i am not surprised that is what president obama is doing well he has a congress of his own party. i expect there are going to be areas where president obama just like with president bush cannot accomplish his policy goals working with congress. a good example is that do not ask, do not tell policy. i do not know where the majority of congress is. if the congress is not where the president is, as i am understand the law, the president could change that policy fairly quickly if he wanted to. i think the president ought to be prepared to fully assert his power when he needs to. you do not have to be stupid about it and you should not do it when you do not need to. >> does anyone want to take that case sap? -- case up? you guyus are cowards, come on. [laughter] i can't get a rise out of you all? ok. i can't get a rise out of this crowd. often the questions about transparency is about the of ministration communicating with the public and the public seeing what the administration is doing. the question is, how does the public communicate with the administration? how does a regular citize

he said president obama is standing above our country, above the world. he's telling us that the stuff that president reagan did to defend the country, no matter where he went, is according to evan thomas, provincial, parochial and chauvinistic. we're better and more sophisticated than that, he seems to think. now, if this was just "newsweek" making this point, we could all ignore it. but now listen to this line from president obama's own speech last week. he said, quote, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. in other words, if we want to succeed we have to stop believing and acting as though america is, in fact, the best nation on earth. compromise is the new currency, including on issues that are critical to our national interest. and president obama will stand above it all because he represents not just american interests but global interests. but here's the truth, effective diplomacy is not about triangulation. the president is not an international arbitrator. the purpose of diplomacy is not to b

but i expect that there are going to be areas where president obama just like what president bush can't accomplish his policy working with congress. a good example is that don't ask, don't tell policy. i haven't taken the temperature of congress. i don't know where the majority of it is, but if the congress is aware its president is, as i understand the law in that area, the president as commander-in-chief could change that policy fairly quickly if he wanted to pixel at the end of the day i think the president ought to be prepared to fully assert his power when he needs to come but you don't have to be stupid about it and you shouldn't do it when you don't need to. >> does anybody want to take that particular case up? >> you guys are cowards. , on. [laughter] >> i can't get a rise out of you all? is the president prepared to do that if it's also in congress? >> okay. [laughter] >> can't get a rise out of this crowd. >> good question. often the conversation is about transparency is about the administration communicating with the public and the public being able to see what the administra

did you talk about this with president obama? there's a continuing threat emanating from north korea and journalists are still being detained. what is your thought about that complex? did you talk with president obama about this? were there concerned about that industrial complex? >> has reacted aggressively to the new u.n. security council resolution, which was expected. of course, the north koreans may react by firing another round of missiles or taking action. we can't expect that from them as well. tom barber, north koreans must understand that they will not be able to gain compensation by creating a keifecrisis. this is a firm u.s.-korea cooperation an alliance that will not allow that. a recent security council resolution is not simply about words. if it is about taking up follow- up action and vigorously implementing the u.n. security council resolution. we will make sure we fully implement the u.n. security council resolution. like i said, the north koreans must understand that their past behavior will not stand. not only

what do you think president obama is looking for? >> there is some similarities and differences. with president obama, you start off with someone who is a brilliant lawyer himself, who was a litigator himself, himsand taught law and brings intellectual firepower and legal perspective to this decision. this was the choice that he spent time on. he reread a tremendous amount of material on her. in the end he came away with the person he thought combined great legal acumen and great life experiences and great practice experience. a divorce practice experience as a private lawyer and prosecutor and appellate court judge. the best rounded. it was that combination of things the president was looking for in the case of judge sotomayor. president obama is the only president ever who spoke individually to every single member of the senate judiciary committees. all the democrats and republicans before he made this choice. i do not know of that means more are likely to vote for his nominee or not but the effort to reach out and listen to people, understand what was on their minds, factored i

