martin luther king told lyndon johnson that, lyndon johnson listened as he argued, and lbj said to dr. king, go out there and make it possible for me to do the right thing. that is where real change comes. but the reason we have poets and the reason we both talked to artists and others is we fight back by celebrating what is good in our lives. the creativity of authors, the enthusiastic populism of general hightower, the restrictive journalism of lopez. when you read it biggio funny talking about -- when you leap -- when you read giovanni talking about love, you want to fight to save a species that make love and a world that is hospitable to the portrait of love. we fight back by celebrate what is best in our lives and our culture. it is not just politics or economics, although there are prophetic voice is in there about politics and economics. this book is as relevant today as when we did these interviews, but we also have to celebrate -- henry david thoreau, the great author of the 19th century, said it, "to affirm the quality of the day is the highest of the arts." and you have to

martin luther king told lyndon johnson that, lyndon johnson listened as he argued, and lbj said to dr. king, go out there and make it possible for me to do the right thing. that is where real change comes. but the reason we have poets and the reason we both talked to artists and others is we fight back by celebrating what is good in our lives. the creativity of authors, the enthusiastic populism of general hightower, the restrictive journalism of lopez. when you read it biggio funny talking about -- when you leap -- when you read giovanni talking about love, you want to fight to save a species that make love and a world that is hospitable to the portrait of love. we fight back by celebrate what

tet just demoralize lyndon johnson. and it wasn't that johnson lost middle america.middle america lost the president. and that's why tet was sacrificed to sacrificed to it wasn't just the press. it was mainly lyndon johnson. he gave up on himself. so the lessons i guess that apply to today are things like don't give the enemy credit for having a better plan than they have. sometimes you see people today talk about terrorists act there some kind of geniuses, long-term players with this sophisticated plan that we can't understand, and everything they do is part of this unfolding of history. well, maybe they're just making mistakes but i'll tell you, i do think that osama bin laden thought that 10 years after 9/11 he would be holed up in some cave somewhere, you know, wondering what hellfire missile is going to come down on dissent. i do think that was part of the plate i think he thought he would be ahead of saudi arabia right now. that was the plan, not what is going on right now. so, you know, don't give them credit for being these geniuses because they are not. seco

resume includes being a founding organizer of the peace corps a press secretary for president lyndon johnson decades of reporting for both print and television outlets the most famous project was bill moyers journal weekly television show that was one of the highest rated public affairs programs around public television in two thousand and seven to two thousand and ten as many as two million viewers tuned in to hear what he had to say every single week and his accomplishments have not gone unnoticed as a recipient of more than thirty emmy awards and nine peabody awards as well as a slew of other arms and this month he released his latest book bill moyers journal the conversation continues. you can when he has something to say listen that's why i am honored to be joined from new york tonight by none other than bill moyers bill welcome. thank you my pleasure can imagine being anywhere else right now. that's very kind of you you're one of those rare people who have impacted both media and politics it's a remarkable life that you've lived an accomplished during an interview with tab a smiley a w

and lyndon johnson would take over. >> that's pretty much the way it was. >> yes, indeed. he was a powerful figure. >> and johnson was talking about the things he was doing to win the war, and she piped up and said like bombing homes? >> he was, you know, as a congressman, listening to him i was probably more critical than i would have been as a member of the executive branch being asked questions by members of congress. so where you stand time depends on where you sit. but he was going through a period where he was trying to figure out what to do in the war in vietnam, and he would go through a heavy bombing period, and would be a bombing pause and he would hope that that would cause a positive reaction from the north vietnamese. or at the con. and it didn't. he and explain what he was doing was asked the question by democratic congressman named young from texas about why it wasn't working. and his answer was in effect that it would work. and, of course, the fact was, if you do something for a period and then stopped completely, it's confusing. it's confusing to our people

early morning at the ymca getting ready for the bay to breakers as he has every spring since lyndon johnson was in the white house. >> i'm just a permanent fixture the race. >> reporter: 44 years but that is not all that makes him unique. blind but harley disabled not too many years ago he was among the fastest 500 to finish bay to breakers >> 460 people finishing ahead of you about 32,000 behind me. >> reporter: u.s. not was that confident as a teenager he was allowed to take this said, he credits a counselor at camp for the blind >> in the amount of time it takes to yell hit it to i became a water skier appeared if i thought i could water ski i can do anything. >> reporter: that was 1958, 10 years later he took, it will be from the bay to breakers, he might be as old as the hills, he's been running since. >> the hayes st. hell. >> reporter it washill. >> reporter: mike has been their racing partner for more than a decade >> i get the credit and them in the spotlight if i did have partners accomplish these goals i couldn't do any of it. >> reporter: besides guiding him he provides a commen

