come up with a new pope who is trying to remind people that the lotstian church does a about caring about people in poverty and we just don't have that right now. host: caller: hi, how are you doing this morning? host: good, go ahead. caller: i just waited to mention -- i'm almost 40 years old. it seems like the d for the forcratic party stands dependents. you have all of these people calling wanting medicaid, stamps, wanting disability, wanting all of these benefits run the government. do not get me wrong. you need to take care of people who are poor. but i just feel like so many

people take advantage of the somebodyat giving money to do things is incentivizing them to do nothing. well, you know, i think that is a lot of the debate over welfare reform in 1996, that a lot of people felt like that, that we should not incentivize people to stay home and not work areas that i think there are a lot of misconceptions about that. as it turned out with welfare reform, a lot of people getting will fair back in the 1990's were working. know, the welfare benefits in the 1990's, you could get maybe $400 a month for a family of three. no one can live on that. it was a fiction that $400 a month could keep you home. that money is even less today. i do not know anyone who had the opportunity to take a job versus

get food stamps and would take the food stamps. it is just not enough money. obviously you can make more working and have a better life. it's a pretty easy ovulation. i'm sure there are people out there who may be working the system. a pretty easy calculation. i think they are in the minority. the bigger problem is economics. there are not enough jobs. if there were more jobs, they would take them and they would be happy to get a food stamps and welfare. mencimer, thee leading politics reporter for "mother jones." guest: thanks for having me. talk aboutxt we will the role of dark money in politics with andy kroll from as we continue our spotlight on that magazine.

and later we will speak with lauren williams. we will be right back. ♪ >> now the warm sun and the kindly rain have brought to beginning to bend as a sign of ripeness. them for testing. he crushes the seeds between their hands.

>> agriculture began by domesticating wheats. that is how we always talk about it. the fact is, wheats domesticated us in some ways. we give up the freedom to wander and hunt and gather as we had done for 50,000 years. that may be better or worse than agriculture in some ways. he can argue that. conditions we the of all thunder. howle argue a lot about agriculture happened. the story is essentially we ran out of game, there were too many people. we were overpopulated. one guy woke up and said "i think i will invent agriculture." it happened,he way probably, but that is the story. another is we had disturbances, people compacting the soil, the villages,

allowed weeds to grow, and we started eating the weeds, grass essentially. we pull raising grain became highly dependent on that crane and city living. and pretty soon we were domesticated, just like our livestock in some way. >> booktv and american history tv look at the literary life of helena. and sunday c-span2 at 5:00 on c-span3. continues. journal just down the street in the capitol, the washington offices of "mother jones." dark moneyir reporter, andy kroll. what is dark money, for people

who have not heard that term? money is the term we use to describe the secret money flowing through our elections, state, local, and national level . it is money that flows through nonprofit groups like karl rove's group or there used to be a group called priorities usa aligned with president obama. we have seen an explosion of what we call dark money. this is money where we do not know who the donors are. and we do not know how the money is being spent in many cases. we have made it a priority of ours here, and mine in particular, to try to shine a light on this secret money having an incredible impact on knowlections where we so little about where it is coming from. host: when you do your work for "mother jones," how much is

mining the public database? guest: it is in all of the above approach to be honest. if you want to know anything about classified forms and 990 's, i am your guy. i can give you a crash course in work.per pac's there's a lot of mining of those information sources. there is a lot of information out there. a lot of corporations tell us how they spend the money. they hide it on their website. you do not really know how to look or to find it. there is a lot of that out there. as you mentioned, publishing a lot of work, getting your name that peopleoping who care about this issue -- and they are out there -- will send you information you cannot otherwise get, that you cannot

find in a database for a nonprofit group or a corporation's website. there is also a lot of building up a network of folks here in washington and elsewhere, sources, who are familiar with this stuff and may not want their name attached to it, but can give you the lay of the land or tips or insights as to how this money moving machine works -citizens united world. host: do reporters care about the follow the money issues? what do you think the state of journalism is on that particular coverage front? guest: yeah, there are two levels from what i can see. there are a lot of great reporters here in washington covering this. the folks of politico, the folks at national journal, the center for public integrity. you have a lot of good friends, on thisors as well,

beat. where you do not see a lot of coverage, and frankly where some of this money and have a lot of impact, is on the state level. this is in the state legislatures around the country. i just came back from a reporting trip to lansing, the capital of michigan, my home state. somes fascinating to test things and think, how did the state not dig this up two months ago when it happened? those publications are decimated in many states. if you want to talk to andy kroll a about some of his work for "mother jones," our phone lines are open. democrats can call (202) 585- 3880. republicans --(202) 585-3881. (202) 585-3882.

