in july of 2002, helen thomas discussed her memoir "thanks for the memories, mr. president." 2013 marks booktv's 50th anniversary which debuted on september 12th, 1998. ..

to the humor of what presidents in that i've covered i told her that it was going to be a very thin book. [laughter] it is or maybe i've lost my sense of humor covering a gramm administration pleasantly, more conservative than ronald reagan that's possible. i guess since her 9/11 we are finding it difficult to smile again especially when you think of the saddest words of town in japan that it might have been a pity that we should have known more, connected to the box, more aware of the danger around us. it's easy to a monday morning quarterback hindsight 2020 vision and all that, but in picking up the pieces and to

seek the truth about the attacks if that's possible i guess i would like a little more soul-searching since revenge and retaliation won't even provide the answers were the solutions. but in a democracy we can make a try. winston churchill said democracy is the worst form of government except for all the letters that have been invented. [laughter] and i like that at least even some said even since then, democracy is great not only because the majority prevails but because it is safe to be in the minority. and what does that have to do with my book? nothing. i just like those quotes mainly

because i think that is what we are all about. freedom and tolerance. well we are facing the real world and the president that is shocked. [laughter] which didn't seem to faze him until world but many more than a few i think and many friends and heavy contributors are all in the mix for both republicans and democrats i will grant you. the president has tried to get on top of the situation and he did have a news conference devoted mostly to his sort of a warm-up before the speech on wall street but was apparently

disappointing even to his great supporters and they didn't applaud much but it has a new crackdown on the corporate fraud and i think it's all bewailing down saying who can we trust? the president said there was an only black-and-white in the corporate world but i thought that's the way that he looked at everything, when good evil, black and white, bright and long, did or alive. [laughter] it is all so simple. on other matters, bush had been told a news conference. actually he has only held to this year and he also condemned the israeli military occupation of the palestinian land which no

other president has done before. and the failure to determine the fate of bin laden who said terrorism isn't a question of one man. on the other is a question of one man when he thinks of iraq to the it would involve a projected to hundred 50,000 men on the drawing board then will talking about ousting one man while granted it may be a bone in his throat but any violation should be handled by the united nations, not the united states. [applause] which strangely enough, we are still involved in some treaties involving collective security also president bush has tried to tear up international attributes we have made with blood, sweat

and tears since world war ii. global warming, bioterrorism, weapons convention even the height of the anthrax epidemic so-called and of course when he scrapped the treaty to nuke the heavens it was the last sanctuary. other presidents have always proposed open skies. all i can say is crying the beloved country. i thought i would give you a thumbnail sketch of the presidents that were covered. first i would like to say some presidents like john f. kennedy, ronald reagan were filled with one-liners and is served them especially in tough times. it must have been there irish heritage and wasn't a legendary gift of gab.

lyndon johnson would have your ruling on the floor were devastating talent for imitating his trends and enemies. in his cruelty mo went ridiculing everyone will. they started to cover the white house and the john f. kennedy era, and i thought that he was inspired. he had his eyes on the stars and he did have that vision will. he learned from his mistakes to the cuban missile crisis. we survived it all were bomb. they obviously have a vision. he didn't live to see it but we did it with an electrifying defeat in space. he created the peace corps and signed the first nuclear test ban treaty. but when we asked on air force one what would happen if the

aircraft crashed? i know one thing, he said your name will be just a footnote. [laughter] during the 1960 campaign riding in an open car throughout the massachusetts passed the catholic church as kennedy spotted that his most ardent fans for the nuns who came out to see the motorcade passed by and with his aide sitting by asked him do you think they are going to vote for you? he said i don't know but i know the money is well. well, the world decried when he died. i think everyone had a sense of loss even though they didn't know him, a loss of hope and as for being a roman catholic which isn't as politically correct religion in that era were kennedy told the presbyterian

