Transcripts For CURRENT Full Court Press 20130108

[ theme ] bill hey, good morning everybody. Welcome to the full court press this Tuesday Morning january 8. Good to see you today. Good to be back with you. Im here with 100 brain and heart and 50 voice but well try to struggle through it with the help of our friends today. Good to have you with us. Lot of big news to talk about. President obama completing the nominations for his National Security team yesterday. Nominating chuck hagel to be secretary of defense and john brennan to be the next director of the c. I. A. The critics are already out with their sharp swords. They intend to do to chuck hagel what they were able to do to susan rice but its not going to work this time because the white house is fighting back. Theyre already doing so. Weve got to join that fight. Well talk about that and a whole lot more. First, we get the latest, todays current news update, here she is, Lisa Ferguson out in los angeles. Hi lisa. Hey bill. Welcome back. As bill mentioned obamas new appointments to his National Security team are drawing some criticism from capitol hill. First off former senator chuck hagel who the president officially chose yesterday as his defense secretary. Obama called him an American Patriot and the leader our troops deserve. If confirmed hagel will be the first vietnam vet and the first enlisted soldier to become secretary of defense. Republicans are criticizing the former senator for not having enough support for israel and not taking a hard enough stance against iran. Democrats are also getting tough on hagel. Newlyelected senator tammy baldwin, also the first openly gay u. S. Senator says she plans on questioning hagel for his antigay comments. 14 years ago hagel criticized ambassador james hormel for being aggressively gay. Baldwin wants to know if his apology is sufficient and sincere and she wants to see how hes evolved on that issue particularly in the area of dont ask, dont tell. Another obama appointment yesterday, he tapped Counter Terrorism adviser john brennan to lead the c. I. A. Much the controversy there has to do with his involvement in the use of armed drones and his views on waterboarding but it is resparking a debate over the white house cyberleaks. President s aides purposely let out some information to help his reelection chances. But some republicans say they wont confirm brennan until the investigations are complete. More bill press is coming up after the break. Stay with us. vo brought to you by lysol. A mission for health. Before the sneeze, help protect with a spray. Before the tissue, help defend with a wipe. Before the cold flu season help prevent with lysol. Because when you have 10 times more protection with each hand wash. And kill 99. 9 of germs around the house with each spray. Those Healthy Habits start to add up. This season, a good offense is the best defense and lysol has your family covered because thats our mission for health. [ voice of dennis ]. Safe driving bonus check . Every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. Ok. [ voice of dennis ] silence. Are you in good hands . [ ryon ] eating shrimp at red lobster is a fantastic experience. 30 shrimp for 11. 99. I cant imagine anything better. Youre getting a ton of shrimp and it tastes really good [ male announcer ] hurry in to red lobsters 30 shrimp for just 11. 99 choose any two of five savory shrimp selections like mango jalapeno shrimp and parmesan crunch shrimp. Two delicious shrimp selections on one plate all with salad and unlimited cheddar bay biscuits. 30 shrimp, just 11. 99 for a limited time. Wow, thats a lot of shrimp. Im ryon stewart im the ultimate shrimp lover, and i sea food differently. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. Announcer broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv. This is the bill press show. Bill they brought christians in last night and threw them to the lions. Did you see that game . Good morning everybody. What do you say. It is tuesday january 8. Here we go. The full court press, this beautiful Tuesday Morning. Good to have you with us today. Good to be back with you. Sorry for the scratchy voice. This is as good as it gets but twice as good today as it was yesterday. It will be even better tomorrow. Thanks to Richard Fowler for filling in yesterday. He did a good job with team press. Look forward to hearing from you. Take your calls at 186655press. Of course, we invite your comments on twitter. Were tweeting and accepting tweets at all times at bpshow. Checking you out on facebook as well. Facebook. Com billpressshow. We start off the day with the big news about chuck hagel. President obama is going to fight for this one unlike susan rice, hes going to fight to the finish line, nominating him yesterday to be secretary of defense. I was there in the white house yesterday when the president made that nomination. Ill tell you all about it. Well also tell you about of course the big game last night. And efforts here underway in washington already to get ready for the debt ceiling battle. Now were told the treasury may not be able to pay its bills after february 15 which moves the clock up two weeks ahead of what we thought it was last week. Lots to talk about. Lots to get into. Lets get right to it with team press. Peter ogborn and dan henning. Happy tuesday. Good to see you bill. Bill thank you. Not good to hear me. Good to see me. I notice the difference there. Not very subtle there. Good to have you here. Good to have you. Bill i wish i could do more. Im drinking my tea. My hot tea my cold tea. Youre doing everything right. Someone emailed saying you should be drinking rum. Ive heard of whiskey. Never heard of rum. Someone emailed last night saying give him some rum. Bill make a hot toddy. Go get him a hot toddy. Luckily phil carries a flask with him everywhere he goes. Bill i thought that was cyprian. Cyprian bowlding as always got the video cams. Phil back backert has the bones. We missed you of course. Bill as a christian as a catholic peter, i have to say now look, you Southern Baptists, this was the Southern Baptists versus the catholics. Some notre dame fans was calling it the catholics versus the cousins. Bill i like that, too. Cousins kicked your ass last night. Bill it was like a roman coliseum. Threw the christians to the lions. At least you could have been kinder. Alabama wanted to come out and make a statement. They were number two going into the game. Bill they made a statement all right. They made a damn statement. Bill that quarterback a. J. Mccarran on espn throwing his fourth touchdown pass. He throws it into the end zone. Touchdown. Its two for cooper. And its 417, alabama. And a. J. Mccarran has thrown four touchdown passes on this National Championship night. Bill on the final call, crimson tide. The celebration is underway. The tide has risen again for the third time in four years nick sabine and Alabama College football king, the crimson tide, the best in 2012. Theyre the national champions. Back to back theyve done to again. Bill all right peter ogborn, you have my permission to gloat. Im going to gloat all day. Bill for the next minute, you can just gloat. There was no contest. No. It was never a contest. It was never a contest. And you know, if you watched some of the pregame stuff because like i said, im an s. E. C. Football guy. I watched a lot of s. E. C. Things. I didnt watch a lot of notre dame football. I understood they were good and had a lot of good players but watching the pregame stuff all they kept talking about was notre dame defense notre dame defense, teams dont score on them. Theyve only let three touchdowns happen in the red zone. They havent had any drives that went 75 yards or more for a touchdown. Alabamas opening drive 86 yards, touchdown. Next run touchdown. Just dominant. Dominant bill i often i only watched half an hour but i kept wondering are there two teams on the field here . Seriously. Notre dame was pathetic. Their defense did not exist. No, they didnt. They were missing tackles. This mantei tao who had a chance of being the first defensive player to win the heisman trophy, a terrible night for him. But it says a lot about im a lifelong alabama football fan says a lot about the program. You heard the call there. This is their third National Championship in four years. First time in any College Football team won back to back National Championships and i dont want to look too far ahead, they did bill your minute is almost up. They have a lot of young players. Some might hop into the draft. Nick saban is sticking around. They can do this again next year. Bill there were freshmen playing last night. Theyre good. Theyre better than good. Theyre monsters. They can beat a lot of nfl teams. Take it easy. Move it along. Shut up. I get to gloat today. Bill igor volsky from think progress will join us as he does every tuesday. Reid epstein from politico and then well talk sports with jack moore, the Sports Editor for buzzfeed. But first this is the full court press. On this tuesday, a check of other headlines making news. A new we the people petition on the white house web site gaining buzz for a new reality show to be produced that would star the Vice President. The petition states that joe biden has a demonstrated ability to bring people together whether at the negotiating table or at the neighborhood diner. The authors are asking the white house to authorize cspan cameras to follow biden around produce a recurring reality show. The petition needs 25,000 signatures by february 3rd to get a response. Bill i love. It ill sign it. I love it. What would it be called . The joe