president obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration, if there's any connection there to president obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the gulf of mexico. >> the white house says the government has been doing all it can and bp will be held accountable. >> my suggestion to sarah palin would be to get slightly more informed as to what's going on in and around oil drilling in this country. >> president obama has appointed a commission to investigate the oil spill. former democratic senator bob graham and former epa administrator william k. riley will serve as co-chairs. >>> turning now to the latest from north korea's alleged torpedo attack, this morning south korea's president says the north will pay for the attack which killed 46 south korean sailors in march. he also vowed to cut off all trade with north korea and take the issue to the u.n. security council. overnight, the white house said u.s. support for south korea's defense is unequi

administration for citizenship in the obama administration. whatever your views are on immigration, obama managers are full of people who are at best reluctant to enforce the law on the book. using excuse we can't enforce anything until we have immigration reform. >> the problem with them saying we have to have lawful contact, that can be almost anything. >> stop, detention or arrest. >> but lawful contact -- >> no, no, no. contact isn't in the law anymore. it was taken out of the law. according to this it's for lawful stop, detention or arrest and enforcement of any other law. >> a lawful stop can -- that can be a lot of different things. >> chris: enforcement of the law. >> understood. but police can find a lot of different ways to do is that. they can find a person to stand on the street. >> they could do it now. >> but now they're going to use it as an opportunity to say look, here is a bunch of hispanic people standing here -- >> whoa, whoa, whoa. you mentioned the word "hispani"his sp span ic -- "hispanic." you can't do that. you can't u

what does president and the obama administration need to get out of next week's visit? >> the obama administration -- >> how much is domestic politics as much as -- >> exactly. obama administration, first and foremost needs it to go well and not to mess up the domestic agenda too much. they need to not get too deep in to the weeds on immigration issues, they can agree the arizona law is a terrible law, and, hurtful to the u.s. and mexico which they've already done publicly and they need to make sure, calderon visiting and talking about immigration, for instance, does not hurt them, in trying to think about and put forth on the agenda whether, before the elections, or probably after the midterm elections, a more comprehensive immigration reform. they need, when they turn to issues of climate change, they need president felipe calderon to recognize there is a bill on the table, the lieberman bill that came out this week and potentially there is a chance for it to pass and play along with that though it looks very unlikely that it will pass, given the polarization and the

to me, what we don't know about the obama's response to this, what sort of oversight -- the obama administration saying we relied on bp that they had it under control, it wasn't until a week or eight days later noaa did overflights and saw and figured out, this is five times worse than we think it is. we don't know, it seems to me, what oversight, if any, they had over bp in those early day, though the coast guard was on the scene, yon at what level the epa was overseeing it? do you know that? >> to a degree i know it. because this is such a politicized atmosphere. people have to understand, president obama has been for offshore drilling, for it in the 2008 campaign, just weeks before the bp oil spill, he was encouraging more oil exploration and possibly offshore drilling in places like virginia, florida, alaska. in addition to that, your earlier report on mms show, they were being lax, turning a bit of blind eye at mms and letting companies like bp not have the rigid environmental standards the national environmental policy act demanded. a different question is could the obama administration do

the obama administration issued i think this is the first time have a public copy of this. this is their approval. it's basically a carte blanche recipe for disaster because they did not require extraordinary measures. >> brown: chairman oberstar, a democrat, took issue. >> i think it's inflammatory to call it the "obama oil spill," and wrong. those approvals that the gentleman cited were given early in the obama administration by careerists who were not policy appointees. sgloun b.p.'s lamar mckay was asked about the chemical dispersants beeb used at the wellhead to break up the gusher. the environmental protection agency gave approval for its use just last week. democratic peter defazio of oregon asked why b.p. selected the chemicals it did. >> there are others that e.p.a. measures more effective on this grade of oil and less toxic. why aren't you using those? because i'm concerned about what's in the water column here and what we're not seeing. >> we're using the preapproved dispersants. i believe-- >> there are 13 preapproved but there are some that are less toxic and m

