famous scandal at enron. then i did a film called "taxi to the dark side," which was about the bush administration's policy of torture, which was a very important projecc to me because my father had been a navy interrogator in world war ii. and i did a film called "gonzo: the life and work of dr. huuter s. thompson" about the famous gonzo journalist. and recently "casino jack and tte united states of money." >> how would you define your politics? >> hard to say. a skeptic. i wouldn't -- i tend to look at things skeptically. i try to seek out stories that have a kind of moral component rather than here's to the democrats or here's to the republicans. i think it's fair to say that i often give republicans a hard time, but at the same time, in the film "taxi to the dark side," some of the heroes of that film are republicans. so i tend to look at things from the point of view of a moralist. >> your father frank gibney, is he still alive, and what does he doo or what did he do for a living? >> my father frank gibn

with a film like "enron: the smartest guys in the room," that made quite a bit of money for investorsand that was a good thing for them and for me. in a way, i don't believe that the market is the only force that we should pay attention to, but the market is an important force, and i think to some extent, the market has given me freedom, because some of my films really have made money. >> here's a clip on the relationship etween jack abramoff and tte commonwealth of northern mariano islands. >> we were told that nobody could go through tom delay without going through jack abramoff, and it cost us millions of dollars. >> for theirrservices, abramoff and his firm preston gates charged the cnmi over $200,000 a month. part of the plan was to mount tours to cnmi for conservative writers to sympathetic congressmen. >> we went out there to take a look at some of these cloohing factories that had come in from various parts of the world in order to set up operation there, and it looked like to me that it was working. >> what they would do is take a quick tour of the garment factories and emerg

. >> there were three cases before the court, enron's chief, jeffrey skilling. he had challenged his conviction he was charged by the government and convict of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, among other charges, basically in connection with an accounting scheme and false and misleading statements about enron's financial health led to the collapse and, according to... >> brown: one recovered a long, long time here. >> absolutely. and according to the government enriched him in the form of salary, bonuses, okay stopgss and other benefits. the second case involved newspaper magnate conrad black. he also was convicted of honest services fraud and obstruction of justice in connection with an unusual corporate compensation scheme, according to the government. he said it wasn't an illegal scheme, it had to do with noncompetition fees. and finally, the third case involved an alaska state legislator, bruce why rock. he hasn't been convicted. he's scheduled to go on trial. a lower court said his trial could go forward on a charge of honest services fraud beca

enron was the seventh largest corporation in an america -- in america. none of them are required trillions of dollars of taxpayers' money to bolster the private sector, and yet you still it was necessary at the time. could you elucidate? >> in december 2008, our financial system basically came to a halt. you had 30 million americans with their money in money-market funds comprising three and a half a trillion. in the first three days of that week, 170 billion cleared out. that was all institutional. individuals had not caught on yet. when 30 million people began to worry about where their money market funds are going to be, when you have paper stopped in terms of issuance, -- we sell a treasury bill for $5,000,090. at that point, your mattress was not even good enough. >> we are not proposing remedies . . >> mr. megna daniel, i have a question for you about the events of the crisis. and when you look back at the financial crisis, i wonder if it the legislative requirement -- that if the legislative and format that as investors to invest only in rated sec

. >> ifill: the justices also ruled 5-4 in a case born of the enron scandal striking down part of the sarbanes oxley anti-fraud law enacted after the company's collapse. by that same margin, they also said a california law school does not have to recognize a christian group that bans gay members. the final day flurry of activity also marked the end of justice john paul stevens' 35-year tenure on the high court, and it was a day of mourning for justice ruth bader ginsburg. her husband martin ginsburg passed away over the weekend. >> brown: we continue our look at the gun rights decision now with marcia coyle of the "national law journal." she was in the courtroom today, and joins us now from capitol hill, where she's been covering the elena kagan confirmation hearings for us. marcia, first a case in washington d.c. and then this challenge in chicago. what other background do we need to know to understand how this came to the court? >> jeff, this case came to the court because of a challenge brought by a group of residents of chicago and its suburb, oak park, illinois, as well as local

but the enron type of trading would have to go. and that's my point.guest: you know, that's something that -- i do think if we're going to continue to dangerous oil, the eep, very unconventional oils in america, then we can start doing that. because then the energies can be more at home, and we can take ownership of that. for the last 25 years this oil that we have been so glad to burn -- and you burn it at ridiculous rates when you think about cars, or light s.u.v.'s at 13 miles per gallon. it's not our oil. we've been taking it from countries at a great cost to ourselves. my great hope is that if there's a level playing field, then we can choose the best alternatives to ourselves as opposed to being forced into having to be hostage to other countries for this oil. host: deborah gordon is a consultant for nonprofit organizations, private and public sector clients. you specialize in transportation energy and environmental policy. she was a former chemical and regulatory engineer for chevron. she's joining us because she wrote this piece in the "the was