president obama's white house attitude that in the memo before they released it to the public. today, many weeks later, the president still won't let you, the american people, see the documents that show how effective this program was. last week in this very building, the house intelligence committee took up this issue, and according to news reports, the hill newspaper was one example, following a detailed briefing on the enhanced interrogation program republican members said they were briefed the program worked and terrorist attacks were prevented because is that a vote wax democrats on the committee again moved to cover the information and prevent the american people from hearing the truth. why don't they want us to know the truth? why won't they released the memo? i think it is because they know the american people believe enhanced interrogation is justified to save american lives and because of the american people get to see the evidence that this program did save lives and prevent attacks they will want to know how the president could have cavalierly released the details of

president obama said he will try to finish the job. i hope some of these two are critical of president obama and his position will not make a political issue out of guantanamo if president george w. bush and obama agree it should be closed it's pretty clear to me at the highest level of government there is a bipartisan consensus. our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are criticizing president obama when it comes to guantanamo but the fact is they have no plan but to leave the facility open and continue to see it being used around the world against the united states as a recruiting tool for terrorists. i urge my republican colleagues to join with general colin powell and joined those on their side of the aisle who understand the closing guantanamo will make america safer. madam president, i yield the floor. >> the senator from delaware. >> i ask unanimous consent to proceed as if mourning business and time to count against cloture. >> without objection. >> madame president, today i'm introducing along with senator brown the educa

president obama and president medvedev will be meeting soon in moscow. our group's is focusing on reducing nuclear arms. what makes us somewhat different is we're not only focused on the near term, the negotiation which are now under way between the united states and russia on further strategic arms reduction, but we are in the process of putting together what we call an end to end plan of how actually to get to zero. that means not only another phase of u.s.-russia reductions, but a multilateral reduction, which would include all nuclear powers to reduce and then go down to zero. i will be spelling them out in a few minutes. in work we did yesterday and today, the people i will surely introduce focused on the specifics of what a realistic, practical, hard-nosed plan to get to zero would look like. i want to take this opportunity to thank my fellow members of the commission for the work they have done. it is a work in progress. we have not solved all of the problems. we continue to believe this is a realistic goal that can be achieved over the next two d

for a complete schedule, go online to booktv.org. >> president obama at and german chancellor angela rkel held a news conference today in dresden, germany. both leaders talked about the middle east peace prawns -- process, guantanamo bay, and the 65th anniversary of d-day. tomorrow, president obama visits france where he will speak at a ceremony commemorating that anniversary. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. we are delighted to have the american president here this morning with us after having met for the last time at the nato summit. we will visit dresden and later go to the former concentration camp. i think that this is indeed a trip of a highly symbolic nature. let me remind all of us of the visit to the concentration camp we will take later in the day. it is important that the american president, barack obama, makes his first stop in dresden. this is a symbolic city. it was almost destroyed during the second world war. it was rebuilt after german reunification. it has turned out to be a jewel of german culture. the people here are so glad that you come to see them because

once again, i thank president obama and the people of the united states. thank you. >> okay, we have time for a couple of questions. scott wilson and the post. >> thank you, mr. president. north korea has said it should be recognized as a nuclear power and has set that as a precondition for normal relations with the united states, and with other nations. given its belligerent response to the recent sanctions and the nature of its nuclear program, does your administration, is it coming to the realization that recognizing north korea as a country that's going to have nuclear weapons for a long time is one way to go? and if so, what influences does that have on your policy options? and to president lee, do you believe your country is currently under threat of attack from the north given its recent rhetoric? thank you. >> we have continually insisted that north korea denuclearize. the republic of korea agrees with this position. other allies like japan agree with this position. china and russia agree with this position. the un security council reflects this vie

indian relations in the age of obama, and president obama to my mind hasn't spoken very much about the relationship with india. he certainly hasn't used a very pipelined rhetoric that we have all been, become used to from president clinton and president bush. but in my mind, to my mind there is every evidence that president obama is perfectly in accord with everything that has happened up until now. and he accepts this relationship as it exists now as a given. and furthermore, given obama's stress on partnership and on coalitions and his interest, his stated interest in making progress on global problems, such as energy and climate change, ending the economic crisis, nonproliferation. it's perfectly reasonable, i think, to expect president obama to put less stress on achieving the special relationship because we are already there and more emphasis on using it to some and. and i think we got a pretty good clear picture from secretary clinton last week in her address to the u.s.-india business council because she said, and michael, my hope in president obama's hope is that the next aid i

