a opening statements by senator shelby and i and a statement by the chairman and have eight minutes to ten minutes for questions. i will put the yellow light on at 8:00. i have never been rigid about banging a gavel but keep your questions in the timeframe so we can get to as many as our colleagues as possible. if you want a second round we will do that as well. i don't want to deprive anyone of the opportunity. that is the way we will proceed. we are faced with two questions. first, should ben bernanke stay on as chairman of the federal reserve? as this committee works to create a financial regulatory structure, what should be the role of the institution that our chairman here and the nominee will receive? existing structure of the federal reserve deserves to be maintained. that has been dominated by the personality of the fed chairman. this is not about the nominee or the chairman or the members of this committee. it is about the institution that will be around long after the nominee or members of this committee are gone. what makes the most success for the success of the institution

shelby: mr. president, i'd like to take a few minutes to take ta few excerpts -- take a few excerpts that ran in all places, "the wall street journal," dealing with chairman bernanke, his tenure in office and misdeeds and so forth. i ask at this time the full text of the editorials, dated january 25, 2010, december 32009 and june 2009 be included in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. shelby: mr. president, the first point in "the wall street journal," editorial dealing with chairman bernanke's overt political activities stating and i'll -- quote -- "whether or not mr. bernanke is confirmed, the lesson is that overly political central bankers will eventually be undone by politics." always are. "the wall street journal," goes on to conclude and i quote -- "our own view is that mr. bernanke is already far too susceptible to political pressure as a fed governor. he was alan greenspan's intellectual co-pilot last decade when the easy policies created the housing mania." on the l

he was sentenced to probation and anger management, and according to shelby county, he did not comply with court orders. the case was, however, ultimately dismissed, though not until 2001. ali told me he wanted to become an expert on pirates but the pirates wouldn't let him hang with them unless he worked on him. his command of english made him valuable in the excruciating negotiations with the crew. >> we are talking about holding 13 colleagues of yours at gunpoint. >> the communication line between the ship and the owner of the company. >> tell bus the pirates themselves. >> pirates on the ship, they were not a stable group. >> they could explode. they could start shooting. they would see vultures and start shooting. >> it seems their narcotic of choice is cott or mera. after they chew the leaves they stay up for hours in a cocaine-like scene. he can remember this nine his cabin. >> maybe let's local custom but they don't wear underwear. they know all about that. but when the pirates came to the computer monitor and on our screen safer was an aquarium with fish swimming, they look a

in shelby county, wayne trail technologies is creating a better battery for hybrid vehicles. aided by our jobs bill, energy projects like these are in the works all across ohio. our electricity reform bill prevented the kind of skyrocketing rate increases of 50, 60, 70% that crippled so many states that failed to act. instead, ohioans pay 10% less for electricity than the national average. and that reform bill established reliability standards that are essential to ohio companies. dupont officials testified two years ago that they would not expand their circleville plant because their electrical service wasn't dependable. but just last week, just last week dupont announced a 175 million-dollar investment to retool a facility, a facility that once made components for vcr tapes, and there turn that facility into something that will make film for solar panels. [applause] >> the company credits our energy reforms with making ohio a better place for them to do business. we are rapidly deploying federal stimulus funds to advance $500 million in projects supported by an array of ene

we've come to realize that there were two deaths in the shelby medical center last year, pneumonia undiagnosed with a simple chest x-ray. he got a bill for that one day, $18,000. >> guest: the kind of story you're telling gets at the heart, i think, of many of the issues that i think we are all struggling with. look, 60% -- first of all, if you have a stroke, you don't necessarily know but it's slurred speech or you're not moving one side of your body. a family member needs to call 911 right away. a stroke needs to be treated within 90 minutes. and the -- what we have as a numbers, 60% of our strokes in our country are treated incompletely or inappropriately in our hospitals. we want to say it's that hospital or it's that doctor. for the most part what i find is unbelievably hard-working people, unbelievably trained but pushed against the limits of the complexity of delivering things. i say we're fooled by pencilan where we thought most medical treatment by 21st century would be just give people an injection, an injection that would make an infection go away, that would make a stroke go away,

his parents to the battlefields of virginia and instructed them in the works of bruce cotton and shelby foote, which must've led to some very interesting dinner conversations. in 1988, he has written, cowritten, and edited numerous books on the american civil war to include, andersonville diary and memoirs of charles f. hopkins a medal of honor recipient, the biography of general strong vincent who was killed in action on july 2nd at little round top. the writing and fighting the civil war series, which contains over 1000 soldier letters written from the battlefields. that takes dedication, ladies and gentlemen. at those of the blue and gray video series which shows of the war veterans including the immortal joshua chamberlain writing a magnificent white horse down the memorial day parade in 1914. in 2003, bill discovered 24 boxes of revealing interviews with the commanding generals of the civil war, conducted by american sculptor and historian james edward kelly. some of these interviews were published in the outstanding but generals and bronze, interviewing the commanding general of t

i rise today to pay tribute to a memphis shelby county citizen who gave his life in service in afghanistan. staff sergeant daniel meriweather. he was the first person to die from memphis in 2010 and the 12th since 2002. he died when his convoy ran over an improvised explosive device. he graduated from overton high school in memphis, tennessee. he studied broadcast journalism, played football, loved sports, cowboy hats, boots and country music and you can see from his picture and the reflections from his friends how much he loved life and how popular he was. he wanted to serve his country and did he so and he had two tours of duty, one in afghanistan and one in iraq. 25 years of age, he's survived by his wife, two children, one daniel merriweather jr. just 2 months old. he has a sister and brother as well. these are the 12 soldiers that have died from shelby county, and unfortunately staff sergeant merriweather joins that company. let us honor the life of staff sergeant merriweather. thank you, mr. speaker. thank you, surge merriweather. -- sergeant merriweather. the speaker pro tempore: fo

