blair frequently. we're dealing with the economic issues and the reforms of the health service and issues including dealing with the euro and inquiring to how we would approach the euro but i would talk about iraq and about the process of diplomatic negotiations. >> so you would say you were in the loop from 2002 to -- >> yeah, i think we have to understand foreign affairs, that i've understood since i became prime minister is quite different from the conduct of domestic policy and there has been a whole debate over many, many years. what you've got now is a unique situation where in the past 50 years ago, prime ministers and foreign secretaries would operate through ambassadors and memos and you've got instant contact between the prime minister and the american president and instant contact between foreign secretary and the secretary of state. that is true of france and germany and our relationships with them. foreign policy is essentially the prime minister and the foreign secretary and the defense s

yeah, it is interesting, tony blair.urse, he is a deal as part of his religious foundation. -- at yale as part of his religious foundation. one of the paradoxes is the difference between united states and much of the world is that much of the world, by religion and faith is very central to politics and of the debt is widely respected. and in britain, people are still skeptical and entered going is on the decline. it has to be said that certainly, -- and churchgoing is on the decline. it has to be said that tony blair has put a lot of emphasis on his christianity and has now converted to the roman catholic church. that is something that people find god in britain, but the central to a lot of politics in this country. host: you mentioned the reprinting of the conservative party. he comes -- -- the reprinting of the conservative party. david cameron, does he come from this process? guest: he makes it no secret that he was very impressed by the way attorney blair won the elections. for example, just for a similar thing, tony

blair frequently.e're dealing with the economic issues and the reforms of the health service and issues including dealing with the euro and inquiring to how we would approach the euro but i would talk about iraq and about the process of diplomatic negotiations. >> so you would say you were in the loop from 2002 to -- >> yeah, i think we have to understand foreign affairs, that i've understood since i became prime minister is quite different from the conduct of domestic policy and there has been a whole debate over many, many years. what you've got now is a unique situation where in the past 50 years ago, prime ministers and foreign secretaries would operate through ambassadors and memos and you've got instant contact between the prime minister and the american president and instant contact between foreign secretary and the secretary of state. that is true of france and germany and our relationships with them. foreign policy is essentially the prime minister and the foreign secretary and the defense sec

blair. >> i was going to say in addition to these formal meetings of the cabinet i talked to mr. bel air regularly. we talked about all these sorts of issues of course because we were dealing with the economic issues, we were dealing with the reforms of the health service, we were dealing with a whole series of issues including dealing with the euro, an inquiry into how we would approach the hero, but i would talk to him about iraq and about the process of diplomatic negotiations. >> city would say you were absolutely in the loop from early 2002 and on words? >> i think we've got to understand that the foreign affairs and the conduct of foreign affairs as i have discovered since i became prime minister is quite different in many ways from the conduct of domestic policy, and there has been a whole debate over many, many years about cabinet and prime ministerial government. but what you've got now is a unique situation where, in the past, 50 years ago, prime ministers and foreign secretaries w

>> this week on "the communicators," our guest is blair levin, the executive directer of the fcc's national broadband plan. >> host: blair levin is the executive directer of the broadband initiative for the federal communications commission, and with the release of the 350-plus pages of the broadband plan, mr. levin, the opposition to the broadband plan has been rather muted. are you surprised by that? >> guest: actually we've been very, very happy with the response to the plan. it's a comprehensive document, and i think what you saw was a lot of people even though they disagree with, really, elements of it have, number one, great appreciation for the work that went into it, number two, a great appreciation for the professionalism. it's a serious document. it goes through the data, it's very data-driven, its analytic, it doesn't react to things that don't exist in the real world, it tries to lay out a visionary and practical approach. and third, i think there was an understanding and appreciation that it is being very transparent about what the goth agenda -- government agenda should be. ob

this week, our guest is blair levin, executive director of the fcc national broadband plan. x and the opposition to the plan has been muted. are you surprised? >> i have been happy with the response to the plan. it is a comprehensive document. even though a lot of people disagree with elements, to have a great appreciation for the work that went into it. they have appreciation for the professionalism. it is data-driven. it is analytic. it does not react to things that do not exist in the real world. it tries to lay out a path that is a visionary and practical. i think there was a great appreciation for that. third, i think there was an understanding and appreciation that is being transparent about what the government agenda should be. there are lots of details that inappropriate for the planning process. they are appropriate for the government as it starts to implement those things. we were very pleased that a wide variety of folks from all sectors gave us a lot of praise. we certainly appreciate it. >> one of the critiques was from nicholas johnson, a former fcc commissione

