your pup this holiday season. feed them whatever they want. on behalf of the ed show staff and my dog buck, i hope you have a great holiday weekend. there's the buckster fishing with the old man. the rachael maddow show starts right now. >> merry christmas, happy friday. usually at the end of the year you have to practice saying the name of the new year, right? it's unfamiliar. you write the wrong year on your checks. in our 21st century, there is an awkwardness whether you say 20 2,000 and something or 20 something. there is a weirdness about the year switching over, usually. not this year. this year i can't believe it's not already 2012 given the number of times i say the word 2012 every day. the voting in the 2012 presidential race starts in a week and a half at the iowa caucuses. to be followed in very quick succession by south carolina and

north carolina and florida and so on. the republican party picking its nominee is a huge story and a huge deal for the country. i think it is basically worth all the blanket coverage that it gets. that said, i don't think even the forward looking national 2012 obsession in news about politics this year means that 2012 race is the most important thing going on in american politics this year. the most important politics in america in 2011 are not just the setup for next year's presidential race. i think they're about the consequences of the last election. they're about governing. they're about governing and discontents. in the midterm election in november 20 10shgs the republicans basically ran the table. they not only won control of the house of the state of washington, whole state legislatures and as that red tide of state legislators and state officials were sworn in in january of this year, the story

of 201111 politics began. the story of 2011 politics really became the way that they governed in the states. because they had a really big idea about that. that's where policy go to let the free flag fly. a lot of these new republican governors in particular have been reading from the same playbook all year long. and the policies that they have all been instituting, they're all very similar, have sparked a really big backlash. a big backlash that showed the country a whole new, whole different side of what it means to have an energized democratic base. on friday, governor walker said he was refusing to negotiate with anybody who worked for the state. no negotiations. i stead, he would direct the legislature to pass by fiat this week his new budget that goes after the benefits and bargaining rights of people who work for the state.

so not only he would not negotiate with people on this, he will never negotiate with them again. he will remove their right to collectively bargain in essence. while shocked by the radicalness of proposal and how fast he is trying to jam it through, state workers in wisconsin proved they are not going to take this lying down. look at this. an estimated 30,000 people protested in the state capital of madison today. 30,000 people. this is a fight for the democratic party. that's why wisconsin looks the way it does right now. that's why the streets of madison were shut down to traffic today because of the here is number of people who turned out. that's why people slept in the capital rotunda overnight. that's why the state legislature looked like this today. democratic legislators wearing orange t-shirts that read assembly democrats working for fighting families. and that's why 14 democratic state senators in washington went a-wol today. they refused to turn up for the anti-union vote scheduled in the state senate today. around noon, the democrats

disappeared. in their absence, the republicans could note get a quar yum and therefore they were unable to hold the big anti-union vote which they plan to hold today and plan to win. to avoid the threat of being forcibly returned to the state capital, democratic senators did not just not turn up at the state legislature today, they fled the state. joining us now is a democratic wisconsin state senator. he joins us now from a reportedly secure but alas undisclosed location. >> this is systemically dismantling some of the best parts about the state of wisconsin. the republican employees, they plow our roads and clean our streets. there are teachers and prison guards. they are the people who run our great state parks. and you're saying to them what you do doesn't really matter. not only do we want you to pay your fair share which they're more than willing to do, we want to bust your union. and that tears at the very fabric of the state of wisconsin. >> last night in the blink of an eye republicans in the wisconsin senate wiped away most union rights from most of the state's

public employees. today republicans in the state assembly did the same over the loud and vocal protests of those who gathered outside the chamber as well as the democratic representatives inside the chamber. republican govern oor scott walr pledged to sign it into law as soon as possible. recall petitions are filed against six state senators now if only three of those succeed this fight will have turned the state senate in the middle of the perm from republican controlled back to democratic controlled. six incumbent republican state senators face re-election. two democrats did unseat the republicans they targeted yesterday. jennifer schilling beat republican income bant doug kapanke and jis ka king defeated randy hopper. jessica king's rally capped r captured the spirit of ate love

