we have our panel with us this morning. will cain is back. over here, he's usually there. he's there this morning. he's a columnist, of course, for theblaze.com. michelle is joining us, contributor to "newsweek" and daily beast. and also oh with have new -- is eight book? "kingdom come"? >> first book. >> they have like five pages on you. and "the means of reproduction, sex, power, and future of the world." >> my second book. >> where are your books? >> contributor and democratic strategist joining us as well. welcome to all of you. our "starting point" this morning is some very big dwobmentes happening in afghanistan. also fwhn deadly suicide car bombing. also an attempt by the taliban to try to poison the food of nato troops. it's all confirmed that food was contaminated at foreign operating base near the afghanistan/pakistan border. they found traces of bleach in fruit and coffee. no one got sick or even hurt. overnight there was a suicide car bomber who was able to kill 9 people and injury 12 people right outside the gates of eastern afghanistan. no americans were among the victim there's. the taliban though is saying it is in retaliation of the koran burning. let's get right to nick paton walsh, live in kabul, afghanistan, this morning. nick, good morning. >> reporter: morning. 9 dead, 12 injured. the airport in the east is used as a nato base. some staff personnel were lightly injured and back at work. the concern is seeing the attacks continue in the warmer summer months ahead for the taliban will keep saying they're avenging this mistaken burning of a koran by american soldiers, trying to harness public opinion, public fury on their side. the poisoning today, if that's what it was, concerns about that, too. of course, because it appears that an afghan worker in a dining facility at a base to the east of where i'm standing near the pakistani border, in fact, noticed something was wrong. told his bosses about it. they launched an investigation trying to work out how that happened. but somehow there was bleach, chlorine bleach in coffee and fruit. the soldiers are all fine and eating preprepared rations they have that. there erodes that feeling of trust. the people's food, is that safe? the people that they work with, can they be trusted? all of these things are vital. they must be playing really hard now on the psychology of american soldiers in afghanistan. in the closing year, and maybe months for some of them and the decade long war and the trust of the people they're handing the country over to is something they're really having to assess hely right now. >> thank you, appreciate it. we're going to bring in now the retired colonel david lamb, former chief of staff of the combined forces command in afghanistan in 2004 and 2005. nice to see you, sir. when you see the protests happening in the cities throughout the weekend and the numbers. cities, frankly, have grown. are you surprised at how this has sfpiraled, maybe out of control at this point? >> no, i'm not. quite frankly, the taliban will use this unfortunate incident. we have to keep in mind from a strategic prospective, what the taliban wants here is to keep insighting this violence. working it straight into in may, the chicago conference in which they would hope to either have the coalition or parts of the coalition pull out of afghanistan early or even have the united states talk about departing afghanistan a little early. >> when you say strategic, it sounds like you are saying really ultimately it's not about the koran, it's about something else and leveraging off of this incident which nobody seems to think was intentional to make bigger waves, is that right? >> that's precisely right. if you remember in 2005, in april, there was a similar allegation that korans were defaced at guantanamo bay, cuba. that incident lasted about three weeks, until the story was retracted. but the main difference is if you look at the two incidents, in 2005 there were riots in pakistan, indonesia, palestine, and if you look at this incident here, it's solely confined to afghanistan itself. so oh. >> what does that tell you? >> well, it tells you that the rest of the muslim world looks at this as an accident, as it was, regrettable accident. but it also tells you that the taliban, although it may think it's an accident, that is not what they're going to tell the r afghan people and they aring in business of winning the hearts and minds of afghan people, using this incident strategically to gain some leverage as major conferences are due up here in chicago in may. >> colonel, this is will cain. it's hard not to look at these protests and be kind of disheartened about our effort there's over a decade now to win over the public. my natural conclusion is, gosh, this is validation forgetting out of here. it sounds like what you're saying here this is less a reflection of public sentiment and more a