had had a lot of business during world war ii and its industries had been employing many, many new yorkersand it was also a growing media capital. it was expanding its office infrastructure. it was growing in terms of the it was getting a lot of international attention in a new way politically and it was part of, you know -- it was seen internationally kind of as the capital of a resurgent u.s. following world war ii. yes, very much so. so its star was rising in that period. >> what happened to new york in the 1970s? >> well, it's a complicated question that has global, national, local reasonings behind it, political, economic, culture. it was a period of crisis on many levels. and it was a period that began, really, in the 1960s, the decline and really reached a nadir in the 1970s that had to do at the local level with a mismanagement of funds and a fiscal crisis of the state that led to the city technically going bankrupt. and when i say a mismanagement of funds, you know, this is a complex story over which historians debate, it had to do with on the one hand the city government spending

well, we had a very, very good lunch with a new yorker we are proud of, and that is judge sotomayor.et me say this. she is impressive when you read about her history and credentials, even more impressive talking to her face- to-face. she is somebody who presents a very smart, thoughtful, and powerful image in a quiet way, and i am convinced that she, as she talked to my colleagues both democrat and republican, is going to so impressed them. she is even more impressive in person than on paper, and she is really impressive on paper. so this meeting was very gratifying to us, because she will make such a fine supreme court justice in every way. i am proud that she is a new yorker, proud that she is an american, and proud that she was nominated. >> one of the most significant things from our lunches how much i appreciate her focus on her long judicial career on rule of law. she not only understands it as a guiding principle but she follows it, and i have every confidence she will be an extraordinary justice. >> ready for questions. we cannot take too many. >> what is your role in the cam

i read the new yorker regularly, and rail against it, and thin get up every morning and read in the "new york times" to the great mockery of my children. they say why do you read that crap? i say, i have to how can you be informed and they say you mustbe kidding and say something sunrise like judith miller, and as you might remember chev is "the new york times" reporter who laid out the primrose path into war in iraq i say there's stuff there i need to know. and they say what? and my oldest son, brilliant writer himself, will say, if you spent that hour a day reading a novel you would be much mored of indicated. but frankly i'm of a generation of not giving it up. i have to have it in print and he says, no, it's all going to be gone in a year. so i read the times every morning. >> host: back to the nation. >> guest: i gave up the tribune and it was with great regreg -- regret but it's unreadable. i fine its unreadable and will be gone in the next year, which is a shame. >> host: back to the nation. i think most people consider it to be a liberal, progressive, whatever tag, magazine. w

i cannot do this but i did not have enough nerve to face the new yorkers they can be abusive. i went into the bookstore and i got in there it was a crowd of about the size i don't know if it is still the same set up and i saw all of the energy in your faces. was anybody there at that time? so i saw of this energy in your face is and suddenly i felt better and with and about five minutes i was cured and that truly lasted for about 10 hours. [laughter] by the time i hit salt lake city and the land of the more men die was sick again. i cannot blame the mormons. [laughter] i think but i remember the tremendous energy supply will feed off of that tonight although it is hard as the span because they have the doggone lights in my face and i cannot see your faces so end the energy down here it is the last of on the tour but i have been looking forward to it is a great books city the library is one of the most odd in the world. [laughter] was also one of the loveliest. i have seen it from the outside i just got a quick tour from the inside. in 1980, 1983 i stand across the street in th

and i read the new yorker regularly and rail against it. and then i get up every morning and read "the new york times" to the great mockery of my children. they say, why do you read that crap? i say, no, no, no, i have to read "the new york times." how could you be informed? and they say, you must be kidding. and then they'll say something snide like, let me just say one thing: judith miller. she, as you might remember, is "the new york times" reporter who laid out the prim rose path to war in iraq, and i say, yeah, but there's stuff there that i need to know. and they say, what? and my oldest son will always say, you know, if you spent that hour a day reading a novel, you'd be much more informed than reading "the new york times." he says it's all going to be gone in a year. no, no, please, so i read the times every -- >> host: i want to go back to the nation. >> guest: i gave up the tribune, and it was with great regret, but it's unread blg. [laughter] it is. i think it'll be gone in the next year, which is a shame. >> host: back to the nat

