and i think that's what ben franklin would tell us. >> someone asked, "if thousands of post offices do close, what happens to the real estate?" >> well, we are selling real estate and eliminating leases as we speak. last year, i think we probably sold about $250 to $300 million worth of buildings. we'll continue that. we, you know, it's an interesting statistic with the post office. wee floor space is owned, yet we only own about 30% of our buildings. so, we own the big ones, we lease the small ones, and as you close some of these up, you get rid of leases. now, that's where some of the pushback comes from. there's somebody out there with a lease for a post office. that's considered better than a municipal bond, right? and now, don't get rid of that! >> so, then what happens to the employees once that facility closes? >> we're working through that. you know, from an employee standpoint, we've reduced the career head count and noncareer head count in this organization by over 250,000 people since the year 2000. we've never laid anybody off. there's been a couple of people that have chos

and they certainly did not use contraception or ben franklin would not have been so riddled with syphilis. (laughter) and as... it's a add story. it's true. sad. they didn't have it back then. just a tincture of mercury. (laughter) and as my fellow catholic rick santorum points out, this puts us on a slippery- slippery-- na, lubricated slope-- to tierney. (cheers and applause). >> stephen: you marginalize faith in america. when you remove the pillar of god-given rights, then what's left? it's the french revolution. what's left is france became the guillotine. >> stephen: yes, here's covering copays for birth control. here's beheading. it's that close! so if catholic institutions-- like myself-- are going to be forced to provide contraceptives, i think we better be sure people are using them the way obama wants! nation, this is you. (laughter) this-- for those of you who aren't familiar-- is contraception. all right? i haven't used one of these in a while. (cheers and applause) okay. there you go. and this is obama's attack on religion. (audience reacts) (laughter) >> stephen: has l of the

one of my favorites is ben franklin. when he left the constitutional convention, one of the people on the street and asked him what kind of government he had given them, and he said, "a republic, if you can keep it." i think in many ways, they are one in the same. frankly, there may be some differences that people at some level view it, but i view it as almost interchangeable words. >> speaking of which, the aba has recently given attention to the problem of lobbying. in particular, the concern that, speaking of republics, that people will have access to money -- businesses, but others as well -- had higher voices whispering in the year -- can higher voices whispering in the year of congressman or more important, in the year of staff of congressman -- the ear of staff of congressman. do you think that is a serious problem? and what could they do about it? >> if you look at how the supreme court looks at even funding of judicial elections, which are meant to be different than legislative elections -- remember that we have

who had wrought so wonderfully this is what life was like under theocracy in america it's why ben franklin in seventeen twenty three at the age of seventeen fled puritan massachusetts to settle in the secular city of philadelphia after a neighbor woman who was tortured as a witch and it's the reason why our founding fathers built a solid wall of separation between church and state and why that for two hundred thirty years that wall has remained entrenched no matter which party held political office it's a central tenant to america and it's one that rick santorum now wants the bolos listen to what he had to say on sunday i don't believe in an america where the separation of church and state is absolute the idea that that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely an authentic call to the to the objectives and vision of our country that he doesn't believe in the america that's existed for the last two hundred thirty years in america the john f. kennedy our nation's first catholic president described in one thousand nine hundred eighty i'm g

there won't be a president obama to sign it either so what i mean you know it's like if they had ben franklin founded the post office it's mentioned twice in the cars no shit water republicans have against the post and over the years trying to knock the post office or trying to save the post office and if one of those concerns employee benefits that's when they have to look forward to or how many times we've seen companies dump stuff in the pension benefit guaranty fund over and over and over again and put on the federal dime i mean we are in a serious debt situation this is already the federal dive number one and number two if they said you have to you have to fund the retirement benefits for all the employees who are currently working for you that would make perfect sense except that was already the case they already had the money so they said ok it's got to be employees seventy five years from now. i don't get it if they had the money already then why they have to put the money and they were having because it was always until it was not a point it was designed it was designed to force the

. >> sean: you quote in the book, ben franklin and admonition he gave.ing you have written about constitutional government, this founders and framers and those that inspire them and apply it to the race that is going on for the republican nomination to take on obama. what do you think about the race? >> first of all, obama must be defeated. that is the first step. he must be defeated. whoever the republican nominee is because our country cannot stand too much of this, i don't believe. it's not just financial instability because that is what it is. these things are unsustainable, entitlements, massive deficits but the fact is the disrespect and disregard of american history. american spirit the constitution itself. they are laughing at us. they have no intention of complying with the words in the constitution. as for the republicans, my attitude is, we pick the most conservative candidate that is standing in my humble opinion, that is rick santorum, i don't care how much the romney campaign attempts to talk about earmarks. earmarks? tarp romney supported.

