tv Book TV CSPAN August 25, 2012 4:30pm-6:00pm EDT
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this is his book, "ignorance how it drives science," there is a website, ignorance.biology.columbia.edu. >> what are you reading this summer? booktvments to know. >> values to action by cramer, a professor at kellog school of business, the mba program there. wonderful book, recommend it highly. i just finished reading "currency wars," i can't remember the author, but about international economics and what's happening to us, and finally, i finished a book call "unaccountable" to be released in september written by marty mcquarey, one of the leading surgeons at johns hopkins hospital. >> for more information, visit
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booktv.org. [applause] >> first i think the business leaders for allowing me to share my vision in education. i also want to recognize some of the groups or organizations that i provide service and support, akaalpa kappa alpha, the urban league, and the urban league deal, and the national association for the mentally ill. thank you for being here. i am patricia pickles, author of
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"are you in a pickle," students performance and achievement gaps. i'm the first college garage watt from my -- -- graduate from my immediate family. i was tracked on the bases before i lived. i was tracked on the basis of what my parents did or do not do. i was trapped on the basis of my race. i'm extremely passionate about ensuring that every student and every classroom, and every school across america has an opportunity to be successful. , to have choices. how many of you have chirp in school? raise your hand. grandchildren? nieces?
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nephews? cows pes? [laughter] then education is your business. education is your business because a substantial amount of tax dollars go to public education. education is your business because we prepare workers. we prepare them for you. right know, almost half the students who go to higher education as well as the world of work are reported as not being ready for the real world. there is something to do about it, and that's why i'm here today, but i think first of all, we really need to recognize that educators have challenges in front of them. the foreclosure, the
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joblessness, we are in a recession. some say that we're headed back to sputnik era, and others say we're going back to the great depression. all of these factors impact education, but you know what? when you reconcile your books at the end of the month, when you balance your books, i bet you also feel the impact. in order to have a stronger economy, we have to have a strong education. strong education equals a stronger economy, and that impacts all of us. today, we'll talk about the challenges, and also what we can do about it. education is your business. facts we need to face. 30% of students drop out of school. 30%. the united states ranks number 10 in terms of industrialized
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nations in college completion. now, with more students being poor and with higher education as well as high school students not being prepared how does that impact us, and why is the dropout rate so high? is it because we're not really making school rigorous enough? are we not challenging students? maybe we're not making it relevant to the real world experiences. listen to this. just maybe, just maybe we're underestimating the value of relationships. now, when you ask secondary teachers what the problem is, what do you think they'll say? >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> okay.
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it is money. they are going to blame -- >> they usually blame the parents for the environment the child comes from. >> they are going to blame early childhood and elementary. that's what we do in education. how many educators are in the room? okay. we blame early chillhood and elementary educators. now, think about this, 46.2 million people classified as poor. 52% of adults 18 and over are not married. all right. early childhood elementary. who do you think they blame? [inaudible conversations] >> very good, the parents. they blame the parents. now, think about it. we do know that depending on
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socioeconomic level, students come to us at various levels. you see the big difference between the lower socioeconomic that toc versus the higher. these are the experiences students come with or either they don't. who do you think the parents blame? >> the school, add -- add min strags. >> i said 52% of adults 18 and over are not married. it's the father's fault. [laughter] and the gap persists. the same blame game. in the meantime, we're hurting.
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now education is the only provings that i -- profession that i know of other than politics where we blame one another. it's the rich versus the poor. it's white versus black. it's yellow versus brown. it's male versus female. the beat goes on with the same blame game. one thing that i am very proud to say is that i still consider myself a teacher, and i think many times we're forgetting what it feels like to be a teacher, and we're lacking in terms of provide support needed for success. failing to inimportant critical thinking skills, problem solving, skills students need in
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the real world in order to successful. performance can improved. these are some of the solutions of what i bring to the table is that i've actually been a teacher. i've been a principal. i've been a superintendent of schools. i'm proud to be say that i've never been somewhere that did not significantly improve. that's what i share in my book. the answer is list it, what it takes, everything from specific skills, tactics, and techniques to partnerships that really make a difference. before i go any further, one of the things i noticed that we do in education, we forget to ask
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>> no, darn it. well, it's not working here. >> do you have to be on the wifi? >> yeah, obviously. that's okay. [laughter] [inaudible conversations] you'll take my word for it, but you know what -- [laughter] there's nothing like hearing it from the students themselves because we forget to do that, and what the students say is that you aren't challenging them or allowing them to be creative. many educators today, we grew up
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with typewriters. they are using wifi. they are using technology. many say they never even have an opportunity to read a book through technology. why? maybe we are not providing the support and training that we need for the 21st century. we are trying to do things the way that we've always done it. in education, we are slow to change with all facts presented before you. >> i can get you on wifi, want me to? >> sure! with all the changes that you see, we're slow to change in education. we don't want to change. >> it's not a fast thing. >> okay. in terms of solutions, one of
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them is partnership, and as we look at partnership, most districts actually disguise partnerships as one way receiving as one way gifting. now, think about it, if we're in a recession, and with the large budget cuts and with the failing schools, why aren't we really looking at true partnership? when i say "true partnership" what would it look like integration with businesses? chill care? public schools? work force development? all coming together and providing children and families with full day child care at no expense to families. what would that mean? that means we have more students actually prepared for school.
