matter to most of the voters, if governor romney's tax returns are the core of your campaign, there will be ample time for president obama to discuss them over the next 81 days. see you in denver. this comes on the heels of mitt romney giving more details on his tax rate than he's ever done before after harry reid claimed that mitt romney may have paid zero taxes for a decade. >> the fascination with taxes i paid i find seem to be very small minded compared to the broad issues that we face but i did look back at my taxes and over the past ten years i never paid less than 13%. >> senator reid said, americans will continue to use what he's hiding. the obama campaign taking a swing essentially telling romney to prove it. here is political adviser, david axelrod. >> he has a pension for secrecy and thinks that he can play by a

different set of rules. no, i don't accept his word on what his taxes say. let the public see it. >> all right. let's dive in for this friday, the addition of our power panel. dana millbank and jamal simmons and susan, republican strategist and msnbc contributor. susan, i want to start with you. we have the tax returns back at the center of this debate. let's remind everybody what ann romney, and that's the candidate's wife, what she had to say on nbc's "rock center" about releasing more tax returns. >> we have been very transparent to what's legally required of us. but the more we release, the more we get attacked. the more we get questioned, the more we get pushed and so we have done what's legally required and there's going to be no more -- there's going to be no more tax releases given. >> all right. so, susan, when we talk about this, obviously it isn't what

the romney campaign wants to be talking about. but with ann romney saying there that we're being as transparent as possible as to what we're legally entitled or what we're supposed to be doing, that's not really transparent. they are just doing what they are legally supposed to do but it provides people with bigger questions because they say, well, we don't want to give opposition research to the obama team. >> which is clearly the case because the obama campaign did send that note that you just referenced to, saying we won't make fodder out of ten years, but just the last five. it's clear that's all they want to use it for, is as a campaign tool. it's not surprising that they are going to keep pushing on this because they don't want to talk about their past 3 1/2 years. >> jamal, hang on a second. we know that the obama campaign says if romney campaign releases this for five years, it's not going to criticize them for releasing more years. as susan has pointed out, they want those five years.

they know that there are going to be probably financial bombshells that will help stabilize the narrative of mitt romney being this super wealthy out of touch guy that's got the overseas accounts, the swiss bank accounts. who's winning the arguments here when it comes to the tax return? because it's a big, shiny object of distraction? >> i certainly think mitt romney is losing this argument because it looks like he has something to hide. it's not a credible defense to say, i'm not going to tell you because you're going to attack me if i tell you. i'm not legally required to tell you about my foreign policy or health policy. those are things that people need to know. if voters decide -- many voters are raising questions about mitt romneys truthfulness. that his taxes and showing taxes is important. you don't get to say, i'm not going to tell you because you'll attack me. >> romney camp is saying, thanks, but no thanks. see you in denver. even david simon is is getting in on this act, calling romney's refusal to release more returns

stunning. on tumbler he posted, the last time i paid that rate of taxes i might have been on college. mitt romney has come out to say he's paid at least 13%. dana, why not do it and just get it over with? >> because every day this is being discussed, whether it's on the airwaves or it's the candidate that is not pressing their advantage on the economy against the obama campaign. so to continue to drag this out, there must be something awful in there. or they with just release it. the 13% fits in with the romney line which is, trust me with what i'm going to do with the budget and how we're going to make this whole medicare and social security thing work out.

we're not giving the details but just trust me. >> romney could absolutely prove this case by showing the tax returns and getting it over with. >> susan, i wanted to ask you about this. john mccain has been in the news talking about, you know, the fact that joe biden has been kind of going off the charts and with his language. but one thing that's interesting, john mccain has seen over 20 years of mitt romney's tax returns when he was vetted, he has not come out to call harry reid a liar. john mccain hasn't. john mccain knows what those tax returns say. why not have him go out and say, harry reid, be quiet? >> because why would you open that door at all? the best thing that john mccain can do -- >> because they are saying, harry reid, you don't know what you're talking about. john mccain who has seen the returns himself, he can go out and shut harry reid down right now. the sources are not telling the truth. >> as far as i'm concerned, harry reid has sire row credibility on this.

he won't name a source. he's changed his story three times in that many days. so he's really not credible. he's out there being a good soldier playing, you know, old dirty politics political tricks. that's what he's doing. >> why wouldn't -- >> john mccain shouldn't lower himself to that nonsense. >> we'll switch gears and talk about medicare. the president is out with a new ad defending his medicare plan. mitt romney is slamming it. everybody, just take a look. >> now mitt romney's attacking the president on medicare? the nonpartisan aarp says obama care cracks down on medicare, fraud, waste, and abuse and strengthens guarantee benefits and the ryan plan, aarp says it would undermine medicare and could lead to higher costs for seniors. experts say ryan's voucher plan could raise future retirees's costs by more than $6,000.

