need all sorts of supplies. we want to make this stay on. so, yeah, thank you for having me on the show. >> michael moore -- >> are you going back with your tents tonight? tents tonight? >> go ahead, michael, just finish that. >> no, i was curious are they go -- we will have to wrap it there. we will be done for the night but you can talk off screen. "the ed show" is next. good evening, americans. and welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. the so-called supercommittee has been sabotaged by republicans. president obama weighed in late this afternoon. bernie sanders will be here to react in a moment. americans are shocked after watching campus police officers pepper spray a group of students. one of the students is here tonight to talk about it. i was in wisconsin over the weekend for the recall rally. we've got exclusive video. this is "the ed show." let's get to work.

you're shooting us for sitting here? that's fine. that's fine. [ screaming ] >> students were attacked, policemen have been suspended. and the uc davis chancellor today addressed the masses. >> i really feel horrible for what happened on friday. >> tonight, we'll talk to a student who took a face full of pepper spray and a professor who says the chancellor needs to go. also tonight, occupy wall street protester jesse lagreca and how these pictures resonate around the country. the supercommittee failed, and that's a good thing for middle classers. senator bernie sanders is here with analysis. and this weekend, i was in wisconsin where the walker recall effort is in full throes. tonight, volunteers to recall walker are getting death threats. >> they said if you'd don't stop circulating the recall

petitions, we will kill you. >> coming up, a full report from wisconsin. good to have you with us tonight, folks. people across the country want to know why this happened. a peaceful student protest at the university of california at davis was broken up friday like this. [ screaming ] >> students were sprayed with pepper spray at pointblank range by campus police. 11 students were treated for injuries related to the spraying. two were hospitalized. some students say that they were sprayed directly in their mouths when they tried to cover their faces. others were coughing up blood and one reported nerve damage in his wrist. most people are directing their

outrage at this man, lieutenant john pike of the uc davis police department. one student says pike told him, move or we will shoot you, before loading with the pepper spray in their faces. his actions were caught on tape by dozens of onlookers. >> shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! >> i want your name. i want his name. pike! pike! pike! pike! >> in response, lieutenant pike has been placed on administrative leave. so has another officer who also sprayed protesters. the police department has declined to identify that officer. today, uc davis police chief annette spicuzza was put on leave by the chancellor of the

university, linda katehi. katehi made the call friday for the police to remove the student protesters from the quad. thousands have signed a position for katehi to resign but she has refused. in response, students silently protested the chancellor on saturday night as he walked from a press conference to her car. the power of their silence is stunning, isn't it? katehi agreed to speak with students today. they held a solidarity rally on campus with faculty members. katehi offered brief remarks to the crowd. she was regretful, but she did not step down.

>> i'm here to apologize. i really feel horrible for what happened on friday. if you think you don't want to be students in a university like we had on friday, i'm just telling you i do not want to be the chancellor of the university we had on friday. so i hope that i will have a better opportunity to work with you, to meet you, to get to know you. and there will be many opportunities in the next few weeks to do that. thank you. >> i want to know if the students who were pepper sprayed accept her apology. i'll ask one of them in just a moment. i also want to know if she thinks her campus is a safer place today than it was when

those students were staging a peaceful protest on friday. we wanted to pose these questions to the chancellor in person, and yesterday she agree to come on this show tonight, "the ed show,". late this afternoon she canceled. if the chancellor believes that she still should be the leader of uc davis, she should answer, i think, these questions in public. and so should the police officers. i think the public needs to see the manual that those police officers were operating from. it is horrible. unjustified. it was a peaceful protest. and there was no reason for that officer to take it as if he was spraying his flowers in his backyard. got to get rid of some of the bugs here. who told him to do that? now, the best remedy, i think, is for these police officers to hold a press conference, to show some guts. it's easy to spray kids when they're down and defenseless, but why don't they hold a press conference and say to the american people, this is why we pepper sprayed these college kids.

they won't do it. but, of course, they've been put on administrative leave and that makes us all feel a hell of a lot better. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question. is there any way reason to pepper spray defenseless protesters? text "a" for yes, "b" for no to 622639. always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. let's turn now to david buscho, a student at uc davis who was pepper sprayed by the police at the protest. david, good to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. >> it's good to be here. all things considered. >> you bet. describe the moment when you were sprayed by the police officer. what happened? >> okay. so about a dozen of my friends sat on the sidewalk as a symbolic gesture and started chanting with the rest of the protesters. it was in the middle of an open field.

