but it is about the voters of the state of missouri. they've chosen me because of principles that i stand on and putting principle over politics. >> that was akin this morning on the "today" show. we hit the reset button for you. how did we get to this point? mitt romney two days after akin's remarks sparked a fire storm, finally called on akin to drop out. yesterday his fellow misourans have asked him to step aside and i think he should take their counsel and exit the race. akin's return message to romney? mind your own business. >> if you were in romney's position, don't you think that he may have bit this thing off and made a bigger deal about it than he needed to? why couldn't he run his race and i run mine? >> five days from now republicans rally in tampa assuming a little thing like a potential real hurricane names issac doesn't get in the way. republican leaders made it clear akin ain't welcome. >> the chairman of the republican national committee does not want you to go to the convention. are you going?

>> no. i honor their particular wishes. >> fast forward a week later when the president and democrats meet in charlotte. prominent women will help take up the line of attack against mitt romney. sandra fluke, cecil richards and lilly ledbetter recently added to the speaking roster as a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows the president trouncing romney with issues of concern to women. obama 52 to 24% before akin's picture came into all of this. barack obama at 52. mitt romney 24%. and now you are all caught up on this. joining me today to talk more about this is terry o'neil president of the national organization for women. terry, good to have you here. i want to start by playing something else that todd akin had to say this morning on the "today" show. take a look. >> that's not true. i was misinformed and i recognized that. the fact of the matter is that i

think that anybody who is doing a lot of public speaking can make a mistake. >> so, terry, this is akin coming out talking about the comments that he made about legitimate rape and then back tracking after saying that he was misinformed by medical doctors. now he has asked for apologies from people. and now the website for a senate campaign reports that he has raised more than $11,000 since sunday predicting now that he still will win. what impact, though, is this going to have on the conversation for women's health, women's rights if akin does win in november? >> i don't think he'll win in november, thomas. i really don't, robert. it's, i think the good thing that has come out of all of this is now we are able to have a full fledged conversation about women's access to reproductive health care including abortion care. 75% of the people in this country believe abortion should be available, safe, legal,

medically appropriate for victims of rape. if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest. they also believe that if the pregnancy is interfering with women's health or would put her life at risk. mr. ackin doesn't believe that. he believes abortion should not be available even to victims of rape or incest or to preserve a woman's health. and i actually don't know where he stands on preserving a woman's life. paul ryan believes that abortion should not be available to a woman who is a victim of rape or incest. he has said that on a number of occasions. mitt romney supports legislation that would criminalize abortion including abortions in the case of rape or incest or to preserve a woman's health or a life. so we need to have this conversation. todd akin i think told the truth to the interviewer on that local fox news show when he gave a justification that he thinks it's perfectly fine to force a woman to continue a pregnancy if

she is a victim of rape. she must continue the pregnancy because in his view she would only have gotten pregnant if it was not a rape. if she was truly raped she wouldn't have gotten pregnant to begin with. >> one thing i want to point out is the factual link that you do make between todd akin and paul ryan. as we understand it akin has confirmed that paul ryan called him to ask him to step down out of the missouri senate race but paul ryan did sit down for an interview with kdka in pittsburgh. i want to show everybody what he had to say. take a listen. >> his statements were outrageous. over the pale. i don't know anybody who would agree with that. rape is rape. period end of story. >> okay. so we have different antiabortion legislation that has been cosponsored on the hill with paul ryan and with todd akin, specifically house bill 212 also house bill 3805 about the federal ultra sound law. democrats are trying to remind everybody about the links that these two men share.

is it not true to see paul ryan trying to separate himself and spread some light between him and the statements of todd akin? >> i think it's really important to observe. what paul ryan is distancing himself from is the justification for not allowing rape victims to terminate their pregnancies. paul ryan disavows the justification. but he is firmly in favor of the policy. all right? so paul ryan says oh, it's a horrible thing to say that a rape victim who got pregnant wasn't really ramd. that that is really verbally abusing a woman. but he still supports the policy that she should not be able to terminate that pregnancy. so, yes. we need to have this conversation. paul ryan is a sponsor of what is known of what is known as a personhood amendment. this is a law that declares life begins at conception.

