of management? >> i'm not sure you understand how the justice department works. i didn't express the fact i was mad or it was silly, i issued a directive. when the attorney general of the united states says this kind of technique is not appropriate and should not be followed. we're still in the process of trying to determine, the inspector general is trying to determine whether wr this policy originat originated. we know it started in the atf office in phoenix. it was approved by u.s. attorney's office in phoenix, exactly who the people were who approved the technique we're still in the process of doing this too. that's not all i've done. i've made personnel changes with regard to leadership positions. i've moved people around. we've instituted a series of policies now designed to make sure that doesn't happen again. >> an agent was murdered and your action is to move people around. that seems to me to simply inconvenience people, not to rid them of federal employment. >> well, to the extent that we find out who precisely was involved in this or gave that order, i

of september 2nd, 2009, she talks -- she sends an e-mail to jim trusty in the united states department of justice in washington. it says, it's my understanding a lot of those guns walked. so we had an attorney from your department sent to washington who sends a communication back to mid-level or senior level people in the criminal department saying, it's my understanding, i'm on the scene, guns walked. and i want to know why when a former u.s. attorney, based on those opinions, declines to prosecute cases because he does not like the procedures of atf and an attorney who goes and identifies gun walking, why would a subsequent administration send down attorneys and resurrect these cases for prosecution? >> well, i mean, we want to try to hold accountable the people who were responsible for crimes that were committed. and i would guess that people took into account the techniques that were used in making the determination as to which cases would, in fact, be prosecuted. >> well, i sure do think that that's correct. who do you think the people are that sit there and take into account the techniques

quick break when we get back one lawmaker is upset the department of justice has the rights division is hiring experienced civil rights attorney here with our full time report and happy hour plus of the latest fourth illustrated cover and why was this break down presidential politics into a high school popularity contest all the richer. people calling what you said for free and fair elections. and we're still reporting from the. past you can hear behind me loud explosions. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know what i'm charging welcome to the big picture. our guys it's time for tonight's tool time war and the honor once again goes to lamar smith the congressman from texas but this time it is not to do with him trying to restrict speech on the internet or rather his complaints about the department of justice's hiring process so you are smith has come out and accused the department of justice's civi

is wiretapping of americans magically popped up on the department of justice is website after a handful of privacy experts got their hands on the original materials through that for a request they found out that these reports are actually old and that they're now appearing in because well they forgot to do it years ago there is a twenty five year old law called the electronic communications privacy act that requires the department of justice to reported surveillance techniques to congress every year and it details two techniques in particular first one is a pen register where officials can obtain non-content information from outgoing internet and telephone communications and those would include dial phone numbers and who received e-mails and potentially even the subject line of those sent e-mails but not it was actually said or written within the conversations the other is trap and trace capturing is also gathers non-content information from online activity and phone calls over that's for incoming communications to this is vicious individual now these two techniques are for a large part

of. we now have a justice department official who has taken the fifth. we've moved up a ways. all of those people should be ashamed that brian terry is dead because they didn't do as good a job as they could. kenneth nelson has said that publicly and privately that he bears a great deal of that blame. the point here today is we want to know how justice will oversee every local operation, every state, every agency under your authority or in a joint exerc e exercise, joint task force that will come under your authority, how can you ensure the american people this won't happen again? or at least systems in place to give us confidence that it most likely won't happen. those are the items i ask you to come here today. i appreciate your being here voluntarily to answer. the committee's responsibility to ask. i hope we get the answers and commitments. recognize ranking member for his opening statement. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i want to welcome the attorney general today. mr. chairman when the committee started this investigation almost a year ago, you and i made pledges

that, especially when we have such different reporting in different stations as well as the department of justice? what is your recommendation as to how to get that accomplished >> right now, we use codes to crowds -- count crime. a homicide will have various codes that are used to count the number of homicides reported by the department. and so the doj report also is calculated by the department using these codes, said they will count how many codes they have in the reports received, and the same is true for the profile, so what we noticed is we analyze the codes, and that is the method by which these two reports are counting, and we noticed that there are differences in how these codes are being used by crime type, so for the example of aggravated assault, we noticed the codes that associated aggravated assault cases were being used for one profile but were not being used to count of aggravated assaults in the other report. so it is really that we are continuing to rely -- if the department is continuing to rely on using these codes as their methodology by which crime is accounted for these two