the police officers were able to walk around us. on numerous occasions they were able to walk over us, but i think that the police officer that appeared to be in charge of the riot police saw that as an attack on his ego, a personal attack. and obviously we were completely peaceful, we just locked arms. we never touched any of the police officers. and so he came up to my friend and said, if you don't move, i'll shoot you, and my friend responded, i'm just sitting here, i'm just sitting here. and then i'm told at this point he walked behind the police officers. they were holding paintball guns at pointblank range at our heads and said, don't worry, guys, i'll spray them down. he shook up the pepper spray, held it in the air for all the crowd to see and spray painted down in the face three times. the first time i was hit, i was immediately blinded. it felt like there was white hot sand in my eyes. i wanted to open my eyes because the pain was so intense but i

had to force my eyes closed. i was literally suffocating because it hurt so badly to breathe because my face was covered in pepper spray. >> david, i got to ask you, were you threatening at all to the law enforcement officials on the scene? >> no. in no way we were threatening to the police officers. we were sitting down. they walked past us. they walked over us. on numerous occasions. we didn't impede what they were trying to do in any way other than by sitting down. we were just sitting there chanting and singing songs. at this point, there was -- we had started -- we set up camps the night before and spent the night. at this point the camps were taken down. we were a bunch of kids standing around singing. >> do you accept the chancellor's apology? >> i'll accept her apology when she resigns and joins our movement. >> you want her to resign? that's what you want her to do?

>> i personally want her to resign. i started a petition on change.org. over 70,000 people want her to resign. my friends and i who are victims of this incident managed to track her down on saturday and we have her on video saying, i don't plan on resigning unless somebody says i did anything wrong. ed and 70,000 people said you did something wrong. the faculty association. >> do you have anything to say to the lieutenant? i understand it was lieutenant pike who sprayed you down. do you have anything to say to him? >> i don't know. he was an officer of the law, and my stepfather is a police officer, and i do have the utmost respect for police officers. i guess i wish i could have a conversation with him about why he did it. >> for him to go on administrative leave, for him to be placed on administrative leave, is that enough right now do you think? >> he's on paid administrative leave, that's right? >> yes.

>> the rumor i heard. i don't think that's enough. i think there needs to be a very serious inquiry. i think that there needs to be a serious psychological analysis of this police officer. i'd like to emphasize that it wasn't really the police officers' faults in the sense that chancellor katehi ordered the riot police to take over our encampment. given the events that happened across the uc campuses that week, she had to consider the possibility of police brutality. there's no way she didn't consider and accept the possibility of police brutality. >> david buscho, i appreciate your time tonight. thanks to much for joining us. we'll continue to the follow the story. let's turn to nathan brown, an english professor at the university. mr. brown, good to you with us. you've called on the chancellor to resign. are you upset that she hasn't? >> well, i think that she should. >> why should she resign?

>> because i think that what we're facing here is not just an issue related to one rogue police chief or one rogue police officer, but rather a systemic use by senior administrators in the uc system of police brutality to terrorize student and faculty protesters, to repress free speech and to repress the right for peaceful assembly. >> we saw the video of the students silently protesting the chancellor. are you proud of your students? >> those are not all my students, but they're all students at uc davis and perhaps from other campuses as well. i'm tremendously proud of their action that night. i think the most impressive thing that has come out of this sequence has been the evidence of the incredible collective political intelligence on this campus. these students are my heroes. they are a tremendous inspiration to me. >> how is it possible for a campus situation to escalate like this? you're now in the midst of a national story.

>> well, we've been seeing this for two years, in fact. this is what we saw in the fall of 2009 when students occupied a building at uc berkeley. massive riot police forces were called in and they beat students on the ground with their batons. the chancellor in that incident, chancellor birgeneau at uc berkeley is doing the same thing as now. he called for an investigation. this is a classic script that people in power follow when there's an instance of police brutality. they call for an investigation and put officers on paid administrative leave. these are simply transparent methods of deferring and displacing criticism. >> you've seen this movie before, professor? >> that's correct. yes. as i've been saying, there's a systemic use of police brutality on the uc campuses to terrorize students and faculty who protest tuition increases. >> how big a problem is the

tuition increases in the uc system? >> it is a huge problem. in 2005, tuition was around $6,000. tuition is currently around $13,000. and now the president of the uc system, mark yudof proposed an 81% fee increase over the next four years and raise tuition to around $23,000. we're seeing students standing up saying i can't pay that much money, i refuse to pay that much money, i refuse to go further in debt. when the students do stand up and say that, they are beaten, they are hospitalized and they are arrested by the police. it's a completely unacceptable state of affairs. >> professor nathan brown, thanks for your time tonight here on "the ed show." i appreciate you helping us with the story. remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter @edshow. we want to know what you think about this story. coming up, how do the events at uc davis affect the occupy movement at large?

