state. subsequently, we had issues at syracuse and the catholic church. these are not unique to any particular strata of society. i read in "the new york times" the issue that occurred in new york with respect to orthodox jewish children. it is happening everywhere. the real disappointment of this thing is that this could have been a teaching moment for our society. as grown-ups, we could focus on our role in not looking carefully and not being willing to talk about these things with our children and to expose these things when they happen. so my biggest disappointment in this is that no one is focusing on that. they are acting as though this is a penn state issue, because it actually rose on the campus. i do not think there is any reasonable person who does not understand that this is a broad societal issue. we really should be protecting children. my wife and i give thanks every

day for our children. we ought to be thinking what can we as a society do to protect our children? >> i think we should end it with that, give the final word to one of our sponsors. peter tollman with bcg. terrific andfor a inspirational talk. it met all of the expectations earlier.elievthat robert set thank you for championing the cause of innovation. hearing positive news about diseases like alzheimer's is pretty important, particularly given what i know is happening. thank you, again. it's a tough challenge managing of pharmaceutical company. we have heard how complicated biology is. we heard about the marketplace. we look forward to following your success as you move forward

with your tenure at merck. thank you. so this brings to the closed the fourth very successful year of the viewpoint series. we at the boston consulting group and "the wall street journal" are excited to be assisted with this. and look forward another good year and look forward to seeing you next year. thanks very much. have a terrific holiday, and see you next year. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> tomorrow on "washington journal", a republican pollster talks about his focus groups on the 2012 campaign cycle. after that, a discussion on the future of iraq now that u.s.

troops have left the country. and later, will chat with crouch his latest book on presidential pardon power. >> a look at privacy issues on the internet and the cookies and super-cookies that track for internet users go on the web. julia angwin joins us to talk about legislation concerning how internet users are tracked. host: from time to time, we like to introduce you to people who write about and think about telecommunications issues, in turn that trend, and the public policy behind all of that. today, we are pleased to introduce you to julia angwin. she is a senior technology editor with "the wall street journal". she joins us from our new york studio. there is a serious and "the wall street journal", a rather

frequent series and "the wall street journal" called and what they know. what is that serious about? guest: hi. thanks for having me on. this series "what they know what clark launched last year -- launched last year, and it is really about privacy in the digital age. we started off by writing about how they're were all of these third parties who keep track of what you are doing on websites and transmit that information and use it for advertising. and we quickly found that was just the tip of the iceberg and we ended up doing a bunch of stores last year on all sorts of techniques people were using to track internet users on the web. and we also did, looked into how they are tracking people through apps on iphones. we unveiled a situation where facebook was inadvertently

transmitting information about its users' identities to dozens of companies. and so we ended up basically finding ourselves in a situation where we had more to write about. so we ended up continuing the series this year, not with the same branding, but covering a lot of the same issues. host: who are some of those third parties to track and how do they try? guest: we found there are hundreds of companies you are basically in the business of collecting information about how people behave in digital media and selling it. most often, they are selling it to advertisers. so a lot of these companies are advertising companies to collect information for themselves, to figure out if you go to website about coffee, then you can view coffee.d

they would collect information about you and sell that on that exchange. then they might sell it to a whole range of different types of companies that want to target advertisements towards you, or in some cases, we found that other types of companies are experimenting with using this type of data. we wrote about a life insurance company that was looking at whether some of the data that can be obtained about people's on-line habits as well as their credit card histories might be a replacement for the blood and urine tests, in terms of helping to decide when to give life insurance. host: one of those third parties -- first of all, how is it that the third parties are able to attract you? do they install something? are the internet providers aware that this is being installed on their computers? guest: yes. essentially what happens is that websites are made up of hundreds

of different elements that are provided by all sorts of different companies. so when a company might be running some sort of back and surface and then provide some piece of the page. when you look at a single page, there is a lot of different companies involved in creating different pieces of that page. and some of those pieces are these companies that are trafficking and personal data. so it is very difficult for the website to police this, because they outsource all sorts of pieces of their website. so they often do not know what is happening on their website. for instance, this year we wrote a story about supercookies, which are a type of tracking that it is hard to delete. microsoft's website, they did not know it was there. they did not realize. it was some old cold that was lying around -- code that was

lying around. there is not a lot of quality- control, so so there are a lot of people that might be a way for people to get the information and it never gets removed. host: that seemed to be the case a lot, where you would talk with the company and it would go, we had no idea we were getting that information. it seemed it to have been rather frequently. guest: i mean, i think it happened almost in every single case. i cannot think of any that were not like that. i think a lot of what emerged from our report is how unruly this marketplace is. that there is just not, people are not aware of what is going on. we joked that we became the privacy police. we come in and we're like there is this thing happening. and they are like, i did not realize that is happening. we will clean it up.