blair is a british prime minister and obama is american.often have an association between whiteness and americanness. white people are seen to be more american than people of color who really are american. the unconscious bias predicted how people voted and so people who were more likely at an unconscious level to see obama as not being fully american were less likely to support him even if they agreed on his policy issues. tavis: there were a number of women in the race. hillary clinton, our unconscious minds said what to us about mrs. clinton? >> probably said a lot of things about mrs. clinton to us. one of the things that dogs many female sleersd that they like caring, sensitivity. that they are ruthless. what happens when women achieve positions of leadership is that we have a stereotype about who constitutes a leader in our unconscious mind and what a woman is supposed to be like in our unconscious mind. our stereotype about leadership is tied to masculine qualities. we think about it as being a masculine quality in our unconscious mi

now, tony blair earlier in the year announced our intention to go down to 5.5,000 forces, and we had by the summer got down to 5.5%, and i felt we could go down further and so, we went -- and actually went down to 4.5,000 and i felt we could set a longer term objective based on these conditions, really, that was a point at which we established the conditions, in which we would be leaving iraq. that we would be sure that we had 30,000 police and armed forces, so we had the 14th division was built up in iraq, by the iraqi government, and as these numbers grew, we felt we could reduce our numbers, so the iraqi forces were growing in numbers, i think, in january, 2007, there was 10,000 and by november, it was 12.5 thousand and... >> with us training. >> with us training them and them in a position to take over security responsibilities and then training the police and then, the local government election which were postponed but eventually happened with a very large number of candidates, very large number of people wanting to stand for office and it showed the potential for democracy in t

. >> reporter: elle and blair fowler of tennessee, are two of the biggest stars.do you think there's so much interest? >> i think it's fun for a girl to live vicariously through somebody else. >> reporter: do you girls get recognized when you go out? >> we do. i think it used to be we were recognized in our hometown because it was just starting. oh, it's this girl in our city. now, it's when we go to other cities. >> reporter: are companies sending you free merchandise to review? >> a few companies are saying, if you like it. you can put it in a video. no pressure. if you don't want to. we never review something that we wouldn't have spent our own money on. >> reporter: they say it's become so successful, 16-year-old blair had to leave high school. now, she's being homeschooled, so she can concentrate on making more videos. they're cashing in, too. posing in a "seventeen" magazine spread. and hiring a hollywood agent. youtube even offered them a partnership. so now, they get paid to make their videos and pocket a cut of the ad revenue. they're not the only ones cl

i do say that everything mr blair did during that time, he did properly. i was fully informed on what i needed to make the decisions i made. >> thank you. >> now to the aftermath of the military action. in january of this year you said in a press conference that the mistake in the war was not to do the reconstruction and plant it in a way that was necessary so that iraq could recover quickly after their leader fell. what rent wrong with the planning for the aftermath? >> this will be debated for many years. i hope your inquiry can make recommendations on how to deal with it in the future. if the i'll deal situthe ideal e that there could be an international group with immediate plans for recovery in the country. if, for example, in zimbabwe. and it's true in the balkans, where reconstruction must take place. one of the lessons to learn is there are going to be intervention is necessary in the future for humanitarian or other reasons, that you will have failed states, you will have conflict within states that will break down. you will have states that need

that he was determined to invade iraq with proof of wmd, a document that both bush and blair agreed there were no wmds and bush even discussed painting a plane with american colors hoping to entice the iraqis to shoot down using that as justification for attacking iraq. >> guest: that's maddie. the idea that george w. bush and tony blair involved in a conspiracy to invade iraq knowing that there was no wmd there. >> host: have you ever heard that one before? >> guest: know, i haven't. >> host: wire you capitalized unless to talk about liberal politicians or politics? >> guest: well, it's the left and the right. it's sort of the places on the political spectrum. actually, there's also tinkled editor and styled manual. you can't hold me responsible for every editorial inside manual in the book. >> host: what the process was like writing this book? 's how much editing was done on this book? >> guest: a lot. i'd fantastic editors. i had a fellow reader to make recommendations. p., a colleague of mine. the editor -- i'm his sister is brilliant. and she was very tough. i mean it was chall