of democrats in the state last night. they reduced the number republican majority in wisconsin senate down to one. that said, had democrats prevailed in just one more race, they wouldn't have just nar roid the majority, democrats would have been in control of the state senate. they didn't get that. so bottom line, republicans were delied they didn't lose control of the senate. democrats were disappointed they did not win that. but democrats are happy that they picked off two republican senators and they are happy that the margin in the senate is at least down for now and down to one republican vote. but also, democrats say today that they are happy with what last night's numbers might mean for a planned effort next year. >> we call whacker they are saying. republican governor scott walker. folks celebrating at jessica king's rally didn't wait a day to turn the focus to the next target, governor walker.

chair of the democratic party confirmed he would like to recall the governor as soon as is feasible. the governor can't be recalled until he's bln in office a fuel year. that requirement will be met this coming january. a new poll out this week on governor walker's prospect shows 58% want him to be recalled from office. that's not good for him. today in ohio, the senate voted wisconsin style to strip union rights. the measure passed 17-16 even though six republicans jumped ship and voted with democrats to protect the unions n ohio, cracks couldn't block up quor yum. they said over to the assembly now where republicans will probably pass tlit, too. that said, the protests in the streets in ohio and the wild unpopularity of what republicans are doing and the republican defections on this do not make passage a sure thing. if it does pass, democrats say they will get it repealed by a public vote this november.

this is ohio governor john kasich, a remember freshman governor just elected in november. after governor kasich signed sb-. signatures were collected for a citizens repeal. they delivered box after box after box of petitions. today the ohio secretary of state that said 900,000 of the signatures are valid. that is four time the amount needed. this means that there will be a referendum. the vote happens in november. in ohio, the most high profile race in the country, the bid to recall the union stripping law there. it was defeated by 22 points. all the polls predicting impossibly high margin of victory for the pro union right side in ohio, those impossible margin of victory poles turned out to be exactly accurate. the occupy wall street protests have been going on for 12 days now. there has been outrageous police

tactics used against the protesters. the reason this is growing and spedding to other american cities is not because of some message about police tactics. it is the basic point about who caused the mess the kun stri in right now? who has figured out how to ben it in from it? who is stopping us from tichling it? police arrested hundreds of occupy wall street marchers on the brooklyn bridge. hundreds of people arrested. occupy everywhere in america. occupy boston. occupy chicago, occupy portland, maine. >> this is beautiful, boundiful land that is hopelessly. >> what happened? you know, what happened? >> the idea of the occupy protest is that people stay. that's the occupy party of it, right? you don't go anywhere. like whoeverville, these are supposed to be semipermanent living reminders of what's wrong with the economy and the

political system. the perm nance is part of the pressure. and city officials around the country are not handling this well at all n oakland, california, police cleared out protesters early tuesday morning. later when they returned to reclaim the space, the police response was fast moving, loud, and ultimately violent. it involved tear gas and shooting at the protesters with nonlethal projectiles. today thousands of loek and raze dents took to the sfreets for what were reportedly by local press calling these things the largest demonstration in the east bay since the days of the vietnam war. today in new york city, very, very early this horning, new york city police raided and tore down and cleared out the occupy wall street encampment that has been at zuccotti park

for nearly two months. the raid happened at 1:00 a.m. roughly. most of the protesters were there asleep. they hand the out a written notice to the protesters telling them where their personal articles from the encampment could be retrieved. there were reports that police used knives to cut up the sturdy military grade tents that were the best hope of surviving winter down there. can you see the police cutting down the protesters tent polls with hand held saws. this is a massive police action. there were 200 arrests this morning. zuccotti park was totally cleared. >> i'm going to stay here. i'm going to put my tent right back up. we show them that we're not just words on the internet screen. we are people. and we are willing to put ourselves in pain and misery to get our point across. >> there's no reason to believe