host: julia angwin, talk about some of the different tracking devices -- the cookies and the beacons that you read about in "the wall street journal." guest: we started off looking mostly at cookies, which are tiny little textiles -- tech files that are downloaded onto your computer. they basically are just an i.d. it's a stamp. what happens is that once you have that i.d., if you visit another website that has a relationship with that company, they know you are there, too. companies like a double click which are owned by google. there are some codes from double click that will notice you have a cookie with a little double click i.d., and they can put in your file, then now we have seen in this place. they have an extensive dossier

and all the different websites you visited. one caveat is that all of these companies say you do not have your name. that is generally true, although there are, the amount of detail in some of these dossiers makes it possible that you could figure out who's somebody is, but the theoretical reason that they are allowed to do that tracking is because it is anonymous. what has happened is that cookies were the first thing. now there has been an explosion. beacons are bits of java scripts that runs live when you're on the page. sometimes it can see where you're moving your malice. it can read the content on the page and say, it looks like this person is not just on the page but is reading content about this medical condition. and it will add that to the dossier, which is her mouse is hovering over this section of

the diabetes. she must be a diabetic. then we found the super cookies, which there is a whole range which are essentially other places on your computer that you can drop the same i.d.'s. cookies drop their i.d. file in a place in your browser with all your cookies. some creative companies have found some new places to store these cookies, in your flash player o r cache. all these other storage places are considered super cookies, and they are difficult for users to manage because it, even if you know to delete your cookies, you might not know to look in all of these other places. guesthost: what are the opt out provisions that are used? guest: you can opt out of most

tracking companies. but there is no law saying have to offer. if you go to double click and click on their privacy page, you will be opted out from receiving targeted advertising. you do not get to opt out of the tracking. so they are still likely collecting the data about you. in some ways, it is transmitted automatically by your computer. they promised not to use it to deliver targeted advertisement. not all the companies that we found had opt out. quicklyter sljulia angwin, how has the sophistication of tracking devices grown and how close are we to personally identifying people? guest: this industry has really been exploding. so it really started to take off in 2006-2007, and in the past

three years, there has just spent hundreds of companies and at least $5 billion in venture capital has been put into this industry they came up with all sorts of new and creative ways to track people. there is an insatiable demand on the part of marketers to find out ever more information. so they are getting closer and closer to identification. there was a study released last week that we wrote about which amountat there's a huge of identity information on the web, and a lot of it is being sent to these trucking companies. the researcher went and created an account at 200 web sites and look to see how much of that account information that was identified by email was transmitted to third parties and it was more tha half of them.

when confronted, most of the companies said there were not using this data or they did not know it was being transmitted. it is harder to make the argument that the tracking is anonymous, particular when you have facebook and google, who know who you are. when they already know that, and they're a little light buttons are all over the web, they see you on those sites. they know who you are and which websitrees you are on? host: water the benefits and what is the down side? guest: the benefits are that you did advertisements that mean something to you. i am sure that most people have had the experience of looking at something online like a sweater or some toy they wanted to buy and then later seen in advertisement for something similar, because the advertisers

were able to figure out your interest and provide you with relevant advertisement. it is also true that your content can be tailored. when you go to a website, and news website, they might tailor the content based on they know that you are looking a political articles are you what more articles about politics. so you do get some personalization there. at the same time, the problems of it are that there is no limit on the re-selling of the data. even if you do not mind targeted advertisement, you do not know whether the people collecting the data might resell it to your insurer or employer. and some people do not like having everything personalize to them. they might want the experience of the internet as a commonplace, that is not just tailored to your. it can feel like a home of mirrors where everything it you see as a reflection of what people think you are. oftentimes, for me, when i am doing research, i do not want

google to make a guess about what i am looking for. i want to see what is out there in the world. host: julia angwin, if you do a google search or bing search, and they know who you are no word computer is located, that some of their research is tailor towards europe? guestyou? guest: yes. i often use a plug-in or visit a site where i can do anonymous google searching. sometimes i prefer the personalized and sometimes i do not. but i like to be aware i am making that choice and to choose which avenue i want to go down. host: you have talked about in your riding your personal experience while going on line and finding yourself trapped when you put things in your shopping cart. guest: yeah.

