a statement today on the health of congressman jesse jackson jr. of illinois. one of his top aids says that jackson's condition is not life threatening. last week jackson's office issued a statement saying he is struggling with physical and emotional problems that will require extensive medical treatment. the 47-year-old took a medical leave of absence last month which his office attributed to exhaustion. he has been under growing pressure to explain his disappearance from capitol hill. we'll have more details and a live report from chicago in just 30 minutes. a man charged with planning to bomb the pentagon and u.s. capital. he is going to plead guilty. this is rezwan farduz a u.s. citizen accused of plotting to fly airplanes loaded with explosives into federal buildings in washington. federal prosecutors say ferdaus was radicalized by internet videos and it appears he was working alone. we're told he will plead guilty to 2 of 6 charges and face the possibility of 17 years in prison. another partisan battle over health care set to unfold on the house floor today for the 33rd time. the republican controlled house is going to vote to do away with president obama's signature legislation. the vote comes two weeks after the u.s. supreme court ruled that the law is constitutional. but the political posturing for both sides is now in high gear. >> having now had 30 different debates on this war over repeal of the health care bill. the house republicans have finally hit their boil the bunny moment. enough is enough. today life imitates art. we now have another boss in our midst. i call this boss obama care. repeal obama care. let's get rid of the boss once and for all. >> all right. let's bring in dana bash live on capitol hill. we know it's going to fail in the senate. the house republicans, what do we think they're accomplishing with what they're trying to do here and, dana, why all the crazy boil the bunny language going on? >> i don't know if somebody just had some 1980s movie trivia and tv trivia running inside the cloak rooms. a little bit odd. fatal attraction and the dukes of hazard for people who don't know. in any event in all seriousness what we are seeing here today are republicans trying to explain why they are doing this. actually let's just play a sound bite from one of those republicans marsha blackburn. >> okay. >> how many times are we going to do this? we're going to keep at it until we get this legislation off the books. it was a bad bill. it has become a bad law. and, quite frankly, if you are satisfied with a tax based government controlled limited access bureaucrat centric health care program, then this is for you. >> the reality check, suzanne, is yes republicans control the house which is why they can do this. they do not control the senate so this will go nowhere in this senate and obviously they do not control the white house. but if they do control all of those bodies, if they have effectively a hat trick in november, then they could repeal the health care. but in the meantime they don't have that ability so what democrats are trying to do, you saw part of it earlier, is try to have a little bit of fun. there is this theater. let's put on a show. listen to some of that. >> i don't know why republicans want to go back to the day when chicken noodle soup was the only option for hard working families who couldn't afford care. the truth is, chicken noodle soup might be good for lunch but as a health care policy it is bad. >> i shall read the replacement bill. let me just read half of it first. i shall now read one-half of the replacement bill. now i shall read the other half of the replacement bill. now some of you will say, al, you read too fast. i didn't pick up all of that. so for those who listen slowly, or those who may have missed it, i shall now read the replacement bill in its entirety. obviously the congressman had a sense of humor. clearly, it's working. they're getting our attention here. why all the antics? >> you said it perfectly. they are getting our attention. and they're really trying to get the attention of the base of both parties. if you look at all of the polls, the country really is pretty divided along party lines when it comes to whether or not this health care law should be repealed or not. and when you are going into november, each party really wants to make sure their bases get out and vote. so republicans obviously run the house. they are the ones who decided to have this vote. they want their base out and democrats figure if we're going to have this vote why not at least push our base as well. there are those independents that both parties are trying to get but they are also pretty much evenly divided on whether this is the right thing to do. >> i want to bring in president obama making a statement, the health care law, obviously the white house reacting issuing a statement saying the last thing congress should do is refight old political battles and take a massive step backwards by repealing basic protections that provide security for the middle class. i'm assuming they realize this is not really going to be repealed but this is part of their effort as well to at least have voters pay attention to their side of the argument. >> that is exactly right. what you just read is pretty much the democratic talking point. democrats in the house, democrats in the senate, after the supreme court decision upholding the health care law, after republicans made clear they're going to push this and push the idea that the mandate is a tax democrats over and over again, i was in massachusetts interviewing a democratic candidate for senate there elizabeth warren. she said almost exactly what you just read that the president said. we're fighting yesterday's battles. let's focus on jobs and they're trying to make republicans look like they are simply wasting taxpayer dollars by having these debates over and over again. one thing i will point out that i saw from a tweet from a republican aide up here which is noteworthy, when democrats ran the house they had votes to bring troops home from iraq over and over again and they knew that was never going to pass either. >> so antics