adler, joins us for that discussion. mark hamrickd, and >> good morning. we begin with the military efforts against the islamic militant group known as the islamic state. airstrikes began two weeks ago. the white house is insisting that we will not do mission creep. military officials said a larger action may be needed to defeat the group. it this could involve strikes across the border at isis bases in syria. we are asking for your response. know whether your

opinion on the isis strand has changed in the two weeks since u.s. airstrikes began. the phone lines are open. you can catch up with us on social media pages. up you can e-mail us. the good friday morning. the story on the isis threat and calls to expand military efforts is leading many of the main papers. this is the washington times.

that story notes that the beheading of james fully has prompted american officials to knit together a broader and a national campaign to combat the extremists of the islamic state. and raised -- in defense of secretary was also at that briefing of the white house. --was asked would have

threat isis poses. andt is as well-funded sophisticated as any group we have seen. they are beyond a terrorist group. they marry ideology and a andistication of strategic tactical military prowess. they are well-funded. this is beyond anything that we have seen. we must prepare for everything. the only you do that is take a look at it. hagel is not the only one talking about the isis threat. at the heritage foundation, rick the threat ofd isis as well and called on the u.s. to expand its military operation against isis. present obama is going to

hear warnings from his party. is going to hear the word mission creep. that is often a very valid concern. how can we not be mindful of that after what we have seen? we'dis case it seems to me be very wise to remember the isis version of mission creep. that is when they start following through on the threats they have been making by sending their recruits into this country. it may be a team of terrorists with passports and papers all in order just like before. it may be when one or more of them slips across our unsecure border.

what rational observer doubts that such an attack is not part of their plan? who thinks it is a good idea to wait and give them more time instead of eliminating this menace right now? we want to know what you think. douglasstart with calling on the republican line from illinois. caller: good morning. i feel is right on the money. i feel we need to eliminate them right away. i don't know what our high water mark was in terms of how many troops we had ever had on the ground. i feel like we should ramp up to take care of them before they

take care of us. host: you would send troops back into iraq? i think we lost douglas. good morning. is those manyw different countries involved and i do think the options should be back on the table. i think the draft should be reinstalled. i think it should be paid for by taxing all stock trades. host: that is mark cullinan from wisconsin. this is happening on our facebook page as well. russell larson writes in.

host: we are taking your calls and comments for the first 45 minutes of washington journal this morning. you into the numbers on the screen. our phone lines are open. we will point out some of the stories across the country. weekoday poll from this talks about airstrikes in iraq. it asks what concerns you more, getting going to far in getting involved? we are asking your opinion this

morning. has your opinion changed over the past two weeks since airstrikes began in iraq? mike is on the democrat line in maryland. caller: good morning. we need to make sure what the origin of this problem is. ae isis objective is to form base through the whole middle east. that is not going to happen unless the dictatorships are destroyed and replaced by the . to him they have vital objectives about the removal of these governments. response to the arab ,pring was lackluster as well

not recognizing the consequences of what could happen if we remove the arab governments that don't share democratic values but they do share our strategic goal of preventing this from forming. host: what do you do in the here and now them? can this be contained? caller: preferably we would go back to the system or the arab governments themselves who possess the military hardware would step up and have a strong incentive to defeat isis themselves. i don't think they're going to sit back and do nothing and just say sure, we will go by the wayside and let them take over. andcan ask the saudi king assad himself.

i don't like any of these guys on a psychological level. wipet reaction is let's isis off the face of the map. you have to look at the broader picture of what the future goals . i think is incredibly difficult to decide can we do a targeted strike to take out these bad actors such as isis without further destabilizing the situation and not letting the people who have a natural incentive to defeat isis to do so. if you have airstrikes in the middle east, you're going to have a lot of people who have nothing to do with isis. that is my opinion. is in los angeles on the republican line. caller: good morning. i believe it is sad what happened to mr. foley. are asve the airstrikes

far as i want to go. i don't want to see more boots on the ground. we have lost enough lives. can't continue to police the world. no more boots on the ground. host: you bring up james fully the journalist who was beheaded. has that changed public opinion in this country? it may not have changed yours, what do you see from people you talk to? it was sad. was isis saying this is what we did. i feel sorry for what happened to him. anymorewant to see people being killed over there. i believe they are already here

in united states. host: renée from los angeles. thetoday has a column on james fully death and what the response should be. we're asking you this morning, -- feelingsnge about isis changed. let's go to marry in vista, california. i was just wondering.

