would they own that for the international media international media and the tourism industry? like that logic also is still always a way to displace blame on the people receiving the violence. one more, sure. >> reading the book one of the impressions that i got was that it was not so much a matter of random violence or the wrong place at the wrong time but it looked extraordinarily like psychological warfare waged as a form of counterinsurgency. so i was wondering if you could say anything about that genealogy and if you know anything about that? >> absolutely. i think again, a very simplified summary of looking at mexico before this whole calderon drug war began officially. it was a country in a group of

social mobilization in the first action of the frustration is to send the army into the streets. actually reported on some of the first army deployments in early 2007. calderon's home state is governed by the opposition party, the prd. in 2000 -- there is a shootout, and a suppose it involved person in the drug trade as well as to army officials were killed. the army got the i.d. card of the suspected drug trade participant, and his last name was montego. so they went to the national statistics agency and found that there was a community a couple hours on the mountainside with a lot of -- and so they arrived in helicopters, stormed the community, beat people down to the ground, stuck rifles -- and

you folks in the community, 5-year-old girls who had m-16 rifle stuck in their mouths. they took cigarette lighters to several of the men i interviewed and tortured them and beat them and said tell us where your cousin is or do you know him and confess? and then they grabbed 11 people, took them off to jail and were torturing them brutally forcing them and one of them finally said if you have to take the ball you guys decide. no one did. in the nearby community they took for young women into a helicopter where they raped them. as i interviewed one of the survivors of that the violence. that was the army's initial kind of campaign against drug traffickers. it was more a campaign against corn farmers and people in small towns. it was immediately a campaign of fear. and massive deployment of military technology. in fact in that first deployment

process so magazine ran a cover with all the helicopters landing and dry riverbeds and called its calderon's iraq. a lot more could be said. [applause] >> this event was held at moe's books in berkeley california. you can visit the store on line at moe's books.com. >> next, booktv attended a book launch party for syndicated columnist armstrong williams for his latest title, "reawakening virtues" restoring what makes

america great. mr. williams greeted guests and signed his book at the party held in washington d.c.. >> booktv is of the washington d.c. home of marty and grace bender, where a book party for author and columnist armstrong williams is being held. mr. williams latest book is called "reawakening virtues" restoring what makes america great. armstrong williams why did you write this book? >> you know, many people remember back in 2000, no child left mind, when i was almost left behind. financially, emotionally, relationship wise, and i will never forget a friend of mine from new york and ambassador called me on the phone and people were saying that i would be no more than a footnote. no one would every -- ever carry my column and that i was doomed.

i don't recall the details of those have the behind but i used bad judgment. acceptor responsibly for the bad judgment but just because you used bad judgment and accept responsibility for it you still have to pay a price. when you do things that go against the virtue and the values to the point which you were reared, and so in 2004, to about 2008, i was in the valley of -- and i was wondering if i would ever have my way of life back again and what i ever be a media presence again. then i realized there was one particular moment -- morning when i was lying in bed and the light flickered. after four years i have reawakened and something just said, reawaken your virtuous, your values. it was just as clear as i'm standing here talking to you. something said go back to the roots, go back to the beginning so i had the reawakening of the value of truth and honesty and

integrity. i have a reg gaming of values of physiology, getting back to working out and taking care of my health, making sure i was in top shape. but more importantly, a reawakening of values of what it wanted to do or what whether i wanted to be a -- for the republican party and i decided not only did i want to return to journalism but to return as a voice of integrity. a lot of people would dismiss me and call me the 20,000-dollar man. i lost credibility but i realized i was not doing it for anybody else any more. it was about anybody else. it is about me. is about me getting grounded against i started back that going to church. i started back in alone with god and getting back to the kinds of things that my parents taught me about honesty, about trying to be good. sometimes being good, we think

about being good but it is not enough. you can't just say being good but you have to learn about being good. was because of this i need to reawakened the virtues of my life to see if i could turn things around. thing started turning around but really i also realized in reawakening virtues that things were not as bad as i thought they were. even though i would spend money on legal fees, even though i lost 80% of my business i manage my business well. i manage my money well. i did not spend freely asleep. i did not have much overhead and i did not have a lot of debt, so people wanting to help me out financially, i said no. i put myself in the storm and i need to find a way to get myself out of the storm and return to the virtues that build what i had from the beginning. so being -- i realized i'll had not been lost. it had been lost in me for three or four years until i realized i had to reawakened myself and get back to who i was. >> armstrong williams, how do you return that to america?

