host: here are the front pages of international papers.

france and united kingdom taking a look at the tax __ attacks in paris. the response in the "washington post" this morning __ and __ editors have this.

again, those are the thoughts of the "washington post" this morning as far as the reaction. for the first 45 minutes, we are interested in hearing from you on how the world should respond to these attacks in paris. again, the numbers to call in. president obama was in tennessee yesterday to talk at a community college. he remarked on the incident in paris and the u. s. response. [video clip]

>> we have been in close touch with the french government throughout this tragedy. the moment that that attack took place, we directed all of our law enforcement and counterintelligence operations to provide whatever support that our allies need in confronting this challenge. we are hoping that the immediate threat is now resolved. the french government continues to face the threat of terrorism. it has to remain vigilant. the present make clear that they will do whatever they need to do to protect their people. france is our oldest ally. i want the people of france to know that the people the united states stands with you today, tomorrow. our thoughts and prayers are with with the families who have been directly impacted.

we grieve with you, we fight alongside you to uphold our values, the values that we share, universal values that bound us together as friends and allies. the streets of paris __ the world has seen once again what terrorists stand for. we stand for freedom and hope, and the dignity of all human beings. that's what the city of paris represents the world. that's __ that spirit will endure forever. host: that is a question that our __ how should the world respond to the attack in paris. let's start with ron.

caller: we cannot go around keeping these people secretly from telling us why they want to kill us. why they want to create terrorism. we cannot say that they are killing us, when the palestinians suffered so many thousands of that's in the israeli_palestinian war. that is the root __ isis said it. we have to get to the crew of this problem. host: from maryland, this is cliff. caller: i've heard a lot of comparisons between the

shooting incident in france, and the boston marathon bombings. i tend to agree. i think they're both complete hoaxes __ just like the hoax of 9/11. that caused us to find us in the police state that we are in now. host: don is up next. caller: good morning. what i want to talk about really quickly is that some media and news agencies are using this incident as an excuse to talk about putting surveillance __ mosque under surveillance. i caught a glimpse of hannity __ they were talking about munching all mosque in the country. it reminded me __ again, we need to look back at history __

of what happened to the japanese during world war ii __ the internment camps that they had. they were american citizens, but japanese descent __ it was horrific. it was a very dark chapter in the history of america. here you are with this incident causing people to start to talk that way again. host: don, question for you. the "washington journal" this morning said this __ the west also needs to seize its political campaign against the most effective antiterrorist tools. how would you react? caller: it fits right in.

i feel that a lot of the right wing is moving __ this gives them an excuse to monitor, and lockdown anyone who is a muslim in this country. they will be monitored much more closely, if they have their way. i'm hoping that does not occur. host: a comment on twitter this morning __ dan is up next. caller: hello. i'm in shock and all of __ awe

of what has happened. i would like to me are the first caller's point about the problems going on in israel. my goodness, you keep bombing his people, and then rub it in their faces. eventually, you will get blowback. i think what we should do is apologize for all the insanity that we have brought upon the muslim world. host: again, if you want to make your thoughts known, call in. from the financial times this morning __

matt from north carolina. good morning. caller: hello. i think that the biggest concern i have with the terrorist attacks in paris is that we are at a point now

where we are bastardizing muslim extremist. they are not muslims that are doing the things. that's where we are. host: how do you move forward from there? how do you change the narrative? caller: i think we have __ they are not __ we have to change the narrative because when we say that someone is a muslim extremist, we do the same thing with christian __ i'm sorry. i'm not on the air, am i? host: you are.

caller: i think what we need to do is __ there is a difference between muslims and terrorists. i went to college with a number of people from the muslim state. i respected their faith. i respected their __ the way they practice their faith. i'm concerned that we see stories like this __ for the rest the world, particularly the united states, we paint everybody that wears a hijab, or everyone of the muslim faith, that they are the same. host: do you think people do not see the difference is off the bat? caller: i think intelligent people do.

i think the rest the world, with average guy, doesn't. that is what concerns me. host: snake is going to join us from tennessee. nick, we are asking how the world should respond to the terrorist attacks. caller: i think we should follow our president's lead, and go a bit further. we ought to send the present __ president over there. we should maybe put an isis flag on the white house. we should continue marginalizing people of christian and jewish faith.

we should join in alliance with the arabs and attack israel. you know, follow the president's lead. host: bernard is next. caller: i think the press is guilty of glorifying the terrorist. these people wanted to die in public. they wanted to become martyrs. i don't think that the press should give a minute by minute view of the death for the public to see __ that is what they wanted! look at us, we are heroes going to have been. which, they are not. glorifying them, to me, is giving them ample excuse to continue this sort of behavior.

host: so they do not get attention, the activity decreases? caller: yes. i think we are guilty of aiding their view. we keep publicizing what they want. host: the french president yesterday talking about actions that he and his administration are taking. [video clip] >> i would also like to make a call for unity. i've already said so to the french nation. we must show our determination to fight against anything that might divide us. today, it is a horrible anti_semitic acts that was

committed __ not being divided means that we should not pay people with a broad brush. we should beware of the federations __ those who have committed those acts have nothing in common with the rest of the muslim faith. also, we must be able to respond to attacks, and use force, but also with solidarity, and we need to show that solidarity __ we are a free nation and we do not give in to any pressures. we carry an idea that is greater than us. an ideal which we are able to carry and promote wherever. once again, i would like to salute five soldiers who make sure that we effectively fight terrorism.

host: how the world should respond to the terrorist attacks. the numbers are on the screen if you'd like to respond. judy, go ahead. caller: i would like to call your attention to a book. the author was on a book talk on c_span __ they were born in algeria, and fled algeria because of the bloodbath in the 1990's. she is now a law professor in california. she is muslim. she took a sabbatical leave, and went back to the muslim world, rresearching these groups who are trying to stand up to this extremist element. in algeria, in the 1990's, there were 200,000 people murdered by the extremists.

the immediate parallel that i had __ when i heard about the past attacks __ that's what happened in algeria. these extremist attacks, aand a reasonable newspaper. they wanted to suppress, terrify, and control the rest of the population. host: you brought the historical context __ what you think the response should be then? caller: she is saying, you have to stand up to these folks. you need to publicize. you need to emphasize that this is not merely a dispute between the sunnis and the shiats. this is terrorism at its root. support the local people who

are trying to continue a normal way of life. the title comes from a group that is trying to continue to do performing arts __ mmusic, dance, theater. host: we did do a book event are book tv channel. the book is "your fatwa does not apply here." you can go to c_span.org to listen to the event. the next call is from amanda, georgia. caller: the reason i am calling __ i've been listening to this today and yesterday. i've been hearing a lot of people talk about this __ i

agree that we should not bash the muslims. but people need to remember one thing __ 2000 people died on 9/11. now two days in a row, we had terrorists in paris. i do not see any muslims out there protesting what is going on. there are not muslims calling in. we should be standing up for what is right, not what is wrong. there's no reason for someone to kill another human being. bottom line, we need to stick together to stop terrorism. host: the "new york times" looks at the event on the front page of its paper.

next call. caller: yes, sir. i am muslim, and i wanted to point something out. your __ are talking about response __ the first thing that people need to realize is __

in the holocaust, what happened was, palestinians were moved off their own land. the united states did the same thing with the native americans. when you say, how should they respond? they should not. the united states is a modern_day empire. no one wants to recognize that she is over there. the muslims do not have military bases over here. host: thomas from maryland. caller: i think we should crack down on the terrorist organization. anybody who engages in a terrorist act __ penalty should be mandatory death sentence. you have to stop fooling around with them. what they did in france, they will do in the united states.

terrorists should get life in prison. this should be the same for the domestic terrorist. we have these blacks going around saying, let's kill a cop right now. for threatening a police officer, you should get a life sentence. if you kill a police officer, death penalty should be mandatory. we're letting our world, our country, go to pieces with handling these people with kid gloves. let's get tough on them. no more integration into the united states __ we do not know who the good guys are the bad guys are. i'm not saying all muslims are bad, i don't know. we should crack down on these people. they provoke these things with brutal attacks. host: from new york, you are

next. caller: i was steered in another direction with your muslim caller saying the crew of the problem is israel being given land. i do not know what the solution would be when you have that sort of mentality. the jews are actually related to the muslim people. there should be a sense of brotherhood between those two people, obviously there isn't it. host: do you think other issues play into what is going on? caller: i don't know. i know it's terrorism by the muslim extremists __ it's something that we will have to live with. that is a very unfortunate thing.

we have seen some muslims in england denouncing the tax. i think we need to see more of that from the muslim community. we have not seen a lot of it. if it has been going on, it is not thinking the press that it needs. i do not know where the koran tells them that they will get virgins. host: sophia. caller: hi. basically, all i want to comment on was the idea that there is a kinder, better, more humane way of going about things. we need to stand up to terrorism, but also not create situations in which citizens, our own people, people of the

u.k. __ we need to create a situation in which the citizens of our country are not leaving to join isis. i think that speaks volumes to the amount of brainwashing that is going on __ basically anyone who feels wrong by the u. s., or the world, they would use that as motivation to join his terrorist organizations. ultimately, in the best thing that we could've done __ rather than a war in iraq or afghanistan, or pakistan, where there are so many human rights violations __ i think the most we could of done to fight this is to win the hearts of the people __ improve their economy, right to education, healthcare. i feel like that would've been

probably the safer, more humane, better way to do things. host: what makes you think that approach works? caller: i think it works for gandhi. if it can work once, whatever happens once can definitely happened twice. i think it will work because people are not stupid __ not as stupid as you may give them credit for. i know that may sound strange. people are not that stupid to believe that terrible things about the u. s., and that the u. s. are feeding them. our culture is very strong with the __ host: from massachusetts, the republican line. william, go ahead. we will move on to keith. keith is from fargo, north dakota.

we are asking folks how the world should respond to the terrorist attacks. caller: just like that one other person called about __ isis, or whatever is fighting the united states __ host: well, it is primarily in the middle east, but go ahead. caller: the person who said that we should stop giving them attention, maybe they will stop doing it. they need to quit getting all this attention about what they're doing. host: a couple stories when it comes to 2016 politics __ this is from the boston globe.

that's in the "boston globe." if you are a close follower of

this network, you are familiar with these campaign seasons __ the ames straw poll may have ended. that's in the "washington post." the "washington journal" has a story taking a look at possible

additions to the clinton's campaign, should she decide to make her run formal. how should the world respond to the terrorist attacks?

