our war room. check us out online at current.com/thewarroom. check out our exclusive war extras. good night everybody. we'll see you tomorrow. , welcome to the "the young turks." got a great show ahead for you guys. i'm not one to give the democrats a lot of credit if they don't deserve it but i'll tell you what, they've got some new kick ass ads out right now! >> they're not from around here. spending millions to attack. >> after 12 years in washington, d.c., dennis rehberg's forgotten where he comes from. >> fischer believes millionaires should get special tax breaks. >> cenk: you go get them, man. i'll tell you why those ads can be so effective and maybe swing the election in 2012. then we find out more about our international man of mystery mitt romney. where he's hiding his money how he's hiding his money and by the way, how much is he worth? we asked another international man of mystery.

>> $100 billion. >> cenk: and then fox news thinks it's classy to make fun of the poor. we'll come after them, too. >> i had heard that some people beg for a living and can make big bucks $80,000 a year in some cases. >> cenk: john, i'm coming for you. it's go time! >> cenk: well, here's bad news for the obama team. turns out mitt romney's team, along with rnc this month raised $100 million. that's amazing at this juncture in the campaign. last month they had raised over

$76 million and now they've got $100 million. gee, i wond fir people want anything in return for the money they're giving. it is not every day folks the great majority of that money comes from just a handful of rich people. and in fact, to be so cocky about it, rick from their campaign sent out a tweet basically running in the face of the democrats and the obama team. here's what he said. messina 2012 is campaign manager, check this out bro we raised over $100 million. i'm assuming you and ax will need beers tonight bro. ha ha, we got better bribes! we take more bribes than you do, bro. that's great. something to be really proud of. meanwhile, president obama is on the campaign trail in ohio and guess what he's decided to do? kick some action ss! watch this. >> governor romney has

experienced owning companies that were called pioneers of outsourcing. pioneers of outsourcing. my career has been in saving the american auto industry. governor romney said we should let it go bankrupt. i refused to turn my back on communities like this. [ applause ] >> three years later the american auto industry is coming back. >> cenk: i love that line of attack. while he was outsourcing your jobs i'm here fighting for american industry! now that's a strategy that can work! by the way to back that up, they just filed obama administration did a complaint with the world trade organization saying the chinese are putting tooeucucta on ereran-made v vicles. wewee e ghghng the c cnene. we e weanding ust tdi uhe tmhehe th 'rbethgin unfair. he's going to blue collar towns in ohio and pennsylvania, two

critical battleground states. he's not just doing it on the stump. they're also running some tough ads against romney. watch. >> the"the washington post" has just revealed romney's companies were pioneer of shipping u.s. jobs overseas. investing in firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by american workers to new facilities in low wage countries like china. romney's never stood up to china. all he's ever done is send them our jobs. >> cenk: they're hitting him early and they're hitting them often. i think it is a great strategy. i don't often say that about democratic strategies. the reason is a lot of people say don't spend the money up-front. this is your opportunity to frame mitt romney. and it's true. he did outsource the jobs. you should hit him over that. in fact, it is already working. let me show you the battleground states. obama in florida 45% to 41% over romney. 47%, 38% shockingly high lead

over ohio. this is usually dead even between democrats and republicans in presidential elections. obviously the car bailout there which mitt romney was dead set against, huge difference maker. pennsylvania 45% to 39% lead there as well. obviously he's gotta maintain it. that's a really good start. one of the guys responsible for this is a guy i've got a lot of issues with, jim messina the campaign manager for president obama. the reason i have issues with him, i don't think he's a progressive at all. i think in a lot of ways he's a corporatist. but during an election, he apparently brings a blow torch and a couple of lead pipes. he's going to sound mild-mannered here but what he's saying about ground troops is also important. >> this time around, we're starting out with an advantage. if the election were held today we would win 243 of the 270 electoral votes we need to win. romney will come at 191 with 104

votes up for grabs where we're doing our best organizing, opening up offices registering voters. these are states where we've already outorganized. to quote the vice president "it's a big deal." >> cenk: he's saying we've got the ground troops. it's true. i've read stories about how they're so much more organized in ohio than mitt romney is. before they could open up one office, they had a dozen offices. they're hitting him on the air on the stump, on the ground. this is a pretty good job when it comes to politics. it is not just in the presidential. >> eliot: either. the ads i really love are at the state level in the senator races. now there's been money pouring into missouri on the claire mccaskill race because there are a lot of people who want to put a republican in there. so they've been pouring in these negative ads. here's how mccaskill is fighting back and i think it is really effective.

