you get the full glamorous look, the "this only will hurt for a minute" moral depravity of decisions that's brought this country to its knees. you see what the bad guys know, what they look like, what they really are for the first time and what they did for us. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show with ed schultz" starts right now. good evening, americans. and welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. president obama is on the west coast with a new strategy and a new message. we can't wait. while the president can't wait on republicans to help the middle cla, thehe gop, well, they couldn't wait to start attacking him. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> their story line is that there must be some villain out there who's keeping this administration from succeeding. >> republicans won't let the president create jobs. so he's going around them. >> we can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional congress to do its job. >> tonight, vermont senator bernie sanders on the

president's plan to bypass congress. and eugene robinson on the politics of it all. rick perry is bringing birthers back and now he has a confederate flag controversy on his hands. "salon's" joan walsh is here with analysis. with the election around the corner, firefighter safety is on the ballot in ohio. >> i have a hard time believing that the gear needs replaced every five years. that's my personal opinion. >> we'll bring you the latest. and hasn't wisconsin been through enough? >> the runner did cross the line. >> tonight, my commentary on how the badgers got hosed. great to have you with us tonight, folks. thank for watching msnbc, "the ed show" in the 8:00 hour. our first show. hope to be here for a long time. if you've never seen "the ed show" before, i just want to tell you a couple things off the top. i use this graph a lot on "the ed show" because this is where america is. this right here, the red line, is where the top 1% has gone

over the last 30 years in income in this country. over 300%. this line, of course, has the republicans protecting them and fox news advocating for them. down here is the blue liner. i want you to view me as the blue liners, i'm down there with the guys who take a shower after work. i'm down there with the 99%ers. the men and women of america who have not seen their wages go up over the last 30 years. they're the people who are in the streets. that's what this show is about. i believe in universal health care. i believe in collective bargaining. i believe in public education and the republicans want to destroy it. i believe that we should have gotten the hell out of iraq and afghanistan a long time ago. if you are someone who doesn't feel like they have a voice in this country, i invite you to join my show every night monday through friday at 8:00. i'll talk about this, what we can do about it, how we can make this country better and how we can bring income equality to

america again and have our economy thrive. just one of the many issues i love to talk about. well, the president kicked off a road trip in las vegas today where it's really ground zero for housing. nevada leads the nation with 1 in 44 homes in foreclosure. republicans want to do anything about it? not really. nevada also leads the nation with 13.4% unemployment rate. president obama is shifting strategies after senate republicans have blocked two separate attempts to pass the jobs act. president obama, well, he's now going with a very clear message. >> we can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional congress to do its job. where they won't act, i will. if congress acts then people in nevada and all across the country can get significant relief, but remember what i said, we can't just wait for congress. until they act, until they do what they need to do, we're

going to act on our own because we can't wait for congress to help our families and economy. >> whose side are you on, americans? republicans instantly attack the president's we can't wait slogan on twitter. they have nothing better to do. boehner tweeted, we can't wait for senate democrats to approve more than a dozen house-passed bills. eric cantor played with the twitter and said, we can't wait for the senate democrats to start doing their jobs and pass the forgotten 15 house passed bipartisan bills. excuse me? the 15 bills cantor is talking about are all about tax cuts and deregulation. they do nothing. zero to create jobs in this country. rnc chairman priebus tweeted we can't wait to make barack obama a one-term president. pretty deep, huh? remember, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell said the very same thing last year. it's been his mission. republican leadership continues to play around with twitter

instead of finding any solutions for millions of unemployed americans. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell led a filibuster, a record filibuster again against 400,000 teachers, police officers and firefighters last week. and on sunday, the gentleman from kentucky acted like it wasn't his problem. >> i certainly do approve of firefighters and police. the question is whether the federal government ought to be raising taxes on 300,000 small businesses in order to send money down to bail out states for whom firefighters and police work. they are local and state employees. >> that senator is flat-out wrong. mitch mcconnell from kentucky. the brookings tax policy center estimated only 1.9% of small businesses are in the two top brackets. the millionaires tax would only affect less than 1.5% of small businessowners across this