i want to make sure that come the 2012 election should the department of justice should decide to, again, visit the great state of south dakota, i would welcome everyone to come visit south dakota, but you're going to be cooperating and and notifying my office as well as the local election officials to make sure that everyone is on the same page on what activities you're going to be involved in so that should there be an issue that we became aware of that we may require your assistance or vice versa, that we have that line of communication open and effective come election day. >> i agree and i look forward to that. i asked christo come with me today because chris is the chief of voting capacity and among other things he oversees the election monitoring problem. chances are you might be getting a call from chris or from somebody else in the section. >> can i follow up on just that part? >> yes, sir. >> in that regard, when i spoke with chris before, but we have never gotten feedback for what you get when you go out. i mean you are -- you have been to mississippi many times and to many of

answer that question, continue -- >> i'm not sure where i was. >> the interaction between the department of justice and state department. >> right -- >> fast and furious. that's the concern here. >> right. we work on a number of things with the state d., there is the merida initiative which is really the umbrella way in which we operate in mexico in a law enforcement way, so there is a lot of contact at lower levels and not so lower levels. i know our deputy attorney general speaks a great deal with his counterpart at the state department. >> my question, mr. attorney general, is the testimony from october 27th of this year that secretary clinton gave over in the senate where she said, quote, i can tell you that based on information apart from the state department that would deal with this kind of issue, we have no record of any request for coordination, we have no record of any kind of notice or heads up. how is it that the secretary of state is saying we've never been involved in any way, shape or form in fast and furious, and you're testifying that it's happening on a regular, a regular basis? >

i think that it's certainly the right choice and given the department of justice is track record over the past couple of years it makes sense we saw that the department of justice just last year had wanted to implement this new rule this new law which they had already been practicing basically stating that they would respond to for requesters in certain instances by stating that they don't have any documents even when they did have documents also the fact that the justice department has cracked down on whistleblowers and has prosecuted whistleblowers under the espionage act it's certainly the right choice and you know the the two thousand and nine guidelines that attorney general eric holder put into place after obama signed this executive order promising new era of open government and transparency they're just not living up to it now we definitely have and i want to thank you so much tonight for joining us tonight thank you. are going to another star break when we can back dissolve a joke that's rick santorum in response to his financial backers saying that women should keep their le

>> he was with the department of justice. he couldn't get anybody to take the job of his first assistant. >> he had only six months left in the eisenhower administration. >> right. that's not a very attractive time to come to washington at the tag end of an administration. and he contacted his friends in the law schools and called harvard and yale and lawyers he knew, and they gave him a list of people that he ought to contact, and

that the name, department of justice, means something to me. the name at the bottom of it, not so much. while that letter was being drafted, there there are people main justice that knew the body of that letter was incorrect, factually incorrect. while that letter was being drafted, the criminal chief lanny brewer was in mexico talking about gunwalking. do you know whether or not he alerted our mexican counterparts that fast and furious was something they needed to be prepared to deal with because of the number of weapons? did he mention to them be alerted, a lot of weapons went down there, a lot of your civilians are going to be killed? >> first, there were people in main justice who did have that knowledge of wide receiver and who admitted that they did not make the connection between wide receiver and fast and furious, and that should have happened and could have changed the february 4th letter. lanny brewer was not down there talking about gunwalking as we have used that term during the course of these last four hours or so when he was deali

