it's "way too early" for this. good morning. i'm mike barniclen for willie geist. this is "way too elderly" a show that pitched a two-hitter against "wake up with al" last night. i'm glad you are up with us watching on msnbc or listening live on sirius xm radio. shoot me an e-mail, let us know why you're awake right now. or you can do what the freak does and text the word "awake" followed by your response to 622639. we're going to read the best responses later in the show. the next 30 minutes will be your cram session for this friday, october 8th. there's a lot going on today, including carl paladino's latest political ad. this one, you have to see it to believe it. and no willie, no worries.

i'll still have a full recap of last night's "jersey shore." and this episode was particularly trashy. first, let's get to the news live at 5:30 a.m. here at 30 rock in new york city. what would a friday at the cooler be without a little jersey shore. last night mike "the situation ""was on the line. what happened this week? you know something? we have the wrong text up there. we will go -- that's jerry brown. he doesn't even look like anything out of "jersey shore." all right there he is. the campaign of california democratic gubernatorial candidate jerry brown is now apologizing after one of his aides was heard on an audio recording referring to republican rival meg whitman as -- the comment was captured by a voicemail machine. after the state attorney general called the los angeles protective league in september to ask for its endorsement.

brown apparently believed he had hung up the phone, but the connection remained intact and recorded his conversation with an aide, where brown apparently discusses his frustration with whitman potentially cutting a deal to protect law enforcement pensions and winning that league's endorsement. >> do we want to put an ad out? that i have been warned, if i crack down on pensions, i will be -- that they'll go whitman? whitman will cut a deal that i won't. well i'm going to use that. it proves you've cut a secret deal to protect the pensions. >> i know jerry is in his 70s, you take the phone and put it in the cradle in response, meg whitman's camp said this, the use of the term whore is an insult to both meg whitman and the women of california.

this is an appalling and unforgivable smear against met whilman. mr. brown approved the despicable slur and he himself may have used the term at least once in the recording. the brown campaign said the brown campaign was using the notion of cutting a deal to use endorsements not to use the word whore in the manner it's always used. they issued this apology, this was a jumbled and often inaudible recording of a private conversation. at times our language was salty. we apologize to ms. whitman and anyone who may have been offended. the latest reuters/ipsos poll shows brown leading whitman 50% to 43%. christine o'donnell is br k breaking her previous pledge to stop speaking to the national media, declaring she's not the person she was 20 years ago appearing on cnn, o'donnell

addressed the tapes from bill maher's show where she said she dabbled in witchcraft. >> have you been embarrassed but those clips? >> no i haven't been embarrassed. i'm not saying i'm proud. obviously what they're trying to do is paint a picture of who i was 20 years ago. you know, i've matured in my faith, i've matured in my policies. today you have a 40-something running for office, not a 20-year-old. >> o'donnell also has a new ad where she once again informs voters that she is "you." >> i didn't go to yale. i didn't inherit millions like my opponent. i'm you. i know how tough it is to make and keep a dollar. when some tried to push me from this race, they saw what i was made of. and so will the senate if they try to increase our taxes one

more dime. i'm christine o'donnell, and i approve this message. i'm you. >> in referencing o'donnell's first ad where she declared i'm not a witch, sarah palin told o'donnell to use the word witchcraft and use it more often. >> she should use witchcraft and expose the voodoo economics, and why she is trying to get to washington, d.c. to get truth back to the people. >> do you think people think we're making this stuff up that we're showing? new york republican gubernatorial candidate carl paladino is not apologizing in the wake of last week's public confrontation in which he threatened to take out "new york post" reporter fred dicker.

paladino said he is trying to change the focus of the race to personal and sensitive issues. he also takes a shot at andrew cuomo's legendary prowess. >> for weeks the media has badgered me about affairs, because i acknowledged my daughter. what i meant to express in my anger is this, does the media ask andrew such questions? andrew's prowess is legendary. no. this campaign must be about bigger issues, not affairs or divorces, because our state is in a death spiral. >> former house speaker newt gingrich is predicting a windfall for republicans this november saying the gop will pick up over 60 seats in the house of representatives. >> i'm going to be a little more optimistic. i think this tide is continuing

to build. i think the 10.1% unemployment number by gallop is going to be devastating. i think food stamps versus paychecks is powerful. so i will predict that we are probably going to be over 60-seat pick up, and it will be historic, the largest pick up since 1932. >> his comments come as a new cbs poll among likely voters shows republicans hold an eight-point advantage over democrats in the generic ballot, 45% to 37%. regardless of what happens in this year's midterms, david plouffe thinks the tea party movement will end up hurting the gop since it will make it impossible for moderate republican candidates to run for president and ultimately get elected. plouffe said if you're a moderate republican thinking about running for office in 2011 or 2012, you need to have your head examined. they're not going to do it, because this dynamic is only

