mr. robert rubin? >> yeah, i'll identify with something that chuck said. i'll add one penalty if i may. both of us learned about -- well, i'll speak for myself, i think it was also true of chuck, we learned about this in the fall of '07, and clearly, -- i remember that initial -- when i initially heard about it. and i had a reaction which is in my statement. you'll see it there. to the effect that if you are engaged in arbitrage kind of business and probably caused me to think that way because of my background, the other side of that transaction is to completely dispose of the risk. but the people who were running the businesses reply. and i think the reply was totally understandable, these were triple a securities, and that was all triple a securities had been seen in the time i've been in the business. i would say from their response that they were very much relying on those aaa rating. although i also understand and i don't know where i know this from, but david bushnell's people did enormous amount

mr. robert rubin? >> yeah, i'll identify with something that chuck said. i'll add one penalty if i may. both of us learned about -- well, i'll speak for myself, i think it was also true of chuck, we learned about this in the fall of '07, and clearly, -- i remember that initial -- when i initially heard about it. and i had a reaction which is in my statement. you'll see it there. to the effect that if you are engaged in arbitrage kind of business and probably caused me to think that way because of my background, the other side of that transaction is to completely dispose of the risk. but the people who were running the businesses reply. and i think the reply was totally understandable, these were triple a securities, and that was all triple a securities had been seen in the time i've been in the business. i would say from their response that they were very much relying on those aaa rating. although i also understand and i don't know where i know this from, but david bushnell's people did enormous amount

mr. roberts. i have known him over the years, and i'm grateful for your leadership on these issues on behalf of the working men and women. >> senator, thank you. there's a number of things i would suggest in my testimony. one is dealing with the backlog that exists at the review commission. there is not only a disincentive that doesn't exist, there's an incentive to repeal every one of these finds that because if you look at the records, you get 40 some% reduction on appeal. so if you get cited for $1 million, you're on appeal before it's all over, you end up paying half of that, or less. by way of example, it hasn't come out here, by the way, over $1 million in fines at upper big branch, they paid 100 some thousand dollars. the rest of it i guess it is still sitting somewhere in a field process. we argued that there's no reason why these findings should not be paid immediately and held in escrow, if they want to appeal, that we do not get the benefit of that money in their pocket and encourage th

mr. roberts. i've known him over the years and i'm grateful for your leadership on these issues on behalf of the working men and women. >> thank you. there are a number of things i would suggest in my testimony. one is dealing with the backlog styx's that the review commission. there is not only a disincentive that doesn't exist, there is an incentive to do with every one of these funds because if you look at the record you get authority some% reduction on the appeal so if you get cited for a million dollars and want an appeal before as oliver you end up paying half of that were less. by way of an example that hasn't come out here by the way over a million dollars in fines at the upper the branch the paid 100 some thousand dollars so the rest of the venegas is still sitting somewhere in infield process. we argue there is no reason why the fines shouldn't be paid immediately and held in escrow if they want to appeal that way they do not get the benefit of that money in their pockets and encourage t

mr. roberts: mr. president, i understand i have ten minutes in which to make my remarks, is that correct? the presiding officer: the senator can be recognized for ten minutes. mr. roberts: i appreciate that. thank you, mr. president. over the past two years, americans have seen an unprecedented government reach into the private sector, some of which may be necessary. they are angry about it, however, as they should be as it touches their individual lives and pocketbooks. for many, the overreach of government began with a bank bailout or tarp for sure, the the $700 billion tarp that i opposed was passed in the fall of 2008 when every day we awoke to see a new financial crisis headlining the front page. now, tarp was initially intended to purchase the troubled assets and get them off the books of the troubled banks. yet, over time, the program evolved into a fund -- some would call it a slush fund -- to include bailouts for the auto industry and the housing market. the term bailout will never be the sam

mr. robert rubin? >> i think it was absolutely wrong to suggest that mr. robert rubin had any responsible for the what happened attestedty -- at citigroup. >> i appreciate that. mr. prince, you were ceo. and you resigned? >> yes, sir. >> what happened after you left? >> is this a rhetorical question? >> no. who assumed the ceo? >> mr. crenshaw became the ceo the day i resigned. >> okay. then what happened in the terms of the office of ceo? >> at that point a search was >> our problems with our technical issues with the southern republican leadership conference have been resolved. we're going to go back now live to new orleans. speaking now, liz cheney, daughter of former vice president dick cheney. >> as afghan president karzai whose support we need if we're going to prevail in afghanistan. is being treated to an especially dangerous and juvenile display from this white house. they dress him down on an almost daily basis and within the last 36 hours refused to say whether he was even an ally. you know, i used to work on the middle east and there is a saying

