screen, share your thoughts on twitter @edshow and on facebook. i want to know what you think. coming up, republicans are teaching kids austerity through some shameful lunchroom policies. you will not believe this story. a famous chef joins me and the rapid response panel. first, congress stalls while corporations lead the way on $10.10. that s the minimum wage.
this is what you were looking for. this is the smoking gun. it s clearly there is a connection between scott walker and the activities of his staff, some who have already been convicted. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. on the s question do you think scott walker is guilty? text a for yes, b for no to 67622. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we ll bring results later. for more, the reporter on this story, ruth conniff of the progressive magazine. when this document came out yesterday, we at the ed show asked ruth and her staff to go through these 27,000 e-mails and don t miss anything, make sure that the information is tight to the public before ig is reported. ruth, good to have you with us tonight. the headlines across wisconsin today are very pointed and very damaging. from your reporting, where s the smoking gun in this? well, the big smoking gun is
takers. this is what happens when there is a culture developing to cut everything and now it s down to the elementary school level. humiliating children with a socioeconomic situation that they were born into. when was the last time on the face of this earth you could pick your parents? i think we need to wake up to this story and i think we need to pay attention to the potential damage that we are doing to kids, and i think austerity has gone too far. do i think parents should pay for their kids lunches? yes, i do. do i think that there are some parents out there across america who can t afford it? yes, i do. but i don t think that we should throw the kids under the bus and stamp them. before you know it, they re going to be stamping their forehead. maybe it ll be a comical thing in the schools. i find it absolutely disgusting. joining me now on a rapid response panel is famous chef and food activist tom collichio
and child psychiatrist jennifer harstein. tom, you first. i want your reaction to this story. you have been active. you have done wonderful things fighting hunger in this country. what is your response, sir, when you hear about schoolkids lunc because they may come from a background that they can t afford it on that particular day? sure. my mother ran a school lunch program in elizabeth, new jersey, where i grew up. this isn t new. she s told me stories about kids who got to the cash register, they didn t have the money on their cards, but the policy there was to make sure the kids were fed. and my mother made sure that that happened. i think partly because she was a mother first, and so she understood the importance of making sure that kids had food and they had proper nutrition. and i think we can focus on school lunch, but we also need to focus on breakfast.
writing talking points for his own staff, it s clear he was very deeply involved in this campaign operation, which we know took place on this illegal private secret e-mail network in his office. if you look at the map, which is exhibit a in the criminal complaint against his former staffer whose e-mails came out today, it is amazing how close together everybody sat. when walker says in an e-mail no more laptops, you know, we have to put this stuff away, it s pretty clear that he saw it, walked past it every day, and also that he was managing this stuff. so i don t think he can come out and reassure people, ed, which is why he s not doing it. also he s the first governor in in the history of the state to set up his own criminal defense fund, which he just put more money into, and he sat around for hours with prosecutors as governor and had conversations. be interesting to hear the details of that talk. ruth continue fif of the progressive magazine, great journalism. we ll keep on this