country, one of the largest oil reserves. produced in iran in terms of oil. strategically located between persia and arab countries. turkey, iran, or countries are all battling for influence now. >> do you foresee a normal relationship between iraq, where people could travel there, et cetera safely? >> there's still american business interests in iraq. it's on the second separate country. there's not a serious security threat. stay in a hotel, take a taxi. i flew commercial area. the rest of iraq who is better

than the war. i wouldn't travel there without security from the iraqi government for my own iraqi security. >> michael gordon covered the work for "the new york times" and "the endgame" is his newest book. this is booktv on c-span 2. >> up next, d.l. hughley in his thoughts on social issues of today. this is about half an hour. [applause] >> like to thank a couple people. obviously my wife, sister and children. thank you. [applause] [inaudible] thank you all for coming out.

it was a lot of fun and i think that i wrote a book that i'm proud of. i think we are now in a place for as a country, all of us know we don't think clearly about make a lot of decisions. whatever book i'm proud of and i hope it makes you laugh or is that these worth your read. so thank you. i do know what happens now. i feel like i'm in a cherry. he did it. i honestly can't thank you enough. if we had more teachers like you, obviously you don't want me to be the guy says that, but if we had more teachers like you

invested in children, we'd be a lot better nation. caught mark re: imac advair mark [laughter] >> what do we do now? >> do you want to chat a little? take a couple questions? >> originally the conception of the book is reading about martin luther and how he wrote his manifesto and it basically challenged the catholic church and originally that was the thought of the book, but of course nobody wants to hear a black eye right about martin

luther in the 1600s, so it morphed into just a look at how comedically i've been in every part of this country and i don't think there's a state i haven't been to. i think i've noticed a palpable change in not only just as a culture, but even interacting interpol truly, the thing we expect as i remember when i was growing up, and others to save the world doesn't go you anything and now we have children who believe they are entitled. i think we all feel like that to a greater or lesser degree. vicious not the place we grew up regardless of the challenges we all face. i think there's a certain sense of pride. like my father swept plains and worked at a steel mill, but he was proud to do this job and he's still that man. i hope to instill that in my children. but we come from a nation of people who came from this places

all around the world and decided to take a stand here and we made this country really great and i think we are a descendent of people who won morris in the world of manufacturing and now we're stuck down, a nation that is facebook, so we can like all that. we just can't do it. i think it's a challenge to become what we know we are. and all of us want to be safe in all of this to be in a position where you don't have to challenge yourself. if we don't do something about what is happening in all of us know this internally, if we don't do something about what is happening around us, we certainly volpi where we were kubo be where we could be and that was motivation for the book. i see now more black men are in jail than were ever slaves. i see schools that fail. i see a nation.

i watch politicians say is the best labor force in the world that no one will hire. martin luther king would hire the china's workers and there's nothing wrong with that. but we can't even invest in deals with ourselves is a challenge. this book made me look at things more clearly i enjoyed doing it and i hope you all enjoyed reading it. and that's really all i have right now. >> should we take couple questions? >> sure. >> what did you get out of the writing of the book she didn't get out of performing in the stage for movies or tv? >> is the first time i'd ever

written some thing. usually when you write text or e-mail, you have to be careful of the way it's going to be perceived. if you write text come you can put lol behind it or a smiley face. i think the book was a process righteous kind of talk to myself and basically write a book that i made sure it was clear on. i was clear when i wrote the book and i really enjoyed the process much more. >> how long did it take? >> it took four months. i love comedy, but i couldn't imagine a process. this has been my most fulfilling thing. i love this more than anything. not more than you, baby. last night. >> questions

>> across the united states. any more experiences you can tell us about? >> we last went to qatar and that was the last overseas trip that i took. they landed in qatar. i've never flown a plane that was slowed -- i. don't know if you've ever woken up to a person speaking arabic. i was like man come and take out the plane. [laughter] that's really all i thought. it was such a different culture. they had a think the second highest standard of living, or they started make in $200,000. picking a couple years ago got complaints from citizens that

they were paying too much in mortgage, so you pay the mortgages off. so they are very wealthy and at a certain point i got jealous because i remember he was a different -- i had been in an immersed in a culture that was so consumed. >> anymore questions here? >> hi. great to have you here. >> good to be here. >> i know you've heard this my times, but i loved your show on cnn that you had a few years ago. why did you decide to play the straight man? [inaudible]

who are putting a deal together for hbo and john kline was the president, john kline, the president of cnn. they said we'll put you on tv right now. i was overwhelmed because it was the first time i didn't know what i was supposed to be. and a precipice to be a news journalist. at some point i found out that i was just supposed to be in the end it was like landing in russia. it was a total culture shock, but i learned a lot about myself and i learned a lot i think about people and their consumption of news. it was fun that would shape the way i started to see things.

