fire it one more time. >> 3, 2, 1. >> there it goes. travels across the country it's dog gone good. see you, joe. >> see you. >> i'm ed schultz, "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. the sound alone totally worth the price of admission, like the cartoon sproing sound. >> the picture of the president is priceless, isn't it? >> absolutely. you got the situation room look on his face when he's killing bin laden and you have the marshmallow cannon, the two sides of the spectrum in terms of what emotion you can show in a still photo. >> have a great weekend. >> you too, ed. thanks to you at home for staying with us for in next hour. for his big speech at cpac at the big biannual or big annual conservative confab in washington d.c., former massachusetts governor and current candidate mitt romney was introduced by this guy. this guy is the chairman of the

american conservative union. american conservative union is the organization that runs cpac. they run this whole three-day event. shortly after mr. romney was done with his speech, former house speaker newt gingrich took the stage. mr. gingrich was introduced by his wife who you see there, so mitt romney introduced by the guy hosting the event of the newt gingrich introduced by his wife. rick santorum? who introduced rick santorum? he was introduced by his billionaire, his billionaire opened with a joke. >> there is a little bar couple doors down and a conservative, a liberal and a moderate walked into the bar. the bartender says hi, mitt. [ laughing ] >> can i pay you to laugh?

if i keep laugh something how about now? i could pay you all. would mitt romney really walk in a bar? your introduction is a form of political framing, like picking a running mate or where you choose to announce the candidacy or what metaphor you use in your stump speech, all important parts of political framing. usually in presidential politics your political framing is about compensating for some perceived weakness you have as a candidate. bolstering something about your candidacy that is wobbly. john mccain seen as being the guy who has been around for a long time, old man of the party, picks for his running mate a young, previously totally unknown republican governor. barack obama perceived to have the baggage of a divided democratic party after his long battle with hillary clinton, hillary clinton is the one who essentially introduces him as the democratic nominee. hillary clinton is the one who moves formally at the convention that barack obama be nominated

by the democratic party for president. the idea between all of these things is essentially you complete me. by bringing you into my framing, i am a more complete, better political picture than i am without you. so when rick santorum has his billionaire introduce him at cpac, maybe it's not as weird as it seems. what is the beef with the santorum candidacy? the idea is he doesn't have the capacity, doesn't have the support to run a national campaign and go the distance. so having his billionaire there, is rick santorum showing cpac, showing the conservative world he's got financial support. that is no small thing for the republican field given what was announced about newt gingrich's billionaire. for mitt romney having the conservative conference of the year introduce you thread meat conference can be a home field for mitt romney. it's an attempt for mitt romney to reinforce his conservative bona fides.

newt gingrich having his wife introduced him that says -- well, says he's married to that person now. which is maybe particularly important given his grandstanding on catholic doctrine on sexual morality for the past couple weeks, given the rest of his history. of all of these the romney one is the most important, how hard mr. romney is trying to show up his -- to shore up his standing with conservatives. john mccain never successfully did that in 2008. he still ended up getting the nomination. it is enot that you can't get te nomination without seeming like a red, red, red conservative fire breather, right in that does seem to be the weakness in his campaign right now and what he's working hardest to fix. mr. romney lost a number of contests to not only newt gingrich but rick santorum. the santorum thing is not a

fluke. we put a national poll that rick santorum is leading. gallup, rick santorum is climbing fast as newt gingrich fades away. mr. santorum in second place ahead of mr. gingrich. the exit polling over the last month showing that it's the most conservative members of the republican base who are turning against mitt romney, and so now, having lost south carolina to newt gingrich, and a trio of states to rick santorum this past week, now you have mitt romney trying really hard to connect with the conservative base. not only getting sbrintroduced the head of the american conservative union. listen how he spoke to the crowd once he got the mike. >> this must be our greatest hour as conservatives. this is our moment. this is why we're conservatives. we conservatives are proud to cling to our constitution. we conservatives believe in free people.

conservatives constants have shaped my life. as governor of massachusetts i had the unique experience of defending conservative principaprincipaipl principles in the most liberal state in the nation. i was a severely conservative republican governor. >> not just conservative but severely conservative. he was severely conservative in massachusetts. really, all you had to do was ask him. >> i think people recognize that i'm not a partisan republican i'm someone moderate my views are progressive. >> my views are progressive, no, i mean my views are severely conservati conservative. >> i believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. i have since the time my mom took that position when she ran in 1970. look, i was an independent during the time of reagan-bush, i'm not trying to return to reagan-bush. people recognize i'm not a partisan republican i'm moderate and my views are progressive.