going to increase. white house press secretary robert gibbs is pushing back on an explosive report blasting the obama administration's response to this summer's gulf oil spill disaster. that investigation found that in the early days of the spill the white house may have blocked the disclosure of the worst-case estimates of the amount of oil flowing into the gulf it criticized the president's energy adviser for comments she made in august claiming "the vast majority of the oil is gone." at the white house press briefing yesterday, gibbs said he didn't think the report reflected a lot of the context. >> i think it's important to understand that our response attacked the oil spill in an unprecedented way. no information was altered. no information was withheld. and nothing in the report had

anything to do with the robust response. >> and another new report is slamming america's heavy reliance on private security forces in afghanistan. saying they aat they often bene the taliban. there is significant evidence that some security contractors work against coalition forces and pay kickbacks to warlords. the chairman of the committee, carl levin, adds that the u.s.'s failure to vet, train and supervise afghan security contractors has cost american lives, undermined the u.s. mission and "helped play into the hands of the enemy." let's take an early look at the markets as we get all up in your business this morning. carolyn schober is live in zurich for us. >> reporter: good morning to you. it looks like president obama will pocket veto a bill that

would have allowed foreclosure documents to be accepted not just in the state that they were issued in or signed in but in multiple states. the white house is worried about processing the sheer numbers of those documents and that it would speed up foreclosures. the big focus of the day will be the nonfarm payroll numbers for the month of september. economists are expecting a drop of around 10,000 jobs that follows the 45,000 jobs drop in the month of august. as for the unemployment rate itself, that is seen ticking higher to 9.7%, and that would be the highest level since the month of may which is actually a good sign because more people are reentering the work force, they see higher chances of finding a job. that's it from here for the moment. back over to. still ahead on "way too early," tim lincecum delivers in last night's victory against the braves, but was it a

questionable umpiring call that made the difference? after 64 days trapped underground, there might be light at the end of the tunnel for the miners, but do they know how close they are to freedom? that story and a check on weather when "way too early" comes right back. that's going to go right in your glove. ohhh.

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let's go for it... around the bowl and... [ male announcer ] share what you love... with who you love. mmmmm. kellogg's frosted flakes... they're g-r-r-reat! good catch, dad. [ laughs ] as a part time sales associate with walmart. when william came in i knew he had everything he needed to be a leader in this company. [ william ] after a couple of months, i was promoted to department manager. like, wow, really? me? a year later, i was promoted again. walmart even gave me a grant for my education. recently, he told me he turned down a job at one of the biggest banks in the country. this is where i want to be. i fully expect william will be my boss one day. my name is william and i work at walmart. ♪ my name is william and i work at walmart. home of one of the coldest, longest nights on the planet. and asked frequent heartburn sufferers, like carl, to put prilosec otc's 24 hour heartburn protection to the test for two weeks. the results? i can concentrate on everything i'm doing, not even think about it anymore.

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right now. but let's get a check right now on our weather from nbc's crack meteorologist bill karins. we want playoff weather. >> did you see that picture? throw that back up. i think the ice rink is up already down there. is it that time of year already? >> you're our weatherman, you tell us. >> it's supposed to be like 75 degrees. i guess they get the ice out early. the ice is up at 30 rock. as far as the forecast goes today, it's a simple one. we still have our topical storm out there, it's heading away from puerto rico today. bring the sunglasses, the umbrella can be left alone for four, five days here. bright sunshine, 70 to about 75 degrees today from southern new england to the mid-atlantic. new england looks great. it won't be as windy as yesterday either. forecast for around the country looks fantastic. we will be about 78 in chicago. even minneapolis, you just had a miserable couple nights in baseball. weather-wise, 82 and sunny.