the memos show that in january 2003, two months before we attacked iraq, bush told tony blair that he was determined to invade iraq with or without proof of wepons of mass destruction. memo document that is both bush and blair agrees there were no wmds, and bush suggested painting an american surveillance plane and having them shoot it down. using that as justification for attacking iraq. >> guest: that's nutty. >> host: okay. >> guest: yeah, that's it. look, the idea that george w. bush and tony blair engaged in a conspiracy to invade iraq knowing there was no wmd -- >> host: have you heard that one? >> guest: i haven't. but it's nutty. >> host: why do you capitalize the left when you talk about politics? >> guest: well, it's the left and right. you know, it's sort of the places on the political spectrum. >> host: next call. >> caller: actually, it's a editor and style manner. you can't hold me upon for all of the questions in the book. >> host: what was the process like of writing this as your first book? >>>> guest: first book. >> host: how much editing? >> guest: a lot. my editor,

bush and tony blair engaged in a conspiracy to invade iraq living there was no wmd -- >> host: have you ever heard that one before? >> guest: no, i haven't, but it's nutty. >> host: why do you capitalize the left when you talk about little politics -- politicians or politics? >> guest: it's just the left and right. it's sort of the places on the political spectrum. >> host: next call -- >> guest: actually there's a thing called the editor and styles manual. you can't hold me responsible for every style in the book. >> host: what was the process like writing this book? >> guest: the first book -- >> host: how much of this -- i mean, how much editing was done on this book? >> guest: a lot. i had a fantastic editors. i was fortunate and had a fellow read it and make recommendations to the colleague of mine at the white house. my editor, person let simon and schuster is brilliant. and she was very tough. i mean it was challenging. she would read something and say i want thito conclusion but here are things you need to deal with. and then we brought in a line editor to short this up who is m

both bush and blair agreed there were no wmds and bush even suggested taking an american surveillance plane, hoping to entice the iraq east to shoot it down using that as justification for attacking iraq. >> guest: that is nutty. >> host: that is that? >> guest: that is it. you know, the idea that george w. bush and tony blair engaged in a conspiracy to invade iraq knowing that there was no wmd there, you no-- >> host: have you ever heard that one before? >> guest: know i haven't but it is nutty. >> host: why do you capitalize the left when you talk about liberal politicians are politics? >> guest: it is the left and the right. it is sort of the places on the political spectrum. actually, there is also a thing called the editor in the style manual and you can't hold me responsible for every style manual question in the book. >> host: what was the process of writing this? how much of this, i mean how much editing was done on this book? >> guest: a lot. i had and have to editors. i was really fortunate. i had a fellow greeted and make recommendations. my editor at simon & shuster is bri

we tried to present that to the president at the blair house when he had the health care summit.ysician with 31 years of experience. we have many physicians on the republican side totally shut out. no opportunity to lend our expertise and doctor/patient relationship and i think we could have helped tremendously and made this an easier process for the president and democratic party had we been included. >> i have former senate republican leader bill frist talking about the repeal possibilities. listen to this. >> it will most likely be a campaign of repeal. repeal is not going to happen but it's clear for the american people and clear for the people who are out there, republicans did not support this type of reform, so i think that's what they'll be saying. >> is that the goal to retake the house and senate and reverse all this? >> the goal is to retake the house and senate. i think there's a distinct possibility because of the overreach of the democratic party since they gained control in january of '07 in this first year and a half of the obama administration, american people ar

at the blair house shumit, vice president biden claimed we haven't qualified to speak on behalf of thecan people. i respectfully disagreed then and i respectfully disagree now. we are representatives of the american people. we communicate every day with those we serve and it's clear they are engaged. the people we represent and i suspect most of us here, passionately believe we need to fix what's broken in health care. but i don't believe that this is the way to do it. the abuse of the legislative process, the abuse of the constitution, a massive government takeover of health care in america. this process is not worthy of your support. this is not worthy of your vote. let's start fresh and let's work seriously to address this issue and let's do it together. is there an additional motion on the republican side? mr. jordan is recognized for nine minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, who would have thought in this great country we would have seen the things we have over this past year. who would are thought we'd see the president of the united states fire the ceo of general m