erin is up next. caller: if you disenfranchise a person, you will have no other recourse, other than having some radicals in the group. the black student when they came over here as slaves. anyone who is disenfranchised __ some of the people will try and rebel. george bush tried to do the right thing when he went to iraq, he went about it the wrong way. america should stop supporting dictators that suppress people, and stand up by saying, we will not have any dictators oppress anyone else. we go over there __ are rich people really. i'm a poor person, well,

middle_class, and i do not have interest in going around the world. host: brian, go ahead. caller: good morning. i cannot muster up much feelings towards france right now on the terrorist attack. i tell you why __ back in the 80's, the pan am plane was blown up over scotland, we reached out and france would not let us fight through their airspace, it costs a lot of complications. for that reason, i do not have much sentiment for france and the problem. host: don from indiana.

caller: good morning. looking at these small terrorist attacks, the local ones, the one thing that stands out is __ these are heavily on people that go in and attack innocent disarms people. i think that if the general public what responsibly train themselves and are in themselves, and we start winning these attacks, killing them before they kill us, i think they will have to go a different route. it seems to me that as long as they keep meeting their missions, they'll keep doing it. host: wilma, democrats line.

caller: __ i am very surprised by this man in maryland saying that black people kill cops. it is the white people that kill all the other nationalities, the police. i have a son is in police. i do not know about people killing the police. he hurt my feelings, __ he was from maryland. i would expect someone from the deep south to say that. host: as far as the terrorist attacks, do you have anything to say? caller: i do not believe in terrorist attacks. i had a brother in the military in vietnam for 28 years. i do not believe in terrorist attacks.

host: roger, europe next. caller: i think one of the ways we can resolve this problem is make sure our borders are secured. we should monitor some of these radical muslims in the country. these people who come out of jails, and go to the camps. i've heard of the way that they train these people. they come out of jail with no jobs, no future, they become trained activists. they turned to a place like isis, and they commit their acts. basically, i say it is monitoring these people. monitor them as they come out of jail. monitor the radical muslims. watch the training camps. look at the mosque for any radical activity going on.

stay out of these foreign countries where we do not belong. i think that is __ those are some of the ways that we can react. worry about these country more than the other countries, they are not worried about us. host: the republican line. caller: i think we need for military people who are educated into the government. they had been there. if we get some of these politicians __ those that law degrees and have never been in service __ out, and get military in, they will straighten things out.

host: your thoughts on how the world should respond to the terrorist attacks. this is the "new york times" this morning. in "the hill," the budget

certainty offers a risk to homeland security. capitol hill, house speaker john baynard, had a news conference this week. here's a little bit. [video clip] >> you said that immigration is a parody, but is it a wise time to be putting the homeland security budget at risk? >> i do not believe that the funding of the department is at risk. what is at risk is the rule of law, and the sanctity of

american constitution. the present has taken actions the other scope of his ability. congress cannot just stay here and look the other way. we have to take action, and we will. >> given the attacks yesterday in paris, can you imagine the homeland security budget bbeing afforded a one day after something like that happening? >> the issue is not about funding the department of homeland security. members of congress agreed to fund the department. but we cannot allow the president go around taking unilateral action like he has. host: back to the question. ted is up next. caller: bear with me __ the way the world should react to terrorist attacks is first come together.

my main point is __ why are they doing it? when you go and invade countries, exploit the resources, dominate the people, imprison them, people will lash out. if someone were in the united states, we would not consider ourselves terrorist. we would consider ourselves freedom fighters. that is what they consider themselves. the biggest mistakes of the news makes it kind of islamic terrorist. they do not call list christian terrorists. using the word islamic terrorist, they are lumping the whole world of islam as terrorists. they are individuals. every country has people who do crime. they do not use their religion

as the reason that there could __ committing these crimes. host: craig. caller: the term of islamic terrorists should be changed to the little interpreters of the koran. host: the last call on this topic. here is michael. caller: thank you for taking my call. i firmly disagree with the man from california. he is misinformed. they heavily believe that if you are not muslim, you are an infidel, and you need to die. what america needs to do is reach out with christian love to these people. yes, i did say christian love, i am a republican. we have to go into these no go

zones that they are trying to set up in these three __ free states, like ours. another thing would be to secure our borders. we need to stop being such a big brother to every bite all around the world. host: we will engage in the topic later on in the program. first, we will talk about the economy. new jobs figures coming out yesterday showing a drop in unemployment rate, drop in wages as well. neil irwin of the "new york times" will join us. then, james kitfield will join us to talk about the terrorist

attacks in paris. if you missed it, joe biden spoke about the issue of college. [video clip] >> the stock of students who make up our community colleges is the stocks __ the stock that america is made of. imagine all of you, if you were to go back to school after being out of the classroom for five or 10 years, it is intimidating. it takes real courage and commitment. the plain fact that community colleges are one of the most direct avenue today to the middle class. we need you. we need the colleges, and the stuff of which they are made up. when the president and i were first sworn in in 2009, wwe

stated then that our first goal was to pull america out of the greatest recession since the great depression, and reestablish the footing of the middle class in america. that footing was already being lost before the recession because the middle class is the vehicle that build this great nation __ it has been built on the shoulders of the hard working class people. the fact of the matter is __ i'm very proud of everything we've done __ it has been to get the middle_class and better footing. we had to rebuild the foundation of the economy first __ democrats and republicans, and the american people have agreed to do it. america is going back, and

coming back strong. [applause] i might note __ you no longer here significant business people talking about how the rest of the world, asia, china, how they will outcompete us __ how the european union will eat our lunch. the truth of the matter is __ america's position will play the same role in the 21st century as in the 20th century. there's no reason why this century will not be an american century. host: we want to welcome

backneil irwin. guest: there is growth overall. but one disappointed __ wages have not risen as much as we thought. they dropped in december. even though the job market is getting better, employees are not seeing more money in the pockets, yet. eventually, if we keep being job gains __ eventually they will have to offer higher salaries. we may not be there yet. so far they've been able to fill in jobs with people who were previously unemployed, and pull people back into the labor force. they have not had to hike wages. the question is, when will that change? host: hourly wages fell 5 cents.

the average work week now 34.6 hours. what does that mean? guest: that is a sign that employers are hiring more people. they are stretching out the work week a bit longer, and they have not had to increase wages. they are able to pay basically what they paid before. over the last year, there has been 1.7% earning increases __ that is about inflation. they basically have not given a raise at all. that is a sign that this is an economy that is not in a stage of virtuous cycle. host: what about hours, our people working more hours?

guest: people are working harder to earn a wage. if someone comes to jobs, it counts twice. host: what areas are we seeing as far as better days with jobs? guest: some are old standards. healthcare, for example. retail. tourism and hospitality. one area of improvement that is not as big as those is construction. the housing bust started way before the recession in 2006. construction employment has been one of the last to come back. host: the economy is a topic. neil irwin is our guest.

colin, make your thoughts known on twitter. ultimately, why? why are we seeing changes in the numbers? guest: it is a long time coming. the recession was in 2008 __ seven years ago. recovery began six years ago. we've been waiting for this to settle into more of a robust form of job growth. it finally seems to be getting here. it is a welcome change __ we had 5% growth in the third quarter. finally, in 2014, it seems to be happening. there are number of factors __ the government has slowed down, contracting more. the federal reserve __ aa

lowered interest rates, helping the housing market, helping businesses. there's also in the natural regeneration of the u. s. economy. eventually someone has to buy a house, a car. all of those factors are combined to make a pretty good 2014, and hopefully good 2015. host: by the way, we have aligned for the unemployed, if you want to call in. we always hear about the labor __ unemployment rate, and the labor participation rate. guest: if i'm out looking for a job, i am unemployed. if i say, forget it, i'm going to sit on the couch and watch soap operas. i'm neither unemployed nor employed, i am not in the labor force. the labor force participation

rate is counting what percentage of the population is in the category. they came up a lot during the crisis in the recession. and __ it has not rebounded. if you asked me a couple years ago i would say, if we start seeing sustained job growth, some people who are not in the labor force will come back in. that does not seem to be happening on a mass scale. the question is __ will that change? maybe as wages pick up. host: how many can be tied to government jobs? guest: not a lot. the government has been contracting. now, it is stable. there are some gains in state

and local, but the federal government is not the driver. host: we have a call lined up. this is dave. caller: i think the lack of wages going up is directly tied to the hollowing out of our manufacturing base. in past recoveries, when the manufacturing jobs came back after a session, those jobs were better paying jobs than the service and retail sector jobs. now that those jobs do not exist, folks are stuck in the service sector jobs. they cannot get that next, better paying job, because it does not exist. my concern is that we look at more free trade agreements that will continue to hollow out that sector of our economy. guest: there is something to that.

it is true that some of these big job gains sectors have been retail, hospitality __ those are lower paid jobs than the traditional manufacturing jobs. this is a generalization, there are always exceptions. manufacturing jobs are far less than there were 20 years ago. the question is, what anything change that. technology __ if you go to modern auto plant, e.g. not see many people, you see robots. how much of that would change if you change trade policy, as the colors suggests. or, is this technology. it is an important debate. in order to understand how the economy is changing.

host: of you are on twitter asked us to dig into the numbers looking at regions and race __ asking about black unemployment. it is about 5.3 for adult men. 55% for adult women. white, 4.8%. blacks, 10.4%. asians, 4.2%. latinos, 6.5%. guest: you can look at based on race, gender, age group. use __ you look at education levels. one of the key messages is __ stay in school. higher education is likely to lead to more economic opportunities. when you see that racial

breakdown or age breakdown is residual on what is happening on education side. if you're african_american without a college degree, that is part of what is driving the unemployment levels. host: unemployment by education level __ the cisco in part with the president's announcement on community college? guest: i think it does. in a lot of states, the way for people to get ahead is for them to get advanced training in order to compete in the global economy. for a lot of people that is community college, a two_year program, technical skills. the proposal from the upon administration to make that

more affordable __ is a reflection on this view that if the u. s. will be an outstanding success story, we need to make sure people get the skills they need to be competitive. host: waterloo, wisconsin. caller: good morning. my comment is __ the economy is starting to turn around because of the price of oil going down. people now have more money to spend on things like going to the movies, buying cars. the economy is now __ it is turning things around. no matter how many billions of dollars we threw into the economy, it was very stagnant. now, like where i work, it is hard to find temporary help.

