they've got a different ethic. you believe, your families believe in something greater than your own ambitions. you've embraced an ethic that says the only thing that's good enough is what's best for the united states of america. [ applause ] and by making a commitment to these brave men and women, the companies who are represented here today have shown that they've got that same ethic. they share in that belief that we're all in this together. those companies who i represent here today are showing that they care about this country and those who serve it, not just with words, not just with slogans, not just with tv ads, but with the choices that you're making. as president, and commander in chief, i thank you for that.

and i also want to thank my extraordinary wife and dr. jill biden, our second lady to lead the effort to support our military families and making today possible. give them a big round of applause. [ applause ] she does all this, and she looks cute. that's right. but considering how many veterans are out there looking for work, we can't stop with today's announcement. we've got more work to do. some of you probably know that last month i sent congress a piece of legislation called the american jobs act. this is a bill that's fully paid for and it's filled with the kind of proposals that traditionally democrats and republicans have supported in the past. tax cuts for every small

worker -- every worker and small business in america, funding to rebuild our schools and put our teachers back in the classroom so our children can get the education they deserve, a tax credit for small businesses that hire america's veterans. the idea here is even though so many companies who are here today have committed to hiring our nation's heroes, we want to make it even easier for the businesses that haven't made that commitment yet. it's the right thing to do for our veterans and the right thing to do for america. you give smaller companies who may be interested in hiring but are having a tough time, give them a tax break if they hire a veteran. give them an even bigger tax break if they hire a disabled veteran. now, so far congress hasn't acted on this proposal. but i want you to know that i'm pushing them a little bit.

i'm going to keep pushing them a little bit. [ applause ] in the coming weeks, we're going to hold a series of votes in the senate on individual pieces of my jobs bill. and one of the votes i'm going to urge members of congress to take is on whether or not they think it's a good idea to give companies an incentive to hire the men and women who have risked their lives for our country. and i'm hopeful we can get both parties onboard for this idea. when i first proposed this idea in a joint session of congress, people stood up and applauded on both sides of the aisle. so when it comes for a vote in the senate, i expect to get votes from both sides of the aisle. don't just applaud about it. vote for it! vote for it!

standing up for our veterans is not a democratic responsibility or a republican responsibility, it is an american responsibility. [ applause ] it is an obligation for every citizen who enjoys the freedoms that our heroes defend. and it's time for us to meet those obligations here today. this generation of veterans has learned that the challenges don't end in kandahar or baghdad. they continue right here at home. and today we're saying to those veterans who fought for us, now we are fighting for you, for more jobs, for more security, for the opportunity to keep your family strong. the chance to keep america competitive economically in the 21st century. these are tough times for america. but we faced tougher times

before. and nobody's tougher than the men and women of america's armed forces. [ applause ] y'all don't quit. whenever we face the challenge in this country, whether it was the depression or civil war or when our union, our union was at stake, our harbor was bombed, or our country was attacked on that september day, we did not fall back, we got on with the task of fulfilling ideas that so many americans have struggled for and sacrificed for and given their lives for. and that's the spirit all of you represent. that's the spirit our whole nation needs right now. you remind us as a nation that no problem is too hard and no challenge is too great and no

destiny is beyond our reach. let's meet this moment. let's get together and show the world just why it is that the united states of america is the greatest nation on earth. god bless you. god bless our veterans! god bless the men and women in uniform! and god bless the united states of america. >> we've been watching president obama as he wraps up his bus tour. you saw him there. he's employed the first lady on the final leg of this three-day tour to push his jobs bill. let's go right to nbc's kristen welker who has been traveling with the president. so, kristen, he won this republican-leading state in 2008, but his poll numbers are down. we watched him bring out first lady obama. what do you think? how will this play out with voters there? >> reporter: that'll be certainly interesting to see, veronica. you're right, he did win this

