from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> schieffer: today on "face the nation", overnight developments on the missing plane, the australian government says it could be the first real break in the month-long search. >> this is an important and encouraging lead. but one which i urge you to continue to treat carefully. >> schff: he is referring to a set of electronic pings detected in the search area in the indian ocean. we will have the latest on that. on the fort hood story we will talk to the head of the homeland security michael mccaul. has the white house overcome the problems with obamacare? we will check in with dan pfeiffer. and what about this wacky weather? we'll preview our partner

showtime's new series "years of living dangerously" with the best selling author thomas friedman and climate central's heidi cullen. plus, a look at todd purdum's new book, "an idea whose time has come" as we approach the 50th anniversary of the civil rights act. 60 years of news because this is "face the nation". captioning sponsored by cbs >> schieffer: well, good morning, again, all sides are urging caution but finally there may be a break in the case of missing malaysian airliner 370. the first reports of pings heard in the search area came from the chinese so we are starting there this morning with seth in beijing. seth? >> good morning. officially they are calling it

an acoustic event but today for the third day in a row, people involved in the search report hearing signals coming from deep inside the southern indian ocean. today it was an australian ship carrying some high frequency listening devices that reported hearing these signals. and that location is 300 nautical miles from where the signals onboard that chinese ship were heard on friday and saturday. china was reporting that the frequency of the signals matched the frequency that would have been emitd from the black boxes onboard flight 370. but so far officials involved in the search have been kau suspend to say no confirmed connection has been made between the signals and the missing jetliner. the black box battery life is 30 days, a month on that black box. and today is day 30 of the

search. searchers are certainly racing against time. officials have said they are following the leads but they have urged caution saying in the deep ocean, the number of sounds can come from any number of different sources. we've spoken with a number of family members who reminded us that leads in the past have only proven to be disappointing. bob? >> schieffer: all right. thank you, seth. and here in the studio with us mark, the former head of the national transportation and safety board. he is now a cbs news aviation and safety analyst. what about it, mark? is this for real? >> we don't know yet, bob. it's hopeful news but i think we have to temper that hopeful news with a good dose of reality. we don't know what it is yet. >> schieffer: but they are hearing the pulses, the chinese reported it yesterday. and overnight, the australians hear the same pulse. if it is not coming from those

black boxes who could it be coming from? >> unfortunately there are lots of things that could give you false alarms. i'm hoping we are not dealing with one of those. the good news is we have the hms echo she should be there in the next few hours to give us a good sense and perhaps confirm what the chinese might have said, seen. let us wait for that before we begin to move to the next step >> schieffer: well, if it is confirmed that is what this is, what happened then? >> then we have to begin the process of narrowing down the search zone where we would really begin to bring in the equipment that we have that can go down below and begin to document and search where the boxes actually have. and at the same time, take a look to see if we have a large debris field >> schieffer: how much time do you think we have? because these black boxes that battery is going to give out in

them? >> we are about at its edge. 30 days is what they are supposed to be. we've seen them go 10 to 12 days if we got lucky. it's time we get luck in this investigation because it it has not been one for us >> schieffer: mark thank you for being with us. we want to turn now to the other big story of the week. and that is four days now after army specialist ivan lopez went on a shooting rampage in fort hood texas and killed three people, injured 16 more, authorities are still trying to figure out what set him off. the chairman of the house homeland security committee michael mccaul joins us from austin. mr. chairman s. there anything new on this session? what do we think that caused this? >> if i can say a texan like yourself, this package hits home. our hearts go out to the

families and the victims. this fort hood community has been resilient and i'm proud of what they have done, the great place in standing up. this is the second time we have seen this now at fort hood. i did attend the commemoration service when major hassan killed 12 soldiers and one civilian. it's difficult to see this happen again. and in terms of new information coming in, we do know that mr. lopez applied for leave of absence. he appeared to be a disgruntled employee. but at the end of the day you are dealing with a mental health illness issue. not unlike what we saw at the navy yard shooting. i'm disturbed about the uptick in shootings and violence at our military installations across the nationment and one last bit of information with respect to mr. lopez' state of mind, he did put on his facebook comments about how he lost his inner peace.

he is filled with hatred. and he thought the devil would take him. we are dealing with not a rational person. and we need to look how we can better fortify our force protection at military installations and how can we deal with the mental health issues with our returning veterans. our suicide rate in the military is twice as high as the average population. we do a good job at fixing broken bodies but not such a great job of healing broken minds with our returning veterans >> schieffer: you said earlier this week we might have to allow our military people to be armed on the military bases. what are you talking about? >> well, i think we need to have a discussion. i think a lot of people realize that our military that dedefends our freedom abrought but on the bases they are not allowed to carry weapons. i think we need to talk to the

commanders whether it would make sense for some of our senior leadership officers opportunity the base carry weapons for protection. i deally what you want to have are more military police officers but in the current budget climate it's not as realistic. so a force multiplier of officers and enlisted men we can trust, the senior leadership to have them carry. because, it only takes a few minutes to ruin and kill a large number of soldiers. anytime we see soldier on soldier it's one of the most tragic things we can see. and if we had senior leadership armed maybe they could have stopped it before it got worse >> schieffer: all right. congressman we thank you for joining us. it's not a happy subject to talk about. thank you for being with us. for all the bad news this week, the white house is feeling good about one development. the number of people signing up