>> i appreciate you being here. i want to bring in this morning's power panel, john rolston host of face to face and columnist for the las vegas sun and karen and hogan. great to have you all here. hogan, let's dive in. late yesterday mitt romney joined the ranks of republicans calling on todd akin to lead this race. in staying akin is defying the head of the ticket, the leader of the party. if akin doesn't respect his leadership requests how bad will that look as the story persists? >> i don't know you can tether too much to mitt romney and his campaign. obviously akin isn't the smartest guy in the world. he said something that was reprehensible, demeaning, quite frankly ridiculous. so his decision making is subject to major questions at the very, very least at this point. >> if the leadership questions him, like mitt romney, reince priebus going on the air saying

don't show up at the convention, karl rove's, crossroads, gps pulling all of its money out of missouri, isn't it kind of tough on akin? i mean, he's feeling pretty out in the cold on this all alone and if he's not going to get that direct message from mitt romney, who is? hogan? >> yes. well, you know, i don't know. that's the thing. this is such a horrible thing for a person to say and for mitt romney and paul ryan to come out and say get out of the race. most republicans as you've seen have had a unified effort to try and get this guy out of the race. for some reason he's dug his heels in. what he said was horrible. no doubt about it. however, what we have had a conversation about is abortion at this point and the deplorable practice that is killing an innocent life. and those two things albeit in the news right now are completely different. i think it's quite frankly wrong

to try and tether something, a candidate who has no common sense said over in missouri to the over all pro life movement. >> all right. so, karen, our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows the president is leading with women that gender gap still majorly in play here. look at this. we showed earlier in the show the president has this 30 plus point lead in dealing with women's issues. the official republican party platform over the last few years has advocated what akin does, a ban on abortions even in cases of rayann chandler and incest. in what we're watching now is akin just a sacrifice made by the party to help them with the gender gap? >> i'm smiling inside because they're being such hypocrites throwing this man at a bus when the whole notion of forcible rape made its way into a bill paul ryan sponsored. it's not so off the farm that this man while he said something really ridiculous, this is a baby that the republican party, particularly the tea party wing of the republican party birthed. now they want to sit it at the door step of a church and act like they don't have anything to do with it when they absolutely

do. and i think it absolutely is tethered to mitt romney, paul ryan, and all of the anti-abortionists in this country who don't believe that abortion should happen under any circumstances and it also undermines and is hypocritical, thomas, that they're using this banner of freedom and liberty yet they want to infringe on the rights of americans. this was decided in 1973 by a 7-2 supreme court decision. the majority of whom were appointed by nixon and eisenhower. they were mostly republicans who decided, very smart men, that this is no longer an issue. why are we arguing this? >> you make a great point. here we are almost 40 years later talking about it. john, "the national journal" makes this argument about the gop outrage over akin along the lines of what karen is saying. akin's mistake was that by opening his mouth with crazy talk it made it much harder for republicans to win a sure senate seat pickup with him on the ballot. is the gop outraged, john, more about the push to capture the senate and less about policy, less about women?

>> yeah. i don't think it has much to do with policy at all, thomas. i think it is working on two levels one of which you just mentioned that missouri was a seat not considered in play until the democrats played in the primary there and managed to defeat the front-runner and help elevate akin. they were almost too good because now it looks like akin might have gotten out of the race. there is still a chance he might get out of the race. but yeah. that is about control of the senate and that is how this is working at one level and that is why every single republican is essentially asking akin to get out tlchlt is the other level you alluded to before which is on the presidential level and whether it's fair or not akin is being tethered to paul ryan and mitt romney. ryan sponsored that bill that had forcible rape in it. then it was taken out. but don't forget mitt romney doesn't want to talk about abortion either, thomas. he was pro choice at one time. he's held under suspicion by the pro life crowd or at least a lot of them. this is just not an issue, a policy that mitt romney and paul ryan want to be talking about.

>> hogan, you make the observation about the president -- >> hold on. >> hold on. the l.a. times has a report the doctor behind akin's rape theory was a surrogate for mitt romney in 2007 so he's saying that we can't really tether this type of conversation to the romney/ryan ticket but can mitt romney genuinely distance himself from this conversation and him when he has chosen for his vice president the guy that cosponsors all the antiabortion legislation on the hill? >> right. well, speaking from someone who had some surrogates say some outlandish things in the last presidential primary with rick santorum and some of our surrogates, again i don't think you can necessarily hang that around the candidate's neck. but what i do want to say is -- >> we can hang the vice presidential pick on the ticket. that vice presidential pick is the person who cosponsored all of the legislation that we're discussing in the forms, the world view and where he comes out talking about legitimate rape on a television show, he is