activist jesse lagreca joins me next. the supercommittee fails to reach a deal and president obama says it's because republicans are too busy protecting the wealthiest americans. stay tuned. "the ed show" on msnbc continues. ♪ let's go ♪ ♪ ♪ come with me, let's go ♪ ♪ come with me, let's go ♪ ♪ cruise like a norwegian ♪ ♪ it's nice to be here ♪ it's nice to see you in my bed ♪ ♪ ♪ there are diamonds in her eyes ♪ [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ and they sparkle in the night ♪

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coming up on "the ed show," what do the uc davis protests mean for the bigger picture when it comes to the occupy wall street movement? activists and protester jesse lagreca joins me next. the congressional supercommittee failed, but that might not be such a bad thing. senator bernie sanders has reaction tonight. newt gingrich thinks a secular country is a nightmare. over the weekend i went to wisconsin where the recall effort on governor walker is in full force. my thoughts and coverage of that later in the show. stay with us. ttd# 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about the typical financial consultation ttd# 1-800-345-2550 when companies try to sell you something off their menu ttd# 1-800-345-2550 instead of trying to understand what you really need. ttd# 1-800-345-2550 ttd# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we provide ttd# 1-800-345-2550 a full range of financial products,

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[ screaming ] >> what's your name? >> stay back. >> shame on you! >> she's not resisting. >> she isn't resisting. >> shame on! >> the violence on the campus of uc davis happened because of camping. students were staging a protest in solidarity with the other occupy movements. they put tents on the quad. police were there to remove the tents. sound familiar, doesn't it? this is what's happening all over the country. in new york, in oakland, in portland. the uc davis chancellor was just following the blueprint for breaking up the occupy movements. i'm joined now by jesse lagreca, protester, activist and freelance journalist. what do you make of what you saw on that tape? >> it's absolutely deplorable, you know? to me it makes me feel like -- the cost of living is going up, your paychecks are getting decreased, your wages are declining and if you don't like it, i have a can of pepper spray for you. it's something we should be shocked and disturbed by. >> do the occupy people need to make a statement in how they want to deal with law

enforcement before this spirals out of control? >> we've made several statements about engaging in civil disobedience in a peaceful nature. the video exemplifies that. how can you attack people sitting on the ground? what threat do they pose to anybody? >> i'll answer that in conversation. i think it's part of a bigger plan. i think they're putting their foot down saying, look, this is what we're going to do if you come out here. what evidence do we have that that's not what they're doing? where does that leave you? >> it leaves us in a situation where we have to be mindful of our actions. the occupy wall street protests over the last two months have been the exemplary personification of nonviolence. there really is nothing they oppose to us other than the fact we won't stand for tuition costs going through the roof or stand for lack of accountability. >> what about leaving the tents behind? >> the tents are a smaller issue. i feel like the tents are a physical manifestation of our protest. the reality is you can't kill an idea. you can't kill reality. you can't repeal reality.

the reality for a lot of students, they can't face the rising cost of tuition faced with a jobless economy. where are the kids supposed to go? it's an issue of the lack of accountability, whether the chancellor at uc davis, or a banker. why are the police placed on paid leave? what happen does a police officer have to do to lose his job when he is harming citizens who are literally exercising their first amendment freedom of assembly. >> you heard the professor say this is standard operating procedure. he's seen the movie before. they rough up the kids, put a cop on paid administrative leave, they're back at it, squashed out and the next protest is handled the same way. what has to happen? >> i would hope nothing has to happen. i would hope the police would do their job and protect the citizens in compliance with the rule of law. i don't see where it's standard operating procedure to apply pepper spray before you arrest someone. i feel if martin luther king

