american freedom is expanding. everyone of you, as you sit here this morning, ought to be proud of what we have done together where we are going, why we are fighting for freedom. despite all the growth and health of our second amendment, i have to tell you as we sit in this room this morning there is a sickness in this country. it is corroding the people, their confidence in government, almost like a cancer. it is crippling the checks and balances that keep our country stable and free. it is corrupting the rule of law just like a virus commandeers the function of a cell. it is inflaming our national dialogue. it is strangling the speech that

breathes life into liberty. it is becoming embedded in our system. it is a mutation that could ravage our nation and our freedom. as we sit here this morning, there is a sickness in our country. across every race, class, creed, ethnic group, and known demographic, the american people are sick and tired of the lying and the corruption, and the abuses of power by the ruling class that are making our country s.e.c.. they have got to stop. [applause] >> wherever you look, from washington, d.c. to state houses to new york all the way to california, in city halls and court rooms across this country

the people we entrust to make the laws, to enforce the laws, to preserve our freedoms are abandoning us and advocating their sworn and sacred duties. it is closing in on two directions. let me talk about it right here right now. from our border to the south, it is closing in. and from cities in every corner of this country. it is caused by dishonest and deadly abuses of power by those who wield it. selective enforcement and prosecution of the criminal laws in this country against the bad guys and selective recognition and protection of the freedoms of the good guys. the political elites -- and you know who i am talking about when i say that -- they want to pick

and choose which laws they enforce and which was they ignore. whose rights they defend and whose rights they deny. in doing so, they directly endanger you, me, and everyone in our country. here is how. right now, in mexico, several global drug cartels are waging war for control of that trade. you see the carnage in the news every night when you turn on your tv set. torture, the headings, victim's plunged into vats of acid. it is like some in same nightmare of how war would be waged in hell. but that nightmare is moving north like a knife directly into our protected underbelly, mile by mile. these drug cartel killers are

bringing murder, kidnapping, and torture across our border, leaving a bloody trail of bodies all the way from texas to california. instead of securing our borders or enforcing the law to protect us, washington, d.c.'s political class have as much as declared surrender. they will not admit, and the media is sure not going to report it. a few weeks ago, i sent the nra news crew to the mexican border to uncover the truth. there was a frightening look at what lies ahead for our country. i want you to take a look at this video. please roll it. but >> the traffic through here is unstoppable. >> to i think the border is secure? hell, no. >> people are willing to poke

out people's eyes with ice picks. do you think they care about an imaginary line? >> this national security should not be a political game. these guys make it just that. >> this border is no barrier between us and mexico. the recent murder of a rancher in arizona proves it is no longer a matter of when the violence will spill over. it is a matter of how many other innocent people will be victims. >> you can walk 10 miles. the border patrol is not on the border. >> the borders are? where is he. empty promises. >> the federal government's response is pathetic. they should come to my ranch and experience it for themselves. it is dangerous. ranchers and farmers who have given up on the fed. their border towns in south

texas are overrun by illegal immigrants. >> they are starting to test us. i have had two or three encounters where i have feared for my life. they threatened me and i was able to get a drop on them. this is the way we have to live down here. >> he is a rancher and veterinarian, constantly looking over his shoulder. his backyard is a major corridor for the cartels. >> i have 7.5 miles an electric fence, but they did under. >> we are across the valley of juarez. it is also called the valley of the beheaded. that puts it in perspective. >> why would they change? they don't even think there is a problem. >> she set up a sophisticated surveillance system, tracking foot traffic outside their front door. >> we are looking at human

smuggling drugs. terrorists come across our country. i come back from a grocery store and a woman is in the front yard. is this america or is it iraq? >> these ranchers know they are the first line of defense against an arco terrorists. >> i cling to my guns because my firearm is my number one tool for safety and protection. our federal government is not providing it. >> you do not go to the mailbox without a firearm. if you do not stay vigilant they are going to take it over. >> i am going to fight to the end. >> we feel threatened and frustrated. these guys ought to be criminally tried for what they are doing. >> ladies and gentlemen, last year the tucson sector of the u.s. border patrol found that one out of every six illegal border crossers that they caught had already had a

criminal record in this country. that is over 40,000 criminals in one year in that one sector alone. we have eight other sectors along the mexican border to deal with. you know, with mexican drug gangs coming across and killing and kidnapping and terrorizing americans like an invading enemy army it is no wonder our united states department of justice called them the biggest organized crime threat to the united states. yet the political elites in washington, d.c. could not care less. according to the wall street journal, president obama is cutting funding for border patrol agents and denying the request for equipment. while smugglers, killers, and god knows who else waltz across our border every single week,

washington refuses to enforce immigration law to protect the american people. that is shameful. it is dangerous. it is a dereliction of duty and it has to stop now. [applause] if our federal government refuses to protect us, we the people are forced to protect ourselves. that is what arizona did. [applause] that is what arizona did after drug gangs turned phoenix into america's kidnapping capital and washington refused to use its own immigration law to protect its own citizens. what happened is a desperate arizona had no choice but to pass its own version of existing

federal law. let me say that again. the desperate people of arizona had no choice but to pass their own version of existing federal law so that they could enforce what washington, d.c. it would not. they saw no other option. but before the ink was even dry on that law washington set out to condemn it. and without doing anything to solve the crisis that forced arizona to pass a law in the first place. you saw it. from house speaker pelosi to senator charles schumer the same political elitists who want to deny your right to protect yourself from violent criminals want to block enforcement of a law that could stop those drug cartels, kidnappers, and killers. ladies and gentleman, it has

been reported that two months ago in cochise county, a rancher reported a massive drug shipment on his county. drug smugglers came in, tied the man up and his wife, and vowed to kill them both if they ever interfered with drug shipments again. a week later, a few miles east along the border, another rancher was working his land and minding his own business. just a few hours before sun up on palm sunday, authorities believe the gunman came back and shot that man down. they killed him in cold blood. that criminal shot robert prince and his dog. yes. his name, which you are probably hearing for the first time

today, has been almost universally ignored and forgotten by the political class and the media losers who 0 everyone of us so much more. robert prince was a husband and father. he became a life member of the national rifle association 26 years ago. his sons north dakota and frank r. life members of the nra. his daughter kyle is a member. his sister in law is a member. additional family members are also nra members. that is right. they killed one of us. they attacked and invaded and nra family. they attacked everyone in this room this morning. ladies and gentlemen, one of the cruelest cut of the media is the way they sometimes reduce a man

and his life and his loss to little more than a name. so who was robert prince? he was a man of true temper and kindness. hugh had uncommon compassion. to his family, he was a model and mentor of fairness, honesty, and respect. he believed in responsible stewardship of the animals that were in his care and the land his ancestors had worked for over a century. to his neighbors and to his friends he was known as a kind and gentle soul. you could count on him to help you in time of need. if he happened to find an immigrant suffering in the relentless heat, he was the kind of man who would give him the water or the food that they needed, whetherrhe was

trespassing or not. robert prince was not a man to harbor malice for anyone. he just wanted to feel that his family could be safe in their own home, on their own land. robert france was one of the good guys. robert france was one of us. ladies and gentlemen, let us be silent for a moment in honor and respect for the lost life of a good and decent man. my fellow members of the nra, which the world watching us grieve, let them see and hear us welcome and embrace robert prince's wife susan, his son, andy, his daughter-in-law,

amanda, and his youngest son, frank. would you please stand up? [applause]

>> susan, andy, amanda, and frank were gracious enough to fly in last night to help us on robert's life and lent their voices to ours. the national rifle association of america will not forget rob and we will not forget you. you have our word. [applause] the prince family will be with us tonight as a celebration of american values. god bless you and thank you for joining us in charlotte. [applause]

i am going to say it. robert prince, down on the border, and for every lawful and good person who has been abandoned down there, as far as they are concerned, too many politicians in washington would rather prevent an invading criminals from getting caught then preventing a law-abiding, taxpaying american citizen from being murdered on his own land. [applause] no matter how you feel about arizona's law, none of this should ever have happened. if the political elites had done their jobs, they would have secured the border. they would have prosecuted illegal alien drug gangs and criminals. if they had done their job they

would have prevented ranchers from being murdered and hispanic victims from being kidnapped and killed. if the elites had done their job, arizona would never have had to pass this law. the lawful, honest hispanic people in arizona would not feel threatened by it. instead, politicians in washington did absolutely nothing, as if they wanted to play some sick game of hateful manipulation to polarize the country, prejudice the boat, and poison the political system just so they could protect their jobs. the consequences of that corruption and contempt of the rule of law is this. while terrorized residents throw their deadbolts, draw their blinds, and pray not to have their homes invaded or their kids kidnapped in arizona, in

washington, d.c. the ruling elite bask in the safety of 24- hour security and screen without rage at arizona's law, all because they insist on playing political games with our lives. ladies and gentlemen, that is contemptible. it is life-threatening and it has got to stop now. [applause] you know, the american people used to look at politicians almost like some kind of jay leno joke. you would sort of shrug and say, "you know those politicians. we never expected them to tell the truth anyway." but now it is not just cynical. it is sinister. what is going on is a

combination of political dishonesty to advance an agenda and media dishonesty to promote an agenda. they are linking together, feeding each other, and having a destructive effect on our entire system of governance in our country. immigration might not be our issue, but the crisis on our southern border is a perfect illustration of the same dishonesty and corruption that have infected the gun debate for decades, and the consequences of the ruling class refusing to do anything to contain that crisis ultimately endangers your right to keep and bear arms because you, all of you sitting here this morning, know exactly where it leads. whether it is laws against armed of violent crime, illegal immigration, or anything else, the consequences of selective enforcement are always the same.

bad guys get a pass and good guys like you get it in the chest. when violent crime explodes as a result of their own refusal to enforce the law, those same politicians attacked your second amendment right to protect yourself. that is morally wrong. that is destructive to society. it has got to stop now. ladies and gentlemen -- [applause] we have all seen politicians abuse the law before. what is different than what is so dangerous today is it is feeding what could grow into a firestorm of criminal violence more devastating than anything ever seen in this country, because every ingredient is already there. right now, and these are

government figures i am going to talk about, we have over 20,000 criminal gangs with over 1 million members active throughout the united states. mexico's drug cartels are operating in at least 230 u.s. cities. at least 30 cities are so-called "sanctuary cities," where local government officials refuse to enforce the law on immigration. the gangs operate openly. one sanctuary city is albany, the capital of new york state. it is the east coast epicenter of the kind of dishonest debate, abuse of the rule of law, and abandon of -- abandonment of the people that i have been telling you about this morning. if you want to see where it leads and where it costs honest people like you, watched this video showing what life is like

and what life is worth in albany today. look at this for just a minute. >> drugs, guns, illness. >> drug laws mean nothing. gangs know they can beat the system. >> they run back down the scene -- they run down the street and get their gone right back. >> it looks good from the outside wall locations are bleeding to death on the inside. >> the better off the gangs and the criminals are. >> the system does not meet the challenges. >> albany, the state capital of new york, where lawmakers in their gilded and guarded chambers pass countless gun laws. but just blocks away many of those laws have already been broken by drug dealers and rival gangs. >> this is like a third world

nation. it is survival down here. >> we do not know where it is coming from. it could be an alley over across the street from my house. >> we have had gunshots fired overhead as we comm in the building in the morning. this is life as we know it. >> this doctor runs a health care clinic in one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods, where violence is getting worse and gang members are getting younger. >> there is a 10 year-old boy who came in here who had been shot. a 10 year-old. arrested four times. i cannot even imagine that. >> they do not respect life. it is all about wanting drugs. >> a tragic reality. if these kids do not value their own life, they are not going to value and the gun law. >> it is a joke. they can still get a gun. you cannot stop them.