on friday night philadelphia, a few months ago ibis walking in the door and there was an actual ben franklin impersonator and franklin is a huge figure in this book and i spend a lot of time reading these letters between franklin and priestly so when you walk in the door and there's been franklin, so i introduced myself and said i just wrote a book about you and he was totally in character and said well priestley and i need many years ago 1765i believe so i'm not going to do any more impressions, but that may be in my future. i'm going to tell you a little bit about how i got to this story. i wrote two books about video games and pop culture and then went to the next logical thing which is 19th century cholera. [laughter] now i figured the only thing more excited is 18th-century chemistry. i was going to write about a bigger book which i think i'm still going to write about innovation and the spread of ideas. and one of the things i have been writing and thinking a lot about is ecosystems and how the metaphor of the ecosystem is useful to think about the way information flows through the soc

. >> jimmy: now, is it, like, a ben franklin-looking key or is it -- >> it is. it's huge.-- he's probably got some party shack or something everyone's allowed to go to. [ laughter ] now, you're from paterson, new jersey, right? >> paterson, new jersey, yeah. [ cheers ] >> jimmy: they call that silk city. >> yeah, yeah, silk city. >> jimmy: silk city they call that, yeah. >> silk city. >> jimmy: and when you score a touchdown, you do the silk city salsa. >> yeah, that's what -- sort of people have overcame and took the -- you know -- >> jimmy: put the name on it. >> exactly, exactly. >> jimmy: now, this is happening -- this is in tribute to your grandma? >> tribute to my grandmother. well, it started off as something for hispanic heritage month. i happened to be getting my first nfl start on week three against the philadelphia eagles and -- are you guys -- you philly? >> jimmy: yeah, they're philadelphia. yeah, yeah, yeah. >> so, i was getting my first start against them. my coaches were joking around and they're, like, "hey, if you get in the end zone," you know, "you got

. >> what's that ben franklin quote you have in here about moderates are compromisers?ays compromisers don't make great heroes but they make great democracies. >> peter, thank you for coming by. you thinking of running for office? >> not a chance. this is my role. >> part of the problem is that people like you don't run for office, peter. >> no, i have a career that's been spectacular. i spent my life fighting for hunger and people who are sick and homeless and write books when i get a chance. >> there's the book. look at it one more time there. there's the title. peter, thanks. >> pleasure. thanks. >> terrific stuff. >>> coming up next, hot commodities. oil up 10% this year. silver up 30%. some of the ages surging as well. will the commodities' bull run continue or is it a bubble about to burst? >>> and later, plenty of chatter about google plus. 90 million registered users but how many people really spend time there? is it a plus or a minus for google? forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't f

. >> urich in the ben franklin book you can see a lot of notes taken while reading the book. when you put these books in the cases committee to look for varying points of view, like jesse sanchez and general? >> yes, exactly so. earlier they mention, one of the criteria was to reflect the broad preset data involved in book notes and that is exactly the point. there are various subjects covered in the 801 books. and secondly, many, many points of view from our political press activity social gives come humanistic perspective, all kinds of perspectives. >> is this archive available for scholars or for the public? >> it is beginning to become available. library staff are catalogued in the collections. we are about 40% through it at this point. for the titles that have already been catalogued, yes they are available to any student faculty member here at the university and of course because this information is accessible through the world wide web to scholars elsewhere. >> in the united states and abroad. >> you'll be putting it on the george mason website at some point? >> we've

if people like edison had waited to make every or ben franklin or some of those people had waited to solve every problem on earth before they did their research or before they were curious about doing something new we wouldn't have made the progress we had. >> woodruff: with the shuttle program behind us, what should the u.s. be doing in space exploration. >> it's too bad that the shuttle is behind us. i think the previous administration that made that decision i think made a grave error. i don't think that was a right decision at all because it means now that for this time period through these number of years we're passing through right now, we do not have an american space craft on which we can go into space to get our people up there to the international space station to do the research it was built to do. we spent over $100 billion on that. we should have had a continuity program that let us build, research, and that the research we do up there is of benefit to everybody right here on earth. >> woodruff: before we go, senator, you're an aston astonishing 90 years old. you seem re

. >> host: and here again in the ben franklin book you can see a lot of notes taken while reading the book. when you put these books in the cases, did you look for varying points of view as c-span does in general? >> guest: yes, exactly so. earlier i mentioned one of the criteria was to reflect the broad perspective involved in "book notes," and that's exactly the point. there are various subjects covered in the 801 books, and secondly, many m points -- certainly, many, many points of view from a political perspective, a social perspective, humanistic perspective, all kinds of perspectives. >> host: is this archive available for scholars or for the public to see as well? >> guest: it is beginning to become available. library staff are in the process of cataloging the czech. we are about -- collection. we are about 40% through it at this point. for the titles that have already been cataloged, yes, they're available to any student, faculty member here at the university and, of course, because this information is accessible through the worldwide web, to scholars elsewhere in the united s

and i am particularly pleased that this luncheon is being held in the ben franklin room with ben franklin steering over uzbek because it is named for a man who is both one of america's first diplomats, and also one of our earliest innovators and entrepreneurs. he understood that our country's greatness we depend on both public excellence and private enterprise. and it is in that spirit that we gather today to discuss how americans foreign policy in shaping u.s. businesses abroad and drive recovery here at home, and also help provide a strong foundation and effective economic tools that can strengthen and sustain america's global leadership. now, here at the state department we call this economic statecraft. and we have worked to position ourselves to lead in a changing world where security is shaped in financial markets and on factory floors as well as in diplomatic negotiations, and on the battlefield. that's why more than 1000 economic officers on six continents are working with american companies, chambers of commerce, local businesses, and local and national governments to open market

