because al franken provided the 60th vote that passed obamacare in the senate. so if al franken had not won that race, there would be no obamacare legislation that is now the law of the u.s. the point of all this is that, look, we genre have a pretty good elections system, but we do have fraud, and it does occur. and it's something we've got to fight against all the time. that's one of the reasons states have been pushing for voter id laws, is to stop that from happening. and to tell you how much the left does not like this, there was an article that appeared in a magazine -- i'm sure i would never ordinarily recognize you read it -- called "mother jones." have you heard of it? it's probably the most left-wing magazine there is. well, they had an interesting article in january this year. one of their reporters made it into a meeting that was held in washington a month after the election. it was held at the offices of the national education association. and at the meeting, everybody always talks about the vast right-wing conspiracy? well, this was actually the va

bob franken, thanks so much as always.appreciate your time. >>> thank you. >> coming up, we'll have "first buzz" will we'll tell you about all the stories that we're talking about today. it could be a sign of damage. [ female announcer ] get a healthier clean with neutrogena® ultra gentle cleanser. unlike ordinary cleansers that can over-penetrate and damage skin's healthy barrier our breakthrough formula cleans gently without the damage, yet removes dirt, oil, even eye makeup. so clean really is healthy. [ female announcer ] ultra gentle cleanser. neutrogena®. #1 dermatologist recommended skincare. n♪utrogena®. ♪ i've got something for you too. (announcer) fancy feast delights with cheddar. a meal that is sure to delight your cheese lover. now available in the classic form she loves. fancy feast. the best ingredient is love. the house caught fire and we were out on the streets. [ whispering ] shhh. it's only a dream. and we have home insurance. but if we made a claim, our rate would go up... [ whispering ] shhh. you did i

for that we're joined by syndicated columnist bob franken. >> speaking of batty, right?> perfect segue, exactly. i want to start with something serious the situation in egypt. yesterday senator john mccain said "the united states of america, because of a lack of leadership contributed to the terrible tragedy we see ensuing in the streets of egypt." what role should the u.s. play in the crisis and what, if anything, can they do to help resolve it. >> let us not forget that john mccain is a republican and the larger consensus is that this was something that was really out of the ability to have the united states to influence. of course, many would claim that is because the united states' influence in the world has deteriorated. going forward of course is what's important and the united states has over $1 billion worth of aid it gives to the egyptian military and now that's going to obviously be reconsidered. >> going to domestic politics now, also yesterday former house speaker newt gingrich criticized fellow republicans saying they have "zero ideas for alternatives to oba

by the way, that's a great line, bob franken. how does president obama, how does he answer that dare that you write about? >> tom coburn is a friend. it's easy to see why they got another dog. you know, right now, the capitol should be renamed area 51, because there's all this out-of-this world kind of discussion going on. impeachment used to be such an extreme measure. but now it's the kind of thing, it's just tossed around. as far as defunding obama care, you heard republicans saying, we need to debate obama care. i believe they did that when they passed it. >> you know, the supreme court, one would think, sort of settled the matter. but bob, going back to what esther was just talking about, you would think at some point, even at these town hall meetings, would wise up and realize, when there have been -- you know, when they're being made fools of, to a certain extent. >> made fools by whom? i think that right now, there's not a lot of deep thinking that goes into town hall meetings. it's an awful lot of people vetting. nobody

senator franken's effort on the numbers of certain kinds of invasive actions by the government. my focus is equally important on the process. on the fisa court itself, how is it selected? right now it's only by the chief justice of the united states supreme court, john roberts, acting alone without any kind of review. >> just so folks are clear here, the foreign surveillance intelligence act set up this secret court. the court itself is secret, the judges are appointed by john roberts in secret. there is no adversarial process. it's simply a government lawyer coming before this secretly appointed judge with no one on the other side. >> that's right, and that's the second important element of my program, which is that there should be some adversarial process there, should be some kind of special advocate who takes the point of view on the facts and the law, perhaps very different. die ya metrically opposed, testing the government, challenging it, just as we do. in the normal court. the adversarial process is the way the court gets to the truth. in any other search and seizure sit

