ethan, let me ask you this. you know, in california, there are a number of offenses, drug possession offenses, that are punished already as misdemeanors. i think met amphetamine, p.c.p., i think valium, certain steroids, and yet we treat as felonies, the possession of cocaine and heroin as felonies. did you see this kind of discrepancy in the other states that your organization has worked to -- >> matt, if i could, i think the perspective i could offer would be more useful in that is really putting what the u.s. is doing, california is doing in a more global perspective. because what one sees around the world is a growing number of countries that are choosing to decriminalize the possession of all drugs, when the proposals now are merging -- new jersey did this a few years ago in a small way, colombia, argentina, ecuador, guatemala, some with right wing governments, very tough on crime, and in europe, similarly. it's not generally the standards to be putting people behind bars for a possession of any drug in smal

let me ask you this. have you done an analysis of

. >> you said a lot. let me try to ask you a couple. do you think the taxes would cut down on smoking, yes or no? >> california in the country has the second smallest rate of smoking. there's no place to smoke here in california. you can't smoke in public. we have been very successful here in the state of california without a tax. without the poor, which is where the tax will go, and without putting more money into the public coffers, we have been very successful at having people stop smoking and decreasing the number of people smoking. >> there's data on this, though, and i'm sure you looked at some of it. they do have an impact on smoking cessation. i don't want to get mired in too much. we only have a few minutes. let me ask you, look, just globally speaking, you know the hippocratic oath which is i will prevent disease wherever i can, the prevention is preferable to cure. don't you worry about the optics of this, as a doctor, i understand your position on taxes, but weighing in on this, you may be sending a message to people who don

. >> bob: let me ask you this. people on both sides out there sort of said, well, you know, i may not agree with the governor on the stand he took, but he was a man of conviction. he stood up for what he thought was right and he was willing to take on people on that. in your first answer there, you seem to be saying that maybe you said you hope that's what governor romney would do. a lot of people or some people at least in the republican party even are saying that he needs to stand up more for things and not sort of try to be all things to all people. >> well, i think he's capable of that. you look at governor romney's record in the private sector, he turned things around. certainly a decade ago he took the u.s. olympics turned it around for america and made it great again in salt lake city. he's got the capacity to do it. i just hope he takes a page out of president reagan's play book in 1908 where it was not only a referendum on the failed policies of president carter, it was also something where president reagan

let me move forward now, sheriff. we have heard testimony about conversations you had with ms. linnette peralta haynes, your wife, and others. let me ask you very directly. at any time did you dissuade anyone from any law enforcement investigation? >> never. >> at any time, did you ever ask anyone to destroy any evidence? >> never. >> thank you. we have also heard testimony about your weapons that were turned over to law enforcement. let me ask you first, how did you store those weapons? >> the two semiautomatic, at the six and the beretta, they are -- their slide chambers were completely setback. they were neutralized by a lot of tape. there was never ammunition in the weapons themselves at all. and it were completely immobilized from being of any use, and they were stored in a cabin vent -- cabinet in a storage room that would take both the padlock and a bald what, two keys, in order to gain entry. on at the smith, it was an open a cylinder, no ammunition, a taped so that the cylinder would not be -- so that the cylinder cannot be engaged, so that, again, they would be rendered neutralized. >> thank you. at any time after your addres

line and certainly that wasn't crossed here, nor it will be during this campaign glefd governor, let me ask you this-- do you think somewhere down the line, governor romney's going to have to get a little more specific. for example on taxes, he's pretty open he's ready to cut taxes but he has not yet told us which of the deduction eeleliminate, christmas loopholes he'll eliminate to pay for these tax 'cause. when are we going to hear about it? >> i think we have. he called for a 20% reduction across the board on individual income tax rates and for small businesss. he's been specific about his tax cuts for corporate tax rates now in the america some of the highest in the world. he's talked about eliminating interest and capital gains-- excuse me, taxation for people in the middle income categories, and he's talking about paying for it by reducing government spending, returning government spending to g.d.p. no more than 20% and a series of deductions to put us on a pathway for a balanced budget. for those who dive into the details i think you would see governor romney hab quite specific. >> schie

