p.m. eastern. in 45 minutes, we will talk about race, politics, and the 2012 campaign with democratic strategist jamal simmons. we will also look at the role the government in the housing market at 8:30 eastern and discuss middle east diplomacy east diplomacyginsberg who was ambassador ♪ host: good morning and welcome to "washington journal" on this

tuesday, may 22, 2012. the president is back in washington after the nato summit. president obama and mitt romney are trading at bars and replace -- in the race for the white house. the president is focusing on romney's record at bain capital. what do you think? is romney's record fair game? the number to call for our republican line is 202-737-0002. the number to call for our democrat line is 202-737-0001. the number to call for our independent line is 202-628- 0205. you can also find us online. join the conversation at twitter or you can talk to us on facebook. you can also send us an e-mail, journal@c-span.org. let's look at how the papers are covering this story.

obama is keeping bain in its -- in his cross hairs. the story and "usa today" -- the story and "usa today." this has flared up in recent days in part because of comments made. let's get back to this -- to how this all started. a campaign ad looking at president obama's initial attack

on mitt romney's record. we will take a look at that in just a moment. [video clip] >> for 30 years, we had a reputation of quality products. it was american-made. we were not rich, but i put my daughter through college. >> i had a paint job. it was hugely important. >> the next up was the sale of bain capital. >> i know how business works. i know why jobs fail and some don't. >> mitt romney was deeply involved in the influence that he exercised over these companies. >> he made as much money as he could. they closed it down and filed for bankruptcy without any concern to the families. >> he was like a vampire, came in, and sucked the life out of us. host: that was an ad about mitt romney's time at bain capital.

listed to the alliances do you have to say. an independent scholar. -- caller. good morning. caller: i am confused about the controversy surrounding this whole thing. 99% of us are working hard and then the 1% like bain capital have concluded to getting the jobs and the working class. i am confused about the comments. i think for president obama to win this election and to hopefully when it on a mandate for the 99%, highlighting a company like a bain capital and mitt romney's connection just makes political sense. >> let's look at major booker's comments on meet the press. [video clip] >> i'm not about to sit here and

in that private equity. it is getting ridiculous. pension funds, unions, other people invest in bain capital. if you look at bain capital, it does a lot to support businesses. host: that was on sunday, meet the press. hours later, booker, took back his comments on twitter. let's take a look at this ad from the romney campaign. it came out on line just yesterday. it is taking obama's suggestion to use of bain. [video clip]

>> have you had enough on president obama's attacks on enterprise? his own supporters have. >> i am not about to indict private equity. >> former congressman, harold ford jr., from tennessee. >> private equity is a good thing in many instances. >> former economic adviser, stephen ratner. >> in nothing bain capital did a thing to be embarrassed about. >> the have been a lot to support and grow businesses. >> even obama's own supporters have had enough. enough is enough. host: an ad by the romney campaign.

is it fair game? caller: i think that americans have to get real a little bit. this is politics. we all know that everyone is playing games on both sides to win. and, you know, control the government. the thing with cory booker, obviously, everyone knows he positioned himself. he has aspirations in financial officer. i think he got a little overconfident. if you're not following the rules, guess what? you're going to pay a penalty, pay a price for that. he deserves what he is getting right now.

mitt romney, obviously, is positioning himself as the businessman, the one who knows the economy. is is fair game to really dissect what bain capital is really about. it was not about creating jobs. it was about making people wealthy. that is it. the bottom line is that it is not like the open of a restaurant for a chain of grocery stores to really create jobs. they fight companies in distress. they take them over. the load them up. they write it off. the taxpayers pay for it. the walkway with hundreds of millions of dollars -- they walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars.

host: you mentioned mitt romney's handling of the economy. let's look at how americans are feeling about this. "washington journal" -- "the washington post" has a headline about this today. next caller is clef, a republican in brentwood, california. caller: good morning. obama is quite to the hypocrite.

he just attended that fundraiser with the ceo of blackstone. he simply does not know how business works. that is the meaning of this story. he is in over his head when it comes to having to do with the economy. what would you expect from a man whose only experience is as a community organizer? you have mayor booker, harold ford, stephen ratner, they're all coming out and saying what they're saying. and a democrat governor who is dependent on the bond market, there will not be able to go with you here, mr. obama. it is astonishing how this president can not see two moves ahead. he is such an amateur. that is what bill clinton called him. host: let's look at this headline. [video clip] >> cory booker is an outstanding

mayor. he is doing great work and helping to turn that city around. i think it is important to recognize that this issue is not a distraction. this is part of the debate the we're going to be having in the election campaign about how do we create an economy where everybody, from top to bottom, folks on wall street and folks on main street, have a shot at success. if they are working hard and they're acting responsibly, then they're able to live up the american dream. i think my view of private equity is that it is set up to maximize profits. that is a healthy part of the free market. that is part of the role of a

lot of business people. that is not unique to private equity. i will say, today, i think there are folks who do good work in that area and there are times where they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs. but, understand that their priority is to maximize profits. that is not always going to be good for communities, businesses, or workers. host: that is president obama speaking in chicago yesterday. massachusetts, at independent aline. good morning. caller: thank you for having me. i do not like bain capital.

i think they're destructive for the economy. i think it is hypocritical of president obama to attack mitt romney over because he just recently appointed a man from bain capital. in fact, he appointed in three different times. he appointed him to the office of management budget twice. he traded a new office for him, denies its chief budget officer. obama is attacking mitt romney overage, yet he has appointed the brains of bain again and again. bain is a terrible thing and the the romney or bane should be -- the the romney or obama should be involved in it. it is outrageous. host: let's look at it, coming in on twitter. vivian is our next caller.

caller: i was calling about cory booker. he made it comment on rachel that no -- rachel maddow saying he did not approve that added the republicans put out. another thing out like to say. they criticize the president that he is a community organizer. yes. he had to get everything together for people to make sure that everyone was in line, trying to find jobs, and help people. they talk about romney being a job creator. if he was that good, why didn't they re-elect him in massachusetts for governor again? they set out all those ads, lined, and not telling the truth. he does not care about us and he never will.

thank you very much. host: in a rare statement, bain has addressed to the added. this is an "the washington post." 3 habib a republican in a bethesda, maryland. welcome to the conversation. go ahead. caller: first of all, you make

comments earlier -- you made a comment earlier about romney's and defending his record. that is not really true. he is defending what he did with bain capital. but moving on, president obama's comments, just being interested in earning money for companies, that is what they are all about. you have to be able to retain earnings city could have future payments to pay your employees. it just proves president obama's 9 of the -- naivety. it is not just creating jobs for the sake of creating jobs. host: there's been a lot of

discussion in the last couple of days since cory booker was on "meet the press" on sunday. let's look at "the washington post" talking about what companies like bain are about.

our democrat line, good morning. caller: i wanted to make a statement. i think the issue with cory booker actually helped president obama home his message a little better. even with the issue that exploded and made that guy, joe the plumber, prominence when he was talking about fairness and equality. private citizens, corporations, trying to make a more fair playing field. when you look at his approach to

business, what he is basically trying to say is make the playing field more fair. is it fair that businesses can collectively petition the government through things like the chamber of commerce or things like that? these same businesses do not want unions to be able to collectively bargain for employee benefits and employee salaries. so, i think what the thing with cory booker did was it helped president obama it to try a little harder to connect the dots of what he is talking about with regards to making our society and of the way the government and businesses worked and how they affect the little guy more feaair.

host: cory booker addressed the tone of the attack ads as nauseating. what do you think about that? caller: to be perfectly honest, i do think it is nauseating. president obama -- it helped president obama's campaign connect the dots. this is a cynical aspect of the way we do politics in this country. it is just give the regular citizens the level they need to get them excited about their issue and their team. but they do not want to go into -- they do not want to bother to explain what their actual position is. host: let's look at a couple comments on facebook.

richard, not a republican, welcome to the conversation. caller: they are both really two sides of the same coin there. ron paul just one minnesota. i e-mail him when sculley had a tweet. he changed the name and the words around. i did not know if i would get an apology or not. thank you for c-span. host: sorry about that.

certainly, not intentional. we're talking about romney's record at bain capital. do you think it is nauseating? do you think that all is fair in politics? miami, fla., democrats aligned. good morning. caller: i think it is fair game that the president should go after romney's record. it is not an attack on all companies. it is just on that company that romney ran.

the house's blessing create jobs when he fired a lot of people -- how is he supposed to create jobs when he fired a lot of people? they needed those jobs to help support their families. he did not solve a problem in america. america is not just corporate america. it is the little people who work for those companies who make those companies rich and make them the big companies that they are. once they get what they want from these people, they do not want to give them health care, they did not want to give them wages. that is not good. i wouldn't want him running my country. thank you. host: from "the washington post."

new jersey, independent line. caller: good morning. a lot of the points i wanted to address have already been addressed. i think number one coming it is fair game to bring up his past.

if he is using it as part of his experience. the duplicity of the president who can ask other rich people for money or in the same business as spain seems -- as bain seems to be ok. but it is not good, it is a negative if you're his opponent. that doesn't make any sense. bain took over, like many investment companies, they took over six companies. companies were all the employees would lose their jobs. really, if you think about it, the federal government acted as an investment house when they took cover general motors. and they put in 180 billion or whenever they put into it. they came out of bankruptcy.

they came out with less employees. different benefits. and, thank god, it seems to be working. host: let's look at it, on twitter. ezra goes on to talk about priv.

from "the wallstreet journal."

michigan, a democrat line, what do you think? caller: i want to believe, to be very honest, in this discussion, the key factor is integrity. your character. if you cannot reflect integrity, then you become a hypocrite and create a double standard. [unintelligible] mitt romney is a very big hypocrite and a liar. talkingess, you're about profit-making. you are exploiting the ignorance of the people.

how do you do that? if you have the policy, price fixing of bain capital was absolutely for business. it is not like they're going to create jobs. it was a money-making machine. host: a common on twitter. talking about advertisements, how they're being used in the campaign, here is a story in twee"the new york times."

looking at the other side, the democrats' turn to rahm. what do you think about romney's record at bain? is it fair game?