>> the scentral task of mitt romney's campaign is not him erasing his past as a not particularly conservative or partisan republican. not about dealing with old clips like that. it's also about mitt romney trying to be all over the conservative issues of right now, the conservatives issues of moment. >> how about a quick question about the state legislature, they have bantered about the proposition that welfare recipients should be drug tested. how do you feel about that? >> my own view a great idea. people who are receiving welfare benefits, government benefits we should make sure they are not using those benefits to pay for drugs and i think it's an excellent idea. >> mitt romney is for drug testing welfare recipients. he said that earlier this week during a local interview in georgia. got overlooked when he said it steve benen, has picked that up. i think it's important i'm glad steve found it and it's important. drug testing people is something

that republicans have been proposing all over the country this year. sort of like all the anti-union stuff, like they are all working from the same script. republicans have been talking about forcibly drug testing poor people in virginia, and in pennsylvania, and in colorado, and in indiana, and in tennessee, hawaii, in west virginia and in georgia on and on and on. this is a conservative thing now. they want a government small enough it has the power to demand citizens turn over their bodily fluids. mass examination of bodily fluids of people not suspected of drug forced. florida passed it last year by rick scott. in this one place where it has been tried it turned out to be a bit of a disaster. when governor rick scott defended his plan for forced drug testing of the poor in florida last year, he did so on the grounds poor people just do so much more -- so many more drugs than rich people do. >> studies show people on

welfare are higher users of drugs than people not on welfare. but the bottom line is this --. >> sir, to that point, i would stop people in their tracks and i don't have whatever study you're referring to you're saying people out there who need assistance, lost jobs on welfare have a higher tendency to use drugs? >> absolutely. >> absolutely. did i say there was a study? absolutely. here is the problem, the initial results from florida governor's own big plan to seize the bodily fluids of poor people in his state showed that there was a 2% positive rate. 2% of poor people in florida testing positive for drugs. that compares to the overallstate average for floridians of 8% of people using drugs. it has been a big intrusive government pointless expensive humiliation of poor people and humiliation of the governor, nightmare where it was tried in

florida. this is a big issue now. so mitt romney, naturally picks it up and runs with it. drug testing poor people? i'm all for that, i think that is great. did i had mention i'm severely conservative? because this is the mitt romney campaign and this is 2012, in doing this, mr. romney managed to screw this one up as well. because according to mr. romney it's not just people who receive welfare benefits who should be drug tested, not just people getting welfare benefits, listen to what he says. >> it's a great idea, people who are receiving welfare benefits, government benefits, we should make sure they are not using the benefits to pay for drugs. >> people receiving welfare benefits, government benefits, anybody receiving government benefits according to mitt romney will be forcibly drug tested. even if you're not suspected of using drugs. anybody getting money from the government. mr. romney, you want to drug test people who get farm subsidies? >> people who are receiving welfare benefit, government benefits, we should make sure

they are not using the benefits to pay for drugs. >> government benefits. you want to drug test bankers who got bailed out by money? executives of oil companies, they get $4 billion in subsidy, should they be drug tested? government officials get paid. all of congress, how about the supreme court justices, do you want to tell them personally, brought a cup with me. should all those people be drug tested since they get money from the government or just poor people who you are talking about. every senior citizen who receives social security benefits. >> government benefits, we should make sure they are not using the benefits to pay for drugs. >> a universal mandatory drug testing program for people who get social security. call grandma. we reached out to the romney campaign to find out which specific groups of people who receive government benefits he would like to forcibly drug test nation-wide, we have so far not heard back from the campaign. mr. romney is trying really hard to make conservatives like him,

make them forget he used to call himself a moderate and progressive but he's having a hard time making that case without putting the ball in his own net. joining us is dave weigel political reporter for slate.com. >> i'm severely happy to be here. >> mr. romney said the word conservative, i think 26 times today. in that one speech, is he covering any of the distance toward silencing his critics? >> not really. the way i heard one very astute person describe it if you look at santorum and romney, imagine them if they weren't running for president, would romney be talking like this if he was nlt running for president, the sense is no. would santorum talk the way santorum talks if he wasn't running for president -- romney will never convince conservative voters he believes in his bones what they believe.