that the mats protests in the midwest against republican governors and republican legislators and laws stripping un yoen rights, there's no reason to believe that those led to the occupy movement. these things emerged in different parts of the country with different goals, different tactics. it's different people. but if you want to understand the politics of 20e11 overall, t is republican governance in the streets. it is the streets all over the country coming away with a dissatisfied, organized, creative message from the left. more on that ahead. it's like having portable navigation. a bluetooth connection. a stolen vehicle locator. roadside assistance. and something that could help save your life - automatic help in a crash. it's the technology of five devices in one hard-working mirror. because life happens while you drive. this holiday, give someone you love an onstar fmv mirror for only 199. visit onstar.com for retailers.

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after all of the impossible politics of it and all of the stalling tactics from the other side and all the studies and after many, many, many disguise falling pronouncements from one senator john mccain of arizona, last year it became clear that president obama was going to be able to make good on his campaign promise. his campaign promise to end the clinton era anti-gay law don't ask don't tell. and then it was one minute past midnight on september 20th this year that it ended.

today's day one of the united states military after don't ask don't tell. in the runup to repeal day to day an 88-year-old world war ii veteran spoke at a ceremony marking the policies repeal in georgia. hours after the repeal became effective, two active duty service members spoke out about being gay in the military during a press conference with the defense members. last night in san diego, service members and their supporters celebrated the repeal as it happened, as it took effect. tens of thousands of gay people have been serving in the united states military during this whole debate while the policy has existed. now that the policy gone, they can make their own decision about whether or not and how to say who they are. it can no longer be used against them. why it is worth it to you to take the risk to speak out like this and to do the work that you have done without serving? >> i think why it's important for me is that at some point while you're serving under the military and under this policy,

you see some of atrocities that occurred to people across the world including myself who is blackmail or some point you have to see there is something larger than yourself out there and you have to take these risks to do something like this to help others and create the change that's needed. >> i did that interview last jeer with an air force lieutenant using a spseudonym. he started the underground network of active duty u.s. military personnel called outserve. his pseudonym was j.d. smith. now joining us live from washington, d.c. from the legal defense network for the first time not in silhouette is air force lieutenant josh significantfried who is no longer known as j.d. smith. he is author of "our time:

breaking the silence of don't ask, don't tell." and victor farnbach came out after this program. and he won as he saw the policy crumble this year. gentlemen, i have to say congratulations and thank you both for joining us. lieutenant significantfried, formerly known as j.d. smith on this program, let me start with you. how has it felt to you personally to be able to say who you are and to spend this first 24 hours in the new military? >> it feels like a huge burden has been lifted off your shoulders. i mean there's not a single day that you cannot think about this policy while serving in the military. and knowing today that there's a career that i have an opportunity to xr where you don't have to be scared of who i am and who i love that i can be part of the military family. i'm so excited about it. and i think every other gay person feels the same way. >> are you anticipating that

there are going to be problems with implementation of repeal? the military is very firm. the pentagon is very firm in saying there are not going to be problems. we are prepared. we're trained. we're ready for this? having been in the air force for 20 years and seen what you have seen, most of that time not being a man who people knew was gay, do you think is going to be trouble? >> i think will there may be isolated cases. the way this was done, i was the most impashl man in the world having this threat of discharge hanging over me for the last three years an four months. but what i learned from that over the last two years, again, i've been able to serve openly. i shouldn't be surprised by this. but, you know, the military people are professional. they're disciplined. they're dedicated. that's all they care about. so there may be isolated cases. across the board, we took our time. we got everybody trained. i think people have been expecting this for the last ten months or so. so i think we're ready. i think the cases will be very isolated. >> gentlemen, i want to thank

you both for your activism and speaking out enthe bravery that that took. thank you for joining us to night. i sense the opportunity cost of that viscerally because i know there is an open bar there and you're both in the mood to celebrate. so i release you both. congratulations. have a great night. >> thanks, rachael. cheers to you. >> thanks, rachael. >> thanks to you both. >> the republican candidate's for president this year made some noises about reinstating don't ask don't tell if they're lekted president. meanwhile, in the military, even military leaders who criticized the idea of scrapping the policy before we did it, now say that get rid of it caused no problems at all. the marine corps ball this year included some same sex couples this year. the sky did not fall. when this navy ship came home this week to virginia from being deployed, the first sailor ashore, the first kes upon returning home was this female sailor greeted by her partner who is also a female sailor.