president obama is pleading with the tyrannical, radical regime that sponsors terror and has killed americans to please talk to us. he's offering to convey a tremendous benefit to them in exchange for no across from them. president reagan knew there was no moral equivalence between american and adversaries and he wasn't afraid to say so and he also knew that negotiating from a position of weakness could never secure america's national low-interest. after he left the middle east president obama made an emotional important visit to the nazi death camp. the undeniable when some of the horrors of any of those death camps is evil must be recognized and confronted and defeated. that it cannot be compromised with. today, the greatest threat to the state of israel, possibly existential threat, is a nuclear-armed iran. yet president obama seems committed to be everything possible to compromise the mullahs who run iran today. but we have to understand the reality. iran will not be disarmed because we talk them out of their weapons or because we repeat the mistakes of the past apologizing for our suppor

hand by president obama. otally aligned on this. we cannot in any way except the insane statements made by president ahmadinejad on north korea. -- on north korea we have total convergence with the american presidents and of course france is delighted to have fully reintegrated nato, as i said to the american president. so it is a pleasure to work with barack obama. we work regularly together. he knows that france is a friend of the united states. we basically are coordinated on all issues and hope to continue that. barack obama, welcome. welcome to your family. >> it is wonderful to be back in france, particularly on this day, because this day marks not only the triumph of freedom, but it also marks have the transatlantic alliance has allowed for extraordinary prosperity and security on both sides of the atlantic. the fact that france fully reintegrated into nato this year under president sarkozy's leadership is just one further indication of the degree to which u.s., french cooperation can help to underpin n

the one subject on which president obama, president sarkozy don't agree, that should reassure you, you should be happy about that, no. of course we agree. we concur on the ultimate objective. what is president obama's objective? what is mine ultimately? is that turkey may play its full part, essential role as a bridge between east and west. that is an essential role. where there is a difference, it's how to go about doing this. be traditional, the position of america is the integration of turkey and this is the president's position and president clinton's position, the position of all united states presidents. mine you're familiar with. it is not integration into the european union, not succession to the european union. but together with the russians and together with the turks to think about having a common economic and security era. we have no druthers to the objective we're thinking to achieve, simply the way of going about it, turkey, the objective is turkey play a role as a bridge between east and west. i said to president obama it's important that europe has borders, frontiers be

over the first 50 days of the obama presidency that newscast devoted 28 hours to his presidency compared to eight hours for george debbie bush over the same time. a 50% of the obama evaluations were positive compared to 33 percent for bush and 44 percent for clinton during their first 50 days. so then the cold of the activist presidency is not only be reinforced by and large and enhanced in the medium ones which is not to say that the media has been deprived of this cult or this perception. it was already there as evidence during the campaign and since the election and the excitement generated by the obama candidacy among the american people and of the election after all was about change and obama has gone about with all the powers available to project and deliver on the change since he became president. the media coverage reflex i think of the public interest and excitement surrounding obama and inviting. activist presidency to his daily schedule and travels. schip was mentioning, he was on a plane yesterday of the time of filing reports zero even though you follow the presidency he cou

president obama was elected, shouldn't he have the people he wants to work with him? perhaps those watching and listening think this is how the senate always operates. mr. president, you are a new senator. this isn't how it used to operate. let me put the delays this context: in the first four months of the bush administration, second bush administration, i'm sure it was the same -- i'm sorry in the second bush administration; i'm sure it was the same in the first bush administration, when the senate was controlled by the president's party and we were in the minority, there wasn't a single filibuster of a bush nominee; not one. but in the first four months of the obama administration, republicans have filibustered eight of the nominees, the ones we had to file cloture on. i've indicated there are many others with the constraints we have, with the rules in the senate, i can't file cloture on every one of these. those eight filibusters in the first four months of president obama's administration are twice as many as president bush faced in his first four years. four mont