the military said the one who strikes in syria and iraq to subdue isis. stop?do the airstrikes are we going to put boots on the ground or just airstrikes? out ofsupposed to be iraq and afghanistan. i think that is the best response we can have. i am sorry about the journalist. going to war is always very glamorous. i think we should probably do nothing. him --e should show throw in a few others. do you think that is where this is going? that general said it to. he said we need to have strikes

in syria. this total war thing all the time, it has got to stop. that is my opinion. host: marvin is waiting in birmingham, alabama. caller: good morning. let's be honest. it was u.s. drones and foreign policy and the bush administration that started this. they dethroned qadhafi, these fanatics would take over. they have taken over in libya. -- trying to take over in syria. we need to look at the reality of who we get in bed with. we created this crazy isis.

we should deal with the fact that we need to stop the stabilizing these governments, even if they are tyrants we don't want to get in bed with. it would be better than having isis in control. host: marvin in birmingham. we are asking your thoughts on the expansion of u.s. military response to isis in iraq and in syria. this is a story from politico to show you. the presence may prompt congress to weigh and specifically on troop action.

that story is playing out in the pages of the new york times. york -- is wary of new u.s. military expansion. you can read this story in the new york times. let's go to jack from florida for the democrats line. caller: i wanted to mention that when the president refused to go ahead and bomb syria for that red line he drew, he got those

chemical weapons out of syria with the help of food and -- vladimir putin. that is a good thing because we would be in trouble now. updates in thet state department on u.s. airstrikes, there have been 90 over the last two weeks since august 8. those stats are coming from yesterday. let's get to jeff waiting in minnesota. good morning. caller: hello? thank you for taking me. is this is nos surprise what happened. these guys are mean business. we can afford not to do anything.

the stress of it. these guys are extremely dangerous and i don't know what it will take. anything.fford to do i don't think the airstrikes will do it. we have to put boots on the ground in order to get the cells out. was just in the sandstone, minnesota. among those calling for more action in iraq are human rights ask -- activists. that petition says we call upon the united states to do everything necessary to empower local forces fighting isis in iraq to protect their people.

we further believe that the 'goal must be more comprehensive than just clapping a short-term live on the violence the threatens so many innocents in isis's path. this will return -- give long-term protection to the victims. this is been signed by 1000 so far. we're asking your thoughts this morning as we talk about expanding militaries to isis. in belmont,harvey michigan. good morning. caller: good morning.

this my first time in. i would like to see us withdraw. nobody has talked about how much east -- each sortie costs. i am sure it is in the millions. where are the jordanians and the saudi's and the egyptians? they all have air forces. i think we should just withdraw and let isis go to the borders and when these people are willing to help us. then we can return. i don't see how the united states has the responsibility to be the sole provider of air cover for countries that don't want to help. as far as leaving troops there to do training, we did that and 20,000 iraqis dumped their uniforms and their weapons and

ran. how are you going to get those people to defend their country? i think the whole thing is worthless and costing amid. we've lost 5000 troops there. it, but therebout are 10 times that that are wounded and have arms and legs blown off and have their minds numbed. we are responsible for 50 or 60,000 veterans that need to be taken care of forever. what we are doing is nonsense. host: there are members of congress who've brought up some of the points that you are bringing up. where do you stand on whether the president needs to go to congress and get them behind this effort? caller: i think so. they're responsible for taking us to war.

the residency because they don't want to commit to anything is ridiculous. i don't see this. everything we have touched historically -- i was a history major. everything has turned to crap. andot rid of saddam hussein now we are fighting sunnis because we put in a shiite government. he over to iran. it just goes on and on. we have got to get out. we have troubles here in the united states that need fixing. $.40 ontill borrowing the dollar to do all the war that we're doing over there. host: on your historical

analysis, the wall street journal might disagree with you. we will go to new york on the line for and dependence. caller: good morning.

this is my first time calling in. statestion to united policy toward isis, up until this point this has been created this threat. we need to take that into consideration before considering extra military force. i do believe there is a place for military involvement in this. it must be authorized through congress. i think the international community needs to be with us as well. we can afford to go into this alone get dragged back in to the quagmire that is iraq. that brings up the threat of isis. usa today looked at those specific threats and why it is such a threat. some of the issues they bring up

is the veteran troops in isis. this includes experienced officers from saddam hussein's resume -- is -- regime. and they may hold passports to western nations. britishy be more muslim subjects fighting for the islamic state than four britain's military. there are about 600 british muslims and its armed forces at home and abroad. if you want to read more of the breakdown on why isis is such a threat, that is the lead story in usa today. we will going to roy in oklahoma

for the republican line. good morning. caller: thank you for having me on this morning. that our border on the south has gotten off the front pages. that -- i am not in favor of a boots on the ground over there either. something, we will have boots on the ground over here. i live close to the southern border. they don't have control of their own country. they are not all kids. we are just fooling ourselves. don't put a if we stop to these guys somewhere along the line, look what is

been on the news lately. host: that is roy cullinan from oklahoma. this story is from the hill. the defensive department broke the law with the bar gallstone walk. -- bowe bergdahl swap.