oftentimes, when you put something in a shopping cart, and then you don't buy it, that item will follow you around. i had this experience where i like to do window shopping online. i put some shoes and my car but i will not buy them. it is my idea of fun. those shoes i continue to see for two weeks. one time i was looking for a bathtub and the bathtub fall of me around for a couple of weeks. host: julia angwin, what about the privacy concerns on this new ability or sophisticated level of tracking? online? guest: i think the concerns are, actually eric schmidt, chairman of google express them very well. he said, i do not think we really understand the implications. of living in a society where

everything that we do a is being watched. transmitting are our location and our computers are transmitting everything we are looking at, and it is becoming a situation where we actually are creating a total surveillance system. it's an imperfect system and it does not always have your name attached, etc., but it does have implications, because living in a a society where you are being watched is different denis-- thn living in a society where you're not. it can make your paranoid. without some limits on the use of that data, people will continue to be fearful about what might happen when they are being monitored. host: are there alwalaws against

it? is congress interested in it? a court cases? guest: there are some laws that address specific types of privacy. there is a health privacy law, hipaa. there it is a law that protects your information as a college student on campus. a lot of these laws are very limited in scope. the law protecting information when you are college student and is the moment you graduate. at that point, the alumni association of their university can sell your name to anybody they want. i think most of us experienced this. law is very restrictive in terms of medical research getting access to data, but is strangely not as restrictive with ehospital's

sharing it with affiliate's. these days when hospitals are part of big companies, they can share their data throughout their system much easier then somebody who is trying to cure cancer can get hold of a data set. a lot of the current laws we have, you could say they are not perfect and aren't really comprehensively looking at our privacy. host: so is there a legislation that is pending or being introduced, and what about the courts, have they spoken out on this issue? guest: there is legislation pending. there are several bills in congress. senator kerry and senator mccain introduce a comprehensive privacy bill that would have set baserun privacy laws about -- baseline privacy laws about minimizing the sale of data. it would require companies to

minimize the amount of data they collect and set up baseline rules about making companies accountable. i do not think that bill has moved anywhere. there are several other bills that are more sectoral. there is do not track legislation which aims to set up a a system where people could choose not to be trapped in the companies would have to respect their request. there is also location privacy bills that tried to limit the automatic transmission of location from cell phones. there are a bunch of bills. i have not seen huge progress with any of them this year, but that might have to do more with the election cycle than with the bills themselves. host: this is "the communicators". we are talking with julia angwin, the senior editor of

"the wall street journal". she is also the author of "stealing myspace." she is a pulitzer prize winner as part of the "the wall street journal" team in explanatory reporting. she is an illinois native and a university of chicago and columbia university graduate. julia angwin, back to the medical records issues. for years, we have been hearing about the need or the desire on a lot of people's parts to put medical records on line electronically. is the privacy issue, the fact that all of these private companies have so much information about us, one of the reasons it has not happened? guest: you know, i'm not entirely sure why the medical records issue has not happened. i think it is a really complex issue, because of the way our health care system is set up. generally, people are

anxious to control their own data on lead. certain people we talked to, and would want to have their medical records because that is something they could control. google tried to set up a health vault. i think they were too early. the issue icy and writing about this area is that there are all of these companies out there that control bits of our data and i think a lot of people would feel much more comfortable if they control it themselves or at least have access to it. oftentimes, you do not have all right to access your data in this country. in europe, you do. right now, facebook has been handing out its files about everybody in europe, because people realize they can use the law to request all of the data. we do not have a similar law. that is becoming may be more of

a flash point, which is not so much that you want the data to exist, but that you want access to it. host: how can people protect themselves if they are concerned that there keystrokes or where they put their mouths on the web page is being tracked? how can people protect that? guest: it's difficult. you can turn off java script. that wouldplug-in turn it off and prevent that from happening. however, your experience on web sites would be broken. you can turn on cookie blocking or other things like that, and your experience will be diminished. so the problem is that there are not great ways to prevent this kind of tracking. most of the estimates we have are very blunt, because there are really good uses of these technologies. there is good uses for cookies. you want to remember what is in your shopping cart.