guys like tim paulenty and rick santorum is saying they would force everyone in the military back into the closet if they were elected president. at this point i kind to like to see him try. [ sniffling ] [ male announcer ] not sure what to take? now robitussin® makes finding the right relief simpler than ever. click on the robitussin® relief finder. click on your symptoms. get your right relief. ♪ makes the cold aisle easy. ♪ robitussin®. relief made simple. robitussin®. ♪ when the things that you need come at just the right speed, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ medicine that can't wait legal briefs there by eight, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ freight for you, box for me box that keeps you healthy,

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in a year filled with radical republican politics in the states, the multistate attack on union rights, biggest roll back of abortion rights in the state since roe versus wade, supposed small government conservatives mandating hair and urine samples to test citizens

for drugs even if those citizens were not us is spekded of using drugs. in a year filled with radical republican politics in the states though, my vote for the single most radical thing that happened in american politics anywhere was what happened in the state of michigan. republican legislators and newly elected republican governor rick snyder took an existing michigan law concerning something called emergency managers. they took that existing law and they dramatically changed it. they changed it into a way to override local democracy. michigan republicans gave their governor the right to void local elections, to overrule what people vote for in their cities and towns in michigan. it's democracy begone. before this happened this year, i never thought somebody could get away with this in the united states of america. >> one of the signature policies of governor snyder has been his emergency manager law whereby the state government can declare any town or school district tow

state. despite the decline that benton harbor is home to the global headquarters for whirlpool appliances. manning the heirs to the whirlpool's appliance fortune is fred upton. he represents benton harbor in the state house. he's the person who introduced the emergency state takeover bill that governor rick snyder signed. this is their ceremonial reenacting of the signing there. until last year, he served on the board of directors for a

nonprofit that wonts to build a half billion dollar, 530 acre lake front jack nicklaus designed golf course and luxury real estate development that would span both rementively wealthy st. joseph and benton harbor. a development that eats the one collective asset that benton harbor had, the beautiful beach front park. it would turn it into a place where caddies carry bags for whirlpool executives and rich folks that drive in from chicago at their new lovely signature home. they're very expensive and part of the whole golf course deal. the park was deeded as a gift to the town. one of the poorest towns in michigan. deeded to the town in perpetuity in 1917. perpetuity i guess is not as long as it used to be. benton harbor residents are looking at a golf course where the cost of an annual pass for a family to play there is $5,000.

$5,000 is after the average annual income of families living in benton harbor. this golf course development thing is not for them. apparently is democratic local go. . on friday the new state appointed emergency overseer issued an executive order that restricted the mayor and the city commissioners to three duties. they can call a meeting, they can approve the meeting minutes and adjourn the meeting. three things that elected officials of benton harbor are now allowed to do. that's it. >> the fact of the matter is city manager is now gone. i am the city manager. i replaced the finance director. so i'm finance director and city manager and mayor and commissioner. >> benton harbor's manager told the local tv station this week in michigan that people of benton harbor probably love that their local officials have been replaced by him. he said although he hasn't polled anyone, he bets the people in benton harbor see him as an angel of common sense.

is that true? does benton harbor love their new autocrat instead of their old democracy? is that accurate? is that fru? it does not matter! remember, they don't know you're going to say in anything about their town. benton harbor residents voted this week on tuesday. they voted down all siven of the ballot measures that this emergency overseer guy unilaterally designed to put on the ballot. according to the votes, benton harbor lekt the a new mayor and new counsellors. but, of course, the votes are all pretty much mute. they went out and went through the motions of voting. thanks to rick nider's emergency manager law, votes in that part of michigan just don't have any effect anymore. local elections are overruled by the state for your own good. so hey benton harbor. thanks for playing. democracy the game. the people you voted for, they'll take power when and if this emergency overseer from the state running your town ever decide to leave.