however, superintendent ken mitchell, on behalf of all new yorkers, all americans, and parents everywhere, we say, "thank you, it's americans like you that make us proud." i yield the floor and once again thank my colleague from oregon for yielding. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, in the coming weeks we will take up what probably is one of the most vexing policy challenges of the last 50 years: how to reform our health care system and provide affordable, accessible health care to every single american. the goal couldn't be more straightforward, guarantee access for every american. and the stakes couldn't be higher. our small businesses are collapsing under the weight of health insurance premiums. just last month, oregon's largest insurer announced the small business premium was going up 14.7%. that's open top of a 26% increase just the previous year. now, large employers have the challenge as well. in a global economy, our broken health care system is a major competitive disadvantage. a greater share of the price of each car in the united states

a big black 1953 chrysler new yorker. how much he paid for the car, chrysler definitely gave harry a deal and i found a letter that suggested he may have paid as little as $1. still he bought a car. harry loved cars. when he was president he actually would drive his own limousine occasionally. talk about something you probably won't see again. one time a fourth of july speaking engagement in charlottesville, virginia he drove his limousine back to washington and reporters -- it was reported that he was traveling 65 miles an hour in a 50 miles an hour zone and harry was furious and wrote a letter to the editor of the paper that reported it. but it was one of those letters that was never actually sent. the truth was harry did drive too fast. of all the presidential trivia in this book i could say that's pretty much the one indisputable fact. everyone agreed harry truman drove too fast. he was very meticulous about his cars. he would measure the tire pressure. he would measure the tread regularly in the tire. of course, he w

i can do this but i didn't have enough nerve to face those new new yorkers and tell them that. they can be abusive you know. so anyway went into the l.a. bookstore, dragging, and i got in there and even though the crowd was about the size of the looked at all of these bases around the stairs there. i don't know whether it is still the same set up for not, i saw all of the energy in your faces. was anybody there? perry aref? well, so any way solve this energy in your faces and suddenly i felt better and within about five minutes i was scared and that cure lasted for about ten hours. by the time i hit salt lake city and the land of the mormons i was sick again but i can't lay that off on the mormons, i think. anyway, i remember the tremendous energies so i'm going to be feeding off of that tonight except starting with c-span. there these lights in my eyes i can see your faces so well, says and that energy down here. this is the last up on the tour but it is the one i have been looking forward to. this is such a great book city and its library, one of the most of libraries in the

so now health care has become much, much, much more complicated and for some, according to the new yorker magazine article which i commend to everybody, when we have decided to make health care a "business proposition" so that you could get several doctors together and open up a cancer center and that becomes something in which you promote overutilization and it is happening in parts of our country, then we need to be concerned about that and try to evaluate what we can do together. one final point: some of my colleagues march to the floor every sing will day and allege that a bill that doesn't yet exist is going to be a government takeover of health care. well, apparently they are chairt but there is not a fact that allows someone to say there is a government takeover of health care because there is not a bill out of either committees. there have been some introductions of topics from legislative proposals but that is far different from a bill recorded out of a committee. we will have unbelievably a robust debate. health care is a very important element if this country's economy and it's

you had the new yorker, and the new yorker had a wonderful "talk of the town" the week after d-day. and there was so much going on in new york in world war ii. it was really the world capital, even more so than it was to be after the war. i went to little towns in ohio and little towns in virginia and cities like chicago or columbus, ohio. i just wanted to see what happened in those cities. and then i started going around the world. in rome there was already a celebration going on -- they had just been liberated -- and it just got bigger. and anne frank. i got out the diary, because i remember vaguely in the back of my mind that she had written something about d-day. well, it turns out to be -- i mean, you have to be a stone not to cry at that anne frank entry on d-day. gertrude stein was up in the hinterlands where italy and switzerland and france come together, trying to just get through world war ii. i've always liked her writing, and i wanted to see what it was like for gertrude on d-day. well, she gave me a hell of a good story, about the germans bowing to her because she was a