you can begin calling now or post your comment on facebook or twitter or e-mail. andy kroll, your book is called "the triumph of the drill." tell us about this story. guest: the story came out of the idea or the conundrum that you have the oil companies who are some of the largest profits in the history of the world, and at the same time receiving these really generous tax breaks and subsidies totaling many billions of dollars from the federal government. it does not make sense. why do they need that when they have all the money in the world? more money than they can count. more money than they know what to do with. that was the piece of looking at it and say, what are the ways they preserve what they have? how do they preserve these breaks? what are they worth? what is the history? the piece is a visual spread

from the actual basic numbers about these tax breaks, and then we get to conspiracy theories about how oil subsidies might have had a role in the assassination of john f. kennedy, it goes all over the place. but how does the oil industry keep these seemingly unjustifiable tax breaks alive? the numbers from that story, from the charts. the annual estimated tax breaks for the big five oil companies -- chevron, seven hundred million dollars. exxon mobil $600 million. conoco phillips $600 million. bp 300 million dollars. shell, 200 million dollars. plenty of other charts throughout your story there. we want to bring in vanessa from washington, d.c., calling on our line for republicans. vanessa, we are talking with andy kroll from ""mother jones." think for joining us. vanessa, are you there? lost vanessa.

we will go to mark from ocala, florida. good morning. caller: good morning, guys. i like the host and andy, i love your level of enthusiasm for digging out the truth. for bobby kennedy after john was shot. i grew up in a household that listen to martin luther king's speeches live. at age 18 i voted for president carter as a young marine. i could not wait to get on active duty. i was stationed at okinawa. i do have a question for andy. i just wanted to give some background. as a young marine, i could not on tv, and i ended up in central america in 1978 in honduras. then i went to argentina. i learned so much about the

world and our economy. what andy talks about ties all of this together. by johnly another book perkins is a great book. host: what is your question for andy? to complement them -- their open sources with "mother jones" are so excellent. still on duty listening to things. hequestion for andy is, what might know concerning dark money and the connection to the reagan administration, bain capital, and the el salvador plantation owners. mitt romney was warned perhaps not to do this, and that is how the creation of bain capital started, so they could prevent people from making a living wage union workers like

myself and college students in latin america. kroll, something you have looked into at all? guest: i cannot say that i have looked into that subject. i guess i pulled a piece out of what mark had to say there. he mentioned mitt romney, bain capital. this is really an election where we saw this issue of dark money and just aer pac's, flood of outside money into our elections. it was a fascinating period to be a reporter. for the first time really since watergate when we got the scandal that led to the laws we have today in large part, we saw the money pouring in in a completely unprecedented way. it is only going to get bigger or worse if you do not think that is the way it should be in 2014 and especially 2016. host: let's go to matt on our line for independents in plano,

texas. caller: think you for telling -- taking my call. good morning, andy. --anted to ask i do not think it past congress? is that correct? we ended up with a neutered version of it that did not cover congressional staff. that surprised me. i remember hearing stories about staff involved with the scandal in a bank. that is the biggest problem. you look at all the money coming into elections and the so-called notpendent tax that are independent. it worries me that congress is using these committees to, you

know, enrich themselves. can weed out some of this dark money going into congress. so, we start getting them in are just going to see more. it's just going to continue. host: andy kroll, we want to point out a highlighted piece from june 2012, before the 2012 elections. the dark money piece. in that you note that the basic istern of political finance scandal and reform. what part of that pattern are we in now? we arei think absolutely in the pattern where the laws and the safeguards that were built up in the wake of the watergate scandals are eroding in the following way. funded,e a very well-

