eddie -- remedy for those who have been harmed. >> the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. gonzalez. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i will be very brief. i don't usually make opening statements but think i can read the minds of the witnesses and think they're all saying all these individuals are stating the obvious and the political and you're absolutely right but i think when we get into the questioning it will be a different world as far as the political to be honest with you, all those that are blaming the president for not meeting with b.p.c.e.o. immediately, had the president done that, i assure you today the statements would be what was the president thinking of meeting with the b.p. executives at the outset without first visiting the areas or meeting with the coast guard and first responders. that's what would have happened. what i hope to achieve today is to hear from the witnesses, what are the energy needs of america, how our transportation fuel's obviously based on oil and what we're going to do moving forward, the difference 3 exploration and drilling an

frequently that current spawns an eddy. a sort of slowly rotating whirlpool. weisberg says in the past the eddy current has gone as far west as the well site. if it does so again, it could push a considerable amount of oil through the strait, into the gulf stream and then up the east coast. >> it is hard to predict, in fact it is impossible to predict how the loop current and the eddy will behave over the short term. and it is hard to predict what the winds will do too far out. that is why it is important to update these models on a daily basis and see what happens and >> reporter: weisberg and other university scientists have undertaken a lot of this research on their own initiative, and weisberg is frustrated that it's not better coordinated. >> other people have been getting satellite images that we do not have access to. there are ships at sea there are there are aircraft overflights a lot of these things. someone within unified command would have put these things together in a nice data set so that someone like me or anyone could use them. that has not ha

reverend eddie lee carter and i have a shared heritage. was born ineach island, south colina. mgrandfather was born in beach isla, in akin county, soth carina. at very you a, his family moved to augta, georgi wch wasearby he attended elementary sool with the wod famous musici james brn, another great south carolinia reverend carterirst began to rk on shoes as aoung man, even beforoid the ar in 1953. was stationed primarily in germany while servi in the army, a musician mself, he was renowned for singing and entertaing generals wn they passed througthe post. in 1955, he left the army wth the rank of corporal and later moved to washington fm augusta to work shoe repair. the chathe geman may procee mr. wilson:n 1992, he was ordained a methist nier. june 7, 04, he came to work athe u.s. capitol, reiring and shining shoes he lives in fort washington, maryland,ith his wife, molly anony carter. they've beenarri 28 yrs. he has a son and ms. carter has two sons he plans to rete friday topend more time with the congration. i'll always rember cheerfulness and encouragement, his quiet rea

so far it has been confined by strong eddy's but it is probably a temporary respite -- strong eddies. host: big oil group's break ranks with bp. this is a map of some of the rigs and the depths they are drilling added. here is no orleans and the coast of louise and -- louisiana here. deep water horizon drilling at 5000 plus feet, around a mile down. here are some up to 7,800 feet down. here is a 1,700 foot well. it gives you an idea of how deep some of these wells are. new york city, robb, democrat. let me see if i can hit the right line. what do you think? caller: no more drilling. this is the reason why we need regulation of all of these types of industry -- oil, financial. i heard a statistic that said that this oil spill in the gulf now is the equivalent of one exxon valdez per week. every week we are getting what that spill was in alaska. i don't know how to gauge such a disaster as this, but to me, when people talk about three mile island, i think if there is any kind of comparison of global environmental catastrophe, one ought to think something more like chernobyl. two more po

next is a call from eddy, airforce base in massachusetts. independent-minded caller: how are you guys doing? for me, i am active duty military. for me, there is no way the president had to keep the general on. i am an and listed service member. but you can't send soldiers out on the field -- and i was in iraq and we do what we have to do -- but there is already discourse anyway, naturally, because you are fighting a war and thinking about your safety. the thing that gives us confidence the -- there is a purpose. even though we don't see the purpose. we all complain among speech other. but we go in and do the mission there but if the general that it is in charge, if he is saying the same thing, it is harder for me to get my soldiers under the to take anything serious that i am saying. in my opinion, it had begun. host: from a command standpoint, it makes sense. how about specifically, do you have a reaction to the selection of general petraeus? caller: it makes sense to me also. it is obvious that he wrote the book on what we call counter ins

eddie mac believed it. fannie mae to the debt. congress believe that. the media believe that. i believe that. very few people could appreciate the bubble. that is the nature of bubbles. the bece massive dilution. i am much more inclined to come down hard on the ceo's of institutions that cost the united states government to come in and necessarily bolster them. >> l me prove that a little. i just want to sit for the record, i do think around the country there were peopl who thought the bubble was unsustainable. there were a number of experts. robert schiller, the real rub been a, a dean baker. -- nouriel roubini. this was something we had never seen hhstorically. moving beyond that for a minute, the rating agencies did play a fundamental role in accelerating the securitization and therefore me would argue that the origination of products intended to be highly efficient. we are talking about low teaser rates,-and a transition. there was a warning in 2004 from the fbi that mortgage fraud became so epidemic tt if unchecked, it would result in a crisis as big as the s and l crisis