a recent new yorker magazine article showcased the mayo clinic in the contests of health care's costs problem. according to an author, a physician, we're in a battle for the soul of american medicine. on one side is a fragmented volume-driven model that too often crosses into profiteering. there are good parts, believe me. i know this. i live in minnesota. we have to maintain those. but we have to fix this broken cost structure. on the other side, you see this model offered by mayo and other institutions across the country where doctors collaborate to provide the best, most efficient care for their parents. patient. on one side it is financially and morale unsustainable. on the other side is a new direction that promises to cub b costs and it is time to choose sides. for the sake of fiscal health and the sake of millions struggling to afford the care they need i urge my colleagues to choose the ladder. yesterday, i met with a bipartisan group of senators. i have to tell you i still have hope we're going to get this done. i have hope there will be bipartisan support for this. the thing

book critic of the new yorker and professor of art history at columbia university, simon schama has presented 30 documentary's for the bbc and pbs including an international emmy award winner. mr. schama has won numerous journalism prizes including an award for history and the prize for literature, the national academy of arts and letters award and the national book critics circle award. he also loves to cook and we have seen a number of his recipes. his newest work, the american future: a history, looks at the presidential election from a historical perspective debating war, religion, race, and immigration, and the relationship between natural resources and prosperity. mr. schama examines these problems in the context of america's identity. before we bring mr. schama out, we will show you a short clip from his new documentary that shares the same name as his new book. ♪ >> it was a hard american winter. a tough time for americans. but out there, beneath the ice, something big was stirring. an awakening of the unruly animal, american democracy. this presidential election isn't like other elec

for gotham and his write appeared in several publications including "the new york times" and "the new yorker," and the new york journal of american history, for more information visit his web site at pers yous booksgroup.c/dacapo. >> children's author emma walton hamill, what this is e could to writing a children's book? >> gosh, i would say respecting children as readers and not talking down to them. if anything, it is all basically about trusting their judgment and their intelligence and hopefully speaking to what interests them and what they are passionate about. >> what are children interested in. >> just about everything that adults are interested in. for the most part. their world, around them and growing up, and learning new things, music, arts. sports, you name it all the same things we're interested in. >> how many children's books have you written. >> i have written well, just now, about to release the 17th children's book. that i actually co-write, with my mother. believe believe it or not. >> what is it like working with your mother as a coauthor. >> it is a great pleasure and we

correspondent for outside magazine and his writing has been in several publications including the new yorker, men's journal and the new york times. more information visit the author's website at stephenrinella.com. the public affairs imprint is part of the perseus books group and at the book expo america's this year, public affairs is doing something different, susan weinbergers the publisher. wenner you doing here? >> the group decided to take up the challenge to publish a book in 48 hours, which led from the opening day to today. if you want to stop by and celebrate, the addie at is to showcase a lot of things that are happening in publishing. one is that the way electronic files and formats and all the different printing technologies, how much is changing and opening new opportunities in publishing and bookselling. the other one, continue and intensify the collaboration we're doing with other companies, there are lots of companies with lots of new ideas that can be very innovative and when we announced we were doing this, we felt we would ask them to help and we found many of them came to

now a recent article in the new yorker, for example, showed how mcallen, texas, is spending twice as much as el paso county. twice as much. not because people in mcallen, texas, are sicker than they are in el paso, not because they are getting better care or getting better outcomes. it's simply because they are using more treatments. treatments that in some cases they don't really need. treatments that in some cases can actually do people harmed by raising the risks of infection or medical error. and the problem is this pattern is repeating itself across america. one dartmouth study shows that you are less likely, -- you are no less likely to die from a heart attack and other ailments in a higher spending area than in a lower spending area. there are two main reasons for this. the first is a system of incentives where the more tests and services are provided, the more money we pay. and a lot of people in this room know what i'm talking about. it's a model that rewards the quantity of care rather than the quality of care. that pushes you, the doctor, to see more and more patients, eve

