given the opening set the copenhagen summit, what is the panel's view on president obama 's strategy of going to copenhagen where the emissions target has not been part of the rapid-fire administration? i would be interesting to hear what the republican review of the u.s. responsibility if there is a definitive agreement and copenhagen when the president comes back. corpse we spent 15 minutes about -- >> we spent 50 minutes talking about politics. >> in the larger sense, the question of climate change comes down to if a has been and the constant is human history, it has been, climate change. the severity and the involvement of human policies in all that is the big question. from a larger sense. how we approach airport with a notion that all of us, want to make sure we leave this planet a cleaner place. how we strike cut balance, given the party of getting this economy back on track, police central to any republican response. but there is much reticence to embrace the cap and trade plan because most are convinced on our side of the aisle have that this is an ill-conceived plan that wi

the other side perhaps led by dick chey, a movement that essentially sang barack obama is shutting down guantanamo and 'sding things that healls torture, all this is gointo make us weaker. and they will say if g forbid thers ever any kind of an attack on ameran interests that obama encourad this. so here he is trying to doll these ings at once and i think all those things were in the speech. >> lehrer: joe bottum, do yo agree there's some polits at work here as well as mality and all ese other things we've been talking about >> for the president of e uned states, there is always politicst work, that's what it means to be the prident. so of courseou're right. and that onlcontributes to the kind of intellectual incerence of the speech. the estion, i think, which the verend forbes brought out is e we actually going to see a practical result from this? for politics it's the sciee of the praccal. is can be incoherent at some high lev, if a high level at which th speech was pitched. is iactually going to issue in a practical reading of that needle of finding those o sides and finding a y between them? i'm t su

given the opening set the copenhagen summit, what is the panel's view on president obama 's strategy of going to copenhagen where the emissions target has not been part of the rapid-fire administration? i would be interesting to hear what the republican review of the u.s. responsibility if there is a definitive agreement and copenhagen when the president comes back. corpse we spent 15 minutes about -- >> we spent 50 minutes talking about politics. >> in the larger sense, the question of climate change comes down to if a has been and the constant is human history, it has been, climate change. the severity and the involvement of human policies in all that is the big question. from a larger sense. how we approach airport with a notion that all of us, want to make sure we leave this planet a cleaner place. how we strike cut balance, given the party of getting this economy back on track, police central to any republican response. but there is much reticence to embrace the cap and trade plan because most are convinced on our side of the aisle have that this is an ill-conceived plan that wi

president obama s. con. res. man matheson pointed out sent a bill to accomplish this objective and had a press conference at the white house where all of us attended seeing statutory paygo was a priority of the obama administration. fiscal responsibility needed to be the focus of the congress and of the american people and of the white house. with the help of the blue dogs and all democrats who understand importance of fiscal responsibility, the house has repeatedly passed statutory paygo and attached it to bills we've sent to the senate. those include the bills on medicare doctor payments and the estate tax. now we are here to make it clear that with legislation on the debt limit included in the defense appropriation bill statutory paygo will be included as well. that is fitting because our commitment to fiscal discipline will determine whether or not our children and grandchildren have the funds to defend our nation, make investments in their future. without committing ourselves to the discipline of paygo, that

s. what is interesting about obama's election is it takes you back to the forefront. >> in 1996, and we saw the dreadlocks. did you feel differently about the world? >> i had to redreads for several years. basically, it was not a hair -- it was here in knots -- hair in knots. i had the privilege of having some bosses at in this nbc -- at msnbc that saw it as a plus. even when i worked for bill gray, that was the first time i thought that i might have to cut my hair. i went down to my first day of my internship and i thought they would say that i would have to go cut my hair and come back. i was not sure what i would do if they said that. they sent me down to get my id laminated. there are various junctions' where it was not considered so radical. it was a part of who i was. they were cool with it. fast forward. i went back to school and after having been in the national spotlight a little bit, i decided i wanted to be anonymous as a graduate student. i also had this idea that you should change your hair cut once a decade and that was coming up on two. -- check that -- haircut once a dec

a spokesman for predent obama warned agast steps that prmpt negotiations. thailand sclosed down a refugee ca of more than 4,000 ethnic hmong,nd begun forcibly deporting them backo laos. gornment troops accompanied every truckload of portees today. the thai goverent said they are illegal immigrants and not political refugees. han rights groups said they fear thhmong will be persecuted in laos. the u.s. statdepartment asked thailand to stothe action. there was good newsoday for u.s. retlers. new data from master ca showed holiday spending was more than 3.5% over last yea and wall street gained todaas well. the dow jones industrl average was up nearly 27 pots to close at 10,547. the sdaq rose five points to close at 2291. those arsome of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the e of the prram with a preview of what you'll find tonighon the newshour'seb site. but for nowback to margaret. >> warner: now, weurn to the confntation in iran. the regime struck at its oppotion again today on the heels oyesterday's widespread bloodshe >at least seven leading reformctivists wer