but i want to make sure that come the 2012 election, should the department of justice decide to, again, come visit the great state of south dakota, i'd welcome everyone to visit south dakota, but that you're going to be cooperating and notifying my office as well as the local election officials to make sure that everyone is on the same page on what activities you're going to be involved in so that, should there be an issue, that we become aware of that we may require your assistance or vice versa, that we have that open line of communication ready and available prior to election day. >> i completely agree and i look forward to that. chris herring, i asked chris to come with me today. because chris is the chief of the voting section and in that capacity, among other things, he oversees our election day monitoring program. he would, chances are, you might be getting a call from chris or somebody else in the section. >> can i follow up on just that part? >> yes, sir. >> secretary of state, mississippi. in that regard, i have spoke within chris before. we've never gotten feedback for what

what was going on at the department of justice? >> didn't fire anybody. >> nobody has been fired. >> the women of the funny ranch announce their endorsement. we will reveal their candidates coming up tonight on "justice k"justice ." >> welcome to "justice." i am jeanine pirro. bret baier anchor of "special report" will be on hand starting at 10:00 p.m. eastern with complete results of the caucuses. he's stop i by justice first. good moaning, bre -- good evening, bret. thanks forking being with us. we are waiting for clark county could tomorrow in. >> this is a caucus state. they had caucuses through out the day and into the evening. all of the caucus sites are closed except for one, and that one will start at 10:00 p.m. eastern time. once the doors close there we expect that you will get a dump of information from the nevada gop and we will be able to make a call at that point. what you see at the bottom of the screen here judge the raw vote total from the nevada gop. we are putting that out. we expect another reporting in just a co

today, a top official with the california department of justice tried to put that controversy to rest. >> but i can tell you that everything was handled according to proper procedure and we were very careful in what we have done. >> reporter: now in that letter to our sister station in sacramento, wesley shermantine says that his friend mr. herzog

friday is the beginning of the end of almost all of the special agents in the drug unit of the department of justice. nannette miranda joins us with more. >> state drug agents accused governor of cutting their department for endorsing his rival in the last elections but the judge didn't buy it. >> special agents within the department of justice take on gangs and drug cartels daily. seizing heroin, marijuana ask drugs on the streets. >> there is about a kilo of heroin there. >> and this friday, almost the entire definition is set to be laid off. and at their height they had 300 agents and week's end, only a few left leaving law enforcement to fend for them self was maybe help from the feds. >> and these agents were specialized in what they do and have been around for a long time and have pro veeded a series. >> this is the impact on public safety. >> the brown administration says cut backs were avoidable, urging rinz to go along with extending the tax hikes last year to save vital programs but the votes were not there. >> if they chose not to release tax rates set tochl pir, a number of programs were

death of a federal agent, it's easy to see why people have lost faith in the leader ship of the justice department. these public failures -- of a justice department where attorneys prosecuting a sitting u.s. senator under a republican administration systemically concealed, quote, significant x exexku79ory evidence -- a department where whistle blowers are sure to face retaliation from supervisors and then are forced into bureaucratic limbo to adjudicate their cases. a department where one assistant attorney negligence doesn't allow guns to cross a border, while another assistant attorney general is in mexico the same day advocating a plan to let guns cross the border as an investigative strategy which was explicitly forbidden, something is wrong and it's size to see why the public is outraged. further the overreaching by the justice department impacts us here in congress, republican and democrat. for example, legislation addressing online infringement hits a road block on the fore, in part because the public doesn't trust the currejustice department to do the right thing and i heard -- the america

more completely answer that. >> i am not sure where i was. >> the interaction between the department of justice and state department. >> we work with the state department counterparts on a number of things. there is an initiative which is the umbrella way in which we operate in mexico. there is a lot of contact at lower levels. not so lower levels. i know are deputy attorney general speaks with his counterpart. >> the testimony from october 27 of this year, secretary clinton gave in the senate. she said, "i can tell you we have no record of any request for coordination. we have no record of any notice." how is it she is saying, we have never been involved in fast and furious and you of testifying is happening on a regular basis? >> you have to look at it in context. we interact with them in a number of ways. fast and furious may not be a primary thing. we are working more closely with dhs. those things are discussed. it might not be a primary thing that exists in a topic of conversation. >> you have 1500 weapons. we have 300 dead people. we have a dead u.s. agent. we have a press report. you ha