state back in 2008. it will likely be a hard-fought bottle in 2012 for this state and the other state he's been visiting during this three-day bus tour. of course that's north carolina. today was very interesting, veronica, because it was the first time we saw the first lady come out on one of the president's trips to sell his american jobs act. they got a very warm reception here. i spoke to some folks before the event started. troops here who told me they were excited to see both of them appear together. of course, the first lady was here to announce a new initiative by the private sector to hire 20,000 veterans and their spouses by 2013. the president speaking out for the first lady saying this was the fulfillment of a force of a plan he laid out this summer to get the private sector to hire 100,000 veterans and their family members by 2013. so they certainly did have a warm reception. this event overall aimed at getting the american jobs act

passed, at least pieces of it. you heard the president talk about the piece that would provide tax breaks for companies who hire veterans. so they certainly came here. couple of jokes here, you heard the first lady say this is a date for her. they got some laughs for that. but of course, a s you mentione, veronica, there are political implications, as well. this will give the president a chance to talk, to meet and greet with some of the 700,000 members of the military community here who will, of course, be voting in 2012 and who could be key to whether this state goes red or blue, veronica. >> right. nbc's kristen welker. i particularly liked those light-hearted moments. president obama talking about his wife saying she does all that and she's cute. >> reporter: yeah, that was a cute moment. i think a lot of people enjoyed that. they laughed. so it was a mixture of light-hearted and also seriousness.

one thing that was interesting, the tone was different than what we've heard over the past two days of this bus trip. the president has really been hammering congressional republicans for the past two days. we didn't hear him do that to the same extent today. he was joined by republican governor bob mcdonnell. so slightly different backdrop than we've seen for the past two days. the president will wrap up his trip this afternoon by stopping at a fire station in north chesterfield, virginia. and we'll be there, of course, to cover it. >> kristen, thank you. >> reporter: thanks. candidates brought the big guns last night in the debate. mitt romney was attacked from all sides. but the big exchange was between romney and a former front-runner. >> mitt, you lose all your standing from my perspective because you hired illegals in your home and you knew about it for a year.

and the idea that you stand here before us to talk about that you're strong on immigration is on its face the height of hypocrisy. governor romney? >> rick, i don't think i've ever hired an illegal in my life. so i'm looking forward to finding your facts on that -- >> i'll tell you what the facts are -- >> rick, rick -- i'm speaking, i'm speaking, i'm speaking. >> it's time for -- >> you get 30 seconds -- >> the way the rules work here, i get 60 seconds and then you get 30 seconds to respond, ri t right -- anderson? would you please -- wait. are you going to keep talking? are you going to let me finish with what i have to say? look, rick -- >> -- follow the rules. >> this is a tough couple of debates for rick. and i understand that. so you're going to get testy. >> let's get a recap from our panel.

richard goodstein. and also republican strategist j.p. frayer. mitt romney taking hits from all sides, but the animosity between romney and rick perry, it was palpable. you could almost see steam coming out of their ears when romney put his hand on governor perry's shoulder. he touched him for one thing. i mean, who came out looking most presidential? did anyone come out winning here? >> you're almost waiting for perry to kind of, you know, get your hand off my shoulder. look -- i don't know what took rick perry this long, frankly, to rhetorically and almost kind of physically get in mitt romney's face. because the fact is, on hard-core conservative issues, abortion -- when romney ran against ted kennedy in 1994, he said he was going to be to the left of ted kennedy on abortion and women's rights. on gun control, on t.a.r.p. you could own health care, when it was fashionable, he said that health care he pushed in

massachusetts would be a model for the nation. and all of a sudden it became unpopular and now he's tryi inio go back on it. if rick perry could string coherent sentences together better than he does, frankly, he'd be in much better shape today than he is. thankfully last night, at least, he stepped up a little. and he said -- and i'll say one final thing on this whole immigration thing. the fact is when romney said we looked into this when i was running for office. as if somehow having illegals working on your lawn is okay unless you're running for office. that's a very damaging thing for him to say. it's reminiscent of when hillary clinton got tripped up exactly four years ago in a debate when the whole issue was getting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants in new york state. let's keep an eye on that issue. >> you know, richard, i want to bring you in. one thing in last night's debate might clear is romney's massachusetts health care law is going to continue to dog him throughout his campaign.

