-seriously looking dead getting one, and my wife when, and my daughter -- i am seriously looking at getting one, and my wife one, and my daughter one, and i am in northeast nebraska. is this the wave of the future? there are people predicting this to be the wave of the future. i want to know how this will effect the concealed carry for self-defense and what have you? guest: ever since the supreme court decision in heller v. should of columbia concerning the scope of the second amendment, we have had this question in the lower courts about how far state and local governments can go to regulate gun possession publicly. i am a little bit loath suggest that the response to flash mobs should be for individuals to arm themselves. quite the contrary, part of why the government is so interested

in interdicting these activities is so that we do not come to that, that there is public pressure for self-help as opposed to ordinary law- enforcement measures. host: san jose, calif ornia, paul. caller: there is a parallel to sobriety checkpoints, where people's access to the road is provided by local police and they are pulling everyone over. i'm wondering if the guests could kind of do comparisons there. there at the discussion already with sobriety checkpoints and the law and that thing. host: interesting question, and we will close on that. guest: sobriety checkpoints, the aclu is against those. they are engaged in mass surge,

surge against everybody, rather --n one individual into but rather than when they have individualized suspicion. if they that particular individualized suspicion that you have committed a crime or are about to or are planning to -- i think that is a very good point that you make. host: from a legal point of view, is his analogy similar? guest: i think it would be more analogous to what washington and new york have already done, where you have searches of individuals before they goal onto subway systems. i think the critical difference between sobriety checkpoints and what we have here is that in sobriety checkpoints, police are not interested in interdicting criminal activity, they are interested in providing drunk driving and the possibility that drunk drivers might kill

innocent people on the streets. the reality is that there are no evidence -- is no evidence that the protests planned at the cellphone shutdown caught in a way of thought and with public safety for any individual. host: i know this will take us in another direction, but are you also against airport checkpoints because everybody is suspected of having something as they get on the airplane? guest: no, because if traffic is uniquely vulnerable to persons with -- because air traffic is uniquely vulnerable to persons with guns. we know what you have checkpoints set of -- we don't want to have at the checkpoints set up every corner and office building in america. guest: i think for individuals in cities like san francisco, washington, at new york, public transportation is a critical

part of their lives. host: also, to get back to it, we're talking about activity, i.e. using your cellphone, the right to speech. interesting discussion. we appreciate it. on our final segment, we will do the regular said on friday mornings, statistics on at snapshots about america. we will be talking to folks in the justice department and a criminology professor to give us a look through the statistics at crime in america. we will be right back.

>> watch more video of the candidates, see what political reporters are saying, and track the latest campaign contributions with c-span's website for campaign 2012. easy to use, it helps you navigate the landscape with twitter feed and facebook updates from the campaigns and the latest polling data, plus links to c-span media partners in the early primary and caucus states. c-span.org/campaign2012 guest: . >> tour recently reopened as slave quarters in mount vernon. a historically accurate look at slave life in 18th-century virginia. alexander butterfield talks about the secret taping system in the nixon white house.

the civil war resulted in tremendous loss of life but also great advances in medicine. the director of the national museum of the civil war medicine on the life-saving lessons learned during a four years of bloody conflict. throughout the weekend, we will visit frankford, kentucky for a look at its scenic beauty and it rich history. c-span.org/history. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are calling these segments "america by the numbers." let me introduce the guests who are part of this discussion. the chief statistician for the justice department, dr. james lynch, whose title is the director. justice statistics. pleased to have you here. and from st. louis, richard rosenfeld, a professor at the university of missouri of criminology and criminal justice. look forward to your taking part in our discussion.

guest: thank you. host: let me start with an overview number that looks at three types of crime -- a violent crime, property crime, and unemployment rates from 2009. the numbers look like good news for americans. guest: it is good news. criminal victimization is never good news for the individual, but you take some pleasure that this is what policy area with the rate of -- where the rate of crimes has declined pretty consistently over the past 20 years. host: what should we know that is behind the gathering of these numbers. -- behind a gathering of these numbers? guest: this is taken from the national crime victimization survey, which asks about experience with crime. host: so it comes from the results of the survey, not the

police department. guest: we were putting in a great deal of money into the police system to make it better, and that they wanted an independent source of information on crime. that is when the survey methodology was developed. we have had since that time, and nations all over the will have adopted this, because of the need up for an independent assessment of the crime problem. host: and it is conducted annually? guest: it is connected continuously. not just one time in a year, but all times during the year, interviews with citizens. host: there is a secondary analysis i will get to, but i want to ask professor rosenfeld about what is contributing to this downward trend in property crime and violence rate in u.s. society.

guest: that is an important question, and honest answer is that the research has not yet told us. i do want to comment, though, on the figures showing an upturn in unemployment but continuing declines in criminal victimization. i agree completely with the director lynch that the decline in criminal victimization is obviously what we all want, but i question the use of the unemployment rate as the sole indicator of how economic conditions may influence criminal behavior and victimization. there are other economic indicators. the inflation rate is one, consumer confidence is a nother. they tell overtime a more consistent story on how the economy influences crime and victimization. when inflation rates are low,

and they has been historically low the last few years to bring this reason recession -- when that happens, we don't typically see crime increases. my point is simply that there are a number of economic indicators that should be looked at and we are trying to understand how crime is affected by the academy. host: would you like to comment on that? guest: no, i think professor rosenfeld is absolutely right. there is a lot of things going on. host: to our viewers, we invite you as always to be part of this discussion on crime in the united states and the trends. you can join us by phone, e- mail, and you can tweet us comments and questions. i thought this statistic was also interesting. it deals with public perception of crime and trends in violence in versus what seems to be the reporting of such things. why is there such -- well, let

me ask you to explain the large gap in reporting, and that we might ask professor rosenfeld why there is such a difference in public perception of versus reality. guest: for a certain period of time, between 1993 and 2001, they worked tracking -- fewer of the public think crime is going up during the 1990's, when crime is dropping dramatically. route 2000, 2001, that tracking was disrupted -- around 2000, 2001, that tracking was disrupted, at a slower rate than in the 1990's, but tremendous increase in the public perception that crime is going up. a very interesting destru -- disjuncture. host: public feels less safe? guest: maybe we are afraid to

look at the good news in this regard, but i think this juncture was a surprise to me when i saw it. host: professor rosenfeld, why does the public seem to think it is less safe for they are more victimized by crime than the numbers suggest they are? guest: public perceptions are not simply influence by individual experiences with crime. at the vast majority of individuals in any given moment have no direct experience with criminal victimization, because, fortunately, a series of victimization is quite rare. -- serious victimization is quite rare. but the general public is blasted continuously by the media, both mass media and segmented media, with stories of the latest gruesome and often violent crime. it is not surprising that

public perception of crime may diverged somewhat from reality. it is interesting, as director lynch noted, that during the 1990's we had a persistent decline in crime. that was an instance in which public perceptions indeed did catch up with reality. host: one of our twitter followers tweets to us. "i stopped watching local news years ago. i know crime is going down." guest: well, local news -- host: if it bleeds, it leads? guest: exactly. crime, fires, that is the bread and butter of local news. i would not advise anyone to rely strictly on local news for advice about crime. host: we will dig deeply into

the demographic reporting of the victimization by factors such as age and sex. we will begin with florida. diana on the line for our two guests. caller: good morning. i am wondering how many cops have been killed, i guess, within the year, recently, and then again, how many citizens at until the cops -- how many citizens have been killed by cops. guest: there are data collected on that by the fbi did i don't have it at my fingertips, but you can go to their website and look at their leoka collection, law enforcement officers killed and assaulted, which would give you some information on that. there is also some inflammation -- some information in supplementary homicide records maintained by the fbi that will give you the idea of a justifiable homicide, largely

shootings by the police. if you go to the fbi website, you will see data on those two phenomena. host: i might tell you that "usa today" has a story on its front page, 1/2 of that, which is the increasing number of police being killed in what they say are ambush attacks. "nearly 40% of police officers fatally shot this year have been slain in ambush-style attacks or when they were surprised by suspects with firearms. the killings, many stunning for their brutality, have officials scrambling to provide additional protection or training. of the 50 officers killed by gunfire this year, at least 19 were victims of ambush or surprise attacks, according to a review of case summaries and interviews with police officials. a violent crime in much of the nation has been in steady decline at." that intersects with the numbers

you are showing. guest: remember, though, the numbers are quite small, and a dramatic event can cause them to rise. one incident, where multiple officers are killed. but it is a problem. the attorney general had a meeting on it a couple of months ago. it's on everybody's mind, that law enforcement people are at risk. but these numbers bounce around a lot. host: it demonstrates how the stories in the media bounce around the numbers. can you tell us what agencies in the government collect crime- related statistics? guest: when you say "crime related it," it is a very big tent. the bureau of justice statistics collected data on law enforcement agencies, the court, the correctional system, people entering and leaving the correctional system, surveys of inmates, how their conditions are in prison. there is a lot of data collection just by bjs.

the bureau of investigation has useful data on the administrative office, u.s. courts, i whole bunch of federal agencies have -- we combine their data into a collection of our own. there are a number of the federal agencies in addition to the fbi that collect information. host: how is the date that used? guest: -- hwow is the data used? guest: to get snapshots of how we are doing. the prison population has been growing for decades. in 2009, it first began to decline for the first time since the 1980's, or maybe for the first time ever. it is important for people to have the data on the phenomenon, because crime is such a volatile issue. as rick was pointing out, some of the tendency of the newspaper is "man bites dog" or "if it

bleeds it leads." people can get so enraged that they to unwise things. one of the benefits of having these routine statistical series, when things are alleged and put forward in the policy process, you have something you can go back and check assumptions and things like that. that is what i think is so important guest. host: richard rosenfeld, can you comment on the numbers and the government and whether they are presenting an accurate picture? guest: i think there are periodic indications that the public, often led by local his papers, it may be skeptical about the ability -- often led by local newspapers, may be skeptical about the ability of these numbers and the perception

that law-enforcement agencies are presenting a rosy picture of their own successes. but by and large, the statistics that director lynch was referring to are really quite valid. they are collected systematically, checked systematically. that also goes for crime statistics. on occasion, in a given city, there will be a problem with crime statistics, up to and including some doctoring. but that is happening less and less, it seems to me. in part that is because of the media vigilance. local police departments and officers and commanders are loath to get into that difficulty by the public can have confidence in the indicators produced by the bureau of justice statistics. with respect to crime, the survey data at director lynch

was talking about can be used as an important complement to the data produced by the fbi. host: holly, good morning. caller: i am so happy to get you cannot even tell you. i been trying for a long, long time. do you think that criminals who victimize others -- is it poor upbringing, poor schooling, poor parenting, or it sometimes people just want what they don't have an update after victimize others? my car was victimized by people walking on the streets at 4:00 in the morning, keying my car, breaking the windshield, breaking them ever. i don't understand how people can just victimize others like that. do you have answers to those questions? host: richard rosenfeld.

guest: well, criminology is devoted to answering those questions. i will not claim for the field major successes quite yet, but i think there are important insights. what the caller points to, difficulties in early childhood, parenting difficulties and so forth are clearly correlated with later life crime and delinquency. but there is also a demand side to crime, not just the incidents that the caller just described. that strikes me as what one criminologist called the kind of hedonistic crime that on the service appears to have no rhyme or reason other than just causing somebody else pain. but much pride is in response to the demand by many of us, not just serious criminals, for cheap goods. stolen goods -- their cardinal

quality is that they are cheap. did the extent that we demanded cheap goods, there is always a market for those who will supply those goods, and to the degree that demand persists, there will be incentives for those to go out and rob, steal and burgle to supply those markets. host: this viewer ask, "are there specific urban areas seeing increases in crime? guest: the survey does not produce a wider array of the sun national -- subnational estimates, although we are doing work out that will allow us to do that brought you must rely on records collected by the fbi could look at specific jurisdiction conditions. if you do that, you see that some places are going up, some

are going down, unlike the 1990's, when there was a robust and systematic decline in all large cities. now we see some cities are going up, some going down. it is a much more mixed bag from about 2000 on. yes, there are certainly some places experiencing increases while others experiencing decreases. host: i would like to run it through the next couple of slides in tandem. first, violet victimization rate by sex. what we see when we look at this is what? guest: what you see is a decline in the difference between men and women in terms of the rest of the victimization. -- the risk of victimization. the two rates are converging. that is kind of surprising. i think you have a slide on

homicide, which is more serious. the first slide includes all forms -- rape, aggravated assault, robbery. some of the violence in the simple assault area is not that serious. but if you take it as a whole, of violence between the genders is becoming more similar. if you look at the serious stuff like homicide, you can see that in the early part of the period, there has been a decline where the victimization of the men in terms of homicide declines it quite substantially -- host: this is since 1993. guest: right. but around 2000 or so, you see that gap persist. the genders are getting more similar in terms of the risk.

they have gotten more similar over the long period, but the gulf still exists with meant victims ofn serious violence more often than women. host: let's look at how it is trending by race. guest: every ethnicity we recorded here, the risk of violence is going down. but if you look at the green line in that graf, which is for african-americans, in the 1990's there was a very rapid decline in victimization. this was mere wor -- this was mirrored in police statistics as well. some people led to this is where the drug war was resolving itself -- some people allege this was where the drug war was resolving itself.

in the period around 2000, 2001, it began to even out for everybody. the decline continued, but more evenly for all race groups. host: hispanics -- this seems to be turning up a bit. guest: i would love to hear what professor rosenfeld has to say about that, if anything, because that is a puzzle for us. host: professor roosevelt, do you have any comments for white is trending up for hispanics? -- why it is turning out for hispanics? -- trending up for hispanics? guest: i don't. i would be willing to conjecture that soon we may see such increases on the part of low- income populations generally if the economy doesn't pick up relatively soon. i wanted to make one additional

plan, if i might, about the decline in -- one additional point, if i might, about a decline in gender differences that director lynch pointed out. a violin to victimization has been declining for men and women -- violent victimization has been declining for men and women in the u.s., and the convergence he referred to is about the numbers for women it somewhat different from those among and we're not seeing an explosive growth in women or female crime. it is simply that male rates are coming down more rapidly than female rates. host: one more, good news for baby boomers. 50 or older is the bottom line, essentially flat line as the lowest since 1993.

for all the other age groups, 12-17, 18-24, it has been coming down, but at different rates. guest: the important thing here is that all age groups are experiencing declines. older folks, it looks like just because of the scale, the rate is so low anyway that you cannot really see. a decline of the 52% over that whole period, while the other groups are more in the range of 70's, something like that. there is an optical illusion here, but it is still going down for people of my vintage, but not going down as rapidly for some of the other groups. the other important thing is that it is going down for all age groups. sometimes we have crime declines in the united states driven by demographics. it is not like the risk for anybody has gone down, but that the number of people in the high-risk groups is less than it

has been. that is not what is going on here. host: another question for you, richard rosenfeld. ages 12-17, although declining, at the highest of violent victimization rate. what is happening in society if that is the case? guest: nothing recent, i should say. that age group historically has had relatively high rates of the victimization and also offenders. with respect to the numbers we are talking about today it from the bureau of justice statistics, it is important to point out that when we include a simple assault, as professor lynch alluded to earlier, those are assaults that do not cause or threaten serious bodily injury. that is the bulk of the activity we see in that age group.