>> expensive? >> it goes for like $100. sometimes for $50. >> how many of these guys have a legal gun? >> i am going to go with 0. -p>> they just get them off the street. >> it would have to be 99.999% illegal. it is always illegal guns. what will work? prosecuting criminals so they cannot beat the system. >> there are politicians and prosecutors out there who tell officers not to make arrests because we cannot fit more inmates. do you think the people of those communities would like to know they are purposefully not arresting people? that is horrendous. why don't we mandate sentences? no one is surprised. these followed halls of government are so deeply rooted in corruption the citizens do

not trust the politiciann. they want your vote. they get what they want and then they help with you. >> politicians are more worried about agendas than the truth. >> especially in the street. my message to the people is wise up. >> we are headed to a dark place. i believe as these people go so goes america. >> i am afraid for my kids and my grandkids. >> albany is what the future looks like for every american city in this country if our political class continue to indulge in he selective or non- enforcement of our laws and the selective or nonexistent protection of our rights. today, in states from coast to coast, as we sit here this

morning, cynical politicians continue to push the cheap and dishonest answers of gun bans while refusing to let the existing laws we already have on the books carry any course. what they do is they try to disarm honest people like you. then they pretend they are fighting crime while they set convicted criminals loose on the streets. that is exactly what they are doing in new york state. in 2008, new york state cut its prison population by more than any other state in the country. even before they did, it was clear the criminals simply laughed at their loss. in 2007, new york state -- just listen to this -- had more released inmates commit more crime and go back to prison, almost 12,000 of them, than any other state except -- and i bet

you can guess what i am going to say it -- california. in california, it is the same endless cycle. catch them, cut them loose, and pick up the pieces when they commit more crimes. politicians out there pander with pointless anti-gun laws. behind the scenes right now, they plan on and are going to do it releasing up to one of every four inmates from their presence in that state. that state already has the highest recidivism rate in the nation. last year, they passed a law to release felons with no parole, no supervision, and a 50% reduction in the sentences they serve. everything is cool, everything is copacetic, no problem here, lawmakers promised only to

release so-called non-violent offenders. the minor detail they failed to mentor to the public is they define non-violent to include child abusers, certain sex criminals, and even those convicted of manslaughter. so in february, when they're released back to the streets kevin eugene peterson after conviction for assault with a deadly weapon it should have been no surprise that by the afternoon of the same day that he was released he was back in jail and picked up for attempted rape. yet the lawmakers in california -- all they want to talk about is banning your gun. ladies and gentlemen, as i started out saying, there is a sickness in our country today. but you -- every one of you in this room -- are the most potent medicine and sure-fire cure.

i am sure about that. decade in and decade out, you, all of you, have revived our system and revitaliied our american freedom in ways the media cannot deny and in ways the politicians cannot defy by harnessing america's greatest strength to rescue america's greatest gifts. you know what they are. freedom, truth, justice, fairness, honesty, equality, honor, duty. . .

it is built on our shared belief in all that is good and right and unique about america. that is why, today, the purist and most potent expression of patriotic to finance any citizen can make -- the finance -- defiance any citizen can make is joined the national rifle association of america. [applause]

because when you, all of you, and folks just like you all over the country, when you joined the national rifle association, what you are doing is making your own personal declaration of independence. what that declaration says is this -- i will not be silent. i will not be stripped of my ability to define my own destiny. i will not allow my freedom to be demonized, diminished, or redefined out of existence. i will defend my freedom with every bit as much energy and urgency as my freedom demands, as the one priceless and irreplaceable blessing that makes our country, the united states of america, the greatest liberator of the human spirit that the planet has ever known. rise up.

[applause] vote down all of those who would steal it away from us. join the nra, america. we will fight for your freedom everyday. thank you very much. we love freedom. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> tomorrow on "washington journal," jeremy mayer, juliet moringiello, and michael daulton. he is a senior director with the ottoman society, and he will discuss the migratory bird treaty act and how it relates to endangered wildlife. "washington journal" is live

sunday on c-span. >> this weekend on "booktv," and noted feminist and author from the university of chicago has written or contributed to more than 20 books on liberal education and other subjects. join our discussion with your phone calls and e-mails on sunday at noon on c-span2. >> next, president obama nominates his choice for national intelligence director -- james clapper. if confirmed, he replaces dennis blair who resigned last month. replace dennis blair who resigned last he would be the fourth director since congress created the office five years ago to oversee the nation's 16 intelligence agencies. this is 10 minutes. >> i have no higher priority than the safety and security of the american people.

in the world, we must protect ourselves from threats like terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, transnational threats such as cyber- criminials. -- criminals. to keep america safe, we're integrating every element of our national power -- military and economic, diplomacy and development, homeland security, law enforcement, and intelligence. this final element, timely and accurate intelligence, is uniquely important, because it is critical to each of the others. as president, but also depend on the best available intelligence for daily decisions that i make. i depend on the director of national intelligence. as dni, dennis blair continued

the extraordinary service that defined his entire career. during his tenure, our intelligence community became more integrated and agile. i will always be grateful to him for his sense of purpose and his sense of service. today, i am proud to announce my choice for the next director of national intelligence, james clapper. with four decades of service to america, jim is one of our nation's most experienced and most respected intelligence professionals. as undersecretary of defense for intelligence, he has successfully overseeing the military and civilian intelligence personnel and budgets that make up the bulk of our 16-agency intelligence community. his improved information- sharing, improved support to our troops in iraq, and played a key role in our effort to update and reorient our intelligence community to meet the threats of our time. as director of two critical organizations -- including the

defense intelligence agency -- and during a distinguished career in the air force, he developed an intimate understanding of our human and technical collection programs. he possesses a quality that i value -- a willingness to tell leaders what we need to know, even if it is not what we want to hear. he is a forceful champion of his fellow intelligence professionals, never forgetting what it felt like to risk his own life during the vietnam war. he will be the leader of our intelligence community. our intelligence community has made great strides since the 9/11 attacks. guided by good intelligence, we have struck major blows against the al qaeda and its terrorist affiliate's and disrupted many plots in our country which could have taken many american lives. as we saw in the failed attack over detroit, we need to do

better. we need to evolve, adapt, and improve. i ordered a series of reform to strengthen intelligence this year. i will be looking to to jim to make sure we have the most capable and efficient intelligence community we could. our national security demands it. our intelligence community needs to work as one integrated team to produce quality, timely, and accurate intelligence. this is a difficult task, but this will be the core mission. he is eminently qualified and he has my complete confidence and support. he also understands the importance of working with our partners in congress. as he has said, not only to appear when summoned, but to seek member's advice and consent. the senate has voted to confirm him for the senior positions on

four separate occasions. it has done so overwhelmingly, each time. given his unique experience, i urge the senate to do so again as swiftly as possible. i've spoken to the appropriate senate leaders and have indicated that i expect this nomination to be completed during this workshop period. this cannot fall victim to the usual washington politics. as we go forward, my administration will continue to work with congress to ensure that jim and all our insurance professionals have the authority and support they need to succeed. finally, let me say to the men and women across our intelligence community, most americans may never see your work, but everyone of us is safer because of your service and we are profoundly grateful. you have chosen to serve america, and now it is america's duty to back you up so you can fulfill the mission that we ask you and keep this country say. that is my promise to you as president of united states and

that is what jim clapper will do as director of national intelligence. to you and your family, thank you for taking on this critical assignment. i invite you to say a few words. thank you. >> thank you very much. thank you, mr. president. i am humbled, honored, and daunted by the magnitude of the responsibilities of this position. it is a job that cannot be done without your support and that of the congress. i intend to earn that support from both, as well as the public, if i am confirmed for this position. we have the largest, most capable intelligence enterprise on the planet. it is a sacred trust to make it work. nominees are like my oldest grandkids -- experience is better seen than heard. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> why are there still problems integrating intelligence, sir?

>> around the time of this announcement from the white house, thad allen held a briefing on the gulf of mexico oil spill. n the gulf oil spill. >> good morning, folks. i would like to talk about the operations out in the gulf with containment. i will discuss operations locally. i would like to talk about this unique facility. last week, i was given the press briefing. i have been asked a lot of questions about why that was happening. one of the reasons is because i move around a lot. where i go, the press follows. it gives us a chance to highlight and frame the different operations around the gulf. it is important to understand that we are in theodore, alabama, at a facility owned by a local gentleman.

it is owned by -- the on- scene project manager is from fairhope. we're supporting patriot industries, which is an oil spill response organization, employed by british petroleum to set up a staging area and a base camp for operations all around the gulf. i want to compliment everybody that is involved in this operation. the management and team from california is only 10% of the work force here. 90% of the people working here are local employees. the amount of business being generated with local contractors, local hotels and facilities, it is having an extraordinary impact on the local community. this is a really good working model and we can emulate this in other places. from here, they do training. the deployed boom equipment, repair boom equipment, decontaminate oily boom, waste, and debris.

almost anything for this type of operation could be supported from the base here. i would like to take the opportunity to update you. we're in the process of starting to bring hydrocarbons up from the reservoir and producing at a vessel called the discovery enterprise, which is over the wellhead now. conten ainment cap down, it was full of inert nitrogen gas, to keep the water from forming hydrates, which with the problem with the first -- which was the problem with the first cap. when natural gas combines with water at low temperatures, that

is the problem you have. they have done a couple of things to improve that. they eased pressure so they could maintain control over the oil. they are also pumping methanol down there to make sure they do not form. they are slowly lowering the pressure. in the first full cycle, as they brought the production level up, they were able to produce 6,000 barrels of oil from the well. the goal is to continue that production and hopefully take the pressure off of the well and reduce the oil that is coming out of the vents. i can answer any questions you may have about that. in general, the southerly winds and southwest, have taken the northern edge of the perimeter and move to close to the mississippi, alabama, and

florida. we're seeing tar balls and oil patties. it is all the way from western mississippi to pensacola. it is starting to move north and slightly east. thee concerned from mississippi and louisiana line all the way over to florida. in regards to that, we have a lot of people out doing clean- up operations on the beach, skimming off shore. i want to talk about a couple of things that will be of interest to the local community. we have a vessel opportunity system where local boatmen and boat owners can come and register their boats to do work on the water, anything from inspecting booms, observing oil concentration, anything that will help our response. yesterday, we had a total of 443 vessels of opportunity working around alabama. i want to give you a sense of

where they were at. 61 vessels out of daulphin island. 74 out of dog river. 142 from bayou lebatre. 23 vessels from fairhope. we're trying to optimize the local knowledge, expertise, and talent. i would also like to talk about our qualified community responder program. what we're trying to do is find unemployed individuals that would like to seek training and get involved in this response. the goal is to train over 4000 people across these states, 1500 in alabama, 1500 in mississippi, 1500 in florida. we have trained 2700 individuals and they are ready to deploy.