let's listen to what rick santorum had to say. >> you just don't have credibility, mitt when it comes to repealing obama care. your plan was the basis of obama care. your consultants helped craft obama care. and to say you're going to repeal it, we have no track record on that. >> will all of this give democrats even more ammunition against romney? is this what they need? >> i think there's going to be a ton of ammunition. if the campaign stops today, i think all the flip-flops that mitt romney has had over the years, including just this week on occupy wall street. he was talking about them kind of being essentially like mobs until he saw they were picking up steam and he said, look, i'm with the 99%, not the one. which nobody believes. that's a joke. i think, frankly, there's a ton of ammunition at the campaign stop today by virtue of mitt romney's flip-flops. we just saw president obama who

comes across as genuine. and when you see mitt romney go all over the place in the course of a day let alone a career on these things, do you or do you not believe in abortion or if health care is right or wrong, the fact he's going both ways i think is a big problem for him. >> all right. and j.p., i apologize. let's go ahead and get you into the conversation. let's talk about herman cain, the other person under the microscope. his new place at the top making him a target. also his 9-9-9 plan a target. take a look. >> let me tell you something. you don't have to have a big analysis to figure this thing out. go to new hampshire where they don't have a sales tax and you're fixing to give them one. they're not interested in 9-9-9. >> the state tax is an apple. we are replacing the current tax code with oranges. so it's not correct to mix apples and oranges. >> are you saying the state sales tax will also go away? >> no, that's an apple. >> i'm going to pay both taxes?

and the people in nevada don't want to pay both taxes. >> what did we learn last night about herman cain other than he might like fruit? >> well, aside from he's well guarded against getting scurvy, i think the thing with herman cain, he's not taking himself seriously. these are criticisms you should be able to anticipate. figure out that people are going to ask you questions about this. and he's not giving a serious answer. and it's a real problem when you have somebody like romney who is giving a perfectly solid question, or you have rick perry who is prepped and ready to go after the 9-9-9 plan. >> and we heard a lot from rick perry. lots of people saying he did a good job. do you think he did what he needed to turn this race around? >> well, a lot of people going with the narrative that his campaign was on life support. and you could kind of see it because of his performance as i

debates. but i think as a consequence, that narrative is going away and instead now we're going to be talking about will perry be able to overtake romney? which is a much different story than the initial perry's campaign is on life support. and frankly, i'm curious, tim pawlenty tomorrow is going to announce he's getting back into the race. >> we still have a month to go until the next debate. there's lots of time. >> thanks. developing right now, new details this hour on the police hunt for exotic animals that escaped from a wild animal preserve in ohio. right now, officers armed with assault rifles are on patrol. they say most of the nearly 50 missing animals have been put down. left to find, a mountain lion, bear, and monkey. investigators say the owner of that farm set the animals free before dying in an apparent suicide. >> i've had deputies who had to

shoot animals with their side arms at close range. we are not talking about your normal, everyday house cat or dog, these are 300-pound bengal tigers we've had to put down. >> live from zanesville, ohio. what is the latest. >> reporter: the latest is that today with the latest animal they had to put down was indeed a 300-pound bengal tiger. it was one of the animals they knew was on the loose and found in a very dense area. it was hunkered down, a lot because of the rain. there's just a lot of rain all night long and today. and that's keeping those animals from moving very far right now. on one hand, that keeps the public safe, but also makes it harder for them to locate them. if the rain does break, it might make it easier to find them. but officers say they actually did try to save this animal. they actually got a veterinarian within about 15 yards of the big cat and they tranquilized it

first, but because it ran and it was endangering lives, they had to put it down. >> we appreciate that report. and coming up later in this hour, we'll have more from jeff corwin who was our science correspondent. that is later on in the 11:00 a.m. eastern hour. protests in greece turning violent this morning as demonstrators threw stones and fire bombs and police responded with tear gas and percussion grenades. tens of thousands took to the stroe streets in a nationwide strike. some of the protesters shouted "we can't bleed any longer." the violence has brought things to a stand still. and for the first time, small business is organized by the biggest labor unions is joining in on the strikes. crest pro-health clinical gum protection. it helps eliminate plaque at the gum line, helping prevent gingivitis. it's even clinically proven to help reverse it in just 4 weeks. crest pro-health clinical gum protection.

