captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: house speaker john boehner offered his first major response to the president's new jobs plan today. he called again for tax reform, but no tax increases, to boost economic growth. good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we talk about job creation and politics with two senators-- wyoming republican john barrasso and maryland democrat ben cardin. >> brown: then, from cairo, margaret warner profiles three young activists trying to build a democratic egypt after the spring uprising. >> suarez: we listen in, along

with historian michael beschloss, to some remarkably candid conversations with former first lady jacqueline kennedy. >> brown: we have the tale of a marine whose death-defying rescue mission in afghanistan led to a medal of honor awarded at the white house today. >> you did your duty above and beyond, and you kept faith with the highest traditions of the marine corps that you love. because of your honor, 36 men are alive today; because of your courage, four fallen american heroes came home. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> oil companies have changed my country. >> oil companies can make a difference. >> we have the chance to build the economy. >> create jobs, keep people healthy and improve schools. >> ... and our communities. >> in angola chevron helps train engineers, teachers and farmers; launch child's programs. >> it's not just good business.

>> i'm hopeful about my country's future. >> it's my country's future. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. >> and...

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: the president took a break today from the debate on jobs policy. but the republican leader in the house presented an alternative set of ideas on taxes, regulation, and entitlements. it's been one week since president obama laid out his jobs package, a $447 billion mix of tax breaks, public works spending, and jobless benefits. today, house speaker john boehner offered a republican response. he said while some of the president's plan offers "opportunities for common ground;" overall, it's not enough. >> the president's proposals are a poor substitute for the pro- growth policies that are needed to remove barriers to job creation in america, the policies that are needed to put

america back to work. >> brown: the speaker said what job creators really want is an end to uncertainty created by the burdens of taxes and new regulations. >> they've been hurt by a government that offers short- term gimmicks rather than fundamental reforms that will encourage long-term economic growth. they've been hampered by a government that offers confusion to entrepreneurs and job creators when there needs to be clarity. >> brown: boehner spoke on a day when new economic data underscored the country's troubles: first time claims for jobless benefits reached the highest level in three months; and the number of home foreclosure notices spiked 33% in august, the most in nine months. in the face of such numbers, boehner ruled out higher taxes on better-off americans, as the president wants, to pay for his jobs plan. instead, the speaker called for

the bipartisan congressional deficit super-committee to consider tax reform, closing loopholes but not raising rates. and he said the super-committee plan should include changes to entitlement programs, as it searches for savings of up to $1.5 trillion over ten years. >> the joint committee can achieve real deficit reduction by reforming entitlements and taking real action to preserve and strengthen social security, medicare, and medicaid. most of the entitlement reforms in the house g.o.p. budget are phased in over time. and that's the way the joint committee should do them, as well. modest changes in spending programs today can have large effects tomorrow. >> brown: by contrast, the president today walked back from considering changes in social security, something he'd reportedly been open to in last summer's debt ceiling talks. white house spokesman jay carney said today that such ideas can wait. >> on social security, the president has made clear from the beginning, we need to take

measures to strengthen social security for the long term. but it is not a driver of near- term deficit problems, and it can be pursued on a parallel track. >> brown: in the meantime, three dozen members of congress gathered to show their support for the super-committee. connecticut senator joe lieberman said they want the panel to "go big" and find up to $4 trillion in savings. >> if 36 of us get together, the leadership has to react. maybe years from now, we will look back and say that this was the beginning of the washington spring, as opposed to the other springs. >> brown: but that moment of mirth aside, aside from that brief laughter, there was little sign of how democrats and republicans will find agreement on specific measures to spur job

growth while also cutting the deficit. i'm joined now by two senators to discuss the politics and policy of job creation: republican senator john barrasso of wyoming and democratic senator ben cardin from maryland. senator barrasso, before we get to the differences, i want to start on this question of the potential common ground. speaker boehner said again today there are some parts of the president's plan that republicans might be able to work with. do you agree? and if so, which parts exactly? >> well, i am looking for common ground. i do want to work with the president. i want to make it easier and cheaper for the private sector to create jobs in is this country, and i think by ratifying the three free trade agreements that the president talks about, that would be a great start. and i'd love for him to send those now to capitol hill so we could actually ratify those and get people back to work. >> brown: what about the other key things he brought up the other day, extending the payroll tax, infrastructure spending? >> well, i think it all come downs to how you're going to pay for a number of these things. i think we need to look for ways

to take the red tape away from american jobs creators. and, unfortunately, today, today, this administration rolled out another $10 billion in red tape on our job produceres, and that makes it harder and more expensive for the private sector to create jobs. >> brown: now, senator cardin, on your side, one of the key questions, of course, is what will happen on entitle am reform. it looked as though today the president wanted to set that question aside. is he right to do that? and to you, some specifics on where you think there might be some room for agreement here? >> washington the president's absolutely right. social security has nothing to do with our current deficit problem. social security has been a cash-plus in our bookkeeping. but the key thing in-- and the president's absolutely right-- the only way we are going to be able to get our deficit under control is to create more jobs. 9% of americans unemployed, you're not going to have the revenues in government, those who pay taxes, and you're going to have a greater demand on public services.