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it would mean that we would have more families involved. with the new executive order that was signed, i expected to see more emphasis on partnership, and even though partnership with education is a noble thing to do, what's in it for you? what's in it for you? two-way partnerships, credibility and exposure. credibility on the website, credibility at meetings, word of mouth, news lerts, press releases. credibility and exposure means more traffic to your business. that's what true partnerships look like. right now, networking and the one way giving and receiving is
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not going to work in today's society, not with the real needs that we have. sometimes i think we forget how powerful words are and communication skills. words can make us laugh. words can make us cry. words can be healing. words can make us want to hurt someone. now, if you doubt what i'm saying, think about it, think about your favorite movie, when you go to the movie. what emotions come out? that's not even real. our students are real. the words that we use can either build or kill a relationship. common vocabulary, wouldn't it
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be powerful in every field and business you have your own vocabulary. i worked for the texas education agency, and i swear for the first month, nancy, i didn't know what they were saying. they were using all the achieved cro -- acronyms, and i just didn't get it, and then i realized when i talked to the kids one day, i couldn't understand what they were saying. i was like, oh, i've transferred over. okay. vocabulary we use, think about it. what are the most powerful words in your profession? right now, we focus on education. i've given you three answers. three answers. at your table, i want you to come up with another word that you think would be very powerful in education and problem solving so that regardless of what you put in front of a student, they'll know whatted to do about them because they know what the word means. okay, go. you have one minute.
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>> we came up with a word -- [inaudible] tell us how you apply this in the real world, what work does this do? how is this useful? how can we use this in the real world to apply it. >> good answer. >> [inaudible] >> okay. [laughter] >> we came up with think creatively. we didn't expound pop it quite like that. [laughter] >> okay, okay. >> they came up with resolve,
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led to option which led to process. they can break it apart and talk about it. >> very good. >> we came up with create similar to the other table and the whole implementation piece. don't just create it, but implement. don't talk about it, but be about it. how can we get to the next point, a to b and so on. >> okay. well, there you are. create, design, formulate. that came up quite a bit. these are the words that students need to know in order to be successful. think about it. they -- i'm not just talking about putting it in front of them. you parole even have another column where they put it in their own words. think about it. we're not only talking about words in the classroom and the
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school, but how could it become a school wide, district wide initiative where you use these words all the time. you have to create the environment for learning. i used what i call the pap model. ten years ago along with the no child left behind agent came this aggregation of data, breaking data down by race, gender, socioeconomic status, and in order to do that, you need a continuous learning model. you need to change the system so analyze, plan, teach, and support. you support in order to sustain the success. now, whatever business you're in, i assume that you also assess, amize, plan, and then you execute the plan. it's not that different in education.
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the global achievement gap, critical thinking and problem solving, if we did more of that, it wouldn't matter what assessment you put in front of a student because they're going to do well because they know how to think, how to solve problems, and those are the strategies they need to the real world. also curiosity, imagination, and creativity. we don't do enough of that, so who's going to make the next invention if we don't teach that in school and allow them the opportunity? my vision, again, is that every child in every classroom will be successful what i want you to do at this point is i want you to
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stand up. stop eating your dessert. [laughter] just stand up for a moment. you see, it's really not about me. it's about us because all of us together are better than any one of us alone. i just want you to think for a moment what do you have to offer? what can you contribute? we all have something that we can contribute. i'm going to start off, and then we're going to go around. i am dr. patricia pickles, the author of "are you in a pickle: lessons learned along the way students performance and achievement gaps," i share in the book what real partnerships should look like, what it takes to move students to high levels of learning. the techniques, tactics, and strategies are evidence based r
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and i share those with you. >> wow. [laughter] >> okay. i'm harland, and i have a number of years working in business, and i'm a business consultant. i can -- i think there are couple things i can share. i can share community cation skills. i saw on the slide here one of the things that you had up was oral and written communications, and i think i'm a pretty good communicator. the second thing that i could share with students and colleagues is i spent a lot of years interviewing people, and i could teach people how to get jobs.
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>> well, i'm nancy, and a volunteer with the league of women volters in the austin area. i helped bring together a community conversation about public education. there were business people in the room as well as educators as well as policymakers as well as parents, and people from all sectors in our community, and we were foe -- focused on what we can do to make education better, and that conversation is ongoing. >> i'm selina, a retired university educator. i have expertise in the assessment of learning and learning programs.