country. mcconnell wants to pass the buck when republican governors have been on a year-long mission to cut public employees. mcconnell's plan to create jobs consists really of two things. cuts and deregulate. >> with regard to the private sector, what it needs is for us to quit spending, quit borrowing, quit overregulating and quit threatening to raise taxes. the private sector is not going to get going here until the government gets its first off the throat and lets people who know how to create jobs and grow businesses do that. >> ever been in business, senator? how do you know? haven't you been a governor guy all your life? the speaker of the house is on the same page with mcconnell. >> what we need to do is liberate the economy from the shackles of washington. the job creation in america is facing what i would call a triple threat from our government. the first aspect of that threat is excessive regulation. >> republicans would like to strip every regulation in

america. just get rid of it. that's the problem. which of course takes us right back to the mortgage crisis in this country. the president's plan might not be perfect, but it's better than letting the banks run wild on the housing market with absolutely no rules. president obama has the power of the pen, but congress still has the power of the purse. as long as boehner and mcconnell hold the pursestrings, the president needs to do everything he possibly can to help the 99%. let me just put it to you this way. if you want to know something about me and about this show, i tell it like it is every night. let's start out in this 8:00 hour putting the cards on the table. i think it is an absolute national disgrace that the republican party has thrown up so much obstruction to this president, beyond politics, thrown up so much obstruction to the american people. we are over a year away to an election. nothing's going to get done. they won't allow anything to get done. they'll vote down everything. that red line i showed you,

that's who they believe in, that's who they protect and who gets them re-elected. that's all they care about. that's a disgrace. those folks on the blue line that i showed you, they voted, too, and their wishes are not being granted in any way, shape or form. look at any poll across this country. the american people are with this president. the american people want the congress to do something. and they do absolutely nothing. time and time again they have said to. they said no to the auto loan strategy to help the automakers. where are they today? making money, signing new deals with labor, moving forward, adding jobs, bringing manufacturing back to america? where were the republicans on that? they hated it. they didn't want anything to do with it. the stimulus package, fought them all the way on that. it's been time and time again. we have people in this country who now cannot be dropped from their health care insurance if they get sick and the republicans were against that, too. so you be the judge.

i ask the audience from time to time, is there enough evidence for you on the table to make a decision as to who is absolutely ruining this country? yes. the republicans and the republican leadership, they are a national disgrace. when i go across this country and meet people who are unemployed, i meet people who have lost their homes. i wonder, what's it like in washington? well, there's a story last week about how the income, the average income in washington is better there than it is anywhere else. i wonder why. wonder if it has anything to do with all those corporations lining the pockets of lobbyists to protect the red liners that i showed you? we have a lot to talk about in this hour. i hope you'll join me every night. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, should the president have used his executive power sooner? text "a" for yes and "b" for no to 622639. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com and we'll bring you the results later on in the

program. we do a poll every night. joining me now is bernie sanders, senator from vermont. independent. well, this is my first 8:00 show. i thought for sure i'd have my favorite senator on the program tonight. a man who i have immense respect for who tells it like it is. senator, we're now down to the president of the united states using executive orders to get something done in the economy. what's that say about where we are? >> it says that in the midst of the worst economic crisis in modern american history, ed, 16% of our people, 25 million americans, unemployed, underemployed. numbers are higher for the young kids graduating high school and college. older workers, 55, 60, they're losing their jobs now. you know what? if we don't turn this economy around, those people are never going to have another job for the rest of their lives. impacting their retirement. in the midst of all of that, the collapse of the middle class, you got the republicans living

in another planet. another planet. not even recognizing the severity of crisis, let alone doing anything about it. when you have folks like john boehner and mitch mcconnell talking about trickle down economics, does anybody in their right mind believe that we need to give more tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires? we saw that movie under the bush administration. and at the end of the day under his administration, we lost 500,000 private sector jobs. they talk about deregulation. you're absolutely right. that's what we did to wall street and the result was they plunged us from their greed and recklessness into this recession. it's really astandiounding the intellectual bankruptcy of the republicans. >> no question about it. the president is trying to do something for those who are upsidedown on their mortgages, underwater so to speak.