while it is always troubling to see the high rates in the adolescent years, we should keep in mind that those rates don't simply reflect very serious crime brought by and large they are reflected less serious -- by lessarge they refelclect serious assault. host: indiana, you are on the air. caller: i was born and raised in new york city, and we're eyelift was predominantly white, italian, irish, german, very low crime tied it was blacks that moved into the neighborhood and within eight years, at 10 years, it turned into a demilitarized zone. we did what we called white flight, because we did not want to live with crime and the schools were getting bad and we moved to long island brought four years it was beautiful, high productivity, and within 10-15 years, minorities,

predominately black, moved in and crime spiked up again. i then moved out to indiana, a small town in northeast indiana, predominantly all-white, in education, productivity, low crime. i suggest that these people with graphs hop in a car, go to south bronx, compton, gary, indiana, see what happens, and i submit to you this, if i was making an observation as an alien and i look at statistics, large, predominantly black neighborhoods, non-white neighborhoods, i would see tremendous amounts of crime and violence. if i noticed areas of white neighborhoods, buhigher education and productivity to the biggest myth is that if

people don't have money that leads to crime. we were poor white trash but we did not urinate on the streets -- host: what is your conclusion? caller: non-whites are more predisposed to crime. it is in the disposition. come out of your bubbles and look at reality, look at the cities. they are destroyed -- host: all right, you have had enough time to make your case. guest: i will not speak for director lynch, but i live in neighborhoods, too, and even those who do statistics for the living litigated a life. i would point out a few things

to the colored -- bang. even those who do statistics for a living out of that day to day life. i would point out a few things to the caller. he mentions the bronx. the bronx is a much, much safer place today than it was in 1990. the idea that these are somehow unchangeable group differences i think this is belied by the evidence. secondly, the caller mentioned he has italianate back in the 1910's and 1920's, -- the caller mentioned he is a tie and. back in the 1910's and 1920's, when italians moved into the neighborhoods, the non-italians would flee. the story that caller is telling is at an american story, but not specific to black-white

differences in crime. host: anything to add to the discussion? guest: the caller presents an eloquent reason for why we collect statistics. we all want to generalize from experience, but from a policy point of view, you know what your experience to be generalized -- you do not want your experience to be generalized in a way that is and systematic. i do not debate the reality of what he's talking about. i'm just saying that his reality may not be other people's reality. the reality of his period of time may not be the reality of this period of time. that is why you want to do things systematically instead of generalizing from your own personal experience. host: let's go back to statistics. this suggests that the number of crimes at or near your home is on the uptick. guest: i think there is a

pattern of things here that you are probably -- you will probably go on to talk about. there has been this change in crime that we can pull apart because we have this data on individual incidents of crime. it suggests that public places have gotten safer. semi-public and private places may not have experienced the same decrease in crime. it is not that it had increased, it is that they have become a greater proportion of the crime problem that we have. re is violenceue by victim-offender relationship. both are ticking up, but stranger increasing more. guest: if you look at trend overall -- host: started out higher, coming

back -- guest: you notice the crossover in the early 1990's. what you had is that more and more of the violence that remains is among people who know each other. host: closer to home, if you look at those in tandem. guest: we are painting a picture where we have been able -- we have had more success in crime reduction -- more of the success and a crime reduction has been in public places straight public places usually bring strangers together. what we're seeing is that the declines is less in public -- crime is less in public places, less involving strangers. host: richard rosenfeld? guest: whatever one might say about the malling of america, the widespread proliferation of

inclosed shopping areas, those are simply more protected environments, and that might be one of the reasons we're seeing a decline in crimes committed in public spaces. the other point i am wanted to make is that the decline in stranger crime is especially notable in sexual violence, sexual violence and rape, where there has been a deep decline according to survey data in rape and other forms of sexual assault. host: next call is from harrisburg, pennsylvania, a.j. caller: good morning, everyone. how are you? host: good, thank you. caller: i have a question, based on the statistics did i would like to know the demographics based on the older generation, the baby boomers. a lot of them are retired and i see them in the morning sitting

and reading the paper and discussing things and at the shop on their faces. not only that, but with unemployment, people are out of work and it gives them more time to read the news and talk about it. maybe the perception of there increases because of that. i want to go back to what you are saying about hispanics could they are the largest growth rate for populations, and sometimes they are in the low-income areas. that kind of be my guess with that. i fully support, after watching c-span -- there was a latin american with the dea the other day that discussed how to fight drug cartels and that we need support from multiple levels, local organizations in these other countries to combat drugs. that is all i have for today. host: thank you very much. we go back to the victimization rate, and he suggests that there are more hispanics and the

population. how does that affect the numbers that? -- how does that affect the numbers gathered? guest: these take into account the number of people in the population. the caller did raise a good point, that these are variable graphs and there are a lot of things going on behind them. one of the points you raise that is interesting is that the hispanic population probably has a large young component. remember, crime is declining for the hispanic population just like the other populations. it is just that the level is higher. some of that may be accounted for by the age issue, that there may be more younger people in the hispanic population than in the african-american or white population. the careful with these graphs. there is a world looking behind these numbers. host: richard rosenfeld, i saw you chuckling a bit when he talked about the baby boomers

drinking coffee. i think we have three of them here. [laughter] guest: i don't know if you want to know everything i was thinking. [laughter] host: oh, sure. guest: 80 also remind me of research suggesting -- it did also remind me of research suggesting, and this would be among older people, those who did had more of their information -- those who depend for more of their information about the world on media tend to be more fearful. people reading the paper and discussing it may suggest increasing levels of fear. when the baby boomers came through their so-called crime- prone years, that segment of the population bulged because it was the baby boom and we saw crime increases, considerable increases.

it raises the interesting question, what happens as this big bulge enters the late 50's and early 60's? overall, that should limit crime increases, because the population is aging. i certainly would not predict an increase in crime among the older population as the baby boomers entered that category. host: i have a question by twitter and i know you have that statistic and we did not put it in this chart, so i hope your memory is good. "how many people refuse to call cops in the first place?" guest: the proportion of people who call the police has increased gradually from about the low 40's to 54%. overall, in terms of total violence, there is a

slightly greater propensity for people to call the police. that is the neighborhood of where it is, burglary and property crimes more than for violence. host: gary, walk into the conversation. caller: [unintelligible] host: bad phone connection. he can hear you now. caller: the prison population has been going up the past couple of decades, the crime has been going down the past couple of decades. is there a chart showing the relationship between that? guest: we do have a chart on this. there is not a systematic relationship between the prison population at. crime has gone up and down as

the prison population has soared of increased -- has sort of increase over the last two decades. there is no simple trend correlation between the two phenomena, although there has been a great deal of much more sophisticated research on this issue. we don't make those conclusions of bread we just presented data and let people use them -- we don't make those conclusions. we just presented data and let people use them as they may. host: the overall incarceration rate, between 2007 and 2009 is beginning to decrease. richard rosenfeld, we will turn to you for thoughts on the color bang's question. -- that caller's question. guest: director lynch is right.

crime has gone down, preseison rates going upwards. the consistent message from that research is that over the last several decades, increases in the prison population correspond with relatively small but certainly notable decreases in crime rate. there has been some suggestion in the research that that process works to a certain point, after which a further increases in the prison population yield no crime decreases. that research is quite solid. i am not prepared to suggest that the decrease we're seeing in the prison population right now is necessarily going to lead to crime increases. host: champaign, illinois. this is richard. caller: good morning.

i lost my train of thought given that you out and talking so long and not letting anybody else talk at all. so many people in prison and nowadays, putting them in there for minor crimes. you have penitentiaries full guest:. they ought to go back to the old arkansas method. [unintelligible] the blacks and whites were segregated. back in them days, you didn't stay on death row for 20, 30 years. when i come out of the army,

dogs and soldiers keep off the grass is what was then. i got $72 a month -- host: i am going to stop you, because you are taking this in a lot of directions that are beyond the scope of the conversation. barbara is up next. caller: i would like to ask the same question as the gentleman earlier, if you would give me time to articulate what i have to say. i would like to look at crime on a grander scale. this gentleman talked about black and hispanic crime versus anglo crime. crime onk about anglo a grander scale. i think anglo people have killed more people than anyone.

when we go to wars -- first of all, taking his lead away from native americans, taking lives of -- taking this land away from native americans, it taking lives of innocent people, we take all this stuff from africa and the middle east and kill these people. bush, number one, killed a lot of people did not need to die. how many kids in high school kill people, too. in columbine, these kids in trench coats, and had they been black, they would of been called a gang. let's talk about crime on a grander scale on the disparities with minorities in the country. i would like you to speak on a grand a scale, if you would, please. host: dr. rosenfeld?

guest: i have to say, i am highly sympathetic to this caller's message. to distill into the theme of this program, one, we ought to ask why we don't have as systematic and detailed and resource statistical series for let's call it grander-scale crime or white collar crime as we have with the kinds of so- called street crimes we and talking about. -- we have been talking about. it is absolutely essential that this nation becomes serious, in terms of our policies, but also in terms of our statistical portraits, a series on white- collar crime and its measurement. guest: i agree with professor rosenfeld. the indicators we're putting out here are a very narrow slice of the entire crime problem. there is no mortgage foreclosure, no fraud here.

host: mike they get it and we are just not talking about them this -- are they gathered and we have not just been talking about in this morning? guest: they are out there, we have some collection on that. but we need to rethink the basket of crime we choose to monitor it just like tha -- the basket of crime we choose to monitor. just like the cpi, years ago there was not all this electronic equipment. we have to rethink it every once in a while. including some crimes that are not street crimes, but certainly damaging to society, is something we should do. host: is that discussion going on in the justice department and those who use your numbers? guest: we certainly are thinking about it. the national institute of

had a panel on white-collar crime, but you need resources to do that. discussions in congress about cutting agencies, would it be a priority to let things go -- guest: the bureau was funded flat-footed for years. you feel like a report on the statistics and compare it to -- you look at the report on statistics and compare it to england and other places, we are under-resourced. but there are advantages that have occurred. people are collecting it administrative information much more completely than if they used -- than they used to. i definitely agree with professor rosenfeld. there are areas we need to go,

we need to update our basket ofr f crime goods. host: we have about 10 minutes left in our snapshot of the statistics that look at crime in america. next, long island. good morning, val, you are on the air. caller: yes, good morning. this question is for professor rosenfeld. i would like you to speak to a position i have regarding walter. walter called earlier and spoke about white flight, how in the beginning his family, hard working, they noticed an increase in minorities entering their communities. they left, and he went on to say that his family did that three or four times. what he wanted to say is that education and parenting and

peeing -- excuse me -- on the streets and poor schools were problematic. but what about the crime for the white male? you have scott peterson, the police officer with five wives who are missing, the white woman from california who kidnapped and killed -- it seems like we are only talking about minorities who cause horrific crimes, and yet story after story we see so many white males who are engaged in such horrific crimes and no one ever talks about that. we had a caller who talked about white collar crime. those are two separate things. why are minorities the only ones who are looked at and studied for serious crimes when in fact,

white males, and if you look at that graph, while the black crime rate had gone down, the white crime rate had gone up. thank you for taking my call. host: thank you. that was for you, professor rosenfeld. guest: yeah. well, i endorse the message the caller just provided. i think the caller is correct that there has been too much of a focus on minority involvement in crime, both on the part of the mass media, on the part of academic researchers. but there is important work on crime more broadly, including street crimes, so-called, more broadly. a historian recently published

an excellent book on the history of crime in the united states. for most of our history, a so- called street crime rates, homicide rates specifically, among whites have been equal to or higher than those among african-americans. it has only been within the last, roughly speaking, century, that we have seen this reversal. these are historically important patterns and historically contingent patterns, and i think the caller is right. we need both an historical perspective to understand that, but also, more focus on -- putting this color bang's message together with the previous caller -- crime perceived more broadly. host: we will move to another area of crime reporting,

identity theft and that on the internet. guest: i want to be sure we divorce what is done with the data and the date itsel -- data itself. the data on the race of the offender is there for everyone to see good weather people choose to see it is another matter -. host: this has to do with identity theft victims. total out-of-pocket loss for identity theft victims in 2008. the largest reporting is less than $100. guest: what you have to realize is who is in this table -- host: out-of-pocket loss. covered by credit-card companies? . guest: well, yes. if you read the small print, it is only 23% of people experience

and identity theft. 77% experienced no out-of-pocket loss at all. they may have discovered a charge on their credit card, but they are not responsible for that, because the bank or credit-card company will absorb that loss. there is societal loss. society is paying for it. but this is lost to the individual. it is more remarkable than what you are saying, because in this particular crime, people have been sheltered from harm -- not completely, as you see. there is a small group on the extreme that is losing crquite a bit. host: identity theft of victimizations by type of identity theft. this is hard to read on screen, but the first one is total identity theft, and then it breaks into categories great credit cards, a comparatively

low. bank accounts. other existing accounts. personal information, multiple types. what should we take away from this? guest: the interesting thing here is that certain types of identity theft be are not the province of the police. they had been handled in a different way. people know when their credit card is taken to call the credit card company or the bank. they are held harmless if they call in a certain period of time. you look down where the account of personal information is taken, and this is a much more amorphous threat, because you do not know where it will pop up next. host: let me get this book number on here, too. green light on each

of these charts, the credit card or bank. guest: who do you turn to. it is interesting to look at the personal information compared to the other bars. they are calling credit bureaus and other places to protect themselves. the take away is that here is a new type of crime that is removed from the criminal justice system. it is being handled in a different way. some of it is routine, like credit cards. other things, like theft of personal information, we do not have to go to. host: richard rosenfeld, comments on these new kinds of crimes, so called a victimless crimes, but individuals are not paying as much as other aspects of society. guest: i want to say two things. first of all, the bureau of justice statistics is to be credited, i think, for providing

this information. now the criminalogical profession has to stand up and develop the analytical tools we need to look at crime, as crime and changes venue from the streets to the internet. an appreciable fraction of goods for sale on the internet may have perhaps not my generation of criminologists, but the next generation will really have to give serious about internet- based crimes. host: alabama, richard. caller: i want to commend you for regionalizing your numbers. excellent. thank you for having these gentlemen on. such an on.

i want to go back to the previous discussion. the differences between violent crime and white collar crime are so starved in the fear that they cause. was in1990's when my son school there was a culture that took over the schoolyards. we saw the separation in the races at the public schools. use of a circumstance where it was dangerous at times for children of all races to be on the playground if they did not conform to the new moray. i would also say, as far as people of all races over 50, when you talk to them about what they worry about, one thing they worry about is commendations. home innovations.

there appears to be a new phenomenon there. honesty in statistics is really important. you must have a historical perspective, i would say that to the lady who called. there's prejudice that has accrued over a number of years. host: let's start with richard rosenthal. guest: i would be careful in drawing too sharp a distinction between white-collar crime and violent crime. the caller is right that individuals are typically more alarmed by street crime. but white-collar crime can also turn violent. there are frequent cases of a factory owner or mine owner cited numerous times for health

and safety violations, has not addressed the violations and then an accident occurs and people are badly injured or killed. that does not quite meet our popular portrait of violent crime, but i would suggest there is some violence in white-collar crime. host: same question. guest: two things, first, crime in schools, we do have a survey done every two years that looks at school crime. it includes things like bullying and other types of activity that often don't ride -- often don't rise to the level of misdemeanor or felony. we do have periodic reports on that issue. the other thing is home invasion. there are some things that people are in their house, the place they feel safest, and people begin to take things.

