Transcripts For CURRENT Full Court Press 20130130

[ music ] entrails hey, good morning hey good morning, everybody. Off we go with the fullcourt press on current tv coming to you live across this great land of ours on our studio in washington, d. C. , and what about this . Here is some good news you wont hear anywhere else. The market is red hot. Yes, the dow closed yesterday at 13,954, almost 14,000. Thats a level we havent seen since october, 2007. And, of course, the republicans are always quick to blame president obama when the market goes down. Do you think they are going to give president obama credit . Do you think they are going to thank him when the market goes up, up, up . Of course not. We will tell you why. We will talk about that and awhole lot more, with the latest, todays current news update in los angeles, here is Lisa Ferguson. Good morning, lisa. Hey bill. Good morning, everyone. Here is whats on the president s schedule today. First up, he is having lunch with Hillary Clinton in the private dining room at the whitehouse at 12 30. Yesterday, the Senate Confirmed senator john kerry to replace clinton as secretary of state in an overwhelming vote of 94 to 3. Clinton was having an interactive online interview. As she heads out the door, she is leading leaving a legacy the most traveled secretary of state in history. More 950,000 miles, visited 112 countries and held 1700 meetings with world leaders. Next up for the president today. He is talking Immigration Reform at 3 55 and 4 15. Yesterday, obama unveiled his new immigration proposal for the country and urged congress to act quickly on Immigration Reforming the nations laws. The president said his biggest failure in his first term was not accomplishing comprehensive Immigration Reform. This will term, he wants to see a quick path to citizenship for many of the countrys 11 million illegal immigrants. Lawmakers will have the senates plan to consider which a Bipartisan Group released on monday. In many aspects, they were similar. The senates would call for tougher Border Control before granting citizenship to immigrants already in the country. More bill press is up after the break. Stay with us. Iq will go way up. vo current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. Im a slutty bob hope. You are. The troops love me. vo tv and radio talk show host Stephanie Miller rounds out currents morning news block. Youre welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. Just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. [ music ] broadcasting across the nation, on your radio, and on current tv this is the bill press show. Bill president obama challenges the congress if you dont act on Immigration Reform and do it fast i am going to send my own plan up to capitol hill. What do you say . Hello, everybody. The battle is joined, getting red hot here on Immigration Reform here in our nations capitol. Great to see you today. Thanks for getting up early. Thanks for joining us here on the fullcourt press. We are coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours, coast to coast, from sea to shining sea, from our studio on capitol hill, in washington, d. C. , right here our big United States capitol. Not too busy these days because the senates in session, but the house, for some reason has taken the week off. I dont know why. I guess maybe to recover from the inauguration or whatever. We have it covered here in the nations capitol around the globe, giving you a chance to sound off and let us know whats happening, what it means to you and to your family. You can do so, of course by giving us a call. We remind you of that every morning, the old fashion way to reach us 86655 press. More and more of you though do so, follow us and send us your comments on dewitter every day at bp show facebook. Com billpressshow. However you do it, join the fun. Join the conversation. Keep the town hall alive here every morning with team press, peter ogburn and dan henning leading it up. Hey, hey, hey. Good morning bill middle of the week. Peter hump day. Cyprian boulding has a hang over. Big birthday yesterday. You know. Right. He looks a little rough this morning. Bill you are only 45 once in your life. Right . Appear quadruple amputee from iraq, brandon morocco, doing great with four art limbs. I saw the video of him. The doctors yesterday performed the very first transplant. When i heard he got two new arms, i thought two new pieces of metal. Thats amazing what they can do with those. No. No. No. No. These are two actually human arms donated by a donor that they not not just one. Both of them sixteenhour surgery, and they attached both and this happened in december. So, like six weeks ago yesterday, he appeared in front of the cameras at johns hopkins. Appeared and was moving his arms. Scratching his nose. Its like we are living in the future. They put human arms on somebody. Bill absolutely. Incredible. Bill he does say, you know, he still doesnt have Like Movement in his fingers yet, but its coming. Currently, i dont really have feeling or movement in the hands yet. But we will get there. Bill well get there. And they kept asking him, whats it feel like . The guy, you could understand just at a loss of words. It feels amazing. Its something that i was waiting for, for a long time. Bill yeah. And the spirit of this kid, you know. I call him a kid. He looks like i dont know how would . 19 or 20 . He is just determined and its his spirit matched with the spirit and determination of those doctors up there thats just an incredible incredible story. Its going to take him almost two years, they said, to get full movement because just, by the way, think about that surgery. Right . Its not just putting, like, flesh to flesh. Youve got the bone to connect. Yeah. The muscles. You have the muscles. Muscles nerves. Youve got the nerves and youve got the blood vessels. All of that has to be, you know doctor individually connected bill each one, right. Wow. I heard the doctors say it takes the in terms, like they grow an inch a month. No kidding bill the nerves will gradually come back. You have to get from all the way up here, right . All the way down here. Twentyfour inches or so bill unbelievable. Yeah. That was one of those great feelgood stories yesterday. Is. Eliot spitzer will join us as he does every wednesday and dan stone from the national geographic, whats happening with all of these unbelievable temperature changes we are seeing all across the country including tornados in winter and cindy borin from the Washington Post talking about some of the big stories in sports. Alex rodriguez back again, accused of taking illegal substances. Did he, or didnt he . What about the president s comments on football . But first. This is the full court press. On this wednesday, other head likes lines making news, a new investigation into steroid use in baseball has linked three of the biggest says alex rodriguez, gio and nelson cruz have a connection to a clinic in south florida where a doctor is under investigation for providing peds for players. Gonzalez said he never met that the doctor nor had any connection with that clinic whatsoever bill i refuse to believe anybody from the Washington Nationals was involved. Now, arod. Entirely possible. I hope i hope that he is right because the nationals are a pretty squeakyclean Organization Bill its the last thing the nationals want. A new caucus the congressional peanut caucus. Write that down. Dran democrat sanford jimmy carter. Sanford bishop of florida and republican martha robly chair the caucus that represents 17 peanut producing states. They will ensure peanut interests have a voice on the hill, especially in all for agricultural litigation. There is something fitting about a peanut caucus. They could name the entire house the peanut caucus. Cats are killers bill i refuse to believe it. A study in Nature Communications find cats are killing billions of birds and other an nails in woo woo animals, 15 of the total bird population. No. If this trend continues t could have greater ecological effects. The easiest solution keep your cats inside. Do we have a problem where there arent enough birds . If it were to blow up year after year, it could become a problem bill cats have been eating birds for a long time. Thats what i am saying bill a long time. Now they are finding out just how many they are doing. 15 of the bird population is a lot. Thats a lot peter its called the natural psyche em. I dont understand why this is cause for alarm. Bill the bad thing about it i love cats. Oh, man, here we go. All right. I dont know whether we want to go down this slope or not. But i do love cats. Me, too. I take care of one right now. Its not ours. Its the neighbors cat, but i am the best friend. You break into your neighbors house to take care of the hat. He follows me home. But they do, they do kill birds and thats the bad thing about them but they kill myself and rats. Yeah, and gophers. Not so many gophers. If tough gophers. Right. So, you know. I am team cat bill i am too. I am team cat bill i am going to stay on team cat. If you bell your cat they are not going to get the bird. I never heard that. Thats good. Bill we used to do that in california. A bell on he will owe eloise. She is a killer. Cats, the silent killer. Bill yes, speaking about violence uhhuh president obama stepped in a little bit here i love to give your take on this. He did so, stirred up a whole lot of controversy. He has stirred up a whole lot of con controversy. I am not talking about Immigration Reform and i am not talking about his latest proposals on gun violence or i am not talking about his latest comments on, we have to include samesex couples in the Immigration Reform either. No president obama stirred up a little dust up here with what he said about football. He gave an interview the other day to the new republic. The new republic by the way is under new ownership, ironed franklin forr back and they got a one on one interview with president obama, actually, it was two on one, two of their guys with president obama in the oval office and among other things, they asked him about the nfl and the violence in professional football and college football, and was he concerned about that. You know, the president is a huge sports fan. He is a huge football fan and he told the new republic, quote, i am a big football fan, but i have to tell you, if i had a son, i would have to think long and hard before i let him plays football. He continued, and i think those of us who love the sport are going to have to wrestle with the fact that it will probably change gradually to reduce some of the violence. Well, if i had a son, he said i would have to think long and hard about letting him play football. That stirred up a lot of reaction in the game. Ed reed, the safety for the ravens on the super bowl said, hey, damn straight. The president obviously has a bunch of feelings about it. I mean i am sure he is a sports man, he watch sports, you know, and honestly, i agree with him. Yeah, i agree. I agree with president obama until they fix the system. Intel two coaches, brothers, brothers har harbaugh on sunday, jim and john disagree with the president. First, jim from the 49ers. A 4 month old soon to be 5month old, Jack Harbaugh and it president obama feels that way, it will be a little less competition for Jack Harbaugh when he gets older. A funny way of putting it and his brother, zon, of course coach for the ravens says yeah. Brother is right on the this one. I dont agree with that but i like jims comments, you know jim said little jack is going to be playing football. Right . One less kid to compete against. I like that comment. Ball is a great game. And anybody thats played the game knows what a great game is and what it provides for young people, what it provided for people like me, you know an opportunity to grow as a person. Tell us john, how great is ball really . Basically, you know, you have an opportunity to make your first tackle or make your first block or do something in football because its such a tough thing. Its a little bit of a manhood test and when you get done you can say i am a Football Player. That makes me special a little