junior were alive today he would get pepper sprayed with us. we're a continuation of the civil rights movement. it's part of the american dream. no one wants a handout. we expect to work hard. whether it's at school, whether it's in the private sector, the public sector. we expect to work hard. we expect something in return. not too big to fail banks getting bailed out. >> the students were saying they were there to support the occupy sacramento and some other cities, occupy berkeley as well which has been going on. the occupy davis has been a part of it. they're saying it's tuition. that was one of the thing that was really -- is this part of the 99% movement? i mean, is this part of occupy? is there interconnectivity here? is this an offshoot? >> it's all the same thing, all based on the income inequality throughout the country and all the rising costs. standing against the stagnant wages. in the last 30 years the wealthiest 1% accumulated all of the wealth and the rest have seen the standard of living going down, down, down. college tuition costs go up and

there's no jobs available, it it becomes a pressing issue for everyone in the economy. not just the students who have to pay tuition fees but parents and everybody else connected with them. yes, student tuition issue, all of it, it's part of the larger conversation. the reality with occupy wall street is, there's no 15-second sound byte to sum this up. there are so many problems in this country. we need a movement to fix it. >> there's no 15 second sound byte to sum up the movement and the protests, but there's a lot of criticism out there that it is not well defined. is it so broad and so different from what we have seen in the past that just about anything qualifies? that you could take any protest in america and say, yeah, that's the 99% or that's all of occupy? are you at that point? >> i think we are so large we are too big to fail. i think, in a certain sense, there are so many grievances right now that it requires a lot of different voices to address this. >> what would you say to the students at uc davis?

>> i stand in solidarity with them and thank them for being the example of nonviolent disobedience that all of us should aspire to be. >> are we reliving the '60s again? i mean you go back and look at the videotape. i was a young guy in those days but i remember it all. i remember the hoses on the black folk in america, the dogs loose, the cops coming in with the night sticks and working over the vietnam protesters. is it going to get to that level? >> i hope and pray it doesn't. at the same time, we're in the longest war since vietnam. we're living the '60s again. we're in the worst economic disaster since the great depression so we're living in the 1930s, too. when i listen to politicians, they want to go to the 1880s or 1760s. to me it is all the same thing. they're working as hard as they can, and wall street, lobbyists running around congress, to repeal the 20th century so the rich can get richer and the rest of us peasants can have whatever it takes for us to go away. >> i have to ask you this. this is coming up later in the program. i need to ask you, have you taken a bath today and do you have a job? what's your response to newt gingrich when he says something like that to people who are

exercising their first amendment rights. >> i think newt gingrich is a morally bankrupt example of the pervasive power of politics right now. i think he's a career lobbyist who's willing to say anything. newt gingrich as president will be like george w. bush but with more ex-wives. >> thank you for joining us tonight. appreciate your time. coming up, congressman joe walsh is screaming again, hollering about the 99% movement and calling veterans socialist. "psycho talk" is next. later, three time groom newt gingrich tries to convince america he's a morally upstanding guy. i think he's got some work to do. ♪

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and in "psycho talk" tonight, congressman and deadbeat dad joe walsh is screaming at his constituents again. he just won't let up. on saturday at a town hall meeting in gurney, illinois, the tea party mouthpiece went after the 99% movement, again. >> i think these are generally spoiled, pampered, unfocused, clueless young people and smattering of other people who don't understand this country and are advocating anti-american solutions. >> one of walsh's constituents took offense the congressman's ugly smear of the 99% and reminded him some of the anti-american protesters were veterans. >> i don't know how many

veterans are part of the occupy protests. i can't imagine it's many. but anyone who would advocate socialists solutions to certain problems in this country, they don't understand this country. >> joe walsh's world, soldiers who sacrifice for america are socialists. if they want economic fairness. the heroes who put on a uniform and fight for freedom all over the world have every right to be out in the street exercising the first amendment. veterans fought for walsh's right to run his fat mouth all over fox news and his district. i wouldn't expect walsh to understand why veterans attend the 99% protester movement, because you see, he's never been to one. >> have you been to the occupy movement? >> no. >> for congressman joe walsh to call veterans anti-american socialists is deadbeat "psycho talk."

president obama says he'll veto any attempt by congress to avoid real compromise after the super committee came up empty handed. the recall effort is well under way in wisconsin. tens of thousands of folks gathered in madison over the weekend to voice their opposition to governor scott walker. i was there. i'll have a full report. the folks are ready for change in wisconsin. what is this shorty? uh, tissues sir, i'm sick. you don't cough, you don't show defeat. give me your war face! raaah! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop. aflac... and major medical? major medical, boyyyy! [ beatboxing ] ♪ i help pay the doctor ♪ ain't that enough for you? ♪ there are things major medical doesn't do. aflac! pays cash so we don't have to fret. [ together ] ♪ something families should get ♪ ♪ like a safety net ♪ even helps pay deductibles, so cover your back, get... ♪ a-a-a-a-a-a-a-aflac!