very smart conservative movement that has chipped away at these laws. there is a lawyer i read about hashe piece, a fellow who liked that charge. the money is coming in from the outside, from supposedly independent super pac's, as the caller mentioned. now the supreme court is poised to open up more money for the parties in a more conservative way on this collection versus federal election committees. we are more in the scandal part of the equation. on the reform side, they are not tailing many wins right now, where is the folks who want more money coming in right now, absolutely, they have momentum. host: can we expect balanced

news coverage from your organization, specifically on the issue of dark money question mark do you investigate folks on the left as well as the right? guest: absolutely. that is one reason i like this job. we go after both sides of the aisle. we recently wrote a piece, looking at some of the most the country,ems in and they are planning what they call a $40 million surged to push back against the conservative side of this, against mitch mcconnell in the senate, who has been a big leader in the campaign-finance effort. i can tell you from my e-mail that people i wrote about were far from pleased. but they were people on the progressive side. some of them i have been on c- span to talk about before. this is absolutely a bipartisan

issue and we cover it exactly that way. aj is from memphis, tennessee on our line for democrats. you are on with andy kroll. caller: hello. host: go ahead. caller: this is aj. i would like to comment on how the country is selling itself out to these -- to these big companies. comment on how is selling out to these big superpowered companies and they are buying the country with their money. i truly do believe chief justice roberts set this all up by putting out a bill that they could do that. i think this is nothing but greed. greed in the country to buy people, by the country up, and

then they run the country like they want to. kroll, i think aj was referring back to the citizens united case. if you could talk a little bit about the continued impact of that case. guest: absolutely. citizens united was the case that in part brought us the c's, that unleashed this torrent of arc money into our elections. citizens united is an interesting case to study. chief justice roberts, his highlight on the court. a lot of court experts wrote of him being on a sort of progression of slowly dismantling the campaign-finance laws, the foundation of those laws we got in the 1970's. citizens united is by far the biggest there. the upcoming case will be another one, the listing rules

for aris. and potentially some court watchers believe, he could not down the benefits given to candidates and parties themselves. so, the citizens united is the most high-profile decision on this issue, but very much in a string of cases and we do not know how this is going to and yet either. marianne from tennessee on our line for independents. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question about dark money. when the representatives who are supposed to be representing us shut down the government over obamacare, the stock market went down. resumed, iternment went up the same day. since these representatives get a heads up on the market movements, how many of them made

money, who were they, and how much? host: andy kroll. guest: that is a good question. that gives back to what the previous color said about the stock act. there is absolutely the for them to act on information they have acquired about the stock market and the way the government moves markets in ways the average public can't. the way that members of congress financialheir holdings, we do not know who profited off the market dipped and its increase when government got back in working business again, but it will be interesting when those disclosures come out to see if that. made a few bucks on this is what the stock act was intended to fix. it sort of took a small bite at the issue. but the folks behind the stock act say it has not gone far enough yet and they continue to tighten up those reforms so we

do not have people profiting off that information. --t: joseph on twitter asks is equating money with free speech giving those with it more free-speech them those without? those whore are believe that we should have healthy, strong restrictions on money in politics. if you are a las vegas casino magnate or a hedge fund guru and money is free-speech, well, you have the ability to put out a lot more speech than the average person making worried thousand dollars, $50,000 a year. side probablyve disagrees and says any restriction is a restriction on free speech rights and this is the fundamental tension in this issue. it is interesting and at times difficult to write about. i can definitely see that argument. the average person cannot start play inpac and hope to

a house race or a senate race, certainly not a presidential race. but someone with $10 million to spare can. and the makes a difference in elections. host: stephen from woodbridge, virginia on our line for independents. good morning. caller: hi. i'm glad i got through. i have to agree with the lady who just called about influencing the stock market. i think the republicans and democrats, they are wings of the same bird, the right and wing -- the right and the left-wing of the same bird with the head of the bird being what ever president it is. i feel this is all a charade, the dysfunctionality between the the charade of opening and closing the government, closing the government, and then opening it at the 11th hour, knowing full well, you know, that these actions influence directly the

stock market and stock prices. and profit from this tremendously. think, you know, it is way a charade and away -- a to make money. host: ok, we will go to jack from prescott, arizona on our line for democrats. jack? caller: i would like to make a comment. it is one thing to make people aware of how speech is money or money is speech. i purposely went out and tried to pay my cable bill, my electric oil, and the grocery store and to make those people aware, i asked how long i would have to speak to pay my bill. and guess what? all of them wanted money.