is it the right town to be setting? caller: in listening to all of the democrats. i am totally in shock. to have any idea how the country and the world works? we're not the community organizer like the president. he wants to take from everybody and spread of the wealth. to 16 trillion dollars. he talks about romney laying people off. if i was karl rove, i would get all the car dealers around our country that the government went in and shut down. these are car companies that were doing very well. they took them away. my mother had stocked in gm. no they didn't? they stole that stock from my mother and they gave it to the

union, his buddies. the nominee tens of thousands of people that work at those dealerships were laid off? to know how many secretaries? to know how many people lost their jobs? you give me a couple hundred billion dollars and i could make something work. this isn't any other money. that lasted for almost 10 years. the head of bain, the president's buddy who is given and $40,000 dinner a plate, and i'm really sick of it. so the president doesn't like what mitt romney does, but he will take that money. i saw this on morning joe. he said the exact words. this is not doing very good for the president. he can make the case if he wants, but it is hard to put that at out on a saturday morning and then saturday night could take $40,000 a plate

dinner from all these capitalism people. host: on twitter -- let's look at some other stories in the news. gregory has resigned from his job. > ryan crocker is set to step

down. the news of his departure came monday night hours after the nato summit in chicago where he was attending with president obama. kevin is our next caller, an independent. caller: in disenchanted with the democrats and republicans calling in. i think they're all delusional. i think none of them get it. the question is whether or not bain capital should be fair game. when barack obama was running for president in 2008, the republican party, including mitt romney, open up everything he did, including his economic plan. who was working with.

committees. the whole 9 yards. they're still getting. mitt romney is running on the economy. guess what. business experience is part of that. barack obama is an economist. i use that term loosely. that is why i have no party affiliation. the last caller, going after barack obama, it is a delusional propaganda machine. the democrats have no idea how to pick facts. i'm sorry. bain capital is fair game. there is no character assassination.

they bought them out. they made a profit. host: let's hear from a democratic collar. caller: good morning. of course it is fair game. you have a private equity firm versus a community organizer who is concerned about all community. mitt romney is a private equity guy. but he made a quarter of a billion dollars. after he retired, he still takes money. there is a lot of extraction their. when the venture capitalists loan money out, they create a businesses. the private equity feeds off of those businesses when they are in trouble.

of course it is fair game. >> host: on twitter. we will look at other stories in the news. we mentioned ryan crocker. looking at other stores related to that. on the final day of the nato summit, chicago was oddly quiet.

other stories in the news, catholic leaders sue over birth control mandate. they also reports that students get 30 days. they made the front page of the new york times today. big story around the world. his mother is there pictured with him who appealed his case. one year after the tornado, president obama salutes joplin's

power to heal. the class of 2011 had just graduated. they're heading home when a powerful tornado ripped to the town destroying the school and much of the city on a day that was supposed to be a celebration. one year later, the held another celebration as a validation of perseverance. with the help of president obama as a commencement speaker, joplin make sure the class of 2012 went into the world as a living testament to those lost for those left behind. "usa today" says joplin grads look to the future. the president highlighted some other milestones that community had achieved.

he has a risky have that he just cannot kick. the speaker has this habit. it is not smoking. in "usa today" john boehner weighs in with an op ed piece. the american people continue to ask, where are the jobs? he says, we cannot ignore our debt. that is john boehner in his own words. we want to hear what you think about romney's record at bain capital. is it fair game? and what does it say about the tone of the campaign season. anthony, a republican. go ahead.

caller: i think as voters, we have a choice. we have mitt romney who is successful in everything that he does and we have the worst president in history. and that is what we get to vote for. i can always tell your callers parma -- your callers, i can tell the obama supporters. host: let's hear from an independent scholar. good morning. you're on the program. caller: i think we should go back to the very beginning. first, i would like to say that

an investor knows if they buy a company, they are in control of their retirement funds. there is lots of money to be made of buying companies, closing them, and then getting rid of them. the debt we have is eight years of republicans creating their own war which had nothing but oil behind it. i think anybody who steps and like obama did, he has surrounded himself. i think he is doing a fair and decent job. host: facebook comments.

new jersey, democrat line. good morning. >> i would like to talk about how romney is a hypocrite. first of all, he is going around and talking about his experience in wall street. want us todoesn't talk about it. what does he want? he does not want us to talk about his experience as governor?

now he doesn't want us to talk about the economy, and yet he is going around and saying that is what he knows how to do. where he got the experience from to create the jobs. wall street destroyed our economy. romney has the same wall street experience. he is going to destroy our economy or make it worse. that is why he does not want us to talk about his experience. as you have heard, a lot of former employees said their jobs were destroyed. now, romney wants to come to the country and destroy the economy or make it worse. we're not going to have another failed president.

he has to prove himself the way everybody has proven. thank you. host: oklahoma, a republican caller. good morning. caller: in a republican, but i think it is fair game. at the same time, i think obama is being ridiculous. host: how so? why did you think that? caller: is is class warfare. taxing the rich is not going to improve my life one way or the other. i think it is totally wrong. host: ok. a couple of comments on twitter. another comment with a different perspective. let's be clear. the obama attacks are at bain

capital, not private equity overall in general. a couple final stories. the supreme court weighed in on this. the supreme court has agreed to hear a case on surveillance. they agreed to hear a case about the government's use of electronic surveillance to monitor the international communications of people suspected having ties to terrorist groups. that is all for this segment this morning. coming up next, jamal simmons ways in. later on, johnny isakson on

helping home owners and preventing taxpayer bailouts. we mentioned a moment ago some news from the supreme court. as we go to break, we wanted to show you a clip john paul stevens. he spoke yesterday. you can watch the whole event and our c-span the video library. here is the former justice talking about the death penalty and why he thinks the states will act before the high court does. [video clip] >> i am not sure the democratic process won't provide the answer sooner than the court does. i think there is a significantly growing appreciation of the basic imbalance in the cost- versus-benefit analysis. it does a lot of harm and does little good over a life without

the possibility of parole. we have the continuous risk of an incorrect conclusion of the jury. the death penalty having been rejected in michigan on the basis of the fact that two men had been executed and it was later established they were innocent. i think the likelihood is that the public generally will come to realize that it is a tremendous waste of resources in administering the death penalty and they well, on a state-by- state basis, will reach a conclusion, which i think the constitution will amend. >> "washington journal" continues. host: jamal simmons simmons is joining us to talked race, politics, and campaign 2012. guest: thank you for having me. host: what the you make of how

cory booker stepped into that debate this weekend and what it says about the democratic strategy of going after the bain capital record? guest: he is a phenomenal leader. his constituents are very fond of him. i think most democrats admire him. he has a great future. on sunday, he stepped in it a little bit. i think we see republicans really take advantage of that. he says, i am not going to talk about bain, but let's talk about issues that are important. the reality on the bain question, bain is really important because the republican nominee, mitt romney, is basing his entire campaign on this notion of having worked at bain and being a leader of finance. the problem is when you are running for president, you don't turn a country the same way as a company. you cannot sell off the state of

michigan because it is an under- performing asset. those are the kinds of things that as president, you have to have a different way of conducting yourself. whether it is a national disaster or a job crisis, what ever it is. having the argument around the leadership that mitt romney had as a financial leader, it is an incredible argument for the democrats to wage. host: cory booker, you said, stepped in it. he speaks from his own personal opinion about how we doesn't like the tone of the campaign. he doesn't just talk about the bain attacks, he talks but the rev. right attacks on president obama. -- reverend wright attacks on president obama. guest: it depends who you are.

he is being pitched -- picked out as a surrogate for the campaign. one of the challenges here is that the obama campaign and the white house has not done a great job over the last few years of using surrogates. now they are starting to do that. we're getting close to prime time in the campaign season. if i was on that obama team, i would ask them to start using these folks earlier. by the time you got to this error and the campaign cycle, you would not have errors. like to join the

conversation, the number to call for our democrat line is 202- 737-0001. the number to call for our republican line is 202-737-0002. the number to call for our independent line is 202-628- 0205. the naacp weighed in with support for gay marriage. there is an op ed piece and "the washington post" calling it a bold move. what do you make of this? guest: i think a lot of african- americans are going to agree to disagree with the president. it is also true for white catholics. the country has moved a long way from where we were five, six, seven years ago. most people in the country now

support the idea of gay marriage. the president is helping to lead the discussion. i don't think it will cause him too much trouble elect poorly, but there'll be people who are not happy. i hear from some of those folks are now -- for folks to have a religious conviction about this issue, it will take a longer time for them to move to a position that many have had. my personal belief is however strong your religious conviction is, that should not have an impact on someone else's life. it is perfectly rational for the government to take a position that may be against your religious ideas. host: us of the economy and how voters are feeling. it says they are tied neck-and- neck. is this going to be the dominating issue of the economy?

if so, how did the democrats pull ahead? guest: the dominant issue really is about trust. they want to know how to vote. can i trust you to sit in a room to make a decision with all the power you have? that comes out a lot of different ways. right now, the most support issue and does have to do with the economy. the president and mitt romney, being a knuckle-to-knuckle fight, mitt romney makes a very strong case and the president has an argument. host: another term that has come up in terms of getting people out to the polls is voter id registration. which states are you watching most closely? guest: the justice department is looking at south carolina. i am hearing from folks that

there are other states on line. mississippi is one. there are a couple of others. on a national scale, florida really matters. there having discussions about felony voters and that sort of thing. some of these other states like georgia and alabama, it may not matter any general election, but it will certainly matter state- wide. i think for those with your concerns -- concerned with not just what happens of a presidential level but are concerned locally, that will be important. host: he does news political analysis on cbs. he has a background serving as an aid to several political campaigns, including as a director to the dnc. and the presidential runs of out gore and bill clinton. he also served as the dnc

communications adviser for the obama presidential campaign. that is the official title there. another issue you have been focusing on is the new census data we have gotten recently. for the first time, you can see here the birth of breakdown. whites are still the most prevalent with 1.99 million, but minorities overall have exceeded the white birth. what you think about this? guest: it is a changing dynamic in the country. people of the expecting a for a long time. it looks like we will probably go through about 2050 before whites are no longer the majority in the entire country.