we have been reporting that there is an eddy of the loop current target we continue to watch that closely. regarding the containment operations and the containment cap -- from the last 24 hours we were able to recover 14,842 barrels. this has declined steadily from the first day. we went from about 6,000 barrels to 15,000 barrels per o. we want to make sure we take as much oil from the stream as we can. one containment cap is closed and we continue to monitor that. a couple of key issues this week is that we have vessels of opportunity which is taking local waterman and putting them to work for it right now, we have over 2600 vessels throughout the gulf that are enrolled. in alabama, we had about 5000 vessels out. we are providing them booming equipment and other equipment. they are skimming and supporting other operations out there. later on this week, there will be meeting with bp and my staff. we will talk about individual and business related claims. we will be meeting with british petroleum on that and i will be part of that meeting. we will make sure we are aligned with the claims p

next call is from eddy on the rep can line. caller: consolidation is my time.erbert hoover we had only 5% employees were government. now it's well over 12%. but using ethanol, we're using oil for diesel and could use hot crider, but you could consolidate energy and that around you could combine education with interior, parks department, so consolidation is the essence. host: professor? guest: well, you know, we keep going back to the issue of the disconnection between how government and congress operates and the mission we face. when we look back at the oil spill and take a look at all the people involved in the early days, it was really quite confusing. i mean, who spoke for the administration in those early hours? was it homeland security? was it the -- again, thank goodness we had admiral thad allen with the coast guard which had primary authority but we're confused in terms of consolidating missions with really the ancient structure of the federal bureaucracy, and that ancient structure is echoed on capitol hill. i mean, we're not going to get anywhere with

we have been reporting for week or so there has been an eddy that has separated the oil and we continue to watch them closely. regarding the content and operations, with the containment cap, in the last 24 hour period, we were able to recover 14,482 barrels. we went from 6,000 barrels to 15,000. we continue to optimize production and make sure we can take as much oil out of that stream as possible. we to new to moving -- monitor that moving forward. -- continue to monitor that moving forward. we are taking a local water men out there and putting them to work. we have 23,000 -- enrolled. we are providing them equipment. they are scouting and skimming or supporting other operations. there will be a meeting with bp and my staff and the head of our integrated services team to talk about claims and business related claims. we will be meeting with british petroleum with that to make sure we are in line with the claims process and they provide the oversight. no other updates and that will turn the podium over and we will be glad to take questions. >> -- i will b>> thank you for g the team. the

that there has always been a rag eddie -- raggedy tendency in our politics, whether you talk about father coughlin, that we had power moved between right and left, that -- and also as i said earlier i think great journalism has always been an exception. really good journalism also has been somewhat of an exception, so i think we get a little too nostalgic about a golden age. the question is, if you remember when we had done the preponderance of our reporting, nobody in this country paid much attention to it. indeed the information was there to connect the nixon white house to -- he's going to disagree with me. >> no. i'm not going to disagree with you. here are the -- we asked the question in trying to recount some anecdotes from working on the watergate story, what's our approach? how do we go about it? and it's empirical. and i still think there is lots of empirical reporting and it really is the key. i did four books on president bush and his wars, and i have the luxury of time to spend a year or two getting documentation, getting memos, getting minute notes that would describe exactly

r children, my grandchildren, teddy adjulia, ke, eddie, carlo, and lca are grea th betterecausey have such great dads so, mr. speaker,rge my eaguo suppor h.res 1389honoring a celebrating father's daynd recognizin the involvemenof our nation's faths in tir children's live with that i yield the balae of my time. the ker pro mpore: does the gentlelady wish to reserve balance of her time? ms. woolsey: yes, mr. speaker. i would like to reserve y time. and i'd like to recognize gentman from nth carolina, mr. mntyre. for as much time ahe may consume. the speaker pror the geman ecognized. mr. mcintyre: thank you, mr. eaker. k permsiono rese and exte remks. the speaker tempore: without jection. . mcintyrethank you. mr. speake i rise in st support of hes. 1389, a solution thatognizes the fathers in the healthyf deveent of cildren, supports responsible fatherhoodd encourages greater involvemt of fathers in the ives of t children, especially with thceleio of father's day coming uphis weekend. on june 20ur nation will celebrate the ecial place that fhers have in our countr from helping with howork

whilwe were in e height of the al estate boom and it smed like housing prices were dbling ery few years,eddie c and nnie mae lost millions of llars and that reflted e facthat fredde mac and fannie mae in the president's estimation were in trouble. so the president wanted more authori fm coress to regulate fredd mac a fannie who were lgely private and thpresident d no authority to do that. he is requesting authority. the respon of the democrats in this case, particularly the top democrat in thhouset th time, was representative frank. and he said ese two entities, nnie mae and freddima aren't facing any finncial crisis. the re the exaggerate, the ss we will see in rmof affordable housing. now 20-20 hindsight you lo back and say, this isn't a smart thing to have said because they were in huge trouble. they continued to be in ge trouble. the are ways extended way beyond theve any mns to pay for. they have lots odebt that they houldn'tave, so there is a huge problem. in washington, d.c. because the had lbyists wmany, many thousands, and hundreds o thousands and millions of dollars, which th ge out