money is not speech. money.s just too much it is the corporations controlling our congress. and the best way that people won't do it, if we would all vote for the guy that had less money to run his campaign. that would give them something to think about. but i appreciate c-span and "mother jones." keep it up. host: andy kroll, that brings up issue. you have studied the campaign finance system. how do you think you could reformat to do it well? differenceing at the reforms right now, putting hard restrictions on how much a candidate can accept or give, a party can spend and so on and

these other types of restrictions are doomed from the start because you have a conservative supreme court that does not believe they should exist, that does not believe the are constitutional. and reforms that have intrigued me the most are what is called public finance elections or citizen led elections. this is a system that instead of capping or talking about restrictions, it rewards candidates for raising lots of small donations, and basically takes public money and matches donations of two a couple hundred bucks, something like that. build lazo, a democratic candidate in new york, it used this masterfully in the credit primary. he ran around and raised a lot of money in small batches from a lot of different people. he won their support. that money was matched. that does not seem to raise the same kind of constitutional questions. you are not talking about

restrictions. you are talking about rewarding over four supporting as many small donors as you can. that seems to be the best chance of taking some kind of step forward, tamping down this aid money political system we have right now. one more caller. we will go to jolt from lynchburg, virginia on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. host: good morning, go ahead. caller: first to comment and then a question. the comment is, as long as we keep getting the same people back in there, the dark money will always be there. i mean, the only way you can ever change that is to get people in their that have integrity -- to get people in there that have integrity and will not take money. take antion is, did you article on president obama's first election, about john mccain wanted to have the

private financing or public financing, and mr. obama ended up not doing its. and i don't think anybody ever found out where his money came from. host: andy kroll? where hisdo know money came from, because in terms of the money he raised or his campaign, it was a record- setting amount. some 700 $15 million in cash hundred $15 million in 2008. we know that the bundlers were also named by the campaign. but the caller is absolutely right. president obama said he would use public financing. he opted out. john mccain longtime advocate of finance reform made an issue around that. that is something we covered in

2012. how much president obama relied on big donors. looking postelection how organizing for action, the rebooted version of the campaign by offeringnors them access to the president. money in politics should apply to president obama without a doubt. we have continued to look at it along the way and will continue to do so and in 2016, we will look at those candidates. hillary clinton, of course, as well. kroll'su can see andy latest piece on "mother jones." behind campbell brown's sneaky outfit? you can see all of the stories on "mother jones." lauren, "mother jones"

williams will be here. up first, an update from c-span radio. americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted number, employers are laying off fewer workers. speaking of jobs, the former u.s. government analyst accused of espionage has a new job. a lawyer for edward snowden says his client works and technical support for a russian website. mr. snowden fled to hong kong and then to russia to escape aarges that he uncovered surveillance program at the national security agency. mr. snowden granted asylum in russia in august after being stuck at the moscow airport for more than a month. his whereabouts and russia remain up secret. a senate committee will investigate the shooting at the

washington navy yard's this morning. today's hearing is to investigate whether background checks are adequate. areomes as officials analyzing how defense contractor aaron alexis was able to have a secret clearance despite a series of violent outbursts, repeated russia's with the law, and concerns about his mental health. live coverage of the hearing at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. spancan see that here on c- or listen on c-span radio. these are the latest headlines on c-span radio. was officiallyg my grandmother's white house were trip. lady bird johnson went looking for portraits of the first ladies to hang in the white house. she thought that was important. she looked high and low and she official find her

portrait. she called and said, mrs. truman, do you know where that painting is? we can't find it. yeah, it is on my wall. said you really shouldn't have that. my grandmother said, no, it is my painting. it is on my wall. i think mrs. johnson tried a few more times. we will continue our series live on monday as we look at first lady mimi eisenhower. continues. journal" host: in our last segment this morning, we are joined by editorr jones" story lauren williams from the d.c. bureau in washington. she worked on several pieces recently having to do with political battles surrounding women's issues. with many -- with more than 20