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worth of tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of americans. >> no doubt about that. republicans worship at the altar of grover norquist. the super committee failed because republicans have once again dug in their heels on the side of the 1%. democrats have the american people on their side. the numbers are there. 67% support tax increases on businesses. and higher income americans as a way to reduce the federal budget deficit. and higher income americans as a way to reduce the federal budget deficit. a real compromise. >> one way or another, we will be trimming the deficit by a total of at least $2.2 trillion over the next ten years. i will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts, domestic and defense spending. there will be no easy off ramps on this one. we need to keep the pressure up to compromise. >> joining us tonight on "the ed show," vermont independent

senator bernie sanders. senator, good to have you with us tonight. who are the winners? who are the losers? how do you call it right now? >> well, the american people are the winners and the republicans are the big losers. look, as you've just indicated, ed, what is amazing at a time of strong political division in america, on this issue, the american people are united. every single poll that i have seen says that the american people understand that when the richest people are picking -- becoming richer and their effective tax rate is the lowest in decades, they have to pay more in taxes to help with deficit reduction. >> yeah. >> we have all of these loopholes out there for corporations so that they can make billions in a year and pay not a nickel in taxes. you have to deal with that as well and many americans understand we have tripled military spending since 1997. we're in two wars that the american people want out. you have to take a hard look at military spending.

>> senator, is -- >> so the republicans -- yep -- >> go ahead, go ahead. so republicans what? >> so the republicans who defend these positions of more tax breaks for the rich, they are way out of line with what the average american believes. >> well, it's all about revenue to the republicans, no question about it. but if they had agreed at some level to give us some revenue from the 1% down the road, would that have really brought a fight within the democratic caucus because what was on the table, according to john kerry, was cuts to traditional programs that millions of americans for generations have depended upon and the democrats, i think, are there to defend them. what about that? >> well, i think you're right. it would have brought about an internal debate within the democratic caucus. my view has been social security has not contributed one nickel to the deficit because it's paid for by the payroll tax, has $2.5 trillion surplus. i will continue to fight to make sure we do not cut social security and tell people who are

living on $14,000, $15,000 a year who are getting older, getting sicker, that they have got to be the people that do deficit reduction. when you got 50 million americans, ed, who are uninsured today, medically uninsured, you don't cut medicaid or medicare. there are a number of us who believe that and will defend those programs. >> so it seems to me that this was a discussion that the democrats were willing to have at a later date, but they just wanted to prove the american people there's no way republicans are ever going to serve up any more revenue from the 1% or 2% to try to fix our financial problems in this country. what about that? >> well, i'll tell you, frankly, ed, if i were a republican, i would not be a happy camper. having to go back to my state or my district and say, look, yeah, i'm in favor of cutting social security, medicare and medicaid, but you know what, i want to give more tax breaks to billionaires, i want to protect corporate loopholes for large corporations.

and you know what, maybe we should spend more money on the military. that is not a position i would like to defend because i think the vast majority of the people in this country disagree with those ideas. >> how do you think senate majority leader harry reid has played all of this? has he proven his worth in gold by putting democrats on the super committee that just would not cave on the big three? >> well, i think senator reid has done a very good job in making sure, in fact, that in this instance democrats do not cave, they protect the needs of the middle class and working class of this country. and i think that's the right thing to do from a public policy point of view and i think he has isolated the republicans who now have to defend an absolutely untenable position. >> republicans say president obama wanted the super committee to fail. here's senator marco rubio of florida. here it is. >> i do believe there's political strategy involved here and i certainly think the president would like to run against the do-nothing congress. >> what about that?

do you agree with him? >> no. i don't think the president wanted this committee to fail. none of us wanted the committee to fail. what the president wanted is some justice here. he wanted to do what the vast majority of the american people wanted him to do, and ask the wealthiest people and large corporations who up to this point, ed, have not contributed one nickel to our deficit reduction. that's what the president wanted. he was right. the republicans on this issue are way out of touch with ordinary americans. >> vermont senator bernie sanders, always a pleasure. thank you, senator, appreciate your time tonight. newt gingrich says america is too secular. we should get rid of child labor laws and the 99%ers should take a bath? folks, this is the republican party's latest choice to lead the free world. joan walsh, salon.com, joins me for the conversation. we're right back. ♪ there's a place i dream about ♪ ♪ where the sun never goes out ♪