your cookie remembers your login. those are the good uses. it is very difficult to turn off the bad uses while turning -- keeping a good uses on. there are tools, but all of them are sort of, will make your experience a little bit slower or more complicated. host: julia angwin, tracking is not only used for advertising but for law-enforcement purposes. how is that done? guest: so, law enforcement has access to some of the types of data we are talking about one thing we have been writing about recently is how law-enforcement has lower standards for getting access to data, for instance from our email or cell phone locations, then they do if they wanted to search our homes. there is a growing concern in the courts about the differing

standards for searches and seizure. we have written about this electronic communications privacy act passed in 1986, which really aimed to protected digital communications from search, but is really looking out dated these days. it allows law enforcement to get a lot of data from --and without notifying the subscriber. they can go to google or verizon and get information about a subscriber without showing probable cause. they just have to show the information is irrelevant to an investigation. host: has this come into the courts yet? have they ruled on this type of intrusion? guest: the courts are divided. so most of these requests the government put for data is going

to the federal magistrates. and some judges are saying yes and some are saying no. so there are rulings on both sides. oftentimes these cases are sealed, so it is difficult for reporters to know exactly, but a few of them have made it to appeal. there are decisions on both sides saying it is totally fine or there needs to be a higher standard for these kinds of searches. host: julia angwin, what kind of resources as "the wall street journal" put towards telecommunications issues, internet policy and public policy that goes with those issues? guest: "the journal" is lucky to have huge resources by the standards of most newspapers. we have viewers all over the world. we have a very big washington the work. bureau. i have a small team, but i can tap the resources.

we have people in san francisco and people in washington that contributed to this series. it is hard to quantify exactly, because it's all a loose network. generally, we have great resources. host: something else your team has written about recently is face i.d. tools. what are those? facial recognition has come a long way. after 9/11, there were a bunch of experiments with the technology that worere flops. there were trying to use official identification to identify terrorists. it was too early and they did not understand some of the parameters for recognizing faces. it is really difficult. the biggest problem is which

faces to compare them to. you can get a glimpse of my face and figure out the space between the eyes, but what database do you look at to find where am i? in the past 10 years, what is happened is that the technology for recognizing faces has gotten better and the databases to which to compare them has gotten better. so we wrote a story this summer about how the police and outiffs are ruolling these new iphones for facial recognition. they can also do iris recognition. they're hoping to build a database and to use this to identify people who might be violating parole or some other issue that they would not have realized when they stopped them for a speeding ticket. by doing official identification, they can pull up

a database and make sure they catch them. host: julia angwin, finally, when you look back at what you have reported on over the last couple of years and some of the trends that you see in internet technology and the use of social networking and all of the privacy issues around it, what concerns to the most about this? where do you see trends going? guest: i grew up in this time with the internet was so full of promise, right? but first, i think we all felt a burst of euphoria, oh, my god, i can find other people with interests like i do, i could research any topic under the sun. the internet has been an exciting and credible development in my generation, but i feel like we are entering at a time when we are realizing

the costs of this great tool, which is not that the tool is not great, but it has some costs. at some of the cost and taken because the placer failed or monitored. the other cost is you are constantly on the blackberry at the dinner table in your spouse divorces you. it is how we limit the possible harms, because we did not want to live in a surveillance state, we did not want to live in libya where they were keeping files on every dissident. i don't think we are anywhere near that, but the tools are available, and if we did not rain than men, bad actors could use them. host: julia is the senior technology editor for " the wall street journal." read her reporting and her team's reporting on line. thank you for being on "the communicators." >> thank you.

>> tomorrow, secretary of state hillary clinton talks about president obama's executive order to establish the nation's first ever planned to promote women's rights. that is at 11:20 a.m. eastern on c-span. it also, henry kissinger joins the former national security adviser to talk about their work in the white house. that is at 12:15 p.m. eastern. this week, president obama and first lady michelle obama wished the american people a merry christmas and happy holidays. they thanked the troops, military families, and that veterans for their services and sacrifice. then at a republican address, indiana representative mike pence talked about americans renewing their faith. he also recognize the american troops for their service. this is about five minutes. >> hi, everyone. as you gather with family and friends this weekend, michelle,

malia, sasha and i, and of course bo, want to wish you a merry christmas and happy holidays. that this is a wonderful time of year, to honor the story of love and redemption that began 2000 years ago, it's time to see the world through a child's eyes and rediscover the magic all around us, at a time to give thanks for the gifts that bless us every single day. this holiday season at the white house, we wanted to show our thanks with a very special holiday tribute to some of the strongest, breakfast, and most results yet members of our american family, the men and women who wear our country's uniform and the families who support them. >> for many military families, the best gift this year is simple, welcoming a loved one back for the holidays. after nearly nine years, our war in iraq is over. our troops are coming home. across america, military families are being reunited.

