atlanta, probably a year and a half or maybe two years before the movie came out, we received a request and in the normal course of prevents coming to atlanta and wanting to interview me on some matters involving the patriot act and the constitution and so forth, issues that i at least at that time was in the news a fair amount about, trying to authorizer reed not reauthorize the patriot act and so forth. ..

some of them home, some of the things they said were pretty stupid and i think feeds into the public perception of the low caliber of a lot of public officials we have these days. and i think the guy is a tremendous comedian, has a tremendous comedic sense both bad movie and i didn't see the successor but up to a point of thought it was fairly funny. >> this leads into we have time for one last question and here it is do you think you will run again for president in 2012? and to think a libertarian candidate can never win no and

yes. i do not intend to run again. i enjoy the experience tremendously of running in 2008 with the banner of the libertarian party but i have no intention of calling the car running again to think of the printer and could ever be looked? yes but an awful lot of things have to happen before that is even remotely likely. our political system is so stacked against the openness that would have to be necessary for a third-party candidate or libertarian or otherwise stand a chance of competing before you can win with just competing. it is so difficult with the current restrictions in federal campaign financing for a third-party or independent to raise money to compete it is virtually impossible to break into the media as we saw during

the debates the just what allowed. so that has to change in other words the campaign law has to be opened up. the seventh century is going to have to demand that we open up our political system and have a real debate about these things rather and just simply listening to the republicans and democrats to take your virginity running for president and having them say they want to save rather than what we need to hear. ultimately the answer to the last question is yes it is possible but it's only going to happen if the american people demand to have a real political system at long last. >> our thanks to bob barr, former libertarian candidate for joining us today. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] si mccuish thank the audiences

here and on the radio and television internet. this meeting of the commonwealth club of california, the place where you are in the know is adjourned. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

flexible policies actually make employees more, not less productive because as you all know spending time worrying about what's happening at home, your employees have the support and peace of mind that they desperately need to concentrate. >> watch something on c-span that he would like to share with friends? at the new c-span video library you can search, watch it, put it and share it. over 160,000 hours of video from yesterday or last year. every c-span program since 1987. the sec and the delivery, cable's latest gift to america. this year's c-span studentcam competition asked middle and high school students to create a five to eight minute

video dealing with one of our country's greatest strengths or challenge the country is facing. here is one of the third place winners. >> there is a lot of misunderstanding about what the true free markets are, how they were, how they don't work, what rules are needed and what roles are not necessary. we have the system but people don't understand how the system works. a disaster came along in the summer of 2007, so we have to focus on the fact that the whole idea of free markets and capitalism have taken a hit. ♪ ♪ >> since colonial times, and a grant from the novel the globe traveled to america to seek their fortunes. ♪ from the industrial revolution to the great depression of the united states has had her share of ups and downs yet whether she is experiencing a recession or economic boom, america remains the land where opportunities are abundant and the entrepreneur

who thrives. >> we just kind of stumbled into it. when i was in high school senior my business partner was a junior. we were in a band and we didn't want to pay anybody to do it so he bought some supply is and we need a kind of our own frame or screen out of just like wood. we stretched the mash and did everything. restricted over a piece of glass to hold it in place and it really kind of start getting into it, printing for other bands, doing some stuff for the school just for fun and then i was like hey, we could do a business out of this. so we asked my dad for a little mini loan and he gave it to us and we kind of went from there. >> i decided to open a gourmet pasta company because it is something that i've done and has been in my family for three generations now. we are the third generation of

fresina to make posterpedic its been in the family since 1926 and we wanted to carry on the tradition. >> it is personal a way. physically i can and at the same time the demand of my work is diminishing so i found something to commit to and since i had this donut experience -- business experience, there was in a way i may even say natural the reason, the choice for me to choose as a small business. >> i started my business by giving some site work for somebody needing some work done. i had a full-time job but this was more fun on the side.

