it's for the wisconsin ites. fight, but we will finish the fight. >> well, the enthusiasm clearly is high. the enthusiasm is high. is it the agenda or is it governor walker? i mean, it's almost a personality issue at this point. people can lose the sight of what it's about. what about that? >> i don't talk personalities, i talk issues. the issues are he is attacks us. we are under attack. i'm not going to sit back while it happens to us. people across the state of wisconsin, we are not going to stand back and watch it. we are going to continue to fight. >> jim dean, if the recall is not successful for the democrats, the magic number is three. if you don't get three, what does it mean nationally? >> we keep fighting. the fact the races are as close as they are now, the activism among the voters in republican districts. the fact they are closed is testimony. we need to keep fighting this battle here during the recall election for governor and especially ohio in november. >> a loss is a loss. how crucial is this to t

>> the people of wisconsin have spoken today. and the answer is, this is a gigantic win for the republican party. >> it's a resounding big win for the republican party. >> i view it as a 100% absolute victory for not only people in wisconsin, but for all americans. >> you two guys in wisconsin, you don't matter. you're just taking one for the team, right? republicans must think the world is stupid. two sitting republicans were kicked to the curb because they voted for scott walker's dark vision of wisconsin. and let's just get right to the numbers. 12%? less than 12% of wisconsin voters were involved in this last night? how in the world can you call that a major victory or a mandate? that's a snapshot. how many people out there are ready to call an election when results are coming in when less than 12% of the people have voted? the great americans you see behind me tonight fought against karl rove and the coke brothers and the tea party and, yes, on the other side, there were union groups out there, they played a part in all of th

we're the state of wisconsin, not the corporation of wisconsin. >> you're watching "the last word withe o'donnell." i'm ed schultz reporting live from madison, wisconsin. we're still awaiting one race, one result. we're right back here on msnbc. stay with us. [ woman ] jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. with other top companies. with an esurance quote, you know you're getting a great deal. you can thank our tech team for that. sure, i'll let them know. bye-bye. aha! anything you want to share? with the tech team? oh, i'm dating that girl in accounting. seriously? yeah, we're pretty serious. [ female announcer ] know if you're getting a great deal. see for yourself at esurance. technology when you want it. people when you don't. >>> welcome back to "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." msnbc. i'm ed schultz reporting live tonight from madison, wis

we're the state of wisconsin, not the corporation of wisconsin. >> you're watching "the last word witho'donnell." i'm ed schultz reporting live from madison, wisconsin. we're still awaiting one race, one result. we're right back here on msnbc. stay with us. [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. that's good for our country's energy security over time, my lashes thinned. after 40, i didn't have enough lashes. i'd heard of latisse® but had questions. my doctor said... latisse® is the only fda approved prescription treatment for inadequate or not enough lashes. now with latisse® my lashes are longer, darker, with

we're the state of wisconsin, not the corporation of wisconsin. >> you're watching "the last word withchultz reporting live from madison, wisconsin. we're still awaiting one race, one result. we're right back here on msnbc. stay with us. a lot of times, things are right underneath our feet, and all we need to do is change the way we're thinking about them. a couple decades ago, we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleanly burning natural gas. this deposits can provide us with fuel for a hundred years, providing energy security and economic growth all across this country. it just takes somebody having the idea, and that's where the discovery comes from. a network of possibilities. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater acces

for context, here's what happened in wisconsin this year that turned the word wisconsin into a democratic and liberal rallying cry for 2011. last november, as in many states, the republicans won hugely in wisconsin's election, the new republican governor decided although he had not campaigned on the issue of union rights, he would use his new power as governor and the big republican majorities in both houses of the state legislature to strip union rights in wisconsin. wisconsin, in turns out, is pretty attached to his union rights and so huge, no, really, huge crowds took to the streets of madison and to the state capitol building itself this winter and spring protesting governor walker and the republicans' action. the largest demonstrations at the state capitol in history. the state senate's democrats hatched a plan to stop the republicans from passing the union-stripping measure by themselves fleeing the state so the wisconsin senate could not get a quorum, so the senate would not be allowed to vote on or pass anything. ultimately on march 9 of this year by unprecedented and dodgy proce

this is the crucial race. wisconsin state senate district 8, where democrat sandy pasch challenged senate republican alberta darling. alberta darling is a veteran state edge slaitor. she has been in the state senate since 1992. she is chair of the joint committee on finance. alberta darling one of the governor's chief and most visible allies during the budget fight and the fight to strip union highlights. this ad here shows you part of sandy pasch's campaign against alberta darling. sandy pasch is said to have run frankly the best campaign of all of these recall campaigns this year in wisconsin. that being said by dispassionate campaign observers. sandy pasch taking on alberta darling not just for her role in scott walker's controversies but also for her support of the house republican paul ryan kill medicare budget at the federal level. because of alberta darling's power in the state, because of alberta darling's central role and the things that most aggravated recall supporters in wisconsin, defeating alberta darling

