did too! now hear -- let's hear a little bit from all eight candidates. >> we should not have increased the debt ceiling. >> a better tax structure, lower taxes, invite capital back into this country, get a lot less regulations. >> take the corporate rate and cut it to zero for manufacturers. cut that tax to zero, our jobs will come back. >> going to the american people with clarity, creating a sense of urgency, and building a bipartisan majority. >> seven things come to mind. one is to -- and number seven is to have a government that doesn't spend more money than it takes in. >> the united states of america needs a growth target, and it needs to be an aggressive and bold growth target. >> i represent growth, and it starts with the business sector putting fuel in the engine. >> it's called leadership. it's called looking at how the free market systems work. it's creating a competitive environment that speaks to growth. >> take a look at this wordle. it highlights the most used words in the debate. more they were used, the bigger they are. they talk about president obama, people, government, country, and states. the words jobs, debt, trade, business and taxes are not nearly as prominent. texas governor rick perry enters the race tomorrow in south carolina. you can expect him to be confident and talk a lot about jobs. here's what he told wmur-tv in manchester, new hampshire. >> i happen to think that i'm as qualified or better qualified than anyone in the field to not only make that claim, but to lay out that vision, and then lay out those principles that have worked truly well in texas. we've created more jobs than any other state in the nation. as a matter of fact, in the last two years we've created almost half of all the jobs created in america. perry will jump in as a contender right off the bat. take a look at a recent cnn/orc international poll of republicans and independents who lean toward the gop. perry is just two points behind mitt romney. president obama says he is frustrated with the political fighting in congress. he says all the bickering is hurting the job situation. here's a blush from his speech at a hybrid car battery plant in michigan. >> start making things here in america that are sold all around the world, and that's why i'm here today. i've said it before, i will say it again, you cannot bet against the american worker. >> the battery plant got some help from government stimulus funds. the president urged americans to tell their senators and representatives to pass bills that will create jobs. all right, let's talk about our favorite pogo stick, the dow. you saw it jump 423 points yesterday. news that u.s. jobless claims fell to a four-month low gave the dow a boost. the market has its ups and downs but this is kind of riddiiculor. down 512 last thursday, up friday. wild swings this week. the dow scored the two biggest gains of the year tuesday and thursday. but the average is still lower for the week. how bad off is the united states post office right now? so bad, that it wants congressional approval to lay off 120,000 workers by 2015. it also wants to overhaul the benefits of those who keep their jobs. the post office has lost billions of dollars over the past few years thanks, in part, to the rescission and the digital age. don't you hate it when you lose telemetry during glide phase man upers. i know i do. military researchers say that happened to the unmanned falcon test vehicle. they lost contact with it over the pacific ocean. this is the fastest aircraft ever launched. 13,000 miles per hour. how fast is that? it can get you from l.a. to new york in under 12 minutes. but apparently they can't really keep control of it. so they're going to get back to the drawing board on that one. now to see how the world's money is doing let's go to nina dose santos live from london. nina, last night our time we got word a number of countries in europe are banning the short sale of financial stocks. i imagine that helped european markets this morning. >> for the moment, yes. although i should point out that european markets actually, for the most part, did start out in negative territory, ali. it didn't take them long to recover the kind of losses that we saw earlier on in trading, and to trade into green now. broadly speaking all of these indices up. even france, in fact, really, has been the weak spot of late, as many an investor has expressed concern about the credit rating, the aaa credit rating that france currently enjoys. also about its banks and whether france were to lose that aaa credit rating, which i should say at the moment, we have no indications that that is the case from the ratings agencies, but obviously if france were to be downgraded that would have a huge impact on its banks. but also have significant amounts of greek, italian and spanish debt on their books, as well. let's talk about this short-selling and exactly what it means. short-selling, we should remind our viewers is actually the preserve of hedge funds. you borrow a stock, you sell it, and then you buy it back, hopefully at a cheaper price and pocket the difference. now we have seen a ban on short selling before, most notably after the 2008 credit crunch, and the collapse of lehman brothers. authorities did ban short-selling for a short period of time. straight after that we did see a rally. but then in the long-term stocks did fall. both stocks that saw a short-selling ban in 2008 actually fell about 26% the year after. so, hedge funds are telling me this morning, ali, that in the long run this is perhaps a sign of weakness. >> all right. and give me some information, nina, on something we're just hearing this morning, and that is that italy is going to make some budget moves a little later today. >> yeah. this comes on top of the much-publicized austerity measures that italy had to pass at record speed just a month or