>> they're not from around here. spending millions to attack and attack. but what they're doing to claire mccaskill is nothing compared to what their special interest agenda will do to you. they want to end medicare as we know it. claire fights to protect it. they want more tax breaks for multi-millionaires and oil companies. claire cuts taxes for the middle class. they back unfair trade deals for china. claire says make it in missouri. >> cenk: make it in missouri. seriously, it's true. these aren't special interests crying about your elections. it is about damn time the democrats pointed it out. it gets better and better. here we go to nebraska. watch them have a populous tune here. >> fischer believes millionaires should get special taxbration. when invited to explain her position at the boys and girls state convention, where was deb? washington, d.c., hobnobbing with party bosses and corporate lobbyists who want to keep the special tax breaks for

millionaires. >> cenk: special tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires is what the republican party is about. why don't you use it against them? they are. i've been screaming about this for ten years. stop trying to hit them and hit them. this election, it looks like they're hitting him. what happened to this democratic party? one more, this time in montana. >> dennis rehberg's forgotten where he comes from because rehberg voted for billions in tax breaks to big bankers on wall street. rehberg voted to let wall street's ceos get millions in bonuses funded by taxpayer bailouts. yes, congressman it is. >> cenk: hit him again and again! this is a winning strategy. hey, you know what? we're on your side. claire mccaskill case, we're protecting medicare. what are these guys doing? giving breaks to millionaires and billionaires. that's a strategy that can work.

i woke up this morning with almost a different party in terms of the ads and the attitude but i like it! now for an attack this epic, i think you're going to need a political correspondent just as epic. obviously we bring in michael shure. what's going on here? first of all am i overstating to me they've been putting soft for ten years then all of a sudden i see this populous attacks. >> soft is a little harsh. they won the presidency and they won the congress awhile back. i would say pudding soft is a little harsh. this ad about outsourcing and this red meat that bain gives them is fantastic and it worked for obama in ohio in 2008. it was a small ad but an effective ad. dhl, the international shipping company, closed their operation there and what the obama people

did was really hard-hitting ads in ohio in 2008 was tie john mccain and votes he made in congress to allow an american company to overtake dhl and those kinds of takeovers. they tied mccain to that. it hurt him massively in ohio. obama ended up winning by four points in ohio. this is a page from an old playbook. but yes the fervor right now is unheard of. >> right but look, i hear you. have they ever made tough ads before? right. obama did a stellar job in winning the presidency obviously in 2008. but i feel like going after the special interests, going after the lobbyists going after the rich is not something i've seen in a long time for the democrats. >> quick response is a big part of it, too. we've seen them lay back and respond in a milquetoast way a little bit late. now we're seeing -- the boilerplate ads put out by the republicans against claire mccaskill and jon tester and the other senator, i don't remember who the other was -- in

kansas against democrat -- in nebraska, bob kerrey going up against deb fischer. they put out these boilerplate ads. now the democrats are fighting back one by one really quickly. that kind of energy is important. i think also the fact that the democrats are a little bit -- a lot of a financial disadvantage more so than obama. >> i think that's a part of it, too. they figure well, if we're not going to get the money from the bankers, what are we holding back for? it is a little too simplistic. they still get a ton of money from lobbyists. i just see a new toughness here. i think it could make a big difference. i think a lot of people are assuming republicans will have control of congress in 2012. if they continue this path, the democrats and this aggressive attack i'm not sure they will. >> this energy about the senate races shows the democrats are serious and also shows that they think that they can hold on to the senate, very important.

>> cenk: all right, either way, it is a good sign. michael, thank you man. we appreciate it. when we come back, you know there's been power outages on the east coast. wait until you find out how much the ceo behind that company is making and how little taxes they pay while not giving you services. we'll talk about that when we return. >> it's frustrating to be told friday and have no power and a 2-year-old who requires asthma medicine twice a day and i can't get it to him. it is scary as a parent. >>(narrator) the sheriff of wall street. >>the leadership of high finance just doesn't get it. >>(narrator) the former governor of new york, eliot spitzer is on current tv. >>somebody somewhere can listen, record, track, gather this data. >>arrangements were made. >>(narrator) independent unflinching. >>there is a wild west quality to it that permits them to do whatever they wish. >>(narrator) and above all politically direct. >>facts are stubborn things.

of sununu, you're wrong. mitt romney, you're wrong. we need more teachers, not fewer teachers and more cops and more firefighters that support our

hershey's chocolate syrup. stir up a smile.