president laid out his mortgage plan. let's take a look. >> number one, the barrier will be lifted that prohibits responsible homeowners from refinancing if their home values have fallen so low that what they owe on their mortgage is 25% higher than the current value of their home. second, there are going to be lower closing costs and certain refinancing fees will be e limb na nated. fees that can sometimes cancel out the benefits of refinancing altogether. third, there's going to be more competition so consumers can shop around for the best rates. >> senator, what do you think of the plan? can you support it? do you believe in it? >> well, i don't know that it goes as far as we should. you know, you got millions of homes that are under water, but certainly the president is right in addressing that issue. clearly he has got to, in my view, ed, do two things. he has got to do everything he can through executive orders, but at the same time, week after week, he's got to take the issue back to the congress, let the

republicans vote no. so i support what he's doing, but i believe we have got to let the american people know that a week from today, as i understand it, there's going to be a bill in the senate to rebuild our infrastructure, our roads, our buildings, our deteriorating buildings, our tunnels, our bridges. almost everybody in america understands that with a collapsing infrastructure, we have to rebuild it and we can create millions of jobs doing that. let's see if we're going to get one republican vote. >> this bill s's coming next we in the senate you think? >> next week. >> this is piecemeal to the jobs act. >> right. >> this is going to deal strictly with infrastructure. >> infrastructure. right. roads and bridges. >> well, it would seem to me that the republicans aren't going to give you any help on this at all. we'll see. senator, great to have you with

us tonight. i appreciate your time. let's now turn to msnbc analyst and pulitzer prize winning columnist of the "washington post," eugene robinson. good to have you with us tonight. >> great to be here, ed. welcome to 8:00. >> thank you, thank you. i plan on working out after the program tonight. i don't know how long that program's going to last. executive orders to boost the economy. can you believe we're at this point in this country? >> yeah, that's where we are, though. it's very clear, as senator sanders said, republicans are going to vote no on everything. the infrastructure bill that he just mentioned. you know, this used to be a bipartisan no-brainer for congress, right? everybody knows you have to improve the infrastructure from time to time. they are, i predict, as you predict, going to vote no as a bloc against legislation obviously needs to be passed on whatever basis, for whatever reason. it needs to be passed. >> it's kind of two-fold.

it looks like the president is systemically just explaining to the american people over and over again there isn't anything he could do that he could get any help from the other side of the aisle to jump-start the economy and get us on the right track again. >> yeah, that's exactly right, ed. he's illustrating, as if we need more illustration. i think we do. he's illustrating he's out there putting these ideas on the table that are obvious no-brainers and they're being turned down every single time. and he has public opinion on his side. what he has to do somehow is translate that public opinion, that public support into pressure on the republicans from their constituents to actually get off the dime and do something for the country. >> and finally, do you think, eugene, that the republicans are behind closed doors afraid of the 99%ers? it doesn't look like they're going away and it looks like

they couldn't to resonate with the american people in the polls supporting them. what do you make of it? >> i think the occupy wall street protests, the concept of a 9d 99%ers changed the atmosphere somewhat. you see that eric cantor, even eric cantor felt obliged to prepare some sort of speech about inequality. he didn't actually deliver it he was afraid because it was going to be public. but actually to address the subject that's on so many people's minds. and i'm sensing more nervousness than i did before. it's going to be very interesting. >> they have definitely affected the discourse in the country. no doubt. msnbc analyst, eugene robinson. thanks for your time tonight. i appreciate it. hope to have you back often. remember to answer tonight's question on the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter @edshow. coming up, the republican attack machine wants you to believe president obama is a failure on foreign policy.