>> you know, america is in a financial crisis. america is in a debt crisis. many people just don't understand when we talk about the debt ceiling. the debt ceiling reflects who we are as americans. we spend more than we kern. we buy things that we cannot afford, and we don't want to make sacrifices. and so the united states has accumulated so much that. $15 trillion over the last two and a half years. we keep spending and spending in our revenues cannot keep up with it. we have to get back to fiscal responsibility. despite having a credit card if you max out the credit card and increase the debt on a credit card and the interest rates will soar. at some point you have to pay the credit card offer find a way to re-structure the debt or you were going to go into bankruptcy. you will become bankrupt and so what we have to do is return to

fiscal discipline. we have to do return to being responsible. we get caught up in looking at television and materialism. he should buy only that which you can afford. the early real estate boom, everybody thought owning a home with a right as well as the privilege. you should only on a home that you can afford. there is a lot of upkeep to that home that many people don't realize and instead of -- at the government is in a financial crisis and on the verge of bankruptcy. in fact we are the 800-pound gorilla in the room when we talk about greece. the only way the united states is going to return to solvency, returned to what people are accustomed to, the prosperity that we once had, to mecca people must get their financial financial -- in order. >> new chapter. >> new chapter publishing is out of sarasota florida. chris engelman is my editor.

this is important. sometimes we invest so much in our opinions in our views we don't even realize when we are biased. i really wanted a local editor. i do not want a conservative editor. i didn't want someone -- i wanted to be challenge. i wanted somebody to make me defend what i believed him because i was rethinking everything in my life. iowa chapter publishing and in fact larry klayman who used to be with judicial watch made the introduction and chris engelman knew about it and when i told him the kind of book i wanted to write, reawakening virtues he said it can be a clinical book. you can't just beat up on democrats. he said i don't know if you can do that. i don't know if you can be fair. i must tell you i didn't realize what a challenge it was for me to really think about the opinions i had, the criticism i had and how -- i did not hold

them is accountable. so the first eight months i was wrestling with myself to get into the integrity and virtue of writing and not its book where people could see this is fair, this is just and this is honest and this is valid. chris engelman at new chapter publishing was a blessing to me because he reawakened my writing to be fair to both sides, not by understanding. >> about hardy for armstrong williams, really getting virtues restoring what makes america great is his latest. enjoy your party mr. williams. >> kanye -- thank you. how are you doing? ron, how are you doing? you made it. boca my god, ron how are you doing? oh my god. i was on line. i was reading ron's column. it was a story about juan

williams. i was reading it because what happens sometimes, when you write, i get stuck reading things and i kept reading and reading. i never knew that story. i said my god, i have to invite into my book party. i sent him an e-mail and he never responded so there he is. it is hard to find the time and then you are always agonizing. will people read you and is the right for the times? you have to let all of that go. >> i started two years ago. >> no child left behind. there were so much i wanted to say but then i realized in order to reclaim virtues you start to reclaim yourself. you will get lost. once i had a premonition, know it is within you, you have to reclaim your virtue and when she reclaim your virtue than you then you can start living again.

this is more evander. >> hihi, morty. how are you? >> how are you doing? >> he is doing well. even the people that don't like you like the book. i have to say that. [laughter] >> i stayed away from politics. i strictly in dealing with virtue, financial virtues of capitalism, savings. do you know ron kessler? he is the managing editor. >> where do you live? >> i am new york so i will be at the new york party as well. >> how do you know clive? >> he is my lawyer. he is a good guide. >> he called to tell me, be on the lookout, he is coming. i said what is the name? i'm trying to walk around here. what brings you to d.c.? >> we are meeting up with -- we

are kicking off a art collection. >> and art collection? you should talk to mr. bender, our host. he is huge into art. in fact, that was his our deal. he is in jail. it is a small world, isn't it? that is right. that is exactly right. last week testified against the woman who managed it and she was selling the art. i read that. yeah. >> we were just meeting up with some friends and clients and i just wanted to be down here. >> i thank you. keep telling me that. i want to sign the book soon so everyone can get a copy. we have to make sure everyone gets a copy of the book. and you need to read the book. yeah, you have got to read the

book. this kicks off the book party and then it goes from there. i enjoy it but let me tell you the book party -- macbooks have changed so much since my first book in 1995. the publisher would do everything. they would set up the book parties. they would set up the media interviews. they would fly over -- fly you all are for the country. basically now it is a partnership. they will publish the book and one chapter is about publishing. there is so much you have to do in terms of the book. publishing is not what it used to be. i'm so glad first of all this is the first book i've written in 16 years. i'm not like people who can turn out a book a year. i wrote about no child left behind in 2004 and i wanted to wait for my own virtues. that that is what started with. you can talk about writing a book. that is the easiest thing but actually getting it done is just