he will convince them that he has a biography they approve of, a businessman that hates the government and he can win. the first part of that i think he's doing well on. the second part, at this moment especially in a place like cpac, a horrible week for him, after losing some caucuses he didn't try to win, he goes to a conference where he never really wins, he doesn't look like a winner, in a situation like that and tough for him to convince them he can also take the election. >> is that translating to support for him at cpac any way because he does still have the electability argument at least? i was making an argument half in jest rick santorum showing off his billionaire was a way of implicitly making the case he has the support to go the distance and run a national campaign. does mitt romney still own the electability serious candidate himself? >> definitely not with this

crowd. a candidate in indiana running against richard luger, if there is a second wave of the tea party movement, he would win, he was convinced santorum was the most electable republican, the reason being as ronald reagan said at cpac 36 years ago, 37 years ago, conservatives win when they draw bright contrasts in bold pastels or bold contrasts in bright pastels, bright colors. they don't win if they muttle the difference. that is not how george w. bush won, not how george hw bush. conservatives are convinced that is how they win. talking about a population at cpac, population that vote in the republican republican primaries, population that will vote in arizona, the next winner take all primary i think people are worried about romney losing. >> but dave, after sharon engel, after joe miller, after all the

experience of all those republican sort of average republicans being primaried by bold color tea party super conservatives republicans and them losing in the general election, is there any sense among these folks there might be lessons learned from that? >> they feel like those were anomalies, sharon engel will tell you the election might not have been above board. miller might have won if it wasn't a write-in campaign. the way history has been written since 2009 is before that, when they nominate the most conservative candidate who makes a clear argument, they win. i think romney will do well in michigan, he has states on super tuesday he can make the argument he's most electable, let's not get carried away by this week. the romney campaign didn't campaign in missouri. minnesota started to write off.

colorado is the one disappointment. they don't think that the wheels have come off this week, they are a little bit bemused by the media saying. this the pattern of the race has been mitt romney falling behind some more conservative candidate, that candidate imploding, mitt romney coming back to lead and win some things. they are confident that can happen. but they are never going to win over these conservatives because they don't believe romney is more electable. al cardenas introducing romney, he was robust in his praise for romney on stage, later was saying i can imagine a brokered convention, if there is not a clear winner, we might have a jeb bush nomination. for somebody in his position to say that, again, i use the phrase carried away before, this week, basically we invented this reality where the primaries that didn't aside delegates, the convention true believer activists will talk to the media, this is convinced a lot

of people that romney doesn't have what it takes to win the nomination and they might go for a dark horse from no where with maybe a different billionaire, maybe a not a sweater vest but a sweater tunic or something. >> i know when ron paul does well in maine i'll jump to president paul. dave weigel, msnbc contributor, thanks for your time, tell all my cpac peeps i said hi. >> i severely will, thank you. newt gingrich and his billionaire need to talk. why is ron paul so psyched about maine? a member of his campaign staff has agreed to come on the show to explain which is very exciting that never happens here. we have a cocktail moment in which i pay off the mortgage if super bowl bet. organizers played tape of my appearance sunday on meet the press. when i talked about the big

contraception fight in politics. at the panel a man from fox news on the panel at cpac, cal thomas made a wise crack about me. >> i'm glad you played rachel maddow clip she is the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception. i would be all for that. all the rest of the crowd at msnbc, too, for that matter. >> last night i responded to mr. thomas' remark by saying i'm sorry he wished i wasn't born but i'm glad that he was born because i need fox news guys to prove my point, blah blah. just to button this thing, it was nice of greta van sustern to leap to my defense after the reports were reported. totally unnecessary but nice particularly given she works there. second, there was an on line response to this whole thing that was kind to me, this