bit. I think its a huge part of our educational system in this country, and its going to be around for a long time. Guess what. I was on the debate team in high school. Makes me special. Lets not go. A little over the top. What do you think . Is the president right in the 86655press. You have to admit. Ball is a violent game. No doubt about it. Particular like watching ball. I would never pay to go to a football game. Once in a while action i watch part of the super bowl on television. I love soccer. Played soccer. But football is a violent game. I mean the n. F. L. Players union just said they are going to spend 100 million figuring out how they can make the game safer for players. So you have two kids, peter, two boys. Are you going to have them play football . I have two boys and we have actually entered the conversation bill you played football. I did and i am not the kind of dad that pushes my kids to go play sports. If they want to play sports, fine. My dad was the type of days push. You have to play football. I was a bigger kid. Youve got to go play football. I am not like that. But my oldest son is he tried soccer, wasnt very good at soccer. Tried basketball. Tried baseball. He was okay at baseball but football, he is okay at. We have thrown the football around. He likes watching football. I have no problem letting him play football. You know, if he wants to go out what about all of these injuries, head injuries. He is no the playing in the nfl. Sure, but look. Its safer now to play football than it has ever been to play football. You are padded from head to tow. They are playing in, you know peewee and then maybe high school. Wherever it goes from there. But i agrees that football is a violent sport if the this turns into a rear choice. I hope the nfl takes care of the players and they have agreed and they understand there is a problem problem, they need to address it. I mean, you are going to get hurt playing any sport. If you are the type of person that worries so much. Excuse me. Particularly football. You could get hurt playing baseball but its not a contact sport, neither is soccer the way football is. Soccer can be very violent. Next to boxing next to boxing, i think football is the most violent sport. I dont know. I have two songs neither of them. I have two sons but when they were growing up, neither one of them played football. Played soccer a little baseball. I would never say, i dont think thats the right thing for you to do it. If they want to play it bill i think the president is on to something 86655press, i agree with ed reed. 8665577. How about you . Let your kids play football . [ music ] 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. 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 . [ music ] this is the bill press show. Bill 26 minutes after the hour, fullcourt press, the full lineup here this morning, president obama stirring it up saying he is not sure he would let his sons play football. Whats going on in the social word, peter . We are on twitter houscal flash says the coaches need to address this. How can they letask their sons to do something. Both harbaugh coaches said they would let their kids play. Kay spencer said we shut fit the Football Players with the helmets nascar drivers where. And there are more violent sports, rugby, hockey thinks like that can, would you outlaw your kids . Bill i would disagree. Hockey. Rugby but you see the fights on hockey, but every play is not banging into each other. Thats one of the arguments, home players have less padding. I dont know what the rate is of injurieses injurieses. Jim call from gary indiana. As a hern who played high school fool and loves his bears, i think the president is right on this. There is too much violence in this society and how else, if we keep letting our most violent and strongest boys go, you know play football, how are we going to continue to spread war throughout the middle east and africa. Bill i would have to say there may be some other dangers to kids in high school. Cross fight or gang fight or something. You raised an interesting point though, having played football in high school. What is the extent on serious injuries to high school Football Players. I cant believe its limited to the nfl. We will google it will and take more calls about the president s comments about football. A violent sport . This is the bill press show. [ music ] 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. [ music ] chatting with you live at current. Com bill presscurrent. Com billpress. This is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. Bill hey, how about it . Thirtythree minutes after the hour on the fullcourt press, on a big wednesday, january 30th, president obama stirring up a lot of conversation not a little bit of controversy when he said he is not sure if he had sons evenhe would even let them play football. A lot of coverage from players and coaches and sports fans around the country. 86655press. Back to your calls in just a second in our conversation. Just a little reminder here of something. I encourage you to look into because i have often wondered about my family. Its been kind of an obsession of my trying to figure out because our grandfather would never tell us what our family roots really were, and thanks to ancestry. Com, i have been able to trace my own family roots from Delaware City delaware to sallem new jersey, and all the way across the pond to rega in latvia. Its easier because ancestry. Com is up to 11 billion Historical Documents and 41 million family trees online. They will give you two weeks to search through all of that material to find out what you can about your family before you have to sign up. So ezin courage you to share i edge courage you to share my i encourage you to try ancestry. Com. Start your journey today by visiting tryancestry. Com. They break it down, marriage records, death records, manifest of ships coming into the United States. Try it out again at tryancestry, tryancestry. Com. We talked about high school football. I checked. Here is the story out of channel 5 in phoenix, arizona recent story, starts out by saying that they looked into this. The injury rates for High School Ball are higher than those for college and nfl football according to this is according to the arizona athletic organization. So thats pretty scary. People talking about this online bpshow, g cawley says the president stated how he felt. He isnt coming for your footballs. Dont freak out. Bill not going door to door. Era now that is kids die every year from playing football. Of course obama doesnt waynt his kids to play football. He wants a High School Basketball champion. The girls are going to be. You know that. Tim down in palm springs, florida. Hey, tim. Hi. What do you think . I was thinking that i would like the discussion to go on even further. Uhhuh. I went through this back in the 90s with one of my sons as a real tall guy, very heavy, musculature, great coordination and so forth. And the high school really wanted him to go out for ball and they even managed to talk him in to going for the summer program. Uhhuh. Which is terrible. He came home. He was just beat up . Just beat up as hell, yeah. And, i had to talk to the coach. The coach said if you get your son into our program, he can make millions of dollars. And i am thinking, this guy wants to grind up my kid into some kind of machinery or mechanism. Bill so what did your son finally, do . I forbid him to do it. And so then, they came back on him through the cheer club or whatever it was, they started a little side war on him, put can stuff in his locker and making comments about him being a chicken. They bullied him. For not playing football. For not playing football. It was the most unfair thing. He never told me about it until about a year ago. And now, i would like to find that coach and meet him with baseball bat in a quite place where we could operate together. Ball is too violent. Talk about nonviolence right. Thats interesting the pressure on kids. There is a lot of peer pressure to play. You must have seen that in South Carolina and you are a wimp probably if you dont go out for football. I went to high school at somerville high school. The coach there that coached football who still coaches, a guy named john mc kiss ick. He won more Football Games than any coach in history. The winningest football coach whoever lived. Football is taken very very seriously where i went to school. It was expected because even as a kid, i was taller and bigger and stockier than most of the other kids that i would play football. There is a difference of kids who play to learn to work with the team and get the exercise versus what our caller was point utting out that grind you into a monster in high school and its win, win win win win and you sacrifice your body. I mean thats not healthy. Yeah. To get people to focus on the game in ways of reducing the risk. Larry in new britain, connecticut. Good morning, bill bill good. Caller basically if you paid attention, you can see Football Players have been getting bigger and faster. Bill yes. Caller i have a nephew who is a 240pound punter, and i can attest to that although i am glad he is a punter and not a linebacker. Bill right. Caller we need to focus on the helmets. If we could Design Technology for better smartphones and send people into space, i am sure we could come up with a helmet that can presently these prevent these concussions bill we really are talking about mainly head injuries. Yeah. Bill correct . In terms of the danger . I think thats the biggest debate right now yeah bill not like broken legs or arms or dislocated shoulders. Gary, good point. Thank you so much down in saint peters birth florida. Stewart good to talk to you whats up . Good morning, i probably change my opinion from what people were saying. The Biggest Issue is the helmets. You go back in the day when football first was coming up they won leather caps there wasnt that much injuries until the passing game. You talk about rugby. It is a violent sport but guess what . They do not have the head injuries as the nfl players do. It all comes down to the designing of the helmet how do you stop the quarterback from throwing the football and a player jumping down and landing on his head, near his head, you know, neck injuries and all of this comes about because of the way we play the game. I thought most of the injuries were from the contact on the offensive and defensive line. No . I understand when the passing, too. There is a lot of that. I think the caller makes a big point. I think the bigger issue is the fact that todays athletes todays Football Players are bigger and stronger and more aggressive than. There is that story. Than 55 years ago. Helmets are the main thing. You have two Solid Objects hitting each other, you know, its going to cause problems. Soccer for children, you talk to any neurologist, they will tell you its the worst sport for them to play because of the balls bouncing off their head bill their head . In soccer. It is the worst game for children to play growing up. I dont know who said that. I have a real problem with that. I have been to so many freaking soccer games, i cant believe it. For those little kids to head a ball, it might happen once a year. Whatever. Lets say it happened five times a game. Its not the same as get can hit with a football helmet. Bill no. Not the same as getting run over by a 250pound thug. Right . When you see those kids running up and down the field. Thats good exercise. John out in kansas city missouri. John, good morning caller good morning. How are you bill football scare you . Caller well, yeah, it does. I had a son that played and was speared in the back and because of that injury ended up having a lower back injury and it was actually broke. Was that High School College . No it was high school. Still in high school. He will never be able to play football again because of it. Ug, these coaches going around telling these kids there is a chance you will go in the nfl or about something big, you know, they dont tell these kids there is one chance you will go into the n. F. L. I understand about playing the game but to go out there and like you