we're seeing the beginning of the process of change. that will be great about how we interact as a culture. most people, i found, politics makes them cynical. one of the things you learn when you travel the country is how similar we all really are. most people want a better life for themselves, a better life for their children. they're trying to find the best way to do that. the problem is when the pie is shrinking, like it has been in the last few years. when my dreams, my success, and my family, it becomes more conflict. with a growing pie to make sure all the people in america so we are all fighting -- so we do not end up in a place where we are all fighting. host: our guest was quoted in a

recent story. in years to come, those younger, browner people are going to have to pay for the retirement costs of the older, white ones. you think a shift will occur in how communities are interdependent? guest: the politicians are not talking about it and maybe they are not the right ones to talk about it because it gets so he did. but fate the leaders, business leaders, people in the communities should really began the conversation and investing in young people today is going to be what helps the country grow in the long-term. they'll have to pay for the retirement of older, white voters. the law to pay for the education, health care to help those folks grow and be more successful. we do need all the people in the community.

i worked in politics, but i firmly believe in politicians. you need people carrying a flag better out in the committee every day to lead the charge. host: let's go to the phones and hear from the democrats line in ohio. caller: i watched then-senator closely. there was no way i was going to support hillary clinton after she voted for the iraq war. when he selected eric holder as the attorney general, we have heard him and obama keep repeating that no one is above the law. yet, we did not watch the obama administration hold anybody accountable. we have not witnessed the obama administration hold anybody accountable for the subprime loan disaster or the foreclosure

fraud a disaster. i will be watching that issue as well as romney and president obama on iran because we all know that israel has been pushing us towards another disaster based on -- those of the issues i will be watching president obama on. former bush administration officials on your program about iran. thank you. guest: the key question she was asking was about accountability. the president made a judgment that he would not spend all his political energy of looking backwards. we're in the middle of a crisis. you can argue with that.

there's some justification for wanting people to be held accountable. you don't necessarily want to be arguing about how the fire got lit. i think they made the choice to do the latter. host: tom from new jersey. caller: i am listening to mr. simmons but i question some of the numbers he is putting out. you say that 50% of the people have gone in support of gay marriage. there are 30 states where it this is up for a referendum and it has failed every single time. the numbers do not seem to match

up with what you're telling people. you sit there and say the same thing and we get the same results. host: with a tweet -- we have a tweet that says something similar. guest: the people against gay marriage will call up and vote against it. people will say something similar to, i do not care what people do but i will go and vote what i believe. when u.s. people i voting question, those who vote may not be the same as the general population of adults. the majority of people are in favor. people show up and vote a certain way and at least two different results. host: frank is a republican in

florida. caller: i have been a democrat for over 50 years. i was campaigning for stevenson when i was 11 years old. my relatives were party leaders in new york state. the democratic party over the years has done a lot of good like a social security -- they have changed. they have endorsed pre-born child killing, for example and not they want taxpayers to pay for it. they have tried to change the divine in definition of a marriage. now they are clamping down on the churches. they do not want to pay for drugs that kill pre-born children.

i have changed my party. obama has had three and a half years to try to change it and not much has happened. mitt romney is a businessman. he has experience forming companies and running companies. i think it is time to give somebody else a chance. guest: the cultural issues in the country weather around abortion or gay marriage get people animated. there are people who would agree on the economic issues. the country has changed alot. people get a chance to talk about who they are and who they love. as much war and violence as

there are, getting upset at people because they have affection for each other is perhaps not the energy that we could be using as a society. we could be using that energy to fight things like child sex trafficking or poverty and so many issues you cannot stop talking about them. i understand the caller's frustration. people would rather let everybody live and have their own lives and keeping the government out of their personal business. host: we have a question on twitter by monty. is that even a goal as people go to the ballot box and talk about politics? guest: i think most americans

would love to have a future work the issues are not at play. we're not there yet. we have always had issues be a part of the subtext of the conversation. the debate over slavery was a key debate and then what to do with people that were formally slaves. that int going to shake four years or eight years. there is an american dreams study in 2011 that said 52% of americans thought it would be harder to achieve the american dream then the next generation. the u.s. is 21st out of 30 on science and math of the industrialized countries.

we do have to get our act together. we have to be a country focus on teaching kids about science and technology. with the focus on values. all other people agree with these things but we keep getting sidetracked by the social issues. host: other positives as you think about your future? guest: we all come from someplace else and we carry the legacy of that and brotherly insistently bonds. that is a natural part of humanity. mike recognizing your difference and your cultural specifics and you recognizing mine -- we should not have the negative action based on that. the family dinners and the food that we coke and the music that we listened to and the way that we talk -- all of those things

are the wonderful part of the stew that america is and we give flavor to each other as a country. we cannot let our differences and get in the way. host: pat honor democrat's line from florida -- on our democrats line. caller: race is going to always exist. 400 years and it still exists. tired of seeing that african-americans are for gay marriage. i'm not for gay marriage. also, as an african american, i feel like african-americans work and die for so much in this country.

everybody else comes over here and benefits from it. you cook a big dinner and everybody eats. they go in the bathroom, throw it up. it needs to stop. we will never get over race because it is still being taught. thank you. guest: i got a text message from my friend of mont the night that president obama was elected -- from a friend of mine. they said what a wonderful world we live then and this will be an exceptional event for her. i do think our children and grandchildren will grow up in a world where race is less of a factor. it already is less of a factor

than it has been. a new ceo just names who is african-american. the president of smith college is an african american. now latinos are having the same experience. the problem is there is risk peril oes along and appa that goes along. people are living too poor. we have to try to give everybody the same access to opportunities. we do have for many opportunities for our children. people came from an earlier era where race was a more determining factor. we in fact our children. -- we

infect our children. i want our children to learn how much they have an opportunity to excel. host: steve from dayton, ohio. caller: yes. good morning. i have several comments. this is a social construct that has been created for more census.s then just sense i would like to ask the viewers to inform themselves on the terms and may be mr. simmons can in mind our callers on the definitions -- can enlightten

oen our callers. host: steven, are you still with us? tell us why you brought up those words. caller: what the terms are important? i believe they are important because they apply to most western democracies -- it is a form of power. power rests with the smaller group of individuals and the individuals grab the power and influence is the economic way of life and almost every existing form of way of life. i think that big money involved in campaign is essentially

corrupting the democratic process. host: we will leave it there. guest: people are worried about a concentration of power and wealth to a small minority of the american population. that is a big issue of this campaign. which candidate will you trust, or which one will tend more to taking care of those in power? as americans, we hold a lot of opportunity for people to come from nowhere and make it into a leadership position. we don't have as much evan opportunity as we used to. we still have far more than most places in the world. host: republican from st. louis.

caller: i feel obama and the democratic party has done a terrible job with race relations. democrats are playing the race cards, especially when politicians -- things like that are terrible and that this race relations every time you play the race card and they do what continually. it set race relations back 20 years. host: you are talking about race relations and you also mentioned trade on martin -- you mentioned martin. martayvon caller: the way it was tried in the media. the way you of people in congress wearing a hooded jackets.

you had a congress been saying he was guilty for being black. guest: the questions around trayvon martin yielded a national response. most americans were upset about what happened. they thought his family deserve justice and that the case should be brought to court. the wheels of justice are turning. this young, black child-man at the hands of someone be killed and that that person would not be investigated because of the killing. people work on these shoot-first and whether standard gro your ground laws -- i don't

know many african americans than ever come across those laws and it could have ended badly. host: the caller mentioned using race. "the new york times" looked at the gop super pac. iece.is the p host: here is what "the new york times" piece says, as well.

this plan has been scuttled, but what did you take away with the story? guest: viewers should turn thgoe term -- on the broader issue, mitt romney and the rest of us have an interest in keeping religion off the table. going back into people's personal histories is not something that any of us want to engage in. we could be arguing about policies that people have. the republicans pretty much shot this effort down. the challenge for the president and mitt romney -- billionaire

daughters can make huge impact. the challenge for both of them, "a way to stop doing this and if she did this, you'll be persona non grata in my white house, if i win." they have to say anybody who does this when not be welcomed in my administration. caller: the mayor -- host: cory booker. caller: i think they should throw him out. he is a tradeitor. i have seen people come together and go down there with their hearts open to save somebody's

life. we stopped together and we worked together -- we stuck together. i'm a christian and i know jesus came down for the rich millionaires. he came for the poor people and the downtrodden. i should not be talking about us in florida. i will say what is in my heart. i like president obama. i think he is a nice man. i think he is for all people. god bless america. i love america. when i hear people that talk -- lunatic.at the s

guest: he had some strong feelings down in florida. the cory booker issue -- the mayor has faced some backlash online. people are not happy with him. he is a very hands-on mayor. he even rescue somebody from a burning house. host: literally. guest: people locally may be willing to forgive him. host: articles in places like "the wall street journal" are talking about how people like cory booker want private equity companies, what wall street to look upon them favorably because they have residents who live in

those communities. is that ok? guest: that is the same reason why the senators from i what are in favor of agricultural subsidies. there are a personal politics at play. mayor booker was tending to his own politics when he was asked that question. we should move off of the bain issue. and not talk about the bain issue. host: jamal simmons is a democratic strategist. gary asks why you're not working with the obama campaign.

tell us about what your plans are right now. guest: i was at cbs during the 2010 election cycle. i'm not working for the campaign because i have other things to do. i think they have it, but it and capable staff and i think they will do a good job in defending the president. i am happy to watch them get up early and sleep late. ont: we're glad you're here c-span to talk about campaign 12. brandon is next in delaware. caller: good show, good show. i do believe what the lady that called in from florida. i believe we're living in

oligarchies. there are only a couple of people in power. the lady in florida it hit the nail on the head. the numbers that we put up -- i think numbers are always misleading. the numbers that are put up are to keep certain people down. i do not believe there are more whites in america than blacks. we were coming over here in slave ships. there were uncountable numbers of us. how can there be that big of a gap in whites to blacks? i think that number was put out there to keep us down.

the older generation says, we have to start somewhere. the younger generation is looking at, "what are you doing for us?" he is not in control of nothing. he is a figurehead. no, we are not equal. i do not see one black-owned big company. who do think helped dupont get where he is? on the backs of slaves. host: there is a story that came out yesterday. this is from "the seattle post- intelligencer."

it talks about people including althea gibson who is a tennis star that when all the way to wimbledon. there is no record of her or family in the census. it looks at the 1940 records. more than a million black people were not counted in the 1940's. that have ramifications on the political map and the distribution of resources. do think african-americans are undercounted? guest: i do think african- americans are undercounted. i grew up in detroit and we had a bout with the government about the count of people.