and do you think that the change in these numbers is due to the actual substancand substantive s between obama and bush or is it more stylistic changes? i am trying to get you to go of a message and get too fired from the state department. [laughter] >> of course, we all wish to be liked. but we spend a lot of time talking about indicators for success and how do we know if we are following up on the president's words in cairo in a way that is meaningful. how do we know if we are actually putting meat on the bone, as i said. if we took public opinion as our main indicator, we would be making a mistake. public opinion can be affected by a variety of factors, only some of which we have any control over. public opinion, as we know from our experience in this country, can be cyclical. we have to go beyond that kind of superficial and care. we are really trying to the local. the program that i manage at the state department is, granted, just in the middle east, from morocco to iraq and the gulf, it is a program that is working to go local, to bring u.s. foreign assistance to the local level. about h

s. we voted for obama. hillary made the comment about iran. did anybody believe hillary was going to do anything differently? host: stella, you oppose the president. caller: i absolutely do. lewis carroll ruled "alice and the looking glass." i feel like we're fighting them over there so they do not come here. they are here. every attack has started from here. there was allusion in the president's speech about yemen and somalia. i think al-qaeda is absolutely lathing analysts. we chased them around and around. -- i think al-qaeda is absolutely laughing at us. the reasoning is impossible. also, follow the money. if this is costing us $1 million a soldier -- the soldiers are not getting anywhere near the top $1 million. where is that $1 million galene? if there has to be a war tax, let the people who are profiting financially from this horrible war pay the tax. host: what did you think about the president delivering a speech at the military academy at west point? caller: i regret saying that any time i hear any politicians speak right now it just

president obama id today he's getting 95% of what wanted on health care,s the u.s. senate prepares to vote >> woodruff: and i judy woodruff. on thenewshour" tonight, jim lehrer's fl interview with the president, conducted at e white use this afternoon. >> this tion that somehow the health carbill that is emergi should be grudgingly acceptedy democrats as half a loafs simply incorrect. this is 9-nths of a loaf. >> ifill: also tonightpublic outrage in mexo, where criminal gangs mdered four members of a soldi's family-- payback for his role in a ug raid. >> woodrf: then to somalia and its going crisis: we get an inside look, repted by john lee derson of "the new yorker." >> ifill: an he wasn't just a great compos. ♪ it turns o handel was a smart invest too. >> this wathe route to becomi rich quickly and handel was young, he was eager beaver. >> ifill: that's all ahead o tonighs "pbs newshour." major nding for the pbs newshour iprovided by: ♪ ( laughter ) >> we are intel, sponsors of tomorrow. >>hevron. this ithe power of human energy. and by toyota. and moanto. the nat

obama. is the president trying to push him out of office? then megapastor joes s os o os tiger woods. that's next on "larry king live." >> larry: susan powell's husband took their kids camping. when he returned the next afternoon 28-year-old susan was gone, nowhere to be found. her keys, purse and cell phone still at home. police say they're not ruling out foul play. with us are chuck cox, susan powell's father, and michael gifford, susan powell's good friend. he's known susan since she was 8 years old. chuck, how are you holding up? >> larry, it's a struggle and just day to day, basically. >> larry: you're in seattle. do they live in utah? >> yes. they're living in the west valley city of utah. >> larry: is that where she went missing? >> yes, it is. >> larry: when was the last time you spoke with your daughter? >> it's been two weeks ago on thursday. >> larry: was that shortly before she left or was taken? >> yeah. the thursday before she went missing. >> larry: your son-in-law, joshua, are you close, by the way? >> we're fairly close. yeah, we're fairly close. >> larry: your son-in

look at president obama's achievements in his first year in office with stephen hess of the brookings institute. that's live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> in the mid 1990'sm one of the 50 most influential people to watch in cyberspace. since then, he's created the social networking site blackplanet.com, helped found a charter school in brooklyn and explained new technologies on oprah. sunday night he talks about his current studies at harvard and what's ahead on c-span's q&a. >> former british ambassador christopher meyer testified before a committee examining the circumstances which led to the 2003 invasion of iraq. mr. meyer served as ambassador from 1997 through 2003 and authored the book "d.c. confidential," which received criticism from the british government. the former ambassador talked about his relationship with members of the bush administration and 10 downing street. in his testimony, he told members it was pointless to resist the u.s. charge to war. >> well, welcome, everyone. just a few opening remarks. the purpose of this session is to examine developments in the united states policy towards iraq between 2001 and 2003 and the u.k.'s respons

performed by national captioning institute] on the obama family's holiday vacation, and a look at how and where priest presidents have vacationed. >> in the mid 1990's, "newsweek" named omar wasow one of the most interesting people to watch. sunday night he talks about his current studies at harvard and what's ahead on c-span's q & a. >> friends and colleagues of late senator kennedy joined at the library to discuss the senator's legacy. they were joined by the senator's widow, vicki kennedy. this is just over an hour. [applause] >> that evening. -- that evening. on behalf of the chair of the kennedy library foundation board of directors and the chair of the board of the edward m. kennedy institute, i thank you for coming to this very special forum and thank those watching on c-span or listening on the radio. for me this fall will forever be a sacred space, the site chosen by senator kennedy himself and then duly consecrated by the tens of thousands who came to pay their last respects to him while he was lying in reposed in the center of this room. it was an honor for all of us associated with this institution to work with the centers legendary staf

