mr. dorgan: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. dorgan: mr. president, awb that the senate proceed to a period of monk business with senators permitted to -- morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. dorgan: mr. president, on behalf of chairman baucus, i ask unanimous consent that the list of staff from the senate finance committee which is at the desk be granted floor privileges during the debate on the motion to proceed to h.r. 3590 and that the cloture vote -- and the cloture vote, rather, on the motion to proceed. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. dorgan: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h. con. res. 214, the adjournment resolution, received from the house and at thdesk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h. con. res. 214, providing for a conditional conl adjournment of the house of repr

mr. tcharme, mr. ranking member, educating members and the general population, has been the most difficult effort of this task force. and in recent years, the task force has taken a greater focus on brain injuries that have become the signature injury of the iraq and afghanistan war. and it is estimated that as many as 20% of soldiers returning from iraq and afghanistan have sustained a brain injury. and the brain injuries of our soldiers have spurred congress to make unprecedented investments in brain injury research. research that will benefit soldiers, and civilians alike for years to come, and we have done this in a bipartisan fashion. and the same way that we gained greater understanding and research from the brain injuries of our soldiers, we should also take this opportunity to learn from the injurys of professional athletes. the task force placed considerable attention on issue of, so called mild brain injuries. and specifically on -- on concussions, which aif he can everyone from our soldiers

mr. kyl: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, the whole point of health care reform is to bring down costs and to make health care more affordable for american families. so why have democrat leaders produce add health care bill loaded with provisions that will increase premiums? independent studies from the nonpartisan congressional budget office and the joint committee on taxation and even a study by the chief actuary at the department of health and hiewsm services confirm this, that the democrat plan will drive up premiums and overall health care spending faster than in the absence of these so-called reforms. well, how is this sold? let me mention five specific ways. first of all, new insurance mandates and new taxes on the insurance industry. new insurance requirements and new taxes on the insurance industry will force premiums to rise for many americans, particularly the young and healthy. according to an independent analysis that studied the effect of the new insurance reforms and new taxes on the insurance indust

mr. baucus: mr.ident, i ask unanimous consent that jacqueline lampert be granted floor prills for the consideration of h.r. 3590. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. baucus: a noted psychologist once said, to be mature means to face and national evade a crisis. our health care system is in a crisis. this crisis has been decades in the making, and history has made clear that this crisis will not solve itself. it is time for us to face the crisis. it is time for congress to show mature leadership. it is time for us to reform health care once and for all. for years now we have prepared for this moment. the finance committee and the "help" committee studied the issues thoroughly. we have held nearly 70 hearings, round tables, and walk-throughs. we have studied this issue very thoroughly and exhaustively. we each produced a blueprint for reform, each committee, and we worked together with leader reid and president obama to combine those blueprints into one solved plan. this week, tonight, we hav

mr. kyl: mr. president? mr. president, i want to interrupt my colleague from mississippi for a moment to ask him, or i think the senator from idaho has some experience with this as well, we've been talking about a half a trillion dollars in cuts to medicare but we haven't even talked about the biggest one yet. we've talked about the cuts to medicare advantage. we've talked about the cuts that will be ordered by this new medicare commission, but i guess i'd ask my colleague from idaho, isn't it true that the biggest dollar cuts to medicare are going to come because we're going to pay the doctors and the hospitals and the nurses a lot less money, and, of course, every one of my stitch twheants have talked to me about this said, wait a minute, if you're going to pay them a lot less money, i'm having a harder time finding a doctor that will take medicare patients, sthaiptd goin, isn't thatgoing to resulte and in effect rationing of care when there aren't enough doctors and nurses to take care of me any more because

mr. speaker, with your permission i will be making a statement shortly this afternoon. >> mr. lindsey roy. >> given that my right honorable friend is about to make a statement to the house i do not wish to steal his thunder so can i merely ask if the commission is the outcome of diverse national conversations? >> mr. speaker, the commissions report is months of research and evidence. it's based on the support of the scottish report. it's got the support of the labour party, the liberal democrats and only one party stands outside of the consensus and the scottish government can continue to boycott this entire support. >> order, questions to the prime minister. dr. roberta blackman woods. >> mr. speaker, before listing my engagements this week, i'm sure the whole house will wish to join me in paying tribute to sergeant robert lachman dixon from the fourth regiment royal military police who has died in afghanistan. the debt of gratitude we owe to him is permanent and we send our sincere cond

