so far the u.n. has released about an eighth of that. the devastation stretches across the nation 7,000 islands, some have not seen any aid four days in making official death tolls impossible to tally. philippines president now predicts the death toll is close to 7500, burials in mass graves are already under way. number of people impacted by the storm jumped to 11 million people. 673,000 have been displaced. security is deteriorating as fear and desperation grows. the red cross can only hope the situation does not turn to chaos. thousands are swarming what remains of the airports hoping to be evacuated. washington is sending six navy ships to the islands to help. we already have nearly 250 marines on the ground supporting the philippines government. ian williams is in the philippines. what is the latest with getting

aid in and survivors out? >> reporter: well, there are enormous challenges facing both, the aid effort is getting under way. there are plentiful offers of international help but the actual aid itself is only trickling into the communities who are so desperately in need. the presidential palace aware of the criticism of that said this morning that they were determined. they will get aid to where it's needed. they also blame the slow pace of which the aid is being distributed on the sheer scale of the devastation. now, international aid organizations we spoke to said while aid was being flown in say to tacloban, a huge problem was distributing from the airport. there are very few vehicles available, which means that they are having to take it in by hand. that presents all sorts of problems, not at least from a law and order point of view and

also an issue with storing it away from the airport. that airport as well has been besieged by desperate people, an estimated 3,000 trying to get out. they've lost everything. some of them have been injured. there is no overall evacuation plan. the philippine armed forces bringing in aid to that airport have been taking people out where they can but many people are waiting and they are desperate. the government has pledged that more planes and flights will arrive and more airports across the region will open, so more people will have the opportunity to get out commercial flights should begin soon. but for the moment, the situation does remain desperate with very little aid getting in and very few people getting out, krystal. >> all right, ian williams, thanks again. let's turn now to the day's other big story, disappointing obama care care enrollment numbers, fewer than 50,000

enrolled in october, only a tenth of the goal for the 36 states that are using the federal exchanges. that is slightly better than the 2007 massachusetts enrollment rate that the white house has been comparing itself to. remember, high enrollment is the key to making this entire law work. with tech issues and glitches, the administration is far off track of its goal of 7 million people enrolled by the end of march. white house had a word of caution. >> i cannot confirm those numbers. you know, there have been a variety of reports saying a variety of different things, i have not seen specific figures, but i anticipate that we will be releasing data about enrollment by the end of the week. >> so let's take it to the bank, "washington post" dana milbank, that is. as our favorite d.c. cynic. what do you make of these snubz. >> i'm not a cynic, just a little -- >> they are disappointing

numbers of course, but expectations are so low. if they -- the fact they made it out of the double digits is going to surprise some folks. but of course, you know, the people are just pouncing at this point. i was on a conference call this morning and it was just painful. i think she should -- after the q and a in there she'll qualify for some sort of trauma coverage under obama care. but this is a person who is looking really strong for re-election just couple months ago and upended by this. they have to fix this and fast. the administration wants to spin this, the matters speak for themselves, estimated 500,000 the first month of october. it's well below that, just 50,000 so far. and naturally you have the insurance companies and the folks that have already enrolled that are incredibly nervous as we know with low enrollment the premiums could go up, but i want to focus on the political

implication. you touched on that a minute ago. democrats were hoping that obama care would be an advantage for them, leading into midterms, here you have 20 democratic senators up for re-election in 2014 and if things don't start picking up on obama care, that could very well be their achilles' heel. >> it could be. luckily for the democrats, this is a moment in time. if we looked at this a month ago or so, when the shutdown happened, it looked like it would be a disastrous year for the republicans now it looks like it will be a disaster year for the democrats. this could flip back and forth many times between now and then. the problem is it's become sort of a self-fulfilling thing here, people are seeing these numbers are terrible, persuade more people from signing up and then it becomes more of a fundamental problem with the structure of obama care. that's the danger right now, this could sort of snowball. >> we're far away from the

snowball, let's move on to talking about 2016. we have the new poll from nbc -- >> until 2016. >> thank you for clarifying. >> live fact checking, thank you very much, krystal ball. hillary is up on chris christie 44 to 34. why spend the $2 plus billion to do this thing, just give her the presidency now. we don't want to do that -- >> whoa. >> the gop is considering chris christie and the dems are dreaming allowed about elizabeth warren. they are parallel in that the gop is saying things are not going well, maybe we could move to the left of our side or the moderate part of our side away from the colonel curtz caucus and democrats are saying things are going so well, maybe we could move to the far left. >> well, that's right.