heartening hash tag, one part silly, 99 points moving. totally unnecessary but nice. so thank you. finally, most importantly, mr. thomas from fox news, called me personally this morning and said he was sorry. he didn't mean it and wished he had not said it. he told me it was work publicly he called so i'm sharing that publicly. i completely believe the apology, i accept it, people say things they regret, i sometimes say thing i regret as far as i'm concerned saying you're sorry is good enough for me. so now we want button it. everybody ended up being nice about the whole thing i'm thankful and very embarrassed and i have to go, thank 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, ttd# 1-800-345-2550 even if they're not ours. ttd# 1-800-345-2550 and we listen before making our recommendations, ttd# 1-800-345-2550 so we can offer practical ideas that make sense for you. ttd# 1-800-345-2550 ttd# 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck, and see how we can help you, not sell you.

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food for your cat or dog. there is a very high likelihood we will win florida. newt gingrich lost to mitt romney in florida. he lost the primary by 14 points. in an earlier time, a big loss like that, plus the no money thing might have meant the end of a presidential campaign. but not this year. this year, anybody with a billionaire can play. newt gingrich may have been suffering, clobbered in a state that was a must-win, he had a billionaire in his corner. in a two week period, sheldon adelson and his wife donated $10

million to newt gingrich's super pac. so thanks to his billionaire, i was able to go on after his big loss in florida. he was able to go on to lose in nevada by 29 points and lose in colorado by 27 points and lose in minnesota by 34 points. newt gingrich's billionaire, sheldon adelson subsidized weeks of big losses but now we're learning the multi-million dollar windfall days from sheldon adelson might be over for the super pac. bloomburg news reporting according to an anonymous south the adelsons don't plan to deliver another big check to float the gingrich campaign. they are adjusting telling bloomberg they are shifting focus to grass roots fundraising between amounts of $2500 and seven figures. back to the old seven figure grass roots fundraising game. the old grass roots million dollar donation plan. that is amazing.

not nearly as amazing as the media freak out this week over a rule the obama administration finalized three weeks ago. mandating health insurance coverage without a co-pay for contraception, a rule that is a lot like the laws in effect in 28 states. in fact the obama administration's rule was less stringent than the existing rules in these state where everybody has to cover birth control, no exceptions, not for churches. the obama rule let churches out of the requirement, nonetheless republicans have been very very angry about the idea, they want hospitals and uni veer tees affiliated with the catholic church. today, president obama announced a compromise of sorts, everybody except women who work for churches that is, everybody still gets access to birth control through their health insurance, but uni veer tees and hospitals associated with the catholic church who don't want to provide insurance that covers birth control, they don't have to pay for it. in those cases they can make the insurance company pay for it.

which is probably a good deal for the insurance companies since using contraception saves on health care costs. in announcing the new modified rule the president made it clear he thinks this should be the end of the party like it's 1965 birth control battle. >> i understand some folks in washington may want to treat this as another political wedge issue but it shouldn't be. i certainly never saw it that way. this is an issue where people of good will on both sides of the debate have been sorting through very complicated questions to find a solution that works for everyone. with today's announcement we've done that. >> all done fighting about birth control, right? wrong. conservatives spent all day at cpac raging about it anyway, even after the change. after the president modified the rules so the thing everybody was supposedly upset about making catholic affiliated institutions pay for birth control, three of the four remaining republican

candidates for president treated the cpac crowd to a -- one of those guys will run against president obama in the fall on an anti-birth control platform. i have a new op-ed on that subject as of "the washington post." we posted a link to that on the blog. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want.

