going, trying to reach over the counter. and mike is in there shooting at him, and he finally turns around and starts returning fire with mike, and that's what saved everybody's life in there. mike jones getting in there when he did. that's the only thing that saved us from losing one another or all of us. >> if mike had not come when he did, there would be at least one board member not here today. >> an amazing day in the day of mike jones, ginger littlefield and mike husfeld. >> that's the last word, you can follow us online at thelastword@msnbc.com. which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? the long dismal tide of surrender. >> the yeas are 81, the nays are 19. the motion is agreed to. >> next to fail on the tax cut deal, the house. >> at the end of the day, i think we're going to have to

pass a bill. that's the view of many of us. >> only accurately see what this is a precursor to. >> it changes the very nature of social security. >> our special guest, congressman rush holt. most importantly, republicans are now enraged about the war on christmas vacation. >> it is impossible to do all of the things that the majority leader laid out without doing, frankly, without disrespecting the institution, and without disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for christians and the families of all of the senate. >> chris hayes on new noise about not raising the debt ceiling without cuts and the war on christmas vacation. quantico, it's the new gitmo. the alleged wikileaks source,

bradley manning, is in the brig, in solitary in conditions that are being compared to torture. our guest, fbi whistle-blower, colleen rowly. and the little child shall lead them. the arizona 13-year-old raising money to get a liver transplant for jan brewer death panel victim, francisco felix. >> i'm only a 17-year-old kid trying to help another kid live another day. >> our guest, carlos olivos you're. crash and burn, sarah palin's book sales plummet another 29% on top of last week's plummet. >> and which word is he saying here, censure or censor. he claims censure. >> and i think we that we also should be censoring the american news agencies which enabled him. >> all the news and commentary now on "countdown." >> we need to have an honest conversation. good evening from new york.

this is wednesday, december 15th, 692 days until the 2012 presidential election. and to that point, the white house says that congressmen couldn't know firsthand, because the president has not spoken to him about this, nor said this to him about any of this, but congressman peter defazio of oregon is tonight saying that the mr. obama is, quote, making phone calls, saying this is the end of his presidency if he doesn't get this the bad deal, end quote. that, the context for the fifth story tonight, after blasting senate democrats for caving to president obama's deal with the gop and a two-year extension of the bush tax cuts for the richest americans, and a lower estate tax even than president bush had. house democrats are now standing their ground. at least until tomorrow, when they're expected to cave too. today's vote was in the senate, 81-19, an overwhelming and bipartisan majority. five republicans on the right

joined 14 democrats on the left in imposing the bill including senator jim demint. demint, however, not opposing the bill with any of his trademark stalling tactics, tactics he only unleashed after his no vote. his actual stalling on further votes for don't ask, don't tell and the s.t.a.r.t. treaty leading senate majority leader reid to warn that he will call the senate back into session between christmas and new year's. >> i hate to report all of this to you, but, you know, there's still congress after christmas. so if the republicans think that, because they can stall and stall and stall, that we take a break, we're through, we're not through. congress ends on january 4th. so we're going to continue working on this stuff until we get it done. >> this prompting republican senator jon kyl to cry blasphemy over the concept of the war on christmas vacation. >> it is impossible to do all of the things that the majority leader laid out without doing -- frankly, without disrespecting the institution, and without disrespecting one of the two

holiest of holidays for christians. >> and the ironic humor, in the republican claims of a democratic war on christmas vacation, drained away quickly by a report in "usa today" on the real christmas war american families are fighting, a war to clothe their kids. the newspaper reporting an all-time high in kids' letters to santa, asking not for toys, but for clothing. boots, winter coats. senate republican leader mitch mcconnell today unfazed by such struggles and mounting a new struggle on behalf of millionaires, trying again in vain to change the senate bill to make the tax cuts permanent, even on income above $250,000, this after warning the house just yesterday to not try to change the bill. whether house democrats will comply is still uncertain, although they are widely expected to pass this bill tomorrow, without changes. there has been talk of trying to increase the estate tax, or as our next guest, congressman rush holt would like to see, swapping the cut in the social security payroll tax for another form of

