and comedian bill mahre matches his political sympathies with 1 million bucks. we'll tell you who gets the we'll tell you who gets the money. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com we begin first with the increasingly shrill politics of what you're paying at the gas pump. in today's case it's 3 cents a gal more than yesterday. aaa says the national average is just under $3.65 a gal, 12 cents higher than it was at the beginning of the week. this is the 18th straight day gas prices are up. the political blame game moved into high gear during this week's cnn presidential debate when newt gingrich said he had a plan to get gas prices back to 2.50 a gallon, a notion president obama ridiculed during a stop in florida. >> only in politics do people root for bad news. do they greet bad news so enthusiastically. you pay more, they're licking their chops. and you can bet that since it's an election year they're already dusting off their three-point plan for $2 gas. >> and today in washington state, gingrich called the president's speech on gas prices "nonsense." >> there's no reason we can't get back to a reasonably-priced gasoline around 2.50 a gallon. the fact is yesterday's speech was political baloney. this president has no interest in low, the price of gasoline and diesel. he has no interest in solving the problem of american energy independence. >> the fight continues. let's bring in our chief political correspondent candy crowley, the host of of cnn's "state-of-the-union." candy, it seems like we hear this a lot but more going forward? >> especially in an election season where the prices are going up at the wrong times. listen. it isn't so much gas prices as it is that it fits into both party's thematic political year issues. so the president can say, as oil profits, big company oil profits are bound to go up. they always do when gas prices are so high. and the president can say, this is why i want to get rid of their loopholes. they're making all this money and the consumers are being gouged, et cetera, et cetera. you also hear that the republicans are protecting their rich friend on wall street because they won't go ahead with some ways to kind of stop the oil profits from going up. now, the republican side? what is their big thing? their big thing is that the president is a tool of radical environmentalists. so they go back to the pipeline that they wanted built. they go back to where they want to drill where the president isn't drilling. so it fits nicely into the themes they have. and both of them are using it, frankly. because the fact is, this isn't the fault of the president. it isn't the fault of much except for iran. anybody i talked to today said this is about iran, china, and india. like two booming economies that are going to need more and more oil, and then the insecurity of the middle east. >> and everyone pays -- it's an easy number for everyone to grab on. to the price of the pump they can follow that. what it comes down, to candy, do americans vote on gas prices? >> if it's $12 a gallon in november i suppose they will. but we've seen them go up and then we've seen them come down. so if this is where it's going and it's going to start coming down as we've seen with previous spikes, no. i don't think they vote specifically on that. but if it keeps continuing and we do hit really high prices in november, look, that eats into people's spendable money. i mean, that's something like anything that happens to your house and anything that happens to your car is something you totally understand. >> absolutely. big weekend coming up. candy crowley, host of "state-of-the-union." we will watch. want to continue the conversation on gasses. let's bring in lizzy o' leary into the conversation. politicians can produce plenty of hot air but can they do anything about the price at the pump? >> reporter: not really. this is what candy was talking about in terms of what actually drives gas prices. that's what we wanted to break down for you. when you look at the prices you're talking about some $3.65 a gal. what goes into that? what are the force that is actually move that? and mostly what you see is yeah, there's some costs of refining gas and taxes, but it's oil. there you see more than three-quarters of the price of a gallon of gas comes from oil. that price moves because of tensions in the middle east. big economies that are growing like india and china, and then of course sort of the idea that there are a whole markets of people who bet on the prices of oil. and you want to see how much that affects what you're buying, go back ten years. when the price of oil really only composed about 37% of what goes into a gallon of gas. and then it was only a little over $1. so that shows you how the impact here is really shaped by the oil market. that's the big one. it's a global market. it's traded all across the world, kate. and that's what drives the price of a gallon of gas. >> at the very same time, lizzy, there are increasing calls for more regulation to help curb these prices. what's going on there? >> reporter: one of the things that happened in the dodd frank bill was something essentially called a position limit. that means if you're trading oil they want to say x person kate you can't trade more than a certain percentage. there's a lawsuit about that now. the financial industry said, we don't like that. we don't like that model. we don't want someone telling us how much we can trade. it actually goes to court on monday. that's the first legal salvo to see if there will be some limits put on how much people can trade in the very volatile oil markets. >> and when it's in court it means it's going to be a little while before anything happens one way or the other. >> reporter: yes. >> our aviation and regulation correspondent lizzy o' leary. thanks so much, lizzy. in another major story tonight, president obama and most world leaders are banging the drum even louder demanding an end to the bloodshed in