distinguishing this from a burglary and robbery. i recommend a call to our website to take a look at that. host: the justice department has many more statistics on crime in america than we were able to do today. thanks to our guests. richard rosenthal from st. louis. and the director lynch of the justice department's, who overseas statistics and data gathering. we will take you to a briefing at sima involving homeland security secretary janet napolitano. she is speaking now along with fema administrator craig fugate. noaa hurricane director bill read. and the head of the american red cross to talk about preparations for hurricane irene. >> now we are in the preparation stage. if you can divide this into three phases, we of preparation, response, and recovery.

the window for preparation is closing quickly. if you are in the projected path of this storm, please listen to your state or local officials. please listen to emergency radio or television. if you are told to evacuate, please do so. those in the path of the storm should make sure that you are also taking necessary, -- and common sense precautions, such as having an emergency plan, such as having emergency supplies, food, water, a flashlight with batteries in case you lose power. we do anticipate a significant amount of power outage with this particular storm. there are all kinds of common sense things you should do. you should do them now, because, as i said, the window of the operation is quickly closing. with respect to our own preparations, the federal government has mobilized significant assets.

the president has directed us to ensure that all needed resources are available and that we should coordinate closely with state and local partners who are the first responders in this storm situation. we are doing just that. i have been in touch with the mayors and governors in the storm passed -- path. we are in touch with all the first responders in the storm path of the east coast. fema has its incident management alreadystance teams located in the states, they been imbedded there over the last few days. that will make sure we are seamless in our response and recovery. administrator craig fugate will detail some of those efforts. every storm prediction is a bit of signs and a little art.

this one has moved in and out and does move east and it's been a category three and a category two. given the amount of rain associated with this storm and the likelihood of flooding, i encourage you not to focus much on whether it is a category two or category three if you are in the storm path. you will not tell much difference. bill read of the national hurricane center will give you the most current update on the storm and its path. bill. >> thank you, secretary. [unintelligible] right now irene is a classic hurricane with the exception of one feature. it does not have a clearly defined eye. we are seeing high wind speeds.

[unintelligible] we are calling for evacuation's well in advance of the hurricane. the carolinas will be hit this afternoon. eastern jacksonville florida could be affected. that is spiraling towards the coast. [unintelligible] you have probably heard me urologists talking about what might change the track of the storm. the weather that went through new england recently is

exhorting the united states. -- exiting. not much has changed in our forecast recently. somewhere in the carolinas will feel the impact today. on new england on sunday. i anticipate significant changes in the scenario. [unintelligible] we have a hurricane warnings for north carolina, south carolina

border, new jersey. the hurricane watch for new england up to the mouth of the merrimack river. the carolina coast will have a postal issue as well as an inland issue. the big change today is a much higher probability of tropical storm force winds from the carolinas to southern new england, even this far out. and going into the interior of new england.

the trees come down. we tried to impress upon people -- to try to highlight the threat of storm surge, this is the graphic we have currently produced. [unintelligible]

next slide, please. the rainfall has not changed much in the forecast. not so much worried about the numbers. 5-10 inches of rain through the northeast corridor. the ground is already saturated from recent rains fall. increased risk of flash flooding and river flooding. the high winds will bring down the trees much more likely than of the ground were dry. now to craig fugate to talk about what the impact will be on their operations at fema. >> good morning.

we have our teams linked in with the governor's teams and state emergency operations centers primarily focused on evacuation support now, but also preparing for the immediate impact and the aftermath. one thing we have to emphasize common as a matter what preparation, it does not mean there will not be damages. it will take some time to get things back to normal. it is important for people to prepare. the one thing we can change the outcome is loss of life. that's why evacuation is key. people need to leave early, trouble a safe distance off. don't wait for another forecast. all the planning and preparation will be in vain if people don't need the evacuation orders -- heed evacuation orders. all the federal agencies have been working together to get ready to support the governors

and their teams. it's not test about governing. it's about our volunteers and ngo organizations as well as private and public partners. as we prepare for this, the key partner is the american red cross. i would like to introduce the president and ceo of. the american red of >> thank you, very much. let me acknowledge the wonderful partnership that we have with fema and with secretary janet napolitano and administrator craig fugate. you will go toe to toe with mother nature, you could not ask for better set of partners. i think that the way we were able to respond to during the spring storms really highlights how well we can work together as three organizations. i will not repeat what you have already heard about the storm. it is obviously a very big one. it will cover large amount of

area. while you cannot exactly predict what curveball mother nature will throw at you, i do feel that the american red cross is better prepared, more prepared than ever. we have forged a number of partnerships with faith-based organizations like national baptist convention, like the southern baptist convention, a lot of they ngo's like the n.a.a.c.p., and a bunch of other faith-based organizations and non-profit organizations. we anticipate that it will be a huge geographical area with lots of people impacted. from a time perspective, this could take weeks to maybe even months to be able to respond to. let me give you a few quick numbers. we have over 200 emergency response vehicles that we are

sending to the east coast. these are vehicles that can drive around through neighborhoods, give out meals, relief items, things like buckets, mops, pails, etc. we are sending 60,000 ready to eat meals to richmond and another 60,000 to massachusetts. you're working with the southern baptists. they bring big kitchen so they can prepare a lot of deals. we can serve 250,000 meals per day initially. we can increase that to 1 million meals per day if necessary. our local chapters have thousands of volunteers already on the ground. we have already deployed 1000 highly skilled volunteer specialists, a number of whom were part of our response during the spring storms. we have the ability to get over 60,000 additional volunteers in the area if needed. we have opened up shelters

already in north carolina as well as open up a few shelters in long island. we have 15,000 potential shelter sites in the affected area. if any of your listeners or viewers need to know where those shelters are, they can find that on our website, acredcross.org and we have an iphone application that will give you that map. the secretary and the administrators said that we are urging everyone to get ready. have a kit, have the papers you need, supplies, food, clothing, the right clothing. is a robust list of what you can put in one of these kids on our website. listen to the news, stay informed about the storm track. -- about these kits, on our

website. if you are asked to evacuate, please do so. the responsible for reducing loss of life. we can also go to the red cross web site to register and tell your family members that you are safe and well on that part of our website. as craig fugate always says, getting ready and responding to a disaster like this takes a whole team. we are hoping the american public is proud of that team. your red cross is ready and prepared to help in any way necessary. thank you. >> we will take a few questions. correct any publications or outlets? >> bbc news. >> divorce case assessment for new york city. -- give a worst-case assessment

for new york city. there could be high tide. and whether you have spoken with max mayfield? he says one of his greatest nightmare is is having a major hurricane go up the east coast. >> i spoke with mayor bloomberg of new york yesterday about preparations being made in new york city. they are evaluating some low- lying areas already. i think a hospital is being evacuated. possibly nursing homes. we will work with them today. ambulances have been positioned to help people. able-bodied people, we are urging them to prepare to evacuate, if you are asked to, so that at the government level and at the red cross we can focus on those who need special assistance. we are watching the storm as it hits all the major metropolitan areas.

d.c., wilmington, you have new york city, possibly boston. we have been in touch with all of those states. one of the concerns in new york city is the subway system. and maintain in the subway system. those decisions will be made by the mayor and his staff. i will be prepared to support them. do you want to address that? >> you can talk about the tools you have to show where the storm surge may occur. >> [unintelligible] north carolina is a major concern. you could see it in the east part of north carolina. the tidewater area, highly volatile storm surge.

this area will be impacted by storm surge. [unintelligible] tonight and tomorrow especially. [unintelligible] [unintelligible] >> someone who works in my

office building was talking about how she is getting prepared. this is in regard to the certainty of the storm, she said that everybody is getting prepared as if this is hurricane katrina and she does not think it's going to be that bad. could this be the east coast hurricane katrina? >> when people think of katrina, but think of the house is destroyed with the flooding. that may be is something we see in the storm surge areas along the coast. here in the district and for all you guys that live here, here's what you need to be prepared for. power outages that could be days or longer. the farther away from urban areas, that could be up to zero weeks or more. you will not be able to get everything back on quickly. a lot of rain and flooding. strong gusty winds. again, those impacts well away from the coast will extend and

could be in things you could paper -- to be prepared for, particularly flooding and flash floods. we talk about this, people always want to put into context of what it means you're. very strong sustained winds, tropical force and maybe gusting close to hurricane force winds, a lot of trees down, many power lines down, heavy rain, lots of localized flooding. along the potomac there will be storm surge potential. we may see low-lying areas flooded. that is why we are telling people not just along the coast but well inland to be prepared. >> can you address $765 million already spent in disasters from january through today. what happens now with the debt limit? >> the disaster relief fund, we will have the resources we need to respond to this hurricane.

now there will have to be some financial stuff done with the disaster relief fund. in terms of immediate need and the immediate needs aspect, we will have the resources made available. >> again, we have been closing in on all disasters and putting money back in as of early this week. we have $900 million in the relief fund. we are looking at making sure we have the resources to respond. we still have open disasters including puerto rico which was already hit by hurricane irene as well as storms in early spring. we are continuing the immediate needs in response to those areas and we are prepared for this response as well. i forgot to tell you, you can go fema.gov. and m.f

thank you all very much. >> we want to remind you. our website c-span.org, a number of the charts that you just saw from bill read at the national hurricane center, we have a link to the national hurricane center web site. you can follow that on our website. it's one of the leading stories at c-span.org. we will hear from president obama at 11:30 and will bring you those comments live when they get under way about an hour or from now. one of the other stores we are keeping an eye on is the situation in libya as moammar gaddafi continues to hold on to

power there. we have an update on this morning's washington journal -- "washington journal." host: we have a reporter from the new york times and is on the ground there in libya. thank you so much for reporting in to us. tell us what you know about the current situation in tripoli and in libya? callguest: thanks for having me. parts of tripoli that saw a lot of fighting yesterday have calmed down. we returned from a neighborhood where there was intense fighting for several days. the streets there were fairly quiet and there cleaning up after. the battles there is still fighting around the airport road.

fighting continues in gaddafi's hometown. nato has started bombing gaddafi positions in and amount his hometown. the rebels have been trying to events on that town for the last few days and have been having trouble on the eastern side. we are interested to see what happens there after the nato bombing. host: i heard a news report that united nations is calling for both sides to avoid committing any atrocities in the heat of this battle. have you heard reports of civilian atrocities as the battle rages? guest: yes, there have been several reports of atrocities in tripoli, which we are following

a few stories that they seem to be executing prisoners in several places. one near a compound that was gaddafi's fortified residence and military base prior. the bodies of roughly 25 prisoners were found there. there have been several other unconfirmed reports about atrocities, including a gaddafi soldier. you're not clear on who is responsible for killing the gaddafi soldier. there are several of these incidents we are following. >> with gaddafi still at large, how do you see this coming to a decision point, a resolution, in the day ahead?

guest: i am not sure exactly what will happen, but the rebel leadership, the transitional national council, its executive committee went to tripoli yesterday and held a press conference and were asked about what it meant for them that gaddafi was still at large and whether it would hamper their plans or their control over the country. they said it would not. i think that probably remains to be seen. he remains at large and is a rallying figure. i think it will remain a problem for the rebel leadership as long as he is at large. host: what will you be watching for today? guest: today we are focusing on

some of the neighborhoods where there was intense fighting in the last few days. there are bodies in the hospitals with no doctors around. i think people are just recovering from a very deadly few days. we are running around town as the battle goes on. host: thanks for spending a few minutes with us to give us a real time update on events on the ground. guest: thank you. host: he's a reporter for the new york times reporting on the ground in libya. >> on c-span in a moment we will take you live to the house floor for a brief pro-forma session. we also want to let you know that if you want to hear more about preparations for hurricane

irene, president obama will make a statement at 11:30 eastern and we will have that live as well. up next, going to the house floor in a pro-forma session. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., august 26, 2011. i hereby appoint the honorable andy harris to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, john a. boehner,

speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain, reverend james stager, second association in washington, d.c. the chaplain: let us pray. loving god, draw us to yourself, to your concerns and desires for us. help us attend to you, help us attend as you might yourself to the needs of our communities, nation and world. draw our hearts towards those persons in want, those suffering illness or hunger or poverty. inspire us to approaches and solutions in matters such as defense and learning and financial well-being. for those members on vacation, help them enjoy needed rest and

family time. please, god, bless the members of this house, their staffs and the country they serve. this morning, in particular, we pray as well for the safety of those people and communities in the path of hurricane irene. please, god, care for them. amen. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 5 of house resolution 375 the journal of the last day's proceedings is approved. the chair will lead the house in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. pursuant to section 4 of house resolution 375, no legislative business will be conducted on this day. pursuant to sections 3 and 4 of

house resolution 375, the house stands adjourned until 11:00 a.m., tuesday, august 30, there will be a luncheon in honor of women of the civil rights movement including speakers such as my on july and former secretary of labor alexis herman at noon on c-span. the m.l.k. dedication this sunday is postponed until a

later date. president obama will speak about hurricane irene and preparations at 11:30 eastern and we will have that live. as a reminder, we covered the fema briefing on irene. that's available on our website shortly. we will also show that later in our program scheduled. one more note from jackson hole with fed chairman ben bernanke speaking today. the fed share said that the fed will meet in september for two days instead of one to allow full discussion of options, saying that the growth fundamentals of the u.s. don't appear to be permanently altered. that's from the speech this morning by the fed chairman. while we wait for the president about an hour from now we will bring you thought from this "washington journal." the worst thoughts on hurricane irene and recovery. host: it's a different time in

our thinking about the role of the federal government. we would like to hear from you in this time the big debate over deficit spending and what you think the government's role should be. nt's role should be. if you live in an area of the country that has had a natural disasters and have worked with fema in the past, please join the discussion this morning. john is a democrat. you are on the air. caller: my suggestion is that many of the red states should do what they have been wanting to do, and that is to show that we need to have our state rights and our states the independent. i don't think we should spend a federal dime. this should be handled on the state level. this is what they have been pushing for a federal rule. they want the federal government out of their lives, and this is the time to move it out of their lives and let the states stand

on their own hands of their own problems. host: do you say that from your own philosophical conviction, or are you try to present a test case? caller: well, i guess what they have been advocating for so many years that this is what we need to do -- well, it is what they've been advocating for some years that this is what we need to do. i think the time to start is right now. host: john from des moines. on twitter -- next is all fro -- call from texas. beaumont has seen its share of storms over the years. caller: i have not gotten any help from fema, and i don't want any. but as far as what john has to say, i agree with him.