ministers at a houston meeting where catholicism was at stake he said when my brother got in during world war ii and flew his last an official mission over the english channel no one asked him what his religion was. lyndon johnson was a great president on domestic issues. he did usher in the great society. in its first two years in the highest office of the land he got through medicare which the truman first proposed the civil rights act, voting rights for blacks for the first time in the south where they didn't have to pay the tax or the u.s. constitution to get to register to vote. federal aid to education at all levels starting from head start to college. public housing who, national parks, in the environmental law, you name it but of course of

vietnam and like most presidents, john same did have a stable of speechwriters. once he asked about uncertain speech to be prepared and the speechwriter brought him the first draft and they looked at eight. voltaire, people i'm going to talk to don't know who that is. grab that can come scratch down and scribble in as my dear old daddy used to say -- [laughter] when johnson was pushing the civil rights act early on in his administration they came to him, from the senate came to him to protest. you didn't support these when you were the senate majority leader and you were a summer to the the johnsons reply was ayaan

president now, president of all the people. they knew everyman's price on capitol hill. they knew where the bodies were buried. any story you ever heard about johnson is true. plus richard nixon, the politician who always had to rhodes to go and always took the wrong road. in terms of his achievements he will be remembered for the break free trip in 1972 living to normal relations after a 20 year hiatus during diplomatically the same time he was a member of the china lobby that kept us from any relations for that number of years. but he's also the only president in history to be forced to resign because of his abuse of government power for political

ms. the watergate scandal. he promised to end the vietnam war on the campaign trail in 1968. four and a half years later we were still bombing hanoi. the dark side always prevailed. gerald ford restored confidence in the oval office and in the country after the loss of trust in government credibility in the aftermath of the nixon era. the long nightmare was over and he said if god created the old in six days it couldn't have rested. he would have to explain to helen thomas. [laughter] i remember going to a state fair with president ford when he was president and came out to woo -- i dared to get on it.

then came the car that reading you are a great president. you have a great future and so forth. i looked at it and i said they got the weight rahm, too. [laughter] your reference is the way we play this game. jimmy carter made it the centerpiece of the foreign policy. he took the first step to the peace in the middle east with the camp david accord. he was hurt by the iranian hostage crisis but it did bring them back alive. he is the best past president of modern times. humor, not much. but his mother supplied the laughs when she said sometimes when i look at my children i wish i had remained a virgin. [laughter] and i like what castaneda said.

she said i don't mind carter being born again but did he have to come back as himself? [laughter] and i remember interviewing ms. lillian, carper's mother in georgia in 1976. she was still fuming over the women correspondence who had the labor that the campaign promise never to lie and kept asking why does he really mean by that? finally he said do you why? i might tell a little white lie. what do you mean cracks and public suspiration she said do you remember when you came through that door and i told you how beautiful you looked? [laughter] well, that is a beautiful little white lie. ronald reagan turned the country to the right where it remains today. there was indeed a reagan revolution. he kept a sense of humor after the attempt telling his wife

nancy i forgot to duck and before the surgery, and a very close operation, he asked that all of them were republicans. [laughter] they thought the government was the least government but the top people didn't think so. they looked at the charge just like everyone else and he did begin the arms race with the former soviet union which was us all that broke the camel's back in the cold war no question. i remember going to moscow with president reagan when he was going to meet with mikhail gorbachev. suddenly the evil empire was no more and he knew that they laughed and cried and they were human. when we got back to washington i said mr. president, do you think maybe if you had gone to moscow ten years ago, 20 years ago he might have found out the

russians laughing and crying and they are human? nope, said the change. [laughter] george bush 41, george bush won best known for the persian gulf war victory the expertise in foreign affairs but when it came to the domestic policies they couldn't read his lips he used to invite my younger colleagues to go jogging with him. better him than me. i got invited to the dedication. [laughter] well, in comparison to his son, the sitting president, he could be called a moderate republican. bill clinton his heart was in the right place but he made terrible mistakes with his liaison tarnishing the white house, i'm sorry, tarnishing the oval office.