and this was later reported by ryan lids of the new republic, i'm sorry of the new yorker, formerly of the new republic. and this is obama talking to this guy, patrick despard. obama said i think i'm a better speech writer than my speech writers. i know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors and i'll tell you right now i think i'm a better political director than my political director. well, that's a high level of self-confidence. and so when you look at what the obama administration has done, they've taken on issue after issue. and each individual issue, they've done it incredibly intelligently. i was in afghanistan a few weeks ago and what struck me was that the issue that the people on the ground and afghanistan, the policy they wanted, was the policy obama adopted. a very aggressive policy where we're going to be remaking towns, village by village, creating cops and courts, the things afghanistan needs. he's just taken over general motors and the -- two therds of the american auto industry -- two thirds of the american auto industry. created an $800 bi

presented in terms of per image, a style, intent and i just have to point* to the cover of "the new yorkeragazine which portrays harass the angry black woman a militant and hostile and violent black woman who could do harm issues a knife and a gun and decided she would be combative.t( unpatriotic, how i know it was not only us but so many white and black and latino women and men were incensed that this woman should have been so probably one week after the election was over and we were basking in the euphoria of having the first african-american president in the history of this country and by her status the first african-american first lady in the nation's history i turned to my colleague at a said i think this woman will need are supportive of her as she enters this new phase in her life so why did we ask african-american women to write her letters in poland's to express their encouragement and support. initially when we sent out the call for letters, we turned it it dear michele letters of love and support and encouragement. we sent it out over the internet the tasby year in axd technolog

i want to start today with a story which was embodied in a recent new yorker article which i found so, telling, i followed up by asking the researchers for additional information. i want to talk for a few moments about this story. there are 2 towns in texas which are both -- they have similar demographics, they both have 700,000 people living there. in 1992, not too surprising, given their similarities in their population, medicare expenditures were fairly similar in the 2 cities in texas. since then, there has been a dramatic difference. mcalan has grown more quickly than the rest of the country or al passed though. and the result is that now mcallen spends twice as much as the u.s. average. you can see that difference showing up in all sorts of medical indicators. you can continue down the list. those additional expenditures would be worth it if the result was higher quality and better outcomes in mcallen. but as the data suggests, we are not getting higher quality for those additional expenditures in mcallen, quality is actually lower in mcallen than in el paso. a central fact surr

during the election season and so many conversations about everything that happened including "the new yorkerne cover and i felt a connection to michelle and saw so many different people and it and to my amazement, my letter was@óq1ñ thank you for that purpose of the thing i think that made me want to write it was the need to express myself about the show because i do think she represents so many things to so many people and in my letter i say when i look at you, i see me because i see the connection having gone to law school in a predominantly white institutions and not quite feeling as if i belong to sell looking at her i knew she had experienced some of that. when i see her i think of my mother because she is a practical nurturing caring per centcom she reminds me of my sister, her friends, my cousin, of the one who smile is something i always wanted to emulate. again the one who seems to glow, she just embodied so many people for me. she represents the best in me so that is what prompted me to write my letter and thank you for allowing me to express it [applause] >> xdxdas peggy mentioned

there's a terrific article in "of the yothe new yorker." . in it. in texas, they spend more money than anywhere else in the country. florida has the highest statewide spending for health care. their health care is among the worst in the nation in general. you are right. it encourages people to make decisions based on money and not based on health. that is not been addressed in the current health-care bill. hmo's were not so bad. everybody hates them now because they became for-profit. i practiced under a practicedhmo when i was treating patients and i liked it. i got paid how much i needed to get paid on a monthly basis. i was free to practice the way i wanted to practice. i seethink you are right. fee-for-service medicine is a problem. british primary-care physicians make more than american primary care physicians. i do not know why american physicians are in love with fee- for-service. there are systems that were very well and pay doctors pretty well. the system does not encourage people to do things that are unnecessary. there's no question that

now, a recent article in the "new yorker" showed how mcallen, texas, is spending twice as much as el paso county. twice as much. not because people in mcallen are sicker than they are in el paso. not because they're getting better care or getting better outcomes. it's simply because they're using more treatments. treatments that in some cases they don't really need. treatments that in some cases can actually do people harm by raising the risk of infection or medical error. and the problem is this pattern is repeating itself across america. one dartmouth study shows that you're less likely -- you're no less likely to die from a heart attack and other ailments in a higher spending area than in a lower spending area.