898 in alabama, 1500 in mississippi, and 344 in florida. there are 1900 individuals scheduled for training. the types of tasks today are involved include carrying in handling the material and supplies, shovelling debris, removing the debris from beaches, operating power washers to clean rocks and beach areas, washing oil-covered items, and removing other trash and debris. safety is a primary concern. we make sure they go through basic training for what they are doing and for exposure to potential materials they will come in contact with. the majority of the training for this area it is done here. it is far beyond a logistic site and a staging area for boom, but also a dispatching and processing point for personnel who received their training, certification, and credentials to be deployed elsewhere in the area.

the operation here is one of the best i have encountered. i commend everybody here for the job they are doing and the way they are doing it. the community has come to get a to help us optimize this response for the folks in alabama -- have come together to help us optimize this response for the folks in alabama. >> and what are your plans to speak with the governor today? he is not very happy. what happened, happened. what are your plans? >> i am here to look at this operation. i will do it and overflight to look of all of our areas. i will meet with the governor later today. we will talk about whatever issues he has. that is at the direction of the president. >> that is in mobile. >> i will meet with the governor based on a conversation we had with the

president yesterday. >> can you boom the beaches? >> you can. there is tension between where to boom and where to protect. the state identified areas to protect, where there is a lot of juvenile water life. the hardest place to pick up oil is in the marsh or the wetland. the easiest place is on the sandy beach. it is much easier to recover and remove. the best and is to do it on the water. -- the best thing is to do it on the water. if we have to do it on land, it is easier to do it on the beach, that in the marshland. >> they say -- [inaudible]

after a week of tests. can yoyou comment on that? >> there have been some anecdotal reports of underwater oil booms. -- plumes. the administrator of noaa has put together a large area sampling plan to form a consortium with universities in the area to get data from different areas and test the hydrocarbons in the water at different depths. it is being done right now within a five and 10 mile radius of the oil platforms and a place for the recovery is going on. -- place where the recovery is going on. those vessels are returning to port. others are going out. i do not want to put a timeline on it, but they will be putting together a profile based on all of that data so we can understand the picture for the entire gulf area and what kind of hydrocarbons are present and where they come up. they will have a general model.

>> any more questions from the room? working?the cap seem to be >> yes, with a couple of caveat. we put it down and there were four vents -- of caveats. we put it down and there were four vents. they allow oil to escape that is not getting into the pipe. when the water gets in, it forms hydrates predict are increasing production up the well bore -- hydrates. bay are increasing production up the well bore -- they are increasing production up the wellbore. they want to raise it up. they will slowly start turning off those vents when they are sure they do not have see water coming in. because we do not have a perfect -- sea water coming in. because we do not have perfect cap, we're trying to

minimize the amount of leakage. we did not a smooth cut. we had to use the jagged shears. we want to go into full production, because we cannot accommodate all of the pressure. we have to get a full-rate production before we know what is going on with any chronic leakage that we may see all around the rubber gasket. to combat that, we have equipment down there. we have dispersant to try to disperse the oil at the source and not have to deal with it on the surface. we're continuing mechanical skimming and in situ burning. we're trying to limit the use of dispersants. we have used more than was ever contemplated for a spill this size.

we have reached the 1 million gallons threshold on the dispersants. it is preferable to use the dispersant rather than have the oil, because the toxicity is much less, but there are toxic -- is some toxic impact of the dispersant. we're trying to focus back on the subsea area. >> president obama has ordered the coast guard to get them anything they need. boom, wherever they get it from. will they get them everything they need? is there enough boom? >> i am here to get a complete briefing on the people, the boom, and i will meet with the governor to get and give answers. >> we will now go to questions from the phone line. operator. >> [inaudible] press star. your first question. >> [inaudible]

>> we will repeat the question. >> i am not sure -- i am using the handset. it is garbled. he asked about, once we understand the full-production rate and what is being discharged that is not beeing recovered, will we make that public? the answer is, of course we will. thatve a flow rate backing ugrp came up with the revised estimate a while back. that estimate was between 12,000 and 25,000 barrels per day. what we're going to do is, once we establish the full-rate production, we will try to understand the oil that was released and we have to cut the

-- when we had to cut the pipe to contain cap in place. -- put the containment cap in place. we will make that estimate available to the public and be completely transparent. next question? operator? i am getting a followup. the answer was protection and flow rate from the ship. we will make that public -- production and flow rate from the ship. we will make that public. question?answer your next question. let's see if we can get a better line here. >> operator, next question. >> are all the vents still open? if so, why?

>> they remain open. we will get an update from bp later on. they will remain open until they can stabilize the pressure and the rate of production. they will make adjustments to the systems to make sure they do not increase the production rate until it is safe to do so. we will announce that when we know. >> next question. >> thank you for having this presser. there has been confusion about the estimate range for the amount of oil that is flowing. the rate of 12,000 to 19,000, that is the lower, and there is and thatend eistimate

there no higher. can you clear that up? >> i would be happy to. they were conducted by two groups and tv zero different models. belo and is the same on both models -- and two different models. the low and it is the same on both models. -- the low end is the same on both models. 12,000 to 19,000 per day. or 12,000 to 25,000 per day. it gives a high fidelity answer. we hope to move those into a morass of the walrus indentation of what is whatis -- a more acceptable idea of what is flowing. next question. >> your next question. next is from "los angeles

times." >> if the vents remain open -- is it safe to say we have not really come that far since we heard about this 24 hours ago? i am wondering how successful can we say this has been so far. it seems like we have only seen a 6000 gallons -- seen 6000 gallons taken up and the vents are still open. has the flow decreased that anybody can detect. --detect? >> 6000 gallons yesterday. -- barrels yesterday. they are increasing the production rate, but they don't want to cause more problems. the goal is to reach maximum production at a floating production vessel overhead.

then, we can slowly close off the ball is. it will happen based on the po -- close off the valves. it will be based on the flow rates. it will be based on conditions and the production rate. next question. >> the associated press. >> when you are talking about the conditions, what sort of conditions do you need to see before you start to close those? is it just a matter of increasing the oil? >> that is a concern. we want to take as much pressure coming from the well bore as possible and put it into production. once you optimize that, there is a smaller chance that whatever oil cannot be accommodated will go down and out of the rubber seals. that will be residual leakage that we have to manage over the long term. they are trying to get this right and they do not want to disturb any factors that might disrupt it. they will move forward.

if that is confusing, there need to be conditions based on the flow-rate they achieved. -- achieve. they want the most pressure taken out of that production as they can. next question. >> next question from "the sun herald." >> what is the worst-case scenario now? is it going to get cleared up? >> the question is, what is the worst-case scenario? that would be to not contain the flow. . t contain the flo the ly way we will ever c this well is drilling a relief well. underway right now. the first relief well is 7,000 feet below the s floor.

they will have to achieve 16,000 to 18,000 fet to interct the well. the goal then wld be t pump mud down the well to reduce the pressure to the point that ty can put a cement plug in. at that point the well would be killed. you hearof the top kill. this would be the bottom kill exercise. in the long-term the threat from this well will not go away until a relief well has been drilled. in the meantime we have to optimizeur containment efforts which is going on right now with the ctainment cap. the worst case is that the discharge related to what we can't contain goes forward until we have the relief wells drilled, sometime in early august. >> last question. >> my questn is based on the

6,000 barrel estimate if you look at the low estatedate it could be capturing half the oil or at the low end a quarter of the oil. am i interpreting that the right way? what you said yesterday was a 1,000 barrel estimate. >> what i said earlier is that after e itiaproduction was established they were at that point in e day captured 1,000 barrels. they tend to measure their oduction from midnight to midnight. from midniggt last night to midnight the last night they were able to prrduce 6,000 barrels. they started at a low rate and go to a higher rate. ultimately t capacity of that rig is 15,000 barrels a day. and the that is e upper limit on what they can achieve with

that production capability. like to push it to the limitings. at is what they are trying to dd athis time. thank you. >> a quick point for everybody, b.p. is providing twice daily updates on the containment. they provide an update every morng on wt the rate of production is from the containment method. u will be getting that from em in the morning. >> thank you folks. >> harris a look at the ongoing cleanup efforts taking place in louisiana. this is in grand isle, louisiana.

-pcracks in a moment, vatican analyst john allen discusses the future of the catholic church. then, sam webb, the u.s. communist party's national chairman addresses his group's annual convention. after that, a look at race relations in the united states with remarks from pbs news our correspondent race juarez -- ray suarez. sunday, agriculture secretary tom vilsack talks about real economic issues and foreign

policy. he is interviewed by ellen ferguson of "congressional ferguson watch "news makers" tomorrow on c-span. >> everyone has an agenda. as long as you know what their agenda is, that is the story you can write about. >> of the pastor, brody mullins has written a series on lawmakers overseas trips funded by taxpayers. he is our guest sunday on "q&a". >> next, vatican analyst john allen discusses the future of the catholic church. he spoke about the papacy of benediction xvi, how the church is dealing with sexual abuse cases, and whether the church should involve itself in foreign affairs. from boston college this is one hour 20 minutes. >> good evening.

