of the treaty and i would also like to tell you a little bit about the amendments made previously by the us congress the first amendment is aimed at securing washington's rights to modernize its remaining nuclear arsenal and the second one. is that the treaty should not obstruct washington's plans for missile defense but once again these or non binding amendments on both sides which do not free neither moscow or washington from their obligation to go you know there has been a lot of shuffling a lot of shuffling back and forth between moscow and washington certainly the the american politicians were accused of dragging their feet over the december break but anyway good news there is breaking news here on out to you got this going off on the ratification of the start treaty thank you. for the findings of an explosive report by swiss human rights investigator dick marty into alleged organ trafficking and cause of it's being debated by the council of europe the report accuses the cause of our liberation army of killing serbian prisoners on selling their organs on the black market back in two thousand but as a sor

used on the first legislative day of the session. what it entails is asking for a ruling from the chair to adopt a new set of rules for the 112th congress. essentially asking a ruling from the chair to amend the existing senate rules. the ruling would only need to be ratified by a majority votes in the senate. that is important because usually it takes 60 votes to pass any legislation in the senate because of the filibuster rule, and it takes during the rest of the year 67 votes to change the legislative rules, or rather the procedural rules in the upper changer -- chamber. barrow looking to change the filibuster rule to make it tougher as for republicans to obstruct legislation on the floor. >> republicans leaders are characterizing this as a power grab by democrats. >> what the proposal would do, and it has not been finalized, but it would eliminate the filibuster on the motion to proceed. right now it takes 60 votes to even begin debate on legislation in the senate. they're really slows things down. the other thing it would do is eliminate the use of secret holds. by now senators can block legislation and amanitas -- and nominees just by placing a hold what they later. the third thing

used on the first legislative day of the session. what it entails is asking for a ruling from the chair to adopt a new set of rules for the 112th congress. essentially, asking a ruling from the chair to amend the existing senate rules. the ruling would only need to be ratified by a majority vote. that is important because usually it takes 60 votes to pass any legislation in the senate because of the filibuster rule. and during the rest of the year, it takes 67 votes to change the legislative rules. they are looking for a rule from the chair to change the filibuster rules to make it tougher for republicans to obstruct legislation on the floor. >> republican leaders are characterizing this as a power grab by democrats. can you tell us about that? >> what the proposal would do, and it has not been finalized, it has been worked on right now, but it would eliminate the filibuster on the motion to proceed. by now it takes 60 votes to even begin debate on legislation in the senate. that really slows things down. it would eliminate the use of secret colds. by now senators can block legislation anonymously by placing a hold with their leader. that third thing the democrats want to do is require the

us passed by these magnificent words of the first amendment. charleses' carve them into marble on the facade. their 74 feet high. congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or their right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. parents used to say that everything we needed in a democracy is in there. it promises diversity, practice any religion or nine if you want, to speed can be protected by your government in your speech. that guarantees diversity. you guarantee diversity, you guarantee a democracy. the day before she was in the attack, congresswoman giffords, a member of the house of representatives, whose role was to recite these words on the house floor. in a free society, the society that we americans must always want our country to become a government should not and must not restrain free expression. but we learned this children, with freedom comes responsibility. couple flowering of democracy relies on the self restraint of each citizen, organi

us passed by these magnificent words of the first amendment. charleses' carve them into marble on the facade. their 74 feet high. congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or their right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. parents used to say that everything we needed in a democracy is in there. it promises diversity, practice any religion or nine if you want, to speed can be protected by your government in your speech. that guarantees diversity. you guarantee diversity, you guarantee a democracy. the day before she was in the attack, congresswoman giffords, a member of the house of representatives, whose role was to recite these words on the house floor. in a free society, the society that we americans must always want our country to become a government should not and must not restrain free expression. but we learned this children, with freedom comes responsibility. couple flowering of democracy relies on the self restraint of each citizen, organi

us passed by these magnificent words of the first amendment. charleses' carve them into marble on the facade. their 74 feet high. congresst of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. parents used to say that everything we needed in a democracy is in there. it promises diversity, practice any religion or nine if you want, to speed can be protected by your government in your speech. that guarantees diversity. you guarantee diversity, you guarantee a democracy. the day before she was in the attack, congresswoman giffords, a member of the house of representatives, whose role was to recit these words on the house floor. in a free society, the society that we americans must always want our country to become a government should not and must not restrain free expression. but we learned this children, with freedom comes responsibility. couple flowering of democracy relies on the self restraint of each citizen, organization, and group of citizens. the blog post and the twitter feed all have the power to inspire, to motivate, and to inform. but they also have the power to inflame and

us passed by these magnificent words, the first amendment. it is carved in marble and the pennsylvania avenue facade nearly 74 feet high. "congress will make no law respecting an established religion and prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances." parents used to say that everything we needed it in a democracy is in there. it promises diversity. practice of religion if you want, or non-if you want. -- or none if you want. the day before she was felled in the attack in tucson, congresswoman giffords was a member of the house of representatives whose role it was to recite these words on the house floor. in a free society -- "in a free society, in a society that we americans always want our country to be, the government must not and should not restrain free expression." but we learned as children that with freedom comes responsibility. the full flowering of democracy and freedom relies on the self restraint of each citizen, organization, and group of citizens. the printed page, the radio mic

us passed by these magnificent words of the first amendment. charleses' carve them into marble on the facade. their 74 feet high. congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or their right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. parents used to say that everything we needed in a democracy is in there. it promises diversity, practice any religion or nine if you want, to speed can be protected by your government in your speech. that guarantees diversity. you guarantee diversity, you guarantee a democracy. the day before she was in the attack, congresswoman giffords, a member of the house of representatives, whose role was to recite these words on the house floor. in a free society, the society that we americans must always want our country to become a government should not and must not restrain free expression. but we learned this children, with freedom comes responsibility. couple flowering of democracy relies on the self restraint of each citizen, organi

bills, a simple majority to pass amendments, a simple majority to adopt the rules by which we would function, and indeed, that's exactly what the first congress did. they used a simple majority to adopt their rules, and they extended to each other a curtesy to hear each other out, those 26 senators coming from 13 states. they heard each other out to make better discussions. now -- decisions. now, over time, that curtesy has grown to be formally entrenched in senator rule that it shuts down the government and takes a supermajority. to understand such power from one senator to shut down this body requires a supermajority, delay action for a week would be a power rarely used, a power used in curtesy and respect to the other members, that only be used for the most important issues, the most -- the highest issues of highest concerns for one's particular state or future of this nation, but that social contract is what has disappeared that went hand in hand with the rule with the supermajority. let me put up a simple chart here to show the deterioration of that social contract. here we are with the average number of cloture motions, and the average in 1900 and 197

amendments. a simple majority to adopt the rules by which we would function. and, indeed, that's exactly what the first congress did. they used a simple majority to adopt their rules. and they extended to each other a courtesy to hear each other out, those 26 senators coming from 13 states. they heard each other out so they could make better decisions. now over time that courtesy has grown to be informally entrenched in a senate rule that says shutting down debate takes a supermajority. but when that was done, it went hand in hand with a social contract toed understand that such power for one senator to shut down this body requires a supermajority, delay action for a week would be a power rarely used, a power used in courtesy and respect to the other members that only would be used for the most important issues, the most -- the highest issues -- the highest concern to one's particular state or to the future of this nation. but that social contract is what has disappeared that went hand in hand with the rule -- with the supermajority. and let me put up a simple chart here to show the deterioration of that social contract. so h