states set to hold local or federal elections next week, i want to talk about a recent these you edited that discusses efforts in keeping women from voting in several states around the country. how are women being targeted in this election cycle? been so muchhas coverage about voter id laws and the controversy around them. but not too much of the focus has been on how these voter id laws are affecting women. the fact is, a lot of the states require a pretty strict photo id restriction. it negatively affects women who may have gotten married and changed their name or divorced and changed their name. it means the name on their id does not match the name they registered with. for is also an issue transgender men and women who may have changed their name. host: the story also a story in

voter idusa today," laws affect those with name changes. talk about the specifically in texas. guest: it has gotten a lot of attention recently. if you look at our story, texas is not the only state. not the only state that is doing this. , if someone goes to vote and let's say they have their maiden name on their id, example, and they registered under jane smith when they were 21, they could conceivably be rejected. they have to file a provisional required tore return within one week with an id that matches the registration in order for their vote to be

counted. this is a major issue. in 2012, as many as 32 million women did not have a photo id that matched their legal name. issue really is a major for women. particularly women who might not know when they go to vote at the name does not match the registration and their id. tot: the story you refer ped nine states other than texas that make it harder for women to vote. this includes a map of which states make it harder for women are sort ofthere levels of what is required at the polls. can you take us through what those levels are? guest: there is the basic voter know, that requires, you some sort of form of identification. does not necessarily have to have your photo on it.

then there are the ones that require actual photo ids. is not as restrictive, so you can, you know, sign an affidavit, such and such is my real name. then there are the really strict ones where you actually cannot vote and you have to come back and furnish an actual id, which you probably have to rush to go .et the time limits range from three days to a week. a lot ofunlikely people could run out and get an id in this time. host: respond to some of the justifications that folks looking to push these kinds of laws -- here is a recent these .com this week "the wrong conversation on voter id laws." -- it notesves are

that conservatives are concerned about fraud. what do you make of this? guest: voter fraud, it is just not a problem. i think conservatives can talk about as much as they want about it being some sweeping issue the nation is facing. were12 -- in 2012, there 13 instances. that is just not enough to justify all this. the fact is these laws are disproportionately affecting african-americans, people who are poor, the elderly, and latinos. and a lot of them vote primarily for democrats. so, you can choose to put the dots together if you want or not. but the fact is that voter fraud is not a problem facing this

nation. it is just not. would like to talk to lauren williams, the story editor for "mother jones," give us a call. the phone lines are open now. republicans can give us a call at (202) 585-3881. democrats -- (202) 585-3880. -- (202) 585-3882. mike is on our line for democrats from newport, kentucky this morning. good morning. hey, thank you for taking my call. host: mike, we are talking about women's issues. do you want to talk about that subject with us this morning? caller: yes, i'm very interested in "mother jones" covering the story. insults and attacks from those

in the corporate press to talk about the scientific evidence does not make the scientific facts go away. would "mother jones" consider writing a fair and balanced article covering the over 2000 architects and engineers who are simply seeking a real investigation into building 7's destruction? host: is that a subject you edit on at "mother jones." guest: no, i think that he missed his chance earlier when our washington bureau consultant was on. host: what are some stories you have edited recently at "mother jones." talking about women's issues. another issue we cover this week is medication abortion. medication abortion bans across the country -- recently, the oklahoma supreme court's theased a ruling that

state's latest law effectively bans all medication abortions, which makes it unconstitutional. so, we take a look at that law and a bunch of other medication abortion bans that are happening across the country. the consequences are something that people probably do not understand or know about. host: we are talking about women's issues, some stories she has edited for "mother jones." talk aboutiams republican efforts to reach out to women voters in 2014 and the 2016 elections. do you think those efforts have been successful so far? guest: i don't. not exactly. i think if you look at some of the rhetoric around immigration or lgbt issues, you can see a lot of republicans have softened her language and maybe learned 2012.essons from

but when it comes to women's issues, it seems they are really doubling down on issues having to do with access to birth control and abortion, issues that really are important to women voters specifically. single women voters, who voted for obama, i think 68% in 2012. let's go to betty on our independents line from lebanon, kansas. you are talking about the women's health issues and having a photo id. because i am an older american. i used to be a democrat. now i am independent. but that does not matter. if i were going to a hospital, and i did not have the same name on my photo id as what i put, i