and the federal income tax that we pay -- we can pay for these things. i find it a little ironic that a lot of energy traders on wall street really enjoy it when we get a hurricane in the gulf and are now going to get a ca hurricane themself. host: jim, you are on the air. caller: good morning, thanks for taking the call. i have a question as far as taking government -- helping out our american citizens here with help from the hurricane. i have an idea, i have a question, let me tell you what is wrong with the idea of maybe bypassing more of our payments to china or somebody in favor of

taking care of, you know, our people here. host: you would like to pay for it but you would like to see it paid for out of overseas funds? caller: yes. host: thank you for your call. next up is a tweet. in other words, finding offsets for a period. , georgia, as we talk about the federal in disaster planning. caller: i think it is funny that the callers that just came in are willing to let citizens, whether poor or rich, suffer when there is a hurricane and there is a responsibility for the government to take care of the public. these guys in boats and becomes, they have insurance, so they should be able to take care of

themselves the way republicans talk. host: at people who don't have boats and big phomes? needs-based response? caller: that is it. host: kelly is an independent. caller: i agree with the last caller, we should do what we have always been doing, take care of our citizens in the event of a disaster. eric cantor and his usual political banter -- if we really want offsets, let's take it away from his budget. host: noah, democrat, you are on the air. caller: so glad i am able to do this. thank you, c-span2 this is the perfect time for ron paul to get up on the bully pulpit -- i live in a gulf coastal town and it

was wrecked by a hurricane and i did not ask the government to help me build it back or anything. i am a veteran. i agreed with something one of the other callers say. take some of the money that you are buying friends with overseas and use that money to pay for things here at home. host: thanks for your call. here is an article from 2006 about the tri -- about katrina. the general accounting office looked back at the relief effort. "gao -- millions wasted during katrina relief. the government wasted millions of dollars in its post-katrina contracts for disaster relief, including 4000 beds that were never used, said a federal auditors.

the government accountability of this's review of 13 major contracts offers the first preliminary overview of their soundness. waste and mismanagement were widespread, according to the five-page briefing paper released on thursday. that led to money paid for work never used." looking back on our largest hurricane and the federal dollars allocated there. dennis is an independent. caller: i want to tell you this straight away -- if i hadn't had fema with hurricane wilma in 2005, i would have been out the window. i also went through andrew, had a brush with gene . my cousins daughter was a recipient of katrina's catastrophe.

certain individuals, whether democrats, republicans, independents, teabaggers, are crazy. fema was set up, and certainly george bush was not offered to help people as was bill clinton before that and so forth. this is rank insanity, is ridiculous. i do have a philosophy which politicians do not like listening to simple explanations. quit giving foreign aid to every country. i don't care which one it is, england, china, vietnam. stop giving them money. stop it for six months. give them no money, unless we have a base in their country, and that will put money in the coffers to take care of fema. i hope any resident from north carolina to maine that does not get any money, if congressmen or senators from those states deplete it or not allow it, they should be thrown out, thrown out on the streets. host: after our live program

this month, 10:00 a.m. eastern time, c-span will carry the briefing from fema about emergency preparations in u.s. coastal states. nashville, keith is a democrat there. caller: good morning, how are you doing? host: great, thank you. caller: i have been through eight hurricanes over the years and have seen the damage that can be done. for people to sit ther ande -- sit there and say that states need to fix the problems free to stay in each person, the would- be mass of the destroyed palms, -- there would be a mass of destroyed homes, people would be sitting with no water. i don't think he partier -- don't think tea partiers

have a clue. they are sitting in kansas where they ever have or can, no idea of the effect it has on the area -- where they never have a a hurricane,, no idea of the effect has on the area. the first when i was i was donona, two weeks without water or electricity. everybody was afraid of typhoid. nothing there to help you. if you had something to fall on your house, you took care of it. a lot of people did not have the money to take care of it at that time. i wish these people from the midwest -- they have their eyes and snout, but i think they should go ahead and take a vacation -- have hteitheir ice d snow, but i think they should go ahead and take a vacation on the beach and see what it can do.

host: do you think that people walked in through horrific tornadoes, like in joplin, know what it is like to live through national disaster -- natural disasters? caller: sure, but fema was helping them there, too -- host: sure, but you are indicating that they do not know what it is like to go through natural disasters. caller: but what is to help them with floods and tornadoes and having a slight -- guest: thank you, keith, national, tennessee. next up is minneapolis. caller: i think it is ludicrous to say that people in the

midwest have no idea what sitting on a beach with 120- mile-per-hour winds -- we have a floods, tornadoes, a straight line winds, so we do now our fair share. that makes us look like we're idiots -- that is not true. i think eric cantor ought to think about what he does and reinstate the bush tax cuts, because in minnesota, we do have a high-tax state, and we do enjoy paying those taxes, maybe not so much the fact that it takes out of our pay and everything else, but it used to have a good roads. people in need it did not have to worry about things. i do believe that the federal government has an obligation to help all people, whether it you are republican, democrat or independent.

you need to fix the problem that hurricanes, through. i was working out in maine for a while before i was disabled. and we had water that was a-tend -- 8-10 inches, so far inland for maine that it was unbelievable for damage. i think it is ludicrous that somebody within that people from the midwest to do not understand what the federal government does to us. host: cedar rapids, iowa, another kevin. democrat, you are on the air. caller: i live in iowa i just had seven feet of water in my house a few years ago, so i definitely know the feeling of disasters. the, i thought was a little bit outrageous as well, john, -- the

comment i thought was a little bit outrageous as well from the gentleman. we have flood insurance and with a mortgage on our home. i did not have a mortgage at the time, so i did not carry flood insurance, but now i am forced to be covered because fema did come in and help me. in a sense, we should demand a some type of insurance for the areas -- 100-year, 500-year flood plain. obviously, the odds are less that what happened, less out there, but higher earthquake areas, it should be the same thing. nothing in this world is free. you're aare if democrat or republican, if you have not realized that, you have a problem. host: on twitter -- next up is riverside,

california. tina is a democrat. caller: good morning, c-span. we all come together as americans in at times of disaster. i think we need to support our fellow man, our fellow brothers. the bottom line is we all pay taxes in one form or another, local, state, what have you. we need to help keep america strong and make sure we keep building america. we all live here, and unless you want to move to china -- i am not sure i want to see somebody's house destroyed. we need to come together to keep america strong. host: there is lots on the internet about hurricanes if you are interested in forces of nature. famous hurricane names from the

past include mitch, floyd -- termed the storm of the center at one. -- iris, isadore, in south carolina at they well remember hugo. hurricane katrina, modestly it is starting out in the bahamas, the one that has the longest history and biggest impact of u.s. hurricanes.. we are going to move on. george is a democrat. caller: good morning. we need to have a rainy day fund. they used to talk about that, and we actually did have one, but now we spend all of our money on wars and foreign-aid.

these wars and foreign aid are methods of corporations to plead our country. there are -- to bleed our country. they are unnecessary. when we give foreign aid, it is not the goodness of our hearts, it is agreed of corporations, because they reap profits from this. all this was the money is waste, fraud and abuse -- all this watested money is waste, fraud and abuse. you had an earlier caller to mention the same thing, and i agree with them. wake up, america. we are being fleeced. host: we talk about the federal government's role in big hurricanes and other natural disaster a as its -- as hurricane irene mixes with the east coast. stephanie, what your thoughts as

this comes to your home state? you have got to turn down the volume on your tv. caller: ok. all right. hi, i am actually in -- host: stephanie, quickly hit that mute button, please. caller: sari. -- sorry. i don't know. i have been hearing all that is going to be takinen -- taken away -- [unintelligible] under the water by saturday. all my friends and telling me to evacuate me, and have my family in long island has left, and it has been really terrible. my uncle -- is really difficult, because we have no information

up here, because i know somehow we will be affected. we live all day on the east coast. host: do you have access to the internet? caller: actually, no. host: i would really encourage you to find a local news station on the radio. we are reading about new jersey here in washington. i am sure there is much more local news you can find at least under local radio station. good luck to you and your family. next up, baltimore. ray, democrat. caller: first-time caller,

actually. with this thing with fema, i and listening to people talking in different parts of the country about how the midwest as tornadoes and the east has hurricanes and west has earthquakes. the federal government should help out. i used to live in north carolina, on the coast by jacksonville, and when i was younger we had two floods, and after that we ended up moving out of their. the first time you have a flood, you have the government come in and help and that is fine. but if you rebuild in the same spot and you know that this area is prone to flooding, that is when you need to have mandatory insurance, like the earlier 10, was saying. he said that it helped him. the government should help people when they are in need, but if it they to keep doing the same things over and over again, living in places where they are prone to accidents from

hurricanes and flooding, which everybody saying that you are looking for a free handout or this or that, from what i am understanding, when you go to fema and they help you, they are giving you a low-interest loan to rebuild your life. it is not money that is just coming out of the taxpayers' pockets. yes, it is coming out up front, but in the end, and they are going to be paying those loans back. i just -- you know, i believe in the government helping people. in certain situations, if it keeps occurring over and over again, that is when you have to say that you couldn't do it. that is my viewpoint, and like i said, a first-time caller. thank you very much. front page of "the sun." ray was watching us in baltimore.

for one thing on the economy, today, the annual speech the fed chief gives at jackson hole. many are watching to see if he is going to signal if there is going to be and other quantitative easing or other policy changes. here is the headline on the topic from "the financial times ." "bernanke aims to hit right not e at jackson hole. anyone expecting a message that sharply changes occuthe setting of monetary policy is likely to be disappointed. it publicly forecast it would keep rates close to zero until 2014. the title of the speech itself, 'the near and long term prospects for the economy,' suggests a compromise between the theme at the symposium and

the need to discuss what happened in the economy. last year, it was on and it was about short-term." -- it was on and thaunambiguous about short-term." hcaller: i have been watching the news, it the internet. my opinion has always been that people need to be responsible to their families, themselves, at the government does have a responsibility to the citizens of this country, helping at the time of disasters and what not. but going in, i agree with the gentleman before that i listened to that made the statement that, you know, when you go in and it is the same flight area, a flood plain, same disaster over and over again, it looks like it is a way to justify people's maybe but it iste to say it,

to maintain jobs, keep these disasters going, putting people in the same floodplains and whatever. there need to be improvements made here, continuously move forward and progress. we live in these recurring problems. i don't understand why we -- it is like we have this money going out and we want to keep adding to it. we don't want to fix anything in this country. it takes dollars away from other things that need to be done in this country. i am not opposed stopping people. i think churches, organizations, the government, families and right on down the line, we all need to help one another. we all belong to the human race. host: thanks, appreciate your call. front pages of the papers also have a lot about libya. we will be joined by nicholas burns. you remember him from his days at the state department.

he is now teaching at harvard. he will be talking about nato's role. he formerly served as ambassador to that body. we will talk about the role that nato played and what it means tornado's futu -- for nato's future. also, front page of "the washington post" today, the martin luther king ceremonies have been postponed indefinitely. "obama faces a question from community as it turned out looms large. the nation's first black president took care never to be seen making policy or political didecisions aimed solely or directly at black america. but a soaring jobless rate among african-americans and new found

comfort by black lawmakers to criticize obama's economic policies are prompting a the white house to recalibrate and focused more directly on the struggles in black america. the shift comes amid growing concern among democrats that stubborn economic conditions in minority communities might hamper efforts to generate large black voter turnout it needs to make up for declining support among white and that its -- among white independents. an official said that obama would consider taking executive action." we're talking with you this morning about federal response to disasters. biloxi, mississippi. gina, a republican and there. caller: good morning barre as you are, i live in the gulf coast area, between new orleans and biloxi.

yes, the government should help people initially, basic food and water. but if you only knew the fraud that went on in new orleans with the money that was given to people, it was unconscionable. people need to be responsible for themselves, they need to have insurance. it is like any other government handout. there are always people trying to rip off taxpayers. it is very sad to see what went on. thank you. host: thanks for your call. libertarian response to the eric cantor story we showed you at says thatt, which is a relief should be offset by cuts in the federal budget --

indianapolis, bryan, democrat of their. -- bryan, a democrat there. caller: everyone voted for smaller government. now they are getting it and these cuts are being made. there is an issue where -- what they voted for. basically, all i wanted to say is be careful what you are voting for, follow the issues and know what you are voting for. through a blindly vote out there. making cuts to programs, having the government get smaller, there is no money to take care of people in need. host: massachusetts, you are out next. sean, a republican. caller: the government does have

some responsibility, but there is responsibility for the individual. if the government is telling you that a tornado or a big storm is coming your way, you have to get out of the way it that is what happened with katrina. the warnings came out, nobody listened, people out on the rooftops, big scammell, whatever. -- big scandal, whatever. host: before you go, the trajectory of the storm looks like it might, through new england. are you making preparations? caller: oh, yeah, i got bread, water, canned goods. you never know. host: good luck to you. we are talking about the role of the federal government and a disaster response. good morning. caller: it is definitely worth mentioning that most of the

states that receive more federal dollars that they put out are these uber-conservative states, and these are the people complaining about other people receiving federal dollars. obviously, they i really understanding how taxes work. i don't know -- that we should -- obviously, they are not really understanding how taxes work. i don't know that we should be listening to them when it comes to other people's needs and the federal government br. if we ask it to do something like response to a strong, they should do that. -- like respond to a storm, they should do that. host: from "the wall street journal," "rick perry, along with other republican governors, face a dilemma, do they apply for federal grants by september

to establish statewide health- insurance exchanges or let the deadline slide and was falling into a federally run exchange? along side of that, another story about gov. hperry. "rick perry's surge in the polls has shaken up the race, knocking mitt romney off his perch as the front-runner and emboldening voters who say that 2012 is the year a rock-ribbed conservative can win the white house. gallup puts him 12 points ahead while other national polls at

wider margins of support." arlington, virginia. bill, an independent there. caller: i would like to take the politics out of it and look at this from a purely strategic perspective with the role of government. if we look at katrina and take the suspected fraud out of the picture and we look at the criticality of new orleans itself, there is defense, there is industry, there is the entire gateway to the central u.s. in new orleans. if new orleans becomes incapacitated, that becomes a national issue and needs national response. thank you. host: thank you. those of you in doors this weekend with a comment letter but not seriously concerned about emergency -- with inclement weather but not

seriously concerned about emergency aspects, we hope you spent time with c-span at our booktv program. kentucky is a and state rich with history. we will show you features on the literary life of frankfort, kentucky. here is that they are talking about his city -- the mayor talking about is the city. >> we became the state capital in 1792. we have an apparent strength in our town. what is being the state capital. -- one is being the state capital. we have a rural environment as well as semi-urban. we have a rich and colorful history. we are the only city in kentucky where the kentucky river runs right through our city. we are also home to kentucky

state university, one of the historical black universities. we also on the east side of town, a very unique and colorful, if you can use this word, cemetery. the westminster abbey of kentucky. we have daniel boone, and the daniel boone site gives you a view of the kentucky river as it goes through our city. also, the capitol building. it overlooks and you can see the beauty of our city. host: that is the mayor of frankfordt, kentucky as we spend the weekend looking at history and literary life on our

c-span channel. every month this year, we are visiting a different southeastern american city to tell you more about their history and the literary life. frankford, kentucky this weekend. all you can spend time with us brought back to your calls. -- hope you can spend time with us. back to your calls. florida come up ne -- florida, up next. phyllis, a democrat. caller: i am in the insurance state of the country. most of this, in my mind, happens at the state and local level. fema comes in when there is a disaster, along with the red cross, to help people and give them small amounts of money, but that is taken out of your insurance when your insurance