i do not know why people think that dumping all these things and will get things going. the big thing is the price of oil going down. host: before you go, what work you do? caller: printing. guest: it is a good point. the falling price of gasoline is a big factor. it is only starting to percolate through the economy as a whole. prices started their steep drop back in june, july. the acceleration prices going down with later in the year. so far in 2015, prices have come down a lot just this year. it takes time for the price drop in crude oil prices on the markets to translate into cheaper gasoline, cheaper heating for your house. if you are a manufacturer, it will become cheaper for you to

ship your things around, eventually that will be reflected in the price that you charge. it is a real area of progress. it has not stopped yet. not stopped yet. the question is -- how far does it go? if you know in june that oil would be in the $50 a barrel range by december, you could have made a great fortune. the question is -- what do we not know now? will it stay lower, how low can the oil go? i mostly good thing unless you haven't be in the oil-producing industries. there are trade-offs, but for most american consumers, it is good news. host: for those in the oil industry, what does it mean for them? guest: it is tough. if you do a project based on $90 a barrel oil and now we are a $50, you are in a rough spot. a lot of these took on debt, they issued high,h-risk

bonds. forget what has already been built. you will probably not do a new project with a high excitation of oil prices right now. one of the biggest success stories in the u.s. in the last five years has been oil exploration, north dakota, texas, and the question is -- does that change? that is a real risk. if you are trying to bounce the budget and one of these oil-producing states, that is on your mind and is a big, open question for 2015. host: as we see oil prices decline, do we relate that to domestic product, consumer confidence issues, the larger picture of how the u.s. is doing? guest: yes it is a really remark often, it shifted from $105 to $50 a barrel today. it is the fundamentals. the world economy has been soft

europe, but it has been thought for a long time. this country is better but u.s. production is faster than what was expected six months ago, and other countries especially saudi arabia, have decided not to deal with that expansion of u.s. supplies by ratcheting back and pulling back on production the way people expected. oil coming out of saudi arabia russia, the u.s., and everywhere on earth, there is more supply than demand. econ 101 tells you the price drops. host: republican line in pennsylvania for nearly neil irwin. caller: hello c-span, thank you for taking my call. the guests alluded to a lot of people dropping out of the workforce and watching soap operas because they could not find work. i was just wondering how he feels about how illegal immigration has affected them. wouldn't strengthening immigration laws help those people? guest: that is an interesting

question. what is the impact of immigration, especially il legal immigration, on low-wage work? those are the areas where it will have an and cap. -- an impact. agriculture, landscaping janitorial kitchen things like that. the question is -- how many people in the labor force would do one of those jobs? that is kind of an open question. i think the evidence is not as straightforward and clear cut as you might think. the basic idea, the basics seem pretty obvious. you have more illegal immigrants, that is competition for low-wage workers. we are nativeborn, so that is what is keeping them out of jobs. the other from places that have has stricter border enforcement, it is not as clear-cut as you might think. how many of the people who are

sitting at home not even in the labor force would enter if they were more jobs out there, given what some of these jobs are? host: from tennessee, independent line, orlando. hello. caller: hello. what i am tried to say is that when you have three part-time jobs, and you have got 30 hours, you get 90 hours, that should be illegal. you are trying to avoid to pay your fair share of wages and your fair share of benefits. you do not need part-timers. what you are trying to do is get away with not trying to pay your fair share into these people. i believe that they need to look into changing the law, that if you have got three 30-hours, no what you are try to do is get more hours and pay less. guest: employers are not wanting

to take on full-time workers and hire part-time workers so they do not have to pay the benefits. the numbers do not suggest there is a real movement in that trend lately. the ratio of part-time to full-time jobs has an pretty stable the last few years, but it is very frustrating certainly working 90 hours a week as the caller said, that is an insane workload. if you work 90 hours and you are not getting benefits come over time you have to do three jobs to make ends meet, that is a very tough life. it is a shame. as the economy improves and the unemployment rate comes down will workers have enough power to demand something better and say i want to work a 40, 50 hour a week and get paid overtime full benefits, not have to work three different part-time jobs? back in the late 1990's, that is what happened. you had low unemployment and workers have the upper hand full stop what has happened in the last two years of high unemployment is employers have had the upper hand of negotiations, so they have been

able to say -- we will hire you for 40 hours -- 30 hours, if you need to take other jobs, that is your business. if the unemployment rate is low enough, you might see some change in that, but this happens a lot. host: pennsylvania, jacob democrats line. hi. caller: hi. thanks for having me. i wanted to comment earlier on the first caller's comment from california about how the manufacturing industry has really had this holde out. i agree. i think the technology and also the lack of involvement from the government, from the stateside -- because i am from pennsylvania where our infrastructure is not too pretty , and there are not a lot of jobs out there. there are a lot of people being poured into these retail positions and positions that cannot really give back and you cannot really get trained to move on or get schooling.

so we need to see more people getting back in school and sticking with it. as somebody who needs to get back in school themselves, it is hard for stop there financial responsibility involved with it. it is all about the long-term effects. guest: i think there is a lot to that. what you're describing really -- there is a great series in the "washington post" a couple of weeks ago by a guy named jim tankersley and his argument that i tend to agree with is what has happened over the last couple of generations is a lot of pathways into the middle class have been choked off, so what used to be show up at a factory door they train you, you have a good middle-class job, that as long gone. the ways people used to go from poverty or from the working class into a kind of middle-class existence come much harder to make that transition than a couple of generations ago.

there is nothing wrong with working retail, but if you are an hourly employee in retail, it is hard to find a pathway up. you can become a manager, there are ways, but it is a tough situation when you do not have the middle-class opportunity without advance training, without a bunch of fancy degrees as it was 20, 30, 40 years ago. host: don independent line, go ahead. caller: yes i wanted to amplify what has happened in this country. manufacturing used to be 20% of our economy, and it is now 10% and falling, so there is no real competition for labor to support labor prices in the workforce. the other thing that was temporarily propping up our economy while this was going on

while half of our manufacturing moved out of the country, was the homebuilding markets, but that was a fiasco. people were artificially propped up in that area, biting homes that they cannot afford and so forth. of course that whole thing came crashing down, so this economy is not going to pick up until we can bring some manufacturing jobs back in this, to create some competition for labor because -- guest: i think there is something to that. it is absolutely the case that manufacturing jobs in the early generation provided these strong middle class incomes for people without advanced education. construction is another one of those places that do that. there were a bunch of construction jobs in the mid-2000's, and there was a housing bubble that ended. that is an area that might come back some. homebuilding is still relatively low level -- but eventually new families are formed, and they will have to be placed for

places to live, so that is an area that may find improvement ahead. manufacturing -- you have this environment where in addition to globalization and pressures from trade, you also have technological advancement, and more and more of the manufacturing jobs that exist are not what you think of. it is not putting stuff together. it is sitting at the computer and manning the equipment manning the robots, so the manufacturing jobs are different than they were 30, 40 years ago and there are not as many of them because it is higher-level productivity. host: neil irwin, we see plans that the federal reserve plans to hike interest rates maybe even by june. what is the result? guest: we will see. we have had near 0 interest rates since 2008, so for seven years, and a too soon to be signaling that they want to raise interest rates and getting out of their extraordinary intervention to try to pop prop up the economy. will they be able to raise interest rates in june?

if they do, will lessen the economy in a tailspin? is this expansion strong enough that i can handle somewhat higher interest rates without falling back into a slowdown? we hope it is that resilient and that strong. the other question is -- is the time really right? if people think they will raise interest rates in june, should that be december, should that be 2016, should that be something that is upwards and not just muddling along? those are decisions that janet yellen in her collies will have to make in the coming months. host: a one-two punch possibly harming what is going on as far as the economy is concerned? guest: you are buying a $5 billion a month -- you are buying $85 billion a month. that really ended in october. they have not been buying bonds since october.

so far the economy seems to be doing just fine, so so far we seem to be able to weather not having the fed a new markets propping things up for the last few months. the question is -- how will we do with higher interest rates? a lot of people, banks companies, corporations, have been used to a 0 interest rate for so long. how does the world look when it is at 1%? we will see. host: a couple of days ago you wrote about the strength of the dollar. why should people be concerned that the dollar is stronger these days? guest: the imported goods are cheaper, one of the reasons why oil is cheaper, if you think what a trip to france or new mexico or wherever you want to go, you are better off. anything you buy that is important, there is less price pressure. the downside is exporting. if you are a u.s. company trying to compete with japanese companies, essential your costs are higher. that is essentially making you less competitive compared to

your international competitors. that is tough. how much will that impact be? i have talked to manufacturing groups and travel and tourism industry groups, and they feel like because the shift is happening because the u.s. economy is looking stronger than europe or japan, it is ok. they would rather have their companies, their members have domestic demand, so the u.s. economy is getting better, there is more demand semantically even if there is less competition. globally host: we have a line for those of you who are unemployed to give your thoughts about the economy and how you see it. (202) 748-8003. that is where we find david frederick, maryland. caller: i am unemployed right now. first of all, if you are unemployed or underemployed do not give up. i wish you the best of luck. i have a great support base, my

wife and family, i was able to get my cpa license recently, and i'm looking forward to a much better year because of that. also the very last thing -- i am a product of the minimum wage. i was able to put myself through college with minimum wage jobs and if your goal is to be financial stable, it is possible, so good luck everybody. guest: i think what we will see more and more -- the unemployment rate comes down as employers keep adding 300,000 jobs a month. i think we will hear more stories like that, people who have been in a rough spots unemployed, underemployed, they wanted more hours -- they wanted a full-time job instead of three part-time jobs i think we will see more opportunities like that as the job market gets tighter and employers have to offer better pay, better conditions. the question is -- how quickly and how much will that translate

into improved opportunities for people>? again, it has been a longtime coming. this recession technically ended 2009 and people i talked to certainly did not feel like it for the last five or six years, but we finally seem to be turning a corner. host: republican line, you are next. caller: good morning. i would like to comment on the oil prices going down. i work in the oil industry, and we have had a lot of unemployment because everybody is ramped up for the high oil prices, and now we have got people laying off, and it is really starting to hurt, like in kansas because it is either oil or farming or cattle. i know we have had a lot of people getting laid off with the oil prices going down. that is all i have got. guest: yeah, i think we will hear more and more stories like that. again, the oil price drops

started in july, but it accelerated at the end of the are come october, november, december, and so far in january. in terms of reduced oil asked for exploration, you will hear more from that. the strongest economies have been from taxes up to the dakotas. $40, $50 barrel of oil versus $100 barrel of oil, i think we will keep hearing that. host: greg in washington, go ahead, you are on. caller: i just wanted to say i am on a plate right now. i used to work -- i am unemployed right now. i used to work at kfc in the gravy boat. [laughs] host: leesburg, alabama democrat line, go ahead. caller: hi. happy new year. i am here. host: go ahead, you are on.