a huge undertaking. it really is. >> i would like to thank all of you for coming to our house tonight. dr. ben carson and his wife candy, and my husband morty and i, are happy to have you in our home tonight for our friend, armstrong williams' book signing. we met armstrong a number of years ago at then alphonso jackson's and alphonso jackson was a secretary of housing at the time. we became instant friends and still are great friends today. armstrong gave me his book two months ago. i read it. i feel that it is philosophical. it is his biography. i have some issues with some of

his comments. [laughter] i won't elaborate on any of those, but the important thing, what made me realize that he had something very important to say, and that is we have a really great country, and we really were great. we really are grades. but our accomplice broke somewhere along the line. and it needs to get fixed. it needs to get fixed both politically -- it needs to get fixed with friends and most importantly with family. i was telling armstrong today that it makes me very sad to realize how many kids today are in families that the mothers are working because they have to work. when i grew up, the only mothers that works for those that were professional doctors or lawyers and nurses.

no one else worked, but kids today, their mothers have to work to put food on the table. the other thing is, those that are well-educated because their mothers said to work, wanted to work and did not want to stay at home. these kids are struggling for their identities, and it is a whole generation that is being lost. and i think armstrong's book touches on that. you may not agree with everything in it, but you will agree that we are a great country and we have lost our compass and we need to get it back. families need to get back to being families. so, armstrong would you like to say something? [applause] my cohost, dr. ben carson and candy, excuse me for not introducing you.

and you will introduce. >> armstrong. first of all i thank everybody for coming out for this occasion. armstrong has been working on this look for a wild and it has been very exciting project. as you probably know he this was not his first endeavor in the book realm. beyond blame and letters to young victims has also been excellent publication. armstrong and i had an opportunity to talk several times and we frequently when i'm driving into work, discussing the issues of the day, what is going on, and you know, most of the time he is right and the other times he disagrees with me. [laughter]

but you know, a book about virtues is so timely at a time in which we live right now, because people have a tendency to do things you know and to manipulate situations for their own gains or political gain as opposed to doing things that are right and it seems to be a part of being an american that has been lost. in 18311 alexis de tocqueville came to america to look at what was going on here, because the europeans were just flabbergasted with how this nation, which was barely 50 years old, was already competing with europe, and they said that is impossible. and so we have got to go over and find out what is going on. but in the process of looking at our government, they also said let's look at the schools. and they were absolutely blown

away when they saw what was going on in the schools in this country. first of all anybody finishing the second grade was completely literate. you could go out in the mountains and find somebody and they could read and they knew all kinds of amazing things. anybody finishing the fifth or sixth grade was like a college graduate today. infected you want to be amazed go look at a fifth or sixth grade exit ramp from the 1800's. i doubt most college graduates today could pass it. but not only was there a high economic standard but in the schools, they taught the children values. and, one of our founding fathers said, if you educated person without teaching them values, you are creating a menace to society. and i think we have seen many examples of that in our society today. and i think this book that armstrong has written really addresses that issue on many

many levels. it is an extraordinarily important for the time in which we live, and i'm extremely proud of this man, armstrong williams. thank you. [applause] >> this is an awkward place for me but i will make the most of it. i'm not accustomed to being high and looking low. i will do my best. you know, i want to thank grace bender and morty bender for opening up their home and their hearts to host this book hardy. and, i want to thank the carson's, dr. carson and candy, for making time to be a part of this. because you know, in washingtong

scene, but the vendors are really good friends of mine. their son, j.d., has been our producer for the radio show for the last three years and you call the office and you care that the young voice. there is a real relationship air and the carson's, murray and ross and all of them at some point stayed with me over the last few years. we built a real relationship. it is very difficult in life to build real relationships to really get to know people. how we make it work with dr. carson and candy, every morning at 6:30 a.m. we are on the phone. 6:30 a.m. every morning. that is easy for me because every morning at 4:30 a.m. i am on the phone with my mother and my brother and my sisters. that has been going on for at least 50 years. no matter whether i'm out of the

country or not i talked to my mother every day seven days a week between 4:30 a.m. and 4:45 p.m.. why? ecocide get to know who they are. sometimes you don't even know your own relatives. you are so disconnected with them and something happens you say oh my god i did not know that about my brother. i never have that issue. i'm in constant contact with them. that was part of my upbringing to communicate so it is very easy for me. it is nothing for me to call you at 5:00 a.m.. but that is how i operate and it is the only way i can talk about him. he is a surgeon and he is those gifted hands. i want to talk to him so i respect time, the virtue of time. but i want to get back to the book and some very dear people in the room. shirley days -- surely, please. shirley has been with me for 15 or 16 years. she is one of the main editors of my book.