so job creation has to be critically important to getting our deficit under control. quite frankly, his proposals of rebuilding our nation, of helping small businesses, of targeting relief to those who have been unemployed for a long period of time will help all of us bring our budget into balance. as far as the entitlement programs, mandatory spend, yes, we think we can get savings in that area. we want to see a balanced approach to dealing with our nation's deficits. >> brown: savings meaning thingsing like raising the retirement benefit age, for example? >> i personally believe we can do it without affecting the beneficiaries, particularly in the health care areas. i think when you look at the way we deliver health care services, that we can do it in a more cost-effective ways and we can get savings that will help us deal with the cost of medicare and medicaid. >> brown: senator barrasso, speaker boehner pushed another mantra today he talked about a lot-- tax reform. we hear a lot about closing loopholes, but, again, we often don't get the specifics.

what exactly might that mean, for example, the ending the home mortgage deduction, things like that? can you give us some specifics? >> we're looking at total tax reform, so that taxes are simpler for american families, and american businesses, and you could actually lower the overall tax rate and generate more overall tax income. i agree with my colleague, senator cardin, we need to get more people back to work. if you have more people working, you have more people who are then actually paying in taxes. so that is the reason that my focus-- and i actually came out with a whole jobs program, a number of us from the rocky mountain west, the jobs frontier plan, 20 pages of ways to make energy more affordable, more energy security, getting more people back to work and getting rid of these onerous regulations turning into a heavy, wet blanket on our economy. >> brown: on the question of tax reform, again, would the revenues from such reforms, would they be used for deficit

reduction? >> well, our real problem is we have a huge debt in this country, over $14 trillion. we're borrowing $4 billion a day, $2 million every minute. we're borrowing a lot of this from china and how do you stay a strong and independent and forceful nation in the world if you owe this kind of debt to people who are not necessarily your friends or don't necessarily have your best interests at senator so i am hoping that this deficit reduction committee of 12 that are working together, i hope they do go big and get to that larger member of $4 trillion. >> brown: senator cardin we keep circling around the area where's there might be some agreements. even as representative boehner was speaking today, a number of democrats were suggest they can't support the president's plan in full. so, as you look at what's going to happen in the coming weeks here, is it now clear that the full plan doesn't go forward, that this is done piecemeal? what do you see happening? >> i think the president has laid out the right plan.

i think democrats and republicans need to come together. it's not going to be what the president wants. we're anything to have to be able to develop a plan between the democrats and republicans. i hope, though, it will meet the objectives the president has laid out-- create the jobs that we need. you mentioned with senator babarrasso tax reform, i think tax reform is one area where democrats and republicans can come together. if we do tax reform right we will bring in additional revenues that we can use to help bring our deficit in control in a way that will allow us to be more efficient and have job growth. so i think there are ways that we can do this where democrats and republicans can come together. i think the president has laid out the right plan for job growth, and i would think that the democrats and republicans both want to see more jobs. we should be able to come together. >> brown: senator cardin, i am guessing there is a fair amount of confusion out there in the country now. a few months ago all we talked was about the debt ceiling and deficit reduction. and now most of the focus, of course son the need for job creation, which a lot of

economists talk about a need for stimulus. what-- how do you balance these priorities and what is-- which is the right priority right now? >> they're one and the same. you cannot get our deficit under control unless we create more jobs. there is no way that we're going to have a manageable budget with a nine% unemployment. we've got to get that rate down. so i urge this joint committee, this super committee that's been created, they need to make sure that part of their recommendations -- they don't have to deal with the jobs issues directly-- but part of their recommendations must be to leave us the ability to create jobs, give us the resources so that we can rebuild our nation, help small businesses, target relief to those who have been unemployed for a long period of time. do that so that we can create the jobs. if we do that, we can balance our budget. otherwise, it's going to be impossible. >> brown: senator barrasso, in our time left here, are we still looking at two fundamentally different approaches to dealing with these priorities, or is there something coming together

