they added rick welch as new president. with the suns and before that worked for the nba. and respected in the league. 58 year old welch left phoenix for personal reasons and we'll get to tha part of the story in a moment. he joins the new owners. all part of the golden state make over. >> i think the rest of the league is afraid of what is going on here just based on the personality and commitment of the people they are attracting. i think they are going to continue to do that. who wouldn't want to live and be with a franchise with the history of the success and fan support. and the market itself. it is an extraordinary opportunity. >> one reason welch became available. he made a personal life style choice. he moved to be with his male partner and openly gay sports cutive in the country and in that regard welch is a pioneer. >> being the first one entails more rick. but also i think that it has big rewards, too. and i think that anyone who looks at my experience would be encouraged by it. >> despite having a bi, tan ford d

welch: how much time do i have? the chair: 2 1/2 minutes. mr. welch: thank you. i want to talk a little bit about the clean air act, mr. speaker. you know, we have power plants that are coleburning and emit toxic into the air. that's not in dispute. but the attack on any kind of regulation says that if there is any expense associated with providing health and safety to the people downwind of the polluting emitting power plants, they are on their own. they've got to breathe that air and it's their problem. now, i live in vermont. the coleburning plants, the air -- the coal burning plants, the air all comes and falls in vermont. the clean air act has had tremendous success in actually cleaning up some of these power plants. now, of course there's some expense associated with burning clean, but there's also, as you know, mr. speaker, enormous cost associated were burn -- with burning dirty. it may be cheaper for the power plant owner, and it might even be cheaper for the electricity users of that power plant, but the cost associated with the health, safety, the envi

gong man welch, can you explain why?e'll have requirement of a pay for to provide emergency relief. you know what will? i'm all for paying for everything inexcluding disaster relief but we have 435 different opinions how we should do it and we need help now. in vermont, our cities and towns, the roads are demolished and businesses are really damaged. some of the tight and very fiscally conservative municipal managers went out and borrowed money to get roads back in service for people to get from here to there. the legislatures in and towns will have to figure out how to come up with the local share. if you're house is on fire and your neighbor has a hose and it is a kind of a stick up. we have been there for others in this country. vermont really needs the help. jon: congressman price, you're on the ways and means committee, the budget committee as well. it's been a tough year as far as disasters go. there was hurricane irene. there were the joplin tornados that did so many millions or maybe billions in damage. funding f

that's where our chris welch is in the thick of it. give us the latest here.owing. that's the major problem here pause it's pushing these fires everywhere. >> reporter: oh, absolutely. it's still blowing. it's picking up. we've got pretty strong gusts once in a while. i had to hold on to my hat a few times. we've been looking at this all day. this sky continues to look ominous. we've been seeing, this would be to the east. we're between austin and bastrop. the fires are just to the east of us. we're starting to see plumes to the west of us now. we're kind of in the middle of several fires here. officials say there's a handful here. more than a dozen across the state right now. the two deaths that you referred to, those came from the eastern part of the state in a completely separate area of fires. this is a very, very severe drought that the state has been in. this dry season, the fire season has been going on since last november. usually it tones down in the spring when the rains come. they've been having -- they've been going through a very severe drought. c

by the man by the name of robert welch. you can see all about it, actually, over here. there's a display about it at president johnson's library over here at the university of texas. what robert welch did is he used the name john birch because john birch, he says, was the fist casualty of world war iii. he was killed by the communists, and used his name to create the john birch society. what's really interesting about it is one of the great features of j. frank norris' work was that -- and you see this throughout the book -- was there was always a conspiracy against him. it was always this group or that group. it was, you know, in the '20s it was the mayor and the catholic interests of town are against him. and then later, of course, john birch's name, a name associated with norris truly in history, but a man who died long before the john birch society associated with a group, of course, that is known for their love of a good conspiracy. so i think it's a fascinating story. it was hiding in if plain sight. like i say, i've called it the most famous story you've never he

farm because this is where the branch is located there were missing during the bed check him kron welch ran is at the ranch >> i am in front of the facility there is no par board to keep them inside the fence itself is not very high one of them as scabies is very dangerous why this area is very flat and they were hoping it would be quick when they found the boys in a they have had speculated that someone drove by and picked, pumps when people where co >> the four boys they are searching for this is a description of him what they look like. >> to sexual assault and harassment jose state are looking for suspects >> this is the ninth and san salvador campus police said a woman was sexually assaulted on sunday september 11th in the dorms costumes were sleeping no other reformation has been released police say another woman was assaulted and the man was described as black late 30's by foot 8 the lord of the woman into a valley alley near that engineering building. >> is a great place to detonate education and other assets may still in something like this >> other stories we're watching that