so far, president obama has been able to be president every minute of his time. biden has been healthy, so he has done his job perfectly so far. i did have a comment about the previous thing. one of the comments that john lott kept saying is that there is competition right now and there really is not. most of the health care that is not government like medicare or medicaid or veterans' is through employers. the employers contract competitively with different companies to helfor health insue as long as they're healthy, but now the insurance companies turn people down. the doctors will figure out what to do with a patient when they're sick. and there's that calls for the insurance find out it is not and then they have to redo it. the person cannot change companies. that is not competition. if you are sick and they do not cover it now with the private insurance you cannot change companies because they will turn you down if you have a pre- existing condition. host: will move on to illinois on our line for independents. caller: i think vice president biden has done a

president obama did talk about this in his speech yesterday. there are a lot of christian minorities. throughout islamic history, the jews played a very important part in muslim culture and civilization that tends to be discarded. especially when we talk about israel and palestine. all we hear within that discourse is that muslims hate jews and judeo-christian heritage forces muslim heritage. the reality of it is much more complex than that. the reality is that is long, at various point in history, was a lot more accommodating to jews than christianity was, certainly in the 19th and the 20th century in europe, given the holocaust that actually took place there. host: our guest is the washington bureau chief for al jazeera arabic, abderrahim foukara. he also worked for wgbh in boston. thought want to share with you one of the many editorials. this one is from "the wall street journal. a one of the points is that hanging over all of this, the question of iran and how to deal with it. then this point that if mr. obama is serious about stopping to

senator burris was appointed to president obama is a vacant senate seat by former illinois governor bob voinovich who was impeached in part because of allegations that he attempted to sell the senate seat to the highest bidder. and tonight president obama people want to think of it as a policy as much as a passion, he put aside 240,000 -- 200 million acres of wild america and so now as people are talking about environmentalism and green movements roosevelt is becoming the key figure to understand because he was the only politician of his day who had observed darwin and understood biology and understood the bird migratory patterns and understood mating habits of deer and elk and antelope and actually did something. >> sunday on kube and a, the first of two hours with the douglas brinkley on wilderness warrior. sunday night at eight on c-span or listen on xm satellite radio or download the c-span podcast. >> earlier today the chairman of several key house committees discussed their drafts of legislation to overhaul the nation's health care systems. speakers included representatives george

[applause] part of that comes from thinking you can either be with presidents obama or against him. fully reject that notion. president obama continues to enjoy a 70 percent approval rating because he is a transformer to figure with a vision that most americans really believe in. and we need to capture that belief and remember that@@@@@@@ one of the best indications of this is senator spectre's switching parties. potentially is gives us another vote, right? until he proves that he is going to vote with the value system of all of our constituent wednesdayies, it is ok for -- constituencies, it is ok for us to say, we will support you if you support a public health care option for all americans. if you do these things, welcome out for you, when you are up for re-election. if you don't, all bets are off. bets are off because you are accountable to your constituents in the american people, this is not a party line void in similarly we have to get more sophisticated about how we work for the democrats in congress and one is the energy back -- waxman markey bill, excellent efforts. we lost

[speaking in french] >> more now from president obama and french president nicolas sarkozy.y met earlier today in france and questions from some reporters on the middle east peace process, north korea's nuclear weapons and their policy towards iran. this is 35 minutes. >> i would like to say to the president of the united states of america how proud france is to work with you. for the second time this year, this afternoon we will be talking about the ceremonies and the commemoration of the d-day landings but i want to say in the strongest, most sincere terms that never in the history, perhaps, of our two countries the united states and france, have been so close to one another on major issues, major questions. i say to the president that we are determined to help him in his decision to close down -- shut down guantanamo. i told president barack obama to what extent we support his open, outstretched hand initiative to russia, that we improve and endorse this policy. i said to the president that we totally agreed with him. on the israeli and palestinian issue. two states that