let me ask you to ask you to thank nyu for having us here at the skirball center of the performing arts. i want to start by i said i was so slighted you are going to be here. you can't have a conversation about women and children and poverty in america without the numbers. i know a lot of us don't like numbers or talking about numbers but we are here for a simple reason. women and children, as you well know, madam secretary are falling faster in to poverty than any other group of americans. it is also the case the younger you are in this country, it is hard for me to get this out but the younger you are in this country the more likely you are to be poor. something so seems to be wrong with a nation that allows women and children,' fen times the week aern are weak and vulnerable to nal to poverty faster than anyone else. why is that the case. why are women and children falling in to poverty faster than anyone else. please welcome our labor secretary sill hil da solis. >> i'd like to begin by saying one of the things that the president did, president obama did as soon as he got in to offi

movement against the for-profit motive that continued to bring everyday workers wages down. >> let me ask you. you have something to add to that? >> i agree with lisa. i think one of the things that made deb so powerful was his ability to cast socialism as an american movement. his argument wasn't, this is a revolutionary country in the first place, fought a revolution for democracy. in his lifetime, he experienced the civil war as a revolution. some of his greatest idols were the abolitionists. his argument was that the country had fought a battle to overthrow wage labor. >> who were his workers? did he include women in his view of it? did he include people other than whites? did he include immigrants? what was his definition, lisa? >> well, as one of the first industrial union leaders, he was mounting a movement on behalf of the working class, which he believed everyone who was a worker, who earned wages, which was two-thirds of americans by 1890, was a part of, whether they be an immigrant, black, whether they be women. he certainly saw them as all members of a working class that needed to

. >> let me ask you about the bank downgrade. moody's investor service late thursday night downgrading the ratings on all of those banks. what does that tell you? i know we were anticipating this. we were expecting it. the stocks traded down ahead of it. >> right. >> and tried to rebound. >> yeah. i think you have to look at the forest and not the trees. the trees analogy would tell you this isn't as bad as we thought. think about the idea that a financial institution is near junk status. that's a bold statement. what's happening is it we're having a reshaping of the financial services industry and they're being deleafered, their business models creating issues with the rating agencies. unfortunately i think that's a structural issue not a cyclical issue. my take is i think it's more reflective of the environment we're in and just the financial services industry that we knew during the 1990s and during the 2000s will go under significant change and reform. >> so what do you do then as an investor in this environment? a lot of head

>> did i discuss the -- >> let me ask you first, have you been to the white house? >> yes, i've been to the white house many times. >> how many times is many times? >> between the bush white house and the obama white house, i'd say 14, 15 times. >> since the 1705 has been in place, how many times have you been to the white house? this administration, how many times have you been to the white house? >> i'd say six or seven times. >> who did you talk with when you were at the white house? >> well, i was a part of a large group. once meeting with president obama. >> did you talk about this loan guarantee program when you met with president obama. >> we talked about climate change. >> who else have you talked with at the white house? >> vice president biden. there i spoke with him about the clean energy standard. but mainly, i spoke with carol brown or with -- once with valerie jarrett. that was all about the nuclear guarantee program. >> you guys are also involved with the bright source project as well, correct? >> that's ivan project. >> are you familiar with this e-m

. >> let me ask you something, though: how were those names identified for purging? was it a private contractor like it has been in the past? do you know how those names were identified? >> the long serving bureau of voter registration was fired and replaced by an individual who created this special database run. and we are supposed to implement a database that we don't know where it came from we can not see anything about it and we are not told about but governor scott had this for a while because we talked to another agency, he could do this for a while but i don't understand why he waited until the 11th hour and missed the deadline. >> let me ask you: you said you don't think he intends to comply or to violate the law. it was sort of a message issue. why would he have sent a letter back to the department of justice saying essentially that he intends to defy it? >> well, i actually read that letter, and whati saw it more as an argument, as an argumentative letter asking questions to lay the groundwork for future legal arguments. but quite frankly, i think the langua

me. >> thank you. >> congressman mcdermott, let me begin with you. is he afraid his views will be out of step with the american public? jared, let me ask you that. >> okay. yeah, i think so. i think what you see here if you look at these plans -- the beginning, they're starting to shape up. you don't get any details. so you have to look at these things from 40,000 feet up. what you see is basically robin hood in reverse. if they're going to do anything like what they say they want to do which is to give big, big tax cuts to those at the top of the scale and not increase the budget deficit, the only way to do that is to cut tons of spending from everybody else. so this is trickle up with a vengeance. >> now, congressman, i'm going to come to you in a minute, but jared let me ask you. we heard romney questioned again and again this weekend if he would support a deficit reduction plan that included tax increases. listen. >> i remember once back during one of the primaries you were asked if you would agree to $1 in taxes if you could get $10 cut in spending cuts. and you said at that time, no i wouldn't even accept that. do you still feel