so we've gotten sort of what a likely matchup could look like but we have a few years to try all other possibilities first. you can be sure both parties are going to do that. the republicans in particular are going to go through this whole mass kiss tick prokt process of going after one person on the extreme right followed by another on the extreme right until they presumably do what they did last time and settle on a guy like christie, who could be a viable candidate in an election. and of course, the democrats are right where we were before the 2008 elections when hillary was once again the inevitable candidate and maybe it's obama then was in the position that elizabeth warren is in now. >> boy, i am still hopeful that we could have that elizabeth warren ted cruz match-up. >> yeah. that sounds exciting. >> we would love that too. >> you know it, dana. >> nothing but ratings.

>> it doesn't mean what it means everywhere else in the country. the number of inevitable front-runners who haven't turned out to be nominees let alone president. i'm less interested in 2016 as the parlor game as i am in what the warren moment said about the unmet needs of the american electorate or all american citizens. what does it say to you there is some sort of excitement, the article gives some metrics on it that people want something more economically populist. >> i think there's a lot of disenchantment and you see the numbers not just from republicans and democrats but even even from democrats who feel, look, they rallied behind him during the budget standoff but we're back to this position where they don't necessarily know where he's coming from. they've been knocked off stride by the problems with the rollout here and you have people

having -- it's basically a mirror image of what's been happening in the republican party, people saying, maybe if we only got back more solidly to our core principles then we would be in a stronger position. >> thank you as always. >> my pleasure. >> up next, chop, chop, chop, new budget cuts in effect this month on top of the sequester slashing and make no mistake, people are feeling the pain. a compelling report from our friends at msnbc.com as "the psych tcycle cycle" rolls on for tuesday, november 12th. [ imitating car engine ] that's mine. ♪ that's mine. that's mine. ♪ come on, kyle. ♪ [ horn honks ] that's mine...kyle. [ male announcer ] revenge is best served with 272 horses. get the best offers of the season now. lease this 2014 ats for around $299 a month

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today msnbc launches a new app that allows subscribers to watch in real time on mobile devices as well. of course there is a ton of extra digital constant and that includes reporting by susie kim, our relaunched msnbc.com. her latest article, how the government sequester cuts are hitting one small town in kentucky. tell us about this piece. >> basically for the story, i traveled to the district of howell rogers the chair of the house appropriations committee, his district is one of the poorest in eastern kentucky, in coal country there. the sequestration cuts are hitting at the worst possible time. there's a huge jobs crisis there. thousands of mineers are losing their jobs and having a tremendous ripple effect across the economy at a time when the

safety net is being undermined because of budget cuts. >> a lot of republicans are talking about they want smaller government. but it's the red and rural states that tend to get more from the government than they give. they are the ones who are getting more. you see this right there, for every dollar they send to d.c., how much do they get back. here's a sampling of red rural states getting way more than they are paying in. that's typical across the nation. i see signs in your piece of classic gop voters saying, wait a minute, there are government programs taken away that we can actually use. >> there's definitely that feeling. to be sure, there's definitely a strong sense of pride and independence among the unemployed workers i talked to. they don't want to be but i talked to one unemployed minor who said that listen, his wife managed to convince him to accept unemployment benefits saying that you pay the taxes in and this is a time in need and

ultimately agreed to accept them. i think having this experience on the ground when it happens to your life, to your neighbor's life, it becomes something different than ab traction of federal spending in washington. >> let's break this down a little bit. the first year of cuts were actually not as dire as many people expected because savings for example, the pentagon was using 5 billion in unspent money from previous years. and similar money to avoid for those all together, the reality is you can only break out the piggy bank and spend savings once. come 2014, we should expect cuts to be far worse. >> it's definitely the case. the irony is you have folks saying that listen, the sequestration wasn't that bad and all of these scary things that obama was saying didn't happen. but it's definitely true that they are only so far that agencies can go in terms of keeping people in public housing without having to force them out of their homes.