the same guy involved in drafting and cosponsoring legislation with the vice presidential pick. >> if akin got out of the race tomorrow or thankfully i wish he could, i wish he'd get out of it yesterday, we're not going to replace him with a pro choice candidate. it's not a news flash that our platform says we believe in the value of all human life at the moment of conception. that is not news. the problem is what we're having with this akin comment is that the press and many on the democrat left is to tether the two things together. it is not the same. we believe life begins at conception. that is not a news flash. >> karen, real quick? >> what they're really afraid of thomas is that this man could win and he might. you know, and i totally believe that he has a good chance of winning. that is what they're really afraid of because then they have to deal with this. sure they want him to get out. where is bachmann, newt gingrich, santorum?

we are asking from a lot of republicans and they're silent. where are they? >> our wednesday political power panel. thanks to all three of you. i appreciate it. this akin controversy is not the only storm threatening the gop convention. look at this. tropical storm issac brewing in the atlantic and could hit tampa as a major hurricane. does the gop have a contingency plan in place? plus, secretary of state hillary clinton, j-lo, and oprah. so they've got single name recognition in common and they're obvious celebrities but there is more. we'll explain. what is your guess? tweet me at thomas roberts. automakers are just beginning to dabble with the idea of hybrid technology, it's already engrained in our dna. during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pursuit of perfection.

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welcome back everybody. what do angela merkel, hillary

clinton and lady gaga run the world? you may think so. they are topping the forbes list of the world's 100 most powerful women. the brand new list of female elite released this morning and will appear in the september issue of "forbes" magazine. to talk more about this i'm joined now by mora forbes. she is vice president and publisher of "forbes" woman. it's great to have you here. as we take a look at the cover for everybody we're going to show brazilian president roussef. number one on the list for the second year in a row is german chancellor angela merkel. obviously the eurozone crisis earns her this spot. does she effectively continue to hold the world economy in her hands? >> she definitely wields extraordinary power. not only is she at the helm of the fourth largest country in terms of gdp but the eurozone in a tenuous situation that it is impacts the economies of the rest of the world. if she lets europe tank each country, all of us are going to suffer. >> as we start to look domestically at the list hillary rodham clinton ranks number two while the first lady michelle

obama ranks number seven. why does the secretary of state rank higher on your list of the female elite? >> the secretary of state hillary clinton is leading the diplomacy of the most powerful country in the world. and if you look at the events of the past year, syria and iran and the like, she not only keeps some of the most tense conversations at bay, but she also handles some of the most profound geo political issues of our time. her power is huge and obviously the first lady has significant influence especially over her husband but secretary of state impacts all of us. >> some notable celebrities also on this ninth annual list. we have oprah winfrey standing at number 11. she was number 14 though last year lady gaga the youngest on the list at 26 dropped from 11 to 14. so they kind of completely swapped places. why the switch? >> we look every year at a variety of different metrics including wealth, how much money

they've earned, social media, presence across different platforms, and what is interesting about someone like lady gaga is with one click of the mouse she reaches 90 million people between facebook and twitter. that is huge power. while open ras still challenged with a fledgling network she is a huge influencer. makes a lot of money and both are a testament of the dynamic ways in which women are wielding power today. >> 21 women were dropped off the list including congressman michele bachmann but the list does include 15 different techies. it's really interesting. we have on this list now facebook cheryl sandberg. explain why mayer didn't rank higher. she is very prominent in the tech world. >> mayer just landed her job a matter of weeks ago. what is really interesting about the women in tech is that they're at the helm of companies

that were traditionally male dominated. meg whitman at hp. you have facebook with sheryl sandberg. these women are also at the point where they have to turn around these huge giants -- tough jobs, huge companies that are also driving the growth, the efficiency and the power of companies worldwide. >> as we talk about what's going on in the conversation politically right now with the todd akin comments and so much talk about a woman's right to choose, also we have equal pay issues for women in this country around the world for that matter what do you think this means to the conversation we need to be having, as someone whose dad ran for president, what do you think this means for the right? are they driving women away and helping that gender gap that we see that the president runs away with with female voters? >> undoubtedly there is ground that needs to be made in terms of women's leadership positions in business, politics, and the like. that being said, women voters

today are focused on the economy and on growth. and they should be optimistic and inspired by the fact that looking around the world seven women on our list are heads of state. one, merkel, fourth largest economy. brazil, sixth largest economy. this is really encouraging and with more women and powers, in positions of power, we should be optimistic about opportunities for real growth around key issues but also the advancement of women. >> you make a great point. for young ladies out there, young girls, moms, looking to inspire their daughters they can do so with this list. it's really well done. thank you. just so everybody knows you can check out the full list on forbes.com. thanks again. >> thank you so much. federal agents arrest a man for alleged threats against the president. you will not believe how this suspect answered the front door. plus, house minority leader nancy pelosi's big obsession. we'll bring details on this.

