and i got into the mfa programs, but bizarrely, miraculously, esquire magazine bought two of them. >> hinojosa: that's kind of... >> and then i said, "wow, i'm a writer now." and they asked me if i wanted to do nonfiction for the magazine. and i remember to this day they proposed that if i wanted to go and write about sherpas in nepal. and i said, "no, i want to go back and write about what's going on in guatemala." >> hinojosa: and that's surprising that they said yes, because, you know, when you think back about central america and its relationship to the united states and the wars, a lot of people know about nicaragua and the sandinistas and the contras, and a lot of people know about what happened in el salvador, maybe, you know, not as deeply. but there's not a lot of detail about what happened in guatemala. >> yeah. >> hinojosa: i mean, if you know, you know that there was a genocide. >> there was a genocide. it was by far the most... it was the most violent, repressive country, really that latin america has seen since the conquest. >> hinojosa: and the longest civil war, right?

contributor editor of esquire and writes the political blog. to us from west newton, massachusetts. welcome inside "the war room"." >> happy new year, governor. >> jennifer: happy new year. i know you wrote about this woman. i was curious with your take on it. if you had a chance to talk with debralee hovey what would you say to her. >> i would say stay off--limit measure facebook postings to pictures of her dog and what happens in the town hall council meetings, this is indicative of her. if going forward gabby giffords and mark kelly follow through to push back against the nra, the slime machine will come after them. what happened to her will not make her immune. sarah braidly got slimed. jim brady got slimed. it's going to happen. i certainly don't have any reason to think they're not but i hope they're ready for it. debralee hovey is just the beginning of itism. >> jennifer: i totally agree with you. gabby giffords took a bullet. i guess she can take the slings and arrows for a good cause. do you think she would be the face of the cause lik

" magazine, writer at large for the esteemed magazine called "esquire."welcome, fom. >> thanks. glad to be here. >> your article is called "thank you for fracking." when we hear about new forms of energy like natural gas, yeah, but there's an underbelly that you say and yet even though it's controversial, it cannot go away you say, right? like we are stuck with this. >> i don't know if we're stuck with it. at least in the current form. but it's an invention of the last decade and a discovery of the last two or three decades of the shale gas is viable and it's a resource we can't ignore because it makes us at least for some short period of time energy independent and i think most people see it as a two to three-decade loop to play out and where we'll collect the gas and it will lead us to the next energy source and there's energy to be harvested, money to be made, people are going to after it and i think what we owe it ourselves to do is examine how it's gone on in the past ten years at least since the advent about six years ago and how it will go on. >> l

pierce, where he leads esquire magazine's politic blogs. >> good to see you, governor. >> jennifer:al strategist l joy williams is also joining us from new york. >> yes, and snow has already started falling. >> jennifer: i'm sorry to hear that. but it's not a reason to deny climate change. charlie a lot of people say that rigging the electoral college like this is never going to happen, but if michigan unions can be gutted is anything possible with these guys? should we be paying more attention to these republican-lead state houses even if the virginia governor said he was not necessarily on board with the plan. >> the electoral college is really a safety school. it's someplace you go when you can't get into a regular college. [ laughter ] >> jennifer: and we should get rid of it in my humble opinion. >> there is no question about that. but bob mcdonald saying he is not going to approve of the plan is not bob mcdonald not signing it when it gets to his desk. because the electoral college is this misbegotten acronym it is perfectly within their right to do this. >> jennifer: well in

if i cannot raise the issue in that way, the way i have been doing it, personally i get quoted in esquire for what i have done, but i still have no connections. it is still up to me to do that? i am doing everything can. i do not know what else to do besides try to make a profit in a city that is over-taxing the and running down. [applause] >> i do think that you can do a lot through talking to your city supervisor and working through that process. i am telling you, there are ways that began help you. alcohol is a local issue on this type of matter. what we are behind would you guys want to do, whenever that is. a lot of times we do not always have statutes that make that much sense. it is partly the ways that the laws have evolved and we are the ones who are stuck with enforcing them the way that they are. that does not necessarily mean that we think they are particularly good ideas, but we certainly want people to grow, prosper, and be saved. that can be achieved in all sorts of ways. we want to work with you on that. thank you. >> i was the founding president of the entertainment commi