roll call newspaper notes that one republican senator wants special counsel to investigate president obama on the bowe bergdahl swap. he wanted special counsel from the department of justice to investigate the swap that happened. the legal decision from the government accountability office fallacy argument. -- failing to notify president regarded -- disregard the law. let's go to milton waiting in

virginia on the line for democrats. tor thoughts on the call expand the response to isis. am glad to be speaking this morning. , these are some very wicked people. i have watched them for many years in the news. iat they did to james foley, am tired of these kinds of people. we need to bring forth our whole force against them. new them people. if we are going to put boots on the ground, we need to nuke them. are a lot ofthere people going to be hurt and killed. it a lot of innocent people are going to be killed here if we don't stop them. >> milton is in the virginia.

host: this is a clip from rick perry. this is part of an appearance. he talked about the indictment filed against him on charges of abuse of power. this is been dominating some of the headlines around the country. journalists look to rick perry as a future presidential contender. this is what he had to say about the indictment yesterday. there are some interesting things going on back in my home state. there are some public officials who have taken issue with an exercise of my constitutional veto authority. principles that are very important. a governor's power to veto legislation and funding and the

right of free speech. i am very confident in my case. i can assure you that i will fight this. i am to defend our constitution and stand up for the rule of law in the state of texas. >> host: good morning. me?t: can you hear host: thank you for taking the call to talk about texas politics. we are talking about rick perry in an indictment. for people who are still coming to the story, can you explain what the indictment is about and what he is charged with? guest: he vetoed some money.

taxpayer money goes to the travis county district attorney's office. the district attorney has been responsible for them investigating public corruption. this is the agency that handles that and get some state money to supplement its touch it to handle it. the governor decided to veto money for this agency. he did it because the district year was arrested and convicted of drunk driving. he lost confidence and her and she did not deserve the state money. republicans have been after this agency for more than a decade. felt they feelm

republicansdicted and democrats in the past. money, aetoed the complaint was filed and a special prosecutor was named. rick perry was indicted for abusing his authority and folk version. he was charged with the towing toey using taxpayer money try to muscle a duly elected county official out of office regardless of what the voters in that county want to say. that hery's response is can fully -- fetal money. there is nothing wrong with anything that he did. he is being put on trial for political reasons. if you went to check that

out, walk us through the mechanics of this. many may have seen the mug shot that was released this week. what is next and how long will this trial be drawn up? guest: that is a good question. i have talked to his lawyers, he wants to move on this as quickly as possible. they want to resolve it. he is innocent and wants to be proven innocent. he is considering running for president in 2016. in iowat a good thing and south carolina and every news story has the word indictment next to your name, that is not ideal. his lawyers are expected to try to get the charges quashed.

he is allowed constitutionally to exercise the right of a veto and if that doesn't work then ask for the summary judgment. judge we to say to the all agree on the facts. he vetoed money. there was a right for him to veto money. the question is a matter of law. does that constitute legal -- illegal coercion. this is the way to explain that. it is legal to veto money or a bill. it is legal for someone to say i want someone else to leave office because i have lost confidence in them. it is another to link the two. this to summary judgment and the judge can throw this out, they can resolve this

and a matter of just a few months. to goise, this is going for months and a well into next year before it could go to trial. he is not likely to settle. the prosecution is not likely to drop the case. trial ford be on abuse of power and coercion at some point as early as next summer or next fall. earlierayed that clip from the heritage foundation. what did you make of him in that appearance? guest: he's done exactly -- we are talking politically -- he has to walk a legal route and is lawyers will figure out the legal theory. the other is a political route.

he got out in front of the story and said this is politics. democrats in travis county are out to get me. it is unfair and it is not right. anybody can get an indictment. i will be fully cleared. yesterday at the heritage foundation speech, he looked confident. he looked like a person who is ready to take on the world. saysw his political team not only say you're innocent but exude the confidence of a person who is innocent. to rallyts will be conservative republicans in places like iowa and new hampshire and south carolina who will see perry framing the messages. they think that is a very

appealing political message as well as the obvious expression of innocence that he wants to project. host: wayne slater is a senior political writer for the dallas morning news. guest: it is great to be with you. host: we are asking for your expanded u.s. military response to isis. we have some tweets coming in. phones. to the floyd, good morning. caller: good morning. i am a retired military.

i am 80 years old. i have served in the military iranir force in iraq and in 1975. they were their friends at that time. over herele are going in digging into their business in the middle east. they have unsettled the entire middle east. general powell, if you break it you own it. it is coming back to haunt us. the guy from michigan made a statement. we have all of these rich people over there, why can't they use their own money to set up these soldiers of fortune. that have all the

answers and all the guns. let them solve this and fight them and clear those military troops out of there. our soldiers have been dumped on the streets. and we don't have the money to take care of them. i want you to listen to an old man. i have been watching this for a long time. if you put those republicans back in office and you watch all of your children go right back into that quagmire over there. thank you. host: one of the tweet we want to show you this morning.