for obamacare finally topped seven million people. and joining us to talk about it is white house senior advisor dan pfeiffer. before we go into that, you heard what the congressman said. do you think -- does the courthouse are they considering the -- white house are they considering arming soldiers on the bases? >> no, the pentagon looked at the proposal. they don't think it is a good idea >> schieffer: why would that be? it's clear from what happened at fort hood we have to do more to ensure that our men and women feel safe when they come home. it is a tragedy what happened at fort hood. the president and the first lady send their thoughts and prayers to the people on the base >> schieffer: the president is going to the memorial service? >> yes, sir schieffer: is that not wednesday? >> yep schieffer: let me ask you about getting back to obamacare, which is why we invited you here. so you got past seven million.

a lot of people thought that was not going to happen after this disastrous roll out. do you think now that the problems are behind you? or what is ahead here? >> well, i think we have a lot more work to do. we have to ensure that the seven million folks who signed up have a good transition into healthcare. we have a number of people who were in the queue when the deadline hit who we have to get signed up. 200,000 additional people signed up this week. and we have to continue implementing the law. there was a celebratory moment we felt good when we hit the mark but it is not a victory lap. and we have to keep our eye on the ball >> schieffer: so you have had 200,000 more that signed up since you announced the 7.1. >> with more data coming in. everyone who started the process who wants to access affordable healthcare has a chance to do that. >> schieffer: what about the composition of the people that

signed up? do you have any indication yet, can you tell yet whether you have enough young people that is what you need, you need healthy people in the system to make it viable? >> we have have more data on the last group of people here in march in a few weeks. what we have thus far through february is perfectly in line with what the insurance companies say they need to have a good mix. and all indications are, particularly if we follow the example that massachusetts did more healthy people coming into the mix. >> schieffer: what do you think the lessons were on this? >> i think we learned a lot about how the government hams big it projects. about decision making around these sorts of projects with contractors. we learned that you can never take your eye off the ball. and everyone from the president on down got a lot of blame and took responsibility for the mistakes that happened. and the same group of people

deserve credit that brought it to a level of success that people thought was impossible a few months ago >> schieffer: do you think the president was well briefed on the plan? did he know the ins and outs of it? he said if you like your plan you will be able to keep it and your doctor, then he had to backtrack on that. >> as it relates to the website we did not get the information we needed. we made changes to insure it did not happen again and got the website fixed. where we have had problems we sought to fix them. implementing a big piece of legislation is challenging. with we've seen this with medicare and social security and going forward, we hit all of the marks and do everything we can and everyone is focused on doing it right. >> schieffer: what about the politics on this? some say you may windup with a republican-controlled senate and it will be because of obamacare. it's still by every poll, still unpopular? >> first, we believe we will

keep the senate. and healthcare issue has been a devicive issue. i think that the republican argument for appeal is a political loser. they are arguing that the seven million people who signed up, and the millions more who got it other kay ways they will take healthcare away. and what they will do for the 85% of americans who had healthcare before the affordable care act is they will take away their protections. embedded in the affordable care act is the patient's bill of rights. we will go back to the days when women paid more than men, seniors pay for ininsurance companies had the power. that is not a good argument to make >> schieffer: i want to ask you about the supreme court ruling on campaign finance which came down this week. it means that more money is going to be pouring into the system. does the president want to do anything about this? he is out spending a good part of his time raising money now.

does he propose any changes in our finance laws or is he contemplating anything like that? >> it is a challenge. and the decision in the case like citizens united are devastating to the public campaign system. it is the system disirrated campaign finance. the problem we have is the supreme court struck down dual passed laws. so in the long run it maybe a constitutional amendment which the president talked about. in the short-term, the only way to combat the influence of big money is the way the president got elected is millions of americans investing $5, $10, we had hundreds of millions of dollars in big money spent in 2012 and we won because of the americans that donated to the campaign at an average of less than $60 >> schieffer: one other question. david ortiz took a selfie with

the president when the red sox visited the white house and everybody thought it was cute. and then it turns out that he is signed a deal with samsung and this was all part of a promo. did the president get caught here? did he he appreciate that? >> he obviously didn't know anything about samsung's connection to this. and perhaps this will be the end of all selfies. but in general we have very -- whatever someone tries to use the president's likeness to promote a product that is a problem >> schieffer: are you going to take legal action? >> we have had conversations with samsung about this. and expressed our concerns >> schieffer: and what have they said? >> i will leave that to the lawyers. >> schieffer: ok. dan pfeiffer thank you for joining us. we will be back in one minute to talk about one of the most serious problems facing the world today: climate change. stay with us.

some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where it's needed most. but i know you'll still find it when you know where to look.