here? >> well, i want to come together on the trade agreements. i want to come together on energy security for our country. i want to come together on getting railed of the red tape which is a heavy wet blanket on our economy. 90% of the president's plan is paid for by increasing taxes on individuals' tax returns, and i think at times like this, there's bipartisan agreement that you shouldn't be raising taxes on anyone in these economic times. >> brown: senator caned, that doesn't sound like-- like agreement. that sounds like taking taxes off the table on their side. what about your side? >> i think we have different views, different visions on how america needs to grow. i thinthat is clear. however, we all have a responsibility to listen to each other and to capitol hill together with a proposal that will move this nation forward. objectives are the same-- job creation and bring our deficit under control. we're going to have to yield on each other's views so that we

can come together with a true compromise in the best spirit of our nation. >> brown: all right, senator ben caned of maryland, senator john barrasso of wyoming. thank you both very much. >> thanks for having us. >> suarez: still to come on the newshour: conversations with jacqueline kennedy; courage in afghanistan; and a learning experience in baltimore's schools. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: the federal reserve and other central banks moved today to stop europe's debt troubles from triggering a new credit crunch. the european central bank said it will coordinate with the fed, the bank of england, the bank of japan, and the swiss national bank. they'll extend dollar loans to struggling euro-zone banks, for three months, starting in october. the head of the international monetary fund, christine lagarde, supported the decision on cnbc. >> whatever path for recovery we see in the future will require collective action by the political leaders and governments and parliaments, and a bit more bipartisan approach to life and the action by the central banks. so i welcome very much what has

happened today. it shows that they will do what it takes to actually maintain stability in the monetary system and in the financial system. >> sreenivasan: the news helped boost stocks on both sides of the atlantic. on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 186 points to close at 11,433. the nasdaq rose 34 points to close at 2,607. the u.s. house has voted to intervene in a federal labor case against aircraft maker boeing. the national labor relations board had charged the company moved a production line from washington state to south carolina to punish union workers for past strikes. south carolina is a right-to- work state, but boeing said it moved for valid economic reasons. the house measure would bar the nlrb from making an employer shut down plants, even if the company violates labor law. it has little chance of passing the senate. the swiss banking giant ubs announced today that a rogue trader cost the company $2 billion. the suspect worked at the bank's investments division in london's financial district known as "the city". we have a report from sarah smith of independent television news. >> reporter: kweku adoboli is in a police cell tonight, accused

of the biggest fraud in the history of the city of london. >> at 3:30 a.m., detectives from our force arrested a 31-year-old man on suspicion of fraud by abuse of position. he was taken to a city of london police station for questioning, and he remains in custody while detectives continue to investigate the matter. >> reporter: ubs sent a memo to all staff today, saying they're still trying to get to the bottom of how this happened. any colleagues who were facebook friends with adoboli might have suspected trouble. his last update said he needed a miracle. so why didn't his bosses notice? >> well, it seems astonishing that anyone could actually rack up losses of two billion without a bank actually being aware of the trades that any particular trader is putting on. usually, traders have specific risk limits and banks will monitor that. >> reporter: yet, every so often, a trader somewhere goes

rogue. the biggest bank in switzerland, ubs, insists none of their client funds have been lost, only their own money. but the swiss government may now force them to give up investment banking and concentrate on their private clients before they ruin the entire country's reputation for financial management. this might be excruciatingly embarrassing for the swiss, but let's not forget it happened right here in london. you might have thought that, since the financial crisis, there would be all kinds of rules and regulations in place that would stop this kind of thing from happening. but you would be wrong. this rogue trade just shows how little has changed, and the fact that it was possible, that it could happen right here in this square mile, that's something that should concern us all. adoboli was a director of exchange traded funds at ubs. that means he sold a controversial investment product that has the bank of england worried. >> regulators can only do so much. if it's impossible for the management of a bank like ubs to know what is going on, what is being done or done wrong on the trading floor, there is no way

that the regulators are ever going to be able to keep tabs on that. >> reporter: the headlines generated by this rogue trading will increase pressure to make sure other banks keep their investment arms and their retail banking sectors separate. >> sreenivasan: in 2008, ubs received a $60 billion bailout from the swiss government to recover from the financial crisis. rebels in libya stoed the birth city of moammar qaddafi today. the assault on the city of sirte came after weeks of waiting. opposition forces had said they wanted a peaceful hand-over of the city. instead, the national transition council said rebel forces pushed in from all sides today and came under heavy fire. in pakistan, a suicide bomber killed 31 people at a funeral for an anti-taliban tribesman. dozens of people were wounded in the blast in a region near the afghan border. they were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. the pakistanis have rejected a u.s. warning over the militant haqqani network. the group is blamed for two major attacks in afghanistan-- tuesday's prolonged assault in kabul, and a saturday bombing