so ago. austerity measures that amounted to about $75 billion. the point is that the markets want more. italy has already agreed to rein in and balance to zero its budget deficit by the year 2014. some people saying that was ambitious for a country that has high debt-to-gdp. but really, the markets, as we've also noticed over the last couple of weeks, have been demanding italy does more. now, they want to balance the budget by a year earlier, by 2013. and that's what they're going to be discussing today, ali. >> nina dos santos, busy days for you, as always. good to see you. >> a big week for gop candidates here in the united states. comedian stephen colbert gives us his rundown. and a deep-fried candidate. here's your punch line. >> this is a very big week for republican presidential candidates. there's the debate in iowa that will feature all the major players, and tim pawlenty. then, saturday, of course, is the straw poll in ames, a crucial test to see if a candidate can get midwesterners to put down a food plate long enough to mark a ballot. but, the big news today came from the iowa state fair in des moines, where, in an attempt to appeal to more voters, ron paul had himself batter dipped and deep fat fried. sounds good. >> all right. it is a brand-new technology that could revolutionize the way we drive. when we come back i'm going to tell you about self-inflating tires. but first, check out the quote of the day. quote, corporations are people, my friend. find out which political candidate said this and why coming up in two minutes. it is ten minutes after the hour, i'm ali velshi here in new york. back to the quote of the day. republican presidential candidate mitt romney made the comment that corporations are people, my friend. let's put this into context. romney was heckled about social security while speaking in iowa yesterday. listen for yourself. >> there are various ways of doing that. one is we could raise taxes on people. >> corporations! corporations! >> corporations! >> we could raise taxes -- >> of course they are. everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people. where do you think it goes? >> it goes in their pocket! >> now we learned later that one of the hecklers identified himself as joe feigin a 71-year-old former catholic priest who founded the liberal community activist group for -- group called citizens for community improvement. he has heckled republican candidates before. let's go to reynolds wolf live from atlanta. reynolds, good morning. any flight delays? >> we're going to see some, ali. especially in chicago. chicago, the windy city, dealing with some thunderstorms. could be some strong ones, especially by the afternoon in miami. also in orlando. in florida. you occasionally have thunderstorms. today is going to be one of those days. delays just under an hour. those could expand in the afternoon. kansas city, thunder boomers could be a problem. chicago, we talk about the rain, but in san francisco an entirely different animal altogether. some fog and some low clouds. in los angeles, low clouds may keep you on the tarmac a little bit longer than you want. not only at l.a.x. but maybe at john wayne also. keep in mind, if you happen to go to texas, looks like the heat wave has relented a bit. has popped back a little bit. we've got of course the longest days of consecutive 100-degree temperatures. thankfully we're expecting things to be a little bit cooler for today. scattered showers across the carolinas and the northern tier of states. sunshine for the northeast and out to the west. now for some news that is out of this world. you've heard of meteorites. the tiny particles that fall through the atmosphere. nasa researchers have found building blocks of dna on these little, tiny things. the meteorites, again the discovery suggests that meteorites may have impacted earth and assisted in life formation on this planet. with minimal contamination of the samples, some scientists found that these were formed in space. some people think that a lot of these were contaminated in outer space, maybe from some type of extra terist ral life. others think there may have been some contomorrow nation on earth. you can go to the water cooler this morning at work, you're going to amaze others with your expanded knowledge. >> if this were a mitt romney campaign sfop you could say meteorites are people, too. >> why not? i'm all for it. i'm sure they have feelings. i'm sure they care. >> i thought they were little bits of rock. >> and if they're registered what a difference maker they could all be. >> no kidding. exactly. the whole meteorite segment. reynolds, good to see you, buddy. reynolds wolf in atlanta. here's an invention that every driver is going to want. tires that inflate by themselves. goodyear has designed tires equipped with a special device that keeps track of inflation, adds more air when necessary. don't get too excited yet. goodyear has not said when these tires will hit the market but i bet all of us lazy folks will scoop them up as soon as they do. take a look at this little device. looks like something that should be inside a computer, right? it's electronic skin. basically you put it on your skin, it's used to monitor vital signs in heart disease patients. the device sticks to skin like a temporary tattoo. lasts for about two weeks. i don't think your forehead is the best place for it. scientists are hoping that these tiny little gadgets might one day replace those clunky hospital monitoring devices. excellent little development. the barefoot bandit cuts a movie deal but a plea deal will not allow him to make a dime. vet a surprise for you! 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[ male announcer ] old el paso. hard and soft tacos. ♪ feed your fiesta. 