reflection of the taliban's incitement. is that fair? >> i don't think so. i think that there's a good portion of the afghan population, particularly in the south, that is very sympathetic to the taliban. so that i think that that will pick up and they can pick up on that. these aren't just taliban in the riots. >> right. right. >> colonel, hillary rosen. question. if we are convinced now that the taliban is continuing to be our enemy here, we originally got into afghanistan to push back al qaeda. what is al qaeda's role in any of this? and do we still have them to fear in afghanistan or are we really now just fighting the taliban? >> on the first question, i think on certain terms the taliban here is the major factor. the major strategic worry for the u.s. is that afghanistan becomes, again, an ungoverned space in which al qaeda and folks who would be planning attacks against the west would have a safe haven and a base. and so that -- therein lies the problem. now, the u.s. strategy may say basically let's keep some special forces or small operating groups to afghanistan no come back. but the fact of the matter is, if the population were at large, does it want you there, is going to be very hard to keep the base there. >> before i let you go i want to ask you the impact of a couple of things that happened. the president has apologized. certainly for the folks who are running to replace the president, they've had a very heightened rhetoric about what to do in afghanistan. and hamid karzai also has called for, you know, i forget his exact phrase, basically to calm things down or look at it like an accident. any of these things permeating those crowds? >> no. in fact, i would say hamid karzai, even some americans would agree that his impact over the afghan population is marginal. any admission, any apology like this at this point on the ground in afghanistan, particularly in the south, is seen as number one, not as an apology but it is seen as, quite frankly, admission of guilt. and in any case, a sign of weakness. >> thanks for talking with us this morning. we certainly appreciate your time and insight on this, sir. we have other stories making headlines. indicate baldwin has thoughs. good morning. >> good morning. syria's government says the result of a referendum on changes in the constitution will be available today. meanwhile, opposition activists say government forces killed four people this morning. government attacks against in the city of homs. that's on top of 55 civilians killed yesterday. this as we're learning more about the final moments of marie colvin's life. they report the veteran correspondent died last week in a makeshift press center as she tried to get her shoes to escape a shelling attack. colvin followed the local custom of removing her shoes upon entering a building. also, pakistan has finished demolition of the home where osama bin laden was killed by american forces. only part of the wall surrounding the compound remains and no one is being allowed inside. pakistani officials have not publicly deexplained why they decided to bull dose the house. aaa announcing this morning the new national average for a gallon of gas is $3.70. gas prices have been rising every day for three weeks. why? tension with iran in part has pushed oil prices up to $110 a barrel and that in turn has pushed gas prices higher. and on the eve of the primaries, the very important primaries, michigan and arizona, mitt romney appears to be rebounding and rick santorum may be slipping. a new national gallop poll of registered republicans has romney two points ahead of santorum, in the margin of area reporter. this comes as romney picked up a key endorsement yesterday from arizona governor jan brewer. and rick santorum is laying out his economic reform package in a "wall street journal" editorial just this morning. he's bashing the president for leaving one in six americans in poverty and accuse mitt romney of engaging in obama-style class warfare. among santorum's proposals, pro-growth, pro-family tax policy that triples the deduction for children and eliminates the marriage tax perenniality. restoring america's competitiveness by cutting the corporate tax rate in half no 17.5%. and unleashing america's energy by improving the keystone xl pipeline. "the artist" was the big winner last night at the oscars if you mussed it. winning five awards including best picture. martin scorsese's 3-d "hugo" won and meryl streep won for her performance in "the iron lady". le we'll look at the winners and losers coming up this reminds me, soledad, i have a movies i need to be seeing. >> you're more behind than you thought you were on saturday. ten new movies to go see. that is so true, kate. thanks. did you see this? the post-game press conference has now gone viral. basketball coach pat knight, son of bobby knight, infamous for his really, really, really bad temper. after a