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>> jim walsh, a lawyer here in austin, and i have the opportunity to speak to educators either through the win word or spoken word every day, and influence them positively. >> i'm jan, background in health care and real estate. i can help students with a strong work ethic with the benefit of otherring -- helping others be successful and give back to the community. >> we support quite a few non-profits in town, and we provide free educational opportunities there for people to learn about the arts. >> i'm ted, and through my day job as a co-owner of a publishing community, we community kate with the school add minute straiter -- administrators in texas and
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beyond. as a parent of an 11-year-old, and a 15-year-old to a degree, i can every day -- [laughter] help each of them learn. i think that role is one that probably each of us can do to some degree. >> absolutely. >> i'm dr. linda wilkenson, and i worked in the corporate world, realize, and education, and i think i cannot -- i've lived in and out of both of the worlds all of this time, and i think it's very important to teach not only people in education, but children that they can grow up and basically, they can do anything that they want to if they have those skills to take with them to maneuver their way between different fields and areas that when one door closes,
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another opens and how to be resilient in these times. >> entrepreneurialism. >> good afternoon, i'm a retired educator with the texas education agency, and as parents, we are not preparing students or our children to compete in the global market, and i really would like to see our students major in science, math, technology, and engineering. also -- [laughter] >> sorry. as a retired educator, i prepared myself for a second career, and that's as an etiquette consul at that particular time. it's an area -- console tonight, and it's an area that's missing with children, professionals, they don't know how to put the best
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food forward and present themselves in a professional way. >> i'm mark. i've been in purchasing management for 30 years, and i guess the strength to give chirp is the art of negotiation, but not where you just beat the other guy, but where you do a win-win situation, where both sides win, and you both walk away from the table feeling good about the act that you or the goods or services you just negotiated. >> i'm eve, tutor second graders in reading. >> i'm ashley, a background in english and communications, and i can help young women and young men to use the lf of literature and the written word to build that creativity and that
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thoughtfulness into their life. >> i'm david. my background was four years at west point, seven years in the military, and i can offer chirp a good example in leadership and courage. >> i'm gary, and i take care of sales and marketing for a service company here in austin. what i end joy the most is working with startups. there's a lot of common sense issues working with startups, starting on the right path, and you know, the business plan, whatever, i think you can talk math, different subjects like that, bring that type of knowledge to students that they need to know from the early years on how it works and how it impacts the later years also. >> i'm gwen, a public accountant, mother of a high schooler and former pto president, and i can share involvement as well as being a former economically
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disadvantaged student, i can share my successes in the business world. >> i'm bill, first aid bank, central tex, local community bank, and as a community bankers, we are in the business of helping communities achieve goals and successes, and that's what we do. >> i'm dean bush miller with expanding security, and i teach five days a week to technology on line, and i try to challenge other instructors to be better by giving them new and creative ways to educate their students and push them to the next level. >> thank you. ..
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>> we are in a pickle. lessons learned along the way. student performance and achievement gaps. i will be outside, and if you have further questions, as a matter of fact, the floor is open for questions. >> say more about the culture that is required in school for maximum student success. >> talked about the vocabulary and the words that we use, i have talked about -- i call it power talk. it has been positive. it is watching what you say and monitoring what you say.
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in the book i give specific examples of language that we use now. i actually got the words from educators. real words that we use now versus what we could be using. every time we communicate, we are sending a message. it is more than reading and writing. it is about what we say and what we don't say. it is about your body language. the culture, it is rich, but you are also supportive of one another. you are results driven and you know how to get there. when you go to the doctor, one of the biggest myths about education that we don't share with parents is assessment versus testing. when you go to the doctor, what is the first thing he does? >> he asks you questions, take your temperature and your blood pressure. why does he do these things?
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for determination. that's right. our assessment versus teaching -- assessment is the diagnosis and teaching is remediation. all students can reach the benchmarks. we are talking about the highest score or standardized testing. we are talking about insurance. all students should be reaching benchmarks that are going to be necessary for them to be successful in the real world. the culture is supportive, the culture isn't successful. it is popular among some now to put down the teachers. but i think that we need professional development to support them. we need to walk through an ongoing basis and provide feedback. have you ever been with anyone
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you did not really care for? a teacher you did not have a relationship with? did you notice how hard is it to learn? all of that is a significant part of learning. i talk about good experiences with teachers versus one that is not so good right there in the same school. i talk about the impact of men. i always pride myself on getting students on the right page. there was one student that stands out in my mind, and i couldn't let him act out. and the other students thought that they could do it. and i don't care what i try, it wouldn't work.
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one day i called the gentleman at the ymca. his behavior totally changed. ever since then, i involved more men. i talk about how to get more men involved in education. right now, child can go through school and not even have a male teacher in elementary. that is an impact. we wonder why they act up and misbehave? maybe they are looking at education as being feminine. maybe we need to read more to them instead of playing ball. there are different ways of building that culture. >> [inaudible question] >> my question to you is this, if you had to do it all over again and be superintendent of schools all over again, how would you approach training for teachers? overall in the district so that this type of culture of
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involving parents and the community one and the other spouses, involving the business world and what we do in schools, it changes. what would you put in place? >> i actually did put professional development and place. it impacted the students. it wasn't just professional development. it impacted the students. let me give you an example. when we received test data -- what we usually do? we look at it right we are going deeper now. but have you ever thought what it would mean to sit with the student one-on-one on a small group. and i mean everyone in the
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school, whether it is the principal or the counselor or the librarian, they are taking part in this. that is how you develop a culture of learning, when they see that everyone is invested in them. it makes a difference. the one issue, and i didn't have a problem with it, but others do. when you bring schools to the exemplary level, and students are making significant achievement, whether as a super superintendent or a principle, my problem is -- i'm sorry, it's a challenge -- you cannot expect to have an exemplary school and then treat your teachers second class. i put myself on the line come and i will admit it. i will take them to the best
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restaurants. i would fly them to new york for cutting edge staff development. you cannot expect to yield extraordinary results and then treat them like they are not worth the investment. you have a question? >> i have two boys. one year old and one boy is a month or old. it seems to me that the state starts kindergarten at 45 your soul. by that time, it seems like there will be a giant gap in between a student whose parents have focused solely on them, reading, writing, singing to them come in and the other parent -- and they don't get to spend any time with their kids. what is your take on having