mr. robert pickel. executive vice chairman international stocks derivatives incorporated. you must be an important man this week, mr. pickel. >> i'd like to think so. thank you, mr. chairman. ranking member garrett and members for the committee. thank you again for the opportunity to testify on this committee. i testified before on one other occasion before this committee. and i look forward to talking about credit default swaps and government debt. i submitted my statement for the record so let me summarize some of the key points that i raised in that. i'll talk a little bit about the varied purposes and motivations for parties who utilize credit default swaps. i'll talk about the important information and signaling function they can provide. i'll briefly highlight the many industry efforts that are going on as it relates to credit default swaps but also derivatives generally in the areas of systemic risk. transparency. and infrastructure. and then i'll talk a little bit about manipulation focusing on the unique nature of these products and why that nature, in fact, provid

mr. robert gibbs, the white house press secretary, reacted thusly, i think that is a very silly comment toe. the problem isn't the race card, it's the credit card. that point that mr. steele hired fundraising aide. mr. actilpert once a chair of a groups was ordered to pay $70,000 for unauthorized expenses and unaccounted funds as well as fines for $4,000. on the heels of his arrival comes the resignation of two players, ron mckay and sam fox. a republican source telling politico mr. fox had lost confidence in mr. steele and was deeply troubled by the pattern of self-inflicted wounds and missteps. joining me now, melissa harris-lacewell, professor at princeton university. good evening. >> thanks. good to be here. >> in a weird way, has michael steele become good for the republican party because the more time its critics spend talking about him the less time they're talking about the more substantive problems with the gop? >> i mean, sure. sex is easier to talk about, liquor and drugs and whatever else are always easier than policy and substance and that whole lawmaking part. you know, there

robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. predent the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for one hour. during that time, senators will be permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the majority will control the first 30 minutes. the republicans will control the final 30 minutes. following morning business, the senate will turn to executive session to debate the nomination of christopher schroeder to be an assistant attorney general. there will be up to three hours for debate prior to vote on confirmation of this nomination. upon disposition of the schroeder nomination, the senate will consider the nomination of thomas vanaskie, united states circuit judge for the third circuit. there will be three hours for debate prior to vote on confirmation of vanaskie. mr. president, i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. krentz. >> robert krentz murdered by most like lay drug dealer.hey will tell you the violence has ratcheted up. the smugglers are heavily armed. it's reaching a level where it's spilling across on to our border. and we need to have troops down there on the border. we need to have increase in number of border patrol. we need to do this operation stream line where you convict people who are illegals who are -- and put them in prison for a while. by the way, 17% of those who are crossing our border and are apprehended are guilty of crimes that they have committed in the united states of america. >> bill: right. deport them and they come back. i'm with you all the way. >> but, bill, they have committed, actually committed crimes. >> bill: i know. >> it isn't just the crime of crossing the border. the violence has skyrocketed. >> bill: you deport them and they come back. we are with you here. but what i don't understand is this. the governor of arizona didn't call out the guard. she is in charge of the guard. call them out and put them down there. >> s

mr. robert rubin, mr. dave bushnell, the chief financial officer and auditor of citigroup.i outlined the business practices that i had witnessed and had attempted to address. i specifically mr. ruben about the extreme risks and unrecognized financial losses that existed within my business unit. i also requested an investigation and i asked this investigation be conducted by officers of the company outside of my business unit. my warnings to mr. ruben involved two different areas within my responsibility. the first one was called delegated flow. the delegated flow channel purchased $50 billion annually of prime mortgages. these mortgages were purchased one mortgage at a time. these mortgages were not underwritten by citi before they were purchased. but the underwriters reviewed a sample of the files after they were purchased. this was to make sure that citi's credit standards were maintained. most of the mortgages were sold to fannie mae, freddie mac or other investors. even those citi did not underwrite these mortgages, citi provided warrants to the investors that purchased

mr. robert rubin, mr. dave bushnell, the chief financial officer and auditor of citigroup. i outlined the business practices that i had witnessed and had attempted to address. i specifically mr. ruben about the extreme risks and unrecognized financial losses that existed within my business unit. i also requested an investigation and i asked this investigation be conducted by officers of the company outside of my business unit. my warnings to mr. ruben involved two different areas within my responsibility. the first one was called delegated flow. the delegated flow channel purchased $50 billion annually of prime mortgages. these mortgages were purchased one mortgage at a time. these mortgages were not underwritten by citi before they were purchased. but the underwriters reviewed a sample of the files after they were purchased. this was to make sure that citi's credit standards were maintained. most of the mortgages were sold to fannie mae, freddie mac or other investors. even those citi did not underwrite these mortgages, citi provided warrants to the investors that purchase