let's go to billy bob in illinois. good morning. caller: i was a battalion surgeon in vietnam. 5000 thatof the 70 started the war. i saw the hoax of the vietnam war. i was recruited by the american .edical international schwarzkopf's bumper before the war even started. the security for the king of and our unit was arafat. int seems strange to me 1984. it was all a hoax. up i could see there were a lot of things that weren't right. justld suggest that we

come home and let the guys find out. there is nothing we can do. they don't like women. the guys that are english doing the beheading dom a that tells you that these guys were special forces from the english. i think we should just come home and leave those guys alone. they can't decide what they want to fight anyway. a few other stories. host: bank of america settles for $17 billion.

host: also on the financial front, janet yellen is expected to address the kansas city fed's jackson hole conference for the first time. the story from the new york times. this is a picture of dr. kent brantley.

we have time for a few more of your calls. brian is in durham, north carolina. can you hear me? i am not in favor of boots on the ground. they need to take up the fight. i agree with that. that is probably not going to happen and we probably will get needs to get on the american people and tell

them what war against these people in sales. it will be a very nasty war. these people don't have uniforms. they don't have defined frontlines. they hide behind women and children. we are going to have to do some very nasty fighting and probably commit war crimes. obama needs to ask the american people if he wants to send troops again. for this kind of fight? i don't think we do anymore. we don't know how to win a war. winning hearts and minds just doesn't do it. like the old-fashioned patton said. you don't want a war by dying for a country. you make the other guy die for his country.

it is a very nasty fight. we will probably have to commit war crimes to beat these guys. is the american public ready for? jerry is in cleveland, ohio. caller: i think we are getting sold a bill of goods by the government. look at the run-up to the iraqi war. they were not considered by any army until the iraqi army threw down their arms and the sunni army hasn't confronted them yet. kurds, theythe routed them very easily. they gave up the mountain and they gave away the dam. we should not be involved.

we should just arm the kurds and other people in the area that want to go fight them. host: are you against airstrikes as well? the airstrikes seem to help. the helped a lot. i am not against airstrikes. host: ricky is from nashville, tennessee. good morning. i agree with the younger gentleman. poll, mosta national people would agree. you bring everybody home and let among themselves. or you drop the atomic bomb. they will surrender. host: ricky is going to be our

last caller. we will look back at past civil disturbances and the lessons learned from them. atwill wrap up our look lyndon johnson's great society with a look at the 1967 national commission on product safety. we will be joined by robert adler. eric holder spoke yesterday about his trip to ferguson, missouri and the unrest there. few things have affected me as greatly as my visit to ferguson. i met with the family of michael brown. of i spoke to them not just as attorney general but as a father. they want answers. my conversations with dozens of people in ferguson it was clear that the shooting incident has brought to the surface underlying tensions that have

existed for many years. there is a history to these tensions in it history simmers in more communities than just ferguson. law-enforcement has a role to play in reducing tensions. as the brother of a retired law enforcement officer, our men and women in uniform perform their duties with tremendous threats and significant personal risk. they put their lives on the line everyday day and i have to make split-second decisions. ae national outcry is about suspicion and mistrust they can take old. i wonder the people of ferguson to know that i understood that mistrust. i one of them to know that while so much else may be uncertain, this department of justice stands with the people of ferguson. weope the relative calm that

witnessed overnight can be enduring. people take great pride in their town. despite the mistrust that exists, they reject what we have seen. when i went to provide reassurance, they gave me hope. the justice department will continue to stand with ferguson. we will continue the conversation that it has sparked. the need for trust building between law enforcement officers and the communities that they serve. about the appropriate use of force and the need to ensure fair and equal treatment for everyone. thank you. host: clarence page joins us.

we want to get your take specifically on how this white house is handled the ferguson crisis. he wrote this week that even president obama seems trapped by the racial divide over what is happening in ferguson and around the country. guest: is remarkable will that they would be able to handle it. this president had a mandate during his candidacy of helping american resolve this racial turmoil. this is unwritten subtext to his election. every now and then we get and are up show him like this. this time compared to previous , he seemed a bit more somber and cautious and reserved at this time.

agents.in 40 fbi that doubled the population almost. it was interesting to watch. histter what he does, critics are going to say he has done too much. his supporters say he is not doing enough. host: if you look at this in the context of the history of civil , cant in the united states you talk about was happening then and any similarities to this situation? the few am one of people around who remembers that. riotsrs ago this summer, broke out in harlem and bedford stuyvesant in new york.