i got to customers, i got laid off which was fortunate in hindsight, i got laid off from my engineering job and the two companies i was working for shared this an accountant and invited me to a meeting. i got to fight and when i got to 20i realized i could make a living. >> only in america would be possible for these men to start their businesses. bye starting the business in the united states, they capitalized on the country's greatest strength, the american free market economy. >> well i think a free market economy is the only way to go in america. i don't know if we have a true free-market economy in this country. there's definitely been crony capitalism going on as far as who gets to fail and to succeed but on the small business scale, which is what i think the free market economy is kind of the most the truth in a way it's the only economic system i could ever imagine because that is how entrepreneurs can thrive and

grow with competition and feeling and succeeding. you need to fall a little bit to be able to stand up. so i think it's really important to have a free-market economy. it's the only way that entrepreneurialism can survive in america. >> considering the crisis we just had, free-market is the only way out of it. the government doesn't spend a dollar they didn't take from somebody else. and when they take it from somebody else and liter tax, there's a durham, the only spent 80% of it in a productive week. individuals are better served and hang on to their own money as they see fit. absolutely, free-market. if you look at the economy it's been choked off in the free development. china is the exception that they are bringing the free market to make the drivers of industry work. the free market is the only way to get out of it. >> in a free-market economy, anyone has the ability to open a business. over 600,000 businesses are

opened each year in the united states alone that due to the nature of capitalism, one-third of the businesses will fail within two years and over half will close within four. can anyone start a business? >> i think that anyone can start a business. you have to have tried to read it has to be something that you are motivated to do. you have to try to find the resources and in this day and time it is a low but it difficult to find the resources, but if you start small like when we first started we had was cost of the eventually agreed graduated and added a line of sauce and then a line of cheese and on and on. so if you start small enough and you have something that people want -- our postulate we have a niche because nobody else knows what we do. the machines we have have been around since 1926, and it is a handmade products of its cui to be something that is not a

quantity item but a quality item and that is what we try to do, and i think if you do that on any kind of a business i think it can be successful. >> not everyone can start a business. it takes an incredible amount of dedication. you have to leave it and breathe it. i want a project right now. i've been working 12 days straight. went to bed last night working on it, woke up this morning working on it. you don't see many people willing to do that so it isn't going to happen with very many people. >> starting a business is no small task. there are factors and limitations beyond the owner's control. however, starting a business in the unedtates would be nearly impossible without a free market economy and the american dream would be unattainable. >> it's not that easy over there. they are taking a lot of things especially a thing called connection. you need some connection to the government and things like that

or some business, the existing business people and things like that. but not just your initiatives and then if you're own self. a lot of the times the need family support over there. not just from your savings and making loans from banks on your credit and things like that. it's three different and very tough. >> the american dream does exist. mali is the america the land where anyone can be successful but where everyone has the opportunity to participate in a system that's proven itself again and again and is truly the nation's greatest strength. the american free-market economy. >> do i believe in the american dream? absolutely. it does exist. it's difficult to obtain. it takes both brains and personalities and it takes

determination. >> at sanibel? yes, i believe it is obtainable from personal experience, yes. >> to see all of the winning entries in this year's studentcam competition, visit studentcam.org. and now a senate subcommittee looks at efforts by mexican drug cartels to infiltrate and corrupt u.s. border security officials and other law enforcement personnel. representatives of the fpi at homeland security department testify at this hearing. it lasts about an hour. >> i will go ahead and call the subcommittee to order. i want to thank all of our witnesses for coming to the subcommittee on state, local and private sector pittard macina integration, and we are meeting in c homeland security governmental affairs committee room and i want to thank all of you for being here and

participating and what i would like to do is go ahead and give my opening statement. senator in some is on his way and maybe a couple of others, not quite sure. and turn it over to the witnesses and then ask lots of questions, so let me start with just a couple of facts. fact number one is that mexico ships over 50% of the methamphetamine and marijuana into the u.s. market that we have over 50% comes from mexico and 90% of the cocaine in the u.s. comes from mexico. that is about a 25 billion-dollar industry in mexico is drugs and drug trade and as a result of that is fact number two would be that the u.s. border defenses have beefed up and have tried to squeeze the drug propes which has been good and some extent effective but to