biden story . Bill all you have to do is follow joe biden around. Here comes honey biden. The late president Richard Nixons 100th birthday will be celebrated in washington tomorrow. The hill reports some 400 people will attend a gala at the Mayflower Hotel in the ballroom where his inaugural balls were held in 69 and 73. Guests include former secretary of state Henry Kissinger ben stein and pat buchanan. His daughters Julie Nixon Eisenhower and Trisha Nixon Cox will be there. President nixon passed away in 1949 at the age of 81. Bill im proud to say i have not been invited to that party. Oh, darn. If invited, i would not attend. Sounds like a fun time. Big names for broadway. Bill hang out with henry kiss ing summer and ben stein. Two people who are known for being boring. Big names in newtown connecticut. Tony winning producer van dean is putting on a stage show called from broadway with love at a connecticut theatre. It will feature stars from kiss me kate, wicked, jekyll hyde all getting together at the end of this month raise money for the united way. Bill good for them. Good for them. Thank you dan. Yes, indeed, an historic day at the white house. I got out of my sickbed to go down for the announcement in the east room. President obama coming out at 1 10 and announcing the final two members of the National Security team. Last week he nominated john kerry, a great choice to be secretary of state. Yesterday, he presented to the world his next two picks. Obama to help meet the challenges of our time, im proud to announce my choice for two key members of my National Security team. Chuck hagel for secretary of defense and john brennan for directorror of the Central Intelligence agency. Bill the president was adamant in his praise of hagel who the president befriended when he was a member of the senate traveled with him to iraq and afghanistan, got to know him as independent centrist moderate, republican. And was willing to stand up to the leaders of his own party and say they were wrong. Originally voted for the war in iraq but then quickly decided we were in a mission that we that we were way beyond our original mission and was a bit critic of the war in iraq. President obama saying this is a man who will give our men and women in military the kind of leadership theyre looking for. Obama chuck hagel is the leader that our troops deserve. Bill one thing i didnt realize, here are a couple of things that will make chuck hagel unique as defense secretary. Obama chuck hagels leadership of our military would be historic. He would be the first person of enlisted rank to serve as secretary of defense. One of the few secretaries who have been wounded in war and the first vietnam veteran to lead the department. Bill first enlisted man ever to serve as defense secretary. That is historic. I think so. Bill the guy is a real war hero and a real patriot. He served in vietnam alongside of his brother. His brother tom. They were together at one point and a mortar hit their position. Hagel was wounded. Wounded, he picked up his brother, tom and carried him to safety. Talk about somebody with that kind of courage underfire. He won two purple hearts for his service in vietnam and now hes our nominee to be the next defense secretary of and course, his critics are already out. You know what, watching people can have different opinions in washington. Thats what politics is all about. But watching what these people are trying to do to chuck hagel to me, is all the evidence you need of whats wrong in washington. Heres a guy four years ago john mccain was saying chuck hagel would make a great secretary of state. Bill crystal was saying eight years ago chuck hagel should be Vice President of the United States. If Ronald Reagan or george bush or mitt romney nominated chuck hagel, they would be saying hes a republican hes a conservative. Hes a war hero hes one of ours but barack obama nominates him and right away, theyre trying to bring him down. I found it amazing that, of all the people to come out and say they had reservations and concerns about chuck hagel, john mccain was leading that argument. I can almost understand some of the guys who have just are not havent been in the congress or havent been in the senate that long but john mccains been here long enough. He knows better. Bill if anybody is a blood brother to chuck hagel, its john mccain. But theres a total smear campaign. Two issues. Lets deal with them quickly. One, they say hes antiisrael. Baloney you look at his votes. Thats what counts. He voted for billions of billions of dollars of military aid to israel. Now once he said two things. That he regrets. He used the phrase the jewish lobby. That was wrong. There is no jewish lobby in washington. There is an israeli lobby in washington. And youre an idiot if you deny it. By the way theres nothing wrong with that. Theres a pakistani lobby. There is a concern lobby. There is a french lobby. Theres an american lobby in russia. Countries are free to represent themselves here. By the way, dick cheney called it a jewish lobby. Nobody said anything about that. Weird. Bill the Washington Times called it a jewish lobby nobody said anything about that. Chuck hagel said it, boom. He also said one time as United States senator, my number one job is to represent whats best for the people of the United States of america. Not the government of israel. Theyre criticizing him for that. I gotta tell you something any United States senator who says the opposite is a traitor right . Good point bill yeah, the other thing, this is real personal with me because jim hormel is one of my best friends. He was our ambassador to luxembourg. He was the first openly gay ambassador. Appointed by president clinton in 1998. I was at the state department when jim hormel was sworn in bid a Lynn Albright by Madeleine Albright and tim wu, his partner was there when he was sworn in. We were all in tears watching that historic moment. At the time, chuck hagel said he didnt deserve to be ambassador because he was openly gay and that sent the wrong message. He wouldnt be able to represent all of the people of the United States. I resent that he said that. He was dead wrong but hes changed his views since then. By the way, i dont know any republican senator from the midwest United States who thought otherwise. Chuck hagel was outspoken. He apologized for that remark. Jim hormel said he accepts his apology and is willing to support him today. Barney frank says he thinks chuck hagel is the right person for the day today. So dont hold a mistake he made in 1998 and say this guy is antigay. He supports a repeal of dont ask, dont tell. And he will do everything he can to support lgbt members of the military and their families. So i think we gotta get behind chuck hagel. Fight for him the way nobody was willing to fight for susan rice. What do you say . 186655press. Lets get right into it. With your help and peters and dans, well get through this. Announcer this is the bill press show. Live on your radio and current tv. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. vo shes joy behar. Current will let me say anything. n i want the people who watch our show, to be able to come away armed with the facts, and the arguments to feel confident in their positions. I want them to have the data and i want them to have the passion. But its also about telling them, youre put on this planet for something more. I want this show to have an impact beyond just informing. An impact that gets people to take action themselves. As a human being, thats really important. This is not just a spectator sport. Announcer this is the bill press show. Bill make it 26 minutes now after the hour. Tuesday, january 8th. The full court press. And the full court press, by the white house, in support of chuck hagel began yesterday. Peter, what have we got . Were tweeting at bpshow. You can find us there on twitter. Bill chuck hagel might wear that hat of yourself. Make cornbread not war. This businesses off a lot of southerners. Bill democrats have a problem with a republican senator who ended up opposing the surge in iraq . Thats what we want. Right . Were talking about hagel on twitter. How do you feel about the pick and barack obama fighting for hagel. Bill w says hagels a great pick for dod. About time enlisted ranks are represented at the top. Hes a true warrior using war as last resort. Don says the g. O. P. Needs to stop this crap and get serious about this country. And then we have bill, use brandy, not rum for your throat. So far weve had whiskey rum and now brandy thrown into the mix. Bill line em up, babe, im ready. Hello to our roving ambassador, arnold down in greensboro, north carolina. What do you say . Hey man, good morning. Good morning. First i want to tell peter that congratulations on the crimson tides. They roll over top of those guys. They got a sad history irish got a sad history of playing good season football but then in the postseason they just like marijuana, they get smoked in bowls. Bill oh, arnold you had to go there. Just like marijuana they get smoked in bowls. Arnold, you made my day buddy. Caller listen, so far chuck hagel and the president s backing him. The republicans all president obama has to do, take any subject matter anything they do. If he supports it, theyre going to be so far against it, its unreal. He can take their policies and they will turn it around and not support nothing man. It is because the color of this mans skin thats the reason theyre doing it. It is so obvious to all of the American People. Even afroAmerican People. It is so very obvious what theyre doing. Bill you know, arnold, heres what really pistes me off, you have this junior squeak senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham. He was an attorney. He never left the courtroom. Hes coming out and saying that this war hero, combat hero, is an in your face kind of appointment. I would like to get in Lindsey Grahams face. Announcer this is the bill press show. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They know that im not bsing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. When the democrats are wrong, they know that im going to be the first one to call them out. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. Chatting with you live at current. Com billpress, this is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. Bill you got it. 33 minutes after the hour now. Here we go on the full court press on this tuesday, january 8. Good to have you back with us today. Thanks to Richard Fowler for filling in yesterday. We got the whole team here today and welcome back to igor volsky from think progress. You know, the secret source, all the material you hear on the full court press and igor is kind enough to come in every Tuesday Morning and bring us up to date on what think progress is working on. Peter, youve got a lot of our social media friends have been active this morning. Were tweeting at bpshow. Talking a lot about chuck hagel. Karen says chuck hagel not only served in vietnam, he joined, he wasnt drafted. He chose to go for his country. No deferments for him unlike other people we know who are notorious war hawks. Like dick cheney who used the phrase jewish lobby and nobody had a problem with it then. Era now says would it be controversial if p. O. T. U. S. Nominated a democrat for secretary of defense. Some people are wishing we had a little more progressive in that slot. And other people have were getting a lot of ideas on how to help your sore throat. Bill oh, my god, so far igor has a sore throat, too. Bill so far rum brandy, whiskey. I want to point out i have none of the above in any of the drinks i have in front of me. Another person writes in and says i recommend 24 to 32 ounces of rodin bach, it is a bell gin beer which weve had in studio when we had belga in here. Ive never heard of beer for a sore throat. Ive heard of whiskey and brandy. Ive never heard of beer. Bill all i gotta say is enough talk. Lets drink its already 6 30. Bill so igor, the difference between susan rice and chuck hagel looks like president obamas determined to fight the good fight for chuck hagel. Hes going to go to bat for hagel. Hes not going to cave again. You got an interesting dynamic here. Republicans were itching for a fight. This was going to be the first big fight after the reelection. Bill theyre going to take on one of their own. It is one of their own who kind of left the ideological tent. Who voted for iraq and said it was a problem. He doesnt follow their neocon prescription for iran and so he thats their problem is that he turned against bush. He turned against republican principles and so now its payback time. Bill so did john mccain on many occasions. So did john mccain but hes a big opportunist goes back and forth, whatever the politics is, whatever is going to benefit him in the moment. Mccain of course, heavily praised hagel when he retired. Wanted hagel when he was running for president in his cabinet. He said he would make a great secretary of state. Now, it is a different story. It is a different tune. It is a different Political Climate and mccain adjusts to whatever washington is. I find it absolutely amazing that john mccain, of all people, would come out against hagel. I mean Lindsey Graham, i can almost see. Hes been there long enough to know better but some of the guys like john mccain that have been there served with hagel. They know who he is. They know where he comes from. They know his military background. Theyre both vietnam veterans. Theyre both vietnam veterans. Hes a purple heart war hero. Bill Lindsey Graham says it is a pie in your face appointment. Exactly what about chuck hagel is pie in your face . So controversial. So aggressive for these guys. If its not a bill Lindsey Graham of all people. Never saw a day of bat in his life. Neither have i but im not out there attacking a war hero. Defining policy in the most bellicose way possible. Bill lets hope the American People understand Lindsey Graham is not the final judge of who is or is not qualified to serve in any office whatsoever. Hes just one pipsqueak voice as far as im concerned. You also have been writing about ted cruz. Heres at new tea Party Senator from texas who turns out to be hes even worse than jim demint right . Whats the latest . Hes really kind of got on the ground running in terms of whos going to replace demint as the chief republican obstructionist. Bill hes been in office a month. Not even. Bill you said he was sworn in last week. Right. Sworn in last week. You saw him on the sunday shows on sunday saying washington doesnt need more compromise. Washington needs more principled leadership. More conviction. He talked about going over the debt ceiling. Shutting down the government. Said that we need to do what republicans did in 1995 is just shut the whole thing down, stand by our principle demand spending cuts. Bill we have that bite. So heres senator ted cruz, republican from texas new Tea Party Leader as to what we should do what republicans should do when it comes to the debt ceiling. There was some political cost to be paid but at the end of the day, because republicans stood strong in 1995, we saw year after year of balanced budgets and some of the most fiscally possible policies congress has produced in the modern era. If we stand strong, we can do that again and it just comes down to republicans, are we willing to stand strong and face the wrath of the Mainstream Media criticizing us and the president saying nasty things about us. Bill now, is he just an idiot or a liar. The thing is yeah, Newt Gingrich shut down the government in 1995. How did that work out . Newt gingrich got tossed out. Republicans lost control of the house. And yeah, we have balanced budgets because of bill clintons economic program. Shut down the government, i thought everybody today accepted was a colossal mistake by Newt Gingrich. Thats what gingrich wrote at the time after he left. He said it was a col colossal mistake. Some revision of history going on now. Gingrich on meet the press, hinted that there was great benefit to it. This past sunday. Now you have these hardline republicans, these new Tea Party Leaders making the same argument and so as we kind of move toward these next three mini cliffs or whatever folks are calling them, the bumps continuing resolution, the debt ceiling and the what did i miss . The sequestration. Its going to be interesting to see where republicans end up. You have the small group saying shut it down. Close it down. If theres no entitlement cuts, we wont do anything. Hopefully you have some sensible republicans who are going to say maybe we can make a deal but look it doesnt sound promising when mcconnell and boehner say were done negotiating with obama. Bill we had a vote last friday on after john boehner refused to come to the relief of the victims of Hurricane Sandy in the last congress, they voted 9 billion for Flood Control insurance, even that, some republicans couldnt support. This was the National Flood program that was going to expire that friday. If there was no vote. Bill of course they always wait until the last minute. Last second. They voted to expand its Borrowing Authority by 9 billion. 67 republicans still voted against it to show that they were really against spending after the deal that the fiscal cliff fixed they claim didnt contain enough spending cuts so they voted against it. But the problem is we found that 37 of the 67 had requested all kinds of Disaster Relief for their own states whether it be drought help, whether it be frozen crops whether it be hurricane aid from the federal government so again you see this pattern of bringing money back from my constituents but take this principled, political stance when youre on the national stage. Bill when youre dealing with two blue states. Two blue states which of course as christie points out republicans like to travel to fund raise but kind of want to wait days and days and days to give any money to. Bill i want to go back to chuck hagel for a second. So chuck hagel was criticized for not being a big supporter of israel which is phoneybaloney. Hes also criticized for something he said about jim hormel. Back in 1998, jim hormel is a close friend of mine from San Francisco. Known him a long time. Love him. Dearly. Tim wu his partner. As an openly gay man yourself, what do you think about chuck hagels comments that, at the time that jim hormel was not fit to represent the United States because he had a aggressively gay aggressively gay bill lifestyle. So he was going to go to luxembourg man, but he was going to seduce all of those luxembourg when youre aggressively gay. [ laughter ] obviously really, abhorrent despicable comments. What he needs to do because hes going to be in a situation where the Defense Department is now going to be implemented dont ask, dont tell, repeal. There will be a lot of decisions made about what kind of benefits partners of gay and lesbian Service Members receive. He needs to make a clear unequivocal statement about how hes going to implement these changes. What his views are. Again, already said that he regretted the comments. The condemnation wasnt strong enough. He said something to the extent that they were inartful words or Something Like that. He needs to admit that the remarks were wrong. That they were simply disgusting and that he no longer subscribes to that world view. Bill it is possible for people to evolve on this issue. Absolutely. The president. Simply not from that space. Bill on another issue like samesex marriage, president obama was not for it. Today he is. Change evolves. If it is genuine and real, we salute it, right. I think thats still hanging over chuck hagel. I have no doubt it is real. Absolutely. Bill 16 minutes before the top of the hour. Igor volsky, lets talk more about chuck hagel. John brennan is getting a lot of criticism, too. Igor volsky and the whole team here on the full court press. Announcer on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. You know who is coming on to me now . You know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials . Those types are coming on to me all the time now. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. You would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. And so would mitt romney. vo shes joy behar. And the best part is that current will let me say anything. What the hell were they thinking . These talking points, that the right have, about the heavy hand of government. I want to have that conversation. Really . You know id like to arm our viewers with the ability to argue with their conservative uncle joe over the dinner table. Announcer this is the bill press show. Bill were live on the air. Those comments are supposed to be made in between the breaks. Gotcha. Bill good morning, everybody. Welcome back. It is 12 minutes before the top of the hour. It is tuesday january 8. Were talking chuck hagel john brennan. Were talking ted cruz with igor volsky from think progress and team press here. Back to your calls, back to twitter. And all of this stuff peter has lined up here for us. You know, these holiday seasons i hope during the holiday you were able to take my advice and check out tryancestry. Com. Ive been doing it quite a bit lately. Checking my family, tracing them back from delaware city, delaware to salem new jersey, just across the river then all the way back to riga in latvia which is where i discovered the first presses with a sore throat. Thats where i got it from. Now i know. It is great fun to find this out and be able to share it with members of your family. I encourage you to do the same. The best part is if you visit tryancestry. Com, at this time, theyll give you 14 days free to find out as much as you can about your family. While youre there youve got access to 11 billion Historical Documents online, all at once. So why wait . Start today. Share my incredible experience and visit tryancestry. Com to see what you can discover about your family roots in the next two weeks. Start your journey today by going to tryancestry. Com. All right. Peter . Hey hey as you may have heard, weve got some stuff from the chat room. We have a chat room at current. Com. You can find fellow full court pressers there and chat along with them. Pa planner is talking about chuck hagel. Says obama isnt a progressive. Why would anyone think he might actually appoint a progressive to a cabinet post. Harsh words for the president there. Bill actually, i think somebody who opposed the surge in iraq and somebody who says we have to cut the bloated budget, a republican who says that thats as close to a progressive republican as you can get. Not a democrat. Barbara in d. C. On the hagel topic says haig the voted against the iraq war. Enough said. Bill he did not. He voted for the iraq war. Later opposed it. And while were on a theme here of your sore throat, don says no booze in this one. Bill promises, promises. No booze in this. A quarter teaspoon of cinnamon. A teaspoon of natural honey and mix it into hot green tea. I would suggest maybe add a little whiskey to that. I would too. But thats from don on twitter. Were tweeting at bpshow as well. Bill we should mention john brennan. Yes. Bill i walked out of the white house yesterday. Walked into benjamin, our friend, one of the leaders of code pink, leading a protest in front of the white house yesterday against john brennan. She saw me and she leaped right away. Bill, were you in there . I said yeah. She said did you ask any questions . They didnt take any. She thinks brennan would be a disaster. Ive always been impressed with john brennan. Hes the architect of our they accuse him of being pro torture which i think is wrong. Hes come out and said he was against waterboarding and he certainly has carried out president obamas policy antitorture. But hes the architect of the drone attack policy which i have a lot of questions about. Thats really the problem i think for a lot of democrats. What youll hear during confirmation hearings is how much trance transparency are we going to get . I think the government publicly acknowledged the program. It is an open question and human Rights Groups are worried saying where was he on torture. How loudly did he condemn the bush techniques. This mornings New York Times, theres some tension between him saying he opposed it and then his colleagues saying well, we dont really remember you being all that vocal about it. So there are some questions to be answered. Undoubtedly, hes worked closely with the president a very trusted adviser and so you know, its interesting that hes the noncontroversial pick when you know, human rights advocates have real questions but hagel has this manufactured controversy around him. Bill derek is up in ellington, connecticut. Good morning. Caller good morning, bill. How are you . Bill good. Caller i like chuck hagel. Obama, i voted for him but hes a president theres no conviction. I think that appointment should go to susan rice for what he did to her. He never supported an africanamerican. He did the same thing to shirley sarratt. I consider obama a weak president. He has no fight in him. Bill i appreciate the comment, derek. Im sorry that he decided not to fight for susan rice. But i think he learned his lesson. He certainly is going to fight for chuck hagel. He made that very clear yesterday. The white house has launched a full court press to borrow a phrase. And i think youre going to see i think youll see chuck hagel confirmed dont you igor . Key thing is you saw apec sit this one out. Theyre not weighing in. Thats a big help from israels side of this entire controversy. I think theyll be able to hold it. Bill it will be tough for republicans to vote against a republican war hero American Patriot. I was going to say john mccain can bluster all he wants now. When it comes down to it, hes going to look like an ass if he votes against him. Wouldnt be the first time. Good point. Bill you people from South Carolina get rid of Lindsey Graham . Jesus. Igor volsky, great to see you. Thinkprogress. Org. Announcer this is the bill press show. [ male announcer ] pillsbury grands biscuits. Delicious. But say i press a few out flat. Add some beef sloppy joe sauce. And cheese fold it all up and boom i just made an unbeatable unsloppy joe pillsbury grands biscuits. Let the making begin. [ female announcer ] what would you call an ordinary breakfast pastry thats been wrapped in a flaky crust stuffed with a gooey center toasted up all golden brown then given a delicious design . A toaster strudel. Pillsbury toaster strudel. So delicious. So fun. [ ryon ] eating shrimp at red lobster is a fantastic experience. 30 shrimp for 11. 99. I cant imagine anything better. Youre getting a ton of shrimp and it tastes really good [ male announcer ] hurry in to red lobsters 30 shrimp for just 11. 99 choose any two of five savory shrimp selections like mango jalapeno shrimp and parmesan crunch shrimp. Two delicious shrimp selections on one plate all with salad and unlimited cheddar bay biscuits. 30 shrimp, just 11. 99 for a limited time. Wow, thats a lot of shrimp. Im ryon stewart im the ultimate shrimp lover, and i sea food differently. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. Announcer taking your emails on any topic at any time, this is the bill press show. Live on your radio and current tv. Bill we go to the white house with David Jackson from usa today at the top of the next hour and talk highspeed rail. Peter, what have you got . Were taking your emails on any topic at any time at bill press show. Robert writes in says republicans are determined to oppose everything mr. Obama proposes. Maybe he should wear a tshirt that says i heart corporate power. Gilbert writes in oh, come on, bill, obama is a blank a giant with use president. Hes doing exactly what moderate republicans do so i guess that makes obama a moderate republican. Again, taking your emails at billpressshow. Com and were tweeting at bp show. Bill the guy cant win for losing. Look, we want to see some fight. We want to see some backbone. Hes fighting for chuck hagel. Good for him damn it. [ theme ] bill hey, good morning everybody. Good to see you today and welcome to the full court press here on current tv. Coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours from our studio here on capitol hill in washington, d. C. Bringing you the stories of the day and giving. Chance to shout out give us your view. At 186655press. Thats our toll free number. Good to see you today. Historic day at the white house yesterday. Where president obama completed his National Security team. Last week, of course, he nominated john kerry to be secretary of state. Yesterday he added chuck hagel as his nominee for defense secretary and john brennan his nominee as the next director of the c. I. A. The critics against both hagel and brennan are already