this was five years of urban riots. the next year was the watts riots in los angeles. there was terrible loss of life and property and went on for a week. the dr. king in 1968. a hundred cities went up in flames, including washington dc and chicago. i like to think we have learned some things from that. double shock when he saw the fires in the night over ferguson, missouri. perspective, ferguson didn't pay attention to the lessons of the 60's. the number one lesson is never under estimate the impact of police brutality allegations in the african-american community. host: lyndon johnson want to

learn things from the riots in the mid-60's and had a commission to study that issue. here is president johnson from 1967 talking about that commission. >> the only genuine long-range lies in an attack on the spare.ons of all of us know what those conditions are. discrimination, slums, poverty, disease, not enough jobs. we should attack these because we are fired by conscience. we should attack them because there is no other way to achieve

a decent and orderly society in america. >> the commission that he was talking about is known as the kerner commission. these are some of their findings. the nation is moving towards two societies. how did lyndon johnson take those conclusions and those recommendations? guest: he ignored them. he appointed this commission because he was convinced -- he had just passed the voting rights act and the civil rights

act. he appoints this commission in 1967 after more riots. he was wondering why this was eventsng after so many in civil rights. he thought that it was possible that the soviets could have stirred this up. j edgar hoover was convinced of it. matched with his great society programs. we have to improve schools and housing. was going to pursue anyway. he ignored the commission's findings. i was in college at that time. i was the only black journalism

at ohio university. african-americans were not flocking to journalism schools. it turned out to be fortuitous. newsrooms across the country were looking for reporters and photographers they could send out to the ghetto that wasn't too conspicuous. i was flooded with job offers. i had about five of them when i was graduating. this fits me very personally. an important breakthrough point for african-americans across the country. view, there was more going on in the rabbit sector. there were so many changes going on in the 60's. host: what do you mean about the

private sector? i am talking about the building of a black metal class. we had been suppressed since the civil war. -- watch madmen. ,ne of the subtexts of madmen you don't see any people of color. when they get the first black secretary, it was a big deal. andas in newsrooms middle-class workplaces across the country. it's comical to think back now to those days. things were a bit tense. people thought how white evil would accommodate this kind of variation.

people bent over backwards to demonstrate how they were not the racists who are trying to keep why people out of the place. with we are talking clarence page from the chicago tribune. we want to think about the context of civil unrest. our phone lines are open. before we get to the calls, we have seen other commissions. almost every city has had a commission after a riot. the attentionet of the president? does congress ever act on these recommendations? everybody comes to these

commissions with their own agendas. if you are liberal you have one agenda and conservatives have another. the ideas get all mixed together. that makes sense. we are talking about a very complex problem as far as racial discrimination an opportunity which is ari ben america's original send. which is america's original sin. i think that what we see 50 years after

haven't even more isolated black underclass. a nice community -- you drive through ferguson and it looks like a nice working-class community but look at the percentage of kids on the free lunch program, these are the indicators that tell you you have poverty problems underneath. this is what the trigger is when we talk about riots. it almost every case, with the exception of dr. king's assassination, it gets touched off by police confrontation either in a fatality or somebody getting beat up. host: we are talking with clarence page of the "chicago tribune." david is calling in from st. joseph, missouri, on our line for republicans. caller: look, i am so fed up with this idea that people because of their race or misfortune are entitled to commit violent acts, and when they commit violent acts and a

cop has to shoot them -- it doesn't matter anymore -- they can practically kill the cop and if you manages to shoot them and stop them, he is the bad guy, the perpetrator is always the good guy. and you are seeing it in these bloody protests. the more the evidence -- forensic evidence and other witnesses go to support the cops version of events, the more agitated protesters get. you even get the complaint --wing that the film shows the problem is that it is not the cop that was attacked. the cop that was attacked is that the hospital. this is another officer going around and they are trying to claim the cop that was attacked, which is, of course, another lie. host: some of the issues the

caller brought up are also brought up in a column in "the washington times" by thomas sowell. your response to the caller? guest: i will respond to thomas sowell as well. the caller is expressing it widespread sentiment. when we talk about the people who make accusations of police misconduct, contrast ferguson with st. louis, where we have a shot to a man being death by 2 police officers here in recent days. look at the difference in ferguson. we see people accusing the police of possibly murdering this time matt i was -- murdering this young man who was killed. the ferguson police department has made it worse by not releasing information about it. any government agency that keeps