but he did balance the budget and he did bring on prosperity and he did create a surplus which has been used up for the war and he did seek world peace and he tried very hard work in ireland, the balkans, the middle east. when he was leaving of the white house all of the reporters of course wanted to interview him and we all had the pro forma questions what will your legacy de? will you write your memoir and so forth? i got my chance for about ten minutes when i was told if you get on air force one and flight in lansing michigan you will see him. i got a short interview with him but i think i did ask one prophetic question. i said to him mr. president, if you could take something from the white house that belongs to the american people -- [laughter] what would it be? i didn't know they were going to bring a u-haul. [laughter] but what would it be?

he said it would be the moon rock that sat on the table in the oval office bought back by neil armstrong, first man to step on the moon. he would point out that the moon rock was 3.6 billion-years-old and that is what we call perspective. george w. bush a work in progress he calls as of a compassionate conservative. the polls are stratospheric still in the aftermath of 9/11. but his on-the-job training as it is with most presidents he steered clear of the middle east for more than a year and is now paying the price. he has created a religious office in the white house breaking down the constitutional separation of church and state.

and he wants to privatize social security. even despite the debacle on wall street. he still has trouble with the english-language. reporters at the white house are being accused of rolling over and playing dead. and i have to admit there is an atmosphere to many of us of laying down on the job failing to question the policies that be and many are fearful of being depicted as unpatriotic. i think it is unpatriotic for those that are making arbitrary life-and-death decisions about our lives to the [applause] especially when we in the press are the only transmission belt to the people. we are the only institution in our society that can question a

president on a regular basis and hold them accountable. to detain thousands of dark skinned people and to never let -- and two in a prison them or even to designate americans as enemy, combatants, never let them see their families, contact a lawyer. what is this? to give the fbi access to e-mail to wiretap persons and to listen in on conversations between lawyers and their clients and to have the agents check library books for a patron less. what is this? and why has everyone will do over in the crash invasions of privacy. the only way for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing. despite this rant i still believe that we shall overcome and we will learn to fight again for our rights and and to fight

the enemy of course. we will understand that the only thing we have to appear is fear itself. asked not whom the bell tolls. it tolls for all of us. thank you. [applause] i just wanted to jump in and say if anybody can manage to get over the microphone its if you could ask microphones on the right and if not we will do the best we can to field them all. >> i have to apologize when jerry stuff dhaka and my agent by iain is going to help me field the questions if i can't hear them. >> what advice do you have one

for secretaries? what advice would you have for the press secretaries as far as the relationships with reporters and press secretaries? >> try to tell the truth. i know it is difficult at times and if you can't tell the truth, don't say anything. that goes from all phases of our lives. nixon and johnson have lost their credibility and therefore have no longer persuaded. so it is a big loss. it takes a long time for people to lose faith in a president but when the trust is gone it is gone forever.

what do you think the chance is for having a woman candidate for president? not just a candidate, but a woman president. >> i think that early in the century we are going to have a woman president peeving if i think that they are going to make a quantum leap. i think it is shocking that we only have about 70 women in the house out of the 435 or 13 women and a senate. that is a shame but i do think we will have a woman president. i think several are trying to get there now. if elected i will serve her. [applause] >> i'm not running. it's much better to have your nose against the windowpane.

what advice do you have for a new journalism student that has the career that you have? >> good question. go for it. never regret a moment of it. >> what the other profession gives you an education every day that you have to keep learning hon? you are a part of the world. you are engulfed by the world and you can do so much good by keeping people informed. for anyone that wants to go into the field, do it. when but i don't want to give up my spot. [laughter] >> it seems to me there has been a major shift in the way that the media covers the personal lives of president in the clinton era. can you comment on that and whether you think it is healthy and desirable? the question is the shift in the

way they cover over time. >> absolutely there has been a shift in the culture. we have had a revolution, we've had a major revolution in the way we lived since the 60's. no question about it. it's a no-holds-barred and commenting on it you can't change that. i think that so many things have changed our lives for women and for men. and it is a mainstream press when we decided to ignore a politician. i can assure you the tabloids would indeed we would have to jump on it. so, anyone who wants to go into public life certainty should decide at the age of five and a live accordingly. [laughter] anyone who because otherwise they should know the skeleton in their closet may or may not believe field. it is always that chance because we are involved in everybody's life to the its total exposure.