atlanta, 81. into your weekend forecast, nothing changes, 80s across the board. as far as the east coast goes, it looks nice this is about as good as it gets for fall. >> minneapolis, you should have put up 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position. >> i feel bad. we'll give them a win on saturday night. >> i'll mark it down. we will continue with sports because one day after roy halladay delivered the second no-hitter in postseason history, there was another spectacular pitching performance last night. last year's cy young award winner, tim lincecum, "the freak" and his giants took on the braves. lincecum was nearly unhittable. second inning striking out the side. boom. pitched a complete game in 119 pitches. struck out 14. there is a problem here. buster posey trying to steal second, clearly out. called safe, all right? there's buster standing on

second base. he's safe. two outs, umpire called him safe. replay shows second baseman brooks conner got the tag down. a few batters lately, cody ross singled to left scoring posey. that's the only run of the game. giants 1, braves 0. bobby cox loses again. they still have another game to play. couple more games to play. yankees and twins. top of the seventh, tied at two. carl pavano's pitch, strike? no. right down the pipe, wasn't a strike? okay. hunter wendellstat called it a ball. gets another rip at it. boom. there it goes. doubled to center. yankees take a 3-2 lead. ron gardenhire, he was angry. see you later. tossed from the game. yankees won 5-2. they lead the series two games to none. poor ronnie, good season out there, they're in trouble.

another questionable call, rays and rangers. chad qualls, michael young at-bat. did he go around? a judgment call by the umpire. the umpire said he didn't. you be the judge here. you think he went around? all right. you know what's going to happen here? next pitch, michael young takes advantage. three-run homer. joe madden, like ron gardenhire, mad and gone. thrown out of the game. rangers win 6-0. they are one victory away from winning their first playoff series in franchise history. here are the games today. phillies take on the reds at 6:00 p.m. the giants play the braves at 9:30. the end may be in sight for the 33 men who have been trapped underground since the august 5th mine collapse. >> reporter: for two months at camp hope, signs of progress that the families of the miners

can actually see have been few. but that's changing. on the surface parts of a giant crane, which will lower and hoist the steel capsules which will bring the miners to the surface. also being put into place is the mobile hospital unit which will be the miners first stop on their return to the world. there is not long to go now says this relative. a breakthrough maybe on sunday or between saturday and sunday. the drills keep hammering away and half a mile below the miners work shifts to clear up the debris the drills produce. to avoid disappointing them should something go wrong, the miners have not been told exactly how much progress is being made. but on the surface, chile's mining minister made a prediction. we are advancing pretty well in plan b. we will restart the drilling

process and we are hoping that we can get contact more or less this saturday. depending if whether we have to do change in the hammer or not. could be a little bit earlier, but we are making this date for sunday -- excuse me, saturday. this rocky patch of desert has turned into an extraordinary place. if the engineers have got it right, the extraordinary story going on below is just days away from the happy ending this country so desperately wants. >> that's an amazing story. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," the race to be the next governor of california taking a nasty turn. we'll have more on the fallout from comments made by someone in the jerry brown campaign. and when we come back here, we'll huddle around the water cooler where bristol and levi go head to head in a battle of the music video stars. mom, did you borrow my green shirt? ♪ that's not really my style honey.

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obesity in america is not taking just a physical toll, it is taking a professional and economic one as well. if you want to sound smart today, tell your friends that obese workers cost u.s. employers over $73 billion each year. mostly because of less productivity due to health problems. that's according to a study

published in the journal of occupational and environmental medicine. but enough with the real news, let's gather around the water cooler to talk about the mindless trivia you crave, okay? let's kick the weekend off right. take a few moments this friday to preorder willie geist's new book "american freak show." how many hours? 90 hours. only 90 hours left before that book is on the stands. you can preorder now at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com. earlier this week, we had the shocking video of levy johnson's video, and bristol palin found a way of getting back at levi for making a steamy video. what was her revenge? making her own video. the have a debuted yesterday in

it, palin dons an oversized coat with icy lashes. here is a clip with insight from bristol. ♪ >> i think my role was like a mother nature role. i wore a mink fur coat with a big fur hat. my eyebrows yes all iced. >> this is a great country. what would a friday at the cooler be without a little "jersey shore." what happened this week? the situation slapped snooki in the face. let's take a look. >> i'm like the leader of this group. i'm the [ bleep ] daddy of this house. i say what goes. if i say we're leaving, we're leavin

leaving. >> ugh. ugh. still ahead on "way too early," why are you awake? your text and e-mails are next and "morning joe" is moments away. [ female announcer ] introducing splenda® no calorie sweetener granulated with fiber. sweet! [ female announcer ] tastes like sugar and has 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon. use it almost anywhere you use sugar. even in cooking and baking. sweet! [ female announcer ] splenda® granulated with fiber.

all right. top story on msnbc.com this morning, true story, do those sexy cancer awareness campaigns ever work? that's the top story. no kidding. at the top of the show, we asked you why are you awake? well, our ace crack intern, first day doing this producer rob gifford has the answers. rob? >> all right. benny writes, mike, it's good to see you're up and about after the shellacking notre dame gave bc on saturday. >> that's it? of course i am. my walker has wheels on it. what else do we got? anything else.