622639. we'll read the best responses later in the show. the next 30 minutes will be your cram session for this friday, may 25th as you head into memorial day weekend. a lot to get to before you go, including the one-week mark of facebook's ipo. what in the world happened there, and where to go from here. we'll discuss that in a live report from london. plus, democracy, ukrainian-style. look at this. for all you young civic students out there watching, this is how a bill becomes a law in the ukraine. fists fly. shirts are ripped off. we'll tell you what set off this burst of legislative debate a bit later in the show. first, though, to the news. live at 5:30 a.m. here at 30 rock in new york city. the week in presidential politics is closing the way it began with a battle over business and the competing views of mitt romney's time at bain capital. president obama says romney's time there as corporate ceo was focused far more on turning a profit for investors than on keeping american workers on the job. speaking last night to supporters in iowa, the president challenged not only romney's record but his vision for the future. >> he doesn't really talk about what he did in massachusetts. but he does talk about being a business guy. he says this gives him a special understanding of what it takes to create jobs and grow the economy. even if he's unable to offer a single new idea about how to do that, no matter how many times he's asked about it, he says he knows how to do it. the challenge we face right now, the challenge we faced for over a decade is that harder work hasn't led to higher incomes. bigger profits haven't led to better jobs. and you can't solve that problem if you can't even see that it's a problem. >> you know these themes by heart by now. romney's campaign says an attack on bain capital is an attack on free enterprise. the campaign framing the republican candidate as a skilled manager who pulled companies back from the brink of bankruptcy. romney says president obama simply does not appreciate what's involved in building a business. >> there's no question but that he's attacking capitalism. in part, i think, because he doesn't understand how the free economy works. he's never had a job in the free economy. neither has vice president biden. they spent their lives as either community organizers or as members of the political class. frankly, the american people understand that the free economy and free enterprise is tough. it's hard work. and when they hear that a business like bain capital was successful 80% of the time and 5% of its investments only went bankrupt they say that's a pretty good record. and if all the president wants to do is talk about the failures, he's misrepresenting the nature of free enterprise. >> you'll continue to hear that refrain throughout the campaign. some interesting new polling. "the washington post"/abc news poll came out this week. something that popped up yesterday. mitt romney holding a big advantage over president obama among white voters who are struggling financially. white voters struggling financially. 58% say romney would do more to advance their family's economic interest. only 32% say president obama would be better on that issue. as far as campaigning goes, next week, donald trump will be hosting a fund-raiser for mitt romney in las vegas where newt gingrich is also expected to stop by. donald, meanwhile, is floating the idea of starting his own superpac to influence the general election. back in washington, members of both parties say they support the idea of cheaper student loans. they just can't agree on how to pay for it. on july 1st, loan rates will double. double from 3.4% to 6.8%. that means a higher cost of college for some 7 million students. the senate yesterday knocked down two different proposals to fund the $6 billion subsidy. democrats pushed a plan to end a tax break provision for business owners making more than $250,000 a year. that measure fell nine votes short of moving forward. republicans, meanwhile, suggested they eliminating part of the president's health care law. just 34 senators supported that idea. president obama has repeatedly hammered republicans on this issue. he did that during a series of appearances at college campuses last month prompting house speaker john boehner to accuse the white house of politicizing something that has bipartisan support in keeping those interest rates low. with the senate in recess next week for memorial day, time to find a compromise is running short. again, that date is july the 1st. now to some business news. it's been one week now since facebook rolled out its highly anticipated ipo. its market debut started with a technical glitch at nasdaq and things haven't gotten much better from there. shares of the company remain nearly 13% below the $38 offering price of a week ago. despite closing up the past two sessions. lawsuits continue to pile up forcing the company to address accusations that its underwriters withheld important information from investors just days before the launch. cnbc's geoff cutmore joins us live from london for much more. one week in. what happened? >> what a disaster, quite frankly. and it's been a week of soul searching, not least for facebook, morgan stanley has also had to answer a number of questions about what it -- what its analysts were doing and how the facebook pricing took place. was it the right price to take it to the market? were they too greedy? of course, the nasdaq. the role of the nasdaq omx in getting this away and why weren't orders successfully completed. fidelity now saying they have thousands of brokerage clients potentially who are unhappy about the way claims were fulfilled. and a number of companies that were key in this story suggesting that there's potentially hundreds or $100 million worth of liabilities that they may go after the nasdaq for over the trading glitches around the first day of this ipo. so even though we are one week away from the ipo, we know it's going to be many weeks yet before we have a resolution of many of these legal issues over what happened with this facebook ipo. and we are still weak on the price compared to the ipo number. >> we know facebook publicly urging