huge resources are dependent upon that. i would challenge the call on one thing. when you leave the east coast of the united states, you can drive for miles from state to state and not see another black face. call to montana, utah, parts of oregon and washington -- there are lots of african americans in this country but there are parts where there are none. on the broader issue, that is certainly true. the president has done a lot for not just african americans but for everyone in the country. the health-care bill, the stimulus package. we were losing 800,000 jobs a

month. the shift has been helpful for everyone. you cannot count on the all.dent to do with allit you have to start a small business and take the risk of willing to fail. there are conditions that exist, but government cannot solve all those problems. they have to be solved at the committee level. host: teresa is a republican from trenton, new jersey. caller: hi. i was listening -- i really love you. you're a great democratic strategist and i love your

opinions and have you correct other people and bring them back to what the heart of the problem is. thank you for that. in order for us to resolve this problem -- black people with a first ever on this planet. we created white people. white people know this and therefore they try to keep this away from it. realize who they are as a person. they are the creators of this universe. everything in it was created by us. we will continue to say this. most of the people in the united states were greeted by black

people. guest: the caller gets to a fundamentally good point. african american history to not start when the slave ships arrived in the united states. african history goes back millennia. learn that is incredibly important and in powering. we learn about the incans and the mayans -- learning that is incredibly important and and poweriempowering. it is important for kids to find some of the new books. there's a book out about some of the black inventors and talks about black history in a creative way. it is important to make sure

those kids understand where they came from. host: danny is a democrat from kentucky. caller: i wanted to respond. you had some callers talking about 32 states that had voted down same-sex marriage. the church mobilizes their members to get out there to vote against that on religious grounds. none of whom are jesus christ. however, jesus christ combafe specific instructions on marriage and divorce and the divorce thing is if a woman is divorced she can't remarry. if her husband hadn't died she's an adultress. it's where the whole scarlett

letter came from. the church totally ignores that, of course and of course jesus also said, if you are an unrepentant sinner you cannot be a christian. but people, according to him, these people who get married twice against the rules are -- host: danny, how does that relate back to what we're talking about this morning? caller: the church, they'll mobilize their people but they won't say, you know, they are not going to defend what jesus said on the surmoney of the mound but instead use these obscure references or their reading these references of what other people said in the bible, none of who even met jesus christ. host: selective interpretation of the bible can be at play like attacking or defending gay marriage. guest: people make that point.

people in the advocate community say we can't go around picking and choosing. so in a society where we don't come from the same places with the same background we have to be willing to live our space without our lives without interfering. host: jamal simmons, democratic strategist. thanks so much for coming in this morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: coming up next we'll talk to senator johnny isakson who will be joining us, republican from georgia. he has a plan to shut down mortgage giants fannie mae and freddie mac. and we'll talk to marc ginsberg. first up, this news update from c-span radio. >> it's 8:32 eastern time. comments this morning on the presidential election from former secretary of state colin powell. speaking earlier on nbc's "the today" show, he declined the

endorsement he gave barack obama then a senator four years ago when he called president obama, "a transformational figure." he did credit the president with stabilizing the financial system and, "fixing" the auto industry, but he said he should have spent more time on the economy. as for mitt romney, colin powell calls him a viable candidate and says he's still listening to republican proposals. meanwhile, arkansas and kentucky hold their state and presidential primaries today. a total of 81 delegates are at stake in the g.o.p. president a.o.l. primary which is expected to bring mitt romney closer to the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the g.o.p. nomination. mr. romney has 992 delegates, according to abc news. and the chief of the united nations nuclear agency, amano, speaking earlier today says he's reached a deal with iran on nuclear inspections and the agreement will, in his words, be signed quite soon.

the investigation has been stalled for more than four years with iran saying it has never carried out nuclear weapons experiments. last night the u.s. senate voted unanimously to impose further financial sanctions on iran for that program. the senate comes into session today at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. you can watch live senate coverage on c-span 2. and those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> from 1971 to 1973, president richard nixon secretly recorded his phone conversations and meetings. this weekend on c-span radio, hear more of the nixon tapes. saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern with conversations between the president and c.i.a. director, richmond helms and also f.b.i. director j. edgar hoover. >> some people say that this is active i ought to make a statement about the freedom of the press and that we are trying to censor them and so forth. my inclination is not. >> i think you're right. >> i kind of think i should

stay out. but what's your public reproliferationship on it? -- public judgment on it? >> you should remain absolutely silent about it. >> you would? >> i would. >> in washington, d.c. listen at 90.1 f.m. nationwide we are on x.m. channel 19 and streaming at c-spanradio.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: senator johnny isakson is a republican of georgia joining us this morning from capitol hill, the russell senate office building. thanks for being here this morning. guest: good morning, libby. how are you? host: good. you have legislation called the mortgage finance act and it would get rid of fannie mae and freddie mac, why? guest: they are a tarnished brand and after the collapse of subprime mortgages, many of whom were guaranteed by freddie and fannie, they cost the taxpayers about $197 billion and they are a broken system

and damaged system in terms of their brand but they are their key securitization mortgage is a key that we have robust capital flowing in the mortgage markets. so what this bill does it puts fannie and freddie in a receivership which is like a structured bankruptcy, creates a new entity called the mortgage finance agency whose job is to replace freddie and fannie in the securitizing and guaranteeing of mortgages but it has a 10-year developed plan to go out of business as a government sponsored entity and be privatized so the taxpayers are no longer on the hook for billions and billions of mortgages. host: let's look at some of those details that the senator just laid out that would shut down fannie and freddie and create this 10-year transitional program, eventually transferring mortgage programs to the private sector. it also creates a self-funding catastrophic fund to prevent taxpayer bailouts and it would pay back taxpayers for the fannie and freddie mac bailout. talk about those last two items, please, senator.

host: well, there is a program in great britain in the catastrophic insurance business where there is a surcharge on insurance premiums which goes into a sinking fund which backs up a catastrophic insurance call of some type. whereby after the g.c. pays for the operation of the mortgage finance agency, any surplus goes into a catastrophic sinking fund to be the first call against any claim on a government guarantee. that's just an additional insurance policy to ensure that taxpayers not called on themselves. host: senator, you with a democrat of california, senator boxer, have two political ideologies. you helped millions of underwater mortgagers. and the obama administration put forth something similar. do you think that was a successful collaboration and how does what you're doing now affect things like what you've done in the past?

guest: well, it was a successful complab ration and california, particularly southern california, where barbara lives and georgia, have unique similarities in this housing crisis. we have an awful lot of families who are making their monthly payments on time but their house is underwater. it's not worth the mortgage on it. the government was rewarding all these people who were defaulting on their loans by a big them out and not rewarding people who were playing by the rules and making their payments so we suggested that freddie mac and fannie mae ought to refinance these people at the new current low rates to lower their monthly payment to help incentivize them to stay in the homes because if they stay in the homes and makes the payments, eventually the value will come back, but most importantly the neighborhood will remain stable. host: if you'd like to talk to senator johnny isakson, republican of georgia, about fannie mae, freddie mac, other issues, the economy, the things the senate is facing this week, here are the numbers to call, democrats, 202-737-0001. republicans, 202-737-0002.

independent callers, 202-628-0205. we've got wayne on the line from harrisburg, pennsylvania. democratic caller. go ahead, wayne. caller: i've been listening to everything the congressman has been saying, and it sounds good to me, right, but when are they going to let the american people go through with the program? is it all the time the republicans always want to stop something? host: and what program are you talking about, wayne? what program do you want to see go forward? caller: i'm talking about agreeing with the president, disagreeing with the president. and like i'm just -- skip the subject. we were talking about freddie mac and fannie mae, but what about the other people who started this stuff in the first place, what are you going to do about them? host: so, senator, and it is senator, not congressman,

senator isakson, tell us about the partisan devise that you see right now in the senate? do you think that the senate is holding things up in too strong of a way and not letting the president move forward? guest: well, partisanship, particularly in an election year, can oftentimes dominate the landscape. i would remind the listener that the senate passed a bipartisan highway bill with 80 votes, a bipartisan extension of the f.a.a. which has been ling wishing for four years. i submit to you this week we'll pass the re-authorization of the federal drug administration. and last night we unanimously passed the iran sanctions bill. so while there is a partisan divide and sometimes it becomes very costly, most of that is carried out in terms of talk shows, not on the floor of the senate. host: "the hill" has a recent story, a lotting at the president's five-point agenda. he's asking congress to act on. he jokes the size of a post-it

note. rather he -- excuse me. a republican strategist and spokesman said, criticized the president for saying he's reduced the issues to the size of a post-it note, that the agenda has shrunk down so much. but the president proposed five things that includes eliminating tax incentives for companies that outsource jobs and those a lot invest in renewable energy. what do you think of the president's plan? guest: i think we need to look at a broader challenge which is a overall comprehensive tax reform. we have a deadline at the end of the year where every tax rate expires and it goes back to the clinton administration. some of the tax deductions expire but a lot of them do not. i happen for one of those people that believe we need to do what simpson-bowles recommended. we need to put the entire tax code on the table. we ought to do away with incentives and deductions that don't work, that actually go to reward people that don't help the country, use those savings to lower the marginal rate,

raise revenues because of a simpler system and empower the free enterprise system. in the end that's the way we are going to get out of this recession. host: lincolnton, georgia. al is a republican. caller: good morning. senator isakson. guest: al, how are you? caller: he is the best politician we have in this state. guest: thank you very much. caller: i have a policy question. the last time i caught up with you, johnny, it was in early twine after your vote for tarp and i noted that there was misspending all over the place in that bill. and you admitted your mistake and said those things were why you didn't vote for the second installment and then you promised tight oversight over future bailout money. but at that very time you were involved in the first-time homebuyer tax credit. remember that program? 19,000 filers hadn't purchased a home. 74,000 filers weren't first-time buyers. the credit was claimed by 580

people under the age of 18, including a 4-year-old. 53 cases of i.r.s. employees filing claims. and 1,295 cases in prison filing for this credit. georgia is number one and number two in the u.s.a. for mortgage fraud and now is number one in bank failures. this bill you are talking about, you actually opposing a 20% down payment for those purchasing homes, if their mortgages aring to bundled and the securities and sold on the bond market. the other thing you are opposing is requiring lenders obtain 5% of the risk on mortgages they originate. i guess my question is, i am a very frugal question and i don't see there is a whole lot of concern for us and i want to know exactly how many more billions do you expect prudent folks like me to throw away on wall street and real estate bailouts? guest: first of all, i'll start

