since 1963, his party has been unchallenged in the syrian parliament, and the party faithful are still standing behind him. he blames the recent unrest on the outside conspirators, intent on creating division and chaos in the country. >> this is an exceptional moment, when it is testing their unity. conspiracies against the country. but thanks to the will of god, we will always succeed in overcoming conspiracies, boosting our unity and strength. >> assad said he favored reform, but he defied calls to lift the 48-year state of emergency. assad did accept the resignation of his cabinet and this we -- cabinet this week, but they have little authority anyway. two weeks of unprecedented anti- government.protests have revealed strong discontent. at least 60 people have been killed in the government crackdown. >> in libya, the rebels are in retreat. gaddafi troops took back a few cities. the rebels are calling on western powers to send weapons, saying they cannot match the buffy -- cannot match the dauphine -- match gaddafi's ground arms. >> this is now a memorial to the fallen. benghazi is a

he is never again going to be the unchallenged dictator of all libya. they do not have to fight all the way westward to tripoli, but the regime travels from within and they could get a rare -- fairly rapid success in this. this could go on for some considerable time. >> and yet another sign of unrest throughout the region. today, the entire cabinet in syria resigned. here, too, is in an attempt to quell a wave of protests in the last two weeks. the president and his supporters are making their voices heard in the street. >> contents of thousands on the street in damascus, the syrian capital. similar scenes in cities elsewhere in the country. but unlike other arab countries, these are protesters in favor of the ruler. the president has been in power since the year 2000. his father, for three years before that. but now, despite the crowds cheering for him, he faces an unprecedented challenge. anti-government protesters in the south in at least six cities on friday, sparking down and crackdown by security forces. at least 60 people are thought to have died

this fascist or ideology there's masquerading as a religion that's walking across our country unchallenged and promote ensure our law personnel in high trees promoting extremism promoting homophobia promote some mettlesome all these different things are symptoms are coming from this religion and i need tackling and it's not my sister trying to talk about it and i want to ask you so peter when when when when organizations called for writing what's far right about our organization that's how i tell the media how media and analysts look at europe is nation and others are the national front for the other i don't mean about national front but all right i'm allowing you to express your opinion that's ok that's why we invited you on the program ok and we're not if i could go to you a lot of scholars and their female scholars of islam they happen to be muslims themselves in the us in the u.k. and in continental europe have told me personally that for too long liberals in the west did bury their heads saying well we don't we want to be tolerant we want to be tolerant so you just turn another turn y

since 1963, his party has been unchallenged in the syrian parliament, and the party faithful are still standing behind him. he blames the recent unrest on the outside conspirators, intent on creating division and chaos in the country. >> this is an exceptional moment, when it is testing their unity. conspiracies against the country. but thanks to the will of god, we will always succeed in overcoming conspiracies, boosting our unity and strength. >> assad said he favored reform, but he defied calls to lift the 48-year state of emergency. assad did accept the resignation of his cabinet and this we -- little authority anyway. two weeks of unprecedented anti- government.protests have revealed strong discontent. at least 60 people have been killed in the government crackdown. >> in libya, the rebels are in retreat. gaddafi troops took back a few cities. the rebels are calling on western powers to send weapons, saying they cannot match the buffy -- cannot match the dauphine -- match gaddafi's ground arms. >> this is now a memorial to the fallen. benghazi is a stronghold, and rebels here say

it is the desire that there be an unalterable, unchallengeable, tyrannical authority who can convictou of thought-crime while you are asleep. ...a celestial north korea. ( laughter ) >> kroft: wherever he appears, his readers fill auditoriums and wait in long lines for him to sign their books, even in the bible belt. >> hitchens: if i could change just one thing, it would be to disassociate the idea of faith from virtue. >> kroft: this event was in birmingham, alabama. and one of his fans even smuggled in a bottle of hitchens' favorite beverage, which he refers to as mr. walker's amber restorative. >> hitchens: my cup overflows. >> kroft: hitchens has a legion of close friends that includes writers martin amis, ian mcewan, and the critic james fenton, all of whom attest to his superior intellect, social skills, and a legendary constitution that allows him to consume staggering amounts of alcohol. author christopher buckley recalled a restaurant lunch that began at 1:00 p.m. and ended near midnight. >> christopher buckley: at the end of this ten-and-a-half hour epic lunch, i would hav

they should not think from that that their economic program of savage austerity will go unchallenged. it certainly will in here. but remember this: we in the united left will facilitate the mobilization of worker power, of people power, of community power to defend the living standards of the vast majority of our people who are attacked by this program and to defend their livelihoods and in opposition to new and unjust taxes. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] >> let us remember today as we meet here, also, the magnificent movement of opposition and the sacrifices of ordinary people throughout the world against their horrific dictatorships. and i know that irish working people will want to support them, and we will come back to further discussions on that in the days ahead. [speaking in native tongue] >> jerry adams. [speaking in native tongue] >> during the election -- and you will know that sinn fein has a number of key priorities -- these included the need to reverse budget cuts to public services and social welfare, the need to abol