caller: happy new year to you all. i have a question about the average wage being $7.25. if you have three guys making $10 an hour and one guy making $100 an hour, you have an average $25 an hour wage, but that is not show what is going on, so can you tell me what the mean wage is? guest: the median would be the in between we do know for overall household incomes, the median income is about, i think it is $49,000 in 2013, which i cannot off the top my head workout to what that is per hour, but that is the median houseghohold income. >>caller: that would be like, what, $12 an hour? guest: you might have two people earning, one full-time, one part-time, so it is a little murky to figure out what that works to per hour.

these averages do math a lot of variation, and we are not seeing the kind of expansion in wages that the middle and low and that we have seen in the last stages of the high and. one of the reasons, especially until recently people felt really bad about the economy even as people go on tv and wear suits and say oh, the economy is recovering, every thing is great, the stock market is booming -- that is why there has been a lot of economic discontent over the last 5, 6 years, even the we happen heading to a recovery. host: new york is where john lives, independent line, go ahead. caller: how important do you think the job participation rate statistic is? as it relates to unemployment. give us some definition to the job participation rate. guest: sure. it is very important. what we have seen over the last five years, seven years is that a sharp drop in a couple of numbers back after this.

the employment to population ratio. take the whole population and ask what percentage of people have a job. that fell sharply during the recession in the aftermath and has been roughly stable since then. it has come up a little bit. a related number is the labor participation rate for step how many either have a job or don't have a job but are looking for a job? that number has not really rebounded the way a lot of us i think hoped it would as the economy has gotten better. in fact, it dropped some. that is one of the big questions for the future of the economy. how many of the people who have left the labor force over the last 6, 7 years, how many are retired are not planning to ever get back in the labor force in the labor force and a matter what, and how many are actually on the fence? maybe if wages rose a little bit, if they had better training opportunities, how many of those people would come back into the workforce and become parts of the american economy?

we don't really know the answer for sure. baby boomers are retiring, there are plenty of people who are maybe not of traditional retirement age but they are in their 50's, they got laid off a few years ago, and they do not feel like getting new skills and entering the labor force against. we have been doing a series at the "new york times" on a non-workers and trying to understand who be suitable are and what their psychology is and a lot of this is this. people who had a good job, they do not anymore, and rather take some job at walmart paying a few dollars on hour, they would rather live off of relatives or savings, whatever it might be, rather than reenter the labor force. we do not really know for sure how many of those people will enter the labor force again. stuff that is a big question in the economy for sure. host: that series -- is it out? guest: it is. host: what is the most interesting thing you learn from it? guest: one of the key things

that is surprising is how much the people not working a really trying to wrestle with their own identity. this is deeper than an economic problem. when you had a good job and get unemployed and lose your job, it affects every facet of your life. it is not just oh jobs are coming back again, so i will apply -- it is the rhythms of being in the workforce, waking up every morning, putting on your work clothes and going to a job. once people get out of that return, it is hard to get back in. that is what is going on with the labor force. guest: numbers for november also going up when it comes to wages 350 1000 from 321,000, because it was that time of year, how many of this job growth are we seeing for seasonal jobs, hiring for christmas and the holidays? guest: the labor department tries to adjust for seasonal variations, otherwise, every december would look like a boom

and every january and february would look like a recession. they try to adjust for seasonal things that happen. that is imperfect, if it is a late thanksgiving or early -- it shifts these things. this seems to be real. it looks like a pretty good holiday season for retailers. it looks like job expansion is pretty fairly broad-based. we will see how this evolves in 2015, whether iti is sustained, but it looks like it is real not an aberration. host: mary. caller: hi, how are you doing? good to talk to you. host: go ahead. caller: yes. my concern is -- i'm glad that the economy is getting better, and i am glad that in general the public is starting to feel better about the economy itself. i want to give full credit to the president and the democrats. give no credit to the republicans. i think if they had done more to

participate in exercises to improve the economy, to improve job growth, we would be much farther along than we are now. the idea that they would actually try to take credit for this growth in the economy when the president has been up there by himself working hard to do this -- i cannot imagine that they don't expect us to laugh about that. great job to the president great job to the democrats, and i know we will have good news all the way. i give no credit to the republicans. guest: a really interesting phenomenon just the last few weeks, you know, republicans have generally gone from saying the economy is terrible and the obama economy as a disaster to saying that things are improving finally because they were elected. kind of a do not pass go thing went from a two b quickly. it is important to because it's about trying to assign credit or blame for the economy to the president.

the idea that the expansion that we have had in the last couple of years is solely result of obama's policies probably overstates the role any president has uin controlling the economy. any federal reserve can be more effective in shaping the economy. in a lot of ways, no matter what you are doing as president, you do not have that granular control over -- are we going to have a good quarter or backorder? all we can do is do things for the long run. framing and economic reports related:, i get that impulse but it is not always giving you the right answer as far as what is shaping, white people have a job or not. host: senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said after so many years on sluggish growth, we finally see from economic data, yes, the uptick seems to -- guest: yeah, it is an

interesting argument. the idea that some psychological shift happened where businesses started expanding because republicans won the senate back in november, look, if you want to make political spin, that is an argument, and it is plausible. i do not know that there is a ton of evidence for it. an expansion has been pending for a long time very gradually. it is not like we saw sudden spurts in the job numbers over the summer or in november. this is something that has been getting gradually better for four years or five years. part of this is politicians want to take credit themselves when things look good. american businesses, american workers, these are people that have been trying to recover from this recession for a long time. they are finally making progress. the idea that washington is the reason is a bit of narcissism on the part of washington. host: next call from texas. caller: how are you doing guys?

i know you live on the east coast. i live here in texas. i know firsthand what you are staying as far as the illegal alien population taking dishwashing, formwork and suffolk that it is correct, but you are missing the other bigger point. i terrifically -- i directly lost a job in framing because they hired an illegal under the table at $7.50. i was making $12.50 an hour. all over here you see illegals doing roofing, framing, plumbing electrical, hvac. they are not just taking the menial jobs that we americans will not work. they are taking the jobs that we will work also. can you kind of touch on that a little bit and tell me what you think about that? guest: that is interesting. look i do not know the numbers on construction. it is possible and worth looking into, so a very fascinating story. host: next call from columbus

georgia, go ahead. caller: good morning. i have been listening to your conversation this morning, and it is very interesting. my comment is about the military downsizing and the effect that it is having on us, that we are losing jobs, too. after 14 years of active duty, suddenly you get the notice that because of the field that you are in, it is oversized, and they need to downsize that field, and after 14 years of serving on active duty, the rug is suddenly pulled out from under you. in the case of being an officer, you do get a severance pay, but a severance pay will only last you may be 11 months of the salary that you were earning and you are trained and skilled, but there is no place in the economy for those active duty persons being forced out of the military because of downsizing or for those who make the choice to get out. that has nothing to do with illegal immigrants or anything like that. i can appreciate the fact that

we are being told that the economy is on the uptick, but if the economy is on the uptick on the one hand, and then we are taking jobs from people, even active-duty military, on the other hand, and we cannot find a job where we can make the lateral transition to where we can continue to live at the standard that we were living on our active-duty pay -- because after you have served 14 years and you have made the rank of major, it is kind of hard to get out of in the economy right now i make a lateral move making the same salary so you can continue to live at least where you are. host: caller thank you. guest: this is the flip side of exiting the wars in afghanistan and iraq and whining those down. we do not have as many people deployed overseas, we do not use a large military. how that works out in the aggregate i do not know. one of the challenges is making sure that the people leaving and military have opportunities. a stronger economy helps. lower on implement rate in more

jobs in general helps. a lot of organizations make people -- make sure that people can apply those skills they learned in the military and the private sector and find jobs, but it is a challenge for stop there's no question that there are more and more people leaving the military and find jobs out there in the country. it is finding the right mix of skills and the right roles to find those skills is a major challenge, no question. host: one last call, robert gainesville, georgia. democrats line. caller: hi. thanks so much. i am in higher ed, and i observed from your guests be sent an argument i see even in "the chronicle" and even from the government. it goes three steps. one is get more education. step 2 -- statistics show you make more money. number three, that makes our country more competitive internationally. not so sure it is a slamdunk because there are different skills in trying to attract

foreign employers or any employers like that matchup. i will take my answer off the air. thanks so much. guest: this is a really interesting question. making sure that it is not just people getting more education but they are getting the right education, the kind of jobs that will exist in the 21st century. the four-year college and graduate school environment but also through community college and technical school level making sure -- in fact community colleges have a pretty good track record, making sure they are only offering the kind of courses, pathways that do have a job at the end of it. four-year colleges are frankly not as good at that. that is one of the advantages of a more general education is in theory you are qualified for more things but you might be qualified for nothing at the same time. trying to make sure that this education system that we have that we are trying to route more

people into is actually leading into a job at the other end -- that is one of the great challenges of education across the country. having better linkages between employers and colleges and universities i think is part of making sure that colleges and universities understand what modern employers want and a can produce students who have those skills. host: our guest and neil irwin of the "new york times" writes about the economy and related issues for the publication. things for your time. coming up, we will talk with the terror attacks in france will stop our guest is james kitfield from the "national journal." 60 play day die from our whole poisoning. we will talk to one of the people who study that -- 60 people a day die from alcohol poisoning for stop we will talk to one of the people who study to that report. and then lobbying, professor james thurber of american university spoke about past lobbying reform efforts, and here is some of that discussion. >> there were intended and unintended impacts of these lobbying and ethics reforms.

