satellite images. i can only equate it to standing in midtown manhattan and being surrounded on all sides by just sheer cliffs. they consolidate their guys, and they start walking towards this village. when we say village i m sure in your heads you think, you know, i don t know what you see in your head for an afghan village. sometimes they re biscuit-colored mud huts, but this village and we use village loosely for this was literally cut into the walls almost, and it was stone houses. these were like castles stacked on top of each other, and they were surrounded almost well, not 360, but almost 360 with these stone houses. and as they re walking up, it takes them a little while to find a path. but they get to the way of the hill to the base of the hill, and the path cuts back and forth in switchbacks up the hill. and they so i know a lot of you veterans, i ve met a few of you here. you know that s bad, number one, because there s only one way up. you know you re in
its five-year mission to explore space. man has always looked at the stars and wondered what s out there. are we alone in the universe? the new book, first contact, shows just how close we might be to answering some of those questions. joining us now is the author and washington post reporter, marc kaufman. marc was just telling me at the break that we re basically now at an interval where we can answer this question. yes. for the first time in human kind, since the beginning of time, people have looked up to the skies and said, is there god up there, is there heaven up there or whatever? we are soon going to be able to tell that there is life, perhaps, on mars, that there is life on exo plants far you have in the distance. so it s going to be an incredibly exciting time as we do stuff that was not possible in the past. do you think we ll find out this week? no. this year? but one of the thing s that s surprising, i did the research here, that there s a massive effort. it
a beautiful, sunny, spring and rather enjoyable day here in new york city. the senate, about to vote on that 2011 budget deal struck by speaker boehner, senator reid, and the president last week. while over in the house, lawmakers about to vote on two separate provisions related to that deal. the first would de-fund obamacare. the second would eliminate funding for planned parenthood. both will likely pass in the house. and both are expected to fail in the senate. so why would they do this? all of these votes, of course, purely political. the goal in the gop-led house of representatives, to pass the measures on to the senate, thus forcing those senators to publicly take a stand in the pro-wrestling arena on the hot button issues of the 2012 elections. and you wonder why i refer to our political process and the two-party absurdity of politicians we behold every day as pro wrestling. and meanwhile, the 2012 spending smackdown also getting underway on top of the gop ryan budget
and appeal to independent voters. well, tonight we re going to look at the big campaign themes of the president, themes he hopes will carry him to re-election next fall. u.s. congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz, the incoming democratic national chairman joins us at the top of the show. then, donald trump s leading the republican presidential field right now and that could mean big trouble for the republican establishment. and speaking of trouble, the right wing is already promising primary challenges for republicans who dared to vote for the budget deal today. well, the bill passed with bipartisan support, even though tea party republicans largely voted against it. so how big a problem does speaker boehner have now on his rightward flank? and catch this. rick santorum is actually trying to defend that wonderful statement of his, i m being sarcastic, that compared gay marriage with man on dog sex. rick s had a hard time with that one and he always will. senator, welcome t