>> first he's backed away from it saying he has his own plan and then he broke out the white board. did you guys see that? >> that was undport nate. >> i'm going to remind you here's what romney has to say now. >> it's absolutely right on. so i'm curious, is there anything about it? >> the items that we agree on, i think they outweigh any differences that there may be. >> are there specific items in your budget that -- >> there may be. i'll take a look at differences. >> it's still unclear what romney's medicare plan is. he talks vaguely, aspirationally. is that what he needs to do instead of getting specific and muddy the waters that the president has out there specifically? >> well, i think this has to do with his rollout which was not as smooth as it could have been, especially after such a spectacular announcement.

they should have been more in sync of what they were saying clearly. any hopes of there being a grand conversation of how to fix our problems when it comes to medicare, seems to be fading, frankly, on both sides of the aisle. >> does this show that romney could benefit from this medicare argument given the fact that he polls well among seniors? >> no. i think the president and his alleys are perfectly willing to have a conversation about the values of mitt romney and barack obama when it comes time to solve our national problems. this is no way to run a railroad. can i not believe that the romney campaign has shifted the focus from economy and jobs to talk about medicare for the way that they have in the past week. this is the way the campaign is going to be for the next 80 days, god love them. >> meanwhile, dana, ryan and romn romney are going to show up on the campaign trail, a little two for one punch, sooner than expected. what should that tell us? >> it tell us that perhaps when

paul ryan has been out on his own, he may not be the brilliant campaign retailer that they thought. we saw that at the iowa state fair earlier in the week. whether or not romney says i embrace ryan's medicare plan, he has embraced ryan. so i think in the voters' minds, that's going to be one in the same. i don't see any sort of hair splitting is going to get anywhere. they might as well embrace it at this point. >> our friday power panel. great to see all of you. >> thank you, thomas. it is my civic duty to tell the president to stop leaking information to the enemy. >> so a group of retired special opps and intelligence members criticized the president over security leaks and for taking credit over osama bin laden's death. plus, baiting britain. julian assange will make a

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new developments to talk about over the battle over pennsylvania tough i.d. laws. one of the lead plaintiffs, 93-year-old vivian applewhite has been granted the photo i.d. she needs to cast her vote. this comes as a judge refused to block the controversial law which requires a valid voter i.d. in order to vote. critics are raising the question, what happens to as many as 1.5 million other pennsylvania voters who could still be disenfranchised by this law. let's bring in al sharpton, host

of "politics nation" right here on msnbc. what are you going to do to try to get this law attempt to get this law overturned? >> we'll, one, we're supporting the appeal by the aclu. we're also moving toward backing those legislators that want to reintroduce a are revoking of this. we're going to go to pennsylvania, work with reverend kevin johnston and other church men that are at the same time trying to overturn the law that are going to ask for the i.d. you have to ask yourself, if this lady just given her i.d. who appeared on "politics nation," if miss applewhite had not been so visible, she wouldn't have gotten her i.d. so what happens to the possible 1.5 million that have not been on television, that have are not been the lead plaintiffs?

it's a two-prong strategy to continue to protect people's voter rights by getting this law overturned. >> not only do we have pennsylvania to talk about, in ohio we've been talking about the early restrictions in voting there. the obama campaign has launched this new effort in federal court to get that law struck down. now a law in florida has rejected the state's early voting. a ruling last night that five counties will get four early days of extra voting. the law could result in a dramatic reduction in voting during that time by certain african-americans. are we essentially seeing a presidential election that could be decided by the courts, once again? >> it seems as though we are seeing a presidential election. the attempt is to change the voting rights of people in order to get an edge in swing states and the courts are deciding this. so in florida you have the courts saying, our point of view is right. i was just in miami when we were

ruling. pennsylvania is saying, no, i think it is frightening that here we are 47 years after the voting rights act and we're fighting this fight again. >> a lot of people around the country may not be paying attention to this may hear that it's -- hear what is going on and think it's a good idea. people need an i.d. to vote. they don't want voter fraud. the instances that they have of voter fraud as examples -- >> 0.003%. why do you need a different i.d. than we've always voted with? had the same i.d. we voted with when nixon and bush and bush and clinton was running. why can't people use the same voter i.d. that they always used? since there's been no fraud, why are we changing the method of i.d.? that's the question here. >> as you say a. solution for nonexistent problem. >> that's right. looking for a solution looking for a problem.