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state number nine, the 9th state to go through a decision making process toward picking a nominee for president. after iowa and new hampshire, south carolina, florida, nevada, missouri and colorado, we might have to change it again when they vote and count, rick santorum has won four states, mitt romney has won three, newt gingrich won one state. now we are down to four, but one of them has won in at least one state. the only one of these guys who hasn't won is ron paul. he seems the happiest in his "i just lost another primary or caucus" speech. he's happy and he has something up his sleeve. >> we have to remember the straw vote is one thing then there is one thing called delegates,

yeah! i honestly congratulate him, he ran a good campaign i said i would see him soon in the caucus states. when the dust settles, i think there is a very good chance we're going do have the maximum number of delegates coming out of minnesota. we will be going to the caucus states and we will be promoting the whole idea of getting more delegates because that's the name of the game. and we will pursue it. there is other good news, too, ongoing caucus over on the east coast, a state called maine. >> even though ron paul has not won anything yet, he seeps very happy and excited about his prospects, at least in the states that hold caucuses instead of primaries. here is the thing though, we had four states with caucuses and ron paul hasn't won any of them. so the caucus state thing may be his strategy but doesn't seem to be working. or is it? after the colorado and minnesota

caucuses this week, dave weigel our previous guest. we may well win in minnesota and do far better in colorado than yesterday's polls indicate. this was after the minnesota results. this is what we all think the results were from minnesota and colorado. but according to the ron paul campaign, after those states closed, they think they might win in minnesota. in colorado and in nevada, "we will have good numbers among the actual delegates awarded far exceeding our straw poll numbers" campaign says "in machine machine where we finished a solid second it's true ron paul beat mitt romney, the campaign says in minnesota where we have finish a solid second we have a strong majority of the state convention delegates. the ron paul campaign is well organized to win the bulk of delegates there. they are saying they will win in minnesota even though they came in second there.

ron paul campaign is saying even though they came in second they could win. again, we may well win in minnesota. and do far better in colorado than yesterday's polls indicate. i want to explain what i think is going on here. i sort of need a prop. i don't have a prop. let's say these are the people at the caucus, the people at the caucus love rick santorum, we love rick santorum. after the caucus meets, and they vote on who they support, the people running the caucus, the local republican officials say okay, people, you've expressed your views, you love rick santorum, you can leave now if you want but we'll stick around and do party business. you can stay or go it's up to you. everybody goes yay, we voted for rick santorum, we love him, we'll launder our sweater vests. after the people leave, what happens in the party business part of the meeting, is that the delegates get chosen to go to the state convention. the convention is where they are going to assign delegates to go

to the national convention where the nominee is chosen. but once the so-called santorum voters leave from the caucus, the ron paul supporters stay for the party business where the delegates are chosen. vying to be chosen as the delegates. supposedly need 1144 delegates to get the nomination. in theory the people who are chosen to be delegates to the convention are supposed to go to the convention and say all the people at my caucus love rick santorum, i'm a rick santorum delegate, whatever the person view is in theory, we think of that delegate as reflecting the ex-ve expressed view of the people at the caucus. what if the delegate says i don't care what all those crazy people thought i'm a delegate for ron paul. that is the ron paul strategy as best i can make it out. outstay the other supporters at the caucuses in the hopes of becoming a delegate.

regardless of what the caucus decided. that is why they're saying we may very well win in minnesota. even though rick santorum won minnesota. they are breaking the connection between who people expressed a preference for at the caucus and how that willis e is expressed the picking of the nominee. it doesn't matter who you voted for, your vote counts for ron paul. this is what the ron paul campaign says they are doing. it's not a secret. look in the press release. giving examples. in one precinct, the straw poll vote was 23 santorum, 13 for paul, 5 for romney, 2 for gingrich. 13 delegate slots from that precinct in larimer county and ron paul got all 13. they are explaining that they are doing this. is this legal? apparently this is legal at least it seems to be under republican party rules. the delegates are supposed to reflect the view of the caucus or the precinct they came from

but nobody says they have to, and that weakness is why ron paul i think looks excited every night when he apparently is losing these states but he doesn't think he is. here to explain further is doug wead, senior advisor to the ron paul campaign, we're grateful he has chosen to talk with us. mr. wead, thank you for being here. >> you're welcome i'm glad you were born, too, so i wouldn't have to sit and talk to myself. >> in explaining this process i'm absolutely sure i got something wrong, because it is a complicated process. is there anything about the logistics i messed up? >> you did a great job and you restored my faith in journalism, i watch television and i see them saying romney has this many delegates and santorum this many, and as you know, not a single delegate has been awarded from iowa or minnesota or missouri or colorado or nevada, and as you point out, we're tracking this at the precinct level, we think we have the majority of them, we think we've