the pentagon says that listen, we were able to blunt the effects of these cuts but we can't do that continuing onward for months and months. so the belt is going to be tightening this next time around unless congress does something about it. >> and i also think part of the problem congress is not hearing or listening to voices to those like you're reporting on in kentucky. we have a situation where economic inequality is increasing, leading to increase political inequality. these folks don't even really have a voice in the process. do they feel like they are being heard at all? >> well, i mean, in the county, howell rogers is one of the few republicans who has genuinely stood up and said sequestration is terrible policy and terrible idea. let's stop it now. and he sort of points to one of these divides you will see more of in which you do have sort of older school more establishment republicans like howell rogers saying, listen, we should cut

back federal spending but let's do it responsibly and not under cut it where it is necessary and sort of more tea party types. i do think that that is a conflict going forward. and i think sort of voters on the ground will have to sort of look at where republican party is and decide where they want to push them in the future. >> i think krystal gets to the heart of it, what is the sort of information eco system around these policy choices and this idea that the sequester is not a big deal, which is taken hold, i hear that from people in washington, just depends on how much money you have and what kind of work you're in. i'm wondering if the people you talk to on the ground, the deficit is somewhat intangible idea that has taken hold in the tea party and constricted our policy choices, right, partly because of a well funded campaign to make a big deal out of it. how do you contrast that maybe to what people are hearing on the ground about these costs of the sequester? >> well, honestly, sequestration is not necessarily a term that

you're sort of average person might be familiar with. i'm remember going to doin to the unemployment office and there was a sign that said sequestration is cutting your emergency unemployment benefits by 10%. no one is looking at the sign filled with all of this jargon in the corner. there is this disconnect between the way we talk about policy in washington and what actually gets through to the american people. and there honestly the political energy is more about the coal industry and obama's coal regulations chgs part which is part of this but not the only thing shaping these people's lives here as much as the gop is clinging to an anti-obama message and making sure that gets through. >> that's interesting getting your perspective from the ground. thanks for reporting for msnbc.com. >> thanks for having me on. >> up next, another major retailer announces it will be open on thanksgiving xgt whatever happened to a little football and turkey and a nap? we're going to spin as quts the cycle" rolls on. ♪ ♪

you get your coffee here. you get your hair cut here. you find that certain thing you were looking for here, but actually you get so much more. when you shop at these small local businesses, you support all the things that make your community great. the money you spend here, stays here. in this place you call your neighborhood. small business saturday is november 30th. get out and shop small.

death toll estimates have been lowered to 2500 but that is little comfort for those packed in makeshift clinics seeking food and water. president obama spoke with the president aquino of the philippines this morning. the u.s. marines are on the ground in manila. the death of 19-year-old mcbride of detroit has been ruled by the medical examiner to be a homicide. she was in a car accident and knocked on a stranger's door looking for help and she was shot in the face. the homeowner claims it was an accident and prosecutors have not decided whether to press charges. >> caroline kennedy is now ambassador caroline kennedy to japan at the state department earlier today. tonight japan's ambassador will

welcome kennedy in an event at the japanese embassy. >> a team of experts confirmed what we already knew, new york is number one on tall buildings and urban habitat. this is a thing. announced one world trade center is the tallest building in the united states, beat out chicago's willis tower, former sears tower. it stands at 1776 feet tall, commemorating the year we gained our independence. that is your news. now the spin. most of us think of the holidays as the most wonderful time of the year. the major retailers think the same thing, that is why they keep trying to move holidays up a little bit earlier and earlier. walmart became the latest announcing it will open thanksgiving night at 6:00 p.m. they are not the first and certainly will not be the last so where does it end? that may be up to us. and you know, it's interesting since walmart announced this and other retailers have announced moving up black friday to thanksgiving day itself, there's