that wounded 77 american troops. on wednesday, defense secretary leon panetta said it is unacceptable that the militants still find safe haven in pakistan. and he warned, "we're going to do everything we can to defend our forces." pakistan's foreign ministry answered today, saying the criticism was "out of line". the palestinians served notice today they will go to the u.n. security council, after all, to seek recognition as a member state. the u.s. has threatened to veto such a move. but palestinian foreign minister riad al-malki said president mahmoud abbas would present the plan next week when he addresses the u.n. general assembly. >> after finishing, you know, delivering the speech, he will present the official request of state of palestine to the secretary general of the united nations, asking that palestine will be admitted as full member states in the united nations. >> sreenivasan: malki did not rule out a last-minute compromise. at the same time, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu

announced he will address the u.n. general assembly to oppose the palestinian push. >> now i know that the general assembly is not a place where israel get a fair hearing. i know that the automatic majorities, they're always rushed to condemn israel and twist truth beyond recognition. but i have decide to go there anyway, not to win applause but to speak the truth to every nation that wants to hear the truth. >> sreenivasan: both israel and the u.s. argue the only way to palestinian statehood is through direct negotiations with the israelis. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to ray. >> suarez: and to a rare and intimate glimpse into history. the new book, "jacqueline kennedy: historic conversations on life with john f. kennedy," includes never-before-heard audio recordings of interviews conducted with the former first lady in 1964, shortly after her husband's assassination.

the tapes were released by daughter caroline kennedy in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the kennedy administration. presidential historian and regular newshour guest michael beschloss edited and annotated the book, and he joins us now. michael, it was a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at life with j.f.k., life in the white house, and the life and times of the kennedy administration. what do you know now? what's the most important thing you know now that you didn't know before? >> well, the biggest thing, if we had talked a year ago before i read this thing i would have said jacqueline kennedy was a major figure in j.f.k.'s wife, and kennedy's washington did a lot for historic preservation, restored the white house, substituted the case, perhaps, the dwight eisenhower who had people like fred warring and the pennsylvanians play in the white house, for people like pablo casals. i wouldn't say she was a major political figure in kennedy administration. now i would. one example of this is number of times in this book where she runs down, say, someone like

dean rush, the secretary of state, says jackie should fire him. and he says, "maybe you're right, but i can't do it until 1964." she goes to pakistan and there's an ambassador of the united states she meets there, comes back, writes a letter at her husband's behest that he sends on to the secretary of state. she had a lot more to do, particularly with the personnel of this administration, than i i think i would have thought. >> suarez: we are taken into the back, private areas of the white house during some of the most tense times in the 1960s. for instance, the cuban missile crise, when jacqueline kennedy tells historian and kennedy incider arthur schlesinger, about what those tense days were like for her and the family. let's listen. >> please don't send me away to camp david, please, don't send me anywhere. anything happens we're all going to stay right here with you.

>> suarez: it's a reminder that this was not kidding around. the world fet like it was rice on the precipice. when the first lady says to the president, "i and the children want to die with you," it was striking. >> be out on the lawn not in a bomb shelter. the other thing it tells something. their marriage. in my experience, the president does not have a great marriage with the first lady, and there's a big political political crisis, the president usually doesn't want to spend very much time with his wife, would rather be around cronies or something. john kennedy's first instinct when he knows about the cuban missile crisis is in the book. he calls up jackie who is in virginia, there's something funny in his voice, he says. he says, "please bring the children right now back to the white house," even though they

were taking naps and the next 13 days they spent very much together, went strolling out on the lawn together. she had a very large part in his life, obviously, but particularly at this moment he looked to her for security. >> suarez: two things, how much she admired kennedy's personality, his intellect, the way he related to people on the campaign trail. and at times how unsure of her own value to him she really was. take a listen to this. >> i was always a liability to him until we got to the white house. and he never asked me to change or said anything about it, newport, bufont hair, and french clothes and hated politics. and it-- because i was having babies i wasn't able to campai smpaign. soui aldy,

i would say, "oh, jack, i wish..." >> suarez: sure, she was a little unsure campaign t.j. beginning but she was anything but a liability, right? >> as it turned out, the kennedy operatives in the 1960s thought she would be, that people would be put off, that she would seem too effete. some wished she would be more like pat nixon. one once said, "we'll run mrs. kennedy through subliminally." the biggest surprise to both of them is she becomes first lady and the most enormous celebrity of the country. everyone wants to wear their hair like jackie, the women do, and do their house houses and ie her in other ways. and the poignant thing is when they went to texas at the end of the kennedy presidenciy, he pleaded with her to go with him because she was such a political asset. >> suarez: the interesting thing about the times is that right behind her is bess truman