one was de-registration or it certainly did not encourage people to register. by the way, there is no rule of a revolving door into the congress, and as a staff member, gary andrews who used to speak here regularly, is a staff director of the energy and commerce committee. he used to work for detco and handle energy and environmental issues within the jurisdiction of that committee. gary is a great guy, but i am just saying that there is no restrictions on that as there is in the executive branch. they made a determination that that is all right. transparency -- i think if you had to look at there is less transparency rather than more transparency because there is an incentive for people not to register, and i think the

transparency is absolutely necessary, and just democracy in order to figure of who is doing what's, makes determination about whether it is right or not, and fourthly, when i served before the senate, i lead with those two points. transference the end enforcement -- transparency and enforcement. we could have gone back to the lda. it had no enforcement. in my opinion they are not enforcing it adequately right now. there have been a few minor prosecutions, but when people -- one way to get people to change their behaviors to figure out well, geez, this guy, this man or women seems to be at the table talking about this law all the time, but he is not registered. no one reports it, no one enforces it, the gao decides does not look at people who are actually lobbying that are not registered, they are looking at people who are registered and lobbying and whether they are

breaking the law or not. >> "washington journal" continues. host: our guest now james kitfield of the "national journal." discussing what we've seen in france over the last few days. we got the world reaction. what do you cs far as reactions are concerned? where do we go from here? guest: that is an interesting question. there are all of these right-wing parties anti-immigrant parties in europe. that is part of the great recession, the great financial crisis. when things are bad, there is always, french groups that right -- fringe groups that rise up and say the problem is immigration. that is one shoe i am looking for to drop. does this really empower them? hopefully not. ever since the syrian civil war started, intelligence people are telling me is this foreign fighter flow.

the al qaeda affiliate in syria which is the nusra front, many of those are europeans, they can travel freely in the west. more than 1000 from france. that has been a serious concern ever since the civil war has started. now that it has spread, they are gathering more and more foreign fighters. at will be the focus. france is having a big how well conference coming up in a few days where i think attorney general eric holder will be there and from all over the west, there will be representatives try to figure out -- do we have a handle on who these people are who are traveling to these war zones picking up with islamic extremists and then returning, and how do we keep track of them? that i think will be the number one focus because these brothers come as we have seen, were part of that network. one had troubles -- one had traveled to yemen. that is one of the most worrisome al qaeda transfers.

they have launch three attacks against the homeland, including christmas day, bombing aboard an airliner that luckily failed. the bombs in printer c cartridges that has failed. that was an war all allottees -- that was anwar's franchise. the other brothers try to go to iraq for we were there and fight against us. they were part of this jihad networks, global network that exists and once again, even a handful of people can cause harm to us. host: is part of this intelligence u.s. new about the travel, the french know about the travel, yet here we are. guest: the thing about the numbers -- we talk about 18,000 foreign fighters, people on our watch lists the 600,000+ -- you

can only watch so many full stop it. these guys, i'm sure they had in mind under some sort of surveillance, but you cannot afford to keep eyes on 18,000 people, all right? no one has the kind of resources to do that see you have to constantly prioritize, and you will be wrong sometimes. we saw where the fort hood shooter had been talking to awlaki, and he explained that away because he was a psychology, but he was radicalized that way, and he killed double-digit soldiers at fort hood. one of the tsarnaev brothers from the boston massacre had traveled back to chechnya, and the russians had said he might be a problem. we checked it out, could not see that he was about to be radicalized.

when you do besides try to observe them is very little. we live in free societies, and until somebody does something wrong, it is difficult to take them off the battlefield, if you will. you will be wrong sometimes. i will make a really bold prediction -- we have nothing he last of this. we have seen a lot of it recently, and we are going to do see more. host: the nature of the way it is done has changed since 2001. guest: is guys are constantly adapting. one of the problems is they are trained in weapons, they are trained in explosives, they're trained in tactics they look at what we do, they meet up with people who are very seasons, ed who lead these groups who are very smart, determined people. when they come back, they are capable, unfortunately, much more capable than somebody who just radicalize off of the internet and of a lone wolf attack. we have always look at these guys who travel to the training

camps or travel to the war zones because they pick up skills, just like our own soldiers when they go to combat and become very capable because they are experienced, they are seasoned. the people from these combat zones are seasoned unfortunately. host: we heard that the group a aqap may have taken credit, have you heard that, and do you think that is the case? guest: mr. morel, former number two a dcaa said they have never taken credit for something they did not have a hand in, and i took him at his word on that. when they say they are going to do something, they usually try to do it, so i would not be the least bit surprised. he came back and they did show some capabilities, you know. where did they get these weapons? where do they get the ammo ves

ts? they had an rpg, which can take out an armored vehicle. i would not be surprised if that is the case. host: -- al qaeda and similar cases. what does that suggest to you? guest: we have entered a new phase here. for a while, al qaeda core was not that kind. that was the core that ran from was chased out of afghanistan into the tribal areas afghanistan where we decimated with drone strikes. however, the syrian war has given an absolute resurgence to al qaeda-like groups. isis, the islamic state is a direct evolution from al qaeda in our. the al-nusra front also. these guys flock like moths to a flame to conflict zones, and they get stronger.

it is why they start conflicts. it is why they flourish there. it is just the perfect environment for them. lightly governed places where they can set up training grounds. the threat from islamic extremism i think is its highest now since before 9/11. there was a time where i think we had al qaeda on its heels. you don't hear a lot from al qaeda core from pakistan but some others have picked up the flag and had become in some ways more powerful than al qaeda was before 9/11. host: our guest is james kitfield at the "national journal." you worked for the center of the study of the presidency. guest: it is a think tank that tries to reach across the aisle, to find common ground on problems that are across america, that we think there are bipartisan solutions to. in this town, sometimes it is hard to find those bipartisan

solutions. host: the first call for you is ken from boca raton, florida. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i would like to ask mr. kit field, i am troubled that we have really incentivize the -- world. as chris for hitchens -- as christopher hitchens once said "no one has the right to not be offended." the other day, i heard that the head of has below was being trampled -- the head of has below was being championed because he came up with a statement that is the negative impact of islam, but the reality is some years ago he suggested that all the juice should come to israel so he could kill them all, and he was seeking to kill

ju's through the world, nevermind just israel. my concern here is a man during the cuban mitchell crisis, i am old enough to remember it, the heavy attack on the -- any attack on the united states or on its allies from cuba would require a full retaliatory attack on the soviet union. why can't we suggest to these paymasters like iran, people who -- or the guy who is also made excuses for this just recently, i think yesterday, as a matter of fact, that any further paymasters, any further, you know funding of these terrorist groups would require a retaliatory attack -- host: caller, thanks. guest: we tried that after 9/11.

if you remember president george w. bush said anyone, this is an act of war, we are starting a global war on terrorism. anyone who shelters or to a terrorist will be on our radar. and for a while, some of the state sponsors of terrorism although al qaeda is not state-sponsored, neither is isis. there are no states to claim them. they are -- he is correct that iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism and the number one state-sponsored terrorist is hezbollah. if that meant going to war first going to war in afghanistan, then going to war in iraq, and we quickly got bogged down. we reserve the right to attack anyone who would strike us committee terrorist group, and anyone who supports them, so that is not off the table, but i would suggest it is a pretty hard rucksack to carry for a long time. multiple people in multiple states support terrorism.

again, it is a primary problem -- it is not state-funded terrorism, the sunni groups like al qaeda, no state will claim them, but they flock to weekly governed states, places like yemen where there is very weak government control, like somalia, they go to places where the government cannot get a handle on them, and then they expand their ideology, so eventually they will look through their neighborhood and cause trouble, and al qaeda has a very -- way of striking out the regions. it would be nice if we could just use a deterrent tight philosophy, which he was describing, where you say any strike against us, if we have a nuclear return to its other nuclear states, what we found as

it does not work so well in the counterterrorism pipe unfortunately. i wish it did. host: mike, tennessee republican line. you are on with james kitfield. caller: i do not support terrorism in any way, but i want to bring about point, that the white house press secretary who made that comment and got kicked out of the white house his interview with "playboy," he said juice are in control of the white house the media, wall street, federal reserve. my point is, if you ask any muslim, and they believe in this, and it is actually true. the departments in the white house, the secretary department, department of defense, homeland security, the majority of them are jews. my point is, why has the 1% of the race of the world taken so much control of everything in the world? guest: it is just not true.

there is a jewish lobby in this country that is very powerful and very powerful in this town and they are happy to boast about their power, their influence. because there are a lot of jewish americans that care about israel, and that is american policy full stop israel is a very close ally that we feel very strongly about. presidents from both sides of the party, democrats and republicans, have both adopted that. i can tell you jewish people do not control the defense department, do not control the white house, do not controlle the governmen -- and do not control the government. it is not true. host: independent line, norbert you are next. caller: ok, happy new year, and i hope this is the year that america will wake up. what i would like to say is the

problem with people going out of these countries, especially our country, to join a foreign power and fight in a foreign land -- when i was 15 years old, i started flying. this was in 1945. at that time, i could go to canada upon my graduation from high school and go to their flight school. they would put me in their royal canadian air force flight school. that is what i was going to do. well about the time i graduated from high school, the law either was changed or came out or i became aware of, i am not sure which of those, that if you join a foreign power's military, you lose your american citizenship. so i decided well, i will get a

couple years of college and go fly for one of our organizations, which i did. i am a former marine corps pilot. host: caller, what would you like us to address? guest:caller: i would like to know what is going on with the law if anybody from the united states goes over there and fight for any reason other than in our military, why aren't they losing their american citizenship and not allowed back in the country? guest: it is a good question. i believe that france or other european countries had contemplated doing that, where you withdraw your citizenship. i do not think we have done that, but it is a felony to go overseas -- if you are a supporter of a terrorist, a very serious felony, and if we can find evidence that these that have participated, supported terrorism, worked with these groups, we can put them in jail, but we have to have that evidence. as i said, these people travel

to typically turkey, they disappear from our radar and show up sometime later. we think they have been in turkey, and they have gone over to the border in syria, we do not know who they have hoped up with in some cases. in some cases week due and we have pursued prosecutions. the problem is that a lot of these guys fall into a dark hole where they travel to a nato ally like turkey, and then they disappear off the radar and we do not know exactly what they have done, who they have been in contact with. that is where i think a lot of focus will be now in terms of increasing our surveillance capabilities, to have a more robust picture of what these guys do when they cross over the border into syria. host: i want to come back, it seems like in boston and what we saw in france, that they know how to master the long game so to speak, waiting maybe even years before the attacks are planned. guest: right. they learn tradecraft from these terrorist groups. they are very clever. they have had a lifetime to go