drive times, they will be -- on the outer loop between the providence road and blair road exit, six minutes. on the outer loop between the 83s, still one minute so far. back to you. >>> 5:00. we begin with breaking news. we're getting news from russia tv. they are telling us two explosions rocked two of moscow's train stations. at least 37 people are dead. a spokesman at the scene confirms the two female suicide bombers killed 14 people on the train and another 11 died there on the platform. state news agencies report a second explosion hit another station 45 minutes later. stay with us, on-line and on air for further junts on this breaking -- updates on this breaking news from russia. >>> the latest on baltimore's pocketbook. >> looks like early projections on the city police cutbacks may not be as deep as we thought after all. linda so joins us to explain. >> reporter: the mayor says she has a better plan, one that would keep more police officers on the streets. at an event this weekend mayor rawlings-blake said some of the outlines in the initial plan went too far. she plans to submit a

speaker, under blair's britain several first-class state-of-the-art mental health have opened in or near my constituency. under brown's britain one of them has just closed. we are promised a shared dashboard of shared quality indicators. >> i know you will want to be fair also. the world health organization says that we have the best prevention of mental health care. obviously every time you want to do better since 2001 there has been a 50% increase in real terms investment in the of. it is wrong to say we are underfunding mental health. we are trying to do what we can and will continue to do what we can. he should be fair in recognizing that. >> mr. speaker, main house in birmingham has been providing a much value of residential therapeutic service for people with a personality disorder since nationally commissioned over ten years ago. that service has just closed because when a national oppression in ended minister's intentions that commissioning should be picked up was not undertaken by the strategic house authority. when you look into what went wrong we should reopen the service as s

blair mentioned electricity.changed the way we live and work and in the same way it is the 20th century the print in the press did in the 15th and 16th century by changing the way they acknowledge was captured, disseminated and acquired it created revolutions that no one could foresee at the time. i'm sure even the white cannot prove and it's not in the record that in the 16th century many people said i've seen things like books before but they share in light mint and the revolution. they all shared the nation's state and they changed the world. in the same way today broadband will change our knowledge is required, created, shared and disseminated and change the world. it revolutionized the world, and this tries to accelerate that. i'm very happy for the opportunity to have per dissipated. i want to thank you for that and i think now the hard work starts. it is the work of implementing the recommendations and making sure that america has the best broadband infrastructure in the world, the best applications, the b

blair just arrived from russia.um and as soon as he leads here he will be on a flight to china. he came to the united states for one reason to read to speak at the aipac policy conference. [applause] we are deeply appreciative of his presence today. ladies and gentlemen, please join me in getting a welcome to an ally, partner and friend, the honorable tony blair. [applause] [cheering] ♪ ♪ [applause] ♪ [applause] thank you very much indeed. it's amazing how nice to you people are when you stop being prime minister. it is a tremendous pleasure to be here, and i was just backstage listening to pastor dee dee and while wow. [applause] i have a suggestion, we just get everybody out of the middle east and put pastore dee dee. i don't think they would do anything but make peace. [applause] so anyway, it is a great pleasure to be with you. and lonny kaplan, thank you. my job is to try to get agreement between israelis and palestinians for the quartet which tries to get agreement between the united states, the united nations

i'll return later to well-key served thank you for blair and the team. for now before i ask blair the team to begin i want to thank my colleagues on the commission and their staffs who have been engaged for many months in this process. in hearings, workshops, meetings, and briefing providing valuable input on priorities and specific topics throughout the process of the, giving important speeches including digital inclusion, disabilities and spectrum and providing very helpful suggestions on drafts of the plan. i look forward to continuing this partnership as we begin specific proceedings to address the issues raised by the plan. and finally, special thank you to commissioner copps as work as acting chairman to get this vital project off the ground. commissioner copps recognized the your -- urgency of this task. without his early, strong, leadership we simply would be here today. so i'm personally grateful for your early work and i appreciate it. that, blair, i turn it over to you and your team. >> thank you, very much, mr. chairman, commissioners and let