syria. >> it is absolutely imperative for the international community to rally and send a clear message to president assad that it is time for a transition, it is time for that regime to move on, and it is time to stop the killing of syrian citizens by their own government. >> cnn's michael holmes is monitoring the desperate situation in syria where at least 91 people died today. he joins me now from beirut, lebanon. michael, thank you so much for taking the time. we understand the international red cross was allowed into homs tonight. what were they able to do, michael? is this a sign of progress? >> reporter: you've got to say that it is, kate, a sign of some progress. let's be cautious about it at the moment. it was the rc, the syrian red crescent who actually moved into that bee sieged homs neighborhood that we heard so much about that has been sealed off, three weeks of constant bombardment. their aim was to go in and evacuate not just the two wounded journalists who are in there waiting to be taken out but also in their words all persons in need of help without exception. they did one trip in with some ambulances. they came out with seven badly-wounded civilians. took them to a hospital in homs away from the main part of the fighting. that was the one and only trip. in it got dark. they say they're going to recommence going back in on saturday. the uncertain factor is the fate of those two wounded journalists who were hurt when the two other journalists were killed, marie colvin and remy ochlik. activists say they want more journalist toss come out. >> i can only imagine how many more trips are needed to help the injured and to remove the bodies of the dead. but i do want to ask you, looking at some of the big news today, michael, you're been watching tonight's meeting in tunisia. is there any optimism from the activists you're talking to that the international community can bring some kind of real change with these meetings? >> reporter: as you said, kate, another 91 people died today. there was 100 i think yesterday. it's daily, daily carnage going on inside syria. and the people we talk to on the ground, they say, okay, it's all very fine to have these meetings. we're sick of the talking. where is the help? where's the humanitarian assistance? they want assistance of other types, too. arms to help them in their fight. so they're in i think it's fair to say we'll believe it when we see it mode. they're not holding out huge confidence of anything changing in the immediate future. and they're determined to keep up their resistance. kate? >> it's an amazing and really horrific thing to watch unfold on a daily basis. michael holmes monitoring it all for us in lebanon. michael, thank you so much. the bloodshed in syria provoked an unusually harsh statement from secretary of state hillary clinton today. >> it is just despicable. and i ask whose side are they on? >> she is angry. next we'll tell you who secretary clinton is so angry with. it isn't just the syrians. plus comedian bill mahre is donating serious cash to president obama's re-election effort. we'll have the details. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. tle emotional here? 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ i refer to her as "that woman with the great gums." as jill's dentist, i know that her gums are a foundation of a healthy smile. jill knows that, too -- so she uses crest pro-health clinical gum protection toothpaste. it helps eliminate plaque at the gum line, helping prevent gingivitis. it's even clinically proven to help reverse it in just 4 weeks. and it protects these other areas dentists check most. crest pro-health clinical gum protection. because healthy smiles are built on healthy gums. life opens up when you do. after a week of shelling, street fighting and hundreds of civilian deaths, the syrian government finally allowed the international red cross to evacuate some of the wounded. one body that wasn't included in that group was an injured french journalist whose gripping report posted on youtube has gone viral. >> translator: we were injured yesterday during an attack on wednesday morning with a group of journalist in which marie colvin and recommend am i ochlik were killed. my leg is broken, the length of my femur. i need to be operated on as quickly as possible. the doctors have treated me as best they can except they cannot perform any surgical operations. >> that's so terrifying. at a conference in tunisia today, secretary of state hillary clinton announced the u.s. will provide $10 million to humanitarian efforts in syria. in an unusually blunt and emotional term, secretary clinton condemned russia and china from blocking u.n. action against the syrian regime. >> it's quite distressing to see two permanent members of the security council using their veto when people are being murdered, women, children, brave young men, houses are being destroyed. it is just despicable. and i ask whose side are they o on? >> with us now from hoofer institution and a distinguished middle east scholar, thank you, professor, for joining me this evening. you heard those tough words from secretary clinton today in tunis. we don't often see the secretary of state get downright angry like that. but there were some important steps taken by the international community today when it comes to syria, is this enough in what they've come out with today? >> these words by secretary clinton are quite pathetic when you think of it. why should we be saying this to the russian and the chinese? they're doing their thing. they're autocracies, dictatorships. they don't want intervention. secretary clinton should understand this because her husband president clinton did two operations of besieged operations, one in bosnia in 1995, one in kosovo in 1999 without any united nations involvement. he understood the security council would not go along and he did the right thing for people under siege. now the obama administration is reluctant to do