we'll get the facts on that. as ohio prepares to vote on anti-union legislation, some consider putting public safety at risk to save a few dollars. we have shocking video you won't want to miss. [ humming ] and my job is easy. hide big things. you're good... [ crash ] [ laughing ] [ screaming ] [ tires screech ] and if you named your own price on car insurance, you could be paying for this yourself. so get allstate, you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. [ dennis ] shop less, get more, make one call to an allstate agent.

we deal in facts. republicans have let to outline a specific jobs plan for america. specific jobs plan. there is one consistent economic message on the right. raise taxes on the poor and the middle class. republicans don't support president obama's request to extend the payroll tax holiday. that means a 2% tax increase on those who can least afford it. herman cain's infamous 9-9-9 plan was so bad for low income americans he revised it and took out one of the 9s. now i think it's 9-0-9. experts say his new plan would still raise taxes on the poorest wage earners and cut funding to social security and medicare. who's for that? rick perry will propose his own flat tax plan tomorrow.

he's taking cues from his new adviser, steve forbes, who proposed a flat tax when he ran for president. forbes' flat tax would give steve forbes a $1.9 billion tax credit over 30 years. meanwhile, taxes go up for, you guessed it, the poor and the middle class. you might think the republican party is disorganized, but it's definitely united about raising your taxes. coming up, the latest attempt by the right wing to paint president obama as a failure. and later, has rick perry gone full birther?

welcome back to "the ed show." when it comes to president obama's foreign policy, the right wing refuses to give him any kind of credit. republican presidential candidates want the world to know president obama failed in iraq. here's rick santorum on "face the nation." >> we have a president who's not able to set conditions and have the kind of influence over the iraqi government. >> santorum's competitor, michele bachmann told chris wallace of fox news the president made a mistake getting involved in libya. >> if president bachmann had been in charge, wouldn't moammar gadhafi still be in power? >> he may be, but i stand by that decision. i think it was wrong for the united states to go into libya. >> these no-chance candidates have nothing to lose and little at stake when they make these type of accusations. but when republicans are serious about hammering the president's foreign policy, they send the trained attack dogs in. >> at a time when we need troops

in iraq to secure the place against intervention by iran and the bad actors in the region, we're going to go in to 2012 with none. it was his job, the obama administration's job to end this well. they failed. >> senator lindsey graham, will you do a one-on-one with me? you know you're wrong on that. you're an air force judge. we deserve better as americans. also said the president failed in libya by not ending the operation sooner. his point was echoed by another senior republican. >> if we had imposed a no-fly zone, if we used the full weight of american air power, this conflict would have not been prolonged as long as it has. >> john mccain and lindsey graham say president obama took too long in libya where a dictator was removed in seven months and no american lives were lost and we spent $2 billion. meanwhile, they say the iraq war should continue with no end in sight. let's bring in colonel lawrence

wilkerson, former chief of staff under colin powell. and currently the visiting professor at the college of william and mary. colonel, good to have you with us tonight. thanks for your time. >> thanks for having me, ed. welcome to 8:00. >> thank you, sir. i appreciate your time. i hope you can join us quite often. i find it very interesting that the bush and cheney administration officials have been awful quite about the recent developments over the weekend about the iraq withdrawal. what do you make of it? >> this is interesting. i think this is one of the first times we've come together as a government. after all, we have a democratic president executing the plan completed by a republican predecessor. he's doing exactly what george w. bush had planned to do. >> what did you make of senator graham's comments right there? >> senator graham and senator mccain and others like them are in the political campaign mood. they can say anything idiotic. it's the neoconservatives that bother me, the people that have been talking about how this

empowers iran which is preposterous, talking about how we won't have troops there. my god, we're moving back over the horizon where we should be in the northern indian ocean with carrier battle groups and marine i amphibious groups. we're not pinned down in iraq. that's exactly we we need to be. it's a good move. >> michele bachmann, congresswoman from minnesota, had something to say. here it is. >> here we expaended over $800 billion dollars and 4,400 american lives. we have nothing to show for it. >> what do we have to show for being in iraq? regardless of when the troops are withdrawn, what did the united states get out of this war? >> i may surprise you here, ed. right now we're pretty sure there's 200 billion barrels of oil there, maybe 300 billion. maliki, himself, plans to be at 13 million barrels per day capacity in seven years.