and mamie eisenhower. >> the model political wife of the time. >> suarez: waiting out just a little ways down the road are lady bird johnson in her way but also betty ford and rosalyn carter. she seems on the edge of those two worlds, a supporter, but also someone who is educated, quite sophisticate in her own right. and worried very much about how the burdens of the presidency were affecting her husband when she couldn't help him. listen to this

>> suarez: the bay of pigs had been a disaster for the very young kennedy administration, and she was watching it weigh on her husband. >> just three months in, and he came in with very grandiose expectations, and suddenly, three months later, he's accused of being an incompetent, can't get this done, the invasion of cuba. he weeps with her in a bedroom in the weekend house they had in virginia. and, also, you look at kennedy's medical records. his doctors felt he had gone into a depression. so she felt very much part of her job throughout this presidency was buoying him up when he need it, and he often did. >> suarez: also, she was incredibly young, raising young children, and pregnant several times during that-- both

phase. but at the same time, a woman energized by the life that she was living emerges from the texts of the schlesinger interviews. by 1964, when this interview was done, she seems to be pretty much at peace with her role in white house. take a listen:

>> suarez: interesting that she was able to create privacy when so many other first ladies more keenly feel that intrusion. >> yeah, that's right. and she did not want to go to the white house. she got very morose when he won, oddly enough, because she thought that life would wreck her family. and she was a woman of hugely strong will, and she basically said, "i'm not going to be mamie eisenhower campaigning and going to all these political and other kinds of banquets. my job is to support my husband, to raise my children well." and she also took on for herself a huge project of restoring white house, which she rightly felt when she encountered it looked like sort of a bad convention hotel full of reproductions. he she had to raise the money for it, huge project. all of that done at the same time, a woman who was very young-- 31 when she became first lady-- but of enormous accomplish am and talent. >> suarez: a lot of the coverage over the last week has gone to her sharp and sometimes

even a little snarky observations on the-- >> one or two. gillette great and the good of her age. that just shows she was paying attention, doesn't it? >> she was paying very close attention, and if you looked at the oral history, if there was one, of the first lady that was more traditional, perhaps a mamiize hour, i doubt she would have had independent opinions about a secretary of state and ambassador and fulfilled that role for her husband. >> suarez: so what do we see in jackie, a sort of hybrid? >> i think a hybrid, and i think you're right in saying she was a transitional figure. she knew that she had to function in a period when people did not want to see her attend cabinet meetings which she had no interest in doing and didn't. but at the same time, she knew that that generation of woman could not any longer be content to be a mamie eisenhower, or one of the earlier first ladies who basically poured tea. >> suarez: michael beschloss,

thanks for joining us. >> pleasure, ray. >> brown: next, margaret warner continues her reporting from post-revolutionary egypt. tonight, she talks with political activists trying to find their way in an uncertain future. >> warner: the road from tahrir square to a new egypt winds through modest neighborhoods like embaba in cairo. and last night, volunteers from the new "el adl," or "justice," party descended on this coffee shop with cheer and resolve, bearing brochures and campaign videos. trying to coax an audience from their cars in the streets and from their games of backgammon indoors. but the young organizers found that, in the brand-new game of egyptian retail politics, it's a buyer's market.

>> ( translated ): i think, in a couple of years, these parties will be filtered and you can determine who is good or not. then, i can make a choice. right now, i cant decide. >> warner: but time is what the dozens of new political parties in egypt don't have. parliamentary elections are just around the corner, yet the ruling military council hasn't set a firm date, district boundaries, or campaign laws. it's a far cry from the clarity of the heady 18-day revolution last winter that began with protests in tahrir square and ended by toppling president hosni mubarak. now, the revolutionaries have to do the hard work of building a democratic egypt in mubarak's place. >> this is going to be a decades-long fight over the soul of the nation. >> warner: 29-year-old lawyer mohamed gabr and 36-year-old businessman ahmed el sherif are among the justice party's co-founders. neither had been interested in politics before the revolution. why are they getting involved now?