. >> i'm chris welch, reporting from new orleans. >> john: in addition to lee's heavy rains, authorities possible tornadoes have damaged at least five homes in alabama and mississippi. powerful winds rocked a mobile home off its foundation and flipped it over. no serious injuries reported. >> it was no tropical storm but severe weather did not dampen the spirits of football fans in iowa. lightning forces evacuation of the stadium of the game between the university of iowa hawkeyes and tennessee tech. despite the delays, thousands of fans returned to see the last 18 minutes of the game. good thing. the hawkeyes won 34-7. >> the same thing yesterday. a lot of teams. >> leigh: notre dame, the lightning straight at the schoolboard, so hopefully that will move out. a terrific day to head to the coast. the low clouds moved out and family and friends who headed to santa cruz saw a little sunshine. santa cruz, a live shot for you. current temperature there, 61 degrees. real quickly, i want to update you on a couple of tropical features. you see there hurricane katia, and that is 300 nautical mil

bush,john harris of politico and jack welch former c.e.o. of general electric. >> a decisive leader. somebody who's done something in new jersey that's special. and has done the real thing, who seems to be totally authentic. it's a very attractive characteristic. >> he's smart enough to understand that it's the wrong time for him. that he's not ready to be president which i think makes him presidential timbr to tell yothe truth. i have twoords for governor christie, fred thompson. >> i think the two questions governor christie hasto answer-- and we always answer the first question-- is are you ready to run? and i think that's the a question you've got to answer. but the second question which i think is an important question is are you ready to governor? and i think barack obama answered the first question yes, he was ready to run and he won. but i don't think many candidates asked the second question, are you ready to govern? >> once he plunged in, he will find this is damn hard work. it's hard work to assemble a campaign and ensure ballot a

. >>> and happy birthday to raquel welch who turns 71. >>> all day long you can stay on top of the very latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc. and tonight be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." and finally, here's a look at what's coming up later this morning on the "today" show. tropical depression lee drenches the gulf states and spawns several tornadoes. and there's still more to come. >>> and "the real housewives of beverly hills" premieres tonight. after a suicide involving one of its stars, the cast and shows producers speaks out. and now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day, today, on your nbc station. the day, today, on your nbc station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

crow's welch is live in texas with more. >> my house is probably burning right now. >> helpless in texas. people are returning to the places where their homes once stood only to find that everything is gone. they fled to the wild fires that scorched more than 100,000 a.. others are still packing up and praying that when the fires past they have something to go home to. >> it is a horrible feeling. everything you touch is something you want to take. >> it is hard and it hurts. >> the largest of the fires burning outside of austin has spread to more than 30,000 a.. firefighters are struggling to gain ground battling the elements and fatigue. all the winds have died down, what texas means is rain. in areas where the fires are out the crews are going home by home to tally the damage. many people live in the areas say you cannot put a price on what was lost. >> the fires are now 30 percent contained. that is up for the last three days. it had been an 0%. that is still a far cry from the no. they're going for the officials are hopeful of the wind and weather conditions will hold out and that t

story we are following in concord they're looking for a man that was being page by the highway patrol welchs in concord trying to get us more details on this crazy story >> i just got off the phone with that high with patrol it started in solano county he did at illegal u-turn we know now why concord was involved this is video of the destruction it started at around noon in solano county he made the illegal u-turn and they began to pursue him they went through martinez as a dozen hill down to concord the reason they want him so badly he is wanted for committing of murder in concord he carjackers a car in concord and goes on a five on a rampage new-line and through it residential neighborhood and hitting anything and everything in his path and no one was injured and then he ditches the car are myrtle drive police moved in open to spot him in the the infinity but he was long gone his name is justin cooper he is considered armed and dangerous. by his actions with this regard to anybody is considered dangerous they do not know if he is still in concord at this time it used bottom edges give the