s. at this time of year, his numbers were probably around 70. so it is all in front of us for president obama and we have to remember that. we need to take a deep breath with these polls. 53 -- 53% approval ratings when you have 10% unemployment? that is pretty impressive. guest: there is a fallacy that we fall into, assuming that trend follow current projections, six months later we could be saying that he was great, or maybe he was just as bad as a push. host: is there a concern on your part that the bush administration, clinton administration, obama administration will be defined by the polls and other than by the offense, or how they handle them -- events, or how they handle them? guest: i do not think so. bush left with a record low numbers. guest: truman left office with lower numbers than george bush. presidents are judged by who came after them, what happened, the fruits of their labor. when the post-mortem of the eisenhower was written, everyone talks about the shah in iran. even now, i think it is too early to write about the legacy about george bush. guest: i think that is a good p

s. but i do believe that our country is in a change. i do believe that obama is doing a great job in dealing with what and in terms of what he has to deal with. i just hope that our republican -- all of the republican leaders will work with him in this next term, in terms of 2010 and we'll get into the second part of his election. i'm just saddened with the republican party, because they won't help him. he's willing to reach out. they refuse to work with him. and they fofe let's give obama a chance. and let the republican party work with him rather than against him. host: all right. sharon, thanks for your call. our next call is from ben in conroe, texas. good morning, ben, you're on the democrats line. caller: good morning. this is ben. host: go ahead, ben. caller: like the last woman the republican party don't do nothing. when people talk about taking away rights, can you talk about the terry schiavo's case, didn't the wife that was brain damaged and the republican party is for rich and rich only and poor trash, they going to get y'all in the end. that's the

obama presents the white house's christmas decorations. there is a forum on the political landscape. later, our look inside blair house. in the mid 1990's"newsweek" named omar wasow one of the people to watch in cyberspace. he helped found a charter school in brooklyn. sunday, he talks about his career studies at harvard and what is ahead. and now, first lady michelle obama and the ceo of toys for tots. the first lady

s. so, mr. president, we need a new fed. we need a new wall street. and we surely need a new chairman of the fed. my hope is that president obama will give us a new nominee and not mr. bernanke. with that, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: who yields time? a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. baucus: mr. president, might i ask how much time's remaining on each side. the presiding officer: on the majority side, nine minutes and 20 seconds. on the minority side 23 minutes and 10 seconds. mr. baucus: mr. president, i yield nine minutes and how many seconds? the presiding officer: nine minutes an 11 seconds. mr. baucus: i yield nine minutes and 11 seconds to the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: i'm sad to see that our republican colleagues have resorted to fear tactics in a desperate attempt to preserve a dysfunctional, costly status quo medical system that we have in this country today. republicans in their attempt to strike fear in seniors across the country are trying to convince people that they've changed from the party that's always opposed to medicare to being medicare's staunc

performed by national captioning institute] on the obama family's holiday vacation, and a look at how and where priest presidents have vacationed. >> in the mid 1990'slks about his current studies at harvard and what's ahead on c-span's q & a. >> friends and colleagues of late senator kennedy joined at the library to discuss the senator's legacy. they were joined by the senator's widow, vicki kennedy. this is just over an hour. [applause] >> that evening. -- that evening. on behalf of the chair of the kennedy library foundation board of directors and the chair of the board of the edward m. kennedy institute, i thank you for coming to this very special forum and thank those watching on c-span or listening on the radio. for me this fall will forever be a sacred space, the site chosen by senator kennedy himself and then duly consecrated by the tens of thousands who came to pay their last respects to him while he was lying in reposed in the center of this room. it was an honor for all of us associated with this institution to work with the centers legendary staff, many of whom are here with us tonight, and to be part of those hallowed days in august. wh

hs%iñ on the issue of unemployment benefits, this twitter comment -- as long as president obama continuesnemployment, people will not seek a job. ronald, good morning. caller: i am not retired, i am young. i have been fired. i am a security guard. i was fired a couple of weeks ago. i have been searching for jobs. i have had problems with my rent and no one will help me. host: why were you fired? caller: i was doing security at a bank from 7:00 in the afternoon until 3:00 in the morning. when i came back from my break the supervisor asked where i was and i said where -- that i was at lunch. then i was fired. host: great falls, montana. how long have you been out of work? caller: %a@@@@ @ ' >> it burned up in the beginning of november. i graduated in june. before then, i was on social security because my mother died when i was a freshman. i had all my cell phone bills paid for. i was ok. my grandfather took us in. i graduated. i figured, you know, i might get a job. everything was ok. the roller-coaster was not too bad. ever since my job burnt up, i have not been able to find a lot of work.

republican and democrat, but i was struck with hell likable obama it is, even among the republicans. ronald reagan tried on that in the 1980's. -- ronald reagan thrived on that in the 1980's. >> half of them did not even know who reid was. >> everyone has some amount of anger, and has shifted to pelosi and congress. >> i would go back to, for the obama people, he is our guy. i don't think democrat or republican leaders in congress could find any solace. >> i was astounded that the poster for ronald reagan referred to walter mondale as a great president. if barack obama grow a convertible with the top down through a car wash, congress would get wet. he has a teflon quality right now. i don't think it is perpetual. i think he has been given the benefit of the doubt and a long leash, but a year from tonight, we are looking at 12% or 11% unemployment, we will see a far different reaction. the willingness to blame both parties of congress, congress as an institution, rather than him. no one blamed him. it was just remarkable. i really think the wall street thing is just sitting there. i cannot believe the republicans are not runn