tax credit. karl rove's group, crossroads, now up with ads targeting a dozen house democrats to approve the senate bill as is. the president, on the same page in this case as mr. rove and his message to house democrats this afternoon. >> mr. president, do you want the house to pass the senate version of the tax bill with no changes? >> yes. i want -- i want them to get it passed as soon as possible. >> this is as a new poll finds two out of three americans do not think the hole in our deficit will help our economy. only 36% said it will help. 43% said no impact, is their prediction. 17% saying it will hurt. how could it hurt? as we reported yesterday, the ratings agency moody's says the tax cuts could force them to reconsider america's credit rating for the first time in history. the council on foreign relations in a new analysis today warning that the debt increase "could spur higher u.s. brothering costs and greater dependence on sur plug countries like china." sherrod brown tried to get bipartisan support to attach to the tax cut bill, a deal that had already passed the house, that would address china's

manipulation of its own currency, which keeps the prices of chinese product well below that of u.s. competitors. even though such a move would create jobs estimated in the hundreds of thousands, the administration opposes it, depending on china to keep financing our growing debt. even sending the secretary of state there last year to vouch for america's credit. in new figures todd s today, the treasury revealed that china alone had acquired another $26 billion in u.s. debt and holds more than $900 billion in u.s. treasury. the treasury denying our request to reveal how much debt held by saudi arabia and possibly even iran. speaker pelosi's office telling "countdown," quote, we continue to discuss this issue of disclosure with treasury. as we reported last week, in 1974, the u.s. treasury got saudi arabia to start buying billions in u.s. debt in exchange for keeping it a secret. in a statement to "countdown" tonight, the treasury department announced, "treasury has been reporting this data in the same way for many years. in response to recent requests

for additional detail about foreign holders of treasury securities, the treasury department general counsel is reviewing how this information is disclosed to the public." see, in the year 9,000 for more information. now, as promised, democratic congressman rush holt of new jersey joins us. much thanks for your time tonight, sir. >> good to be with you, keith. >> how will you vote tomorrow? >> well, we haven't yet seen how it's going to be tomorrow, but it doesn't look too hopeful. you know, a colleague of mine said, oh, don't think that congress will sacrifice its vacation for the middle class. i said, oh, no, we'll stay and do the right thing. now i have my doubts. >> you have talked, as i mentioned, an alternative to cutting the payroll tax that funds social security. would you explain why? >> sure. what this deal does is a lot more than just extending some

tax cuts. it certainly is desirable to put more money in the pockets of americans and stimulate the economy that way. but by taking the 2% off of the social security tax and then replentyishing that lost revenue from the general funds, they do real damage to the very rationale of social security. social security, when it was passed in 1935, was a political master stroke. fdr and the other people had a hard time passing social security. and they came up with a very shrewd rationale. and that is that this is an insurance program that people have a sense of ownership for. and that has kept it alive in the face of really determined enemies over 75 years. now their saying, social security is on the table. it's on the table with amt and estate tax and whether or not the bush tax cuts cutoff is going to be $250,000 or $1 million, and it's on there with expensing of business appreciation -- depreciation. in other words, it's just another bargaining chip.

well, if social security becomes just another bargaining chip, it's going to go away in no time at all. the political rationale, the support for it will unravel quickly. >> you told talking points memo of your concerns about social security and you said that they fell on deaf ears at the white house or were completely ignored. what history are you saying that mr. obama needs to know here and which advisers are you talking about? >> well, with no one in particular, i guess, keith. but in 1935, it really was a political master stroke to create social security. it's one of the great programs of america. two-thirds of seniors depend on social security for most of their livelihood. and that's not counting the the millions of surviving spouses of children and people with disabilities who depend on social security. it has stay aid ed alive, it has paid on time, nobody has missed

a payment, it will be financially secure for at least a for more decades, and this is all because of the ingenious way it was set up as, not just as another government program, but as an insurance program into which people paid their money. and fdr said explicitly, roosevelt said explicitly, this is not to be funded from general taxation. and that has helped keep this program safe from, well, as i said, the determined enemies it has had over the decades. >> the quote with which i began this portion of the broadcast, "the hill" is the source of this, from congressman defazio. he said tonight that the president is making phone calls saying this is the end of his presidency if he doesn't get this bad deal. presumably, even in that quote,

he's not saying the president called it a bad deal, from his perspective. but the gist of this, can you confirm any of that? >> i can't personally confirm that, no. i think there are some problems with the bill the way it shifts more of the burden of running our government on to the backs of middle income people, and a number of other things. and of course, the estate tax will provide tens of billions of dollars to a few thousand americans, if it goes through as proposed. those are, in my mind, fixable in a year or two. i don't like them, but if social security goes bad, that's bad for decades. >> indeed. democratic congressman, rush holt of new jersey. great thanks for your time tonight, and good luck with your project of protecting social security. >> thanks, keith. >> let's bring in chris hayes, also the washington editor of "the nation" magazine.