recovered about 5000 bone fragments from the a while and some of them have been sent to state department of justice crime lab in richmond for initial analysis, but once they get to that second a while, and also they will find there. >> all right. thanks. >> if the no-brainer. e.g. entity should pay to rebuild the san bernadino neighborhood -- december the neighborhood that was destroyed when the pipeline blew up. but they want more. >> in the wake of the horrific gas leak gas leak blast that killed eight people, the city promised to do whatever necessary to make the little town of san bruno to avoid him. tg and he has agreed to spend upwards of $70 million to repair the area but the mayor says that it's not enough. but we want funding. >> what for quick. >> the library. things for kids and things for seniors. >> what does that have to do with pg in the? at. >> it would help through the city. wouldn't it be nice if you could take your children to the facility where they could relax? >> on the little city of san bruno felt the ongoing talks were going nowhere, they called in the guy in the red tie, p

what they did and what they did not do and what i'm really bothered by is the letter from the department of justice and we've already made reference to it, and this is to senator grassley, the response dated january 27th, 2011 and january 31st, 2011 to acting director kenneth nelson of the department of bureau, tobacco, firearms, explosives. we thank you for the support. the allegation described in your january 27th letter that atf sanctioned or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported it to mexico is false. atf makes every effort to interdict weapons purchased illegally. then on that very same day, below is a synopsis of assistant attorney general lanny brewer's meetings with the mexican attorney general's office, mexico' federal police and the secretary of foreign relations. now who else is there? a.g. brewer, deputy teef mission, john feeley from the state department, daag blanco, kevin sudwell, all of these folks are here and at the end of it, at the end of it, here's what they come up with. aag brewer told ventura there had been a propos

of the state department. i face had in the case of us versus alabama, the question is why aren't the countys reporting the data to the ac, and the answer of course from the justice department's perspective is we only look at the states, so it sort of locks you into a model of resolution that i do not necessarily think is helpful. i will -- obviously this will be in the front and center this year, i mean, you will hear about these cases. so i guess, the question is, what what comes out of it? i can't predict. i think it's a county problem more than a state problem. >> okay. i think -- >> mr. secretary, could i just say one word to that which is we agree actually and would join you in moving toward a cleaner list to the extent that we have the data that bares out that this is a problem. and so, i don't, i don't think there's a difference of party on this issue and i would say the same thing with respect to your comments on compliance and ensuring that military voters in maryland are able to vote across the ballot, that is something we would absolutely be in favor of as well. and the section seven enforcement that happened under the social service provision of the

. >> reporter: investigators with the san joaquin sheriff's department and the department of justice have unearthed 1,000 bone fragments from a well and think they are unclose to uncover all that's there tonight. >> they are telling us that they have hit bottom. they have gone through the well and they are around 50 feet. >> reporter: the massive search comes after investigators got ahold of maps and writing from convicted killer wesley. this has led to the preliminary identification of two women, including cindy, who disappeared in 1998. >> this kind of -- will put a kind of closure on it for us so we can put it to rest. >> reporter: john has left his porch light on for 14 years hoping his daughter would some day come home. >> you never forget. and you think of her constantly. >> reporter: he says he's sickened by the other bones investigators are now finding and is praying for the families of other victims. >> a lot of families out there are in the same shoes as i am. and i know what they are going through. so they just have to keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best and ho

. >> department of justice does not allow us to say prove it. >> if the problem with dogs sniffing around in safeway stores has become big enough, put up signs letting people know only service animals are allowed and their people face fines up to $1,000 if they aren't. >> because people were saying that they had service lizards and service snakes and service birds. >> which is why last year, the department of justice limited the designation. >> next time you go shopping and see a horse in line with you, that could be legal. >> law defines a service animal as a dog or miniature horse, the only two types of animals that perform a task for you. >> i get upset, he licks my face and tells me it's going to be okay and he loves me and i don't need any kind of pills or medication. >> that's what sky does for kelly and we got a doctor to write her a prescription for a service animal. it's like california's marijuana law, if the doctor says you need it, you can get it. if a miniature horse did that for you, you would go shopping with a miniature horse. >> we have not seen a miniature horse yet. may