we don't need the illegal election of al franken and a repeat of the bush versus gore.xas we don't need repeat of the lyndon johnson being elected questionably because voter fraud is taking place if south texas. the last thingly tell you is i personally prosecuted more than 50 cases of voter fraud across the state of texas, including people who cast vote for dead people. they are registering for nationals to vote illegally. voter fraud is real. they recognize voter i.d. as a way to prevent voter fraud. >> uma: it is shaping up to be quite the legal fight. we'll monitor it closely. thank you for joining us. appreciate it. >> thank you, uma. >> uma: good to see you. >>> all right, he was one of dr. king's closest confidants. today, jesse jackson celebrates legacy at today's march on washington. later in the show, his daughter will be joining us and shares her reflection on what this special day means for her family. plus, a big story out west. wildfire is consuming yosemite and now threatening a major metropolitan center in california. dominic di-natale is there. dominic

it's always, oh, i don't know if i want to eat a franken fish because maybe it will give me superpowers>> you do research on butterflies and you know all about their habitat and what could destroy it. do you see risks if one of these fish were to escape and start breeding, what would the consequences may be? >> it's not just how is that salmon going to interact with other salmon. how is it going to interact with its food source or things that feed on it. there are all these tiny details that are hard to study in a lap. >> we heard all of these companies say trust us, we'll take care of you. >> reporter: exactly. >> the deep water horizon, it's fail safe, and then all of a sudden it blows up and they're dumping. >> the transparency is important. >> we don't have that right now. >> reporter: we need to take a break, after we come back, phil, you're going to talk to us about going to mars? >> robots on mars? it was pretty awesome. it was pretty awesome. >> we want to hear what you think about these stories. join the conversation about following us on twitter and at www.aljazeera.com. what

joining me for the first look at politics is bob franken.morning. >> good morning you to. >> let's start with president obama's meeting on the hill. he was with democrats for what has been called a party pep rally. what do you think the main battles they will be facing when congress comes back into session after labor day. >> the question is what battles won't they be facing? i suppose number one, there are actually two number ones, health care and the republican efforts to fund that and sort of meld that with all of the budget negotiations and the purpose of the president's visit yesterday was to assure democrats that he was not going to be a pushover for the republicans like many think he's been in the past. >> this week we've seen pretty bitter infighting between chris christie and rand paul. a lot of pundits are saying this is about the future of the party. what direction do you think the gop is headed in towards christieland or paulville. >> if you can't believe the pundits, who can you be? >> coming from the pundit. >> i'm a pundit wan

for that we turn to bob franken. good morning. >> good morning, betty. >> can the u.s.ven if it does include a limited strike? >> financially, probably the united states cannot afford anything right now. but the fact is is that certainly it has the resources. the missiles, et cetera to launch an attack. the question, of course, and this is what you want to discuss with me i know is the political accountability. >> exactly. >> i think that is going to be a problem both on the world stage and domestic stage where coming to an agreement on anything these days is always very difficult. >> house speaker john boehner sent a list of 14 questions to president obama late yesterday without congressional approval, will the american public view striking syria as a big mistake? >> i think there's strong legal questions about a strike. speaker boehner's letter asked the question will this quote secure u.s. objectives and how does it fit into your overall policy which is a big consideration. is this just simply an attack or overall objection. that was a criticism of the iraq invasion.