are in the nfl is totally ridiculous. Are we paying enough attention to the safety of these kids . He is not talking about his son joining the nfl. He is talking about his son in high school. The president didnt say he would forbid it. He said he would have to think long and hard about it. 86655press. Eliot spitzer, we will get the rundown for him. Did you see what the dow did yesterday . Wow. This is the bill press show. [ music ] the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. Iq will go way up. vo current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. Im a slutty bob hope. You are. The troops love me. vo tv and radio talk show host Stephanie Miller rounds out currents morning news block. Youre welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. Just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. Desmond tutu said a quote that is one of my favorite quotes. We are tied together in a web of humanity. I am a person only through you. I can only be a person only through you. That really resonates me and drives my work. The world is becoming an incredibly connected place. Mobile phones are really driving that connection. At kiva, we run an internet marketplace. People can lend to other people for the purpose of starting a small business, going to school or a variety of other good causes. You can go to kiva. Org and you can see pictures and profiles of people from over sixty countries all across the world. You can lend them as little as 25. If they are successful, they will pay you back. Dear rixi, youre a honduran immagrant. Youre coming to the us, you have an idea to start, you know, a womens cosmetics store or a clothing store. Youre going to need a lot of things, ya know, to pay the rent, permits inventory, advertising, marketing so that adds up quite a bit. Youre going to need tens of thousands of dollars to start a small busines. There is ten millionplus people completely left out of the formal finical system. Banks dont lend to people like that at all. There is a lot of opportunity to decrease unemployment, provide employment, provide Economic Opportunity and raise our standard of living by investing in small business. Our hearts are an incredibly powerful thing. Good technology can help amplify this power and create an incredibly powerful force that can spread to every country in the world. 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. [ music ] this is the bill press show. Bill twelve minutes before the top of the hour here on the full court press coming to you live from our nations capitol, the house is out this week but the senate has been pretty busy confirming join kerry as the new secretary of state yesterday as a vote of 94 to 3. Can you imagine . Is that buddy guy music election . Tunes for you. Bill all right. I was mentioning john kerry was confirmed yesterday. Sorry bill today, the Senate Judiciary committee a big hearing on the issue of gun violence. A lot going on across the board. We wanted to check in with our good friend, the former governor of new york and the former host here on current tv, and just an allaround good guy, eliot spitzer. Thank you for the kind words. Good morning bill i have to ask you my 401 k this morning has a big smile on its face, 13,954, the dow ending yesterday. Whats going on and why are we hearing why arent you hearing more about this . Crisis is a better headline than good news and when the Financial Markets were in tur turmoil turmoil, thats all. Its an amazing thing under president obama the dow had doubled, its come back from its abyss after the bush policies gave us. I dont want to be partisan but i will be, solid comic thinking pushing back against the crazed austerity screams from the right. Paul krugman said no austerity will kill us. We are hurting. I dont want to sound polyannaish. The middle class is being killed. The Capital Markets are back. That means your 401 k is back. The housing markets are beginning to come back, which means the two biggest assets people have, houses and retirement plans will begin to move back up. So people will begin to feel a little wealthier. Thats good news bill corporate profits up . Thats the amazing thing. This president has put in place comic policies and the national rebound from the cycle has returned corporate profits as a percentage of gdp to their highest in the history. Thats why the Capital Markets which trade based upon the profitability of the companies and that profitability, again, no longer being just domestic. Apple obviously a Global Company sells stuff and makes it a lot derived from overseas activity. They are doing well. Bill here is what i dont understand. Given these numbers are late january, but we saw corporate profits a year ago that were at alltime record high and wall street, banks are back thanks to t. A. R. P. And george bush continued policy continue by barack anthills. Right bill in this last election cycle, wall street went overwhelmingly for mitt romney and against obama. Why . There is no answer to that. Bill, i think you need bill you know a lot of these guys. And that doesnt mean i understand them. Dont criticize me for knowing them and expect me. You are being mean to me. Bill you got meet. It is one. Mysteries of the last political cycle. You say to corporate leadership. Look what worked. Look what is being good for you. I used to have this conversation. I used to say, i dont want to be ideological for a minute. Look at the data. What are you complain being . There was no good answer. Bill we saw secretary of state. She still is, Hillary Clinton n front of the senate really talk about violence against women. Right . By the republicans. Within a week, she will be the former secretary of state. How would you assess her tenure there in that post . She was the perfect em isary to a world that was in termurmoil where it is hard to see a precise, arkansas i can ulable ulable articulable plan. It is a matter of dealing with a series of crises trying to move the ball forward, play by play super ball metaphors, a thing of the week, she did it extraordinarily well and she has, i think, regained the respect of every american. She came into that position beloved by democrats. Republicans hesitant. She has been nonpartisan. She has done and handled the job perfectly. The benghazi kerfuffle at the end was a prelude to 2016 and both sides putting lines in the sand. She did a superb job. Thes she is the next democratic nominee if thats what she wants. I wasnt going to ask you the 2016 question because i didnt want to put you on the spot. I dont think there is any question about it. Yeah. Joe biden is wonderful. He also is having a great moment in the sun. But certainly, those are the two candidates that have, at this moment, the national network, super p. A. C. Already jumping out of nowhere to push hillary. You speak to anybody right now. They say, yes, we want her to be the nominee. Bill you have to say, too, she has excelled a lot everything she has done, first lady of arkansas first lady of the United States new york, what is. What is not to say on the resume that wouldnt make her personal suited for the position and she knows capitol hill. She knows how to both get along alongooned fight when she needs to. Thats when that what that benghazi pushback was about. I can be feisty when i need to. Bill talk to some buddies. Not that you are bud dirks necessarily. Say, hey, come on, guys. Give credit where credit is due. Right . Anyhow. Maybe. Maybe. I wish i could. Bill eliot spitzer, always great to visit with you. My pleasure, bill. Bill have a good one. Thanks. This is the bill press show. [ music ] 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. [ music ] this is the bill press show. Bill football injuries points out bill, its the head is it the head bouncing around inside the helmet, or is the brain bouncing around inside the skull . Even if a head and helmet is worn, ag brain is crashing into the skull. George reeves he is a guy that emails me every day and disagrees with everything i say but today, he says disagrees with me. What . Bill sorry, while i think here, i am afraid. He points out, george points out, it doesnt matter what kind of helmet you wear. The helmet protects the skull but cannot protect the brain from sudden stops associated with concussions. There you go this is the bill press show. Good morning, fellow americans. Welcome to the fullcourt press coming to you live here on current tv this wednesday morning, january 30th great to see you today. A lot going on here. Lots going on here in our nations capitol and around the country and around the globe. We will tell you all about it and give you a chance to sound off on the issues of the day by giving us a call at 86655press and here is some good news you wont hear anywhere else. Market is red hot. Yes, indeed, the dow closing yesterday at 13,954. As close to 14,000 almost as you can get. We havent seen it that high since october, 2007. Republicans are ready to blame president obama when the market goes down. Are they now going to say, thank you, president obama . When the market goes up . Dont hold your breath. We will tell you about that and a whole lot more including the latest on Global Warming here at the top of the hour. But first, we get todays current news update from Lisa Ferguson out in los angeles. Hi, lisa. Good morning. Hey, bill. Good morning, everyone. The Senate Judiciary committee is holding its first hearing on gun violence today. Nra ceo Wayne Lapiere and mark kelly and giffords herself could make a surprise appearance. The couple launched their gun control Advocacy Group americans for responsible solutions earlier this morningnth and visited newtown connecticut following the mass shooting. Todays hearing is expected to be highly incendiary. Some of the most staunchly divided lawmakers. And ted cruz and john cornyn of supporters of Second Amendment rights. A new bill is gaining contraction on the hill. A Bipartisan Group of senators including tom co burning, mark kirk joe shoechumer are working on a proposal to strengthen the enforcement of background checks. This does have a potential to break some of the gridlock. Coburn said need to keep guns out of the hands of those who pose a danger to themselves and others. And to draft a bill gun rights supporters can get behind. More bill press is up after the break. Stay with us. [ music ] these talking points, that the right have, about the heavy 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. Broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv this is the bill press show. President Obama Tells Congress hey we need to get busy and pass that yougration bill fast or i will send you my plan and make you vote on that. The battles begun. Great do see you today. It is wednesday, january 30th this is the fullcourt press coming to you on your talk Radio Station and, of course on current tv. Good to see you today. Thank you for joining the conversation. Here, our morning town hall to bring you up to date on the news of the day from our nations capitol where the Senate Judiciary committee has a hearing starting at 10 00 oclock this morning, on both sides, on the issue of gun violence horrendous assign in syria with some 60 young men found with their hands tied behind their back and executed and around the country, unbelievable swings in weather temperatures which raises, again, the question of what the hell is going on with our weather and can anybody deny global warning . We will get into those topics and take your calls. Join us at join the conversation by phone at 86655press, by twitter bpshow and on facebook at facebook. Com bill press show. As long as we are on currents t. V. , the current t. V. Chat room will continue. If you go to current. Com, click on the chat room. Join your fellow fullcourt pressers across the land in talking about the issues of the day the global warm something where we start at the top of the hour. We couldnt do that without the help of our good friend dan stone, from the national geographic. Hello, daniel. Nice to know i am integral to Global Warming. Is bill quite a distinction. Not just that. Many issues. Thank you, bill. I think your first visit for 2013. It is. Absolutely bill we have a rule around here we can say happy new year as long as long in the year or we did say until the end of january . I say two weeks. January. January 4th. Dan says four days a little extreme you say what if he we didnt see dan until, you know, august. Would you still say happy new year in august . I would probably say merry christmas. Happy holidays. We have a war on christmas going on. Remember . The senate took a big vote yesterday, senator joe mancien from West Virginia was chairing the senate. He announced the tally. 