>> karen first.at i'm hearing is that toure is anti-santa claus because it's not about him. it's got to be about toure instead of about creating a beautiful mythology for your children. i think -- kids have this beautiful mythology, it's part of how we have hope that, you know, our dreams can come true and you just want to crush that. >> when you become a parent, karen, you call me up and you'll go, you know what? now i see what you were saying. >> hey, toure, i'm a parent. >> i'll be offering her child a bottle of butane wrapped in a dragon costume. but your thoughts on the issue of santa claus stealing the glory of your hard work, crystal. >> you know what? i have a totally different problem with santa claus. america needs to get over this santa claus worship. every year he comes around creating an entitlement culture. >> thank you! >> brainwashing our children into thinking they can get something for nothing. >> yes! >> those elves are taken -- >> crystal! >> -- the anti-santa claus. >> i love san

if i can start with karen. the president's policies have created more than 3 million private sector jobs in the last 21 months, brought the jobless rate down to its lowest level in three years but according to republicans he's a jobs killer. just explain that to me now. >> look, martin, the problem is they are very disingenuous. republicans have consistently been trying to make an argument that 99% of americans and economists and all people who have looked at this know not to be true. we're not going to get there just by spending cuts. i think the president has rightfully, as well as democrats in congress, tried to hold the line on this foolishness. we saw it again just last night. the other thing is and republicans are probably starting to notice it, although i think the white house is right to be slowly cautious on this, the president's policies are working. what did we see last night? republicans again blocking policies that would actually help 1.6 million americans. they voted against it. they are disingenu

megan: karen camden purchased a wifi pda three weeks ago.kay, so that would allow her to track anyone in school, right? her credit card showed a bunch of charges to a motel in the valley. the manager id'd her and justin price. oh, a pretty girl could get a teenage boy to do a lot of things. especially if he's not used to the attention. and if he has the inclination. look at pamela smart, she got one to kill her husband for her. so what, she seduces price, uses him and blows him off? she could've even gotten him to shoot paul elins, his own friend. she could've made up the whole murder-suicide pact. probably knew he was fantasizing about the shootings and then just pushed him over the edge-- and becomes the third shooter. why? what's the motive? well, best guess, we look at the victims. the answer's probably going to lay there. school steroid scandal. article was written by karen camden. i thought that investigation went nowhere. no prosecutions, but some of the team captains lost their college scholarships. yeah? just to get even, huh? karen

karen, susan, and jimmy. welcome, guys. karen, you're in sin city. let me start with you. >> hey!y, because we know the rich are getting richer and the rest of americans aren't -- isn't there something a little insidious when the people who are our elected officials keep growing in wealth while the people who are living under their policies are stagnant? >> well, absolutely. i mean, what's interesting, though, that that trend, what's happening in congress, mirrors the trend we're seeing in the country. that's not necessarily a good thing, because what it doesn't mirror is the reality of our country, meaning that we have, while this wealth gap is increasing, we don't have more people in congress who actually have had to live under that kind of gap and understand the real implications of the policies and the things that they are trying to do. but part of the problem has become running for congress, and running, really, in any election has become so expensive and cost prohibitive, a lot of times there's a real effort to be what we call self-funders. they're looking for people who hav

karen, j.p., great to see you both. thank you. >>> some developing news to report on a different front. american airlines firing back at alec baldwin for what it calls rude and offensive behavior on a recent flight out of los angeles. yesterday baldwin mocked the airline on twitter saying he was unjustly kicked off the flight for playing words with friends on his ipad. it's a computer game. but the airlines says it was anything but a misunderstanding. nbc's jeff rossen is in the studio with the latest on this one. jeff, we've got new details, huh? >> you're addicted to this game, too. >> we play it at home. >> and you've nearly been kicked off flights for this game. >> no, i'm a good boy. >> alec baldwin was on this flight, flight 4 yesterday, on american airlines from l.a.x. to new york. he's sitting there with his ipad and alec baldwin admits to this, and the flight attendant came over and said shut it off, shut it off, shut it off, we're about to leave. the door is closed. even though they were still parked at the ga