everyone is a lawyer and is on camera. >> you have been pretty tough on presidents as a reporter and interviewer. were you ever chastised by your employer is to the staff to the estimate by my employers? >> was your job ever in jeopardy? >> it may have been but they never told me. [laughter] i am sure i was a headache to them at times when they would get 20 phone calls. and when i read my e-mail in the morning drop dead why don't you retire or why weren't you on that bridge when klaxon it's kind of enlightening.

>> i'm sorry to hear you are so sick. [laughter] >> i do like to retaliate once in awhile. >> which president was the easiest to get to know >> which president was the easiest to get to know as the human behind the role? lyndon b. johnson, all too human to tell us everything. reporters and work around. he but some in and call for us to walk around the south lawn for the press conferences so-called although he said everything about the record. anyway, we call those the left hand death marches and that is

what they really were. but also, we would be invited to have dinner. the story that i like to tell is a once asked the lawyer who had been a baptist minister with the press secretary to say grace. he began to pray and johnson said speegap. i wasn't talking to you, mr. president, he responded. [laughter] but i think all of us got to know johnson for better or for worse. one he was bigger than life and had a love-hate relationship with the press. he always wanted to be on the front page and was in secure and a paranoid man but i think that he was brilliant we were aware.

for food and shelter. >> it was the hardest present to get to know on the human level? >> the hardest president to get to know. >> i think it was probably president nixon. he was very shy even in many ways. very reserved, wasn't very good one on one of. he could stand at the podium tonight and he would tell you who is going to be the next president. he was brilliant in political matters and also who is going to win in every state. that's how good he was. but on a one-on-one, she was a very reticent and he had a dark side and that really did more his vision and also he always felt that the press was against

him. i remember going -- i was asked to speak at a banquet for the newspaper, the one newspaper and pennsylvania and was the height of watergate, but it was so unclear that the president couldn't sur nothing could put, the dump the back together again. his fate was a as inextricable as the tragedy. there is no way that nixon could escapes what was obviously written. a man got up after i spoke because i made it pretty clear i thought the other shoe was going to fall. he said when did you first know president nixon was lobbying and i said 1946. and i shocked myself because i didn't say malkoff let me think. it just became automatic that we always had disputes. i think it did a lot of good things. and i think that those things are probably varied in the

overall picture. but more and more, you know, we are always more kind the president as the year-ago wan and as we really assess them. >> in yesterday's post michael kinsley had an op-ed piece which talked about the detailed plans for the invasion of iraq and in effect he said why aren't the american people doing something about this? life of the elected people to go to congress, not to do something like this. will you comment on that? >> i think the congress has just be faulted. everyone is afraid of being called unpatriotic and certainly when they are running for elections they are not questioning anything. nobody is declaring the war and devotees asked to declare. they are giving up all of their rights and i think that we are

in bad shape because of that. i don't know what has happened to them accept the fear they will not be elected if they challenge the president. >> the media is regarding the personal life of george w. the campaign. >> unlike bill clinton why was he on the campaign? >> they were there is no question about it although he insists that they did to look into the world business dealings and the bankruptcies and so forth but there is no question of was easier. they wouldn't answer the question on drugs and so forth. but he did say that he drank a lot. that is as far as he would go and the reporters didn't press him but even if they had i think

that we all grow up and we are more sophisticated and accept more. but i do think that they were easier on him. >> how about back here. >> what do you think is the best newspaper? schaenman with a tragedy i will tell you what the tragedy is and that is we become a one country town that the competition, new york what used to have a dozen papers, 20 papers, chicago and so forth, the competition is so diminished so all the peepers i think are good. i like to read it of 12 today but i don't of course. but you know on the east coast you want to read "the new york times" and so forth. >> roi.

