RACHEL MADDOW, HOST: Good evening, Ed. The fact you just had Lizz Winstead on talking about corn syrup on Mt. Rushmore has made the whole week for me. That was perfect. Have a good weekend, my friend. ED SCHULTZ, "THE ED SHOW" HOST: You bet. You, too. Thanks. MADDOW: Thanks. And thanks to you at home for staying with us the next hour. Newt Gingrich has made a career for the last few decades out of flirting with running for president. But when Newt Gingrich announced earlier this year that he was going to stop just the flirting and finally make it legal -- well, at least he was going to form an exploratory Web site about setting up an exploratory committee about maybe running for president, when Newt Gingrich did that earlier this year, the Web site address he chose was, NewtExplore2012.com. Which is a hard thing to remember, and sort of an awkward construction even for a Web address. Why did he pick NewtExplore2012.com? Maybe it`s because ExploreNewt2012.com was already taken. For a long time, ExploreNewt2012.com was home to this long boring video of marbled Newts eating stuff in a dish. Whoever owns ExploreNewt2012.com doesn`t just like salamanders, they`ve also been clearly sort of following the campaign all year long. When Newt Gingrich was really ostentatiously not campaigning hard and going to places like Hawaii, ExploreNewt2012 redirected for a while to a Web site offering humpback whale retreats in Hawaii. When it was revealed Newt Gingrich had a half million dollar rotating charge account at Tiffany`s, the jeweler, explore Newt started redirecting to this nice Tiffany`s jewelry page. It`s a heart. Now, if you go to ExploreNewt2012.com today, it automatically redirects you to this federal housing agency, Freddie Mac. As Mr. Gingrich has had his recent upward thrust in the polls, pretty much every day has started with a new revelation about how exactly Newt Gingrich makes all of his money. The Freddie Mac thing that is referenced here, by the redirected ExploreNewt2012, the Freddie Mac thing came to light last week when asked at the CNBC debate about having taken $300,000 from the federal housing agency Freddie Mac. Mr. Gingrich previously criticized Freddie Mac as being responsible for the financial meltdown. He described it as essentially a corrupting thing. He piously demanded that politicians who got money from Freddie Mac should be forced to give that money back. So Newt, himself, taking 300 grand from them was kind of a scandal -- kind of a do as I say, not as I do hypocrisy moment. And also an interesting window into how he makes his money. Since then, it`s emerged that it wasn`t actually $300,000 that Newt Gingrich got from Freddie Mac, it was more like $1.6 million. Oh, no, wait, maybe more like $1.8 million. Oh, no, wait, I guess we don`t know. As of today, the Gingrich campaign says it`s still counting. Mr. Gingrich has tried to explain this away by saying that Freddie Mac paid him that kind of money as a historian, a housing historian. Housing historian is apparently a thing. It`s a very well-paid thing. If we are taking Newt Gingrich`s candidacy seriously enough now, that we are now looking into how he makes his money, I got to say, the $1.6 million to be a housing historian for Freddie Mac, that`s sort of as legitimate as it gets in Newt Gingrich`s world. When you look at how Newt Gingrich makes his money, when you look at what his profession is, the $1.6 million for being a housing historian deal, that makes him look righteous compared to the rest of his portfolio. Right before the 2010 midterm elections, you may remember the story about doctors all across the country getting faxes, faxes like this one from the desk of Speaker Newt Gingrich. The facts complete with fake real handwriting, a font made to look like handwriting, was sent to alert these doctors that they had been personally selected by Newt as one of his 2010 champions of medicine. The congratulatory letter was an invitation. Quote, "I`m having a party in Washington at the historic Ronald Reagan Building on election night, November 2nd, to honor you and a few others who have been selected to receive this prestigious honor." In addition to the banquet that you got to go to, there was a framed certificate signed by Newt Gingrich, himself. You can see on the facts written there as if Newt has just scrawled it in there jauntily in his own hand. This would look great in your office. One of the doctors who got the fax was a mother of a good reporter at "Huffington Post" named Sam Stein. Sam Stein followed up on his mother`s spam fax award offer from Newt Gingrich and discovered that in order to attend this exclusive party with Newt Gingrich in Washington, all his mother would have had to do was send Newt Gingrich $5,000. Now, Mr. Gingrich didn`t just pull this scam with doctors, he was doing this sort of thing with all sorts of businesses. Like, for example, the strip club in Dallas to which he tried to bestow an entrepreneur of the year award, if they`d give him thousands of dollars as well. That scam included a commemorative gavel that was fake signed by Newt Gingrich. This is how Newt Gingrich has been making his money. This is the ka- ching that makes Newt Gingrich go. He`s a Nigerian prince e-mail send me your bank details guy. He does email spam, fax spam, direct mail, suckerless, bottom feeding, prey on the gullible financial scams. But the key to them, the hook, the thing that makes it work for Newt Gingrich is that it`s all based on the glamour and prestige of Newt Gingrich, the prestige of the speakership of the House, which can be yours for a fee. That`s what they`re selling. It`s the Newt Gingrich signed gavel, right? It is the Newt Gingrich framed certificate. It is the party where you`re allowed -- where you`re guaranteed that you`ll be allowed to be near Newt Gingrich. It is the letter you get from the desk of Speaker Newt Gingrich. And today, we have learned that it`s not just small businesses and doctors who`ve been suckered into the whole access to Newt fund-raising spam scam. It`s big companies, too. Today, "Washington Post" reports that the Newt Gingrich`s health care think tank, the Center for Health Transformation, collected $37 million over the past eight years from some of the biggest health care companies in the country. Companies like AstraZeneca and Blue Cross Blue Shield and G.E. Healthcare and Wellpoint -- all of these companies would pay Newt`s for h-profit health care thing, something like $200,000 a year in membership dues. What would they get for their membership dues money? Well, in part, they`d get special access to the former House speaker. The immediate scandal of the health care thing this week for Newt Gingrich is that his scammy access to Newt, for-profit health care organization endorsed the individual mandate in health insurance. They had a whole plan on their Web site titled "Insure All Americans." And that`s awkward in light of comments like this by Mr. Gingrich while campaigning earlier this year. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I`m completely opposed to the Obama-care mandate on individuals. I fought it for 2 1/2 years at the Center for Health Transformation. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Actually, no, at your Center for Health Transformation, your big scammy, for-profit health reform thing, you specifically endorsed the mandate on individuals. As "The Washington Post" notes today, the, quote, "Gingrich health center support for such a mandate appears to have disappeared from the center`s Web site as of Thursday." So, that`s the immediate kind of short-term scandal. Just like Newt Gingrich said taking money from Freddie Mac was a bad thing, even though he took a boatload of money from Freddie Mac, here he says he was opposed to the individual mandate even though his organization quite dizzily promoted it for a long time. Yes, you can find all sorts of short-term, small-bore scandals like that in Newt Gingrich world. But just do yourself a favor, particularly if anybody from the -- my colleagues in the Beltway media right now, just take a step back and look at the bigger picture here. I mean, stumbling on this Newt Gingrich $37 million from the health insurance industry story, stumbling on that and deciding the scandal here is that he`s been two-faced about the individual mandate, it`s little bit like waking up to a home invasion and being outraged that your attacker is tracking mud on your carpet. You`re sort of missing the bigger point. It`s a home invasion. Yes, Newt Gingrich took contradictory positions on the health insurance mandate, but he also made $37 million selling companies access to himself. The Center for Health Transformation put what companies could get for their money in print, and its materials for those companies. What were they offering? Quote, "Access to Newt Gingrich" and, quote, "direct Newt interaction." And that was just his health care venture. We also found out today in "The Wall Street Journal" that Newt Gingrich was paid nearly $1 million over the last seven years by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. What did Gingrich do for his $120,000 a year salary from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? Well, according to "The Wall Street Journal," quote, "Mr. Gingrich`s assignment with the Chamber of Commerce was to attend dinner -- attend dinner or lunch with chamber officials every few months." A hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year for access to Newt, and for the honor of feeding near him. And so, yes, the Chamber of Commerce supported President Obama`s stimulus package and Newt Gingrich is campaigning against the stimulus so there`s two-facedness there. And yes, his health reform group was pro-individual mandate. Now he says he`s always been against the individual mandate. You can find policy scandals. You can find policy scandals and hints about Newt Gingrich`s, shall we say, transactional relationship with policy everywhere you look in his career. But, look around. If you get hung up on the little awkwardnesses, you sort of miss the greater and frankly vastly more entertaining story which is Newt Gingrich, ka-ching, is a scam. Newt Gingrich`s profession since he got kicked out of Congress under a cloud of ethics charges related to fund- raising, his full-time profession has been selling access to himself as someone who is influential because of his time as a public servant. He`s been marketing the speakership of the House for his own private financial gain, to anybody who will pay him, anybody he can scam money out of -- even if he has to do it by a fax with fake handwriting. For decades, he`s been doing this. This is why he is now a zillionaire. Newt Gingrich wants you to think of him as a political prophet. And he totally -- he`s right. He means it in the homonym sense. The next time he says it, make him write it down because this is what it has actually been for him. Here`s the relevant context for understanding the presidential candidacy of Newt Gingrich. Right now, Newt Gingrich is getting taken seriously as a presidential candidate, right? He`s having his moment. A new poll out in New Hampshire today shows Newt Gingrich in a statistical tie with Mitt Romney in New Hampshire. New Hampshire is supposed to be the one place Mitt Romney has absolutely locked up. And this poll may be an outlier, but in this poll, Newt Gingrich gained 21 points just in the last month. So, if you`re a candidate, how do you deal with something