1% in, first results from the 2nd district? wisconsinrobert cowles against nancy nusbaum, cowles leading 96%. in the 8th district? wiz, alberta darling leading sandy pasch 62% to 38%, 1% of precincts reporting there. in the 14th district, the republican income bent is luther olsen, olsen behind clark, the democratic challenger leading the republican incumbent 52% to 48%. again, 1% and 2% in in these races. do not extrapolate, but this is what we got. in the 10th district, republican incumbent sheila harsdorf, shelly moore. we don't have results to report there, but we'll keep you posted. generally the way these things happen is you get 1% and 2%, and they start coming in in larger increments, but we'll be watching over the course of the night. >>> in 2008, the presidential election in wisconsin was not at all close. president obama beat john mccain by 13 points. that was a bigger margin than obama got in nevada, minnesota, new hampshire, almost the margin by which he won the great state of new jersey. even though wisconsin looks a little

this is "the ed show," live from madison, wisconsin. let's get to work. >>> good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show," tonight from madison, wisconsin. if i was in an arena, i would say it's in front of a packed house. we are just across the street from the state capitol, where all the activity has taken place here for the last six months. it has been a long run to tonight's activity and election. it is way too early to call anything. a lot of the votes that are being counted are in the rural areas of the district. joining me tonight, we have just about everybody who's a player in this whole issue. especially the best fans in america. [ cheers and applause ] john nichols joins us off the top tonight from "the nation" magazine. john, early returns. it looks like a good start for the republicans. >> i'd be cautious about that, ed. our rural communities turn their votes in early. they count fast because they have fewer votes. when i look at these districts, one of the things that's very striking to me is that some of the bigger

republicans did stuff in office that outraged people in wisconsin, the democrats in office in wisconsintood up and fought against them tooth and nail unanimously and the democratic lek democratic elect rat raised huge amounts of money and may take back the senate next week. the wisconsin democrats, the base awaits, so what are d.c. democrats trying to do to enthuse their base around the country? pointing at the republicans and going ewe, you don't like them, do you? that doesn't count. where are democrats taking a stand, where are they refusing to back down? where are they saying they are going to fight tooth and nail? they were last spotted debating on how we should let the republicans destroy the economy, the crowning achievement of that fight? >> you have been quoted coming out of your caucus as calling this agreement a sugar-coated satan sandwich. was that, indeed, your quote? >> it's a very accurate quote. if you lift the bun, what you see is anti-what the world teaches, take care of the poor, take care of the aged. >> the narrative got defined for the president, he bought into it,

the gentleman from wisconsin. the gentleman from wisconsin reserves the balance of his time? the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield one minute to the gentlelady, a member of the budget committee, ms. moore. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from wisconsin is recognized for one minute. ms. moore: thank you so much for yielding. so many of my colleagues have said that it was necessary to storm the white house and take the country hostage in the name of their grandchildren. so i wanted to go on record talking about what i want for my grandchildren. i want head start for my grandchildren. i want w.i.c. programs and early childhood education for my programs, i want my kids to go to a school where they can participate in the science fair. i want immunizations for them. i want research done for food safety to make sure the chicken nuggets are safe, i want clean air and clean water for them. i want jobs where they invent things like new energy sources and, yes, i want them to be contributing citizens and pay taxes and i want a safety net fo

least three of those races to regain at least one-vote majority control of the upper house of the wisconsinlature. or to put that in less hyperbolic terms. >> this is ground zero for the middle class. this is ground zero for organized labor. >> major moment for the progressive movement. >> a totally historically unprecedented nature of this election. >> national political history. >> national drive to push back on whether we have more to go to build a move. of resistance, but resist we must. we must and we will must about that be committed. [laughter and applause] [laughter] >> jon: that was either a screwup or some profound yoda [bleeped] yes, do it we must, yes. resist we must. you know, reverend sharpton, when you're at a dramatic call to action, that is an unfortunate time to get caught up in your teleprompter. you were just getting people... i have been to the muffin top. [laughter] i have seen the promise gland. to the recall elections themselves. it was clear early tuesday night that republicans had retained three seats and democrats had picked up two, and thus all eyes focused on th