he's already signing 20-year krtss with the chinese and malaysians covering exxonmobil, chevron, total, royal dutch shell and others. he's moving out. if these projections, and i'm sure they will be, anything like what the geologists are telling us, this is going to be the new saudi arabia. if we got anything out of this, it was the opening up of this new saudi arabia for the world's oil markets. and i've said all along the reason dick cheney wanted this war had nothing to do with wmd or al qaeda or freedom and democracy and had everything to do with oil. >> so american soldiers and iraqi civilians died for oil? to get put on the open market? >> yeah, i'm a soldier, ed. i made contingency plans and did things like this my whole career for things worse than oil. oil is something that the economy of this country and the economy of our allies and friends needs.

i just wish that the george bush administration, dick cheney and others, dick cheney managed the energy task force for the president, had been more transparent with the american people about this and had given them an opportunity to say yes or no about sending our young men and women to die for oil. >> but it was wmd. it was on a lie. we were not 45 minutes from a mushroom cloud. but to sell the american people on this, to get our mitts on the oil, this was the sell job that had to be done, fair enough? >> this wouldn't be the first war, ed, and you know that. >> here's senator lindsey graham, again, talking about troop withdrawal. here it is. >> not being able to close the deal in iraq is a very serious mistake. celebrating leaving with no troops behind is a serious mistake. >> isn't this misleading? there will be a u.s. presence in iraq, namely thousands of security contractors. what about that? >> absolutely. and there will be lots of people who will be training the iraqi police. there will be intelligence sharing and there will be almost

a thousand people in that gargantuan embassy we built in baghdad. as i said before, 31 years in the military here, ed, we want our forces strategically agile and at sea, offshore balancing it's called, where they can move in places other than just iraq. iran being one of those places that is talked about right now. and this idea by the neoconservatives in particular that this has empowered iran is nonsense. look where the iranians had the most influence. right now the turks are there, the chinese are there, the indians are there. even we're there. the iraqis don't like the persians. they don't like doing business with them. they won't buy their shoddy products which the sanctions that we've imposed on them have had a hand in causing. so the iranians are -- they have not got the upper hand. we gave the iranians the upper hand, strategically by taking is a saddam hussein out. we move offshore, have our

combat power ready in case iran does anything and the iraqis run their own country. if you want to build nationalism in iraq, that's the way to do it. we're the biggest impediment to nationalism being build in iraq. >> i have to ask you one question about libya. how well did the president play it? where do we go from here? >> i have something i tell my students, ed, in seminar about national decision making, national security decision making. if it works, it doesn't matter if it's right. if the american people support it, it doesn't matter if it's right in technical terms. if it's a success, it doesn't matter if it was right in technical terms. this was a success. the president is empowered by it. >> colonel lawrence wilkerson, always a pleasure. thanks for joining us tonight. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. coming up the ghouls and goblins at fox and friends are pushing a new phony culture war. the latest trick puts them in the "zone." the people of wisconsin have suffered many injustices this year. but the latest may have come on the football field on saturday.

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and in "psycho talk" tonight, only a few days left until fox rolls out its phony war on christmas. only a few days left of shopping. but for those culture warriors who can't wait that long, good news. >> it's an all-out assault on halloween. schools across the country are doing everything from banning

costumes to even removing the holiday because it may offend immigrants. >> yes, halloween is the perfect holiday for the folks at fox and friends to fearmonger over immigration. here's the story. a few schools have chosen to forego halloween-themed celebrations for a wide range of reasons. cultural sensitivity being one of them. that didn't stop fox from bringing in their own immigration expert, a right wing blogger from "the daily caller." >> of course, the immigrant excuse, you have a lot of people and cultures that don't like halloween. i grew up in south florida, many cultures. i never once encountered anybody from a different culture or different ethnic group that had a problem with halloween. >> well, because that guy didn't encounter anyone then the problem must not exist. according to one report in a michigan newspaper, the kids are fine with the decision to move away from halloween-themed parties. it's the parents who won't let it go. >> you know, i'm just sad because i have two little kids and am wondering if they're not