like that, a surge like that? How is Newt Gingrich marking this huge development in his presidential campaign prospects? Well, he is in the northeast tonight, but he`s not in New Hampshire. He`s at Harvard university tonight screening his new DVD, "A City Upon a Hill." to be followed immediately afterwards by a Newt Gingrich book signing. Step right up, folks. Step right up. Ka-ching! Joining us now is David Corn, Washington bureau chief for "Mother Jones" and an MSNBC political analyst. Mr. Corn, thank you for being here. DAVID CORN, MOTHER JONES: Thank you, Rachel. I don`t know what I can say after all that. MADDOW: Well, tell me if there`s some secret parallel universe in which Massachusetts is the right place for a Republican presidential contender to be in November before an election. CORN: Well, particularly, Harvard square, you know. He`s really going to the belly of the beast and taking on the elites that would plot against Middle America. That`s all I can gather up there. I mean, I have to say, listening to you, everything you said I agree with, but I do think the flip-flop on the individual mandate is significant only because it`s symbolic of basically his whole career. Not -- I mean, before the for-profit stuff, I`m talking about the 20, 30 years he spent in public life as a politician, which was always to be as situational as possible. He could come up there with the most slippery denials and the most fierce attacks. It didn`t matter if they contradicted one another. I mean, I take a little pride in being the first one this week to point out that the Center for Health Transformation, a for-profit think tank, I don`t think there are any other for-profit think tanks out there, had this plan on their site calling for an individual mandate. And after my story came out as "The Post" reports today, poof, it`s gone. It`s no longer there. But then today I found something else in that same -- on the Web site for the same group. In June 2007, he wrote an op-ed, a column for his own Web site. Maybe they paid him for it. Who knows? MADDOW: I`m sure they did. CORN: That said exactly the same thing but went further. It said Congress should pass a law mandating that people get health care insurance. This is the exact opposite to the T of his claim that Obama wants to take away your freedom by making individual mandates. So -- but this, you know, this is, as I say, representative of everything he said in public life and public policy from the get-go. He can just flip, turn on a dime. You saw that with Paul Ryan, you saw that with Libya, you saw that with climate change. I`m just talking about this year. Not the past 33 years. MADDOW: And talk, I think, setting him up as a person who has a flip- flop problem, that is the reputation Mitt Romney has in politics. It has not been the reputation that Newt Gingrich has largely because he insists so loudly that he is so principled -- I think sometimes his insistence on that blocks out anybody documenting anything to the contrary or believing it even when it is documented. But I wonder if that`s even going to be a liability for him. I mean, has flip-flopping been a liability for Mitt Romney up until this point? CORN: Well, I think he`s not a flip-flopper. I think he`s a gyrator. He never stops spinning and twirling. He plays musical chairs with himself and I think, you know -- and then the gets caught in these lies. I mean, Mitt Romney flip-flops. He goes from one position to the next and he comes up with bogus justifications for it, but he sort of lands where he lands. Newt Gingrich can`t get his story straight. It`s always, always spinning it. And I think we saw that, whether it`s about policy, or whether it`s about Freddie Mac. You know, I`m a historian, no, I give strategic advice, I got $300,000, no, I got $1.6 million. I didn`t lobby, but I warned them not to do what they`re doing, but, no, "Bloomberg" reports I didn`t warn them. So, you saw the same thing in Tiffany`s. Any time he`s met by a challenge, whether about his personal behavior, his political behavior, his professional behavior, he just becomes a whirling dervish of whatever he thinks will get him through that moment. It`s exhausting watching him. I don`t know what it would be like to live that life. And I think this is all becoming a piece. I think, you know, when even Republican primary voters, they want to feel that the person they`re voting for is to some degree real. And Newt Gingrich is just -- I think all this is piling up. It takes a while to hit. You see this with Herman Cain, when those first charges came out about inappropriate behavior -- you know, his poll numbers were still good. He got a lot of money. But, you know, he started eventually dropping in the polls. And, you know, some people call it cratering. I think Newt Gingrich might have hit his high point and I don`t think he can sustain this. MADDOW: While he`s up, he is definitely going to do as many activities -- as many campaign events as possible, where he can both screen and DVD and do a book signing right after. He`s hitting a doubleheader tonight in Washington. CORN: And the most important thing tonight, Rachel, is -- MADDOW: Yes? CORN: You get a discount if you buy both. MADDOW: David Corn, Washington bureau chief for "Mother Jones" -- ka- ching -- and MSNBC political analyst -- David, thank you. I really appreciate it. CORN: Thank you, Rachel. MADDOW: Thanks. All right. Have you heard what the FOX News Channel angle is on the man who is charged with the attempted assassination of President Obama? Have you seen what FOX News is saying about this? That`s coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Do you remember when Commissioner Gordon used to flash the bat signal to get Batman`s attention? Batman, look over here! It turns out the bat signal works in real life. In Manhattan, at least, it worked last night, for real. That`s coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Every 10 years, we count ourselves. Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution says we have to. And last year, when we did our count, we found that since the last time we counted, Texas had grown. Texas had grown by 4 million people. My, how you`ve grown. The population growth in Texas almost entirely due to the growth of the Hispanic population there. The reason the Constitution says we have to count ourselves every 10 years is to determine how to distribute seats in Congress. So, while a little state like Vermont only has enough population to give them one seat in the House of Representatives for the whole state, Texas right now has 32 people in Congress. And because Texas` population was found to have grown so much in the last Census, Texas is now slated to get four more congressional seats -- thank you very much. Thank you specifically Texas Hispanic influx. Even though Hispanics in Texas tend to tilt strongly pretty strongly Democratic, right now, Texas state government is dominated by Republicans. And the heavily Republican-dominated Texas legislature has decided that even though the state got its four new congressional seats, mostly because of Hispanic population growth, the Republicans in the legislature decided that they would draw their four new congressional districts in a way that would almost assuredly send four more Republicans to Washington, D.C. Last week, a three-judge panel of a federal court in D.C., two of the three judges incidentally, were George W. Bush appointees. That three- judge panel ruled that the Texas legislature used an improper standard to determine which districts afford minority voters the ability to elect their preferred candidates of choice. This is not the first time that redistricting has been an issue in Texas. After all, partisan redistricting in Texas is part of what brought us this timeless mugshot -- hi -- of former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Delighted to be here. But after the courts essentially said that they would take over the process in Texas now because the Texas legislature couldn`t stop illegally politicizing it, the "Fort Worth Star Telegram" newspaper editorialized that Texas really needs an independent, nonpartisan body to do its work, to draw its congressional lines. Just take politics out of. It let it be a technocratic thing, bring some objectivity into the process. You know who already has that? Arizona. Arizona in its wisdom formed itself an independent redistricting commission a decade ago so as to avoid Texas-style partisan embarrassment -- hi, Tom -- on the subject. Now, earlier this month, as their independent commission was finishing up their work on a draft for a congressional district map for 2012, Arizona`s Republican Governor Jan Brewer decided she was going to move the head of the commission. So much for independent, right? Governor Brewer accused the commission chair of gross misconduct and with a two-thirds vote, a party-line vote from the Republican majority in the Arizona state senate, Governor Brewer removed the chair of the commission from her post. Now, even though this is an independent commission that`s supposed to act outside partisan politics, the governor has a right to move the commissioner, but only if the commissioner has substantially neglected his or her duties or is found guilty of gross misconduct. Now, had the commissioner done something that could be construed as gross misconduct? What had she done that was so awful? The governor has had a hard time trying to explain that. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) ALAN COLMES: What did Colleen do that was inappropriate, Colleen Mathis? GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: Well, she acted inappropriately. COLMES: In what way? BREWER: She was doing -- well, it was very, pretty much obvious that she was in communications and doing things not in the public and the people of Arizona deserve that. (END AUDIO CLIP) MADDOW: It keeps going, actually. Go on. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) COLMES: I`m trying to understand what she did, though. What are you accusing her of having done? BREWER: Well, she wasn`t operating in the proper manner according to the law. COLMES: In what way? What did she do? What didn`t she do? In what way -- for the law, for example, says she has to do something egregious, terribly egregious. What was the egregious thing she did? BREWER: I wish I had my letter here so I could read from it. (END AUDIO CLIP) MADDOW: It was such gross misconduct, I can`t remember it without my letter. Where`s my letter? Governor Brewer had a hard time convincing Alan Colmes there of what exactly this commissioner had done that was so egregious, so awful she had to be forcibly removed from office, even though it`s supposedly an independent commission. Well, now, Governor Brewer has also failed to convince the Arizona Supreme Court. The commission chair, whose name is Colleen Mathis, fought her removal in court. And yesterday, the Supreme Court in Arizona ruled the governor had, in fact, failed to show that this commissioner was guilty of any gross misconduct. They ordered that Ms. Mathis, in fact, be reinstated to her position. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This court doesn`t live in a cocoon. It lives in the real world. It must not ignore the motivations by the partisan political conduct in question. Without an order of this court reinstating Colleen Mathis to her lawful, rightful position, the independent redistricting commission becomes a joke. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Joining us now is Linda McNulty. She is one of the five commissioners on Arizona`s independent redistricting commission. Ms. McNulty, thanks very much for your time tonight. Nice to have you here. LINDA MCNULTY (D), ARIZONA IND. REDISTRICTING COMMISSIONER: Thank you very much for having me. MADDOW: Let me ask you first if I accurately summarized the situation that brought us here today. Is that a fair description aside from the pot shots at Tom DeLay, of what`s brought us to this point in Arizona? MCNULTY: It was a very good summary, yes. MADDOW: OK. What`s your reaction to today`s ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court? This is a clash of the titans here between the independents of the commission that you serve on and the governor`s very strong will apparently to exert pressure over you. MCNULTY: It is, indeed. I think the ruling yesterday was a major win for the citizens of Arizona who, as you explained, voted overwhelmingly to create this commission in the year 2000. And the purpose of the commission was to remove the process of drawing the state legislative and congressional districts from self-interested politicians and put it in the hands of a group of balanced citizen volunteers who would draw fair and competitive districts for the state. What the court struck down yesterday was a blatant attempt by the governor and incumbent politicians to tell this commission to draw the maps to their liking or else. The commission ruled yesterday that the -- the court ruled yesterday that the commission is and in fact will remain independent from influence by the governor and the legislature. MADDOW: The commission is made up of the independent chair who`s the person who has been reinstated by the court as of today, two Democrats and two Republicans. You`re one of the Democrats who serves on the board. And when the governor went after the commission, she did get the senate to remove the independent chair of the board. She also tried to remove you and the other Democratic commissioner from the board. Do you fear that she will try to do that again, that she will come back after either you alone or all three of you again? MCNULTY: Well, the governor has made it clear that she`s keeping her options open. I think that the governor and the legislature have been so out of step with the citizens of Arizona whose response to this abuse of power has been an overwhelming condemnation; that it`s possible that they will continue to ignore the will of the voters and the citizens. But we want to get back to work. We have our chairman back. Colleen Mathis is a woman with the highest integrity. Her reputation was vindicated yesterday by the Supreme Court. And we -- we want to get together again and begin to finish the work that we started, which is to draw a fair and competitive districts for the state. MADDOW: Linda McNulty, one of the commissioners on Arizona`s independent redistricting commission. I know this has been a trying and contentious time, but thanks for your service to your state and thanks for making time to talk to us tonight. I really appreciate your time. MCNULTY: Thank you very much. MADDOW: All right. The bat signal went up for real last night right here in Gotham City. We`ve got that, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Tonight`s best new think in the world involves Pakistan and Jesus and Budweiser. So, it`s the trifecta, obviously. That`s oncoming up at the end of the show. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Earlier this year the new Republican governor of the great state of Maine ordered a mural depicting the state`s labor history be removed from the lobby of Maine`s Labor Department building. No artwork about the labor movement allowed under a Republican governor, even if it is the Labor Department. But, then, some anonymous protesters got together and decided to project an image of the mural back on to the side of the building that contains the Labor Department. They put the mural back up. Watch this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Putting the mural back up. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean putting the mural back up? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope not. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh-oh. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because if you do, we`ll have APD right after us. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: They`re putting the mural back up. This is sort of a thing now. You may also remember that amid all the protest against Republican Governor Scott Walker`s union-stripping law in Wisconsin, we got this photo from protesters in Wisconsin who told us that in addition to this projection, they had also projected a 40-foot dollar sign on to the side of the Wisconsin statehouse. Then there was the anti-Koch brothers protest outside Lincoln Center here in New York, where a theater has been named after David Koch. The protesters` goal there was to re-brand the Koch brothers -- an effort that included a multimedia program projected on to the side of the building during the protest. And over these last couple months, protesters have been making use of projectors in Lower Manhattan as part of the Occupy movement. But the projection as protests move, I don`t think hasn`t really been done like it was done last night. And it`s in part because this was technically an amazing thing to have been carried off. All right. Here if your visualization sake, here`s Manhattan, right? This is the Hudson River on the left side there. And then, over there on the other side, the east, that`s the East River. Now, here`s the Brooklyn Bridge, the same place where there were 700 arrests made when Occupy