was prime minister blair said, when he was still en offiin off this is not a clash of civilizations, this is a clash about civilization. bernard lewis, who is a professor at princeton, and one of the country's best observers of the middle east, believes that this hatred comes from a deep sense of failure on the part of islamic societies to reconcile their vision of islam with the modern world. i think, he's onto something here. and, that this ajals has very important implications for our strategy, which i'll come to later, and, in particular, for the role of promoting representative government to drain out this hatred. now, let me finish this brief part by making clear two important things. the vast majority of muslims are not terrorists. but the vast majority of terrorists are muslims and, secondly, there is in effect a civil war going on inside of islam now, to define appropriately what is islam's role in the modern world and we have a very big stake in the moderate muslims winning that civil war. now, let me turn to iran, because, that really is in many ways, where my concerns are

>> if you listen to my discussion and my comments with the president at the blair house, when he askedg i said, look, it is the construct of the bill. it goes back to the level of mandate from washington. and the president and i had an exchange about, why is it that we need the secretary of health and human services here in washington telling people what benefits -- >> hold it. i want to move beyond some of the fine points of this to go a little bit larger in terms of politics. charlie cook talked about what all this means politically this year. this is what he said in a report as politico reported it this week. i think choosing to take a captain ahab-like approach to health care i'm going to push this for even in the worst downturn since the great depression is roughly comparable to bush going to war. does the president come through this, however it turns out? tarnished in some way? is he hurt going into the midterm race? >> i think the debate about reckonciliation is a bit of a rd herring. if this passes and proves to be popular, it will be judged on its merits f. it passes and prove

what i said in my opening remarks about had i been at the blare house what i may have bush at the blair house what i may have said respectfully to the president to majority leader reid and to the speaker of this house of representatives, ms. pelosi. the american people were not an angry mob as they are not today, my colleagues. they're men and women, a lot of seniors, yes, very concerned about the massive takeover by the government. that's the thing that -- i think the bottom line is, people fear the most, having government take over every aspect of our lives and indeed, colleagues, we're talking about, and we all hear this quote and don't argue with the statistics, this is 1/6 of our economy. $2.5 trillion a year on health care. we see the same thing quite honestly happen in education. we've got a bill on the floor tomorrow, mr. speaker, a bill with a special rule in regard to telling school systems all across this country how they can discipline children. well, you know, i'm sure there's some concerns and there may be some abusive behavior in very small pockets, a small problem. but w

the blair house summit really was just the president's form of reconciliation as a prelude to ram through health reform on a simple majority vote. pretty dangerous. >> tea partyers planning something right now as democrats rushing to pull the nuclear option trigger. stick around for cashing in to find out what it is. plus, giving your tax money to foreign companies will create jobs here at home. do you believe that? that's a flip side from forbes and it's coming next. >>> hi, everyone. from america's news headquarters. i'm jamie colby. developing right now, a top taliban commander is believed to have been killed in a pakinstani air strike. it happened in the country's northwest tribal area. the commander said to be close to al-qaeda's number two leader. if confirmed, it would be the latest blow to insurgents in afghanistan. >>> and bomb blasts on the eve of parliamentary elections in iraq. it happened in the holy city of najaf. a car bomb exploded near a bus filled with religious pilgrims, killing at least three people, injuring 50 others. dozens were killed this week as insurgents vowed

and, in fact, i went to admiral blair early on and asked if he would appoint a mission manager for afpac. he did one better of deputy of national intelligence for that. we then set about beefing up the capability and capacity there including sending general flynn among others to help build that. we formed a center of excellence for afpac in the joint intelligence center at central command. the afpac sale or the pac sale as it's said has done the same. so what we've done is to build the capability that we had -- this is not unlike what we did in iraq as well. in early 2007 one of the first requests i made before even going to take command was for a substantial augmentation of our intelligence capability. we got that and we've been working on providing that kind of augmentation in afghanistan as well. >> anything to add, admiral? >> i think it's natural for the early energy of the intelligence community to be focused on identifying the immediate threats to our force but as the battlefield has evolve, the transition into using intelligence capabilities to better develop our understanding of