karen will be here and will be most proud. karen, congratulations. [applause] >> thank you. it is an honor to be up here. first, i have to thank my husband who supports us every day and never says, "when are you going to be downgrading those tests?" for "are you done with that lesson plan?" or "you are leaving today to drive eight kids to disneyland?" to my grandmother who at 93 and fires the family with her determination. to my colleagues who support me every day and work with us to really give a great education to our students. i have a wonderful administration who supports all the teachers and really inspires us to be our best. and to the students to make teaching so much fun. thank you. [applause] >> she is going on rocket boat. our november teacher of the month is from yellow elementary school, a third grade bilingual teacher. [applause] she has always test, and kurds, and inspired when his students come back to see her to report their accomplishments, such as being accepted to lowell, getting excellent grades, are winning awards. there are few greater satisfactions in

karen is absolutely right about that. even at romney's own rallies, i went around the room on thursday in mason city. he had a nice crowd. but it's really hard to find someone, someone who may have a romney sticker or what thenot, but hard to find someone who's so passionate or committed for him. but it's ok, a is a vote. even if someone is not entirely into him. i think there's a growing sense that he's the strongest nominee of the republican party to accomplish their ultimate goal. gwen: christina? >> do we think it might be a little different this year as opposed to 2008 that some of these candidates may not actually drop out if they don't come in the top three in iowa? for example, bachmann says she's going to go do that debate in new hampshire and then she's going to go straight to south carolina to sort of make her evangelical pitch there. she could drop out after that. unless santorum, he said if he finished last he would drop out. do you think anybody will drop out tuesday night? >> i think it will be -- michelle

thank you for laughing, karen. the interesting dynamic here, and we were talking about -- susan, we were talking about this with the book and the swaps market, the swaps segment with "greedy bastard$!." there's one reason why i'm almost inclined to believe jon corzine, and it's this. because the credit default swap market is run in secret without anybody knowing -- no bank ceo knows what our exposures are. the central banks can't tell you what our exposures are. the federal reserve can't tell you what our exposures are. jamie dimon at jpmorgan can't tell you. jeff immelt can't tell you. i don't know that that's an explanation for why jon corzine doesn't know where his client money is, but all of this is incredibly instructive as to how what we thought were the most transparent and robust capital markets in the world are suddenly laden with all of these secrets that can end up losing $1 billion from a guy -- if he can't keep track of $1 billion, susan, who can? >> i don't know, but i think what we're going to see is

big announcement tomorrow, karen. do we know what it is? >> no, we don't. and in fact, this evening, believe it or not, it's taken this many days for herman cain to go back to atlanta and actually sit down and talk to his wife face-to-face about this. he says if she does not want him to continue running, he will not. on top of that, in my reporting today, i discovered that cain has summoned a lot of his big donors and a lot of his closest advisors to a meeting tomorrow morning in atlanta, where presumably he's going to tell them his decision before he announces it publicly, at what was supposed to be the grand opening of his big national headquarters in georgia. gwen: to tea leaf reading, this could be cutting either way. any of these details, which karen just laid out, could be leading to him staying i'm staying in the race, my wife has said don't let the bad guys get you down, or it could mean my wife has given me cover and i'm out of this. >> some of his supporters believe he will stay in. of course, they want him to stay in. but they think he may try an

and the answer was maybe karen had an issue in it.we decided to come to the united states senate karen never looked back. and never wavered in terms of support and the sacrifices that all the senators and their spouses who are here know that you have to make and i thank you for that. and with harrison and jonathan and brian in 1993 you don't know what to expect but it's tough. we came here with little boys and left as grown men. and it's the greatest gift, that kids can give their parents to karen and me and that is they grew through that adolescent period. lots of ups, few little downs but at the end of that grew into outstanding young men who they themselves are committed to lives of service, the greatest gift that children can give to their parents. my four older siblings are here, very rare that we all together altogether even though mother and dad died 12 years ago. we live all over the country but we all lived live within two miles of each other. i am the youngest of five children, the baby of the family. and as i addressed dobb

