alex is a category one hurricane. it's about three or four hours offshore of the coast of northeastern mexico. it is showing signs of strepg we expect it to be a category two hurricane by the time it reaches the coastline in just a few hours. >> brown: let me bring in mr. van heerden. what is the impact of the waves and the so-called weathering from the storm? it has a popotential benefit and also some adverse impact on the oil spill, correct? >> that's correct. last sunday, i witnessed the oil coming ashore on the sandoval islands, and what we saw at that time gentle waves in the surfs. the big paddies and stringers were breaking up fairly readily into the smaller paddies and tarballs. soy would suspect we've got seven- to eight-foot waves out there that we will be break up some of the larger paddies and some of the stringers into smaller particles, and the smaller they are , the more rapidly they break down with microbial activity and so on. the other fear we have is higher water levels in the bay s that would allow

. >> director alex gibney talks about his new book, casino jack and the un -- state of money. >> with the nominee of elena kagan coming up, c-span takes you inside the supreme court to see the public places and rarely seen spaces. hear from the justices as they provide insight about the court, the building and all its history. the supreme court, home to america's highest court. on c-span. nato secretary general told reporters in brussels that a handover to security could start at the end of the year but defense secretary robert gates who also talked to reporters after the meeting in brussels said the nato counterinsurgence as i considered a taliban strong hold needs more time to succeed. this is about 40 minutes. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, the secretary general will make an opening statement and then we have time for questions. >> thank you for coming. considering the that i am competing with the opening ceremonies of the world cup, let me say i really respect your commitment to journalism. [laughter] >> the main item this morning was the meeting on afghanistan. where ge

tropical storm alex could soon become hurricane alex potentially driving oil deeper ashore though theap of the spill remains in place for now. a live update on that. also more word games from bp. the company's coo telling a local new orleans newspaper that knowing how much oil is gushing out of that well is irrelevant telling the government that bp adapts their plans as learn more about how much oil is pouring out of that well. we're keeping them honest. why won't bp give the state of louisiana money to deal with mental health issues brought on by that spill? >> larry: elizabeth edwards wednesday night. the biological parents of the missing boy, kaine horman and desiree young opened up about their feelings. desiree spoke of a letter she wrote to her missing son. >> it was the first night, and i just had this overwhelming feeling of -- sorry. of guilty for not being there to protect him and so i sat down and wrote about it. >> larry: all right, candace delong, what do you make of this? >> well, regarding his biomom's statement, that's kind of what i would expect to see and what we have

the graphic should say it alex lee as well. caller: since you are the mexican desk, this national plan for conquest -- you could get a copy on amazon.com -- the roman catholic bishops conference -- its outlets in 36 pages in spanish and english -- it out lines in 36 pages in spanish and english out illegal immigration should be considered a blessing by the public church -- by the catholic church. we have a congress that is 1/3 roman catholic, a supreme court that is majority roman catholic, which give us the -- which gave us the abominations of bush v gore and citizens united -- how they plan to take over our country by giving them legal aid and registering to vote. guest: first of all, i am aware of this particular document. i will see if i can track it down -- i am not aware of this particular document. i will see if i could check it out. -- if i can track it down. i always think of ourselves as an agent of immigrants. -- not nation of immigrants. we need to figure out how to make a -- i always think of ourselves as a nation

. >> alex gibney, our guest. documentary is called "casino jack and the united states of money." thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, brian. good to be here. go work for jack abramoff and kind of watch this operation get built, right? and jack was going from really big to the top. >> neil morphed from the original neil who wanted to be the press secretary to the guy who wanted to be part of the abramoff family. >> now, was it unusual to lose a staffer? >> i've had staffers come and go like a revolving door. >> i'm the poster child for the revolving door. >> the revolving door between government ann k street is an essential part of the washington game. >> there's a law that states you're not allowed to lobby your around the one-year ban and then i just flat out violated it. . signup for our scheduler e-mails @ c-span 2 or -- at c-span.org. >> white is interesting about what happened over the last 13 years is that elections used to be determined by a few officials in the home office. now they spend millions of pounds every yeer and employs dozens of people, hold huge a