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[ male announcer ] maxwell house flavor lock. always good to the last drop. topping the news now, a washington state man accused of threatening president obama is scheduled to appear in court this afternoon. he was arrested at an apartment yesterday. the secret service says the 31-year-old answered the door armed with a shotgun. authorities believe he is behind an e-mail threat against president obama that was sent to the fbi. popular fast food joint in and out burger has cut its ties with the california slaughter house under investigation. for how it allegedly treats its animals. the usda shut down central valley meat company this week after receiving a video authorities say showed inhumane treatment. the company said it was disturbed to learn of the allegations. the california based in and out frequented by stars like miley cyrus immediately suspended its relationship with that farm. america the wasteful. a new study is showing americans

toss out as much as 40% of the country's food supply every year. according to research by the national resources defense council that works out to be almost every other bite we take. the study shows an average family of four wastes more than $2200 worth of food annually. the celebrity couple affectionately known as tom-kat is officially a thing of the past. tom cruise and katie holmes have finalized their five-year marriage a month and a half after holmes filed for divorce. details remain under wraps but katie is believed to have primary custody of their 6-year-old daughter suri. today a judge is expected to tap michael jackson's nephew t.j. as coguardian of the late pop star's three kids. he became a temporary guardian last month when the kids' grandmother katherine jackson was away in arizona. this would mean t.j. jackson would raise prince, paris, and blanket if their grandmother becomes too ill to do so. l.l. cool j. is working as a

tv cop and that gig is paying off. the rapper turned ncis l.a. star caught an intruder at his home earlier today. police responded to a 911 call from his daughter and now have the suspect in custody who is reportedly suffering from a lot of contusions to the face. the lesson? mama said knock you out. do not go to l.l. cool j.'s house.

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what are some good kayaking words? like...rapids? look, i'm going through the rapids. ok. i'll take it. new offers in new places so you can try new things. sync your american express card with facebook, foursquare, and twitter to find savings. that's the membership effect of american express. less than a week until the republicans descend on tampa. the focus that should be on the convention is split by a trifecta of trouble for the grand oelt party. one reports that republican congressman kevin yoder took a dip of the skinny persuasion in the sea of galilee. two a firestorm regarding todd akin's remarks on abortion and pregnancy and three a threat that a storm named issac may occur. dana milbank says this could be

divine intervention but not coincidence. it is good to have you here. you ask the question in your article has god forsaken the gop? i know it's tongue in cheek but it is almost like, unlike anything that we've ever seen storming into a national convention. >> you know, thomas, i wrote about this a month ago about this theoretical possibility. there's like 0.2%. i don't claim to have a direct pipe line to the big guy but if you look at what some republicans have done in the past, you know, michele bachmann and pat robertson and glenn beck, they have attributed meet logical phenomena to god's wrath. you picture the skinny dipping in the sea of galilee where jesus is said to have performed so many miracles and then you have the hurricane barreling toward tampa. i don't know what you make of that. i think michele bachmann has alleged she's heard god talk to her before. let's get back to the platform. specifically the ban on abortion is even in cases of rape and

incest and the platform is tough on immigration, marriage equality. the tea party saying today many proposals adopted in the gop's platform are tea party or freedom platform proposals. when they say stuff like that, and now it's, you know, in there, it is the platform, the foundation, how significant is that that the rnc has adopted so many far right conservative proposals? >> well, the platforms are often meaningless. they just have the sort of boilerplate in there that are routinely ignored when somebody is actually in power. in this case though because of the todd akin episode basically they put in the same abortion language they've had in the past. but it does not explicitly provide for an exception in cases of rape. so the democrats are calling it the akin plank in there even though it predated this whole scandal. the idea is it takes one man's scandal and makes it an issue for the whole party. this is the last thing that republicans want to be talking about on the eve of the convention. they want to be getting this thing back on to the economy. >> certainly we have a lot of