really, just a blessing. where is murray carson, dr. carson's son? i had been writing this book from two years. where is murray? oh yes you are. he does not want you to see that hair but he is going to be seen today. he was very helpful with the book. he was very helpful with the editing process. these are the people. i don't go out and get professional writers. i get the best writers, the best editors and these are the people who work with me for the last three years on this book. to make the book possible. [laughter] i am always responsible for. i wanted you to meet the team of people who have made this work possible and you will see them all in the book. are wanted to thank them before the c-span audience. [applause] i will introduce my good friend

david smith and jane but i know they will not. just leave that alone, already well. colby is here. let me tell you this. everybody remembers no child left behind from 2004. and there is the dog. [laughter] i must have said something that awakened his virtues. [laughter] but anyhow, 2004 with no child left behind, there was a very tumultuous, not just a tumultuous year in my life -- oh my god. [laughter] angela, you have to follow the spirit of the dog. the dog is trying to sell us something. anyhow, obviously i had my moment in the valley with no child left behind and i was trying to figure out because i lost my way of life, lost 80% of my business but what was interesting, never lost any of my friends.

never did. my friends really dug in and hung in there with me and you find out who your friends are. it never happened with me. come all and i have known each other for 30 years. we were in real estate class together. we got her real estate license together and my pastor frank tucker that i could always go to. my relationships never change. when your relationships never change, says a lot about you come about what you are invested in. in life, because i've lost my way of life and lost a lot of money, lost my credibility and i also understand it doesn't matter how many books i read or how many columns i write, people always believe i have no credibility because i've sold myself out to write about no child left behind without exposing it. the good thing about life, no matter how much god gives you, no matter how much he restore yourself to a better place, you still have to pay the price for your shortcomings.

that never goes away. that is a price i will always have to pay so the lesson in life just because you are forgiven you never stop paying for your sins in your shortcomings. don't ever forget that. that will always be a mark in my history but do you know what? it's okay because life goes on. you just have to keep living and you have to get up in the morning and hold your head up high. you can't worry about what people say. you have to keep going. hewitt just got to get in it one cinder block at a time. you have to keep holding. so i realized in reawakening virtues, you know we are -- i used to be so busy writing but everybody else is virtues and everybody else's problems and it is so easy to write about somebody else but i woke up one morning and something reawakened in me. i can't even tell you what it was. it let me know that everything was going to be alright but when i realize i had to do was reawakened my own virtues, my virtues of truth and honesty, my

virtues of integrity, my virtue of -- virtue starts with an. if you work on yourself, the hardest work you will do 24 hours a day is working on yourself. that is the hardest work in the world, working on yourself and trying to be good as being good is not easy. it is a very difficult process. is much easier for you to put a problem on somebody else and not look at yourself. do you want to hear what i learned? the the more i worked on my sofa bed of the world around me becomes. it starts with you. so i did not want to write a political book. i do not want to write a book that bashes democrats. i was tired of that. i wanted to write a book about virtue because virtues are not black-and-white. they are not liberal or republican. virtues are universal truths and so we found this publisher, new chapter publishing out of sarasota florida and chris engelman. i wanted a liberal editor.

i sought him out and i must tell you, i never realized just how biased and how locked down i was in my political ideology that i could not even tell you what the truth was unless it were a republican or must it was conservative. it to meet years -- eight months just to work out i own issues and being fair. this is what happens to us. we get so bogged down in a democratic and republican that we fight so much and we have no idea what it takes to get to the truth. it took me almost a year to get to the things i thought i could never see. they made me see the light. ..

>> they don't bring any revenues in the household, so they're all little debt, all little corporate debts that you have. >> major debts. >> oh, yes. major debts. and what you have to do is sit down with your spouse and set a budget because you realize no income will be generated by those -- and guess what? they will be with you for almost 18 years that you've got to calculate that debt. but imagine you have that debt, that debt continues to come, and you keep spending more than you have while you make $150,000 together, you're spending $250,000 a year. and then you say to somebody, god, i'm just overleveraged. i need to go to someone to increase my debt ceiling. can i get an additional $500,000 to work with? i know the interest rate is high, i'm going to pay it off. but imagine that accumulates