>> because this country is on the brink of either starting to move towards a much better future with a lot more democracy, or it's going to be a dark and bleak scenario where things will deteriorate very fast. >> hope. that was the main reason that i got involved. before the 25th of january, i had no hope. >> warner: yet this young construction executive, now the party's finance director, understands hope is not plan. >> at the end of the day, you know, we can talk all you want, you can plan all you want, have the best political messages in the world, if we cant finance these operations, were not going to get anywhere. >> warner: this is typical of the justice party's businesslike approach. it managed to qualify for the elections just behind the seasoned muslim brotherhood's new party and a more conservative islamist group. but gabr and el sherif

understand the challenge posed by islamist parties so well rooted in their communities. the justice party is calling for a middle ground when it comes to islam's role in the new egyptian government. >> islam is very important for egyptians, and we don't want to change that. we do not want to take this a step further. we don't want to change the country into a theocracy. we don't think that opening this pandora's box at this stage is something that egyptian society can tolerate. >> warner: yet they welcome islamists who share this vision of a non-theocratic state, despite many secular egyptians' fears of islamist overreach. >> when you lock someone up in a room for 30 years and slap them every time they say something, the minute you open the door and let them out, they're going to come out yelling and saying everything they've been keeping inside for 30 years. you need to let them get everything out, and you need to

talk, and not just say, "hey, listen, you're crazy." >> while most of the members of the party are hardcore revolutionaries, they believe in moderation. they are trying to approach a very difficult situation with a lot of attention to not breaking the country or destroying the social contract that this country was built on. >> warner: the party's trying to recruit up to 100 revolution- minded candidates to run for parliament's 504 seats. >> if they can be political leaders in 10 years, then the revolution has succeeded. if they're not around, then we failed. >> warner: but many of those who protested in tahrir are staying out of politics now. >> the majority of my friends are not getting involved. they don't see political parties

as being a platform that can achieve what the country wants. we've been so alienated from politics for 50-plus years, >> warner: ragia omran is a tahrir square veteran staying out of politics. the 38-year-old human rights lawyer was on the front lines of the uprising. but sitting in a cafe on the square last night, she said she can do more outside the political arena. >> the current situation with the mass arrests and human rights abuses, i think that's a very pressing matter. i feel like i can do something more there. there aren't enough people doing that. i am more useful there than just being a member of a political party. >> warner: the bryn mawr- educated omran represents civilians subjected to military trials, and helped organize last friday's rally against them.

but though political parties joined the rally, she's not persuaded they are ready for prime time. >> they are forming themselves, they have to go through the elections, and they didn't have the time to spread out and have a real well thought-out program. and they are not really in the street, they are not with the people. on how things get done in the real life. >> warner: real life here still includes elements of the old regime, symbolized by the burden-out hulk of mubarak's

democratic party behind me. while the young revolutionaries debate how and whether to get engaged, old ndp figures are forming new political parties to compete against them in the elections. veteran opposition figure gameela ismail knows what its like to fight the old regime. she spent years protesting the jailing of dissidents. now a parliamentary candidate, she got a rock stars welcome at last fridays rally. >> i'm here today to talk to the hundreds of thousands of people who want to remind the egyptian people that the revolution is not over! >> warner: we spoke again after her late-night talk show at a new private tv channel, al nahar. she knows old ndp figures are trying to stage a comeback, but insists it doesn't worry her. >> you can't just throw away 50 years and you cant just get rid of millions of egyptians.

they will be there i mean like i expect maybe 20% to 30%. >> warner: she's run and lost for parliament twice before in rigged elections, and has no illusions that conditions will be ideal this time either. >> we won't have a free and fair election from the first election after the revolution. i think its just going to be a start. >> warner: but she says that's exactly why the tahrir square revolutionaries have to get engaged in politics now, or risk leaving the field to the old forces. >> i think that without us being there, with maybe the majority

of islamists there or the residue of the old regime trying again to be there, it's very important for us to be there. >> warner: it's like an age-old egyptian wedding day tradition-- where friends celebrate the new couple outside as their home gets filled with furniture. the excitement comes first, but the real work lies ahead. >> suarez: in herext rtrepo sre margaret examines egypt's sinking economy. >> brown: even in the annals of the nation's highest military decoration, the actions of marine sergeant dakota meyer were extraordinary. two years ago, meyer and fellow marine juan rodriguez chavez diwt enrectly into a hai ot f enemy fire in e ganjgal valley fgof a ihanistan p karncunrovioo rescuing 36 u.s. and afghan comrades caught in a taliban ambush.