company and find it comes in to tcash a check. we got flooded three times and fema mate as -- fema made us tear our house down. when they say that you live in an aria of you are getting flooded over and over again, they change to those lost in my time ago. if you are in a disaster area, they lower their premiums -- is that a political mess, but in my mind, most of the fraud is that the local and state level. host: nexus louisiana -- next is louisiana. dan is an independent there. caller: i have been looking at all of these disasters that happening, red states --

tornadoes, floods, fires in texas. it seems that those people keep don't believing in climate change, and they ought to take responsibility for their voting habits, and fix their own habits, especially republicans. accept responsibility and fix your own house, because you don't believe in climate change anyway. host: tina, what you think the federal government's role should be these days? caller: this is florida, but by name -- my name is phil. host: sorry about that, you are certainly not a tina. caller: we have an emergency going on with our financial crashes. let's say realistically, the congress comes back and they are

unable to get anything done. if the president submits to them a jobs bill, and mitch mcconnell is infected with the same kind of thinking that eric cantor has and calls for 60 votes for a censure and that bill is killed in the senate and eric cantor does the same thing in the house. the super committee meets, and realistically, let's say they are just as gridlock as the rest of the congress and nothing happens. the implementation of defense cuts and discretionary cuts take effect. what is the federal government left with? here is his option. he has to write an executive order declaring a national emergency that impact the national security, and orders the department of labor and the department of transportation to expand their roles and hire people all over the country to

work on federal projects and for property throughout the country and wa >> president obama is vacationing on martha's vineyard. he received a briefing this morning from janet napolitano and the president will make comments in about 15 minutes. director fugate and secretary napolitano held a news conference. >> we're going to get going. gail mcgovernby

from the american red cross. we will provide a brief update on our preparations for hurricane irene. we're taking this storm very seriously. our state and local partners are as well. we have seen in number of states declare emergencies ahead of the storm. now we're in the preparation phase. we of preparation, response, and recovery. the window is quickly closing. if you are in the projected path of the storm, listen to your state or local officials and to

emergency radio or television. if you rub salt to evacuate, please do so. -- if you are told to evacuate, please do so. take common-sense precautions. have an emergency plan and some food and water, a flashlight with batteries in case we lose power. we do anticipate power outage with this storm. there are all kinds of common sense things you can do and you should do them now. the window of preparation is quickly closing. the federal government is leaning forward ahead of the storm. we have mobilized significant assets. the president has directed us to insure that all needed resources are available and that we should coordinate closely with our state and local partners who

are the first responders in this storm situation. we're doing just that. i have been in touch with the mayors and governors in the storm's path and we're in touch with the first responders along the east coast. fema has their teams already located in a number of states. they have been embedded over the past few days and that will make sure we are seamless in our recovery. administrator fugate will detail some of those efforts. this one has moved in and moved out and moved east and moved west and has been a category 3 and has been category two. i would encourage you not to focus too much on whether it is

a category two or three. if you're in the storm's path, you will not be able to tell. who me introduce phil reed, will give the the most current update of the storm and its path and then we'll turn it over to administrator fugate. >> thank you. right now irene is a classically shaped hurricane except we do not have that well defined eye in the center. that may be the reason we're not seeing higher wind speeds then we are. this points out the evacuations. the early onset of tropical

storms in the carolinas will begin this afternoon. they were beginning to evacuate people yesterday. in jacksonville, florida, it is moving steadily toward the coast. this is the imagery we used to highlight some of the features in the atmosphere. you probably heard neurologist's talking about what might change the track of the storm -- you probably heard the meteorologists talking about what might change the track of the storm. another system passing through the planins. not much has changed in our forecast. it some more in the carolinas we will have the impact starting

tomorrow and then new england on sunday. here is the current official forecast. an update will be coming out in about an hour. i don't anticipate significant changes. the likelihood of the center passing -- based on the data and the models, we are confident that early on sunday morning, the center of the hurricane passing within that area. we have hurricane warnings extending from the north carolina and south carolina borders into sandy hook of new jersey. up into new england. [unintelligible]

further up the coast, it will be parallel to the coast. we have an inland issue. let's talk about the wind part. if you have been following, a big change today. we have a much higher probability of tropical forest storm wind from the carolinas to new england. a good chance up into the interior of new england. people are surprised by the amount of wind they will get. we try to impress upon them this is not just a coastal event. next slide please.

we tried to highlight the storm surge. [unintelligible] a storm surge. this shows the chance of it eet.eding four f that cuts off some of the evacuation routes. then people cannot get out of harm's way. [unintelligible] these numbers are lower because we get close to the forecast parameters of the storm. we cannot forecast precisely where the hurricane will land.

this lines up with the track. the point i want to get across is there is rain through the densely populated northeast 00%ridor will have almost 3 of normal rain. that could be an increase risk to river flooding and we could see trees brought down more readily than if the ground was dry. let's talk about the impact on .our emoperation >> we have our teams linked in and focusing on the evacuation support now and preparing for the aftermath. one thing we have to emphasize

as well as the forecast has been, it does not mean there will not be damages. it does not mean that power will not go out over large areas. it is important for people to prepare. the loss of life. the evacuation orders that are being issued are key. people need to leave early and get some more safe. all the planning and preparation will be in vain if people did not heed those evacuation orders. all of the federal agencies have been working together to get ready to support the governors and their teams. it is not just about the volunteers. a key partner as we prepare for the american red cross and i

would like to introduce the president of the red cross. >> thank you, craig. let me acknowledge the wonderful partnership that we have with fema and with secretary nepal taino and administrator fugate. if you were going to go toe to toe with mother nature, you could not ask for a better set of partners. i think that the way we were able to respond during the spring storms highlights how well we can work together as the three organizations. i'm not going to repeat what you already heard about the storm. it is a big one and will cover a large amount of area. you cannot exactly predict what mother nature is going to throw at you. i feel the american red cross is better prepared than ever.

we have forged a number of partnerships with the faith- based organizations like the national baptist organizations. naacp, the ngo's like hope worldwide and americorps. we are anticipating that it will be a huge geographical area with lots of people impacted. from a time perspective, this could take weeks and maybe even months to be able to respond to. we have over 200 emergency response vehicles that we're sending to the east coast. these can drive through neighborhoods and give out meals, relief items, things like buckets, pails, mops.

we're sending 60,000 ready-to- eat meals into richmond. we're working with the southern baptists. they bring in big kitchens so that they can prepare a lot of meals. we can serve 250,000 mills today and we can increase that to one million if necessary. we of deployed 1000 of highly skilled volunteer specialists, a number of whom have been a part of our response during the spring storms. over 60,000 additional volunteers in the area if need be. we've opened up shelters in north carolina and a few shelters on long island. we have 15,000 potential shelter

sites. if any of your viewers need to know where those shelters are, they can find it on our website, and we alsog, have an iphone app. finally, we urge everybody to get ready. have a kit. have the supplies for food, the correct clothing you need. list on it riposa robust redcross.org. have a plan as to what you will do when and if you were asked to evacuate. >> i have convened a conference call with mike emergency response team to make sure we're bringing all federal resources to bear to cope with the storm

and the aftermath. i of spoken with governors and mayors of major metropolitan areas to let them know that this administration is in full support of their efforts to prepare for this storm. we will continue to stay in close contact with them. i cannot stress this highly enough. if you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now. do not wait. do not delay. we hope for the best but we have to be prepared for the worst. all of us have to take this storm seeress it. listen to your state and local officials. if you are given an evacuation order, please follow it. we ordered an aircraft carrier group out to sea. you should be preparing now if you were in the way of this

hurricane. if you're not sure how, then you can visit ready.gov or listo.gov. since last weekend, fema has been deploying its management assistance teams to staging communities up and down the coast. they have millions of meals and tens of thousands of cots and blankets. the american red cross has begun preparing shelters in north carolina and other states. these resources are being coordinated with our state and local resources and they stand ready to be deployed as necessary. if you are instructed to evacuate, please do so.

this will take time for first responders to get the resources we have positioned to people in need. the more you can do now to make a plan, know your evacuation route, fall the instructions of your local officials. all indications point to this being an historic hurricane. we cannot predict with% certainty, the impact of irene over the next few days, the government has spent the better part of the last week working with officials to see to it that we are prepared. now is the time for residents of these communities to do the same. fema and craig fugate will be keeping people closely posted in the next 24, 48 hours.

thank you very much. >> president obama speaking from martha's vineyard. the president and his family will return to washington tomorrow. a look here at the martin luther king memorial here in washington. the ceremony has been postponed and we will keep you updated on any rescheduled plans for the rededication. the project foundation is holding a luncheon today. among those speaking is alexis herman and maya angelou and many others. that gets underway at noon and we will have live coverage in about 25 minutes here on c-span. conversation from this morning's "washington journal" on civil liberties. rnal"

continues. host: we are back live. let me introduce you to james stanley, a senior policy analyst at the american civil liberties union, and a constitutional law professor at the american university college of law. we have called the segment telecommunications freedom and public security. i want to read a story out of great britain. the question is could this happen here? from london --

it's called in the wake of revolutions epstein calls for free speech and democracy -- host: let me start with jay stanley. could this happen here? guest: it has. the metro system in san francisco ut off the cell phone and computer wireless system because a group of protesters were planning to stage a protest over police actions. this was "the communicators a big mistake because -- this was a big mistake beuse in this country, the government is not allowed to suppress speech, even to prevent potential unrest. what they did was not only cut

off speech because they did not ke what they would be saying, but the cut of speech for all of the other passengers. the united states faces prohibitions on that kind of general blanket ban on speech. investors a better idea for -- it is just a bad idea. it is a bad idea to a lot of the covenant to shut down entire segments of the communications network. host: york news, stephen vladeck -- your views, stephen vladeck? guest: we have a lot of laws that deals with telephones. one of the questions is whether these laws that protect assets

-- access to telephone service, must also protect access to social media and so on. the biggest difference between the united states and britain is the stronger history we have of tolerating speech. i think there's a lot more potential illegality. host: here is what bay area rapid transit system did -- and here is part of their statement. the temporary introductio host: what is your reaction? guest: public safety is the re no lead is used by every

government that shu the of communications networks, whether it is mubarak in egypt, or china, or iran. it is important, but der our system, the police just do not have the power to do this. second of all, there was no emergency. there was no protest even in progress. they were trying to anticipate a prest. under our system of law, and judicial rulings, there is an even steeper prohibition on a restraint of speech. even when national security is at stake, you cannot block peop from speaking that is -- speang. that is what happened here, baulking not of the protesters, but everybody in the bart,

which could have been dangerous. host: this is a cell phone system which all of us use -- bandwidth -- but where is the public property, and the private property? guest: that is the question. bart is a public entity, but their position is once you go through theurnstile, u're not in a public forum. i do not know if that would fly with the courts. once the government opens up an area to some speech, that they cannot pick and choose. there actually is a burden. we do not have a right to cell phone service on our subway system, but the problem is once

the local government chooses to provide that service, there are constitutional services -- loss of come into play when they try to shut it down. host: which will broaden this to a bigger discussion nationally as a nation as we all have access on our smartphone steve social media. we have seen a number of instances where use gangs have organized themselves by facebook and twitter, and local authorities are figuring out how to grapple with that, and the question is should restrictions be put on access to services in times of public safety situations? how do you feel about that? we'll put the c-span phone number is on the screen, and we will also invite you to use social media to join us. we will put your questions on the table. you mention that other

localities are grappling with that. are there other instances you could site? guest: we have not seen the system-wide shut down the bart undertook, but cities are considering them, especially as th hurricane irene coming to the east coast, what to do to make sure these networks are clear and not used for nefarious purposes. both new york city and washington have discussed how they might use or shut down parts of the cell phone network to prevent imminent attacks. this is clearly on the table. the fact that they were able to do it so quickly shows the are plans in place for most local governments toeal with this contingency, even though we have not flushed out the legal issues. guest: one of theactors at issue here is thawhat we do not want to see is a precedent

set where every local police department feels they could shut down vital communications networks because some people are planning a fresh mob -- flash mob. there was a fresh mob or a kid starte speeling stuff from 8 7/11 in an organized way. we do not want to see things get shut down because various threats pose themselves. host: congress's been intereste in this, and three senators said proposed legislation, the cyber security and the internet freedom act. can you tell us what they are envisioning? guest: it is still taking shape, but the basic idea is to allow for more authority a the state and federal level to cuoff access to certain networks in

times of public safety threats. where this turns into a problem is whether it will be over rolled from the first amendment perspective. the second thing is how do we allow local law enforcement take necessary -- to take necessary steps without going too far? is there a way to target those individuals you are worried about without shutting down the entire network? the bill is not there yet. they are trying to figure out what they want to do. the idea to go out on president service of network sites and disable them -- go out on social media sites and disable them. host: there is a kill switch at the idea. what do you think?

guest: i think ia terrible idea to shut down the communication by which illegal behavior is organized. cell phones are used to commit crimes whether it is antitrust or arranging murder. the police does not have the power to yank phone service away from somebody without due process. basically, the effects of shutting down communication and the test -- effect on speech, not only to restrain the people suspected of bad things, but of the other people effted, is considered by the courts to be worse than giving police the power. if the police have a sense that people are organizing illegal activities, the courts have said the proper respon is to send police there. guest: or to gather evidence.

host: or to monitor. est: we know that one of the ways law enforcement has unable to break up gatherings is to infiltrate the social network -- had been able to break up the gatherings was to infiltrate the social network. host: you are fine with that. guest: well, there are allowed to gather information on potential legal entity. there is a point where you cross the line into entrapment, but up until that point, that is much more consistent with our tradition than the internet kill switch, or other proposals. host: you both reference cell phone service. are the laws different with internet delivered over wireline as opposed to cell phone service?

guest: at the moment, they're not, and this is a problem localities are grappling with. the communications act, which was enacted before world war two treats all phone service alike. part of the issue is that if bart is a network operator, they're bically acting the same wave verizon is, or any other phone carrier ? one theme that has to be considered is whether there should be distinctions between landlines and cell phones, especially smart phones, given how many people of my generation did not have a land line. it is a difficult line to drop. host: in buffalo, new york,

george is a republican there. caller: scary stuff. did the incident with bart have to do with police security? host: can you give us more details? guest: the bart police shut down at a cell phone network to stop the protest against bart police. they were protesting the shooting of a homeless man. a couple of years before that there had been another shooting of a man, and the officer who shot them was convicted of a felony. the protesters felt the police were in their raw it wanted to

protest that. d its -- in the wrong and t wanted to protest that. the people who made the decision were the subject of the complaint. it is not like they were protesting the iraq war, or something on related -- t related. host: for the hacking site anonymous cannot involved for retribution? it shows the tools that people have in our society. what do know about that? guest: some of the hacking groups have into the website of bart, and released personal, privat information, which is a violation of privacy, but part of what it shows is the fact

that tried to shut down a communications system is not only ineffective and doomed to fail, as there have been organized protesters for many years before cell phones were invented, but it got people riled up fther. host: raleigh, n.c., debbie, in an independent. good morning. caller: to me, this is extremely troubling. whether you have local law enforcement or state-level law enforcement, or even federal level, to have the ability to shut down communications networks, to me that is an pedicle to what -- to me that is an cycle to what free speech means. i think one of you have

addressed earlier the idea that you do not thwart criminal behavior before and hand. is there any legal action against bart, and secondly, we have also seen in the past couple of weeks, representatives who have confiscated cameras in public town halls there holding . are there any privacy issues -- when anizations such dow organization of shots down sell service? it's called are they a federal contractor?