. >> previous american presidents from lyndon johnson to jimmy carter took a muff more severe position. >> reporter: this agreement has been become a plital football with gop presidential hopefuls piling off. the president has thrown israel under a bus mitt romney said. a mistaken and very dangerous demand wrote pawlenty and mish bachmann showed it a shocking display of betrayal toward our allies. >> the republicans see an opportunity to break off from the democrats. >> reporter: it's not just republicans. as some staunch supporters are expressing kerns. >> why do we emphasize things that hurt israel at the expense of the palestinians who won't even negotiate face to face? it makes no sense. >> reporter: lester, we can expect to hear more in the comes days. the prime minister stays on here in washington. on tut he gives a speech to a joint meeting of congress, and tomorrow president obama travels across town to give a speech on american/israel relations to a major pro-israel lobbying group. >> the question of borders is personal in the middle east where both risrael and the palestinian

lucky but the women who fought for you to have that right and for that matter i mean you know lyndon johnson he cut poverty in this country for years with the great society it created to a large extent it created much of what is the day in particularly in african-american communities a middle class who didn't it literally never existed the united states. i don't see where. what am i missing here you know what you're missing is the african-american community day is not that of the days of the past and that's part of where the confusion comes in as we keep it i mean the large number of people with in poverty you know this is actually white it's there's it's you know you're trying to make a correlation of times of the sixty's and sixty's as opposed to two thousand and eleven although what i'm saying is that is that lifting people out of poverty doesn't keep them in but that's the point you're not lifting people out of poverty by keeping them in poverty that's the point. of the program are the people who fight for minimum wage keeping people in car no i don't think so i really what happens when

lyndon johnson said something like castro knew that kennedy wanted to kill him so he want to kill kennedy. so there was a lot of speculation that castro may have ordered this himself. castro denies vehemently. we know that oswald visited the cuban embassy in mexico shortly before the assassination apparatus some sort of signal working indication. but we know for sure is that oswald, he was in the soviet union when the a of pigs happen and was infuriated by it. and thought that he was doing fidel castro a favor by going after john kennedy. so indirectly yes, i do think the bay of pigs definitely leads to the assassination of kennedy. mfa more direct link but that's very difficult, maybe impossible, to improve. over here, please. outcome do you any second. second. >> what's confusing to me is after the first day of the invasion it became very clear the u.s. decline, then if it was know that the secondary airstrikes on the 17th, the invasion was doomed, are you basically saying that the cause, kennedy was afraid of lighting the match against the soviet union, that he was willing to sacrifice

the war powers wasn't wasn't in force and it came after vietnam when they got disgusted with lyndon johnson and nixon so yes clinton did that's exactly what happened but i think obama is in new territory since he's not going to get funding special funding approved like bill clinton did so he's weld so he's gone farther than clinton and of course george bush for all his failings he did get congressional authorization for afghanistan and iraq and he was the champion of executive power but obama has really gone further in this case than bush ever won a couple things on that why is he getting a free pass i don't feel like we're seeing that much about it or criticism and what does this say about a president that campaigned on a not getting involved militarily when you were attacked and in u.s. wars and following the law i mean he had a sound bite that we played at the beginning of this show where he said that we will be ruled by law we will no longer violate the constitutional law that's not who we are as a country but it seems to be who he is as a president if this is an example where he's a co