94, the nays are 3 and one responded present. The nomination of John Forbes Kerry to be our new secretary of state is confirmed. There it is. Kind of a squeaker of a vote. Right . Everybody wants to know, who are the three idiots or aholes who voted against him . James inhofe. You could probably guessed that one bill john cornyn and ted cruz, the new senator from texas. Whats he got against john kerry and who is his candidate . Ted cruz, he is already whats he been there . A month . Hes already made his mark as one of the biggest jerks in the senate. Republicans like to say he is one to watch. I agree. I think we should watch ted cruz because he is weeks away from a big screwup. He ought to take a lesson from Hillary Clinton, you get in the senate as a freshman and just lay low. Right . You dont stand up and pretend you are a knowitall. Ted cruz, its going to happen. A little bit of breaking news, john kerry will deliver his farewell address to the senate today. We are not sure when he is going to resign. De Deval Patrick is waiting to be the interim senator. Barnie frank . Are you ready . I think it will be barnie. Who voted present . Thats a good question. Was it i will stick with texas. Kay Bailey Hutchinson . Bill john kerry. I have been out of politics too long. Bill great modesty which he is known. Why wouldnt you vote for yourself bill because he is a senator. What it would have been a tie . He knew it wont be a tie. When i ran for office i voted for myself. I am not that humble. Dan stone is here for the national geographic. Cindy borein . Right . Sports blogger joining us in the next hour to talk about how dangerous is football really and about super ball coming up. Meredith scheiner is a friend of roll call. But first. Other headlines making news on this wednesday, big onair changes over at cnn. Several contributors no longer with the network including James Carville and Mary Madeline who say the decision was the networks, not theirs red steak blogger, Eric Erickson has a new job at fox news. No surprise there. The Morning Program is getting revamped, cnns new president , geoff zucker hired chris queue mo to be part of it. Soledads role is unclear as they move forward. Geoff zucker has to shake it up. A clear sign i think. A hewn talent. No where to go but up. More power to them. There are no little fixes. No. If he had come in and said we have a great product. We are going to stick with it the way it is. I wonder if after what we saw with ann curry on nbc if we will see him bring her to cnn as well. Interesting. As the Baltimore Ravens and 49ers get set to faceoff in the super bowl, the senators from maryland have offered a wager. A meal of crab cakes, maryland beer. No. They are waiting to hear from Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein from california as to what they will offer. The hill reports that senator mckulsky will throw in a can of hair spray in ode. I think thats a tragedy. If you ever wanted today travel to north korea and couldnt get into the country say no more. You now know. Not even on my bucket list. Now, you are going to know how to get around. Google yesterday added details of the secluded nation onto google maps, roads, businesses trains. Before that, it was just a giant white spot with no details. Google said it created the map with the help of citizen cartographers cartographers, an log maps and secret sources within the country to get it done. It is now on google maps. Where do you want to go kids . Disney world . Grand canyon . North korea. The sad part is the people of north korea wont be able to access it. This is the slow creep of the internet into that country. Its undeniable and they cant keep it out in a major way. You need to request your next assignment to get there, to north korea. The last time we talked you were on this boondoggle junket through california under the guise of in0 vails. You remembered us when you were at the st. Louis luisbo. How many guests to we have that bring us gifts. Not many. California made. Nothing better. We dont wait until the evening to eat chocolate. No. No. You can open it. Yesterday, its 65 degrees a power walk down the mall. Today going to be sick 3 in chicago. They will be out, you know walking all along the lake inshorts and tee shirts. Tomorrow, its projected ton 18 greers degrees. Whats going on . This patter of extreme weather that we have seen for a couple of years. Its beendrant attic this year. Last year, the winter was hardly a windter at all. I dont think anyone with kay its Climate Change rearing its head but we can say this is strange. When you look at last year record fires hurricane sandy, you know, is there any denying that, you know, the planet trying to tell us something . The climate is changing. Extremes. Extremes. We have seen warming parts per million of carbon that we need to rein in. Finally, for the first time, the put during his inaugural address issued the talked about the issue of global warm bill he spent more time talking about it than any other single issue which wasnt 15 minutes. Gu you have these science den ires led by james inhofe who seem to block any effort and the tea partyers block any effort to do anything about claimant change. Its true the president cant come in, pass a carbon tax, pass a cap and trade system something ambitious and tackle this issue but there are a lot of things he could do by executive order. Using the epa to crack down even harder with some regulations on pollution, on existing power plants. Right . The creation of new ones. Some of the biggest sources of carbon come from these really old carbon im sorry colepowered power plants. Would help a lot. We have one here in the district that heats the congress. You see that spewing out every day. Things like that, the congressional power plant, start greening. The government more. Solar powers on the white house. Big deal. Right . It would send a message. Dont worry about the flashy stuff. Myelogram standards in 2010, 56 miles a gallon all of our cars will get in the year 2025. A big deal. A huge deal. That was one of the biggest environmental accomplishments of his first term. He could protect parts of the ocean and george w. Bush did some of that as president too. How does that affect get to Global Warming . Whats the connection . It addresses the urgency to protect something about the climate. It affects shipping groups in the arctic if you rope off huge areas around alaska. You cant drill for new oil like shell, the oil company has done or wanted to do. You cant ship these massive ships through that area which produces carbon in the area, also. Does it affect does it address all of the worlds climate . No. It doesnt. It does show a president willing to address some sort of environmental urgency. What you hear you saying is, a, the problem is real. B, weve got to act. And, c, there is a lot the president can do on his own without requiring an act of congress. Sure. Not that we want to let congress off of the hook. The most importantly and the most ambitious things will have to come from congress. Coal will have to be ledgelated. A carbon tax, i dont think he can or want to do that on his own because its so relatively toxic to an economy. If everyone gets behind it, democrats and republicans, it could be helpful. The big issue coming up now is keystone. We have talked a lot about the keystone popipeline. Thats thats up for review. Keystone, alone. One pipeline. Its not going to, you know, make or break the worlds climate, but it does put a stop to the u. S. Importing of, you know dirty energy gotten from tar sands up in calendar. Its one of those moves that would send a clear message. One more decision we are going to continue down the fossil fuel road. Uhhuh. Rather than move to a new economy. Daniel stone is a reporter for the national gee xwrafk. He is more than that. He sort of embodies the national gee gravelling spirit here on the full court press. This is one of the Biggest Challenges facing this country, facing the planet. No doubt about it. 86655press. Lets talk about it on the bill press show. This is the bill press show. 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. This is the bill press show. Twenty five minutes after the hour. Eating chocolate bill i swallowed just before we started. Twentyfive minutes after the hour now, we are enjoying the company of daniel stone from national geographic. How to become a guest on the fullcourt press. I bought those from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company which i realized is not in california. The Rocky Mountains are not. Correct. That trip paid off to california i dont know how much it cost but he learned the Rocky Mountains are not in california. We are talking about the more serious subject of global warning. You talked about the president , in his inaugural speech, contrast that with what mitt romney said, literally making jokes about Climate Change and the whole arena he was talking to laughing sort of shows you what we could have gotten on twitter become p show. When will they notice that their shore lines are in danger . Mike calling about the impact of Global Warming. Anchorage, alaska. How is it going bill . You know i have been studying Environmental Issues for 30 years. I studied to be a geologist. Most people dont understand thehit of the planet and they dont understand we can continue to dumptons of carbon in the atmosphere. I suggest we not approve the Keystone Pipeline and make serious inroads to going to alternative energy like solar and stopping the worlds population growth. If you look at solar energyany germany is working out fine bill mike, excellent point. I wanted to ask you that question. Are other kuntz trees ahead of us in recognizing the problem with Global Warming and taking action . Absolutely. I mean mike mentioned germany. They are huge in renewable injury, solar, wid. Other countries are smaller. You see eye land nations around the world that they want nothing more than to confront Global Warming very dramatically but the u. S. And powers like china and india are the ones with the influence. Until those three get serious, i dont think we will see, you know, real dramatic change. Bill you know, maybe you can understand china and india not being there but there is no excuse for the United States. We are consuming more resources. We are pumping more into the air. Sure. We know. We know whats going on. We should. Shame on us for not taking more action. So, up to people like you to continue to get the message out there and to goad us. Dan daniel stone with national geographic. Thank you, bill. This is the bill press show. 