i'm joined by bob franken. good morning. >> good morning. politics, flip-flops.t goes together. >> segues are endless. so i do want to start with something really serious which is the situation this syria. in an editorial, the "washington post" is saying if it turns out chemical weapons were used, the white house should retaliate directly against syrian forces and protect civilians with a no-fly zone. is this terrible attack going to be the impetus for significant u.s. involvement? >> the president had said it was. he probably regrets making the comment about the red line. the problem with the no-fly zone is that syria has a very sophisticated air defense system and there could be some problems, some americans yet to be shot out of the sky. >> the white house seems to have very little influence abroad. russia ignored them on snowden, egypt ignored them with military crackdown, and now syria has violated the red line. does that speak to washington's waning global influence? >> the republicans would certainly say so. my theory is that the reason that the president

do i trust it more when al franken and dianne feinstein say it? yes! of view i think is valid. he says i understand the trade-offs here. but the intelligence community isn't keeping things from the american people because we don't trust them but once important security information is out there, they can do us arm. al franken made this point. it isn't -- it doesn't fall necessarily on partisan lines. he said that's why i find the snowden controversy so frustrating. i realize many americans don't trust their government. i wish i could change that and tell people the amazing things i witnessed during my 30 years in the c.i.a. i've never seen people work harder for that little money and long hours. people took it for granted their flaws would be scrutinized, successes ignored but i've been around along to know that government is immune to stories like me. the conspiracy buff. too busy howling in protest at the thought that their government could uncover how long they spent on the phone with their dear aunt. the government is not interested in your conversa

you have people like elizabeth warren, like al franken, like amy klobuchar who are not talking aboutis. i'm not sure booker can do that if he wants to ascend any further. >> you mentioned the silicon valley story that came out this week. i wonder what the implications are going to be long term for cory booker if there are any. this story raises some red flags. a company called waywire. cory booker was basically given the eons of it by a bunch of silicon valley people. one member of the board was the 15-year-old son of jeff zucker. when this story came out, the 15-year-old resigned from the board. i would love to have been on the board. we went to look at waywire, some sort of social media thing, a video aggregator that makes it easy to collect, curate and share videos across the web. it was a cross between youtube and buzz feed. it was 30 bears explaining climate change or something. his interest was worth like $1 million to $5 million. he didn't put it on his disclosu disclosure. when they caught the story, he amended the forms. >> we have shower or thunderstorm memories. i'm not su

we have a lot of discussion, senator franken and others have introduced bills in the united states senate to address precisely the questions that you are asking, governor, and we have supported them and we continue to look forward -- as a prosecutor i always want more tools. you know, i see a problem out there and i want to have the tools to fix it. we passed a hate crimes law in 2009 that enables us to work with local law enforcement in much more effective ways to combat hate crimes including but not limited to lgbt motivated violence. so we'd love to have more tools. but, you know, with the tools that we currently have, we're doing as much as we can and i think ruslyn's point about the uptick in the number of complaints we're both receiving, i'm not sure that necessarily reflects, as ruslyn correctly pointed out, that there's an uptick in violence. the doctrine of futility often resulted in less complaints being seen. i think there's a commitment in the federal level to doing our level best on these issues. >> tom, you talk about tools. ruslyn, what kind of tools, part of this is raisin

. >> pam: how does the "franken-burger" taste? >> is not the juicy. >> bite feels like conventional hamburger. >> pam: not a ringing endorsement, but this is a first attempt. >> pam: of baconone of the scientists said with a little catsup and cheese. i'm vicki liviakis kron 4 news. coming up-- ♪ [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be great if all devices had backup power? the chevrolet volt does. it's ingeniously designed to seamlessly switch from electricity to gas to extend your driving range. no wonder volt is america's best-selling plug-in. that's american ingenuity to find new roads. ♪ the 2013 volt. charge ahead of the rest in the hov lane. ♪ >> pam: teenagers attack a fellow student on a school bus. it was a brutal beating -- and people want to know why the bus driver didn't do >> pam: plus: details about the terror threat that forced american embassies across the globe to close their doors. and, one bay area gas station is feeling lucky. after a customer bought a lottery ticket worth one-point-one million dollars! we'll tell yo