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he made it through the weekend. newt gingrich is hanging on to the lead in the republican primary. a new poll shows him edging out mitt romney. 24% to 22%. while herman cain and rick perry, they are fading fast. the serial adulter and disgraced former speaker of the house spent the weekend in iowa pandering to the christian right. >> a country which has been now, since 1963, relentlessly driving god out of public life shouldn't be surprised at all the problems we have because we've, in fact, attempted to create a secular country which i think is, frankly, a nightmare. >> no, newt, we have not attempted to create a secular society. the founding fathers created a secular society.

it's in this little document called the constitution. meanwhile, newt's version of christian values was on full display during a speech at harvard where he plugged a unique strategy for getting rid of unions. >> it is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods in trapping children, first of all in child laws which are truly stupid. most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. the kids would actually do work. they would have cash. they'd have pride in the schools. they'd begin the process of rising. >> so not only does newt gingrich want to get rid of unions, he wants to strip away the laws they fought for? in newt gingrich's america, the poorer kids would clean up after the richer kids. who's advocating class warfare now? joining me now is joan walsh, editor at large, salon.com. joan, great to have you with us tonight. >> thanks, ed. >> let's talk about the christian right first.

is -- let's fast forward. let's just say newt does get the nomination. where's the christian right going to be with this guy, with his checkered past as speaker and also the three marriages? does it matter? >> you know, i think it will matter, but he's also -- he's so good at claiming god's forgiveness and god's mercy for himself, ed, and not for the rest of us. not for children, the children of the poor. i mean, i have to say, maybe this plan is a slight step up from when he proposed that the children of women on welfare be put in orphanages to be raised. maybe, maybe letting them live, you know, at home with their parents, only work as janitors, i don't know, maybe that's a step up. with christmas coming, this guy is so dickensian. he roots for scrooge. he's not going to do well on the rest of the country. >> he's pretty media savvy. talking about the child labor law, he's managed to switch the

subject off of freddie mac and his lobbying for at least a day. >> at least a day. >> who's he trying to appeal to with this statement? >> you know, i think the tea party really believes that there is a movement out there, that there is a constituency out there for truly, i think jesse said it best, rolling back the 20th century. turning back the clock on the new deal. and really putting all of us at the mercy of employers. and i -- the thing that's so crazy to me is that, you know, we're seeing -- what we've seen in wisconsin, and what we saw in ohio, is that people are waking up and saying, you know what? i don't want to live in a society like that. >> yeah. >> i think we can do better than that. so i don't know what they see, but he sees it, too, and we're having a great debate about the future of our country. and i think that our side is going to win. >> newt also went after the 99%ers this weekend. here it is. >> all of the occupy movement starts with a premise that we

all owe them everything. they take over a public park they didn't pay for to go nearby to use bathrooms they didn't pay for, to beg for food from places they don't want to pay for, to obstruct those who are going to work to pay the taxes to sustain the bathrooms and to sustain the park so they can self-righteously explain that they are the paragons of virtue to which we owe everything. that is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country and why you need to reassert something as simple as saying to them, go get a job right after you take a bath. >> what's your response to that, joan? >> you know what, there aren't enough baths to make newt gingrich clean. he's playing -- this is an old card from the culture war deck. it's not going to work, because you know what, in the -- let's leave the '60s and '70s aside. these kids right now are staggering under a load of debt. we used to want to educate our children and now we apparently don't.

so they're very sympathetic people. they're not dirty hippies asking for a handout. they're asking for justice. i just think it's so lazy to just reach back into the nixonian playbook for crappy old culture war stereotypes that don't work anymore. it's really something to watch. >> he made an interesting statement in that answer. he said that the protesters think that they are owed something. do you think they are in a sense feeling like they are owed something outside of fairness? they're out there for fairness and social justice and economic justice. where does that bring us? >> well, you know, they remember -- they look at -- they look at our generation, frankly, which was, you know, one of maybe two generations that really got the american dream. they got a decent education. you know, uc tuition was free before ronald reagan. there were little fees. but i mean, the costs hike that

you documented earlier in this show, more people need to know that. we used to want to educate our children for either free or very cheap, and apparently we can't afford that anymore. that's all they're asking for is that's all they're asking for is decency. >> if you don't have educated workers, then it's easier to concentrate the wealth. joan walsh always a pleasure. thank you so much. >> thanks, ed. coming up, this is what democracy looks like. thousands turned out for a recall walker rally to get signatures in madison. i was there. i got to tell you, these folks are organized. they're excited. but this is not going to be an easy lift. that story is next. we're america's natural gas