>> reverend al sharpton, see you tonight on "politics nation" at 6:00 p.m. jesse jackson's recovery. plus, a facebook free for all. the stock trading below 20 bucks. was this the worst ipo ever? but we're going to throw some love facebook's way. check it out @thomasaroberts. we're back after this.

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police. seven americans have been killed, including two navy s.e.a.l.s. the helicopter was shot down by enemy fire. the war in of a gafghanistan issue that should weigh very heavily. along with that would be the killing of osama bin laden. we've seen a group of retired navy s.e.a.l.s come out with something called honorable soldiers. >> mr. president, to you and those close to you that hold the nation's highest secrets, please be quiet about it. >> we've got to stand up this is our country and our constitution. we have to speak out. finally, we have to speak out and say we will not take this anymore. enough is enough. >> scott taylor is the president of the group that released that film. he's also a retired navy

s.e.a.l. scott, thanks for joining us. >> it's good to be here with a fellow marylander and our thoughts and prayers go out to the teammates that we lost yesterday. >> absolutely. when we talk about the reception of the film, there have been critics of the film saying that your group produced this and it smells a little bit like the swift vote acts that bogged down the kerry campaign of '04. how do you respond to that? >> i wasn't involved in that with the swift veterans. we were not either. this is a group of special operations and intelligence s.e.a.l.s, we're really upset about the unprecedented amount of leaks that have come out over the past couple years and we feel it's time to come out and say something about it and i understand we'll get criticism from anyone. that's fine. we're undeterred with our message. >> scott, a major criticism from the group is that the president claims too much credit for making this decision to take out

osama bin laden. wasn't it his decision? without it that never would have happened? >> i think that the president should get credit for it. i think any president that would preside over a mission like this should certainly get credit for that operation. it seems like the gross amount of credit that he has got from himself, the hollywood movie to the eyes and the speech in the course and everything surrounding it is an overkill. >> scott, one thing that the president has refuted publicly and over the summer about what your concern is about the leaks, just in june he spoke directly about that. i want to remind everybody how he referenced what's going on in his white house. >> since i've been in office, my attitude has been zero tolerance for these kinds of leaks and speculation. the notion that my white house would purposefully release

classified security information is offensive. it's wrong. >> scott, the president is talking directly about the fact that his white house has not done that. he knows nothing about it. is it your assertion that the president is lying to the american people? >> no, it's absolutely not my assertion. let me first say, it is offensive. it's certainly offensive to the 1% of the military that served the country and the 1% of the service community on the front lines and burying their brothers. we're not asserting that the president himself is lying but in the end, the way the military is structured, he's the commander in chief. so he's ultimately responsible for these leaks and responsible to crack down on them which, someone who i really respect came out and said, if these leaks are not clamped down on, people will get killed and future operations will be hindered. thomas, if you were a commander

of a military unit, you would be responsible for your unit. >> you definitely have to take the good with the bad. have you gone on record who you are supporting in this presidential election and why? >> it doesn't take a lot of investigative journalism to see that i'm a republican but this is an american issue and just like my senator who i respect, mark warren was on your program june 8th to say democrats are outraged, republicans are outraged and americans are outraged. >> scott taylor, president of the special operations, thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. the obama campaign responded to these allegations and mike is a former navy s.e.a.l. and obama campaign supporter. it's great to have you here. as you hear what scott says and as a former navy s.e.a.l. and pentagon official, what do you think the damage that the leaks

have done to the president and his administration? >> well, you know, it's interesting that we do agree that operational security is an absolutely critical, critical issue and needs the upmost care and focus. but i would say that the disclosure video that is out there, it's not only misguided ins approach but also less than intellectually honest in its delivery. i've never seen a speech so heavily edited as they put in there, the president's speech. i would ask each viewer to go out and actually watch the president's speech again and see what he said. because, again, i agree with their viewpoint that operation security is absolutely critical and important but not the way they are going about it. the interesting thing about operational security, it takes -- if you look at many innocuous pieces and they are put together, could frequently lead to sensitive or critical or classified information. >> right. >> the biggest source of these

