but that isn't expected to happen any time soon. frankly, saturday is still a pipe dream because you've got to convince lawmakers who still have a say in all this that they're doing enough at the postal service to cut back before justifying allowing them to go and do these other more dramatic things. majority of the country in polling that other people have done suggest that a majority of the country is okay with cutting saturday no delivery if that means you can keep the cost down and keep the mail delivered just about every other day. >> what about the postal service failing to earn the regulator approval to raise the stamp prices in january by a couple of cents. >> that's good for you and i as customers because we don't have

to pay more for our stamps. but bad for them because they needed that extra revenue. it isn't again alone enough to close the gap, they argued they needed it because mail vol upwas down and recession caused them to lose a lot of money. regulators say, yeah, that's been a problem. but the big problem is you have a business model that doesn't work. so you have to fix that first. >> that's the first time i can recall hearing about a postage hike in the works and then saying, actually not. they usually get what they asked for. >> in fact it was first time ever the regulators have turned down a request from the postal service. a pretty dramatic move. they're not happy about it, obviously. but i guess again the good thing is that you and i won't pay as much for stamps. and business groups that send catalogs and other advertisements through the mail were thrilled. they had organized for the first time in opposition. >> in these lean economic times someone's happy. but of course someone else is not. happy to talk to you. >> take care. remember when political sex

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a very special football game for a high school athlete in minnesota. toward the end of the game last week, the team asked the coach to put sam colden in to catch a pass. sam is a senior who has autism and he's been on the football team since eighth grade. once he got in the game, he did not just catch that ball. would you look at that. he took them 66 yards for the first touchdown of his high school career. >> it was amazing. >> that had to have been the highlight of anybody's life. you could see the aura. >> didn't that give you chills? that's so good. sam's team ended up winning the game and his taeammates are thrilled of his accomplishment and so are we.

the sex scandal. who can forget last summer when this nation was transfixed by south carolina governor mark sanford. he was walking the appalachian trail. we all know now what that means. and then in louisiana, senator bitter's name popping up. senator vitter running for reelection. he has a commanding lead there. he plans to run for reelection in 2012. then perhaps most surprisingly in south carolina, sanford's approval rate was at 55%, which rap ranks higher than president obama's. good morning to you. here is the big question. are american politicians handling this better or are american voters looking at all these guys differently?

>> i don't think they're handling it remotely better. i think it's merely that we are totally exhausted by all these scandals. obviously you're dealing with a country that's practically on the brink, and you probably think that's true whether you're a democrat or republican these days. if you look at sanford, he certainly didn't handle it well. i mean, there is no way to look at that guy and say, this guy handled it well, but, you know, he may have done other parts of his job well, and that's certainly how the people of his state seem to feel. >> are you getting a sense that that's -- is there any sort of different -- i don't want you to feel like you have to pass judgment on all this, but is there a sense that reality has become redefined now via politics? >> i don't know if reality has become redefined or if we're just sort of tired of it. there are sort of only so many times you can shock people. we have been through the where i

thinker with bi -- wringer with clinton, we've been through it with gary hart. >> gary hart back in the '80s, that was then and his clear imploded. how much have we changed? >> well, i don't know. i mean, certainly there are still moralistic impulses in this country. i wouldn't want to say that they're gone, but it was 23 years ago now. it was 1987, and, you know, we've had some time to adjust and we've had a precedent on top of these things for 23 years. >> there are those who would suggest, though, let's look at another country, as this article does, denmark, where politicians and their personal lives are never trodden upon during political elections. and people say over there, you know, it's really nobody's business, nobody cares because it's nothing about the way they're going to govern.

do you think we're moving toward that model? >> i think we're getting closer and europe is slighti inly more immune than we are to all this stuff. >> how about mickey haley, though? the allegations are infidelity and how is she doing? >> she seems to be doing just fine. she trounced her opponent in the primary and things look very promising for her. i think we're bored. i think we do. >> too much we've heard about it. we're just sort of immune to it all. >> yeah. >> you should read it in the daily beast. "death of a sex scandal." it's all about jobs in the national wall today.

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right now on msnbc saturday, a rally call at the steps of the lincoln memorial. as we give you a live look now at washington, thousands are expected to show up to make history. it's clear they're starting to do so. this is a call for help, a plea for jobs, education and a just america. it is the one nation working together rally. it's organized by labor and civil rights groups. good day to all of you. i'm alex witt where we are approaching noon here on the east coast and 9:00 on the west coast. welcome to an extended edition. let's go to bryan moore who is live there on the nation's capitol. bryan, good day to you. how are things going there? >> alex, a beautiful day on the mall. a few thousand people gathered on either side of the reflecting