just breaks my heart to hear president obama say in the summit -- well, it wasn't the white house, blair house -- when he said to senator mccain, we're not campaigning anymore. i said, great. the president is going to stop campaigning. that was good news to me because that means the president is going to quit campaigning and just try to govern. if he were to campaign, he would have gone off to missouri, giving another speech. but the fact that we aren't campaigning anymore means he is back here trying to figure out how we can reform health care without cramming it down the throats of 60% to 70% of americans that don't want this bad medicine that is about to be rammed down their throats. mr. akin: calling attention to the fact that this reconciliation is hijacking the entire legislative process and he is willing to do this to pass this particular piece of legislation. my good friend from pennsylvania -- it is pennsylvania, isn't it? mr. thompson: keystone state. mr. akin: sock said if you have a busted faucet or sink in your kitchen, the best thing is to fix the faucet, not to remodel the

and all of us, there is a quartet meeting in moscow today, which is tony blair is present at and kathy ashton, the european high commissioner on foreign policy. and we want these talks to move forward. i think what has happened in the last few weeks is of great concern. i would want to emphasize the importance of stopping a settlement program, if it is a barrier to further talks that should be taking place between the palestinians and israelis. everybody knows my support for the israeli community and for the state of israel. but i think all of us have got to think carefully about how we can help over the next few weeks in making sure that the proximity talks and then perhaps further talks are possible and do not on the basis of one or two instances break down. so we will do everything that we can to make sure that we work with other countries towards it the peaceful settlement that everybody can see the contours of, but nobody has yet been able to deliver. >> thank you very much, prime minister. second round of questions. >> jerry from radio. prime minister, some weeks ago when israeli

blair to derive from russia. before that, he was in belgium. will be on a flight to turn up. he came to the united states to speak at the policy conference. [applause] please join me in welcoming a colleague and friend, the right hon. tony blair. >> thank you. wow. [applause] i have got a new suggestion. just get everyone else out of the middle east, and put him in there. up [applause] my job is to get an agreement between the u.s., e.u., and russia. i thought i should try something easy. israel is a democracy, for people and politicians. citizens are governed other rule law. men and women have recourse before the law. [applause] in israel, you can worship in the way you want or not as you choose. there is freedom of thought and speech. israeli society is vibrant, its heart is electrifying, its culture open. in many respects, the middle east should regard israel not as an enemy, but as a model. [applause] i admire the thought of the people. i met a young man. five of his family had been killed in a terror attack. he'd been blinded. there he was

from fire officials, the have wires down and have shut down north and southbound blair road, just north of bradshaw. >> now, your 11 instaweather forecast. >> probably perfect weather day throughout the region today. it will get better as the temperatures continue to warm up a few more degrees. the only downside is that the spring allergies might be kicking and especially if you are subject to tree pollen. we have a lot of that's starting to crank out right now. still no grass or weed pollens account. mold is in the moderate range. other than that, beautiful. green is the shading we use for temperatures in the 60's. it shows up fairly nicely all across the area. 62 degrees in columbia, at that paints a nice green saint patrick's color. 53 degrees, a relatively comfortable 55 on the shore of the day. the naval academy is at 57. a breeze showing up in parts of kent county and certainly a sea breeze down at ocean city where it is now 52 degrees, they're coming in off of the chilly ocean water. we will keep an eye on this storm passing south of us that they try to get some cirrus clouds to

the player of the year has all the stats and awards as a all tom blair of maryland. -- all-time player of maryland. >> to get us to work and play our best, which is leadership. >> we are all pretty close to coach. we are going to play our best and do our best and put everything we have out there on the court. >> enjoy the madness. >> terps play the university of houston tonight. >> did you double check your lottery tickets from last night? you might be the winner of one of the largest multi match jackpots in history. >> addressing concerns over artificial sweeteners, what you should know about your sugar substitute of choice. >> i picked it up, and i did not have to say hello. he said, how do you feel about what just happened to you? >> it is called the grandson scammed, and it cost his family thousands. what to look for so it does not happen to you. >> the navy hospital ship has returned after its mission to haiti. haiti. >> it is time to check your lottery tickets from last night, especially if you live in and around the county. -- if you live in and around account. the numbers. 1-3-