what does the wisconsin vote tell us about next year's vote in 2012? >>> plus, rick perry is the talk of the republican presidential field. by the way, we now now know of a sect instant when perry talked about texas seceding from the union. will republicans really want to nominate a man for president who is not sure he likes being part of the republic? >>> and when did it become okay to talk about impeaching a president just because you don't agree with his agenda? one texas republican congressman is talking about, impeaching him because they don't like him. >>> let me finish with the reason the presidential field is so, let's agree on this, paltry. robert reich is the former labor secretary, currently professor at university of california at berkeley, and bill richard, the former governor of new mexico. robert reich, i want to ask you about the democratic party. i'm not talking about roots people, but regular people who vote for democrats. where do they feel in terms of their emotion about the president right now? >> chris, my work is average working-c

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin. the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield a minute to the gentlelady from california, ms. lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is recognized for one minute. ms. lee: thank you very much. thank you, mr. speaker, and thank you for yielding and also for your very bold and effective leadership, mr. van hollen. i rise in strong opposition to this unbalanced debt ceiling bill. this is an unbalanced approach, we all know that, we've heard that. and furthermore this debt ceiling bill should have never been an option in terms of having to come to this floor to debate this and we should have, like democrats and republican presidents have done in the past, we should have lifted the debt ceiling. rightfully so, many of us are concerned about these discretionary cuts. what are these cuts going to do as it relates to our senior citizens, low income veds and the poor? -- individuals and the poor

voter the billionaire koch brothers have moved in and are attacking democracy in the state of wisconsin recall elections against republican state senators just around the corner the koch funded astroturf group americans for. spirity is reaching into their bag of dirty tricks to keep their buddies in power at any cost the group is sending what looked like absentee ballots would late return dates written on them to trick democratic voters into districts where republicans are facing recalls the flyers urged democrats to turn in their balance by august eleventh even though the election is august ninth very clever but besides blatant and possibly illegal voter suppression co-founded americans for prosperity is also spending the big bucks on slanted t.v. ads purchasing one hundred fifty thousand dollars in television ad time just in milwaukee wisconsin democrats have filed a complaint against americans for prosperity demanding they stop these voter suppression tactics for more on this i'm joined by state representative jennifer shilling one of the six democrats running to unseat incumbent rep

everything in the narrative is here in wisconsin tomorrow. gether a template on how to fight back against this. so if walker survives this, if his agenda survives this, tm be a real defining moment i think for the democrats and the progress ifs in this country to take a step back and rethink strategy. if they win, this is how you want to do it. >> well if i had to have one person tell meningococcal he the real deal, it would be my big brother ed, thank you ed schultz. and we'll be watching you and dealing with this issue. programming note, ed will be doing his show live from wisconsin tonight, and tomorrow night. that's at 10 p.m. eastern time right here on msnbc. >>> ahead, a texas governor running for president. yes, america, been there, done that. but this time, his name is rick perry. we'll have that story next. >>> plus, a new look today at michele bachmann and her supporters are not happy with the new look. stay with us. sngs. >>> the country is mourning the death of 30 u.s. soldiers. they were on route to a mission. 20 soldiers from the

on the debt ceiling has been our result for the time being that we will once again here in wisconsin really come to a center of attention in the next seven days because there is so much at stake as far as standing up for our working families here in the state of wisconsin and if the democrats are successful be able to take back the majority in the state senate we can really beat that goalie lack a lot of this extreme radical agenda that the governor walker and his republican colleagues continue to rubberstamp and really told the party line at every opportunity need to stand up to the senate we need to stand up for families we need to stand up for communities and we just end up for wisconsin we are so polarized and divisive right now that people don't recognize that the process and so we're now my husband and i were asked to run for this recall being a nasty run for the past we have declined two young boys that are five and two and i looked at my husband and i said you know what sometimes history finds you and everything that we value here in this state seems to be under attack and we