with the right wing worldview if you try to look for information as favorable for example to lyndon johnson or franklin roosevelt it's actually buried on now electronically you know in the on the internet under piles of right wing stuff are you concerned that if we if we turn to this technology the koch brothers and figure out a way to co-opt it just like me they're rewriting with a pedia. you know i'm not i'm not i'm you know the because what they're doing is they're dealing with with a passive internet i'm talking about a very aggressive and it would definitely be two prong one would be a place where each individual says this is what i want this is what i want you no matter what the information say i know i want to job where i make enough money to live i don't need somebody to i don't need to look that up on google i know that that's what i want i know when i get sick i want to be able to pay for my medical care i know i don't have any teeth in my head but i'm worth three million dollars so i want to be able to go to a dentist and get some teeth in my head i think that's one thing and ano

obama has the opportunity and he understands what war has done to kill the reform presidencies lyndon johnson in vietnam that perfect example to change the template and i say it's not up to me when i say it is real it is to look at the facts and use this moment to reset the terms of the debate let us hope the reset in that area works better than the us russians. but that is a different issue which my husband stephen cohen i trust will certainly be on your show to discuss it i'm not trying to downplay what you're saying here but as someone who's also covered the hill for quite some time you cannot dismiss the certain opinions of various lawmakers who carry danica's to say i mean if we can of course all dismiss them but they can stand in the way of policy they can they can obstruct policy and they can obstruct change so how do we overcome that as a people how do we overcome folks who may be stuck in cold war mentality or an pro-war mentality and get those lawmakers to shift their positions to actually affect real change in this country it is a very good question and you know i don't mean to sug

[laughter] >> lyndon johnson, when he became president, passed a prestigious amount of legislation thatwas kennedy's program. he became very unpopular because of that. this is a speculative question would you speculate how john kennedy would have faired issued bush's the controversial issues? >> and johnson was a master. three being the white house tapes johnson's first weeks and months in office, i think michael did them, you see him talking to the seven years i have to do this i am getting incredible pressure and trucks to civil-rights leaders. he said i need you to come down here and put pressure on me so i can tell the seven years i have to do this. i am not sure kennedy had those skills. fell last five 4/6 months of kennedy's life was beginning to emerge from a cautious politician, not all that interested, he was in foreign policy. in then as a moral issue that is where they get so speculative but it is a good question. >> at this point* we're doing with john kennedy and the assassination. when i first read the book or that particular section within the first context of the first 1

here's where i get the four years from lyndon johnson cup party in half you know states in about four years. actually i think it was about six but this one was really got about half the great society i mean. which has been you know was on ravel by a series of presidents including bill clinton who ended welfare as we know it. what do we do where we start how do we do this so how sometime is based on a report which lays out a pathway to cry poverty after ten years and one of the things it shows is that we actually know how to do this this isn't rocket science we modeled it if you raise the minimum wage to its historic level of half the average wage if you make the tax code work for working families by hand thing the earned income tax credit child tax credit if you make child care fully available as a work support for those who need it you are to cut poverty by twenty six percent over the next ten years and so this is something that we know how to do and what happens then is about is building a political and public will to do it and that's why this budget fight is so important for us yea

is getting ready for the bay to breakers just as he has every spring since lyndon johnson was in the house. >> and considered one of the permanent fixtures of the race. if >> he holds the record 44 consecutive years. that is not all that makes him unique. >> i am blind. >> line but hardly disabled. he was among the fastest 500 to the list of bay to breakers and remembers the reaction. 460 people finished ahead of you but there were 30,000 behind me. he was not always the, than as a teenager he wasn't allowed to take the said. he credits a counselor at a camp for the blind for taking him to the lake and putting a rope in his hand. >> to make a long story short to in the amount of time it takes to yell fitted and step on the gas i became a water skier. if i can water ski, i can do anything. >>reporter: 10 years later he entered the bay to breakers and took home a trophy for his courage. while he not be as old as the hills, he is been running ever since the course acquired its most feared obstacle. the 200 ft. climb to alamo square was added in 1968 as part of a detour all rounds of con

how would lyndon johnson have dealt with the traumatized nation? where would robert kennedy have gone? how would johnson with the assumption that the mind-set so different from that of john kennedy deal with civil rights? or the cuban missile crisis? that is one of the questions i tried to answer in this book called "then everything changed". this is a trio of alternative histories that center on contemporary american politics or contemporary for some of us. they are all rooted in a common notion that the smallest twist and turn of fate can produce radical consequences. they are not as a is. dialogue and imagined scenes. they are all histories i tried to ground in plausibility and based on the thoughts and beliefs and impulses and instinct of the players as drawn from history, biographies and several interviews with people. and the common thread is history doesn't turn on a dime. it turned on a nickel. there are theories about history that focus on geography, natural resources, theology, ideology but the smallest random acts of faith, human beings