what do you think about what president obama has been saying about it run? lots has been written in the papers today about it. -- what the president has been saying about iran. much of the riding and the opinion pieces are generally split. this headline says that the world is split over the iran pull out come. there's a big split over whether to recognize ahmadinejad as the victor. france has denounced the elect for fraud while russian and chinese leaders personally welcomed him to regional some of. meanwhile, barack obama came under domestic pressure to take a tougher stance on the disputed election. -- chinese and russian leaders welcomed him to regional summit. this writer says that obama is cautious response to the election protests has ignited a debate thinking that u.s. should provide a more vocal support for peaceful protestors but those who argue that that would be more counterproductive. in a news conference about korean relations he was asked about it. >> i have said before that i have deep concerns about the election. i think that the world has dee

[applause] part of that comes from thinking you can either be with president obama or in against him and awfully reject that notion. president obama continues to enjoy a 70 percent approval rating because he is a chance from a figure with a vision that most americans really believe and and in their neighborhoods to their elected representatives, we will never achieve that vision. the best guess that we can give to president obama and the next four years is a vibrant favors the local progressive movement that is with him and with the progressive movement. [applause] the other piece of smashing artificial dichotomies is the idea we either need to support of the democrats of the opposition wins. we don't need the support of the democrats in the opposition would win, we need to actually hold members of congress accountable to that which americans voted them into office for a. [applause] one of the best examples of this is senator specter switching parties. could move, give us another vote potentially gives us another vote. right? until he proves that he is going to vote with the value sys

president obama as a candidate for president, then senator obama hired acorn to get out the vote and wrote the check to one of their subsid year corporations for over $800,000. there's three ways the president is tied. more than three ways the president is tied to acorn. one is as their attorney. one is as an employee of project vote heading up project vote in chicago, receiving paychecks. acorn through project vote into president obama. one is hiring. the third one is hiring acorn to get out the vote. there are rumors that donor lists got circulated back and forth. i haven't been able to chase that down. the fourth component is the white house has hired -- the white house has hired acorn to participate in the census. now, over 400,000 fraudulent registrations turned in, admitted by acorn, i suspect significantly more. i never met someone who admitted to such wrongdoing and admitted to it in the full magnitude of their wrongdoing. they always try to minimize. so at least 400,000, and now the president who has worked for acorn in two compass its, hired acorn in at least one capacity, n

in january, president obama was here in this area. he was taking his oath as a historic event to be the first african-american to become the president. his statement mentioned it democracy and freedom. but his own statement was censored by the chinese in their country. to this day, we did not hear president obama object to that. it is not only president obama's voice that was silenced in china. it was the chinese people's voice that has been silenced in china. let us hope and work together that we will, at one point, find a time where families will be able to cry and to mourn for their own in china. they will find justice to what happened 20 years ago. we will never forget the victims and the suffering of the families. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, kumar. but like to now give the podium to dr. lee who will introduce the speaker of the u.s. house of representatives, miss nancy pelosi. >> before the speaker arrives, i would call someone else to the stage. mr. lee, chai ling? tashi? may we stand on stage and wait for the s

i would like to know if you think president obama -- >> name and organization. >> do you think that presidentama's statements were forceful enough? do you wish he would condemn more directly the actions of the actual regime? >> as i said in my press conference -- this is not just directed to president obama, but to all world leaders who can take a defined position on the subject -- if you separate the issue of what could be argued or painted as interference in the nation's, from the issue of standing firm on the question of human rights violations, in which there is no reason why this regime or any can object to the fact that, whether it is president obama with canadian prime minister or the french president, will make life easier for the heads of state to be able to say exactly what we expected them to say, showing absolutely no remorse or any kind of caution when they stand firm on that question. separating one from the other. let's not have the regime in iran define what is interference and what is not, as i said in my opening statement. that is what i hope the white house, state departmen