he also is a prolific magazine writer for "sports illustrated," rolling stone and esquire. if you never read "what it takes" i couldn't recommend it more to you. shoot us an e-mail and let us know why you're awake. can you tweet me and we'll read the best responses later in the show. still ahead here on "way too early," alabama rolls its way another national title. but last night's win over notre dame was not without just a few hiccups including a really weird freakout by the alabama quarterback. his team was up four touchdowns. we'll show you the highlights. also there, hillary clinton back at work at the state department after spending a month away due to health concerns. she gets a very pleasant surprise welcome back from her staff. we'll show you that. >>> and we'll get a check on the weather when "way too early" comes right back. >> reporter: a gunman walked up, opened fire on gabrielle giffords and the crowd. six people were killed, among them, a 9-year-old girl and a federal district judge. at least 13 others were injured. so you say men are superior drivers? yeah. t

we're joined by the heroic charles pierce contributing write for "esquire" and author of "idiot americaevening to you. >> good evening to you. >> john: the president has an ambitious agenda guns, immigration which angers all those people who want to use those guns to shoot immigrants, what do you think the president needs to focus on first. >> well, i don't know that he's going to have much choice. he only has 16 months to governor before everyone starts running for president and no one is listening again. i think he does see some room for compromise over on pennsylvania avenue on that issue. but gun control has been just dropping it's ahead. the country is crying out about that more than anything else. i think he'll wind up doing both of those at once and that will be a tough road. >> john: gun control is an issue that democrats say people have hit the snooze button on since the 90s. can they get gun control through this congress. >> to be honest with you, i don't know what he can get through this congress. i think he can chip away a little bit at it, but i do think that if--i mean, if

he also won the national magazine award three times for articles including "esquire", the atlantic and "rolling stone." the third magazine award was for a "national geographic" story. and now he has the title contributing writer to which requires m to right to three articles per year for "national geographic." he describes his field as evolutionary biology, a theoretical ecology and conservation but after this evening i hope you will have as much appreciation for his physical strength and stamina for his writing talents. he tracks indiana jones style through rain forest that most of us would not want to step foot and. tonight you'll learn a new word. infectious diseases originated in animals and spread to humans. if you read the hot sun -- hot zone you had an early exposure to this frightening scenario that david has elaborated on a great deal in his new book "spillover." "publishers weekly" gave it a star review call mac a frightening but critically important book for anyone interested in learning about the prospect of the world's next major pandemic quote. year is speenine. [applause

won the national magazine award three times for articles in a wide variety of magazines, including esquire, the atlantic, and rolling stone. one of his works was for a national geographic story entitled was darwin wrong? he has the title of a contributing writer, with which gives him and requires him to write three articles a year. he studies theoretical ecology and conservation. after this evening, i hope that you will have as much appreciation for his physical strength and stamina as you have for his writing talents. in his research, he tracks indiana jones style through jungles and rain forests that most of us would never want to step foot in. tonight you're going to learn a new word. it is about infectious diseases that are originated in animals and spread to humans. for those of you who read "the hot zone", i can't believe it's been about 20 years ago that was written, but you have had an early exposure to this scenario. david has elaborated a great deal on his new book, "spillover." it was given a review and said that this is a frightening but critically important book. for anyone in

the team's ability to identify with the rover is fundamental to mer's design esquires explains.e said the whole idea behind mer is that these tools work together. look at the discovery of the silicon. the mobility system by which he means the rovers wheels, we notice with the pan cam wide-angle camera. we hit it with the many test to check for iron. it looks interesting and we go over it and we figure out its molecular composition with the ap's ex, everything works together. having instruments that work together encourages the teams to work together. this was choir's vision which he called science systems engineering. he said you have got those sensors in each and each of them provides complementary bits of knowledge. you are going to use the payload to the fullest advantage if people look at it as being entirely at their disposal. if you are out there the field he says doing geology with your field partner, you might be arguing about what this rock means or what that rock means that you're not going to be arguing about should we use the rock hammer or should we use the compass?