but jack welch would. there was a time when steve jobs was removed from apple computer.ngs on paper this looked smart but steve jobs was the real deal. he is the leader, he knows. he's done it before. that's the nature of real leadership. i don't have all the answers to all the problems that exist in america and around the world, but i know how to find the answers and i also know how to lead. i was in the business world for 25 years. i remember, i remember one of our very first investment opportunities in my company was to decide whether to put over $1 million of our investors' money into a new idea called staples. you heard of that company, an office supply superstore and i went around, my team went around asking people what they thought of the idea and every person we talked to said it wouldn't work, would not work. they said people will not leave their offices to go by office supplies for a few bucks less. they want convenience. they want delivery. staples will not work and we proved them wrong. staples now employs over 90,000 people. i went to the olympics in 2002, t

chris welch is there now. describe what's happening there?egin by giving you a quick update on the numbers. i want to stress these numbers are from last night. we've just, you know, we're getting to the morning hours when daylight comes they'll get a better idea. so far they say officials say there are at least 300 homes burned to the ground, completely destroyed at this point, and 5,000 people have been evacuated. that is just here in this county alone. fires have spread out, have opened up yesterday over several counties in this part of the state near austin, also on the eastern part of the state and that's where we had two confirmed fatalities so far, eastern part of the state. but i want to stress, the serious part of this fire, what broke out yesterday, is what officials are very concerned about. they say their efforts all efforts will be focused here today on basically assessing the situation once daylight comes and figuring out exactly whether they will be able to fight this or not. the winds have remained strong. they say this fire is

we don't want to welch on any agreement. i didn't ask my friend for time, so my time's very limited. i just wanted to correct the record. we are not out to welch on anything. we're here to say quit incurring debt. mr. hoyer: will my friend yield? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. hoyer: my friend won't yield? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i now yield three minutes to the gentlelady from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas for -- is recognized for three minutes. three minutes. ms. jackson lee: thank you very much, mr. chairman, and i think we've already sat the parameters for this discussion. we can see by the throngs that are on the floor of the house how keenly important this is to the american people. the reason why i say that is important discussions draw members even away from their duties elsewhere, but we know that the reason why we are speaking to empty seats is, one, because the other body has resoundingly denounced and

reporter chris welch is in texas one of the hardest hit areas, chris, what are the conditions like todayeporter: well, pam, smokey haze continues to linger behind me and the morning after we have learned two more fatalities have come from these fires. >> everything is gone, we got out with what we were wearing and in our cars. >> people are returning to the places where their homes once stood only to discover there is nothing left but ashes. despite the devastation some are finding reasons to be happy. >> i am the luckiest person in the world, my family is safe. >> the wildfires are so monstrous you can see them from space. this latest outbreak has already charred more than 100,000 acres and claiming at least four lives. people packing up ahead of the flames will tell you, you can't put a price on what is at risk. >> it is hard, because this all has history here. this is our home base and if this goes, it is all we've got. >> the largest burning outside of austin has now spread to more than 30,000 acres. they are battling both elements and fatigue. >> we had fires from all over the count

reporter chris welch is in bastrop -- bastrop, texas. >> reporter: good morning. things are not looking too great. one of the biggest reasons why, i guess, is because of the wind we saw yesterday. officials are hoping for better fire-fighting conditions today. regardless, this will remain a fire for quite some time. county by county, neighborhood by neighborhood, these wildfires are charring anything that stands in their way. more than 60 fires have erupted in at least 17 counties since the weekend. >> unfortunately, this is -- for us in texas, another set of disastrous combination of fire and exceedingly dry conditions of high wind. >> reporter: at least two people have died. over 500 homes are destroyed. thousands of people forced to evacuate can only wait and hope that their homes and belongings are spared. >> i don't know. maybe. oh, my god! >> i don't want to lose anything that i worked all my life to get. >> reporter: those same dry, windy conditions are making it tough to gain ground on them. but they may catch a break. >> the good news, the wind has died d

we don't want to welch on any agreement. i didn't ask my friend for time, so my time's very limited. i just wanted to correct the record. we are not out to welch on anything. we're here to say quit incurring debt. mr. hoyer: will my friend yield? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. hoyer: my friend won't yield? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i now yield three minutes to the gentlela from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas for -- is recognized for three minutes. three minutes. ms. jackson lee: thank you very much, mr. chairman, and i think we've already sat the parameters for this discussion. we can see by the throngs that are on the floor of the house how keenly important this is to the american people. the reason why i say that is important discussions draw members even away from their duties elsewhere, but we know that the reason why we are speaking to empty seats is, one, because the other body has resoundingly denounced and vo