tropical storm alex may soon become hurricane alex, certainly bad news for cleanup efforts in the gulfily stopped. the coast guard says boats will remain in port until the weather comes. live updates of the storms throughout the hour a tropical storm is not the only thing slowing skimming efforts. local paper down here reporting that for every boat out there skimming oil, there are another four available in the united states that are not being used by bp. we have a guest tonight alleging that bp is slow-make the cleanup on purpose to save money. we are keeping them honest on that those stories and a lot more live from the gulf on "'360" with. >> larry: anderson cooper, 10 eastern, 7 pacific much joining us on the phone, maybe the most beloved lady in america, the former first lady, nancy you, l. well, i couldn't let you do this without my calling you. you didn't call me and ask my permission. >> larry: you know, that's the way she was. if i was in office, i wouldn't have been allowed to do this. nancy said, bang, and you don't do it. you check with nancy, don't you? >> i asked her to r

>> thanks, alex.this is -- i feel a bit like a teacher here, because i've learned more thai will be able to in part as te final spaker. and please, don'tassume because i'm the final speaker i'm going to wrap it all up, because i'm certainly not. there's three points i want to make about bubbl. having been in the middle of the financial markets for the last 20 years, after having spent ma years as an economist, but me briefly mention the points. first of all, bubbles will always be with us as well the dream of effortless wealth and enhancement because that is what bubbles are about. bubbles are in accelerating. people go home after a bubble. you are on the planet next to them a remember in the dot com goebel sties i would hear about it started with 20,000 p to 700,000 the next year i will be yet to 3 million. this is heavystuff. when it iolves the place you happen to be living and or flipping it is even eavier. so when you are dealing with bubbles you were dealing with human nature and dealing with a -

alex. >> i thought you said republican. >> well, go ahead with your comment, alex. >> didn't state itnyway, i was commenting on the effort done on the oil spill. it's good but is it efficient enough and is it -- it is not capped yet or what's going on? >> well, it's a little bit offtopic. we're talking about the health care meeting with president obama. thad allen, you can watch that online in our video library at c-span.org. here's orlando, florida. magda. >> i'm magda from orlando, florida. i was watching the health care, and what i don't understand is the american people, they don't realize, we had a dumb president who killed my son in 2003 and 2004 and this health care, how can you be so smart and at the same time attack a president who is so decent, who doesn't lie to the people? i believe in him. i went to the library. i went right through it for the health care, the doughnut hole. i went to my doctors and they say, do not believe what the republicans are telling you. they're just lying -- i had my own doctor. >> and that caller mentioning the doughnut hole. that gap that the pr

alex has demonstrate ad matu beyond her yearan she serves as aole model for her llow teenagers. al seless cibutions ll provide much needed pport for thes patients and theiramiliein israel. thank . the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for wh purpose does the ntlema ohio ri? >> ask unanimouconst to address the house for one minute. the spear pro tempore: witht jeion. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, tod i would like to diver some good news to medicare paicipants around th country. th week seniors who fall into the medicarpart doughnut hole will begin receiving $250 checks in their mailboxes to help them cover their prescripon drug costs. th ione of many benefits for medicare participants included in the health care reform law the democrsasse earlthis year. ross the country, narly four millioseniors will be helped by these checks. over 9,000 pele wil receive this benefit. while dohnut he w seniorwill continue to see lower prescriptionrug costs. next yeathosexperiencing a coverage gap will receive a 50% discount on their bra name drs. m outoork h to improve medicare for a ni

alex from hollywood, florida. caller: good morning.t to say that i agree with pretty much everybody that has been calling in and the twitter messages that you guys have been getting. there is a lot of good information about what is going on in the economy right now. i also wanted to comment. how do you guys feel -- now that tony fratto and ross eisenbrey -- the commented about the economy and how the bailouts were needed. host: we will go to michael in minneapolis. good morning. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: yes. caller: i am a big-picture guy. i want to address 10 words. what can we not all get together? let's talk about 10 words. let's go back to the preamble of the constitution. let's talk about "establish justice, ensure tranquillity, provide --, and secure liberty." these words, whether you are this or that, we argue about -- what do you mean by establish justice? ensure tranquillity -- my tranquillity is not insured. promote populous -- populace. ands get on the same page talk about these five and verbs and five --