some of the discussion has focused on the interaction with the department of justice, who is responsible for some enforcement of those statutes. mr. perez previously served as secretary of maryland's department of labor licensing and regulations which protects consumers through the enforcement of consumer rights laws. he's spent his entire career in public service as a county council member and president, is career attorney and federal prosecutor with the d.o.j. civil rights division. aag perez addressed this group last winter. we're delighted he has accepted our inhave a gati invitation to group, and we have asked him to talk about the enforcement problems for 2012 and section 203 language, minority changes, the nvra. and move waivers. please join me in welcoming assistant attorney general tom perez. >> thanks for having me. good afternoon. it's great to be back here, i was here friday talking about and with the election directors and it was a very productive session. i look forward to this as well. i remember our meeting a year ago and that was also very productive and i want to thank

we participated with the department of justice in making the combination of the honduran highway, thecotic investigations, several suspects were arrested all over the bay area. two of the primary suspects were arrested in san francisco. the operation was successful. there were no problems. we made sure all the department general orders with regard to what we can do and how we can do with were strictly adhered to. about a pound and a half was -- of crack was seized. $10,000 from san mateo. ammunition which brings another enhancement on one of the primary defendants. several items of other valuables. the dea press office decided against a press conference. there is a press release issued. in seattle, 21 of 23 suspects were arrested. it was a successful operation and we're hoping to impact narcotics trafficking as a result of this action. that concludes my report. president mazzucco: thank you. sounds like an extremely busy week on all fronts. with reference to -- i would like to give you my observations. i walked down montgomery street and i was impressed by the level of professionalism

about the relationship between the justice department and the white house, but in very general terms, so let me preface by saying that there has been attention to some of the drama surrounding conflict between the former deputy attorney general and other senior justice department officials in the bush white house, involving an nsa program from the previous administration. i would note that the fbi is in a very interesting position in our government. it is undoubtedly an executive agency in article two of the constitution. on the other hand, it is designed to be somewhat insulated from day-to-day interference from people engaged in the political affairs of the nation. how would you describe the relationship or what you would say is the ideal relationship between the president and an agency like the fbi? >> it is an interesting question. i would say that one of the great things about my job is i have to be aggressively apolitical, which is wonderful. as an agency, we need to trust the american people in the work that we do an understanding that whatever we do in terms of investigations, whatever we do as the bureau is done without regard to party or poli

i feel that the department of justice, that you're responsible for all of the activities that fall under your umbrella. and i think you've denied knowledge of the program and that accordingly you should not be held accountable. my question to you today is what more could have possibly gone wrong that you would have been held accountable? and before you answer that, i would suggest that the president has be eriely quiet about coming to your defense. so how many more border patrol gts would have had to die as a part of operation fast and furious for you to take responsibility? >> the gentle lady's time has expired. the gentleman may answer, or not. >> you know, i -- you know, that's the kind of thing, you know, you wonder why you're getting those calls. you know, people focus on a question as much as an answer. and, you know, as a member of congress, you know, really? is that the way in which you want to be seen, you want to be known? you know, i should be held accountable for certainly my role in whatever i did or didn't do in connection with the supervision of fast and furious. but, yeah

the department of justice does not allow us to say prove it. >> if a problem with dogs sniffing around in safeway stores has become big enough, the chain had to put up signs letting people know only service animals are allowed and their people face fines up to $1,000 if they aren't. >> because people were saying that they had service lizards and service snakes and service birds. >> which is why last year the department of justice limited the designations. next time you go shopping and see a horse in line with you, that could be legal. >> the law defines a service animal as a dog or miniature horse, those are the only two types of animals that perform a task for you. >> when i get upset, he licks my face and tells me it's going to be okay and he loves me and i chill out. i don't need any kind of pills or any medication. >> that's what sky does for kelly and she got a doctor to write her a prescription for a service animal. it's like california's marijuana law. if the doctor says you need it, you can get it. if a miniature horse did that to you and the doctor said it would help, you woul