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right now, the president is in virginia wrapping up a three-day bus tour through that state and north carolina to push his jobs bill. those swing states are pivotal to his reelection. the white house says this trip is not political, but the president is using a tour to scold republicans for opposing his bill. president obama is acknowledging the uphill reelection battle he faces because of the sluggish economy. >> i guarantee it's going to be a close election because the fact is that the economy's not where it wants to be. and even though i believe that all the choices we've made have been the right ones, we're still going through difficult circumstances. and that means people who may be sympathetic to my point of view still kind of feel like, yeah, but it hasn't gotten done yet. >> i'm joined by the director of the white house domestic policy council. melanie, thanks for joining us. >> thanks so much, veronica, it's a pleasure to be with you. >> of course. you're from virginia. you know this state well.

what do voters, melody, need to hear who live in virginia in order to throw their support behind the president right now. >> well, you know, veronica, i was just in my hometown of richmond, virginia, less than a month ago. and i was talking to lots of people there at church and my neighborhood. and people are concerned about the fact that they think washington isn't moving forward to address their problems. and that's why the president has been traveling all over the country, hearing people's concerns, and at the same time, pushing forward with the american jobs act. even though we haven't been able to move that entire bill forward, a bill that we think would create our independent analysts think can create up to 1.9 million jobs, the president's saying, we take it apart. starting with this provision that will save jobs for teachers and first responders. i think that's what the american people are concerned about. >> we were just listening to sound bite there, melody. the president saying how difficult the reelection is going to be because of the state

of the economy. he believes the decisions made. >> well, i think, veronica, it's far, far more than good intentions. what we've seen because the president signed a health care bill and fought for a health care bill is that we have more than 1 million young americans, young adults that have health care that didn't have health care a year ago. we know because he fought for wall street reform that he's also making sure that people aren't being duped, aren't being taken advantage of when it comes to their mortgages or credit card bills. we know these things are far more than good intentions. and because we were able to push for a stimulus bill, we were able to create and save jobs. that's why we've got to move forward with the american jobs act. creating jobs for construction workers, teachers, first responders, for veterans. that's why the president and first lady were there earlier today. those provisions are all in the american jobs act. and one-by-one, one after o

another, we're going to push and push for the american people. >> all right. we appreciate your time. thank you, melody. >> thank you. much more on that incredible story out of ohio. dozens of wild animals still on the loose. wildlife expert jeff corwin is coming up. look, every day we're using more and more energy. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ how about the beat of a healthy heart?

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three of about 50 wild animals let loose from an animal preserve. investigators are waiting on the autopsy results for terry thompson, the owner of that preserve. police say he opened the animals' cages before dying in what appears to be a self-inflicted wound. earlier ethis morning police described a run-in with a bengal tiger. >> we just had a huge tiger, estimated 300 pounds. we did get one of the vets close enough, unbelievably so within 10 to 15 yards, got a tranquilizer in it, and this thing just went crazy. it started to take off. it headed away from us to the wooded area and our officers put it down. we did not think we could take a chance of whether we got the dart in it and did not want to take a chance the thing would get out into the neighborhood. >> scary stuff. jeff corwin joins me now from san diego. jeff, you know, people here --

hear this story and hear there are wild animals on the loose, they get nervous. we're talking about animals confined for long periods. does that mean that these animals are more likely to be aggressive? >> veronica, people out there should be nervous. they should be incredibly aware of their surroundings. we need to remember that while these are wild creatures, they've never spent any of their lives living in a wilderness. they've been born in captivity. we're talking about animals weighing from 150 pounds like a mountain lion to maybe 400 or 500 pounds like a tiger or african lion. but the difference between these creatures and their wild counterparts living out there in the ecosystems where they're from is they have no natural fear of human beings. and that is a recipe for disaster. they're scared, ill-prepared, and they're wild. >> and jeff, police are saying most of these animals have been shot and killed. i think there are three that are still out there. and the tragedy is that these animals are being gunned down for something they had no control over.