alex, good morning. caller: good morning.eond to the issue of removing or raisi the notion that you p the liability high at $10 billion is going to preclude smaller , i think as dills ingenuous. what about t nion of ivate enterprise and buying insurance fothat? carolina om north mentioned earlier, if you had little comny and they created mess, the trust fund would cove it. well, private enterprise and insurance would fine. this wayt should underwrite e tt the nd make sur with lawsnd safety were there to figure their values. ucle he same with the n energy. we have limits on that for nuclear disasters. that? ughts on guest: great response. i would say, if we could take rican dom of the ame it on to the el floor of the house of representatives, we'd all be better off. tothere would be a way rivate market in et a bond for that $10 million, tt would be a good response. ll look at the legislation t possesses such. host: congrsman, do you tweet? guest: i do. host: do we he on the journa we have one here. how long does it take for an

we have had a session on that that alex design. i am amazed that they have the chutzpah to start offering greetis. today they just downgraded greaserom triple-a aaa to trle the. that franchise needs to be dissipated, and i hope congress will do that. so yes, and i'm glad you brought that up because as we all finied, inerms of what the official resnse has been to this whole pisode, it is not in my mind very encouraging that we won't see it again. >> bill that was the political question. >> well, just to pick up on one thing that i think will have a huge impact and would have prevented a big part of his bubble is the securitization skin in the game, which is principle on the senate and house side that if you are going to securitize, bundle of this stuff and sell it off you have to eat a fraction of what you cook. this alone with-- would have just about put outall the mogage originators and the unregulated pipeline that generated so much of this toxi paper and all those people would have been put out of buiness almost immediately if t

at the same time, officials cast a wary eye on tropical storm alex. the storm was far too south off mexico's yucatan peninsula, but it could still churn up waves that would delay efforts to capture more oil. coast guard admiral thad allen spoke in new orleans. >> any kind of a surge from a storm would exacerbate the oil and would cause problems for us. we're going to face that potential throughout the hurricane season should we have any kind of heavy weather. regarding the relief wells, if we have to evacuate the site because of a hurricane we estimate that there could be a break of about 14 days to take down the equipment, move it off to a safe place and bring it back and reestablish the drilling. >> sreenivasan: b.p. also announced that spending to cap the well, clean up the spill, and compensate people for their losses has reached $100 million a day. total cleanup costs so far have topped $2.6 billion. the people of kyrgyzstan voted overwhelmingly on sunday to create central asia's first parliamentary democracy. results from the balloting showed mo

tropical storm alex has forced crews in the gulf of mexico to halt their oil spill clean-up operations. high winds and waves up to 12 feet have stopped. efforts to burn and capture the oil leaking from the deep sea well continue. the storm itself is far away heading toward the mexico-texas border for a possible land fall on thursday. meanwhile vice president biden was in the region. he toured a command center and met with officials including coast guard admiral thaad allen. google announced today it will stop redirecting its users in china to an unfiltered search site in hong kong and instead will give them a link to use those same services. the company shut down its china-based search engine in march to avoid censorship but the chinese government threatened not to renew google's operating license which expires wednesday. the world governing body for soccer fifa will consider using video technology including instant replay after all. the announcement today followed a storm of criticism on sunday a referee disallowed a goal by england that was clearly inside the net. hours later an or g

. >> alex gibney, our guest. documentary is called "casino jack and the united states of money." thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, brian. good to be here. >> i've seen friends go over to go work for jack abramoff and kind of watch this operation get built, right? and jack was going from really big to the top. >> neil morphed from the origgnal neil who wanted to be the press secretary to the guy who wanted to be part of the abramoff family. >> now, was it unusual to lose a staffer? >> i've had staffers come and go like a revolving door. >> i'm the poster child for the revolving door. >> the revolving door between government and k street is an essential part of the washingto+ game. >> there's a law that states you're not allowed to lobby your former bosses, and i tiptoed around the one-year ban and then i just flat out violated it. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] . .