joining me now to talk about it all is former labor secretary robert reich. mr. secretary, good to see you again. thanks so much for joining us. >> hi, maria. >> so let's kick it off here with jobs, obviously the biggest problem facing the economy here in america. you're the former labor secretary. what should the government be doing right now, do you think, to help businesses create those new jobs we're looking for? >> well, small businesses are the major creator of jobs in america, maria, as you know, but they are having a hard time getting credit. one thing that the government can do is simply to help the banks, regional banks, smaller banks, the sort small businesses use, to get credit to the small businesses more efficiently and quickly. also, it is very important that state and local governments get aid. they are right now, as you know, they are hemorrhaging jobs, cutting everybody from teachers to fire fighters, and that has a negative multiplier effect in the economy. over this year and next year it's expected that states will be cutting or raising taxes

mr. robert rubin, mr. dave bushnell, the chief financial officer and auditor of citigroup.business practices that i had witnessed and had attempted to address. i specifically mr. ruben about the extreme risks and unrecognized financial losses that existed within my business unit. i also requested an investigation and i asked this investigation be conducted by officers of the company outside of my business unit. my warnings to mr. ruben involved two different areas within my responsibility. the first one was called delegated flow. the delegated flow channel purchased $50 billion annually of prime mortgages. these mortgages were purchased one mortgage at a time. these mortgages were not underwritten by citi before they were purchased. but the underwriters reviewed a sample of the files after they were purchased. this was to make sure that citi's credit standards were maintained. most of the mortgages were sold to fannie mae, freddie mac or other investors. even those citi did not underwrite these mortgages, citi provided warrants to the investors that purchased them. these re

mr. robert rubin, mr. dave bushnell, the chief financial officer and auditor of citigroup. outlined the business practices that i had witnessed and had attempted to address. i specifically mr. ruben about the extreme risks and unrecognized financial losses that existed within my business unit. i also requested an investigation and i asked this investigation be conducted by officers of the company outside of my business unit. my warnings to mr. ruben involved two different areas within my responsibility. the first one was called delegated flow. the delegated flow channel purchased $50 billion annually of prime mortgages. these mortgages were purchased one mortgage at a time. these mortgages were not underwritten by citi before they were purchased. but the underwriters reviewed a sample of the files after they were purchased. this was to make sure that citi's credit standards were maintained. most of the mortgages were sold to fannie mae, freddie mac or other investors. even those citi did not underwrite these mortgages, citi provided warrants to the investors that purchased

mr. martin. this is an a political opposition to robert , is basically what he's hearing from. >> it's called history, these same confederate veterans didn't want people like me to read and why we understand the history. you can sit here and create a secondary history. it can be revisionist. that is the reality. there is a whole body of work that lays it out. people say it was states rights not telling us what to do, because they wanted to keep the way of life, which was to keep people like me in chains, beating them, oppressing them and denying them the rights they richly deserved, those are facts. >> the united states was the only country in the western hemisphere that ended slavery through war. that was a policy of the union government. >> what was the first state to legalize slavery? virginia. who had more slaves than any other state? virginia. every single president that came from virginia was a slaveholder. you can sit here and say that's not true but they are simply facts. >> guy you call the civil war the second american revolution? >> we're seeing the same issues-? it's part of the united st

mr. speaker, first lieutenant robert collins answered his nation's call to duty after graduating from west point military academy in 2008. and earlier this month he made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of his fellow countrymen. lieutenant collins was deployed to iraq only last fall and was based with his unit in the northern part of the country. lieutenant collins recently wrote that he was working to improve security conditions and the quality of life of the iraqi people. in this year's national elections in iraq, his platoon helped provide security for a free and fair election process, and i know that he took great pride in that. he was a man willing and ready to serve his country. as a dedicated soldier, he wanted to help spread far and wide the same freedom we love and cherish here in the united states. lieutenant collins's willingless to help others -- a graduate of sandy creek high school, he was well respected among his peers. in fact, one former classmate wrote that collins was compassionate and at the same time had a great sense of humor that could not be matched. robert would al

mr. daniel mudd and robert levin, who were with fannie mae, so thank you very much gentlemen for joining us this morning. i'm going to start off by asking you to do what we have customarily done with all witnesses to date and we will do with all witnesses from here on forward and that is to ask you both to stand so i can administer the oath to you. do solemnly swear or affirm independent of perjury that the testimony you are about to provide the commission will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth to the best of my knowledge. thank you very much. we are going to start this morning by asking each of you to give a oral opening statement. we have your testimony in hand and we thank you for that. we'd like you each to take no more than 10 minutes for your oral statement. and mr. levin, we're going to start with you today, and so, we're ready for your testimony. before i start though, mr. vice chairman, would you like to make any opening remarks this morning? >> no thank you, mr. chairman, but i would take the opportunity as is usual with me to ask you that if over the rest