on both sides. thank you, dana. entertaining as well. appreciate it. presidential candidate mitt romney making a personal appeal to african-american voters today. just about two hours ago he spoke at the naacp national convention in houston. >> i want you to know if my policies and leadership would not help families of color and families of any color more than the policies and leadership of president obama i wouldn't be running for president. you have to make your case to every single voter. we don't count anybody out. and we sure don't make a habit of presuming anyone's support. support is asked for. and earned. and that's why i'm here today. >> cnn political analyst rolen martin in houston where romney spoke. good to see you. >> like wise. >> tell us what you think romney thinks he'll accomplish here when you take a look at the polls and they say what about 5% african-americans support romney compared to 87% for president obama. >> well, first of all i think if you go back to a couple things, obvious obviously senator obama got the percent of the vote in 2008. in 1998 speaker gingrich was the leader of the house he was perceived as far too antagonist tick when it came to minorities and that was not appealing to suburban white women. then governor george w. bush ran in 2000 with compassionate conservativism and that was a lot more appealing to those constituents. so really what mitt romney is doing is not necessarily to get significant numbers of black votes but to say to independent voters out there, i am reaching out. i'm not simply trying to be only looking at one ethnic group when it comes to the gop. i think that's really what the intention is to say i'm open, have open arms to reach out to many other people. >> how has he been received when you talk to folks there? what do they say? >> well, it was interesting because when he walked in about a half of the room stood up. about half didn't. then of course as he went to the speech he got tepid applause some places and okay applause other places but two areas where he got i think the loudest applause really dealt with, one, when he began to talk about the importance of family. when he said that if you wait to have a child until you're 21 years of age you have a 2% chance of being in poverty. then he said he was going to defend traditional marriage. a lot more applause on that point alluding to same sex marriage the recent announcement by president obama. the second point was when he talked about education and said he was going to match federal dollars to allow any parent to allow their child to attend any school they want to, education a huge issue. there were other points where people screamed out at one point you lie. some other points. but other people quickly shushed them. it was very interesting. you certainly felt the tension there but then of course when he said i am the president you want to african-americans folks said yeah right. it was very interesting. it was a bold line for him to use. >> it was interesting having covered bush for many years that he had a really rocky relationship with the naacp because he was criticized at points for being a no show at these conventions and he did finally get some credit for just being there and showing up, realizing people were not necessarily going to agree with him. in talking to folks do you think they give him some credit for standing there and knowing that he might get booed on some things as well? >> you know what? to be honest i don't give somebody credit for showing up to the world's largest and oldest civil rights organization. you are a major candidate for president. you should show up. and so my whole deal is that's what you do. and so, look. then senator obama sat down for a q & a with rick warren at saddle back. it's not like he was going to convince a lot of people in that room on the issue of abortion and others to somehow come to his side. he should be here. several people did certainly say it that they appreciated mitt romney came here except at the invitation. others i talked it board members and other people here who were disappointed that president obama is not coming. he came to the naacp in 2009. for the last three years he skipped naacp. he will be speaking to the national urban league in a couple weeks in new orleans, but certainly folks here would have liked to have heard mitt romney and president obama speak to the folks here. last point, suzanne, one of the issues mitt romney talked about obviously the economy. he did not touch on housing at all. i was surprised by that. remember these groups deal with civil rights and social justice. the only time he really talked about civil rights was when he brought up his father. he didn't really say what he was going to do to advance civil rights. he didn't speak about police brutality or other social justice issues. >> okay. >> there you go. >> thank you. good to see you. here's what we're working on for this hour. it's mississippi's only abortion clinic. and today a judge will decide if it will have to shut its doors. we're live from jackson. millions of americans can forget about watching comedy central or vh 1 or several more of their favorite channels. those channels are off directv today. part of a dispute over fees. we'll get to the bottom of it. and if you're single you're more likely to vote for president obama. we've got the fascinating results of a new cnn poll on the marriage gap. i've discovered gold. 