gain advantage the cartels have begun to infiltrate u.s. law enforcement. it's the most trouble for most americans have trouble for those agencies all around. our review suggests the cartels are probably targeting federal border law enforcement as well as state and local governments. we are not we to focus on state and local today but we have to acknowledge that is a large concern that we will be focusing on the we will be working with the federal agencies and state and local governments to try to get a better handle on this and work through good strategies on how we can prevent this from happening. at the border patrol seems to be the biggest target and have the most corruption. the news report recently said 40% -- boustany 40% increase in

the cbp corruption and dozens of open investigations. other possible federal targets would be i.c.e., fpi, tsa, dea and probably a few more. but they seem to be less vulnerable and i am assuming that is because the cbp is on the front line. the are the face of the border and also it's a double the size and ten years and then the people are coming, new faces, new personnel. i think we are starting to see problems as a result of that. our review suggests that the cbp may not be using all with the accepted tools to screen job applicants. i think they have a goal of polygraph all job applicants but today they are only doing about 10%. so we want to talk about that today and this is not just drugs but there's a guns moving across

the border, there is money laundering moving and my understanding largely from north to south across the border and there's always the possibility of terrorists coming into the country if we have a weakened border in border patrol so these cartels in mexico are very powerful. we should not underestimate the ability to try to correct u.s. agencies, law enforcement agencies right now. we think the mexican drug cartels of operations and to enter 30 u.s. cities. three of those happen to be in my in little rock and the ifill and also in 2009, the statistics indicate there were 6,500 drug war related deaths in mexico so

that is a bigger number than all of the men and women that we have lost in iraq since the beginning of the war. so this is a very serious problem. it's on the border. there is a war going on on the down are not the border and in mexico related to the drug cartels. what i would like to do now is go ahead and give a brief introduction for each of the four witnesses and i appreciate you all being here and in a few moments when center in san comes if he wants to make an opening statement would be great. what we are going to do is we are going to leave the record open for a week or two weeks. i will ask the staff what they want to but we will leave the record open for the senators to couldn't be here today because of other committees and what is going on on the floor so we may have written questions we would ask you to follow upon. the first witness is kevin perkins assistant director of

the criminal investigative division of the fbi. he began the career as a special agent in 1986 and has served in operational investigate positions focussing extensively on white-collar crime and public corruption. the fbi has established several interagency border corruption task force is designed to bring local, state and federal parties together as needed to coordinate efforts on border related corruption but i understand your claim to fame is you went to, you are from mountain home arkansas? >> c2 >> there we go. we can talk more about that in a few minutes. that is great. our second witness will be tom frost assistant inspector general for investigations at the department of homeland security. mr. frost has been involved in and served as a federal law enforcement officer since 1976 in a variety of investigative protective and leadership roles and in our third witness today

is james tomsheck of the office of internal affairs at cbp. mr. tomsheck is a former deputy assistant director of the office of investigations at the united states secret service as well as former deputy assistant director of the office of government and public affairs. the office of internal affairs has developed and implemented a comprehensive integrity strategy designed to prevent and investigate all threats to the integrity of the cbp. with that what i would like to do this call on mr. perkins and what we are going to do is if you could limit your remarks to five minutes and please understand we will put your written statements in the record so that will be part of the record but if you could limit statements to five minutes i would be perfect. mr. perkins. >> good morning, chairman pryor. i'm pleased to be here to discuss the fbi efforts to combat public corruption.