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something instilled earlier with smaller groups of that there it there is not such a gap to start off with. because when they do start off with that big gap, teachers have to teach down to those levels. the kids that had instrumental parents are not being challenged and learning as much. when you think about an earlier start time -- i know what will it won't be funded. >> i give you one example in terms of partnering for the early start time. no expense to parents, but it does take integrating services and comes together. there needs to be more professional development and training and opportunities for parents. there are techniques that they can use even if they don't have the time. for instance, they can label everything in the house. >> [inaudible question]
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>> i think it may go back to something that i heard of this table. find out what they care about. everyone needs someone to care about them. it only takes one person. it may not be the parents, but everybody needs someone who cares about them. and to make a difference. i remember a kindergartner, and he didn't seem to know his way home, but i found out he really didn't want to go home because his parents were alcoholics. you have to find out what they care about. you have to have an opportunity to mold and shape young minds. so they can participate in society. it also means knowing them as people and understanding the growth process. as a principle, i thought it was
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cute. i disciplined two little boys and they got in a fight over me. [laughter] now, i never forgot them. i didn't realize how much the students were doing for me. i never forgot them. when they were in third grade, i went back to see them, thinking that they were going to be all over me. by that time, you know how boys are. they weren't all over me. that was a lesson for me. i am pouring my heart out and they were like no, i don't think so. so it's making the connection and understanding. i would make home visits. i would even walk some of the students home did you find out so much. i found out that some parents -- it's not that they don't care. i didn't know his mother was in
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a wheelchair. these are things i found out. i remember in high school someone pulled me aside and said don't be saying that stuff and my friends. okay, i said it. it takes one person. just one person to believe. to believe in you. just one person. >> okay. [applause] >> is there a nonfiction author or book you would like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail at booktv@c-span.org oort tweaked us at twitter.com/booktv. >> what are you reading this summer? booktv wants to know. >> a couple of things. culture manic, by grant
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mccracken, he is academically trained anthropologist who is talking about the ways that people create new discussions and find value. he draws a line between things like twitter and fantasy football. it is a fascinating book if you are interested in weird and off-the-wall culture and how it changes the world. also roger williams. i am getting the title. a recent biography of robin williams. he founded the city of providence and charted rhode island. the first person in english to come up with the concept of a fully secular government. even though he was a devout baptist. roger williams and the creation of the american soul. these things have been so compelling to me that they interrupted my original summer reading, which was the hunger dreams trilogy. i have two sons, they were both into them, and i started reading them and they were a fantastic look at dystopian fiction that
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is a part of what goes on in america. it takes part in a country that gets rich by draining all the resources of every other part of the country and bringing it to the capital district. it sounds exactly like what is going on with washington dc. the washington metro area is growing and getting richer at the expense of everything around it. those on the top of my summer reading lists. >> for more information on this and other summer reading list, visit booktv.org. >> from the 19th annual eagle forum collegians leadership summit, brett decker talks aboua his book, "bowing to beijing: how barack obama is hastening america's decline and ushering a centurty of chinese domination." this is about half an hour.e >> it is great to be. you are all very fortunate to be here. the heritage foundation played a very important role when i was d student in providing
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information. it is a liberal campus like a fo lot of people, trying to fight n the culture war and the war on campus and the heritageasgoing foundation is one of those organizations that gave yeou the information they needed to combat what was going on. b also, it's a great pleasure tote be asked to be here by ally t mrs. schlafly who is a hero of the conservative movement. growing up, you really didn't have that many people. the i went to school in the 70s and 80s. you didn't have that many people to look up to have encouraged to combat the cultural tsunami that will wash over traditional america. it's a great pleasure to be here "bowing to beijing." the book came out last year.
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i spent four years in china.d before i went there, i had a typical, i would say,s conservative view of our idea relationship with beijing. gale. that was the idea that the u.s.h relationship with china is predicated on a big gamble. make the gamble is if we increase our relationship with china, trade with them more, they will eventually become more like us. f but if wree make them richer, automatically they will become freer. and as people inma china become- get more economic rights, they gain more rights -- that is a gamble of our society. myth one of the fetuses of my book in that that is not necessarily occurring. for one thing, there is a newr u china now. the middle class is growing,nd
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tha fantastically. things are getting better and that is more or less not true. thet' middle class, they are smaller than our middle class. they are government is not askn, dynamic as ours.s, you our government picks winners and losers. it's not based on individual afte initiative. you work hard and you pull y yourself up by your bootstraps, you can do anything you want. the communist party -- after the mask of tiananmen square, we have a lot of discontent in the country. what most people don't know when the tanks rolled in into tian an kinnaman square, we also had uprisings from hundreds of cities across china and everywherepr else. par the government moved in to suppress uprisings across the whole country. the congress party look in the
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mirror and said we have to do cn something to counter this. what they decided to do is the loosen up a little. continue economic liberalization. the idea to specifically increase the number of rich business people and thet middle class, but not to make a free society, but to co-opt the educated class.he the businessman and the business leaders, and the white-collar class, they all over where they are to the communist party and most of the members of the communist party. you are not going to have any friction between the entrepreneurs and businessif and owners and the party. they are essentially one and the same. if anybody bucked the system, they can just be plucked out and replaced with somebody else. of
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i guess the underlying crisis by address in the book, and on thee back of it, people think i am too little about this -- but the president is bowing. a picture of him.ftate it speaks a thousand words orbsh more.unist sate. he is the head of the state and the land of the free, and here he is in an active subservience to the head of the common stateh you have to look at the policie. that he is implementing and wants to implement and what that means for china and america's relationship in the world. i think you can look at several things. one is just the amountin of debb that president obama is stacking
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bu up.t, we are at the point where thatlh is about $15 trillione and growing. i did not check this morning. b, inich is roughly the size of an entire year of economic growth. everything is bought, produced, consumed, all the services of united states, which is by far the biggest economy of the world. our debt gobbles that out. com all of these programs that obama -- the stimulus programs, where does the money come from?b. we don't have it, so we have tot he money. one of the biggest lenders is e happy to give this money, and that is beijing red people don't think about that.ly to conti butnu eventually, there are consequences that are going to be embedded. you can't continue to be the who biggest most powerful nation in the world if you are the biggest debt in history country.