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carry on. now you can test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today. i'll tell you the fate of mississippi's only abortion clinic is now in the hands of a judge. earlier this month the same judge issued a temporary restraining order protecting the clinic from mississippi's new laws for abortion clinics. now remember, these are some of the strictest abortion laws in the country and would likely force this clinic to close. republican governor phil bryant has said he wants to make the state abortion free. the new law requires all doctors in the clinic be ob-gyns and have admitting privileges at a local hospital. our reporter is outside a federal courthouse in jackson, mississippi. david, talk a little bit about this. if the only clinic here is forced to close folks in mississippi in effect would lose the privacy right that allows abortion. is that right? >> reporter: well, proponents of this law say they are not banning abortion and they are planning to give time to this clinic to be able to get its doctors, the ones who do not have admitting privileges at local hospitals, give them time to get that. but then the owner of the clinic tells us that it's taken weeks, over a month, six weeks or more, for them to just get an application from some of these hospitals for their doctors to even apply for those admitting purposes. so they're arguing that this law is intended to make it more difficult for them to do business and perhaps close. if that happens then women seeking abortions in the state of mississippi will have to work a lot harder to find a doctor willing to do that or travel out of state which could be a trip of a couple hundred miles. >> one of the things the law says, doctors who perform abortions have to have these admitting privileges to local hospitals. talk a little bit about what the local hospitals are doing. are they accepting these doctors who perform the procedure or are they saying we don't want to get in the middle of this fight? >> reporter: well this doesn't sound like a very big deal if you're asking for these doctors to be first of all ob-gyns which the three doctors at this clinic are. but the law is also asking them to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. these doctors are from out of state and when they come in they're only here for a limited period of time to do their work and then go back to wherever they live or have another practice going. but the owner of the clinic here states that it is taking a lot of time to get these hospitals to respond to the requests for an application and to get this process going. the state law allows for several weeks for them to do this but they say that wasn't enough time and they're afraid if the law is allowed to stand there will be fines while they're in noncompliance and possibly even worse. they say it could lead to them actually closing their doors. >> david, real quickly here, some people say this is about women's health. other people say it's politics. the people that you talked to there in that community, what do they think they is? >> well, the fight over abortion has been going on a long time here in mississippi. this is the only clinic that's been open since 2004 so this is part of the continuing battle that's been going on. we did some digging here. when the argument came up that this law was part of an attempt to protect the health of women seeking abortions here in the state of mississippi we checked with the state health department. we found out that there are 2,000 or more abortions performed at that clinic every year and in the last two years they say there's only been one case of a patient who had some minor complications after having an abortion there. the state health department in fact says this clinic is doing a very good job. that seems to put a damper on the argument the health of women need to be protected there. >> thank you, david. republican running for senate says he is the right man for the job. why? because he says he is friendly with the democrats. is that enough to earn him ted kennedy's seat? 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[ female announcer ] purina cat chow indoor. always there for you. the who surprised everyone when he replaced ted kennedy in massachusetts wants to surprise everybody again. scott brown is a republican in a largely democratic state. he is running for his first full term against one of his state's democratic icons. here's dana bash. >> this is the senator from massachusetts, scott brown. >> reporter: main street in hyannis, cape cod with senator scott brown. the breezy, every man persona that got the massachusetts republican elected in an upset two years ago still on display. >> thank you. >> absolutely. thank you. >> keep your eyes on the road will you? >> reporter: brown is keenl aware that recapturing the senate seat held by democrat ted kennedy for nearly half a century means distancing himself from fellow republicans whenever possible. most republicans boast about blocking the president's agenda. brown brags about helping. >> i can name a litany of democrat sponsored bills that i've done that never would have passed if it hadn't been for me. the president called me and the vice president calls me and secretary clinton calls asking for my vote all the time. >> reporter: republicans jumped on the supreme court decision calling the federal health insurance mandate a tax but brown voted for a mandate in massachusetts. he says neither is a tax. >> what the party leaders and others say in washington really has no bearing on what i'm doing. >> reporter: still, brown was elected vowing to help republicans block the president's health care plan and wants to repeal it. his democratic opponent of course does not. >> hi. i'm elizabeth warren. very nice to see you. >> you too. >> reporter: brown's challenger is a liberal icon. >> we're here for the chicken. >> reporter: president obama's high profile consumer advocate and former harvard law professor. >> i never thought i'd run for public office. but i got pulled into this because of the urgency of this moment. families are getting hammered and they can't take it much longer. >> reporter: the first-time candidate was a quick study on pressing the flesh. >> i'm going to vote for you. wonderful. say that again. fabulous. >> reporter: and she's got her message against brown down. >> scott brown stands with the billionaires and says they shouldn't have to pay more in taxes. scott brown has been standing against working families. >> reporter: but warren has stumbled over an issue she admits tripped her up. while at harvard she identified herself as native american. brown pounced saying there is no evidence. >> i was really surprised that anyone wanted to make this a political issue. i was really surprised by that and very slow to respond to it. i'm like every other kid. i