and then -- >> and the department of justice, at least discussions o proposals, with regard to personal liabilities? secretaries of states? >> i hope we have influence over that as well. how much they listen is an open question. >> congressman rokita, ross miller from nevada. some of the discussions this weekend in our conference have centered around the eac, obviously this organization, as you are aware, has twice taken the position that we believe that the eac should be sunsetted. there's now some discussion as to what to do in the interim. and, i was wondering if you could just offer a little bit of background as to what is happening in congress with the eac and offer any potential predictions as to what may eventually result? >> thank you, ross. well, as you all, i'm sure, know, a bill was heard in house administration to defund and otherwise sunset, repeal the enabling language that instituted the organization. i was a original co-sponsor in that bill. in that my involvement in that bill comes directly out of the two resolutions that came out of this organization that i was involve

today a top official with the california department of justice tried to put that controversy to rest. >> but i can tell you that everything was handled according to proper procedure and we were very careful in what we have done. >> reporter: now, officials with the california department of justice and also the san joaquin sheriff's department say the decisions that they have made to use that big excavation machine was all about crew safety, the safety of the searchers involved in here. they did not want any people down in that confined space 50 feet below. the search is expected to continue on both days this weekend. reporting live in linden, i'm mark sayre, cbs 5. >>> the fbi says it has foiled a major terror plot. a moroccan man arrested today for trying to carry out a suicide attack on the u.s. capital building was already in court by this afternoon the 29- year-old amine el khalifi was arrested near the capital building. as i say, went down this morning after he met with undercover agents who are posing as al qaeda operatives. they say he was planning to detonate what he thought w

know when cid passed it over to the justice department and who it is with there so these committees can communicate with the justice department to get from them an idea of about time. >> absolutely can, sir. >> and, in fact, i look forward to working with chairman whitman and ranking members, too, with cid and the officials in is beyond your purview but there should be accountability. and we can't proceed without it. >> yeah. and i think, too, another thing to take from today that i ask all of you to consider, i think the suggestion that the leadership chain include somebody in uniform to make sure the uniformed code of military justice is something that reins with that is something that is a very, very significant suggestion, one that, as strategic planning and organization plans are looked at, that -- i think it's something that garners your serious consideration. i want to thank mr. coffman for bringing that up. >> any further? if not, we shall be adjourned. thank you, again, everyone, for being here today. >>> both houses of congress are in today. the house gavels in at noon eastern for speeches with legislative work starting at 2:00. members will w

. >> bring ron white slipped out of the department of justice building at a nearby restaurant. after the sandwiches, the coffee was poured, the waitress looked at him and said hey, aren't you whizzer white? white took a sip of coffee, and very slowly in a soft voice said i was. f. scott fitzgerald famously said there are no second acts in american lives, but i would guess there's a time when byron white -- white was constantly framed in the public eye by his headline making first act, an act so to speak that made him a nationwide household name while he was still a teenager, but which penalized a the small young man with expectations he could not foresee, did not wish and sometimes could not meet. but we're already ahead of the game. byron raymond white was born in ft. collins, colorado, but he grew up 11 miles away in wilmington, population 500 at the time. his father managed a lumberyard. wellington's economy was dominated by sugar beets, a crop demanding attention constantly and back breaking work. both white and his older brother clayton worked beet fields after school and d

kingston, north carolina, which is challenging the constitutionality of section five, where the department of justice denied preclearance from a move to non-partisan elections there so i think those three objections or four objections includ texas so the only sort of indications as to what the new section five means and a lot of the cases, texas is an example as well as the two redistricting situations i mentioned they make the argument there's a discriminatory purpose that is underlying these voting laws or redistricting controversies. >> there's obviously the question of the constitutionality question five the supreme court will get back in the next term at the latest. in the meantime it's clear that section five has been working, that is there has been very little retrogression and in the place where there has been retrogression they have rejected or in texas litigating the retrogressive nature of the legislative and state plans. this is one of the things i think is difficult to get a true handle on. how do you know a statute designed to deter or prevent something is working and so people oftentim