leaks that we're seeing right now in information disclosure, it's from former navy s.e.a.l.s, former special operators talking about their operations of the past. and it doesn't take much for our nation's enemies to -- >> michael? >> yes. >> i want to ask you, as someone who has worked for the office of veteran affairs, your estimation of what the foreign policy has been, to be the leader of the military over his first four years? >> absolutely. i mean, history will show our president is on the national security front. there has been no stronger president, incumbent in that office. he's done a phenomenal job and my hat goes off to him in what he does. he's made some tough call. and the decision to do the raid that led to the killing of osama bin laden, that was absolutely a tough decision based on the intelligence that was there and

it took leadership and gumption. the admiral was there the whole time and made the call. >> michael lumpkin, thank you for your time. i appreciate it. >> thanks, thomas. an unexpected are reunion. mitt romney and paul ryan will be meeting back on the campaign trail on monday, despite original plans to campaign separately. plus, the campaign of policies, chains, and hate. outrage and then more outrage that goes on top of that. melissa paris-harry joins me to sound off. it's the only rinse that makes your teeth two shades whiter and two times stronger. ♪ listerine® whitening... power to your mouth. listerine® whitening... a little snack. on a wednesday. at 2 am. get that great taste anytime

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week. ron mott is live. as we understand it, politico is reporting that team romney is trying to create the same enthusiasm that we saw last weekend and we see it's pretty packed. >> reporter: yeah. hi there, thomas. it helps that we're in a high school gymnasium. this has been the case throughout the week that we have followed paul ryan throughout the country. with this message that he and mitt romney want to take the country in a different direction, the only real noticeable difference in the crowd enthusiasm was, oddly enough, at his ala mater. the other hiccup, of course, was monday when he had a situation with a protester while he was speaking at the iowa state fair yelling at him whether he was going to cut their medicare. it's been a pretty good week all

in all for paul ryan. we have another enthusiastic crowd in just a few minutes. thomas? >> ron, one of the things that the obama team has been hit about is whether or not he was interested in stimulus money from the president and whether or not he did ask for those stimulus funds. at first he said that he did not, even though now we've learned that he did and he's still trying to distance himself away from why he did that. do you think that that is going to come up or any explanation will come during this point while he's there today? >> reporter: well, absolutely. that's still a developing story, thomas, and it kind of started two days ago, wednesday, when a local reporter from a cincinnati television station asked him about reports that have been mentioned in the past in that he south stimulus money back in his home state of wisconsin and voted against the package and has spent the last couple of years criticizing president obama's stimulus package. take a look at this tape from two days ago. >> a report came out again in the a.p. it was a repeat of that wall street journal article a couple of years ago where you had asked

for stimulus money for your district. is that accurate? is that report accurate? >> i don't recall. i haven't seen this report so i can't comment on it. i oppose a stimulus because it doesn't work. it didn't work. >> reporter: now, apparently in 2009, the office of paul ryan sent two letters under his signature to energy secretary and labor secretary hilda solis requesting money for these two projects. one company was granted a $20.3 million federal stimulus package. here's what paul ryan said this morning about this issue. after having these letters called to my attention, i checked into them and they were treated as constituent service requests in the same way matters of social security or veterans affairs are handled. this is why i didn't handle the letters earlier and they should have been handled separately. it's clear that president obama has done nothing to handle the issue and we'll have to see what

the president's re-election campaign is going to do about this, whether they will try to pounce on this saying that paul ryan did one thing and said another. thomas in. >> nbc's ron mott at the paul ryan event. thank you. in the meantime, another republican is weighing in on joe biden's fitness for the vice president office. rudy giuliani spoke about biden's comment about putting y'all back in chains during the meet the present view. giuliani said it was a dumb remark. and that's why i said he's not so bright. and you wonder, i mean, it's not just that comment. joe's a laugh line on jay leno. he's not a vice president. just a joke. melissa harris-perry right here on msnbc. paul ryan weighed in on the president's comments.

he had to say about this, i think you're going to hear more of these things as we go on because they have a terrible record that they can't run on. they are going to kind of sink these campaigns to these low levels to try to cause fear and envy. are we going to watch that? they don't have a record to run on and when somebody jumps on the words like the jumped on vice president biden in the chains remarks and starts a tit for tat back and forth and mitt romney coming back and saying that the president is angry and it's a hate-filled campaign. >> of course, the record that they have run on, they have been president and vice president for four years. one can assess whether it's a good record or bad record but there's obviously a record here. i think beyond that part of what we're seeing and the tit for tat on one piece of language rather than the ideas behind this language, i think when that