chris welch is in bastrop, texas, where the biggest fire is currently burning. what are the conditions like this morning, chris? >> reporter: well, tori, the smell of smoke still lingers in the air. we're three, four, five miles away from the biggest place in bastrop. this is on the morning the day after, i should say, we learned of two new fates associated -- families associated with this fire -- fatalities associated with this fire. >> everything is gone. we got out with everything we were wearing and our cars. >> reporter: helpless and homeless. people are returning to the places where their homes once stood, only to discover there's nothing left but ashes. despite the devastation, some are finding reasons to be happy. >> i am the luckiest person in the world. my family is safe. >> reporter: the wildfires sweeping through eastern texas are so monstrous, you can see them from space. this latest outbreak has already charred more than 100,000 acres, claiming hundreds of homes and at least four lives. the people packing up ahead of the flames will tell you you ca

that group did not start until 1958 been banned by the name of robert welch. there is a display about it at president johnson's library at the university of texas. while proper welch did is use the named john birch because he said he was the first casualty of world war iii. he was killed by the communist and used his name to create the john birch society. what is interesting is one of the great features of jay frank norris' work was that -- and you see this throughout the book, there is always a conspiracy against him. it was always this group or that group. you know, in the 20s it was the mayor and the catholic interest and tom are against him. and then of course, john birch's name, name associated with norris in history, but a man who died in one before the society associated with a group that is known for their love is a good conspiracy. so i think it is a fascinating story hiding in plain sight. like i said, the most famous story you've never heard, but it was the 1920s and i'm grateful i was able to take it out and nobody had gotten to it before me. thank

jack welch would know what to do. there was a time when steve jobs was removed from apple computer. some other people had some things on paper that looked smart. but steve jobs was the real deal. he was a leader. he is a leader. he knows. he's done it before. that's the nature of real leadership. i don't have all the answers to all the problems that exist in america and around the world, but i know how to find the answers. i also know how to lead. i was in the business world for 25 years. i remember one of our very first investment opportunities in my company was to decide whether to put over $1 million of our investors' money into a new idea called staples. you heard of that company. an office supply superstore. i went around, my team went around asking people what they thought of the idea? every person we talked to said it wouldn't work. would not work. people will not leave their offices to go buy office supplies for a few bucks less. they want convenience. they want delivery. staples will not work. you know what? we proved them wrong. staples employs over 90,000 people. i went t

. >> william welch, national reporter at "usa today" , msnbc political analyst and author of "the promise." gentlemen, didn't take long for the two front-runners to go after each other, a few moments in. perry and romney boasting about their jobs creation record, then took swipes at the others. >> yeah. >> let's take a listen. i think we've got that sound. >> we created more jobs in the last three months in texas than he created in four years in massachusetts. >> texas has zero income tax. texas has a right to work state. a republican legislature, a republican supreme court. >> michael dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, mitt. >> well, as a matter of fact, george bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, governor. >> they had their one-liners ready. on the issue of job creation, which of the two candidates did a better job last night of defending their record? >> you know, i think romney had a better night. but the upshot of all this is that they are creating sound bites that barack obama and the democrats will be able to use in the fall. they

now i am encouraged by matt welch and the gillespie's book the rise of the independent. this is the biggest voting bloc now. we are getting there. a little like herding cats. let's all drink -- we are our own tribe. the nonbeliever tribe. same problem with skeptics. the nuns are the biggest religious group in america. it is hard to organize them into anything. we are not well organized. but here we are so it is possible. there's a policy. one more question. >> this thing about conspiracy theories. is it true that in the middle east people tend to believe rumors and conspiracy theories more and is very political or historical basis for that? >> yes they do. if we think conspiracy theories are big here they are huge in the middle east because there's less education and less critical thinking taught. is more a theocracy that democracy in these countries. that is part of it. i am constantly amazed what people believe in america. i was on my book tour after jesse ventura was touring with his book. the 63 documents they don't want you to read. they are on the internet for free

jack welch would know what to do. steve jobs was removed from apple, other people had ideas that looked good on paper. but he knows, he's done it before. i don't have the answers to all the problems that exist in america and around the world but i know how to find the answers. i also know how to lead. i was in the business world for 25 years. one of our first investment tuns in our company was whether to put an investment into a company called staples. my team went around asking people what they taught of the -- thought of the idea. every person said it would not work. people said, people will not leave their offices to buy office supplies for a few bucks less. they want convenience. they want delivery. we proved them wrong. staples now employs over 90,000 people. they were wrong. i went to the olympics in 2002. the olympic games were held in salt lake city. there's one of our volunteers right there. he was one of our volunteers back in the olympics. as i came there, i came there in 1999, january or february of 1999,