to school on us, just like we have had a lot of time to go to school on them. go back, be quiet, blend back in , and in live to strike another day, but don't in any way all attention to yourself. that is a threat we face, but again, if we have evidence that you have gone over there and allied yourself with terrorists, then you can easily find your seven jail for quite a long time. host: the "wall street journal" on this issue -- the west will have to consider greater interventions host: monitoring of muslim groups looks more upobtuse. what do you think of those assessments? guest: certainly i do agree that we need to have more focus on this problem, who they consort

with, etc. whether or not i think that means we have to send in surveillance of religious places in this country, where there is no evidence of a radical preacher, which new york did, i think is questionable. there is religious freedom in our country, it is enshrined in our constitution. it is very different if you get winded -- and believe me we know how to get windows -- of a radical preacher who is causing for jihad, calling for murder attacks, that is against the law, and that certainly is probable cause to then survey a mosque if there is a radical imam. but certainly we need evidence that something is amiss at a place of worship before you do blanket -- because i think a lot of americans would have a hard time with that kind of coverage was to -- the ku klux klan had a

christian backing for its heinous ideology. does that mean that we should then survey every church in this country? you can see how it could get out of control. yes, we do need a better idea of who these people are, where they go, who they consort with, and if there is evidence that someone has taken over a place of worship and turned it into a place that is calling for violence, then yes, i think that is probable cause to survey it. host: jacksonville, florida janice. go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span, and thank you so much. you are a gift. the comment i want to make is a quote from eleanor roosevelt after fdr died. she gave not so much a blessing, but she let president truman know that she understood why he had to drop the bomb on hiroshima. her quote was "now we will have to learn to live in friendship with every race, creed color

or do away with civilization." isn't there a lot of wisdom in that? and the press -- i am southern, i am from the south. we are not flawless. we are not without our errors, but the press almost overnight taught us and the rest of the country you will not use that "n" word. there was zero tolerance for using the "n" word. i am an english major, i believe in freedom of the press, but they taught that we will find you, we will come up to you whoever you are and show if you have use that "n" word. they do not tolerated. they helped us have a zero-tolerance to that. guest: i am not exactly sure what point she was drawing from that.

i think -- the press has been attacked in this recent attack. the press -- it was a magazine that they went and slaughtered 12 cartoonists at. it started a debate. should you be able to have these cartoons because they infuriate these people or they offend people of the islamic faith? we are having a useful debate about what role the press plays in this. it is a complex endeavor. i fall into the group that says just because the press can print a cartoon that offends someone does not necessarily mean you should. there was a muslim policemen who was executed who died defending the right of that magazine to be able to defend his religion, so that to me is the essence of democracy. we, as the earlier listener said quoted chris for hitchens no one has the right to not be offended in a democracy, and that is true. having said that, i come down to the fact that just because we can offend someone does not mean we should.

i recall that there was a southern preacher who was going to burn the koran and in this country, you can burn the american flag, you can burn the koran, you can burn the bible. it is under our freedom of expression. it is not mean you should. the government reached out and said if you do this, americans will die overseas. he did not do it. there was with them in that exchange. just because you can do some thing to offend the something you should. i do not think there is any doubt that if all of the world press comes down and look at these heinous act of these people and have condemned them to one voice, and i think that has been helpful. just like with the "n" word, came down and condemned and ashamed with one voice. we do stand for our ideology which is democracy and freedom of expression. host: dean from kentucky, you are on with james kitfield of "national journal." hi. caller: thanks for taking my

call this morning. i listened to this stuff every day. we talk about extreme radicals in islam. we have got to understand something in this country. the object of islam is to dominate the world, and a are going to do this through terraced acts -- this through terrorist acts. these soldiers, which is exactly what these extremists are are being heralded by the mainstream muslim population. they do not condemn them. they actually celebrate them. get our eyes opened by what is happening. we are going to be taken over by a bunch of idiots who worship a moon god named allah. we need to get back and worship the true god jesus christ, the savior of this world otherwise we are going under. guest: that plays right into the narrative of the terrorists. i think it is absolutely wrong.

islam is not about taking over the world. for centuries, many centuri es, more than a million muslims, there was no problem. there was a small, radical group of fundamentalist radicals who are trying to hijack a proud religion, and they are violent murderers and need to be addressed. he is absolutely wrong -- there have been huge amounts of muslim leaders who have come out and condemned what it happened in paris. we need to see more of that, quite honestly. islam has some issues to confront, separation of church and state, something the christian religion went through some centuries back. it was a very difficult thing. host: the president of egypt also spoke out on this as well. guest: yeah. i just reject the idea that there is some sort of war of religion. i know for a fact that plays directly into the narrative of of what osama bin laden and his

followers would love to do, they would love to see this war against religion, that plays right into their hands and if you want to drive the billion muslims in this world who are peaceful and have a proud tradition, drive them into the hands of the extremists, adopt an ideology like that, that this is a war against religion. it is not. it is a war against a small group of fanatics who are murderers and will have to be stopped by force because that is the only thing they understand. host: robert wright at the u.s. ip talking about unfavorable views of muslims come at the top with italy, and then jot down to the united kingdom by 26%, the unfavorable view of muslims and their country. 26% of those in france expressing that kind of you. -- kind of view. how does that play into the way that extremists develop?

guest: one of the problems is they have these large muslim populations, and they have not really assimilated very well. if you go into paris and you go out into the suburban belt, is really these muslim ghettos if you going to paris, and the suburban belt, their muslim ghettos. there is no way for them to climb up the ladder as a society. they had disaffected __ especially the first generation of immigrants __ like these brothers. they do not feel french because of their background, and how they are treated in some cases. they're looking for an identity. unfortunately, propaganda from these terrorist groups are very powerful. we face it to a certain degree, by think we are a better country as far as our immigrant

background assimilating. i do not see that as a big problem in our country __ obviously, we do need to keep an eye on it. you do not have a big population in our country with a grievance because they feel like they are being discriminated against. quite frankly, france, united kingdome, germany, they all have this problem. host: ronnie from wisconsin. caller: yes. talking about going forward after this french incident __ one thing i would like to see is the muslim religions en masse stand up against this kind of terrorism. i would also considered temporarily closing our borders to immigration at this point in time. not forever.

for short period of time __ get our ducks in a row. guest: i do not think the answer for us is to close our borders. i guess she is talking about islamic immigrants? again, talking applied th they __ ideology __ they would love to see separate states for muslims. democratic states for muslims have existed for decades. again, we are focusing on religion. it is one small splinter group. turkey __ and nato ally __ overwhelmingly muslim.

it is not the religion. it is not a religious war. it is about a group of fanatics who are trying to hijack a religion __ just like the kkk tried to hijack the christian religion. we have to focus on the real enemy, and not fall into their narratives. their narrative will lead to endless conflict. we need to separate who the enemy is, and focus on them. it is not the religion. host: what is the best approach? guest: when you see conflict zones __ you have to know that that conflict will preach terrorism. it has happened every time. we saw in the balkans, afghanistan, chechnya, iraq, somalia.

we have to take these conflict zones very seriously, and work to try to end these conflicts. host: so the approach withisis, training nationals there? guest: right. give them the capability to expel these groups themselves, so we do not have to do it. quite honestly, there may be a handful westerners, but the people they overwhelmingly to our other muslims. you have to empower governments were willing to work with you. when they do take territory __ that is the challenge __ when isis decides it will take territory in syria and iraq, we will be in conflict with that. no it, understand it,

understand what their ideology is. when you see they become to power, you will be in a fight with them. host: moving forward, how do you factor in the u. s. pulling out of afghanistan? guest: i think there was a mistake in pulling out too soon from iraq. i do not know how you can argue differently it was unfortunate because i think in 2011, the iraqi forces were on their way to govern their own country. what we learned was our influence went well beyond the military stuff. when we were around, we're a lot of the connected tissue between the factions. now, we're back in iraq, and i think we need to finish the job, make sure that iraqi

security forces can govern their space. we are doing that by necessity. understand that the syrian civil war is an open wound in the fight that we are talking about. as long as it is raging, you will see groups like isis __ they are an inevitable symptom of that __ know that you will have to deal with that symptom. the underlying problem is the syrian civil war. we need to work with the national community to find some sort of solution to that. as long it is raging, these groups will flourish. host: tony from ellen. caller: good morning. i do not believe anything you are saying. let me tell you something __ slavery was the biggest terrorism ever. ever. it seems like people of color

are either terrorists, hhave ebola, or are illegal immigrants. that one caller was right __ i love the country of israel __ but it has a corrupt government. so do we. host: what you __ do you say to that? guest: i am in agreement to what you say about slavery, we're still saying that. it was an awful mark on her history. we have done a lot of work over the years tried to make amends for that. host: marshall from florida. caller: i was born in hiroshima. my father came there __ my family lived off_base with the japanese people.

they were amazed by how friendly the people were, aand how they accommodated our customs. my point is __ there really is not such a thing as the bad people. there are only bad ideas. these ideas need to be eliminated through understanding and compassion. whether it is the islamic people, or jewish people, or christian people. when christians were burning other christians, when jewish kill other jewish, when islamic's kill other islamic's __ aall those religions are out of touch with what they should be. guest: here here. he makes a good point. i have traveled throughout the world. i would second his opinion that they're bad __ there are not

bad people, there are bad governments. go today to north korea, people are held in the gulag style government that is as bad as we have ever seen. you cross over in south korea, and you see an industrious, friendly democracy. it is not the people, people are the same people __ it is the government. host: from gordon, georgia. caller: hey. i wanted to make a comment about the terrorist attacks in

france. to put things in perspective, the muslim world on television, in one day did the killing of innocent people. in the country, and you see a lot of american interaction with corrupt governments. when you put it in perspective, they feel that their religion and their way of life is under threat, with the continuations in violence on the television everything all day. in america, when they broadcast news, it is violence. it leads the story of the day.

if you do this every day in their world __ they see violence and is in children dying every day __ they would automatically assume that their way of life is under attack. guest: especially the middle east __ which is overwhelmingly islamic __ we've a lot are to chronic societies __ there is not a free press. they love to show violence associated with the iraq war, the united states conducting military operations that led to death that muslims. they have matured. they are now looking at what isis is doing, and finding that very powerful, and broadcasting that.