. >> alex gibney, what was your reaction when you heard that jack abramoff had just been released from prison to a halfway house in baltimore this week? >> well, i knew it was going to and frankly, you know, i thought he had spent enough time in a might well have gone to prison but didn't. he's out in a halfway house. i think that's all right. >> when was the first time that you thought about doing your documentary, brand-new, called "casino jack and the united states of money"? stories in "the washington post," and i was astounded really by sort of the audacity of the story and how colorful it was. so i thought it would make a good movie because i'm always interested in stories per se, and jack is a fascinating character. very colorful, very outrageous. at thh same time, the other interesting to me was it was a story that seemed to me to poont out the most fundamental problem in our democracy right now, which is the way that money rules our democracy. it's beccme so unbalanced that i think it's become the fundamental problem in our society. >> let's un a clip just so the audience can

. ♪ ♪ >> this weekend on book tv, alex heard. and jere van dyk. indian tiger schedule at -- finds the entire schedule of boat booktv.org. >> if you cannot make up your mind based on what you have read in based on what you have heard, you do not deserve to be on the senate judiciary committee. >> take a look back at elena kagan's previous speeches at the c-span video library online. >> "washington journal" continues. host: james kitfield, senior correspondent for the national journal, is here to talk about general mcchrystal. what is the latest? guest: reportedly, he is carrying a letter of resignation. usually, when this happens, he offers his resignation. it's interesting. he's not only meeting with president obama. he is meeting with national security team -- obama's national security team. it was a very strange article. i read it a couple of times. they all go to a bar. this reporter is totally iembedded. a lot of his aides are telling him what the boss feels about certain people. it suggests obama is intimidated by the military. he was at odds

. >> i think alex has provided a lot of animation this morning. i think it is potentially dangerous on either side if it becomes something where the person is out there saying what should i do now to raise the stakes or compete with my opponent to seem to be more with the people when i am really an empty vessel, and may be that as hell of movement susttined by -pjust sort of one upping the other side? what you think about that, based on the fact that he is even more dangerous. i am interested if you could also point out that it is not any worse than what eck did. itthit a sore spot in america. the ticklish question what else can be done to expose her rigid -- the takeaway question is what else can be done to expose glenn backeeck? >> i do not have an answer for that, but i have a sneaking suspicion that he is going to do it for himself. and getting what alex says isen, absolutely correct. and he is an expert on glenn beck. all of us have a sense of how it incoherent he is. i did not know canhe did not red the books, but he has sort of a compelling

. >> director alex gibney talks about corruption on capitol hill in his new documentary. tonight on. on >> should the federal communications commission regulate the internet? two views with caty sloan and walter mccormick, head of u.s. telecom. that is on monday, on c-span2. host: welcome back, this is norman solomon, a national board member of the progressive democrats of america. guest: it is a pleasure host: how is the president doing? guest: i'm afraid he is undermining the two goals that are overarching for millions of americans who call themselves progressives. probably tens of millions very consciously are disappointed. the first goal is to maximize chances of keeppng republicans out of the speaker's office and majority senate office, and out of the oval office after 2012. the other goal is to move policy in a progressive direction. unfortunately, on both counts administration has undermined those two goals. i'm with a group that this coming wednesday will hold will recall brown bag vigils at more than 100 congressional offices around the country. we realize that w