enron was the seventh largest corporation in an america -- in america. none of them are required trillions of dollars of taxpays' money to bolster the privateector, and yet you still it was necesry at the time. could you elucidate? >> in december 2008, our financial system bically came to a halt. you had 30 million americans with their money in money-market funds comprising three and a half a trillion. in the first three days of that week, 170 billion cleared out that w all institutional. individuals had not caught on yet. when 30 million people began t worry about where their money market funds are going to be, when you have paper stopped in terms of issuance, -- we sell a treasury bill for $5,000,090. at that point, your mattress was no even good enough. >> we are not proposing remedies . . you have huge cash cushion that you like to keep it because it puts you in a protected, a safe position to take advantage of opportunities. a lot of other people in this area did not do that. they ran every capital arbitron possible to avoid putting back in as much

that is my point. -- the enron trading has to go. that is my point. guest: if we're going to continuously develop these dangerous and deep wells, we can do that. the energy will be at home. we can take ownership of that. this oil that we have been so glad to burn at ridiculous rates when you think about cars and suv's, we have been taking it from other countries and a great cost to ourselves. i think the market could get a lot more rational. my great hope is that if there is a level playing field, we can choose the best alternatives for ourself instead of having to be hostage to other countries for the oil. >> shhost: board guest is a consultant who specializes in environmental policy. she was a former chemical and regulatory engineer for chevron. she wrote a piece in the "washington post." brenda on the republican line, if you are next. caller: could you list some of the other things we used around our of households that are made from petroleum? guest: that is an excellent question. the hope is when you proouce something, you will use every bit of it

a lot of people, i am sure, do not know that the co for unocal, that was all tied into enron and keneia anlay and these so-cald funding of afghanistan with the minerals, the titanium and the copper, and all of the other minerals that lay dormant their, i do not think that is anything new. i think that they have known that for a while and they used 9/11 as a cover. host: from the "washington post" writing about the u.s. debt looms large after g-20. one of the figures that they put forth in january, the obama administration predicted that the deficit would precede $1.5 trillion by the end of the year, but then a windoto window by thr 2015 -- to dwindle by the year 2015. next caller, go ahead. caller: just a comment about general patraeus, going back to 1966 and fort riley, kansas. they have as walking -- i was in the u.s. infantry in the army. they had as walking and gave us one canteen of water. -- they had us walking and it was one canteen of water. what i'm trying to bring out is the point of dehydration. we are so far behind in our thinking about what should be done and what is bei

one is on gun rights and the financial oversight enacted after the enron o la can lapse business methods. there's huge issues there, other across the street at the senate, there's going to be a lot of speeches and so we'll an opening statement from elena kagan pledging fidelity of the law many reverence to constitution and a bunch of senators talking about the same thing and either saying she presents that or threatens that virtue. ho host will you be there? guest: well, i'll be at the supreme court first. may have to let my colleagues handle the opening day at the confirmations hearing but i'll be there tomorrow and for the rs of the week? host: you can watch it at your desk if your interested at c-span.org at our supreme court hearing hub. you can control the cameras and you can watch, there's a camera focused on elena kagan and or you can watch the actual television feed. georgia. wayne, independent line. hi. caller: good morning c-span. i think that elena kagan will pau a terrible judge. i think she'll be in the line of justice sotomayor, extreme left and doesn't have much of a paper

putting the debt in and run-style off balance sheet accounting, he put it on the balance sheet -- enron- style. host: we got the point. guest: i think daniel has won fair point that i would agree with, is both parties -- danielle has won a fair point i agree with. both parties. i have a couple of chapters in the book talking about overspending. i said, this is the damaging thing. remember, we did the medicare prescription drug bill, we did the education spending, we did a lot of the spending across the board that i don't think was necessary. so let me be very clear -- i think both parties are responsible for this debt. we need a leader in congress and the white house to get us out of this debt crisis. the problem i have with what is happening in washington right now is nobody, especially in the democratic party, is getting serious about bringing the debt down. not tomorrow, not bringing it down next year, or 10 years from now. i think this is a great, great country but it will be ruined by debt. the thing i worry about is what kind of future are we leaving to our children when we are ta

he'sust o othe many reasons whyrban prep is able to create an enronment that not only educates but teaches studen the itance of strivingor ccess d contributing tour communities. . spear,oin mr.ush anwholrtedly sporting this rolution and in the shared belief th country eds moreducors likehose at urb ep, schools like the urban pep chart acemy. for me of ou young people, afcan-ameran men the education uld come at a charter scho could come at a prive school, it culd cme for the erwhelming majority of them in a regular public scho, bue fact that if were to sceed as aaon we he to begin to educate some of our most vulnerable and most challenging communities and that'sexactly whatrb do. it doesn't matt what the school is,t matters that it educates our yungpeople. so i salute the 107 graduates of urban prep w aren't going to jt finish highchool but who are going to go on to coege make aontrution to their communities in the way that so many of their mentors have made a contribution to hem. thank you. i yield the balancof my te. the speaker pro mpore: the gentlelady ylds the balance of her te of the