good evening, chris. >> good evening, keith. >> two things to talk about here. the first one being washington seems to think we have a deficit problem. senate and house now rejecting tax increases as the solution to the deficit problem, whether or not there really is one. so other than asking superman to go to another planet and find the money, what would be the one and only remaining option to make up that shortfall? >> well, that -- that's as leading a question as the way the fiscal commission was set up, right? >> yes, exactly. i'm applying for the job on the next one. >> that's right. well, the answer is slashing spending. and slashing spending in ways, particularly going after the sort of backbone of the american social welfare state, which is, you know, medicare and social security, specifically, which are the broad social insurance. i think it's great that congressman holt stressed to the degree the in which they really are social insurance. going after the social insurance that we as a society have come together to provide that have provided tremendous benefits for millions of people for years, that is the core of -- that has been always the goal, from the liberty league going, you know,

opposing social security with fdr to goldwater and the birch society and the right ring for seven years in this country has hated social security and it's hated medicare and it's wanted to get rid of both of them for as long as it's existed and that's always been in its sights. >> the second part of this, the debt to china, up by another $29 billion in the last month, and even to saudi arabia, this was an issue in 2008 and 2010. and if democrats now pass and the president now signs a bill that increases that debt by almost $1 trillion and nobody's going to reveal how much debt they're selling to the saudis, how is that not an easy to digest republican christmas president for 2012? >> well, here's the problem. there's such tremendous disingenuous around deficits and the debt. anyone -- first of all, the rule is no one in washington who talks about caring about the deficit actually cares about the deficit, almost without exception. it is a way of talking about other things that right now polls well. so you have to kind of like penetrate the rhetoric of the deficit and every time you hear

the word, figure out what the person is really talking about. because in most cases, in nine times out of ten times, it's not actually about the deficit and debt, it's about going after medicare or social security or other anxieties about declining u.s. influence. the other thing to say here, china owns, $4 trillion of our debt is held by foreigners and a quarter of that is china. china is buying more and more of our debt as we issue more, but most of the debt is held by americans, and the big secret is most of it is held by wall street. it's in the big banks. it's in pension funds and in the big banks. and they're the ones that are actually driving this train much more than china is. >> let me turn again to this congressman defazio quote out of "the hill," where obama is saying if he doesn't get this, it's the end of his presidency. does that sound legitimate to you? do you know anything about that and what are the implications? because it sounds astonishing to me. >> yeah, i think that sounds

hyperbolic to me, frankly. >> hyperbolic in mr. defazio's case or a statement of the president's? >> i don't know if the president's saying. if the president's actually saying that, it's hyperbolic. the president's trying to get a bill passed and scaring people into passing it. he may believe that, the people in the white house may believe that. i don't know whether or not they do. but i think a defeat here, there's no question there would be a news cycle or several news cycles of sort of histrionic rending of garments about how he couldn't get his deal through. but in the long run, something the president has said over and over again, good politics is good policy. and the question is, is this substantively good on the merits? and if you don't think it is, that shouldn't be foremost in your mind if you're casting a vote in the united states congress tomorrow. >> he had this choice between this defeat and a larger one

later. he chose the larger one later. he'll get them both. chris hayes, the washington editor of "the nation," thank you, chris. if what the western nations are tig to do to julian assange is not evidence enough of how much of a nerve assange has hit, private bradley manning will be to you. the word used is torture, next 37. th. there you go. yeah. >> ( speaking chinese ) >> ( speaking chinese ) >> ( laughing ) >> introducing cisco umi. be together in high def on your tv. exclusively at best buy's magnolia stores. cisco. financial independence?

he is alleged to be the nce? serviceman behind the wikileaks mother lode and his treatment in our name is alleged to be akin to torture. one of the man you've met here, his life-saving transplant reneged upon by the state of arizona. the bid to raise the money privately led by a 13-year-old, who will join us. more book sales data is in, and hers is in the same sinking boat as the book written by the kardashian sisters. and he said "sen censor the media," he now claims he said "censure the media." how does vanishing deductible work ?