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finally tonight, the recall effort is well under way in wisconsin and already things are getting ugly. two volunteers helping out with the petition drive to get rid of governor scott walker, just to get it on the ballot to oust him, say they've had violent threats made against them. authorities are investigating. wisc has the report. >> reporter: the sounds of a fall recall have been mostly positive for signature collector tom peer. >> they sign up and say thanks for being out here.

>> reporter: one night this week -- >> i got a phone call about 2:00 in the morning. >> reporter: -- things sounded much worse. >> they said if you don't stop circulating recall petitions, we will kill you. >> reporter: that story sounds the same in sun prairie. >> they said that i had attracted the attention of some very bad people, that my life and the lives of my family were in danger. >> that didn't stop thousands of folks from gathering at a peaceful rally in madison over the weekend. i was there to see exactly what this change is all about. the mood was more than festive. people anxious to create change. and answer to a radical agenda against workers. saturday's march in madison was all in the process to recall governor walker. over 540,000 signatures were needed. and you get a sense that this won't be an easy lift. how intense are the pro-walker people? >> very. very. they -- one offered to fight me.

wanted to go out in the woods and fight me. this is going to be a real heavy lift, but i think we've got it, and i'm committed to staying out here until i get 100 signatures a day. >> do you think the people want this? >> look at the people out here. yeah, they want this. >> i got to tell you, ed, since we've launched the kickoffs, people have been lining up at union halls, people have been taking petitions. people have been going to their workplaces, to their churches. going out to their community. and from what i can tell, there's a big demand for petition signatures. >> labor may be the force behind walker's recall, but the message comes from madison to the country is much greater. what about the 99% movement, what about ohio? i mean, is this all part of a bigger picture that just happens to be here in wisconsin now? >> yeah, it's all together. it's one thing. it's one voice. and the momentum is not going to stop. they say the 99% movement has ended. it's just begun, my friend.

it's just begun. ♪ which side are you on, boys ♪ which side are you on >> the political climate in the middle of the country according to this crowd relates to the occupy effort. in fact, they believe it all started here. >> i always say to people, wisconsin was the first occupy movement. okay. we did this back in february. they didn't call it that, but it was the same thing. >> what do you see happening in 2012? >> i see us taking our country back. i'm hoping that our president when he wins takes that as a mandate for real change. we need real change in this country. >> in the middle of the country, they march. talking about change. you know, on saturdays in wisconsin, they're pretty important, especially last saturday. it was the deer gun season that opened up. of course, the badgers had a big football game against illinois in which wisconsin won. they're now 9-2. a lot of stuff was going on. but that didn't stop 30-plus thousand folks from coming out and gathering petitions.

a lady on the street said to me, she said, ed, you know, we know the country is watching us. and i thought to myself, that's exactly what the people in ohio said to me when we were covering the run-up to senate bill 5 and the recall of that. i don't think any political analyst can know exactly what's going on in this country and what it really means and if the intensity can be maintained all the way through to next november. but i have to tell you, when i was back in wisconsin in february, i thought, well, this will be for a couple of months. and then it went into a recall and all 14 of those senators still have a job. there were nine recall elections. five democrats won. two of them in areas where republicans have a pretty good stronghold. and then, of course, there's this story. now they want to get rid of the governor. how far will it go? will it go into november of 2012? that's the exciting thing about democracy and that's the

exciting thing about freedom of speech. and what's motivating these folks beyond what they really want, fairness, social justice, economic justice. what's motivating them is a candidate on the other side of their political ideology who says they should go take a bath. you see, those folks in the street in madison, the ones that i talked to, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, the engineer, the firefighter, the police officer, the teacher. oh, yeah, they relate to the 99% movement. they are offended by the rhetoric that comes from the right. they are offended by the arrogance that comes from the 1% who say that they already pay enough. i believe senator rand paul of kentucky said something about that this weekend. we'll talk more about this tomorrow as well. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. listen to my radio show on sirius xm radio channel 127 monday through friday noon to 3:00. follow me at twitter @