mr. steve matthews, chief judge robert conrad, judge glenn conrad, and former maryland united states attorney, rob rowenstein were well qualified, had bipartisan support of their home state senators, yet they were blocked steadfastly from ever moving forward. president bush nominated steve matthews in september of 2007 to the same seat on the fourth circuit for which judge diaz has now been nominated and expects to be confirmed and will be confirmed, i'm sure. but for them -- to hear whining about how long it takes judge diaz to move along in a fairly steadfast way, in light of what was done to mr. matthews, is a bit much, to me. i just have to tell you. we all know -- you know, this is a robust body. we don't mind speaking our minds. but mr. matthews had the support of his home state senators and received an a.b.a. rating of qualified. he was a graduate of yale law school, had a distinguished career in private practice and was -- waited -- he waited 485 days for a hearing and never gone -- never got one. so his nomination was returned, expired in january of 2009. another of president bush's

again, i would refer people to the heritage website and the work is by robert rechter. mr. king: i had forgotten that number. $44,000. now if you have all the free time in the world to do whatever it is you want to do and have rent subsidy, heat subsidy and food stamps and earned income tax credit and other programs -- mrs. bachmann: and a home mortgage that is subsidized by the taxpayers because this is part of the problems in the community reinvestment act in the 1990's, an individual could have no job, no income, no assets, no job. and with all of that, you could still get a mortgage just based on your welfare benefits. this is a complete change in the way mortgages were given out. and welfare is inherptly unstable. to think that a 30-year mortgage is given to someone on the basis of their welfare payments, we had never done that before in the united states. what we saw is a correlation with a very high rate of forecast. what inducement is there for an individual to save up to buy a house, save a down payment, be frugal, do what you need to do to get a good credit score

mr. basement. >> this is joe with the press box sports report. as if things couldn't get worst for the orioles the second baseman roberts was put on the dl with a stomach strain suffered while diving into second. he missed most of spring spring training. while the ravens have been upgrading the receiving their rivals in pittsburgh brought one of theirs out of town. a trade involving holmes. he was sent to the jets for a 5th round pick. holmes has scored eight against the ravens and is facing a suspension under the subdance abuse policy. senate former men's basketball coach leaving colorado to take the same job at wake forest university where he will be taking ton the tarripins. he will be one of three new coaches. that's press box sports report. . >>> tomorrow the legislative session has end and now the governor is poised to sign several pieces of legislation into law. how you may not be able to talk on your cell phone. that's tomorrow on good morning maryland. . >>> what is -- >> good news tonight. for all of you wheel and jeopardy fans. the two highest rate ed shows, have been renewed. according to the publication broadcasting stable both shows also

robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: today in the senate there will be a period morning business for an hour. senators will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each. majority will control the first 30 minutes and the republicans will control the final 30 minutes. following that, morning business, the senate will proceed to h.r. 4851, the extension act. we'll recess from 12:30 until 2:15 p.m. today for our caucus luncheon. by previous consent agreement, at 2:15 all postcloture time will be yielded back and the senate will adopt the motion to proceed. the bill will then be open to amendments an senators should expect roll call votes this afternoon. -- and senators should expect roll call votes this afternoon. madam president, i'm told s. 3194 is at the desk and due for a second reading is that true? the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 3194, a bill to provide collective bargaining rights for public safety officers employed by states or their political sub divisions. mr. reid: i would o

series won the robert kennedy jourmism award for domestic television and the society for professional joumplists top award for investigative tv reporting. before joining the "washington post" mr. solomon spent 20 years as a manager and reporter for the associated press where we won the achievement award for coordinating wire services worldwide and investigating coverage to have 9/11 attacks. mr. solomon was named in 2005 to oversee a seven-member investigative team dedicated to producing high-impact stories that could play smultly on tv, on the web, -- simultaneously on tv, on the web and radio. and exposing the now infamous hurricane katrina video tape showing what president bush had been told before the deadly storm. before creating the team, mr. solomon spent six years overseeing the administration personal finances of a.p.'s 150-member washington bureau as the assistant bureau chief. in that role he oversaw a.p.'s relationship with major newspapers in the major metropolitan area. today, mr. solomon is with the packard media group. he also is actively engaged, still, in doing topnotch investigative jourm itch. it is my hon -- journalism. it is my honor to have mr. solomon