ben franklin used to keep a daily journal where he tracked his virtues to figure out if he was beinga better person and i think we live now where we like the idea of archiving and tracking ourselves. i know you were talking about the tool for deleting data and having expired but i don't know anyone would want their photo album to just disappear in two years. that this kind of usually our worst nightmare when your house burns down and we lose precious photographs. but i think there are so many benefits to this -- to these new technologies and this idea of tracking and gathering data and being able to look at it over a long period of time and i think that's something that ben franklin for one would have loved to a certain extent. >> i think certainly the founding fathers would have found a tremendous utility in the schools, except if george washington is talking to delaware and one of these guys says on facebook it's pretty cold this christmas as they head for trenton and alerting those other guys that could have been a problem. so, you know, as laurie has been saying and i think what

ben franklin used to keep a daily journal where he tracked his virtues to figure out if he was beinga better person and i think we live now where we like the idea of archiving and tracking ourselves. i know you were talking about the tool for deleting data and having expired but i don't know anyone would want their photo album to just disappear in two years. that this kind of usually our worst nightmare when your house burns down and we lose precious photographs. but i think there are so many benefits to this -- to these new technologies and this idea of tracking and gathering data and being able to look at it over a long period of time and i think that's something that ben franklin for one would have loved to a certain extent. >> i think certainly the founding fathers would have found a tremendous utility in the schools, except if george washington is talking to delaware and one of these guys says on facebook it's pretty cold this christmas as they head for trenton and alerting those other guys that could have been a problem. so, you know, as laurie has been saying and i think what

. >> in town, transity police officer ben franklin morales was gunned and killed inside the card o'zotion. it there were cameras but no recorded video, something that was inexpensive to fix. all riders ask right now is that those cameras don't fail them. metro says that camera which was painted over had been repeatedly vandalized and they are looking for a new location. that's why it has not been fixed. police say when they have eyewitnesses and other evidence, that is just as helpful, even without a camera. and in that case, for example, in which that bus driver was stabbed, montgomery county police were eventually able to make an arrest. that's the latest here in northeast. back to you. >> sherry li, thank you very much. >> it is now 8:09, coming up on 8:00 ten. we are still dealing with mild weather here. out west, a blizzard warning is in effect. we're going to check out conditions in colorado when we come back. >>> and february is heart month and there is a new study out that says young people need to pay closer attention to their ticker. we are talking about people in their 20s

ben franklin used to keep a daily journal where he tracked his virtues to figure out if he was beinga better person and i think we live now where we like the idea of archiving and tracking ourselves. i know you were talking about the tool for deleting data and having expired but i don't know anyone would want their photo album to just disappear in two years. that this kind of usually our worst nightmare when your house burns down and we lose precious photographs. but i think there are so many benefits to this -- to these new technologies and this idea of tracking and gathering data and being able to look at it over a long period of time and i think that's something that ben franklin for one would have loved to a certain extent. >> i think certainly the founding fathers would have found a tremendous utility in the schools, except if george washington is talking to delaware and one of these guys says on facebook it's pretty cold this christmas as they head for trenton and alerting those other guys that could have been a problem. so, you know, as laurie has been saying and i think what

i am particularly pleased at this luncheon is being held in the ben franklin room. america's foreign-policy can champion u.s. businesses abroad and drive recovery here at home and also help provide a strong foundation and effective economic tools that can strengthen and sustain america's global leadership. we call this economic statecraft. we have worked to position ourselves to lead in a changing world where security is shaped in financial markets and on factory floors as well as in diplomatic negotiations. that is why more than 1000 economic officers on six continents are working with american companies, local businesses and local and national governments to open market and find new customers. we are forming new partnerships with companies, universities, and philanthropies to put private sector ingenuity to work solving some of our most difficult global challenges and driving sustainable development. i think it is fair to say, and i see a lot of my experience colleagues in the room, at this is not a -- this has not always been a traditional focus. why is the secre

ben the negative that it could be. >> jim, when you look at that and see what franklin graham is saying and speaking for the, you know, the nation as a thought leader for the religious right of this country, is that the conversation that people are having behind closed doors? isn't reaching the national level that people aren't publicly having? >> it's a good question. i'm not sure how big of an i affect it actually has on the campaign. i don't trust polls that ask the question whether or not they think that his faith. there's no doubt you're going to hear from christians like franklin graham that they don't consider mormonism to be a christian faith. does that disqualify romney from getting their vote? we won't know. i do agree with anne that his biggest problem is people are not enthusiastic about him, whether or not it's his faith or economic policy or how he carries himself on stage. for whatever reason there's a big chunk of the party that doesn't like him, doesn't trust him. that's why michigan is so important. if he were to lose in michigan, it would be a devastating to me indictment of mitt romney. it is a st