going to see the american traditions all of us had. >> it's one thing to advocate for trick-or-treating during the school day, but to wage a cultural war over halloween, well, that's some real spooky "psycho talk." coming up, we're just a few weeks away from a major vote in ohio. we have shocking video of elected officials choosing savings over safety. i'll talk to the president of the ohio association of professional firefighters. just when you thought the controversy of the president's birth certificate had died down and went away, here comes rick perry. he gives it new life. we'll hear from him and donald trump later.

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now a new ad from progress ohio shows what could happen if kasich and his anti-worker agenda succeeds. the ad shows a city council meeting in the town of xenia. the local fire department needs to replace some of its safety equipment. the cost is $13,755. in the raw footage of the meeting, here's how one councilman reacts. >> just so the taxpayers know, i mean, this is one of the only occupations that i know of that you are not responsible for absolutely anything. maybe a fireman should have to buy his own turnout gear once every five to ten years. >> so this elected official believes that a firefighter should have to pay for the privilege of workplace safety. fire chief jeff lemmings explains this equipment is a matter of survival. >> this is a safety issue. this isn't something that we can just put off. this is just as important as a bulletproof vest for a police

officer. this is their base safety. if you don't have confidence in your gear or if it's beyond repair, it needs to be replaced. >> i have a hard time believing that the gear needs replaced every five years. that's just my personal opinion. >> fire chief brought up the fact that it's similar to a bulletproof vest. our police officers buy those. in columbus, they buy their own. >> well, they may, but not here. >> maybe that's another change we need to make. >> well, there you have it. if issue two stands, then elected officials will get the final say on safety. not police or firefighters. joining me now is mark sanders, president of the ohio association of professional firefighters. mark, good to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. i want to clear up the last part of that audio, if i may. is it true about police officers and their equipment in columbus, that statement that was made? >> no, ed, as far as i know, that is a false statement and a couple other cities that they noted also is a false statement.

if you watch further in the tape, the columbus police officers as well as police officers all across the state as well as firefighters now have the opportunity to sit at the table and discuss what's important on public safety and what's important to the safety of our communities. and part of those discussions are the gear that we wear and the bulletproof vests that the police officers wear and firefighters trust that process that we have in place now. and i think with senate bill five in place, you see what might happen all across ohio as those who might not be equipped to make those decisions will be making those decisions in the end. >> and so this is the kind of scene that we're about to see if ohio does not get a no vote on issue two. i mean, those scenes are going to be pretty widespread and who knows where they're going to go beyond the borders of ohio. this could be the template on how to handle it. what do you make of that? >> well, again, ed, i think the citizens will stand with firefighters.

i think that they trust firefighters in their communities to lay their lives on the line if they should have an emergency at their home, be it medical emergency with paramedics or a structure fire with our firefighters. so i think the citizens stand with firefighters. they trust firefighters. and i guess in the end i think they'll trust firefighters to tell them what's accurate and vote no with us on november 8th. >> and what happened, what ended up happening in xenia with that commission there? what was the ruling? >> well thankfully the fire chief along with the firefighters local there stood strong and calmer heads prevailed and they got a majority of counsel who really thought this thing through and didn't list b en to a couple ofe people that went off the track. our fear all across ohio is that decisions like this will be made in a vacuum. >> sure. >> and really not in the best sense of community safety or firefighter safety. >> and i understand a new report