john, thank you for that extraordinarily generous introduction. although i know, particularly being here at boston college in such an extinct -- distinguished academic community, is profoundly committed to the quest for truth. i still obliged to offer one small amendment to the introduction you just heard. it is true as john said and as the slide behind me indicates, that my job title is senior vatican analysts. i know that sounds tremendously impressive. i guess i feel compelled to let you know that in addition to be the senior vatican analyst at cnn, i am also the only vatican analyst at cnn. i am therefore sr. in a universe of one. this is the way commercial television in the united states works. rather than give you more money, they give you ever loftier titles. those of you have been around the academy a while have been tempted to say it is a lot like academic life, or for that

matter, the catholic church. i am delighted to be at boston college once again. i subject tonight is the future of the catholic church in the 21st century. before i come to that, john and the other organizers of this event had asked that i say a few words at the outset, not about the church's peter, but its in particular, -- not about the church bezique future, but its present. sexual abuse scandals are swirling dramaturge and all around the papacy of benedictio xvi. although i find speculation about the future to be intensely interesting, it really is not my day job. i day job is functioning as what the vatican called a vatican

ista. in this case, because of scrutiny on the record of pope benedictxvi. it is impossible to do justice to that subject in just a few words. i am going to try to do this in about 3.5 minutes. it will be inevitably superficial. instead of trying to give you a comprehensive perspective on the crisis that we have lived through for the last two months, i will make three brief points. the third of which i hope will serve as a natural bridge to the real meat of our conversation here tonight. herewith, three brief, synthetic

observations about the most recent chapter of the sexual abuse crisis. first, as regards the role of been an addict -- benedictu xvi. the notion that he could somehow become the global symbol of the sexual abuse crisis is absolutely surreal. it is an honest to god, alice in wonderland, through the looking glass sensation. in truth, the situation for those who have followed it closely for the last decade, in trip we know that this situation is exactly the reverse of the impression that has been created in much public discussion. the truth is, in particular since 2001, no senior official in the vatican has done more to week abuser priests out of ministry and acknowledge the suffering is that hope.

he led the charge for an amendment that consolidated responsibility for that crisis. in 2003, he secured a bundle of special faculty that has expedited procedures from pope john paul ii to speed up removing predators from the priesthood. he brought the hammer down on a couple of high-profile roman catholic priest previously considered untouchable. as pope, he has met with the victims of sexual abuse on four occasions, the first pope ever to do so. in general, he is responsible for breaking the vatican's wall of silence. an entirely legitimate debate about the sufficiency of the vatican's response to the crisis on multiple fronts. to take off just three, first, the absence of uniform global

policies and procedures. the question of accountability for bishops, ongoing confusion about cooperation with the police and civil authorities. the bottom line is this. however much work is still undone, however much ground at the vatican still has to cover to truly get its hands around this crisis, i can tell you from personal experience and observation, i can promise you that the situation would be infinitely worse were it not for the impact of pope benedict xvi. how has the this junction between the reality of those who have seen it from up close and the public image that has been created, how is that divergence possible? i would suggest that all parties to the recent public debate bear some responsibility for this and dissonance between image and reality. it is a fact, not opinion, not subjective interpretation, it is a fact that some of the

reporting in the secular press on this issue has been sloppy and one-sided. it is also true, however, that on the other hand, i think in many ways the vatican has been remarkably adept at telling the pop's story. to the extent there is any crisis management strategy at the vatican, its impact has often been to make the crisis worse. blaming the media are comparing attacks, pope to anti-semitism and petty gossip have consolidated public impressions that the vatican is in denial, unwilling to acknowledge the legitimate questions that have been raised about the churches response. until that is forthcoming, it is unlikely that a broader defense of the pope is going to cut much ice. hear me carefully. the pope's record on this issue,

on balance, is that of the senior vatican official who has done more than anyone else to promote an aggressive response to this crisis. however, i would contend that it is going to be difficult case to make in the court of public opinion, as long as the tone is perceived as one of blaming the messenger and blanket denial. finally, however one diagnosis the causes or the implications of the sexual abuse crisis, one colleague of the experience of recent weeks to me seems beyond argument. that is this. intense global focus on the crisis has made it virtually impossible to tell any other story about this pope or the church he leads. that is unfortunate with regard to pope benediction, because there is a good news story to tell about this pope. i am convinced in the long run of history, pope benedict will

go down as one of the great teaching pope's of recent centuries. even critics would generally concede that his teaching, expressed in his three in cyclicals to date, or his speeches on foreign trips, his 2007 book, and multiple other venues, that teaching has been thoughtful, provocative, and well worth pondering. focusing exclusively on the crisis that what is most distinctive about this pontific, and what is closest to the heart of the pope, the aspect that most bears his personal imprint, numb that ultimately comes into view. however, i would argue that the current mild a focus on the sex abuse crisis is even more of a distortion when it comes to the global church because it leaves scores of compelling catholic

story lines in the shadows. for example, the phenomenal growth of catholicism in the southern hemisphere. new developments in the relationship with islam. unfortunately, we are currently in a media environment in which is almost impossible to tell any of those stories. because of the incredibly tight focus that has emerged on the story of the sexual abuse crisis, and again, i think it is possible to suggest and probably accurate as far as it goes to suggest that some of that is a failure on the part of the media. i also think that corporate communications enterprise of the church and the vatican have to bear its own share of responsibility for creating and sustaining an environment. those are my three points. at the level of reality, of

substance, the attempt to lift benedick up as a global symbol of the crisis bounders on the shoulders of the fact that the actual reality is almost exactly the reverse. that gap between image and reality is not enough to blame on sloppy reporting in indio -- sloppy reporting in the media. the communications operation we have seen has not been helpful in terms of setting the record straight. the most toxic consequence in some ways of the current crisis is that it makes it impossible to talk about anything else about the catholic church. that is the toxic consequence i am here to attempt to address here tonight. in effect, what i would submit to you is, i am here tonight to play the part of the ghost of paul hardy, here to tell you the rest of the story.

that is my attempt to segue into the meat of my presentation here tonight. it is the future of the church in the 21st century. let me know that there will be ample time for questions and answers at the end of this presentation. if you want me to impact any of those points i just made or to address other aspects of the tumult of the last couple of months, i am open for business. i may not actually know the answer to question, but absolute ignorance has never prevented me from addressing a subject before. i see no reason why it should here tonight, so i will bet happy to respond to whatever you want to talk about. the future of the catholic church in the 21st century. i would like to begin with a parable. as you know, jesus always began his public speaking with a parable, and what better model is that? i parable concerns a guy who is that roughly my stage in life, his mid-40's.

he is going through that inevitable midlife crisis. the particular way he decides to resolve the crisis is to physically rejuvenate himself. he takes out a membership at the local gym. he is becoming trim. he finds the best plastic surgeon in town and has the works, facelift, tummy tuck, the whole deal. at the end of this ordeal, he's feeling great about the results and decides to strut his stuff. he goes to the local barnes and noble, picks out a couple of magazines, makes his way up to the counter, and ask the clerk, which you mind telling me how old you think i am? the clerk looked him up and down and says lake 20's, early 30's, something like that. he says i am actually 37. you looked phenomenal for your age. what is your secret? now he wants to do it again, so he leaves the bookstore and goes

next door to mcdonald's. it is lunch rush at mcdonald's, he has to wait his turn in line. he gets up to the counter and orders his happy meal. as he is paying for it, he says to the teenager taking his money, which mind telling me how old you think i am? he looks him up and down and says 31 or 32, no older than 35, for sure. >> he says i am ashley 47 years old. i hope i look that good when i- am your age. now the guy is on cloud nine. he wants one last jolt of affirmation. he walks around the block and sees a cluster of people around a bus stop. he walks up and approaches one elderly woman and says excuse me, ma'am, sorry to disturb you. would you mind telling me how old you think i am? the woman says, if you take off

all of your clothes, run around in a circle and bark like a dog, i will be able to tell you how old you are. the guy obviously thinks this is a little weird, but he is determined to see if he beats the system, so he strips naked, runs around, baying at the moon. people are taking out their cell phones to call the cops. just as things are on the brink of complete chaos, he stops and looks the woman in the eye and says how old am i? >> the woman says you are 47 years old. he is flabbergasted and says that is impossible. how does it work? how do you do it? >> she said i was behind you in line at the mcdonald's. [laughter] the moral of the story is this. we were anyone who stands before you planning to possess esoteric

means of revealing the essentially unknowable. it be taken too seriously, you are going to end of naked, running around in a circle, and barking like a dog. i do not study animal entrails. i have no better claim to know the catholic future than anyone else in this room. i would nevertheless suggest that the effort of trying to look down the line of what my becoming is justified because of what it tells us about the present. it imposes a certain intellectual discipline upon us. it invites us to look beyond random headlines and all the junk that is washing across our individual radar screens and try to get our hands around those forces that are truly most fundamental, most pregnant with consequences in terms of shaping a catholic future. i have a project called the future church. this is the subject of my most recent book.

here is the full list of 10 trends thaa i teach in the book. in the interest of time, we will probably only be able to get to two or three. if you want the skinny on the rest, you will simply have to buy the book. marion mine, graduations are right around the corner -- bear in mind, graduations are right around the corner. i promise you, this is a book that keeps on giving. it is an ideal stocking stuffer for that special catholic in your life. this is an effort to identify it enforces -- to identify ten forces that are full of implications for where the time -pand treasurer of the catholic church is going to be invested in the years and decades to come.

this list is an exercise in description rather than prescription. we are working on the level of is rather than ought. it would be interesting to have a conversation about what ten forces we think ought to be propelling us into the world that is now aborning. that is not the exercise i am trying to perform here tonight. my argument is, these really are 10 forces that are enormously important for the future of the church, whatever you or i might probably think about them. my invitation tonight is to dial down that instinct that so many of us have in a 21st century world to move from information to conclusion in 0.8 seconds. to bracket of that temptation to

draw a normative conclusions. first, let's get our minds around what is actually happening. with that, let's get into the meat of it. the first trend is what i call the emergence of a world church. the picture you see on this slide comes from the holy father's recent trip to africa in march of last yyar. he visited cameroon and angola. i was about 50 feet away when this picture was taken. this was the last day of his trip to cameroon. a group of local, indigenous persons, popularly known as pygmies, did advance for benedict xvi. at the end, they presented him with a memento of his visit. it was a giant sea turtle. being the intrepid reporter that i am, i immediately went off to

the jesuit spokesperson to ask what would become of this giant sea turtle. he confirmed that it was being airlifted to wrong, but he declined comment as to whether it was being erected as a pet or an increase in -- it was being airlifted as a pet are as part of a stick. -- or part of a stew. a famous delusiotheologian saida self-conscious local family of faith. i want to argue that catholic demography lens of triumphant empirical confirmation to what he said almost 50 years ago. what you see on this slide is a

bar chart showing what happened to the catholic population in the 20th century. in 1900, at the dawn of the gwyneth entry, scarcely more than 100 years ago, there were 266 million catholics in the world. that is the orange bart that lived in north america and europe. just 66 million lived across the rest of the planet, principally in latin america. this was before the population explosion of the 20th century. just 100 years ago, the demographic profile of the catholic church is essentially what it was at the time of the council of trent. 100 years later, you see what happened. by 2000, there were 1.1 billion catholics in the world. most live in the southern hemisphere. in 1900, just 25% of the global

catholic population lived in the south. by 2000, it was almost 66%. if you move the clock forward to 2050, the projection is that by that point, it will be three- quarters. three of every four catholic men, women, and children alive will live in the global south. this is the most rapid, most profound, most sweeping transformation of catholic demography in 2000 years of church history. we are living through it right now. i would argue that in terms of what this augurs for the catholic teacher, the moment we are living through right now is comparable to that moment in the first century when st. paul left palestine and went first to damascus and ultimately to greece and rome, transforming primitive christianity from a set to any religious movement in the ancient greco roman world. that is the kind of scale and

scope and magnitude of the transformation we are talking about. this is a classic instance of what the late neil postman talked about as organic rather than added to change. it changes everything at once. obviously, the $64,000 question is, what is all this going to mean? it is interesting to know where the catholic population is these days. as catholics in the global south set the tone for the global church, what is that going to mean in terms of what catholicism in the 21st century is going to look, feel, smell, and taste like? i will hazard an answer to that question. i need to put an industrial sites grain of salt on the table first. anytime anybody stands behind a podium and starts trying to sell you generalizations about 720 million people, you need to be cautious.