been a backlash and it's been interesting to me who the backlash has come from. on the one hand it's come from liberals upset about the treatment of workers and the fact the workers will be forced to leave thanksgiving dinner and go into work to stock shelves, et cetera. the other backlash has come from the religious right. and evangelical paster said can you leave this one day to family? this conversation could extend broader than just walmart's hours, into the way we treat workers in general. i'm wondering if the left is missing a potential ally right now in the ee vvangelical righto could get behind the labor movement. >> walmart is doing a lot for workers, giving them bonus pennies, a holiday meal and a discount on future purchases at walmart, which is really sweet, so they can spend the bonus penny at walmart. i find this disgusting in terms

of what they are doing to workers which will make them have to leave families and also what they are doing to consumers in putting this out there, you are as rick warren suggested destroying this important family moment. a lot of people will want to leave their family to be part of this. what is thanksgiving evening about, being together and arguing about whether you want to watch football or new movie. >> i feel like a fly on the wall in my family -- >> i'm sure you have had that argument. this is a critical family time. with we stop the encroachment of consumerism to have family time. >> for many families they only get that once a year to all be together. >> there's 200 people in your family, bring them all together all the time. >> it's a holiday that we've already enjoyed together. i think it's frankly very selfish for retailers to move up the date. just because they are worried about sales because we're talking about a waiting line for hours. we mentioned it opens at 6:00,

that means you're out there well before you want to get in there and get a bargain. this takes away from what the holiday is supposed to be about, cooking, who's going to cook? all of the moms will be out there waiting in line. the husbands are not going to want to do that. >> what's coming next? noon, they'll open up at noon. >> i think what you said there, the word selfish, this is an interesting topic and cuts across party lines, precisely because it goes to what you think the economy should do. on the one hand people who believe in traditional economic theory say these firms are supposed to be selfish. if you look at max mason, it's the companies generally choose output levels to maximize the greatest profits possible. that's what businesses are supposed to do. if you're a hard core traditionalist about this, that's the end of the equation. there's another concept here that's come up in terms of ceo pay and applies to thanksgiving, the concept of outrage

constraints which i was thinking about today, when even a company that has power to act can be from the outrage from people like us and it won't necessarily want to take an otherwise profitable action. that's the balancing act i see here, when you we talk about that as economic theory, when you talk about it tangably, say, walmart can make a little more money by going after one day a year when it used to be closed to let everyone as a community celebrate thanksgiving, from workers to people who feel the need to run out and get there the first hour and get the sale price. i think the answer obviously, my answer is yes firms can be self-iself selfish they has they make money but there has to be constraints to protect parts of our holiday. >> walmart in some ways recognized that, this is not first time walmart phased consumer anger over their practices. and some some ways they tried to address that and work with michelle obama to bring in

healthier fruits and vegetables and lower the costs. it seems like something they could be swayed about. to abby's point, one thing i haven't thought about until you raised it, a lot of folks don't just wait in line to get the deal on big tv, but wait because their family depends on being able to get -- >> they have to make a decision between staying home and being with my family or doing what i have to do for my family. i do want to point out nordstrom is waiting until friday. >> real quickly, nordstrom is a higher end retailer and walmart is lower priced. >> what's interesting also, is that walmart workers are planning a strike on black friday. opening up on now what is black friday eve, undercut their power to be able to strike on friday. and i don't know if they are making a decision to undercut the strike but it just kind of cuts the worker's ability to

speak back to low wages they are struggling under. >> not a fan, walmart. >> walmart has done a lot to keep workers from being able to organize so it wouldn't be surprising if that was sort of a bonus for them. >> 35 million people went shopping on thanksgiving last year when there weren't special deals. how many this year? >> we will see. developing news at the white house, president obama is announcing timothy massad for the future trading commission. it is critical in regulating the derivatives industry which played a big part in the 2008 crash. he served on the congressional oversight panel and before that he worked in a private sector and let's listen to the president. >> it was historic wall street rea form that put in place