2011 is the year when republicans in the great state of michigan decided that small deed democracy is a problem in michigan. it's not the way that michigan solves its problems. democracy is itself a problem. it needs to be done away with in the name of efficiency. governor rick snyder and the republican legislature did in michigan this year gets my vote for the sing the most radical thing in politics this fairly radical year. the fight back against what happened in michigan this year has also been intense. it sin tense and at times it has even verged on inspiring. that's coming up.

if you were in high school in detroit and you got pregnant or you had a baby, since 1988, katherine ferguson academy was designed to keep new school and keep from you dropping out and to get knew college. real course work, high expectations and help with parenting classes for the moms and childcare and early education for the kids. right in the middle of a hollowed out inner city, they have land and the school has used it to have the girls tend beehives and take care of animals. that is part of the role of

katherine ferguson, the girls learning to grow food and harvest crops and learning farming. seems to have worked. they can brag on their graduation rate in their college acceptance rate. there is no place like katherine ferguson academy in the entire country. >> i want everybody to have the same opportunity that i had. last month there was a new emergency measure law which is emergency manager on steroids. this new bill contains more than a dozen new triggers for getting put under emergency rule. it gives an emergency overseer in a town or school district, district, it gives that overseer astounding amounts of new power. he was frustrated under the old manager law. detroit was still allowed to have an lekted school board and those locally elected officials

did not always want what he wanted which he found frustrating. the new law would do away with that complication. before the new law went knee infect, the school's emergency manager said he wanted to close katherine ferguson academy. it was slated for closure last year. robert bob's plan to downsize the school system but protests from students and community members kept it open. manager wanted to shut down the city's special school for girls who were pregnant or who had kids. but protests from students and community members kept it open. now with expanded unilateral power, all teachers in the deceit schools just got layoff notices from this person and the girls at katherine ferguson academy found out that their school is put on this list. look. closures or charters with a big asterisk on it. the asterisk means, proposals will be requested to operate the schools as charters if an acceptable proposal is not submitted for a school then it will be closed during the summer of 2011. the girls got the news about what was going to happen to

katherine ferguson, they went to will school, they gathered inside. they made a collective decision to say this is our place and we're staying. and then, of course this is what happened next. the police turned on the sirens to drown out their voices while they were getting arrested for refusing to leave their school fl one teacher was arrested. we've been expecting today to be the last day ever. that was what the emergency manager had ordered. the principal had been told to say good-bye to the students today, to hand in her keys to the school tomorrow. principal andrews went to bed

last night thinking that was it, her school was done. an emergency manager wanted to see her for a meeting at 106789. 45. then another call, the meeting changed to 10:00. no, another call. get to the emergency managers office right away. miss andrews walked in to find them finishing up a deal to keep the academy opened. i asked her if she minded and she said no. the fate of the academy is it in this private company's hands now. but this time yesterday this school was due not to exist. as to have day, the academy has a tomorrow. joining us is the aonly principal that catherine ferguson academy has ever known. thank you for interrupting what i imagine is your celebration here to be with us tonight. >> i just can breathe. thank you. >> let me say congratulations. am i right you had no idea this was coming at all?

>> not at all. everybody had some scheme or some way they were going to save us. i got really excited and then i got deflated. and so i couldn't -- i couldn't imagine that they would wait so long. i just thought i would be gone and my girls were thrown to the wind. so we're excited. we're excited. >> catherine ferguson academy still exists for now as a charter school. and that's the important fine print here. charter schools sometimes work, sometimes they do not. sometimes they give teachers more freedom and better pay. some sometimes they pay less and do less. teachers with detroit public schools are union. teachers with the new company there are not union. but catherine ferguson academy is open because the girl and the teachers and the principal and the community of supporters of catherine ferguson fought to make that so. we're just on a personal note, i

have to tell when you we aired that story, a particularly -- the part of the story of those girls getting arrested trying to keep their school open, i mean i get feedback from people i know who watch the show all the time. that was the only time the feedback after watching one of our shows from a lot of people that i know was them asking me how to get there. how to physically go there. they wanted to go help. we have more ahead. everyone have their new blackberry from at&t?