could not get into a hospital. i could not get on an airplane. think voter id's are great because we have to show them other places. if our names do change -- if i went back to my maiden name because i'm now a widow or i were divorced and i used my maiden name, i would have to change all my id to match that or i can't get into a hospital. so, it doesn't matter who you are, whether you are african- american or hispanic. it affects all of us. i think when we start just putting out the poor, the older americans, the african- americans, i think that is being disingenuous. host: lauren williams? would i think everyone

argue it is great to have updated identification, but the fact is it affects this group is proportionately for real reasons. not having transportation to get to the dmv to update your id. not being able to find your birth certificate or having one or ever having seen one. not having the money to pay to get a new id. that you have to have this id, the name on your id matcher registration or not --wing it is different areas not knowing that you have to have this id, the name on your id match your registration or not knowing it is different. it in an ideal world, we would have the id, but it isn't. you have to look at who is being affected by this. also, who the people being affected most by this are most likely to vote or. host: a question on twitter. protecting voter

security disproportionately affect african-americans and the poor? explain this. just dead.nd of they are the least likely to have an updated id. --hink there are of that he there are a variety of reasons why that is the case. i think when these laws were being drafted, everyone sort of knew that was the case. on our line for independents from fayetteville, tennessee. you are on with lauren williams from "mother jones." caller: i would like to know, since we know these elections are going to be held, what people don't look for their voter ids, think about whether they change their name -- changing your name is kind of a big deal. most people know when they change their name.

thingsuld get their together before the election. and i don't think that three days to one week after is the or come uponoking the revelation you have changed your name. host: lauren williams? guest: four years before you voted, and that was not an issue. then i think it would stand to reason for a lot of people that you can vote again and it would not be an issue. is all of i think it us to read certain types of publications, to know exactly what states are requiring in terms of an id. but it is just not the case. i do not think that just because someone did not read the newspaper on the right day it should mean that they get turned

away at the polls. today story on this subject, it notes one of the voters affected ivies laws in texas -- affected by these laws in texas voted for wendy davis. davis, a democrat running for governor, oppose the voter id law, but got the affidavit is teacher added. sign an affidavit because her drivers license has her maiden name while her voter registration does not. is texas the hotbed of this debate? the hotbedink it is of a debate about the so-called war on women, and i think that is partially because of some of the work wendy davis has done in her filibuster on the texas

abortion bill. lawi think that is why the has gotten -- their voter id law has gotten this attention, even though the same law is in many other states. but the spotlight is definitely on texas. go to tom from maryland on our line for republicans. good morning. you are on with lauren williams of "mother jones." things i wanted to address. first, on the voter id laws -- it is kind of a false argument to say because no one has been found guilty of voter fraud it does not exist, because if we never asked for an id, how would you know that someone was falsely voting? and one could vote in four different districts under four different names and if they are never asked to prove who they are, you would never know unless someone else happen to see them voting under an incorrect name.

the other issue i have is, i hear a lot of people about how, kind of, stopping any abortion is against women. and yet abortion clinics are allowed to have -- not have safety precautions that any other surgical clinic, including dentists, would have to have. any attempt to even control that is considered a war against women when really it is due to check the safety of women. lauren williams. guest: for your first question -- aboutk we can say that anything, right? we can say, oh, i man walking down the street could have murdered dozens of people. i don't know. i can't prove he didn't. if you are going to use voter

fraud to change laws across the nation, i think proof is required. a miniscule number of credible cases is not proof. ,s to your second question, yes a lot of republicans who are the abortion restrictions say it is all about the health of the women, maintaining safe environments for women, but the actual consequence of these laws andhey are limiting access when it comes to the abortion living -- limiting access to a safe early form of abortion. a lot of conservatives really fight hard against later abortions and medications are one of the early sources of abortion you can get. id issue, theoter

newspaper wrote an article on this. they'll are the medical hospital in texas. it says -- 2000ll the turmoil in the election that ultimately led to george w. bush becoming president instead of al gore. as a country we need to take vital steps to ensure the integrity of elections. the first step is to ensure that legally ableo are to vote vote. that is a student newspaper. writes "i'd say the war on women would include calling them to stupid to keep an id to vote."

