wide spread attack, that it is not even going to be a strategic attack. it is going to really advance the cause of weakening assad s military force. so this is what we have seen the united states do in the 80s and 90s, lob a few missiles into a foreign country to send a message. but as richard wolf says the only message we send is that the united states isn t capable of doing anything but sending a message. if all we are going to do is send a message why do anything at all? i think this might be a little bit different, joe, from the other instances you cited in that the setup for this with all of the information coming out of washington is to when this attack might take place, where it might take place, what the
so i made sure i was home. it was during summer vacation between my junior and senior year in high school. so i was home sitting in a white leather reclining chair in our den and i turned the speech on. let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of new york. let freedom ring from the alleghenys of pennsylvania. i don t think the fundamental meaning of the speech has changed at all. i still think it is poetic and powerful and beautiful and wise. live look at the mall in washington. at the top of the hour welcome back to morning joe. mike barnacle still with us. joining us carl bernstein. former adviser to president obama and msnbc contributor david axelrod. and in washington and host of
according to a report from foreign policy magazine the u.s. has all but confirmed the chemical attack after intelligence officers intercepted phone calls. the reaction to a military operation in syria from washington has been mixed. nearly two dozen members of the house have signed a letterer demanding president obama consult congress before launching air strikes. senator john mccain went as far as to blame the president for what is happening in syria saying assad was able to use chemical weapons before and there was no response so why not do it again. the assad regime reviewed that not as a red line but as a green light and they acted accordingly. let s clarify the american objective here. is there any hint of regime change? is there any hint of going after
about the geography of the mind that is what i was talking about. the people who marched in washington asked for equality and they got the quest for integration. so it is harder to legislate what people think and how they think and attitudes that they have. you can t legislate away the way people respond to a young black kid if they are automatically afraid of him or a young latino kid if they have expectations of whether or not they speak english. those are the things the president has been willing to talk about to confront. it is hard to talk about race. and it is very hard for politicians to talk about race. and this president has shown a certain degree of courage in taking those things on. he will talk about the economic agenda and about the we, the idea that all americans have to be introspective and look inside themselves and figure out what they can do to contribute to
believe if they can gum up the works and make the law fail, they ll somehow be sticking it to me, but they would just be sticking it to you. reporter: before he left for vacation, president obama talked about republicans and said, quote, their unifying principle is making sure 30 million people don t have health care. heather? peter doocy from washington. the campaign to oust embattled san diego mayor bob filner is under way. filner, a democrat, accused of sexual harassment by 16 different women. 70-year-old former congressman did a week of rehab, but so far refused a slew of calls to resign, including requests from his city council, even some of his former colleagues in congress. now more than 1100 volunteers are hitting the streets in an organized effort to throw filner out of office. we are precisely where we should be. we re not off by a day. me, i am personally excited, elated. i want to see this happen as