>>we talk a lot about the influence of money in politics. it is the defining issue of this era. the candidate with the most money, does win. this is a national crisis. midwest to the mid-atlantic, hundreds of thousands of homes are still in the dark. >> power companies say they've been playing catch-up as they struggle to get the washington area back online following friday's big storm that hit so quickly, it caught just about everyone by surprise. >> cenk: now storms happen. we understand that.

power got knocked out. that happens from time to time but the response apparently has been incredibly so. one company that's catching a lot of heat is pepco. now, it has been six days since the storm and some of the houses still don't have power. in fact, in d.c., maryland and virginia, there's terrible anger over this. let's watch some local reports of that. >> hundreds of thousands are still in the dark and many still have a long wait before the power comes back. >> there is a lot of frustration in this community tonight. it is turning to fury for some people and it is directed at pepco. >> we livin' with the devil. the devil is pepco. >> pepco came by and he they said it was a problem. >> they define that as a problem and that was when? >> sunday. >> you've seen a crew as of when? >> we have not seen a crew yet. >> pepco has a request for a rate increase before the public service commission. >> cenk: i don't know i would call them the devil but you're asked for a rate increase right now? it doesn't seem like a

particularly good time to ask for one. in fact, once i tell you more details, you'll be more angry about it. they want a $66 million rate increase $5 to $6 extra for every customer that they have. now, let me show you how ineffective they've been in responding to this. 1.5 million people's power got knocked out on friday. on sunday, finally 40% are restored. as you can see obviously the majority are not restored. monday 58% restored. finally today we're at 93%. restored, not all of the houses are back even now, six days later! that's a long time! a lot of people are saying that's because you didn't do the proper infrastructure investments here. if you had done that, you would be able to respond a lot quicker. so it might be because pepco doesn't have enough money right? if they don't turn a profit, what can they do? it turns out they do turn a profit. between 2008 and 2010, as you can see there they made $882 million in profit! but that's not all!

turns out they haven't paid federal taxes in ten years! not because they're skirting the law but because they've got all of these different advantages and tax loopholes. between '08 and 2010, they got an $817 million refund! so they got the profits on one side then they've got tax giveaways that we're giving them out of our pocket basically on top of that. you know what their overall tax rate was in the last four years. this is a stunning number. negative 39.5%. wouldn't you love that tax rate? instead of having to pay 35% in taxes, they get 39.5% back in their pocket. that must be a cushy way to go. where is the money going if it's not going to infrastructure or get your power back up quickly. i hope you're sitting down. this is really shocking. it turns out it goes to their

executives. i didn't see that coming. let's take a look at the conversation for their ceo. joe rigby $8.8 million in the same time period. he's getting paid. other top officers, $22 million. they're getting paid! now look, if you run a profitable company and you do a good job and you get the services to people when they need them, okay, that's one thing. but when people need you you haven't made the investments and you can't give them their power which is your only job and you have a state monopoly and you're getting tax subsidies then you want to increase people's rates again? in fact, where else are they spending their money? as this local report is about to tell you it turns out they've been buying ads to convince the people in that area that they should back their own rate increase so that these guys can make even more money. brilliant idea. watch. >> work we're doing here today will keep the power on. >> pepco, one of the largest

electricity providers in the district launched an ad campaign back in january defending their often maligned service. but they have come under new fire since the storm. >> pepco's pace of restoring power to me anyway is unacceptable and the speed of their response has been disappointing and how many times have we been through this before? >> cenk: and how many times are we going to go through it again? you gotta understand my point. i'm a capitalist. i'm not against having corporations. i'm not against them making a profit, of course not right. but we have to have some sort of check on this so that they don't run amok. later in the program, we'll tell you about a company that fired somebody for saving a life! this isn't how it is supposed to be. they're not supposed to get $817 million in tax subsidies. they're not supposed to do campaign ads so that they can increase our rates and give their ceos more money. this isn't how our country is supposed to run. we're not supposed to be run by these corporations. we're supposed to control them.