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 . Chatting with you live at current. Com billpress. This is the bill press show. Thirtythree minutes after the hour here on the full court press, this wednesday morning, january 30th. Coming to you live from our nations capitol brought to you today by ulico, incorporated. Good men and women under ulico under ed smith proudly serving the union for more than 85 years, with Investment Products and services. You can find more about their good work at their website, ullico. Com. Ullico, inc. , solutions for the union workplace. The house of representatives for some reason took the week off. They dont do anything while they are here anyhow. They might as well, i guess, take the week off. The senate, very busy this week. They have a big hearing in the Senate Judiciary committee on gun violence today. Yesterday, the Senate Confirming the no, maammination of john kerry to be secretary our next secretary of state and eight senators, four democrats and four republicans introducing their outline of a bill on comprehensive Immigration Reform. Lots going on. We wanted to look at all of those issues in the political dimensions of those issues. Michael mein is a democratic strategist now with ben squared, formerly with tom dashel and for john kerry. Lets start with john kerry. You worked with him. This is sort of well, of course, he ran for president. That would have been the peak of his career but this is a great way for john kerry . Seems like i first met him when i was a junior in college. I have known him for 29 years. I worked on two senate races. I dont think there is a better prepared person to be secretary of state person from the time when he volunteered and served two tours of duty, has a very in his bones about how to protect our men and women overseas. The guy was a diplomat raised overseas, its in his blood and in his choice. He chose to be a public serve ant. You i think he will be one of the best prepared secretaries of states we have ever had. Speaks french. Right . He does. A little portuguese, too. Is that right . Yeah. What i wonder about john kerry is and i have the same question about Hillary Clinton, of course, he is not going to be number 1. Right . Its chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, he was number 1. Can he ease will you accept that role . I think yes is the answer. I dont think i would have said that about him when he was a younger man. When he got to the senate, he was young and ambitious and pretty much had a reputation of just being on his own. Headstrong . Which makes a great quality for being a president but a tougher quality for being a senator. In massachusetts, we have had a long legacy of kennedys in the senate and senator ted kennedy was a senior senator. Kerry was able to be more of an investigator. He and john mccain teamed up on the mia pow issue. He was best prosecuting people from his chair but the less options of running for president in 2004 and with the passing of ted kennedy, he has evolved in this part of his career to be the person to make things happen and be the elder statesman and work cooperatively in the last decade. I have seen a different man since the 2004 campaign. He looks like the elder statesman today. He really, really does. My favorite part was he wasnt out of the house for seven seconds and he was changing his mind he wouldnt mind being the interim senator. Ready to go for the next six months. I think its also true. Absolutely is true. So much going on in the u. S. Senate in the next six months to have a seasoned veteran like him, so i think he would be an excellent choice. Governor Deval Patrick makes that call. It would be hard for him to say no to barney . You cant really campaign for the job because ultimately in public, anyway. Its ultimately barney has. Fullthrottle. Who wont want to be handed the u. S. Senate seat without having to raise millions of dollars and do all of campaigning. Barney also says there is no way, no how that he would run for that seat. Could he change his mind about that . That was the stipulation that the governor made when he ryehe appointed it. He liz beth warren in the senate for less than a month will in a couple of days be the senior senator from massachusetts. Took kerry Something Like 24 years it took her a couple of days. Exactly. Then you have the woman senator of hawaii, going to be senior senator, too. Fritz hollings used to walk around the senate, too and he was i have been junior senator for 35 years. Like 80 years old. I mentioned some of the issues. Its nice that we had at least a temporary reprieve on the debt ceiling so that its not fiscal crisis dayin and dayout and we are talking about some other issues that are important. Immigration, gun violence. Ists to talk about the political dimension of those. Come from calf, i have working on the Immigration Reform and the border problem for 25 years about it looks leak the time has finally, come for this legislation to happen this year. Politically, is this the time when it could happen . Yeah. I think it is the time i also think the structure in washington is difficult for the following reason. 1994, he was at the Democratic Congressional campaign committee. I got sent to help speaker tom folley in a tough race. He was very sure you his support of the assault weapons ban cost him 9,000 votes from people who would always be for him and across the more splinterred districts in the house places where guns you cant get past this. You cant have a rational conversation with people because its more like religion. There are people who can stop whatever big bill you have going because because of this. Thats my concern. I think you have got. Is that because the nra is so powerful . I think you have seen with the tea Party Primary processes, they are powerful in the republican primary. Right. You could be taken out for reasonable position. Senator bennett from utah a 9 go conservative voting record, they took him out on a primary on small issues that wouldnt if he ever got to a statewide vote, you wouldnt carry the day there. If you dont believe senators are afraid of their shadow when it comes to an upcoming primary, look at Lindsey Graham today. Lindsey graham has turned into a screeching tea partyer to the right of ted cruz suddenly. Thats not who he is. No. Who he has become because he is afraid of a primary area challenge. You dont have to look up the ladder to see you dont get to six years back and they have an out sized voice bill the politics of gun violence, you say continue to tilt against getting anything done. What about Immigration Reform . I actually think that we have a great chance of that. Pure political calculus the young republicans understand they will never have the white house if they skip this demographic. Right . So every year, we have 2 more hispanics making up a part of the voting population and republicans cannot continue to lose that 71, 72, 73 . So youve got to have some momentum there and Young Leaders like marco rubio who is willing to come to the table. I dont know if i would agree with everything he put in there, but at least he is willing to have the dialogue and i think thats going to be hard for republicans to stop that kind of momentum. I think theling calculus will put him to the table. I think they are going to have to go from Fence Builders to fort worth, texas menders if they want a shot to win the white house in 2020 bill isnt is it ironic after so many people and i have been on the margins have been pushing for and fighting for some Commonsense Solutions to this Immigration Reform that suddenly, this year, 2013, we are going to do it because republicans need it for their to save their political back side . Its unbelievable. They are not doing it because its the right thing to do . No. They want to build a 13 foot fence and give people 14foot ladders. Michael meehan here, political dimensions of issues today touched on a lot. Join the conversation at any time. Invite your calls at 86655press or your comments on twitter bpshow. We will be right back on todays fullcourt press. This is the full court press the bill press show, live on your radio and on current tv. Spectator sport. [ music ] 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. But when joint pain and stiffness from Psoriatic Arthritis hit even the smallest things became difficult. I finally understood what serious joint pain is like. I talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. Enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. Because enbrel, etanercept suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. Serious, sometimes fatal events including infections tuberculosis lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and Blood Disorders have occurred. Before starting enbrel your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether youve been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. Dont start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. Tell your doctor if youre prone to infections, have cuts or sores have had hepatitis b have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. [ phil ] get back to the things that matter most. Ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biologic medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. Current tv, its been all building up to this. Bill shares his views, now its your turn. I know youre going to want to weigh in on these issues. Connect with full court press with bill press at facebook. Com billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. I believe people are hungry for it. [ music ] heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. Bill here we are 13 minutes before the top of the hour. In the next hour cindy boren from the Washington Post, she is a sports blogger talking about the super bowl coming up and about the president s comments on fuel. Meredith schener from roll call willing here Michael Meehan head of been squared communications and a member. Broadcasting board of governors. I guess we should treat you with a little more respect here after all. Senate blocked me for three years. Do you see how great it is to have you in . Bill back to our conversation in just a minute. But folks, i wanted to give you another little hint about something you might do if you are having a problem meeting making ends meet at the end of every month and you are looking to earn extra money from home. You ought to consider incomeathome. Com. They are americas leading work from Home Business doing business in over 80 countries today so they know what they are doing. And they are offering you an opportunity that you can take advantage of no mat you are your age, education our experience you can literally, get get this earn money on your own computer from your own kitchen table, 24 7, even while you sleep. All you need is a little extra time and the training you will get from the folks at incomeathome. Com. At least check them out if you are sick of living paycheck to paycheck, worried about job security or retirement. If your goal has been to earn extra money from home parttime or fulltime, incomeathome. Com. They are giving away a thousand bucks to Somebody Just for checking them out. That somebody could be you. Visit incomeathome. Com. Thats incomeathome. Com. Tell us about i want to get back to these issues of the day. I am curious about the broadcasting board of governors. My boss . No. No. Its all u. S. International broadcasting, voice of america, middle east broadcasting, radio free asia and the office of cuba broadcasting. In the congress, its four democrats and four republicans on the board and we run an agency of 4,000 people. If we were a News Gathering Agency, we would be the largest News Gathering Agency in the world if we were able to be a commercial 1. We have 4,000 reporters, 100 countries, annual budget of about 750 million. Whoa . We do our mission is journalistic, free press, and all of those languages across the board. You know, weve gone from being part of the state department and in the 90s, joe biden wrote the legislation to make it an independent agency. We are parttime private citizens who serve and manage the daytoday agency. In this commercial world, where journalism is so shrunken internationally, its amazing to see some of the fearless journalists that we have in places, you know, reporting where they just dont have free press. I went to berma last month to see some of our radio free asia and voice of america streamers met with the head of the ap who has been there 25 years, been addressed a dozen times. Her husband, a dozen times and they are like, they were on strike doing reporting around the country. We have people in the american taxpayers showing them truth in journalism and people listen. We have 20 of the people in berma will Headline News to radio free asia voice of america. Thats where journalists go this day. They are not in for the flashy big contracts on t. V. Those are real journalists. Thats awesome bill look at these people who are in syrism a, for example. Right. Two missing, one is missing every day. To free them you have a deep appreciation for the journalism people putting their lives on the like. From the sub lime to the banal back to politics. When