the answer he gave. and tonight, wisconsin goes to the polls for the state's final two wisconsin recall elections. scott walker's radical agenda may hang in the balance. tonight all the late breaking results and john nichols of the nation magazine. >> good evening, folks, good to have you with us tonight. rick perry has hit a new low. president obama is the greatest threat to america? >> i think the greatest threat to our country right now is this president who's trying to spend our way out of this disaster. >> this comment comes one day after he told iowa voters we need a president who loves america. perry doesn't apologize for the overheated rhetoric coming out of his mouth. he doubles down. >> you need to ask him. >> i'm saying, you're a good reporter, go ask him. >> perry is on president obama's radar screen. the president was asked about the governor's reckless rhetoric today. like always, the president took the high road. >> mr. perry just got in the presidential race and i think that everybody who runs for president, it probably takes them a little bit of time before they start realizing thi

in the great state of wisconsin the middle of august is a weird time for elections, but this is not regularly scheduled politics. tomorrow's elections are recall elections against six republican state senators who sided with wisconsin governor scott walker on his stripping of union rights in that state. democratic state senators taking a stand against that, electrified the democrat base leading to protests like these all through the spring. that energy has been converted into the recall effort for tomorrow. if democrats end up controlling three more seats after these recalls than they did before the recalls, they will take back the senate from the republican party's control. it is not at all a sure bet that democrats will be able to do that. it's fairly impossible to make predictions here, there's no precedent for a recall like this in wisconsin. it will, of course, come down to organization and enthusiasm and get out the vote efforts, it will come down to turnout, and msnbc's ed schultz will be broadcasting live tonight from madison where a crowd is already gathering for him and he'll be the

tonight the big election in wisconsin. why it's so important to workers' rights, and why boehner and his crowd may have the most to lose. >>> and another wave election. why new poll numbers suggest the tea party is in danger of being swept away in the next election. >>> plus, texas governor rick perry is so against government handouts, that he took a load of money for his own farm. that's our ethic con job of the day. welcome to the show. i'm al sharpton. tonight's lead -- the big night in wisconsin is also a major moment for the progressive movement. we're just three hours away from the polls closing on an unprecedented recall election. six republican state senators are facing recall, if democrats can flip three seats, they win control. seven months ago, governor scott walker with the support of a gop state senate majority cut collective bargaining rights for public employees. [ chanting ] >> this recall election tonight is not just about wisconsin. it's about an assault on workers and the middle class that has gone nation

five days away from the wisconsin recall elections. john nichols of "the nation" is here with today's major developments. >>> and spongebob squarepants gets caught up in the right-wing war on science. >> clearly, kninickelodeon is pushing a global warming agenda. >> every time they choose that show i'm like, why? >>> the united states of america was built on a promise. the second section of the declaration of independence clearly states, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 235 years later those very words are under attack by decades of conservative economic ideology. democrats like fdr, jfk, and lbj tried to create a more perfect union by taking care of our sick and elderly, giving every american a chance for a great education and striving to make everyone in society more equal. you see, republicans have a completely different idea of life, liberty, and the pursu

american dream and i yield back.ker pr the gentleman from wisconsin? the gentleman from maryland? >> thank you mr. speaker. i yield a lady from california. >> thank you mr. speaker and for yieldingized for and also for yy bold and effective leadership mr. van hollen.se in stro oppos i rise with a strong oppositiond to this unbalanced debt ceiling bill.d approach this is an on balanced approach. we know that and we have heard that and furthermore, this debt ceiling bill should have never been an option in terms of having to come to the floor to debate this and do this. we should have democratic and republican presidents have done in the past we should have lifted the debt ceiling. ightfully so, many of us are concerned about these discretionary cuts. what are these cuts going to do as it relates to our senior citizens, low-income individuals and the poor? this debt ceiling bill doesthint nothing to address the crisis in the country, the lack of jobsofb red economic growth at chaimesta investments are needed to jump-start the economy and putok people ba

have any faith when it looks like -- how can the people of wisconsinth when it looks like kindergarten, at best? >> it is awkward for the core, the people of the state. every legal observer has expressed nothing but dismay over this things that you never expected to hear about the court. justice bradley saying she called him buddy because she wanted to put put him in the diminutive. him saying when he put his hands-on her neck he could feel the warm of. there are things you don't expect to hear justices saying. >> greta: anyone asking them to step down? peeps lives depend on decisions of the supreme court -- people's lives depend on decisions of the supreme court, this isn't fair to the people. are newspaper editors saying they got to go? >> you are right this is sort of funny, but no joke. one thing that i've heard the time when this came out, governor walker talked about the possibility of having an appointed rather than elected court that didn't go anywhere. didn't seem like that proposal -- seems like it would be dead on arrival in our legislature.