wrote this phenomenal piece in esquire back in the summer. question number one being, you know, during the confirmation hearings, do you think it will be more of a defending, that john brennan will be defending his use of drones or distancing himself from it? >> i don't know if he has to defend it. it seems -- there really is no force within the congress who is anti-drone who i think is -- i think that this is an opportunity to make him defend the drone program, but i don't know if that's going to come up. >> you don't think people in your piece will be calling for more transparency. >> i think people within the piece, people that you -- from the outside, but the question is whether people with power are going to be calling for more transparency. >> you said something interesting in a commercial wrea break, i want to bring it up again. he's been the moral spokesperson when it comes to droenz. >> he made several high profile speeches, basically making a just war argument for the drones. a lot of the people who are the sort of central to the ad

won the national magazine award three times for articles in a wide variety of magazines including esquire, the advantage and rolling stone. the third of these awards was for a national geographic storing called when stock went wrong. national geographic now, david quammen has the title contributing editor which gives him -- requires him to write three article year i think, three article year for national geographic. he describes his feet as sealed, biology and evolutionary biology, theoretical ecology and conservation. after this evening, i hope you will have as much appreciation for his physical strength and stamina as you have for his writing talent. in his field research he tracks indiana jones style through jungles and rain forests that most of us would never want to set foot in. tonight you are going to learn a new word, at least i learned that new word. zoonos zoonosis, infectious diseases that originate in animals and spread to humans. for those of you who read the hot zone, which was 20 years ago, you had a very early exposure to this frightening scenario that david quammen has el

i was on a plane this weekend, bought a lot of magazines for the trip, "sports illustrated," "esquire i'm the demographic the nfl is appealing to. all of them had articles, each one of the three, super bowl week, super bowl month, all of them had articles about violence in football. >> we're on this show talking about it. >> players committing violence. if the demographic who should be watching football is reading that, seeing that on shows like this, reading that in the magazines they read, the nfl has a tremendous image problem, and it is in our culture now. >> something good came out of these wars we're coming out of, that is the research and development that happened with our soldiers. you have to go to the hospitals and talk to these guys. seven, eight years ago, they would have been given up on, mouth service, but now we're really involved in trying to help them and their families come back together in society. and if we don't, so many fall through the cracks and wind up like this brave football player, unfortunately kills himself. and, you know, a lot of these soldiers, if we d

later wrote about baseball player ted williams "esquire" in 1996.n to politics in the late '80s that defined his career. cramer's captivating chronicle of six presidential candidates offered an original and personal perspective on the dare i say it, human side of politics. because of cramer, we really came to know george hubert walker bush's past to the presidency and know about the protective son of the same name who is incredibly competitive with senior staff on that came pain who showed some traits that would become familiar during his own time in the white house. the politically tragic aspect of how he always seemed to finish behind the elder bush. gary hart's self-destructing slide chronicled in real-time. joe biden scranton roots, tragic personal loss and near-death experience. again, he was chronicling that in real-time. dick gephardt's hard drive to become a contender and michael ducaucus political posturing that secured the democratic. an appreciation for cramer's collection of stories grew and grow over the years. changed political reporti