guest: there are a government entity, and is bound to comply with the first amendment. they have no exception from the first amendment or other federal laws. the statement you used earlier showed their sensitivity to the first amendment issues here. as to the questions of what kind of actions could be taken against bart, which have heard statements from the fedal communications commission that they're quite interested in this episode, and they're very worried that bart might have violated the communications act and various laws related to the operation of cell phone networks and telephone networks. i would not be surprised if we saw some kind of investigation. the other part of this that is relevant is that bart might have olated the california state law. the california public utilities

commission have similar requirements to be fc with with a gets to the access they have to provide. they could face liability from the federal and local government. host: jacksonville, florida. cliff, good morning. caller: this is starting to french on the age old thing of shouting fire in a theater if i have people that can use these cell phone and take over a train, why would the police not have the right to say it is an illegal demonstration because it is a safety hazard for all those folks that are trying to get there were -- to work?

why could they not a protest and not at a train station, but at their headquaers next guest: at think tha? guest: i think that is how bart will defenthemselves. there must be no imminent threat to public safety and the public health. i think part of what we are seeing here is bart taking a pre-emptive step, shutting down the network categorically, not targeting particular stations or trains. i think will be hard for them to read the very high bar of showing an imment threat. that does not mean you could not have a case in the future were the government was able to walk into court and say here we really did have that kind of

justification for this measure. given how pre-emptive the actions were here, it is a difficult sell, and historically, courts have been reluctant to blur the line between what is evident and not. host: i might not be able to make my technology move quickly enough, but this from twitter -- host: from another viewer ofhe other side -- the authorities can call anyone bad, but that does not make them so. weigh in on the opinion guest: kospi authorities had some evidence that these protesters were planning to

break the law. it is illegal to stop a train, or interfere with transit, and nobody disagrees with that. the question is, when you have some evidence that somebody might be planning to break the justify does that shutting down a communications system? it is pretty well established the answer is no. the board of directors had a meetg yesterday to talk about this, and they were actually very sympathetic to recognizing that this was a mistake, and they directed the staff to come up with a policy about when a cell phone network can be shut down, and they did account for extreme circumstances, such as a bomb threat or a hostage situation, which everyone recognizes to be reasonable to shut down a cell phone network in those emergencies. guest: if you allow for local

transportation systems for local governments to take a step of shutting down cell phone service because of the psibility of a protest, of that will sweep within its scope all range of activities that we probably would not want local governments to shut down cell phone service for. even if we'reoing to have a category of extreme cases, the real problem here is it does not look like it, and it uld be better for congress or the federal to medications commission to identify the category of cases for governments to do it on the fly. host: we have read about bomb threats on the washington metro system and the new york system. he suggested that authorities might have the responsibility to shut down cell phone networks to prevent additional things from happening, but that is exactly the time that people on the system might want to get

information or communicate that they are ok. how do you bridge those competing desires guest: that is a difficult situation when you have an emergency like that. those are the tough calls that make the job of the authority said protect us very very difficult. what you cannot do it said the system because people are planning a protest. host: bet is the line, the free- speech line? guest: yes. guest: the question is how do we want making that decision? should it be the transportation operator, the local government, a federal judge? as we start to grapple with this going forward, en the things we have to sort out is if we should require a neutral magistrate, for example, to sign off on a situationhere we do

think such a measure would be justified. host: a thought from twitter host: william is an independent in palm springs, california. caller: why is it not been addressed? the police are trying to cover up a murder? there was a man who shot for not paying his bus fare. people in the city are protesting for the police chief and the mayor to shut down. any political office, everyone refuses to help people. there is another man, and i can go on and on. they are scared, because they're breaking the laws. i would like to know are you not

worried about what is going on in america? we are seeing that all around, and for everyone to say they're just taking our fall rights, there are actually killing people, and not being tried for murder. a u.s. not worry? host: thank you. jay stanley? guest: the particular shooting deaths prompted the most recent protest is being investigating, -- investigated, and we cannot judge it until the feds,, but there has been a history of police abuses in san francisco and elsewhere. the aclu is in the forefront to address that. there was a shooting in the bay area where the officer was convicted of a felony. it seems pretty clear w some

people are protesting. the free-speech issue we are talking about today does not even have to get to whether the protesters are right or wrong. whether they're right or wrong, they have a right to protest. host: sasha has a poignant point -- host: chris, new jersey. a republican. welcome to the conversation. caller: it seems we have talked about shutting it telecommunications or the internet off. i wonder what your thoughts are on emerging technologies like twitter, youtube, and facebook, where an individual user might have their video or twitter post censored, or an account revoked? what sort of protections do we

have or do we not have for that sort of freedom of speech? guest: it is a great question. we have to be able to distinguish between censorship between private parties, which is what facebook a twitter are reachin their governed by federal law, not the constitution. there is far more of a tradition of sufficient by government where i think the law is less- developed. the next generation of the debate will focus on how much control the private companies have over the content we are putting on their sites. host: their services use bandwidth that is public property. where is a line drawn? guest: there are governed by the federal communications act, but they have ers sign contracts. when we click on the privacy policy, we are signing a contract.

i suspect some of the fine print posts they could take down. are we too sensitive to the censorship we are actually objecting to after the fact? guest: dear is the notion that the telecommunications providers themselves, verizon, at&t, and so forth, are they allowed to filter internet traffic? are they allowed to slow some and let those -- let others go fast? at issue is the controller communications networks. who controls the networks? are they neutral? do they serve everyone the same? to some people have power over the networks? they can manipulate them, and our position is they shoulde neutral. byt: guest: it is complicated

smart phones. the law might have been able to distinguish between telephones and internet access, but that distinction is clemson -- is collapsing. we now have to deal with the fact we can do both in the palm of your hand. host: brooklyn, good morning to john, you're on the air. caller: i would like to ask you something about some basic philosophy that goes back to 1789, and th is that the first and second amendments both, but it we're talking principally about the first, but regarding the first and second amendments, technology has gone so far beyond what the constitutional formers ever envisioned, so i'm wondering whether the amendments in of -- in and of themselves

are not anachronistic inhat the legal protection has to sit around for money as since then debating what is constitutional and what is not constitutional regarding such things as freedom of speech? if you want to take the second amendment to its limit, i should be able to drive around in a tank because i might have to protect myself againomething the federal government might want to do. i do not think anyone would consider the ownership of a tank in private hands a legitimate phenomena. guest: i sensed the founders really did understand what speech was, how it was used, would necessarily involve.

th had experienced themselves. he was in the 18th century that we saw the rise of pamphlets and newspapers. i am a bit reluctant to believe it might become anachronistic because of technology. i think the question of how we draw the line between the speech we protect and the government should be able to control might differ, but speech in his speech. part of the issue is is it really that different for bart riders to be talking on their cell phones, then for them to be holding up billboards. the more government cannot expect -- exploit the differences, this looks like first amendment press of activity. -- oppressive activity. more and more activity will be protected by the first amendment as technology advances. i am not sure that as something

to be scared about, but that is something to require careful re- examination of the legal regime as wgo forward. guest: 1 communications method best -- amendment that has been effected is the fourth amendment, the kansas our privacy right, and there, -- that gives us our privacy right. a government contract yourself location without a warrant, and that is this an issue the supreme court will investigate. host: are there any supreme court decisions that will shape this? guest: there will be a question on whether the government can't put a gps device on someone's car, and track their movement

without a warrant, or whether that is a search and requires a warrant under the fourth amendment. the position has always been that anything a private citizen could observe and other private citizen doing does not require a warrant. privacy is a big part of this conversation. as we talk about how the law is going to evolve, house cell phone networks and providers deal with these issues, we have to keep in mind there two sides reaching there is that government interested public safety, but there is also the interest in the privacy of communication. host: steve, nebraska. republican, good morning. caller: the other caller hit on what i was talking about. i am not going to drive around in a tank, but with the advent of the flash mobs, technology,

and what have you, how will that effect the concealed carry as far as self-defense? -seriously looking dead getting one, and my wife when, and my daughter -- i am seriously looking at getting one, and my wife one, and my daughter one, d i am in northeast nebraska. is thithe wave of the future? there are people predicting this to be the wave of the future. i want to know how this will effect the concealed carry for self-defense and what have you? guest: ever since the supreme court decision in heller v. should of columbia concerning the scope ofhe second amendment, we have had this question in the lower courts about how far state and local governments can go to regulate

gun possession publicly. i am a little bit loath suggest that the response to flash mobs should be for individuals to arm themselves. quite the contrary, part of why the government is so interested in interdicting these activities is so that we do not come to that, that there is public pressure for self-help as opposed to ordinary law- enforcement measures. host: san jose, calif ornia, paul. caller: there is a parallel to sobriety checkpoints, where people's access to the road is provided by local police and they are pulling everyone over. i'm wondering if the guests could kind of do comparisons there. there at the discussn already with sobriety checkpoints and the law and that thing. host: interesting question, and

we will close on that. guest: sobrietcheckpoints, the aclu is against those. they are engaged in mass surge, surge against everybody, rather --n one individual into but rather than when they have individualized suspicion. if they that particular individualized suspicion that you have cmitted a crime or are about to or are planning to -- i think that is a very good point that you make. host: from a legal point of view, is his analogy similar? guest: i think it would be more analogs to what washington and new york have already done, where you have searches of individu they goal onto subway systems. i think the critical difference between sobriety checkpoints and

what we have here is that in sobriety checkpoints, police are not interested in interdicting criminal activity, they are interested in providing drunk driving and the possibility that drunk drivers mightill innocent people on the streets. the reality is that there are no evidence -- is no evidence that the protests planned at the cellphon shutdown caught in a way of thought and with public safety for any individual. host: i know this will take us in another direction, but are you also against airport checkpoints because everybody is suspected of having something as they get on the airplane? guest: no, becau if traffic is uniquely vulnerable to persons with -- because air traffic is uniquely vulnerable to persons with guns. we know what you have checkpoints set of -- we don't

want to have at the checkpoints set up every corner and office buding in america. guest: i think for individuals in cities like san francisco, washington, at new york, public transportation is a critical part of their lives. >> to assist the convention center in washington, d.c., the site of one of several events leading up to the dedication of the martin luther king jr. memorial in the state capital. that dedication has been postponed because of the left- hand been hurricane irene -- because of the pending hurricane irene. the luncheon for women's civil

rights is scheduled to happen, and we expect to hear from bernice king and christine king farris, former labor secretary alexis herman and others are speaking. we want to remind you the dedication this sunday has been postponed. if there is no word on whether that has been rescheduled. there have been several events so far, and a couple still to happen that you will find on our website in the video library. live coverage is expected here, shortly, on c-span. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> this is the convention center

in washington, d.c., the site of women who dare to dream luncheon. several king family members are here. one of those being honored is the widow of the civil rights leader and add to this -- and activist medgar evers. we will stay here live and hear from a number of other speakers, including former secretary of labor alexis herman, sheila johnson, the founder and chief executive of black entertainment television, and many others. this sunday's dedication has been postponed because of the impending hurricane. we will keep you up-to-date on any postponed date.

>> we are happy to invite additional people in to enjoy the lunch due to the change of our schedule, so we invite all of our sponsors and all of our ticketed guests to take their

seats. thank you. [unintelligible]

>> again, at the convention center in washington waiting for the start of the luncheon to honor women rights. it is one of several events leading up to the dedication, which has been postponed because of the hurricane. another event will cover is a discussion on jobs and justice, and among those participating

include former hotel york times" columnist bob herbert, and the head of the afl-cio, richard trumka. a number of events that we have covered this week -- we have a link on our front page. go to c-span.org. >> kindly take your seats. our program will begin soon. >> good afternoon, and welcome to the dr. martin luther king jr. national memorial women who dare to dream luncheon. please welcome to the stage comedian jonathan slocum. >> hello.

you have to do better than that. give me some love, women. this is called women who dare to dream. but we hear some women who dare to wear high heels, and their feet are hurting right now. -year you would be in the building. whenever people who love black women get together, there is only one thing decanted as look at your neighbor and say neighbor, you look good, but i look better. [laughter] >> go ahead and said, because i know you meant it. i have a very special tribute to do. i am taking this liberty. i did not usually do podiums, but i will do it today. i believe that black women specifically, and we are not being prejudiced or racist, we

love all women, but i want to pay should be to the black women. are there black women in the building? are you here? i need to hear you. our presence and married a black woman. -- our president married a black woman. it is the best thing that happened to him. that is the reason we found osama bin laden, because when a brother is hiding, nobody can find him better than a black woman. here is the deal. i believe that black women have the following traits, and if i'm right, make some noise. beautiful. intelligent. spiritual. and still managed to hold on to just a little bit of cattle. you should be standing at this moment -- ghetto.

you should be standing at this point. i have a special song i took from the old hymn. here is the song. it goes like this -- ♪ blessed assurance, a black woman, you are fine. one will be with me all of the time short ones , ones no matter your shade if god did not create you i would have me one made this is my song

if of brother has not got him one, something is wrong. this is my story this is my song i love you, black women casue you are sweet, smart and strong. ♪ [laughter] [applause] >> make some nice. i'd love all of our sisters today. the women who dare. if you are a real housewife, and not the ones they show on television, raise your hands. you all need to be seen.

let everybody know the does not the real highest -- housewife they show on television. we have some distinguished ladies, and brothers, all of the men married to a distinguished woman, i want you to give them a round of applause. come on. get out of the dog house. by her some jewelry. by her a new car. i am going to have to leave this afternoon because irene is coming in, and anytime somebody named irene comes in, you need to run. iran from katrina. -- i ran from katrina. ocum.ar than slow i promote cuss-free , a.

peace. >> it is with great pleasure that we welcome the hon. alexis herman, former labor secretary. [applause] >> good afternoon. good afternoon. welcome. welcome to this very, very special moment in history. i especially welcome you on behalf of the mlk memorial this afternoon to this dare to dream luncheon, where we have come together, my friends, to celebrate the contributions of

womeny named and unamed who struggled, worked, and in many cases and died for us simply to have the privilege for us to be where we are today, in this room. the theme of this luncheon, women who dare to dream, really speaks to our mothers, our , ms,mothers, all or aunts saddie next door, ms. molly down the street. whether they were the obvious heroes like harriet tubman, or

madame c.j. walker, who seized business opportunities that impacted future generations, or our beloved dr. dorothy height, who when she received the congressional gold medal said we, as african-american women do not always get to do what we want to do, but we always do what we have to do, and, of course, correct scott king, who kept the legacy alive -- corella scott king, who kept the legacy alive. the women we celebrate our women who took effect could stop for just a moment and call the roll, you would each have a name to put on that honor.