it. and these words are not very meaningful. >> i want to get to the "wall street journal" opinion piece that you wrote. in it you had some very strong words. in one portion you said "it is an inescapable fate that the u.s. is the provider of order in that region. and we can lend a hand, you continue to say, to the embattled syrians or risk turning syria into a devil's playground of religious extremism". you were, professor, quite critical of president obama as you were just there. what is the president in your view doing wrong with regard to syria? i guess the administration at large. >> well, i think the president is just running out the clock. obviously president obama is concerned above all with the presidential election. this is a very, very simple point. this is a presidential year, an election year, and i think he's very keen to make sure that the man who prides himself on liquidating the iraq war and bringing that war to an end is not going to plunge himself into an operation in syria. but i think what the president has done is he's made it seem that we either have to wage war in syria or we leave it to its own cruelties. there's a lot we can do. we can arm the free civilian army. we can give them help. this is what we're not doing. these are the kinds of things, by the way, that senator mccain is talking about that we can do a lot to help the syrians without sending our forces into that mine field. >> now, i want to ask you. americans are no doubt horrified by the violence and the bloodshed in syria. but for an american audience who may feel removed from it all, can you look at the camera and tell americans why it is important for the american to care about the fate of syria besides the obvious humanitarian crisis that everyone cares about? >> well, we can't really be indifferent to these things. we can't be indifferent to the middle east at any rate. and we can't be indifferent to the prospect that this country, syria, will become as you quoted these words. it would become a devil's playground. we can either help the syrians or they will seek help from jihadists, from terrorists. it is the fate of america, in you will, to be this indispensable nation as our own leaders keep telling the nation. we can't be indifferent. in libya we waited and we led from behind. in syria we're even doing much worse. and it is these things come back to haunt us in a way. we can't abdicate. we always pay a price for these things. we can't quit the middle east. and when you look at the borders of syria, we can see that these are very strategically important country. >> we know that president obama just late today said the international community cannot be bystanders in his words during these extraordinary events. we'll be all watching very closely to see what steps are taken and when. thank you very much, professor ajami for joining me this evening. >> thank you, kate. seven states are taking the fight over birth control and the new healthcare law to a whole new level. we'll have more details in a minute. sound you'll be able to use your computer to glide along one of the world's most beautiful and remote natural wonders. while some fiber ads use super models, metamucil uses super hard working psyllium fiber, which gels to remove unsexy waste and reduce cholesterol. taking psyllium fiber won't make you a model but you should feel a little more super. metamucil. down with cholesterol. will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. welcome back. here's lisa sylvester with the latest news you need to know right now. >> reporter: a new lawsuit over birth control could spell political trouble for the president. seven states are suing, demanding the government back off from requiring reliiri ridgs employers to offer health insurance including contra accept tiffs and other. bill maher during a comedy concert streamed live on yahoo! maher announced he is donating $1 million to the pro-obama group political action committee. his announcement took the folks at yahoo! a little bit by surprised. and googles bringing folks to the great barrier reef. starting in sent google will broadcast pictures taken by a robot to study how climate affects the reef. you'll be able to follow it on youtube and google plus. those pictures are absolutely gorgeous. >> i have neff been to australia. >> reporter: i have been there. it was wonderful. the day we were set to go to the great barrier reef the weather did not cooperate. >> i'm a big scuba diver. this is making me want to scuba dive. thanks, lisa. coming up there's a new controversy tonight over performance-enhancing drugs in big-time baseball. and yes, a player who just got out of a 50-game suspension insists he never was guilty and complains his name has been dragged through the mud. and in hollywood, they're rolling out the red carpet for a little gold guy and a whole lot of stars. 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[ male announcer ] one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. in this half hour, amid a fourth day of rioting over burned karans a top u.s. journalist reminds the they are our fans. a fatally flawed system. what do you do when your boss says make me a burger? how about check to make sure he's really your boss? across afghanistan today, thousands took part in anti-u.s. an anti-nato rioting. it's the fourth day of violence after people learned nato troops had burned qurans and other islamist writings from detainees and burned them. >> there will be moments like this when your emotions are governed by anger, and the desire to strike back. these are the moments when you reach down inside and you grip the discipline that makes you a united states soldier. and you gut through the pain, and you gut through the anger, and you remember why we're here. we're here for our friends. >> cnn pentagon correspondent chris lawrence joining me now. chris, you've heard what the general said. pretty emotional, moving words there. you've been in contact with some of t