that boulder is like your insurance deductible. big, always hanging over your head. but, vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance takes $100 off your deductible every year you're a safe driver, until... amazing ! you saved me ! oh it was just an analogy. but you're welcome, you're welcome. ♪ nationwide is on your side that's very good.

the tactics sounddownright bushian. the message to an army private allegedly responsible for the biggest wikileaks revelations to date is simple. you try to be a whifl stle-blower, exposing the lies of war, then a kind of war will rain down on you. the soldier awaiting trial has been held for seven months in solitary confinement, a condition that many experts and nations view as torture or nearly so. army intelligence private first class bradley manning, believed to be the source of wikileaks' most high-profile releases earlier this year, has been held for seven months in solitary, this according to salon.com, citing several people directly familiar with manning's

attention, as well as a quantico brig official who confirmed much of it. specifically, manning has been detained at the u.s. marine brig in quantico for five months, and for two months before that in a military jail in kuwait. he has been designated a maximum custody detainee, under no suicide watch. manning spends 23 out of every 24 hours alone in his cell. this has been true for seven months. he is prohibited from exercising in that cell, strictly monitored and enforced. he has denied prison basics like a pillow and sheets. medical personnel administer antidepressants regularly from prevent manning to mentally deteriorating due to the effect of such isolation. many experts equate solitary confinement with torture. and a 2006 bipartnership commission on u.s. prisons recommended the elimination of prolonged solitary confinement as tortuous conditions. what manning provided to an ex-hacker made its way to wikileaks. ostensibly filmed from one of

two apache helicopters. but according to the guardian, the air crew seems to have falsely captured a firefight. a dozen people on the ground are killed, including two iraqis working for the reuters news agency. in july of this year, wikileaks released other information related to manning, the afghan war logs. "the new york times" called that an unvarnished ground level picture of the war in afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal. bradly manning faces charges of unlawfully transferring classified material to a nonsecure computer skpo to an unauthorized third party. a spokesman for manning's defense fund tells cbs news that manning's trial is for a from beginning. the army must complete a psychological evaluation first. in manning's defense, and prosecutors can't degree on who to conduct that evaluation. let's turn to former fbi agent and whistle-blower, colleen rowly.

>> thank you. >> i can tell you in my 24 years a an fbi investigator and 13 years teaching fbi agents criminal procedure, i've never heard of punishing someone pre-conviction like this in solitary confinement. it really sounds vindictive and in a way, it seems like some of the harsh interrogation tactics have kind of bled over now into the criminal process, which is just shocking. >> the devil's advocate question, was what manning allegedly materially did from what you did? were his alled actions different from what wikileaks did because of the oath that he took and his duty to the u.s. military? >> well, i've had a chance, you know, to meet many other whistle-blowers. and of course, a famous one, daniel ellsberg. and i think what bradley did is on all fours what ellsberg did. he leaked higher classified documents than bradley manning. so if you look at shooting the messenger, the phenomenon. that's exactly what happens in almost all of these cases.

it's the same old thing. >> is there any important distinction to be made between wikileaks and what is sort of collectively ascribed journalism, particularly considering that either kind of thing is often accused of essentially treason when it gets too close to the truth by one of the relevant governments? >> well, again, if you go back to the pentagon papers, you will see 19 newspapers defying the president's orders at this time, nixon, who actually tried to shut down the newspapers for publishing classified information. our supreme court said, no, that's the first amendment right. i see all the time thats there information, even in today's "new york times," there's classified information that was leaked. and so i really don't see a distinction that matters between

mainstream media and what weeks is doing. >> yeah, if we issued licenses, that would be one thing, but we don't issue licenses. anybody can be a journalist. are you disappointed. you mentioned what the nixon administration tried to do. are you disappointed about how effectively the obama administration has been, either browbeat into retaining or employing practices that are reminiscent of some of the worst aspects of the bush administration. >> well, i and many other whistle-blowers were very disappointed, because obama campaigned on protecting whistle-blowers. he promised that he would enact whistle-blower protection. there is a bill right now that i think has passed the senate, but it still contains no protection for someone in the fbi or 16 intelligence agencies. and he's also prosecuting whistle-blowers who blew the whistle on bush's illegal actions. if you remember the warrantless monitoring. so that very much cuts across what he promised. and it's very disappointing to see this type of repression on

the media. >> is there any relationship to your experience between the amount of reaction from the total number of governments relative to the comparable truth of what has been whistle-blown, what has been released by somebody like assange? >> well, the comparison, of course, wikileaks hasn't released a lot of documents, but they have not all been published. and he is working with mainstream press. so, again, i think it's quite responsible. in my case, my memo leaked on its own. it was not my own intention to have it leaked, but once it got into the papers, it was my sole protection. i didn't realize that in the government, there really was no whistle-blower protection. >> coleen rowley, the fbi whistle-blower, thank you for that. the news from the arizona death panels that governor jan brewer has been grim until today brought the story of carlos olivas jr. he's trying to fill the role for

a man who you know needs a liver transplant. a week from friday, carlos turns 13. he'll join us.