. >> shelby, the whole social media blitz is beginning this morning.an tell us about what exactly you're trying to do here? >> well, it's just another tool for to us get the word out. that we are still looking for susan. and our primary focus is the family and also as friends of susan. just to make sure that everybody in every corner of the world knows we're looking for her. we think that the social media blitz will reach those people who maybe don't use television or newspapers or other, what we would consider mainstream media. they're more into the social networking. additionally, it's just a way for us to exponentially increase the number of people that we're able to reach. >> we're showing the pictures that you've put out on facebook and twitter this morning. i know they're going out over the course of the next several days. as you've gone over the various websites, have you gotten any kind of response at all that might be helpful? >> well, we continue to stir up new leads. they've informed that you say they've received dozens of new leads. they're

and i do look forward to over the next couple months with chairman dodd's staff and ranking member shelby's staff and all of us working together to try to get it right. and i thank you your >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the senate is expected to a procedural vote tomorrow with a second term for a set chairman ben bernanke. here's an update. >> thank you for being with us. >> teen! for having me. this is the first chance that a large audience will get a new look at the governor, bob mcdonald. what should they know about him? three met mcdonnell won by a landslide in november's election against democratic opponent. he is very conservative, both as coolly and socially. many people are already leaving him a margin of victory and given his kind of made for television kind of persona and appearance are already iambic speculation that he will be a candidate for all the national stage and it sure did four years perhaps six or eight years now. >> but is a brand-new governor. was it any surprise the republicans chosen to make it response tonight? >> i don't thin

. >> i believe my time is being yield godoff of senator shelby's time. mr. president, i rise in support of the confirmation of chairman bernanke to another term into the fed. there are a lot of reasons, a lot of reasons. but let's begin with the most obvious one because i think it is also one of the most important. we were in the fall of 2008, looking over a precipice of massive disaster to our financial structures in the nation. we were at a point where it was a distinct possibility that the entire financial system of this country was going to implode. what would have been the implications of that had it occurred? what would have been the outcome of that had it occurred? at only would we have lost the basic superstructure of our banking system in this country, which is that the essence of a strong economy, a good banking system because credit the especially in our capitalist system is a critical element in order to create prosperity. people's to be able to get credit in order to take risks and create jobs. but equally important, the implications to just eve

he has a very good relationship with the ranking member, senator shelby.t the issue is, that consumer protection agency does not have -- will not have 60 votes and if it is going to pass the senate and think it could be something similar to the public option, where it they get it through the senate they will have to hash out the differences in conference. host: texas, richard, republican. caller: my comment is i feel if this republic is going to be saved, we just about have to repeal the 17th amendment just like real -- we repealed 18th prohibition amendment. the senate was designed to represent the state. it was not ever designed to represent popular -- that was the whole point. they did not want philadelphia, new york, boston people to run the country so that had a senate that was representing the state. and we've got some many senators who are not going back, and -- not doing that. it is creating a mess. it is given the governor's a mission of possible. just my opinion. host: let's show the front page of "the denver post." governor ritter is not going t

shelby: madam president, i rise today to oppose -- to oppose the reappointment of ben bernanke for aition to this nomination is that i believe in accountability. in particular, i believe that it is the duty of this body -- that is, the united states senate, to hold accountable those regulators hooz poor oversight of our financial institutions and markets help produce the greatest economic crisis this country has experienced in some 80 years. madam president, because the preserve during chairman bernanke's tenure failed to take the steps to ensure that our financial institutions were properly regulated and would not need federal bailouts to survive, i do not believe that mr. bernanke should be confirmed for another term. prior to the recent financial crisis, as a member of the board of governors, dr. bernanke advocated monetary policies that contributed to excessive risk taking. subsequently, as board chairman, he ignored or down played the serious emerging risk. he failed to use regulatory authority available to the fed to prevent housing speculation and unsound lending practices, of

i believe my time is being yielded off of senator shelby's time. mr. president, i rise in support of the confirmation of chairman bernanke to another term at the fed. there are a lot of reasons, there are a lot of reasons, but let's begin with the most obvious one because i think it's also one of the most important. we were in the fall of 2008 looking over a precipice of massive disaster to our financial structure as a nation. we were at a point where it was a distinct possibility that the entire financial system of this country was going to implode. what would have been the implications of that had it occurred? what would have been the outcome of that had it occurred? not only would we have lost the basic super structure of our banking system in this country, which is at the essence of a strong economy a good banking system because credit, especially in our capitalist system, is a critical element in order to create prosperity. people have to be able to get credit in order to take risk and create jobs, but equally important, the implications to just e

in shelby county, wayne trail technologies is creating a better battery for hybrid vehicles. aided by our jobs bill, energy projects like these are in the works all across ohio. our electricity reform bill prevented the kind of skyrocketing rate increases of 50, 60, 70% that crippled so many states that failed to act. instead, ohioans pay 10% less for electricity than the national average. and that reform bill established reliability standards that are essential to ohio companies. dupont officials testified two years ago that they would not expand their circleville plant because their electricity service wasn't dependable. but just last week, just last week, dupont announced a 175 million-dollar investment to retool a facility, a facility that once made components for vcr tapes, and they're turning that facility into something that will make film for solar panels. [applause] >> the company credits our energy reforms with making ohio a better place for them to do business. now we are rapidly deploying federal stimulus funds to advance $500 million in projects supporting an arr