the candelaria is a recently renovated old city when i meet up with hector abad, one of the most distinguished in south america. his recent work is "oblivion" about his father's outspoken attempts to change things for the better. so first of all, where are we? >> puerta falsa. this is a place where many bogatans come to eat something in the middle of the morning or in the middle of the afternoon. >> the tamales are made with chicken and pork belly combined with vegetables, rice and masa, wrapped in a banana leaf, and slow cooked for hours. this place has been serving chocolate completo for the nearby plaza for a couple hundred years. >> here are the tamales. >> beautiful. it is a thing of beauty, isn't it? >> let's see if it tastes like my mother's. >> a high standard. >> i suppose it is not. >> i was just in milaflores yesterday. what economy was entirely drug based economy. now that the drugs are gone, there is no economy. it's a ghost town, a military and people sitting there staring at the space waiting for the beer to arrive. that is something i can understand. tell me something hopeful.

i think in going out, abad met me in california, my first reporting trip, and he was teaching in the program they have in the summers making various introductions suggesting to them the school that i was a sthettic, that i had sympathy for their cost, for what they were trying to do, and there was some talk in the early days about what fox news had said about them. they knew the up sympathetic view, and my sense is in the introduction that emphasized this, some who has sympathy and wanted to tell a story, and, you know, i think we developed it in, look, i'm not -- i should say this, i'm not a trained journalist. i have not gone to journalism school. there was part of the book that was not only learning about islam, by getting people's stories and telling them so i found opportunities, and i think leyna was -- i mentioned the way she helped set it up, was to just find ways to sit around for hours at a time and talk with each other saying why are you here? well, i wanted to study the inspiration to me, seen at this conference and this conference, and my mom thought it would be great. s

it get phone calls from abad bad -- not really but you hear my show anywhere. >> host: one of your previous books, what's race got to do with it. we talked earlier on this program with eric deckins whose newest book is called race batterie. he got that name because bill o'riley called him a race baiter, called it a culture of victimology among some african-americans. >> guest: i have a word and the word is dic tocrat and at it somebody who blames somebody else for their play. i don't believe racism is a problem in america. i apply the elvis factor, 10% of the american people believe elvis is still alive. 8% believe if you send hem a letter he'll get it. so 10% of the m. people have to be written off. is there racism in of course, is there the kind of racism what can stop a person who has god some education and is willing to work hard and has a little luck? no. america is the greatest country. that is why most of the world's 7 billion people want to come here. >> recent column, we're going to go to calls. rg iii gets uncle tom treatment. >> guest: that's about a sportcaster on espn who criti

rasmussen is constantly abading to advance and ordinary people across europe, not as a matter of principle. what's going on now is that new systems are being used, military technology such as drones which actually kill people, a lot of people died in afghanistan. support this, and then we all understand what you mean when you talk about strengthening the european element of nato. it's quite simple for anyone who looks at the state of the defense. natoments to be -- nato wants to be able to decide what crisis to intervene in, and when they don't see fit to take action, leave it to the europeeps. i pick up what you said about supplying planes in flight. we talk of cooperation, but there's none because of the clashes of interest amongst nato imperialist powers, and, obviously, the united states will use its leverage in nato. nothing can change in nato unless washington gives the nod. it's also clear that when the united states applies the brakes, or if one of the members applies the breaks, france, then the united states will say, oh, well, we don't want to intervene. let the europeans do it.

i mean, it can't abade. and external events overtake a presidency. right now, focused on terrorism in boston and what's happening in syria, and north korea, so that's taking energy away from the effort, but hopefully, we'll get reengaged. >> thank you. the next is around just the sequester, and that took a knife to government spending, cutting away tens of billions in spending and senator conrad, you called the sequester a blunt instrument cutting too much too soon in the wrong places, and i think any of us that have flown recently agree with that statement, but that said, there are those in congress who say the sequester is not a bad thing begin spending reductions it's forcing. is there an element of truth to that type of thinking, senator, greg, perhaps starting with you on this, since i think we know senator conrad's answer on than. i think the forcing mechanism was always supposed to be a forcing mechanism. when it starts to force is the question. .. but the sequestered continues to be the pressure in the back room that is going to force people