karen, thumbs up or down for johnson. >> my thumbs are up.n hunter, robert train a.m., have great holidays. great to see you. >>> program note, politics nation first annual revvie awards, featuring best and worst of politics in 2011, hosted by reverend al sharpton, tonight at 6:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. >>> it is the last minute dash. two shopping days until christmas. retailers roll out deep discounts to seal the deal, trying to put a nice shiny bow on what's been a better than expected holiday season. cnbc mandy drury is here. what kind of discounts are we looking at. numbers are big. >> big discounts. kind of discounts we in australia would only see in january. half off the store at ann taylor, 60% at gap, almost everything at abercrombie & fitch, aggressive last minute deals. richard, it is great for people like me who haven't finished their shopping, but does this ring an alarm bell for the retail industry. that's the question. analysts say the discounts are more widespread than last year at this time, and also suggests merchants are may

by progressive strategist karen finney karen welcome good to be with you here to have you with us. if you could this be a tipping point for the republicans it sure could be i mean in our favor meaning at the tipping point that actually shows americans what we've been trying to tell them all along which is they care so much about defeating president obama and frankly remember that the tea party republicans when they were elected their whole idea was we're going to go to washington and just blow this thing up if we have to and you know what they're willing to do that and that's what they're showing so hopefully this is a chance for americans to see this is what we've been talking about all along this is their true agenda and here's what we're fighting for and but i agree with what you were saying democrats the absolute key is that democrats have to stand strong i was astounded this morning i. n.p.r. you know was on wake me up and we don't have a good progressive station just because what are you going to do and you know the report was on this thing on this bill and basically what the

former dnc communicationings director, karen finney. karen, an interesting split in that poll.icate women prefer romney at the polls even if they rather have dinner with mitt than newt? >> well, sure. remember what we saw some of the trends with herman cain, women will very likely decide this election -- very important voting block. be paying attention when i say this to you. so -- you know, don't discount the importance of the woman's vote and woman's support. remember in iowa, caucuses in particular, that is really the core of the base of the republican party because it is a long process and you need supporters who are willing to stand there and make their case and stand in the cold for quite a long period of time. so you really have to get those most motivated voters shall whether or not that will be predominantly more women or men, we don't know. >> clarence, we just learned that newt signed on to the family leader pledge and hearing to a litany of social conservative positions, including and i'm quoting, i will oppose any effort to define marriage in any manner other than

i take issue with what you said, karen, because of this.er was appointed by this president to run the justice department. tim geithner was a -- and i don't mean to put this for you, karen, to defend this president or this white house. i don't mean to cast it like that. but this president gave us eric holder, this president gave us tim geithner. eric holder has not found a single prosecution against a single banker under any circumstances since this entire fees cobegan amid a myriad of evidence that eric holder could prosecute on a multitude of levels. tim geithner, the same thing. when it comes to the fundamental restructuring of the banking system, and i just -- there's a desire, it feels, susan, to believe that if only the republicans weren't there, that this wouldn't have happened. but that denies the fact that there are all these authorities, especially in the justice department with eric holder, that could be exercised, and that have been exercised by past presidents, like teddy roosevelt and his justice department, which explicitly pu

hello i'm karen parks. and i'm jeff barnd. barnd. baltimore's .../ mayor .../ pulls... the plug.../ on... the grand prix. prix.she's terminated the city's agreementwith officials ho put on the race this year. john rydell is in downtownnbaltimore and he says its because they failedto pay baltimore 1.5-million dollars in back taxes.... (rydell) "the grand prix was hailed as a big success at the time and if you were here on labor day you saw the cars speeding along pratt and light, but two monthslater it was revealed that grand prix officials owed millions of dollars not o nly to the city and state but to private vendors."mayor stephanie raalings-blake had imposed a december 31st deedline for the grand prix to repay its debt. but that didn't happen.and in a statement released a shor tiie ago, the mayor says it's with great disappointment that we announce the termination of the city's agreement with baltimore racing developmentt one state lawmmker is disappointed with that news. he says he h9opes that some type of an agreement can still be reached to bring the race back nex

anyway, karen, this one's for you. is basically the original "get money out" logo. >> that's our summer logo. >> this is like the original -- >> we'll have united republic t-shirt as well. >> you're the o.g.. >> susan, you can have one of your t-shirts you bought back as a gift in the spirit of re-gifting. and thank you. >> my pleasure. >> we'll take a break. we're back after this. sam: i'm sam chernin. owner of sammy's fish box. i opened the first sammy's back in 1966. my employees are like family. and, i want people that work for me to feel that they're sharing in my success. we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card. so we can accumulate as many points as possible. i pass on these points to my employees to go on trips with their families. when my employees are happy, my customers are happy. vo: earn points for the things you're already buying. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. over time, my lashes thinned. after 40, i didn't have enough lashes. i'd