smarter, tougher, common sense rules of the road to protect consumers and to end taxpayer funded bailouts once and for all. >> five years later, our economy is growing. our businesses are creating jobs and our markets have hit record highs and there's no doubt our financial system is more stable. and a big reason for that stability is the work of a small but mighty independent agency, the commodity futures trading commission. there's that lull. they have many responsibilities. under wall street reform, one of them is to guard against some of the most reckless and irresponsible practices at the heart of the financial crisis. this includes making sure that big -- can't make risky bets with their customer's department

democrat deposits and risky derivatives, the complex products that were part of what precipitated the crisis five years ago and products that warren buffett ones called financial weapons of mass destruction, even before they nearly brought down aig and sparked the financial on wall street. so, these reforms will protect consumers and make financial systems stronger. more competitive. helping to restore confidence in our markets. confidence that markets around the world depend on them and that's why the cftc worked tirelessly to implement these reforms, but they need resources and regulators to finish the job. that's why we're here today. when i named gary gentsleer, i haven't taken office yet, we were a month that into the transition, our economy was bleeding 800,000 jobs a month. the truth is nobody knew where the bottom would be. and around that time, gary sat

down with tim geithner who would become the treasury secretary and mary shapiro, chair person the fcc and began sketching out on a yellow pad the early outlines of what financial reform would look like xgt ever since he worked tirelessly to make it real. he has one of the smallest budgets in charge of protecting consumers but done as much as anybody to implement financial reform. under his watch, the cftc transformed what was a secretive and shadowy derivatives market by bringing large parts of it on to exchanges to transparent trading. and cftc is working hand in hand with other agencies to protect consumers by implementing the rule which is called on regulators to kpleetd by the end of the year. they successfully imposed nearly $1.8 billion in penalties against financial firms that engaged in rate fixing schemes. they worked to make sure that

irresponsible few can't hurt consumers by illegally manipulating or raiding energy markets for their own gain. they've done it all while a swarm of lobbyists have done everything possible to thwart their ever move. >> you've been listening to the president nominating the man you see there in the glasses, timothy massad for a key economic post, chairman of the commodity futures trading commission. up next right here for all of the money and countless applications and aptitude tests what if private schools are not better? the research that could have us rethinking everything about america's education system. give me a little dolly there. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work.

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children better opportunities than public schools don't, but does that mean they are getting a better education? drawing on two exhaustive studies of more than 300,000 elementary and middle school students, our next guests say no. and that when you adjust for demographics, public schools are better at teaching students specifically in math. it turns out when it comes to actual learning, private schools may be training more on reputation and perception than on reality. co-authors of public school advantage, why public schools outperform private schools, they are both professors in the college of education in university of illinois. chris, private schools generally have more resources, smaller class sizes. so how is it that public schools and we're talking about certain public schools in well to do areas, why is it public schools are able to perform as well and sometimes better than private schools? >> actually, we're looking at

national averages so the numbers you referred to earlier are actually a nationally representative samples of public and private schools. we do look at specific types of private schools. but there's reasons for the patterns we're seeing, in fact, public schools are outperforming and more effective than private schools and a lot has to do with how they are using resources. one of the reform tenants has been giving more storms deregulating, that's a double edged sword. many schools using that autonomy -- >> originally you were studying instructional math and techniques and that led this to disprofling that private schools are better than public schools. walk us through that happened. >> we just assumed it would be higher. if we look at raw test scores,

private school achievement does send to be slightly higher than public schools, but i was studying the relationship between math instruction and achievement and looking at many different factors and school type is one of factors. i happened to notice the strange pattern in the private school results and so that's when chris and i decided to follow-up on that and tried to do more of an apples to apples to comparison that senly adjusts for the fact that private schools serve more advantaged students. >> and education policy like a lot of governing we see, that narrative and anecdotes lead a lot of policy makers or lead what the public thinks. there's definitely a narrative about private and charter schools potentially being better. how would you apply some of your findings to make better schools? if you went to congress and said here's the goal, we want all schools in america to be more like public schools, heads would