>> well, we will work closely with the obama administration. we will take stock, but that's not about whether to support the strategy of nato and agree to the-- it's how to support it. of course a new government wants to look at the role of british forces over the coming years. but we will be there. we want this to succeed. it is vital for our national security and america's national security for operations in afghanistan to succeed. >> warner: do you think the obama administration strategy is the right course? >> yes. we want to give it the time and support to succeed. but,,, at every stage, as the situation develops, we want to be there helping to shape the decisions and be-- and form a close political partnership with the obama administration. again, that's why i've come here so quickly. >> warner: nick clegg has talked about a five-year withdrawal timetable for afghanistan and i think david cameron also talked about 2015. will this new government be seeking some sort of time limit on how long british forces will be there? >> we're not going

the obama administration is sending some heavy hitters to the gulf this week. seth doane has that part of the story. >> reporter: day 33 and counting with no end in sight. streaming video of oil and gas gushing into the gulf of mexico is turning up the pressure on dry land. he was angry and frustrated with b.p.'s inability to stop the leak. >> we are 33 days into this effort, and deadline after deadline has been missed. >> reporter: and today b.p., which still claims it does not know exactly how much oil is spewing into the gulf, said the tube inserted to siphon some of surface is capturing less oil than it was just two days ago. independent experts believe up flooding into the gulf every day. >> i think that there's a measurement that can be made there. >> reporter: professor steve wereley is part of the government taskforce that's trying to determine the flow rates. >> one thing that people may not realize when they look at these videos is the diameter of the pipe that they're seeing in the video. the pipe diameter is almost two feet around. this is like a se

according to a lot of folks, he's becoming a liability to the obama administration. we'll have a share and balanced debate on that. >> also, the oil spill in the gulf is getting worse by the minute. the latest attempt to plug the leak, hits a snag. a live report and what the obama administration is now demanding from bp. >> and today is peace officers memorial day. president obama paying his respects to police officers killed in the line of duty this year. we'll have is a live report on that as well. >> a lot is going on in the next hour. let's start with claims that new york is being short changed on terror protection funding. that is turning into a war of words between a leading republican congressman on homeland security and the secretary of homeland security, janet napolitano. after new york congressman peter king complained about funding cuts, secretary napolitano september him a letter questioning why more than a quarter billion dollars has supposedly gone unspent. he responded saying new york was unsuccessfully attacked at times square on may 1 and now it is a

>> at this point, the obama administration spent more than one month. they want to appear on top of this oil spill. this is coming up all along the coastline of the louisiana area, and late last week, two prominent democrats strongly criticized the obama administration for their handling of the b.p. oil spill, so this is really an effort to show the people down there and the american people that they are trying to deal with the issues. >> and also, they are criticizing the president. un-american? anti-business? >> he has a boost to the head of b.p.. all of the criticism there. -- he has a boot. we will see how that is playing in kentucky. for rand paul, that is just one of the gaffes recently. he does not want to make any more of those kinds of groups. -- goofs. >> we have seen others criticize. >> we have. he believes government should not have a role. the republicans are rallying behind rand paul, and they do not seem to mind comments like that. >> another disaster, a hearing begins in west virginia regarding the 29 men. what will become of this? >> w

administration has been aggressive, prodding b.p. and asking it for more data and information. >> you can't do that from a private company. >> you took over a.i.g.. >> well, we-- we-- the company is largely in receivership. that's -- >> reporter: today, cbs news obtained more undersea video turned over 11 days after congress found out about it and demanded it. another clip showing the attempt to cap the well on may 6, and more video apparently showing use of toxic chemical dispersant to break up the oil, a strategy one scientist today called unthinkable. >> it's a p.r. stunt to dissolve this oil with david petraeuss. it's just to get it away from the cameras on the shoreline. >> reporter: b.p. had already used hundreds of thousands of gallons upon dispersant before the e.p.a. ordered a halt earlier this week. they will be allowed to continue using dispersants but with less toxic chemicals. katie. >> couric: thank you. we just heard chip reid in cheryl's piece. now he's standing by at the white house. and, chip, last week, president o

i'm almost sure that the oil companies don't consider the obama administration a huge ally. but my suggestion to sarah palin would be to get slightly more informed as to what is going on in and around oil drilling in this country. >> reporter: according to the center for responsive politics, bp and its employees gave more than # .5 million for federal candidates over last 20 years with the largest chunk going to obama. during the 2008 race, oil an gas industry as a whole donated more than twice as muchs to mccain palin campaign than to obama. >>> en indicators in arizona are under the microscope. auditors are going from classroom to classroom making sure english teachers are doing just that, teaching english. >> reporter: in classrooms, there is a whole lot more to teaching than riding, writing and arithmetic. >> 35% of our students are second language learners. >> reporter: that means they are learning english as a second language and that is just in one district a cross the state of arizona, out of the 1.2 million students in public schools, roughly 150,000 are second lang

