the democratically controlled senate keeps reejecting. the bills would keep things operating while stopping aspect s of the new health care law. that's where we are. live pictures tonight show both ends of this drama in washington. this is in the hands of congress which now enjoys a 10% approval rating from the american people in the latest polls. this will be a long night. a lot of government services appear poised to go away, at least temporarily. it's where we begin tonight with nbc's chuck todd on the white house lawn. chuck, evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. 10% means it's just friends and family for members of congress. as of this hour it doesn't appear congress is closer to getting a deal to fund the government. republicans are working on a new spending bill. it includes more provisions to delay parts of the health care law and senate democrats and the president say any bill like that is dead on arrival. when this clock gets to zero, the government begins to shut down. yet this morning the house and senate in washington-sp

the opposition leader says he reejects it. he says the russians and syrians are playing games to waste time for a criminal regime. he's pledged that rebel fighters will keep up this war. it goes on behind me tonight with the syrian army uh continuing to shell rebel--held suburbs. opposition people say dozens of citizens have been killed in the last 24 hours and the battle in the christian town of melula goes on. so a deal is done, but the war goes on. back to you, lester. >>> back in this country, in ohio they are looking for the cause of a bus crash early this morning. a greyhound bus went off a highway north of cincinnati. it struck a tree and a fence and flipped on its side before stopping in a corn field. at least 35 people were injured including the driver. one passenger said he saw the driver slumped over before the crash and heard a woman screaming at him to wake up. >>> a part of the jersey shore this day was spent searching for clues about what might have caused the devastating fire that destroyed part of a newly reno

chris mccain of cal gets reejected from the game. -- gets ejected.ere right into the hands of him and he goes for the touchdown. cal down 10. jair can't believe it. cal got to within seven again but northwestern puts the dagger in the heart. greene rushes in. under two minutes remaining and cal goes ton to lose. 34-30, the final. >>> a's look for their second straight win over tampa bay. timely hitting and pitching was a good formula that kept working for the a's. a little fireworks. another solid outing for graham. 6 2/3 scoreless, 5 hits, struck out 7. the entire offense came from coco coco crisp. the eighth inning he unloads. coco's 15th of the year. a's are up 2-0. and here he gets kelly johnson to grab to end the game. they win 2-1 and stay two games behind the texas rangers who come to town monday on labor day. >>> giants and d-backs in the desert, that would be arizona. buster posey doing the honors with an rbi single. marco scutaro, 3-3 ballgame. stayed that way until the ninth until chavez drives it into the gap. game over. d-backs win it 4-

what message would congressional reejection send to your friends and enemies in the middle east? >> i think the president has to work diligently -- not just the president but his whole cabinet has to work diligently to convince not just the congress but the american people that this is in the interest of the united states. not just simply in the interest of another country. that vindicating this international norm will be incredibly important to us, to our closele allies like israeld will put us in a position, as my colleagues suggested, as we confront further issues in the middle east such as the iranians' aspirations. this is critically important. i think the case should be and could be made. i think that if there is another serious incident by the syrians, if they again use chemical weapons as secretary kerry suggested, the president has already stated and feels he has the international authority to move forward. the president has that. i think the real issue here is making sure and as jim inhofe indicated, we are beginning deliberations with the foreign relations committee an

shut down the government simply because they want to stand behind the law that the american people reeject. >> then respond to the president. he said today that the this never happened in the history of the country. the threat to extort a president or a govern iing party and tryi to force issues that have nothing to do with the debt. is this extortion? >> this is not about the debt limit. this is about funding government. if he wants to talk about unprecedented matters in american constitutional history it's this. this program with the unprecedented cost rammed through congress without anyone having read it, without a single bipartisan vote, that's unprecedented. rewriting the law five times is unprecedented. >> let me be clear. you will pay our debts, obligations, fund the military, fund every department. you will fund medicare, social security. everything will be funded but you are saying don't fund obamacare. constitutionally, you are an attorney. former attorney general. that's legal, isn't it, in the constitution that spending begins in congress? >> not only that. that is the most imp

under a russian proposal the united states and its allies reeject the use of oh force against syria and syria turns over weps to the international community. the weapons must be secured and destairwayed. how easy is it to secure and destroy the vast stock pile of oh chemical weapons? former u.n. inspector tim trayvan joins us. good evening. >> good evening. >> how daunting a task is it to find these chemical weapons and once we do find thm to get rid of them? >> it is a daunting task, particularly in the situation of trying to do that in the middle of a civil war. this will be the first time any country has tried to do that. how it would happen is they would say what weapons, what types, where they are and the inspectors would verify where they are. basis, they would tag all the weapons, all the agent and put seals on doors and gates to ensure nothing is tampered with. to say this is different because you have to take physical possession of the chemical weapons away from the syrian authorities then you've got to start thinking about how you prevent the syrians from changing their minds