[inaudible conversations] >> no you don't. >> on the topic of wealth and qatar, do you think we have this level of wealth that americans would still have a thirst for learning? i feel like that is something that is missing from our society. >> there's never been a society more wealthy. there's also never been a generation less curious. i think we have been consumed. we used to make things. like i remember growing up, you know, iacocca had a slogan. now we make nothing but give you more. if you complain about something, like i once complained about delta airlines, they gave us free tickets. [laughter]

used to be able to complain about domino's used to be 30 minutes are free. there is a level of pride and i think that now, my mother used to say, in a new you had to work twice as hard to get how this fire. a set of guidelines that you understood and even though you felt like he was going to be hard, i think that now that's a respect death of culture. i think that we don't tell people what's expected of them. [inaudible] that was really what we heard. go shopping. there has to be a place where you're not just exceptional because of where your mother and father base. your exceptional because what you strive for.

watching the olympics, this is the first time going take graduation, but all those countries, a great deal the country had a health care system that they invent, like germany, japan, they went to the world powers. they lost the war, then they became economic and i think we can learn something. >> i know it's weird to hear -- [inaudible] >> i watched you navigate

through the various talk shows shows -- [inaudible] [inaudible] >> as he as he wrote this book, did you feel it was forced -- [inaudible] >> scheuer. don't think because i was up at about 10 of us have prepared. it's funny because i'll hear they don't like me because i'm -- [laughter] both say why they don't get dates in the db the reason as to why it happened. you can never explain somebody's definition. somebody with a use case or he's

back. i'll always be that that person on the comfortable with whatever definition people have. i have to be mature enough to accept the fact that's the way i'm seeing. i am not afraid to lose and i'm not afraid to win and i'm not afraid to be a hero and i'm not afraid to be a villain. it's a wonderful thing when the sound of your voice the commerce of something. so even when i'm scared, it's me i listen to. i'm not really afraid of someone's opinion. [applause] except you, baby, only you. >> what advice could you give to the youth of america? >> i think the best advice i've ever gotten from anybody was that you don't have to know

which you don't want. at some point you have to know what it is that your core that you are. i can't come from your parents or teachers or coaches. at some point there has to be something in it that you listen to to and that you trust because no matter where you go, you're always do. you have to be in tune with yourself enough that the sound of your voice comes as you. i think too many times that given the power to someone else to make us feel better to give us the way. that's kind of how i believe. >> i was actually listening to you and i noticed that you said that you are a high school dropout and you've amounted to where you're at today.

i'm actually a college dropout and never amounted to where i met today, which isn't necessarily a lot, but it something. but i'd like to think that that is not the system or the education system or any government system that got me there. i like to think that as much in your case, it was family and have a determination to be focused. but what do you think should be done in our education system, in our government system to try to free up that knowledge and make it look attractive for our people, for minorities to want to have that desire to want to learn the way out into want to learn how to be just as successful as those that they look up to? >> even writing the book and

reading and watching all the things that i watch, one of the things that has stuck with me since writing the book is that john lackey and brown men, young boys, they're not educated. they're not accepted in the educational system. part is cultural, party societal. but the dinosaur had the ice age and we have the education and technology age. in the dinosaur didn't make the adjustment is not hearing more. the black and brown male won't be here. the job we used to do, we can't do anymore. not the manufacturing base a lot. we have to make it safe for our children to be smart, to be respect so, to the individual because when i was a boy, i

wanted to be accepted so bad i lowered myself so i could see eye to eye. i will never allow that to happen again. i think when you look around you, if i can change the people around me, you have to be unafraid to be by yourself. sometimes sitting by yourself is the clearest you'll ever be. i think there is such a tendency to want to be accepted so bad, was wack, with school, what he said. do we love ourselves. people of all kind of information, but i saw men -- many of the city would do anything to take care of family. there is no such thing as i'm not going to do that. they would do anything in there or something in a woman who saw a man that would do anything for them, anything.