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you have to look at who you owes the money to. in china's case, i think you have to put a value proposition n, who these guys are. i mea this goes back to our original gamble. if we engage them -- i mean, the alternative is another questione if we can continue to engage them and make them richer andki. they are not becoming freer, f let's take apart exactly how ba. these people are to see how these policies are working. i will go through a few examples. there was tons of radio. one of the things that people haven't heard of before is how d china uses the judicial system to feed the black market for organ transplants in the wholer
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world. large medical care has advanced so there is a huge demand forhese transplant organs. where they get these organs is 0 -- the whole world can buy them, two years ago, executed about 700 prisoners worldwide.mate, this isn't anything against capital punishment, it is just that the numbers intotion perspective.al e china, amnesty international 000-7, estimates between 5000 and 10,000 prisoners. china is upwards to 10,000. as e this can be crimes as little as, a few years ago they executed a farmer who was chopping downb trees without a permit. they executed somebody for that.
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you don't have to be an axna. murderer at china to be put to death, and there is no appeal ob china. if you go to court for some of these crimes, and you areo sentenced to death, they just take you out in the backyard, neil you down, and put a bullet in the back of your head. don't get to say goodbye to your family, there is no appeal. it's all i over. where this gets particularlywhed scary, there is a bus to new york a few years ago where theya hadm representatives of the beijing government meeting with some americans andan some doctos who oppose organ transplants. f and they had these to representatives of china who had a priceless. we and it was how much different sg organs costs if you want to buy l g them.et it and it said we will shoot tot he
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order. you just tell us what you want and we will get it for you.showt investigations that have come out since then, it has been of w shown that prosecutors in chinaa and judges had a list of what is in particular demand at that time. if someone comes before court, the prosecutor andon the judge know what the economic incentive is to convict this person and sentenced him to death. that is one egregious example that is happening right now. another is this idea, you know, how benevolent is our engagement. are we just kidding ourselves? the 2008 beijing olympics are a great example. i was living ip-n hong kong with the people of "the wall street journal" at the time. and we were writing a great op-ed, but on a terrible
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would subject. beijing it was every time the look international olympic committeey would visit tran-eights, thevesn party would go crazy, making the place look like disney world.s n they put paper leaves on trees an winter to make it look happyr and not sad and depressing, which beijing is in the winter.e they spray-painted the grass green when it was dead. they do a lot of horrible things, too, for example, they would go around and round up all of the physically and mentally f handicapped adults and childrene and throw them in jail, because they didn't want anyone to see any sign of weakness in the chinese people. in some of these cases, there was a one case where an eight or 9-year-old boy did not come home from school.ee he was mentally retarded. p--parents were concerned and freaking out, honestly. three or four days later, they
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did one of these roundups -- three or fours' days later, then boy was dumped off on the parents porch. he p had been beaten up by the n police. he was young and horrible person who just beat up this poor little boy and dumped him on thr parent's house. own, "the wall street journal" published a story about this before beijing was approved for the olympics in for 2008. an the olympic committee knew abouw it. beijing won the olympics anyway. i think if you are looking for an anecdote about how serious ourre engagement is that they ae really trying to improve society over there.relatiohips a everyone likes to think theis a olympic games are about building a relationship and making the world better. right? i think this is a great example of how -- they didn't lose any
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sponsors, by the way. spends moneyote at sponsoring the olympic games even with that kind ofld information at hand. the p last anecdote, at least on the human rights issues, asand f everyone knows about, the one child per family policy where women are only allowed to have d one baby in their entire life. if they get pregnant a second te time, they are forced to have ao abortion and usually forced against their will to be sterilized by the state as well. what a lot of people don't know about the one child per family policy is that not only can you have one child, but you have toa do it on the government's schedule. the calendar -- you know, all these villages and cities, when all these women can getca pregnant. or allowed to get pregnant. you have to have a permit to have a baby. if a woman gets pregnant not on
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the government calendar -- so,et you don't have a child -- you fe get your one child, but that is in five years, the woman gets an pregnant before that, they will. still force you to have an abortion even though she hasn't had one baby yet. it might seem like a technicality, but it brings home how the policy is even worse than a lot of people now. up i think the other thing, and i k don't know if i'm bumping up against my time -- i was touch e on a couple things quickly. on the trade issue, one thing i, they cut everything you can cutt there. su, floy break every law, rule, regulation in the book, and that includes health relations. a lot of the products that comee here ensure it is a bit flawed.
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thousands of products that are back and have real consequences. what most people don't know, people think of two ways andr t electronics if you look at all the corners they cut on code violations, um, you know, the food and drug administration at our ports rejects more products from china than anywhere else. thomas jefferson hospitaln ofladelphia did a s they reject more productsower ce superseded or, you know, i think it falls back to, i think, which is a beautiful belief in our manifest destiny. but people tend to think that we're always going to be on top, and i think that makes us lazy
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where we don't have to do what it takes to stay on top. we're cutting our defense spending all the time. the current budget agreement was based on cuts, and if the cuts didn't happen, they'd automatically come out of defense. china increases their military budget double digits every year as we're cutting and investing highly in new ways, new-age weapons. and right now they have the largest military in the world. people think we do. we have roughly 1.4 million troops in uniform, and they have 2.3. so, um, if you look, i guess to wrap it up, we're receding, our unemployment's higher, debt's terrible, china's had double-digit, 10% growth for almost 20 years. we're not going to stay on top if we continue to recede and they continue to climb.