obama has actually done that. he believes that he was elected primarily to s wage way deals, and that we may have a problem moving forward because of this. he concludes with -- he concludes with -- he is a president that comes to us out of our national insecurities. thoughts? caller: i cannot say with certainty who said it, but i am going to be guessing john or robert kennedy. i mean, i do not think that barack obama was elected because of national white guilt. i think he and his campaign did a pretty good job of notç makig him the black presidential candidate, the presidential candidate who was black. i think that was not a defining characteristic, and for most voters was not a defining characteristic. caller: he carried the demographic under-30 voters by the biggest gap ever, a gap that you do not see. the appeals to a generation of americans who are frankly tired of talking about race. it is boring to them. they think racism is wrong, let's move on. they are more liberal than their elders, but they think social security ought to be addressed, they would not say as michael moore did that it was a fictitious wa

obama administration owns that political hot potato. why would i ever want to take it back? all the more so in congress's view, because the e.p.a.'s command-and-control threat may yet prove hollow. now that the endangerment finding has become reality, the litigation is also about to become real. green groups pioneered in the art of environmental lawsuits, it turns out the business community took careful notes, industry groups are gearing up for a legal onslaught and don't underestimate their prospects. the leaked e-mails from the climate research unit in england are a gold mine for those who want to challenge the science underlying the theory of manmade global warming. but the e.p.a.'s legal vulnerabilities go beyond that. the agency derives its authority to regulate pollutants from the clean air act. to use the law to regulate greenhouse gases, the e.p.a. has to prove those gases are harmful to human health. that's the endangerment finding. one of those is co2, and i'm breathing that out right now. put another way, it must provide science showing a slightly warmer earth will cause america's injury or death. given the most climate

i grew up in the 1980's, and politics just was not as relevant as it is today. çyoungçó people were empoweredy the obamampaign and they feel likeç they can make any sort of change that they are interested in. host:w3ç the harvard institutef host: the new release of the survey, we link that to our website, c-span.org. john della volpe, thank you for being with us this morning. that will about do it for " washington journal." back to morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. have a great day. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> c-span christmas day, a look ahead to 2010 politics, including republican congressman eric cantor, and buzzç aldrin d fellow astronauts on the legacy of apollo 11, a discussion of the role a muslims in america, then a cia intelligence officer on eve of the strategy against al qaeda and afghanistan and remembering the lives of william f. buckley,ç jr., and senator d kennedy. >> just about a month left to enter c-span's 2010 student cam contest, $50,000 in prizes for middle and high school students, top prize, $5

s with e american people. i think we kind ofet them down her we're going to be trsparent negotiations on healthare. they we even going to be on c-span according to present obama. at the end of the dawhat ppened was they got the 60th vote behind closed doors there was no republins in the room. no docrats really. this is thold way of doing business on stoids. the nebraska deais not going to go well with the erican people. i'going to have a hard time going back to uth carolina and say that our micare rolls are going to eand by 500,000 people. 30% of my state is aican- american. a lot of low-income pele. a loof particularly low-income african-amerans. my state is at 12% unemployment. the matchi portion for south carolina igoing to increase by a billion dollars b if you live in nebraska, e new enrollees in medicaid there will be pa for by the federagovernment in peetuity. i dot think most americans feel like that's a change that we can believe in. buthat's just one problem. the assumpon in this bill to get it to redung the deficit isot going to happen. we're not going to cut medicare b$470 billion. fo years ago we tried to reduce iby $10 billion and codn't get the

obama sort of downsizing the war on terror, compartment liesing it a little bit more, rather than making it as sweeping and broad as the bush administration did. but we covered our respective governments or p.m.'s at the time, an seeing tony blair, the british public wasn't there at all. certainly not on iraq and not even on afghanistan as much. so you're seeing that. the notion of the nato alliance and maybe it's going to pledge 7,000 additional troops, you know, it's nice to have a coalition of the willing, but this is america's war. we're going to have 100,000 troops there. we own this thing. and the british, frankly, they've been there, seen it and said, no, thanks. but i mean, there's a view -- i'm not saying that they haven't been in afghanistan, but you're seeing more what you described, which is we just don't want to have a sustained commitment there. >> and i think oddly enough americans don't see the british as european. you ask someone, are these -- they don't, they don't. [laughter] >> let's go to the questions from the audience, who would like to ask? >> right here. >> yes. wait for the microphone to come. >> oh, there's people here. [laughter] >> yes, could you say who you are. >>

s. at this time of year, his numbers were probably around 70. so it is all in front of us for president obama and we have to remember that. we need to take a deep breath with these polls. 53 -- 53% approval ratings when you have 10% unemployment? that is pretty impressive. guest: there is a fallacy that we fall into, assuming that trend follow current projections, six months later we could be saying that he was great, or maybe he was just as bad as a push. host: is there a concern on your part that the bush administration, clinton administration, obama administration will be defined by the polls and other than by the offense, or how they handle them -- events, or how they handle them? guest: i do not think so. bush left with a record low numbers. guest: truman left office with lower numbers than george bush. presidents are judged by who came after them, what happened, the fruits of their labor. when the post-mortem of the eisenhower was written, everyone talks about the shah in iran. even now, i think it is too early to write about the legacy about george bush. guest: i think that is a good p