administration particularly with robert rubin was the treasury secretary and of course the same people who are now responsible for helping clean up the financial mess hopefully worked with mr. rubin during the 90's. that is a great opportunity for them to make amends. still waiting to see progress on not but we all did it together. the culture shifted. wall street became good. the percentage of graduates from top universities who went in to finance as far as the key figure from the data was about 10% at the peak of the sub prior boom it was 40, 45%. it's money, its power, its ideology. i spent a lot of time talking to people in washington. i live in washington and spent a lot of time with people in and around the consensus, politicians, their staff and the attitudes have begun to change. not at that level people's thinking isn't what it was before september 2000 but people think that unregulated finance is better and unfettered mega banks are the best. this idea is wrong and dangerous and must be stopped. how are we going to do it. >> of the biggest banks have to become smaller. people say to the sign in, there's a lot in the financial sector is complicated. the size doesn

mr. chairman. . . i am reminded but just roberts said recently. he said people should feel free to criticize what we do. i think all of this feel that way. mcconnell is outspoken. but some bush nominated to the circuit. he harshly criticized the supreme court's decision of the bob jones. that was an 8-1 decision. it violated anti-discrimination laws. he was enormously critical of that. he was confirmed by a vote. do you believe just because like michael mcconnell who was supported by republican has been extraordinarily critical? do you believe that any criticism you might have made will make it more difficult? no, i think that there is a clear difference between what things people write and how one would approach the role of a judge. those to a very different. as scholars, we are paid to question the boundaries of the law and to be provocative in ways that is simply not the role of a judge. in ways that it is simply not the role of a judge to be. their role of the judges to faithfully follow the law as it is written and as it is couldn't -- given

it's robert lewis, a senior manager in healthcare. mr. lewis, your question. >> how certain can you be that your party's policies will deal with the budget deficits without damaging economic growth? >> mr. cameron? >> this is an absolutely vital question, and i'm glad it's been asked, because we've got to get this economy moving. we've got to get this economy growing. what we say is save 6 billion pounds in the coming current year in order to stop the jobs tax which we think will derail the recovery. because if you put a tax on jobs, that i think is a jobs killer, it is a recovery killer, it's an economy killer. a hundred of the leading business people in this country, people who run companies like sainsbury's, marks & spencers and mothercare have all said that the threat to recovery is not cutting out waste as we say, the threat to recovery is labour's proposal for a jobs tax. so i think we've got to remove this dark cloud of a deficit over our economy and it makes sense to make a start on that now. make a start this year, to avoid the t

dallas when it seemed natural been attached to los angeles, where robert kennedy was assassinated, to memphis necessarily water or to mr. king died and yet in dallas, there was a feeling among many letter writers that they were themselves ashamed and they felt very strongly that people in dallas would be blamed. one letter from a woman at midway and predicted most persons outside the state will bitterly feel that it could have only happened in texas. but in fact, for reading these letters, that feeling was widely shared a sense of shame across the nation. in strange ways, people felt, they try to get ahold of this event by looking at their own lives, a variety of cardinal fact or is he one man broke, i feel in some way could have been someone that follow. each night i used to pray for her has been to protect us with god's help. last night, i stayed out late, went to bed without saying my prayers. when i heard this about our great leader, i was so sorry i did not pray. this i will never do again. god help me. but the sense of acute responsibility that many folks from dallas and throughout taxes felt comes across very cl

for more let me bring in robert greenwald, founder of brave new film, the production company behind the documentary series "rethink afghanistan." mrof this news come as a surprise to you? i mean, you know, mr. karzai, for lack of a better term, seems to be a turncoat on the united states. >> well, mr. karzai is a corrupt leader who is detested by most of the population in afghanistan. i'm surprised that he went so far as to say he would join the taliban if he didn't do what he wanted, but i'm not surprised that his attitude, ed, because this is not somebody who rules democratically. it's really important to remember these are not good guys over there. this administration. this government. and the only reason he's in power is because of our money and our muscle behind him. that's a huge, huge mistake for the security of the united states, for the safety of the united states, and for the people of the united states. >> so mr. karzai, i think about him being at the state of the union when george w. bush was president and the accolades that the bush administration gave toward karzai as the future of afghanistan. what do you think now?