at the back and move back towards where you began. i don't oppose the 20% down payment. what i support is mortgage -- private mortgage shushes to insure 15% of the top 20% down payment which is called p.m.i. in terms of the risk retention, under dodd-frank they require that a mortgage company hold 5% of the original amount of a loan as risk retention until maturity. yet, those loans get sold, get transferred, get traded. it's a very come bersome type of system. i prefer the supplemental insurance or the private mortgage insurance to guarantee the debt down to 50% of face value. and then as libby said, you have a catastrophic risk pool to be taken by the excess fees paid by the borrowers and those lenders that go in the catastrophic fund. you are right about the tarp. i did vote for the tarp. i am glad you asked the question because one of the things we did that turned out right was to save the banking

system. we now are in the black. tarp has been paid back in full except for a few barnings, but because of the 5% -- banks, but because of the 5% preferred interest rate the federal government has made a profit on the tarp system. it wasn't down to make a profit but it was structured if it worked we would make a profit and i'm glad that we did. as far as the auto bailout, i did not support that, because as i said in my fannie mae, freddie mac proposal, a instructure receivership would be far better. that's what freddie and fannie ought to go under because that's how you get out all the contracts you need to and obligations you need to and get them down to bare bones. i hope you have a great day and thank you for calling. host: we have a question, who caused the mortgage crisis? guest: well, congress, quite frankly, congress had something to do with it because they mandated that freddie and fannie buy what was then called affordable housing loans which were subprime mortgages or mortgages made to borrowers

that were less than pristine credits and when that happened those securities were sold around the world. and when they were bought around the world and then defaulted upon, when they went into default it caused a claim back against the united states guarantee agency, a.i.g., to guarantee those packages. so in part it was freddie mac and fannie mae and congress forcing them to do it. on the other part it was shoddy underwriting. we didn't have a down payment recession or failure in terms of the recession. we had poor underwriting loans. loans were made to people who weren't prepared to pay them back. host: let's go to schenectady, new york, claude, independent line. caller: senator, i'm going to take the last caller's word for it that you are a hell of a nice guy. but here's the deal. if you want to get this housing market on the upswing, these

banks have to go on a if you can pay mortgage, not your credit bureaus, because your credit bureaus are not always correct. there's always something in there that is holding you up. and the thing is is that if you have substantial income to pay a mortgage, then you should be able to buy property. i've been trying to buy property, acreage, with a double wide on it, and having one heck of a time and i lost a couple of good deals because of a credit problem. and like i said, your credit bureaus are not always correct. there's always something in there somewhere, and this housing market is going to stay where it is or worse because people can't buy. and look at all the people that lost their homes. are their credit -- are their

credit ratings up to the standard? it wasn't their fault, but their credit ratings are going right down the tubes. guest: well, clawed, let me make a recommendation -- well, claude, let me make a recommendation. in there we put in the ability for you every year once a year to access a free credit report of your own credit and if you find something wrong with that to be able to deal with the credit companies trying to correct what may be an incorrect representationful your credit. wquifax has a great program whose credit reports may have an error in it to try to get those corrected. if you are being rejected because something on your credit report that is not correct, then i would suggest you get the equifax or one of the credit rating agencies and sit down and work with them. credit has to be part of underwriting just like the previous caller said down payment should ble part of underwriting. host: let's go to st. paul, minnesota. helen, democrats line.

good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i just wanted to say first of all, thank you, c-span. i love the "washington journal" because it gives everyone a chance to call in and express their opinions. and this is a hot topic for me. this is my number one campaign issue. i'm glad to see that you're talking about it. i'm one of those people that has never missed a payment. i have never taken money from the government any way, shape or form. and i can't refinance my home because i'm now underwater because of the economic circumstances in the housing bubble but i can't take advantage of any of the programs that are out there currently, and i think president obama has addressed this as well recently. it's on the congressional to-do list. that because my loan is not backed by freddie or fannie, i

can't take advantage of some of the programs that, you know, where i don't have to have so much down or whatever. i'm at a terrible disadvantage because i don't have a government-backed loan right now and i wanted to refi to take advantage of the lower rates but i can't do that. you know, all of a sudden i'm looking at p.m.i. insurance, which i never paid in my life. so i'm glad to hear you are talking about this and addressing it. i'd like to hear a little bit more how this program affects me. guest: well, i appreciate your call and i understand your concern. a lot of americans have been caught in the declining home values which have taken them underwater through no fault of their own and they feel trapped which is why we introduced the boxer-isakson legislation which required freddie and fannie to refinance those loans at the current lower rates if the credit was good. and your credit is good so you

would have qualified. as you said, because you did not have a freddie mac or fannie mae loan you don't qualifies. there is a face-off -- because you don't qualify. there is something in congress and let klobuchar to let her known. go to the f.h.a. loan program, refinance programs or structured programs may be possible to help you out in terms of your situation. so first, talk to amy klobuchar in terms of what's happening in freddie and fan yifment second, go to f.h.a. and talk about harp and hamp. those are the two homeowner assistance programs. host: senator isakson represents georgia as a republican. he's in his second term in the senate. he serves on committees including foreign relations, commerce, science and transportation. also help, which is the health, education, labor and pension. he has a career as a realtor. he began a business back in 1967 opening the first cobb county office of a small

family-owned real estate business called north sidereal -- north side realty. senator isakson, i want to talk to you about mini unions. you slammed the federal labor boards approval of a new union for the bergdorf goodman shoe department. tell me what micro unions are and why are you opposed to them? guest: we have had a labor law for the over 80 years. 70% of the votes went favorably for those unions. but the national labor reproliferations board just approved last week a request by local 1102 in new york to organize the shoe department in bergdorf goodman. just the shoe department. not towels. not linen, not lingerie. not barbecue grills, nothing, just shoes. if we go to that principle and

start organizing companies in micro unions then you have the ability to cross-train workers in stores. you'll have work stoppages. you'll have all kinds of problems. if local 1102 wants to organize, they would organize the entire store. let everybody vote. but you cannot put business in a situation where they have to respond to fifth and second floor shoe department organizations when the rest of the company is not organized. this is a huge threat to retail. it's a huge threat to large distribution. it's a reach way too far and it breaks 80 years of settled law between labor and imaginement. host: let's hear from marsha which is a republican in your home state calling from atlanta. hi, marsha. i think we lost her, unfortunately. let's go on to our next call. hopefully we'll get some more georgian calls. we have robert, independent in houston, texas. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: we can hear you. caller: yeah. i'm independent but i've been

leaning toward romney. romney has said some crazy things that kind of scares me. like you said, you signed for the tarp money on the first round and you always signed the bailout for fannie mae and freddie mac. he said he wouldn't have bailed them out and he said he would have let the auto industry go under. and i don't understand that because you -- how long have you been in the senate? guest: eight years. caller: let me ask you this -- do you have any idea how many millionaires are there in the congress or the senate? guest: i don't have an idea but i think it's something like a third. host: senator isakson, can you reflect on our houston caller's comments about mitt romney's positions on the auto bailouts, also on the mortgage bailout? guest: well, let me comment on my answers if i can. i don't like to interpret for other people. but i voted for the tarp and the tarp worked and the united

states is in the black and the banking support was supported and did not collapse and that's a good result. the reason i didn't vote for the bailout of the auto industry is that bondholders, many of whom were lifetime owners of general motors and chrysler, it was not a fair sharing of the burden. if you had gone into a structured bankruptcy or a receivership, then you could have managed those contracts, renegotiated those contracts, pimco said you could have protected 70% of the value of the bondholders' equity in the companies and still done the same thing we did with the government buying 61%. so i just disagreed with the approach totally. as far as freddie and fannie are concerned, the mortgage finance agency is not a bailout of freddie and fan yifment it places them in a structured bankruptcy, replaces them with a new entity whose revenue goes back to pay back the taxpayer. if anybody that's getting bailed out it's the taxpayer who paid $71 billion in funding

those losses. host: silver springs, maryland, steven, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to make a comment on the housing market thing. to me it seems that it was like a ponzi scheme with the banks creating credit swaup default and -- swap default and giving people loans they couldn't afford and instead of going into bank, you take out a loan depending how much money you make, they know if you work, where you work, if you don't work. if you are going to buy a car, they know that. so it seems kind of strange to me that the bank wouldn't know that people weren't -- you know, didn't have a job or didn't make enough money to pay the loan back. it seems to me that the only reason why they would have given the loan is because they knew two weeks later they were going to sell the loan to another mortgage company who in

turn was going to sell the loan to another mortgage company. then it was going to get lost in the paperwork and traded on wall street. and another thing i like to -- another thing i like to say is, it was on some program i heard that the majority -- not the majority but these bad loans for people who own three or more houses which -- in the early 2000 and late 1999's, there was people investing in homes, buying houses and flipping the houses. and a lot of those people are the people who got stuck with the bad mortgages. host: we'll leave it there and get a response from the senator. guest: well, he's a very insightful listener. on one part he was absolutely right. there were a lot of lenders, some of them not banks, mortgage brokers who were making loans to people who were not prepared to pay them back

and they were making what they called stated income loans but you ask me, how much do you make, i say, $1240u7bd. ok, we'll loan you $200,000, not checking to see how much if that's what i really made, not really checking to see if i was employed. when they closed the loan they flipped it, sold it, made a margin on the loan and the bad paper went somewhere else. where he is' not correct is talking about a ponzi scheme. the credit default swaps were independent insurance policies created by a.i.g. to ensure a package of loans in a security. that was not owned by the bank that had made the loan. so that was not a scheme. it was an imprudent failure on the part of a.i.g. by not pricing the risk like they should vfment host: virginia beach, virginia. ruby, republican caller. good morning, ruby. caller: good morning, senator isakson and good morning, c-span. one thing you haven't talked about that i heard a lot about in housing is this a.g.