>> schieffer: week marked another round of wacky weather throughout the united states. there were giant lightning strikes near the st. louis arch and huge snowstorms in parts of montana and minnesota and hail stones fell in kansas. the unusual seems to be the norm these days with the weather which brings us to the best selling author our friend "new york times" columnist thomas friedman and heidi cullen the chief climb maologist at climate central and they are here because they are involved in showtime's documentary on climate changed called "years of living dangerously". tom this is a multi-part series. you take part in one of the episodes. what is the bottom line here? what did you all find out. >> well, this is a nine-part

series and people can watch the first one tomorrow on youtube. for me it's been the most remarkable documentary project i have ever been involved with. i got to do looking at environmental and climate stresses in the middle east. go to syria and show how the drought is connected to the revolution and yemen, the first city in the world that may run out of water and egypt how climate stresses were involved in the revolution there. participating in the series we have arnold schwarzenegger, matt damon, and harrison ford and leslie stall from cbs, a remarkable group of people to bring this home through personal stories. and it does it amazingly effectively. >> schieffer: heidi, what is the conclusion of this series? you were the chief science advisor for the series. what do you say to those who question whether global warming

exists? >> well, you know the series meshes nicely with the ipcc reports that have come out that show conclusively that climate change is very real. we are experiencing it right now. and it is man made it is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels, oil, coal, natural gas and we are feeling the pain from it. the title "years of living dangerously" it hits home that these are important years we are living. we are beginning to see the effects. the effects will only get worse if we do nothing to stop it we will look back and ask why didn't we do something when we had the opportunity. ipcc report made clear now is the time to act. >> schieffer: well, help me with this. for example, the recent storms we've had the thing that hit new jersey sandy, is that because of global warming? because of climate change?

>> there is no doubt in my mind that hurricane sandy was made worse as a result of global warming specifically the sea level rise. when you think of the massive storm surge there is an additional foot of sea level rise that we can tie directly to additional flooding. you look at new jersey, 25 square miles were flooded. that is 40,000 people that were impacted who would not have been. and think about how that sandy was $60 billion in damage, 125 dead and fast forward to sea level is four feet higher and we are talking about a sandy level flooding event in new jersey happening every year. we have to think about the fact that if we don't do anything now our grandchildren will be dealing with risks they cannot cope with >> schieffer: tom, let me ask you this, in our politics everything breaks on the ideological lines. it just breaks. is there such a break in the

scientific community? how does the scientific community come down on this idea of climate change? >> let me put it in personal terms. your son or daughter has a disease. and you go to 100 doctors. 97% of them, say this is the cause and this is the cure. and 3% say this is the cause and this is the cure. that is what it is on the climate science. 97% say this and 3% say that and conservatives say i will go to with the 3%. that is radical. that you would go with the 3% and not the 97%. and to pick up on something that heidi said i don't like to use the term global warming. it is it sounds like golf in february. i prefer the term global weirding. the hots get hotter and the dries get dryer and the more

violent storms are more likely to become more severe and that is what he we saw in sir yeah. a four-year drought worst in syria's modern history that preceded the revolution and produced a million refugees that laid the predicate for that revolution >> schieffer: we will continue this on part two of the broadcast and we will be back in a moment with a look at a very important anniversary.

>> schieffer: this week, president obama and clinton, carter, and george bush will go to the lbj library in austin to make the 50th anniversary of the civil rights act, the most important piece of civil rights legislation since reconstruction. the act was a culmination of a partnership lyndon baines johnson and martin luther king, jr.. and it was in may of 1964 in the

midst of a 60-day filibuster that king appeared on "face the nation" to lobby support for the act. >> from washington d.c., the reverend martin luther king, jr. >> southern democrats some johnson's closest friends and allies wanted no part of the bill. and mounted the filibuster to block it. king was clearly worried. >> we find now that the darkness are much more active and co conscientious and determined. >> the message was one of simple logic. >> injustice and if this bill does not go through, it will jeopardize the strength and maturity and health of our nation. >> as king mounted a crusade johnson pulled out all the political stops. he spoke out, negotiated, threatened, made deals and most importantly made an ally of

senate republican leader dirkson. when the bill passed johnson insisted on signing it at the capitol rather than the white house. because, he said, some who voted for it would be defeated in the next election and he owed it to them. >> let us lay aside irrelevant differences. and make our nation whole >> schieffer: and he gave the first pen he used to sign the bill to republican leader dirkson. without him we would have had a bill. with him we passed a law. you don't hear that kind of talk much anymore.ou back in a moment.

>> schieffer: some of our statis are leaving us. but we will be back with more on our discussion about global warming. stay with us.

>> schieffer: well, welcome back to "face the nation". we are back now with thomas friedman and heidi cullen of climate central to continue our conversation on climate change. the world health organization put out a report last month saying that seven million people worldwide were killed by air pollution. one in eight deaths tied to dirty air which is twice that previously eed.at how can that be? >> well, it can be because we are cutting back on coal use here, we are like an addict who has given up heroin but we've decided to go into the business of being a pusher because we are sending the coal over the world and people are burning it. and it gets back to a central point. some say climate change is a hoax if it is it will be the greatest hoax that happened to us. because if we do everything we