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and we have to change, you know, this is an important election year, and we need to start making some changes otherwise, um, we're going to be in a lot of trouble. thank you. >> thank you, brett. [applause] questions? yes, in front. you can stand, just -- speak loudly. >> thank you so much for being here this morning with us. i'm really interested when you were talking about how much debt china's buying from us now and bowing to beijing, aware of the future that china's projected to have and our alliances with them based on the economic standpoint. what is america's alternative to allying with beijing? >> right. that's the great question. i mean, and i think that's, when you get down to it, i think that's the, you know, "bowing to beijing" is mostly the red dragon's demagoguery book. it can have another part saying china might just blow up and collapse. i mean, you don't know what's
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going to happen. but i think the takeaway from it is that any of this isn't inevitable, it's just that our own policy positions are putting us in a vulnerable position. we're spending more than we have, so i think the answer is we need to tighten our belt, look in the mirror and get our act together, you know? and, you know, i think the lesson is, the financial lesson is, you know, we need to be responsible as a country again. and if we're not spending more than we have, then we don't have to borrow it from bad guys like the chinese communists. >> yes. >> my question was similar. but i would maybe have you expound on it. >> sure. >> other than the debt, because you talked a lot about human rights issues and such, what are other policy issues that you'd like to see changed, other policy directions in our policies towards china? >> well, you know, i think a lot of it is we just have to change
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our policies at home, and then it won't matter. i think the only reason china's a danger is because, um, you know, we don't have our act together. if we're smart, the only thing we're just going to look at china in the rearview mirror. but, you know, i think it's always risky to, i mean, i don't know how many strings attached you want to put on policies in general. um, but, i mean, i think, you know, defense policy, we bring chinese admirals and generals over here and basically show them everything. we take them to very sensitive areas. when we have new planes or submarine, we'll show their most senior leadership, you know, sensitive information that's, you know, and weaponry that's being developed. and this is supposed to be a, you know, officer exchange. you know, they take us over there and show our generals, like, their cafeteria and stuff
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like that, and we show them our new stealth fighters. i mean, i think in general america needs to be serious again, and i don't think we are. if you look at our debt and our defense policies, i think, um, it's just a -- i think we're getting a wake-up call, and we have an election. we need to address everything, basically, across the board. >> i'd like to ask you a question. um, i think your book's very important and very readable. how do you explain that our political candidates are simply not talking about china? i don't think they've read your book. i don't think they address it as an issue, and it is an important issue. >> yeah, that's a great question. i think the answer is kind of like the answer anytime anyone asks why something is or is not addressed in washington, it's all about money. so political candidates need a lot of money to run for office. a lot of that money comes from the businesses that have interests in china. so if you, if you speak out too
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much against china, you get a lot of pressure right away. so -- i don't think all of it is necessarily nefarious in that until i lived in china, i kind of believed that our only option was to engage them as well. and i think it's easy to think that. but i think it's just because in the west as people, as the economy is developed people got more, more rights and more freedom, it doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the world works that way. and the government in china has -- their gamble is we won't say anything to them, and by the time we realize this is a mistake that, you know, they'll be on top. but i think the real thing is just, the typical money in
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politics is part of it, and i think, um, i think we have the best is system in the world. so i think it's just people need to speak out more. it's amazing if you look at how many americans think china's a threat. it's something like 60%. so politicians who aren't talking about china, i guess, you know, they're not representing their constituents. >> well, if money is the answer to my question, money in politics, i guess that explains why the only one who really speaking out about china is donald trump. he doesn't need their money. >> yeah. he's -- [laughter] the donald's great on this issue. he actually sent me a note saying he loved the book. you know, a lot of times when people have the freedom to say what they want, they say the right things.