out with their sharp southwards. Theyre trying to do to them what they did to susan rice but this time, its not going to work well tell you why. And a whole lot more. Take your calls. But first, lets jump out to los angeles and get the latest from Lisa Ferguson standing by with todays current news update. Hi lisa. Hey, bill, good morning everyone. Mayor Michael Bloombergs Antigun Group has a new ad out today. It is an emotional spot mentioning the sandy hook massacre and featuring roxanna green, a mother of one of the victims killed during the tucson shooting two years ago. Heres a look. My 9yearold dur was murdered in the tucson shooting. I have one question for our political leaders. When will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby . Thats part of the demand a Plan Campaign paid for by bloombergs group, mayors against illegal guns. It is set to start airing in tucson just after 10 00 a. M. Thats the same time of the shooting that nearly killed former rep gabby giffords. It will air in denver, milwaukee, and roanoke. Meanwhile a california democrat is planning a set of rare town Hall Meetings to discuss gun violence this week. Rep Mike Thompson is the leader of the House Democratic task force formed in the wake of the newtown connecticut shooting. He is hosting three gun violence prevention forums in Northern California where he will enlist experts from Law Enforcement mental health, schools and local elected officials. This is a chance for thompson to discuss a wide range of responses to the shooting but of course, it will likely draw plenty of protest from the gun industry. Thompson himself was actually named one of eight surprisingly pro gun democrats so hes opening himself up to some major criticism here. Well be right back. You know who is coming on to me now . You know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials . Those types are coming on to me all the time now. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. You would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. Absolutely. And so would mitt romney. vo shes joy behar. And the best part is that current will let me say anything. What the hell were they thinking . Announcer broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. Bill president obama nominates chuck hagel. Let the battle begin what do you say . Hello, everybody. Good to see you today. Its tuesday january 8th. This is the full court press. Were coming to you live from our nations capital. On your local progressive talk Radio Station and on current tv. All the way across this great land of ours. Here for you. Here with you. Here to take your calls at 186655press. Give us a call. Tell us what you think about the issues of the day. And if youre you know, telephone is too oldfashioned for you follow us on twitter give us your comments on twitter at bpshow or on facebook at facebook. Com billpressshow. Good to be back with you today. No voice at all yesterday. Half a voice today. Thanks to Richard Fowler for filling in yesterday. And with your help and the help of team press, well make it through with half a voice today. Peter ogborn, dan henning. Hey, hey, hey. Good morning. Great to have you here, bill. Bill good thing your voices sound okay. Well, youre here with half a voice and im here having gotten very little sleep last night bill dont rub it in. What i was going to say is when i become supreme ruler of the world i will move all big Football Games to friday or saturday evening. Super bowl on a sunday night is obnoxious and the National Championship is always on a monday night and it is obnoxious. It didnt end the postgame activities until after midnight last night. Bill you gotta admit it was a great game. It was a close contest. It was a real nailbiter. All the way to the end. Bill there was nothing close about that game at all. It was a nailbiter. I wanted to see if alabama could roll up 50 points on notre dame. Bill we all bought into the b. S. That this was going to be a real challenge. You know. A real contest. A real match of two great teams. It wasnt. One team on the field. This was bill i say that as a catholic. Ive been trounced by the Southern Baptists. The s. E. C. , which is where alabama, crimson tide comes from is just a breeding ground for the best Football Players in america. And while notre dame had a hell of a season and they beat some very good teams bill great past. They have a great past. They hadnt seen anything like alabama. You know what . There are four, maybe five other teams in the s. E. C. That could probably have beaten notre dame just as bad. Thats how good the s. E. C. Is. Bill it was a route. What was the final score . 4514 . 4214. Bill phil backert has the phones. Cyprian bowlding our videographer extraordinaire on the job as well. Speaking of the game, there is some colorful commentary by brett last night. There wasnt much action on the field. It was such a route so early on that it was kind of like what the he will l is brett going to talk about. Bill he found someone to talk about. Horny old dog. Now when youre a quarterback at alabama you see that lovely lady there. Thats a. J. Mccarrans girlfriend. Right there on the right is bonner. Thats a. J. s mom. You quarterbacks, you get all the goodlooking women what a beautiful woman. Whoa a. J. s doing some things right. Superior youngster in alabama. Start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with pop. Bill oh, wow what a beautiful woman. What a sexist. Creepy ass old brett scheming on this girl in the stands. That is so gross. Bill undressing her on national television. God. Eat your heart out brent. He fell in love right there. Bill David Jackson is going to join us from the white house in just a couple of minutes here. Reid epstein from politico will be here in studio. Well talk highspeed rail a little later in this hour. Why cant the United States keep up with china . But first. Announcer this is the full court press. Some other things you need to know before you head out the door on this tuesday. Hillary clinton returned to work at the state Department Yesterday to a standing ovation from her staff. The secretary of state who had a blood clot after a fall where she hit her head was presented with a welcome back gift. Inside a box that read as you know, washington is a contact sport was a football helmet with the state departments seal on it. Abc reports her staff also gave her a Football Jersey with the number 112 on it. That represents the number of countries she has visited on the job. Bill unbelievable i think you mean alleged concussion and blood clot. There are still those republican conspirists who think she made it up. Jimmy kimmel is starting in his earlier time slot tonight. His late night comedy show going head to head with jay leno and David Letterman. He took a direct hit at leno in a new propiece in Rolling Stone magazine saying he hasnt been a good standup comic in 20 years. Leno has sold out comparing him to a master chef who went and opened a burger king. Bill wow. Friendly words. And mostly true. And bill think what hell say about David Letterman now. In a new tablet computer was unveiled yesterday at the Consumer Electronics show in las vegas. It is big. Abc reports lenovo producing a 27 inch tablet computer that doubles as a standing table. With a big enough processor that four people will be able to use it at once. Highlighted a 1700 display is game play like the ability to play air hockey or billiards on the screen as if it is an actual table. Bill i thought the movement was toward smaller tablets. Those too. This is basically a tablet to use with other people . You can tuesday by yourself. Absolutely. It is 27 inches. It is basically a computer screen thats turned flat and it is all touch screen. Why not just get a computer . Bill yeah. Well sure. You can do that. Bill seriously. Why do i want to share my tablet with four other people. Yeah, if youre playing a game. What about watching porn . You want to play air hockey, we can do that, too. Bill forget it. All right. Big day at the white house. Historic day at the white house. Big crowd of reporters there. I was there for the announcement in the east room yesterday along with our buddy David Jackson who covers the white house for usa today. David, good morning. Good morning, bill. Bill so too bad robert gibbs is not around today to celebrate crimson tide. [ laughter ] oh, that would be very good. We could make as much fun of him as we did brent mussberger. That would be great. South carolina could have beat notre dame last night. Thats what i was telling all of my friends. South carolina and clemson could have beat notre dame, certainly the way they played last night. Bill yesterday david historic day at the white house. It looks pretty clear that on this nomination, president obama is going to fight all the way right . Yes, very much. Bill hagel and john brennan. Right. Especially on hagel. Brennan has a few critics because of the enhanced interrogation technique issue. But a lot of focus will be on hagel. Frankly, im surprised. He heard he might not go with hagel. Now hes Going Forward full blast. Bill they have a personal relationsship which is important to obama. In many of his picks. Absolutely. He admires hagel quite a bit. When president obama went to the senate, hailingel is one of the people hagel is one of the people he looked up to and now hes repaying the favor. Bill yesterday he made a i thought a particularly important point about one distinction that chuck hagel brings to would bring to the office of secretary of defense. Heres the president yesterday. Obama chuck hagels leadership of our