lyndon johnson did it in 1964. presidents note going into war is not a signal to send at election time. the problem with the war powers resolution, congress has to act. once the present engages in military activity, all the arguments that we all know will come up. it cannot cut off funds with dark men and women in combat. -- cannot cut off funds with our men and women in combat. once you are allowed president to go out and take the initiative, your opportunity as a legislative body is pretty well taken away >> you are saying congress has not provided the president with the obvious tools that they want him to use in case of an emergency or where he thinks the national interest is at stake? you want congress to say that in a given situation, we do not like that one. he is in a much different position. texas from his position for congress's when the president has to go and get authority. >> it is in order, you have to vote on it. >> i think technically in terms of the statute, i would agree with you, but i do not thin

that must have been like for her, and yet, she was willing at the request of the new president, lyndon johnson to come into the cabin and stand next to him when he took the oath of office. those of you remember that day, i know have this image burned in your brain. mrs. kennedy refused to change clothes. she was wearing her famous razz berry suit and the hat came off in the chaos, but she refused to take off her bloodstained suit because she said i wanted them to see what they did to my husband. i was seven at the time and i remember watching that, and i can remember that we gasped when she came off the plane and was still wearing that suit, but she refused to take it off. she then became the mourner in chief for the nation. she had a few moments of shock, again, given the horror she witnessed in dallas, but quickly, she got wits about her. she asked her husband's family, sergeant shriver and cabinet members to plan the funeral and asked it be based on abraham lincoln's funeral. she was thinking of symbolism and history even in her grief. coming down the steps of the capitol with caroline on o

there was a question of whether lyndon johnson ordered it.castro knew that kennedy wanted to kill him, so he killed kennedy. there was a lot of speculation that castro nay have -- castro may have ordered it himself. he denies it. we know he visited the cuban embassy and got some sort of signal or communication there. we know for sure, oswald was in the soviet union when the bay of pigs happen and was infour -- infuriated by it. he thought he was doing fidel castro a favor by going after john kennedy. indirectly, yes, i think the bay of pigs leads to the assassination of kennedy. it may have had a more direct link. that's very difficult and maybe impossible to prove. over here please. i'll come to you in a second. yes? >> what's confusing to me is if after the first day of the invasion it became clear that the u.s. is behind it and then if it was known that without the secondary aspects of the 17th the invasion was doomed, are you basically stating that the cause kennedy was afraid of lighting the match against the soviet union that he was wil

reporter: early morning at the ymca getting ready for the bay to breakers the way he has done since lyndon johnson was in the white house. harry holds a record 44 consecutive years, that is not all that makes him unique. blind but hardly disabled, not many years ago he was the fastest 500 to finish the bay to breakers. he remembers the reaction. harry was not always that confident as a teenager he was not allowed to take this said, he credits a counselor at the camp for the blood for taking him to the lake and putting a rope in his hand >> in the amount of time you say hit dead ends up on the gas i was a water skier. i figured if i could waterskiing i can do anything. >> reporter: that was in 1958, 10 years later he entered the bay to breakers taking home a trophy for his courage. well he might not be as old as the hills he has been running since the most feared obstacle. 200 ft flop climb was added to 1968 as a part of the detour routes of construction. >> he wears a sign saying i get my thrill at hayes st. hell.ill >> i get the spotlight but if i didn't have partners i couldn't do any of it. >>

lyndon johnson did it in 1964. presidents note going into war is not a signal to send at election time. the problem with the war powers resolution, congress has to act. once the present engages in military activity, all the arguments that we all know will come up. it cannot cut off funds with dark men and women in combat. -- cannot cut off funds with our men and women in combat. once you are allowed president to go out and take the initiative, your opportunity as a legislative body is pretty well taken away >> you are saying congress has not provided the president with the obvious tools that they want him to use in case of an emergency or where he thinks the national interest is at stake? you want congress to say that in a given situation, we do not like that one. he is in a much different position. texas from his position for congress's when the president has to go and get authority. >> it is in order, you have to vote on it. >> i think technically in terms of the statute, i would agree with you, but i do not thin

