general austin? >> hella ask my wife charlene to stand up please -- i would ask my wife charlene to stand up, please. i applaud the efforts of the family members to support our military. they made great sacrifices to our nation. they give a lot each and every day. charlene is no exception. she has been my bride for 29 years. she's a trained counselor by profession. she has been in the service of our soldiers and family members for the entire time we have been together. i'm very grateful for sacrifices and her continued support. hathanks for allowing -- thanks for allowing me to introduce her. >> we thank you both. this committee spends a lot of time discussing our men and women in uniform. we also make it a point to focus on their families and the kind of support that they deserve. each of our nominees has served this country and the military for more than 30 years, shouldered the awesome responsibilities of senior leadership of american troops in combat. general odierno it is no stranger to this com

i went to austin, texas. when i was in austin, i was at the barber jordan airport and the baggage area on the ground floor there's a statue of barbara jordan, what a great member of the naacp she was. and a great american. with that i yield back the balance of my time and ask -- ms. watson requests some time. we'd be pleased if she'd contribute. i yield her as much time as she needs. spoim the gentlelady is recognized. ms. watson: mr. speaker, and to the authors and co-sponsors of this resolution, i just want to add to the testimonies that you have already heard in support of this resolution, commending the naacp, that many of us would not be here if not for the work and the support of others of the naacp. i am a case in point. i remember being elected as the first african-american woman to the second largest school board in the united states, that's l.a. unified school district, and in the california state senate as the first ever. and i was so proud that members came to me to show me their membership in the

and congress has structured mccain/feingold based upon the standards set by the supreme court in austin versus michigan chamber of commerce, and then as justice stevens noted, the court pulled the rug out from congress, affirming the constitutionality that had been in effect for 100 years, and as justice stevens conclude showing, quote, great disrespect for aco-equal branch. i will try to make my questions as pointed as i can. to the extent that you can answer them briefly, i'd appreciate it. we don't have a whole lot of ti time. what is your thinking on the disrespect for theongress when we take a supreme court decision and we structure a law based on those standards with the customary deference due congress on fact-finding. isn't that really what justice stevens calls it, disrespect? >> well, senator specter, as you know, i argued that case. as you know, i filed briefs on behalf of the united states in that case, and in those briefs the government made a similar kind of argument, that great deference was due to congress in the creation of a quite voluminous -- >> i know what you've sa

call, austin, texas, independent line. caller: are either one of you all a member of the clare boothe luce thing? we should not have a show like they had for just as alito where his wife was crying. we want to know everything about the. are you either a member of the clare boothe luce society? guest: i am not but i hope we get a hearing where we are not forcing people into tears. the senators will have something concrete rather than guesses from documents in terms of the votes. host: thank you for being here and we appreciate your opinion on this. we want to point our viewer to an article in ""the new york times" this morning. bill clinton has comments about elena kagan and his service during her administration. that does it for today's "washington journal." we will be back tomorrow morning and next we will have the interview with senator patrick leahy. thank you for watching. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] . . >> mr. chairman, i wonder if yo

the great buy for the austin american-statesman foud that counties produce big landslides on both sides, even in close elections. i am as guilty as this as a way. my precinct voted 80% for barack obama. there were a lot of people who live in precincts that voted 80% r john mccain. yes redistricting reform but let's not prtend that this will and polarization in politics. and i want to offer martha challenge here. because i love what she is talking about. and i have always wanted change of bars and grills t have special political evenings. you know, applebes or chili's or thank god it's friday, that would invite people i thought folks have a drink presidential debates. i would love him to invite people from both sides to have discussions. mayb you can have a half our presentation beforehand that would include a little rachel matter, a little riley, a little overman. also a letter their news are. some of my friends on npr. and then kick off the conversation that would at least try to bring people together. politics needs to be fun. i think oneof my biggest criticism of the way we deal with

we turn to greg mccormack, director of the petroleum extension service at the university of texas, austin. for the record, the service partners with the oil and gas industry. he joins us from houston. mr. mccormack, let's take a look at what's going on right now as we're speaking to each other. below the with thers of the gulf of mexico. the cap as the company has indicated has been successfully put in place. yet very little of the oil is being recovered. why is that? >> well, we have to measure success incrementally. there's no silver bullet solution to this. they have to be very careful that two things don't occur. that the flow of oil & gas does to the lift the cap off riser, and therefore make everything worse. and the second thing is they always have to be cautious of getting water in there and hydrates forming and plugging that pipe that leads the oil and gas to the surface. that again would negate the effectiveness of this cap. but i think over time they will increase the amount of oil & gas flowing to the surface from the five to ten% capture rate that they have now. >> well bp ha