. >> i'm greg esquire from george washington university. they knowledge the housing market was coming back. i'm wondering if anyone has a sense as to what extent does this come back reflect gentrification that is simply displacing a lot of low-income people, perhaps for reasons that have almost nothing to do with the foreclosure crisis or job loss but simply because of appreciating property values in the neighborhood. >> i don't think -- i think from your question you and i are probably sharing sympathetic political views, but i'm not sure that is what is happening right now. i'm not entirely convinced we don't have further to fall, but the fall is slowing because as i said earlier that ironclad rule of economics, something can't go on forever. it will stop. home values have been falling for so long for so far that at some point it's going to stop. but there has been already an enormous amount of damage, still a lot of pressures, still a lot of foreclosures, and a lot of the housing market is the move of market. they don't have any equity t

writing for "esquire", "rolling stone" and two newspapers, cramer excelled at the finely drawn profile, from baseball stars to irish revolutionarys to american politicians and he won the pulitzer prize in 1979 for his coverage of the middle east. his 1992 book "what it takes: the way to the white house" which told the story of six men who ran for president in 1988-- became a gold standard for politicalournalis for more on kramer's influence we're joined by jil klein of "time" magazine. joel klein you're a storyteller, too, in much the same way richard ben cramer was. what did his way of telling stories -- how did it inform what you did? >> well, you know, he had such a wonderful eye for detail. and he was so relentless. he also had the time and space to write in detail and he wrote beautifully. and the thing that i think that mostnfoed journalism after that year that you spent with them and i spent with them on the bus in 1988 was the kindness and the humanity that he displayed toward politicians. at a time when, you know, the default position for hour business was cynicism, non-stop c

it recently was destowed with a five star overall crash test rating as well and esquire's car of ther. >> not your granddaddy's cadillac. >> i guess not apparently. >> 65 is the new normal retirement age, many americans work later in life, and, in fact, the number of workers 75 and older skyrocketed by 77% in the last two decades according to the aarp. reasons american workers may decide to put off retirement vary from loving the jobs to needing the money, and the fear of rising cost in medical bills. while the 75-plus group of workers jumped, it's a small percentage of the labor force representing 8% last year, up 4% from 1990 due in part to a mandatory retirement age of 70 for many jobs. i hope i'm here when i'm 85 reporting on markets. >> you're going to have to pry me out. we'll sit here with the glasses, the two of us. >> herbal light sales come bag, we have exclusive new details ahead. >> plus, economists, who should play ben bernanke who his term is up? hard to say good-bye. look at today's winner and losers on the s&p 500. ♪ lori: okay. breaking news, some good news. former p

city hall to the middle east before he became a magazine journalist, worked for "rolling stone," esquire, "sports illustrated," before he went down that path. this book was the pantheon of the great campaign books, written about the 1998 campaign and took him a long time to do it, came out in four years after. it became one of the classic books that reporters and people in politics look to as having been definitive, not just about that campaign but style of campaign journalism, a blend of deeply researched reporting with new journalistic techniques in the tom wolfe kind of school. it's an incredible, incredible book. the most impress sev thing about it, true of all his books of politics. he wrote some of the best sports profiles about ted williams and joe dimaggio. he's the most sympathetic writer you can imagine, always striving to understand the world that his characters, how they saw the world. he would say he's always trying to get behind their eyes. he didn't write in a confrontational way, trying to see the world as his characters saw the world and gave them em immense empathy very

a conservative editor to the "washington monthly" and has been a staff writer for "harper's" and "esquiren the program by inviting douglas blackmon up to the podium. doug. >> thank you. thank you very much. it is a pleasure to be here and a pleasure to be on a panel with such remarkable contributors to these conversations and so many ways about race in america. i stand in two places as a writer and scholar both in terms of in the current moment, i am an active journalist and i write about presidential politics and the things that immediately surround us in american life. i write about things that happened a long time ago. it involved people who are long gone. they do shape the world we live in now. even though we are here to talk about race in america right now, some of the challenges that are before us i will go back in time more in terms of this assessment this magazine took on of the emancipation proclamation 150 years later in the sense of what progress has been made in terms of african-americans. most of my historical work in my book, "slavery by another name," and the documentary fi