over 10 or 15 years. imagine what's going to happen. you're going to go bankrupt. you can't pay it. you're going to lose your home, your way of life. it's going to impact everything, especially your kids. so americans are living beyond their means. they don't want to sacrifice, well, i want to get this ice cream cone. no, maybe i should sacrifice that ice cream cone, it's just that simple. maybe i don't need to go to europe, maybe i should go to a farm. maybe i should do something different. we're not willing to sacrifice. easy for me to sit and criticize the people in the white house and in congress, but it reflects who we are. and money and materialism has replaced god in our lives. we've got to get back to the virtue of the sabbath. and what do i mean when i say the virtue of the sabbath which is in my book? we've got to find the time to be alone with god. we find the time to be alone with our money, with our toys, but we've got to find time to get back to be alone with our creator so we can redefine who

we are. get back to the essence of what once made america great. virtue. honesty, hard work. we don't need the government to tell us to be charitable. we don't need the government to tell us -- we know how to take care of our neighbors. and people, you know, they bash the rich. it's not the issue about the rich. and i believe the rich, they give. they have, they give. the issue is that there are 40% of the people in this country that don't pay taxes. and so the other 53% is carrying that 47%. i believe in virtues that everybody should pay the same. it should be 10% across the board. everybody should have skin in the game. that's not black or white, it's just the way it is. and the problem is not everybody is pulling their weight in this country. and there's got to be shared sacrifice. everybody must suffer in this economy. everybody. no one will be left unscathed. as we go through these very tough times. but you've got to make the

sacrifices. whether it's entitlement programs, whatever it is. whether it's the pentagon, whether it's the wasteful spending in congress. and they're all the same. they're like drunken sailors who just keep kicking the bucket to the next party. and we, and your generation, our children, will be the ultimate ones to pay the price for it. we have got to get ourselves out of debt. and you cannot spend, you cannot increase the deficit from 10 trillion to 15 trillion over two and a half years, you just can't do it. you can't live that way. and then the problem is foreign countries own our debt. look in your own home. if, and i believe this because i -- if government managed it household the way you manage yours, i think america would be a better place. we've got to get back to the virtues of capitalism and saving. and what do i mean by saving? it's a great method that my mother taught me. when the bill would come in, my mother would pay it immediately. my parents would always say just because you make money here, you may make a lot of money this

year, there maybe a drought next year. put something aside. you can't spend like every day is going to be a blessing because all you've got to do is go back to the virtues of the bible and the stories of people who have and became the have nots. you never know when your storm is going to hit. you never know when you're going to have a medical crisis or a crisis with your children. and then the other thing is as we talk about, um, the crisis, it's not the end of the world. you know, my crisis may have been no child left behind, and, you know, for all practical purposes not only did i survive it, god has blessed me tenfold over. i can't tell you why. there are a lot of people who serve god and believe like i do. everybody's different. not everybody wants the same thing. while we may be created equal, we don't make the same choices. either you pay a price for your choice -- there's a price you pay when you don't have a father in the household. and it's not a criticism of women, but children are much

better when they have a mother and a father. and if you don't, if you think a father is a luxury today, you're kidding yourself. i could not be the man i am today if it were not for my father. for us to believe that you don't need a father in the household is lunacy. and what we begin to believe is to tell us what we don't need and the virtues of motherhood. we get back to the virtues of motherhood. the things that brought me to the precipice of success, but then i lost that. and i realize if i just get back simple things; hard work, discipline, sacrifice, respecting time. so anybody in this room will tell you if you have an appointment with me at 12:00, i will be there at 11:45 a.m. because i respect time. that's just the way i operate. you've got to respect time because it's the one thing you cannot get back. you can never get time back no matter how hard you try. you have to respect the virtue of time. i really encourage you to read the book because the book is not about me.

it's about what works. from the beginning of time, more absolutes, i don't care what anybody tells you, will always be absolutes. and whether you believe it or not, we all have some kind of struggle. somebody may be struggling with breast cearns. when you struggle with diseases, terminal diseases, you learn things about yourself that you never knew before. you learn how to fight to live. it may be a financial crisis. but everybody faces a crisis. but a crisis is a blessing because you really learn who you are when you're in the fire, when you're tried by fire. what rupert murdoch is going through, the bottom line is it will test his character in a way it has never been tested before, and we will tell you -- and you will see whether or not the phoenix will rise out of the ashes. i think about my friend, david smith, what he went through with sinclair broadcast, came back better than ever. the talent will always rise to the top. no matter where we are in the world, we will always rise to

the top. and you've got to look at the virtue and the value of you and realize from which your strength comes from. it doesn't come from your dollar. it doesn't come from your marriage. it comes from the deeds that you do when nobody else is looking and the moral choices that you make every day to make your life better which, ultimately, make the lives better around you. i want to thank you for coming, i want everybody to go out briefly in the heat because i want to -- and thanks to the benders and the carsons. they wouldn't dare allow you to buy a book today. they said, there's no way. they paid for the books themselves. dr. carson, marty and grace, the books are all paid for, okay? [applause] yes. and i'm grateful. [laughter] let me tell you, i'm grateful. but i want to thank you for coming. but reawaken your virtues, you've got to reawaken the virtues in you, you know? no matter how blessed you are, no matter how fortunate you are, you can spend 20 years building something, and you can lose it in a flash.