a lid on something this important is inviting negative public backlash. public backlash in st. louis, where you see police opening fire on this man who looks deranged, in all honesty. some people are calling it suicide by cop. but within 90 minutes, the police chief was in front of the press, there on the scene answering questions, letting people know just what happened, why this young man was shot. meanwhile, over in ferguson, after the young man there was killed, his body lay out their industry for 4 hours and police thel -- lay out there in street for 4 hours and police still have not let reporters see the police report. it took him a week to release the name of the police officer who did the firing, etc., etc. all the lessons of the kerner commission days have been lost on the ferguson authorities, and i can only imagine that if

history precedes the wait has in the past, we will see ferguson voters wake up and turn out to may see the administration there in ferguson replaced next time around. host: were some of those communication issues brought up commission report? guest: absolutely. they talked about the bad relations between the police and every community where riots broke out. long simmering stories of brutality, misconduct, just a disrespect for the local community. there were very few, if any, officers of color on the police .orces there you saw some real changes in subsequent years. but what do we see in ferguson now? when the police chief was asked -- "oh, that's not true, we have a couple of asian-pacific islanders" -- i am not quoting him directly, but that was the response. like the caller who called and

"sick and tired" of minorities complaining about this thing, minorities are sick and tired of complaining about this. a "new york times" -- cbs poll this week shows the same kind of divide as an o.j. simpson and the kerner commission in the 1960's. host: "we do not know what happened when michael brown was shot by a policeman in ferguson. we know what a seven since then and it has been a complete his grace by politicians, the media, -- disgraced by politicians, the media, and mobs of rioters and looters. this is why we have courts of relying on the media and mobs." guest: i actually agree with thomas sowell, which doesn't

happen everyday. the wheels of let justice turn, but why don't they? -- whythe countries so is the countries so fed up about this? these things are about long simmering issues that have been building up for a while, and it takes something really dramatic like a police officer shooting somebody to make things explode into the front page headlines. otherwise they just simmer in the background. host: some of the headlines coming out of ferguson. this in "usa today." tov. nixon orders guard withdraw from ferguson. holder sees chance for reform in the city." we are talking to clarence page of the "chicago tribune." let's go to betty in illinois on our line for democrats.

caller: good morning. i am a 75-year-old. when president obama ran the first time, he ran on hope, and he gave a lot of young black men hope. and once he got in, even my grandkids could say "oh, granny, i could be president." but once president obama got in and the young people saw how he has been treated, disrespected, people howling "you lie," if he tries to defend black people, , he hase mr. page says on him.arty aunt all the hope is gone, i think that is what happened in missouri. they have no more hope because they thought they had hoped with black president.

and thank you, mr. page, for being on. guest: thank you for the call. there is always hope. maybe i am a cockeyed optimist. but i was a realist when obama was elected. i was delighted to see the country has matured enough to be able to elect a president of color, and soon, i imagine, a woman who will be president as well. that is the promise of america. many of my friends, liberal and conservative alike, rejoiced whether they agreed with barack obama's politics or not. i also knew that the morning after he was elected and inaugurated, it is a whole new narrative. yes got to govern, and i knew there were going to be problems. i was not expecting the ferocity of the backlash that occurred on the eruption of the tea party and the way that it did. i have been to tea party rallies and all, and they were forming before barack obama was elected,

but barack obama's election energized the backlash. but i'm old enough to remember the reforms of the '60s. george wallace energized a backlash at that time. inntually ronald reagan won 1980, and this is well chronicled by various historians. swing one wayto too far without swinging right back in the other direction. we are in that backward swing period as far as the rise of conservatives. at the same time, i don't think that barack obama energization is going to go away. i know that because i look at my own son, who is in his 20's, and his generation. these millennials that come along -- dagnab these kids! you all have different attitudes than us older folks do.

realists more of a about barack obama's election than i am. host: good morning, lawrence. caller: good morning. i would like to say, when are we going to stop all of this foolishness? we are a mixed nation of people. ehere is no pure white and pur black in this country could we have been together for 400 years? you actually believe that there is black-and-white? what is the real push behind that? it looks like agreed him and that is what it looks like -- it looks like greed, that's what it looks like. host: what do you mean by "greed"? caller: some people want to be in charge, they want to have control. one who is out of this in a big way is the natives who were already here. they are on the reservation.

we are mixed. guest: i think the gentleman is talking about politics. maybe it is my chicago background. thethe fact is, politics is mutilation of our -- the manipulation of power.answering the question of who controls on who was in charge, we find that race has and will be for the perceivable future as a tool for political manipulation, either by the right or the left. colbert makes fun of the notion that "i don't see race," ha ha. that is a joke. wake up. everybody from the age of 4, psychologists tell us, can see race. parents to give value to young people and tell them that race isn't supposed to