. >> it's every cavaliers fan's worst nightmare and a dream come true for every new yorker from lynn brook to little fallses. lebron in a knicks uniform. the franchise has made no bones about shedding cap room on the 2010 free agent class of which lebron is valedictorian. with a preview of the entire atlantic division, here's mat winer, avery rose and jalen. >> the celtics couldn't deliver on another world championship thanks to kevin garnett's injury in part. the knicks will select eighth in the draft. what are they looking for in >> the new york knicks need a lot of help in all positions but mainly at the point guard spot. the knicks are definitely looking for a quarterback in this draft to start moving forward. also they need help at the five spot. you know, they need help with a big guy that can post up, get some points in the paint for him. the knicks are looking at the point guard spot and the five position. >> the raptors will select one spot after the knicks. what's on their to do list? >> shooting guard. you want a player on the win that's not om a scorer from outside but al

forget and i have got other things we are going to be talking about in the collection of an obscure new yorker named john king sperry stored away in boxes in the outer suburbs of maryland the library of congress staff kind we kept bringing back to me i found a yellowing paper hand written in pencil with kings. describing how teddy roosevelt is perkins to head the committee on safety after the trinkle short ways fire. i frances perkins ties to roosevelt went far back but that tied her closely to teddy roosevelt and was even a big surprise to the scholars that learned about it after i found it and discuss it with them. let me start by asking you all a question. how many of you have heard of the frances perkins and know who she is? wow, that's great. first of all, this is wonderful. i have got a great audience. and i also have a fairly rare audience in that most people in america have no idea who frances perkins ase, and i know that myself because when i started on this road i didn't know who she was either. i came from a family that didn't care much for roosevelt and i kept stumbling across her

he was a new yorker. by dagart's skills said was that he did not mind being a goof. journalism is supposed to be an innately curious profession. i cannot tell you the amount of people i worked with who did not want to be seen as asking a stupid question or asking a question where it was not clear that they knew the esser. there is a great story -- this man had a terrible speech impediment. they did not let him be a reporter until his 30's because they thought he was an idiot. he was a great reporter. he was pulling back things that nobody else was getting. he won the first pulitzer. he went up the elevator at the empire state building when the plane hit the building, and he won the spot news pulitzer because he was the that they did not notice going up with the mayor. his great skill was to find in a story about a captain of industry who was saying, i cannot believe the report you sent to interview me. the guy was a complete idiot. i had to explain everything to him. [laughter] tried to imagine a white thirtysomething guy standing on the street and saying, are you gu

and essayist and critic for the new yorker and a professor of art history at columbia and university, schama has presented more than 30 documentaries for the bbc and pds including the power of art, and international emmy award winner. mr. schama has one literary and journalism prizes including the award for history, w.h. smith prize for literature, the national academy of arts and letters award and the national book critics circle award. he also loves to cook and we've seen a number of his recipes. his newest work, the american future, a history explores the 2008 presidential election from the historical perspective debating for topics, war, religion, race and immigration and the relationship between natural resources and prosperity mr. schama and examine these in the context of america's identity. before we bring mr. schama we will show a short clip from his documentary that shares the same name of his new book. ♪ >> it was a hard american winter a tough time for americans. but out there beneath the ice something big was stirring. and a weakening of, american democracy. this presiden

organizations come individual responsibility or organizational responsibility, the recent article in "the new yorker" which stated which is shocking of the cost of care and make dollars in taxes and el paso 30 miles down the road it was $50,000 per person under federal medicaid and el paso was $7,500 per person in. so quite remarkable. if we don't address that type of issue then the question is why is that? because of malpractice insurance, over testing, kinds of medicine but i think we should talk about that. >> if you read that article is a culture of the excess with respect to the provision of care. i have been thinking if the way this willow go in this once in a generation time where congress gets it right with respect to the broad aspect of reform that have been discussed, and then the time created for those implementation activities it to take place, that becomes the critical time for those of us were mental-health advocates come and knock on wood, but we will have reform and parity will be included, but we think. so to keep a fresh eye on reform but that creates a playing field for change. th