settlement that went out i think to 49 states. could you please explain that this morning? guest: well, the federal government took on the bank of america and four other large lenders in the country over fraudulent -- it started with the signing, i don't want to get into too much detail, but a lot of these big bank operations had back room operations where they had people to sign on securities and transfers of loans and assignments of loans. some of those assignments and transfers didn't get it properly executed. i have to tell you when i paid off my loan a couple years ago i found out it was one of the ones that was improperly assigned. so there was a lot of shoddy paperwork in the mortgage business. a lot of countrywide which is bought by bank of america, probably among the worst. so the lawsuit was settled by 49 attorney generals of the united states against these five lenders and the five lenders were required to do a number of things in terms of their borrowers on these types of loans to try and make the

situation right or at least make it better. host: our guest is senator johnny isakson, republican of georgia. he serves on veterans' affairs committee, also health, education, labor and pension. he's the vice chair of the select ethics and is on commerce, science and transportation, serving his second term in the u.s. senate. switching gears a little bit and looking at your foreign relations experience. nato wrapped up yesterday. the headline in "the washington times" says nato to turn security over to afghans in a year. the french still set to withdrawal early. the new french president plans to pull out as was part of his campaign pledge. what do you make of nato's plans and do you have concern, senator isakson, to have them pick up where the forces pleeve off? guest: my biggest concern is that we were leaving at a date certain in the future in 2014. that only gave our enemies, the taliban and al qaeda and other

such operatives, window of opportunity to plan when we're gone. of course, your question is most perceptive, libby, because if we leave and the afghans are not capable of defending themselves or keeping al qaeda and the taliban from taking over, as they did before, then we have a loss decade of service by many brave americans that tried to free afghanistan of the taliban and al qaeda and protect the world from terrorism. so i don't particularly care for giving the enemy notice, as we did a year ago, that we were leaving. that's a fact, though, that which have to deal with. having worked in foreign relations, having been to afghanistan, working with nato countries, there is a lot of afghan wariness on the part of the american people and the nato allies as well. i understand the pressure, particularly during difficult economic times to sustain what appears to be an ongoing war that will never end. and quite frankly because of the history of afghanistan, that's been the history of afghanistan. so what we got to make sure we do in this last year while we're present is do the training which we are now doing

of the afghan forces to make sure they have the ability to sustain the protection, nato and the united states have given them, from alk -- from al qaeda and the taliban. host: ken, independent caller from california, hi, ken. caller: yes, hello. senator isakson, it's a real pleasure, and i got to comment on the fact that you're very knowledgeable about the lending institution in general. and it's nice to know that somebody up there has a grasp of what's going on. guest: thank you. caller: it's my understanding, sir, that they -- when these things were started up, a semiprime and variable interest loans, they're packaged together with everything. in other words, you got good loans and bad loans in there. and where the banking industry ran into problems is that they were creating packages that should have never existed in the first place. and then once they had so much,

involved with the variable and the semiprimes, those international bankers and larger entities did not wish to purchase the packages. and at that point in time that's when the banks went to the federal government and said we can't be holding on to all this. so really you can say that fannie mae and freddie mac from accessories after the fact as a crisis itself. and part of what disturbed me about the whole thing -- and i do know a little bit about funding -- is that there was exosh tent profit and greed -- exorbitant profit and greed in being able to market these semiprime and some these variable interest loans from the standpoint that the initiators of these loans, instead of selling a good loan to a person that could afford it, if they could trip them over into a variable interest, what would happen is they would

get an exorbitant profit from selling that loan. host: let's get a response from senator isakson. guest: well, the caller is also perceptive. they were like the enabler to an alcoholic. when congress told them they had to buy a certain part of their paper in affordable housing loans and wall street created the subprime package, fannie mae ended up providing the liquid ofity of that package by buying security. it was an enabler in part. also where the caller is very perceptive, there were credit card debt and other debt like and that and then put it in a security. they would use the credit card debt at a higher interest rate to push the security up but it was sold as a housing baked security which seems to be more -- housing-backed security which seemed to be more. so the caller is correct on many points. host: brooklyn, new york, james

is a democrat. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: what i wanted to know, what is the reason for these -- i know that we have voter registration coming up in november. why is it so unnecessary for the republican party to hold most of the things that obama wanted to do since he's been there, why would they say, no? why would they say no? it ain't necessary to have this kind of nonsense in the house of representatives. if they want the house back from nancy pelosi -- once they got the house back from nancy pelosi, they were craze eye. the gas prices are higher than ever before. and they said that it was good for the country. yes, he was good and he wasn't for another sense. when you do away with the races

in this country, we could go places. guest: well, i don't know that's a question as much as it is a statement but since he did talk about gas prices, let me and try to address that for one second. congress needs to come together with the administration and have an energy policy in the united states. one of our vulnerabilities is the absence of a stated energy policy. because of that, we're subject to whims of the opec nations. we're subject to shortages that come about. we're subject to not having the type of reserves that we have. the united states of america has rich reserves that ought to be exemployed domestically. we ought to be exploring for natural gas and oil. environmentally, soundly, always, but our own natural resources first. we discovered the haynesville and marcellus shale in mississippi, pennsylvania and texas. we have an infinite supply of natural gas but we're wrangling

over hydraulic fracture when we used that for the better part of 40 years. it's time we developed a plan and locked arm, oil petroleum countries, exploration countries, democrats, republicans, american citizens have got the greatest country on the face of this earth to have an energy policy that ensures our users of energy that they are going to have reliable, safe and relatively inexpensive energy for a lifetime. host: senator isakson is the top republican on the africa subcommittee on foreign relations. you traveled to uganda last month and there is a profile in "the washington times" today of the president of tanzania, one of uganda's neighbors, looking at food aid and this new pact that came out on friday between g-8 nations, african nations called the new alliance for food security and nutrition. what do you think about the u.s. role in helping countries like tanzania and uganda in terms of food security, helping the hungry andted starving?

and how about this intersection of private industry and getting them involved? guest: well, i'm glad you brought the subject up because i do spend a lot of time in africa as the ranking member of that subcommittee. the president of tanzania, whom i met with, deserves a lot of credit on many front. tanzania is one of those countries that have taken over on the pet far program, and they ever' bearing a lot of extense of manpower. the food insecurity issue is another thing we need to work on. on the horn of africa and parts of ethiopia all the way down to ken yarks you have a horrible drought. you have millions of people without food. you have 600,000 people alone in an individually displaced camp in northern kenya. if it weren't for usaid, it wasn't for the u.s.a., wasn't for feed the world, wasn't through the u.n. adding hope

there would be millions and millions of people perishing. africa develops as a country, they become consumers. it's a large continent with rich natural resources and a wonderful people but they have not developed that much and they suffer from a lack of development and a lack of stability in terms of their infrastructure. as we help them to grow and help them to gain that stability and help them to overcome famine and disease, they become consumers on the world stage, for the products of the united states, european and asian countries alike. africa is a rich, bright continent in the future of the united states both in its natural resources as well as its wonderful people. host: one of the things you talked about is the efforts to get joseph coney, coney 2012 -- joseph kony, kony 2012 video that is a lot, the focus hear, hear is worthwhile? host: i was glad that the president -- guest: i was glad that the

president sent troops to congo, central african republic, south sudan arks advisors with a limited but aid in the capture of joseph kony. kony has been on the run for 26 years. he's been credited for killing 66,000 people, displacing two million people. and taking thousands and thousands of children as sex slaves in terms of women or slaves to be in his army in terms of men. he's a terrible individual who has been the scourge of stra africa for a long, long time. as you may have read last week we did capture his number two pollutant, and i don't know this for a fact but i think a lot of the u.s. intelligence and what we're aiding to them in terms of ugandan army and african union is tighten the noose around kony. he needs to be brought to >> he needs to be captured. the children of caffer can and the world deserve a better -- africa and the world deserve a

better place without kony. host: and they may pardon the associate you mentioned was recently captured? guest: don't overreact to that. we have a program we've helped them develop of psychological warfare for those who have been aducted by coney to get them to come back for repatriation and in terms of information leading to the conviction and capture of kony. that amnesty he might be getting is not an amnesty for something in return. it's in return for information that will lead to the capture of kony. host: jeff joins us on our independent line from indiana. caller: good morning. it's a beautiful day in indiana. guest: it's always beautiful in indiana. caller: i aid plide for veterans disability benefits two years ago and i have not heard word one. i thought those would be expedited and i'm getting very discouraged with this. can you tell me what's going on? guest: well, i'm very

discouraged with it too. the period of time it's taking to get a determination on veterans' benefits is getting into the two-year range which is foletly unacceptable. secretary shinseki, who is a wonderful man and a man i have tremendous respect for, still hasn't been able to get his arms around the veterans' disability claims and determinations at some reasonable period of time. i understand the volume because of the war in iraq and afghanistan. i understand the pressure that's on the agency, but it's just unsatisfactory for someone who has served our country like you to have to wait three, four, -- 400, 500, 600 days to get a determination on a disability benefit. we are working with the people that chair with the committee, working with the veterans' administration to reduce that time so your claims are answered more swiftly and more accurately than ever before. host: atlanta, georgia, adolfo, looks like, republican caller. good morning. caller: good morning.

i like to talk to the senator. i want to give him thanks for his time on c-span. guest: thank you. caller: senator, when you first were elected, i wrote you a letter. i never received a response. maybe you will speak because your office was not organized. the other thing, my family has been arrested in georgia for about 50 years and we are somewhat related to georgian, tennesseans that went to -- to cuba. and the question i have is, why is it when i write something to your office, a statement on

your position and not applied to the questions i ask. maybe i'm wrong. guest: i think he said he wrote me a letter when i was first elected to the senate and he wants my view on answering questions. because of the anthrax attacks and the 9/11 attacks on congress which was before i got to the senate, every written letter that comes to a member of the senate goes to ohio and it is eradiated and sometimes it takes six to eight weeks before we get it and sometimes it destroys the letters. first and foremost, since 2001 the best way to send a letter to the united states senate is to send it letter first by email, second, if necessary, by fax. but email is the best. we do a 48-hour to 72-hour turnaround on our answers on

email. back then we were not getting email because we were in the house at that period of time and we were on printed mail. i'm sorry the gentleman didn't get an answer. we try to answer every single letter we get. we respond to every single email we get directly and i'm sorry we missed the one he wrote eight or nine years ago. host: dale city, virginia, lisa, democrats line. hi. caller: senator isakson, i have a question about your agenda in uganda. it seems as though, you know, we had some issues with the food that's being imported through usaid. there has been mass death there and i'm just kind of concerned, you know, what america is getting in return for its so-called good deeds, bringing in medicine. it seems like there is some population control agenda.

