washington press corps, passedded away yesterday. she was 92. our bill plant, himself a very familiar face at the white house, worked along thomas for some time. he has this remembrance. >> do you know of any country in the middle east that has nuclear weapons? >> well,... reporter: helen thomas always wanted answers from the president of the united states. >> mr. president, when are you holding a news conference? >> reporter: as the white house correspondent for united press international for 40 years and then as a columnist, thomas confronted ten presidents with bulldog persistence. >> why did you really want to go to war? >> reporter: she was a path-breaker for women in journalism. born to lebanese immigrants, thomas grew up in michigan. after college she moved to washington. in 1943, she went to work as a writer for united press. her big break came in 196 when she became the first woman reporter at the white house to cover the president and not just the first lady. >> mr. president, thank you. thank you, helen.

they passedded the farm bill. now, that might not sound like much. traditionally the farm bill is a routine piece of legislation which provides government subsidies for farmers while also setting aside money for food stamps. it's a win-win. help for the folks who grow the corn and help for folks who live on nothing but corn syrup. now the house had not passed a farm bill in two years because 60 house republicans demanded deep can yous in food stamps. but last week house republicans agreed to an historic compromise on food stamps by eliminating the food stamps. jim? >> the u.s. house narrowly passedded a scaled-down farm bill after dropping food stamps from the measure. food stamps can wait but farm programs cannot. >> stephen: yes, farm programs cannot wait. we need to grow the food that people can no longer afford to buy. see, republicans showed they were willing to compromise by eliminating the part of the bill they refused to compromise on. it's just like a cardiologist who is having problems with a patient's heart. instead of getting bogged down

. >> the house has passedded a sweeping antiabortion bill. >> the republicans did take one p.r.ying to shine this thing up. they found a republican woman to take the reins of the bill, congressman marcia blackburn instead of franks. >> (singing) oh, man. martha blackburn is a role model. ladies i'm taking control of my body and also yours. having women is good for the whole country. >> john: how? think of how much money you'll save by paying us less. >> john: that's actually a very good point. >> it's happening so fast. i'm sorry. i just have to filibuster more. you guy don't have any diapers around here, do you. >> john: we don't have time for this. >> i don't need them. and we have all the time. i have a dream. >> john: i don't think this is a good idea. >> i have a dream that a woman will not be judged on the color of her bra but on the content of her womb. i have a dream. that one day a woman will continue to make 70% of what a man makes but only because her female boss treat cheated her out of it. one day we shall have a woman president with an all male cabinet. and one day

yes, for some reason since the voting rights act was passedded, things have changed dramatically. therefore, we can get rid of it now. it's just like those outdated labor law that prohibit children from threading bobbins on a loom. a kid hasn't been suckd into one of those machines in year. let's stop playing nanny here. i'll have more on this important decision later in the show with my guest professor peniel joseph. i hear he's black. nation, i don't pay attention to south america any more than i care about east america or west america or upsidedown america. but even i cannot help but notice that brazil is going through a major political upheaval or as they call it futbol. jim? >> nearly a million people spilled into the streets in major cities across the country in the biggest protest brazil has seen in decades. protestors went head to head with riot police and were met with tear gas. >> more than one million people hitting the streets in at least 80 cities. >> stephen: folks, i don't get it. this is brazil, the most joyful place on earth. the only thing brazillians ever get ma

they almost passedded a 16th bill but obama refused to sign hr-2904, the "this is not another repeal of obama care, we swear but don't look inside it, just sign it" act. but you can't blame congress for how little they get done. taking a position on anything is political suicide. just look at senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. he's the most obstructionist, bill-blockin'est human law-cork ever to jam up the hauls of congress using the filibuster 413 times since 2007, twice as much as the last democratic minority which earned him the nickname "senator gridlock." yeah, good olsen tore gridlock, the kentucky constipator, the louisville plugger. but even the leader of the do-nothing congress is is now being punished for the handful of times he done did something. >> mitch mcconnell is getting primaried hard. an open letter, this is incredible to me, from 15 kentucky tea party groups said senator mcconnell's progressive, liberal voting record and his willingness to roll over and cede power to president obama and the liberals in washington prove he is no friend to the american people o

not too long ago theenate passeded a bill to reform the pt office, i still have hope it will do something but they continue on down this path i think they will go bust and have serious reforms or look to th government for a bailout, at is an awful presidents. tracy: they said the bill would be devastating, have a devastating effect on the postal service. honestly, devastating? speak i think that is a bit of a push. we don't necessarily need all of these postmen going door to door. can we be doing something in the economy more effectively perhaps maore money? that is what they should be doing. >> one of the more important rts is it prevents a taxpayer bailout. it is high time we have something like this put in a reform act. but again, we bail people out, we bail things out, it probably will not be the one that we don't. >> they can put that in a bill now and congress down the road does not have to follow that. not bailing out the postal service will be a start. tracy: thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. no one needs the victoria's secret catalogs. still to come, how you ca

passeder the senate their version of of an immigration bill, members of 7e gains of seven -- gang of spoke of the prospects of this passing in the house. they will not take up whatever passing in the house. they will not take up whatever the senate passes on legislation. this continues to work to come up to an agreement on immigration policy. >> thank you for being here. thank you to the media representatives. span, bloomberg television covering this event. we appreciate your interest. it gives you a sense of how important this is. this is an issue of the incredible importance to the country, business community, bloomberg, to the nation as a whole, and we are lucky to have two people right at the heart of the debate in congress and house of representatives, two members of the gang of seven who have been negotiating a bipartisan compromise for the last few years up on capitol hill, behind closed doors most of the time. at a time when reporters are racing all over the hill to find members of the gang of seven, we are lucky enough to have them here on stage. for me as a reporter, it is