military would be historic. He would be the first person of enlisted rank to serve as secretary of defense. One of the few secretaries who have been wounded in war. And the first vietnam veteran to lead the department. Bill so first vietnam veteran wounded in war the first enlisted man, winner of two purple hearts, a real war hero and a patriot. Are republicans really going to be able to vote against him david, you think . Im sure some republicans will vote against him because of the israel issue. Some of the alleged comments hes made over the years. Bill hes made the comments but is his alleged softness on israel. Hell have a chance to defend himself in confirmation hearings. Even though some i dont see a lot of Senate Democrats running to his defense but i see some. As the days pass, i think youll see more and more. The guy to watch here is not so much the republicans but a guy like charles schumer. If he endorses hagel i think hes homefree. Bill yesterday on our program, i wasnt here. Because i had less of a voice yesterday than i have today. But senator we had senator ben cardin on the show. We asked him about his thoughts on chuck hagel he said even he had some reservations and questions that needed to be answered before he would vote for him. Bill schumer is quoted as saying the same thing. Theyre not saying theyre against him. They have questions which is their job. Exactly. Bill to probe those two issues, particularly the alleged antigay and antiisrael remarks that hagel has made. Now with hagel getting all of the attention john brennan has a little controversy of his own but it looks like hes going to be an easier confirmation, right . Sure feels that way. John mccain spoke out a little bit against him. His statement about brennan was a lot less harsh than the one about hagel. It looks like hes in good shape some of the Civil Liberties groups may want to testify at brennans hearing. The question is how much, if anything, did he know about waterboarding and these other interrogation techniques during the bush administration. He said he wasnt involved. That will be the big question at his hearing. Bill david you and i have seen john brennan on the few times hes come into the White House Briefing room. I remember particularly when he came in right after the Osama Bin Laden mission right and described to us what happened. It turned out some of the information he gave us was not correct. He was giving all of the information he had at the time. Hes always impressed me as one tough cookie. Very much so. Yes. Hes a 24 7 kind of guy. Always on the job. Everything that happens you see brennan briefing the president. Hes always around. Rare guys who has good contacts in both parties. Hes got a lot of friends on both sides of the aisle. I think that will hold him in Good Standing moving forward as well. Bill he said yesterday i dont consider myself either a democrat or a republican. Right. Bill and president obama mentioned that of all of the people hes ever worked with, hes never seen anybody work as hard as john brennan. He said he didnt think he had slept the entire time he had been in the white house. Always wearing his suit. Brennan probably would have been the c. I. A. Director four years ago if it hadnt been the who ha over the he withdrew his name in face of the criticism. Obama made him a white house adviser instead. Bill what i thought was interesting is you had the two former head of defense soon to be former head of defense former head of the c. I. A. , acting head of the c. I. A. , both there and they were also they were both asked to speak and they both endorsed the nominees for the job that they had. Which i thought added a lot of weight to the president s nominations. Very much so. Very much a preemptive strike having leon panetta and Michael Morrell who is the deputy director, endorse both of these nominations. President obama himself if you read his remarks carefully youll see defenses to the things that may be raised against both of these guys. Bill he mentioned with chuck hagel without mentioning israel by name he recognizes the importance of americas alliances. Exactly. Bill i thought leon panetta carried the day. Im sure you appreciated it, when he talked about it. You talk about a great public servant. Leon panetta joined the military enlisted, served in the military, served in the corn representing congress representing monterey carmel. He went back to carmel to his walnut farm and started a Great Institute where ive spoken a couple of times with his wife, sylvia at the monterey bay college. Then he came back to be director of the c. I. A. And then back to be director of defense secretary of defense and yesterday, finally says im going home this time for good. Heres leon panetta. The time has come for me to return to my wife sylvia, our three sons, their families, our six grandchildren and my walnut farm. [ laughter ] dealing with a different set of nuts. [ laughter ] bill that really brought down the house didnt it . That was the line of the day by far. Wouldnt you just love to get leon in a corner. Who exactly were you referring to . I would love to know. Most of us can guess. Leon worked in the nixon administration. Bill really . I forgot that part of his career. He left there. Thats when he decided to change parties and decided to run for congress. Bill many of us in california were disappointed he did not run for governor of california last time around. We were hoping we could persuade him to do so and several people did. But he wants to get back to that walnut farm. All right dave, see you later today. Thanks so much. All right bill, get better. Bill thank you. Announcer radio meets television. The bill press show. Now on current tv. Have the passion. Show, to be able to come away armed with the facts, and the arguments to feel confident in their positions. I want them to have the data and i want them to have the passion. Rry. I was surprised to hear there was no life insurance. Funerals are so expensive. I hope larry can afford it. I know. Thats why im glad i got a policy through the Colonial Penn program. Do you think they have coverage for me. You can get permanent coverage for less than 35 cents a day. You wont have to take a physical or answer any Health Questions. Plus, your costs will never go up and your coverage will never go down. If youre between 50 and 85, for less than 35 cents a day. There are no Health Questions or medical exam. You cannot be turned down because of your health. So call about the Colonial Penn program, and ask one of their representatives about a plan that meets your needs. V alright, in 15 minutes were going to do the young turks. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They know that im not bsing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. When the democrats are wrong, they know that im going to be the first one to call them out. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. Announcer this is the bill press show. Bill here we go. 25 minutes after the hour here on this tuesday january 8. China is forging ahead with highspeed rail. The United States hardly getting started. Whats going on . Important issue, well get into that in the next segment here in the next half hour of the full court press this Tuesday Morning. Meanwhile, peter breaking story. Got both you and me hopped up this morning. This is unbelievable. And it is a story that broke in the New York Times. So you remember aig was one of the companies that was too big to fail. They were bailed out by the United States government. They were saved, they were given 182 billion. Bill right. Theyve been running around recently running ads saying thank you, america. Were back. You saved our butts, thank you very much. We appreciate it. But the shareholders in aig arent so thrilled. Theyre not saying thank you america. They say that when the u. S. Government took over and bought those and kicked that money into aig, that they lost a lot of money. So they are suing the government. The shareholders are suing the government and the board of aig is going to might on wefns and they may join this 25 billion lawsuit against the government. So aig saved by the government when the government gave them 182 billion. Aig could very well turn around sue the government bill couple of questions. So they think they lost money because the government and for a time then, we own 92 of the company because thats what the company was worth. Right. Bill how much would they have lost if we had let the company sink . Exactly. Thats why this is such a ridiculous story. The lawsuit is saying that the shareholders were deprived tens of billions of dollars and they claim it violated the fifth amendment which prohibits the paying of private property for public use without just compensation. So help us, help us, help us, help us. Bill they got the company back, dont they . Yes. They got it back. Bill its making more money than it ever made before. Certainly making more money than if there hadnt been any interventions. Bill ive got the answer. What is it . Bill give us 182 billion back. You dont want that money. Give us back that 182 billion. Thats the answer. Ungrateful isnt even the word to describe this. Bill i would hope that any judge would throw that case out of court. I hope so. Bill it is not a taking. This is sort of a parallel on what happened with the Auto Industry. You pumped all of that money in. That meant that we owned a part of the companies. Until they got back on their feet. Now theyre back on their feet. We dont have that ownership. They made out like bandits. What they ought to be saying is what the ads do say and the company says thank you america. These shareholders are dead ass wrong. Announcer this is the bill press show. Guys that do reverse mortgage commercials . Those types are coming on to me all the time now. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. You would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. Absolutely. And so would mitt romney. vo shes joy behar. And the best part is that current will let me say anything. What the hell were they thinking . Bill 33 minutes after the hour. It is tuesday, january 8. Good to see you today. Thank you so much for joining us here on the full court press. Good to be back with you today. Sorry for the scratchy voice. Had no voice at all yesterday. So at least moving in the right direction. Here with team press. 33 minutes after the hour and peter, you mentioned aig. Which has prompted a whole lot of calls here about how dare they say they would sue the United States government for bailing them out. We actually got a comment on twitter by the way on aig. Bark way says aig, thank you america for bailing us out. Well see you in court. And good go f yourself in true john boehner style. Bill heres archie from marysville washington. What do you say . Good morning. Caller aig would have survived just fine had they gone through a legitimate bankruptcy and gotten rid of the unions which were bankrupting the company in the first place. But the liberals wouldnt let that happen so they bailed out the unions which were destroying the company. Bill get out of here, archie. Go fly a kite. You know what i mean . You dont know what the hell youre talking about. I havele to tell you, i would be willing to bet the farm that the employees of aig this insurance company, were not union workers. You dont know what the hell youre talking about. And by the way, at the time, aig gobbled up that 182 billion. They begged for it. They were asking for the money. Bill they were on the phone to bush. They were on the phone to the treasury secretary at the time. They wanted that money. They took it. They ran with it. They got back on their feet. Thank you america. Bills calling from why is there such uninformed idiots out there . Go back to bed archie. Bill calling from chicago. What do you say . Caller bill, i gotta quick laugh after what he said there. The comment i have bill always the unions. Caller blame them for everything. Theyre the fault of everything. I was a member of afscme for years and have a great pension. I dont complain about it at all. Bill great union. Good for you. Caller the thick is Auto Industry got bailed out as well as aig. Auto industry is paying back. They did pay back part of the loan. What is the matter with aig paying back part of the loan . Bill i think they have paid back part of it. This story just broke this morning but these are the we have to distinguish these are the shareholders led by a former ceo. Maurice greenberg. This is not the current leadership of the company that wants to sue. The current leadership of the company doesnt want anything to do with the suit. But they have to vote tomorrow on whether or not theyre going to join it. It just doesnt make any sense. It just doesnt make any since at all. Bill this is the thanks you get, right . Help me out. Ill turn around kick you in the face. Thats what it is all about. Bill exactly. All right bill, good to hear from you. This aig story will get a lot more attention. Well get into highspeed rail and we will with andy, the u. S. The president of the u. S. Highspeed Rail Association. Coming up next here on the full court press. Announcer heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. Hand of government. I want to have that conversation. Lets talk about it. Really . Youre going to lay people off because now the government is going to help you fund your healthcare. Really . I want to have those conversations, not to be confrontational, but to understand what the other side is saying, and id like to arm our viewers with the ability to argue with their conservative uncle joe over the dinner table. [ voice of dennis ] allstate. With accident forgiveness, they guarantee your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Smart kid. [ voice of dennis ] indeed. Are you in good hands . Rogaine . Well, ill admit it. I was skeptical at first. But after awhile even my girlfriend noticed a difference. [ male announcer ] rogaine is proven to help stop hair loss. And for 85 of guys, it regrew hair. Save up to 42 now at rogaine. Com. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. Announcer this is the full court press. The bill press show. Live on your radio and on current tv. Bill here we go. It is 20 minutes now before the top of the hour. Here on the full court press this Tuesday Morning. January 8. Want to talk about highspeed rail. And get your calls but before we do, another little reminder for some of you and a lot of you having hard time making ends meet at the end of the month. Heres something you ought to check out. Incomeathome. Com. Theyre americas leading work from home business. Youve heard me talk about them before doing Business Today in over 80 countries so they know what theyre doing and they offer you an opportunity. You can take advantage of no matter your Age Education or experience. You can literally earn money on your own computer from your own Kitchen Table 24 7 so if youre tired of living paycheck to paycheck, if your goal has been to earn extra money from home, parttime or full time, incomeathome. Com. Check them out. Theyre even giving away 1,000 to Somebody Just for checking them out. That somebody could be you. Visit incomeathome. Com. Thats incomeathome. Com. Joining team press here at this hour, the president of the u. S. Highspeed Rail Association andy koonce. Thank you for having me. Bill sorry about this voice. Were struggling through. Hes been yelling at his producers all morning. Youll have to forgive him. Bill over the holidays, i saved this article. December 27 from the New York Times on the longest bullet train ride the chinese ride 1200 miles in eight hours. This is the longest highspeed rail line in the world. The chinese are doing it. The trains go 186 miles per hour. They cover a territory the same distance new york to key west. Now for amtrak, it takes you 30 hours just to get as far as miami. You cant even get to key west, right . And they do it how come the chinese can do this and we cant . Whats going on with highspeed rail . The chinese have gotten organized and focus and did it and were still sitting debating whether we need it or not. And so i think weve gotta really Pay Attention to a lot of situations. And what the chinese are doing that it makes a lot of sense any way you look at it. We have to really get moving. Bill it cant be cheaper for them than it is for us, right . Did they just decide this is something we have to do . Therefore we have to make this investment even if it means going into debt . Absolutely. And they looked at probably the different modes. As their country is industrializing, they say we can build highways every where and get everybody in cars or we could build rail. I think they got smart and decided if they had to put everybody in cars, it would be national gridlock. With oil prices rising, they wouldnt be able to afford it. They decided to skip that step and go straight into the futuristic transportation. Bill or they could put more people in planes but the problem with that is, as we experienced for example here in washington going to new york, it doesnt make any sense to fly to new york right . And theres bottlenecks trying to get all of the planes off the ground. It is just nuts. Bill plus you have all of the Airport Security to deal with. You have to be there an hour ahead of time if it is national airport. You end up in la guardia. Airplanes are also subject to rising fuel prices. High speed rail is not. What is the status of highspeed rail in this country today . I know ray lahood has been pressing it. President obama has endorsed it. Have we made any progress . Weve made a lot of progress. It does take time to get these off the ground. Bill we dont want them off the ground. We want them zooming across the ground. Bill thank you. When the president launched the program a lot of states were not ready because it was kind of a surprise. So it takes time to actually lay out plans for this and begin to organize for it. So a lot of those things that you dont really see have been happening for the last four years. And california has there should they started planning theirs ten years ago. They were first in line for the most amount of money because they were the furthest along in their planning efforts. Bill california is number one, right . Correct. Bill im a californian. I know the situation in california this line in california goes like from stockton to bakersfield . Thats the first phase. Thats the middle of the backbone. It is going to connect all the way sacramento, San Francisco l. A. San diego. It will be the complete 800 and so mile system. Revolutionize the movement in that state. Bill are there any other states that are anywhere close to moving ahead . Youve got a private group launching a system from vegas to southern california. You have another private group working on a system from dallas to houston. You have groups in chicago. The governor there has launched programs. Chicago st. Louis. Theres a lot of the northeast corridor here where we are. Theyre moving forward with advanced planning and upgrading that system. There a lot of them in the works but it takes from the time you begin planning to the time you actually get to construction to the time