things dominating the news cycle, kevin yoder, the skinny dipping thing. that is going to go away. people aren't going to be thinking about that too much. people will especially women and men who are paying attention to the conversation about right to life and a woman's right to choose will be thinking about akin and also drawing a lot of distinction and correlation between the republican ticket of that of mitt romney and paul ryan. and the fact that they need to know where these men stand. now especially since paul ryan is on the ticket. the buck really stops with mitt romney on that decision. correct? >> well, sure it does. i mean, regardless of what assurances ryan can make that he's different from akin, regardless of what romney says, there had already been this gender gap problem for the republicans in this cycle. and this thing has just bubbled up at the worst possible time to remind people of that problem. as long as todd akin seems content to drag this out, toward what everybody assumes will be

his inevitable dropping out of the race, it keeps it front and center for voters that much longer. >> dana, a great read. dana milbank of "the washington post" good to see you. >> thanks very much. >> tampa's mayor says he is ready to call off the rnc if issac becomes a major hurricane. issac would be the first major hurricane to hit tampa in 90 years. fema is getting prepped with 50,000 liters of water, 50,000 ready-to-eat meals at each of the u.s. virgin islands. look at the current radar. the weather channel's brian norcross joins us live from atlanta with more on the track of this storm. bring us up to speed on issac and when it would switch from a tropical storm to reach hurricane status. >> all right, thomas. it looks like it's going to happen probably tomorrow or the day after. there is a ways to go here but the timing of issac and the republican convention in tampa are amazingly coincidental for issac to be in that general area. let's bring you up to date where it stands right now, a 45-mile-per-hour tropical storm. it's just approaching the

eastern caribbean islands now and is going to move through there. today. there is puerto rico up there. it's going to move on over to the south of puerto rico and it is just a moderate tropical storm at this point. here is that future track heading south of puerto rico and picking up in intensity and approaching hurricane strength so this is thursday, tomorrow evening, approaching hurricane strength there. now we get into the big question marks about friday whether it interacts with the big mountains over haiti and the dominican republic or does it stay to the south down here and stay over the very warm waters so that puts a question mark on these intensi intensityies but you notice the hurricane center forecasting a healthy category one hurricane. then they're forecasting it to weak anne little bit because of the interaction with the mountains. florida is in play and the indications are this hurricane will be in the vicinity of the west coast of florida in the tuesday to wednesday time frame and they're going to have to make decisions well before that on whether they'll let people

fly in and whether or not they'll make changes and so forth because that convention center sits right in the most vulnerable part of the tampa bay area. they are sweating bullets you can bet at the rnc. >> everybody continues to watch. we'll see what happens with the storm. the weather channel's brian norcross in atlanta for us. thanks. also bearing down on florida next week vice president joe biden. he is not afraid of a fight or afraid to start one. take a listen to what he had to say yesterday while on the campaign trail. >> over the objections do they sound like squealing pigs. over the objections of romney and all his allies we passed some of the toughest wall street regulations in history turning wall street back into the allocator of capital it always has been and no longer a casino. and they want to repeal it. >> joining me now is nbc news deputy political editor, dominico montenero. "the washington post" is saying sending one of the candidates on

the ballot to the rival party's convention site is an unprecedented move. what kind of message is this sending not just to the rnc but to the democratic base in florida and beyond? >> well, certainly that joe biden is not going to be stepping back from his role as an attack dog after he sparked outrage over his chains comment, then he got a little pickup because of the squealing pigs comment. certainly not one to pull any punches and it shows that the obama campaign is not going to be pulling him from the trail and putting him in any safe places. they're indicating they're going to let him continue to be joe. >> all right. so let him continue to be joe. that does mean that there is the potential for the legendary gaffes. as you point out the back in chains comment dominated the news last week. rnc chairman reince priebus says joe biden poses no threat because he can't stay on message. so is that a fair opinion of what it means to send him into florida and does it mean a big risk for the democrats? >> well, look. you know, you see a lot of this

counterprogramming from both campaigns. you'll have campaign folks from the romney side go to obama events but you don't necessarily see the person who is going to be vice president doing that. but biden, remember, is pretty popular with seniors and with, they believe, with seniors and with, you know, kind of blue collar, white workers. they still want to have him make the case and especially in florida to be able to appeal to some of those seniors, senior citizens. >> nbc news deputy political editor, thank you, sir. if you want the very latest political news it is really easy. download nbc's political app on i-tunes right now. >> he said if you have a business you didn't build it. someone else did that. >> mitt romney criticizes the president on the campaign trail for that didn't build it comment. up next, a successful business owner who said he did build it with government help. plus the republican platform includes language that opposes marriage equality but not all

members of the gop agree. i'll talk with a young conservative fighting for equal rights. also what do you think as always you can find me on facebook. thomas a. roberts msnbc. it's something you're born with.