mr. sosa. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman and ranking member for the opportunity to speak today. i am a cuban-americans on, brother, nephews and cousins of cubin heroes who fought in the bay of pigs and served time in castro's jails. as a hispanic and a republican, i am a member of to minorities in my home state of massachusetts, and one of the 13% who voted for george w. bush and 2004. however, i am a part of a new and growing cuban majority. 67% that seek to end the isolation of cubans and americans from each other, and that's why i'm here today. the ban on american travel to cuba is an affront to those who believe the right to travel is a fundamental right of all american citizens. we who believe in limited government object to the notion of requiring the government license to travel to cuba, the only country for which such license is needed. the travel ban is a violation of our inherent right to privacy, of our right to free speech, our right to freely associate with whom we wish

mr. gifford and mr. currently on the bank of america board of directors and were on the board last december when the bank received its bailout. they are both also on the committee that is selecting the replacement for mr. lewis. please give your opening statement. you have five minutes and the light starts out on green. then it turns to yellow and then it turned to red. when it gets to red, we ask that you stop which will allow the members an opportunity to be able to raise questions after all of the witnesses are finished. thank you. >> chairman townes, ranking member issa, members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to appear before you today. bank of america recently waved its attorney-clint privilege with respect to the merger and has instructed me that i am free to answer questions the committee may have for me. accordingly as the committee has requested, i will briefly summarize and have set forth some more detail in my written testimony the legal advice bank of america received in conne

mr. ensign: if the senator would yield? we -- these pieces of legislation that we have before us, we put them on our desks to show the american people exactly what we're dealing with. we have only just started going through these bills, and already we found major problems with the legislation. let me just -- what we're going to talk about over the next few minutes is the premium increases that are going to be caused to the american people. if you have insurance now, your premiums are going to go up because of all of this legislation that we have before us. probably other ways we don't even know about yet we'll discover in the future, but we at least know some ways that are going to cause the premiums to go up. but let me talk just generally first about the bill and what some of the problems that i believe in the bill, and then -- and just briefly on some alternative ideas that republicans have come up with in more of a step by step type of an approach. we know that this bill cuts medicare

mr. brown announced that canada nations agreed to send about 30,000 more troops to afghanistan. the prime minister also discussed how the government was responding to recent floods in the uk. >> questions to the prime minister. >> mr. speaker, before i begin, i am sure the whole house would like to join me to pay tribute to sgt dixon from the second regiment royal military police who has died in afghanistan. we send our sincere condolences to his family and friends. he and the sacrifice he has made will not be forgotten. all of us will also want to pay tribute to police constable bill barker who died in the course of duty, serving the community he was so committed to. also those a lost their lives in the recent floods. and with all those affected by the serious flooding, you will have our support now and into the future. let us as a house also paid tribute to the emergency services of the armed forces and all those organizations that have been doing an outstanding job working around-the-c

mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: mr. president, on this saturday, the senate in one of its unusual sessions, it's very good to see one of the more senior members of the senate presiding over the senate. a lot of presiding is left to the more junior members, and it's indicative of the teamwork of the senator from vermont, one of the most senior members of the senate, the chairman of the judiciary committee, and someone who is always there when there is a need for something to be done, as is today to open the senate. i have such fond memories of my friend from vermont. i can remember the first time that we met. we were in florida. i was running for the senate. it was 1986. you were running for re-election , the senator from vermont was running for re-election. even then a senior member of the senate. even though the two of us are almost twins as far as our age goes, the senator from vermont has a significant amount of seniority, although he never uses it in any way other than to work for the betterment of the people of ver

mr. chairman. i have a prepared statement i'd like to submit for the record so that all those in the room who are sitting on the edge of their chairs looking for my detailed opinions can avail themselves of that and the 99.9% who are not, won't have to listen to me read the statement. >> part of the record. >> great. mr. chairman, i'd like to begin by addressing your comments and my friend, senator corker's comments. bob, i guess the best thing i can say to you is i have questions about parts of the bill, too. is the sound system -- i'm getting a little --. i got that thing so i could communicate with my kids. i don't think that's going to be necessary at this particular moment. thank you, mr. chairman. bob, i've got some questions, too. i think we need to work our way through this. as the chairman indicated, this is not scripture we're starting off with here. it's a work in progress, a working draft. i know you and senator warner have been working on some of these things across the aisle