that's what president obama saluted as he bestowed the medal of honor on sergeant meyer. >> four times, dakota and juan asked permission to go in; four times, they were denied. it was, they were told, too dangerous. but one of the teachers in his high school once said, "when you tell dakota he can't do something, he's going to do it." and as dakota said of his teammates, those were his brothers. "and i couldn't just sit back and watch." the story of what dakota did next will be told for generations. >> brown: as the president alluded, there was another element in this story that is unusual-- meyer and chavez were acting on their own. all in all, as chronicled in a piece in today's "wall street journal": this "battle has entered military folklore, and resulted not only in today's medal of honor but in two navy crosses, two investigations for dereliction of duty, three letters of severe reprimand, and a recommendation for a second medal of honor."

the writer of that line was bing west, himself a former marine captain, and now author of several books on the military. he was at today's ceremony and joins us now. welcome. >> thank you. >> brown: september, 2009, a remote village in afghanistan. set the stage for us. what were u.s. forces doing? >> i had been out there for about a year off and on with this unit, and they were right on the pakistan border, right next to the infamous corngal valley and they were supposed to interdict the al qaeda and taliban troops that were coming into afghanistan from pakistan. and in this small remote village called gangigal, they said can you come in and help us with the mosque? 100 afghan soldiers with their american advisers went in thinking they're going to help them but it was a setup and they ran into a terrific ambush. >> brown: then-corporal meyer-- we refer to him as sergeant but he was a corporal at the time-- he heard the calls for help, for artillery fire,

which were refused. >> correct. >> brown: on grounds that, what, it might hurt civilians? >> exactly. they were in the middle of a village, and people up the chain of command chocked, didn't really understand how severe the firing was, and didn't respond and there was an army captain named swenson who said you have to shoot. they weren't shooting. this 21-year-old corporal meyer said, "they're in trouble. we're going in." and he got in the huret of a humvee and he and chavez rodriguez, a sergeant, drove into the middle of a huge ambush, all by themselves. they picked up 12 wounded afghans, brought them out. the truck was shot to pieces. they got into a second truck went back in again, and this time, meyer is shooting al qaeda and taliban to the right and the left as he goes in, picks up some more wounded, comes out, changes to another truck, goes back in a third time, brings out some more americans, goes back

in a fourth time-- >> brown: because he realizes the-- before the fourth time there are still some missing. >> and he wasn't going to leave anybody out there. he went in five times to try to bring everybody back out. five times. and the other side at first was saying, "if you americans will surrender--" they were saying this over the road-- "we will allow to you surrender." and at the end they were saying, "kilonem, kill them, kill them." and they couldn't. he was killing them. >> suarez: 21 years old. we referred to the rep rimands. explain that a little bit. what happened in the aftermath. >> those things eye don't mean to trivialize it like a football game but people are going to do mistakes and people are going to get it right and the question is who is standing in the end? meyer was standing in the end but bureaucracy had the sense to say this was wrong, and so they're investigating carefully to determine what happened, what went wrong and why. that led to severe rep rimands, release of command, and now it's probably going to lead to

another high-level medal for captain swenson. >> brown: tell bus him. he was-- >> he was there. he was army. so it was army and marines together, and what i found remarkable about it, even though i knew them all, was that they didn't know each other that well, but when this fight and all the chips were on the table and they weren't getting any help from higher up they, all banded together, and meyer showed the initiative at 21 years of age to take another group of people and say, "come on, we're going to win this battle." and they did. just by sheer determination and initiative. >> brown: if i understand this right, captain swenson left the army without having been honored at that point. >> right, right. >> brown: and it's only after the fact that it's gone up and people have realized what happened, and now he's in line for a medal. >> a new commander, general allen, took over in afghanistan. he heard about this, and he said, "wait a minute. " he said, "what's going on here?" he asked for another look at all the records, and he said, "this

is the only right thing to do. we're going to send captain sensen in for a high award because he deserves it." so he opened up a record from two years ago and said we're going to correct this mistake. >> brown: tell us about dakota meyer. >> i know him quite well. he comes from kentucky, comes from a farm. he's a tough kid and very, very determined. when dakota makes up his mind it's very difficult to change his mind. >> brown: that's pretty clear. >> it is. but he has those virtues he's going to stand by you, he's going to let you know exactly what he's thinking and you're not going to shake him. when he went into this battle he refused -- he thought he was going to die but he wasn't going to change his mind. i think it's a great cred to us, jeff, as a country that we have that kind of initiative and determination and he really had it. >> brown: he got the medal of honor, several otherring got-- >> the navy crosses. and today i thought a great thing about the white house and about the country, when we went