so let me ask you, "how did this happen in america? how did our political system become the problem instead of the answer?" >> part of it is the nexus of media, money, and special interest politics. the citizens have given the airwaves to the station. we own the electromagnetic spectrum and for free we give out licenses to television stations. those stations, in turn, use that spectrum to get enormous amounts of money from special interests and from members of congress in order to send these ads back to us to influence us. so we lose it in both ways. the other day, the president of cbs, les moonves, was reported by bloomberg to have said, "super pacs may be bad for america, but they're good for cbs." i mean, there it is. this is a windfall every

well, let me ask you about that whole attitude. because i'm not sure whether to trust you. okay. and i will tell you why. is that first of all let's start with your name. regina specter, okay. that literally translates queen goat. you sound like a sexy bond villain. and there's a reason, there is something behind that, you realize, that you were born in the soviet union. >> yes. >> stephen: okay. how i do know you're not a spy? >> how do you know i'm not come here to take american jobs. >> stephen: exactly. >> well. >> stephen: exactly. how old you were when you came to the united states. >> i was nine and a half. and we went to immigration with my parents and a bunch of relatives. and it was actually really exciting. immigration is, i think, traumatic for adults and really exciting for kids. >> stephen: really? >> yeah. >> stephen: would you recommend all families change countries. >> i would definitely recommend traveling to places where you don't understand anything. >> stephen: did you speak english when you came here. >> no, not a word. >> stephen: dow speak russian now. >> y

. >> let me ask you about the rule, it strikes me that it can't be enforced. first of all we know it's not implemented because it has not been written yet, but how do you fir ren -- >> i think the clear simpler line to draw would be to increase capital requirements. we should start there and not say we should walk away or bond discussion about the rule. >> let me ask you about something, as of 2010, you were among several lawmakers that owned jpmorgan. >> yes. >> does this impact your views on the banking industry? >> no. people will have to judge. i don't think my questioning today came across as some sort of groveling stockholder or anything like that. >> so you don't think there should be any rules about senator or congressman owning stocks in the situation their overseeing? >> i think we need to avoid any situation where they use insider information to benefit. but to prohibit folks from owning things in industries we regulate would mean you to v to get completely out of the market. >> that's what i do, the media does it. i'm not allowed to own individual c

i would ask that you rephrase it. >> let me ask you about your claim that the sheriff engaged in a witness dissuasion. in your original written charges of misconduct, the only thing that you claim was that he may have been involved in a witness dissuasion, correct? >> i cannot remember the exact wording. i understand the issue, yes. >> in the amended charges, you stated he did participate in witness dissuasion. what caused you to make about definitive assertion? >> objection, attorney-client privilege. in and assumed facts that are not in evidence. >> what is the information that you learned since the original filing of the charges and the amended charges that caused you to make that definitive assertion? >> i will argument. >> i would limit it to information he got from sources other than his lawyers. >> with that stipulation, the objection is overruled. >> could you restate the question with the limitation? >> without telling us anything that you learned from your lawyers, can you explain what is the basis for your assertion that the share of engaged in a witness dissuasion -- sheriff en

let me ask you a little bit about what made him a success at what he did. >> well, many people remember him most of all as a dynamic speaker. this is an era of wonderful stump speakers. he was really the best in that genre. so good he could afford to charge a modest admission for his audience. that's how they funded the socialist campaigns in many cases. he was just a very charismatic and had the ability. i think he began as a stayed, victorian speaker. as he became more comfortable over the years, he developed a more modern, impromtu style that made a tremendous impact on his audience. >> over your shoulders is debs' library. my understanding is that debs dropped out of school at age 14. i am curious about his extensive library and how he educated himself. >> he was very much self-taught. he worked very hard at that. he began working in the railroad union, very interested in the literature there. he worked for a while as a grocery clerk in town, always wanted to get more education but had to rely on doing it on his own. miss phillips, how did terre haute shape eugene debs? >> in many w

mancini, let me ask you this. if the gentleman just for one second -- if the 1705 program had not been in place, would goldman have, goldman sachs, would you have funded, would you have put capital at risk in the cogentrix, in the project? >> if the 1705 program had not been available -- >> just be clear, you're a wholly-owned subsidiary of goldman sachs. if this, i mean, i know it's hypothetical. but if that money wasn't there, would this have been a worthy project? would goldman say, you know what? we believe in this, we're going to put up the cash? would you guys have done it? >> just remember, mr. chairman, our first stop was to no less than ten commercial banks to see if we could get the funding, including goldman sachs, from a debt perspective -- >> so the answer is, no? >> beg your pardon? >> so the answer is no? you wouldn't have done it? >> we wouldn't have done the project. the cost of capital would have been too expensive. >> okay. so i think that sort of proves our point. it's okay to put the taxpayer m