that's what it comes across from me and a lot of others. so i just wanted you to clarify what our agenda is there. why uganda? guest: well, usaid and the united states state department have relationships around the world because of the c.d.c., the centers for disease control, which by the way is in atlanta, is the world's agency to try to protect against pandemic and constageons, meezeles, tetanus, things that are still relative in africa. try to get them vakes nated, try toned those diseases like we ended polio. you know, diseases don't recognize political boundaries or oceans. they travel with people. a disease that can start in africa and come to the united states, it could wipe out thousands of people. so it's in the interest of the country and the world to have a good world health system. in terms of population control, i've been to africa on any number of occasions. i have never seen any attempt to try to control population except to save lives which

increases population and that's the thing i think is important for the united states to do is have better health around the world and save the lives of innocent people who otherwise might die at the hands of disease or bad water or famine or whatever it might be. host: and finally, senator, matt asks on twitter. many argue that ending fannie and freddie during our current housing downturn would crush the economy. can you comment? guest: well, that's why it's replaced with a mortgage finance agency which has the 10-year working period to privatize itself. the caller's exactly right. you got to put freddie and fannie in a receivership so they don't continue to feed on themselves downwardly but you have to replace them with an entity that has the ability to securitizing mortgages until such time they are able to privatize which in our legislation predicts would be 10 years. host: johnny isakson, republican of georgia, thanks. guest: thanks. host: we will talk to marc ginsberg, former ambassador, on winning the hearts and minds in

the middle east through public diplomacy. first this news update from c-span radio. >> it's 9:17 a.m. eastern time. jerry moran, marco rubio and chris coons plans to have a the creation and growth of new businesses by a bipartisan bill called the startup act 2.0. in an op-ed article they write they want to prove the critics wrong that congress can get something done in an election year. and commercial supply ship that's rocketing towards the international space station following a successful liftoff today. the space x company made history as the rocket blasted from cape can nave rale. the capsule on it called dragon is carrying 1,000 pounds of space station provisions. and missy ryan of reuters writes that ryan crocker is expected to step down soon from

his post as president obama's envoy to afghanistan. the administration is considering deputy ambassador james cunningham to replace ambassador crocker. mr. crocker came out of retirement to become ambassador in kabul in july of 2011. inand turning to financial news, the senate banking committee meets this morning to hear testimony from two key regulators about the trading loss at jpmorgan. banking committee chairman senator tim johnson says he's inviting the c.e.o. jamie diamond to testify at a related hearing in the near future. you can hear this live 10:00 a.m. live on c-span radio. and those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> in is what people vote for the -- don't vote for the party. i think this is the city which they vote for the candidate. even though this is heavily republican midwest which is dynamic and it's great. i think you're seeing more of

that in the recent years here in the midwest. they are really voting a little bit more for what the person stands for. >> june 2 and 3, book tv and american history tv explore the heritage and literary culture of wichita, kansas. >> first place i want to show you is the munger house and it's the only remaining original structure from the 1865 to 1870 time. and it was a very important building in our history in that it is a residence but it's also the headquarters of the wichita town and land company that came down here to create, shall we say, the city of wichita. >> watch for book tv and american history tv in wichita on june 2 and 3 on c-span2 and 3. >> congressman, people who look what happened to jpmorgan and said this is a company that did something dumb, lost money. fired the people who were responsible.

this is the market at work. why does government need to play a role? >> well, to come extent that's true but i take some credit for it. and it's because government has played a role. if this had happened five years ago, if j.p. morgan lost what it appears to be $2 billion i think he would have seen much more panic in the economy. i think you would have seen much more concern. what we did in the legislation we passed and through other things was to require the financial institutions to be much better capitalized so one of the things that's the result of the government telling them you better have more capital, you have to have more capital than you would have otherwise, that helped your people give reassurance. >> n.s.a. weekend, congressman barney frank spoke about the over $2 billion loss by jpmorgan chase as well as the state of the u.s. and world economies. the dodd-frank law and gay marriage. watch his comments online at the c-span video library. "washington journal" continues.

host: marc ginsberg served as ambassador to morocco in the clinton administration, also a mideast advisor to president carter. guest: thank you. host: you are the president of what's called productions. what is it? guest: it's an arab language television production company that was made in 2002. it's a not for profit. the goal and objective is to help open up bridges of new understanding between the united states and the arab world we all knew after 9/11 the problems we faced in the region and experts led by richard fairbanks came together to try to figure out how do we begin reaching the millions of arabs who bin laden and the al qaeda operatives were trying to convert because of their anger and apple mossity towards the united states? television is the most

important medium in the arab world and it was the inspiration to try to reach these millions of eyeballs in the arab world by producing new television programs that would in effect entertain as well as educate. host: where is it broadcast and how many viewers do you have? guest: we produce content that's produced in the largest arab television, middle east broadcasting center, and thur other principled partner. it reaches tens of millions of viewers. we produced about 150 hours over the past 10 years, primetime television series, educational programs, children's animation, educational series, reality shows. and our shows have not only been popular but the tv networks have begged for more. it's because we have a unique cooperative enterprise between arab and american producers, directors and writers that basically understand how to reach these viewers. host: and when you develop

content, how do you access a willing ear, a willing set of eyes? how do you win over hearts and minesdz or find an audience that's receptive to your message? one might think of news programming or an agenda type programming but you have cartoons to access children's homes and doing documentaries and storytelling, how do you choose what -- how you get into people's hearts and minds? guest: we went out to both the middle east as well as to hollywood and we brought the best young minds together and said, here are the reasons why we have challenges in the middle east. help us develop new television programs that would deal with each of these issues. give us ideas for some children's shows. reality shows and documentries. our children's animation is a story about a young boy, ben, and a young boy, izzy, whose fathers are archaeologist and they discover a magic lat earn

and a genie who takes them on time travels throughout history. our most popular television show which is now on its third season in the arab world cause -- called "on the road in america" which we put young arabs and give them a camera and say, hey, go discover america through your eyes. we'll introduce you to whom ever we can and we will try to help you understand who we americans really are. and then they go back to their own countries and go on television to explain what they've seen. so it's not americans who are telling arabs who we are. it's arabs telling arabs who we americans really are. host: and marc ginsberg, president of layalina productions, which is celebrating their 10th anniversary, doing everything from kids tv, documentaries to really using the method that everyone from mtv to reality

television to news programs. guest: exactly. the fact what was so interesting and unique about layalina which is a badly kept secret here in the united states, in the arab world, for example, our "on the road in america" series had over 40 million viewers during the season. each of our episodes have reached nine million viewers. and the effect that it has is remarkable in that many of the young arabs said, i didn't know that about the united states. i didn't know this about americans. they have been fed over the last 30 years some pretty evil propaganda about the united states. so now that -- now that the middle east is changing, layalina is changing with it. it is no longer focused exclusively on who we americans are. it's about educating what they want to become. so, for example, our next television program that just had its first production in cairo is called "generation

entrepreneur" and it's going to be a competitive intraarab competition where the best ideas for entrepreneurial development will be rewarded through via television competition and actually result in a program that is going to be seen across the arab world because it's going to be teaching young arabs the skills of entrepreneurship. host: if you'd like to speak to ambassador ginsberg, here are the numbers. democrats, 202-737-0001. republicans, 202-737-0002. independent callers, 202-628-0205. and if you're outside the united states, you can call russ. elizabeth is on the line from kentucky. caller: hello. thank you so much for taking my call. i'm trying to get this articulated very quickly. what is being done about the reverse problem? i live in a very rural part of kentucky. i lived in larger cities.

even abroad before. but since 9/11 there has been this engrained thought of a holy war with islam, that we were attacked by muslims, not individual extremists or anything like that. has hollywood thought of or your organization thought about what they can do to educate americans so that very type of dangerous situations might change? guest: exactly. we just finished the production called "american caravan." we selected four young americans who have never been to the arab world and took them on a journey throughout the arab world in the wake of the so-called arab awakening. and these young americans have encountered young arabs who basically have been taken to the -- have taken to the streets and have explained to these americans their aspirations, goals and objectives in life. that television series, "american caravan" which is the

sort of opposite of the "on the road in america" series will hopefully will be airing in the united states and will in effect do exactly what you'd like us to do which is to show americans what young arabs aspire to, the same things that we do -- hope, aspiration, opportunity, education. these are the things that i think we americans need to understand about the vast swath of arabs in the middle east. host: tampa bay, florida, kelly, republican, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call, ambassador ginsberg. i just have a question about the relationship between the new face of islam in the middle east, having spent some time myself. like you, i understand their deep profound belief and idealelogically, those beliefs don't coincide with our declaration. why don't we treat it like we do another religion and japanese in the past, make them separate the church and state

in order to deal with us on that level, and do you think that would ever work? thank you. host: you know, it's very -- guest: you know, it's hard to categorize the middle east. they have their own unique culture and unique religious theories even though they are bound by islam. to answer your question, one of the great challenges, of course, was to in effect have democracies flourish in the middle east that are not necessarily tied to the strict deeds of islam. is it possible for democracy and islam to coincide together? absolutely. indonesia, it flourishes. the same in malaysia. there will be a presidential election in egypt tomorrow. it will be interesting to see who emerges as presidential candidate. the one thing i think is clear, and we need to understand this, while there is a certain piety, for example, across vast swaths

of the arab world, the young people voting in these elections, still want to have hope and aspiration and a decent future and good relations with the united states. .