these are the women who instilled hope against hope and invited the words of dr. martin luther king, when he said even if i believed the world was going to pieces tomorrow, i would still plant and apple tree. we, are the fruit of that tree, and we have come together to celebrate in a magnificent way, all of those all of those magnificent when in who indeed dared to dream. i must say, you know, i am reminded especially today of that old negro spiritual where it said, "in spite of the storms, that we are moving on anyway. all my friends, that is what we

are doing this afternoon, in spite of the storms. we are moving on with this celebration and the tradition that we know dr. king and the soldiers of the movement's would have wanted us to because rain did not stop them. storms did not stop them. they are not stopping us today. so, won't you help me now get to this celebration going? to do that, i am going to bring to the podium someone that i first met when she came to washington, d.c., as the executive director of the congressional black caucus. god had a special calling for her, as he called her into his direct service. she is now, of course, an ordained minister of the progressive baptist church.

i know her as my friend. i love and respect her as the national chaplain of the national council of negro women. please welcome to the podium, for the indication, the reverend, dr. barbara williams scanner. dr. -- rev.t up for sji. -- skinner. let us settle our hearts, and ball before the lord, and let us pray. all lord, our god, who was alone is worthy of adoration and praise, we have come today to acknowledge our love for and

dependence upon year. when our world is turning upside down, rocked by natural disasters of earthquakes and hurricanes, and the man-made disasters of assaults on the court, the sick, the elderly, and the children, we have come from the hills from which comes our help, the lord, the maker of heaven and earth. you alone, god, can turn back this coming storm of heroic proportions, and as rising tide of human neglect. when too many seemed to turn back the clock on human and civil rights, remind us that no weapon formed against the hurting will prosper, and the battle is not ours, it is yours. most of all, today, my dad, we

have, nearly 50 years after martin luther king jr. shared his dreams just to say thank you lord, for the many celebrated women of the civil rights movement. women like coretta scott king, rosie parker, and dorothy height. thank you especially for the many unheralded heroes and heroines of the movement like those we honor here today. it was there blood, sweat, tears, and think was labor that nurtured and sustained -- thankless labor then nurtured and sustain the movement that produced the civil rights, the open doors, and the high level >> that so many of us enjoy this date. -- acts that we enjoy this day.

for give the men that failed to see the hand of god was on these women who dared to dream big dreams. we crazy today for the women in our midst, overlooked by history, who risked their lives, and worked tirelessly for social revolution rooted in faith in a god who came to set the captives free, and deliver those that are oppressed. they his energy and power and energize a new generation of women to make the dream they dared to dream a reality for our time. so, for their lives, their sacrifice, their service, if we give you glory, honor, and praise, and thank you for the food and fellowships whereabouts to enjoy it. we praise you and the

magnificent, marvelous name of jesus the christ, and everyone who loves the lord said now amen. >> amen. >> thank you so much, reverend. as we prepare to have our lunch, for this portion of the program, we are going to have a few of our very special sponsors greet us, but before doing that, it is really my very special pleasure to introduce a woman who is an entrepreneur or, a philanthropist, devoted to the concerns of our children. this jury that we have been on

for so many years was started by harry johnson, that you will hear from later. he is been a real pioneer to bring us to this point, he had a lot of team members on the field with him, and one of those team members is about to grace this stage. i want you to give her a very special welcome, because we as women have a lot going on, and i can't tell you this particular woman, -- can tell you in particular this woman is a devoted wife, mother, and friend to many of us in this room. we are so grateful for what she did to help make this memorial celebration possible please welcome my friend, -- possible.

please welcome my friend, elc cabinet member, sheila johnson. [applause] >> you know, it is with great pride that i stand on this stage, paying tribute to the women who dare to dream. while the contributions that women made to the movement are often overlooked, when we in this room recognize that we are here because of the indomitable will of these women, that they are not always recognized because that does not erase the fact that the strength that these women possessed to face discrimination required a spiritual and moral courage that shines forth, even today. so much of my professional success comes from the values that we have learned from these

women, that of unwavering belief in excellence and success. these women donated and devoted their lives to teach in the next generation, from the slave learning to read in the dark, and the little rock nine, our rock has been raised on the idea of learning, of being the very best you can meet. this is something that we must pass on to the next generation. in order from -- to keep the foundation from cracking, we must also remember the mantra repeated to us daily. it is not enough to be as good, you must be better, you must be the best. let us share that reality with the next generation of dreamers.

so, i would like to now introduce vivian. [applause] >> i asked chellean johnson for the honor of -- sheila johnson for the honor of bringing on vivian picard. i do not know if jackie jackson is in the room, mrs. jesse jackson, so many women who were there with dr. king. somebody said dorothy, and was here. i do not know where the heroes are seated, there she is, but if i were to ask any of these women if they could have envisioned back then that to date, on the

front lines, we would have had -- today, on the front lines, we would have had so many corporate sponsors participating to make this day possible, well, they would not have believed it, we would not have believed it, but that is exactly what happened, and it started with our dedication share, the general motors co.. behind those companies are strong, talented women who make it happen for us every single day. i know that. johnson would be among the first to tell you -- harry johnson would be the first to tell you women,t without these could they would not be possible.

i want you to welcome someone who has many titles, but i will give her her appropriate recognition as the head of the foundation for the general motors co., as someone who has the title of vice president for the general motors co., as someone, when we think of gm, we think of the in -- vivian picard. th ase welcome the i vivian picard, who will greet you as our lead sponsor. please come forward. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. his sometimes good to have good friends in high places.

let me share my sincere apologies for the fact that mary barbour is not able to join us this afternoon. she is very disappointed, but of course the weather and travel constraints allowed her not to join us today, and i am very disappointed that you do not have the opportunity to meet her, because i think you would have really enjoyed it as senior vice president of global product development for general motors, mary is the highest ranking female like general motors. she is also the highest ranking female in the automobile industry, and just this week, "forbes magazine" named mary barbour as one of the most 100 powerful women in the world. i did say whirled. [applause] >> that of course it is

attributed to the responsibilities that general motors has given married to lead a great corporation. it is my -- mary to lead the great corporation. it is my honor to be here today. most importantly, it is a tremendous privilege to represent the men and women of general motors, the general motors foundation, and chevrolet, who have worked so hard to bring this historic weekend to fruition. i am proud that general motors, the general motors foundation and chevrolet were the first corporate leaders to sit yes to supporting this great memorial, contributed over $10 million to the memorial, and chevrolet making sure the word got out about the memorial. [applause] >> from our employers to our suppliers and dealers, general

motors has been the first in the number of efforts when it comes to women. i am proud to share the general motors was one of the first companies, and very first automotive companies to develop a minority supplier program. we were also one of the first companies to develop a womens' dealer programs. it is that same support that has given me the opportunity to stand here today as president of one of the world's largest corporate foundations. i remember vividly in 1968 devet surrounding the -- the events surrounding the death of martin luther king. i was a little girl in mississippi. for me, those memories are a reminder that we have come a long way in the last half century, but we cannot allow the progress that we have made to

laura us into thinking that we have completed the journey that dr. king gave his life to advance. in his words, all progress is precarious. we cannot take for granted the sacrifices that he and so many others made on our behalf. we must make that struggle that they have brought thus far the inspiration to continue on, until all men and all women have the opportunity to contribute and participate to the society to the full extent to all of our ies.ity spre >> so we would like to offer a special thank you to the king family, harry johnson, for allowing general motors, the

general motors foundation, and chevrolet to be here today, and thank you to all of them for the work they have done to honor the work and memory of dr. martin luther king. thank you so much. [applause] >> just to make sure that you know we are honoring the brothers to -- i do not know if yet -- then is here to little rock nine, we want to pay tribute to all of our heroes. i want to bring a special mission to this podium and he is the vice chair of the mlk memorial, but we might also know him as the president of the tommy hilfiger foundation, but more than his title as president of the foundation or vice-chair

of the memorial, we know him as someone that is committed, has labored in the vineyard for many years to make so much happened in our community, especially for our children. please welcome the president of the tom mihill dear -- tommy hilfiger foundation, mr. guy vickers. >> good afternoon. thank you. women who dared to dream -- this is an appropriate title, and as i stand here today, i have a lot of emotions running through me. the tommy hilfiger corporate foundation has been involved in this project for 11 years. gm was the first company to step up to the plate, and we were the second company, contributed $6.2

million, and been involved over 11 years, have an executive loan, another strong sister that has been with the foundation for seven years that we are very proud of, but what i'm really thinking about his giving praise to mr. harry johnson, who was president of the memorial, and his staff, of whether a wonderful job. let's give them a round of applause. [applause] >> i would like to share with you something that is on my mind. in front of every man, and let me say that again -- in front of every man is a great woman. i would like to acknowledge my wife who is sitting to my right, why loved dearly, and has put up with me for all of these years -- who i love dearly, and has put up with me for all of these years. i would like to close by paying

tribute to my mother. when i saw the title, i remembered my mother, who is deceased. when i was a young man said in elmira, new york, grew up in the church of god in christ, and we would have our place, she would be backstage telling me word- for-word my part. i knew my part. we studied it at home, and i knew it, but when we got on stage, i would just freeze, and i would look behind a curtain to my mother, she would mall but part, i would say a line, i would look again, and she would say it again. it was the women in the audience thought always encouraged me, and always said you can do it, and you can see somebody, so i know firsthand the power of women, the love of london. i love you all. god bless, and have a great evening. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome to the stage dr. michele, the senior director of the walmart foundation. >> good afternoon. i would like to begin my remarks today by sending a special thank you to secretary alexis herman, who was been a true friend and adviser of walmart, and assault to make us a better company. we are honored to be here today -- and has helped us to be a better company to date. we are honored to be heard today. paraphrasing dr. king, occasionally in life there are moments that cannot be explained by words, but only by the inaudible language of the heart. my heart is filled with joy today as we celebrate so many strong, determined within, who

threw their act of conscience and bravery help make this day possible. is on their shoulders that we stand. like so many of us here today, i grew up immersed in dr. king's legacy. i was born in june, 1964, what we now refer to as "freedom summer." from an early age i understood the opportunities that were afforded me as i grew up were a direct result of the countless women and men who shared dr. king's dream, and did everything in their power to bring it to life. growing up, i heard my family and community say to me honor and respect the sacrifices of all that gave of themselves in the civil rights movement. give back, and do not give up. my parents are both educators,

and what they instilled in me and my sister was the belief that we could be anything that we wanted to be, go anywhere that we wanted to go, and do anything that we wanted to do. the world was open to us, and only limited by our own imagination. if i submit to you that this sense of hope, opportunity, and equal access that my parents raised dust with is an example of a living legacy of the civil rights movement -- a moment and message, that although the contours' have changed, remains reluctant today. for those that ask the question of co what now -- "what now?" the answer is the greater the circumstance, the greater the sacrifice. for the women we acknowledged today, we thank you for your leadership, and the great

dignity for which you have let your life and continue to lead. you have inspired us for a brighter future, with your on indian love for all people, you're on wavering believe that -- unending love for all people and you're on wavering beliefs. we are very proud to be a part of this history that honors dr. king and his legacy, and the women who dare to dream with him that our country could be a better place for all. thank you. [applause] >> and coming to the stage, harry johnson, president and ceo, martin luther king jr. national memorial project foundation. [applause]

>> good afternoon. all of these are tough act to follow. in the world -- words of our great maya angelou, who is beautiful pole will move us today, a call how important it is for us to recognize and celebrate -- "however important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she- roes." we are celebrating our movement, and leaders. their stories cry out to be told, and in telling we hear the courage, wisdom, and the resolve that are so important to every step of progress that we make. it has been an incredibly conspiring to listen to all of

these stories. a big thank you goes to alexis herman, for her leadership with this luncheon, and to all of our esteemed speakers who are to follow. this week has been a celebration of a long, long journey to build this memorial, and not one step along the way it was -- would have been possible without the support of all of you today. . .

. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> god knows what he's doing. even though we think we know everything and we're on top of it, god is on top of this thing called life. coca cola gave us 2,000 bottles of water so we could be cool on sunday. as it turns out, we may need those 2,000 bottles of water for people in this area in need after the hurricane. thank god for understanding that he could take lemons and make

lemonade. from the bottom of my heart, i would like to say thank you to all of you. we had no idea that this would perhaps be our final event. how glad i am that you had the wisdom to take over this for me. she has been a hero of mine for many, many years, and i thank her. we are grateful for all the women who helped build this memorial, the one made out of flesh and the one made out of stone. you truly are the foundational movement. i would like to say a personal thank you to my wife, and i would like to introduce one of the sponsors of today's lunchon. the global director of education and internal affairs for the

intel corporation. she overseas -- oversees intel's work force, workforce policy, and she has won numerous awards. including the black engineering corporate engineer award. please welcome her to the stage. [applause] >> good afternoon. on behalf of intel and our 40,000 employees, we are so proud to be here and to participate in the unveiling of the martin luther king, jr. memorial. while our focus is global in that 75% of our products are sold outside of the united

states, we remain committed at home. i am proud to say that 75% of our products are still made right here in america. [applause] for over 40 years we have driven technological innovation that has changed how we live, work, and play. over that time we have continued to increase our efforts in education to close the gaps that we continue to see in science, math, engineering, technology for women, african-americans, latinos, and native americans. our over $1 billion investment in just the last decade alone is based in our fundamental belief that we cannot succeed until all of our people are fully participating in the growth economy. so i will watch with a tremendous sense of pride and be reminded of how far we have come

and how much has been sacrificed so i can stand before you today as an executive of a fortune 100 company. i will smile with you and understand that there will forever be children who stand before the monument of martin luther king, jr. who understand what it means to role model true leadership. as i return to my office monday morning, i will do so with the humbling reminder of how much work we still have to do so ensure that his dream becomes a reality for all. i will remember the women we are honoring today and their legacy of strength, hope, and dignity. that they dream so much hope for us at a time when progress was close to invisible. it reminds me we have the responsibility to build on their legacy and dream big for the next generation. we are honored to be here today and to have a chance to celebrate the women who dare to

dream. they remind us all of what can be done when we come together. thank you, and have a wonderful afternoon. [applause] >> everyone is getting quiet, because i think you know who is about to grace this stage. [applause] i don't know what you say of a woman who has defied the times, who has spoken for all of us in so many wonderful and

magnificent ways. it was just two weeks ago that i called her to say, how are you doing, my friend? i have a special request from the c.e.o. of the memorial. you've written kings and queens and presidents. we want you to do something very, very special to help us all remember this moment. and we don't want you just to write something special for this moment, but harry johnson has

specifically requested that you allow the king memorial at the appropriate time, because there is going to be this wonderful time capsule, that will contain so many of the memories of the celebration. when we get the moment to dedicate formally and officially this memorial, would you honor us with your special words. that you could honor us with your words that we could place in this memorial. and when i spoke with her last wednesday, she said, think, i think, i think that i have something that you will bless

and remember. please stand and give a warm welcome of gracious welcome to dr. maya angelou, our hero, our leader, our special, special woman. [cheers and applause] she will now read to us her beautiful words she was inspired to write. dr. maya angelou. >> as a grateful agent said when it is finally out this lethal thing that is more lethal than air, more useful

than earth, this freedom, this man, will be living on, not in statues, but by the life given by him. and i have written reverend martin luther king, that great soul bearing mana of hope for his country. his country was starving severely from an absence of compassion, a lack of compassion. martin luther king, that great spirit came from the creator sparking a foundation of fair play to his country which was

parched and deformed by hate. the whole man came forward with a brain of gentle wisdom to persuade quiet upon the loud misery of the mobs. the whole man stood out with a malifluous voice to find the joints of currency. the whole man came in the midst of a murderous nightmare surrounded by demons of war he dared to dream peace and ser enti. with a heart of faith he hoped to resurrect his nation. i hope my mouth to the lord and i won't turn back. martin luther king facing the racial mountain of segregation and he bade it move.