another comment "all that necessary application can be expensive." and "isn't there a federal law that trumps these voter id laws?" lauren williams? questions.any in that baylor editorial, i think the writer said -- meaning to reinforce or create more faith in the system, i think step one of that would be to fact check people when they say voter fraud is rampant. there is really not a reason for , becauseot have faith voter fraud is not rampant. as calling women to stupid to hit their id updated, as a , it is a lot of

work to get all your information changed. it actually is in some ways confusing when you think about you have to have your name on it that you have to change. it certainly is not calling anyone stupid. it is an issue of time and money and not everyone has those two things. of isn'tthe question there a federal law that trumps state voter id laws? the votinge is rights act of 1965. . laws have been blocked under section v because they have been discriminatory department put a stop to them. as many of you know, the supreme court essentially invalidated section v earlier this year.

that check, in many ways, is gone. nan from ohio on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i wish c-span would do a program on the american people. i cannot believe the ignorance in this country, that people have really been dummied down. please do a program on the american people and their intelligence. for the young lady -- i have moved from arizona to ohio. when i lived here before, i did not have any problem with voting. i had my married name. i campaigned for different elected officials. in arizona, i didn't have any problems. ien i moved back to ohio,

misplaced my marriage license. so i had to go through the whole gamut of really trying to find it and then i had to tell the state i was married and for them to send my marriage license to me and it did cost me money and it was time. they are talking about three days in five days for you to get this information and the right id and stuff. that is next to impossible. yes, it is a way to suppress the vote. it is a way, because they have things that happened in the last three elections. they do not want these people to vote, meaning myself and students in the poor, so yes, there is a reason why this is happening. i want you to comment on that. host: lauren williams? thank you for providing a real-life example of how this works and how difficult it can be. you certainly do not sound stupid. it is just a complicated thing for a lot of people to make

happen and it does take time. from we have a call cromwell, connecticut on our line for democrats. good morning. you are on with lauren williams. caller: hi. he name change. years ago i dealt with a transgender individual. i was new to the country. i was very confused. he calls himself one thing? i amn terms of having id, a foreign-born american citizen, as you can tell from the accent. but i do have id. not mobilizeats and get people to death the id that they need to get? get it.

i am a democrat. i am a black person. being black is not a disease. why don't they put in an effort to say, ok, this is what you want? let's mobilize and get them the id. host: lauren williams? guest: in 2012 before the presidential election there was a huge effort to educate communities and help them get id. that is definitely something that happens. arei don't think they mutually exclusive, helping people to get id. that's not the only thing you can do. you can also highlight that people are being discriminated against in the population. lauren williams, we have a few moments here with you from the washington bureau of "mother jones." what did you work on before you came to "mother jones?" guest: i was the deputy editor m, part of the

slate group and formally part of the washington post i money. i worked on a lot of and justice issues there. host: why did you decide to go to "mother jones?" guest: it was a great opportunity for me. i have always been a huge fan of the magazine and their website and it just out. editor, do youy get to write as well? do you get to do interviews? guest: i do get to write on occasion. yes. host: what are some of your more recent pieces? guest: i have written about trayvonights issues, martin and standard ground, coverage of the anniversary of the i have a dream speech. try to get one

republicann from the line. nancy, you are on with lauren williams. am watching you on tv and it sounds like you are straining to sow my to really believe this. as a single mother, as a woman involved with sandy, everywhere i go i have to have her snow id -- personal id. you are embarrassing me as a woman, to think that a person cannot go out, get their marriage certificate, go to social security -- which i'm in the process of doing -- and have to show a picture id. host: i will give you a chance to respond to that. sorry for and i'm very sinuous a woman. i'm not straining to believe this because these are facts. is very easy to live in your

own bubble and know what you know and to have access to the things that you have access to. but i think it's also important to think about situations other people are in. and how laws might affect them. host: martin williams, story editor for "mother jones." appreciate you coming on and appreciate all the "mother jones" reporters and editors who joined us this morning. angst for doing it. that is our chauffeur today. we will see you tomorrow at 7:00 a.m.. we will send you to the senate homeland affairs [captioning[cay national captioning institute] committee. performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> the circumstances that led to this tragedy are multidimensional. many issues raised by the tragedy such as the accuracy