mr. baucus: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that jacqueline lampert be granted floor prills for the consideration of h.r. 3590. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. baucus: a noted psychologist once said, to be mature means to face and national evade a crisis. our health care system is in a crisis. this crisis has been decades in the making, and history has made clear that this crisis will not solve itself. it is time for us to face the crisis. it is time for congress to show mature leadership. it is time for us to reform health care once and for all. for years now we have prepared for this moment. the finance committee and the "help" committee studied the issues thoroughly. we have held nearly 70 hearings, round tables, and walk-throughs. we have studied this issue very thoroughly and exhaustively. we each produced a blueprint for reform, each committee, and we worked together with leader reid and president obama to combine those blueprints into one solved plan. this week, tonight, w

mr. brown announced this week that 10 nato nations are ready to send about 5,000 troops to afghanistan. they questioned about the iraq secrecy and asked about how the government was responding to recent floods in the u.k. >> doctor, refer to blackmon woods. >> before listing my engagements this week, i am sure the house will wish to join me to paying tribute to sergeant robert dixon from the fourth regiment, who has died in afghanistan. the debt of gratitude we owe him is permanent, and we send our condolences to his family and friends. he and the sacrifice he has made will not be forgotten. all of us i believe will want to pay tribute to police constable big barker who tragically died in the course of duty, serving the community he was so committed to. and we remember the individuals who lost their lives during the recent floods, and our thoughts are with all families and friends, and with all those affected by the serious flooding, who will have our support now and into the future. let

mr. netanyahu that you think the palestinians should find some optimism or hope here? >> anyone who opposes settlement construction, continued settlement activity as does the u.s. should take into account that under the maturthe moratorm today there will be much less someone activity than if there were no moratorium. that is a fact. now, we will continue in our efforts to persuade the parties that the best way forward is to enter negotiations with the u.s. as an active participant and supporter of the parties encouraging them in their direct talks to move forward. we believe it is the best way to achieve the common goal just of the leaders, but more importantly of the people they represent on both sides -- to be able to live in peace and security. we will continue to pursue that vigorously and to try to persuade both sides that the way forward is through negotiation and agreement. >> yes, senator, there are many cynics in the arab world who are saying that of washington could not get isra

mr. tcharme, mr. ranking member, educating members and the general population, has been the most difficult effort of this task force. and in recent years, the task force has taken a greater focus on brain injuries that have become the signature injury of the iraq and afghanistan war. and it is estimated that as many as 20% of soldiers returning from iraq and afghanistan have sustained a brain injury. and the brain injuries of our soldiers have spurred congress to make unprecedented investments in brain injury research. research that will benefit soldiers, and civilians alike for years to come, and we have done this in a bipartisan fashion. and the same way that we gained greater understanding and research from the brain injuries of our soldiers, we should also take this opportunity to learn from the injurys of professional athletes. the task force placed considerable attention on issue of, so called mild brain injuries. and specifically on -- on concussions, which aif he can everyone from our soldiers

mr. bun di is available at booknotes.org. guest: that's why i got the book, because i saw the interview on c-span. host: go ahead, please. caller: oh, i'm sorry. i was working for the united states electronics command in fort mammoth as a civilian defense department civilian employee. and i was there on an inspection , on a p.r.c. 77, portable radios that were going to vietnam to our troops, and this was in 1972. and i was talking to this gentleman who was working in the maintenance department and he was going to vietnam for six years if a row, he was there 10 months, and came home for two months. and every time he came back, he was saying, we have to help the people of vietnam. we have to help the people of vietnam. host: i'm going to stop you on that point. thank you for your call and for sharing your story with us and we'll get a response. guest: thank you, david, for your service, first of all. in regards to -- i guess, david, your point is going with learning lessons from the past. i

mr. chairman. i would like to address my first question to mr. goodell, dr. fisher and mr. martin. i know you all will come at the answer from different perspectives. mr. goodell, you may want to address ways that you and the players association can cooperate, or new rules that might come up. dr. tucker, you might address ee equipment. mr. martin you may have hoot your own experience. we have discussed a lot today about problems. we have discussed a lot about past actions that have been taken. my question is what future actions should we take? what are the next steps to advance our understanding of the problem of head injuries, to try to improve treatment and to try to increase prevention of these head injuries? even though you have different perspectives, if you will talk about the future as opposed to the present or the past. >> let me try to address that without repeating a lot of the testimony. we have to continue to support this research and put more and more into this research so th