united states in the middle of this purple and had insulted truman and made statements really that new yorkers were anti-semitic. making and nasty statement about the jews -- >> no, what he said is americans wanted jews to go to palestine because they don't want them in new york. laughter pos connect anyway, s.o.b. went to the new york yankees stadium and the entire stadium the announced earnest bevin is here and the entire yankee stadium booed. [laughter] [applause] >> good thing he wasn't at a dodgers game. [laughter] one of the figure i would like you to touch upon at a little more length is clark clifford because he seems to have played an instrumental role, and to what extent is this a function of clifford's convictions? how is it he came to be the counterweight to george marshall in the final arguments that were offered to truman? >> as i said in my paper he was influenced by rosenman and spent a lot of time with him and i don't think he had strong feelings about zionism before. but he became a zionist. he was extremely instrumental in what happened and laying out all the arguments for t

middle of this period and bevan had really insulted truman and bevan really made that statement that new yorkersook as antisemetic. he made some caustic, nasty statement in the jews in new york. >> americans want the jews to go to palestine because they don't want them in new york. >> right. [laughter] >> so anyway, bevan came to the u.s. and i think he went to the yankees game at yankee stadium and the entire yankee stadium they announced ernest bevan here and the entire yankee stadium booed him. [laughter] >> good thing he wasn't at a dodgers game. [applause] >> one other figure i'd like to you touch upon a little bit more, a little more at length is clark clifford because he seems to have played really an instrumental role. and to what extent is this a function of clifford's convictions. how is it that he came to be the counter-weight to george marshall in the final arguments that were offered to truman. >> well, as i said in my paper, he was very influenced by rosaman and spent a lot of time with him and he didn't have strong feelings about zionism before him but he became a zionist -- he wa

cost localities like my where literally hundreds of thousands of hours have been lost by broughtic new yorkers, particularly in homeland security jobs like police and fire and e.m.s. going off to fight on the front and jet the city taxpayers still wind up paying for it. it is hundreds of thousands of hours that have been lost. obviously the primary cost of the war is the lost life and injured men and women who serve for us. we should always keep them in our thoughts and prayers. there also is a growing cost to localities, particularly ones with profound numbers of employees that new york city does, how much this is costing. the g.a.o. will have to come back to us, tell all of us in our localities how many reservist vs. gone off and the local taxpayers wind up picking up the cost. these are posh things to know and i thank the chairman to include it. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from california has seven minutes remaining. and the gentleman from missouri has 1 1/2 minutes remaining. mr. mckeon: we continue to reserve. the chair: the gentleman from california continu

he was a new yorker so he remembered bygart from his time at the herald tribune and the times. bygart's great skill set was that he didn't mind being a jerk or an ass hole. not like an ass hole but like a goof. i'm serious. journalism is supposed to be an innately curious profession. i can't tell you the number of people i worked with that didn't want to be seen asking stupid questions, or didn't want to be seen asking any question, or didn't want to ask a question where it wasn't clear they already knew the answer and they were trying to catch you. the idea of a journalist asking -- sort of walking into a room and saying, gee, i don't understand any of this, help me. there's a great story about -- bygart had a terrible speech impediment and they didn't let him be a reporter until his 30s at the herald tribune because they thought, he's an idiot. he's a copy boy. finally they let him be a reporter and he was great. i mean, he was just pulling back things as a metro reporter nobody else was getting. he won his first pulitzer. he went up in the elevator with laguardia. he went up

it is due to be new yorker rim again for co-chairman conyers, it is good to see you. thank you for your distinguished leadership on the full committee curve. my good friend ranking member sensenbrenner thank you for your leadership as well and all members of the committee. it is good to be back to a committee that the holden fund admiration. as you know, my background, but my background has been principally in law enforcement and security as well as an elective office but both as united states attorney, head of the dea and homeland security obviously. we handle national-security matters, sensitive matters at the highest level. and, i'd bring that background to this committee and i would emphasize certain principles that i think should be followed as you address this import legislation. first, as has been acknowledged this morning already there is a national security interest in protecting state secrets. this is not a figment of anybody's imagination. there are state secrets. there are things we don't want the public to know answered my our enemy should not know that.