after the governor of florida is reelected will he change his thinking about cuba? >> i wish he would. i think that he should. but i don't know. i mean, they have such a strong constituency in the cuban community and so forth. and such strong support i always feel that clinton should have done it. this is ridiculous. how long does this go on? i really can't make a prediction. i think that it's certainly the way to go. >> two questions. i might have missed the story that at the time that j.c. watts announced his retirement was there any discussion that he was being situated to become the running mate in 2004 especially given that he comes from oklahoma? and the second question, they

have a great propensity for loyalty and also exception for secrecy is this based on the healthy attitude of their part or does it have something to hide? >> i don't know. i heard the same rumors. they have been so ephemeral that i didn't put much into them but it could be. i think that everyone that gets on the hill probably has higher ambitions to go to the white house. so i don't know. the other part was some -- on the secrecy. mel reporter would never condone secrecy to read i think secrecy is so endemic in our government. fitzwater, president secondary to boesh 41 made a speech and said the press only know 5% of

what goes on around here and i used to repeat that in speeches. he came to me and said you didn't save the rest of the sentence which is the other 95% wasn't worth noting. but that's not true. secrecy is classified a colorful walls if they had their way but that goes for most administrations. it's interesting the presidential candidates always promised an open administration. when they get into the white house the on your and curtain comes down in the information becomes their preserved. information the bilmes and the public domain. i think that we should know almost everything but that isn't the way the game is played. suddenly it becomes their secrets. they go for rules if anything is revealed. but i can assure you that most of the leaks that you have seen in the papers came from the

official quarters. from the white house and the pentagon deliberately. with that being set up. >> there was a recent article about the possibility of one a democratic candidacy of john karina and john mccain and. do you think that this possible with happening? >> what is the possibility of the john kerry e. and john mccain second? i'm not very good at this. my crystal ball is very murky. i think that would be far-fetched myself to feed if the democrats can't find somebody in their own party they better hang it up right why do they have to go to the republicans? >> who had the most influence on boesh's thinking domestically?

>> who had the most influence on the bush with both domestically and on the foreign affairs? >> there is no question that chia and rumsfeld -- what would the cheney, rumsfeld but they had a store right next to rumsfeld and are very influential in the foreign affairs. i think that colin powell as good a man as he probably is and would like to be a devil's advocate has basically been told i don't know if this is the true this is the way that he's acting get on the team. it's my way or the highway. so i think that he tried his best in diplomacy but he has been outdone by the others to get condoleezza rice is certainly a hardliner with this group and so they are all a part of that. so i think the president gets very little advice from the other side of the fence

unfortunately. there are no one georgia with balls in this administration. >> carvel rolph? >> he is a hard-liner and is probably the strongest domestic adviser in terms of the political realities. christian and so forth keeping everybody in line. he was very influential. the president said what does care and who think and so forth and they were dependent on that point of view. that's fine except i just wish that he had some peacemakers in his administration. [applause] >> what was it like prior-year to computers what was your day like early on? is there a particular story that you have written that is pretty geared to your heart that you feel really proud of?

>> tell them about the old typewriter. >> the typewriter klaxon now you are dating me. i am still not come to your wife is in any way. i call for help every five minutes. i know the delete button though. when i read the mail. i don't think of it as typewriters but i do think of it as a very wonderful reporter who really played it straight, laid down the facts. they had the outlet, too he it they had newspapers all over the world. as i said before in every big city. so i think that the reporters had much more riding on them and they were respected, they respected the fact would. they knew that was the first job

and a lot of them did not -- but reporters today are better educated, they are sober, they might have to be called on to go to television and so forth. so you can see a different caliber. but at the same time, and they are focused, the old lion and newspaper person had been out of several newspapers. you could have maybe only a high school education but for the talented whoa. i think of some of the great ones that i've known in the past and they certainly did handle the typewriters. we had no self phones. we might have to run and a mile to get to the story. nothing on each other and so forth. but that was the first hole of the reporter would walk into the situation where they knew there was going to be a big announcement and try to find out where is the phone. that is a different world and it