you open the train could span six or eight years. So we started four years ago. We still have a few more years before were actually going to be able to ride one. Bill are the private systems getting federal dollars to help build them . The texas one is not. The vegas one has applied for a riff loan. It is not a grant. It is a loan. Theyve already put a couple of billion of their own money into it. If they dont get the federal money, they will fund it privately. Bill so is part of the ive always been a big supporter of rail. I love taking amtrak and when i was living in l. A. , used to take the train to san diego all the time. Beautiful run. Right along the coast. Bill yeah. So in some parts of this country, amtrak is on the job but we dont have this highspeed rail. Even from here to new york, they put in the acela express which shortened commute from three hours to two hours and 45 minutes. Not that i dont appreciate the 15 minutes but thats hardly highspeed rail. The problem with it is to build the systems, it is expensive. You need really separate, dedicated infrastructure. You cant use the shared system with the old track that meander a lot they have straightaways. So thats the complicated part. So the acela was a compromise where they upgraded it to a certain point and got better trains but didnt build the true highspeed infrastructure. They did half the system for half the money. So now theyre talking about doing the other half and really upgrading it and getting the 200mileperhour train. Bill you mentioned several governors turned this money down i think very unwisely, shortsighted. John kasich, as i recall, correct . Ohio, wisconsin and florida. Bill oh, my god. John kasich, scott walker and rick scott Something Else they have in common. They were working together when this did this. This wasnt coincidence. They were trying to attack the president and attack the whole highspeed rail program. Now those are the three most unpopular governors in the country. Most of their people in those states are mad now they didnt move forward with the projects. Bill you could see the florida particularly is made for highspeed rail. You look at the shape of the state. You can see that boom. And the number of tourists, they come from countries that ride highspeed trains at home. Theyre ready to get on it and there is no train. They have to get a rental car. Bill is the problem getting support for highspeed rail in this country is that people are not using trains . No. Because there are other countries bill what are ridership numbers . Amtrak riderships are soaring with given the old system they have. Its not that theres not the riders if you build it, they will come. Theres many systems around the world where there were no trains before. Such as between paris and london. That was never any trains connecting. There wasnt any connection at all. It was planes and boats and as soon as they opened that line, the trains are packed day in and day out. Bill the euro star. Carol and i took it last summer. It is phenomenal. Wonderful right . It is a pleasure to ride that. You dont feel like youre going on a trip. You normally think of going on a trip, i have to deal with the airlines and security and you almost say maybe i dont want to go on a trip. But when you have a train like the eurostar, you look forward to the trip. Bill will the American People support highspeed rail . Are we doing enough . Will congress support it . 186655press is the toll free number. Andy kunz is the president of the u. S. Highspeed Rail Association. Follow their good work at ushsr. Ushsr. Com. You mentioned youve got a Little Summit coming up in washington to build more support for this early february. February 1113 right here in d. C. Well be bringing together political leaders, the administration, lot of the international highspeed rail experts, Business Leaders from around the country. To really move forward with plans and kind of educate people and rally people up and so were look forward to. That we expect a couple hundred people and exhibiters and everything. Bill what has to happen to really kick this into gear . More money from congress . Absolutely. Thats the problem. Congress is still dragging their feet and theyre kind of stuck in 1950s and 60s thinking were pouring billions of dollars, continuing to add more lanes to the roads when most people see that roads have kind of reached their limit and now we have to move to this other form of transportation and congress is slow to come around. There is a number of members who do support this and are trying to do it but there is enough of them who dont. And are continuing to block funding for it. Bill yeah, when you can see that congress is willing to turn down funding for the victims of Hurricane Sandy right, theyre not likely some of those same people. Exactly the same people. Bill to write a check for highspeed rail. Which they probably see as a boondoggle and fairyland or whatever, it is never going to happen. Yet when you really look at and a lot of them unfortunately, there are republicans who support highspeed rail but there are more republicans who dont and it doesnt really make sense because if you really look at the issues that are near and dear to republicans hearts, highspeed rail addresses every one of them. Saving money pro business, National Security, they all can be solved with highspeed rail for less money than if we spent it on six other things. So i mean there really is no reason to be against this. Bill take those people to france and let them take the bullet train right. From paris to marseille or paris to nice and tell them it doesnt make sense. See how full the trains are. Bill see how full the trains are. With businesspeople, tourists teenagers. Bill dogs too, by the way. I have a quick comment from twitter. Were tweeting at bpshow. One person says did the Auto Industry and oil associations fight highspeed rail . How do they figure into this . Bill good question. I would say the Auto Industry probably has in the past. They have less money to fight it. The oil industry is the lead group who is fighting this. Bill no kidding. No question about it. Theyre funding think tanks and theyre always writing all of the opeds and calling it boondoggles. You dont hear them calling road projects boondoggles. They just selectively pick out rail no matter where they are in the country. Its always theyre going to be empty trains, trains to nowhere. They use the same buzzwords then when the trains open and theyre packed, they go away and attack other rail projects. So its a business preservation technique is what theyre doing. It really is going to impact oil. Bill it is like the Auto Companies that tore up the red cars in los angeles and destroyed that great transit system. Theyre still dennis is up in buffalo, new york. Hey, dennis. Good morning. Caller good morning. Hey, bill, great topic. Bill thank you. Caller we were recently going to get socalled highspeed rail here in buffalo by Governor Cuomo to go from buffalo to rochester. And then there was talk this that they may even there used to be a pittsburgh buffalo line once upon a time. But somebody killed that project years ago. I think whats really going on is the politics because the economy could really boom if you can get that infrastructure going. They have to hire people to work the trains. Somebody has to build the tracks. Bill dennis, just about out of time. I want to get a quick comment from andy. Hes right in terms of the economic boom. Layers and layers of benefits. It will create Jobs Construction to build it then it will create jobs to operate it. It will encourage hotels and Real Estate Development and people to travel more because it is easy. It will stimulate the economy in ten different ways. Bill yeah. Andy, youre doing great work. Thank you so much for being on top of this. Good luck with your summit and again, you can find out more about it at ushsr. Com. Highspeed rail is not going to happen unless the American People get behind it. Thats right. Thank you so much. Bill thank you so much for coming in. Announcer this is the bill press show. nrrenttv vo current tv gets the converstion started next. Im a slutty bob hope. You are. The troops love me. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. The parting shot with bill press. This is the bill press show. Bill hey and on this tuesday, january 8 my parting shot for today heres whats wrong with washington today friends. If Ronald Reagan or george bush or mitt romney had nominated chuck hagel to be secretary of defense, republicans would be dancing in the streets singing hes one of us hes a war hero hes a republican but barack obama nominates him and theyre out to destroy his chances and block his nomination. Why . Only because barack obama is for him. They accuse him of being antiisrael. Besides, they say hes antigay. Wrong on both counts. No, chuck hagel doesnt agree with netanyahu on everything but guess what, neither did george bush or barack obama. Doesnt make him antiisrael. Back in 1998, thensenator hagel opposed the nomination of my good friend jim hormel from San Francisco to be our u. S. Ambassador to luxembourg, the first openly gay u. S. Ambassador. He was wrong to do that. He has since apologized. Jim hormel takes his apology. Barney frank has promised to work with and support lgbt members of the military and their families. Once again republicans like john mccain and Lindsey Graham are playing politics with National Security. It is disgusting. Chuck hagel will make a great secretary of defense. Hey, folks, have a good tuesday. Come back again tomorrow. Ill have all of my voice back then