happens, it's exactly the sort of thing that turns off ordinary voters. a lot of folks are kind of just tuning into it. you know, after the olympics, starting to think about who they are going to vote for. and if it sounds like -- it really is true. if what they hear is a battleground over an off comment, then they feel that voters start to feel does anybody care what is actually happening in my life. >> and when we get into the race conversation that was a large part of the campaign in '08, things that we've learned in the last four years is we are not over that conversation. and we have a lot more talk that we need to do. how do you think that we can learn from our past in '08 to make this a wiser and smarter conversation when it comes up? >> my appeal on race, as a professor of research and researcher around african-american politics, language matters. of course it matters. we talk about dog whistle politics, racially insensitive

topics. determining whether a politician is racially bias, is whether or not the policies that that politician supports will have an impact on communities of color or not. we live in a country where people don't talk about race perfectly. sometimes folks will make mistakes or gaffes or even dog whistle when they don't realize they are. the real question is, the policies thaw plan to implement, will they increase or decrease racial inequality and that, i think, is a far more important conversation to have. >> but we're not having that conversation, are we? >> not frequently enough. we are not. >> do you expect we will as we get closer to the debate, that we will find that, as we look at the vice presidential debate, which i'm really fascinated to see. >> i know. >> do you think we'll get more into that because that's bound to come up, the chains comment and -- >> i really hope that we move more towards the substantive and

away from the decursive. the fact that race is so painful and connected to history, because words and discourse initiated by violence or public policies that created inequalities, people are very atune to hearing language and want to jump on it. i would ask everyone whether you're on the left or right and if you understand yourself as someone who support racial equality, again, from the left or the right, to focus on issues of policy and the impact that these policies have on people, not so much whether from the left or the right, on the sort of individual words and utterances. >> melissa harris-perry, great to see you. catch melissa right here on her show, weekends 10:00 a.m. right here on msnbc. great to see you, as always. the future of wikileaks founder julian assange remains in limbo. left leaning government has granted assange asylum.

three members of a russian punk band were sentenced to two years in prison on hooligan charges. this sparked outrage around the world in support of the feminist rockers. they sang a punk prayer, plead together virgin mary to save russia from vladimir putin. facebook takes a hit and so does mark sdpluk customzuckerbe. he lost $600 million just yesterday. plus, for the love of rand. why paul ryan is distancing himself from paul rand's views, despite saying for years he's a huge fan? steve kornacki from the cycle will weigh in. and you can weigh in also.

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bring you anything from that event on msnbc. we're going to continue our conversation about paul ryan. throughout his political career he's been a promoter of ayn rand. >> if any were here today, she would do a great job of showing us how wrong what government is doing is. not the quantitative analysis, but the immorality of what is wrong with what the government is doing today. >> ayn rand. ryan said he grew up reading those articles of her, helping encouraging him to get into public service. now that ryan is in the white house spotlight of this presidential campaign, is he forced to make that tune. steve kornacki is half of the team that makes up the cycle here on msnbc. and you wrote a brilliant piece. >> oh, thank you. >> the piece is going to be brilliant. you wrote this great piece talking about the fact that in '08 people looked into the

background of obama which shaped his world view. >> yes. >> and now we have ayn ryan and paul ryan has professed his respect for her and now he's distancing himself. >> i think it's fair now with paul ryan and fair in 2008. unfortunately, in 2008 we were not able to ask a lot of questions about obama's self-proclaimed interests, his friends, his mentors. so now i think the point of that piece in the daily news was just to point out the hypocrisy. for paul ryan now, ayn rand represents a bit of a complicated conundrum for him because while i'm sure and i know that he embraces here

anti-collectivist fill lo anti-collectivist philosophy, she's a militant atheist. he's catholic. she's completely against welfare programs for the poor. he thinks it's a moral obligation to care for the needy. there's a lot that paul ryan would like to say about ayn rand that would clarify some things. >> just so everybody knows, we're watching paul ryan. he arrived on the scene there in virginia. steve, i want to ask you, now is not the time to talk about ayn rand. she's the russian atheist that wrote all about the fact that capitalism should rule the day. mitt romney already has this perception problem of being the wealthy guy and here now we have him -- paul ryan joining this ticket. is their philosophy of this ticket, i got mine. i don't care how you got yours? >> that's the political problem. the romney campaign is recognizing the political poison that comes with the specifics of