s. but i do believe that our country is in a change. i do believe that obamas doing a great job in dealing with what and in terms of what he has to deal with. i just hope that our republican -- all of the republican leaders will work with him in this next term, in terms of 2010 and we'll get into the second part of his election. i'm just saddened with the republican party, because they won't help him. he's willing to reach out. they refuse to work with him. and they fofe let's give obama a chance. and let the republican party work with him rather than against him. host: all right. sharon, thanks for your call. our next call is from ben in conroe, texas. good morning, ben, you're on the democrats line. caller: good morning. this is ben. host: go ahead, ben. caller: like the last woman the republican party don't do nothing. when people talk about taking away rights, can you talk about the terry schiavo's case, didn't the wife that was brain damaged and the republican party is for rich and rich only and poor trash, they going to get y'all in the end. that's the o

hs%iñ on the issue of unemployment benefits, this twitter comment -- as long as president obama continuesnemployment, people will not seek a job. ronald, good morning. caller: i am not retired, i am young. i have been fired. i am a security guard. i was fired a couple of weeks ago. i have been searching for jobs. i have had problems with my rent and no one will help me. host: why were you fired? caller: i was doing security at a bank from 7:00 in the afternoon until 3:00 in the morning. when i came back from my break the supervisor asked where i was and i said where -- that i was at lunch. then i was fired. host: great falls, montana. how long have you been out of work? caller: just a few months. i was working at a pizza place, but it burned up by the beginning of november. i graduated in june. before that i was on social security, my mother died when i was a freshman. i was ok, my things were being paid for. when i graduated i figured i would get a job. everything seemed ok, the roller-coaster was not too bad. but ever since my job burned up, i have been out of work. i have not been able

obama presents the white house's christmas decorations. there is a forum on the political landscape. later, our look inside blair house. in the mid 1990's"newsweek" named omar wasow one of the people to watch in cyberspace. he helped found a charter school in brooklyn. sunday, he talks about his career studies at harvard and what is ahead. and now, first lady michelle obama and the ceo of toys for tots. the first lady thanked his staff who decorated the white

look at president obama's achievements in his first year in office with stephen hess of the brookings institute. that's live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> in the mid 1990's0 most influential people to watch in cyberspace. since then, he's created the social networking site blackplanet.com, helped found a charter school in brooklyn and explained new technologies on oprah. sunday night he talks about his current studies at harvard and what's ahead on c-span's q&a. >> former british ambassador christopher meyer testified before a committee examining the circumstances which led to the 2003 invasion of iraq. mr. meyer served as ambassador from 1997 through 2003 and authored the book "d.c. confidential," which received criticism from the british government. the former ambassador talked about his relationship with members of the bush administration and 10 downing street. in his testimony, he told members it was pointless to resist the u.s. charge to war. >> well, welcome, everyone. just a few opening remarks. the purpose of this session is to examine developments in the united states policy towards iraq between 2001 and 2003 and the u.k.'s response, and we're c

promises made to the veterans in the 1960's, how host: ok last phone call this morning on what you want from a health care bill. >> at 8:00 p.m. eastern, president obama will deliver a national address from the u.s. military academy at west point. the president will lay out his plan for u.s. troop levels and american involvement in afghanistan. he's expected to announce an order to deploy 30,000 more troops and detail the afghan government's changing role in the war. we'll air the president's speech on one of the three c-span networks, along with c-span.org and c-span radio. a live picture on c-span2 of the -- of senator orrin hatch debating and the rest of the senate tonight continuing a second day of floor debate on h.r. 4590, on the $848 billion plan to expand health insurance coverage. among amendments debated today, one by senator barbara mccullskey of maryland to include preventive kir for women. we spoke earlier today with a capitol hill reporter about the progress of the health care debate. >> how is the senate debate on health care going? >> it's going well so far, i guess, from the perspective of the senators. there hasn't been a lot of subs

afghanistan will be hard and the progress there likely u)s& be slower than developing than was the progress achieved in iraq. as president obama has observed. success in afghanistan is vital for america's security. qaeda.ssential to defeat al the all right. ban we're fighting in afghanistan today the same that sheltered osama bin laden and al qaeda as they planned the 9/11 attacks. al qaeda as they planned the 9/11 attacks. the relationship between these groups remains strong. as sent gates observed last week, the taliban and al qaeda have become symbiotic, siege benefited from the success and mythology of the other. the afghan taliban are to the sure distinct from the pakistani taliban and their partner groups which also have close relationships with al qaeda. the pakistani pal btaliban are part of a sindt gated group. carrying out many other groups. that threatens the stability of pakistan and afghanistan and indeed the entire subcontinent. although most taliban fighters confronting our forces are local afghans motivated by local circumstances, the afghan taliban leadership is organized, ideologically motivated and a beacon