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and mr. trump definitely is saying a lot of it on china, and i think he's bringing up a lot of very important issues on other questions as far as mr. trump is talking about the need to sort of reestablish our manufacturing base. and it's one of the things when we, when you get everything from somewhere like china is that there is a little bit of myth on some of the free trade talk in that you make decisions as a country, and if you just look at the auto try, for -- auto indus, for example, and it's easy to bash detroit for losing money and making stupid decisions. but a lot of u.s. laws actually discriminate against american manufacturers to the benefit of foreigners, foreign companies. for example, the big three is all unionized and has to use all uaw workers, and all the owners'
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contracts and negotiations -- onerous contracts and negotiations that go with that. ford, for example, if they would try to break a uaw contract, you'd have nationwide strikes, it would cripple the company. companies cannot by law, they don't have the nuclear option like the unions do. so ford can't say we're going to fire everybody and hire scabs. i mean, they'd be out of business in a second. foreign companies don't have those restrictions. for example, mercedes, mercedes and bmw have factories in the south, korean and japanese companies have factories in the south, and thai not unionized. they don't have uaw labor. i mean, we have foreign companies that come to the united states sub factors, which i think is great, they're employing americans, but they have a better situation than american companies do on american soil. and i think there's something
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fundamentally messed up about that when foreign companies can produce the same product in america cheaper than american companies do. and those are policy decisions. so it's not just ha that american labor is more expensive and china's cheaper and that's why we have to buy all the junk from china. we've made policy decisions that have set that up
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you have this big disparity where i think the live birth for girls they have been doing that for decades in china. you have this fixed content ns mor disparity. you have millions and millions f of boys and girls. so i think you have a if someone wants to get married, there is no way to get married to them. i think you have a lot of social consequences for that. friends in southeast asia, theyt say they will just invade you.e
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but that is going to run into ao lot of problems. we have millions and millions of more of one sex than the other. something is going to give it is some point. but, i don't think that they will just because they have thi. lation of the problem of in a matter of resources. when you have that view, you are looking at how you can get rid of people and not how you can give them more r opportunity. ems >> my question relates to chinae and france -- more we talk about china being a threat, won't thes see us as being hostile, well,. negative consequences in the forms of, you know, trade wars
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yo eventually may be conflict? >> that is a good question. you know, i think they look at us and just laugh. nically speaky sort of superpower on the planet doing a full-blown bow to the president of china, and there's nothing -- i mean, you can't take that seriously. how can you take a country seriously that has a head of state that bows to, you know, people who call them an enemy or a competitor, a strategic competitor or a threat or whatever you want? he's a president of a communist state, and the president of the united states is bowing to him. i think, i think they're not worried about us at all when it comes down to it. i think they're more worried about their interim problems than they are about us -- their internal problems than they are about us getting our act together. >> um, i was just curious, obviously, the human rights issue over in china's important, but when we also have our own human rights problem here with
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the trafficsing of aborted baby parts, how are we to even care about china's problems at this current point? >> i mean, i think that's a great question too, and i think we need to lead by example. one thing is after 9/11, i was stationed overseas after everyone in, -- after 9/11, and the one thing i did learn that the world is anti-u.s., is totally garbage. i actually had a member of the pla, i was going over the border into mainland china, and this is the week or two after 9/11, a pen of the red army just came and said, you know, sorry for what happened to your country. you know, we all look up to america. but everywhere you go especially in poor countries, people, people love america and look to america and aspire to be more like america is. i think that's just a reminder
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that we need to be what people look up to us as being. and what we used to be we can be again, so when it comes to things like our own policies and abortion and all these horrible things, um, you know, we need to be the america that people think we are, and, you know, nobody can touch us if we have our act together, if we're doing the right things, if we're being an example to the world, if we're the shining city on a hill, we'll continue to be number one, and we'll be number one for a reason. not just because we're powerful, but because we're good. >> thank you. >> meghan mccain and michael ian black. [laughter] "america, you sexy bitch" is the
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name of the book. first of all tell me. >> i was a guest on a pilot shot and we met via satellite and then we followed twitter and he tweeted me one night asking me if i wanted to write a book and i said sure. >> i was having a lot ambient at the time. >> the look on your face. [laughter] >> "america, you sexy bitch," that pleases me to know and. >> it will be after midnight that we are this program. the way ms. mccain tells the story of how you two met, you asked her to co-author a book. >> it i talked to her over twitter that we write write about. >> and why did you agree? >> i had just gone through a really bad breakup. [laughter] sorry, it's really funny when i say it and a career thing did
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not work out. >> it was a moment of desperation. >> no i was like you know what, this is american politics with the popularity of "the daily show" and the "colbert report." legitimately i thought it was an interesting idea and i thought i would publicly get nor the time in my life to do something so fun and ridiculous and over-the-top and exciting and serious at the same time. >> so ably state, atheist liberal and a republican christian red state or got together. what is the tone of the book? >> i think it's surprisingly positive. before we embarked on this project when michael and i were having the initial discussion and we were e-mailing back and forth about the concept of the book, both of us knew about each other enough to know that we weren't really going to be nasty toward each other and take it personal although it happens a little bit in the book.
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this was a serious, we say social experiment from people from two different backgrounds. >> use a serious. >> being friends and discovering america in 2010. >> it's a romp through america. >> the true view got into an rv and just took off? >> yeah. >> we have the driver, cousin john who is a prominent character in the book and our manager, character and the book. the four of us in this rv driving through america talking to people. siu. >> we both are frustrated with the climate and the environment of american politics right now and when he was talking about writing a political book the way i started understanding america was being on the road. if we are going to do this we have to go on the road and we interviewed hundreds of people. we talked to hundreds of people and i think what fascinated us the most is americans are so
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positive even now. we are in a dark time in a dark procession but everybody still believes in america. there were some people that were negative but we have this feeling that we are in this together. we are in a recession and the really hard time and we thought if we could write a positive look that had a positive spin that yes we are in this together and it's hard on everyone and we are possibly more polarized than anyone but if the two of us can come together and write a book that we think although although championed over-the-top and perfectly reference talking about american politics in a really positive way can help land people because at the end of the days of book for people interested in politics. i've never been interested and -- i like people that are turned off from politics and don't want anything to do that. those are the people i want to get interested so what better way? >> isn't she great? she's amazing. you would never know that she was on the campaign trail for
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two years. it's amazing. i'm kind of blown away. >> michael ian black when you would watch meghan mccain interview people, what was the reaction especially to the last name? >> my initial reaction to meghan, thought here is a republican who to my liberal jaded mindless talking sense the way i feel republicans don't always do or sometimes don't do. let me be diplomatic, they are crazy. make and i thought of somebody who is sensible, speaks in a coherent way about issues that i think have relevance in a way that i can understand. i thought, if i was ever going to be buddies with a republican i would want to be buddies with her. the last thing to me was more run entrée. the last name was irrelevant ultimately. i met her dad. he does not care for me at all.