spin. >> that's correct. and you're right, the power of anecdotes is something to take notice of. so for example, some of the documentaries we've seen recently waiting for superman, they focus on a particular group of students. it's really compelling to watch. but that's different from looking at nationally representative data and there we find out that those anecdotes are often more the exception than the rule. when we look across these national averages we're finding that in fact what those anecdotes are supporting might not be supported by the evidence. >> to that point, waiting for superman was about a sort of specific group of charter schools, but isn't there somebody to be said for allowing a lot of different models to flourish and then being able to pick those select charter schools that work really well and able to bend the curve in communities where you do have socioeconomic difficulties adding to normal difficulties of education. if you can cherry pick those models and expand them

nationwide, snts that what reformers are after? >> right, actually, more about a policy question. i'll turn it back to chris. >> that was the original idea behind charlter schools, there was said to be said for that, as far as research and development segment within the public education system. and there has been effort to do that but increasingly we're seeing charters run by chains and cookie cutter approach and less opportunity for experimentation. that should be a concern. the other thing is yes there are wonderful and exceptional charter schools but on average, charter schools are doing no better and too many cases worse than public schools. we have to be concerned about are we providing a remedy or are we actually providing a disservice to the children in those schools. we need to be aware of that as well. >> chris and sara, thank you so much for that. up next, can new technology unlock 50 years of secrets? a sneak preview of the new

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analysis not available in 1963, that's exactly what happened. >> could it pass through kennedy, condy's torso then connelly's wrist and into his thigh? if so, what condition would it be in? high speed video recording 20,000 frames per second shows the bullet is perfectly straight and stable as it hits the target. the bullet has penetrated 36 inches but what condition is it in? >> the nose of this bullet is undeformed, still perfectly round. this sort of simple demonstration or experiment shows us a number of things. this bum bullet is a very hard stable bullet. plowed through 3 feet of pine boards. these bullets are capable of passing through two human beings. >> a new nova documentary airing on pbs brings together forensics and ballistics specialists use

gs cutting edge teg noelg to answer questions around jfk's assassination. cold case premieres tomorrow night. is there any physical evidence to suggest there were more people other than oswald involved in this? >> one needs to look what is the physical evidence and where does it lead? the physical evidence is one of these bullets on connelly's stretcher that is neither magic or pristine and another one of bullets broken into several fragments on the floor board of the kennedy presidential limousine. those are specifically matched back to oswald's rifle found on the sixth floor of the texas school book deposit tri. how can this kind of bullet that the audience described as a hard military style bullet, go through two people and then the same gun and rifle combination

end up fragmenting? some of that will be seen on the nova program tomorrow night. >> real interesting quote from you. we want to think there's more to it than a loner loser mark sift who hated his country. but a peaceant can't strike down a king but a nobody does. oswald wasn't even that good of a shot and didn't have top, that was the linchpin of oswald was not good enough of a shot to make this. you dispute the first part of the premise, you don't have to be that good of a shot to do this. how do you say that? >> you got a multipart question there the one part i agree with, he was a good shot. it's easy for oliver stone and

others to stay he was a terrible shot and the rifle was inaccurate. it's untrue. i've got copies of his marine corps military targets at 200 yards, more than twice the distance of kennedy's head wound he shoots nice groups with open sites, no telescopic site standing in the sixth floor window. if any of your audience is familiar with firearms, it's not that hard to do. it isn't. my younger son, also a forensic scientist has done it easily and others have done this and there's record of that. it's not a difficult shot. bottom line is kennedy got unlucky and oswald got lucky. >> you've also documented some science or ballistics issues around how the medical and ballistics team at the time originally understood the facts. explain that for us. >> yes, this bullet that i held up a moment ago and the ammunition, this is the

cartridge, a military cartridge that was obsolete by the first world war but still in use. shootings in the united states didn't involve this type of ammunition and particularly this type of bullet. this bullet is unusually stable in soft tissue. anything as long as it stays in that this then. few people know it now. but that's what mike and i have demonstrated with various ballistic media. some of the viewers will see tomorrow night on the "nova" program. once the bullet is back out in the air, however, now it starts yawing, a movement like a badly thrown football. conley's injuries, his entry wound is the consequence of a yawed bullet. think about that. how did the bullet get unstable? it had to strike something before it hit conley and that something is john f. kennedy, his neck wound. it's not pristine, as others have claimed and certainly not magic.