by not listening to the obama administration, bp is creating the impression that the obama administration is not playing much of a role when it comes to this effort. of course, that's not true. that they're not playing a role. but it does not look good for the administration. >> it's disturbing to hear that the dispersants in general should not be used to solve this problem. >>> i want to switch gears. i want to talk politics. news out of hawaii today. of course, it's the president's state of birth. a long-held democratic seat went to a republican. you're saying it may not be such a cut and dried victory. explain that, jake. >> two democrats were running for the seat. if you look at the republican that won, he won with less than 40% of the vote. the other 60% was split between two democrats. the democratic party made appeal after appeal, please, one of you drop out of the race, two the two democrats running. neither candidate could do that. democrats split the vote. they're expecting that when there is just one democrat on the ballot, they'll be able to get much of that majority back and

many people in the obama administration want to do this. many people in congress are less sure about whether this is a good investment of u.s. money and resources. >> david, you hinted at this at the end. you raised questions about the strategy. tell us, what would be, and this is a preliminary view of the report, what would be the right strategy? we're likely with a door the next two years locked in policy in some way? how do they get this right? >> well, if this is the idea of getting drug trafficking under control and ultimately preventing access for drugs for u.s. consumers, you have four possibilities. there are four strategies to dealing with the black market and drugs in north america and worldwide really. one is complicity or what mexico calls the idea of simply working with the traffickers, accepting their distance and taking the occasional bribe. that is the way drug trafficking in the u.s.-mexico context works for many years with very high ranking officials on the mexican side, and no small number recently of low-level u.s. offic

the obama administration is stepping up the tough talk. >> we continue to hold them as the responsible party. we are on them watching them. >> they will be held accountable, we will keep our boot on their neck. >> to push bp out of the way would raise questions. >> president obama held -- they slammed the federal response as disjointed. >> we have only received 5,040 feet. we need more resources and the materials requested. >> they have been waiting for weeks. >> we need more deployment. we need that land boom immediately to block oil. dodge bp understands the frustration. >> at this point, it has not been successful. i am devastated by that. >> the new attempt has been postponed from tuesday to wednesday at the earliest. >> stay with us, there is more news ahead. >> there is now greater risk that speeding drivers will get caught in baltimore city. we will explain coming up. >> of the supreme court has something to say about the way the nfl sells merchandise the fans. it could impact labor negotiations with the fans. >> scattered showers are moving in from the east. see how long the we

i think the obama administration was acting properly. the focus is going to be on bp and this kind of assurance they were giving to everyone that there were no problems. obviously, just the opposite was the case. >> and do you think new offshore drilling is dead on an rival on capitol hill now? >> i think that what we will have to do is to put in place the kinds of safeguards, protections that occurred after the three mile island incident. back in 1979. blue ribbon panel was put in place, led by the president of dartmouth, jen kenemy. when those recommendations were made with regard to what the safeguards had to be in any new new nuclear power plant construction, i think confidence was rebuilt if that industry. i think the same thing is going to have to happen here. you know, mark twain used to say that a cat that's been burnt on a hot stoeb went get on a hot stove again but it won't get on a cold one either. so there's going to have to be a lot of assurances given to people that will this industry is going to be maintaining the most mod

the obama administration has been a great boon to conservatism but not the country. there are all kinds of people on the right examining obama. i am writing a book on obama and the history of modern liberalism. there are lots busy on the subject of obama and why not? conservatives made the mistake of letting down their guard and persuading themselves that liberalism was a spent force or at least the radicalism had gone out of liberalism. even bill clinton eventually came around to this view when he announced the era of big government was over triangulating his way to reelection. part of obama's genius was recognizing liberalism was not a spent force and could be revived with the right kind of magical incantations which he has certainly done and conservatives were really caught flatfooted. >> host: senior fellow at the claremont institute, co-editor with william f. buckley on keeping the tablets and two years ago hosted and afterwards for booktv where he interviewed christopher buckley. first call for him is from norton, virginia. >> good afternoon. i am one of those