you know, if i was obama, i would not even try to do anything because you have got all the white folk who are still living in the '40'sntil they get rid of all of these white folks and the young people take over and do not see all of these prejudiced old white folks. host: thank you from cleveland, ohio. we will be reassuring -- rearing the presentation 8:00 p.m. eastern on friday night. next call from new britain, pa., maggie, republican line. caller: i would like to comment that i see obama at exactly the same as bush. i call him o-bush-a because he has escalated the war, does not want to investigate 9/11. it was an inside job done by our own government. people have to wake up. it is not right or left. it is right and wrong. get on the internet and just type in "building 7." start there, but do something. stop hating republicans and democrats. it has nothing to do with that. it has to do with world government. basically, obama has hired wall street to run our country. host: thanks for col. some headlines about afghanistan today. in the "new york times"ha poll mixed with skepticism. ñr also in the "washington times

obama. >> we have the strongest health care reforms we have ever seen in this bill. the whole argument about a patient's bill of rights in the 1990'sthis is patient's bill of rights on steroids. it reduces the deficit. . c-span >> i think that would have helped. >> the message from the new york stalt young democrats. they write, they are pleased they will pass the healthcare re c all have coverage. >> and a writing set to be on a slate of provisions set to kick in six months. those changes wouldn't fafkt people to who buy insurance on their own. later on, the most powerful insurance markets don't take affect until 2014. and insurance companies plan to get all healthy people into the system before. starting that, insurers would no longer be able to charge older people more than three times as much for insurance. democrats thinking that what we have done so will blow over, they are very wrong. >> anthony on the phone, you are opposed to the bill. >> very much so. >> tell us why. >> i'm 68 years old. i worked until i was 65, for my own benefit, really. then i retired. last year, i acquired cancer. what bothers me is i'm still receivin

obama. >> we have the strongest health care reforms we have ever seen in this bill. the whole argument about a patient's bill of rights in the 1990's -- this is patient's bill of rights on steroids. it reduces the deficit. . c-span >> i think that would have helped. >> the message from the new york stalt young democrats. they write, they are pleased they will pass the healthcare reform so we can all have coverage. >> and a writing set to be on a slate of provisions set to kick in six months. those changes wouldn't fafkt people to who buy insurance on their own. later on, the most powerful insurance markets don't take affect until 2014. and insurance companies plan to get all healthy people into the system before. starting that, insurers would no longer be able to charge older people more than three times as much for insurance. democrats thinking that what we have done so will blow over, they are very wrong. >> anthony on the phone, you are opposed to the bill. >> very much so. >> tell us why. >> i'm 68 years old. i worked until i was 65, for my own benefit, really. then i retired. last year, i acquired cancer. what bothers me is i'

obama. the medicare and medicaid cost shifts will be increased significantly under the democrats' health care reform bills. according to c.b.o.'s estimate, medicaid will be increased by more than 40% from 35 million to 50 million people by the end of the budget window 2019. additionally, the bill includes almost half a trillion dollars in medicare cuts which will result in lower payments to providers. the actuaries at millman consulting studied the current cost shifting resulting from medicare and medicaid underpaying providers and millman found that this cost shift for medicare and medicaid totaled almost $89 billion per year, adding $1,788 to the current family health insurance policy. increasing the current medicare and medicaid cost shifts as a result of this 2,074-page health reform bill before us would add even more costs to family health insurance policies. the easier cost shift to address would be the $1,700 cost shift from defensive medicine. the democrats do not address cost shift from defensive medicine, which dr. mark mcclellan, former head of -- of c.m.s. and daniel kessler estimated adds $1,700 in additional costs

obama sort of downsizing the war on terror, compartment liesing it a little bit more, rather than making it as sweeping and broad as the bush administration did. but we covered our respective governments or p.m.'s at the time, an seeing tony blair, the british public wasn't there at all. certainly not on iraq and not even on afghanistan as much. so you're seeing that. the notion of the nato alliance and maybe it's going to pledge 7,000 additional troops, you know, it's nice to have a coalition of the willing, but this is america's war. we're going to have 100,000 troops there. we own this thing. and the british, frankly, they've been there, seen it and said, no, thanks. but i mean, there's a view -- i'm not saying that they haven't been in afghanistan, but you're seeing more what you described, which is we just don't want to have a sustained commitment there. >> and i think oddly enough americans don't see the british as european. you ask someone, are these -- they don't, they don't. [laughter] >> let's go to the questions from the audience, who would like to ask? >> right here. >> yes. wait for the microphone to come. >> oh, there's people here. [laughter] >> yes, could you say who you are. >>

obama definitely is the most impressive political figure. host: republican side. tina, florida. caller: hillary clinton. she has done more than anybody. we've come through far. i lived through the 1980's came in the '90s and cleaned up bush's mess, i learned right there how to live and not to trust what was going on. they put us through jobs, they gave as jobs, five. trillion surplus to our country. she had a mess on her hands and cheese but it into gold and she is still there. i respect barack obama for picking her as secretary of state although he made a mistake, he should have announced he was going to do it before hand, a lot more people would have voted for him if he had. host: from the national journal's insiders poll, which cabinet secretary most impressed you appeared at secretary of state hillary clinton wins on the democratic side with both congressional and political insiders. with republicans she comes in first with congressional insiders followed by robert gates for political insiders and the republican side. dick on independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i believe president obama is the most impressive political figure on the u.s. landscape at the moment