the department of justice has repeatedly and over the course of many decades upon that adjournment of significant length particularly in the three days or less that is any adjournment that is of insignificant length because it is of three days or less doesn't constitute a recess for purposes relevant to the recess appointments clause and in the context of the constitution the framers did not consider the adjournment like this. to be constitutionally significant it's also a significant here that article 1 section 5 provided that neither house during the session of congress shall without the consent of the other adjourn for more than three days. so, if an intersession adjournment of less than three days were to be considered constitutionally sufficient for the president of the will to exercise the recess appointment power is not clear what if anything would prevent the president from bypassing the constitution's advice and consent requirement and appointing the nominees during even the weekend adjournment, which routinely involved the periods of 72 hours or even more in which the senate

appointed the new york state attorney general eric schneiderman and the fact is we have a department of justice and a united states attorney general who he may be leaking sawdust as he walks down the halls of justice i'm we're not really sure he's a real human behavior because he hasn't done anything in three years but the fact is they have a clue. criminal division and they have done nothing to investigate mortgage fraud or any of the associated shenanigans for the entire obama term so you know this is just really a new set of smoke screens to perpetuate what is coming to be a just pay. tremendous control for odd but what is it in the american character that makes them feel good about getting screwed my own theory is that american life is just so frantic you know with people struggling very hard to make a living and being distracted by every kind of you know electronic message and show in program and entertainment conceivable that they're just you know the cognitive dissonance the collective noise in our brains is so immense that we can't really reflect on anything that's happening to us howev

department of justice and bp are set to begin in court. the mess they made. of the $20 billion they set aside to pay people whose livelihoods were destroyed by the spill, only $6.5 billion have been allocated. the rest of the money can go to the u.s. treasury. really? are we that convinced we have seen the last of the economic damage done by the spill? up in alaska, fishermen are still trying to cover from the exxon valdez spill. if you add up the liability in court, it's anywhere from $5 to $21 billion in civil and criminal penalties. plus by their own estimate in court documents, up to $42 billion in cleanup costs and economic restoration. let me get this straight. only $6.5 billion have been spent on actually helping people in the bufl. that's out of $20 billion set aside and another $63 billion in legal liabilities. by my math, that's 8% of total funds actually going to cleaning up the mess. or just under bp's profits per quarter. talk about getting off easy. here's some advice for my fellow lawyers at the department of justice. don't s

. >> scientists at the department of justice crime lab in richmond need every bit of that expertise to take on the job coming their way. identifying victims from the 1,000 bone fragments pulled from a county well where the so-called speed freak killers are believed to have dumped up to 25 bodies. >> that's our pegs at this here is typing dna from skeletal materials. >> they demonstrated the painstaking process of extracting dna. after grinding up materials, they use chemicals to isolate the dna and run the samples through the database for a possible match. what may make things difficult in this case, the fact the bones have been buried for years, even decades. >> there's sunlight, humidity, bacteria that can degrade the dna. and the longer time spent in the elements and the harsher the elements, the more degraded the dna becomes. >> it's a process that could take weeks or even months leaving families of potential victims on edge. the mother of gail marks who disappeared from stockton in 1988 is beside herself. >> i am a very patient person and i want to know. i stop and think i've wait

his first task was to recruit assistants attorney general who would be innocent department of justice. when white finished a task one legal scholar declared it was the most brilliantly staffed department we had seen in a long time and the quality of bern el bespoke a vision of public service that would have donnie one proud. in addition to making staffing decisions he was responsiblevii than 100 judges nominated during the administration's first year. he received national recognition during the freedom writers crisis in may 1961 when he organized and directed an ad hoc contingent of heroic federal officers to protect dr. martin luther king and his supporters when their lives were threatened for protesting racial segregation in alabama. it was a searing experience for white in his first taste of the ugly, smug brutality of southern racism and jim crow. byron white relished all of the work that he did in the department of justice. with robert kennedy constantly advising his brother, white was de facto attorney general. the work was important, it was public service, and it was, like his