later, alex gibney discusses his latest documentary ttere's another chance to see the prime minister's questions. tomorrow, paul gegare will be on "washington journal." goaltomasky -- michael tomasky will talk about the liberal wings of the democratic party. ryan crocker discusses the recent sanctions against iran afghanistan. >> c-span, and our public affairs content is available on you can also connect with us on- twitter, facebook, and youtube. signup for our scheduled alert e-mails at c-span.org. >> c-span was invited to tour this facility where we spoke with top-ranking coast guard and bp officials. >> in the unified command incident command room, what we know as the war room, this is the central room that is providing the direction and developing the strategic plans for operations that are driving 11,000 men and women who are working from the offshore resource area. once floods arrive on the service, although it back to %+uisiana shorelines. our job is to protect the shorelines from any impact. this is one of the commands that are designed to work collaborative lacrosse thh gulf

host: we have time for one more call from ohio alex, independent. caller: good morning. my brother is in the army and he has -- he works as a communications analyst. i believe he is in qatar. i'm not quite sure on that. however, an analyst two chairs down from him intercepted a message from a terrorist with a message yesterday as a matter of fa fact. a group calling themselves the silver chiefs -- you will excuse me -- he had a message issued to the government about the primary elections in this country and how they are so silly. and i'm just not sure about that. i don't know if it is the whole freedom thing or if it is the jihad thing. but i just don't know about that. -- host: your point from alex in ohio, where else should we have our attention? guest: it is very interesting primary for governor of iowa. terry branstad served as governor four materials from 1983 to 1999. he is seeking a comeback and wants to calendar the current democratic governor in november. he faces two challengers. it looks like a more competitive one is a businessman who was the republican nomin

alex, calling from fiji. guest: if i understood the color correctly, suggesting that people might be unwilling to give us negative feedback, i think when you look at our survey over the years, that is hardly the case. we have plenty of negative results in terms of use of the u.s. and some views of other things. one point the caller did make about the role of action, i do think that is important when you are talking about what are talking about what influences how people around the world perceive the united states. there are a lot of debates that go on when people talk a lot about things like anti- americanism. when people do not like us for who they are -- we are and what we do. it is probably some of both. what we have seen in our research effort is that it has a lot to do with what we do, actions we take on the world stage, our policy. host: "does the u.s. consider your country's interests" is the chart will looking at now. unfortunately, no numbers for fiji, but we will keep looking at those numbers as we

. >> this weekend on "book t.d.," alex heard becomes the 1945 death penalty trial of willie mcgee and the beginnings of the civil-rights movement. jere van dyke and his guide spend 45 days in captivity. veteran wall street journal reporter sarah alice and within sight account of report marc klaas purchase of the "wall street journal." more than 30,000 viewers have already joined us. >> starting monday, watch the confirmation hearings for supreme court nominee elena kagan, live on c-span networks and c-span.org. see replay's every night on c- span to. -- on c-span2. providing unique insight about the court. available in hardcover and as an ebook. c-span is now available in over 100 million homes, bringing you a direct link to public affairs, politics, history, and nonfiction books, all as a public service. created by american's cable companies. washington journal continues. host: here as promised is representative todd akin, serving as missouri's second district representative for his fifth term. he has two military sons. he himself, an army officer in the past at fort bulbar in alexan

host: alex leary covering this story, thank you for being with us this morning. we are asking you what this oil disaster means for the future of u.s. energy policy. here is portland oregon, denise on our democrats blind. caller: i don't understand all the details, but i have learned that the biggest problem of this oil spill is that the government seemed indebted to the industry that they cannot get anything done. they are so entrenched with big business. that is the biggest reason i have learned that obama has not been able to get anything done. host: you see the issue as much of a government problem? caller: and an economic problem. does the problem they cannot do muchhabout. big businesses paying the bills. they pay for it -- they paid for his election. he is trying to make friends too many people he is trying tos please. host: numerous lobbyists do the bidding of be paid. -- of bp. our independent line, good morning. caller: i see no change in the policy of america, the government as long as corporate america and they're paid for minions in congress are in ch