and yet she was willing at the request of the new president, lyndon johnson, to come out into the cabin and stand next to him when he took the oath of office from judge sara t. hughes. and, again, those of you who remember that day, i know, have this image burned in your brains. mrs. kennedy refused to change clothes. she was wearing her famous raspberry chanel suit. she had started out the day with the matching pillbox hat. that had come off in the chaos, but she refused to take off her blood-stained suit because she kept saying, i want them to see what they did to my husband. and even though i was just 7 at the time, i can remember watching that black and white television in our living room with my family, and we can gasp when she came off the plane and was still wearing that suit. but she refused to take it off. she then became, though, the mourner in chief for the nation. she had a few moments of shock, again, given the horror she had witnessed. but very quickly she got her wits about her. she asked her husband's family, sergeant shriver, and some cabinet members to look at starting

but the good thing was that shortly thereafter, the president, who was lyndon baines johnson at the time, did ask me to dance. and what kind of a dancer was l.b.j.? he was a terrific dancer. you mentioned that you had to fight down the temptation to share your views on the vietnam war. you bet. i was marching against the war and playing in a wonderful play called, oh, what a lovely war-- very anti-war sentiment-- at arena stage at the time. l.b.j. was pariah to those of us who were against the war, and there i was dancing with him. and i thought, "now's my chance to tell him." and then i thought, "it's not the time." this poor man needs a little relaxation. besides, he fox-trots very well. [laughing] if he'd been a poor dancer, you would have let him know your view? [laughs] you bet. i-i was-- on the other topic of courage, another early example in your career came in a scene from the great white hope, where--by today's standards would not be shocking or offend most people, i think-- but a scene in which you and james earl jones are in a bed together-- interracial couple, fully clothed.

kennedy and then was substantially built upon by lyndon johnson.thout victory. >> it was a very difficult period for everybody. we inherited a war. those who started the war then joined the peace movement. so they were in an ambivalent position. they imagined it could be ended more quickly. obviously if we could have imagined how to end it more quickly we would have done so. >> reporter: one effort to end the war involved the secret bombing of cambodia. estimates of the civilian death toll vary widely. tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. kissinger played a key role in orchestrating it. the one thing that seems to always come up in this whole larger conversation about henry kissinger is the bombing of cambodia. >> the bombing of cambodia was miniscule compared to the bombing that is now going on in pakistan. that has sort of become the symbol because had to look for something that nixon initiated that hadn't been initiated in if previous administration. >> reporter: kissinger is convinced that the president he served, richard nixon, will be

they did good things that lyndon johnson didn't seek a full second term and richard nixon resigned in the watergate. jerry ford had three years and carter was a -- and put it the country turn to? 69-year-old ronald reagan, former actor to pull us out of trouble. the economy was in great. we had just suffered this humiliating moment with the iranian hostage crisis and were impotent on the world stage. we are turning to a former actor for health and then you shot. let's remind everyone the last four sitting presidents, shot while in the -- office all by. here is reagan, shot, great. than we then we learned, he sees his wife in emergency room. she comes in and if you know anything about nancy and ronald reagan there was no one in their lives but nancy and ronald reagan. they love each other that much even to this day. and i was at the reagan library i overheard nancy reagan talking to jerry pryor because jerry parr came with me and i heard her say thank us for giving me my life back. this is 30 years later. she comes into the er. reagan caesar and says, honey, i forgot to duck. cracks a

ymca here record lows is getting ready for the beta breakers every spring the sense that the lyndon johnsonas in the warehouse. >> i am considered one of the permanent fixtures of the race, i guess. >> he has the record, with 44 consecutive years but that is not all that makes him unique. >> i am blind but that is all there is to it. >> blind but harley then disabled, when of the fastest 500 to finish the race, he remembers. >> with 400 people i have you, but there were 30,000 behind me. >> he was not always that confident. as a teenager he was not allowed to take physical assocation. he credits a counselor at a summer camp for the blind. >> and a very short amount of time i became a water skier. and i thought that of light and water ski, i can do anything. >> that was 1958. 10 years later he entered the bay to breakers and took home eight trophy for discouraged. he may not be as old as the hills but he is ben keep brought home a trophy for it-his courage. >> the 200 ft. climb was added in 1968. as part of a detour. >> he wears a sign that says i get my throat on the street all-through on h