for more than one year now i have been -- senator obama, now president obama -- i want to know what presidentbama will do about slave descendants reparations. that debate was just in the house and senate. a couple of things were done as far as apologies. i can give you an example that the media has protected him from that issue. right now i will tell you that this guy is a can-kicker. the gay issues, he kicks the can down the road. those folks, the slave reparations issue, is kicking that can down the road. we need to hear from this president to go on a microphone and tell us if there will be reparations. what we will do about it, how will be done if we were to do. and enough is enough. all these people, these folks, you made promises to -- we knew about the promises down cell during the campaign about reparations and now you are hiding from that. enough is enough. -- you are hiding down south during the campaign talking about reparations and now you're hiding from them. host: here is a piece concerning this president and the previous two in office concerning their first period of time in off

look, i do think that it is hard to add to what was said about what president obama's presidency means. i will say that to see -- what this presidency means is change but change at a time when the nation so desperately needs to change. it is the combination of the man, the agenda, and the moment that are so powerful for me and so moving for me. why i am willing to get up early in the morning and stayed late at night and missed my kids and do all the things i do to serve because i think you have an extraordinary leader. an extraordinary person in terms of judgment and talent and ability to lead the country. an agenda, a policy program that really can put the country out of the cycle of boom and bust economics we have been on an ad of the problems we have had on the domestic and international front and put us on the right footing at the time when we could not needed anymore as a nation and as a world. the demand for this kind of change and action is so acute and so urgent and i think when you put those things together, i do believe we're at an historic moment and witnessing a historic pr

we may already have seen it in president obama's decision to nominate judge sotomayor in the sense that the president, and there certainly were a number of factors playing into the decision, but one may be that judge sotomayor had a long track record of published opinion as a judge. that may have given the president some added confidence that what he thought he was getting or will be getting is in fact what he gets. that may have pushed him more toward appointing judge sotomayor than janet napolitano or other finalists who didn't have the extensive track record of published opinions jouge sotomayor does. the moment justice souter announced his resignation, all sorts of activist groups sprang to life and began what cab characterized as a concerted effort to circumscribe as the permissible choices of candidate from which president obama could make a selection. a lot of groups insisted he should appoint a minority candidate or a woman. i should add this was not confined to activist groups. many members of the senate made their views known. shortly after justice souter announced his retirem

and i applaud president obama and secretary of state clinton for taking a strong stand against this coup. host: let me share with the president -- secretary of state said yesterday. >> as we move forward, all parties have the responsibility to address the underlying problems that led to yesterday's events in a way that enhances democracy and the rule of law in honduras. to that end, we will continue working with me oas and other partners to construct a process of dialogue and engagement that will promote the restoration of democratic order, address the serious problems of political polarization in honduras, restore confidence in their institutions of government and ensure that honduras' most successfully towards its scheduled presidential elections in november of this year. host: yet, mr. white, she did not call it a coup. why? guest: because the minute the secretary of state uses the word coup, all assistance to honduras is cut off by law. i think the secretary of state handled this very well because she does not want to see 912 zelaya restored to power only to continue his quest -- to

why should president obama say anything? he doesn't need to say anything else. what he said the first day was good enough, but the republicans want to take this to a political deal. this is not what is going on. we need toens the culture of a country before we can interfere. that's what happened in iraq. while we're over there with our military -- yes, i have family in the military and i can speak. i have a mother and nephews over there. we have to understand that we are part of the problem and playing politics with this. let's get real, people, get real guest: i agree with you. we do need to understand the culture of the middle east. i'm not trying to suggest that the iranians are involved in isolated acts of vie leps which have killed americans. they have and that's wrong and they should be brought to account for that, but the fact is i believe a constructive relationship with iran in the long term is within reach if the western world, united states, in particular, and iran want it. there are now major reasons for distrust, huge disputes, but those are capable