make a difference. but you don't want for yourself or anybody else to say that race is not important in our society. it certainly is. host: how far have we come since the kerner commission? guest: the doubling of the black middle class -- the poverty rate when i went into college was at 65, over 60% black poverty rate. by the middle 80's, it was down to a little over 30%. by the mid-1990's, it was down to 24%. in recent years it has risen again to 27%. -- economicshing is never stable. they move up and down. but economically, we have come a long way. but today's black poor, as henry lewis -- henry loui s gates says, the gap between

black rich and black poor is greater. host: a few notes on the kerner commission on "washington journal. million -- this was a best seller at the time. sexink the kinsey report on was the only book that sold more at the time. host: paul in connecticut on our line for republicans. caller: good morning, and thank you for the program. first thing i want to say is half the problem right now is that everyone wants to say

president obama is not an american. paul?what do you mean, caller: we used to say he is --atto because his father his mother is white and father is african-american. guest: why is that useful, by the way? why is it useful to point that out? caller: because you can't say he is a black man or white man. he is an american president elected by the people of this country to help us resolve issues before he was in office come up during his presidency, and hopefully his leadership after office. this whole black-white thing is a bunch of garbage. you had a young man get killed. unfortunately, it is happening all over the country. why is nobody saying, wait a minute, this is a lack of communication? you can't have people get mad at

the police when the police are not being brought to their community as friends, as people who will protect them from true criminals. guest: that is very true. the reason i wonder why that is important is none of us is pure black or white in this country. we are a mulatto nation. that has been said by a number of perceptive people. rule -- ifis one drop you have one drop of black blood, you are black. that is awful powerful blood there. it is -- as economics talk about, who is -- as academics talk about, who is mulatto and who isn't, you have 2 races in this country, the race you assigned yourself, and when people look at barack obama, the first thing they see is that

this man is not white. that is really what matters in politics, plus and minus. it is safe to say that barack obama was elected in part because he turned his race into a plus, or i should say races, into a plus factor because of what it represented. it isn't just because he is black that he was elected, as is more cynical detractors say. but it is good to know that advanced enough that a man whose birth would have been illegal at the time he in born, before the decision 1967 on interracial marriages. barack obama was born an illegal in this country. i it was ok could i'm not one of those who thinks he was born in kenya. it shows you how much the country has advanced since the 60's.

host: we are talking with clarence page, columnist with the "chicago tribune," pulitzer prize winner for commentary, and a collection will be released, "culture worrier." guest: you've got to say it right, "culture worrier," not "warrior." [laughter] i am worried about our culture. host: he is taking comments on "washington journal." glen on our line for democrats. caller: good morning, how you doing? host: good, glen. caller: my issue is -- i have a question and a comment. the thing that gets me looking at this entire situation with ferguson, since it started, i noticed that as far as the media all catered towards

black people. you have the mayor of the city, mayor of the town, city council members, all elected officials that are white. 67% african-american population. leadership is white. they don't get talked to by the media. the media doesn't interview them. you haven't seen them out there. the captain from the state police and the governor -- this has gone international. the bottom line is that the power structure of that city does not -- they have given a pass. they are not given the responsibility of actually being out there with the people and answer questions. it is all most like you have all the black people over here and the white folks in the power structure, they are not being tasked with any response ability as far as answering questions. i made reference to that earlier, this anomaly of having a predominantly black city with an overwhelmingly white city council. ?hy is that ech

election turnout. they have local elections in the spring. national elections -- the last national election in 2012, black turnout was only a percentage point less than the light turnout. for -- then the white turnout in ferguson. that was the barack obama election. the next local election in springtime, the turnout for blacks and whites was way down, but much lower for blacks than for whites. as a result you have this overwhelmingly white city council and white police department, etc. i am interested to see what happens in the next election because in towns like ferguson -- i have seen this happen in chicago and dayton, ohio, and other cities -- when local people feel upset, that is when they turn out and vote, when they feel they can make a difference. the people of ferguson, black and white, needed to let

democracy work for them. i will be interested to see what happens now that so much attention has been given to the the racial makeup. host: how quickly do you think this story fades into the background and people start forgetting what happened during august 2014? guest: i think the name ferguson is etched in our memories in a special way like the name katrina, fallujah, any other big disaster. and for that matter, chicago, as i know from experience, known for everything from alcohol to michael jordan. people don't forget those things. they don't have to write about it every day. this has become -- every time i watts" i think of the riots in the 1965. watts is a different community than it was then but everybody makes reference to it when they write about watts. ferguson is a wake-up call, or a teachable moment, as some people

call it. certainly we have seen the way the local authorities have b ehaved, how not to avoid a right in your town. host: an e-mail from becky. guest: of course there is an uproar about the black killings in chicago. i hear this every day. "why isn't there an uproar about killings in chicago as compared to this 1 --" there are so many different reasons and responses to this. covering this since i was a student in the 1960's. i've seen a jesse jackson and the urban league, etc.,, constantly talking about black crime, this horrendous homicide rate. webpage, everye" day we have stories on the front