when the democrats came along and lyndon johnson said this is something that we need because seniors can't get health insurance, well they initiated health medicare and every republican voted against medicare then and never liked it because they know it's a government program and they don't like government programs. if anyone on the other side of the aisle is trying to tell me and i don't know if theyr but trying to suggest that by voting for this budget that ends medicare that they didn't mean it, i would say look at their history, look at the history of opposing of medicare, opposing medicaid, opposing social security when franklin roosevelt and the democratic congress put it together. i want to point out, what happens when seniors don't have medicare anymore and they have to go buy insurance on the private market? basically, what that does, it puts the insurance companies back in charge again. this is no surprise. this is what the republicans want. they always stand with the special interests, big oil, big banks, wall street and the insurance companies. and the insurance companies

at the ymca harry is getting ready for the bay to breakers just as he has every spring since lyndon johnsonte house. >> on a permanent fixture. a >> reporter: he holds the record 44 consecutive years. that is not all that makes him unique. >> i'm blind. >> reporter: blind but not disabled. he was among the first 500 to finish. >> 460 people finished ahead of you, yet but there was 30,000 behind me. >> reporter: he was not always that confident as a teenager he was not allowed to take the said he credits a counselor at a camp for the blind for taking him to a lake and putting a rope in his hands. >> to make a long story short by the time my he said head i became a water skier, i figured i to water ski i can do anything. >> reporter: that was in 195810 years later harry entered the bay to breakers and took home a trophy for his courage. well he might not be as old as the hills, he has been running ever since the course acquired its most feared obstacle. the 200 ft. climb to alamo square was added in 1968 as part of the detour. >> he wears a sign that says i get my thrill he streeaypastry >> r

but we were still on the international gold standard until lyndon johnson took a soffit in 1968, andegally nixon repudiated the cold standard in 1971. maybe more history than you wanted to know. there are compelling legal arguments that this is not constitutional. i am a constitutional lawyer, called by the treasury department to testify before the gold constitute -- cold commission about the history of monetary policy. a long and rich history, and it is crystal clear whether you read the debates when there were writing the constitution in 1787, look up the notes of 1787, look up the notes of debate, and you can read it for yourself or go to the gold standard website and search their. there is a blog entry about that. one of the founders said that the -- give the federal government power of issuing paper money, it would be as alarming as the mark of the beast in revelations. they were strongly against this power. george washington wrote against it, james madison wrote against it in federalist paper no. 44. the constitutional history is very wrong that the founding fathers intended no

that may not be a conscious lot but when goldwater was nominated against lyndon johnson.blicans knew they could not win that election but decided we will not winat any way we will make a statement and goldwater said of violence in the name of liberty or something like that i don't have that right. >>host: do think it is inevitable at this point* obama is reelected? >>guest: not inevitable but as i look at the republican field, it feels like that. obama is a great politician when he is on the stump he can turn it up. here is my theory why he gets reelected there are ethnic voters now inam drovesape in 2008 to elect him they disappeared in the midtermidn' election they did not show up with a midterm election which is why democrats did so poorly. my theory is when he is on the ballot, they come back. they are all about obama's. a end of less they are disillusioned w but there is a wave of voters that come back the we have not seen. >>host: to ralph nader do damage? >> they have become savvy to where ralph nader did them harm. i have talked to a lot of voters who regret votin

representing the fourth congressional district in southwest oregon until he was persuaded by president lyndon johnson to leave congress and run for a vacated u.s. senate seat against governor mark hatfield. in a campaign that defined oregon politics for over a decade, bob lost narrowly to mark hatfield in a heated campaign, to say the very least, focusing in large measure over the united states' involvement in the war in vietnam which he then supported and mark hatfield opposed. a significant development was the endorsement of then democratic u.s. senator wayne morris of republican mark hatfield, and many experts feel that that was the narrow margin of victory of mark hatfield over bob duncan. later, bob almost won the democratic primary against wayne morris when he ran for re-election and set up shock waves that reverberated for a decade. i first had the opportunity to work with bob duncan when i was directing a campaign to lower oregon's voting age in 1969 and he was a zealous supporter of engaging young people in the plit account process. in 1974 bob made history again by being the first oregonian

