we still have many detainees in gitmo. >> jenna, you asked the question.u know, for publicity purposes this sounds good out there. but with when you really watched george bush having been strong enough to bring 200 terrorists and try them, you wonder why we're not doing it today. where i defended the rule of law 31 years in the military, we're bending the rule of law and letting people sit in limbo because somehow all of a sudden because the administration changed we're no longer good in enough with america's laws to bring in the 201st terrorist to be tried under what this nation is founded upon; not the rule of men, but the rule of law. jenna: congressman sestak, we're looking forward to bringing you back again. thank you very much. >> great to be on, jenna. jon: new hope for a health care bill that would help thousands of 9/11 responders who are sickened, now, by some of the dust and smoke emanating from ground zero. senate majority leader harry reid promises a revote. republican leaders, former new york city mayor rudy giuliani and governor mike huckabe

detainee's at gitmo and the house is likely to vote failing to fund gitmo off the coast of the u.s. in cuba. finally, we'll talk about the financial quiz on financial literacy. that is all to morning on "washington journal," 7:00 a.m. eastern time. thank you for joining us on this sunday. enjoy the rest of your weekend. have a great weekend. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] john has the first question. guest: thanks. this week the senate voted not to proceed to the defense authorization bill which contained a repeal of the 1993 don't ask don't tell law which bars openly gay people from serving in the military. there is now a free-standing repeal of the don't ask don't tell law -- bill out there and folks are wondering how that might become law. how would you see that happening? perhaps as an amendment to a continuing resolution to fund the government or the dream act? what do you see as the path forward? >> well, i believe that the majority leader, harry reid is going to use the particular rule which i b

monster release of political prisoners of war the keeps its own under lock and key among them is to gitmo is free and throw those three decades let me say he's innocent. the european superstate was supposed to herald safety in numbers but critics say the grandiose scheme has taken a number of its members to the brink of collapse john gorman head of the referendum campaign for the states and better for out in in the. today i'm talking to john gaunt british media personality and head of the referendum campaign he's demanding that the british people should be allowed to vote on whether they want to remain members of the european union john gordon thanks very much for talking to r.t. now first of all tell me a bit about the e.u. referendum campaign is this is purely about getting our democratic right to have a vote because three leaders have promised as it was a labor party manifesto commitment by tony blair then gordon brown of course and then david cameron famously in oppositions gave a cast iron guarantee that he would have a referendum on the subject so once i realized it was vance i thou

he made a promise he can't keep which is to close gitmo. last january. >> it was his first executive order. >> he was going to -- then he promised to close it on january 2010. well, coming up to january 2011, it's still open. they can't get rid of it. >> how bad does holder look? remember, he said, what, about a year ago, yeah, i'm really close to a decision on where to try those things. fast forward to today, what's going on? >> the one that really gets me is khali shaikh mohammed. it's over a year ago they decided to try khali shaikh mohammed in new york city. >> his trial was on track and he admitted to it. a year ago. >> they haven't come out and said it's not going to be in new york definitively. >> it's an absurd decision and dangerous decision and the mayor and police department says it's going to cost $3 million a year. it makes no sense and can't get decided. that's a sign of real lack of leadership when you can't make a decision like this. >> if he keeps letting him go and both administrations at a clip of at least 30%, they go ba

all pomises broken gitmo, unemployment being below 8%, earmarks, transparency. he was going to stand firm and not let the bush tax cuts being examine ended. >> he's certainly running carter a close second. >> sean: as of right now. what happens politically dana? does this get through democrats are capitulating -- >> i think there's a danger in every hour and everyday this vote is not taken the harder it gets to make a deal. left and right are hardening. for example, take ethanol. for years it was untouchable. all of a sudden, it is. but it will be interesting to see how the republican primary candidates play that. >> sean: i read the ap carl read and i got a note from mcconnell's office saying it is not going to be in there. are there ethanol subsidies to get harkin's vote? >> some of this is ongoing. continued spending. like a new pet project for him. in the omnibus that is not the case. >> sean: that was not part of the original deal that i heard. >> there's a lot in there that a lot of people hadn't heard about. >> ethanol subsidies we are back to buying vote