won in iowa, we won in minnesota, we won in colorado, and missouri is yet to be seen. and we think we probably won in nevada, because we're counting the precinct votes. the only thing that i might add there is nothing wrong or deceptive about this, anybody can stay. woody allen says 80% of success is showing up. our people show up. and they have a right to do that, and they are committed, and so they are running as delegates at the precinct level to the county convention where they will again run as delegates from the county convention to the state convention. >> are they being open at the precinct level, are they being open about the fact they will support ron paul no matter what happened at the caucus or is this sort of a sneak attack strategy? >> no, they are open. anybody can stay, and anybody can vote, in fact, the party is resisting this as often as they can. there have been occasions where

they dismissed the meeting and relocate in another place to try to keep our people from participating. there are verbal memos that come down from the campaign in minnesota there was a verbal memo, they don't care to put it in print in which they told all the establishment republicans don't vote for any delegate under the age of 40. because they knew it would be a ron paul supporter. so we're winning fair and square. and i should point out all these rules were changed for mitt romney. they were changed so that the establishment republicans could give mitt romney a chance to win this nomination, in spite of evangelical resistance in the south. so it's all been set up for romney, we're the poor guys, we don't have goldman sachs money, we're playing by their rules and yes, we have a smile on our face because right now the big story missed until you just broke it tonight is probably we have more delegates than anybody in the race right now. when all this is finalized. >> sorry to interrupt, when you

say the republican party changed the rules in a way to gain the system for mitt romney, what rules do you think they changed to mitt romney's benefit? >> of course florida was moved up because it was a state that would help him, nevada and arizona were moved up because they were states with large lds population. it was proportional in the south, so that if romney pulls 20, 30% in the south, but because of his faith, a lot of evangelicals go do gingrich or santorum or would have gone to another candidate he still would get something. he wouldn't be shutout. in a winner take all, if he's shutout in the south he can't get the nomination because remember, the south is loaded for the in the gop because it often votes in the presidential election for gop so it's not just population in the south it's based how their voting patterns have been. there is a lot of delegates in the south. so in that sense it was gained and even the primary the system, the caucus sis tens were gained

for him because it was felt he had the money and with the money he could have the organization. we don't have the money, but we've got the organization. >> i'm assuming that your overall goal is to make ron paul the nominee for president i realize that is what you are knee it -- you are in it for. say you don't achieve that but you have amassed a large number of delegates, what would be the purpose of amassing all those delegates, what would you use it for? >> as you know, anybody who is an observer of modern political history knows a brokered convention is remote. there are delegates that will move to another candidate if they get a box of godiva chocolates on their pillow at the hotel in tampa that night. ron paul delegates won't go even if they are offered secretary of state. so if we can get do a convention with a sizeable number of delegates and if gingrich stays alive and santorum stays alive,

we could have a brokered convention. it would be a huge show, even though there is a remote possibility. and of course there are many things we want. we would like to see the federal reserve audited for example and romney is the only candidate left in the republican party who hasn't taken that step. and with good reason, his honey is coming from goldman sachs. >> doug wead, we have the hardest time in the world trying to get anybody from any of the campaigns to talk to us so i am a, very grateful you were here, b, i hope you come back, this is a huge story and you helped us explain it and i would love to have you back on the show if you would come back. >> i thank you for break the story. up until now, finding delegates for mitt romney he says he's got them but kind of like weapons of mass destruction in iraq, everybody thinks they are there, nobody can name one of these delegates that he has won except the winner take all in florida and the two primaries, but in the caucus state you can't find them because they are not there yet. >> doug wead, thank you again,

sir, appreciate your time. thank you. >> what happens when an emergency manager takes over your town? static it turns out. amazing story is next. take an extra 10 percent off storewide now through sunday. gomery and take an extra 10 percent off abigail higgins had... ...a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