and the last thing i want to say is the virtue of friendship and relationships. you've got to take care of your relationships. not when you want something, not when you need something. you've got to take care of your relationships. and if there's one thing i think i do a very good job at with my relationships because they're very important to me. my relationships. i think i picked up the phone and called 70% of the people in this room because i really wanted you to be here. it was really important to us that you come because we want to not just reawaken the virtues in this room, but we need to reawaken the virtues of this nation and get back, get this country back on the track of financial solvency, get rid of these crazy issues like race and class. because you know what? we're all gonna die. and when you're on your death bed, the last thing you're going to be thinking about is your empire, how much money you have. you're going to be trying to save your soul. i remember as a child, and i'll close with this. one of the things i really was always with me as a child, my parents were so obsessed with

this thing called heaven. they really believed that there was a heaven. they really believed that there was a life beyond earth. they used to tell me there's no more sickness, there's no more sorrow, there's no more sadness, there's no more hurt, there's nothing but joy. now, as a child, you imagine there's a place like that, does it really exist? and even though my father passed away and be on his death bed he was talking about this city called heaven. he said, boy, you know how you've got to get there, you've got to live right, you've got to do good, you've got to be honest, you've got to have integrity. even when it's not to your benefit, even when it means you lose. so for me as a gambling man -- and i take risks. as a gambling man, what do i have to lose that there a place called heaven, there's a place where i have no more problems. can you imagine that? no more problems in the world. i can't lose on that bet. so my ultimate bet is in life no

matter what i do in the back of my mind, i've got to work on armstrong today because i really think mama was on to something. even if i'm wrong, i don't lose. so i've got to work on this place, that city. that bright light. you know, everybody talks about it, but as a child, that was my obsession, trying to get to that city called heaven. and to get to that city, there's a certain way you have toly. and there's a certain way tough give. there's a certain way you have to conduct yourself. and if we get back to having a goal, not just the lofted goals of materialism on earth, but if you really believe that you can be free of all those things that you can live the rest of your life in peace, i don't know about you, but i want to get there. thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> pastor, pastor, you know, you're in this book. you know about that place called heaven, don't ya? it's true, isn't it? >> you got it right. you were doing a lot of preaching up there. [laughter] >> hey, jim, i was wondering where you were. come on, man, got to move this line. >> thanks again, really appreciate your remarks. >> thank you. somebody bring me a paper towel, please? >> i've got to say good-bye. >> i have to sign your book though. >> yes. >> let me sign your book. >> i'm not even going to tell you what he said. that's all you're going to say?

that's okay. [laughter] oh, stop, stop. >> all right. [inaudible conversations] [laughter] >> it'll be on the show this week, we look forward to it. >> i hope so. >> this was a book party for armstrong williams hosted in the bender home in washington d.c. visit his web site at right side wire.com. >> well, there's a new self-published book out on the market. it's written by richard toliver. who is that on the cover of this book? >> well, that's a young richard toliver. it's an air force fighter pilot of a few years ago, and that was taken during the time that i was fortunate to be involved in testing the f-15 aircraft. >> when was that? >> 1974 to 1976, to be exact.

>> why'd you write a book? >> well, after i had gone through life, retired from the air force, looked back over some 50 years, i realized that i'd had some very unique experiences in my life, and i'd met some very unique people. and all of them, the experiences and the people, made a significant difference as to who i was at that time. and so i decided with the encouragement of my family to write this story of those people who i called uncaged eagles, the people that were providentially placed in my life all along the way. now, i must admit i didn't know who they were, and i didn't know that that was actually taking place at the time. but when you get to be about 65 years old and you have the opportunity to look back, then you begin to see these things. and so i saw that there were a number of people that needed to be spoken of who made a difference in my life to cause

me to be who i am today. and i wanted to tell that story in the first person. >> who is one of those people? >> probably the first person was a little lady who owned a one-room store, and she gave me my first job and paid me $3 a week. on the other spectrum is a man by the name of ross perot, and he gave me an opportunity to work with him, and he paid me a few more dollars a week at that point. but in between there were people like jackie robinson, dr. martin luther king jr., there were tuskegee airmen that i became a part of as second generation, quote-unquote, and launched out into the air force. there were many people along the way. and during the struggles in my life there were always, there was always somebody there. and so i identify these people along the way. and later the uncaged eagles were, indeed, my late mother and