particularly when robert was the secretary of treasury and of course many of the same people who are now responsible for helping to clean up the financial mess hopefully worked with mr rubin and treasury during the 1990's. it is a great opportunity for them to make amends. still waiting to see progress on that. but we all did it together. the culture shifted. wall street became good. the percentage of graduates from the top universities for example went in to finance as far as we could figure from the data are around 1970 was 10% of the peak of the sub cspan: bohm it was 45%. it is money and power. its ideology. i spent a lot of time talking to people and washington. i live in washington. and i spent a lot of time talking to people in and around the official consensus regulators, officials, politicians, their staff and obviously the attitudes have begun to change. this is not i would say that level -- people's thinking is and what it was before some timber 2008 but it's the keys to meet people who think finances good, unregulated finance is better and completely unfettered mega banks are the best. this idea is wrong. this idea is dangerous. this idea must be stopped

robert kennedy memorial journalism award for domestic television. and the society of professional professional -- official journalist top award for investigative tv reporting. before joining the putt -- "washington post," mr. solomon spent 20 years as a manager and reporter for "the associated press" february 1 the grinning achievement award for providing wire services worldwide, investigative coverage of the 9/11 attacks. mr. solomon was named in 2005 to oversee a seven-member investigative team dedicated to producing high and back stories that could play simultaneous on tv, and web, and radio and in print. preteens were concluded exposing the dubai ports world and at the go missteps among several liters of congress and exposing the anonymous hurricane katrina video fat on president bush before the deadly storm. before creating the team mr. solomon spent 16 years overseeing the administration personal-finance of the washington bureau as the assistant bureau chief. in that role he oversaw apa's relationship with labor newspapers and that metropolitan area. today, mr. solomon is with the packard media group aired he also is actively engaged in doing top-notch investigative journalism. it's my honor to have

robert kennedy memorial journalism award for domestic television. and the society of professional professional -- official journalist top award for investigative tv reporting. before joining the putt -- "washington post," mr. solomon spent 20 years as a manager and reporter for "the associated press" february 1 the grinning achievement award for providing wire services worldwide, investigative coverage of the 9/11 attacks. mr. solomon was named in 2005 to oversee a seven-member investigative team dedicated to producing high and back stories that could play simultaneous on tv, and web, and radio and in@@g doing top-notch investigative journalism. it's my honor to have mr. solomon here. [applause] >> thank you so much for having me here and it's a great pleasure to be alongside jim and rituals i've admired throughout my career for doing the this type of journalism that they've committed time and time again. and i cannot drive my career that whistleblowers have been an important part of my career, but i didn't really understand how important until about a year ago young graduate student from st. lewis university i think it was called me and said did you know you did 377 stories that involved whistleblowers a

robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: tre will be a period of morning business today beginning as soon ace finish -- as soon as i finish. there will be 10 minutes for each senator. majority will control the first 30 minutes, the republicans will control the final 30 minutes. following that morning business, the senate will resume consideration to the extension of the unemployment benefits and others. yesterday i filed cloture on the substitute and the bill. filing deadline for first degree amendments is today at 1:00 p.m. two coburn amendments are pending. we would like to dispose of those amendments an complete action on the bill today. i've had some conversations with senator coburn. he believes we can finish this today. i would hope that we can. others have amendments to offer, i hope they would do it as soon as possible. the reason for that, we could finish early today and allow people to make arrangements for tomorrow. right now people are scheduled out for tomorrow if we're going to leave early today, we c

robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: there will be a period of morning business for 90 minutes with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the first 30 minutes will be under the control of the majority. the next minutes and the remaining time will be equally divided. following morning business, the senate will resume the motion to proceed to to the wall street reform legislation with the time until 12:20 equally divided. at 12:20. senate will proceed to a vote to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed on the wall street reform. i want to say a few words this morning about one of the senate's most senior members, one of the newest on this side of the aisle. i have known senator arlen specter for many, many years. i've worked with him, learned from him and admired him. truly a legal scholar. anyone who has read his books -- and i have -- know that senator specter's life has been a struggle. from his days as a son of immigrants in depressi

robert c. byrd, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognizedded. mr. reid: we're going to honor the people of poland because of the tragedy that occurred there a few days ago. i extend my condolences to the people of poland. it carried that nation's president and first lady as deputy foreign minister, lawmakers and so many civil yand military leaders, it's hard to comprehend. the tragedy and loss is unthinkable and america grieves alongside our friends. i want to commend senator durbin and for expressing sympathy, the senate formally states our condolences for the people of the state of poland. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will now observe a moment of silence and solidarity with the people of poland. the presiding officer: thank you to members of the senate. who seeks recognition? the presiding officer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. today following remarks by senators regarding the tragedy in poland and we appreciat