. >> host: and "the politico"'s 44 posting this morning, their focus on the president does indicate that president obamaay say something about the incident in the administration's efforts sometime this week. to new york city, mike's on our independent lines. is more security needed? >> caller: yes, hello, good morning. >> host: good morning. >> caller: is more security needed? absolutely not. people need to do their jobs. what happened is there was a man in a suit, a very well-dressed man who got this nigerian onto the plane without a passport. so this man should have never been on the plane to begin with, number one. number two, this man's father who is a very high-level banker in nigeria -- >> host: right. >> caller: -- called the fbi and told the fbi that his son was an extreme radical. so between the fact that the father called the fbi and informed them that the son is an extreme radical, right there he should have been on a no-fly list which already exists. and number two, the guy didn't have a pass port, so he shouldn't have got on the plane, and number three, who is the well-dressed man? they nee

s-sierra, which is the statute that brought servicemembers are in discrimination when they were turned to the civilian workforce. in the first eight months of the obamaadministration we have filed 18 cases. so we have picked up at pace of our efforts to protect servicemembers who are doing so much to defend our nation and then confront discrimination at home. we have dusted off our desperate impact theory that the fax support it whether it was in context from the voting context, the employment context. people accused the desperate impact theory because every court that is ruled on this has said that it is permissible to do so. and we are not the buffet line at the cafeteria anymore. some people don't like that line because they eat everything at the cafeteria. i couldn't do that. i could need all that stuff there. and so we are also ramping up our efforts in the voting context, recognizing that every ten years we have so much additional work to do above and beyond the robust case law -- the caseload that exists already and we are making very, very significant preparations to ensure that during this next cycle of redistricting that we are prepared and

s. [unintelligible] host: jaret, thank you for your long-term watching. we appreciate it. next is greg on the republican line. caller: i am a republican, but i switched to obamaause he said a change. but we are getting no change. we are getting continuous wars. he gave all this money to bernanke and his friends. i think mr. paul could get 40%. i think there are enough people are fed up in this country that it is time for him to run and he would get elected. host: there are two pieces i will share with you about ben bernanke and the fed. stephen ratner is the counselor to the treasury secretary and lead auto adviser. he was involved with the auto bailout program. the headline on this piece is "be fair to the bernanke." all of the lenders should have been responsive to the irresponsible lending practices. a different view from the lead editorial in the wall "wall open phones, atlanta, democrats line. caller: i wanted to talk to the last guess you had on. host: you will have to do it rhetorically, because he is gone now. caller: i know, but what troubles me is that we have people like him that come on -- i do not fault him for what he was saying, but it is not t

s. so, mr. president, we need a new fed. we need a new wall street. and we surely need a new chairman of the fed. my hope is that president obama will give us a new nominee and not mr. bernanke. >> federal reserve chairman ben bernanke says he is concerned about a proposal to audit the fed. that is part of a bank reform bill working its way through the house. the plan was proposed by republican representative ron paul of texas. he was on "washington journal for 40 minutes. >> former presidential candidate ron paul, a member -- is the guest our next program. thanks for coming in. one of the things i wanted to start with is the fact that ben bernanke is going to be up on the senate side of the hill today with a confirmation hearing on renomination of the position. you have been speaking out for quite a while now. it seems as though the course has gotten louder. you have been speaking out about the fed for a while now and it seems as though the chorus has gotten louder. guest: there is no doubt about it. it seems with the recession/depression people are worried and they are sending strong messages to washington. people are very co

s editorial paper takes on text taxes and healthcare bills. they said if your family earned less than $250,000 you will not see your taxes increase a single dime. president barack obamat address in february. congressional addresses are raising taxes on the middle taxes by stacks of dimes and senate democrats on tuesday made it cheer they won't be bound by the president's vow. 54 voted to kill i'd mo' republican mike kra crap o's. bill. those include a mandate of up to $750 a year for americans who fail to purchase health insurance, new levies on small business many of which file individuals tax returns that don't offer healthcare to employees and new tax penalties on health savings accounts flexible spending a counts. we're listening to your opinion. nq,t call is robins, north carolina. john, independent line. your on the air. caller: hello. yeah, this is my first time calling. c-span. i've been watching it on and off for the last several yearj and i try to keep up on things. i really agree with doctor dean, i thought thought should pass something but now i realize it's a poison pill and i trust doctor dean. i think obama has been co-opted by wall street and it's a s

s. meat-packing did not look nearly as bad then as it does now compared to being an insurance printer. cap-and-trade well put taxes on manufacturers of the way it is structured. obamasays he has a great deal from china and from copenhagen where the american manufacturing will not be disadvantaged. if you want to believe that one, we're going to be the two starting guards for the detroit pistons. [laughter] host: we have jasper from taxes on the independent line. caller: most of these people are well educated and everything. why do they not say the truth? i am calling on the independent line. number one, the democrats and republicans are two of a kind. republicans want to send jobs overseas. the democrats want to bring illegals into the united states. why? to lower the wages for all the big corporations. number two, as far as the health field -- deal, they said they would not let the illegals be on there. number three, they will. obama is going to rush legalizing illegal aliens in 2010. they are going to have to do that so that they can be covered. you know that. the american people know it. the democrats and republicans are out for lower wages, at sending jobs over