. >> are you surprised that post- enron we could have off-balance sheet financing that wld of been perhaps at the core of this collapse? >> i don't know that it is necessarily at the core but i was certainly prop -- certainly surprised which is just another way to jack up leverage, i was surprised. there certainly were no flashing signs that they had a bunch of leverage off balance sheets. i think there are coined to be fighting the human tendency to borrow more money than you should. it is ju such as human tendency that you need something to counterbalance that. >> thank you very much. >> before we go to miss born, and we've made available to us the evaluation of your cdo? do you to an annual evaluation >> i provide one to the board that they discuss among themselves. >> can we get access to that? >> certainly. >> and reviewing systemic bait grounds that might have been done, have you done comprehensive reviews in the wake of all of this? >> will down on number of reviews. there is anything that we have not provided, we will instruct our people to do so. >> and the company did a revi of t

are part of that and certainly the scale of the foundation that bill and mellnda gates have created enron is a unique attribute in that landscape. we also have organizations like the one campaign and bono who are out there not not just advocating for development but engaging deeply in best practice in studying the differences between different development strategies and suggesting a more entrepreneurial or transparent approach would make a big difference as we go forward in the future. you have different kinds of partners, a corporate orders like pepsico and others that engage in various value chain programs. coca-cola launched a program in haiti for fruit juices. the field of development is certainly much broader today i believe then it was a wild back. in terms of private foundations, i think they play a very unique and incredibly important role. they can often take tremendous risks. they can work very very long time in a very focused area like getting a big breakthrough like an aids vaccine. if you look at 38 million people around the world with hiv-aids the way we are going to solve t

. -- enron. i am wondering now how we could possibly trust bp.ecause the banks were throwing money at enronxd. how they got control of pg&e out there in california i will never know. quite frequently, the whole last month here, it was just a farce. but there is someone who was on facing florida here, and his corporation -- i think he has recently retired from, but he started it 30 years ago. and it is called international oil spill control corporation. he has been doing this for 30 years and he says bp says this is the largest find it anywhere. it is not millions of barrels, but billions of barrels and billions upon billions of dollars of profit. they do not want to worry about cleaning up any mess. they're just trying to get the oil out. they have not asked him to help out at all. he put a letter on the internet, i saw last week that he was going to mosey on to louisiana to see if he could help stop at all. i wonder if he was able to do anything. host: june, thank you for calling in. there is a hearing today coming up in about 15 minutes ago --

biggest environmental disaster in american history, the left is pulling the same bogus trick it did with enron and a.i.g. whenever a company earns universal ire, declare it the poster boy for the free market. as democrats fight to advance climate change policies, a.k.a. global warming when it's not warming, and back to the article, quote, they are resorting to the misleading tactics they used in their health care and finance report. posing as the scourges of the special interest and tarring reform opponents as the stuges of big business -- stooges of big business. expect b.p. to be public enemy number one in the climate debate. there's a problem. b.p. was a founding member of the u.s. climate action partnership, a lobby dedicated to passing a cap and trade bill. as the nation's largest producer of natural gas, b.p. saw many ways to profit from climate legislation. notably by persuading congress to provide subsidies to coal fired power plants that switch to gas. in february, b.p. quit the united states climate action partnership without giving much of a reason beyond saying the company could lo

they're alfor the enronment but not my back yard. guest: well, here's where i disagree. i think not in my backyard is sort of the core function o democracy. if you don care about what's happing in your backyard, you happing in your backyard, you really don't care abt what's happening in society and in your community as a whole. so i think t solutioto these issues has got to be fine grained. we nee think about everodin our society has to think about where their energ is coming from and having the least imp on the envinment. and then they haveo make the call as to whetherhey want to do it with wind, it'socal, or hydro or whatever method they're going to use. they all hav tradeoffs and those need to be made on a local basis. anas soon you say notn my back yard aund discount their concerns, you've essentially disempowered em and taken them out of the equation. so that's where i would dispute the caller. and i think you said that's the last call. i welcome more questions on my web site. host: one more question for u. this is off of t. someone talked about health issues. t: th