karen, i know you miss herman cain already.e that he's going to endorse newt gingrich? >> can i say it, martin? can i say i told you so? >> yes, and you said it many times. >> i suppose that's a decent assumption, but the question is whether or not it will matter that much. the trend is these candidates go up, but then when they come down, they come down quite low. so 6% or so is not a huge amount of heft to put behind a recommendation for another candidate. but we'll see. >> ken, to mitt romney in our latest polls showing newt gingrich has surged to the lead it particularly in iowa. he's climbed 20 percentage points in new hampshire. how worried do you think mitt romney is? >> well, he's definitely worried. he's worried most of all because his polling numbers have never quite gotten up there where they could be be -- he could that really presumptive front-runner in the race. as to gingrich specifically, he's worried and he thinks as do the democrats that most of the dirt that could be out there on begin rich is already out the

i'm going somewhere with your question, karen.ut i want to show folks with the resources, especially if you scroll droown a little bit, youl see. there's a map that shows people where other people are that have already signed it. it's basically a heat map, of sorts. and i do wonder whet how muchime congressman was spending on what, it might be very valuable. >> and it would be very disappointing, yeah. yeah. i mean, that's the sad thing. jimmy knows this better than anyone else. which is that they're spending the -- in a re-elect year, probably 40% of their time dialing for dollars. and 90% of the time they're dialing to do not live in their district, will never meet them, and they all are loaded. so they're basically just immersing themselves in the lives of rich people on the phone, trying to get the money in so they can run for re-election. >> all right. well, jimmy's face gets a fair. >>> hey, karen, merry christmas. hayba payback's hell, baby. >> nick, thank you so much for everything that you are doing, have done, everybody

. >> my sister karen has a disability, and i started getting the dogs to help me and my sister karen. you know, kids want to be kids, of course. i didn't want to have the responsibility of my sister karen, so i used to get one of our first dogs to stay with her. and then when she needed me, she could tell him, and he would come and find me. >> the school trains dogs to help people with disabilities become more independent. most of adw's trainers are adults, but jill wanted to give kids the experience she had as a child. >> ah-choo! >> i think for kids who are truly interested in it and want to take this further into animal behavior or vet school or training for the movies, training for whatever, i think this is a really great place to start that lets you really kind of explore whether this is something you really want to do later on in life. >> the school is based in santa fe, new mexico, and trains dozens of service dogs each year. for these teens, the class is actually part of their school day. >> you take it like you take math. you get a credit for it. you take it every day. you're

karen lee with us now. i know you're hoping that if people are going to make extra money they won't go out and spend it on shopping and maybe save it. >> better to do that than go into debt. >> how do we do this? people may set aside some money for holiday shopping like new strubt order maybe they are short on cash and they want to make someone. >> this isn't just for this holidays. i've been hearing for a year or two people wanting to develop multiple streams of income to diversify for future recessions. this is an all through the year good idea. we want to talk a little bit about,000 monetize your skills and how the internet has made it much easier. our first tip is to take a look at what you already do for a living and see if you can add some freelance work. >> identify your skill set. >> let's say you're a landscaper, you work for a company, maybe you can do some-odd jobs on the weekend. graphic artist, you can freelance in the evenings. what's neat about the internet it made it so much easier to put ou

msnbc political analyst karen finney, former communications director from washington. new york, msnbc political analyst michael eric dyson. professor at georgetown university. it's been quite a year. before we start, i want to play a bit of sound. new sound from newt gingrich confronted by a gay voter in iowa. take a listen. >> how do you plan to engage and get the vote of gay americans and those who support them? >> i think for those, the only issue that really matters is the definition of marriage, i won't get their support. if that's the most important to you, then you should be for obama. >> professor dyson. here's newt. he wants to spend poor parents with children to orphanages. he wants them to work as janitors. he said speaking spanish is the language of the ghetto. he wants gay people to vote for the president. who does he want to vote for him? >> i mean, he is appealing to people ruled and reined by bias against the vulnerable peel of manager. this is, tis the season to be folly. this is an extraordinary repudiation of everything that's good and healthy about