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[ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made? [ club scene music ] [ sigh of relief ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. taking medication to lower blood pressure may increase your risk for lip cancer. because blood pressure drugs can increase your sensitivity to sun light, the longer you take the drug, the higher your risk may be for lip cancer. however, scientists stress that the benefits of taking blood pressure medication outweigh the risk increase for lip cancer. >> if you've got a business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. >> president obama speaking in roanoke, virginia on july 13th.

those remarks have now become a rallying cry for the president's opponents mitt romney and paul ryan. >> he said if you have a business, you didn't build it. someone else did that. i'm proud to stand with a man who from experience knows that if you have a small business you did build that. >> so we built it will also be the theme of day two of the republican convention that starts next tuesday. joining me now though someone who agrees with the president, that businesses just don't evolve by themselves. james rammel founded rammel asset management in chevy chase, marc-andre in 1998. he just wrote an article entitled what i wrote with government help. the point the president was trying to make inartfully so is if you are successful somebody helped you get there. maybe a teacher. maybe somebody created the american system that allowed you to thrive.

you say you are an example of that including the pell grants and the government loans that helped you get through college. >> right. thank you, thomas. kind of you to have me on your program. absolutely. when i look at my success and i look over the course of my life, it's clear to me that government helped me in a number of ways along the way. my mom as i indicated raised us on a union wage that was -- helped, enabled by the labor relations act of 1935. the pell grants enabled me to go to college. my industry has been put together in no small part by the investment company act of 1940. you know, a tremendous amount of transparency required by those acts that created the confidence and the public markets to invest in mutual funds. our own mutual fund, our opportunistic value fund takes those disclosures a step higher

but the point is these acts when i look at my life are absolutely -- were necessary to bring me where i am today. of course i worked hard. absolutely. but for me i can't separate out the different public investments that helped enable my success. >> so you bring up the fact the investment act you referenced for 1940 is something that helped you modern times start up your asset management business but one thing i'm interested in is you say you paid 22.6% in federal taxes last year and you call that low. explain why you feel that you're maybe not paying your fair share into a system that helped you get where you are. >> right. well, first to point out my tax rate is not the result, we're not organized as a hedge fund so my tax rate would be even dramatically lower if we were so

my tax rate is a result of a small business organized as llc not a hedge fund. you know, i think that people talk about tax rates and they really need to be talking about effective rates. i get to deduct a lot of things including major contributions to various deferment programs that dramatically reduces my taxes. now, just as a gut feeling when i think of all that this country has given me, the successive' had, the life i live, my gut sense is that 22.5% is low and particularly when i look out at the rest of the world, it's low and it certainly is low, thomas, by historical standards. federal tax revenue collections right now are at a post world war ii low. so it's just not accurate to say that that tax rates are high. i mean, the government is collecting the lowest amount of

revenue it has since the end of the war. government spending on the other hand has stayed roughly the same. in 1985 federal, state, and local spending was 35% of the economy. in 2006 before this recession it was 35% as well. it's up a little bit right now because we're in a recession so it's more like 39%. >> right. >> but it is, you know, just a wrong perception that government spending has dramatically risen over the past 25 years of our lives. >> i've got to leave it there but i want to remind everybody that in "the washington post" you wrote the op-ed entitled what i built with government help. you are the founder of rammel asset management. thanks for your time. i appreciate it. >> thank you. congresswoman nancy pelosi as chocoholic. time for the polyside bar. the house minority leader telling the huffington post she loves the stuff chocolate ice cream, chocolate bars, chocolate cake, don't forget chocolate milk shakes.