>> he also jumped the gun with gitmo. >> bill: it's a 10 page law and he didn't read it.pelosi, 2,000 pages. >> which is why i haven't read the health care bill. >> bill: put yourself out on that little limb there, boy, i'm going to cut you off unless you do your research. >> the three things i pointed out, i stand by. >> bill: okay. i'm glad she stands by. here is the ladies and gentlemen the dumbest statement in the year. actually was made in late 2008. so dumb that we had to carry it over. alan grayson simply have to give him the award. go. >> the republicans' health care plan for america, don't get sick. if you get sick, america. the republican health care plan is this. die quickly. that's right. the republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick. >> bill: ironically alan grayson's job died quickly. he was voted out after one term in november. so, you know, i hate to be predictable here. i think we picked five pretty good ones. >> i don't know. i would rather die quickly than suffer. don't you think he is right? i think it's good. >> bill: let me ask you somethin

. >> he has been spineless on gitmo, on afghanistan. spineless on don't ask, don't tell.of all i'm a democrat committed to people working for this country. >> regardless, you should be out . >> you are a liberal. >> last time i was on you said i was a socialist. >> sean: same thing. >> we like that spinelessness. democratic president who has not raised taxes on the rich, cut the payroll tax and frozen federal workers' salaries. i want to see a republican president in 2013 freeze workers' salaries to do all the things that obama has been doing so far. >> lame stream media has already distorted this story. i just checked, headline is gop senate resistance kills giant spending bill. no mention of the fact they didn't have the democratic vote. no mention this is going to be a gop obstructionist story now. >> democrats and republicans opposed this bill because of earmarks, good thin as you pointed out. [ talking over each other ] >> sean: does it bother you as a democrat obama repeated say said no bush taxes for the wealthy. he gave in on that. does that bother you? >> i do no

. >>> quantico, it's the new gitmo. the alleged wikileaks source, bradley manning, is in the brig, in solitary in conditions that are being compared to torture. our guest, fbi whistle-blower, colleen rowly. >>> and the little child shall lead them. the arizona 13-year-old raising money to get a liver transplant for jan brewer death panel victim, francisco felix. >> i'm only a 17-year-old kid trying to help another kid live another day. >> our guest, carlos olivos you're. >>> crash and burn, sarah palin's book sales plummet another 29% on top of last week's plummet. >> and which word is he saying here, censure or censor. he claims censure. >> and i think we that we also should be censoring the american news agencies which enabled him. >> all the news and commentary now on "countdown". >> we need to have an honest conversation. >>> good evening from new york. this is wednesday, december 15th, 692 days until the 2012 presidential election. and to that point, the white house says that congressmen couldn't know firsthand, be

look, folks, it's becoming increasingly obvious, his role model is bush -- gitmo's still office, pressrences on how well we are doing there. debatable spying on possible terrorists. yeah! we are doing it, petreas running the war -- thank goodness. that's a bush holdover. and now the tax cuts. the bush tax cuts which have now become the obama tax cuts. but obama has put his presidency on the line to keep 'em, after blaming those tax cuts for every economic problem we've got, obama is out there telling democrats, his presidency is over if they don't vote to continue t bush tax cuts. well,t the world's oldest lifting dog. her name is misty. the owner thinks she's 25 years old. a canadian man adopted misty 18 years ago. at that time, a vet said the dog was seven years old. nelson says the secret is lots of love. he's hoping she ends up in the guiness book of records if it can be confirmed she's 25 she'd smash the current record of 21. she belongs in the best of the rest. finally, this is wild. a light house on like eerie has become a giant ice sculpture. check this out. high winds and gian