he recently in an article in "the new yorker" talked about the disparity of costs around the united states for medicare. it is clear in some parts of the country -- and he was speaking of mcallen, texas -- the cost for medicare patients are dramatically higher than other places. we can bring costs down to a reasonable level and try to take control of a system that's currently out of control. but we can't do it if every day we are reminded of problems that don't exist. and that's what we've heard from the other side of the aisle. they're arguing that we want to take away people's health insurance. absolutely false. we've said if you like your health insurance, you can keep it. they're arguing that we want the government to take over the health care system. i haven't run into anybody who suggested that. what we want to do is have private health insurance and have a public option, which the senator from new york is going to address in just a moment as i close here. this is an important debate for every single american. it is time for us to put together a reform that assures quality affordable

an orange like a zit on him or something, so at that point i guess i kind of channeled my inner new yorker. i said i am not going to wait another 24 hours to wait another day to get this mt. rushmore shot. not too much tourists were around. so i said, please get off abraham lincoln's head, i'm taking a picture. so at that point, the park ranger heard what i was sailing, he was very upset, he walked up to me and he said, cause me, sir, -- excuse me, sir, that's not going to happen any time soon. that is the superintendent of the national parks, he's in charge of every park west of the mississippi river. what can you do? i waited for mr. orange t-shirt to get off. ultimately he stepped around, he was out of shot, out of sight and in an eighth of a second, i had the shot. i'll always remember that superintendent and i'm sure he'll remember me too. other shots that i take are ordinary, and i would say that's, i specialize in photographing ordinary america on an ordinary day. this is is where joe shmo comes in of because it's through the lens, which is frequently a bird's eye lens, i look for t

speaker, this week "the new yorker" reported on the c.i.a.'s abduction rendition and torturing of an innocent man. a businessman named halid was abduct in one country, renditioned to another where he was stripped neighborhood and chained and given pute rid water to drink. a number of c.i.a. officials believed from the beginning that he was innocent. but his c.i.a. supervisor who has since been promoted twice overruled them of the funally, 149 days later, they went over the supervisor's head, insisting that his innocence be ac knowledged and got him released. another c.i.a. captive froze to death chained to a concrete floor and was buried in an unmarked grave. mr. speaker, as director panetta tries to restore the agency's reputation, it is necessary that he not only acknowledge the wrongs of the past but that he not promote those who committed them. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee rise? >> mr. speaker, i request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro te

i know at new yorkers suffered a great loss but the nation needs a more accurate and i also think it is refitting as we come back to congress and begin to put the nuts and bolts on our health care reform legislation the first hearing is with fda because i believe we'll began not with an overhaul and better resource in a separate and drug administration, from the food safety enhancement act that we're looking at and drafted and and the family smoking and control act of 2009 looking at a new fda and have the talent and the opportunity to make this important institution in ways better serve the health of the american public also fostering, guiding and supporting the bringing a new and better treatment to us as well. i have confidence in a better race doris fda with more authority and one that is not overly prescriptive. i don't want to be overly prescriptive on what we tell the agency to do but hope we can allow to do is john based on a clear authority, adequate resources and sound science. in the case of food safety in this my first three months on this committee by been alarmed to fin

one of the articles that is making the rounds on capitol hill was written in the "new yorker" magazine on union 1 bay boston surgeon and he went to mcallen, texas, and tried to understand why the cost per medicare patient there at $15,000 a year was so high, dramatically higher than many of the comparable cities in the state of texas and around the nation. well, what he found to his surprise and disappointment was that the doctors and hospitals in those areas were really bundling up and charging people as much as possible, ordering procedures that were unnecessary, doing things that weren't called for. the reason was obvious: there was money to be made. as long as they kept piling on the medical bills onto patients through medicare, they received more reimbursement. they didn't have healthier people. they didn't have an outcome that justified it. but they made a lot more money in the process. what the president has said to us is, with all of this money in the system, we have to find ways to bring in more efficiency. it's one thing to say that 48 million americans currently uninsured wi