15 minutes after the hour. comedian jay leno has some news on the supercommittee. here's your punch line. >> they're putting to the a so-called supercommittee to deal with this debt problem. you know, look, i'm no expert on the topic. but really? these are the best financial minds you could come up with? take a look. >> senate majority leader harry reid's office has announced his pick for a bipartisan congressional super committee. nbc's tracie potts is in washington for us with more on that. tracie, good morning. >> lynn, hi. good morning, everyone. he gets to pick three, and he's done it, and here they are, all three are experts in taxes and finance, wesley snipes of new york, nicolas cage of california, and willie nelson of texas. >> all right. time now for your political tickle with tim farley host of morning briefing from washington. you're in washington? >> yes, indeed, i am, sir. >> were you at the debate? >> no, i was covering it here. i was anchoring coverage from the studios. the megaplex here in washington, d.c. >> what do you think? >> you know, you go into this, it's like a football game, ali, you're watching during the night and you're seeing all the different plays and saying, the guard pulled on this play. look at how he avoided that interception. at the end of the game all anyone cared about was the score. going into it mitt romney was in first place and coming out of it i think mitt romney was in first place. he didn't get damaged too much. there was a fight between tim pawlenty and -- well, not a literal fight, but back and forth between tim pawlenty and michele bachmann. and there was also a bit of scrap between rick santorum and ron paul over whether or not the united states is imperial or not. but mitt romney was sitting in the back and just watching the whole thing take place and probably just enjoying the whole spectacle. because he came out of it pretty much unscathed as the front-runner. >> although i saw an editorial, the winners of the debate were rick perry and president obama by virtue of the fact they weren't on that stage. >> that's a good point. is that people who weren't on the field yesterday, rick perry making an announcement tomorrow, as the straw poll is under way, that he is going to be running. and, of course, president obama, who was nowhere to be seen yesterday with the republicans. although, his name was -- he was pretty forceful in speeches he was making yesterday. and, hey, keep the football analogy alive. the president is going to meet with the green bay packers today at the white house. >> this iowa straw -- straw poll is tomorrow. what do you think is going to happen? >> oh, butter on a stick, ali, come on. it's the biggest treat in town. you know, we're going to see 15-minute speeches by each of the candidates who decide to participate. mitt romney is not one of those. there will be a list of candidates, then at the bottom there's an open space where people can write in. it's really a make or break -- well, maybe not make or break. but michele bachmann and tim pawlenty both want to be at least 1-2. and she really wants a win. she needs to show up well. the question is whether or not the other candidates, the second and third tier candidates will get enough to sustain their campaigns to continue right until the caucus, which will be in january. so that's the question that will come out and maybe get answered tomorrow. >> and now that perry is getting to the race it's going to be that much more important for bachmann. by the way, i think that butter on a stick sounds fantastic. because the butter all melts. so it's basically this fried, doughy thing with a stick of butter enmeshed into it. >> butter on a stick is people, too, ali. remember that. >> that's right. that's right. tim, good to see you. have a great show this morning. tim farley, morning briefing on serious xp potus. the barefoot banden has sold the movie rights to his story. colton harris-moore was a teenager when he went on a crime spree. it's unclear how much 20th century fox paid. but any profits or book or movie deal will go to his victims. rejection can be tough. especially if you're an unknown hollywood writer and the bomb squad is called out. that's the backdrop for what happened to one aspiring writer. he left his briefcase at a hollywood agent's office, after she refused to meet with him, or read his script. the bomb squad was called. they blew up the briefcase. the agent claims the writer was stalking her. no charges have been filed. all right. first long live the middle child. today is the national day of the middle child. here are some famous middle kids. jfk, princess diana, richard nixon, and martin luther king jr. good on you, middle kids. 20 minutes after the hour. 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[ female announcer ] nourish plus. only from aveeno. 22 minutes after the hour. let's go around the world. manita standing by for us in london. as an outcome of these riots in britain, the british government has said that free throw of information can be a problem and they're talking about blocking social media for some people. what is this about? >> yeah, it's really interesting, ali. you know, we've seen the use of social media, which is twitter and facebook and messaging services in various revolutions in the middle east as a means of getting the message out, to get people together to protest against governments and things like that. but some people could say that could be a means of good. however, in this case, in this country, what we're seeing now is that there have been questions of, well, the use of blackberry messaging, twitter, and facebook sites for spreading the message of violence and that's what has got a lot of people concerned that yesterday, the special session of parliament, the british prime minister was asked about the potential of banning certain sites that would, or even potentially blocking the use of the blackberry messenger service, if it was inciting vio