i'm generally supportive of reform and i'd like to see some reform because we have booker t. washington, other cases we have that there has been c-e-q-a abuse and the challenge that you do have is not only that you have the process of the city, but booker t. washington which we voted on a year and a half ago is still being litigated in the courts. so, you know, people can do c-e-q-a here, but they do c-e-q-a in the court. there is a challenge when people are he opposed to projects and they use c-e-q-a as the way to poe pose those projects. i wish there were a way to better separate those issues out from, you know legitimate environmental concerns. * but i don't think anyone is here wanting to weaken, talk about lessen the protections that we have because i think that everyone would recognize c-e-q-a has been valuable in decision-making process. all the

who don't want lower income housing in their neighborhoods or people of color in the neighborhood, booker t. washington center was mentioned earlier. and the business community, we're as guilty as anyone else. we have k-mart suing wal-mart to stop any type of economic competition. all under the guise of environmental protection. the end result of all of this litigation and needless delay -- a detriment to our environmental well-being. development follows the path of least resistance. when you have litigation in urban areas where you have a lot of people and people don't like people, that development horizontally sprawls right into suburban areas and you get horizontal development, transit -- rather auto dependent development which is not good for our vieerthv. environment. you are being asked today to institute a fair process so so that honest brokers can challenge battered projects while protecting good projects from the bad players whose motives have nothing to do with environmental protection. to finish, i'm party to the negotiations with senator rubio in the state capital working on c-e

when the booker t. washington affordable youth housing project came to the board, we had to approve a special use district for that project. at the last minute, i think the day before or the day of our land use hearing, a c-e-q-a appeal was filed. we were required to take the entire matter off calendar and it delayed our consideration by two months. this legislation would provide that if the board is required to legislate for a project to happen, the board of supervisors becomes the c-e-q-a decision maker and the c-e-q-a item automatically comes to the board and is agendized along with the underlying zoning change or whatever the legislative change is and the board considers them, the two items together, and then the full board takes action. not deprive anyone the ability to comment [speaker not understood] c-e-q-a. in fact, it came to an automatic appeal. another change is that currently when a c-e-q-a appeal is filed, no action can be taken by anybody, by the board, by any commission. and that means t

any ofof us should say that.ing, i am booker t.freder washington, frederick dougss, a douglassi and i keep those >> the fo remind me of the obligation. he the first time i think iir heard you you were talking about the declaration ofce. independence that mr. lincoln alludes to write are to out of the gate for score and seven 1860's three negative seven that is 1776. with the imagery then he quotes from the declaration. brought forth a new nation dates nation conceived in liberty dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. up there in the a alongside the gettysburg address and the emancipation and the constitution itself. i invite you, as you have talked about lincoln, to tell us a little bit about what you think of the declaration and its part in the american story. >> in the beginning we have these rights we are endowed with certain inalienable rights and we give up some of those rights to be governed by consent. that is critical. for me, when i started though, it wasn't so much about government. it was about what

while i'm at lincoln person, i am a booker t. washington, frederick douglass, and i keep those around me to remind me of what our obligations are, yours and mine. >> the first time i think i heard you, you were talking about the declaration of independence. which of course mr. lincoln alluded to right out of the gate in the gettysburg address, four score and seven, 1863 minus in 87, that 1776 when do the math. our father began this imagery and any quotes from the declaration. our fathers brought forth a new nation and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. that is the language from the declaration. you have often, you have thoughts about the declaration. it's up there in the rotunda alongside the gettysburg address and the emancipation and the constitution itself. i invite you, as you have talked about lincoln, to tell us a little bit about what you think of the declaration and its part in the american story. >> in the beginning we have these rights we are endowed with certain inalienable rights and we give

while i'm at lincoln person, i am a booker t. washington, frederick douglass, and i keep those around me to remind me of what our obligations are, yours and mine. >> the first time i think i heard you, you were talking about the declaration of independence. which of course mr. lincoln alluded to right out of the gate in the gettysburg address, four score and seven, 1863 minus in 87, that 1776 when do the math. our father began this imagery and any quotes from the declaration. our fathers brought forth a new nation and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. that is the language from the declaration. you have often, you have thoughts about the declaration. it's up there in the rotunda alongside the gettysburg address and the emancipation and the constitution itself. i invite you, as you have talked about lincoln, to tell us a little bit about what you think of the declaration and its part in the american story. >> in the beginning we have these rights we are endowed with certain inalienable rights and we give

going to be misused, and the whole thank -- whole thing that bothers me and the booker food stamp this week, and they dry tntinuously make poverty more comfortable to the point where people don't get off of it, less effort to get off of it. okay, we'll pay your rent. we'll pay for your food. we'll pay your transportation. we'll give you a cell phone. at what point do i have the need to get off the sofa? neil: the college fund, not a handout, but a hand, and where does the government, then, draw the line, and what should the line be? what should the government be doing? do you ignore or do you do something that helps them? my view, if you help the economy, you deal a good way towards getting rid of homelessness. >> broad prosperity helping everyone, bottom line. when bill clinton enacted health care reform, people were upset about that, but it added to the level of accountability, and the era economy, they never talk about the fact that he lowers welfare roles and made people go to work at at least have skin in the game or some accountability. you got to add a level of accountability to this. it's not a bir

booker of newark, matthew dowd, also grover norquist, also an nra board member and katrina vanden heuvel, publisher and editor of "the nation" and you write for washingtonpost.com. let me bring to you tet journal", you have a blow-by-blow account of how the speaker's plan collapsed after the president's plan collapsed, as well. in your view what went wrong? it seems like there were so many wrong turns and absolute collapse. >> yeah, it has been a bit of a debacle -- i think you can say. i think the speaker has been in an impossible situation and i think that he tried to put forward a plan that just might save things a little, and it didn't work. i do think part of the story, which is doesn't get enough attention from folks like us is that the president has been a little michael corleone towards the republicans in the negotiations with boehner and that essentially he is saying when boehner says i'll give you this, i'll give you this i think the president is saying this is what i'll give you, nothing. he doesn't want to reduce spending. the republicans are willing to spend on taxes but spending is where the real action is and i really do think this will go up to the end and over. >> i

according to my record, in 1972 the historian louis harmon published the first of his two volumes on booker tshington that was written -- worthy of a pulitzer prize. the silence enveloping black writers began to break. in 1973, demagoguery of the novels richard wright by the frenchman, followed by a 77 of the novelist historian by the american scholar robert hemingway. and in 86 and 1988, came my two volumes on hughes. aided by a voluminous archive left behind by hughes, i tried to tell through the lens of one crucial life the african-american story as it had existed, and exists at a certain social level. i tried to do justice to the complexity that had been discounted over the centuries, and the representation of american racial reality. the picture is quite different now. the 1990s saw a steady rise of prize-winning biographies of black americans by writers such as taylor branch and william fugate in 1994 and 2001, david lewis one pillagers for each of his two volumes on dubois. this year, a biography by the lake manning marigold won the pulitzer prize. this surge in biographical writing by