host: austin, texas. mike on the republican line. caller: good morning, ladies.two quick questions. first question is, here in austin now you can get gas as low as $2.43 a gallon at some service stations. but the same brand name service station on a different part of town is selling it for $2.69 a gallon. and, you know, it's all over the place like that. i can understand if one different brand service station or something was selling the fuel at this same price at a -- at different prices. but the same brands selling it for such a difference in price? second question is, i really resent the fact that exxon doesn't pay any taxes where i make only $30,000 a year and i've been paying taxes for the last 20 years that i've been working. so could you explain to me why they don't have to pay taxes and i do? i'll hang up and listen. thank you. guest: i don't really know about the tax situation. i'm sorry. i'm sure there are these tremendous costs. we have the companies down in the gulf now, as an example, going farther offshore. and those exploratory costs are probably a

and congress has structured mccain/feingold based upon the standards set by the supreme court in austin versus michigan chamber of commerce, and then as justice stevens noted, the court pulled the rug out from congress, affirming . . constitutionality that had been in effect for 100 years, and as justice stevens conclude showing, quote, great disrespect for a co-equal branch. i will try to make my questions as pointed as i can. to the extent that you can answer them briefly, i'd appreciate it. we don't have a whole lot of ti time. what is your thinking on the disrespect for the congress when we take a supreme court decision and we structure a law based on those standards with the customary deference due congress on fact-finding. isn't that really what justice stevens calls it, disrespect? >> well, senator specter, as you know, i argued that case. as you know, i filed briefs on behalf of the unid states in that case, and in those briefs the government made a similar kind of argument, that great deference was due to congress in the creation of a quite voluminous -- >> i know what you've s

host: austin, texas. mike on the republican line. caller: good morning, ladies. two quick questions. first question is, hre in austin now you can get gas as low as $2.43 a gallon at some service stations. but the same brand name service station on a different part of town is selling it for $2.69 a gallon. and, you know, it's all over the place like that. i can understand if one different brand service station or something was selling the fuel at this same price at a -- at different pries. but the same brands selling it for such a difference in price? second question is, i really resent the fact tat exxon doesn't pay any taxes where i make only $30,000 a year and i've been paying taxes for the last 20 years that i've been working. so could you explain to me why they don't have to pay taxes and i do? i'll hang up and listen. thank you. guest: i don't really know about the tax situation. i'm sorry. i'm sure there are these tremendous costs. we have thecompanies down in the gulf now, s an example, going farther offshore. and those exploratory costs are probably all w

host: austin, texas. barbara on the democratic line. caller: the estate tax should be reinstated. think theodore roosevelt would have started at the idea that we have wealthy dynasties. every generation should earn its own money. and i am disgusted with both parties in congress. one has no courage, the other has no heart. they are both too cowardly to tax billionaires. under eisenhower, it was 90%. we were all doing well. kennedy reduced it to 70%. i think what would be fair is, anything over $1 million, 70%. we need the money, they do not. i am disgusted with congress. host: on the estate tax, cbo says under the law passed in 2001, an acceptable amount for the top marginal rate is 45%. winston-salem, north carolina. good morning, phillip. caller: i was calling in about unemployment benefits. is there a way -- [unintelligible] is there a way that it would seize totally? guest: congress and is eager to show that they are helping families that have been hurt by this economic crisis. obviously, we cannot speak to individual situations come individual eligibility, but there is resolve

we will go to rodney from austin, texas. another political story korea. -- another political story. go ahead. caller: what is wrong with helen thomas exercising her first amendment? that is what america is all about. by the way, we give billions and billions of dollars of aid to israel every year. helen thomas is one of those taxpayers. why are they trying to shut her down? as a previous caller pointed out, israel overriding interest -- they have a group in this country called aipac. we caught several of those people spying on what was supposed to be their no. 1 ally. host: we have people from a packed -- aipac spying? they actually put people from that lobbies buying? caller: you have not read about it and "the washington post"? you have not read about this? host: thank you for your input. phoenix, arizona, paul on the republican line. caller: i think that she is free to have her own opinion, but part of this problem is that people seem to think that they can stay for ever and be whatever. there is a time for people to leave, and her time to leave was probably a long time ago. host

lloyd austin has been nominated to succeed him. this is two hours. let me thank you both for your devotion, your commitment to the service of our country, your willingness to continue to be in positions of extreme responsibility. we know the nominees are not alone in making these sacrifices. in advance, we thank you and your family members for the support which they will need to continue to provide to you. we have a longstanding tradition of asking our nominees to introduce family members. but they do that at this time. general odierno, if your team members, will be delighted for you to introduce them. >> i do have my wife with me here today. my wife of 34 years has been with me and my timinentire army career. we cannot do it of the great support. i thank her for this support. >> thank you. >> thank you for the support of your husband and all that he does for the nation. >> howard asked my wife charlene to stand up, please. before i entered do charlene, of a bite to applaud the efforts of all of the family members that support day in and day out. the