a 13-year-old doing what the state of arizona is too heartless to do, try to save a stranger's life. first, another exclusive "countdown" book report. the already soggy sales of sarah palin's "america by heart" just got soggier. publishing sources confirm that at a time when 43 of the 50 nonfiction best sellers saw

sales jump on nielsen book scan, what with christmas looming, palin sold fewer copies than the week before. one of the other titles to sell less, "kardashian confidential." total sales of "going rogue," 1 811,491. even if the book as sold as many copies at walmart as it has everywhere else combined, you're looking at 70% of a print run sitting in warehouses waiting to be returned to the publisher. oops. let's play "oddball" ." we begin in this age of tupperware and gladware, people are keeping their leftovers longer and longer, like 2,400 years. archaeologists in china recently unearthed a bronze pot at a terracotta grave site containing soup. mm, 2,400-year-old soup. unfortunately, due to the oxidation from the bronze, the soup was inedible. also, they forgot to bring spoons.

is it soup yet? tests are being run to identify the exact ingredients, possibly an attempt to recreate the recipe. to whiskey island. really? anyone, to whiskey island, ohio, where winter is in full swing. this is not the white watch's castle from narnia. high winds and frigid temperatures blew water up from lake herery, covered the lighthouse and the other navigation markers in layer of ice, proving the myth that whiskey will keep you warm. but it's been turned into a winter wonderland. finally, to the vatican. this is not fake. someone decided it would be a good idea to have acrobats perform for the pope. how could this turn awkward. oh, boy. hey, ohio, hey, yep! as uncomfortable as this situation seems,s there little to actually warrant any sort of

editorial comment. it's not like these shirtless men caused the pope to get out of the chair and leave or -- uh-oh, too many comments. must resist. time marches on! what was that? the seventh grader trying to do what arizona's governor is too heartless to do, save a stranger's life. he joins us next.

once his homework is done, his free times these days is spent not playing baseball or video games. two of his favorite activity ies, but rather, collecting donations on the streets of phoenix, arizona. in the third story, the money seventh grader carlos olivas jr. is gathering is not for a school field trip or little league, but for a man carlos has only met one, francisco felix, one of the nearly 100 arizonan ians denied money by jan brower's death panel. mr. felix suffering from hepatitis "c" and liver cancer needs a transplant in order to live.

carlos started collecting money on busy street corners, a dime at a time. every day after school, and weekends too. carlos' work was so inspiring that his school decided to get involved in the cause by organizing a dress-down day. students at don menson school in glendale, arizona, raising over $1,500. and tomorrow, carlos gets to present the felix family with a check at a school assembly. if you have been inspired by carlos and you would like to donate to the francisco felix fund or anybody else's, go to ntafund.org. your donation will help somebody in need of an organ transplant. money donated will give them and otherwise the opportunity to be listed for a transplant, as well as to afford the associated costs once they get the transplant. and joining me now, as promised, is carlos olivas jr., and his aunt, anita. hi, carlos. how much money have you raised

so far? >> by myself or by my school? >> by yourself, sir. >> i have raised over $800 by myself. >> that's tremendous. now, you found out about mr. felix while watching the local news. what made you decide to collect money for somebody you'd never met? >> i decided to collect money because my dad has cirrhosis of the liver and what if he needs a liver transplant and we don't have enough money. >> you finally got to meet mr. felix at this news conference when all the people who need the transplants were talking to the reporters. and you got to speak to him with the help of a translator. what was that like for you? what did the two of you talk about? >> we're talking about, like, how was i trying to help him and what was my goal. and he kept on thanking me and thanking me. >> was he surprised that you