that giant mound of human ignorance centuries old and riot and rigid in his determination did more. he bid them move. however slightly, however inf initesimally, it did move. that happened because he said i will go. i will go. i will see what the end is going to be. martin luther king brought winds of healing to his country unstead yillly with the winds of racial maid red. screams of insanity could not silence him.

firebombs and dogs could not take his voice away. on my knees i show god how you treated me. on my knees. he knew himself a child of god on a mission from god. and standing in the hand of god, he spoke to the idiot town lord, leave me grounded. you don't have to move that trembling block, just lead me around it. he was a leader to millions. he was one to yolanda, to martin iii, to bernice. they could not stop him.

he was a lover and a friend and husband to coretta scott king. he spoke respectfully of the -- he spoke respectfully. in india he walked in the footsteps of ghandi. christianity made him patient with all religions, and his tremendous heart made him believe that all people were his people. all creeds and religions were comfortable in his presence. all just causes were his cause to support in his soul. through sermons and allocations,

with praise god and ovations he preached fair play and serenity. from hand cuffs and prison guards. from leg irons and prison bars he taught triumph over loss, love over despair. hallelujah over durges. joy over moaning. he said fear not. fear not. we have come too far to turn back, and we are not afraid. we shall overcome. we shall overcome. we shall overcome. some depay -- day we shall overcome. [applause]

[applause] >> we shall overcome. we have overcome. maya angelou's rendition, a poem for the ages. abundant hope. abundant hope. and now as we fellowship and enjoy one another at this lunchon, i want to invite the waiters to begin to serve our

lunch. i'm going to come back and interrupt you periodically. there are too many people you need to know in this room. we have the secretary of health and human services, kathleen sebelius is here. madam secretary thank you for joining us. i think i saw ben jealous here. there you are. i knew you were here. i'm going to come back and i'm especially going to talk about the lady over here in the white hair. is that miss j.c.? all right. one of our great anchorwomen in

the nation's capital. enjoy your lunch. thank you. >> this is the national memorial

project foundation, martin luther king, jr., and while this lunch continues, we're going to bring you a portion of the remarks from the m.l.k. memorial foundation celebration dinner, including speeches by ron kirk, the u.s. trade representative, and former secretary of state madeline albright.

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome again miss andrea mitchell. >> i would like to welcome you all. the martin luther king foundation memorial campaign, who successfully led this idea to washington, mr. hairy johnson. >> thank you so much. thank you so much. thank you so much.

thank you, thank you, thank you. your excellencies, members of the king family, other special guests that are with us tonight, hello everyone, and thank you for joining us tonight on this most auspicious occasion. to our ambassador of services, andrea mitchell. to all of you assembled tonight, i just say, how is everyone doing this evening? [applause] during his short term here on earth, martin luther king, jr. once said our lives begin to end the day we become solid about things that matter.

tonight as we celebrate that world vision and commitment to peace and justice that guided dr. king and inspired the leaders here with us this evening, we're mindful of the fact that we stand on the shoulders of those who refused to be solid about things that mattered most. truth, justice, equality and honor for all. to that end, as we begin making our plans for dedication week, we wanted to be sure that our celebration included time to remember dr. king as a leader with world vision. his concerns were for the rights of all people, not just here in our own country, but those who live across the globe and for that we owe him a continued debt of gratitude.

as i take my seat, it is truly an honor and no doubt a privilege for me to introduce our next guest, who like our other distinguished speakers this evening is a trailblazer in his own right. the former mayor of dallas, texas, our current united states representative, the honorable ron kirk, and served as a trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on trade issues. to me he is just a great friend. ron told me once when we were at the democratic national convention a few years ago, i'm tired of you sending me those messages asking me for money. i've given you all the money i'm going to give you. ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome the honorable ambassador ron kirk.

>> as a fellow texan i cannot tell you how proud i am of harry johnson of his love and commitment and stewardship of this wonderful project, and even though that was the cheekiest way for hary -- harry to yet again ask me for more money, i am proud to be a part of tonight's kickoff for this wonderful week. as i listen to the remarks from our brothers from general motors and tommy hilfiger, i couldn't help but think about my experiences growing up in austin texas which at the time was as

segregated as any place in the country. i grew up as a first generation beneficiary of the civil rights movement, and for me to comment on what it is to be here a son of the civil rights movement, it is my privilege to honor the children of dr. martin luther king and coretta scott king who are here with us tonight. [applause] applause [applause] you have heard from each of us how each of us viewed dr. king's work or informed it, and i can't help but think how dr. king's galvanzing work demonstrated the powerful combinations of theology to inspire him to take actions collectively and individually to transform our societies.

i was reminded as i had a conversation with one of my good friends who was saying he hoped the weather didn't ruin this weekend. and i was saying if anybody knows about praying and praying for storms, it should be the group of people in this room. whatever storms come, god will take care of it. like a lot of you here, i grew up with one of those little churches in the south, and all we had was our faith and our church. i grew up in this church that my parents helped build by hand. we had all those wooden block letters with scriptures on the wall. in my church we recited john 3 salon: 16 every week. we said it so many times, we began to play around with it. one of the times we were reciting the scripture, and my cousin nudged me, and he said,

you know what this means, right? he said god so loved the world, he didn't send a committee. when i think of dr. king, it rings of that. god doesn't send committees. a committee would not have moved past jim crow. it took so many that we know. as i am prifflged to -- privileged to travel around the world in our commercial relations, i am inspired and humbled to see that same spirit of self-determination and faith in the work, in the lives of people, as you heard from our wonderful ambassador from south africa. we are witnessing now the breadth of dr. king's work coming to life in places like lip libya and egypt and the middle east and north africa as

mothers and fathers all embrace that global principle of self-determination and self-empowerment. to me that is the spirit of dr. king's work. that is the genius of the globalness of his message. people intuitively understand the democratic rights. give people the power to ship our own destinies and our own futures. and they wls understand that increasing individual freedom heppeds unleash liberty -- helps unleash liberty and gives entrepreneurs the freedom to empower themselves to create a better life not only for themselves but for their families and friends and for their neighbors. it seems fair to me to say that dr. king's life and work helped shape a strong foundation for global development. his efforts inspired a universal call for social justice that has

helped move hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in just a few generations. i know -- we all know, there is so much more to do. tonight is an opportunity to sell bragsebrate the genius of dr. king's mission. i am honored to also have the privilege to introduce our evening's final speaker, the 64th secretary of state of the united states of america, the fabulous, the wonderful, the brilliant, the intelligent, the gorgeous madeline albright. [applause] throughout her extraordinary life and career in public service, dr. albright has been committed to the idea that america should lead the world even as we strive to perfect our own union and live up to the highest principles here at home. dr. albright continues to pursue these goals today in both her

public and private careers. as chair of the albright stonebridge group and albright capital management, she provides strategic perspective to dynamic leaders who are driving the global economy and creating jobs around the world. as chair of both the national democratic interests tute of international affairs and the pugh global institute project she helps guide institutioned dedicated to giving people a better voice in shaping their futures. friends, please join me in welcoming madam secretary, dr. madeline albright. [applause] >> also short. thank you very much. thank you very much, ambassador

ron kirk. thank you very much for your kind words. i really am delighted to be here. andrea it is a pleasure to be here. in case you all are wondering what pin i have on tonight, i have a lincoln pin, and it says one country, one destiny, and i think that describes a lot of what we're doing. [applause] i'm honored to join with all of you in celebrating the life and legacy of dr. martin luther king, jr., and harry johnson thank you for your amazing effort to make this all work. this is your week. we have already heard a lot about dr. king. much more will be said between now and sunday when the long-awaited memorial is officially dedicated. as we share our thoughts we

should never lose ithe of our core mission in the quest for racial equality and social progress here in the united states. it is appropriate as well that we hie highlight his inspirational role in south africa's struggles against apart i'd -- apartheid. tonight we place relevance on the international relevant of dr. k#

as we know, a dreamer. this does not mean he was naive. in his career he was beaten, thrown into jail, jeered at, spied on, and threatened. while still in seminary he wrote about the viciousness of race -- racism and it made him doubt the goodness of man. before his death he preached in atlanta that life is a continue cal story of shattered dreams -- continual story and shattered dreams. he spoke of the war in each of us that struggles between our nobler intentions and our actions. his knowledge of human character and his realism about the obstacles to progress make even

more compeling the prescription that he offered -- hope, faith, commitment, and compassion toward one another. he knew that a world of peace and justice could not be achieved by small steps or by minor adjustments to our thinking and policies. he told us that such a world could not be invented, even by the most startling advances of modern technology. he warned us we could not break through as a society if we were always looking around to see what everyone else was doing. and so that we would be shielded from the criticism that true leaders face. dr. king could did not ask us to become a flock of good sheep. he asked us to join in creating a revolution, a nonviolent revolution based on the principles of true democracy. a revolution grounded in our need for one another and in our

recognition that we are equal. not because we're all the same, but because we are equal in our intrinsic dignity and worth. he asked us to insist that more at be at the core of international relationships among -- that morality be at the core of international relationships among every nation in the globe. we now wonder today if that is a reasonable standard to set. after all, nations have economic and political interests that often come into conflict. we americans have enemies who have attacked us and who openly proclaim their hate. it is far easier to talk about the redemocrattive power of love than it is to apply -- the redemptive power of love than it is to apply that in a complex world. we cannot always live up to the standards that dr. king established, and we should acknowledge that. but if we ever fail to

acknowledge more at -- morality as a guiding light, then we are truly lost. we should not forget that. dr. king did not expect to see a mother brotherhood and sisterhood to descend from the clouds and put away all strife. but he asked each of us to accept the proposition that every individual counts. or, as he put it, that we are tied together in a single garland of destiny. this is the principle that every individual counts that must be at the heart of everything that we do. if we truly believe in that and act on it, we will have the firmest possible platform for building world peace. we will have the unity we need to attack global problems such as under-development, religious conflict, environmental degradation, and bigotry.

we will have the capacity to reach across social and political boundaries so that we might benefit from the tricks of all people. we will live up to our nation's highest ideals, and we will honor in the best possible way the life and legacy of dr. martin luther king, jr. thank you so much for letting me participate in this moment. thank you. [applause] >> madam secretary, thank you so much for those wonderful words of inspiration and things we need to remember for the rest of the week. would you please give mad ym -- madam secretary another round of applause. i would ask that martin king iii, bernice king join me on

stage for a special presentation. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage christine king, bernice king, and martin king iii. [applause]

>> i would like to present to you the words that the sculptor carved. it sits on a base of actual stone that came from the quary where the statue came. you can't hold this, because i can barely hold this. but i would like to present this to the king family. i would also like to call to the stage -- [applause]

[applause] >> thank you.

>> as we take our seats, all of you are very, very special tonight. i hope you have a wonderful evening. before we close the evening, we are honored to have a very special guest. would you please welcome to the stage mr. stevie wonder. [applause]

>> thank you for coming in. >> it is truly an honor to be here. for the beginning of this celebration of the memorial of dr. martin luther king, jr. i want to personally and emotionally thank harry johnson for making it possible for me to be here. he made it possible for me to go up and touch the face of dr.

king. [applause] what i'd like to do before i say anything more is commit to the foundation $10,000 a year that will allow as many people as are blind to go up and see this. [applause] if that don't cover it, i guess i got to sell some more records.

as i touch this memorial of dr. king i hope we will remember the meaning behind the monument. i hope that we remember at the base of it the people who are poor, those countries who are suffering, and that our spirits are tall enough, as tall as the monument stands. i hope that all of us remember the meaning behind this memorial , the monument, and remember those who are without health care, and be tall enough and big

enough, as tall as the monument to do something about it. [applause] i want us to remember the meaning behind the monument. i want us all to be tall enough to remember those young and old children, young people that will determine the destiny ultimately by what we do today to make sure they have visitation, and those that don't have funds will be able to have money enough. and me in my life, i've been blessed by the grace of god, and as we celebrate the spirit of those who are christian, and those who are muslim as you

celebrate ramadan, that all of you from all over the world, christians and other faith, will remember that it is not about redge, it is about -- it is not about the religion, it is about the relationship. thank you and god bless you. [applause] ♪

i wanted to do this song because i actually wrote it in 1972 on the birthday of dr. martin luther king, jr. ♪ ♪ where his dream now forever stands as if a vision in my mind

was this a vision in my mind ♪ they only turn around and often come around

it is not yesterday force force but what i'd like to but what i'd like to know if a place like this exist so beautiful do we have to find our entire way the visions in our minds ♪ i'm not one to make belieu

>> we are returning now live to the dr. king memorial celebration. >> thank you so much. i am pleased to be here. ♪ this is in remembrance of our an seftors because of you change gonna come

oh, this is in remembrance of because of you the change is going to come for coretta scott king this is for nina simone rosa parks josephine baker because of you change gonna come. for my grandmother for my great-grandmother virchil

mcmullen because of you the change gonno come oh because of you the change gonna come ♪ [applause] >> thank you. this song is called "lion and butterflies."

this is for all the women in here. just give me a sign and let me know you guys are listening. ♪ she's looking back over the life she's lived searching her heart for every experience her memories go back further than she ever thought all of the love and all of the battles fought

she can remember hearing a woman shopping but she doesn't think she knows a woman must be everything she must gracious and tenacious aggressive and patient everything and everything in between a soldier and a mother a a flower and a power everything and everything in between i see my colors and i hear my ro ar what you are you are a lion and a butterfly you showed me what i can be you are a lion and a butterfly you showed me that i can be it

all look at her hands older and wiser she's showing me what it means to be an artisan to be a human and i can remember hearing the shopping looking at it now i can see that i can be everything i can't gracious and tenacious aggressive and patient everything and everything in between a soldier and say mother a flower and a power everything and everything in between

i hear my colors and i see my roa -- roar because of you i am so much more you are a lion and a butterfly you showed me that i can be it all you are a lion and a butterfly you showed me that i can be it all she's looking back over the life she's lived she's asking herself the question have i made a difference?

she has inspired me she is the reason why i know i can be gracious and tenacious aggressive and patient everything and everything in between a soldier and a mother a flower and a power everything and everything in between i hear my colors and i see my roar because of you i am so much more i am a lion and a butterfly you showed me that i can be it all i am a lion and a butterfly you showed me that i can be it all i see my colors and i hear my roar because of you i am so much more

♪ [applause] thank you. thank you. >> and now welcome to the stage the reigning misdistrict of columbia, miss ashley boalch. >> i am happy to be here today not only as a representative of our organization but also our nation. it is from this organization over $50 million has been given

as scholarship for young women, and many miss americas have gone on to achieve great things and used this as a platform to have very fruitful careers. i am very happy today representing the miss america organization. while we are proud of the women whose names and faces we know, most of the women that struggled for equality did so in anonimity. it is now with great pleasure that i introduce a song, "let it be" that is dedicated to all the female warriors on whose shoulders we stand. [applause]