and robert litan is a senior fellow of economic studies and global economy at the brookings institution. mr. glauber, i'll start with you. picking up on where we left off with senator shelby when he talked about the "too big to fail" question. would this bill as it is emerging now do enough to break up those bill banks or those big financial institutions that abused the process? >> i think by designating a large number of them as important systemically it puts them on a list of institutions that are too big to fail. i think that's a mistake. it's just not the right way to approach solving the problem of bailing out banks. >> ifill: alan blinder, what do you think? does this do enough to get to the heart of that problem? >> i think it comes pretty close. there isn't any perfect solution. i disagree with my friend bob glauber. the approach i've always favored or i shouldn't say always but since all this came up is name the "too big to fail" institutions and then penalize them. subject them to higher capital and liquidity charges, tighter supervision and so on. it's simply not realistic to thi

mr. president, i'm still available for that beer. i'll even pay for it that is the news tonight from hannity's america. robertibbs may be ruling it out but another senior white house official is planning a run for office yikes! we'll tell you who, next. we want to know if you think president obama should return goldman sachs' campaign donations? text us at 36288: we have the results coming up at the end of the show. that and much more, straight ahead. we get double miles with every purchase. so we earned a tropical vacation in half the time. we earn double miles every time we use our card. ( shouts ) double miles add up fast so we can bring the whole gang. ( grunting ) awesome! it's hard to beat double miles. everyone knows two is better than one. introducing the venture card from capital one... with double miles on every purchase every day. go to capitalone.com. ( gasps ) what's in your wallet? wait up! >> sean: during an interview last night with charlie rose rahm emanuel still plans for running for office one day. >> always an aspiration even when i was in the house of representatives. >> mayor of chicago?

robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader.r. reid: 60 miles outside las vegas is a rural community called perump. it was originally, it had a series of artesian wells. it had lots and lots of water and for many years they farmed cotton. it has now become a retirement business community. i think a golf course is there. it's a beautiful community, less than an hour from las vegas. last night a man who had just returned from afghanistan, his name was ian deutsch, his second day on the job as a police officer when he was murdered by a man who had had a domestic dispute with a woman, and he was proceeding to go into a place of business with lots and lots of people in it when he shot officer deutch. the officer who was with him, thomas klensar, killed the gunman, saving untold lives. this is a tragic story. the slain man had a teenage child, a seven-year-old, and just returned, as i've indicated, from afghanistan and our military. the second day on the job. not killed in sparks not wounded -- not killed in afghanistan, not wounded i

and started to walk out of the room and robert lovett said mr. president have you thought this through? all the soviets need to run an truman did not answer him and on june 26, two days after that the phones rang all over the country where people had phones, western union telegrams were delivered to the pilates cruz mechanics, air-traffic controllers. transportation experts who made up the berlin airlift the airlift. edwina had been a captain with a b24 have had just finished alfred university in upstate new york kent had been accepted at the university of new mexico law school. his wife had gotten a job as a schoolteacher and albuquerque. this is what happened then. the 1090 years had a sweet voice western new guinea operator nobody called him that since flying the be 24 per you have a telegram from the air force. i will read it and send it on by direction of the president of the united states you are ordered back directive to be for the berlin airlift within 48 hours. that happened to all over. many people were from small towns and that night p

robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks the senate will resume consideration of s. 3217, wall street reform legislation. there will be no roll call votes today. mr. president, i'm anxious to see how the debate goes forward on this bill. it's a most important bill, the bill before the senate places strict new regulations to stop wall street's reckless gambling. there will be no more taxpayer bailouts, and that's no bailouts ever. ends too big to fail, puts a new cop on the beat and puts consumers on control with information that's in plain english. let me repeat, mr. president: the legislation before this body holds wall street accountable, ends taxpayer bailouts, guarantees that taxpayers will never again be forced to bail out reckless wall street firms by creating a safe way to liquidate failed firms without taxpayer money. ends too big to fail, strict new capital leverage requirements to prevent firms from growing too big to fail. brings sunlight and transparency to shadowy markets where

robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presidin officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: madam president, many kentuckians awoke this morning to the sad news that one miner was killed and another is missing after a ceiling collapsed in an underground coal mine in webster county, which is in the western part of kentucky. right now it is my opinion understanding that msha officials are on the site and rescue teams are work to go locate the missing miner. for now we can only hope that their efforts are successful. i ask my colleagues and the american people to keep the miners, their families and the rescue workers in their prayers. #. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: for me, being a miner's son and having worked in the mines myse

the importance roberts brings to the orioles' lineup, figgins mr.ttle. >> it's a reason why everybody picked seattle to win that division this year because ichiro needed some help e couldn't do it all by himself. he gave them a second weapon to go to. he will steal a lot of bases. he is a very smart baserunner. he is a guy always on base. that on-base percentage is what the big boys need. they have to have somebody to drive in. he is always there. >> david hernandez will make the start for the orioles tonight. he has not won a game since august the 11th of last year. it's been a long time. he has been underappreciated sometimes by his hitters. they haven't scored for him. on the year he is 0-2. what do you see for him tonight? >> it's hard to win a game when you don't get any runs at all. this kid just has to keep his mind set on what he has been doing most of the team. ef keeps the ball down. he is such a good pitch churr with men in supporting position. unbelievely low batting average on most of the hitters. when he gets in trouble he knows how to