finds that since 2008, ohio's public employees have made contract concession after concession at the state and local level totaling $1 billion. number one, is that an accurate number? and also, are you being asked to sacrifice more? >> ed, i think it's accurate and it's probably well beyond that because quite frankly the clearinghouse that collects all this data is kind of behind. so i know, and i believe that all across ohio, by bringing firefighters, public safety officials, public employees to the table and to solve economic problems, you get the best results and we can ensure that we are doing what's best for the community. >> well, you know, this is just a classic example of how middle class americans, the workers out there, are getting chipped away at because the wealthiest americans aren't paying their fair share. i mean, that's how -- that's how i see it. and, you know, you guys have been out there pounding the

pavement, doing what you got to do to get the 1.3 million signatures on the ballot. now it's going to be on the ballot november 8th. it's a no vote on issue two. that's what you're pushing for. are you going to get it? >> yes, ed. i think we'll get it. i've never seen so much excitement and enthusiasm in our firefighter ranks out there talking to the citizens. when we talk to the citizen and explain what's at stake, they stand with us with a no vote on issue two. and we look forward, ed, to having you back in ohio as this wraps up in the ending days, running up to november 8th. >> i will be there, my friend. thank you, mark sanders. appreciate it. >> take care. >> ohio association of professional firefighters. thanks so much. protesters in chicago and maine face arrests and worse over the weekend. but polls show the public is still on the side of the folks who are out in the streets. newt gingrich isn't getting a lot of love. not getting a lot of play either in the gop race. but he's getting even less respect from his opponents. stay tuned. ♪

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welcome back to "the ed show." the 99% movement is still going strong despite difficulties. a chemical bomb was thrown into the kitchen of the occupy maine encampment on sunday morning. according to the "portland press." police said the homemade bomb consisted of chemicals poured into a gatorade container. there were no serious injuries. police are still looking for suspects. in chicago, 130 protesters were arrested and some of them were nurse volunteers according to the country's largest nurses union. they issued this statement. "registered nurses from across the united states today condemned chicago mayor rahm emanuel for his decision to arrest nurse volunteers, as well as peaceful protesters in a late night crackdown saturday night at the occupy chicago protest." but the public still supports the 99% movement.

new polls of blue collar workers show the same broad support as other recent polls of the general population. [ male announcer ] to the 5:00 a.m. scholar. the two trains and a bus rider. the "i'll sleep when it's done" academic. for 80 years, we've been inspired by you. and we've been honored to walk with you to help you get where you want to be. ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way.

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welcome back to "the ed show." in my "playbook," rick santorum would rather watch football than listen to newt gingrich. and in college football, the big mistake. let's get to the santorum story first. he was at the iowa faith and freedom forum and he was forced, and i mean forced, to listen to newt gingrich's speech. well, here's what you do. the same newt gingrich who is married to his third wife and reportedly asked his second wife for a divorce while she was in a hospital recovering from cancer. that aside, santorum just couldn't stomach listening to the guy. he watched a football game on his tablet. it was probably the penn state game. way to go, joe. who can blame him? the big disappointment for any college football fan seeing a game decided on the last play is my instant replay. i almost threw up saturday night. the wisconsin badgers, the number four team in the country,

and michigan state, the smartensmarten spartans, i like them, too. michigan state throws a pass into the end zone. after the ball was battered around, a michigan state player, number 7, i don't know who this guy is, but he caught the ball. as time ran out. referees on the field ruled him down inside the 1 yard line. game tied, hey, we're going to overtime, right? no. but a replay official took a look at the play and reversed the call. touchdown michigan state. the undefeated badgers were handed their first loss of the season. the officials think they saw clear evidence to overturn the call. i don't think they have it right at all. take a look at this freeze frame. do we really know? does number 53 have it under his arm or does number 7 have it? come on, it's not enough to send the badgers packing with a loss. i don't think that's clear at all. as a fan, it's disappoint to see a game decided in the final

seconds by instant replay. why don't we replay some holding penalties? because there were some replays where i didn't think the badgers were holding at all. i like michigan state, i just don't like seeing it end like that. i do think wisconsin could win the national championship. if they'd had a different replay operator. coming up, rick perry may be trying to distract people from his sinking poll numbers. perry now is a birther. "salon's" joan walsh will tell me more. and you. you're watching "the ed show."