so i hope tony blair is meeting with the court in moscow today will make some difference. but we stand wholeheartedly behind the peace process. we will help the palestinians with their economic challenges, and we've already promised that we would be part of, if you like, and economic roadmap for peace that would relieve the unemployment in gaza and the west bank. and so our commitment is not just that we want to see it. it's a very prodigal set a commitments. turn to our issues in britain. the issue of this coming election will be who is best for the future of our country, who is best to equip our country, who is best for jobs, who is best for growth, who is best for the national health service and the reforms it is making, who is best for tackling the educational challenges with the future, who is best for digitizing our economy on the internet, whose vessel relationships with the european union and the international community. and when people ask these questions, you move from what it has been over the last two years, sort of a referendum on what the government is doing

defense secretary robert gates, homeland security secretary janet napolitano, admiral mullen, dennis blair and john brennan white house counter terrorism adviser. the u.s. says sending such a delegation shows the level of commitment to work with the mexican government to help them combat the threat which can spill over the border. some of the priorities for u.s. side creating 21st century security, socio-economic development in border towns. americans are hoping to support the effort against drug cartels. today's meeting took on added sense of urgency after traffickers kill three linked to the american consulate 10 days ago across the border from el paso, texas. juarez known as the murder capital of mexico the violence has been more widespread. cartels are blamed for the murders of almost 18,000 people since calderon took office in late 2006. secretary clinton spoke about the problem a short time ago. >> we are working in our two governments together, to solve the problem posed by the criminal cartels. that stalk the streets of your cities and ours. that kill and injure innocent people. an

he called a supplementity meeting at blair house and all of it gave him and his people the time to get a plan together, to find that magical way you only find when you really look hard for it. you know, show time. that way came when somebody came up with the idea of using the legislative route known as reconciliation. not to bypass the rules of the senate but to put those rules to a novel, new use. the senate passed a version of health care reform with a filibuster-proof 60 votes. the democrats would now use the reconciliation procedure to reconcile that senate bill with something the house of representatives could accept. so first the house passed the senate bill last sunday along with the reconciliation bill. then the senate passed a reconciliation bill today. the house will pass that same slightly revised bill tonight. passed by 60 votes in the senate, a month joert reconciled by use of reconciliation. "the washington post" gave credit for using reconciliation not as an alternative to getting 60 votes in the senate but as a complement to it, jim messina working on capitol hill, lear

the deputy viggo adviser in the united kingdom and wrote a memo to the prime minister, tony blair thomas saying don't invade iraq. tell bush to go pound is say and it would violate international law if best you have a security council resolution of the player did not like that city got another opinion from the attorney general said it is a close call that go ahead and because of that the united states united states and united kingdom did invade iraq in 2003. she resigned but did not tell anybody why because she felt she gave legal advice and confidence. like a policy maker does when they resign you cannot blaster resignation letter in "the new york times" and you have to keep a secret for a break couple of years later somebody leaked the resignation letter that everybody understood. we asked legal advisers what would you do? everyone said at some point* there might be a duty to resign and they all said if they were per under the circumstances they would consider doing the same thing. why didn't they and the four cases where they work cut out and they were very upset? what do you think? >

there, obviously, was that conference at the blair house, which i strongly recommended. i thought it was wise to calm down, take a breath, step back, regroup and then go forward. and candidly, i almost think that election in massachusetts actually helped produce the results we saw today. >> senator, quickly before we go, turning to financial reform bill, the next big crusade in the senate. you are the chairman of the banking committee. you have a horrible problem on the senate floor where you need 60 votes to move the bill on the senate floor. you need at least one republican to go forward. in what may be the most politically polarized era the senate has ever seen, with republicans and democrats just completely opposed to each other, do you think there's anyway you are going to find that route to 60 votes in the senate to move that bill forward? >> i do, lawrence. i actually think the events of today and the last couple of days will help in that effort. i can tell you the number of republicans who were never enthusiastic about just say no to everything. they didn't get e