if you look at the view that's available of the back, the base of this bullet, it's out of round. the reason is, it's out of round, going sideways when it slams into conley's back. that squeezes the bullet ever so slightly. and it becomes out of round. and some lead begins to emerge from the base found in conley's wrist. >> yet still with this evidence that oswald acted alone, some people don't want to believe it, even our own secretary of state, john kerry, is a skeptic himself and listening to him recently talking to tom brokaw in an upcoming special on nbc. >> to this day, i have serious doubts that lee harvey oswald acted alone. >> really? >> i certainly have doubts that he was -- that he was motivated by himself. i mean, i'm not sure if anybody else was involved. i don't go down that road with respect to the grassy knoll theory. but i have serious questions about whether they got to the

bottom of lee harvey oswald's time and influence from cuba and russia. frvelths this shooting took place with today's ballistics technology, do you think we would be having the same debate? >> yes and no. i think we would have the same debate because there is something in our nature as human beings that wants it to be more to it. wants there to be more to it, mystery. always more interesting than a cold, hard slam dunk case. the physical evidence in this case is easy and straight forward. one gun, it's oswald's gun, shot two shots that found their mark, and one miss. the other aspect, think about this. when ford was -- there was an attempt on ford by squeaky prom, no conspiracy. he lived. when hinckley shot reagan, no conspiracy, he lived. when the king dies, at the hands of a peasant, again, revert back to ben spoogliosi's wonderful statement. we have to have more to it than that. and the physical evidence is,

there isn't. if you want to understand the kennedy shooting, learn about oswald. read all of the biographical information you can. and there and only there i think you will satisfy yourself that it's certainly possible. he's simply a person out to make a name for himself. >> really fascinating stuff. lou, thank you. >> you're welcome. just when you thought it was over, there's some shady stuff going on down in virginia because one of the races from last week's election still is not decided. don't worry, though, krystal will explain it. stick with us. ♪ ♪ jolene jolene stick with innovation. stick with power. stick with technology. get the flexcare platinum. new from philips sonicare.

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117 votes as of this

morning. that was the number of votes separated democrat mark herring from mark oebenshane to become the next attorney general. 2.2 million ballots cast. the race to replace ken cuccinelli as attorney general of virginia has been, well, we'll call it illuminating in the ways republicans continue to try to rig the electorate. illuminating in how much republicans have damaged faith in a fair electoral process. after election night, it was clear that the a.g. race was extremely close so precincts moved to figure out which provisional ballots would count. the republican board of elections sent out a memo to clarify the process for review of those provisional ballots. a clarification that would only impact fairfax county, the largest county in the state and a democratic stronghold. democrats immediately cried foul, and really who can blame them, since republicans have done their best to disen franchise and suppress voters in

this election. in fact, if you back up a few weeks, there is a good reason why a number of voters may not have shown up on the voter rolls and would have had to cast a provisional ballot. back in october, the republican state board of elections purged nearly 40,000 voters from the rolls in a process so flawed that one republican registrar after testing a sample of 1,000 names called the list of purged voters clearly inaccurate and unreliable. so they purged legitimate voters from the rolls and since virginia does not have same-day registration, those wrongly purged voters would have been forced to cast provisional ballots. and then the state board of elections issues new guidance that changes fairfax's longstanding process for evaluating provisional ballots. even if this final step really was just a clarification as a state board of elections insists, you can't blame democrats for questioning their motives, since republicans have seemingly sought maximum disenfranchisement at every stage of the process.

and all that's to say nothing of the state's new voter i.d. laws slated to go into effect in 2014 or the state's onerous policy on reinstating voting right to felons, a policy that means 20% of the black population of the state is unable to vote. this is the picture of just one state, but as we know, similar efforts are under way across the country. and here's what i want to know. is it worth it, republicans? because right now in virginia, it looks like all you have got for your efforts was a democratic statewide sweep with a side of image as a party that cheats to win, doesn't want people to vote the rightful heir to the crow legacy. without trying to exclude black voters from the process, it can be done. colin powell suggests make it easier to vote and then give them something to vote for that they can believe in. it's a novel idea. republicans, if you aren't moved by the moral