welch, for five minutes. mr. welch: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, the house this week will take up a bill called the train act. that acronym stands for transparency and regulatory analysis of impacts on the nation. it's quite a mouthful. what it's going to do very specifically is delay the implementation of two very important clean air act standards that protect human health and the environment. now, we can have a lot of argument about proper regulation, which ones are good, which ones are bad. but can we really argue about the necessaryity of taking appropriate actions to protect the air we breathe? the clean air act has been very successful in improving air quality around this country. obviously much more needs to be done. but the two provisions that are under attack by the so-called train act are, one, regulation that regulates cross state air pollution. now, if you live in one state and there is a coleburning plant in another state, the -- coal burning plant in another state, the law means the pollution will follow the path that the air

welch: thank you, mr. speaker. the theme -- scene to my right is the result of the fury of hurricane irene, the damage to homeowners, to businesses, to the state infrastructure is immense. this scene inflicted itself on 47 districts, represented by members of this house of representatives. the fury of irene was indiscriminate on who was on the receiving end of a very bad storm. that was an act of god. the relief will come as a result of the act of congress. democrats represent republicans in our district, republicans represent democrats in their districts, we have the tools to get back to those first responders, municipalities, the volunteer firefighters, who are doing the work to recover from hurricane irene. we had a meeting this morning for a coalition to fight for relief from hurricane arein. we're going to get the funds back to our municipalities and states to get the job done. i thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has ex-tiered. for what purpose does the gentleman from alabama rise? >> to

we're covering all of the angles, cnn's chris welch is live in bastrup, texas.nd ed lavendera is live on the east coast, and rob marciano, in the cnn weather center tracking all of this. chris, this was ferocious in the county where you are, 14,000 acres scorched. how many homes threatened? how are people coping? >> well, right now, everyone is still kind of waiting to see exactly how many homes will be threatened, will be damaged by the end of this. 8,000 people who live in the city, in bastrop proper. and 17,000 in the county. thousands of homes are still at risk. i want to direct your attention to the plume of smoke we're seeing. it's interesting, just within the last hour or so, we've seen this pick up. getting darker, bigger, officials say this is the time of day. sun beating down, conditions very dry and the wind is picking up quite a bit. things are looking -- they anticipated it to get worse today, but now they are thinking it could get even worse than what they were anticipating. not good on that front. this building behind me is where they set up the m

chris welch in bastrup county with the latest. what's it looking like where you are? >> reporter: here in bastrop county, this is where the fire situation is most dire, most serious. fires covering 24 cities in texas, most surrounding the austin area. i don't know if you can see behind me, the dark clouds, plumes of smoke gathering up. that fire where we -- we were able to get i guess i could say about three miles from here. that's as close as they are get letting us get to the fire. officials are warning, this is very dangerous, not just for us, not for the people to live there, but to the people who are forced to go in and rescue people who may still be caught inside and for firefighters to put this thing out. they will actually be cutting a couple of black hawk helicopters in the air. dumping a mixture of water and fire retartend on this thing. at this point, anyone's guess where it will go. the winds are steady, gotten steadier, a dangerous situation here right now. and about 8,000 residents in the city of bastrop alone, and 75,000 in the county. this is threateni

welch: i thank the gentlelady. this bill is not about the offset. this bill is not about whether we are going to pay for emergency spending. we must and we will. what this bill is about is whether we are going to help 427 residents of pittsfield have month who were in the wake of the wrath of hurricane irene. that flood came down and it ripped their road to the north and ripped their road to the south and the water went in the middle. taking out homes and taking out public buildings. that's select board. volunteers, that volunteer fire department, volunteers, they didn't have a time to have an argument about offsets. they had to find out how they could get an excavator to get in here. if they didn't have one they had to borrow one. they had towns who weren't leveraging some disputes about whether they would turn back an excavator or earth moving equipment to help them out. they did it. they had their school running the next day not because they had a school that was functional. their kids couldn't even get out. they did one thing. first, and that wa