let's take a moment to give thanks for their service, for their family service, for our veterans service. let's say a prayer for all of our troops dead and post all over the world, especially our brave men and women who are in afghanistan serving as we speak in harm's way to protect the freedoms and security that we hold so dear. >> our veterans, trips, and military families sacrificed so much for us. this holiday season, let's make sure that all of them know just how much we appreciate everything they do. let's ask ourselves, how can i give back? how could my family serve them as well as they served us? and one way that you can get started is to visit to getgforceas.gov involved in your own committee. about a serving others is what the season is all about. for my family and millions of americans, that is what christmas is all about.

it reminds us that part of what it means to love god is to love one another, to be our brother and sister's keeper. at the leak is not just at the center of the christian faith, it is shared by all americans of faith and backgrounds. that is why people volunteer to help those most in need, especially are hungry and homeless. whatever you believe, were you are from, but remember the spirit of service that connects us all this season as americans. each of us can do our part to serve our committees and country, not just today, but every day. >> from our family to yours, merry christmas. >> merry christmas, happy holidays, happy new year, everybody. >> hello, i'm mike pence. it is christmas eve. if your family is anything like mine, tonight means. last minute shopping, wrapping presents, and traveling to be with loved ones. for most in indiana, that is about family, hearts, and home. dreaming of a white christmas,

children squinting through frosted windows to catch a glimpse of wonder in the night sky. for some of you it will be holiday on the beach or in the mountains, a candlelight service, at midnight mass. for family, christmas is a time when we're reflect on our feet, a promise fulfilled and a little town called bethlehem -- we reflect on our faith, a promise of filled in the little town of bethlehem. americans from all walks of life will celebrate the holidays in their own unique way, in accordance with their own beliefs and traditions. while many of us are blessed this season with loved ones, with most of our needs met, too many will have this season with harvick. far too many in america, this is a difficult time. some of our neighbors, family, and friends are struggling to make ends meet despite their best efforts, unable to find work in this difficult economy. this holiday season, let's all make a special effort to come

alongside these families and their time of need and support local charities as they provide for the needs across our communities. but also make a point to personally reach out to that neighbor or friend needs a helping hand, a kind greeting, an invitation. i'd be just to get someone needed the most. and let's not forget those who serve in uniform, at home and abroad. it was during another christmas season in 1776 that a bold general. his weary arm across the delaware river on christmas night. that night, george washington won a battle that turned out to be a defining moment in the history of our still-young nation. this night, but us not forget those who still stand in harm's way, far from home, so we can enjoy this season in peace and freedom. even as one click draws. one constant draws to a close, let's also remember the empty chair at every holiday table for those who will not be with family this year by virtue of

their service and sacrifice for our freedom. for all of our soldiers and their beloved families, i pray they find peace and comfort in the true meaning of christmas. these are challenging times in the life of this nation, but for all of the challenges we face, we can still find renewed strength in the faith and traditions of those who have gone before, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. from my house it to your house, may god bless you and your family with a joyous holiday season. thank you for listening. and merry christmas. >> sunday, congressmen kris van holland on the debate to extend the payroll tax cut and the democrats' plan to approach the spending legislation. that is at 10:00 a.m. on c-span. a

you might have seen his work with some footage that was seen on mitt romney, ron paul. with,czynski, let's begin why do you do this and how much time had spent researching this and other video web sites as well? guest: it is great to be on the program. i'm a huge fan of c-span. part of the reason i do this is because i want to give people this different view of the candidates they cannot easily get to see. i want to show candidate sort of how candidates evolve and change in their different positions over the years. if the canada it says something

and 2007, 2002, 1994, i think people have a right to see how the views have evolved since that time. host: what triggered you to look at our archives specifically? guest: i live in new york city, the ninth district. i saw this almost delirious video of one of the democratic candidates doing something that was really awkward at a music festival. i put that on line in december. it got something along the lines of 30,000 use in two days. along with the research i was doing, different candidates, i happen to find c-span on youtube, and i realized they had

the archives. these hundred of hours of footage that had been in place over the years, not that c-span has been archiving, and i realized this would be a great asset to me and i enjoy what i do. host: a lot of hours a political coverage in our archives. for those who are intrigued listening to your right now, you can go to the website and go to the video library. you can see a tab at the top. give our viewers some tips, i guess, and how you go about efficiently digging through the archives? guest: sometimes i will just go watching for entertainment purposes. it is obviously -- i am sure a lot of viewers find politics entertaining. i watched archive footage related to the candidates.