president obama who started as a community organizer in chicago clearly understands this. every president, every seck successful president, needs the outside citizen movement in order to make big changes. let's just listen to what he told us at take back america on his most recent visit. >> and all of you, activists from across the country, it's going to be because of you that we take our country back. so take back america, this is our time. our time to make our mark on history, our time to write a new chapter in america's story. there are a few obstacles that can withstand the sound of millions of voices calling for change. that's how change has already happened. that's how we caused an end to the scourge of slavery, that's how we brought the vote to women, that's how we brought an end to the vietnam war. that's how you and i will change this country! [applause] >> he gets it. he understands. and during president obama's amazingly successful first 1 hundred hookup days, he stayed true to that vision, and working together led by people like heather booth who is here in the

so much so that even president obama, vice president biden and secretary of state clinton are running away from it. so should we. and i yield back the balance of my time. >> i thank the gentleman. i now recognize the distinguished chairman of the full committee for an opening statement. >> thank you, chairman. thank you, ranking member emeritus -- i mean, chairman emeritus. the president is running away from a lot of things so this is just one more of them. that doesn't mean that the consideration is not extremely important. we've been here before, ladies and gentlemen. i'm for state secrets. there are some secrets that we've got to keep away from citizens and congress people and everybody else, bloggers. but, wait a minute, which ones? well, that's what we're here to try to sort out. we didn't say abolish state secrets. and, look, state secrets have been used so much to keep things secret that shouldn't have been kept secret. that's the problem. and by the way, let's take a look at the great statements of the president on the subject. he said we got to rein in state secret privileges

since that time in separate speeches, president obama has fleshed out his vision. president medvedev and prime minister putin have also endorsed this goal and again, as you all know, president obama and president medvedev will be meeting again soon in moscow. our group, as other groups, is focusing on the importance of nuclear arms reductions. perhaps what makes us somewhat different is we're not only focused on the near term, that is the negotiations which are now underway between the united states and russia on further strategic arms reductions, but we are in the process of putting together what we call an end to end plan of how actually to get to zero. that means not only another phase of u.s./russia reductions but a multilateral negotiation which would include all nuclear powers to reduce and then go down to

we'll be taking your calls until president obama gets up to make his speech. in addition to president obama and president sarkozy, the prime minister as well as britain's prince charles, presumably all of them will be making speeches today as part of the memorial. the commemoration of the 65th anniversary of d-day. our first call from arlington, virginia. caller: thank you very much. i wanted to just say, number one, that i was delighted that you were playing president sarkozy live. i lived in france. i'm just sorry for the americans listening to this that there was no translation because it was extremely touching to pay tribute. >> tell us about what he said. >> he talked about. he went through a tribute to the canadians and what they had done. he said for the canadians there was no need for them, their land wasn't in danger. there was no need to be taken overtaken fwi germans. but he also spoke about the fear that these young 20-year-old soldiers must have imagined when they were coming to shore and to see the huge guns facing down. he said they realized that

do you see any difference, what do you think president obama is looking for? >> there are some differences. with president obama, his selection of judges, you start with someone who is a brilliant lawyer himself, who is a litigator himself, who taught law, brings a tremendous amount of intellectual firepower and legal perspective to his decision. this was the choice that he spent a lot of time on, he read a lot of material about her and in number of other possibilities, very thoughtful and orderly process and in the end came away with the person he thought combined great legal acumen with life experience, practice experience, divers practice experience, as a private lawyer, trial court judge, the best round of legal career, as any sitting member of the court, and there is that hole combination of things the president was looking for. and the other thing about the way he did this, president obama is the only president ever who spoke individually to every single minute of the -- every single member of the jenna insisted -- senate judiciary committee before he mad

i am here to cooperate with the president' obama as i did with president clinton and president bush. i hope we can build a friendly relationship. i will be more than happy to do so with president obama. i think we have a good start. >> absolutely. we have had a very good start. what i expect from the prime minister is an honest, frank sharing of views and their recognition that the united states and italy share common values and interests. our economies have very strong commercial ties. if we are acting on those mutual interests, then we will continue to see strong corroboration. as i said before, his assistants on our efforts to close guantanamo bay is very important. bermuda has done as a great service on that front as well. we are grateful to them. when it comes to afghanistan and pakistan, we are part of the same coalition that wants to make sure the afghan government is able and strong to sustain development for the afghan people and make sure they are not serving extremists. when it comes to the world economy, all of us have an interest in improving financial regulations that w