host: we have time for one more call from ohio alex, independent. caller: good morning. my brother is in the army and he has -- he works as a communications analyst. i believe he is in qatar. i'm not quite sure on that. however, an analyst two chairs down from him intercepted a message from a terrorist with a message yesterday as a matter of fa fact. a group calling themselves the silver chiefs -- you will excuse me -- he had a message issued to th government about the primary elections in this country and how they are so silly. and i'm just not sure about that. i don't know if it is the whole freedom thing or if it is the jihad thing. but i just don't know about that. -- host: your point from alex in ohio, where else should we have our attention? guest: it is very interesting primary for governor of iowa. terry branstad served a governor four materials from 1983 to 1999. he is seeking a comeback and wants to calendar the current democratic governor in november. he faces two challengers. it looks like a more competitive one is a businessman who was the republican nominee

as you know, tropical storm alex sirte said it is going over the yucatan peninsula.we're watching closely for any impact it might have on the recovery operation. there appears to be two potential impacts. the discovery enterprise will continue to produce oil for another eight days without a problem. begin. pretty good shape there. and when we did over 5 foot of seas, they will have to stop the preparations for the helix producer, the third production vessel we were born to bring in on the 30 as of june to help to the vertical horizon to increase production of to 53,000 barrels per day by the end of june. we will provide today to date update on up. regarding our production in the last 24 hours, we will able to produce 24,455 barrels in the combination of the discovery enterprise and deatthe q42000. they are beginning the third ranging exercise. that is the exercise where they will work of an electrical cord down and read to milk the pridd. this will happen several times over the next couple of weeks. they will inject the mud. with that, we want comments from secretary

. >> thank you alex. i am sure that lots of folks have questions. >> our next panelist is probably the only person in the progressive movement that is known noby one word -- heather digby. she is the founder of the progressive blog hullabaloo. she serves on the border of the progressive congress' action fund. talk about the trends you have found, and including the media coverage of the tea party. have been taking cues from fox after their incessant mention of the tea party. we saw a shift when there were caught yelling on tape homophobic, racist slurs and spitting on a number of congress members. d you think that had an effect on how legitimate news media has covered the tea parties? how effective will the deportees be in the political landscape this year? >> one of the things about fox news is in that it really has a fair amount of power on the right, but it does not have a great amount of power without the help of the mainstream media. they perform as an amplifier. most of the time, they do not know tha

[laughter] the french never saw to apply that alex law in a succession until ttey saw -- the phallic law until they saw to get rid of henry's ancestor. there's a foundational body of law for the french. it is a fairly random body of six century law which the french took from above to barbarians who were living in the petherlands. >> i guess you could say that about the common law for us, could you not? >> the phallic law had never before been cited until the french saw to the dispossessed edward iii --. the battle agincourt was a small, but important part, to be sure. the hundred years' war was started by the french. one of the ways in which they started that was by dispossessing edward, notwithstanding his stronger claim. >> rejected my suggestion that you have a good preclusion -- you have rejected my suggestion that you have a ggod preclusion claim. you we should just argue the merits. -- should we just argue the merits? now, you are arguing -- what was your latest argument? [laughter] >> we believe that the french inducted the phallic law -- >> why not the bible?? i would think t

. >> director alex gibney talks about corruption on capitol hill in his new ducksally, "casino jack and the united states of money." tonight on c-span's "q & a." >> tonight on prime minister's questions, british prime minister, david cameron responds to calls for tougher gun restrictions in the wake of the recent mass murder of 12 people in england. prime minister's questions tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span. >> local louisiana officials, coast guard representatives and a bp executive testified at a senate subcommittee thursday. they talked about the impact on louisiana communities, wildlife and economy. louisiana officials are asking for more astabs to block the oil spill frommfurther damaging the gulf of mexico marshes and the wildlife there. >> we have several senators who threer. oute or scheduled to be i want to thank senator landrieu for coming. we are actually expecting several senators to be here and participate in this earg. i thought what i would do in the interests of time -- thank you for being here, senator lieberman. i thought i would go ahead and do my opening statement,