oldest sister, an older brother, a next door neighbor who gave me work or encouraged me. and then there were other people like many people in the air force that were officers, enlisted people and so on. >> where'd you come up with the term with the -- "uncaged eagle"? >> when i was young i heard a sermon from the reverend c.l. franklin who was the father of aretha franklin, and he told the story about an eagle that had been unwittingly trap inside a cage with chickens. i was about 13, and in a way it was me he was speaking to because i was an eagle inside, but i was trapped by my circumstances, and i wanted to get free. so i took it then, that metaphor became dick toliver, trapped by circumstances. and the circumstances were, in

fact, the chickens or the people that didn't know that there was an eagle inside of me or a burning desire to fly airplanes. and so i took that as my way of going forward and i was going to get free one day to, in fact, fly airplanes. >> mr. toliver, where'd you grow up, and what'd your parents do? >> at that time growing up i was in shreveport, louisiana. to be very candid, my father and mother's marriage had failed, and six children were left alone. my mother died young trying to raise those six children, and so it was not people of means or parents of great stature. but from that experience and from those who were providentially brought along into my life, it made it possible for me to go forward. >> now, you self-published this book. why and what was that experience like for you? >> well, during the air force i

had spent some 20 years being a developer of small business and entrepreneurship and so on. and when i wrote the book and realized that it was going to take an enormous effort to get it published, i set about using my business skills or experience at the time and said i think i can do this if i figure out what it is that we need to do. and so i did, and i was able to establish a publishing team and then put together the book following the examples of the great publishers out there. i wanted to be able to put a book out there that would, indeed, look like a great publisher had done it and make sure that the story was there, the possible -- and the processes were there, and i was able to do that. >> forward by ross perot. >> yes. raz perot -- ross perot is a great american that i happen to

know. i was recruited by the ross perot organization back in the '90s when he was putting together united we stand america and later the reform party. and when i met ross, we both realized that we shared a common interest in our country, our god, our families and so on, and we struck up not only a professional relationship, but a personal relationship. and so when i got ready to write the book, actually, i made a visit with ross and said i want to talk about ross perot in the book, and i want to talk about him as i know him, not as the people know him or the media knows him. and i want to tell it as ross perot, up close and personal. he gave me permission to do that, and i told at least a few stories in the book about ross and his great my an droppic work -- my an droppic work and his contributions to the country. and because of that i had another visit with him and said, do you want to take a look at

this and give consideration to endorsing it? and he did, thus, the forward. >> richard toliver, if people are interested in getting this book, where can they go? >> well, i have a web site now that's only available to people that get a book. it's www.anuncagedeagle.com, just as it says. that's the way they can get the book right now. or they can contact my publishing company at phone number 623-340-5768 or, peter, they might contact you and then you, in turn, get the word to me, and i'll see that they get a book. >> author richard toliver. this is booktv on c-span2. >> when the deepwater horizon exploded on april 20th, 2010, 50 miles off the coast of louisiana, i was in houston with

a group of oil activists or, actually, not activists is the wrong word, a group of people who lived in oil-impacted communities around the world; nigeria, angola, kaszikstan, alaska, california, texas, mississippi who had all come together in houston for chevron's annual shareholder meeting. and they came to explain to the shareholders what it means to live in a chevron-impacted community, a place where chevron operates. and while we were there it had been a couple of weeks during the course of our time there after the explosion happened, after the loss of life of 11 men, after the oil started flowing when we realized that this not only was this an enormous loss of life, not only was this an enormous disaster, but a really crushing reality to people like myself who had spent a significant amount of time setting the oil industry, who

had spent a significant amount of time being in places where oil operations take place. something dawned on all of us. the oil industry had absolutely no idea whatsoever what to do about a deepwater blowout. none at all. they had said they knew what to do, they had said that they planned to know what to do. the reality was that what they knew how to do is somewhat deal with a blowout at 400 feet. and for most of the time since really the 1970s, most deep, deepwater drilling meant drilling at 400 feet below the ocean's surface. this well ask what deepwater drilling -- and what deepwater drilling means now is drilling at 5,000 feet below the ocean surface. and that's just the ocean floor here at 5,000 feet below. this well was another 13,500 feet below that. actually, the first -- well, it isn't even anymore. wells slightly further out, not