Wall Street protesters marched on the Brooklyn bridge early last month. But that March and those arrests, that will happen on a weekend during the day. The new Occupy Wall Street action was planned to be on a weeknight this week during rush hour after the time changed, so it was going to be in the dark. And, of course, they announced it in advance. So, everybody knew a ton of people were going to be protesting on the Brooklyn Bridge. That`s last night. And right here, going over the Brooklyn Bridge, there is a perfect site line, not only for the protesters, but everybody covering the protesters, for this whole scene that everybody was gearing up for on the Brooklyn Bridge last night. Right in that line of the bridge is what everybody in New York refers to as the Verizon Building. Now, it`s not actually Verizon`s headquarters, as the folks at the "Village Voice" pointed out today, Verizon just has couple floors there and their name on the top of the building is essentially just a giant ad for that company. But more importantly, for the protesters` purposes last night, this is what it looks like, right? It`s a big, flat building that has a big flat surface on it facing the rough and a big, flat surface that doesn`t have windows or sharp planes or anything else that might obscure the purpose its divinely inspired purpose as the best possible place in the world to show off this year`s non-marring, nonintrusive but oddly effective and evocative visual arts/protest technique -- the projection. You need three things to pull this off. You need a really, really, really bright projector, you need a place to project from, and you need chutzpa to even try to do this. The guy who pulled this off is going to be joining us in just a second. We were able to track him down -- thanks to the geniuses at boingboing.net. But they were able to pull this off, and this is what it looked like. This is just one of a whole of series of images. See that projected on to the side of the Verizon Building last night. It was a whole program of projected images, almost like a visual speech. Here`s part of the message. To we have this? Mike check. Mike check. Look around. You are a part of a global uprising. We are a cry from the heart of the world, it goes on. We are unstoppable. Another world is possible. Happy birthday, Occupy movement, 99 percent. Here`s what it looked like on the ground from the Brooklyn Bridge where the Occupy Wall Street protesters were marching. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CROWD: We are the 99 percent! We are the 99 percent! (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: They are psyched. Joining us now is Mark Read, who organized the projections on the Verizon Building last night. Mr. Read, congratulations. Thanks for being here. MARK READ, ORGANIZED OWS "BAT-SIGNAL": Thank you. Thank you for having me. MADDOW: When you look at that footage of it, obviously you saw it live when it was happening. But when you see it as sort of, I guess a document of what happened in New York, how does it feel? READ: It`s a little surreal. I mean, it was -- I knew it would be a really powerful projection, and I hoped that it would have that effect on the crowd. And we were able to hear the crowd, actually, from the window where we were projecting. I didn`t expect that at all. We could hear them chanting along to what we were projecting in this kind of interactive dance we were doing. It was really beautiful. MADDOW: How long ago did you have this idea? How much planning time did this take? READ: Well, about three weeks. MADDOW: OK. READ: And it wasn`t technically my ideas. We were -- we were having an action coordination meeting to discuss the 17th which had been called as a day of action for labor, 17 bridges in 17 cities, to call attention to the crumbling infrastructure and the people that are out of work. Like we have these people out of work, we have a crumbling infrastructure, let`s make jobs and make bridges better. So, that was the idea. And then Occupy happened and it became, like, a birthday party. Exactly on the two-month anniversary of the birth of the Occupy movement. And we wanted to do something a little more spectacular. And we were -- the first idea we were talking about were these lights that we handed out to the crowd, 10,000 LED lights to go around to create a river of light around the city hall and up on the pedestrian walkway on the Brooklyn Bridge. And then we were kind of done with that discussion and there`s a guy, Hero, the name he goes by is Hero, and he`s been involved from the beginning with Occupy. And he was like, I didn`t get a chance to get my idea. I was sitting next to him. I said, what`s your idea? He said, we need a bat signal. And we need like bat signal with 99 percent. And I thought about it for a half a second and knew I could pull it off. I had done gorilla projections before and I knew people who had and I just said, we`re doing it. MADDOW: How did you figure out where you should be projecting from? How did you find a place? READ: Well, I mean, there`s this, you know, gigantic gray monolith as a perfect projection screen a lot of us have seen over the years and I`ve probably had the same idea. And there are these -- city housing actually. It`s, you know, the irony of it is kind of incredible. In the shadow of this gray corporate monolith is city housing projects -- you know, people, working class, working poor. It`s the same thing these days -- working class, working poor. And they`re, like, 17-tall-story buildings and right up against -- the one we were in is 130 feet from the face of the building. Literally in its shadow. And, you know, I knew we needed a secure place so we -- I need an apartment. I need someone in that building to sort