jack welch-david petraeus.cess in all 50 states, they're going to come. people talked about people from the private sector coming up. howard schultz, the ceo of your sponsor is speaking out. no labels is sponsoring a conversation with him next week where he'll talk with america about bringing jobs to america. there's a lot happening out there. this is a different dynamic. i know people are talking about people like him stepping for barred from the private sector because government and government officials can't handle it. >> gene? >> i think if americans elect want to build a party, want to build a movement that is sustainable, that is broad-based and can elect a president, they should get at it. but i don't think they're going to do it in a year. i really don't. >> you don't need a party to do it, you just have a ticket. it's a unity ticket. >> that's what the founding fathers thought. they thought you didn't need parties. they didn't like parties. they were factions. they should people should just run. it doe

these are your constituents who have been harmed and we have our colleague, peter welch from vermont, who is also talking about the extraordinary damage done to the infrastructure in vermont. as we rebuild those communities as part of this american jobs act, people go to work in and those communities are able to once again stand on their own. share with us some of the things you have seen from your own district and the needs for infrastructure reproliferationment in your community. mr. tonko: well, it's amazing because there are situations -- i'll first go to peter's district, representative resm's district in vermont where route 4 has been wiped out. it's just about removed from the map, and what was just a couple miles worth of activity for some people to travel to work now becomes this tremendous securitiest route that may even take you down into massachusetts and back into eastern vermont to get to the location. it has made life nearly impossible. i have seen the numbers of bridges wiped out in upstate new york, a tremendous amount of bridges, blocks that have been compromised in

pchristine ann snider p[bell] pjohn talagnali p[bell] phonor elizabeth wanaram p[bell] pdeborah jacobs welchsh, president pclinton, secretary salazar, pspeaker boehner, in all of thoe pwho chose to take time today, o pshare in the sweet celebration pof this memorial dedication. pthank you for honoring the pmemory of the passengers and pcrew for flight 93 with your ppresence. p10 years ago we first came to pthis hallowed ground. pwe were devastated. pnearly broken. pour lives changed in an instan, pand in a time where we didn't pexpect such evil in the world. ptoday we are assured that the pendurie ining legacy of our lo poned on the action of 2001, wil pbe comforted and preserved for pfuture generations. pit's been a long road to this pvery day. pit seems to have passed in an pinstant. pso many hurdles. pso many steps to take. pprocedures to follow. ponly a project that is worthy s pthis could sustain a level of pdedication on the part of so pmuch that would see us through pthis 10th anniversary. pon this occasion it's proper ad pfitting to acknowledge the pfirst-responders that were pcalled

welch of vermont and mr. larsen of washington. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. shuster, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. shuster: i thank the speaker. today i rise to honor the distinguished service of my good friend, his excellency, yasher aliev who was appointed by the president as ambassador. i'm proud to serve as the co-chairman of azerbajan. located in a geopolitically location between russia and iran, it is a predominantly muslim population which has been home to vibrant christian and jewish communities. they opened caspian energy and has emerged as a key player for global energy security. on the security front, immediately after 9/11, it was among the first to offer strong support and assistance to the united states. it participated in operations in kosovo and iraq and is actively engaged in afghanistan having recently doubled its military presence there. ambassador aliev has made an indelible mark

welch's district who voted for this bill yesterday and i suspect will vote for it again this evening, to ensure that those who suffered from flooding in vermont have that. and as i said earlier in the day , our new colleague, tom marino, from pennsylvania, who just in the past several days was trudging through the mud as he reported to my colleagues in our meeting downstairs, talking to the parents of children who were literally sitting on the hoods of their automobiles because their homes had been devastated and the question asked by that parent to congressman marino is, what is it you're going to do? he said he would come to washington and do everything that he possibly can. everything that he would be able to do to ensure that they have the resources they need. now to argue this is pitting -- a fund that has been sitting dormant for three years and is not in the pipeline versus utilization of those resources for the american people who are suffering is a very inappropriate thing to do. so that was a discussion that i was looking forward to having with my california colleague. mr. l

about a family in vienna and paris, a jewish family who were second only to the rothschilds not justin welch but in their collecting of art treasures and what these works came to me to the family and the individuals and particularly what it means to one of their descendants, the author in the aftermath of the holocaust and it is beautifully written and it makes me a little upset because the man is a ceramic artist who's never written anything before. laughter to know, it's really wonderful. i have been reading rendell who is my favorite [crying] writers. i love good mysteries and particularly the mysteries of those who really know how to make that aspect work. these are great novelists, and i reading trollope, who i love, and i just bought a number of new books that i intend to in oregon. i always have three to four different books going at once. i learned that from dr. gorgeous when i was writing about the panama canal. he always had four different books on his reading table and they will all be books about different interests, different categories, a medical book, novel, book of poetry, bo