now that president obama has made that same call, we hear this chorus of opposition. i think president obama has accepted a challenge. the challenge to make certain that these detainees are treated in a responsible way, that those who should stand trial will stand trial for their crimes and war crimes. that those who cannot be brought to section 3 courts in america should be tried before reformed military traoeupbls that have rules of evidence and procedure -- tribunals that have rules of evidence consistent with our values and laws. that some will be returned, like the uighur, if they pose no threat. and some will be kept in contention because they continue to be a threat to our nation. that is a responsible course of conduct. it deserves bipartisan support. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, this is the car czar award for wednesday, june 10, 2009. the award is a service to taxpayers from america's new automotive headquarters: washington, d.c. it's a second in a s

vice president and secretary of state but this year president obama, vice president clinton and secretary-- vice president biden, excuse me and secretary of state: have gone silent on the bill. when asked about recently the vice president's communications director said "no comment on this from here." the legislation goes exactly in the wrong direction. so much so that even president obama, vice president biden and secretary of state clinton are running away from it. so should we and i yield back the balance of my time. >> i thank the gentleman and i now recognize the distinguished chairman of the full committee for an opening statement. >> thank you chairman, thank you ranking member in marriages, i mean chairman emeritus. the president is running away from a lot of things, so this is just one more of them. that doesn't mean that the consideration is not extremely important. we have been here before ladies and gentlemen. i am for state secrets. there are some secrets that we have got to keep away from citizens and congress people, and everybody else, bloggers. but, wait a mi

obama it is george bush. next -- brazil, is now -- president obama is now george bush, redux. liberals may have more to complain about with this president. the president has inherent powers to conduct wireless surveillance. the president has said that no supreme court decision has ever said that. that is different from saying what he thinks on the issue. it is a very careful response. it reserves for another day his own pronouncement in which she will affirm that authority. there is an obscure federal court called duff eisa -- called the 5fisa review court. there is a case that goes back to 1978. the court held that there were these inherent presidential authorities and that they could not encroach on the power of the president. we will see what happens with president obama on this issue. in a recent press conference on april 29, the president was asked a question concerning whether in an extreme case he might be able to consider a technique like torture. it was a multi-part question. this was the second of the two. maybe we can pull out the transcript later and look at the exa

what could president obama do besides continuing what president bush did? how can we win this war? this really is part of the war and terror. >> i agree. i think you have to go back and look at the very significant differences between the way the soviets attempted to pacify, to defeat the sovereign afghan government and the way we have operated and attempted to live. the country, both in terms of the difference in method of operation and also the objective. i think based on what i read in the news, which is my source for this, it looks to me like president obama has understood the importance efforts that were under way in the federally administered tribal areas. and despite some campaign rhetoric that criticized us for what we were doing, but in other instances, president obama talk about the importance of at times needing to make sure -- i cannot remember the words he used, talked about cross border incursions into pakistan were necessary to defeat terrorism. i think you are seeing some continuity there and you did not hear much about it because in some ways it is inconvenient for

eastern on c-span. >> president obama attended ceremonies in normandy, france. more than 2500 american servicemen were killed in that battle, which is considered by historians to be the turning point in the war in europe. president obama spoke along with french president nicolas sarkozy, park ridge prime minister gordon brown, and canadian prime minister stephen harper. -- british prime minister gordon brown. >> president obama, your royal highness, prime minister rao, prime minister harbor, presidents are cozy, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. -- president sarkozy. it is our privilege to welcome all the illustrious visitors joining us today. we extend a special welcome to the d-day and world war ii veterans and family members in attendance to honor us all with their presence. [applause] today we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the d-day landings that took place in the early morning hours of june 6, 1944. today's ceremony will honor the soldiers, sailors, and air man who made the supreme sacrifice so that europe might be liberated