not have them control us. all right. now when we come back, first of all, we've got mitt romney who's running for president of this country while he's got his money in other countries. >> we followed the romney trail of wealth to the cayman islands in the caribbean where he has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in corporations set up here. >> cenk: yeah, well, we'll tell you how some of those shady dealings are working and how he's gotta bring the money back home if he wants to be our president. plus fox news goes after chris rock. >> the colors aren't red, white and blue. people like chris rock, aaron sorkin unfortunately, don cheadle who can be reasonable every once in awhile, spending their independence day trashing america. this week, failing is good and wall street

is bad. what else does vc billionaire vinod khosla think?

if you missed joy behar one week only... >>hey, time flies when you're having fun. >>don't worry because she'll be back. >>where are the lefties besides on current tv? >>joy behar is getting her own show coming to current tv this fall. rr >> cenk: when the supreme court declared that the mandate in the healthcare bill was a tax, mitt romney got caught in a pickle. see, the problem is he wants to call it a tax. the whole republican party wants to call it a tax so they can turn around say president obama has a large tax increase but mitt romney also had a mandate in massachusetts so he would have to admit he also raised

taxes when he claims he didn't. so what do they do? classic mitt romney style first they sent out their surrogates to say it's not a tax! then they bring out mitt romney to say it is a tax. watch. >> the governor has consistently described the mandate in massachusetts as a penalty. >> the majority of the courts said it is a tax and therefore it is a tax. >> what did you call it in massachusetts? were you guys calling it a tax or a penalty? >> it was a penalty. >> cenk: it's a tax, it's a penalty, it's penalty, it's a tax. i don't know. just vote for me. if you say it is a tax and that's the latest line by mitt romney himself how about what you did in massachusetts, isn't that a tax? let's find out. >> the chief justice in his opinion made it very clear that at the state level states have the power to put in place mandates. they don't need to require them to be called taxes in order for them to be constitutional. as a result, massachusetts mandate was a mandate was a penalty, was described that way by the legislature and by me.

>> cenk: come on! you're telling me that in massachusetts, the same exact thing is called a penalty or a fine, not a tax! but when you apply it at the federal level well obviously that's an outrageous tax. this is the greasiest politician i might have ever seen. the man flip-flops within a matter of minutes. and he is so obvious. how does anybody look at that guy and say that's a man of principle. that's a guy i'm behind. look at him! i'll tell you what, when it is a penalty, he calls it a penalty. when it is a tax, he calls it a tax depending on his advantage. i know politicians are supposed to be liars but it takes it to a whole different level. a man this greasy, are we surprised that he's hiding his money in places like swiss bank accounts, bermuda and the cayman islands? of course we're not surprised! abc news went down to the cayman islands to report about mitt romney's secret holdings. here is a part of that report

from brian ross. >> reporter: we followed the romney trail of wealth to the cayman islands in the caribbean where he has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in corporations set up here. the caymans are best known as one of the world's great tax havens where secrecy is the rule. >> if you have a cayman corporation, you don't pay any tax to the cayman government. the cayman islands don't report the income that's made to the u.s. government. >> cenk: why would you put your money in the cayman islands? is it to hide it? of course! why else would you put it there? if you didn't want to hide it, why not put it in massachusetts or utah or somewhere in the u.s. who is believing this crap about i didn't mean to hide my money. did i put it in the cayman islands where you can't ask for it? you get a four-year jail sentence if you ask about people's accounts in the cayman islands. golly gee, i don't know how that turned out. we asked another international man of mystery how much money do you think mitt romney's actually

worth? >> $100 billion. >> cenk: now obviously that's austin powers but you know what? it goes toward a serious point. which is another story out today about mitt romney. which is that we have no idea how much money he has! they keep telling you $250 million but that's at a minimum based on what we know. in fact, he holds all of these different accounts that say i only have to report a million. how much is in there? i'm not going to tell you. what do you mean you're not going to tell me. you're running for president of the united states. you're not a plumber or dentist. theid anywhere you like. but you're running to be the president of all of us. you're going to hide your money in foreign countries and then you're not going to tell us how much you have, how much taxes you avoid. he claims i never avoided a doral of tax in my life. great! than prove it. we got 2010 and an estimate of 2011. no no, you have to do the

romney standard. the george romney standard. 12 years. the reason he did that is because he literally said if you only release one limited year, well then it is easy to deceive people. and to trick them into not realizing what games you're playing. to that effect, let's look at his accounts in the cayman islands for mitt romney here. bain and company has 138 funds in the cayman islands. gee, i wonder if they were trying to avoid taxes. romney himself has 12 different ones worth, at a minimum $30 million. but again as reporting explains, that's the bare minimum. we have no idea what the huge upside there might be. and now some people are wondering hey man, is it half a billion or even a billion that mitt romney has? why don't you let us know, mitt? you can't just release one year of tax returns that, is widely deceptive and try to get away with it if you're running for president. in fact, here's the funny part. the one year he released, we