page about fatalities in the neighborhoods of chicago. why don't they get more attention? because they are in isolated, poor neighborhoods, mostly black or hispanic communities that are isolated economically, politically, and socially. while you are having fun with partsts and the wonderful of chicago -- and it is the best city on the planet, by the way -- there are still people dying in the more isolated neighborhoods. it becomes part of the background noise, doesn't it? i would not be so upset about people saying that if they really cared about kids dying in chicago but i suspect they're just trying to change the subject from the tragedy in ferguson. we need to deal with the tragedy in ferguson, the tragedy in chicago, and the rest of our country and not just play games. host: texas, on our line for independents. caller: good morning. good morning, mr. page. guest: good morning. caller: i am 60 years old

and i live outside austin, texas. we have had several police shootings of black men and we were doing a talk on the radio station and i called in and i asked the police chief, how many white people have been killed by black or hispanic police officers? in my 63 years of being here in this area, none. manyhen i ask them, how black people have been killed by white police officers, and were they ever armed? the question was several and all of them were unarmed. so i've got a problem with that. they can say what they want, they can do what they want. you are supposed to be taught as a police officer how to handle somebody that is unarmed. one thing looking up in our favor, son of the families have

been granted over $1 million in ,ettlements for these incidents which never happened before, but it is starting to happen now. maybe this will change the reaction. are black police officers and hispanic police officers better controlled police officers than white? guest: you know, this is an ongoing problem, but it is true that lawsuits and all do have an impact over time because cities get tired of paying out settlements for wrongful s,rests, wrongful beating wrongful shootings, etc. new york city is a good example of that because they shifted to smart policing -- fixing broken windows approach, etc. -- they have found over time and not only do they pay out a lot less but alsoul lawsuits,

the crime rate has gone down and homicide rate has gone down. new york and l.a. have lower homicide rates than chicago now because of these differences in policing. host: i suspect some of the trust issues the caller run-up there were also in the kerner commission report, which we have been talking about. guest: it was, and i was disappointed it was not more directly addressed. we found a laundry list in the commission report of remedies that virtually matched johnson's war on poverty. but the police-community relations were mentioned, especially in surveys taken of attitudes at the time in black communities across the country. -- i don'tality wask the word "brutality" used, by think it was "abuse by law enforcement" -- came out is

number one on the complaints by african-americans in cities, head of jobs and schools and housing -- a head of jobs and schools and housing. never underestimate the impact of allegations of police brutality in african-american communities. host: brian in lakeland, florida, on our line for republicans. caller: good morning. how you doing? how you doing, mr. page? guest: good morning. caller: the commission report was done -- you say it was finished in february 1968? guest: that's right. caller: ok. my point -- it could be a point or a question -- why after all this stuff in ferguson -- i've switched to different channels from i've watched cnn, msnbc, fox, because i feel it is fair to listen to everybody's opinion. guest: you might need therapy after all of that, but thank you. [laughter] caller: one thing i've noticed

is that most of the older african-american men and women that i hear speaking and talking , what they're saying with the commission report, everything is about the past him and i don't feel as americans that we can the waye forward in that i think we can as a nation if we keep letting the past creep up and inject into things that are happening now. i was born in the late 1960's myself. things are obviously a lot different when i grew up in the 1970's then what they are now, but i he keep hearing about the 60's and everything else. why can't we move past all that and move forward as a nation, holding hands and being together instead of keep going backwards, keep going backwards? i was always taught that you can move forward if you are always looking backwards -- can't move forward if you are always looking backwards. guest: we baby boomers are convinced that the 1960's are the most important decade that

ever occurred. but you are right, we need to -- at therd and i was same time, we need to learn the lessons of the past. that is why i am disappointed in ferguson that the local authorities -- i've been a police reporter for years, i was very disappointed that local authorities just didn't heed any of the lessons of the 1960's of how police are to deal with their communities or the press. that is why this one a local episode has become this big national blowup. host: this headline from "the washington post" this week. "we keep pledging to study the causes of riots like ferguson's. and we keep ignoring the lessons." guest: it's funny, because we don't want to have a national conversation on race. bill clinton announced one. it flopped. eric holder called for one, he got called a racist. i get called a racist for

wanting a national conversation -- host: what does that mean, national conversation? guest: it means let's be honest. book was called "muzzled," because honest debate is muzzled in this country could it is like bad etiquette, like talking about sex in front of the children. but these blowups are how we have to national conversation in the country. i am ons a columnist -- my third ferguson column now. this is not what happened after fallujah. this country wants an honest talk about race, but conservatives say "i cannot talk honestly about race without being called a racist." isn't that a problem itself? it is only after we get a trade juan marti -- trayvon marti