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you are very powerful. >> we totally agree. i feel if we can agree on this, then we should be able to make better policy as a country. >> i agree. >> reasonable people can come to this conclusion. >> i agree. >> we solved it. >> back in april, megan mccain took me to the nra convention in pittsburgh. after that, after going to the

convention, i met up with a councilman from pinsburg who was not at all psyched about his city hosting the nra and the 70,000 of its members this year. watch. >> i represent the eastern part of the city of pittsburgh. i represent the poorest area of the city of pittsburgh. unfortunately, the most crime infested, the most homicides, the most drug infested area in the city of pittsburgh, the lowest economic standards. and it is unfortunately a very difficult place. it is a place that has been plagued by violence, by gun violence. i myself, in fact, my whole life has been the consequence of gun violence. my aunt was murdered. and my mother had a nervous breakdown. and for 30 years had a mental illness she never recovered from. my cousins have been shot and killed. my wife's father was shot. my wife's mother, my

mother-in-law was shot and killed who lived with us. her brother killed someone and spent 20 years in the penitentiary. a do i adopted his son and raised him as my own son. he actually went into the ministry after my mother's sickness to figure out this thing. so all of my life has been really affected by violence. my wife's cousins have been shot and killed. i had children in my church shot and killed. i ran for council in fact because i couldn't take the shootings anymore. the ease of which you can buy guns in this community is frightening. you can buy a gun from a gas station. i mean why does individual citizens need ak-47s, m-16s? ar-14s, three and four of them? there is no gun manufacturers in my community. the guns are not being made there. they're being brought here through straw purchasers, gun shows. and it's turned my community into either a combination of the wild, wild west or a ghost town.

it killed the business. it residential community. the area i represented lost almost 75% of the population since 1968. it's gist been devastating and almost all that leads directly or indirectly to gun violence. >> you said you used to play here when you were a kid? >> this is my alley. a come blacks down i learned to play basketball, football, baseball, track. this was for many years the most dangerous place in the city of pittsburgh. one of the local record producers called it pittsburgh pistolvania. the houses were used to store guns and bodies. what they did was they put holes because they're all connected, they put holes in the walls interconnecting these buildings so they could go into one door here and if the police were chasing, they would go in this door and run do you through the holes in the walls and come out in order to escape police. you know, bodies were found in

here, guns. guns were found here. almost any vacant building you have the danger of finding guns. that's where they hide. rather than hide them in their house, they hide them in places like this. it is one of my great, great trrz. we're working on tearing this down. it has to come down. as you see, empty lots, vacant lots. and even it being here this way is dangerous. >> yeah. >> even though they concreted some of it, some of it you can come n how you doing, baby? are you zma what's your name? jay arjay. >> do you live around here? >> yeah. >> where do you sflif. >> over there. okay. good. are you on your way home from school? >> yes. >> this is your city councilman. >> i'm your city counsel silman. how are you doing? >> there was a young girl her age shot and killed on the front side of the street on her way home from school. it is dangerous because there's a school about two blocks that

way. but the school is surrounded with property like this. >> seeing her go home through these lots is hard. >> it's hard for me. i see it every day. i see it absolutely every day. >> what happens to -- >> make no mistake, this is economics. these were closed because of gun violence. they got this way because they were shooting people on these streets every day. this alley was known as for a while the most dangerous place in the united states, this alley right here where you're at. this was the most dangerous place. they had the highest incidents of homicides in the united states. that's why this is like this. >> and so people had to move because of the violence regardless of what else was offered or not offered. >> they had to go. >> the only thing i've ever seen with this many houses boarded up is natural disasters. it's been flooded, hurricane damage, that sort of thing. but this is a natural disaster.