survey tonight. i asked the viewers, should the president have used his executive power sooner? 93% of you say yes. 7% of you say no. coming up, rick perry borrows a campaign strategy from donald trump and questions the president's birth certificate. because we know how well that worked out for mr. trump. joan walsh, salon.com, and other news coming up.

and then there are some republicans who just won't give it up. governor rick perry must be getting desperate. he's joined the obama birther club. courtesy of donald trump. "parade" magazine asked perry, the governor of texas, if he believed president obama was born in the united states. perry said, i have no reason to think otherwise. so the interviewer pressed on. question, "you don't believe what's been released?" perry says "i don't know. i had dinner with donald trump the other night. he doesn't think it's real." question again, "and you said?"

perry says "i don't have any idea, it doesn't matter. he's the president of the united states. he's elected. it's a distractive issue." and now donald trump offered this statement. despite release what is alleged do be his birth certificate, serious questions remain, is it authentic? i don't know. and perry has another problem. in november, the texas division of motor vehicles will vote on whether to allow license plates in the state with a confederate flag to commemorate the civil war. perry's office says it didn't ask for its approval and they encourage the public to offer feedback. you think? and in the latest poll of iowa republicans, they're saying that perry ain't happening. he's ranked fifth. just 5.9%. joining me now, joan walsh, editor at large, salon.com. joan, great to have you on with us in this time slot. hope you'll join us often. >> thanks, ed. >> hope you'll join us often. you bet. is there any doubt perry was

reigniting the birther question there? >> no doubt. i wrote about this on "salon" today and my headline was, how low will he go? i meant it in both senses. he's down as you said. he's at fifth or sixth in iowa. his poll numbers are sinking. he's gone into the sewer of birtherism with donald trump. i suppose for rick perry at this point in his campaign, a donald trump endorsement would be a big deal. he's flailing. he's embarrassed himself. now this is really humiliate to say this, that donald trump doesn't know so he doesn't know either. this is the rick perry way. >> a strange scenario playing out for perry. here's a guy falling in the polls when he has plenty of money. we all know candidates with money don't leave the races. >> no. >> would donald trump help this guy out? >> i don't know. you know, donald trump was kind of laughed off the stage. people took him seriously for a little while and the more he says, he doesn't even believe the president now, the more

ridiculous he becomes. i mean, perry today did hire president bush's first campaign manager, joe alba, but, you know, joe supported in 2008 his big savior candidate was rudy giuliani. i'm starting to wonder if rick perry is kind of the rudy giuliani figure of 2012. where he's the guy who everybody thought was going to come in and be the big savior, knock off the front-runner. in the end he finished third in his best primary and i think he got one delegate. this is not at this point a winning campaign. >> you know, we had the rock story at the perry hunting spot that they rented years ago. and now we have this confederate license plate. why can't the governor of texas come out and say unequivocally that he thinks the confederate license plate is a bad idea? >> well, he could and he should, obviously. i mean, if he were looking for an opportunity to really distance himself from that awful camp name and to reassure

americans that he really stands for fairness, that's what he would do. but instead, you know, he's taking -- it's a page from the haley barbour playbook. because haley, his strategy, he came out and said, i'm not going to tell people what to think about this license plate issue when it came up in mississippi. and, you know, i would say that rick perry is basically doing the same thing. a leader leads. you and i know that, ed. this calls for leadership. the fact that he isn't doing it, he's courting that vote. he's courting the confederate secessionist and birther vote. it's sad. >> quickly, what about karl rove trying to deep six herman cain's campaign? and herman cain, of course, going back at him? that's quite a spat going on. >> it's going to be really fun. i think rick perry is going to come after herman cain, too. the only thing he can do now is try to -- he doesn't understand and none of us really do understand herman cain's strange sizzle, but, yes, rove with his whiteboard just has decided that the herman cain phenomenon has gone on a little too long.