the obama administration is being forced to defend its response to the gulf oil spill. the white house is taking shots from both sides of the political aisle, and firing right back. >> the struggle to contain the oil spill in the gulf is forcing the obama administration to do damage control in washington. >> we were activated the moment this oil rig exploded. this has been on the president's agenda ever since that happened. >> this is an entirely new world. >> the gulf disaster is more than a terrible oil spill. it is a product of a failed energy policy. >> the liberal environmentalist -- the white house is getting squeezed on both sides. >> some have tried to seize on this human tragedy in the gulf to advocate for radical new energy agenda. >> in this blame game, bp is still center stage. >> this is catastrophic. we have to do everything we can and more to shut off the well and clean this up as fast as possible. >> meanwhile, the spill continues, with no end in sight. the president has named a bipartisan panel took help prevent similar disasters in the future. >> there

with what the obama administration is going to do on a whole list of things? >> maybe not. presidents have been disappointed in the past. they wouldn't have asked her questions about where she was at on the health care law. this is the new twist a judicial activism. conservatives have complained a lot about people striking down laws. now the concern is that she might vote to uphold laws. it's really just another way of framing opposition concern about a democratic nominee. >> lehrer: now there's been not just conservatives who have been ... the punditry as you know has been everywhere on this. in these last 24 hours. some liberals are supposedly concerned. what is their concern? >> one of their main concern s is what they saw from her as solicitor general. her public career has always been essentially as an advocate of some administration's policies not her personal ones. but liberals in particular are concerned about some of the cases particularly in national security where she has argued for the obama position for a really sort of expansive view of the role

the point man for the obama administration on dealing with this ongoing crisis, president obama met with him yesterday just up the canal here from me. nine meals was the -- mines was the threat, and three different spots ruptured at about 5,000 feet below the surface continue to pour oil upwards to the surface unchecked and uncontrolled. even bp acknowledges it doesn't know precisely how much has spilled so far, how much continues to spill, what the daily rate of flow is, but the coast guard's going with the estimate of about 210,000 gallons a day which would make it at least two million gallons of sweet crude in the gulf of mexico. jon: any hope of kind of kinking the pipeline to shut it down? >> reporter: bp continues to hope that maybe today is the day they actually have some success. they're using remotely operated vehicles, basically robotic claws 5,000 feet below the surface controlled by humans up top. and as we have with seen those underwater video clips, it has failed miserably to pinch the pipeline below where the leaks are, and that would stop the flow of oil. so what the curr

you think this is something that will be catastrophic for the obama administration whether this has been handled well or not? >> oh, look, this is bad news all of the way around. i was with the white house on friday when the president came out angrily condemning bp the fact at that point now we were 27 days they were 25 on friday from the spill we didn't know exactly what happened it was still leaking and nobody knew how to fix it. bp didn't have an emergency plan in place. he was equally critical and angry with the federal agencies as we talked with mms of interior department which did not do the environmental rehave yous it was supposed to did no do the inspections we were told of and were on the side of the oil companies here. this is bad news all of the way around. the real news is there will be no more offshore oil drilling. obama's plan to drift off the atlantic coast is dead on arrival. >> dead in the water literally. >> right no pun intended. >> every pun intended. >> i agree when you get a disaster at this level there will be all kinds of finger pointing. you have the oil compan

in the obama administration, we have seen a significant increase in government expenditure. it is the wrong course to go if you have a mounting deficit. the problems faced by the u.s. and the u.k. are similar. the first thing the united kingdom needs to do his reduce the size of the public sector, and that will result in significant cuts in terms of spending and jobs in the public is the public sector. that will need to be done in the united states as well. host: george. caller: i notice now partner has an english accent. is the english or american? i notice he is bashing israel. host: thank you for your call. caller: i am english. burton always has supported -- britain has always supported israel in the middle east in the arena of a dangerous terrorist regimes. it is in both the british and national interest to make sure that israel is defended against its enemies. the only successful democracy in the region is able to be defended and in the face of a mounted a threat from iran, which has threatened to wipe israel off of the map. we can have a joint, shared interest in the