was much more competitive of course to the i must say i like the good days and i think there was a tremendous amount of integrity about journalism. >> which of the president's would you say were the most influence on the money? >> which president was most influenced by money and which won the least? >> well, i think they are all influenced by money because it takes an obscene amount of money to run for anything. the influence is there is no question about a free lunch. if you're going to give someone $250,000, you expect to have some influence i would imagine. this is why they are paying out

that way. so the whole system is based on a lot of money. they are all influenced by money. that is the first thing you have to do is collect a lot of money to run. that's why women had it so tough. they can't play the best courses and there are on partners and so forth. it's more difficult. i think the of a much tougher time to raise the money that need to run for high office. [inaudible] -- and they represent the people as george bush would say -- >> they find out who has been paying off. maybe in the last few days of the administration after eight years they would denounce the military-industrial complex. [laughter] but before that let's face it and they know where the money is coming from and they do a lot.

they make promises. >> do you think journalism is moving towards a female oriented profession and do you think that will have an effect on journalism? >> i hope so. i don't think they are any different from the speech read reporters. i think that when we first started out of course there had been women reporters for 150 years but few and far between doing the hard news until world war ii actually. that is when they got their big break unfortunately. and so they were usually hired for what was called the stock your family or anything else. soft news. when liz carpenter and i, i'd know if you remember she was so good, we both arrived in washington about the same time. she graduated from the university of texas and i

graduated from the university in detroit and we were both determined to become newspaper with many and we went knocking on doors at the national press building and so forth. she ran out of money a couple of days before i did and she why your her brother please send me $200 or i'm going to have to sell my body. [laughter] liz was always on what the plump side, he wired her the money but he said sell it by the pound. [laughter] >> [inaudible] >> how do you see bush's stand on the middle east?

>> one-sided. [inaudible] [laughter] >> they are telling them who can and can't. if they do not depose him they do not seem to intervene that way. he tells the israelis not to get out of the settlement, but to freeze them it created 34 new settlements when he came into power and they never met a palestinian. >> what do you think of the supreme court selecting a president? what do you think about the supreme court selecting the president? >> it lost its halo for me what.

i always used to think it's the court. and even if i didn't agree i knew they knew the law and they knew much more. now i'm beginning to think they are as political as any of us want one. >> what is the most difficult question you have ever had to ask and what do you read each day? >> i read "the washington post" and "new york times" for starters. and then i sort of feel i have to read "the wall street journal" and usa today i try to read about five newspapers, but reading is exaggerating. if you give it a cursory to the i mean you get involved by everything but you try to know what's going on.

that is your homework every day if you are a reporter. and -- >> the most difficult was there is no such thing as a bad question only a lousy answer. i think the toughest time for me was and 1974, they need me of the bureau chief of a free man bureau. i did become the bureau chief of the white house and the president nixon was holding a news conference the night and he began the conference by complimenting me on my promotion and so forth. i had come armed with a very tough question on the watergate scandal, a tape that was very damning. i got the first question and he made this nice little speech.

and i felt so terrible because i thought hour the american people going to think about me? here is the president being so nice and i'm going to sock it to him and then i thought of my peers they thought flattery will get you anywhere. so i asked the question and i must say i felt very bad because how could i really do that? and yet i knew that was my job to ask the question. and everyone i think at a news conference -- there hadn't been a news conference for five months so we were armed with very tough questions. >> right here. >> is there a current politician that stands out above the crowd for voting on their heartfelt believe rather than for money or lobbyists or the party lines?