even the deepest well anymore, is another well that's as far down as mount everest is up. and what we found out is that even though they had guaranteed to us that they knew what they were doing, they were trying to apply technology developed in the 1970s for 400-foot wells to a 5,000-foot well. and they didn't know what they were doing, and they weren't able to stop the gusher. and not only that, but they had guaranteed us that were there to be a blowout, and everybody knows that there can be a blowout because that's what you plan for, the gulf of mexico is one of the most difficult places to drill in the world. one of the reasons why is it's very sas crouse. a lot of gas there. it kicks. it makes drilling very difficult. and everybody knows this, and every plan that's written for drilling in the gulf is we can handle kicks, we can handle blowouts. well, blowouts have been

increasing in the gulf, the people on the rig knew this rig was having a difficult time. in fact, this was the second rig to try and drill this well. a previous rig had been kicked so hard that it was kicked right off of the well and had to go home. the deepwater horizon was a replacement. the deepwater horizon was $100 million over budget. it was many, many, many days off schedule, and the people on the rig knew that they were in trouble. and they knew that there could be a blowout. and the industry had promised that it could handle an oil spill were the worst to happen of 300,000 barrels of oil per day. what we found out is that likely at its worst this spill was 80,000 barrels a day, and yet they had no capacity whatsoever to deal with it. they did not have ships ready to contain the oil. they didn't have underwater vehicles ready to address the

blowout. they didn't have boon to protect the shore. they didn't have skimmers to skim it up. they hadn't prepared. and not only that, even though after the 1989 valdese disaster they had been committed to, responsible for, legally obligated to invest in research on what to do if they have an oil spill and prepare for it, they hadn't. none of them. we were using the exact same technology that utterly failed to clean up after the valdese where only 14% of the oil was cleaned up. today in response to this. now, to put this into scale, what happened because they didn't know what to do, and they spent three months walking around -- well, that's not fair. they were trying very hard. they sat around a table, they were trying very, very hard. there were scientists very hard at work, there were engineers very hard at work. they wanted to stop this gusher, but they couldn't for three long months. and what happened in the course of that three long months -- and that's just the time in which

the gusher was flowing, right? they finally did figure out how to put a cap on it, thank goodness. but they actually didn't, no one actually really felt secure that that well was choiced until five months later went something else happened, and that was the drilling of the relief well. because what the oil industry does know how to do very well is drill. but what they means is if we have another blowout, there's no reason to assume that a cap will just be able to be applied. because the only thing we're sure that worked was the relief well. so that means if there is another blowout, that what we should anticipate is five more months worth of oil. and what we know about the deepwater and, remember, this is new, going out this far. there's only 143 of these operations in the world. they've, basically, been going on for about 20 years at this depth, and they're pushing out this far because there's a lot of oil out there. so what we know about the deepwater is that when you have an accident, it's a long way to

go to get to it, and there's a lot of oil. and then put the amount of oil into context. we've all been hampered from being able to explain and really grasp, put into words the significance of this, of the size of the spill. and that's because we can't say the words that would make it that much more dramatic which is the largest oil spill in world history. but there's only one reason why we can't say that, and that's because saddam hussein intentionally in the most blatant way possible used oil as a weapon in 1991 and intentionally opened up oil pipes and tankers to attack american and british troops with oil in kuwait. and that, hands down, the largest oil spill in history because he did it intentionally. had that not happened, this would be hands down the largest oil spill in world history. 210 million gallons of oil were released. now, one thing we know for sure,

and when i started -- when this happened and we learned that it was going to be bigger than we thought and that the 11 men who died, the story wasn't going to end with them, and it wasn't going to end with their families, it was going to spread, and it was going to spread to all of the people across the five states who live around this, the ninth largest body of water. and it was going to effect the sea life, and it was going to effect everything that lives in the ocean. but the thing to know about the gulf coast is everything that lives in the ocean is part and parcel to everything that lives on the land. it's part and parcel to all of the people and their livelihoods and their being and their understanding of their community. and the effect on the sea is the effect on the people and the livelihoods in the communities of those people. and what i learned in going down in just the first couple of weeks, in the first couple of days that i was there was, one, this was a huge story; two, transparency was so difficult. getting information was so difficult from that first time i

went down. private security guards, police officers, sheriffs were keeping us off of beaches. you couldn't go look. you couldn't take pictures. you couldn't record the event. and one of the things that happened was controlling the story became very important, of course, to everyone involved. and one tool that bp utilized that was very powerful, because you saw the pictures, i hope you saw them in the beginning that john was showing. greenpeace took such important photographs of this event. not just the work that greenpeace did, but the photographs that capture it. and they are used throughout my book to try and make tangible in imagery the story of this event. but capturing those photographs became more and more difficult, and one reason why was because if you'll remember in the valdese, it was those photographs of the oil-soaked birds that really captured people's souls. ..