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[laughter] her mom and i get along famously. >> my mother and my brother who is over there and my other brother barely knows you but my father, he doesn't like the title. >> i got a lot of flack from senator mccain. >> i think now that he has read half of it, i think he understands that we speak to a different audience. i have always spoken to a different audience and i have sort have been accused of being brutally honest that i write as much to understand as to be understood and for me talking about my life and how i feel about american policy is always very cathartic and not to poe another person but i love maya angelou when she says we have more in common than we do a part and in this book, that is the basis of why we are doing this. is over-the-top and also very serious. >> michael ian black what was your favorite or most memorable stop in a red state?
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>> i fell in love with branson. >> both of those. >> branson to me was just the best. i thought i was going to roll into branson, i'm going to snorkel this place and make fun of this place and i'm going to hate this place. it could not have been more fun, warmer, more gregarious. we went to dolly parton's dixie stampede which i thought of go this is going to be ridiculous. i have never had more fun at a live theatrical experience. dustin hoffman and burtman a menace. dolly parton put dustin hoffman to shame. you have guys riding on horses, there is buffalo. they make dinners and you be with your hands. it is the finest theatrical experience i have ever had in my life. >> they could've been nicer to us. i am not joking, they were wonderful to us and they were so nice. >> did they tend to be
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republican? >> you would think. >> it's a dry county, i think. it's family-friendly, bible belt. we went to las vegas and had a racy r-rated experience but branson was family-friendly. i had a little bit of a crisis in branson missouri when i saw jacob smirnov perform. >> meghan mccain and experience are a blue state that you enjoyed or -- >> something i enjoyed? i had a really nice time in connecticut meaning his family. talking to his family and his friends about their perspectives prospective sent some of his family and friends were not republican made it very clear over to dinner. his friends were not like me but whatever but overall we had a
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great time. you know it's just interesting to have your world when you really have to face it up front, your stereotypes and the prejudices you may have. >> there is a stereotype the republicans are more fun than democrats and having spent time in the road with a lot of republicans i can absolutely confirm that that's true. republicans are a lot more fun. >> they have a good time and a lot different way than democrats do. >> have any of your views changed? >> no. >> oh, on. >> i had never fired a gun. meghan's brother taught me to shoot. i like that a lot. >> is your brother a marine? >> he is behind you. >> we had a great time. it wasn't really about changing mind so much as it was just trying to hear the other person's point of view without judgment and without prejudice, and i think it changed her mind more than you changed mind.
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>> i had my mind changed on quite a few different things. i mean, i don't know quite how to say this. marijuana legalization. when we went on the road it was the time we got a lot of people -- but we saw a lot of people who gave good reasons economically why it should be changed and the possible financial benefits. my opinion has been changed which is sort of the scary thing to admit because again ago so against a republican orthodoxy and i feel like it's one more thing conservatives are going to use against me. >> william f. buckley was a big supporter. >> yeah u.s. and possibly mario cuomo at this point. i'm sorry, yeah. but limburg? it's just, that was definitely
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in the book all the issues that i had that i finally really had a lot of time to discuss and we had a friend whose brother studies drugs. >> he studies the effects of hallucinogenic as a therapeutic for ptsd victims and made a pretty compelling case. >> that was something that really changed. >> why do all of garden? >> who doesn't love the olive garden? i love the olive garden. i be there all the time when i'm on the road. we both love fast food and chain hotels. that is the basis of our relationship. we both love looking to him, ian, red with and, olive garden and mcdonald's. burger king. we both love pringles and so do. we don't care about our health that much. >> who thought up the tidal? >> the title is meghan's. i take no credit for. >> where did you get inspired? >> we were touring the capital
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with one of my fathers and turns and he was showing us the statue of lady freedom in the congressional hall. he was saying as you can notice in sun never sets on freedom. i said america is one, that's when we all started laughing. it was a ridiculous thing to say. that is really funny. >> you are charmed, you are delighted. >> he doesn't know what to do. it c-span. >> i find a title charming. >> what is the goal michael ian black, what is the goal of this book? >> is really about getting people aren't necessarily into politics to start having a conversation. what do i want from my government? what do i care about? what do i believe in and to get people to start asking the questions. it's not for people who spend all day reading politico. is for people who just may be feel intimidated at those
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people. for people who care about their country but don't have a way to start talking about it. it mirrors my own i think political education. meghan i think is really fortunate to have come from a family that is obviously heavily involved and i was sort of a born democrat. the way i was a born but i never really expected any kind of thinking about it until i was older. once i started doing that and once i started thinking about why i believe what i believe or even if i think i believe what i believe all these questions so what it's about us having a good time and having people start to ask questions. >> yeah and again i feel like my past so far in politics has been a different audience, especially young people. i visit colleges literally all the time and many colleges, they are so disenchanted from
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politics right now and everything is so polarized. they don't want to be a part of it and they don't want to use their voice because why? i think it we can use humor to get a serious message across the think that's very powerful. >> meghan mccain, michael ian black. >> my first book was a children's book about my father and the second one was 30 politics. i know, the title, it was a memoir about my time in the campaign. >> also michael ian black your first book. my second one is called you are not doing it right. >> co-authors, coming out in the summer of 2012, "america, you sexy bitch" a love letter to freedom thank you for being on. >> thank you, thank you. >> what are you reading this summer? book tv wants to know. >> i'm
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