is there a better way to round up these animals? why not just tranquilize them? >> veronica, it breaks your heart. it's incredibly tragic that these animals through no fault of their own find themselves in this situation. and they're just doing what they need to do to survive. but the truth is, until they're in a captive environment, they are a tremendous potential danger to people ill-prepared to manage them in a situation where they may encounter each other. so in an ideal situation, we'd want to tranquilize these animals and relocate them to a safe situation. but as you just heard from the sheriff, they attempted to do that. and that nearly became disastrous for the people involved. so sometimes really tough situations need to be taken in order to manage these creatures. the best solution would be to prevent a situation like this from ever happening. and that's up to the state of ohio with their laws. >> and we were just listening to

the sheriff there, jeff, talking about what it was like to come across that bengal tiger. what would you say to the people in ohio who might come across one of these animals on the loose? >> i would say this. as the folks are waking up there in this little community, in this little hamlet of ohio, they need to be incredibly alert. not only with adults, but with their children, and with their pets, and the other creatures living there. when you get out, you need to be aware of your surroundings. if by chance that remote situation should happen where someone should encounter a creature like a tiger or a lion, somehow you need to find a way to stay calm. you need to make loud noises to try to drive that animal off. what you don't want to do is run. you need to calmly and safely retreat. get in your car, get indoors. be prepared to defend yourself, but the best situation is to --

the best opportunity -- or best way to deal with this is to avoid that situation in the first place. you need to be completely aware of your surroundings. >> good advice. jeff corwin, weap understand yo have a plane to cash. we appreciate your time today. >> thank you very much. well, parts of south florida are cleaning up after a possible tornado touchdown last night. a powerful storm damaged as many as 20 homes. roofs fell and cars were trapped, but luckily no one was seriously injured. take a look at these midwest waves from lake michigan reachingreach ing as high as 20 feet. much of the country is under a high-wind warning with gusts up to 60 miles per hour expected. another storm system bringing flash flooding concerns to parts of the northeast. heavy rains and high winds are forecast to slam the new york tri-state area later this afternoon. so for those of you heading out the door, here's a look from the top of the rock here in new

york. this is actually time square. don't forget your rain boots and obviously your umbrellas today. three things we learned about rick perry last night in his debate in las vegas, is the texas governor back in the game? n planes. we even offer a reusable envelope. now, can't we at least print on the back sides of used paper? what's the executive compensation list...? [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. i'm not a line item on a budget. and i'm definitely not a pushover. but i am a voter. so washington... before you even think about cutting my medicare and social security benefits... here's a number you should remember.

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his food became famous. and soon, so did he. hello, i am chef boyardee. [ male announcer ] and his legacy of quality ingredients and no preservatives is still in every bowl. a real great chef. with real great food. welcome back to msnbc. republican candidates squared off in sin city. herman cain is ahead in south carolina holding a 4% lead over governor romney. the eventual republican nominee has won the state in every contested primary since 1980. the former godfather's pizza ceo holds a slim lead in florida, the state that could be the ultimate decider in the race to face president obama. right now, sunshine state voters have president obama and mitt romney neck and neck with the president just ahead of the former massachusetts governor. the president's lead grows in a

match-up against herman cain. but cain support may still be growing in this pivotal state. a series of weak debate performances have sent rick perry plummeting in the polls. but last night's las vegas debate showed a more assertive side of the one-time gop front-runner as he went head-to-head with mitt romney. the governor's duel saw the two men sparring over heated accusations of lying with illegal immigration taking center stage. >> you can't have access to health care -- >> we hired a lawn company to mow our lawn. and they had illegal immigrants that were working there. and when that was pointed out to us, we let them go -- you have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking, and i suggest that if you want to become president of the united states, you've got to let both people speak. so let me speak. >> i'm joined by wayne slater for the dallas morning news. thanks for being with us today. >> great to be with you. >> you know, you gave us three take aways in last night's

performance. the first thing you say, is he needed to make this a two-man show. what do you think? did he succeed at that? >> i think he did. basically in the last couple of debates, perry has disappointed and disappeared. that's not what happened last night. what perry has to do, what he wanted to do was to come away from this debate with the news clips like that one you just showed. that suggests it's mitt romney and rick perry in this race and everybody else are just people on the sideline. he did that. he basically engaged romney big time, he challenged romney, romney challenged perry. they're equals, at least in the visual narrative. that's where he wanted to be. >> but today, the news we're hearing, words like hot head say he was really aggressive. a lot of people debating whether he came off like a fighter or a bully. what are your thoughts? >> yeah, that is exactly right. you know, it's great to be a fighter. in fact, that's what sort of drove the trump bubble early on.