she says she is so obsessed with it that if she worked out she'd eat it during her work out. she has done just that eating pints of chocolate ice cream while riding a stationary bike. her favorite ice cream flavor ben & jerry's new york super fudge chunk. we the people want beer. some beer connoisseurs are trying to get their hands on the recipe for president obama's white house honey ale. the freedom of information act request was filed for the rel eefs the recipe but the white house is exempt so now there is a petition circulating on the white house's we the people website. 25,000 signatures needed by september 17th. right now there are only about 2,000 of the beer curious. you want a chance to meet ashley judd? well, listen up. you just need to head to north carolina next month for the democratic national convention. the actress and obama supporter will be there in attendance as an at large delegate for tennessee and she is asking other supporters to join her saying in an e-mail that it's a life changing experience. eternity is a long time to hold a grudge but apparently former

secretary of state madeline albright has no problem with doing just that when it comes to george w. bush's eight years in office. at a recent campaign rally she recounted a story about a man who asked her how long are you people, meaning democrats, going to blame the previous administration? her response? forever. the capital one cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus. and everyone likes 50% more [ russian accent ] rubles. eh, eheh, eh, eh. [ brooklyn accent ] 50% more simoleons. [ western accent ] 50% more sawbucks. ♪ [ maine accent ] 50% more clams. it's a lobster, either way. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. with a 50% annual cash bonus, it's the card for people who like more cash. [ italian accent ] 50% more dough! what's in your wallet? [ italian accent ] 50% more dough! you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more processed flakes look nothing like natural grains. i'm eating what i know is better nutrition. mmmm. great grains.

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as we gear up for next week's republican national convention, the party's latest platform plank is under fire because a big part of its draft language takes a stance against marriage equality and lgbt rights, saying we believe that marriage, the union of one man and one woman, must be upheld as the national standard, a goal to stand for. encourage and promote through laws governing marriage while at the same time saying we embrace the principle that all americans have the right to be treated with dignity and respect. joining me now is tyler, the executive director of new hampshire republicans for freedom and equality. good to have you with me. let's just look back over 2004,

the republicans took a stance on doma. in 2008, they didn't. meanwhile, now, in 2012, the democrats have included language backing marriage equality in their own platform for the first time ever. explain why some people, including the log cabin republicans, would refer to the conversation that has evolved for 2012 on the right about marriage equality to be abysmal. >> well, i think that there was some progress this year in the platform committee. they improved the language on the repeal of don't ask, don't tell, but i'm not sure that the platform at the end of the day is a great indicator of where the republican party is really at on this issue. there's tremendous progress right now across this country with conservatives. that's why we formed this new coalition, the young conservatives for the freedom to marry, because we've seen that there's a lot of people out there who need to have this voice shared. that you can be a conservative and you can support the freedom to marry. i'm just concerned that right now, the platform is a lagging

indicator of where the republican party really is on this issue. >> then what is the biggest indicator, the log cabin republicans saying the language of this marriage plank authored by the family research council again is abysmal. at the same time, people that are for marriage equality on the right would look at this and say that this is a move ahead but still, it is a well-formed and thick brick wall that it seems like people are still jamming their heads against. >> well, the platform, the good news about this is that the platform is not a binding document and it won't actually slow down the progress that we're seeing around the country. so in the last year, we've seen republicans provide the crucial votes to have the freedom to marry in new york state and new hampshire, where i live and where i've been working. we had 119 republicans vote to leave our popular marriage law in place and this is in a year wherever there was a republican landslide and republicans had a 75% super majority in the new hampshire state government, and even still a repeal bill for the freedom to marry couldn't make it through the house. so these are the kinds of things

that i'm seeing around the country that give me a lot of encouragement and hope for the future. >> tyler, thanks for your time. i appreciate it. >> thank you. thank you for your time. that's going to wrap things up for me today. see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. until then, follow me on twitter. don't go anywhere. "now" with alex wagner is coming your way for the next hour. what you got coming up? hey, thomas. coming up, a storm is brewing for the gop as tampa braces for tropical storm isaac, governor romney faces hurricanes akin and biden, not to mention the republican national convention's stormy platform. can the romney/ryan ticket turn the focus back to the economy? plus opening the book of mormon as team romney prepares to embrace the candidate's faith, mckay coppins tells us what it's like to attend church with the governor. and bill nye, the obama guy. we ask the scientist about his new lab partner and why some republicans deemed science a

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freecreditscore.com. i'm no meteorologist but there are dark clouds over florida and it looks like a storm's coming to tampa. it's wednesday, august 22nd and this is "now." joining me today, "rolling stone" executive editor, eric bates. msnbc contributor, ari melber of "the nation." politico's senior political reporter, maggie haberman and mr. sunday morning, "new york times" magazine editor, hugo lindgren. tropical storm isaac is threatening to crash the republican national convention next week but that is not the only potential hurricane that might spoil the gop party in tampa. a severe storm system is brewing in missouri.