security letters and roving wiretaps and other authorities in the patriot act it's also today senator al franken dropped a bill requiring disclosure of the number of americans who had their information collected and reviewed by the n.s.a. i don't want to a situation where the government is transparent only when it's convenient for the government meanwhile in the house congressman rush holt introduced legislation to repeal the patriot act and the pfizer amendments act passing the patriot act is one of my great regrets and i in my time in congress hold says he was deceived by the n.s.a. in two thousand and five about the extent of its domestic surveillance programs i wrote the end of the n.s.a. restoring letter. choosing am is not just deceiving me and individual but withholding from congress. the necessary information for congress to be able to do its oversight that even members of the intelligence committees are getting into the game with congressman adam schiff has introduced a number of reforms to the pfizer court that including more oversight in appointing judges and declassification of pfize

senator al franken has introduced similar legislation in the senate that would also require the government to disclose this sort of information heidi would just informing people of how broad these programs are. were to encourage more people to push their lawmakers to push for even stronger reforms to these to these programs i think it's important that in addition to some of the court cases that are already ready being brought forward the electronic frontier foundation for example is going to be suing telecommunications providers which listeners viewers should know was tried years ago but the government gave them immunity and also said that you couldn't prove with the certainty that you were being monitored now we know that's different i think that public outrage is very important as we saw in the seventy's with the church committee it was public outrage that called for a comprehensive investigation into cointelpro and covert spying on americans i hope that we harness some of that same outrage now. and put pressure on companies and legislators to make the most transparent brought it seems l

government to hand over their users data and how many users are being affected by that senator al franken in the senate has similar legislation that would do that as well as and also force the government to reveal just how many how many people are being affected by these this kind of these surveillance programs and then all this other avenue you have people trying not just to have more transparency but to actually rein in the n.s.a. you have congressman rush holt to repeal the patriot act in the five amendments act you have senator leahy the chair of the judiciary committee trying to shrink section to fifteen kind of. you know make it more restrictions on what the n.s.a. can do with that section so you kind of see these two different avenues forming on congress of what to do with edward snowden's leaks essentially interesting now what would this bill give tell what this bill give telecommunications companies the right to deny the government access to any requests you know this is it just simply going to allow them to tell in these telecommunications companies are put on a gag order when t

but then i can't help when i hear people that i trust whethe% it is al franken or dianne feinstein, ifhit again because of that tool, rand paul, say good-bye to all of our civil liberties. and i include glen greenwald in that jack a lope. jim, you're sometimes on the side of this, i understand. that's the piece i was thinking. i think it might have been tomasky. talking about this. that's what he really fears is that if we get hit again, forget any of our civil liberties. that's why i think there has to be a balance between, you know, this nsa stuff and security. and i know i will get more letters calling me a neocon. jim, you have to believe there are terrorists throughout that want to kill us. >> sure. >> stephanie: little disconcerting there are the prison breaks, al-qaeda people everywhere and anniversary of 9-11 is coming up this sunday. the end of ramadan. i think there is a reason. >> a month from sunday. >> stephanie: right. there was some reason they thought yesterday might have been a target. it obviously wasn't. we're going to talk to adam schiff. he can't tell us everything

this is bob franken sitting seven feet away from me. i am having a time-out. >> my apologies, bob. next time we'll let you sit at the big boy table. >> wash my mouth out with soap. >> to my guests, big thanks to all of you. >>> one of the mysteries surrounding the assassination of john f. kennedy has been solved. that's next. >>> for years, mysteries have abounded regarding the assassination of john f. kennedy. who is the man whose cemetery plot lies next to that of kennedy assassin lee harvey oswald? well, the owner of the grave stone is very much aboveground. his name is patrick aberdeen. he also goes by nick beef. he is here in the flesh today. let's start with the obvious question. why? >> well, i got to see kennedy the night before he died. my dad was in the air force. my mother took us to the air force base. so on november 21st, i passed by him. i got lost. got on a military policeman's shoulders and there he was with jackie. pretty cool. the next day i was mr. show and tell. a few hours later the world changed. >> why decide to b

golfing in inaugurate's vineyard to the speaker hitting the links with the donald in new jersey, and al frankennesota vikings quarterback, and south carolina republican 2008, who is watching the panther game? what's the score? here's the score. zero, indiana darks zilch, zippo, but not much work is getting fun.