it is a mixed bag as far as what it's people see in the middle east. there's still a lot of state control of the media. there is still a fair amount of government control of what people are allowed to see. governments have agendas. if it is a friendly government of the united states, maybe won't see anything. if it is iran, you will see a lot of anti_u. s. propaganda. even in the free press, violence will be the story. we saw this in paris __ it is inevitable that something like that will gather a lot of attention. host: in germany france, and great britain __ the question for european leaders is whether they can move the co_op and diffuse nationalist passions. guest: i am friends with that

author. he is absolutely right. to some degree, it may work in their favor. i think the way he is saying is that mainstream parties have to address the about concerns. if you're going to have an immigration policy that except a lot of islamic immigrants in places like algeria, north africa, the middle east __ you need to have a policy that allows you to simulate those people. mainstream parties have to stand up. there is also responsibly from the muslim people in these countries to work to assimilate themselves, and not have these schedules where they keep to themselves, and ignore the rest of society. there is responsibly on both sides. to just ignore it as a problem

feeds into these far right __ they used to be friends groups __ and last elections in france, i am told, they got like 25%. that is scary. the mainstream political process has to address some of these concerns. it is a problem. host: when describing the present of france __ he has been called a weak leader. guest: he has had his problems, a lot of them are economic. he certainly has not been weak in terms of assisting us in dealing with problems caused by some of these terrorist. if you remember, france deployed troops to molly when it looked like the algerian al

qaeda was going to take over that country. the french have worked with us against isis. their warships are flying along ours. they have shown themselves to be our close ally when it comes to the terrorist groups. his weakness has more to do with the economy. i think you will see in this conference coming up, there is a huge amount of support around the world for him right now. every democracy should feel akin to france right now __ it is our lead. host: from washington, this is bill. caller: good morning. we should get honest about this thing in the middle east. we go over there and set this place on fire, we put our dictator in iran.

bush senior put a base in their holy man. we go over there and invade afghanistan iraq and kill a lot of people __ bbecause we wanted oil. we need to get honest. who is to be blamed here? if it were up to me, i would put bush and clinton on trial in the hague for war crimes. guest: the middle east is a huge interest to us going back decades. it has the bread basket for energy for the world. it was a democratic president in dakar say that we would not let any outside country

dominated the middle east because it would threaten our oil supply. it has led us to some uncomfortable alliances with autocratic monarchies, or dictatorships. that is all true. i would point out __ afghanistan has no oil. the reason that we invaded afghanistan was because they allowed al qaeda to operate out of their territory. by any understanding of the right to protect, the right to defend under international law, think that afghanistan was justified. are we __ do we have some flaws for allies in the middle east __ i would say, yeah that is true. host: from florida, bonnie, you are next. caller: thank you very much for this conversation. i think it is important.

something i want to say while this is unfolding __ i have gone through the whole emotional gambit of what is happened. i do not think anyone should die for upholding their views, or freedom of press. however, just because you can, doesn't mean you should? it is like __ tthe way people are learning to talk today __ i guess it is apparent what i'm saying __ what your kids may do a home, you do not want them to do in public. it is like __ i think our society outside in an open sets the tone. i think that when we let people grip up other people's religion, wwe let people upset other people's religious views, i guess you can say, we can't stop them.

but, i think, the same paper, from what i understand, also attack christians and other views. sometimes you go a little past the boundaries. somewhere you have to pull this back in our society, and around the world. we do not have empathy for people. i think that is something that i tried it teach my children. watching all this unfold, we had children watching this. guest: this goes back to our discussion __ she said it very succinctly __ just because you can does not mean you should. as we said before, when the southern preacher wanted to burn the koran, we knew that would lead towards american citizens being killed, so he did not. i do not believe that many americans would have been reading this magazine anyway.

france has a long tradition of satirizing establish religion as well as politicians. host: equal opportunity offenders. guest: right. it goes back to this muslim policeman who died for the right of upholding free press. the "new york times" and "washington post" decided not to, some post decided to publish the cartoon. i go back to __ just because you can offend someone does that mean you should. host: andy from alabama is our last call. caller: what i want to say is

__ the zimmerman murder of trayvon martin, i feel like that was an act of terrorism right here in the united states. the police killing of blacks. guest: all you have to do is pick up the front page of any newspaper and realize that our democracy is far from perfect, we have a lot of work to do at home as well. before saying how great we are versus some other country, we have to look at ourselves and make sure we are in the right path. we are far from perfect. host: does the lesson in paris give us any lessons for the united states? guest: it deftly does.

we have to look at what we have done right as far as assimilating our minority muslim communities, and how we can not let prejudice develop against one group. it does not allow them to break out of the ghetto. we have to look at the foreign fighter problem. we need to know who is traveling and joining forces with these people, and prosecute them. when they come back, they are capable of doing something like in paris. host: james kitfield has been here to talk about the terrorist attacks. before we let you go, your cover story in the "washington journal" deals with the draft. a couple of lines about what you wrote about. guest: you can read on the

"national journal" website. it was considered that in times of crisis and war, everyone had a responsibility to stand up and defend the country. now, we have an all volunteer force, aand we have broken with that tradition __ the article looks at that. host: again it is the cover story of the "national journal". coming up, we will look at new studies from the center for disease control and permission. in case you missed it, before we speak with doctor brewer, oon thursday, there was an event on stopping child sex trafficking. [video clip]

>> i want to begin us, and ground us this morning in the lives of the children who are bought and sold for sex here in this country. we know that there are at least 100,000 american children who are being bought and sold on our streets. the majority of them are girls between the ages of 12 and 14. they are girls like sonja, sonja is a girl that i met last month in a los angeles courtroom. she was 15 years old. she had on her face tattooed the name of her trafficker. her trafficker sold her to at least 10 different men per night.

when she tried to escape __ he beat and tortured her. girls like sonja __ they are not considered anything but a child prostitute in our public conversations, in the media, and policy circles. the way we talk about sonja, girls like her, is as child prostitutes. we are here today to change that. we are here to recognize that what happened to sonja, and other traffic children is not about prostitution. it is not violence and abuse. because of this, we are announcing are no such thing campaign. there is no such thing as a child prostitute. girls who are repeatedly raped,

abused, and exploited, are not child prostitutes. they are children, who are victims, and survivors of child rape. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from atlanta, our guest is bob brewer with the centers for disease control. doctor brewer, good morning. you just released a report looking at alcohol poisoning. could you tell me, how often does the cdc look at this issue? guest: this is actually the first report that our alcohol group has looked at alcohol poisoning deaths. we have loose alcohol poisoning deaths related to other desk. but this is the first report

looking specifically at alcohol poisoning does. host: why did you get interested in this issue specifically? guest: alcohol poisoning is a problem in binge drinking. we wanted to know how what we know in binge drinking is affected alcohol poisoning deaths. we wanted to take advantage __ we felt a somewhat more complete report on alcohol poisoning deaths. host: on average, next people

died related to alcohol poisoning her day in the u. s.. guest: that's right. we defined binge drinking as for drinks in a short bit of time for woman, five drinks up in a short period time for men. the average number of drinks in binge drinking is eight. host: can you explain the science of what happens when you have that much alcohol in your body. guest: again, as you get higher alcohol levels, the critical areas of your brain that control functions like breathing, body temperature, they can shut down. some of the symptoms that are associated with alcohol

poisoning include the inability to wake someone up, vomiting, seizures. it is all related to the fact that the bodies critical functions are being shut down by the high blood alcohol concentration. guest: if you want to talk to the guest about his findings, call in. host: what did your findings find out as far as age of the deaths? guest: what we would refer to as middle age adults was the

larger group affected. host: how do women fare? guest: 14 of the 2200 alcohol poisoning deaths are women. the issue is not just age or gender, it is the amount that they are drinking. the key to preventing alcohol poisoning death is preventing binge drinking. once you get to a level of consumption that is at the bench level __ four more for a women, five or more for men __ the possibility that goes up. host: what is a standard drink in the u. s.? when __ to think most people

know about the standards? guest: i think there is a lot of confusion. you are correct in describing the drink sizes. the important point there is that all those strings contain the same amount of alcohol. when we talk about binge drinking __ for more drinks for a woman, five or more drinks for men __ it does not matter if alcohol is consumed, beer, alcohol, or liquor. host: is an education effort by the cdc? or the people in the alcohol industry as far as the sizes and standards of drinking? guest: certainly the standard are referenced in the health guidelines.

there has in some effort in conjunction with the dietary guidelines so that people understand what a standard drink size is. we have done that in materials that we have put together. i want to emphasize __ wwhat education is an iimportant part, as far as prevention, we need to look at the environment in which people are making their decisions. we know the alcohol tends to be inexpensive, heavily advertised. all of those factors can influence the amount that people drink. to know what a standard drink is is important, but to know what those factors are is even more important. host: is there a governmental role in controlling the factors? guest: our goal is to reduce

binge drinking. we know that policies and other strategies can reduce binge drinking __ they look similar to those that have reduced been smoking. we know that binge drinking is closely related to price. we know that alcohol consumption is closely related to how prevalent alcohol is. if you train them bars, stores, retail alcohol outlets __ we can control binge drinking. host: we're talking to doctor bob brewer. you have a chance to talk to him. kathy from michigan, your first.

caller: good morning. years ago, in 2004, i had been living for 2 1/2 decades in traverse city, michigan, i was driving down a road, near trail. there were three billboards __ very large billboards __ the first one was for brown, the second for beer, and the third for beer. this trail is heavily used by families. it was built for recreation, as a health benefit. i was so appalled by what i saw that i called down to the city and spoke to a man who is in charge of the development of this trail. i expect my concern and outrage.

i told him that i wanted those billboards down, and wanted to know who is benefiting financially from the advertising of alcohol. he must have taken the call seriously. host: what was done ultimately? caller: those billboards came down. what also bothered me was __ not a judge, not anyone in the treatment of people who have suffered from alcoholism, not a therapist, not the department of human services __ no one spoke to the issue of those billboards there. guest: i think you make a couple of important points. we are very concerned about the impact of alcohol advertising

__ whether in the form that you are describing __ or alcohol advertising on television. the impact that back in half, particularly on young people __ we know from different scientific studies that if young people are exposed to alcohol advertising, there is a greater likelihood that they start drinking. from our standpoint, youth exposure to alcohol advertising is very concerning. again, setting reasonable controls on youth exposure to advertising, is a critical public health measure to help us reduce binge drinking. the other point has to do with the nature of the drinking population. i'm talking about people who drink too much. you touched a little bit on people who might be suffering from a disease of alcohol dependence.