patience saying this is a good company. we will build. geoff cutmore, thanks so much. have a great weekend. we appreciate it. it was exactly 33 years ago today -- 33 years ago today -- 6-year-old etan patz disappeared while waiting for a school bus in new york city. now for the first time in the long and painful public case, a suspect will face charges for etan patz murder. police say pedro hernandez who worked at a convenience store near the boy's home has confessed to the crime. patz from the bus stop with the promise of a soda only to choke him to death and dump his body in the trash about a block away. the stunning development comes just weeks after the fbi, you'll remember, searched the basement of another building in the lower manhattan neighborhood where patz lived after a police dog alerted officers to possible human remains. although that search came up empty, police commissioner ray kelly here in new york city says the renewed attention to the case generated a tip that led them to mr. hernandez. >> early this month, the nypd missing persons squad received information from an individual which led them to identify hernandez as a person of interest. in the years following etan's disappearance, hernandez had told a family member and others that he had, quote, done a bad thing and killed a child in new york. >> this is, of course, front page news here in new york city. so far, police do not have a motive in the killing. etan patz case triggered the movement to put pictures of missing kids on milk cartons. today, may 25th, is national missing children's day. designated by president reagan in 1983 to draw attention to child abductions. and now again on the 33rd anniversary of his disappearance, there has been an arrest in the death of etan patz. members of the senate appropriations committee are sending a clear message to pakistan by voting 30-0 to slash foreign aid to the country. the senators cut $33 million in assistance, $1 million for each year of prison sentence handed down to a pakistani doctor who helped the cia hunt for osama bin laden. as nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell reports, it's adding more tension to an already troubled relationship. >> reporter: jail, sent to prison for 33 years for treason. shakil afridi, the pakistani doctor who secretly helped the u.s. hunt down osama bin laden. >> his help, after all, was instrumental in taking down one of the world's most notorious murderers. >> to somehow allege that under any country's law that this doctor violated any law is, of course, just beyond ludicrous. it's outrageous. >> reporter: the doctor working for the cia collected dna samples from the residents of the abbottabad house trying to prove bin laden was there. but pakistan says he was a spy. according to president zardari's son. even though his own mother benazir bhutto was killed. >> anyone with foreign intelligence, even of a friendly country, anywhere in the world, that's a crime. >> reporter: pakistan has yet to explain how bin laden managed to hide in plain sight for years. >> and to find that the pakistanis now aren't trying to answer the question who was hiding osama bin laden, but who helped us find him? and that's outrageous. >> reporter: plus, pakistan has cut supply lines to u.s. forces in afghanistan. retaliating after the u.s. refused to apologize for killing 24 pakistani soldiers in a border raid last year. >> nbc's andrea mitchell reporting for us. pakistan, of course, still upset about the u.s. drone program used to target militants in that country's border region. just yesterday, eight suspected fighters were killed in an american air strike. sill still ahead on "way too early," lebron james and dwyane wade do it again, putting together a huge night to bounce indiana from the playoffs on their home floor. highlights. plus, snoop's pretty good ceremonial first pitch in chicago. that's ahead in sports. plus, a couple d.c. heavyweights step into "hardball's" squared circle. chris versus newt. and a check on weather when "way too early" comes right back. i believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. no single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space. another morning of rain. i mean, it's like five days in a row. five days in a row. it's 5:45 in the morning. a live picture of the plaza outside our building. that's no way to send us off to memorial day weekend. let's see if it's going to get any better. bill karins? >> slowly, but not so much for new york today. looks like we'll have to wait for saturday for a warm, beach-like day. a lot of fog. a lot of drizzle. southern new england through jersey. numerous showers popping up. we'll do more thunderstorms and downpours all afternoon long. so just prepare for that if you are doing any early travel. i-95, jersey turnpike up to southern new england. again, very humid and just until we get some drier air moving in, we'll remain with a forecast like this probably through at least early saturday morning. here's what's happening around the rest of the country. cold, chilly air in the northern rockies. all the hot air built up in the southwest of texas is beginning to spread across the country. near 90 in areas like atlanta, d.c. and the carolinas. kansas city, same for you. other areas are dry and very warm. saturday shaping like a very nice day. the troublesome whether is the further north you get. up there along the border with canada. by sunday, still a chance of afternoon storms. even areas like new york city and southern new england. but they'll not be all day long. most of the day will be sunny with a typical afternoon storms that will pop up. the only problem area, got to watch the southeast this weekend. there's a possibility we could get a tropical storm or maybe a subtropical storm forming that by sunday and monday would head toward jacksonville, daytona beach. so that could be the headline as you go through your weekend. >> tough barbecue weather a lot of places in the country this weekend. >> dodging thunderstorms. >> sneak it in when you can. let's turn to sports. the miami heat coming off back-to-back dominant performances in games four and five against the pacers with their backs against the wall. down 2-1 