. >>> quantico, it's the new gitmo. the alleged wikileaks source bradley manning is in the bringing in solitary in conditions that are being compared to torture. our guest, colleen rally. >>> and a little child shall lead them. the arizona 13-year-old raising money to get a liver transplant for jan brewer death panel victim francisco bailey. >> our guest carlos olivas, jr. >>> crash and burn. sarah palin's book sales plummet 29% on top of last week's plummet. and which word is he saying here, censor or censure. he claims censure. >> i think we should be censoring the american news agencies which enabled him. >>> all that and more now on "countdown." >> wneed to have an honest conversation. >>> good evening from new york, this is wednesday, december 15th. 692 days until the 2012 presidential election. to that point, the white house says that congressmen couldn't know firsthand because the president has not spoken to him about this, nor said this to him. but president obama is making phone calls saying this is the end of

. >> part of the issue is the prisoners at gitmo -- the president has ordered treatment -- as ordered changes in the treatment of the prisoners at gitmo. >> are you talking about the draft executive order? >> you are right, because it is not ityet. -- it is not finalized yet. >> that document has not begun the process of the deputies' committee meeting. has not been read or looked at by the president. i do not think it is or should be surprising to many of the speech he gave in may, 2009 -- off of the speech he gave in may, 2009. there are inmates at guantanamo bay that, for whatever reason, are not going to be able to be tried in either a federal court or in the military commission that are going to have to be indefinitely detained. the president was clear on that in maine -- may. i have no comment on the draft executive order, largely because it is a long way from ever even reaching the president's desk. >> i am wondering if that process is intended to make a facility in guantanamo bay somewhat more acceptable to the president. >> not to mess with the premise of your question, but h

for the united states ourselves -- our homeland, our essential and we must prevent di the release of gitmo detainees were they may return to the battlefield.our the fact the one for detainees already have come back is a frightening figure because we ad believe many more who will come back in a few that one of those may conduct an attack on the united states. we need to have a law of war, to which allows us to hold them. as a final intelligence, the the recently scandal has shown us do would damage the internet can o l effdiplomatic efforts as wel as the safetyor of those inplace dangerous places we work with. n the even greater threat we see is a continuing cyberattack on military intelligence and private sector critical infrastructure. introduce with myd colleague from utah, r sec orrin hatch, we've introduced cybersecurity bill which willoow establish a cyberdefense to allow private sector entities tl cooperate with government sysm,r agencies to protect our critical financial system, utilities and mostic of all our communication systems b from attack at the battle is underway and we need

when a clear majority of american people support keeping gitmo open. as you can see from this chart, madam speaker where this pie chart says when you ask the american people what should happen to guantanamo, fully 55% say keep it open. only 32% are in favor of closing guantanamo bay detention facility and 13% had no opinion. madam speaker, president obama made closing guantanamo bay an immediate priority upon taking office and he pledged to close the facility within his first year of office. it has, indeed, been troubling that the administration has pushed to close guantanamo bay to so-called improve our world standing and has let untruths dictate the popular story line about how the united states treats its detainees. rather than expend the effort what have become blatant fabrications, they are fighting congressional attempts to ban any transfer of detainees to the united states. guantanamo bay has been and it remains a best option to detain terrorists that pose a threat to our national security at home and abroad. let me be clear, guantanamo bay hous

. -- close gitmo is in shambles. this is from "the wall street journal." may not surprise a lot of people. he throws chief says he will give up his bonus. -- heathrow chief says he will give up his bonus. is in "the wall street journal" this morning. highland park, new jersey. peter, democrat. good morning. caller: i think if you or anybody watching this program and little while today they would understand one of the big problems in this country, and it is education, it is the fact of the matter is that nobody knows that december 21, christmas, is a national holiday and that is the holiday. i think 90% of the people do not know that 2011 is the christian new year, when jesus christ was born 2011 years ago. host: 111th congress. caller: oh, the 111 congress, they are the best money can buy and whoever gives them the most money, they do their bidding. this all started with ronald reagan. when he became president, the national debt was under $1 trillion. he doubled it. every other president since then realized to get reelected they have to borrow and borrow t