. >> this weekend, on both tv, alex heard on the beginnings of the civil rights movement. an author writes about being held captive. sarah alison has an inside account of rupert murdoch's purchase of the wall street journal. find the entire weekend schedule at boat tv.org. more than 35 viewers -- 35,000 viewers already have. >> c-span is now available in over 100 million homes, bringing you a direct link to public affairs. it is created by america's cable company. >> on thursday, an effort to extend the eligibility of unemployment benefits failed in the senate. here is some of the discussion on the issue before and after the vote from republican leader mitch mcconnell and majority leader harry reid. this is 50 minutes. senate will be in order. mr. mcconnell: madam president, i have indicated to our friends on the other side of the aisle i would be propounding a consent agreement. let me just make a few brief observations, and thei will do precisely that. the majority wants to make this debate about republicans opposing something. let me just be perfectly clear. e only thin

alex, democratic line. caller: i don't know if i can comfortably address the previous caller statistically speaking, if you look at the spreads on t- bills, they are no longer inverted. it does not seem at this point we will be heading a double-dip recession. host: talking about treasury bonds? caller: you look at treasury notes generally, they are indicators whether you will hit a double dip recession. the difference between the three-month bill and a two-year bill, the spread, going in reverse, negatively as the curve goes down like it is supposed to go up -- that is a precursor you will go into a double-dip recession. but if you look right now, you don't see that. host: what about yesterday when, i believe, a lot of big investors were headed toward treasury notes instead of stocks? yama, that will drive -- caller: that will drive down prices. they will put the money and the three-month bills as opposed to two-years, which is an indicator they are stocking their money away somewhere where they can get to

host: alex isenstadt, following the primaries and alabama, mississippi, and new mexico, thank you for being with us on c-span. samuel gerdano is joining us, the head of the american bankruptcy institute. thank you for being with us. guest: consumers are facing increasing problems, from high debt loads, and they are in a situation today as a matter of the housing crisis. homeowners are, in many respects, under water on their mortgages and zero more on a home that it is worth. that makes it difficult to make the mortgage payment, makes it difficult to tap into home equity's, to use that money to repay other debts, and also under employment problems. employment is high in many states, double digits. people have problems meeting their obligations. when they do, they consider equity as of way out. -- they consider bankruptcy as a way out. host: what kind of timetable to you look at as a way to get back into the housing market with a good credit rating? guest: it depends. there are 1.7 million projected bankruptcy is this year, and every case has its own story. chapter 7, the debt or is tha

that was the spark that according to, you know, the work of peter and alex pollack and other economistsat a.e.i. and all over the country, that was the spark that burnt down our financial system. of course, now we have politicians -- they're even blowing fannie mae and freddie mac back up. it's not just reprehensible. it's actually putting us in danger to repeat the crisis. host: there was a story in the front page of the "new york times" yesterday about the status of fannie mae and freddie mac right now that both of those companies are selling these -- coming in with these foreclosed homes and reselling them and only getting about 60% of the value back. so the pricetag for taxpayers keeps going up for these two institutions. guest: it does. and there's no cap on the amount of the size of the bailout for fannie mae and freddie mac. the government has made that clear. they will pay whatever it takes to bailout these organizations and the pricetag will continue to go up. host: it's separate from tarp? guest: yeah. it's basically an open-ended garn fee. what's going to happen, of course, i

. >> this weekend on c-span2's "book tv," alex heard recounts the death penalty trial of willie mcgee and the beginnings of the civil rights movement. jerry van dyke and his guide to spend 45 days and a dark cell after being captured by taliban fighters. he writes about it. a veteran wall street journal reporter with an inside account of rupert murdoch's purchase of "the wall street journal." find the entire weekend schedule at book tv.org and join us on at twitter. more than 30,000 viewers already have. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from our studios in new york is yalman onaran, senior writer at bloomberg news. what happened at 5:45 a.m. this morning? guest: well, i did not stay with it all to the end. i have many colleagues in washington who did stay up, unfortunately. but the congress conference committee -- senate-house conference committee, they finalll hammered out an agreement on the financial reform bill, which has been taking a while, but we are almost to the end of it, i guess, now. host: according to this article in a "politico," this is the broadest r