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good news for michiganers, through suffering through great depression, you are in the money. michigan has a budget surplus of almost half a billion dollars.

okay so republicans got in the black in part by raising taxes on the working poor and by taxing pensions and so on, -- last year predominantly very poor benton harbor, michigan was the first city to feel the saving embrace of rick schneider's landmark policy. souped up emergency manager law, allows the state to take over a town, overrule all authority and appoint a manager. the state-appointed overseer can do anything, including firing

locally leng locally elected position. the law eliminates democracy at the local level. whatever you vote for, whoever you vote for, overruled by the governor's say-so. if your town has problem, the law says the reason for those problems is because you have had a vote. you have had a say in what happens in your town, so your vote must be taken away for your own good. the essential website calculates using the law, he has taken local democracy of half of michigan's african american residents. he can't say that was the intent but that has been the effect in the making of his emergency manager law. a majority of michigan's black population put under emergency overseer rule with no local voting rights. in april, the emergency manager assigned to run benton harbor stripped the elected mayor and city commission of all but three official duties. they can call a meeting to order, approve the minutes of a meeting and they can adjourn a meeting and that's it. you can see how well that went over in benton harbor, having

the votes overruled by a single state appointed manager. yet, even though benton harbor's officials had no power, benton harbor held elections, they chose a new mayor. when it came time for the mayor to take the step of picking a mayor pro tem, a deputy mayor, the new mayor was not allowed to do that. the emergency manager had to carry out the mundane step for him, because only the emergency manager has power to do anything in that town anymore. now benton harbor has a powerless, elected mayor and powerless mayor pro tem both serving at the manager who has authority. one man, one town, complete control. benton harbor is a very broke and broken town. one thing they have got is a publicly owned radio station.

it broad kcasts out of the city hall. it's a low powered fm station, programming local news, talk and music, reaches three miles from benton harbor city hall. the license is held by the city of benton harbor, has been a decade. an excellent feature, "though he has been stripped of official authority, commissioner dennis noles hosts a road yo broadcast from a studio in the basement of city hall, like how to deal with a new state law that limits life time welfare benefits to four years. you may want to get in growing your own food because it will get to that point." you can tune in reverend jesse jackson. benton harbor's radio station has been the voice of benton harbor, not much of course but it's still coming to you live and local and real.

now here is another picture of benton harbor's radio station. on ebay. benton harbor's emergency guy closed the town's radio station and auctioning the stuff on ebay. fm low power license, broadcast transmitter, broadcasting equipment, bidding starts at $5000. no takers so far, not a single bid. this is the second time he posted it on ebay. first auction timed out with no takers, three mikes, transmitter, mixing board, et cetera, cords included. the old listing that expired didn't include the license but now he's throwing that in for the same low price, everything must go. presumably somebody could buy all of this and cart it down the road and broadcast again. we don't know what the emergency manager intends to do if nobody bids on his enhanced posting on ebay. can the town still keep the station? do you still want them not to have that radio station? even if you can't get any money

for it, even if michigan is in budget surplus now? the license for that state expires in october. renewing the license is not on the list of duties that the emergency manager says anybody can perform except him. if he wants to do it. his call and his alone. nobody else's vote counts anymore. now shutting down the radio station, no way to let anybody know what is being taken away from them next. 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. learn more at keller.edu. without the stuff that we make here, you wouldn't be able to walk in your house and flip on your lights.

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boyfriend scored a touchdown, so i have to buy everybody on set a buy. i lose the bet in both directions. >> that is the last time you will see me in a new york giants jersey. i ban that clip from ever airing again. but as eager as i was to pay off one bet earlier this week, i am more eager to pay off the second one. thanks to patriots tight end aaron hernandez, who scored a touchdown in the third quarter of the super bowl, i owe everybody a beer, which should be getting here any second. yes, here it comes. the "the rachel maddow show" fake clydesdale have arrived. brought us st. louis's finest. grab a whatever these can -- bottles, crack it and drink to things in life that matter like football and keeping your word and everybody say it with me, ready, 3,