let me ask you this about the national guard problem. are the majority of the people you're hiring actually those that are leaving active service as opposed to national guard? >> -- statistics. i know that we capture those. and i could probably look through my files here and see what those numbers are. but we -- i was thinking about congressional mandate programs. and one of the congressionally mandated programs that we absolutely love and we know it has a high impact and it does make a difference, and it has to do with those who are in the process of separating from the military. and that's that tap program. >> transition? transition and assistance program? >> in the army they call it acat. they may call it a little different. but this is where you can really, you know, work with them and help them think through how to write a resume. you know, how to -- so i'll look through our numbers, and i may not be able to comment here, but i don't think that the majority of them are national guard or reserves. they're typically ones who are separ

let me show you a gallup poll recently. it was askingho do you blame a great deal or a moderate amount for the economy? 52% said barack obama. 68% said george w. bush. and i want to play you something that newt gingrich had to say when he was talking at the faith and freedom conference in washington. >> campaigned on the slogan, yes, we can. this fall, joining the slogan why we couldn't. >> i think actually newt gingrich who has a way of framing things pretty accurately is, in fact, on to something with the obama re-elect campaign, and that is i don't think they're trying to blame george bush. i think they're blaming mitt romney by osmosis, right? it's, well, if you want to go back to george bush, then go ahead and vote for mitt romney. aren't they trying to use those figures in some way, shape, or form? there's such a lingering blame that has s placed on him by most americans. >> they are. and i have to believe that that is a starting point in the debate for them. they have to know that that's not -- that's not a sum political winner in

. >> well, doctor, let me -- you said a lot there, so let me just try and ask you a couple of specific questions. do you think the higher taxes would cut down on smoking, yes or no? >> that's an interesting question that we don't have the answer to. you know, california in the country has the second smallest rate of smoking. the federal goal is 12%. we are at 13%. it's not because of the tax because our tax is relatively low. wills no place for this in california. you can't smoke in public. we have been very successful without a tax. without taxing the floor, which is where this tax will go. it's regressive tack, and without putting more money into the public coughers, we have been successful at having people quit smoke and decreasing the number of people who start to smoke. >> there is data on this, though, and i'm sure you've looked at some of it that shows that taxes do have an impact on smoking sessation. i don't want to get mired in too much here. let me talk to you doctor to doctor. you know the hippocratic oath that i will prevent disease wherever i can for prevention is prefera

>> let me ask you this. before thompson worked for you, who did he work for? >> before he worked for us? >> yes. >> i don't know. >> it was harry reid. >> we're play and i want you to see something. this may refresh your memory. >> as you drive along i-80 and you see the steam and it may not seem like much, it's geothermal energy. it made 16,000 construction jobs in nevada. harry reid saw the potential just about before anybody else. he got over $144 million. >> senator reid is making that happen. >> harry reid -- >> i'm harry reid and i approve this message. >> i'm sure he does. you go through this and here's my point. there is a way to navigate these waters. when only 7% of the applicants get the price, you have to wonder as an average american in my home and my business, how did these guys get there and all the rest didn't? we find out that almost every single one of these is tied in in some way to the administration. there is a way to navigate the waters and be successful. the idea is you better be tied in to somebody who is influential. mr. thompson right

chairman, let me ask you -- let me go back to you a minute. gop leadership just last month -- just last month was saying that a contempt vote would be overreaching. politico reported speaker john boehner of ohio, eric cantor of virginia, and kevin mccarthy of carolina had decided to slow representative darrell issa's drive to hold the attorney general in contempt. some within circles would like issa to abandon his plan for committee and a floor vote. what changed, mr. chairman? >> well, politics. it's important for the listeners, reverend, to understand that no attorney general in the history of this republic have been held in contempt of congress. not even john mitchell of watergate fame. it's quaint to say, but the ability of congress to function productively depends on its -- its ability to suppress its most base partisan adventures. and this is one. whenever i think that we look at the president -- look at some kind of attempt to slander him and in this case it's through a good and decent man who is being just tarnished because he is doing