the tenant of a legislative act and is about as enforceable as a presidential commitment to close gitmo or to televise the government's health care deliberations on c-span. mi secity policy and politically weakened by the mid-term thrashing, the treaty is awful, which is why there are so many things to address in resolutions and letters. if you can't get republican senators to do the right things under these conditions, then when? one more related point, mr. mccarthy says based on my argument in yesterday's column that the senate may not unilaterally treaties or enact amendments, a friend suggests there is daylight between my position and that of bolton and hew. they recount senate action that resulted in treaties being altered. but, quote, when they approved the jay treaty in the 1790's which resolved differences with only on condition that president george washington delete a specific provision on trade. washington and britain agreed to the amendment and the treaty entered into force. in 1978, the senate demanded changes to the text of the panama cafpble treaties as the price of its c

gitmo is staying open for the foreseeable future.e they not going to try khalid shaikh mohammed in new york city, they're not going to try him. on tom of that, nsa wiretapping, all the thanks they said they cared about, out the whip dough. they're not going to spend any more money. what's a base to do? where do they go? republican i think in many ways they need to stay invested in the presidency aspect of this thing because let's not forget. there's a lot of laws that the prokbresives in the white house got passed in the last two years. the next year is about impleamenting. while congress isn't going to be where the action is, if they are invested in some of these issues, they need to get reinvested in the executive branch, in the administration when it comes to health care, how the law gets interpreted. financial reform, it's, again, how the law gets interpreted. they sort of write this off and they say not forget actually what they got done over the last couple of years. >> mark, i can't think of a conservative parallel to a democr

defense against terrorist attacks from prisoners of war is essential, and we must prevent the release of gitmodetainees to other countries where they will return to the battlefield. the fact that one in four detainees already has come back is a frightening figure because we believe that there are many more who will come back and i near one of those may conduct an attack on the united states. we need to have a law of war which allows us to hold them. as a final thought in intelligence, however, the recent wikki leaks scandal has shown us what damage the internet can do to our diplomatic efforts as well as to the safety of those in dangerous places we work with. the even greater threat we see is the continuing cyber attack on our military intelligence and private-sector critical infrastructure. with my colleague from utah, orrin hatch, we've introduced a cyber security bill which will establish the cyber defense alliance, to allow private-sector entities to cooperate with governmental agencies to protect our critical financial system, our utilities, and, most of all, our communications systems f

if you're a liberal and you supported him and you're going, what, we didn't get the public option, gitmoing to get better for them any time soon. >> brian: you're left with bill maher and michael moore. good luck. >> gretchen: we do have new video coming out of france this morning where one hour ago, 20 children and a teacher were released safely from a preschool. they were being held hostage by a teen-ager who came into the school with two swords. police stormed the school and arrested the 17-year-old suspect. the motive? not clear, although officers say the teen is being treated for depression. >>> another developing story for you, afghan forces arrest several suspects possibly tied to a homicide attack in kandahar that left six american troops dead. they were murdered when a mini bus filled with explosives blew up at a joint nato-afghan base. thal claiming responsibility for this attack. >>> sources tell fox news, michael steele, the chairman of the republican national committee, will not seek reelection. he's expected to make the announcement tonight. those quotes, say he hasn't put

lock bag so they are never touched by the hands of a infidel because that might anger the inmates at gitmo and they have their nice television and a break room they got together and here's this flat screen tv, there was, that went on fine for a while. their meal they get a choice of nine selections a day of islamically approved meals they can pick three squares out of the nine every day that are -- that fit within their cultural heritage in their way. it isn't like americans are serving them ham and beans like they'd give me or you or anybody else in there they get to select from a special menu a special menu for special people they get a special rug a special skull cap a special zip lock bag delivered koran never touched by an infidel and they have as many as 20 attacks on americans a day at guantanamo bay. about half of them are physical attacks where they try to get one of our guards down, usually navy personnel, and try to get their handcuff chains around their throats and strangle them, the other half are throwing human feces in the face of our troops. what is the punishment? if there