robert rubin, former citi banker, former treasury secretary. he is speaking now. before that former citi ceo charles prince apologized to this panel. mr. reuben so far has not apologized to the panel. the company was wrong, they failed to better prepare for the financial kriss and their risk-taking apparatus fell apart. at the same time, mr. prince defended his bank's size and conglomerate nature. citicorp is having a better year and trading flat to slightly higher today. i find it very interesting that mr. reuben continues to be the uncontrite product in this. maybe there's a story there. we will wait and see. trish, over to you. >>> let's talk about the airlines, larry. a deal that could create the second largest carrier in the united states. talks between united airline airways and usairways both trading up there. you can see usairways up better than 12% and ual up better than 8%. phil lebeau joins us whether there may be a spoiler in the deal. >> how are you? we've been down this road before and the question comes down to whether or not this merger will fly. we know about the positives out there but why are united and usair interes

. >> robert darnton is the author of the devil in the holy water or louix xiv two napoleon. mr. darnton is a former european history professor at princeton university. he is currently the director of the harvard university library. for more information visit and why books.com. >> in 2001, political pundits bill press appeared on booknotes to discuss his book, "spin this!" all the ways we don't tell the truth. mr. president describes spin as the intentional manipulation of the truth. this program is an hour. c-span: bill press, author of "spin this!" when you hear bill o'reilly say on his program, 'you're entering a no-spin zone,' what's your reaction? >> guest: my reaction is it's baloney or pure spin. i mean, he's spinning the fact that he doesn't spin, which i don't think anybody takes seriously, or should. c-span: why shouldn't they take it seriously? isn't he being serious about it? >> guest: no. i think if you -- in fact, i've got lots of examples in my book. first of all, my -- the premise of the book is that everybody spins, and especially people in the media spin, and fo

mr. obama's health care program will wind up before the roberts court. justice stephen breyer told a house subcommittee that he expects it within the next four years. more from the week in review section of "the new york times", also available online at nytimes.com. we will take a short break. we will talk about the economy and international adoption. first, a look at some of the issues and guests making up the sunday morning program. bobbie jackson. >> the topics will include financial reform and other legislation, the economy, party politics, and iraq. the guests on ""meet the press" ," include treasury secretary geithner, marsha blackburn. on abc's this week, bill clinton. the guests on fox news sunday include iraq's top military commander, and john mccain. on "face the nation," scott brown. and on ccnnn, senate republican leader mitch mcconnell, mark warner, and an economist. you can listen to all five of the sunday morning talk shows starting at noon eastern on c- span radio. nationwide on xm satellite radio. and follow us on facebook and twitter an

mr. thue says he has no complaints with the airline but he's not too happy with the guy who rear ended his shuttle. >>> new today, a memo from defense secretary robert gates warned the united states lacks a long-term plan to curb iran's nuclear program. the new york times reports the secret memo was sent to the white house back in january reportedly sending off a search for new options including military alternatives that could be considered in the diplomacy and sanctions planned for this year fail. the white house disagrees with the report saying the memo did not force a reassessment. the pentagon says the white house has reviewed many options for dealing with iran's nuclear program. >>> president obama says it is time for new rules of the road on wall street and want to prevent future market meltdowns and if investors make bad gambles, the president insists taxpayers shouldn't be left holding the bag. ta seems like that plan might be an easy sell but in this atmosphere there's plenty of pushback. brian mooar has the story. >> after winning the bitter year-long fight over health care reform, taking on wall street seemed like a safe political move f

mr. swagger. >> thank you, chairman boswell and ranking member moran to invite us here to testify. i'm robert swagger, chairman and ceo of media derriestives. we're a small, privately-funded entrepreneural business followed the processes, and procedures, established in the commodities exchange act. in so doing has created jobs during a challenging time in the u.s. economy. as an individual who is born in the midwest, experienced the benefits of futures markets to the agricultural industry, in particular, as an entrepreneur who helped found an ethanol plant very survival was direct result of use of futures contracts, i founded mdex for purpose much creating risk management tools for the entertainment industry. note the concepts of creating such tools was direct result of my and my team's extensive involvement in the entertainment industry. we believe that the development of such products is consistent with the a major thrust of congress's enactment of the commodities future modernization act of 2000 which sought to promote, among other thing innovation with respect to risk management tools and