we don't want our school districts to run unchallenged. when you create an environment where it is competitive, everybody starts to get better and the try harder. those that do well will attract more kids. those that do not will have less kids in terms of enroll. in california you have a u-shape. you have really bad charters here and most of the charters and some really great charters. there is a u-shaped curve in california. a lot of bad ones. this is the regular schools. and the high-performing, totally outspike the other schools. so the challenge for us in california and anywhere, we have 952 charters in california. the bad ones, you have to close down. you cannot let them continue to go on. if you do that all we would be talking about is the high-performing charter schools. i will give you an example. our elementary school 95% african-american kids in the school in a poor neighborhood. 95%. it has the third highest test scores in the whole city. what are we doing there? how do we even get the opportunity to run this school? we got the

of why americans are a unique and vigorous people and they are the foundation of why we are the unchallenged greatest nation in the world and we have unique vigor and that comes from the foundation of these rights. but madam speaker, i would take the position that you could take all of these rights that we have that we identify as coming from our creator, from god, and you could bestow them upon any other people on the planet and ask them to build a vigorous society that would match and mirror that of america, and i will submit that that effort would fail. it would fail no matter if they had unlimited natural resources, if they had free enterprise to no independent, reference to the constitution the way we do, take this package of american rights and put it in the richest country in the world or the poorest and offer it to any people on the planet and i would submit they could not succeed in producing another country that has the vigor and success that this country has. i'm not taking credit for this, but standing here giving refer rens to this gift that we have as america. and i will contin

that's the case, then shame on the congress that tolerated it and shame on us if we act to stand unchallenged any longer. this matter strikes at the heart of our constitution. if this act is allowed to stand it will fundamentally change the entire character of the legislative and the executive functions on the most momentus decision that any nation can make and it will take us down a dark and bloody road that the american founders fought so hard to avoid. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from vermont, mr. welch, for five minutes. mr. welch: thank you, madam speaker. today i intend to use my five minutes to talk about the budget crisis that is before congress. we have to make a decision whether to continue the operations of government. that's the debate that is now under way with the continuing resolution, and we soon face the question of whether or not congress will extend the debt limit. now, let me start by acknowledging the obvious. america has to get its fiscal house in order. how we got here is debated but certain things

they should not infer that that their economic program of savage us dirty will go unchallenged.it is certainly in here. remember this. we have united left will facilitate the mobilization of people power, community power to defend the living standards of the vast majority of our people who are attacked by this program in to defend their livelihood in opposition to new and unjust taxes. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] >> terry adams. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] during the election anyone know they were a number of key priorities. these included the need to reverse budget cuts to public services and social welfare, the need to abolish universal social charge and to cut and put an end to the public money that's been put into the bank. that's hardly surprising if i may say that those that oppose -- does not oppose this nomination, given they put together a program for government with the new government. they also said that a review to attack most vu

. -- unchallenged. in california, you have a u- shape.ou have some bad charters, then most of the charters, then the bad charters. a lot of bad ones. these are the regular schools and then the high performing that totally out-spike the bad performing schools. the bad ones, you have to close down. you cannot let them continue to go on. if you do that, all you will be talking about is the high performing charter schools. our elementary school -- we have 95% african-american kids in a poor neighborhood. it has the third highest test scores in the whole city. 95% african-american kids. what are we doing? how did we get the opportunity to run the school. ? the school district said, we do not know how to educate black boys that are poor. we do not know how to do it. can you do it? needlt that, don't kids good teachers and high expectations? delaware they need longer school days if they are further behind. -- don't they need a longer school days if they are farther behind? it is not rocket science or a silver bullet. she finishes most of my sent

however, competition is a good thing and we do not want our school districts to run unchallenged.en you create a competitive them armed, then use the people try a little bit harder and those who do well will attract more kids. those who will not do well will have less kids in terms of enrollment. that is what you see happening around the country. in california, you have some really bad charters here than most of the charters and then you have some really great charters. so it is a u-shaped curve in california. a lot of bad ones. these are the regular schools, pretty much the same. and then you have the outperforming. the challenge for us, in california, anywhere, is that we have 152 charters in california. the bad ones you have to close down. you cannot let them continue on. if you do that, then all we would be talking about are the high performing charter schools. in our community, our elementary school is called pf7. we have 95% african-american kids in a poor neighborhood. it has the her third highest discourse in the whole city. water -- it has the third highest test scores in

cannot let the comments that have been made during the last half an hour go uncommented on or unchallenged. first of all, i'd like to comment about the senator from oklahoma's comments about duplication in government. i so respect the senator from a oklahoma. we've worked on many fiscal reform issues. but he went over a list, a program by program by program by program of where he says we have duplication. i don't challenge his facts, but i do challenge his inertia. now, if these programs have been in existence that have been duplicative and denied value to the taxpayer, where has he been? the republicans have been in charge for ten years, from 2000 to 2008, they were in charge of all three branches of the government. so if you didn't like duplication, you had a president, you had a house, and you had a senate. why didn't they change it? so now all of a sudden they've got religion -- and i don't know what faith that is -- but they've got the desire to talk about it. we will, look, if you were serious about ending duplication, it should have started a long time ago. second, bring the ideas f