finally got to see the swiss bank accounts which he had not been reporting when he was governor of massachusetts. now we find out he has $3 million in a swiss bank account. here is the comical part. he says don't worry in my estimate of my 2011 taxes not the actual taxes i say that i closed the swiss bank account. is that true? who knows. it is mitt romney. all he ever does is lie. he says trust me. i've got money hidden in a swiss bank account. don't worry about how much is there and whether i'm trying to avoid taxes. trust me. i'm a politician. it will be fine. nonsense i don't trust few second. cayman islands says wait until you get to bermuda. he's got this shady corporation called sankaty created in 1997 when he was at bain capital. when he was going to go become governor of massachusetts he handed it off to ann romney, his wife obviously in 2003. but now they've had money there all along. for a long, long time, they

didn't report it. in fact, now officials in massachusetts are wondering why he didn't report it when he was governor. now he turns around because he had to report one year because of the political pressure during the primaries in 2010, we found out oops! look at that, i do have this company in berm ute da. are you ready for this? get a load of this quote. that's technically "a controlled foreign corporation." now wait a minute! you're telling me that the president of the united states of america if he wins, is going to own a foreign corporation? wouldn't it be a u.s. corporation? isn't it outrageous that we have a guy running for president who says no, no, it's okay. i want to hide my money from the american government, that's why i've set up a foreign corporation in order to hide my money. this is insanity. it gets worse. in bermuda the sankaty thing according to experts it has

things called a lucrative -- you can't see the money there but eventually at some point it will pop up like it did last month. in his reporting last month we found out his -- not his taxes obviously but the people who are running the fund had to report this according to the law god knows what they're not reporting, $1.9 million in what they called a true up. i love that as opposed to a fake up. in a true up, look at this. $1.9 million sprang up in sankaty which before we claimed had almost no money in it. golly gee i wonder how that happened. it is because you're playing tax games and you're hiding the money. it is so obvious. these are called blocker corporations. in other words, to block the u.s. from getting taxes from you, you set up a blocker corporation in a foreign company. again, american businessman does it it is shady. if a guy running for president of the country does it, it is beyond shady!

it is unacceptable. i mean i can go on and on. you know in sankaty they bought dominoes, bain capital did. they ran $100 million in the late 1990s and 2010 through that corporation. it is gigantic. so finally president obama is saying hey enough is enough. let's hit this guy over this. let's watch his new ad on that. >> i do not have a bank account outside of the u.s. >> i do not have a swiss bank account or an account in the caymans. >> i've never heard of anyone i know having an overseas account. >> why have an overseas bank account and i don't think our next president should have an overseas bank account either. >> i've never heard of a president having an overseas bank account. i think mostly they have all of their money here in the u.s. >> i don't know if he's doing that because he's trying to shelter his money from taxes or whether he just doesn't believe in the american economy.

either way, it is not a very good sign. >> cenk: that is 100% right. hit him and hit him again. david axelrod has been doing it on twitter over and over again. no one has been this secretive since richard nixon. astonishing story about his tax shelter and efforts to keep his secret apparently skirting massachusetts law and on and on it goes. they're right to question this! i don't think a single person should give mitt romney a vote here until he explains what he's hiding in foreign corporations as he's tried to become the president of the united states of america. all right, now when we come back, we're going to take on fox news. being the classy guys that they are, they're going after the poor and making fun of the homeless. well, you're not going to get away with it. not on our watch. we're coming back. >> one time that said help -- i really need help. one sign said i'll be honest with you i just want a beer.

collected the same rate. >>we talk a lot about the influence of money in politics. it is the defining issue of this era. the candidate with the most money, does win. this is a national crisis.