report in "the new york times" regarding some deals they were trying to be made to find homes for the gitmo detainees. as it seems to be, that by september of last year, there was still no solution for the yemeni detainee problem and that closing guantanamo bay by a the january deadline was pretty much of the table. can you comment on that? >> i'm not going to comment on what's been in the paper. we are committed to close in guantanamo, and we continue to engage in men and other countries about the detainee's who are still at guantanamo who we believe qualify for return of the settlement. >> thank you. recovery quickly. we have a report out of kabul which says officials including the president and his brother are involved in authorizing and requesting the release of the increase in the taliban fighters and it says that the effect of these kind of releases which are sometimes done for political reasons and sometimes for money raises questions about the government's seriousness about fighting against the insurgency. do you have any comment on that? >> i will take the question. >> forgive me i

. >> the changes in the treatment of the prisoners in gitmo, can you talk about those -- the presidentrdered some changes in the rights, if you will, of prisoners in guantanamo bay that cannot be brought to trial. >> the draft executive order? ok. let me change -- >> you are right because it has not been finalized yet. >> it is a process that is a document that has not even begun the process of a deputies committee meeting, it has not been removed by the president. i do not think that it is or should be surprising to many offer the speech into this and nine that there are going to be those that are currently in guantanamo bay that, for whatever reason, are not going to be able to be tried in either a federal court or in a military commission that are going to have to be indefinitely detained. the president was clear on that in may, and i have no comment on the draft is a hit of order largely because it is a long way from ever even reaching the president's desk. >> i am wondering if that process is intended to make the facility at guantanamo bay somewhat more acceptable to the president

report in "the new york times" regarding some deals they were trying to be made to find homes for the gitmodetainees. as it seems to be, that by september of last year, there was still no solution for the yemeni detainee problem and that closing guantanamo bay by a the january deadline was pretty much of the table. can you comment on that? >> i'm not going to comment on what's been in the paper. we are committed to close in guantanamo, and we continue to engage in men and other countries about the detainee's who are still at guantanamo who we believe qualify for return of the settlement. >> thank you. recovery quickly. we have a report out of kabul which says officials including the president and his brother are involved in authorizing and requesting the release of the increase in the taliban fighters and it says that the effect of these kind of releases which are sometimes done for political reasons and sometimes for money raises questions about the government's seriousness about fighting against the insurgency. do you have any comment on that? >> i will take the question. >> forgive me if

devon chaffee talks about efforts to in our funding it to bring gitmo prisoners. john gannon gives a state by state review of literacy. >> middle and high school students, as you work on your documentary, here are a few tips from our judges. >> one of the things i look for one watching your videos is you, the student. i want to see your personality, and that helps make your video stand out from all the rest. >> what i like to see most in the entries are a real investment and care and the topic you will be telling us about. be sure to be interested in what you are telling us. if you're not interested in what you are presenting, chances are we will not be. >> one tiebreaker and for me last year was the c-span video. i am looking for videos where people are looking at c-span video and ask, what make the most sense for telling the story i want to tell us? >> for all the information, go to studentcam.org. >> on thursday, the national transportation safety board held a daylong conference on child passenger safety. a federal agency called for parents to buckle their chil

its founder says he has a large amount of documents on gitmo. documents could show certain detainees were released despite assessments they were still dangerous. >>> the murder of hollywood publicist ronni chasen appears solved, gunned down as she drove through beverly hills november 16th. this ex-con, harold smith, a person of interest in the case shot himself when police tried to question him. now ballistics test link the gun smith used to commit suicide with the bullets that killed chasen. >> we believe it was a random act and we believe mrs. chasen was going to be the victim of a robbery. >> police say this believe smith tried to rob chasen and acted alone but that the investigation is still ongoing. >>> the fbi and philadelphia police are hunting for a possible serial killer who strangles his victims. the suspect is known as the kens sing ton strange ler linked through dna to two murders and police are investigating a third death that appeared tuesday night to see if it's related. he may be linked to four other attacks in the city's kensing