>> madison avenue to reach the very minds and hearts or hearts and minds that are necessary because the next generation of young arabs and 50% of the population is under the age of 25. watch t.v. they have cell phones and are tweeting among themselves. social media is important. and we're trying to educate and reach out to them and establish links and communities with them and that's part of the goal. >> that's knot star equity group. all righted also is a president

of laylina productions and we're talking about that today and former ambassador to morocco and served in the clinton and carter administration. tim, republican, welcome. good morning. guest: i have to load you on interviews. i missed you and see you've been very busy and exactly what is needed. i've long thought for over ten years now which is how long you've been in production that media is the way to reach people before they are radicalized it would obviously prevent them from becoming radicalized if they're aware of the other side or really also not just showing what you have spoken about recently but i wanted to say that have you tried to also show

them the truth about radicalization or are you first trying, you know this approach first thing is that down the road? i read the book and always thought if everyone would sort of also take a peak at that, you know i've also heard on british t.v. interviews with many arabs saying wait now and i thought wow that's wonderful. the dialogue with a panel of 8 people and a variety of women and speaking with radicalized people and actually having a debate. that's exactly what we need to see all sides before not just one. >> thank you for your kind words. very much appreciated and thank you for your expression of support for lay late. we did a documentary and produced it called back from the brink and it was directed at the heart of your very important

question which is how do we approach de radicalization and what essentially back from the brink the documentary does is go to los angeles and palestinian territorys in afghanistan and we essentially confront the radical dogma of whether it's gangs or muslim who is are radicalized and the documentary is an effect penetrating assessment of what needs to be done in order to reverse the trends. we all know some of the worst terrorist atrocities were about to be committed by self radicalized americans of arab descent here in the united states and it's still occurring whether in somalia or men or in the middle east where al qaida continues to operate. our documentary was meant to tackle that very issue.

our young staffer. luke stets wet out about around the world to produce this documentary that's become very important in afghanistan and pakistan. >> question from twitter for michelle. you post these on you tube. wouldn't that reach more people? >> we would love to do that but part of what we're trying to do is recover the costs of our productions. for example one of the reasons we're not for profit is arab sat lied stations only pay us about 20 cents on the dollar for each dollar we have to raise for producing if we put the programs on you tube we'd never be able to recoupe some of the costs to continue our productions. yes it would be great if we put everything on you tube but for all intenses purposes if you're able to find someone that would donate would help recoupe the cost. we don't take the concept of a

program to a ran satellite station and say here's the idea. we have to actually produce the show and produce the pilot and the series and we have to front the costs in order to do that. >> allen joins us from michigan. caller: i have a lot of respect for what you're doing, but i looked in that area and have a different experience than you have. education we want a small enclave surrounded by a lot of muslims. we found out that basically the two ilers that make the islamic religion and people are violence and sex and you can claim anything you want but those two remain with them a lot. our girls they get seduced not

after they grow up to 18 or 21. they're always 15-16-year-old girls and they marry a muslim boy and once they are married, they no longer part of our community. host: allen where did you live? you said you lived? >> what you call so mamarsomari. guest: i was the first jewish ambassador and raised in the middle east and there's no doubt in any walk of life in the region there are these prejudices and there are both difficulties from civil liberties and civil rights. the attacks against the collisiocollis christians in egypt have been horrific and by muslims in egypt

and i've seen this type of religious hatred in effect tear the middle east apart. the fact of the matter is one of the reasons why laylina was formed is basically to begin to reach out and bring the voice of tolerance to many of these people. one of the things i found as a jew growing up in the arab world is that the stereotypes need to be overcome and once you over come those stereo types people are prepared to deal with you. they may not always like you not differentiating between who you are and what they may think you stand for but the fact of the matter is millions of arabs not the small minority just want to live in peace and have the same opportunities that we do and when we begin understanding that. we may never get rid of those that really engage in the hatred but we can reduce the numbers by empowering the minority. >> let's take a look at laylina

production. kid's programming. we can watch this role as we continue to talk to marc ginsberg the president of laylina productions and tell us what we're seeing right now. >> this is the story about a young boy named ben who is an american boy who's father is in petra as an archeology gist and is working with a arab counter part digging in petra one of the greatest archeological sights in the entire world. one of the wonders of the world i would say and oozey is a young arab boy and they find a magic lantern and they rub it and outcomes this beautiful genie. ben says let's go and she said i'll show you what you americans and muslims have in common with each other throughout history.

so the first journey that the genie takes them to is to become the tour guide for mark twain when he visited petra and went to the middle east and there's the two of them getting tour. the whole series is about showing the differences of perspective for a young audience about how americans and muslims view history differently but so much of their history has in common all the way back to the founding of the united states, so this guinea and these two boys go on these magical journeys throughout history and it's one of the most remarkable achievements for laylina that helped fund the production of this because it's become an educational program in jordan and ben and oozey i'm sure will proliferate around the middle east. >> ambassador mark ginsberg

president of laylina productions. caller: hi. i want to just say that i came from moscow, russia. it was about two decades ago, and we were exposed to early religion which was kind of soviet brand of communism and i find a lot of - what islam is presenting. in middle east and what was thought to us and i think i read the books and i don't know if you're familiar with this author but a lot was done and i think what is being avoided here is

the message within islam. and i read the koran entrance legislation and i want to point out that when the cleric preach to their people, they could find every answer in koran that encourages violence against the unbelievers. >> you know, one of these - there's no doubt there are people who actually can take any holy book whether it's the bible, whether it's the old testament or new and in tear pret what they wish. bin ladin was an expert at distorting the true meaning of the koran. when you stop and think about the hundreds of millions of arabs that subscribe to the tenants' and faith of islam, they do not read into the holy book of the koran violence or

find excuses to engage in hatred. there are groups and there are groups in every religion that will use their holy books in order to justify their in humanity to man based on their religion. what you cannot and should not do, is condemn an entire religion because of the distortions that some engage in by using the holy book of those religions to justify what essentially is the hijacking of the religion for political means. >> tony asks is laylina a concept that blue jeans conquer more people than but let's. guest: yes. they love blue jeans and a ran rock music and remember the demographic are the very young people that will be the future of the arab world. now let's be real also.

our programming is meant to educate and it's not just young people that we're reaching but we're also reaching the parents as well as the mothers, sons and daughters. one of our pilot programs called sister cities is a program about what do women have in common with each other in the sister cities that link the united states in the arab world. we've tried to target specific demographics to reach audiences that actually we think in the end contribute to changing attitudes and views in the middle east. >> anna independent line. go ahead. >> i have two questions and comment. i didn't hear - did you say what percentage of your funding does come from the american taxpayer and my second question is, is the israeli government or entities in israel backing this in anyway? my comment is, i think that we can learn something from our

arab culture in terms of modesty because hollywood has managed to make our media pretty much assess pool. we have so much sex and violence. our young women are encouraged to lose all modesty. we should examine our own culture before we try to represent ourselves as some sort of idea to the world. i appreciate your answers. guest: let me try to address all of your questions. only 30 percent of our money comes from u.s. government. 75 percent is raised from private do force like yourself that see the value in the type of program we consider essential. we've not accepted or been offered money from the israeli government or any entity in israel with. respect to modesty, one of the reasons why ambassador fair banks was

inspired to start laylina. his travel as ray gans middle east negotiator. he saw what arab where is watching third and fourth reruns of gerry springer or bay watch or the shows syndicated out by the studios after they had long expired shelf life in the united states so the arab who is watched american television were watching the stuff that we americans had long ago discarded and that was all these television station where is showing the imagine of america plus of course the movies and what we were determined to do was to change that and produce original programming. there's not one television studio in hollywood that is producing new television content for the arab world right now. we're the only entity, the united states that's doing that and when we went to hollywood and asked for help and said we need help here to dhoichlts you

know how to do this. we're former dip low materials learning this from scratch they said show me how you're going to make money. that was the last answer i had from hollywood but that's not far. we need hollywood's support. host: you mentioned the break down percentage wise but what are we talking about. guest: we did our first series, on the road in america at the cut rate price of 1.2 million. we raised that from private donors and recovered a percentage from the licenses fee but that was only 20 cents on the dollar and think we have the lowest overhead cost of any television production company in the world. it's less than 10%. almost all of our money goes into our programming. we have a staff of three people. and then we subcontract out for our production arrangements around the world. >> laylina productions is headquartered here in washington

d.c. and dubai the united arab emirates. chris? caller: good morning. we went to school together at american university. good to see you again. listen buddy, i was wondering once your production company really gets rolling what's the possibility of some insightful reporting on the persia persecu states of iran. guest: we have not reached the audience in iran because our programming has been largely in arabic. they're major shrine is in israel where i used to live and the persecution of them is clearly disturbing as persecution of any minority in the middle east but our target audience is focuss initially on the arab world because we

thought that would be our best chance for making a difference. listen. like anything else, i can produce 35 new television shows at laylina if we had the money to do so. it's the money that holds us back from doing more. host: bob. in michigan. independent. caller: i would like to know why everyone spends so much money in the middle east. them people been living that way for 10,000 years and 200 years from now they'll talk about the same thing. we're not going to change them. we have to concentrate on this country because it needs more help than anything right now. guest: i understand how you feel. we've waged two wars in middle east and iraq and spent a fortune trying to rebuild many countries and yet, our foreign assistance to the middle east is frankly much smaller than you probably realize. what we're merely doing is a not

for profit enterprise. we're trying to bridge the gaps and with all due respect i don't believe we can't change minds and hearts. in 2000, i could have cut with a knife the amount of support that bin ladin had among young arabs in the middle east. that's changed dramatically. that radicalization has largely given way to having arabs come to realize that their fate is in their own hands. we have national security in the middle east and as long as we do, we can't turn our back. what we're doing here is public diplomacy that supports american ideals and aspirations through the private sector. >> squeeze in this call from washington. lauren, republican, go ahead. caller: this is knew stoic my ears. i'm going to research marc

ginsberg. this is awesome. just awesome. we can all coming to as a people. i swear, racism should go away. the only reason there is. if we had no go tons we would not be able to see each other. host: todd in fiji. go ahead. caller: i'm not in the states but i met you many years ago. my question really is for what you're doing. some people accuse your programs of brainwashing the little ones but my other really big issue that many people talk about has never been the root cause, that's the issue between policy and israeli. as we speak palestinians connolley if i kating their lands and that is a major issue that should be addressed. what you're doing is wonderful but you're not focusing on the

root issue. guest: nothing that we do can be considered brainwashing. arab satellite station would never put this content on the they were going to be accused of having us engage in propaganda. we're embeding in the entertainment program ideas and aspirations and provoke dialogue and exchange. that's certainly not brainwashing. i couldn't agree more that, that issue is critical. i've been along believer that a palestinian state living side-by-side with israel a crucial goal. i'm on the advisory board. laylina has tried to play a small role in this and hopefully will continue but there's no doubt that we believe that reaching all hearts and minds in that area will help break the log jam which is why what we're doing is so important.