i was asking you about massachusetts, i forgot, the question of whats scott brown going to do . Going to run for governor or try to get back in the senate . What do you think . As a democratic strategist i would like not to give advice to republicans to help them be successful but if i were scott brown, i lost by 8 and a half points, raised 32 million and i got pounded. I would think it may be running for the open governor seat in 2014 where massachusetts has a long history of republican governors. Yes. And so the thing is the republican brand in massachusetts, a lot of the things are out of touch with massachusetts voters. No the so much in the state politics. You wouldnt want a race for governor that would come on some of the hotbutton issues you see here in washington. Right. If i were scott brown, i would think about running for governor. I would think he would be handed the nomination for sure. He would have a better shot at that he lost in november. If he lost in june he would be done. Two terms, he would be done. And he would have to run for reelection again because kerrys term expires. He would run this june and next november to keep the feed bill just about a minute while you are in the business of offering advice to republicans. Do you think the Republican Party is in trouble today . And how do they get out of it . I think their brand is in big trouble. It is amazing to see how well we did in 2012 in seats that two years out, we had so many vulnerable democrats who had barely won their seats to expand the majority of the United States senate. And in the house. Not the majority but to pick up eight seats . Pick up eight seats after in 30 states, they elected republican governors and republican legislate temperatures and redistrict seats to make them. If that did not happen the republicans would not be in charge of the house but the resdrithing that happened in that made those seats safe or the kind of democratic year that we had in 2012 not enough to change the chamber. So theyve got to do some rebranding and rethinking. Maybe rethinking some of their policies, too. Michael, great to visit with you . Thanks. A lot of fun. Thap for coming in. You know the political landscape. We appreciate that. We will get you back in soon. Thanks. You can form michael on twitter at michaelpmeehan. See you soon. This is the bill press show, live on your radio and current tv. [ music ] 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. [ music ] this is the bill press show. In the next hour, Meredith Shriner here as a friend of bill and cindy borin, a sports blocker to look ahead to the super super bowl and her comments on president obamas comments about not sure if he had sons he would let them play football. On the president s schedule today, not a really busy day. In fact, from his big speech in las vegas yesterday. Kicking back a little bit. He and the Vice President get their Daily Briefing at 10 15 this morning. At 12 30, the president and secretary of state Hillary Clinton have a fairwell lunch at the whitehouse. Then the president is giving two interviews this afternoon tolatsino television. He will be interviewed by jose velarte of tele muchltmundo and then envision. Press briefing by jay canyon at 12 30. I will be there, and i am sure there will be a lot of questions about Immigration Reform and how the president s plan comes pairs. Two plans both underway. We will ask Meredith Scheiner which one she thinks will make it through the senate. Another big hour. This is the bill press show. By 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough College Graduates to fill them. Thats why at Devry University were teaming up with Companies Like cisco to help make sure everyone is ready for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure americas ready. Make sure youre ready. At devry. Edu knowhow. [ music ] bill hey, what do you say . Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the fullcourt press here on current tv. Great to see you today. Thanks so much for joining the program as we bring you up to date, give you our latest rundown on whats happening today here in our nations capitol, around the country and around the globe. And here is some news that you will not hear anywhere else some good news you wont hear anywhere else the market is red hot. Yeah bill did you notice . The dow closed inching up to the 14,000 mark. We havent seen levels that high since october 2007. The obama economy is working. Republicans are always quick to blast president obama when the market goes down. Do you think they are going to give him credit now that the market is soaring . Dont hold your breath. All right. We will get into that and a whole lot more, but first, lets get the latest. Standing by with todays current news update from our studios in los angeles, here is Lisa Ferguson. Hi, lisa. Take it away. Good morning. Thanks, bill. Good morning, everyone. Three Top Republicans are demanding more data from benghazi. R eps are giving the state department until february 11th to produce all documents surrounding the investigation into those terrorist attacks. Outgoing secretary of state Hillary Clinton gave full testimony to the Foreign Relations committees last week. Now the representatives say the board failed to address some important questions like why a special Security Force withdrew from benghazi just weeks before the attacks. During last weeks hearings clinton said she had no role in security decisions over benghazi and in an interview with abcs night line last night, she took by her testimony. I believe in transparency see. Put let the chips fall where they want. I dont want that to be politicized. Clinton said the United States might return to benghazi if security positions improve. The terrorist attacks mark the first time a u. S. Ambassador has been assassinated. Clinton said we knew there was danger. We knew there were loose weapons. Its important for the u. S. To be in benghazi because it marks the heart of the revolution. An attack of a syrian border. Israel has expressed concerns over an arsenal of chemical weapons. More bill up after the break. Stay with us. vo current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. Im a slutty bob hope. You are. The troops love me. vo tv and radio talk show host Stephanie Miller rounds out currents morning news block. Youre welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. Just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. Broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv this is the bill press show. The president saying to congress yesterday, you get busy and pass Immigration Reform or i will send you my bill. The battle is joined. It is wednesday, january 30th. Yeah. And senator schumer waiting. Thank you for joining us here on the fullcourt press as we come to you live all the way across this great land of ours coast to coast from our studio in capital hill in washington, d. C. , invite you to join the conversation at any time. You can give us a call at 86655press. You can send us your comments on twitter bpshow or on facebook facebook. Com bill press show. Weve got a big hour lots to talk about. We need a lot of help getting through this hour. And here she is, meredith schener, congressional reporter for roll call. Hi, meredith . I am so looking forward to Rupert Murdoch buying the chicago tribbun so they can start a war. Bill getting into the media wars . You know, i love that bill is there anything murdoch doesnt own yet . I dont know. Bill seriously . Not me yet. Maybe cnn is next. Are you for sale . No. He owns the wall street journal. Of course, he owns fox. I mean he owes now he owns the Chuck Schumer war on beyonce. Meredith here with team press, peter ogburn and dan henning. Hello, guys. Phil bachus has the phones and cyprian boulding still recovering from yesterdays birthday. Things seem shaky this morning. Out of focus. Happy belated birthday. He came stumbling in this morning, stinking like a tavern and birthday cake, which is how dan usually smells. Probably should have sent him home. Secretary of state, she is still secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, having a fair well lunch today with president obama. Last night, she gave a fair well interview with nightline. Yeah. She gave one also with nbc, but it was on night light that she was asked what are you going to do your first day off . I hope i get to sleep in. You know, i am thinking about that because it will be the first time in many years when i have got no office to go to no schedule to keep, no work to do. That about probably last a few days. And then i will be up and going with my new projects. Bill she has too much energy to lie around the house for long. But sleeping in the first day she deserves it. I hope she can, but, you know, i dont know that she will be able to when you have to wake up everyarly every day, i dont know you can sleep to noon the first day you have off. But good luck to her. God speed. I like how she said new projects. Hmm. Bill might be. Could it be 2016 . She doesnt say never. Sitting here right now that is certainly what i believe, and i am, you know, still the secretary of state. So, i am not in politics. I am going to be focusing on my philanthropy, my charities, my writing and speaking. My p. A. C. Campaign strategy. No, you know, who knows . I dont get the sense she is going to run for whatever reason. I mean if i were her, i would get six figures for every speaking engagement i did. I had write a book encourage chelsea to have grandkids because this is what parents do when kids get to a certain age. I wouldnt want to have to live with bill in the white house every day. I dont know that this is what she wants. It seems exhausting. And i dont know how serious her Health Issues really were but it is a very gruelling thing to travel the world and then run for president again and then be president. If that would be the path that she chooses. It seems like a lot. It does seem like an awful lot. I think she will do all of those things you mentioned and then run for president. We are not speculating about 2016. We have a rule on this show. We do not speculate. I had to throw this in because our friend, igor volsky tweeted about the confirmation of john kerry. He said john kerry will have a lot of travel to do if he wants to catch up to Hillary Clintons record. Ketchup. He spelled it ketchup. Right over my head. That was bad. Pretty bad. Eleven minutes sorry, igor. I thought that was brilliant. Of course you did. Bill 11 so much dan hating . They hate me. Thats why i am kept in a box. Shut up. Shut up. Because you are wearing a giants hat dan. Bill chocolate. Eleven minutes after the hour. Here we go. It is the full court press, Meredith Shiner from roll call and cindy boren from the Washington Post talking sports coming up a little bit later. But first. Going to let dan do this . Who cares . I am surprised you guys are letting me do my little news report here but there are some other headlines making news Nfl Players Association has negotiated a deal with the Football League to fund a 100 million study at Harvard University to lock at Football Player health head injuries included but also the rest of the body. The proposed study says that players have only ever been looked at after they die never in detail when they are still alive. This 10year project aims to do that. They will look at 100 unhealthy players, both current and retired and 100 healthy players. Yeah. So you see, the president was onto something when he said if he had sons, he would think long and hard about letting them play football. At face value, a nickel is worth just 0. 05 but one rare nickel that is heading to the Auction Block soon will fetch just a little bit more than that even though it wasnt worth even 0. 