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>>facts are stubborn things. >> cenk: that's a shot of parma, ohio. the president is supposed to appear there very, very soon. the reason we're showing that, a fun little fact. in his last stop in amherst ohio, president was at ziggy's pub and restaurant. someone came up to him and said you know, they play fox news here on this -- in this building. he said hey, can you ask them to switch that off? you know the customer is always right. i love that! okay. part of the reason he wants it switched off is because fox news does incredibly obnoxious things like clips we're about to show you. michelle malkin is apparently outraged at liberals and people who apparently show their true colors like chris rock when they send out the wrong tweets during

the 4th of july. watch. >> these left wing holly weirdos who are so out of touch with the american mainstream cannot help themselves. they show their true colors and they did on july 4th. those colors aren't red, white and blue. chris rock's wheat tweet he says happy white people's independence day. the slaves weren't free but i'm sure they enjoyed fireworks. all the people of color around the world who want to get into this country that's who chris rock needs to talk to. not that we whitewash our history but yesterday was a day to celebrate the opportunity the freedom, the uniqueness and exceptionalism of our country. chris rock, you make a living running your mouth off. hey, just like me. that's something to celebrate. you can't do that everywhere else in the world ya know. >> cenk: we eventually gave you freedom and you're still running your mouth off? i can't believe how you don't appreciate it. listen michelle. not everybody writes a book

about how great interment camps were after people like yourself were put in interment camps. maybe she doesn't empathize with them at all. we did put asian americans into interment camps and she thought we should celebrate that. every time you point out the inconvenient parts of u.s. history, chris rock sent a flippant tweet on 4th of july. it wasn't some grand political message about how terrible the country is. he was absolutely right by the way. yeah, they didn't have independence. i don't know if you know this, african-americans during our independence day do you know that? how dare you point that out. now we see your true colors. but they don't just attack chris rock. if anybody goes above, zach braff did on twitter they'll go after them too. >> then there was a tweet from zach braff. it said slaves weren't freed for another 90 years so maybe just enjoy some of the fireworks.

what does that dialogue do between braff and chris rock? doesn't that tear a country apart, michelle? what value does that serve? >> well, i think it exposes the myth of post-racial america that obama was supposed to usher in. >> now first of all you guys were the ones saying hey, it is post-racial, no racial problems anymore now that we've elected a black president. second of all that's a white guy and a black guy agreeing so how is that not post-racial? that doesn't even make any sense. third of all fox news talking about ripping the country apart based on race? is it a joke? are you kidding? let these guys send a couple of tweets that happen to be true and how dare you point out things that are true. everybody pretends slavery didn't happen. it didn't happen, it didn't happen. independence was always great even for the people who weren't independent. now speaking of absurd, john stacel goes on fox news as well. he did an experiment where he was homeless for a couple of hours. wow.

let's see what he learned from that experiment. >> i had heard some people beg for a living and can make big bucks, $80,000 a year in some cases. i made at a rate of about $24,000 tax free. i just did it for a couple of hours. with one sign that said help, i really need help. one sign said i'll be honest with you i just want a beer. i collected the same rate. people just automatically give and you shouldn't give to these street people. you're really supporting alcoholism and drug problems. >> cenk: yeah, you shouldn't give to street people because i did an experiment where i sat outside on my ass and some people were decent enough to think that i wasn't messing with them and thought i really needed help and they gave me money. you see how that proves you shouldn't give money to the poor? wait a minute, didn't you prove they were drunk. you assumed it. now are some homeless people have addiction problems? of course. but does that mean you should condemn all of them? this is the channel that claims

that they're in favor of christian values. is that what jesus christ would have done? you shouldn't help the poor or the homeless? and they call it entitlement in the banner. who's entitled? they're begging for money. and then he says well, in my experiment, it came out to $24,000 but other people say $80,000. look at these guys living in the lap of luxury. but they're not. it is not the christian thing to do to make fun of them. stop pretending you care about christian values at all. when we come back, gay couples get kicked out of pools. what are we? back in the jim crow days of segregation? kicked out of pools for being gay and their kids get kicked out as well. >> i honestly was mad and have a lot to say. truly speechless. said okay, that's fine.

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>> cenk: so the gay rights movement has made a lot of progress recently. anderson cooper came out to andrew sullivan in an e-mail. might have something to do with the fact the president said he was in favor of gay marriage. if that's the case, that's terrific. now frank ocean an r & b singer has come out on his blog. he wrote this... four summers ago i met somebody, i was 19 years old. he was too. we spent that summer and the summer after every day almost. by the time i realized i was in love, it was malignant, it was hopeless, there was no escaping. so basically saying okay, i'm gay. what are you going to do about it? terrific, a lot of people are getting to a point where they say so what, terrific. it is obvious. no one cares anymore. but that's our bubble, right? but a lot of people don't live in that bubble.