>>> allegation, conspiracy theory is the obama administration wanted the gulf spill to happen, the edges of the oil now grazing the louisiana barrier islands. as of late today, no oil coming ashore, the wind cooperating, expected to turn unfavorable by thursday. that is when bp says it expects to lower that huge containment dome or coffer dam on top of the main leak, the aim to contain the surface. what is interesting tonight, in this partisan climate, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising, what's interesting is the conspiracy theorys being floated around today, you already heard rush limbaugh suggest they might have tried to blow it up. but michael brown, head of the fema and hurricane katrina and says they wanted it to spread. talk about a deliberately slow administration response to shut down off oil drilling in america. >> now, you're looking at this oil slick approaching the louisiana shore according to noaa and other places if the winds are right, it will go up the east coast. this is exactly what they want, because now he can pander to the environmental lists and say, i will shut it

for its part, the obama administration unveiled new legislation today to make sure b.p. pays for ever-growing costs and damage. the white house will ask congress to raise a prior liability cap that could limit damages b.p. has to pay, add a penny-per-barrel tax to replenish a federal cleanup fund, and provide assistance for fishermen and others affected by the spill. here in new orleans' french quarter, seafood restaurants are among the biggest tourist attractions, but the products are becoming increasingly scarce, and some people are beginning to as if they're safe to eat. gary wollerman is the owner and manager of g.w. finn's restaurant, just off bourbon street. the restaurant didn't get a local seafood delivery today, but are getting fish from other parts of the gulf. he says supply is down, but is adequate for the moment. and he says a few customers are asking questions about some of the things they see on his menu. what do you tell people when they ask about safety? >> that there is absolutely nothing to be concerned about. in fact, i'm almost a little surprised by

the obama administration like bp is feeling the pressure. >> there's a lot of criticism one can have certainly for bp and even for the government and how we got to this, but i don't think anyone can credibly say, even as frustrated as they and we are, that the government has to run and done nothing and hope for the best. >> more than 22.7 million liters of crude oil have spewed into the gulf since the deep water horizon over exploded. engineers are facing more delays. it will be at least tuesday before they can attempt the next plan which is to shoot mud into the league in an effort to stop the oil. jane for bbc news in washington. >> this is gmt with me, george. bringing down the barricades -- big cut tries to return to normal, but can it avoid a repeat of last week's clashes? -- bangkok tries to return to normality. >> the british army's top bombs officer disposer has resigned. he is in charge of an elite unit and is believed to have stepped up because he believes the turning could be watered down. he told the bbc about the conditions facing the bomb disposal experts in off. our de

our question tonight is, do you feel safer under the obama administration's watch? press 1 for yes, press 2 for no. and i'll bring you the results later on in the show. joining me now is vermont senator, patrick leahy, chairman of the senate judiciary committee. senator, good to have you with us tonight. it's been too long. how have you been? >> i've been very well, ed, and it's good to be with you. >> good to be with you, my friend. all right. we read miranda rights, we didn't torture, and we're getting information. this is kind of a textbook case on how it's supposed to work, isn't it? >> listen, i spent eight years in law enforcement, and this has been perfect all the way through. you had ray kelly, commissioner of police in new york city, his people did a textbook fashion. bob mueller from the fbi. eric holder from the justice department. they all worked together. and they got the person. they got the person, apparently, from what we have read, they've gotten cooperation. the president even reported -- i don't know if it's true or not, but we're even getting coo

two other members of the obama administration head to the region. and as tara mergener reports the amount of oil siphoned by the mile long tube has dropped in the past day. >> reporter: members of the obama administration may not like what they see when they fly over the gulf of mexico this morning. for 34 days now a blownout well has been spewing millions of gallons of oil in to the water and more and more appears to be washing up along the louisiana beaches. >> i'm angry and frustrated that bp has been unable to stop this oil from leak and stop the pollution from spreading. >> reporter: ken salazar blasted bp officials and threatened to push the oil giant out of the way if they can't clean it up soon. a mile long tube has captured a 1.5 million-gallons of oil but it started to slow up over the weekend. >> we will have an attempt to kill the well for good. >> reporter: the next try is until wednesday. it involves pumping heavy mud in the well to clog it. but louisiana isn't waiting for bp or the federal government to help. the state's governor told