black, white, young, we lost that day and her people respect us. you could do whatever you wanted to, but a certain point he was going to do what they meant. i feel like what's happened is we that cowboys i.q. by yourself to figure it out. that is our failure and i think the only way that changes is the access education and then make it safe for boys to grow up. [applause] >> my father used to say that not making that choice is making a choice and just listening to talk about that makes me think about all the things that my father told me, like not making a choice as a choice. i recently talked for a friend of mine. he's 40, 45 years old and now he's just figuring out what he wants to do with his life. what do you think about that,

not making a choice or making a choice. it took them this long since college to figure out exactly what he wanted to do with his life. >> a sad thing is 90% of people never have that moment. as long as he does it before he closes his eyes. most of us plug-in and do what we've got to do, just always feeling empty because you can see that in people. i feel like it's the real thing that keeps them going. the only thing, and i know this sounds overly romantic, but the only thing that keeps you doing anything is you've got to love it when it doesn't like you. i think when you talk about a man who was amazed at what it's

going to take him to get up every morning as it will never matter to him. he's had 45 lassie years he was unfocused and i hope there's another 45 good ones where he is. >> high, the demographic from your book, i was doing some research on generation y, in the 80s and 90s. the largest generation in american history. do you think there's a tug-of-war between one generation and the other? [inaudible] >> exactly. i have nephews are not generation and have always been around then i noticed that education was something i was like okay, i may do it and they have someone around that always has had to keep them.

but when you look at other cities and exposure, exposure is important for young people and sometimes that doesn't happen and i think more and more parents should expose their kids early in life regardless of what race you are and i think that's important. i'm just trying to find out come your book was written for demographics, right? >> comedically i never cared -- or should they care, but never direct did msh, this book is the same thing. we can give ourselves permission. we can decide. i want to be a great standup. i fight for the world because of the things i say. that's obviously never going to happen, but everything i do is for today.

i think that it's okay to want to be greater than anyone you could. i just don't see that lighting people anymore. i see young cats and their lights out. they have no light in their eyes. a documentary will come out on comedy central. they put a young black man on the endangered species list. it's funny and sad and misguided thing i've done. the one thing that consistently talking to them if it wasn't that they were lost more than they didn't have a cool. they didn't believe anything. and that leaves, we can at least give some level of belief.

rbi mark [inaudible] [inaudible] [laughter] >> my favorite were? >> your favorite curse word. >> you know what my favorite curse word is. i think it's universal for a black man. it's motherfucker. [laughter] that doesn't even go there. i don't know why above it. but i remember practicing cursing in the mirror. not in your class.

by >> i don't think it gets any better than that. i think that's the best question. let's give a really big round of applause. >> who would like to hear from you. twitter.com/booktv. >> joining us again on booktv is underway and paul. his second book, government holies. senator, who are the bullies? >> director of government is 41 different agencies who carry firearms down the government. you say i don't mind the police or fbi. the department of agriculture has a s.w.a.t team. fish and wildlife has a s.w.a.t team. the official wildlife breeder gibson guitar with guns drawn, took all their computer equipment and didn't know for a year. but when a family to send, it is

breaking a foreign regulation, airline india they're accused of breaking in penalized for breaking a law in india. those are the stories we write about. >> how come we haven't heard about that before? >> some of them behind. when is the case of john and judy teller died selling in a little town in missouri. they were fined $90,000 for having the wrong permit. the government said you can pay on our website $90,000, but if you don't pay them 30 days canaille of us are that million dollars. this is the kind of stature government is doing to bully people and we frankly think it needs to stop. they do the same of confiscating peoples land were saying you can't build on it because it's a wetland come at another swatter on the land. >> as a senator, what can you do to change policy?

>> we've looked at some of these things and constructive legislation to set them. salon the wetlands, we say the clean water act since we can't discharge pollutants into navigable waters. your backyard is not inapplicable water and dirt is not a pollutant. so we've redefined the clean water act to make sure they're not putting people in prison for putting clean dirt in their backyard and that's what's been happening. a woman in southern mississippi got 84 months in federal prison without parole for putting clean dirt on her own land. >> senator, when you talk to your colleagues about these incidents, what do you hear? >> some are horrified, about eight to sign onto a cosponsor to fix it. the other 92, not sure what they're thinking about. ..

we're in danger of becoming a dinosaur if we dpobt figure what people want west coast, new england, great lakes they are sold blue. we're not going win den as a party. >> what do you think they. the. >> they are conservative they think we should balance our bucket we don't think we should be at war all the time. i think