and i said, your name is franken-stein.ll out of the booth laughing. >> that has to be a trip. >> that was the luxury of that show, realizing we have an audience, but we're not live. we can fool around and get the audience enjoying themselves. i pulled one on michael douglas that was funnel. it was a luxury. >> we know how big a deal "will and grace" was on a cultural level. oh, there's a guy guy on tv that i can connect to and i'm sure you've had that. have you had people have a conversation about schizophrenia and mental illness? >> yeah, it's been great. in its own way, it is the next tabu, that everyone for years nobody talked about mental illness in their family. it was so murky and so ill-defined. and now for various reasons, including oprah and dr. phil, it's become more and more okay to talk about the pills your mother took and the effects it has had on you. so for people to come up and say my brother has schizophrenia and i never seen it portrayed like that is affirmation we're doing something right. >> it's a priv

. >> enough minnesotans liked "saturday night live" star al franken to send him to the senate.ed to build his company into a multimillion enterprise and active supporter of gun rights and actively speaks of his christian faith. and even the beard doesn't get in the way. ever hear of james garfield. >> all right. we will have to wait to see what happens with that one. i'm pamela brown, and thank you for being with us here on newsroom. that is it for me. brooke baldwin takes it from here. >>> egypt erupts today. peaceful protests turn deadly. and police target protests and now there is a month-long state of emergency. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. >>> a fireball lights the sky. a cargo plane crash lands on the street. two people are dead and investigators want to know what happened. >>> kidnapped and coping with the loss of her mother and brother, anna anderson logs on to social media, and she shares intimate details of her abduction and the biggest regret of the whole thing. >> plus, amazing video that every cell door opens at once in this maximum security jail, and inmat

as senator franken says -- >> it's in the constitution. >> but it isn't.stablish post offices. it doesn't have to. and it doesn't have to deliver mail to all of america. >> people living in rural america aren't living there by force. if you go back to the history, it was private carriers that picked up the mail from the post office and took it the last mile or else people came out to the post office and picked it up. what we have today is an invention of congress. >> who says there needs to be universal service? if i live way out in the boon docks i can get e-mail. >> countries in the united states, including the congo, that try to provide universal mail service to everybody. >> but in the private sector if they keep losing money they go out of business. in your government, i have to pay forever. >> i don't represent john stossel in congress. overwhelmingly people don't want post offices closed. they don't want a cut in saturday delivery. >> overwhelmingly they are short sited and they want free stuff for themselves. aren't you supposed to be the grown-up

golfing in inaugurate's vineyard to the speaker hitting the links with the donald in new jersey, and al franken playing catch with the minnesota vikings quarterback, and south carolina republican 2008, who is watching the panther game? what's the score? here's the score. zero, indiana darks zilch, zippo, but not much work is getting fun. actually, correction, no work is getting done, and when congress finally returns from the summer break in september the house will only be in session for nine days before the budget deadline hits october 1st. no funding and the government shuts down and each day our debt keeps piling up, day in and day out. the one thing being done in washington right now. what is it? the administration installing solar panel on the white house. i kid you not. panels that jimmy carter put up. ronald reagan took down, and then art laffer cannot figure any of these guys out. art, don't think -- i have nothing against. i just think there's more pressing issues on the table. both parties ignoring. >> i never knew that the white house was in the place where the sun shined, either, n

al franken wonders why it took up until the very last minute before the senate hearing for the whiteouse to release the documents that ordered verizon to turn over metadata. he and senator blumenthal will interview legislation today. and a third extension has been filed to for google and microsoft to release details on what fisa asked them to do. the u.s. and pakistan have agreed to mend fences and try to reestablish full partnership. we are back with more show for you after the break. stay with us. ♪ cenk off air>>> alright in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number% 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air>>> i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle

senator al franken, rachel maddow, thom hartmann, myself and the list goes on and on. one day, we'll look back at the alumni of current and go oh, my god, look at that all-star cast. and what an amazing moment they had in history there. and i think we did a great job with it. i don't worry about it at all. >> john: guys, before we go to break, one last question from each of you. al jazeera america is trying to take a straight news approach with no bias. is that the wave of the future or is blue state/red state commentary going to outshout it? bill? >> bill: i think the people are looking for opinion today. educated, informed, entertaining, opinion. i think they're looking for opinion. i think there are plenty of straight news opportunities out there. i wish al jazeera america all the luck in the world but i think that base has been covered a long time ago. >> john: cenk? >> cenk: my take is that passionate beats dispassionate every single time. and so you know, there is room for a lot of different voices and different ways of doing television and media. i know at the "

crazy alert potty training politicians move over michele bachmann and al franken there's a new minnesota political bigwig in town his name is bobby tufts is four years old and he just won his second term as mayor of the small northern minnesota town of dorset only twenty eight people live in dorset bobby's position is really just a ceremonial one but that's not stopping him from enjoying the power that comes with political office he's got some big plans for his hometown check it out. as mayor bobby leads town events and greets visitors but his legacy may be making his favorite food ice cream that top of the food pyramid because that he's good at what you're beautiful you just kind of made me laugh we can because. rainbow shoot. sounds like a plan for minnesota's newest political star better watch out though rumor has it the more as a streak at running for mayor in mexico has decided to move to minnesota to challenge bobby in next year's race citing concerns would be corrupting power of the tumbling sea nobody really likes carpetbaggers however so it looks like body types has the pick of

i was referring to what you folks in the business refer to as franken bombers, where some suicide bombere where it's hard to finds. that's a problem for the tsa. >> that's certainly a problem for the tsa. but you have to understand that in order for a suicide bomber to be successful, you have to have explosive material, a detonator and a power source. they have the capability to look for all three of those things. the explosive material may be inside the individual suicide bomber, but there is going to be an incision someplace. that means possibly some explosive material would be detectable by the k-9 teams out there. you also have to have, as i said, the detonator and power source. the challenge to have them without metal. the metal detector has a chance of finding them. so between the background checks of secure flights on passengers, you have a possible chance of finding this new threat. but there is no question, it's a serious challenge. >> steve: absolutely is. if they don't find the detonator or wire, then you're in all sorts of trouble. the news this morning is that apparently --

in 2008, she managed al franken's campaign and the recount. [laughter] 2010, named president of the group hosting this event. please welcome stephanie. [applause] our final guest is a former prosecutor and the first woman to give birth while being an active member of the missouri legislature. [laughter] in 2006 she became the first woman elected to the u.s. senate. in 2012, she won reelection in one of the most-watched races in the country. this past june, she said it is important to start early. please welcome the senior senator from the state of missouri claire mccaskill. [applause] senator mccaskill, let's begin with you. why is it important to start early? >> well, i think we have to realize that in a day of citizens united where there is huge money that can be written behind closed doors and flood airwaves with distorted information, the best anecdote for that is a mootness. all of us, if we want to confess in fact, let's raise our hand if you spend more than $20 on the internet. [laughter] ok, so you know how to do it. you click and you

enough minnesotans liked saturday night live star al franken to send him to the senate.-- the self described redneck millionaire-- has a resume that could shine in republican politics. he helped build his company to a multimillion dollar enterprise. >> reporter:he is an active supporter of gun rights. and he often speaks about his christian faith. even the beard shouldn't get in the way. ever hear of james garfield? >> we're not just whiny celebrities >> pam: coming up. why hollywood a -listers are pleading for help from california lawmakers. >> pam: but first at 5:30. hundreds killed -- damage in the millions. we'll show you the new round of violence in egypt -- and ♪ [ male announcer ] when the a.c. goes out in a heat wave, it's nuccio heating and air conditioning that comes to the rescue. at&t helped nuccio put a complete mobile solution to work. mobile routing to send the closest technician and mobile payments to invoice on the spot. where do you want to take your business? call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪ (mal