you just click on the candidate's name or any politician's name, really, and it will show you every single archive it video of them from whenever they got started in politics to where they are now. and it will list what they were talking about. with ron paul recently, he had that interview on cnn where he stormed off after they were badgering him about the controversy on newsletter that was put out in his name. i went back and decided to look at couple of old oil ron paul interviews. the one that i struggle with, the first to second video of watched, a 1995 interview where he did on "washington journal" about how he put out this newsletter and it made waves over the past couple of days in the political scene because people realized they ron paul obviously took enough pride in

this newsletter that he put out to boast about it and how did on c-span in 1995. it really gave people that perspective i was talking about. it showed them how the past influenced the present. host: we want to show our viewers what you duck out. -- dug up. >> i also put out a political type of business investment will newsletter, covering all of these areas. and it covered what is going on in washington and financial events, and especially some of the monetary events, since i have been especially interested in the monetary policy, on the banking committee and still interested in that subject. this newsletter dealt with that. it has to do with the value of

the dollar, the pros and cons of the gold standard, and of course the disadvantages of all the high taxes and spending that our government seems to continue to do. host: andrew kaczynski, how many kids did that video get on your website? guest: it probably got -- 75,000 use in the past three days. host: where are you putting your videos, on youtube? guest: i manage a youtube channel. kaczynski1, spelled like the unabomber. you can see mostly related to 2012 candidates, and on different topics. host: are you digging up this sort of material on certain people?

or are you doing it in an unbiased way across the board? guest: i like to do it in an unbiased way. i show people across the board. i really focus on every major candidate in 2012. if i have not focused on some of the other candidates like bachmann are santorum, it is because i am working with the front runners. i get most of my ideas on things to research in the news. it is easier to focus on the people who are leading in the polls. i look it everyone on the left and the right, in the middle. whatever your political views are, if you are a relevant person, in the political world today, i feel as if a statement you made in the past on an issue could have influence on

what you say today. i will probably go out and do some research and see what i can find. host: be you think the political videos influence people? guest: kuehl way that they influence people is that it really shows them -- the way that it influences people as it should really shows them what that can that it believes. you can see if they were saying something out of their core and back -- core convictions or for political convenience. i think that they show people just how that candidate's different opinions of -- influence what they think to date. host: this is garnered you a lot of attention and a job, i hear. guest: i am going to be joining ben smith at buzzfeed. buzzfeed is a website that

brings together all the content around the web that is really hot and current on the web. it shows you what is popular on the web at any time. the reason i decided to go is that i thought they are very big on the viral things. then smith is obviously the best and brightest when it comes to political blogging and reporting. buzzfeed is the best when it comes to the best social content on the web. since my videos break news and go viral, i thought that would be a natural fit for me. host: are you still at school? guest: i am. i go to st. john's university in queens. i will graduate in july and i look forward to doing this

full-time and continuing to do what i do and show people these different views of the candidates. host: andrew kaczynski, thank you for coming on this morning. >> tomorrow on "washington journal," a republican pollster talks about his focus groups on the 2012 election cycle. after that, a discussion on the future of iraq now that troops have left the country. later, we will not chat with out jeffrey crouch about his new book. -- later, we will chat with jeffrey crutch about his new book. >> michele bachmann is here, and she is thinking about running for president. which is weird, because i hear that she was born in canada. [laughter] yes, michelle, this is how it starts.

>> it is so amazing to be in washington, d.c., all its history, all these amazing buildings, yet here we are at the hilton. [laughter] the red carpet outside was amazing. who are you wearing? but as a matter, i am going inside the shelter. -- what does it matter, i am going inside at the hilton. watch the political videos on our youtube channel. youtube.com/cspan. >> house speaker john boehner was among those taking part in a christmas tree ceremony. it is from the national forest in california. the architect of the capital was the master of ceremonies for the event. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captions copyright national