loss on wednesday night goes on a rant about his senior players at lamar university in texas where he is the coach. here's what he said. >> i'm not happy with these seniors. that's what i'm unhappy with. it it has nothing to do with xs and os. we have the worst group of seniors right now that i've ever been associated with. we've had problems with these guys off the court, on the court, classroom, drugs. when i played, you act like the way some of these guys did, you got shoved in a locker with a forearm up against your neck. >> i wonder if he was referring to his datd on that one? you know what's interesting though, you listen to his full rant. i can't decide if i love that or hate that. because there is some part of it that's like, guys, come on, you know, we -- >> isn't that something you say to them, not the world at large? >> you know, i think he's mad. he's telling everybody. you're right, i'm sure he said worst to them. that would probably be unprintable. >> publicly accusing your players of doing drugs, though, illegal, fairly stupid. this feels to me, the classic coach's dilemma. they can't play the game, they have to depend on players to do that. this is all about him. this isn't about the players. this is about whether he is going to follow in his father's footstep, deep psychological thing, he's going to win or not. i just wrote that off to a knight temper. >> i think at some point someone gets to say, guys, you're to the doing what you're supposed to be doing. >> it appeals to all of us at some level because we get this sense in our society, not just athletes, but everybody is over-coddled. we need accountability. >> sometimes my own children are over-coddled and you want to be like, do you know how the real world works, family? >> if it takes a knight, the knight family to do it. >> when my daughter gets there -- >> i have to say, also, as to what you said, hillary, if what he is seen as doing is that bad, why are they still on the team? there's more than a press conference called for if it's that bad. >> odd. i don't know what he was referring specifically in that but i thought a lot of that rant was, you know, but his father was famous for like choking, throwing chairs. >> and winning. >> and winning. >> right. >> and never having any issues with the ncaa in terms of like outside of his own personal violence. >> not that we know about. >> and high graduation rate for his players. complicated. still ahead this morning on "starting point," it has been 85 years since the last silent movie won at the oscars. the "the artist" though won best picture last night. one of the biggest highlights came before the show. some people say it was low light. ryan seacrest would say it's a low light. winners and losers, straight ahead. "get real", proud member of the 1% tips, i bet we're going to figure out who this guy is. ♪ dave, i've downloaded a virus. yeah. ♪ dave, where are we on the new laptop? it's so slow! i'm calling dave. [ telephone rings ] [ sighs ] i need a new i.t. guy. [ male announcer ] in a small business, technology is all you. staples easy tech experts are here to help. you must be... ...dave. [ male announcer ] with everything from new computers, to set-ups, to tune-ups. stapes. that was easy. i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. when i grow up, i'm going to go there. i want to fix up old houses. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. i want to fall in love again. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. ♪ tell me something good ♪ tell me that you love me ♪ yay >> you can't hate chaka chan and rufus. >> nice job. let's talk hos ogs kerrs. 84th an your oscar ceremony. billy crystal was back hosting for the ninth time. he had to step in. who dropped out? >> eddie murphy. >> eddie murphy dropped out so billy crystal stepped in. i thought he did a good job. >> please wake up. i'm ready for you to come home. where you belong. >> justin bieber. >> yeah, man, what's up? >> what are you doing here? >> i'm here to get you the 18-24 demographic. >> great, great, thanks. >> cute. cute opening. jessica shaw is a senior writer for "entertainment weekly" to tell us how it all went. you know we sedidn't stay up al night. i thought billy crystal did a good job. >> because you were asleep. >> we haven't seen each other in seven years and she starts out the gate mean. >> no, that's not true. >> did you think that he was -- >> i think he was solid. i think the show was fine. it was solid "b" show. there was nothing amazing or nothing horrible. >> because of the movies? the movies are like -- >> yeah. the movies were bad. certainly a year like, you know, when "titanic," that was a great year for oscarss. when you have movies that people feel passionately about. not that many people even saw "the artist," the movie that took picture, director, actor. >> right. i actually thought it was going to be "the