he says separate from the stimulus bill the obama administration cut 27% of funding for mass transit security, compared to the previous year. and 25% in port security dollars. the democratic party said king shouldn't have voted against the stimulus bill if he is so keen on getting security money for new york. and congressman king likens that to political blackmail. >> if you are not being partisan at all, i felt president bush was wrong and i criticized him. president obama is wrong on this and they're trying to cover it up. >> reporter: new york republican senator chuck schumer also wants more money restored to funding for new york. congressman king argues the stimulus money is money from last year rolled over to this year and he wants yearly funding for new york to increase or at least stay the same as the previous year. secretary napolitano counters that more than $275 million in federal funding for new york city security efforts set aside going back to 2006 has not been used yet. shannon? >> shannon: all right. thank you for the update. well, president obama is honoring police of

we are putting pressure on the obama administration to keep their promises. they promised immigration reform that's what we are demanding. if they have immigration reform this nonsense in arizona wouldn't be an issue. >> reporter: you are as upset about the democrats not delivering a promise? >> right. we don't expect anything from the republicans. our issue is with the democratic party who promised our communities immigration reform. but they've done nothing about it. our target now is the obama administration for what they are doing against us. there were more deportations in the first year of the obama administration than the last year of the bush administration that is not the hope and change we were promised. i don't advocate for the republicans or the democrats. to me both parties are anti-immigrant, both parties do not represent the best interests of our community or any working-class community. >> reporter: thank you for your time. you are calling for open revolution, peacefully, no call to arms, as some have misconstrued your words? >> yeah, i'm not

some would like to suggest that this is the fault of the obama administration. some are now shocked at the gambling with our environment that was going on in the coil and gas industries offshore casino. they failed to see any connection between the drilling and the current catastrophe that we now face. some have question the patriotism of keeping your foot on their neck. i want to congratulate you for your very good work in trying to keep everyone focused. british petroleum has not been entirely candid and open with the american people about this disaster. initially they estimated that 1,000 barrels of oil per day were leaking into the gulf. on april 28th, 2010, a new leak was affected and we pushed the estimate to of these 5,000 barrels per day. the chief operating officer was initially quoted that day saying that he believed that the full rate of 1,000 barrels per day was accurate. the cannot believe that this changes the current amount believed to be released. yesterday i was provided with an internal document dated april 27th, 2010 and was cited as confident

administration has come up short. number one, the real concerns there in new york city which reason proves to be a very critical target to the jihaddists and the terror network. number works the border. it is interesting with all the massive increases in discretionary spending under contribution and in fact in the new budget from the obama administration, there is one glaring discrepancy and that is actually taking away money from border security. so you got the problems in new york that pete king talked about and you continue to have problems on the border. i'll say again, border security is national security. it is not enshrouded in mystery. we heard reports including in the last year on the fox news channel about the alliance involving hugo chavez of venezuela and mahmoud ahmadinejad of iran. the notion that they come to venezuela and get trained and try tone territories the united states coming from central america and our boarder with mexico. and let's not forget the fact that we have to understand that our borde

>> now in this book, you are charging that the obama administration's energy policy is, in your words, a wind mill policy. >> that's exactly. but to the administration's credit, when i started writing that book, that was right. i started about two years ago and it was a national mind mill policy. the whole thing was to make 20% of our electricity from these wind turbines which is fairly preposterous. it's an amount of unreliable electricity. but particularly with the work of dr. chew, the administration has broadened its policy and they now have taken some very good steps to try to encourage, for example, nuclear power which produces 70% of our carbon free energy. and i commend the president for that. and even though this is a difficult time to support jaufer shore oil and gas explore ration, it's important to remember that in the gulf we have 30 or 40,000 wells and that it produces about 30% of all of the oil we produce and about 25% of the natural gas. and if we didn't have it, gas would be up to $10, 12 a gallon. >> you voted for society moyor. will you vote for her in the coming w

i do give obama administration credit. that is the argument they have been trying to make about being a stakeholder. a big part of it is helping the chinese not repeat our mistakes. i will give us a little bit of credit. i think the british really work hegemonic -- were hegemonic. nonetheless, the british did have some good things that we ignored. a lot of what we need to do with the chinese is come to an understanding about those issues. yes, as partners, move forward in the middle east. >> he was talking about britispn in the past. i think -- he was talking about great britain in the past. victimization is a core part of national and state identity. that constrains what ever outsiders can do. however strong their capacity and will is. >> chris nelson. since i do mostly asian and north korea, i am totally innocent on how to think about the proliferation implications in the middle east. it was fascinating to me the way ken talks about it. why is it in their interest to have the bomb? is iran their enemy? if you are an asia