. >> sisters elle and blair are some of the biggest video stars. youtube pays them for those videos. they have hired a hollywood agent and they are planning to appear on "seventeen" magazine. >> you basically have to be told what to buy by these people? >> it's sort of like -- no. hasn't your wife ever come home and said, look at this sweater, i got this for this amount. look at, this i got this for this amount. >> yeah, and i zone out. >> right, that's why she needs this. that's why women created it. we'll be right back with more "world news now." you for a new power chair or scooter at little to no cost to you. stay tuned for this important medicare benefit information and free scooter guarantee. imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen ... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. why should you call the scooter store today? because their mobility experts are also medicare experts. and that means the scooter store is y

mccain: you know, could i ask my colleague, he recalls that over at blair house when our colleague from tennessee began the discussion with the president and our democratic colleagues, he said at that time that the congressional budget office said premiums would increase from 10% to 13% for individuals purchasing health insurance. that comes out to $2,100 more for a typical family. the president challenged that, as you may recall, and said, well, we're going to settle this before the end of this -- what later turned out to be over seven hours of fun. but -- so what was the answer to that, i would ask, dr. barrasso? what was the answer? was senator alexander correct when he quoted the congressional budget office that premiums would increase by 10% to 13% for individuals purchasing health insurance? or was the president correct by saying that that was not true? mr. barrasso: well, and senator ensee who's joined us on the floor, was also sitting with us on that day-on-at blair house. and my recollection and from doing the research afterward, the press reported that senator alexander was co

." >> in a few moments, the director of national intelligence, dennis blair. in about an hour, rep as to any lawyer on fiscal responsibility. after that, the kao is a tent -- pcato institute. >> on washington journal tomorrow morning, we will speak with senator jeff bingaman. howard rosen will explain how the unemployment insurance works. our guests include roslyn broughck. "washington journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> the new c-span video library is a digital archive of c-span programming. from barack obama to ronald reagan and everywhere in between. this is now available to you. it is fast and free. try it out. >> over 1000 middle and high school students injured in the student competition. we will announce the winning entries. >> now, dennis blair, the director of national intelligence. he spoke at kansas state university. this is an hour. >> thank you for that kind introduction. it is a great pleasure to have such a distinguished graduate as a former colleague. i had done little intelligence on this occasion and i was told that

it was at the blair house, an historic location right across from the white house. over the seven 1/2-hour discussion, there were some discuss differences of opinion. in fact, my friend, the majority leader, said lamar, you're not entitled to your facts, and i think he's right about that. we want to use real facts. but the american people once again seem to have understood the real facts. in the "wall street journal" yesterday, march 10, there was an article by scott rasmussen and doug schoen. mr. rasmussen is an independent pollster. mr. schoen was president clinton's pollster. we were saying mr. president, your plan will increase the deficit. this is a time when many people in america believe the deficit is growing at an alarming rate and will bring the country to its knees in a few years if we don't do something about it. the president and his democratic colleagues says no, no, no, the congressional budget office says that we don't increase the deficit. the american people don't believe that, according to mr. rasmussen and mr. schoen. they say, "60% of voters bel

so, you know, it's -- i thought that the republicans at blair house during that day were able to makements and i thought did themselves well as did the democrats because you have to really a more complete sense of what the points were and what sort of the underlying arguments are when you reach conclusion. so we'll see. i think we're all looking forward to mr. stupak now and seeing where that goes and that's going to be maybe one of the most dramatic points. then to see the language. we've just been hearing from dana bash that there may be some pro-choice people up on the hill who don't like this executive order. that's also adding some drama to this. >> we're going to wait to hear what bart stupak has to say. dana bash is watching what's going on. you got for information? >> this comes from our producer. she talked to steve dreer house, a freshman from ohio, staunchly antiabortion. he's been with bart stupak of michigan on this all of the way. he told her he is going to go to this press conference with congressman stupak. he said he's okay with the language they have crafted. an exec

we need their help because they're a member of the quartet, and i guess tony blair so far there and othershere are we with russia? the one country in the world that has under nuclear weapons-- or many-- has a lot. i've lost count. >> we are in the process of seeking to reset the relationship with russia. and what that means is we are engaging with them much more full to, again, identify areas of common interest. we are very close to completing a strategic arms reduction treat wethem, that is an example of that. we are working very closely with them to police up nuclear material around the world that could become vulnerable to theft or terrorist use. there's a whole range -- >> that's been there for a while-- go ahead. >> no, and we're continuing that. i think in the case of iran is an area where we engaged them with us as a partner this trying to reach out to iran, to offer iran ways to meet its legitimate energy needs while also trying to get it to agree to come back into compliance with its own commitments in nonproliferation treaty. >> rose: we're happy with what the russians have done