this is policy disaster. >> right. this is policy. this is gun violence. tell me thank you for this gift. this is what guns have done to my community. and i have nor vacant houses, more empty lots than any other place in the city of pittsburgh. i can't answer that quechlt we arecontrolled by the republicans. our house and senate and governor are all nonrepublicans. and so they're not interested in the nra. you know, they put a lot of money in lobbying and political contributions. and they absolutely control our

state. and so any responsible gun law has not been passed in our state. and people like me, i think who speak up, i think hopefully were heard. i don't think we have the power in the state in order to make it happen. in pennsylvania, we have two major urban centers. we have a lot of rural communities and represented by rural representatives. but i challenge them to come here with me, let me show you my community. i will show you the victims of gun violence. i'll show you what is left and you tell me what good your lobbying has done for my community. tell me what those guns have done in good for my community. i'll show you the deathsment i'll show you the people. i'll show you the houses. i'll show you the abandoned buildings. i'll show you the flight. you tell overwhelming, a number of guns on my streets in my community, what good has it done for us?

>> thank you for this tour and this time. >> thank you. actually getting to see and therefore actually getting to show you what i saw in pittsburgh is sadly a little bit unusual for us. i'd like to get out there more, i have to say. that's my resolution for 2012. but most of the time on this show, from the confines of this studio we instead rely on a whole party bag of tricks to try to illustrate what's going on in the world outside these walls. some of the extremity work well. others not so much. luckily, we have no shame or self-discipline or restraint. and that will be on full display next. [ male announcer ] new vicks nature fusion cold & flu syrup.

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when we get together as a staff every day to try to figure out not only what stories to cover in this news hour but how to cover them, we inevitably end up trying to figure out metaphors, ways to explain what's going on through the

magic of storytelling, using television and the risk of humiliation through props to try to make stuff clear. sometimes our visual met tors work. but looking back over the hundreds of show that is we did in 2011, more often than not, things end up like this -- >> you're getting a rare look at what's called an american liberal. the liberal appears to be upset, angry even about plans to abolish medicare. we can't know why. but with this liberal eartag tracking device, we can observe any strange outbursts that occur in the liberal's behavior. >> as a gesture of goodwill, we are going to mail you this lifesize cutout of blanche lincoln. >> want to know what happened today? ding. doesn't look like without a

breeze, i don't think. that's nice. ♪ dancing queen >> this ring tone is newt gingrich's ring stone. it's "dancing queen" by abba. never raises his voice, but seldom takes "no" for an answer. not in it for the balloons. the world needs new, america needs fresh. come on, puppy, stay awake, stay with me, puppy. no, up, up, not down. wake up, puppy. come on. it's going to be up. come up! no matter how adorably sleep-inducing fed monetary policy is, come on -- there you go, yes. the percentage drop in the s&p

500 today was, look at the bottom number there on the right, 6.66%. seriously, 6.66%. 666. just in case the pneumoro logical gods weren't with us, it had to be 666. dead birds are not the scariest thing to fall out of the sky in america. you may be wondering what's up with really loud cowbell. we are glad to sigh michael wolf joins us live -- that's not michael wolf. that's richard wolffe. that's michael steele. do we have michael wolf? seriously, come on. that is bill wolf in a wolf t-shirt. that is not -- all right, forget it. forget it. meat plus caffeine equals the

best new thing in the world today. here's the scene. where are we? we are on a street. here, wait. what was i doing? i was driving a car. what's that? person i just ran over in a crosswalk. there's one thing to understand about the case for rick perry that is being made so far and that it looks like will be the basis for his presidential run, one thing to understand about that -- it's baloney. >> i'm often criticized about the fact that i've never held public office and criticized that i don't know this and i don't know that and i don't know that and i don't know this. you know, a leader doesn't have to know everything. >> i don't think i have to try to prove this anymore. i think the evidence is