while taking a public beating from residents fed up here and a very frustrated obama administration. this is the fight for louisiana's coast. black hawk helicopters build a sandbag defense on the channels on pelican island, one of the barrier islands weakened by eight decades of erosion, now under attack by oil. >> we are not standing on the sidelines and letting bp do what bp wants to do. the federal government has mounted the largest response in the history of this country. >> it is clear the defense of the shoreline has not been successful. i feel devastated by that, absolutely gutted. >> reporter: none of this impressed this oyster man. >> the sandbags are not enough. it is like putting a band ate on a big cut. >> reporter: the big cut is the still spewing oil well at the bottom of the gulf. last friday mitch's oyster boat was a loud, messy, floating factory. today it is empty and still. we headed out to the leak site and found a toxic soup in the gulf of mexico. enormous rivers of oil and dispersant on the surface and underneath 16 miles from the coast. 26 miles out the gulf is

. >> can you from a historical draw parallels from the kennedy administration and the obama administration? >> it's not for me to draw those parallels, not yet. like david remnick and meredith, i haven't done the research on the obama administration. i can't say. what i can say is this, what is very interesting is to watch leaders express their willness to change. not just to change the country but themselves to change and to learn. we've been -- we have a tension in american society where some people think you have to know what to do the minute you become president. but is that really realistic? frankly there's no job like being president, even vice president, even a strong muscular vice president in the case of, if you will be the vies presidency of dick cheney. even in that case you're not president. and so there are burdens of the presidency which you can only really shoulder when you are president. so is it realistic to assume that day one the president is going to have all the right answers? is it realistic on any day to have the right answer? what i think it will be interesting for

host: here, in the u.s., as the recession began, with the bush administration and obama administration with the stimulus, that this type of spending was the necessary to boost the economy. there are reports from the imf saying that the sharp rise in government debt created some new threats to the system. where is that balance between what the government should do in the u.s., and in europe, how much can they put into the economy and the growing risk of government debt? guest: one thing that we found which was flatly surprising, from the standpoint of conservative economists, was that we needed more government spending to stimulate the economy. what he would say is that that does not mean committing three, four years from now. real growth has to come from private sector spending and private job creation. that is where pilot of these commitments in the future could drag down job creation. host: you have been president of the u.s.-taiwan business council for the past few years. what does that entail? guest: 90 facilitating businesses that want to do work in taiwan. for both taiwan and the

tonight, one obama administration is warning the oil giant, either fix it or get out of the way. >> reporter: good evening, lester. it was a day of anger and mixed messages from the administration, both over what kind of job bp is doing and who is ultimately in charge of stopping that leak. today the president's point man in the gulf gave bp and its ceo a full vote of confidence. >> when i give them direction, i've got a cell phone number and i have a problem, i call them. >> reporter: but after meeting with bp officials at their command center today in houston, interior secretary ken salazar blasted the company for its failure to stop the leak. >> i am angry and i am frustrated that bp has been unable to stop this oil from leaking and to stop the pollution from spreading. we are 33 days into this effort and deadline after deadline has been missed. >> reporter: critics now accuse the white house of ceding too much power to bp, but salazar insists the government is running the show. >> if we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way. >> reporter:

. >> you've been critical of the obama administration's effort. you call the attempted bombing an sbl failure. what failed? >> the fact he was able to, a, drape in pakistan, arrive back to the united states, conspire with others to assemble materials for a bomb, obtain a vehicle, assemble the vehicle explosive device, get it to the place where they wanted it to be, and actually initiate the explosion of that device. thank god it didn't go off. but for that, we would have had a major disaster in times square. that part was a failure. the fact that they quickly -- the law enforcement quickly engaged afterward to catch them, we saw some questions to answer there. that part worked fine. the problem is we have to be aggressive to catch him when he's in pakistan when he's getting on a plane from pakistan to the united states, not when he's getting on a plane after the event back to pakistan. that tells me we've got a lot to do. again, my concern is, listen, they cain. they made i think some political perspectives on certain collection activities that we