perry and actually cain, who is the guy who can take it to the president? that's who we want in the republican party to challenge in the end. perry had to be a fighter. but i wonder if he looked more like sort of a mean-spirited bully. i heard somebody this morning said he looked like sort of one of these bar flies, puffed up bar flies who kind of got mean after a couple of drinks. that's not the image you want. >> yeah. exactly. your last point. you say that he needed to neutralize immigration, which is an issue that has dogged him somewhat. was he able to accomplish this? >> about half and half, i think. that's really his problem. his problem isn't fundamentally that he's a lousy debater. he could actually survive that. it's among the voters, perry needs the most, christian conservatives and strong tea party voters on the right side. his signing of a bill giving instate tuition to the children of illegal immigrants in texas is a killer. and so what he had to do was offer up a counter narrative

about mitt romney that he's soft on immigration or flip-flops around. that's what perry tried to do. and i think to some extent, he did introduce in the minds of some tea party evangelical voters, that mitt romney had an immigration problem, but man, it was kind of a thin attack. i mean, how do we -- everyone who hires somebody can't know everyone who works for the company you hire. >> right. and he brought up something that was years old now. we also thought this was interesting, wayne. a new pew poll shows voters most often think of the word texas when they think of rick perry. and for herman cain, it's 9-9-9. for romney, it's mormon. is it a bad sign he's identified more of where he's from? could this be an advantage for him maybe? >> for perry, you mean? >> mm-hmm. >> texas, as i get outside this state is not well thought of in many areas. and so i'm not sure that's an advantage. especially after ten years of george w. bush.

texas suggests swaggering, but i have to say if i had the attachment of texas to my name or mormon among the republican primary, i would rather have texan. >> all right. wayne slater, senior political writer for the "dallas morning news." also the co-author of "bush's brain." more on occupy wall street. one of them being author and activi activist naomi wolf. could this growing group of protesters being putting demands together? we're going to talk all about it next. [ husband ] you ready for this?

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latest protester to be arrested in the occupy wall street protests. in the meantime, at last night's gop debate, herman cain literally told the protesters where to go. >> they might be frustrated with wall street and the bankers, but they're directing their anger at the wrong place. wall street didn't put in failed economic policies, wall street didn't spend $1 trillion that didn't do any good. wall street isn't going around the country trying to sell another $400 billion. they ought to be in front of the white house taking out their frustrations. >> joining us now is the woman taken into custody last night, author naomi wolf. thank you, both, for joining us. naomi, let's start with you. i was there last night, the "huffington post" party, and i was watching the protests, and they seemed peaceful. but you were taken into arrest. what happened? >> well, i was arrested while i was complying with the law. and peacefully standing on a sidewalk.

very briefly i studied protests and permits in new york city. and so i understood that they had a right to be on the sidewalk peacefully. when i came out of the "huffington post" event where i'd been a guest. i saw police had moved them far away. when asked them why, they were told they had no right to march where they had been. i knew that wasn't correct, so i checked with the people in charge. they said the permit did allow them to walk without obstructing the sidewalk. i said i'm going to walk with my partner and anyone who wants to walk with us, please join us. so we were walking peacefully back and forth, not obstructing anything. suddenly 30 or 40 giant men in white shirts, apparently the nypd, appeared and stopped in front of me and one of them used a megaphone, which the protesters have been told citizens are not allowed to use.