alex, good morning. caller: good morning.spond to the issue of removing or raising the liability limits. the notion that you put the liability high at $10 billion is going to preclude smaller companies, i think as dills ingenuous. what about the notion of private enterprise and buying insurance for that? the gal from north carolina mentioned earlier, if you had a little company and they created this big mess, the trust fund would cover it. well, private enterprise and insurance would be fine. this way it should underwrite the risk and make sure that the compliance with laws and safety were there to figure their values. and the same with the nuclear energy. we have limits on that for nuclear disasters. any thoughts on that? guest: great response. i would say, if we could take the wisdom of the american people and channel it on to the floor of the house of representatives, we'd all be better off. if there would be a way to create a private market in which you could get a bond for that $10 million, that would be a good response.

. >> alex gibney, what was your reaction when you heard that jack abramoff had just been released from to a halfway houseein baltimore this week? >> well, i knew it was going to happen. and frankly, you know, i thought he had spent enough time in a stir. there were some other people who might well have gone to prison but didn't. jack has paid the price. he's out in a halfway house. i think that's all right. >> when was the first time that you thought about doing your documentary, brand-new, called "casino jack and the united states of money"? >> well, i heard some of the stories in "the washington post," and i was astounded really by sorttof the audacity of the story and how colorful it was. so i thought it would make a good movie because i'm always interested in stories per se, and jackkis a fascinating character. very colorful, very outrageous. at the same time, the other thing about it that was really interesting to me was it was a story that seemed to me to point out the most fundamental problem in our democracy right now, which is the way that money rules our democracy. it's becom

. >> director alex gibney talks about corruption on capitol hill in his new book, about the life andmes of convicted lobbyist, abramoff. >> coming up next, president obama's testifying before the committee. discussed was improvement to the airport screening process and the terrorist watch list. the third person to be nominated for this position. this lasts an hour and a half. >> good morning, eb. the two most important members of the committee are here and trod work. we are theory consider the administrator of the t.s.a. it's embarrassing. such an enormous undertaking doesn't have the leadership that it needs. i am quinsed that you can provide that leadership on the basis of work we've done in the intelligence committee and the conversations we have had on this topic. there's no question in my mind about it. we can't ignore we've been without one for far too long and we've fade price for it. this country has endured an attempted christmas day attack, an attempted times square bombing. and where the terrorist pulled off the plane was about to take off for dubai. and they pulled him of

alex, good morning. caller: good morning.respond to the issue of removing or raising thliability limits. the notion that you puthe liabilithigh at $10 blion going to preclud smaller , i think as dills ingenuous. wh about the notn of prate enterprise and buying insurae for that? carolina om north mentioned earlier, if you had little company and they created mess, the trust fund would cover i well, private enterprise a insurance would be fine. thisay it should underwrite e that the make sur with laws and safet werere to figure their values. uclear same with the n energy. weave limits on that for nuclear disasters. that? ughts on guest: great resnse. i would say, if we could take rican dom of the ame it o to the annel floor of the house of representatives,e'd all be better off. to ere would be a way rivate market in et a bond for that $10 million, that would be a good response. ll look at the legislation t possesses such. st: congressman, do you tweet? guest: i do. host: soo we here on the journal. we have one here. how long doe

would the chair annou >> this weekend, alex heard retells of the 1945 death penalty trial of willie mcgee. afterward, he spent 25 days in a dark cell after being captured by taliban fighters. sarah allison within inside attack of the murdoch's purchase of the "wall street journal." join us on twitter. >> c-span is now available and 100 million homes, bring you a direct link to public affairs. it is treated by america's cable company. on thursday, the house oversight committee held a hearing on mortgage foreclosures. members heard from several bank executives about what they are doing to lower the foreclosure rate. this is a shared by congressman from new york. -- chaired tby a congressman from new york. >> the meeting will come to order. good morning. thank you forthcoming. it took massive federal event using billions of taxpayer dollars to save the bank from complete disaster. people and the financial assistance now stabilizing. they are beginning to make money again. the same cannot be said for millions of people who are unemployed or who are in danger of losing their homes. the threat