mr. tcharme, mr. ranking member, educating members and the general population, has been the most difficult effort of this task force. and in recent years, the task force has taken a greater focus on brain injuries that have become the signature injury of the iraq and afghanistan war. and it is estimated that as many as 20% of soldiers returning from iraq and afghanistan have sustained a brain injury. and the brain injuries of our soldiers have spurred congress to make unprecedented investments in brain injury research. research that will benefit soldiers, and civilians alike for years to come, and we have done this in a bipartisan fashion. and the same way that we gained greater understanding and research from the brain injuries of our soldiers, we should also take this opportunity to learn from the injurys of professional athletes. the task force placed considerable attention on issue of, so called mild brain injuries. and specifically on -- on concussions, which aif he can everyone from our soldiers

mr. chairman. if i can direct my question to mr. mccaffrey. earlier this year at a hearing on the subcommittee of national security and foreign affairs of the committee on oversight and government reform you testified, and i quote, mr. castro engaged me for a couple of hours, and i will continue, but i always find it intriguing that people are so proud of the number of hours castro spends. spent two hours, no, three hours, for i was, five hours, i guess that gives you some kind of bizarre street badge of honor. using mr. castro engaged me a couple of hours and he wants his spice back from florida. i remember telling him i said mr. castro i'm sure you are very proud of these men come and they are cuban patriots and you will get them back eventually win a we have normalized relations, and of quote. i find that regrettable. , mr. mccaffrey that he would refer to the stevan spice convicted in our u.s. fair criminal justice system and whose cases were reheard again and whose convictions were o

mr. kyl: thank you, mr. president. mr.resident, the whole point of health care reform is to bring down costs and to make health care more affordable for american families. so why have democrat leaders produce add health care bill loaded with provisions that will increase premiums? independent studies from the nonpartisan congressional budget office and the joint committee on taxation and even a study by the chief actuary at the department of health and hiewsm services confirm this, that the democrat plan will drive up premiums and overall health care spending faster than in the absence of these so-called reforms. well, how is this sold? let me mention five specific ways. first of all, new insurance mandates and new taxes on the insurance industry. new insurance requirements and new taxes on the insurance industry will force premiums to rise for many americans, particularly the young and healthy. according to an independent analysis that studied the effect of the new insurance reforms and new taxes on the insurance industry

>> mr. speaker, the operational independence the chief police officers is of and has been and should continue to be an important constitutional principle. it must be clear that chief officers and chief officers alone are responsible for running their force. and i believe that the leader of the opposition should immediately withdraw his proposal that would mean the politization of the police and has been criticized by the chairman in the last few days. >> dr. evan harris. >> when the lord chancellor in march talked out my private members bill which would end the discrimination against catholics in the role of secession and women in the line of succession. the government recognized this discrimination should end. can the prime minister confirm that he is as the lord chancellor said is ready to consult the relevant commonwealth heads of government this week and can he say that he's confident that we can then sort this out so that the -- >> prime minister? >> mr. speaker, the act of succession i

mr. chairman and i'm glad we could have this hearing today. we agree on a number of things on the matter of the prosecution of chal lid sheik mohammed in the 9/11 terrorists we don't agree. mr. attorney general, i appreciate you, enjoy working with you. you've got a tough job. when i complain to my wife about this or that, she looks me straight in the eye and says don't blame me, you asked for the job. so, you've got a tough job but you asked for it. you know -- with your experience, you know what you're asking for before you got it. let me acknowledge several people in the audience today, david beemer from florida and alice hoaglund from california are here. they came here for the hearing today. david lost his son todd, a and alice lost her son on flight 93. lisa dohan here she lost her husband navy captain robert dolan at the pentagon september 11th. deborah burlingame, i believe is here and she lost her brother, a pilot. also we are honored tim brown from the new york fire department i

mr. martin, my time is expired. i will not interrupt you again. >> i will take a stab at it. i appreciate the question. i am not certain if you can distance an athlete from his predisposition to go out and perform. i do not know how you can protect his financial incentive versus this incentivizing him to protect him from the injury. >> use your microphone. >> it would be very difficult for the nfl to mandate to the owners how to structure this. that would be a difficult thing. as i can tell you, the owners are like a bunch of mavericks, and it would be very difficult to mandate to them how to have their players play because incentive bonuses are the way you get those players back in the game and you win. . . business. the bottom line is making money. if their players ain't playing, and the team is losing, that is the bottom line. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i have gone over, and i yield back. >> senior member, bob goodlet. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would like to direct my questions pr