another fake permit situation. and said disperse, you're unlawfully present. and i'm a reporter, and i said i'm sorry, i don't understand. i understand the permit allows us to not obstruct the passa passageway. and you can see from the video i was calm, peaceful, respectful. >> were they forceful with you? >> well, i'm not going to say they injured me because they didn't. but they certainly handcuffed my arms behind my back with cuffs and my partner's arms behind his backs and moved us physically in spite of my saying, can i get a lawyer? moved us physically into a van, pushed us into a van, sat us down, locked the door, put us in a cell. you can decide. that's not the issue so much. the issue is they're making up the law. and i know that citizens have a right -- and that we were, you know, peacefully obeying the terms of the permit that allowed us to be there and exercise our first amendment right. >> and we've actually put a phone call into the new york

city police and waiting to hear what their response is. and josh, lots to talk about with you. i understand you were almost arrested covering the protests. but going back to what herman cain had to say. one of the biggest criticisms with this movement, there doesn't seem to be a unified message. i think people are saying they want to tax the rich, want the wars to end, they want health care for all. but again, there really hasn't been a set of demands. what have you seen while you've been covering these protests? >> that's a fairly contentious issue within the "occupy" movement. and i've been talking to a lot of people involved from the start. and there are several schools of thought about this. a lot of them feel it's premature to bring up demands because as soon as they do, that will kind of deflate the movement. it allows it to be coopted by certain people and criticized by others. and they think the real point is to express their anger and concern about what's going on. and by doing so, it's going to

bring even more people in. we're seeing this happening still, it's still growing. and you know, they just want to keep it general. and maybe demands will emerge from the process later. >> they want to keep this general. is this a smart idea, a smart i? >> i have to say, i have a list of their demands in my purse. i went to them before the event and the governor was going to be there. and i said, give me your list of demands and i will take them to the governor if i can. they have a right it have their voices be heard. so they gave me a list of their top ten priorities. they are pretty clear. and they do range from not having the avoidance of millionaire's tax. they want accountability for police brutality. which seems reasonable. with how arbitrary the police are using force. >> it seems like a tactic the protesters are using. every time there is an arrest there is month word of it in the

media. >> respectfully, veronica, i disagree. i was there a citizen of new york, mom of two, someone who believes in the first amendment. i don't necessarily support their demands. i support the right it freely assemble. i was arrested. that wasn't a tactic. i add business appointment later that evening. i didn't want to be sitting in s.e.a. cell. >> i know you are active o on twitter and nice back. please do tweet. another jones reporter, author naomi wolf, thank you for joining us today. we'll be right back. [ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil

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about to resume in the trial of michael jackson's former doctor. today the prosecution's last

witness takes the stand, an anesthesiologist who will describe the affects of the powerful drugs that killed the legendary singer. joininging us is ricki kleiman. good to see you. there's always a lot of back and forth with the drugs that were presumably in his system. why is there such a big back and forth about which one came first? >> well, it is not really ultimately a question of which one came first. it's which one killed him. there is no question that he deviated from the standard of care time and time again. extreme deviations. so we know that his care is sub standard. so the only question for this jury is the cause of death. so, is the cause of death lorazepam, is it propofol, is it a combination? and did dr. murray become the administrator of that cause of death? so ultimately, it helps the defense if there's more drugs in his system. not less.

all right. legal analyst and former prosecutor rikk i cleiman. thank you. we will be watching the trial as i know you will. that's it for us. thomas roberts will be back tomorrow. i want to focus on innovatio. but my data is doubling. my servers are maxed out. i need to think about something else when i run. [ male announcer ] with efficient i.t. solutions from dell, doug can shift up to 50% of his company's technology spend from operating costs to innovation. so his company runs better, and so does doug. dell. the power to do more.

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to help you get where you want to be. ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way. learn more at keller.edu. i'm richard lui. msnbc news. numbers today show cain and romney running neck and neck in florida and cain with a narrow lead in south carolina. today we have a horse race, but at least last night's debate was a fight night in vegas and the gloves were certainly off. >> rick, again -- >> you had the war -- >> i'm speaking, i'm speaking, i'm speaking. [ bell ding ] >> perry had romney up against the ropes over hiring illegal immigrants. >> you say that you knew you had -- >> would