and in some parts of the country, it is not like that at all. being gay still has tremendous consequences. in fact, ana is going to tell us about two stories from virginia about just that. what do you have? >> cenk, virginia a perfect example where the gay community is not exactly accepted. i'll give you the example of a gay couple that went to the roanoke athletic club and they wanted to get a membership so their 2-year-old son oliver could go swimming in the pool. they applied for the membership and got approved however nine days later employees found out they were a gay couple and decided to revoke the membership. now this is actually something that has been an issue in virginia for quite awhile. back in 2008, there was a lesbian couple, chandra and nikki ingram that basically got their membership denied at another pool in virginia. now here's what they had to say after they had gotten denied. >> ingram said the rep she talked to was just about to give

them the family membership when she asked when her husband could come in and sign. ingram said the rep then rescinded the offer after learning her partner was a woman. >> i honestly was mad and didn't have a lot to say truly speechless and said okay, that's fine. again, wanting to be a good role model for abby, we walked out at that point. >> we live in california. we're in a bit of a bubble but it is a little unsurprising this is going on in virginia. in fact, they passed an amendment that basically stated that only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this commonwealth and its political subdivisions. now, guys, you know, we're seeing these huge, you know, this huge momentum with the gay community. they're getting acceptance, especially in liberal areas like california. but you know you hear stories like this and it kind of snaps you back into reality and you

realize wow there is still a lot of hateful ignorant people out there. >> cenk: we see the polls. it has gotten to a majority of americans who are in favor of gay marriage. that means there is a little under a majority, about 47% in the latest poll who say we shouldn't have gay marriage at all. that's the least of it. then you have a story ana and i did online of a 4-year-old kid that was shot -- the man in the house thought he was acting gay. it is unbelievable. you see these forms of discrimination. you realize for a large portion of the country this issue is nowhere near resolved and they still treat some americans with tremendous disdain. >> i'm sorry michael. i will say this, even though this happened, it received nationwide attention. there was a petition on change.org/pool. so many people had signed it that the athletic club changed its family policy. now instead of having to be a

man and woman married living in the same household they're allowing people to get a membership if they're an unmarried couple living in the same household. >> the whole idea of these stories is our children and grandchildren will look back at these stories the same way we do from stories of the civil rights movement or the turn of the century of women's rights and say i cannot believe people behaved this way. these people will go down in infamy. stories being told now means they'll be told forever which is good. >> cenk: when i was a kid growing up, i saw those stories and i thought my god will we ever be in a situation like that again. honestly, i thought you know, there isn't going to be good and evil that clearly anymore. we're going to be in a gray zone et cetera. and in a sense a weird admission, i thought we're not going to get to prove ourselves again. earlier generations julian bonn, martin luther king jr. got to prove themselves in the most dramatic and unbelievable ways.

it happens again. they always find an other to attack right? and to hate and to pour their fear and hatred into. in this case they do it to gay people. if you actually cared about what's in the bible and the bible has been used as an excuse forever, they used it during the civil rights era and to discriminate against blacks, divorce is our worst crime than being gay. of course they don't do this against people who are divorced because they feel like they're one of us and we need to find someone we can isolate and hate. >> divorce used to be so taboo. we've progressed to the point where we're much more understanding when a couple does divorce. i do see that the country is progressing and hopefully we'll progress to a point where we're not so judgmental and hateful toward anything or anyone who is different from us. >> the other thing i never understood is public pools. i don't know why people want to go to public pools so bad. >> i hear you. when it is summer and you want to cool off and you don't have a

pool, you go to the public pool. >> i know. >> cenk: all right. thank you guys. now, "viewpoint" is next with eliot spitzer. i'm dying to find out what's in the show. >> eliot: you're dying. i can hear it in your voice. we're going to be doing an analysis of mitt romney's gymnastics. amazing stuff to watch. i want him there in london representing us on the floor exercises. he can't keep his stories straight. changes his mind on everything. he is, in my mind, an invertebrate, no backbones no ideas, unqualified to be president. we'll be talking about that with ben white and sam seder. dick blumenthal will be talking about the politics of the senate and healthcare and the supreme court. it will be great stuff. >> cenk: i like your editorial. >> eliot: i thought you might enjoy that one. >> cenk: we're looking forward to it, eliot. thank you. when we come back, we've got a

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eliot spitzer joins the new news network. >>this show will be unique because we will not settle for the easy answers. we're here because we're independent. ttv