mr. khuzami, i'm a venture capitalist. but you just mentioned the potential for regulating hedge funds. and that legislation is working its way through both houses. can you talk about how you might approach that? and agree to that you would look broadly and what really is the violation of regulations to be looking for? >> well, the regulations would require -- the registration requirements would wire hedge funds to adopt the various requirements in terms of compliance and ethic programs, disclosure, and requirements. and we would typically see having our examination staff would conducting inquiries and exceptions with respect to those funds. apply those requirements to the funds, and see what's short comings of their work. in addition to as i mentioned having kind of transparent information of actual trade data that we could see was going on. it would also be a great benefit for us to use the information detect patterns. so really, it's just to comply with the requirements of the law whic

mr. president i ask the following fellows be granted floor privileges for the duration of the consideration of h.r. 3590. the legislative vehicle for the patient protection and affordable care act 2009, sarah so great, stephanie temmins, caroline the achtenberg. >> without objection. >> the debate has now begun on well the bill we call our health care reform bills. it's taken a long time to get here. a lot of hearings, a lot of markups, a lot of public discussion and town meetings around the country, and now we are at the final pivotal moment. and historic moment in the long march to pass meaningful health care reform. when i say long marks because it started with theodore roosevelt and continued on through the new deal, continue on to harry truman's administration and onto this time. every time we've been turned back by the status quo forces, those that just want to stick with what we've got. those who were afraid of making changes. well, this time they are not going to stop us. this tim

mr. prime minister, today we work to fulfill our duty, bring our countries closer together than ever before. tonight under the stars we celebrate the spirit that will sustain our partnership, the bonds of friendship between our people. it's a bond that includes more than 2 million indian-americans who enrich every corner of our great nation. leaders in government, science, industry and the arts, some of whom join us tonight and the bond of friendship between a president and prime minister who are bound by the same unshakable spirit of possibility in brotherhood that transforms both our nations, the spirit that gave rise to movements led by giants like gandhi and king and which are the reason that both of us can stand here tonight. and so as we draw upon these ties that bind our common future together, i want to close with the words that your first prime minister spoke at that midnight hour on the eve of indian independence. those words speak to our hopes tonight. the achievement we celebr

mr. bennet: i would first like to thank the senator from vermont for his excellent remarks in what is, after all, just a vote to get us started on the debate on health care, a procedural vote to allow us to be able to amend and improve the bill in the coming weeks. madam president, virtually every single member of this body in the united states senate is a member of the baby boom generation. as in my view a generation of americans, i was born in the last year of that generation, given more opportunity than any generation of people in the history of this planet because our grandparents and our parents were willing to make hard choices, understanding that part of our national creed, part of our legacy is assuring that we're expanding opportunity for those that come after us. we are having this health care debate at a moment in our country's history beset by incredible economic difficulties. this is the worst recession since the great depression. but we now know that even during the period o

mr. barbour. >> thank you and i appreciate you being here -- i appreciate being here. mr. goode led, is good to see. it is a privilege and honor and a source of entertainment to hear some of the tangible conservation discussing the and brain injury. one asked of this committee. i will get to it shortly. i had exactly two concussions, both of which i came from in the same game. i was not affected. i retired for quality of life decision, so that i did not lose my knees or my cognitive abilities, and i lead a productive life. my other hat is with the today show. nbc news, and a story i have been working on recently involves new helmet technology and the troubles that high school kids have with concussion. in the course of our research and our studies, we met with one person who is here, the creation -- the creator of a new element -- helmet. what he told me that troubled me most about high school athletics is that less of half -- less than half of high school teams have access to an athletic

. >> mr. chairman, showed large financial agglomerations, which offer a deposit facility within their structure be allowed to engage in proprietary trading. and if your answer is yes, how would you try to limit the structure of this kind of the dignity? >> i think i know where that question came from. [laughter] chairman, the answer is no. next question. [laughter] let me try. let me try. i understand exactly what chairman volker is concerned about in the issues he is raising. i want to raise a couple of, i hope their subtleties and not just mistakes. first, you know, there's a sense here of, you know, returning to glass-steagall and separating these market-making activities from commercial lending. i think that kind of movement would not be constructive. as we know, plenty of firms got into trouble making regular commercial loans and plenty of firms that into trouble and market-making activities. so the separation of those two things, per se, would not necessarily lead to stability. the quest

mr.lewis immediately drew a brace of pistols, stepped towards them and challenge them to fight a duel. day, not likely in this salutation, rolled onto the next house 5 miles. the second statement is that she heard three gunshots instead of two gunshots. supposedly, lewis committed suicide by using each one of his two pistols. if instead it was actually three pistol shots, then it must have been an assassination. she also said that after his death, lewis was found to be wearing old and tattered clothing when his body was discovered. his servant, john, on the morning of lewis' death, was wearing lewis' death and carrying his gold watch. it seems likely that lewis and john were planning for lewis to try to escape his pursuers by having john act as a decoy. there is yet one other separate account called the russell statement made in 1811. in this account, lewis not only shoot himself twice, once in the head and once in the chest, but he is down cutting himself from head to foot with razors be