help." i was rooting for viola davis. since it's may show, i with ksa i love you, i wish you won. >> meryl streep was shocked she won. she went over to viola davis. >> here's what she said in her speech. let's listen. >> and oscar goes to meryl streep, "the iron lady." >> when they called my name i had this feeling i could hear half of america going, oh, no, oh, come on, why, her, again. you know? but whatever. >> i thought she kind of captured how the night -- yeah. >> absolutely. i thought it was the best speech of the night. i think even viola davis probably should have won people think that -- i think people thought she was going to win. she didn't unfortunately but merle saved it. i thought she was terrific. >> octavia spencer did win for best supporting actress -- actor? >> actress. >> take a listen to her speech. >> thank you for putting me with the hottest guy in the room. thank you, steven spielberg for changing my life. thank you, stacey for changing my life. i'm wrapping up. i'm sorry, i'm freaking out. >> i love when they give you insight of what's really happening behind the scenes because you know somebody is giving her the hard wrap. >> yeah. yeah. >> she's not taking it. >> famous julia roberts night. stop and stick, man, because the produc producer. >> let's talk about sacha baron cohen. >> he is a movie "the dictator" coming out in may. on the red carpet he was carrying an urn full of kim jong-il's ashes, allegedly. even though we totally believe it's true. he poured them on ryan seacrest. i think it was not planned. ryan seacrest amazingly unflappable looked a him pisset off. >> see him later? get a new tux? >> new tux, i know. >> new tux. >> maybe he knew. >> armani, bring over the new tux. >> who keeps a second tux. i don't know about that. all right. well, we should mention that you have the "entertainment weekly" cover, yes? >> not with me in my -- i have it at all times. >> we have you as in we. >> yes. >> all talking about oscars. >> absolutely. >> nice to see you even though you came out of the gate insulting me. >> insulting the oscar show. >> thank you. >> you were telling the truth, by the way. a little bit of "b," be honest. >> usually, oh, my god, what a disaster. >> that's true. >> all hope for the "a." every year. >> show the spin. it wasn't a "d." that's all good. thank you. nice to see you. still ahead this morning on "starting point," you've heard this story about this investment banker? so bankers right now, not that great a time to be a banker imagewise and this story is not going to help. 1% tip on a $133 bill. and then one of his employees takes a picture, of course, and posts it. we're going talk about that story up next. facebook, reading texts you send when you're using the mobile app? interesting. might want to start reading your terms and conditions, the thing you scroll through. going to talk about all that and much more straight ahead. you're watching "starting point." golly! that is deep snow! can you get me out of it? of course. travelocity? that's amazing. but i'm still stuck. come on, man. dig it! [ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. ♪ that's michelle's contribution this morning, the smiths, "you just haven't heard it yet." nice little segue. appreciate that. bad pr for the 1% to talk about this morning. investment banker ate at a true food kitchen, the name of the rest raaurant restaurant, at newport beach. the total came to $133.54 on the bill. he tipped his server brianna $1.33. >> not even 1%. >> like, bad math. what kind of banker are you kidding? the picture was posted on the blog called future ex-banker which apparently a guy who works for that investment banker only tipped 1% was running the blog, taken down. i guess he doesn't want to get fired if writer said he went to lunch with his boss, snapped the picture. says his boss notoriously tipped 1% and leaves a tip of his own like his receipt where he tells breanna, get a real job. in addition to it not really being 1% because that would -- that is off. the owner of the restaurant says they're going to try to track this guy down, going to try to make sure that breanna gets tipped in some appropriate way. and he would like to ban him but he said he would like to talk to him first. i would love to know who it is. really. >> the whole world is going to know. we're going to make his life miserable. >> track him down and adjust the tip? excuse me, sir, you owe a little more on the tip? >> no, they will tip her what they think is fair since she was stiffed. >> he needs an attitude adjustment. actually i think problematic than the money, was the snide comment that somehow servers are not doing a real job. >> we know that 1 sprs not a group that you get a card or anything, enter it and therefore you representative of some -- >> some people really are -- >> he is self identified. >> this particular guy certainly is. >> he's self