on 41st street and lexington avenue, the heart of midtown manhattan, 21-year-old gregory mccullough,ge student and part-time tow truck driver, and his passenger, judith bailey, are stopped at a traffic light. they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. >> we were just having a casual conversation about, you know, life and things, our aspirations. the next thing you know, i hear boom. >> a surveillance camera shows what happened. the top of the screen, out of nowhere, the street explodes as if a giant bomb goes off. >> you could see absolutely a terrorized expression on all these people's faces because they didn't know what it was. they probably thought it was a bomb in the subway system. >> with september 11th never far from new yorkers' minds, many think the explosion is another terrorist attack. >> yeah, you think it's terrorism. that's the first thought that goes through anybody's mind. >> people run for cover as the dirt, rocks and asphalt blasts into the sky and rains down. and after the explosion, a nonstop gigantic geyser of steam shoots up nearly 80 stories, an incredible

it is david mccullough's point of view. i am working on that as well as a few other projects. but i love writing books, i love teaching, and i love doing freedom fest. it's a great way to meet all of the authors and see what is happening in the world. >> we have been talking with author mark skousen and founder of freedom fest. booktv is currently on location, "the making of modern economics" is his book. the lives and ideas of great thinkers. thank you for being on booktv. >> you are watching 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books on c-span2's booktv. author edward klein joined us at freedom fest in las vegas to talk about his best-selling book, "the amateur." he looks at president obama before and after he reached the white house. here is what he had to say. >> well, the book currently on your screen has spent several weeks on "the new york times" bestseller list. many weeks at number one. it has been written by edward klein, who is our guest. booktv on c-span2. mr. klein, where did you get the title for this book? >> they came from a meeting that bill clinton had in chapp

>> that was -- i don't know if you remember around 2000, david mccullough's book was out. and joseph ellis' books were riding up the best seller charts. it was just a number of younger political -- we're not younger now, that was like seven years ago. we're getting older all the time. but it was a bunch of younger political historians who just weren't as interested in having it be simply about what adams said to jefferson and how washington felt about hamilton. you know, those kind of personal interactions. >> do you think that history still does a lot more of that than it should? >> i think the founder history, history of the founders tends that way because that's what publishers like to publish, you know, publishers like, you know, they want to do things that are about people that readers have heard of, right? and so, in fact, every time you publish anything in this area, you generally get, well, can you have more -- i was just told recently, just finishing this book about the election of 1796, the first contested one, and, you know, they like it, but can we have a littl

i think congressman mccullough is very familiar with to make sure that they do the work, but at the same time provide that -- make sure there is no profiling involved in that. so the insput is very important on that. i certainly want to thank you on that. besides alabama and besides illinois, i believe there were a couple of jurisdictions out there that have past ordinances also. i think they were in california. what is it, san francisco? >> santa clara. >> yes, exactly. again, to follow up on this, it makes common sense because i remember when i did the tour to make sure all my 12 counties -- this was at the very beginning. the 12 counties that i represent that i was traveling, the rural areas, urban area, especially the rural areas, they like this. because if you're a small community, it's very important that you get this help, and it was seen as a taxpayer saver. and at the same time, because you're able to remove those folks out there that need to be removed. for a small local community, rural community, that means a lot. the other thing is just common sense. if you have somebody the

great man, a great patriot, a great contributor to our nation's birth as we all know from david mccullough and that wonderful hbo miniseries. he is not a great president, and i don't think he was even a near great president. he presided over french abuse of u.s. commercial shipping that gets to be problematical. he signed -- he fostered the sedition acts which criminalize to public criticism of the government and used the sedition act to root out french emigrants that he considered potentially hostile to federalist sensibilities. i don't think i would go over very well today. a story of one quiet french bookstore owner. quietly running a bookstore in philadelphia. he ended up being singled out for deportation. he had a friend u.s. and connections in washington. he asked his friend. why me? why am i being singled out? made some inquiries and reported back to the president was quoted as saying, nothing in particular , what he's too french. [laughter] he presided over massive tax increases which led the economy to begin sputtering. voters making -- it basically sent him packing. they pretty m

author and historian david mccullough is 79. oscar nominated actress diane carol is 77. >> donald sutherland is 77. camilla is 65. if it's your birthday, happy birthday. we'll be back. no, umm, over-easy. the $4 everyday value slam. one of 4 great choices for $4 off the 2-4-6-8 value menu. only at denny's. are always on the move. so they can't get to the bank to deposit a check. instead, they use citibank mobile check deposit. it's easy. they just snap a pic... ♪ hit send... and their checks are deposited right to their account. well almost all of their checks. stand back. seriously? [ male announcer ] citibank mobile check deposit. easier banking. every step of the way. [ male announcer ] citibank mobile check deposit. hey america, even though slisa rinna is wearing the new depend silhouette briefs for charity to prove how great the fit is even under a fantastic dress. the best protection now looks, fits and feels just like underwear. we invite you to get a free sample and try one on too. >>> welcome back. weather first. alread

keith mccullough joins us with correction protection. later in the show, going over the fiscal cliff will cause a recession. why are high profile democrats pulling a thelma & louise and advocating that we go over the cliff? conservative economist douglas holz-ekin tells us why that's plain stupid. don't forget, folks, free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. you heard a dose of it from mitt romney. >>> a quick news alert. moody's says greece could leave the euro zone so they are lowering the outlook to negative for germany, the netherlands and markets around the world registered significant declines. i'm worried about the global sell off, global deflation. i worry about global recession. i worry about bad global economic policies. where is the growth? i don't see it. so far not from the u.s. not from europe. not from china. china's gone back to their communist central planning subsidization roots. i don't like it. the ceo of hedgeeye risk management, welcome back. kpoo keith, i hate to be bearish. maybe there is a pony in a

kevin mccullough, is it as big a deal, as brit hume and others seem to believe it is?, it is. i'm a small business owner. medicare, obamacare, other things have already weighed on us for the last three years. but then to come to us when we hire three out of every four new workers in the country and to say that we're not putting in the sleepless nights, we're not putting in the blood, sweat and tears to build our business is just an insult, and it's an insult to the number one job-creating sector in america. this cannot be allowed to go unnoticed. megyn: but this is what president obama -- >> not he himself, but others on the left, elizabeth warren, what he was trying to say was socials not just ingenuity and drive -- >> of course that's true. but it's also true that small business pays an awful lot more taxes than most americans to build that infrastructure. of it's not like it was created and the government didn't send you a bill. half of americans don't pay income taxes. small business pays income taxes, payroll taxes, health care taxes, it helps build an infrastruct

mccullough has brought up and my friend from california has brought up. it's certainly something that just really concerns me. i think the blood of those dead soldiers fall on the heads of members of this executive branch because they did not do their work and because political correctness prevented major assad from carrying out the attack that was blatantly obvious to many people. and i hope we change all that. because i think political correctness is going to kill more people if we don't stop it. had it existed at the time of the fort hood incident, how with this new -- they describe in your written testimony have prevented the tragedy from happening at fort hood? >> representative, first the webster report goes into the fbi dod issues. to my knowledge and i have not read the full report but dhs was not there. but i must take exception to the way that the question was worded, because the men and women i work with and that men and women at the fbi -- >> mama i asked you about how you -- madam secretary i apologize. i have just a short time. >> you asked