for any generalized statement i can make about catholicism, there are millions if not tens of millions of exceptions. nevertheless, i think i can stand behind these four generalized points about the kinds of things we are likely to hear and see and feel from our brothers and sisters in the global south. in general, will find that catholics at the top and bottom, you will find that by western standards, they will come across to you is fairly conservative on matters of sexual morality and fairly progressive on most everything else. let me begin by saying that this business of dividing he managed the up into left and right is our taxonomy, not theirs. this is a set of categories that do not occur naturally to most people outside the western

sphere of influence. i was in you ghana at the major university there recently. -- i was then uganda recently having a discussion with political science majors. i began by asking them, we did think of yourselves as liberals or conservatives? they were not quite sure what they mean. i tried to explain them. would you be in favor of limited government, or a state that intervenes a lot in the economy? >> they said they could see the arguments for both. x i said let me try something easier. do you like george bush or not? at the end of the day, it became clear that i was trying to force them to make a choice that seemed artificial to them.

i spent about 10 minutes explaining what the typical american would mean by liberal or conservative. they said they were both. the categories i am using are not indigenous to the region of the world i am trying to describe. because they mean something to us, they help us get our minds around things. on the issues of culture wars, abortion, gay riggts, gender roles, the family, there is a meat and potatoes social consensus in the catholic church that by our standards will come across as remarkably traditional and conservative. if you want to see how that plays out and a christian context, look at what is happening in the anglican community. you have liberal churches that are pressing ahead with the blessing of same-sex unions and

the ordination of openly gay bishops. all of that is being ferociously resisted by an anglican constituency in the south. 41 million anglicans are in africa. there are more practicing anglicans in the nation of nigeria alone than there are in great britain. that is a clear indication of which way the winds are blowing. once you change the subject away from the culture wars to other issues, things like the ethics of free market global capitalism, war and peace, race relations, the environment, the arms race, all of those issues that we are accustomed to thinking up as social justice are peace and justice concerns, you will find a need and potatoes consensus in catholicism in the global sow that by our western standards,

as remarkably progressive or liberal. since april 2003, the date of the u.s.-led incursion into iraq, i have probably interviewed 300 catholic bishops in the global sow. i have never found one, not one who was not profoundly convinced that the u.s.-led invasion of iraq in 2003 felt our church's test for a just war. you may agree or disagree with that. i am just trying to describe the climate of opinion. the practical reality is that when we look at the global south, the people who will be setting the tone for the church, what is going to strike us is this counterintuitive mix up positions on some issues that struck us as conservative and others that struck us as remarkably progressive. to me, this seems reminiscent of

what the late cardinal of chicago talked about. it is increasingly going to be the kind of cluster of positions that the catholic church in the 21st century brings to engage in the issues of the day. second, the egos of catholicism in the south is heavily biblical and supernatural. it is the narrative universe and that all world of the bible. part of what that means is that things like miracles and wonders, feelings and revelations come at exorcisms, all of that stuff that in our culture cannot seem quaint or arcane or off-putting, this is very much part of the routine, daily meat and potatoes spiritual universe of the global sow.

the supernatural is incrediily close. you can almost reach out and testetouch it. this has all kinds of practical consequences. how do you do health care in a culture in which the default interpretation of illness is not merely in terms of physical cause and effect but also the operation of maligned spirits. if you don't understand that people have a spiritual frame of reference for understanding their illness, if you are just trying to treat the physical causes without addressing the spiritual world view in which for them healing has to take place, your inevitably going to end of treating only half of the problem. increasingly, this kind of lively, constant, palpable nearance of the supernatural will increasingly be part of

the warp and woof of social catholicism. i know that in western europe and on the east coast of the united states, we habitually think that the major competitor to the catholic church in terms of winning the hearts and minds of our people is ecularism. this is the worry we have at our next generation is going to be secularized. i am not here to tell you that is not a real concern. i am here to tell a that in most of the rest of the world, particularly the southern hemisphere, you have to look long and hard to find an actual secularist. secularism simply does not have a serious sociological footprint or round the world outside of the west. it does not have a particular footprint in the u.s. outside of certain segments of the culture.

some of you may know the name of peter berger. he once said that from the point of view of religious sociology, the u.s. is a nation of indians, by which he meant asian indians, governed by swedes, the most secularize society on earth. in any event, the point is that however non secularize we may be, the grass-roots reality in most of the rest of the world is not secularism. it is the competitive dynamics of a flourishing religious marketplace. to get practical, for the typical catholic bishop in

africa or southeast asia or most of latin america, when you ask them what are they really worry about, is not that they are losing people to secularism. it is ttat they are losing people to christian pentecostal ism. they are losing them to newfangled versions of indigenous religions or to militant radicals. most people run the world are not making choices between belief and disbelief. they are shopping for the particular brand of religious belief that suits them best. what that means is that in most parts of the world, the catholic church is not fighting abstract intellectual battles against secularism. they are fighting much more practical, pastoral battles against religious competitors. it imposes a much less ideological and more pastoral

services stamp on catholicism in the global south. their main concern is not the fine points of liturgical translation. their main concern is that the pentecostal are eating away at their populations because they do a better job of organizing prayer groups and doing his ministry and so on. that is what they are worried about. the stamp of southern catholicism is much more pastoral as opposed to ideological and abstract. if there is one defining characteristic, this is it. did you know that 90% of the human population today that is under 14 years of age is in the global south? they are concentrated in the southern hemisphere. the catholic church in the southern hemisphere reflects this demographic. i have been to about eight

different countries in sub- saharan africa and in many catholic parishes out in the bush. when you go there for sunday mass, your not sure if you are in a catholic church or in a day care center, because kids are literally hanging from the rafters. when you have a lot of young people in a mix, that tends to imbue a sense of optimism, a sense of the future taking shape. that has created a psychology among catholic leaders in the global south among bishops and clergy and theologians and rank- and-file laity. it has created a mentality in which they are convinced that their historical moment has come. result is that clearly in comparing the african senate in 1994 to the one that took place last year. in 1994, the african bishops

came to rome% in themselves to be in a subordinate position. they were coming to get instructions from the home office. when they came last year, there was a markedly different spirit. there is a sense that these guys were aware that they are leading the church in a part of the world where it is growing most rapidly and represents the future. they are coming as equals to engage in a conversation among adults about were the feature of the church needed to move. not only is there the human capital in the global itself to set the tone for the church, there is also a determination to do so, which is still by this kind of hopeful, youthful optimism about a southern moment that has arrived in the history of the church. that is our first tranche. i know we are running short on time. if you want to find this multi-

cultural, multilingual, incredibly diverse global church, you do not have to get on a plane and fly to sub- saharan africa to do it. all you have to do is walk up the door. increasingly, the u.s. church is a microcosm of this global church. these are the results of the most recent pew forum study. but 2030, for the first time, anglo's will for the first time no longer be a statistical majority in the american increasingly, this kind of highly diverse catholic church i am describing, getting ready for

it and trying to think through the implications of it is not just an abstract lead service to that fact that we are a global family of faith. it is about getting ready to minister to the american catholic community. increasingly, this is who we are. if that trend is concentrated in the global south, our second and final tranche is going to be more focused on the global north. it is what i call the emergence of evangelical catholicism. here i am obviously borrowing a term former protestant brothers and sisters and translating it back into a catholic concept. a revival of traditional catholic identity, so those traditional markers of catholic thought, speech, practice, that over the centuries have said is apart from the rest of the world and told us who we are. many things that indium.

-- immediate time after the second vatican council went of fashion but are back today, ttings like you krista adoration -- eucharist the adoration. this is why pope benedictu xvi revived the old latin mass. that is pillared number one of evangelical catholicism. pillar no. 2 is a public proclamation of that identity. this is the essence of being an evangelical. third, they understood as a matter of personal choice rather than something you simply imbibes from homogenous catholic neighborhoods and schools and families and so on. in that sense, it is obviously a

natural byproduct of secular ization. erodes those catholic ghettos. some of you are probably old enough to remember what it was like to grow up in a catholic ghetto in america. you remember what it was like when catholicism was the air you breathe and the water you drank, and which the momentum of the whole cold for propelled you towards religious faith and practice. you remember what that tasted and smelled like. you know that is not the world we live in any more. in this culture, if you are going to be a practicing religious believer of any sort, you cannot rely on cultural momentum to support that choice. it has to be consciously personal. in that sense, the evangelical

catholicism is simply a natural outgrowth of secularization. it is a carefully and consciously crafted strategy as an antidote to secularization. it has been adopted as job number one these days and its intent is to inoculate the church, to protected against assimilation to and seduction by this highly secular new you. we need to understand something about the sociology of contemporary europe. despite everything i just said about the locality of catholicism these days, we dare not forget that the leadership class of the catholic church remains a european enterprise. we don't call it the roman catholic church for nothing.

the headquarters of the institution still is in rome. we need to understand something about the social realities the church leaders are tripping across on their way to work every day. every 10 years, the pew. go around to -- or around the world and ask people to talk about their values. one question is always, how important is religion to you? these are the percentages that said religion is very important. indonesia, the world's largest muslim nation -- and we will not be able to get to islam tonight, but one of the analytical mistakes we often make is that we always see it through the prism of arab culture. only 25% of the world's moslems are actually era.