>> is there a petition that stands out voting from their heart rather than the sum of money or other things cracks? >> i think jefferson did that when he jumped ship today i don't cover the hill so i don't know these people as personally as you would think you know them, but you don't of course. so, i honestly don't know. you always hope so. but they always disappoint you. you want everybody to be perfect. yet you know the constraints and the pressures. if you are out there it's amazing if they ever vote right. that they ever step out of the realm. but profiles in courage i'm still looking for some. >> now with clinton could have been running for president since his childhood. do you think those presidents result in better judgment in

public office or worse judgment? >> johnson and the nixon and clinton were essentially running since they were children, do >> johnson and the nixon and clinton were essentially running since they were children, does this make for a better president? >> i think it makes for a better president in many ways because they certainly can learn. they've watched these things and action so i think they have a running start at at least having some of the basics. but when you go into that there is so much to learn. honeycutt clinton certainly lost his first two years in office because of having something 20 thirtysomething. they go into the white house and in usually takes a couple days to get arrogant in the white house. you also hope the president will

care about history and political science and have a basis of understanding and will have read the u.s. constitution and not just the bible. [applause] >> we have time for two more questions. i see one over here. >> i wondered if you could comment on the challenges posed by balancing strong personal passion with the need for supporters to be objective and thinking this is a general conflict. >> between the reporters on belief and the need to be impartial as a journalist. >> i did it for 50 years. i had an opinion on everything that moved. but i permit myself to care and

think and believe that not to get it in my copy and i felt that i was able to do that. no one ever criticized me for having the bayh is copied to buy all feel they knew that i had a very strong opinion. malae write a column, two columns every week and i wake up and i say who am i mad at today? laughter could cause i've never had a column that is actually you can express your own opinion. you have a voice and so forth. the editor said where is the etch? i said what? he said your opinion so i finally learned to put my opinion in and i think it just like a surgeon or anything else you have a job to do. you are not hired for your opinion and you have to do it straight. when you were trained to be a journalist you know that is the

holy grail. >> right over here. >> good evening. mine the question is one caswell upi changed as you thought it might have when you resigned from their. >> has upi changed since youd su left and second what is your opinion on the current attorney general? >> i always want upi to go on because i do you think that we should have more than one wire service although i know the ap is almost total. i am very happy that it's continuing. and i love the reporters and i expect them very much. the attorney general i think goes to bed every night, weeks of in the morning and says what can i take away from the american people today?

and he is getting away with an awful lot. i wish that he would have more respect for the constitution, too. it seems to me -- i have been in washington for several wars and i've never seen such an intrusion on our basic rights. i'm not saying that we have to have strong security at the airports and the borders and so forth and everybody has to tighten their belts and many ways that we are in a war. and i certainly agree that it was right to go into afghanistan. but i don't think they have to chip away at our personal rights. you have to explain to me why and i don't think that is necessary. in world war ii we didn't have to suffer that. so, i think that the attorney general has a little about the history to see that it can be done that you can have a good society, strong society, freedom loving and protect our freedom and not have to give up their

rights. [applause] >> roi >> thank you for coming. a book tv has covered the annual national book award ceremony. in 2000 through book number three of robert johnson master of the senate was awarded the national book award for nonfiction

>> my book is an effort to understand how do so many individuals that believe in the promise of never again and if pressed would say define what never again means that it doesn't mean never should genocide happen which is something one could interpret but they may never again believed to stand idly by and let genocide happen. so the individuals in the u.s. government >> there's individuals in this room and in the city and around the world who believe that they should be active in the face of genocide and yet when it confronts us in real time, when we see the early signs and in the kind of numbers and descriptions of intent, the alarm bells don't go off or we

see it in power either in the bureaucracy or on the outside of it that we don't read them. we don't send them with the reserve of outrage and retrospective remorse that is available to us. >> book tv continues with more nonfiction authors and the books on c-span2. the book tells a story. it tells a story of a nuclear weapons accident in damascus arkansas that occurred in 1980.? ?d that story has a way of??? looking at the management of th? nuclear weapon? since the firs? nuclear d?evice was invented i 1945. and i hope to remind the reader e weapons were out there and they are capable of being used and that there's probably no more important thing that the government does and manage them because these are the most dangerous machines built.

i think the subject has fallen off the radar quite a bit since the end.

next on book tv fred gray the attorney for rosa parks and the montgomery bus boycott case recounts his career and involvement in the movement. this is a little over an hour. ..