so, mr. chairman, while in fact i know that you wanted to take a look at the steady today and to learn exactly what is going on that would be helpful in preventing these injuries and what could be done to prevent them, we must keep our eye on the ball. we must understand that the nfl has an antitrust exemption, and that that is a huge b. if we ever want them to get to do the -- to do the right thing, we have to know and understand that we are going after that anti-trust exemption. they cannot continue to enjoy making the money that they are making and not being willing to compensate these injured players and these family -- their families who are dying on the street and dying in alleys, broke, with dementia, and they are not the stars that they were when they played. i am committed to the proposition that we have the authority to take away that exemption, and we need to start down the road to do that in order to get compensation for injuries that are going to continue to have been no matter w

mr. trumka. first, i want to thank you for addressing this parody of health insurance cost for our nation. living in new jersey -- the disparity of health insurance cost of our nation. living in new jersey, 2500 does not buy the cadillac plan, but just as the us eight p.o.. -- budget is gives us a ppo. a consumer-based economy is based upon demand, not supply. when we adopted this policy, we started to have in sane trade agreements where we were shipping jobs overseas. we decreased salary, buffeted up the ability for trade unions to negotiate, and as a result, we have a lot of working-class people who cannot afford to buy the products that we are producing. productivity went up, but the man went down and supply increased. now, if that is not the most cockeyed system that anyone can think of, i do not know what is. but we do need to bring back strong union jobs, and to have the free workers situation there, that is only adding to our problems. we have to have, like you were speaking about,

mr. gillon uses recently classified sources to chronicle the first 24 hours after the assassination. barnes & noble in new york city hosts the event. >> when you write a question like this, the first question that you have to answer is do we really need another book about the kennedy assassination, is there anything new to be said about the assassination of president kennedy, are there new materials that are -- that have suddenly become available, that have not been available for the past 46 years, that allow us to see these events in a different light and obviously, my answer to that question is yes, for very selfish purposes. most of the books, the vast majority of books and you could fill a small library with books and articles that have been written about the assassination, they focus on one singular question and that is who shot j.f.k., where did the bullets come from, was there a shooter on the grassy knoll, was oswald a patsy, was this a part of a coup on the part of the military i

>> mr. prime minister? >> mr. speaker, first off, i wanted to thank him for his continuing support it for the work of our forces in afghanistan. and i think we should come in spite of the detailed comments that the opposition has made come get this in proper perspective. first of all, we are fighting terrorism, fighting out qaeda in pakistan, but to do so successfully we have to prevent them from having space in afghanistan. our plan for afghanistan is not simply a military strategy, although that is absolutely essential and fundamental to what we're doing. it is a political strategy that over time the afghan people can take more responsibility, have more control over their own affairs, and i do not think i could have been clearer in saying that our objectives are not limited by days, but by achievement. it is the achievement of afghan's control and the ability of the afghan people to take responsibility for the security that is the determining issue in all of this. this is not a time-specific a minute we are maki

mrs. grinder account was written by ornithologist alex wilson who visited grinder's stand after lewis' death. the account has been misstated as having been written in 1811 but in fact it was written in may of 1810 just six months that there lewis' death. wilson who lives in philadelphia was traveling south in search of new birds then seeking subscribers for the first volume of this famous american ornithology. he was one of lewis' best friends. lewis had given him the bird specimens they collected on the lewis and clark expedition to beat illustrated for publication. while visiting grinder's stand wilson page robert grinder to put up a fence to protect lewis' graves from the walls and got his written promise that he would do so. wilson wrote, i left this place in a very melancholy mood which was not much delayed by the prospect of the glenny and savage wilderness which i was just entering alone. mrs. greiner told alexander wilson a new version of her story. in this account she said she saw

mr. president? the presiding officer: the distinguished senator from louisiana. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i first want to commend my colleague on the floor, senator cantwell, the senator from washington state, that's worked so hard and so long and in such a professional way. and she's been extremely helpful to me through this process, and i want to acknowledge that and thank her. i also, before i make this statement, mr. president, want to complement about a few other colleagues that have been extremely helpful and supportive, not just to me but, i think, to the entire senate. beginning with senator harry reid, our leader, who with patience and persistence and care has led to a bill that is before the senate. the question today is whether we should proceed. i would like to say that there are probably, in my view, maybe no other member of the senate could have accomplished what he has today, and i think many senators share my thoughts and belief. number two, i want to recogni