the ryan budget and medicare plan and trying to distance themselves. there's an interesting longer term story about the republican party and sort of the prevailing philosophy on economics within the party. we're going back half a century here. the orthodox used was eisenhower fiscal policy. it was all about balanced budgets. it wasn't about cutting taxes but about balancing budgets. taking hold in the late '70s, this economic philosophy is cutti cutting taxes on individuals and businesses. the kemp crowd did not really believe in going after the social safety net. they just believed, you cut taxes, explore growth and it solves all of your problems. now you have the latest iteration of that which ryan embodies. not only do we favor massive reductions in taxes for corporations and for individuals, particularly wealthy individuals, we also favor a redefinition of the safety net and that's what ryan has been advocating. that's what made him a powerful

voice. >> it's not a safety net because he doesn't want to prioritize it. he thinks that balancing the budget and reducing the debt are really moral obligations because it makes us more generous and preserve safety nets. we need to make cuts everywhere. that's his point. >> but whatever you think of it, it's a redefinition of a safety net when you talk about turning medicare into a voucher program. >> it totally changes what safety net means. no net. >> i talked to him about it and says he doesn't want it to be a hammock. it should be a safety net but not something that keeps people there for life. >> we're going to listen in right now, paul ryan in virginia. >> this campaign is going to be based on frustration and anger. hope and change has now become a tack and blame. we're not going to fall for that this year, are we? >> no. >> no. we're going to be offering solutions. we're going to be offering ideas to get this economy growing. specifically, you see it right there, the romney plan for a stronger middle class.

a specific agenda to get higher take-home pay, more jobs in this economy. it's an agenda with a goal of creating 182 million the first four years. that's 345,000 jobs right here in virginia. >> applause line there in virginia. s.e., you made mention as we dipped in right there, you're hearing the same things you were hearing yesterday. >> yeah. it seems like they're not running away from that idea. it looked to me when that first came out, when romney first talked about the angry campaign, that they were anxious to make a point about obama's personality and that's something that has been preserved. over the past four years, whatever the polls say about how he's handling the economy, people think obama is still a really likeable guy and i think the romney campaign wants to take a shot at that personality sort of aura and i think they thought that this was the opportunity to do it. >> is there really evidence to call the president angry, though?

>> i do think this is a stretch and i think it's potentially a miscalculation. it's true, the strategy here is they want to have a level playing field on the likability question but the key for them is not so much to try to tear obama down to where romney is right now. it's to try to build romney back up to where obama is, because romney has really sort of had erosion in his numbers throughout the snummer months. there have been a lot of attacks, the tax question, all that stuff. the convention gives you an opportunity to remake your image. the most famous example is 20 years ago. bill clinton was poison heading into the general election. the convention, the man from hope video sort of debuted, convention remade his image. the republicans, i think the better bet is to try to make people like romney a little more as opposed to try to make them like obama less. >> steve kornacki, s.e. cupp, half the cycle here at msnbc. thanks, guys. catch them later today right here on msnbc, 3:00 p.m. back after this. in absolute pert physical condition and i had a heart attack right out of the clear blue...

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so facebook shares are plunging once again today. they hit a new low this morning of $19.02. that now has lost half of its original $38 value since its herolded ipo. there may be still losses ahead. still, other recent ipos have been bigger flops. groupon stock plunged 75%. zinga plunged 54% but those weren't on the magnitude of the facebook scale and the worst may be yet to come for shareholders of the world's largest social networking site. kind of tough for them, huh? that will wrap things up for me today. have a great weekend. i appreciate your time. see you back here on monday at 11:00 a.m. eastern. until then, you can always follow me on twitter. don't go anywhere. "now" with alex wagner is coming up next. ari melber is filling in today. what's coming up? >> how you doing, thomas? >> doing good. >> good. look, coming up, governor mitt romney, who is back to the drawing board announcing he will reunite with his friend paul

ryan monday in new hampshire. on the agenda, a joint defense of their budget and exchanging medicare for that voucher program. plus, taxes are off the agenda but the obama campaign is trying to change that with a new offer today. five years of tax returns and then they'll drop the issue. we will look at that and why the tax rates for the 1% don't seem to be going away as an issue in this campaign. one more thing. a big story. the manhunt for julian assange. we are interviewing an attorney on his legal team to talk with his quest for asylum and perhaps departing london. all that starts in three minutes. naging my diabetes is part of my life, between taking insulin and testing my blood sugar... is this part of your life? freestyle lite test strips? why, are they any... beep! wow, that hardly needs any blood! yeah... and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra. really? yep, which is great for people who use insulin and test a lot. max and i are gonna run out and get them right now. or you can call or click today

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mitt romney wants to focus on his budget, not his taxes. the obama campaign says there's time for both. republicans are wondering if ryanization is a rebellion or a revolution. it's friday, august 17th and this is "now."