in the series. had a chance to close out that series last night in indiana and return to the eastern conference finals. second quarter, off the pacers' miss, the heat push it. dwyane wade with a behind the back pass. lebron takes about seven steps and dunks. heat go up four. heat building on their lead. lebron hits a hook shot. wow. sky hook. fades away. 28 points. wade splitting defenders. wade had just five points in game three. had 41 last night. heat win and the series in six games with the victory. they return to the eastern conference finals. they will face the winner of tomorrow night's game seven between the celtics and the sixers. the western conference finals, by the way, between the thunder and spurs begins sunday night in san antonio. to baseball, justin verlander taking the hill for the tigers. trying to avoid a sweep at the hands of the first place, yes, the first place cleveland indians. shin su-chu leading off the game. 444 feet. tied at one in the fourth. lopez comes up with the two-out single. puts the indians up a run. then andy dirks pops up to the second baseman. tom brookins wants a balk called on the ball. the first base coach gets run. gets his money's earth. jimmy leland wanted a piece of the action. he's thrown out as well. not a great trip to cleveland for the tigers. they lose 2-1 and fall six games back of the indians in the a.l. central. remember last year's nlcs when a squirrel ran on to the field n interrupted play at busch stadium? he made a few cameo appearances. last night the cardinals and phillies. something else ran on to the field. streaker interrupted play in the seventh inning. take a closer look at his tattoo. it says hakuna matada. that's a line from "the lion king." it keeps getting more weird. he told police he ran on the field because he lost a bet. probably the same reason for the horrific tattoo. it was bring your dog to the ballpark day in the south side of chicago. so who would you invite to throw out the first pitch if you are the chicago white sox? of course you would. snoop dogg. the dogfather himself. not a ton of velocity. an ethos pitch. right down the pipe. kind of hit the top of the strike zone. afterwards, snoop takes a moment to tebow. speaking of tebow, he was at the jets organized team activities in new jersey. a long way to say practice. he moved to a new spot where his throwing accuracy was not a concern. special teams wearing his red noncontact jersey, tebow took the field with the punk coverage unit as the personal protector for the punter. asked after practice if he'd ever made a tackle on special teams in his football career, tebow responded, quote, i would have to say never. coming up on "morning joe," another fight over mitt romney's business background. does it make him fit to be president? the president seems not to think so. we'll knock that around with our "morning joe" crew. when we come back here, we'll huddle around the water cooler to watch fists fly in the ukrainian parliament as they so often do. "way too early" coming right back as you listen to onyx. '92? '93? so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. president obama and mitt romney continued yesterday their exhausting fight over romney's record at bain capital. and we've still got five months of this to go. tell your friends where bain capital actually falls in the list of the top ten for largest private equity firms in the world. tpg of ft. worth, texas, tops the list raising $49 billion in capital over the last five years. bain has raised $21 billion. good enough for ninth on the list. bain manages $60 billion in assets in companies ranging from dunkin' donuts to guitar center. now for the real news. let's huddle around the water cooler to watch chris matthews on "hardball" finding common ground with newt gingrich over their shared love of animals. gingrich spent the better part of his presidential campaign visiting america's zoos. well it turns out chris enjoys a good zoo as well. >> i think you are the only presidential candidate ever to basically go zoo to zoo. what's you and animals about? >> i love the natural world. i love animals, whether they are out in the wild, i love animals in zoos. >> okay. best zoo in the country? >> oh, san diego. >> best animal. favorite animal? >> favorite animal to go watch? hard to say. maybe elephants. >> do you like the reptile house? >> yes. >> why do you like the reptile house? >> because most people are afraid to go in there. >> they do it in a totally different way than we do and they've been successful for a very long time. >> favorite snake? >> probably a python. why? big and passive. >> constricter? you like the constricter aspect? >> no, i think they oar. >> you like that they eat cows whole. >> they don't eat cows whole. >> a black mambo. you have 15 minutes to live. they attack like this and keep attacking. >> you have a more ruthless approach to politics than i do. >> was that on tv? that was sensational. why do you like the reptile house? he's always playing "hardball." you have to love democracy. here it's a little slow sometimes. you watch c span and they have the numbers up on the screen. if you want real fighting democracy go to the ukraine. this is a brawl yesterday in ukraine's parliament. this is inside the parliament. over a bill -- this is why they were fighting -- that would allow the use of russian as an official language in parts of the country where russian speakers are in the majority. shirts ripped off. people just throwing hands. the idea violently as you can see opposed by lawmakers who want to tain main ukraine's political and cultural independence so they came out swinging. 2010 in ukraine, a massive fight against opposition leaders. this is a different fight. this is december of 2010. chairs thrown and all. this is really happening across the world. democracy breaking out everywhere. another historic brawl. south korea 2005. let's take you back there. screaming and wrestling over the privatization of media. oh, look at that move. all over the world. ukrainian democracy. still ahead, why your awake? you are totally checked out for the weekend. tweets and texts and e-mails are next. 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