05 in the first place baz it was illegally minted. C become s report okay this mint worker in philadelphia that made a few coins when no one was looking back in 1913. It has the statue of libertys head on it. This is one of five known to still exist. Its expected to go for over 2 million at auction bill a treasury employee minting coins . There was a story a few months back about this because the federal government thought it was his property and the family who owned it was trying to sue to keep the coin and rand paul got involved. He made a nasty gee. Google this. Its 100 of your story. I wrote about it months and months ago. I dont know if its in the same coins but it was another situation in philadelphia decades ago. He paid 2 million from a phoney for a phoney coin . Its worth it apparently. Cats are killers. A new study in the journalnate communications finds that cats are killing billions of birds and other animals every year 3 billion birds a year on average, they kill. Thats 15 of the total bird population. If the trend continues to grow, it could have greater ecological effects on the world t easiest solutionss . Control the pet population and keep your cats inside. Tell me some other world breaking news. Right i hate cats. There are big fish that eat little fish. What . And whales eat krill. We have to do something. I would be fine if we eradicated cats from the planet. Cats kill burls bill cats have always killed birds and there are lots of birds out there. And rodents. I guess. Cats kill myself. You guys are chaining my mind, opening my eyes. Team cat. Team cat. Thats what the fullfullcourt press is all about. Okay. Lets start, meredith with yesterdays big vote. If we want, joe mancien, he has been standing by to announce the vote on john kerry confirmation as secretary of state. The eyeayes are 94. The nays are 3 and one responded present. The nomination of John Forbes Kerry to be our new secretary of sait is confirmed. They had to twist some arms there at the end to get that vote. Right . There was a lot of back slapping and hugs and clapping on the floor after it was over and john kerry taking a lap. It was a very difficult vote. We were all on pins and needles. Whats up with Ted Cruz John cornyn and james inhofe . We were talking about this i thought the inhofe statement was hillaryous. He is an interesting character because he derails the existence of Climate Change and yet he is a very close ally of Barbara Boxer because he is a Ranking Member on the Transportation Committee and they did an entire transportation bill together. His statement after the vote was, johns a friend of mine but we havent agreed on fortunately policy dating back to the sandanist a. S. If thats what he believes, god bless him, but the texas vote is interesting because this is not the first tile you are going to see john cornyn vote against something he ordinarily wol have because ted cruz is voting against it because john cornyn is up this cycle. He fears a primary challenge. He saw what happened the last two cycles, head of the nrsc and he knows whats coming. If ted cruz made the decision to vote against john kerry, john cornyn decided he needed to make that decision also. The tea party rules again as they do at least in this one case. This will be super interesting if they bring an immigration bill for example. We will get to that in just a second. But tomorrow is the confirmation hearing on chuck hagle and john brennan. I would imagine, meredith, from your conversations on the hill that its not going to be as easy sledding for hagle and brennan. No. This has been this hagel story has been fascinating. I have been covering it for a few weeks now. I wrote this story two weeks ago, i guess it was, three weeks ago, about a stamp sending teams democratic and republican aides alike forwarding antihagle articles before his boss came out one way or the other. He hasnt decided where he was falling on hagel. You see all of these backchannel interests trying to influence the vote but at the end of the day i asked senator durbin whether or not democrats were going to basically vote united for hagle. And he said when he whips the vote last week, he hadnt found a single no yet. There were a few people who want to wait to see what he said in committee at the Armed Services hearing but at the most part, everyone is on board. You have to pick off five republicans. If you take away the two from nebraska, chuck hagels home stop light, sutake all three. Three is not a tough order, but that doesnt mean the hearings arent going to be ugly, arent going to be tough questions, that there arent going to be questions that we have heard before. But honestly at the end of the day, the most interesting thing about this fight to me has been that the most controversial statement that chuck hagle made was that senators and representatives in washington were beholden to apac and that statement, alone send the apac allies coming after him to say this is a ridiculous statement. The jewish lobby. Thats the jewish lobby, which bad choice of words, but old people tend to flip up like this all the time. I cover the senate. They say things they dont mean. Harry reid took a huge amount of flack for it, for a book if you remember, not a few years ago. So i dont know. I think that chuck hagel nomination will pass just because in a lot of ways you have to pick your spots. Democrats arent going to block the president on this and republicans have bigger fish to fry. Today, the Senate Judiciary committee will hold a big hearing, not on a bill but on the general issue of gun violence violence. Uhhuh. And hearing from gun rights advocates as well as gun control advocates. The consensus seems to be that the assault weapons ban is dead on arrival. Yes. Do you agree . I think the gun issue right now in terms of a legislative way forward is a mess because harry reid is not going to not to say that legislation that harry reid hasnt supported has not come through with other people who shepherd it but i dont think that there is the political will for the assault weapons ban. I think they dont have a plan or strategy. They are leaving it up to leahy, who, by the way, isnt the most gungho gun control advocate there is, to hold a series of hearings. He is going to hold a hearing. Dianne feinstein was not pleased with the list of witnesses for this hearing thats happening today because they thought there were not enough gun control room advocates the she is having another hearing. They may not markup a bill until the end of next month. I dont know what they are going to mark up. I tried to talk to Dianne Feinstein because my sense was she was pretty angry because there is no one dick durbin and Chuck Schumer were at the press conference when she announced the bill. I dont know anyone is fighting talking to members who might be incensed about it. I think thats frustrating. I honestly dont know who is going to be the person because if its just difi, make we get to leahy. Who will twist arms on this. Durbin and schumer are wrapped up in this immigration with this new gang of 8. Yeah. The longer you get from december the more difficult it will be. Mitch mcconnell said i dont know democrats want to do a gun control bill. Ask harry reid. Harry reid was a little bit squishy. He said leave it to hey he. John kerry and chuck hagle and gun violence among the top e, 86655press if you have a question or comment. I want to ask you about i amgration reform when we come back here with Meredith Shiner here as a friend of bill this entire hour. She covers the congress for roll call. Heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the bill press show. [ music ] 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. These talking points, that the right have, about the heavy 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. Harder Enforcement Border enforcement, a pathway to earn citizenship, improvements in the Legal Immigration system so that we continue to be a magnet for the best and the brightest all around the world. This is the bill press show bill there he is, president obama in las vegas yesterday outlining his proposals on Immigration Reform which really track pretty closely what the gang of 8, socalled for Democratic Senators and four republican senators announced the day before. So where is all of this going . We have somebody here who has got as good insight as anybody. Meredith shiner covers congress for roll call. You were talking about how tough a road it is for legislation okay gun violence. Uhhuh. A little easier for Immigration Reform . Maybe. Maybe . I hate to be cynical on this but show me the last bill that a gang of senators has been able to write. Like until this group of 8 finds legislative language, in my mind, all they really agree to is to hold a conference about how they would like to find. Principles. There is some will on the Republican Party to do this. And i had a source tell me. I dont know if i buy this theory but we will see if it bears fruit but a lot of republicans would like to, to see marco rubio run in 2016 and they feel like getting behind him will help on that effort. Whether or not that ends up being true, i dont know. If someone like marco rubio wants to talk about immigration is important, what happened in the last election there is political incentive for the republicans to act which is the best reason of any to force a politician to do anything. It didnt happen when ted kennedy was trying to champion the bill. He was one of the best lawmakers there was. When you switch out ted kennedy for the 8 that you have i dont know how that works. And i just i guess, i am a little bit gunshy to say anything will work out after living it through last congress. Even with all of this political momentum and the white house and the senate you think its possible . All right there was a lot of momentum in 2007 and george w. Bush was on board for it in large part. You know what happened. We are going to take a little break until and talk sports with sinned cindy borin and Meredith Shiner when we come back. [ music ] 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 . [ music ] chatting at you live at current. Com bill presscurrent. Com billpress press. This is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. Bill all right. 33 minutes after the hour. Here we go. It is wednesday, wednesday, january 30th. This is the full court press. We are live from our Nations Capital brought to you by the National Association the good men and women under the nea, creating great Public Schools for every student in america. You bet. You can find out more about their good work at nea. Org. So, last week, it was lance armstrong. This week, it is arod. Five others in the in major league baseball. Whats going on . Of course, lance admitted it. Arod. Im sorry. Performancence hansing drugs bill joined on the news line by a sports blogger for the Washington Post, cindy borin. Hey, isnt he. Good morning . Good morning bill arod has been do down this road before. Arod arod, if you are the yankees, maybe this is the way they end up cutting their ties to him on this hideous contract thats been nothing but an albatross to them. It hasnt worked out well. He is recovering from hip surge. He may not be able to play at all. He is a already, you know, 36, 37 years old. It kind of looks like the end of the road for him. Anyway the Miami New Times has reported he was linked to a Company Called biogenesis in florida and he was obtaining Human Growth Hormone and other peds, performance enhancing drugs through them. Now, it was also somewhat troubling on a local note that gonzalez, a star pitcher last year was implicated in this as well. Obviously everyone denies this, you know. We will see. Its really in its infancy on this one. The nationals have been a pretty squeaky Clean Organization so far. Uhhuh. They are young, you know, talented team. Washington would take a blow if it turns out that hes got to deal with this shadow of a little. You know, they are loaded talentwise and their pitching staff was able to survive without straussburg after the end of last year. I do think that possibly they could they could adjust. I dont know they are going to lose gio gonzalez. I dont know he has ever tested positive for anything. Thats another thing. They test these guys all the time. So. With their stipulation in arods contract that if he had been tested positive again or if it had if he had been implicated again that they would be able to contract annually sever the contract in any way. I think its more of a conduct detrimental, a little squishier issue than that. You know what i mean . Bill