to each other and especially those in their golden years. 46 years ago this summer, president lyndon johnsonicare into law. as he di did so, he said the following -- "few can see past the battles to the doctor over that there that is attending to the infirmed, or those receiving anguish or feel in their heart the painful wrath which denies the miracle of healing to the old and to the poor." those injustices don't exist like they used to because of medicare but they still exist, potentially they're still out there. the old and the poor among us still seek help in healing and it's still our responsibility to act not on political impulse but with human person and compassion. it is still our responsibility not to be motivated by short-term politics but to be moved by the people who need medicare, the people who count on this safety net to take them from poverty, illness, and, worse, death. if we pay attention to those people, we'll notice something else also, mr. president. while republicans are tripping over themselves in trying to decide whether or not they want kill medicare, you know who has

but we were still on the international gold standard until lyndon johnson took a soffit in 1968, and legally nixon repudiated the cold standard in 1971. maybe more history than you wanted to know. there are compelling legal arguments that this is not constitutional. i am a constitutional lawyer, called by the treasury department to testify before the gold constitute -- cold commission about the history of monetary policy. a long and rich history, and it is crystal clear whether you read the debates when there were writing the constitution in 1787, look up the notes of 1787, look up the notes of debate, and you can read it for yourself or go to the gold standard website and search their. there is a blog entry about that. one of the founders said that the -- give the federal government power of issuing paper money, it would be as alarming as the mark of the beast in revelations. they were strongly against this power. george washington wrote against it, james madison wrote against it in federalist paper no. 44. the constitutional history is very wrong that the founding fathers intended

the vietnam war was paididididid part by eroding lyndon johnson's great society. paid for. but now we have these wars not paid for. $800 billion a month in afghanistan alone. i hope this is not a partisan agenda when we talk about the war in afghanistan. i'm not here to put the blame on one party or another. i hope we have these amendments on the floor and have some discussion about ways we can bring this war to an end. i think democrats and i know a lot of republicans feel that we should bring this war to an end. in terms of energy policy, i think people are horrified that we continue to protect taxpayers subsidies to big oil companies while they're gouging us at the gas pump. unbelievable. that we can't have a debate on this floor about taking away these taxpayer subsidies to big oil that are making record profits system of i hope that we will talk a little bit more about that at the end of this debate. at this time, i'd like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from california a former member of the rules committee, ms. matsui. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman i

when lyndon johnson named for this to become chief justice the nixon campaign but the word out quietly to the senate republicans that this was not a good idea. nixon thought he was calling to win and wanted to be able to fill the chief justiceship. and now steve was leaving. and what was ultimately done was that he was filibustered. no question about that. i have heard people like orrin hatch stand up and say, we didn't start of this. well, that's just untrue. it was started by the republicans who very effectively used the filibuster to block when johnson's nomination and then selling the seat. >> we're going to turn to you all for questions. if any of you have questions and want to line up, we will come to you. let me ask one more. it is often said, particularly in the context of abortion, but sometimes gay rights as well that these rights would be more secure if one by the political process rather than judicial fiat. i wonder if you all agree with that? would abortion be -- with legalized abortion be more accepted had it been won through the conventional political process? >> it was

be a conscious thought on a lot of voters, you know, but when goldwater was nominated against lyndon johnson that's kind of what happened. that was really the birth of the conservative movement in the republican party. many, many republicans knew they couldn't win that election but decided, well, if we're not going to win anyway, we're going to make a statement and goldwater is our man and he went out there and -- what was it? violence in the name of liberty is no vice or something like tha that. >> host: do you think it's inevitable that president obama will be re-elected. >> guest: i don't think it's inevitable but as i look at the republican field, it feels like. and obama is a great politician when he gets out on the stump he can -- he can turn it up. here's my theory about why i think he gets re-elected is there were a lot of new voters, minority ethnic voters who came out in droves, younger voters, who came out in 2008 to vote for him. they disappeared. you look at a lot of races, they didn't show up in the midterm election, which is why democrats did so poorly. my theory is when he's