mr. president -- [applause] mr.resident, your journey to the white house has captured the imagination of millions and millions of people in india. you are an inspiration to all the world -- all those who cherish the values of democracy, diversity, and equal opportunity. [applause] mr. president, i can do no better than to describe your achievements in the words of abraham lincoln who said and i quote, "in the end, it is not the years in your life that count. it is the life in your years." [applause] mr. president, we warmly applaud the recognition by the nobel committee of the healing that you have provided and the power of your idealism and your vision. mr. president, your leadership of this great nation of the united states coincides with a time of profound changes taking place in the world at large. we need to find new ways of international cooperation that respond more effectively to the grave challenges caused by the growing interdependence of nations. as two leading democracies, india and the united states mus

mr. kevin johnson. >> i'm not asking you to always follow everything i say. as i said earlier, sometimes i'm gonna be wrong, sometimes i'm gonna miss a shot, but what i am asking you is, if you disagree with me, challenge me, but challenge me on the merit of the idea, not because it flies in the face of the way things have been done in the past. our attitude and our perspective is going to to be the difference on how we navigate through all of these challenges. it is our ability to give back, to serve, especially for those who are less fortunate than ourselves. thank you very much for your time, and god bless each and every one of you. (applause) >> really a great job. >> thank you. >> at some point did your heart take over that speech? >> yeah, you know, early on, i was trying to just get my thank yous and my formalities out of the way, but i started off by saying i'm living a dream. i love this. there is nothing else i would rather do, and somewhere through the speech, you know, it just

just imagine you and mr. kessler going into a bank to rob it. >> right. >> you don't plan to kill anybody but kessler pulls his gun and guns down a bank teller. you sir, can be charged with felony murder. is that correct? >> it's absolutely correct but here's the -- >> then that same principle applies here, does it not. >> it would apply if the facts support your theory, nancy. here's what i'm saying. first of all the fact that they say there's a kidnapping, we don't know. it is an ongoing investigation. maybe if this is for a debt, she said listen, hold onto my child. i swear i'll pay you. i'll do what i have to do. >> put him back up. put him back up. >> so the fact of the matter is that maybe she didn't have ill intent. maybe it was not that, listen, you know, eye mean no -- she could be accused of bad judgment. her judgment was misplaced. she's certainly ignorant in doing anything like that but to have the reck wisit and intent and to suggest that she was giving her child and that it was a kidnapping and

mr. mayor, let me ask what are you going to do with your state legislature now? have you had conversations about your proposals today with them and are you encouraged about support? >> i think it is easy to say they will never do anything and they are the problem. you can do the same thing about the unions. but number one michael blease thought where there's life there's hope and based on experience keep in mind our state legislature did give the mayor the control of the system and did we knew that so they are not just saying no, and our unions did work with us. today we have performance pay based on schools which to me always made more sense than based on individual teachers simply because when kids go from one cluster to another it's hard to identify who is really providing the service said to me i always thought at the school of politics more sense. the teachers teach the equivalent of 25 days more year. they have gotten a lot of increase in pay but they also changed a lot of the work

yes. >> thank you, mr. speaker. 40 years ago, it was this continent that change the voting age to 18. we have heard about australia lowering the vote to 16. let's all join together and vote together. thank you. >> thank you very much, indeed. the young man with the red tie. yes, thank you. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i am from the west midlands. i feel that we cannot ask young people to make an informed decision when voting. would we be happy -- i feel that we cannot ask young people to make an un informed decision when voting. we have to put this into context. the nazi party used people's fears and the great depression, the economic crisis, speaking to the impressionable, and they rose in just four years. to be a true democracy, we need to educate young people on politics and allow them to make an informed decision. we must have education and politics to achieve this, and i urge everybody to support the value of the vote, the political education campaign. that is the first that in getting the vote at 16. >>

mr. steven gillon uses newly declassified archival sources to explore the first hours of the johnson administration. barnes and noble in new york city hosts this hour-long event. >> i think the question when you write a book like this the first question that you have to answer is do we really need another book about the kennedy assassination? is their anything new to be said about the assassination of president kennedy? are there new materials that have become available that allow us to see these events in a different light, and obviously my answer to that question is yes for very selfish purposes. [laughter] boast of the books, the vast majority of books, you can fill a small library with books and articles that have been written about the assassination, the focus on one question, one singular question and that is who shot jfk, where did the bullets come from, was there a shooter on the grassy mall or was also called a patsy? was this part of a coup on the part of the military industrial