to the ceremony, there weren't politics there. there weren't c.e.o.s there. the only people there were all the people from the battlefield-- corporals and sergeants. and the greatest white house in the world celebrating one of their own, and i think there are very few capitols and very few nations that would do that. the president opened up the white house to the corporals and sergeants, and he did it so naturally. and i'm not-- i'm not a democrat but he did it so naturally, he-- you could tell that he just felt this was the right thing to do. pgh >> naoko: watched the ceremony, and i was watching now-sergeant meyer are. could you tell how this all affected him? >> well, dakota doesn't feel that he deserved a medal because he went in for the sake of his four friends, and they died before he got there. and he keeps saying, "you know, i didn't do it. i failed." >> brown: he got their bodies out. >> and he turned the battle, but in his own mind, he keeps

saying, "if i had really done by m.r.i. job, i would have gotten them out alive." and the president was saying to him even today, "dakota, you couldn't. did you all you could." but he has that indomitable spirit-- if i could have done better, i could have changed everything. >> brown: all right, bing west, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> suarez: finally tonight, a story that was produced by our online team for our web site as part of our 9/11 anniversary coverage. we think it's worth sharing with our broadcast audience. >> my name is jonathan hyman. i am a documentary photographer, and i've spent the last ten years- five years, full-time--- starting with the day of the attacks, documenting the vernacular response that people made through artwork in response to the september 11 attacks. it was this kind of rare

intersection that americans in the past haven't had much practice at. we haven't been subject to wars on our own territory or attacks on our own territory, and i realized there was this very interesting intersection betwe people who wanted to express their private emotions but do it publicly. >> everybody was at ground zero. i decide i would focus on what was happening 52, 200 miles outside of new york. i was seeing all kinds of very interesting things appearing on the side of the road and in public place where's i lived. it was very important for me to show a broad range of expression and sentiment. there's a picture that has a very aggressive missi in the shape of-- in the sape of-- it's an american flaginhe

shapeave missile flying into osama bin laden's head. he's got horns. he's clearly being depicted as the devil. tere's everything from that kind of very aggressive, angry sentiment to, other things that are more about healing, love, and peace. and falgowa s my goal wasto to sim "y y,ssathi is whatt i saw. here it is." there are many different ways in which i came to take a pictur sometimes i would pick an area dr d anive around if i suspected that that area would have murals d people with tattoos. i would go to fire stations, police stations, ambulance buildings, american legion halls, place where's people would be likely to have either known about some kind of 9/11 response in public or they might know someone who did. and so, these kind of informal conversations that i had led me to objects i never would have found. the subject of this tattoo is a

deeply private person. i was able to convince him that my intentions were pretty good. and, you know, made an agreement by the way. no pictures of his face. he did not want his picture taken from the front. and i honored that, and in the end, he honored me back, and we ended up having a very good shlaontiip and in fact his picture o theip five-year anniversary went all over the world. many people in this country looked at the material in my collection, the photographs in my collection, and people saw red, white, and blue and tended to think that either my collection represented some kind of nationalistic expression or other people thought that i was a great patriot because there was so much red, white, and blue, when in fact it's my contention that many of the people who made this vernacular art work they have documented used what was available to them in their popular culture. these are people who for the most part, where the exception of some of the muralists-- not all the muralists-- heretofore

have not had a self-image of someone who could express themselveses in public, they never made art and didn't believeheey wer artists. they drew upoth t whe ings that they know. that's what made it so interesting, the public expression of private, personal emotion is really probably the most profound and distinguished element of what i think i saw. >> suarez: jonathon hymen's photographs are on exhibit at the sylvia walled and po kim gallery in lower manhattan until october 8. >> brown: again, the major developments of the day: house speaker john boehner offered his version of a jobs plan. he called again for tax reform, but no tax increases. stocks rallied after the federal reserve and other central banks offered loans to european banks in a bid to head off a new credit crunch. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 190 points.

and the swiss banking giant ubs announced that a rogue trader had cost the company $2 billion. and to hari sreenivasan for what's on the newshour online. hari. >> sreenivasan: we have a preview of our next story from the economist film project. it's a documentary called "the learning." and we'll have a live chat with the filmmaker, one of the teachers featured in the film and others. you can pose your questions tomorrow at 3:30 pm eastern. that's on the "rundown" blog. also there, watch all of speaker boehner's speech on job creation. and find more from our reporting team in cairo. last night, we posted views from ordinary egyptians on where the revolution stands now. tonight, find views on what role religion should play in the country's new constitution. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. ray. >> suarez: and that's the newshour for tonight. on friday, we'll talk with former vice president dick cheney about his memoir. i'm ray suarez. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening with david brooks and ruth marcus, among others. thank you and good night.

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