95% of the population of indonesia said religion is very important. in nigeria, the population is split almost on the middle between muslim and christian. 92% of the population said religion is very important. guatemala is latin america's first majority protestant state. 80% of the population said religion is very important. in the u.s., almost 60% of our population said the religion is very important in their life.

poland has 36%. italy has 27%. germany, 21%. russia, 14%. france, 11%. the point is, the contemporary europe is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the rest of the world in terms of the vitality of religious faith and practice. if that is the social climate in which policy makers in the church or living and moving in having theirbeing, it is no surprise that the attempt to defend catholic identity, to resist assimilation has become the top priority of the catholic church. this is not just my private hypothesis. the pope's most senior deputy, the cardinal secretary of

state, the no. 2 official after the pope himself, in 2007 he was giving an address to a group of businessmen in a lawmilan. this is the stated policy. i think this is the most important trend to get your minds around anyone to address and how decisions are being made had the policy setting level of the church these days. why things are being decided the way they are in the holy see and in many dioceses around the world. this is the engine that is driving the train in terms of the policy-setting apparatus. it is important to couple that with this point. it is not just the top down phenomenon. it is also very much much

bottom-up phenomenon. the number catholics are most likely to consider -- most likely to enroll in graduate programs of theology. there is a palpable wave of evangelical energy among those young catholics as well. this is both the top down and bottom of phenomenon with profound consequences for the future of the church. there is no area in the life of the church these days that is immune to pressures. in your local parish, on some sunday in the not too distant future when you show up for the sunday liturgy and the celebrant says to you, the lord be with you, your answer will no longer be, and also with you. it will be, and with your spirit. this is a more faithful and

accurate translation of the black and original. if you try to see that -- a more accurate translation of the latin original. we see it in doctrinal debate today. my point is, there is no spare of catholic life these days that is free or that can escape the inevitability of questions about kathleen identity. -- catholic identity. how do you foster a strong sense of catholic identity and communicated to the rest of the world? catholic higher education is an obvious case in point. there is not a catholic campus in this country that has not had all long and painful

internal conversations around the issues of catholic identity. it seems to me that the major challenge we will face in the 21st century in our part of the world is that a steering a middle course between to potential extremes. on the one end of the spectrum, we have my friend and colleague describes as catholicism light, a kind of watered-down, sold out version of catholic identity that is catholic in name only. terms of its values and world view it is effectively secularized. if we are honest with ourselves about catholicism in a bit the years since the second vatican council, we can find examples of this. it is not just that the area or in abstraction. it is a real and present risk. at the other end of the

continuum from catholicism light, is what i have coined taliban catholicism. this is a form of the faith that is so distorted, so angry, that it knows only how to excoriate and condemn. it is in effect a kind of bunker mentality. once again, if we are honest with ourselves, if we take a clear eyed look around at the catholic landscape today, we can also see examples of this tendency as well. therefore, it seems to me the central challenge is that we are going to have to recover that classic bit of wisdom filtered to us through st. thomas. virtue stands in the middle. in other words, we have to

recover that genetic catholic genius for finding both/and solutions. the pope was asked this question about the tension between catholic identity and dialogue and active engagement with the outside world. his answer to have to reconcile that those things was that historically, the genius of catholicism has been its capacity to cobble together both/and solutions to either/or problems. that is going to be the kind of defining hurdle we will have to overcome. i am going to skip past multipolar is somism and move st

to the big finale. the two trends we have covered and the ache that we did not have time to get to, it seems to pe that these trends are rich with the potential to unleash created new catholic energies. they are also fault with the possibility of new division, near paralysis, and you polarization. these are complicated matters, and there is more than one catholic opinion about how we ought to respond to them. it means that in these more complicated new world of the 21st center, before we get to thinking about what the rise of the global south means or anything else, there is a kind of court challenge will have to surmount. we have to overcome the tendency to be constantly of interval

tribal warfare in the church and foster what i am calling a spirituality of communion. that is a new willingness to accept those things that unite us rather than those that divide us. a new willingness to put the emphasis on the best of what all the various movements in tribes have to offer rather than what we do not like. i am going to tell one final anecdote to drive this point home and then we will be finished. some of the year may know that i grew up in rural western kansas. i don't know if anyone in this auditorium has ever been to rural western kansas. i can think of no reason why you should have been, but if you have, you know it is not exactly a thriving crossroads of the tourist industry. about the only time we get significant numbers of out-of- town visitors is in the fall, because that is pheasant hunting season.

there's a certain kind of guy who finds the idea of putting on combat fatigues and blasting shotguns in the air to be a real whhoot. this is easily done while consuming massive quantities of beer. just to give you a sense of the cultural menu i am talking about, my grandmother, who is in better physical and mental shape than i am, lives in a small hamlet called hill city. it is my candidate for the worst place name in america. there is no hill and there sure as hell is no city. we are talking about four hundred people on a good day. he'll see america has one hotel called the western hills motel.

i have stated some pretty funky lodgings are around the world, but i am here to tell you, this is the only hotel i have ever stayed in where there is a laminated sign in the bathroom that reads, please reads,gut your birds in this thing. -- plays denauplease do not guts in the sink. [laughter] one weekend in pheasant hunting seasons, we have an out of town guy, let's call him a lawyer from new york. he has come now to try to back himself of bird. he has spent a long and frustrating weekend with no success.

in the middle of the day sunday, he has to get back in his rental car to drive to kansas city or denver to get a flight to laguardia. before he leaves, he decides to take one last shot. he sees a pheasant moving across the sideline, fired his weapon, and brings down the bird. flush with triumph, he said across the field to pick up his trophy. just as he gets to where the pheasant has fallen, he finds a fence labeled private property, keep out pyrrhic he has invested too much tears and sweat, climbs over the fence to get the present. the former pulls up on his tractor and yells at him, what are you doing? lawyer says that is my pheasant, i am going to pick it up. the farmers as know, you are not. the bird fell on my property and it belongs to me. . .

that is probably less expensive than a lost appeared i could probably may take this guy out. -- then a lawsuit. i'd probably take this guy out. the farmer says, are you ready? the lawyer says, yes.

the farmer is wearing his work boots. he kicks him in the shins. he cries and the pain. he gives them in the solar plexus. this house of agony can be heard all the way to the nebraska border. -- his howls of agony can be heard all the way to the nebraska border. i can tell you do not know your geography. finally, this last, best chance of ever, the lawyer calls himself to his feet, dusts himself off -- he says, all right, now it is my turn. the farmer looks at him and smiles and says, that is all right, i'd give up. you can have the bird. [laughter] the moral of the story is this -- i would submit to you that too often our internal composition in the catholic church reduces to any classical -- to any ecclesiastical hug

viwe. -- view. instead, what we are really interested in doing is scoring rhetorical cheap shots against people we perceive to be archeological and ideological enemies. that way of doing business -- to be our theological and in ideological enemies. that way a business with is self-defeating -- that way a business is self-defeating. it will ensure that the catholic church never summons the best of itself to respond to the challenges of the 21st century. we need a new spirituality of communion. the work of fostering a new spirituality in the church is not a job for our hierarchy or are clerical task to do. it has to be done in communion with them.

or our clerical -- for our hierarchy or hour clerical staff to do. it has to be done in communion with them. it has to be a grass-roots picks before it can be codified. the job of conditioning and leading this toward a future defined by your job the is work for all of us to do, beginning with all of us together tonight. as your chronicler and scribe, the guy who gets paid to watch what you do and talk about it on television, i look forward to watching you rise to this occasion, which i have no doubt that you will. thank you, all, and god bless you. [applause]

>> thank you, john. many of you who took the opportunity to enter and right questions that you would like to have him to address this evening -- several of these are representative of what is on your mind. we will pose these to him now and listen to his response. the first is this -- how do you think the vatican can engage catholic young adults outside of world youth day? how can we, as a church, less than the perception of a gap between the clergy and laity? >> first of all, bear in mind, i am not in the whirlpool. if i had a silver bullet, magical solution, i would be doing something other than my current job and probably making a great deal more money.

having said that, the absence of a compelling answer has never stopped me from responding to a question. i'm happy to respond. the first part of the question, what can the vatican be doing to engage the you? let me make an observation -- i think that one of the problems we have in our kind of catholic culture these days -- which is a problem inside the church and also outside of it -- are that there are a lot of what i call purple ecclesiologies out there appeared what i mean by that is there is a tendency to see the church exclusively in terms of its hierarchy. think about the way the press+ covers the church. if something is not done by a bishop, it does not count as news. that is purple ecclesiology in action. the internal catholic version of purple ecclesiology is two things -- the hierarchy and the vatican is both a cause and solution for our problems.

therefore, the way i would advise you to start thinking about these questions is this -- if you think there is a problem with reaching young catholic adult these days, please do not make your first instinct to be waiting for the vatican to fix it. that is never the way change works in the church. in many ways, change will arrive in the catholic church last. at the joke goes, if you hear that the end of the world is on the way, make your way to the vatican, because everything get their last. -- there last. [laughter] the working model tends to be talked to us on tuesday and we will get back to you in 300 years. if i made a line of t-shirts, the model would be not built for speed. i am being flippant, but this is by design. what is the terrorism -- the

idea is that christ will be found on earth. by definition, a cautious, conservative, almost defensive manner -- our last line of defense. it is not the r&d department of the catholic church. think about it historically. how did we get the mendicant orders in the 12th and 13th centuries? it was because charismatic individuals saw a change in europe, the birth of new european cities, realised the need for new epistolic models, and invented the dominican order. it was a long and complicated process before the officialdom embrace them. why did we get the jesuits in the 16th century? was it because a pope ordered it? no. historically speaking, guys like gregory xiii and pius ix will not go down as great

innovators in the history of the papacy. charismatic founders, largely women, saw the need for new apostolic models to rebuild the educational and health care ministries of the catholic church in europe after the college -- the carnage of the napoleonic wars. why do we get the great flowering of new wave movement in the 20th century? is it because the vatican had meetings at some point in which they decided this is what we need? no. it is because one individual saw the need, saw the fact that the intellectual class of the need was being left to marxists in the early 20th century and that the working class was being left to the populist movements. the invented new apostolic models to set laity on fire with an evangelicals zeal. my point is -- in every case, the vatican took an awful long

time to ratify an embrace the new models. my point is this -- the vatican is the last place to go looking for new vision and new energy and creativity in the church. the next-to-last place would be your national bishops. we all know how this works. you'll get a bishop who is a pioneer and a visionary -- we see that as a blessing. but if you expect that all the time, it is a prescription for perpetual harper. he will never be satisfied, because you are not going to get it. -- perpetual heartburn. you will never be satisfied, because you are never going to get it. what should we do about this? once we envision the kind of model necessary to evangelize, for, and catechized our young people, we can begin the process of trying to sell them to officialdom.