s. meat-packing did not look nearly as bad then as it does now compared to being an insurance printer. cap-and-trade well put taxes on manufacturers of the way it is structured. obama says he has a great deal from china and from copenhagen where the american manufacturing will not be disadvantaged. if you want to believe that one, we're going to be the two starting guards for the detroit pistons. [laughter] host: we have jasper from taxes on the independent line. caller: most of these people are well educated and everything. why do they not say the truth? i am calling on the independent line. number one, the democrats and republicans are two of a kind. republicans want to send jobs overseas. the democrats want to bring illegals into the united states. why? to lower the wages for all the big corporations. number two, as far as the health field -- deal, they said they would not let the illegals be on there. number three, they will. obama is going to rush legalizing illegal aliens in 2010. they are going to have to do that so that they can be covered. you know that. the american people know it. the democrats and republicans are out for lower wages, at sending jobs ove

president obama and this particular congress, when i came here as a freshman, we inherited the worst recession since the great depression. two wars that weren't paid for. a broken health care system, a 1950's energy policy. that was what we have had to deal with. this has not been an easy year as my colleagues know. we are here over and over again. mr. dreier: would the gentlewoman yield? ms. pingree: i yield to my friend from colorado. mr. perlmutter: i appreciate my frind yielding. ms. pingree: i yield one minute. mr. perlmutter: i would say to my colleague from maine as well as my colleague from california , i think that ms. pingree has a very substantial point. you complained -- pardon me for saying you. my friend from california complained about the regulatory burden. one of the reasons that this country is facing the recession that we are facing is a result of the wild west approach on wall street. where there was no regulatory burden or if there was, it was ignored by the regulators under the bush administration. and as a consequence, the private sector was brought to its knees last fall and is just now getting on its feet. as a result of the rejuvenation, the recovery act, that was

it was written about obama downsizing the war on terror and compartmentalizing it and making it as sweep and broad as the bush administration did. and we covered our respective p.m.'she british government wasn't there. and you are seeing that, and the notion of nato alliance and maybe pledge thousands of additional troops. this is america's war.g we will have 100,000 troops there, we own this thing. and the british have been there and seen it, and say no thanks. there is a view, i am not saying they haven't been in afghanistan. but you are seeing what you described, we don't want to have a sustained commitment there. >> and i think oddly enough the americans don't think see the british as europeans. >> yeah -- >> they don't. >> let's go to the questions from the floor. who would like to ask? yes? wait for the microphone. >> oh, there are people here? >> i my name is ezener, gregory david raised a point about the c.e.o. that you talked about with american capitalism. i am very surprised as napoen -- napoleon wrote a book about economics and i am surprised that the globalization has released the economics as a primary thesis and i am surprised that we have not exami

obama sort of downsizing the war on terror, compartment liesing it a little bit more, rather than making it as sweeping and broad as the bush administration did. but we covered our respective governments or p.m.'s at the time, an seeing tony blair, the british public wasn't there at all. certainly not on iraq and not even on afghanistan as much. so you're seeing that. the notion of the nato alliance and maybe it's going to pledge 7,000 additional troops, you know, it's nice to have a coalition of the willing, but this is america's war. we're going to have 100,000 troops there. we own this thing. and the british, frankly, they've been there, seen it and said, no, thanks. but i mean, there's a view -- i'm not saying that they haven't been in afghanistan, but you're seeing more what you described, which is we just don't want to have a sustained commitment there. >> and i think oddly enough americans don't see the british as european. you ask someone, are these -- they don't, they don't. [laughter] >> let's go to the questions from the audience, who would like to ask? >> right here. >> yes. wait for the microphone to come. >> oh, there's people here. [laughter] >> yes, could you say who you are. >>

obama's poll numbers, below is any president at this point? host: we just did talk about them over the weekend. one poll has him down to 45%, and other polls had him in the low 50'sand the democrats are going off the cliff, killing against other people, and they are going to lose big-time next year. and we're going to give republicans back in. thank goodness for the republicans for saying no. stayeeve, i wish you will identy each caller by party, if you would. if that wouldn't be too much trouble. host: happy holidays. next is chris on the democrats' line. caller: i am listening to the discussion, and the last caller was a very interesting person. when president clinton tried to initiate a health-care plan back in 1993, he lost a lot of the popularity but he still became a president a second time. his numbers were down also. he will probably lose a lot of seats in congress, but he will get that health care plan in place. obama is going to get it in place, and he is actually getting legislation passed that people with pre-existing conditions -- that is going to be declared and, where they are not going to be legal anymore. you tell all of these insurance companies

s. so mr. president, we need a new fed, we need a new wall street and we surely need a new chairman of the fed, my hope is -- that president obama will give us a new nominee and not mr. bernanke. with that, i yillingd the floor. >> and during his reconfirmation hearing thursday, the federal reserve chairman ben bernanke said he's concerned about a congressional proposal to audit the fed. and he's being considered if another four year term and his testimony before the senate banking committee was four hours. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] [captions performed by the national captioning institute] >> the com plitity will come to order. i could ask my colleagues and the friends in the media to -- whoa. you okay? and photographer there. we had a -- a train wreck. and all set? and the committee comes to order and we're here this morning to consider the confirmation of ben bernanke with the chairman of the federal reserve. let me begin by welcoming you once again to the senate banking committee. you have been before us on numerous occasions over the last couple of years and -- and we welcome your appearance. a