of open their home and so, I went into the building and put up signs, you know, like, could you rent us your apartment for a few hours on Thursday, November 17th for $250? And I got a few phone calls. Most of which didn`t make a whole lot of sense. MADDOW: OK. READ: And then I got a call from Denise Vega who I went and visited. Actually didn`t think she had the window that we needed. She talked about her views of the Brooklyn Bridge and I didn`t think it was going to be right. But lo and behold, it was there. In her bedroom she had a perfect view of that face and, you know, it was on. I told her immediately what I was doing. I didn`t say that in the sign, but I said it was an art and film project. But when I met her, I said I`m with Occupy Wall Street. Have you heard about us? She said, of course, you guys are awesome. She knew all about the movement. And she was excited about the idea of doing something in her apartment. And so we shook hands and the last thing I said to her was, she said to me, was, like, let`s do this thing. That was really exciting. MADDOW: So it was 250 bucks and it was probably a long night in there setting up and -- READ: Yes, well, the thing was -- it was about 20 minutes setting up. The thing with Denise was, on Tuesday, on Tuesday, which is the day after the eviction, which happened, like, early Tuesday morning. MADDOW: The Zuccotti Park eviction, right? READ: I have been trying to meet Denise, because I need to give her her money. I want to give here like half in advance and half after. And this was coming up on Thursday. So, the finance working group from occupy Wall Street was in disarray. No one was around. I couldn`t get her the money. So, I was playing phone tag with her and talked to her at 9:00. And the first thing she said to me was, you know, I can`t take money for this. This is -- MADDOW: Oh, wow. READ: This is for the people. I can`t take any money. MADDOW: Mark, while I have been talking to you we`ve been trying to reach Denise on the phone. I`m told we have Denise on the phone. Denise, are you there on the phone? DENISE VEGA, APARMENT USED FOR OWS "BAT-SIGNAL" (via telephone): Yes, hi. MADDOW: Hi. How are you? VEGA: OK. And you? MADDOW: I`m great. I`m here with mark who you did the projection project with last night. And I`m just wondering if you could tell us why you decided to do this with him? Why you decided to let him use the apartment and participate in this. VEGA: This all happened as a token to my sister. That`s her apartment and it so happens we were together. She was saying, oh, you got to do it, you got to like do this together, we got to do this together. I said, what do you want me to do? She said, listen, there`s a project that`s about to take place. Give him a call, Mark Read. That`s exactly what I said. I said, oh, that sounds like fun, let`s see what we can do here, let`s do this. That`s when I called Mark Read and we started talking. And, you know, money was offered, and I refused the money. It`s not about the money. I am working, but, you know, we got to be together, work together. MADDOW: How do you -- VEGA: Stand as one. MADDOW: How do you feel about the overall -- I mean, how do you feel about the messages that were projected and the overall Occupy Wall Street movement? VEGA: It`s great. I`m so happy it`s going on, and I didn`t even know it was going to be this long. It`s crazy. But, you know, I`m showing my daughters, I do have two daughters. I`m showing them what the world is about right now. We got to stand up for what`s right. MADDOW: Denise Vega, thank you for calling in tonight. We had a hard time tracking you down. I`m really glad that we found you. Thanks for calling us. Thanks for being part of this. VEGA: Thank you. Have a good night. Good night, Mark Read. MADDOW: Mark Read, Occupy Wall Streeter who organized this, and who must have a really amazing projector. READ: Yes. MADDOW: Thank you for coming in and explaining this how you did this, this made a big impact on a lot of people. Appreciate it. READ: OK. Thank you. MADDOW: All right. How do we know Occupy Wall Street is working? In part, because big money interests are plotting overtime to try to take it down. There`s a big scoop that`s going to break about this tomorrow morning on MSNBC. I got a little of the detail for you, coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: The man who was charged yesterday with attempting to assassinate President Obama after he allegedly fired shots from a high- powered rifle at the White House a week ago tonight, that young man was reported as a missing person last month by his family back in Idaho. People who knew him said he called President Obama the anti-Christ. Today, the local CBS affiliate in Boise, Idaho, posed a tape this alleged attempted assassin made at Idaho State University. He apparently believed that he was Jesus Christ. And he said he wanted help from Oprah Winfrey to get his message out. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OSCAR RAMIRO ORTEGA-HERNANDEZ: You see, Oprah, there is still so much more that God needs me to express to the world. It`s not just a coincidence that I look like Jesus. I am the modern day Jesus Christ that you all have been waiting for. So I ask you, Oprah, better yet, I`m begging you, Oprah, please cast me on to your show, Oprah. It is so crucial that the world hears God`s word. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: So, that`s Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez in his own words for you to make sense of. On the FOX News Channel this week, they made their own sense of him by describing him as the "occupy shooter." This was yesterday on "FOX & Friends." This is by Media Matters. Is there any connection between this kid arrested for shooting at the White House, and the Occupy protest, the 99 percent protests? No, there is not. This guy did allegedly at the White House and the Occupy D.C. protest is located vaguely near the White House. But beyond that, no, nothing. "The Washington Post" report willing Wednesday afternoon that investigators, quote, "found no connection between him and the Occupy D.C. protest." That`s no as in none as in protesting on behalf of the 99 percent is not the same thing as being a crazy guy with a gun who thinks he`s Jesus, except on FOX News, of course. They are the same things. We`ve seen a lot of attempts on the right to cast Occupy Wall Street as evil and un-American. The Internet radio shock jock guy Glenn Beck says Occupy Wall Street will drag you from your home and kill you. He`s a master of (INAUDIBLE). Karl Rove`s group has been running ads against Occupy Wall Street as attacks against Elizabeth Warren, to try to help Republican Senator Scott Brown. We`ve seen a lot of this on the right. But tomorrow on this network on our new weekend morning show that`s called "UP WITH CHRIS HAYES," Chris has a scoop, a scoop naming mainstream political operatives who are shopping a plan in Washington, D.C., to take down the Occupy Wall Street Wall Street movement. Chris apparently has the smoking gun document of how they propose to do it and what they think that so-called service is worth - - meaning how much money they want to charge for doing it. Chris Hayes has that scoop tomorrow morning. I have been briefed on the basics of it and it is mind blowing. So, set your alarm clock for this. "UP WITH CHRIS HAYES" airing tomorrow here on MSNBC, from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Happy Friday. I have been waiting all week long for this, because this is finally the "Best New Thing in the World" segment where I get to say the phrase monkey crotch -- because it is relevant to the news story at hand and not just because it`s fun to say monkey crotch. All right. This starts in Pakistan, which is a country that you would think had bigger things to worry about the censoring the Internet. But Pakistan, in fact, is keeping itself very busy censoring the Internet. In 2006, Pakistan blocked five Web sites for providing misleading information. In `07, they shut down access to YouTube because of non- Islamic objectionable videos. Last year, they blocked Facebook and Wikipedia in Pakistan. And then a month later, they blocked 17 other Web sites. Pakistan even has a hotline you can call to report objectionable Internet things. Lines are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for all your censoring needs. This means literally have a phone number can you call if you think someone is wrong on the Internet, like that classic cartoon "Someone`s wrong on the Internet, I can`t go to bed!" But as of this year, it is no longer just the Internet that Pakistani government is censoring. About half of Pakistan`s population has a cell phone and like cell phone users everywhere, they text message a lot. Who know what is sort of wrong, blasphemous dirty words and phrases they are texting each other? The Pakistani government thinks that they know and they`ve made a list, a list of about 1,100 English words and phrases and about 600 Urdu words and phrases that as of Monday the Pakistani government says it expects service providers to block, to censor, to prevent from being transmitted as text messages. Among the words that Pakistan as of Monday will block you from texting in that country: flatulence, tongue, fairy, gonorrehea -- spelled incorrectly, speaking it correctly, as far as I can tell is not banned. Also, the word headlights, fingerfood, love pistol and deposit, also monkey crotch. Pakistani government officials also came up with more than -- do we have to use that picture? They also came up with more than 50 different phrases that involve the "F" word, which might have been for fun because since up just banned the "F" word, then presumably you also ban all 50 "F" word containing phrases. But think about how fun that must have been to be a government employee charged with coming up with the 50 different ways to use the "F" word. That must have been really fun. The government is also banning texts that contain the word wuutang, spelled like that. Also, you can no longer text the phrase, Jesus Christ. You can also no longer text the word Budweiser. So, if you want to text someone about that great old joke about Jesus and the Wu-tang clan walking into a bar in St. Louis, you`ve only got this weekend to do it. As of Monday, it will not go through. As of Monday, there will also be eight different banned phrases in Pakistan that include the word foot, including athletes foot. No more texting about that. They`re also banning another 17 phrases that include the word butt, with two T`s. Imagine how awkward it would be if one of the guys in charge of censoring text messages like an executive at one of the telecom firms had as a last name one of the banned words. Wouldn`t that be awkward? Mr. Naveed Khaled Butt is a Pakistani telecom executive. In fact, he attended the big meeting with Pakistani government officials last month to discuss the start of the text messaging censorship campaign. Beginning on Monday, his company will censor his own name on SMS form. Also, poor Ms. Headlights down from the billing department. And my cousin athlete`s foot. Yes, a man named Mr. Butt having to enforce Pakistan`s new censorship of that word. I can`t even make -- it`s the best new thing in the world today. Goodbye. Prison, go! I`m sorry. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END
The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 11/18/11
Guests: David Corn, Linda McNulty, Mark Read, Denise Vega