that is not, of course, tubes all the vatican for responsibility. if you want me to talk about -- to absolve the vatican for responsibility. if you want me to talk about things that the vatican could do to make itself more user- friendly, the first thing i would say is that there is a kind of generational change afoot in the vatican. i do not know how much you know about the sociology of the vatican. the highest-level officials, the president and their secretaries, the are usually in their 60's and 70's. the middle officials are usually in their late 20's to 40's. we have got -- one of my points is that at the middle level, you have a generation predominantly in their 30's. they grew up out in the world and they have wide experience of what it means to grow up as the

son of a secular age. they're extremely fluent in the language of postmodern north dakota -- post modernity. the official rule book of the holy city says that, in terms of those will make public presentations on behalf of the vatican, it is only that top level of officialdom. that is of obvious reasons. they can speak authoritatively on the way that people lower the -- in a way that people cannot. they have a vocabulary for the holy city. they speak more effectively to young adults -- to speak more effectively to young adults, those who are closest to being young adults, who are presently in service to the oil city, let them carry some weight. the art -- to the holy city, let them carry some of the weight. there are men and women in service to the holy city who could do a great deal of this

for us, if we were to construct an institutional culture in which they were encouraged to do it. i think that would be helpful. again, please do not put all of your eggs in the basket of a expecting the vatican to write in on a white steed with some kind of magical solution. it is not going to happen. if our problems are to be solved, they will have to be solved at the grass roots. it will be in collaboration with, but not dependency on officialdom. but is it likely that the holy city will adopt a policy -- >> is it likely that the holy city will adopt a policy for the protection of children for the universal church? can the american church help? >> this is a great question. it requires a high score on catholic literacy to understand the question. basically, as you know, when the sexual abuse crisis erupted in

the united states in 2002, the american bishops put together two documents. one was a charter for the protection of children and young people, which they committed themselves to, in terms of a gentleman's agreement. they also adopted a specific set of new canonical norms which were approved as law for the church in the united states. it is obligatory. this is the so-called one strike and you are out policy -- it is at the heart of those. there is a great irony. when this happened back in 2002, there was enormous ambivalence about these norms in rome. many senior vatican officials saw these as a kind of intrusion to tradition. history was on their side. it is true that can unlock through this century has traditionally -- canon law through this century has traditionally been given

tremendous discretion to make punishment that fits the crime. it is not a cookie cutter, one size fits all model. it is not indigenous to the culture. some of the opposition was more just a sense of the vatican that this was an overheated, american overreaction. along friend at the american bishops had in the initial process was the man who is now pope benedict 16. -- pope benedict xvi. the reason the vatican signed on was because of the personal and mentioned that he made. that is historical fact. -- intervention that he made. that is historical fact. this is a passing american overreaction. today, the american bishops are looked upon as the great heroes and pioneers. they are the trailblazers,

setting the minimum -- setting out the kind of path that the rest of the church eventually needs to walk. i do believe that -- this is not to speculation -- in the congregation for the vatican right now, they are working on an update to the rules of 2001 that john paul ii put into place. in the first place, that would codify the special faculties that brought singer got. -- ratzinger got. they would incorporate of important -- that would incorporate important elements of the american law. he has to be suspended from ministry. he has to be taken out of the field. i do think that is coming. there are other aspects of the american norms that are a little bit more normal to impose on a global church. let me give you practical examples.

the american charter that we're talking about commits the bishops to reporting every critical accusation of abuse to the police and every other relevant civil authority. that is partly because the ships are now mandatory reporters. they have no choice about that -- the bishops are now mandatory reporters. they have no choice about that. for america's, that -- four americans, that seems a no- brainer. if you receive-- for americans, that seems a no-brainer. if you receive information that a child is being abused, of course you should call the police. now, what does that mean in a place like north korea? what would that mean in a place like vietnam, where you have regimes were actively seeking to subvert the church -- regimes who are actively seeking to subvert the church? think about that would have meant during a police state in

latin america during the '60s, '70s, and 80s. what would that have meant in the state of the former soviet union? those who refused to inform on their clergy to the police -- the secret police -- they are heroes. the guys who did are so toxic that it cannot be appointed as bishops. a year ago, benedict xvi try to appoint a new bishop -- archbishop of warsaw in poland. it lasted about five minutes. it turned out he had been a collaborator with the circuit -- with the secret police as a young bishop, informing on his own quirky to the cops. given the variety -- his own clergy to the cops. given the variety, there are solutions that seem obvious, but it are not necessarily obvious. it is difficult to craft with detailed policies that necessarily apply to every imaginable situation all the world.

the essence of the american norms, immediate suspension for credible accusations of abuse, and permanent removal from the ministry of those accusations are sustained -- i do think there is a critical mass in the holy city that wants to see that become the global policy. i expect that new amendment to canon law will probably be ruled out in the next 12 to 18 months. >> as a keen observer of the vatican, how do you envision the vatican in 50 years as a result of the trans world wide that you have identified in your recent work -- the trends world wide that you have identified in your recent work? >> first of all, let me compliment you on your taste in the vatican observers. really, well done. if you mean, are we going to

have at african pope or something like that -- let me just begin with my normal caveat. the trash heaps of church history are littered with the carcasses of journalists who have tried to predict the next pope. this is a notoriously hazardous enterprise. i do think that -- in my lifetime -- i am 45. i expect, in my lifetime, to see the election of a pulled from a global cell. in large part, that is -- of a pope from a global cell. in large part, there is a large percentage coming from the global south. the percentage that comes from europe is going to shrink. therefore, the basic laws of the kind of betting odds would suggest that the chance of a pope from the global south goes up. i would also expect at a level below the pope -- the presidents, prefects, the

offices of the holy city -- increasingly, the tendency will be for more of those guys to come from the global south. that has been instance -- that has been the case since the wanted to get up john paul vi. -- that has been the case since the pontific it john paul virgin islands -- pontificate john paul virgin islani. we're talking about 21 policy- making offices in the vatican. 17 of those secretaries are still italian. 50 years from now, those numbers will look different. you know, keep in mind what i said about the vatican being the last place to go looking for change. i do not think the vatican will look or seem radically different in half a decade -- in half a century than it does today.

it is there to ensure that the chuuch is not swept away by the passing fancies of a particular age. institutionally and structurally, it will look similar. given the impact of the trends that i outlined, the personnel will be different. they will be more international and more representative of the global south. secondly, in terms of the priorities of the vatican, where it invests its time and treasurer, my one, top shelf, front-burner production, would be that the rise of the global south and other trends that we did not talk about would be a fundamental shift in the catholic priorities from external issues. the theological and pastoral

energy of the global south has very big implications for internal catholic baseball -- the kinds of things that we spend a lot of time thinking about. who should be ordained? how much power should the pope have versus local bishops? how should we translate that absolute to absolute in that one part? i did not want to minimize those things, but that is internal catholic baseball. what those in the global south are concerned about is how the church can be a change agent in the broader society. when practical example -- if you were to ask a defining political and pastoral concern for a wide swath of the catholic church in the global south, it is a struggle against corruption -- the effort to raise a morally- sensitive generation of business and civic leaders who can be inoculated against the tendency to seek public office or

corporate leadership as an opportunity to enrich themselves and their tribes. that is because, in many societies, the whole political class is either bought off or has no sense of the common good. there are organizations are run the world to have estimated that corruption takes a toll every year on the least developed countries in the world that is five times greater than the total amount of foreign aid from every developed nation. in other words, for every $1 in foreign aid that close to the 50-most impoverished countries on earth, $5 is lost because of the cumulative impact of corruption. that is the kind of issue that tends to animate catholicism in the global south. it is symbolic of what i would see as a broader transition from a leadership regime in the church whose primary concerns are internal.

it is not just at the top. it is also true of those at the grassroots, in many ways. look at the average, american catholic and ask them about the issues of the church. what all the talk about? they will talk about the sex abuse crisis, priestly celibacy, the ordination of women, stuff like that. if you talk to the average catholic and the global south and ask the same question, they will talk about corruption, ecological crises, war and peace, the struggle against poverty. those are the defining issues. my prediction would be that if that set the agenda for the global church, you will have the the vatican that is -- you will have the vatican that is more tangentially inclined to invest his time and treasure into external issues rather than internal -- invest its time and treasure into external issues rather than internal. it will still be the most stubbornly monolingual

environment on earth -- italian is the price of admission. it will be a vatican that better reflects half the democratic globally. in terms of its priorities, it will be more external and internal. -- ban internal. -- than internal. >> next, sam webb addresses a convention. later, we have a look at race relations in the united states. after that, a former attorney general talks about the legal history surrounding the rights of terror suspects. both chambers of congress returned from their memorial day recess this week. the senate gavels in on monday at 2:00 eastern to consider three judicial nominations with boats scheduled at 5:30. -- votes scheduled at 5:30.

the house passed that measure before leaving for memorial day recess. we expect several amendments to be offered and debate regarding the bills budgetary offset. although the senate live on c- span2. the house returns on tuesday -- follow the senate live on c- span2. the house returns on tuesday. later this week, a bill that provides the federal housing administration with the authority to raise insurance premiums on fha-guaranteed mortgages. they may also work on a $30 billion fund for small business loan measure. it creates a fund to increase the availability of credit to small businesses. the house is live on c-span. >> the new british prime minister and conservative party leader, david cameron, fields questions from members of parliament in his first "prime minister's questions," as the head of the coalition government. that is sunday at 9:00 on c- span.

now sam webb addresses his group's annual convention. he spoke about the 20 term -- the 2010 midterm elections, climate change, and other issues. this is 40 minutes from new york city. >> thank you. >> we welcome you to the 29th convention of the communist party. i am a big basketball fan. conventions, to me, are like an nba final between the lakers and

celtics. i am a celtics fan, as well. welcome to the 29th convention. especially, welcome to our allies and friends. i want to mention the deputy chief. he represents the communist party of vietnam -- i represent the communist party of vietnam and i bring you greetings from the entire convention. [applause]

please, extend our greetings to your whole party and to your general secretary you'll be hearing later from -- general secretary. you will be hearing later from laternguyen -- from comrade nguyen. the difference between now and five years ago and are convention in chicago -- a woman raised in the south bronx did not sit on the supreme court then. the president did not call for the evolution of new except in spirit millions -- acceptance. many had no health care or promises for health care in the near future. a mexican american woman, a daughter of poor immigrants, was not secretary of the labor department. [applause] the war in iraq was not winding

down. nothing was said about winning in the thieves on wall street -- about bringing in the peace on wall street. -- reining in the thieves on wall street. torture was not prohibited then. the pendulum of power did not get leaned in favor of working people or people of color. and an african american president was not in the white house. now, an african-american is president. [cheers and applause] much else has changed since then. let's look at both sides of the balance sheet.

the right-wing reactionary rule has ended. the labor movement is stepping up to the plate. a broad and loose coalition is coming into action after a short lull. days of unity are at a new level. and you're is turning into a protest action -- anger is turning into protest actions, and they are becoming more frequent and militant. cahnge i -- change is within reach. we're still fighting in iraq and afghanistan. oil is still spilling into the gulf. corporate negligence is killing miners and oil workers. a campaign to demonize people of color and immigrants is thick in the air.

the planet's temperature is rising and debt is piling up. in wall street, there are regrouping, trying to -- they are regrouping, trying to restore their power. there is an economic crisis that is deep, broad in scope, and prolonged. sobering, yes. daunting, for sure. are confident that the economic ship can be righted -- we are confident that the economic ship can be righted. america can become a more perfect union. [applause] freedom, said robert frost, lies in being bold.