were doing this? >> yeah, very surprised. >> and did you tell him about your dad? >> no. >> but he just got the impression that you were a kid who cared about other people? >> yeah. >> good. where did you get the idea to go out on busy street corners, and when you're out there, how do people react when you tell them what you're raising the money for? >> i got the idea of going on street corners because when somebody in our family passes away or needs a surgery and they don't got insurance, we'll go out and ask for donations or a car wash. and since it's winter, i started to go out on the corners and ask for donations. and my -- what was the other

question you asked me, i'm sorry? >> what do people say when you tell them why you're asking for money? what is their reaction? >> their reaction is shock, because i'm only 13 years old and trying to help save a man life and letting him live another day and watch his kids grow up. >> your mom works for this medicaid program that this is all a part of, the access program, and your father's currently receiving money from the access program. you know, the arizona legislature has talked about making more cuts and your sign talked about the cuts in the access program. are you worried about the money your dad will need from this program? >> yeah, because, what if we don't have it? you say they cut more stuff out, like access, it's going to be harder for us to help them, help my dad. >> let me ask a question to you, anita. when carlos first approached the family about doing this for mr. felix, what was everybody's reaction? >> well, we all just started crying. everybody was crying in the

kitchen and we got ourselves together and then we had told him, we would support him all the way. >> and the family goes out and helps him now too? >> yeah, we all kind of take turns on it, on going out there and watching after him and whatever next step he wants to make, one of us are with him. >> so carlos, what is the next step? is this something -- have your experiences been enough for you to want to go and do this later, as you grow up? is this something you've been very satisfied, with, that you've gotten something out of too? >> my next step is to start my own foundation for transplants of any kind. but i don't want to start it when i'm already grown up. i want to start it as soon as

next year, because maybe my dad might need it next year, and you never know, we might not have the money, and the foundation will help a lot, and help other people, not just my dad. >> got that exactly right. carlos olivas jr., seventh grader trying to save our friend, francisco felix. well done, sir. happy birthday in advance. thanks to you and thanks to anita, your aunt. really appreciate your time and what you're trying to do. thanks a lot. >> thank you. >> thank you. more good news, everybody. texas is now 100% sanity free. after two state democrats vote for the gop, giving governor rick "nice hair dye" perry, a supermajority. and this guy calls fat jokes about governor christie of new jersey racism. guess who made a fat joke about a democrat a year ago? correct! and when rachel joins ow at the top of the hour, why the gop is so determined to stop s.t.a.r.t. her guest, senator john kerry.

remember when the term "texas tea" was a great idea for a sit come that allowed every

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nonpartisan. its sales pitch are also plagiarized. these are the no labels animals communications whose dave warren's says they made this out of free clip art and not used by the more parties animal organization, whose sales pitch is it's nonpartisan. later the no labels contractor said it wasn't a coincidence, it wasn't clip art, it was a rip off. no start for no labels, since it is a bunch of fraudulent conservative democrats pretending to be moderates and a bunch of fraudulent democrats trying to be independents should have stuck with a different motif. and neil cavuto offended by recent jokes about the girth of chris christie. offended enough to say, "judging our leaders not by the qualities that matter, but the nonsense like this that does not -- where greatness is defined not by who you are but how you look. you know what that is? that's racism with a scale."

so if that's racism with a scale, neil, what's this? >> brilliant, dedicated and experienced, and fat. the president's pick for surgeon general is fat. not a lot fat, but enough fat for my next guess to say, fat chance dr. regina benjamin should even be considered. >> when there are fat jokes about a republican, that's racism, but fat jokes about a nominee for president obama's surgeon general, that's okay. but our winner, congressman-elect alan west of florida. golly! it's one thick to have disgraced the uniform of your country. it's one thing to ask your supporters to threaten your opponent during your election. it's one things to have delusions that you have a higher security clearance than the president does. and it's one thing to call for depressing freedom of press in the wikileaks case. but it's quite another to be a bald-faced liar. from mr. west's facebook page. "the media is clearly misled on a statement made by me during a recent radio interview about

concerning what to do about wikileaks. i am heard on the african-american conservative radio show saying that the media should be censured, meaning hardly criticized. never would i say to censor anybody. it's never been my intention to quiet or censor the press, utilizing their right of freedom of speech --" you listen, you decide. >> and i think that we also should be censoring the american news agencies which enabled him to be able to do this. and then also supporting him and applauding him for the efforts. >> censor. not censure, censor. let's play it again in slow motion. >> we also should be censoring the american news agencies -- >> you know, if you want to tiptoe along that bright line of fascism, buddy, go right ahead, but have the courage to admit it