certainly, those sorts of environmental keys can affect people laugh more serious alcohol problems. but, the reality is that you can affect the entire population. most people who are drinking to excess __ binge drinking __ are not dependent on alcohol. in fact, nine out of 10 are not dependent on alcohol. even those who died about call poisoning, 30% were known to have alcohol dependence, but conversely, 70% were not. the large majority of people drinking to excess are not addicted to alcohol. we think that some of these environmental factors may have an even greater impact on those who are drinking to excess. host: here's jimmy.

caller: i have some questions. i am not an advocate of alcohol drinking. i do not drink myself. in that respect, i have to ask __ especially with the middle age findings __ whether it was looked at, is there any complications to the medications, history of depression, suicide? it all could conflate the numbers. guest: i think you make a good point. let's take your first point about other drugs. first of all, let me clarify for your viewers __ what we

were doing is looking at data from the national vital statistics system. this is information is obtained from death certificates. as a result, we do not have a full picture of the health history of the people who died from alcohol poisoning __ ssix deaths per year, or __ six deaths per day, or 2200 per year. specifically, we looked at the history of alcohol dependence. i just mention that __ it was about 30% of people who died of alcohol poisoning had a known history of alcohol dependence. we did look at other drugs, whether they were present. it turns out that only about 3% had evidence of other drugs in the system.

i want to emphasize, that is not to say that there are some important concerns about the interaction between drinking to excess and other drugs. in fact, some drugs may even lower the threshold for people dying of alcohol poisoning. it is clearly a risk factor. it turns out that in our study, people do not have presence of other drugs. host: our next call from houston, texas. caller: i was interested in the fact that death rates of alcohol poisoning is much higher among middle_aged people rather than young people. can you attribute this to more binge drinking among the middle age group, or younger people are healthier? guest: that is an important

question. i think it is a combination of factors. we know that binge drinking is very common among young people. what people do not appreciate is that binge drinking is common throughout the lifespan. we have looked at the total number of episodes of binge drinking based on surveys __ based on the most recent estimates that we have, there are 1.5 billion episodes of self_reported binge drinking in the united states per year __ that is very underreported. most episodes of binge drinking involved people of 26 years old, or older. another thing that we know from other studies that we have done is that deaths from excessive drinking __ not just alcohol

poisoning __ heart disease, cancer __ wwe know that excessive drinking is responsible for about one in 10 deaths of working age adults. again, we know that there is a lot of excessive drinking going on amongst middle aged adults. i think that explains to some extent the high rate of alcohol poisoning deaths. host: if you follow us on twitter, we sent out a map from the cdc. it was interesting to find out that alaska have the highest deaths, and alabama had the least per million people. guest: that is true.

we know that states with higher alcohol policy have less bbinge drinking. weaker policies tend to have higher rates of binge drinking. that is part of the story. although that is not the whole story. i think the other factor that was a common denominator in the states with higher alcohol poisoning death rates is that in many cases they may have larger rule populations, or people living in more promote areas. the problem there is __ ppeople who binge drink, they may not be found for some period of time after they have consumed a lot of alcohol. therefore, it may be too late to get them to medical treatment. there also may be differences in access to medical treatment in some states. binge drinking is the key risk

factor here. but, there are other factors. host: white non_hispanic males are marks the higher population of those who died from alcohol poisoning, followed by hispanics, and then blacks. our next call is from delaware. caller: i am in the alcohol industry. not to say what you're talking about is __ that there is any issue with it __ we are obviously always trying to prevent binge drinking. i just want to quickly say __ there are so many rules and regulations on the books today. not only from where you can buy alcohol to what time you can buy it, how old you have to be. serving alcohol __ when you go to a bar __ a server could be

legally charge, the restaurant could be legally charged. i just want to say __ at some point there have to be some individual responsibility in this process. it is not that we are under educated, and people do not know about the risk associated with it. what i'm saying is __ the statistical analysis that you are using, what is it? yyou said 2000 people died of alcohol poisoning. i'm not trying to underestimate that, it is obviously a significant thing. but, it is a low number. it must be less than 1/10, of 1000% __ i do not know what the statistical analysis is. host: are you a distributor?

guest: no. i produce alcohol. guest: i think there are some important points here. first of all, our report is on alcohol poisoning deaths. in an earlier report that we released we saw that the total number of deaths related to alcohol is 90,000. that is in large part to the point that i made before that most of these tests kill people in the prime of their lives __ whether from vehicle crashes to other violence, it

cancer __ alcohol is a known carcinogen. if you look at who is primarily dying of alcohol related conditions, it is working age adults. again, we estimate that alcohol is related to one in 10 working age deaths. it is also recognize as a total. i think it would be a mistake, if you're trying to characterize what the public health impact is to just focus on alcohol poisoning deaths, although, any death is certainly a tragedy. another point, this is a very expensive problem. we've estimated the cost of deaths being around $1.4 billion per year. this is a very expensive

problem. two dollars out of every five dollars is paid for by government. effectively, we are all paying the cost of excessive drinking. as you point out about responsibility __ we are all very clear in our recommendation that individual should not binge drink. it is recommended that a woman should drink no more than one drink per day, and a man no more than two. the reality is __ we are animals __ we respond to our environment. not just respect to alcohol, but smoking, and die as well. if people had more access to healthy food, they would be more likely to eat healthy foods.

on the contrary, if you have more access to unhealthy foods, you are more likely to eat unhealthy foods. the same is true for alcohol. if you make alcohol less expensive, people will drink more. the issue is __ this is a product that is dangerous to the individual, and two other people, and they need to be reasonable social controls around alcohol. host: donna from maine, hi. caller: my question is about the timeframe of consumption. you just said that __ i am wondering that say to drinks are consumed over four hours for a woman __ is that becomes less of a has said because it is diluted by time.

are there any measurements for that kind of situation? host: i would add that there is someone on twitter who says, when do you know when someone is in danger of death and can't be allowed to sleep it off? guest: the question about time __ what we talk about binge drinking, we're talking about consuming a lot of alcohol in a short period of time. what is a short period of time? we talk about an occasion. an occasion is a period of time around 2 to 3 hours. the problem is, people who binge drink tend to not time their episodes. the other way to look at binge drinking is when drinking brings your blood alcohol level

to .8 or higher. that is action pretty high when compared to other countries. that is the biological definition of binge drinking. that is consumed by drinking four or more drinks for a woman, or five or more drinks for a man within an occasion. the specific length of application can vary. if you're consuming one drink over a longer period of time, certainly we could predict that that blood alcohol level would be below .8. it gets tricky predicting blood alcohol level based on times of consumption. if you have a normally functioning liver, you can process about 7 g of alcohol per hour. there is a lot of variation.

the best advice is to adhere to the dietary guidelines __ again, for woman, no more than one drink per day, and for man, no more than two. host: some may want to know what science you want to look for when someone is in danger. guest: alcohol can shut down some of the critical functions in the brain. the symptoms that one needs to be concerned about in someone who has been drinking a lot of alcohol __ of course, we would suggest that they do not do so in the first place __ it would be a slowing of breath rate,

heart rate, inability to wake up the individual, vomiting, seizures. all of those are the signs and symptoms that would alert one to the fact that someone is experiencing some serious of fax from excessive drinking. i want to emphasize __ if anyone is with someone, or encounter someone who appears to be consuming a lot of alcohol and is in that state, it is a medical emergency, dialed 911. you want to make sure the people in that situation can get appropriate medical care. as a public health agency, our primary concern is preventing that from helping __ happening in the first place. host: next caller, go ahead. caller: i'm curious in knowing what differentiates someone from an addict to someone who just binge drinks __ as far as chemistry. it seems that people who binge

drink can control their drinking one weekend, the man next weekend will binge drink. do we know anything about their brain chemistry that causes that shift to do that? what kind of science is being done to potentially prevent binge drinking at the level of the brain? guest: i will tell you break up front __ much of the work done in this area is done by the national institute of health. we are not specifically, in our work at the cdc, involved in doing the more basic science research around alcohol and addiction, that you are referring to. there is a lot of research going on in that area. there have been a number of breakthroughs in our understanding of what is actually happening.

in terms of the actual manifestation of drinking behavior and consequences of drinking that differentiates someone who is alcohol dependent from someone who is perhaps not addicted. what someone looks for is __ continued drinking despite the fact that there are consequences related to that, consequences to the family, to work performance, difficulty controlling alcohol consumption. often you hear someone who has serious problems with alcohol __ say they went out for a couple of drinks and were not able to stop. that loss of control is a very important characteristic of alcohol dependence. craving for alcohol is another one. anyone who has concerns about their drinking __ we would

advise them to seek medical attention. there are some standard tools that can be used to screen for alcohol dependence. this is a treatable medical problem. there is a lot of development taking place as far as use of medications, to help to prevent relapse. anyone who is concerned about the drinking behavior can seek help. the point i was trying to make before __ most people were drinking to excess __ again the risk factors are not those who meet the criteria for alcohol dependence, they are not addicted to alcohol. the good news is there are a number of things that we can do to prevent binge drinking, particularly among those who are not addicted to alcohol __ cchanges to the environment, looking at the price of alcohol.

one thing that we have not talked about yet is physicians and other health professionals in their offices can do a great deal by screening their patients for excessive drinking __ finding out if the patient has engaged in excessive drinking, and engage with them. host: doctor bob brewer from the cdc. where'd you go from here as far as your research? guest: we are interested in looking at ways to help support safety and communities, and looking ways to reduce binge drinking. defining the problem is an important first step. that is part of our responsibility as a public health agency. we are also eager in working with communities to see how we can implement some of the prevention strategies.

there are a number of states and communities in the united states that have taken an active interest in trying to reduce binge drinking __ both because of the concern of the public health impact of this problem, and the myriad of other problems that do not result in death, but caused tremendous social problems __ sexual assault, and other forms of interpersonal violence. there are some hopeful signs that a number of states and communities are taking this seriously. host: doctor bob brewer is with the center for disease control, their alcohol program. thank you. guest: thank you. host: tomorrow we will have the former representative from ohio, steven latourette.

also, from the human rights campaign, sarah warbelow. we will also be joined with a professor from the american university. we will look at the history of selma. we'll have those conversations, plus your calls. that is "washington journal" for tomorrow. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> coming up today on c_span. inauguration ceremonies for california governor, jerry brown,, and florida governor, rick scott. later, congress debate on keystone pipeline. this week california governor jerry brown was sworn into office becoming the first governor to serve four terms in the state. he became the 39th governor in november 2010. prior to that, he served as governor from 1975 to 1983. this inaugural ceremony in sacramento begins with introductions from state legislators and governor brown's wife. this is 40 minutes.