want to commend our colleague, the distinguished chairperson of the rules committee, my fellow new yorker, ms. slaughter, for introducing this resolution. it is imperative that the house of representatives speak with the united voice in condemning this crime. it is a sad reminder that medical personnel are still at risk from armed extremists who are willing to resort to deadly violence in order to advance their causes. even when they quote their cause is in the language of life. there can never be room in the free society for the use of deadly violence to advance a cause. it is against everything this country stansdz for. i have no doubt there isn't a single member of this house who would disagree. this resolution renews our commitment to the quote, american principle, the tolerance must always be superior to intolerance and violence is never an appropriate response to differences in belief, unquote. as the -- deplorable this murder was, it was more reprehensible because this victim was targeted as he was leaving church. in the past 10 years, 38 people have been murdered in their place of

in fact, there was an article in the new yorker that show that even within texas there was a huge disparity of health care costs for similar populations. we want to change that. we want to emphasize more preventive services and primary care services and organize delivery in terms that are called the medical homes, providers getting together and figuring out the best care. too often what we're seeing is people go to a doctor who is overworked, has to see as many patients as possible giving as little time as the doctor may have, and then when there is a complaint they will send the not for another test which, of course, the system has to pay for or send them to a specialist. what we need our doctors to be able to spend time with their patients and find out what is going on in prevent these problems from getting worse. >> you talk about havel and loving plainfield, does that mean and that's how are you going to save money and effort and saving without public plan? >> the committees are going to decide all of these issues obviously but the way we envision a public plan is and will operate the w

this comes from the "new yorker" magazine. it is about texas towns and it says between 2001 and 2005, critically ill medicare patients received almost 50% more specialist visits in mcallen, texas, than in el paso, and were more likely to see so 10 or more specialists, why? there's a different approach to care and that is providing more care, providing more surgical procedures, etc., doing more tests, that were not necessarily warranted. you have another area like where the mayo clinic is up in rochester, minnesota, where that dominates the scene. they have fan as itically high levels of this. but it's medicare spending is in the lowest 15% of the country. $6,000 per enrollee in 2006 which is $8,000 less than for mcallen, texas. i bring that up to say that in u.s. it is part of what you're describing, access -- patients need access to these tests but we also need to make sure that physicians and nurses and all medical specialists are getting the information they need to make sure that quality is what we're driving here. and you

important article for people to read and they can go online to find it it is from the june 1st "new yorker" magazine, a man who is a surgeon in boston, an indian surgeon, wrote an article about health care in america today. he won't go into detail about what he found, but it's an eye opener. because he went to one of the most expensive cities in america when it comes to treating medicare patients. it's mccowen, texas, and he couldn't figure out why they were spending $15,000 a year for medicare patients, dramatically more than other towns in text and around the country. what he found, unfortunately, is that many of the doctors in that city were treating elderly patients by running up their charges, by ordering unnecessary tests, by ordering hospitalizations and things that weren't being ordered in other cities. the reason is that there was a financial incentive. the more tests, the more procedures, the more hospitalizations that you can charge to medicare, the more the doctor was paid. well, the doctor went down to meet with the doctors, confronted them, there was no ex ma -- other explana

last week "the new yorker" magazine had a article that shows the work done in mason county, colorado. this community came together, doctors, nurses and the nonprofit health insurance company. they agreed upon a system that paid doctors and nurses for seeing patients and producing better quality care. they realize that problems and costs go down when care is more patient focused. in mason county the city of grand junction integrated a health care system that provides followup care with patients. this followup care helped to lower hospital admission rates in grand junction to just 3%. compare that to the 20% rate nationwide and it is clear that our community on the western slope of colorado is on to something groundbreaking. high readmission rates is significant for seniors. one in five medicare patients who leave the hospital are readmitted in one month and three-quarters are preventible. rehospitalization costs medicare over $17 billion a year. it is painful for patients and families to be caught up in these cycles of treatment. all too often care is fragmented. you go from the doctor