today, powerful political and economic forces are at work. they hope to reverse the results from the 2008 elections. they hope to make the victims of the economic crisis pay for its cleanup. they hope to pileup wealth on both sides of the economic cycle. when it is going up and when it is coming down. if you do not believe me, consider these facts. in 2007, before october, 2008, when everything became unplugged, goldman sachs had year-end profits of $11.70 billion and pay out billions in salaries and bonuses -- paid out billions and salaries

--in the salaries and bonuses. they reported profits of $13.9 billion and again paid out bonuses in the billions of dollars just short late -- billions of dollars just two short years later. some people call this unethical. i call it our readers. some people call this wrong. i call it criminal. -- i call it outrageous. some people call this wrong. i call it criminal. [applause] some people call this an unfair. i call it robbery. in the words of our own woody guthrie, and parallel songwriter -- an unparalleled songwriter, some will rob you with a sixth gun and some with a fountain pen -- six gun and some

with a fountain pen. ain't that the truth. over the past 30 years, they have turned the economy into a high-stakes casino. the damage they have done is incalculable. there are many statistics. i could mention arena of statistics -- a ream of statistics. 30 million workers are either unemployed or underemployed. that is about four times the size of new york. can you imagine four new yorks where everybody is unemployed? that is what we have -- 30 million unemployed or underemployed. that is the official count. if you took the unofficial, more accurate count, it would probably be millions more.

what a loss of productive power for our country. numbers alone do not measure the impact of this crisis. they never have, and they never will. you can put a price tag on the hardships people are experiencing -- you cannot put a price tag on the hardships people are experiencing. crushed hopes and deferred dreams resist easy calculations. wall street executives will not pay for these crimes. any measure of justice -- they should go to prison for a long time. [applause] in the bronx, where i live, if you are young, especially black or latin, you can be arrested

for doing nothing or practically nothing and end up in the state prison for a long, long time. that is capitalist and racial justice in this ountry. that is the justice system that is riddled with class and racial bias. the unease and anger that is crippling our land expresses itself in a variety of ways. some do not know where to turn and resign themselves to their circumstances, even planning themselves for their misfortune. others are captured by people rhetoric, steeped in the subject of racism, distrust of immigrants, and false patriotism. in and doing the bidding of the very people -- may end up doing the bidding of the very people who are running them down. working people are turning their

anger into organized and collective rage against this crisis and its real cause. to mention a few examples that have escaped the mainstream media, union workers at hugo boss, ohio, prevented their plant from closing with the help of the actor danny glover. it was a big victory. opposition to arizona's draconian, unconstitutional immigration law is marshaling their and elsewhere around the country. -- there and elsewhere around the country. [applause] as i said, being a basketball fan, can we have a tear for -- cheer for the suns? [applause] can we have arousing boo for

phil jacking -- a rousing boo for phil jackson? he came down on the side of the arizona state legislature in support of this draconian, unconstitutional measure. i do not know whether to blame los angeles or chicago for that. they are both distancing themselves from phil jackson. there are mobilizations on the campuses of california against cutbacks. they made marches in the number of cities, including new york, wall street. the near victory of our own mayor in cleveland -- it is a sign of the times. would you stand? [applause]

the anti-nuclear conference and rally at the un in early may struck a much needed note for peace. one of those or meters is here with us. would you stand? -- one of those coordinatorr is here with us. would you stand? [applause] not least, the struggle over health care reform signifies this action. everybody stand and give themselves ar round of applause. [applause] the bill's passage was not only a hard-earned victory, but it

also broke a republican- engineered logjam in congress and gave a fresh push to change. social progress is a fight, much like our red sox-yankees game -- a red sox-yankees game. if there is no struggle, there is no progress. so then, so today. as for communist, and the delegates here, we will be in the mix, building people's confidence that victory is possible, fighting for unity,

keeping the focus on the right wing and the corporate criminals, bringing our views to a growing audience, and staying in tune with the thinking of the american people. but thinking and the mood of the american people -- but thinking and the mood of the american people -- the thinking and the mood of the american people is important as far as broad action is concerned. we should not make the mistake of informing what we think as necessarily what the american people think and are ready to fight for. at the same time, we must appreciate that what people fight for is not static. it is not stop in stone. what energizes people today can easily give way to something more radical tomorrow. one poll said that growing numbers of young people are

gravitating towards socialism, at least as they understand. another poll says that americans like progressives are unhappy with the two-party system. what is the moral of the story? it is not that socialism is around the corner. it is not. nor is it that millions are ready to vacate the democratics tomorrow. they are not. the moral is this -- stay tuned, stay connected, be sober-minded. be flexible. think. appreciate fluidity. be ready to shift gears. have the courage to lead. build a constituency for jobs, equality, political independence, and socialism.

not least, shed what is outdated. renovate, modernize, rebrand. grow our presence in political affairs. the playwright says it much better than i do in a poem. "it takes a lot of things to change the world. the quick initiative -- reflection. local patients an infinite perseverance -- the cold patience and infinite perseverance. only the lessons of reality can teach us to transform reality. -- realtiy."

yes, we can. >> yes, we can. >> ok. that is coming. [laughter] the two issues of overriding importance of the 2010 election and the economic crisis, especially the growing and chronic joblessness in our land. i wwll address them. and end on a them notes the signing -- i will address them and end on a cautionary notes. -- note. much has to be done to appoint the american people with a constant in order to counter the legion of lies spilling from the mouth of the party of no. moreover, the ongoing fight to

deepen health care reform, to curb the health industry vultures, and for universal, affordable health care continues at the state, local, and national levels. back to the job struggle -- our challenge is to step up activity. there are millions of employed and unemployed. by the usually assisted labor movement and other organizations to join -- and they join in increasingly militant actions. this turn toward militancy, including peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience, is the spirit of the late dr. martin luther king. it is much needed.

as a little boy, my mother would tell me when things became strained, a little founder comes before every rainbow -- thunder comes before every rainbow. this has an application to politics, too. it is urgent to win the current battles for unemployment compensation, financial reform, education -- the harkin jobs bill and the other bills -- their passage will make a difference for millions of families living on the edge. a friend of mine said to me, " sometimes a piece of legislation makes only an inch of difference. but do not forget a lot of people live on that inch."

also, without small changes like financial reform, it is difficult to make big changes and to stay with the wall street example, turning our financial system into a democratically- run, public utility. i got a kick out of the republican senator mitch mcconnell. i think he was talking about the negotiations going on in the senate over the details of the financial reform bill. his reply was that the government is taking over. our financial system -- is taking over our financial

system. as if this idea is not going to resonate with the american people. [laughter] i am sure a lot of people heard that and they said, right on. people are angry at the banks. turning to the election -- it will be a fierce battle. i do not have to tell you that the outcome is uncertain. it will have vast repercussions, either good or bad. billions have to be spoken to about the status of these elections. millions will have to be nudged to talk to their neighbors, co- workers, and fellow churchgoers. they must be urged to vote as if their future and their families futures depended on at -- family's futures depended on it. they cannot be convinced to buy into the right-wing, republicans

spin. the primary results this week suggest that it will not be as easy as the republican thought to win back control of the congress. [applause] to make things more difficult for them, the president is climbing in public opinion polls and the republican opposition to the regulation of wall street' will not play well on main street. much like the last election, all hands should be on deck. every member, every club, every commuuist -- you have to get cracking as you did in 2008. does this mean that we back burnt the struggle for political independence from the two-party system? by no means. the genie of independence is out

of the bottle. it is not quite look like what many of us thought it would. the genie of independence from corporate rule is breaking through, but largely within the framework of the two-party system, not outside of the. -- of it. we have to think dialectically. the book will actions of afl- cio -- the political actions of afl-cio, n.a.a.c.p., and many others are the most powerful expressions of independence, even though all are under the canopy -- this broad can be of the democratic party -- canopy of the democratic party.

it an alternative people's party, capable of challenging -- if an alternative people's party is going to emerge, and we see hat as a strategic necessarity, based in the working class, the women, the oppressed -- if it is going to emerge in these new formations, they will be its floor, the, the ground foundation. the working class movement, even within the two-party system, can win and utilize positions and the government to ban public policy and institutions to the advantage of working people and create conditions for independent peoples parties and more radical changes.

hearing that the two immediate challenges facing the american people are joblessness and the elections, some may understand that we ask, are we putting everything else on hold? the answer is no. i would add that both of these issues have to command primary attention. other issues such as afghanistan and iraq, the military budget, the elimination of nuclear weapons, green jobs, the environmental crisis and global warming, budget deficits and national debt, repeal of the draconian immigration lot in arizona, the fight against racism -- [applause] here.ve arizonans to h

freedom for the cuban 5. [applause] all of these issues and more have to be part of the 2010 elections and the struggle against eccnomic crisis. by the same token, the elections and campaigns have to find their way into each of these issues. neither the elections nor anything else can be won along narrow lines. people are erady for -- ready for broader approaches. success depends on connecting the links on the chain of struggle, while understanding that the jobs and elections troubles are the links that have to be grasped at the moment, in

order to move the entire chain forward. mitcharah palin's, mcconnell's, and rand paul's are deeply concerned about the growing independence and action of the people's coalition. barack obama's stunning victory, built on a new level, was a staggering loss for them, and momentarily paralyzed them. only momentarily. soon after the dust cleared in 2009, these right-wing scoundrels finance, encouraged, and participated in a new counter-offensive. many of the tea party supporters were shock proofed. the aim of this offensive is not

only to strip away the support of the president, but to issue new racial fissures in the broad coalition that supported him. if, when challenged, this new racist offensive goes unchallenged, it could lead to disaster. it could lead to a much -- much of earlier version of the bush- cheney administration -- much uglier version of the bush- cheney administration. my guess is they will not be successful. they need to run into a powerful, and to resist responses, -- antiracist responses coming from people of races,people of white [applause] nothing is so mobilizing as

united action. nothing is so scarring of the moral outlook of white people as is the poison in the practice of racism. it is the nation's most dangerous pollutant. can i hear a -- "si, se puede?" just one. the economic crisis is nearly two years old. i like to call of the second great contraction. -- it the second great contraction and to distinguish it from the recession's we experienced during the post- world war ii period. there are good reports on gdp,

consumption, and growth. there are plenty of reasons to be uneasy about the economy. would you agree? by most standards, the recovery falls somewhere between modest and stalled. if history is any guide, to return to normality following a crisis of this kind, it will be slow. within the realm of possibility is a new downturn -- a double dip, as it is called. furthermore, because of the inter-connections of the global markets, the bondholders and investors, and the buildup of external and internal debt in most countries, one cannot rule out a financial crisis breaking out in one or a few countries and spreading worldwide,. --