christopher hitchins. [cheers and applause] [applause] tony blair was the prime minister of the united kingdom from 1997 until 2007. among his many international roles today, he is a representative in the middle east, working with the u.n., the u.s., russia, and the eu to try to secure a lasting peace in the region. after leaving politics, mr blair converted to catholicism and launched a global initiative, a foundation, to promote respect and understanding among the world's great religions. many of us in this room have read his recent best-selling memoir, "a journey of my political life." kirsten hithins is an author, journalist, an atheist. his regular "vanity fair and" riding is central reading for anyone and anyone concerned about global affairs. christopher has a number of best-selling books, too. obviously, "god is not great." in his recently published memoir. he was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and as such, we are doubly grateful that he and his family are here tonight. >> let me briefl

a christmas day, tony blair and author christopher hitchins of the role of religion, garrison kelioer talk to the cuban public life and sandra day o'connor and david souter discuss life on the high court. "washington journal" continues. host: sally quinn is with us this morning, founder of "on faith," interactive forum on washingtonpost.com, celebrating five years. i wanted to begin with why did you begin this discussion and have you accomplished what you set out to achieve? guest: actually, we just celebrated our fourth anniversary. one more year to go and then we are taking -- [laughter] i sort of backed into it as a journalist. i began to see that there were so many stories that involve religion that i didn't think that we were covering in the paper. i just didn't think we were covering religion. if you look at "washington de" or yesterday or a before, we have front-page stories on religion almost every day. something. it just talking about ks in the military. that has been a religious issue. the marriage is a religious issue. abortion. national politics, foreign- policy. and it ju

christmas day, former british prime minister tony blair and author christopher hitchin on the role of religion, garrison keilor talk about humor in public life, and supreme court justices sandra day o'connor and david souter discussed life on the supreme court. >> the u.s. census bureau announced the result of the 2010 national account at an event tuesday. census director revealed the figures and took questions. we are going to show a portion of this event right now and will follow that with the directors appearance on today's "washington journal." >> i am proud to report to the american public the 2010 national and state population counts and apportionment results for the house of representatives. it is the 24th -- 23rd time this country has done this. at that time we were just a nation of 3.9 million people in 1790. this is the time when all of us come together to counter ourselves and make possible the critical step in our democracy. we begin with this release with a revelation of the national population counts. the official count of the u.s. as of april 1, 2010. th population on t

if you look at people like christopher hitchins and richard dawkins, a major atheists and are passionate why not, let's try it. i do not think anybody thought it would go anywhere. it has really taken off particularly in the last -- i think there was sort of a turning point when the issue of the mosque at ground zero came up. which is not a mosque and not at ground zero, but i had been friends with imam faisal for years and wereoth on my panel so we were all over the story six weeks before it even became a story. i have interviewed her for "the washington post, what did a video interview. think when the story broke we were so on top of it that people in the paper and the website said, religion, gosh, it is not like people did not see that it was an issue but i had a feeling that there was that moment where people began to say, we really do need to focus on this. it is one of the top-10 features on the whole washington post website. the traffic is growing and people are seeing it. you look at the last election or any political election where religion becomes a huge issue. sharron angle an