yeah. Its not just you juiced we want you out of here. Its never quite that simple. Lets also be honest here if he were hitting i dont know if he were hitting 380. Yeah. Higher. Some hate him and blame him at every loss before or during the postseason. From one Public Relations puddle to another. Its a nightmare from shirtless pictures in central park to, you know, the flirting with the ladies in the stands during the playoffs, getting benched in the playoffs. Its not going to fly anywhere let alone new york bill count me a sin i can. I heard what you said but seems every one of these stories they start out. There are the den aisles and it comes back and we found out, oh, guess what. It was true all along. I got it. I have got to move on here because president obama has stirred up a little controversy with a comment he made in an interview with to the new republic about football saying if he had a couple of sons, he would have to think long and hard before he would let them play football is such a violent sport. Cindy, whoa . It gets your attention when the president says it. Doesnt it . It does. There has been a lot of reaction. Some players agree with him. Some disagree with him. Its interesting to see particularly on the ravens who have some of the hardest hitters. Talking about this. Unbelievable . And he had reed as well. I think pollard raises some good questions. I think a lot of people have feared the possibility of a player actually dying on the field. Thats just, you know, the ultimate nightmare. As a fan watching, you see these hits. The big ones, they pull them out of the game and look at them. Look at junior sayle. It was the buildup of the hits over the years that caused him to have his chronic traumatic encephalopathy led to a suicide. This is what i wanted to ask, what he had reed said about junior was striking to me because i think it was symbolic or representative of a deeper culture of sports, this idea that, well, i am a Football Player. I am putting myself out there to be beaten up like this is what i am signing up for. His quote yesterday was basically that junior sao signed up for it, for these multiple and sustained and led to the brain damage that might have contributed to him committing suicide. When you have current players saying, well, we ask for it or he asked for it, you know i wonder i sort of separate it from that. I am not thinking he said he asked for it. We did sign up. We are doing this volume you knowtarily. We could walk away from this at any time. He said like barnard pollard, he doesnt want his kid to play the sport cindy is our guest, you can follow heavy on Twitter Twitter cindyboren. We were talking about this earlier this morning and googled high school football, you know, and the stat did show that high school football, at least what we were looking at more dangerous than college or professional football . You know, i think thats what another part of what president obama was saying thats been sort of overlooked was that he mentioned it with the ncaa. There isnt a uniform sort of code for how treat they are treated. It extends to the high school level, too. I know thats something that the nfl is aware of. Its something they are trying to work on, you know raising awareness on lower levels but its not a union. There isnt the vocal, you know, player voice. There isnt the big player voice here advocating for it. So, i dont know when they talk about changes to the game like the president said all of us hoe we hope see changes. What kind of changes . Talking about better helmets alone or more padding . Zvr. No. They are talking about a granular level in the way which people tackle. The old line about when you move in for a tackle make sure you can see what you are tackling because if you cant you have your head down and thats not the way you are supposed to be doing it. I cant tell you the number of times in any game that you see a player going in with his head first. Even when its not helmet to helmet. Just keep your head out of there. I think that the equipment has gotten so good that people forget that. I think he is right about this. How much bigger can these guys get . How much faster can they get . How much stronger can they get . That, to me, is also a big tipping point. Monsters. Yeah. The smallest guy is a monster. And they are fast. Look at some of these guys, you know 320 pounds and they are fast. That will have consequences too. Those monsters are going to be on the field. A dangerous violent sport, lets eat chicken wings and watch it. Cook up a pot of chili. The harbaugh comments were interesting. Brothers facing off of each other. Ray lewis moved the conversation away from the murder he may or may not have been involved in. The best movement in my memory of saturday night live, a cartoon after the ravens and it was an apology because they couldnt send him to disney world. So, it starts with wed like to apologize for the fact that trent bilford a stronger word than stinks goes forward and shows ray lewis at the scene in every destiny cartoon when someone gets killed and hops back into a lim zee. Its called ray of light. You want to call the game here, cindy . I am going to go with the ravens. I think it will be a close game. You know, that really isnt i dont really see anything terrible negative to point out about the 9ers, kapernick is an exciting quarterback to watch. I think it will come down to a field goal kicker. Do you want the game on david acres toe . I have seen him for many years. Its a classic story of high octane offense versus a dominant defense. Its like they say, defense wins championships. The ravens have an aging defense which is you can you know, in its sunset years here there is a question about whether he had reed will be back with them next year. He may end up keeping an eye on new england on that one. Meanwhile, the offense is phenomenal. They have great receivers. Theyve got terrific little running back in re wright and joe flakow can get them ball. We would be disappointed if you didnt pick the ravens. There is no hometown bias on this one. I like the 9ers, too. I could see it going either way. I just think the ravens. Bill there is a lot of hometown bias here we admit it. Great to have you with us this morning. Thank you very much for your time. Thanks. She is great. Simmed e bornen follow her at washingtonpost. Com. This is the bill press show. [ music ] the troops love me. vo tv and radio talk show host Stephanie Miller rounds out currents morning news block. Youre welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. Just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. 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. [ music ] this is the bill press show. Bill all right. You got it. Eleven minutes before the top of the hour, wednesday edition of the fullcourt press here on january 30th. Your log your local progressive talk Radio Station and on current tv. Back to our conversation with Meredith Shiner about whats happening in the congress this week. But first, that story caught my eye up in new england, a middle School Teacher has been sentenced, former now, middle School Teacher, sentenced to five years in prison for using one of her childrens Social Security numbers to obtain credit cards that she and and rolling up charges she was unable to pay back. Pretty low when you steel your own kids identity. But another case of identity theft. It is anywhere and everywhere. It seems she should make sure you are protected against it as i am with lifelock ultimate the most comprehensive id theft protection out there. Even monitors your Bank Accounts for takeover fraud. Of course life lock cant protect you or your bank account if you are not a member. I i encourage you to call and mention press60 for 60 riskfree days for ultimate lifelock identity protection. If you are not happy, call within another 60 days and cancel. They will give you a full refund. See lifelock for details. 18003565967 for lifelock ultimate, 18003565967. Peter, whats going on . Quick story wanted to get into here, ray lahood secretary of transportation announced he is leaving the obama administration. Its going to leave his post as secretary of transportation. He is a friend of the show and has done a damn good job. And comes to union pub to watch the game. Our favorite cabinet member. We actually shamed one of our friends this year because he hadnt been to a game and was trying to be responsible and im sorry, ray lahood has been here and you have not. I like ray lahood. A good friend. He is a great member of congress. I think he has been a very valuable member of the president s team. Taking the lead on first of all driver safety. He has been out in front. And on highspeed rail. He has been a champion of it. I hope they find a way for him to remain involved in that issue. They floated a couple of names who could be his successor, l. A. Mayor, ntsb chairman debby hirzman on the list but again, like you said whoever they pick, you really hope they get somebody that can sort of carry the torch. Ray was a republican, offered highspeed rail money like lets start with rick scott of florida, a state thats designed for highspeed rail. Created geographically and they turned down the money. So did idiot john kasic in ohio. They raised that money and gave it to other governors who are willing and see, have the vision to see this is the future. Its sad that the people of those states because of their, you know, dirtbrain governors are not going to get that. We used to have that clip. I think you asked him a question. He ripped into republicans and said, you know, when i was in the congress we did things differently. Meredith, this is unfair, i know, but about a minute left to go. We are talking gun violence. We are talking Climate Control room. Nobody is talking right now about the fiscal cliff or the fiscal crisis but welcome to another a lovely respite. It is. But we are going to come back to another fiscal cliff soon. Arent we . So the senate is going to have to vote on the houses nobudget nopay bill that included the temporary debt limit extension which democrats are championing as a huge deal because it didnt come with comen surrat cuts. That goes to may. But the treasury secretary says extraordinary measures so we will have another one by this summer when its nice and warm. So they will have to deal potentially with the sequester, which is on a 2month delay right now. The bill that is keeping the government funded expires march 26th or 7th. So we have got a lot coming up. They are going to have to tackle them. The republicans claim that they wanted to move the debt ceiling so they could change the order in which these fights happen. They wanted to have the Government Shutdown fight first and potentially move on to the larger debt ceiling fight. The big question is are either of the sides going to be willing to touch entitlements . And reform them . Will there be revenues again . Or are we just going to see the same show again and again and again. Back in the soup pretty soon. Very soon. You were there every day tracking these guys down. Unfortunately times. Bill bringing it to us here on the full court press. Thank you. Always a pleasure. Back with todays parting shot. This is the full court press the bill press show, live on your radio and on current tv. vo current tv gets the converstion started next. Im a slutty bob hope. The troops love me. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. [ music ] the parting shot with bill press. This is the bill press show bill on this wednesday, january 30th, my parting shot for today, here is something you dont hear very often good news about the economy. Yes, indeed, the media is always reporting the bad news. The good news hardly gets mentioned at all. Yesterday, the dow industrial average shooting up to 13,954, almost 14,000. We havent seen that level of activity since october 2007. And, of course that means our economy is definitely on the rebound. No doubledip recession, and it means that the obama economy is working. T. A. R. P. And the stimulus and the auto bailout and getting rid of the bush tax cuts. Now, the big question is republicans are always willing to dump on president obama