the state? >> yeah. put this in perspective, okay. wisconsin history, the most expensive state senate race we've ever seen was $3 million. of these nine races, five have eclipsed that number. a sixth will probably eclipse that number as well. this is really an unusual amount of money being spent. i think the governor's race last year was maybe $37 million for state-wide campaign. we're looking at possibly $40 million when this is all said and done. a lot of outside money. we're wisconsin, a union affiliated group, pulling in money from unions, club for growth, americans for prosperity, major players on both sides turning out and pouring money into wisconsin. >> reading everything you're saying to me, it sounds like you'll be surprised if democrats don't succeed today? >> you know, if my powers of prognostication were good enough to tell you what's going to has been, i would tell you who's going to make money off the ponies. my best guess is between two and four seats. i heard predictions that democrats -- i've heard people say they can win one.

the gentleman from wisconsin. the gentleman from wisconsin reserves the balance of his time? the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield one minute to the gentlelady, a member of the budget committee, ms. moore. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from wisconsin is recognized f one minute. m. moore: thank you so much for yielding. so many of my colleagues have said that it was necessary to storm the white house and take the country hostage in the name the country hostage in the name of their

>> warner: we examine the recall elections in wisconsin, where democrats failed to oust republicans from control of the state senate. >> woodruff: we take a second look at jeffrey brown's conversation with philip levine named today the next poet laureate of the united states and a man who comes from working class america. >> i realized that this world that i thought was going to stop me from writing a decent body of poetry had in fact become central to my writing poetry. >> warner: and from our student reporting labs, we have the story of new york city schools labeled drop-out factories and now slated for closure. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i mean, where would we be without small businesses? >> we need small businesses. >> they're the ones that help drive growth. >> like electricians, mechanics, carpenters. >> they strengthen our communities. >> every year, chevron spends billions with small businesses. that goes right to the heart of local communities, providing jobs, keeping people at work. they dep

and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture so much for shutting down wisconsin governor scott walker's radical agenda last night's recall elections in the badger state livered bad news just for democrats but also for our democracy and i will discuss what we can do to get oligarchy ash out of our elections and the supercommittee gang of twelve starting to come together so looking at the names is there a chance that millionaires and billionaires will be paying their fair share of deficit reduction like the american people actually watch or are we headed for another gang failure and finally we know hollywood is full of multimillionaires is it but is it also full of discrimination against conservatives on top of the hollywood insider who actually believes the movies coming out of tinseltown are promoting a liberal agenda. you need to know this last night when the polls in wisconsin close to the votes were counted our democracy well wasn't lost it was trembling in what was the largest recall election in the history of this country six republican state senators desperately trying to

coming up, what the recall elections in wisconsin mean for 2012, and a controversial film about white women and their black maids in the south opens today. if you follow melissa harris-perry's tweets, if you followed the ones from the theater today, you have a pretty good idea of what she's going to tell us about this movie. >>> after successfully unseating two republican state senators, wisconsin democrats are now setting their sights of forcing a recall of republican governor scott walker. last night, jessica king and jennifer shilling beat their republican incumbent opponents in what was seen as a referendum on walker's agenda which included taking away collective bargaining rights from employees. democrats fell one short of what they needed to become the senate majority in wisconsin. republicans remain in control of the wisconsin senate now, 17-16. two democrats still face recall elections of their own next news in order to trigger a recall election of governor walker in 2012, democrats will need to gather 543,208 signatures starting in november. walker carefully avoided a partisa

coming up, what the recall elections in wisconsin mean for 2012, and a controversial film about white and their black maids in the south opens today. if you follow melissa harris-perry's tweets, if you followed the ones from the theater today, you have a pretty good idea of what she's going to tell us about this movie. [ artis brown ] two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. >>> after successfully unseating two republican state senators, wisconsin democrats are now setting their sights of forcing a recall of republican governor scott walker. last night, jessica king and jennifer shilling beat their republican incumbent opponents in what was seen as a referendum on walker's age