the fbi recognizes fighting public corruption is vital to preserving democracy, protecting the borders and securing communities. in fact it is the top criminal priority following only the national security priorities of counterterrorism counter intelligence and cybercrime. we are directing resources to root out public corruption across the country but we cannot unfortunately do not have to do it all alone. we rely heavily on our partners at all levels of law enforcement. through our vigilance we achieved notable success in the past two years alone the efforts have helped convict 1600 federal, state and local officials. we have approximately 2500 pending corruption investigations ongoing today. the southwest border is of a particular focus of the corruption fighting efforts. of the 700 agents leading the charge against corruption, approximately 120 of those are working alongside u.s. southwest border. our 12 southwest border

corruption task force is share information with the southwest intelligence group, the el paso intelligence center and the mexican legal attache is to go via the fight and disrupt mexican drug trafficking organizations from utilizing and soliciting united states public officials to commit criminal law activities. one particular case highlights the potential of the national security implications of public corruption of the nation's borders. in that case individual gained employment as a border inspector for the specific purpose of trafficking drugs. through the collaborative efforts in the yearlong investigation this public official put guilty to one count of conspiracy to import more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana into the united states while at the same time receiving more than $5 million in bribe payments. this individual has since been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. while the threat posed israel the southwest border is not and should not remain the only focus

of our efforts. each day the federal government is charged with protecting over 7,000 miles of land bordering canada and mexico and over 300 points of entry across the united states. each of these entry points has the potential for criminal and or terrorist organizations to exploit corrupt officials willing to misuse their official positions for financial or personal gain. in fiscal year 2000 mine alone fbi field officers along the nation's canadian border conducted nearly 300 public corruption investigations. the fbi recognize the real threat public corruption poses of the nation's borders and points of entry. we are working in lockstep with law enforcement partners to address that threat. fbi headquarters for example we have established the national porter corruption task force consisting of representatives of the fbi, u.s. department of homeland security office of the inspector general, u.s. customs and border protection internal affairs and the transportation security administration this

task force insurers general guidance and oversight of border corruption programs on going across the country. through trend analysis, intelligence and information sharing and utilization of lessons learned and best practices we are uniquely positioned to address the very real threat of border corruption and the risk it poses to the national security. to that end, our national border corruption task force is coordinating with a free impacted divisions at fbi headquarters including fbi director of intelligence, counterintelligence division, counterterrorism division and weapons of mass destruction directive. by working together, sharing information becoming more creative and our approach, we are making great strides. i thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify before you today and sharing the fpi's work in combating corruption and i will be able to answer any questions at the appropriate time. thank you, center. >> thank you. mr. frost?

>> -- of inspector general. as assistant inspector general for investigations by office is responsible for investigating all allegations of dhs employee criminal misconduct including those related to the security of the nation's borders. our mission in part is to strengthen the effectiveness of dhs by conducting investigations and exercising oversight that will help protect the nation from dangerous people and dangerous things. the reports both to the secretary had the congress and our position provides necessary object to the to inspire the public trust and confidence the dhs work force. we have a staff of highly trained and experienced criminal investigators deployed in 25 offices in the united states and complemented by a staff of audit inspection professionals. border related corruption is now limited to one dhs component. it can cut employees and contractors across dhs as well

as employees of state and local governments. in fiscal year 2000 might we opened over 839 criminal cases involving the dhs employees and programs. our investigations resulted in 313 arrests, to hundred 93 indictment, to enter 81 convictions and 59 at the industry factions. one of our strategies is the leverage of existing resources and sharing intelligence through the working partnerships with the dea, i.c.e., the fbi and others. and by participating on various task forces including the fbi's border taskforce corruption initiative. law enforcement is recognized smuggling of people and things across the border is large-scale business dominated by organized criminal enterprises. as we disrupt traditional smuggling routes and networks, organizations resort to alternative tactics including bribing the dhs employees, infiltrating the ranks and engaging in fraudulent schemes to acquire immigration benefits. we found the tactics used by the

drug trafficking organizations as the attempt to compromise employees are similar tactics used by foreign intelligence services to recruit spies. cbp staffing and funding levels have increased dramatically since 2003 creating the largest uniform law enforcement agency in the country. an agency along with i.c.e. occupies the front line securing our physical border. since 2003, we have made arrests of 129 cbp officers and border patrol agents. for example, we've recently arrested a cbp officer for alien narcotics smuggling in the joint fbi investigation in brownsville texas. the officer was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison. it is already noted we are confronted with corruption and other leaders of border security. law enforcement officers from i.c.e. and cbp have been corrupted for access to sensitive law enforcement rm