i'm going somewhere with your question, karen.ut i want to show folks with the resources, especially if you scroll droown a little bit, youl see. there's a map that shows people where other people are that have already signed it. it's basically a heat map, of sorts. and i do wonder whether you could continue to use -- there's the map. that sort of mapping technology. and this is spectacular, by the way. thank you so much for what you have done. not just on my behalf, but on behalf of all the folks who started this process going back to last summer. thank. truly a wonderful book. can a heat mapping item like that be used to show time usage by congressperson. so i can click on my congressperson, not that i want to give you 50 more things to do, but it would seem that that sort of transparency, going to the brokaw narrative and what we're talking about, if i could click and see how much time my congressman was spending on what, it might be very valuable. >> and it would be very disappointing, yeah. yeah. i mean, that's the sad thing.

karen, susan, and jimmy. karen very compassionate today and very concerned about our ability -- yes, the peace. but it's good. and your point is, whether it's my narrative outside the machine, criticizing it, or your narrative inside the machine, trying to find the way towards better outcomes, it comes down to our ability to cultivate changes, not just from the rabble rousing on the outside, but from the inside of the machine. >> right. >> i look at that and get skeptical and say, listen, by the time they grow up to be big boys and girls in the political world, they're in a gerrymandered system that's being purchased. so even if we get susan and jimmy to run for office and they're heroic in their intentions, by the time i get them into the power structure that they end up being, basically, losing all of their power by virtue of the system. >> but that's part of why i think it has to be -- it's not one solution, all right? it's a multi-faceted solution. i tend to go back to the civil rights movement. some say,

. >> reporter: for karen and her son zack a simple bike ride this winter has been tough. >> tightness in the chest, coughing, sneezing, it has been a tough winter because that >> reporter: with pollution levels up, their asthma has been the worst in years. so bad, zack was rushed to the hospital. >> they had to give him a breathing treatment. he was on prednisone, a steroid to get him under control. >> reporter: he recovered now karen doubles her asthma medication. the polluted air that triggers their attacks you can see all over the bay area. it is that thick grey layer on the horizon that sometimes doesn't seem to move. >> we had a very unhealthy christmas weekend air quality-wise. a lot of woodburning, unfortunately. people were not heeding the call. air pollution, smoke pollution built up to unhealthy levels. >> reporter: with 10 spare the air days already called this winter, air quality officials say the air may not improve any time soon. the problem, the weather and wood smoke. christmas day air quality levels were dangerously unhealthy. we could see that again this new year's w

for more, i am joined by congresswoman karen from california. congresswoman, kevin birdie said it felt as if they were reenacting the alamo as they led up to today. describe the battle for us and how messy was it from what you were hearing for a republican counterpart. >> i think it was very messy and think what is so unfortunate is that speaker boehner's caucus doesn't give him the power or the credit that he should have as speaker. they should have accepted the negotiation that he agreed to with the senate. we really shouldn't have drawn this out as long as we did. they knew in the beginning that there was noplace else for them to go other than approve the two-month extension. they have to act through the whole time as though all they wanted to do was extend it for a year and that was a clean bill. you know that that one-year extension is filled with poison pills. >> there is a lot of questions about the revenue side and how it will be paid for and there was disagreement on that. let's talk about a fellow californian of yours. kevin mccarthy a

or reach karen at karen lee and associates.com. >>> all right. it's a once in a decade event ahead.incredibly strong santa ana winds ripping through southern california. >>> a look at our top stories. republican presidential candidate herman cain has suspended his campaign today. he again denied accusations of sexual harassment and marital infidelity, but he said those charges have taken an unacceptable toll on his family. >> becoming president was plan a. before you get discouraged, today i want to describe plan b. so as of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, i am suspending my presidential campaign. >> cain said he will endorse another candidate in the near future. elsewhere on the republican presidential trail, mitt romney campaigned in new hampshire today with former minnesota governor tim pawlenty. pawlenty ended his own race for president earlier this year. new hampshire will hold the first 2012 presidential primary on january 10th. >>> in the penn state child sexual abuse scandal new comments today from jerry sandusky. in an interview with the "new york times", he