when you get caught. congressman-elect alan west of florida, liar, today's worst person in the world. somewhere, is ma

in terms of modern day tea party pedigree, the state of texas is nearly unparalleled. it is home to the original libertarian tea partier, ron paul, and astroturf tea party leader dick armey. and last year when fox news and glenn beck were looking for a venue to hold its inaugural tax day tea party, they brought ted nugent with them to the alamo. somebody's got a crush. in our number one story, the

state of texas now has a tea party government that would make the nuge proud. yesterday in austin, the gop was happier than a gopher in sort dirt. governor perry, a staunch tea partier who's been known to beat around the succession bush, announcing the new super majority of his republican party in the statehouse has. november gains put them close to it. yesterday, to democrats announced they would switch party, giving them a super majority. the upshot to democrats in texas are now as relevant as the mythical chupacabra. and the second largest state in the union is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the tea party. it means it gets to tackle the texas-sized republican created $25 billion shortfall the state created last year. and this also means an easier path for an ambitious gop social

agenda that would crack down on immigrants, restrict abortion, and allow guns on campuses. that will help the economy. republicans also can approve constitutional amendments, such as bans on key provisions of the federal health care overhaul, all without a single democratic vote. to help me envision what a tea party texas will look like in the future, good to see you, sir. >> good to be here, keith. >> just for frame of reference, have you ever been to texas? ever been to a tea party rally? >> i have never been to a tea party rally, but i have a long history in texas. it's a large and unique country with strange customs. i've had family live there, some of my best friends are from there. i was even a precinct captain for the obama campaign in dallas. and i visit every year. i'm really going to miss it. >> have they changed the textbooks ten times in your experience with texas, or 25? because rewriting history to fit the tea party's version has been

kind of an institution lately. i imagine now that the revision of the history might now increase. >> it's hard to imagine it getting much worse. there's been an extreme right-wing takeover of the curriculum down there, and that affects what happens to the textbooks in the rest of america. it's a big deal for the entire country, not just texas. we're talking about stripping civil rights, reducing women's history. taking evolution out. and when you start messing with science, things get a little tricky, because i kind of feel like that's an all or nothing game. you take science or you leave it. you don't have the world be 6,000 years old and then use the interpret internet to talk about it. that's inconsistent. the onion did a story about how they might be teaching spanish in english in texas. and people thought that was absurd, but in rick perry's supermajority, maybe not so much. >> and that huge state is extremely diverse. in fact, at current rates of projection, the hispanic majority will be in place in about 20 years in the state. not everybody's going to fall in line with this tea party agenda. is there a backlash coming, and a big one? >> i can imagine a backlash,

certainly in the future elections. i think there's going to be some backlash to the backlash. i can imagine reservations being set up. little socialist reserves in places like austin and outposts in a lot of the mostly metro areas of the state. but i do think there'll be a particular backlash for these democratic representatives who not only switched party, but i was reading an analysis about this, about the fact they did it after the election is the real crime against democracy here. they sort of shamed the title representative, because they're not really representing the people who sent them there and the money that got them there. >> one can also envision some day like an austin airlift, by the way. >> well, there'll definitely be passes to go in and out. got to have a lot of checklists. >> and i mentioned, the state's governor has alluded to succession from the union in the past. is that now -- are they just going to talking about because it's, you know, it's political masturbation, basically, is what it is. but are they just going to talk

about it, or actually do it? >> texans love to talk about texas, don't mess with texas is a big phrase down there. and rick perry has done more than flirt with succession. i say don't talk about it, be about it. you've got your super majority, there's nothing stopping you. i think texas will miss that net flow of income from the federal government into its coffers. >> and also, the nfl moving the cowboys out and the nba moving the mavs out. >> it's going to get ugly. >> baseball teams having to leave. according to the morning news, the gop social agenda that could get fast tracked would include legislations that would allow guns on campuses. any problems with that? >> besides the obvious ones, no. i think that's not going to be for a enough for some people in this gop majority. they would probably like a war where you're required to see a gun, kind of like car insurance, but with guns. you'll be fined if you're not holding. >> and going back to revising history, have we misunderstood all these years why texas was admitted to the union. were that a prototype of iraq? did we just take them for their oil and now it's time we let them toddle off on their own? >> you're suggesting we liberate texas. i don't see it that way. and even as we talk about these