mr. zoellick.enanted welcome to the world bank for this assayed report charting our water future, which i hope will help change how people think and act about water. over the last century, the world's population has increased threefold. water use has increased six fold. today, over 1 billion people in developing countries lack clean drinking water. and according to the united nations, a child dies from water related disease every 15 seconds. if water use continues at current levels, today's water supply may well be inadequate to meet the needs over the next few decades. for many countries, there is a real risk of water security and security. so global water security warrants much more attention by government seeking to achieve economic growth and development. and it needs attention now. it's an indication of how widely concerns are about water security and how widely they are shared that the report we are launching today has benefited from support, advice and analysis of so many different groups, d

mr. viliri. i wonder if you had received notice -- you talk about this week that went by between the time you wrote that check for $197 and only had $197 in your account. would you have continued to use your debit card to make additional purchases had you been notified right away? >> definitely not. definitely no. . >> i think you told me at one point that actually in the notice you received that the postmark -- >> the mostly sunny -- notice was given to me on the 18th and the postmark was the 24th. then they sent me another one on the 16th and the postmark was the 22nd so i didn't know that i was overdrawn. as soon as they told me, 10 minutes later or a half an hour later i brought down money and every day -- everything was fine. >> had you been notified more promptly you would have dealt with it. you had enough money in your own accounts to more than cover those things. you weren't short. you just weren't aware. >> right. i didn't have it in their bank. i had nit another bank, which was close b

oprah said the years she spent as mrs.can's student was one of the defining moments of her life. she was 9 years old. mrs. duncan joins us now. what are your memories of oprah? >> i'm very happy to have the opportunity to speak about how i feel about oprah. at the time she was in my fourth grade class, she was outstanding, very good student in all areas, especially in reading. even the students loved to hear her read. >> larry: was she a good talker. >> she surely was. >> larry: now, she's been very open about the hardships she had as a childhood, difficult things. did you know how tough things were for her? >> no, i didn't. she spent time talking about when she was talking with me, about her dad. she thought so much of her dad. she still does. >> larry: are you surprised at all that's happened to her? >> you know, at that time, i felt that she might become a teacher herself. and i really thought, i think she thought about it, too. becoming a teacher. she was capable. >> larry: sure was. gayle king, anything you want to sa

mr. mccain: i ask unanimous consent to send to the desk at this time a motion to commit with instructions. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: the senator from arizona, mr. mccain, moves to commit h.r. 3590 to the committee on finance with instructions to report the same back to senate with changes that do not independent clued the following: one -- mr. mccain: madam president, that further reading of the motion be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: madam president, simply put this motion to commit would be a requirement that we eliminate the half a trillion dollars in medicare cuts that is envisioned by this bill. a half a trillion dollars in cuts that are unspecified as to how, and half a trillion dollars in cuts that would directly impact the health care of citizens in this country. medicare advantage cuts totali totaling $118 billion. an independent medicare advisory board that would cos cost $23 bil

mr. gillon chooses new declassified archival sources to discover the first hours of the johnson administration. barnes and noble in new york city hosted the event. >> i think the question, when you write a book like this, the first question that you have to answer is do we really need another book about the kennedy assassination, is there anything new? to be said about the assassination of president kennedy. are there new materials that have suddenly become available that have not been available for the past 46 years that allow us to see these events in a different light? on tuesday, my answer to that equation is yes, for very selfish purposes. most of the books, the vast majority, you could fill a small library, they focus on one question, and that is who shot jfk? where did the bullets come from? was there a shooter on the rasky noel? was oswald a patsy? was this part of the two, part of a military-industrial complex because of initiatives kennedy had taken? these issues are fascinating

mr. limbert to come speak in october, and there was a scheduling conflict, and we rescheduled for today and, of course, in the meantime the administration had the foresight to appoint him deputy assistant secretary of state for iran. [laughter] which seems to be a position that was created for him because i think it's safe to say that there are few others in this administration or in the state department that know as much about iran as ambassador limbert. he lived there as a child, his parents served with u.s. aid in iran, he worked there in the peace corps and studied and learned farsi there. and he had the honorable or the dubious honor of being in tehran in 1979 during the hostage takeover and spent 14 months as a hostage along with other americans. and afterwards when he came out, he received the state department's highest award, the distinguished service award as well as the award for valor. ambassador limbert later went on to have a distinguished career in the state department servi