i saw perry mason when i was a child. my father used to take me to the court house to watch the lawyers practiced law when i was 8 years old. i believe in the mission. i believe -- i am a true believer. i think those images influence children. we have one here in the front row. some to serve as prosecutors first and then become criminal defense attorneys, but many of us want to defend the constitution and those rights from the very beginning, from jump. i think we do not just me to believe it in our hearts, we need to profess it publicly. i do believe, though, that jerry is right. it is not enough to talk about it amongst ourselves. it is a larger public dialogue that needs to happen in terms of the resources, the jury pool, and that means talking to people who identify more with victims. we now there are one in 100 people behind bars. that means one in 100 people knows somebody connected to the criminal justice system. that is a tremendous opportunity for us. that means there are people in every sector of society who ide

those are the same qualities they were looking for when perry mason was popular. old, traditional values. it seems to me if afl-cio can buy ad time on dodger games, i do not understand why public defenders cannot do the same thing. the last point i want to make, i served on the california judicial bench council on media. you may or may not know that newspapers are cutting back their coverage of court to all the time. the tradition of the journalistic way of getting your story out does not exist anymore. that is bad but it is also an opportunity. the idea of blogging, the opportunity to step into this void in get your message out directly is incredibly important to your >> carol, what does blogging do for our public image? >> well, it may also get me fired -- [laughter] it is an easy way to publish. there are barriers to the press, but here is a little button that allows you to publish. if you can attract enough readers, you can get our message out. whether it is telling stories of public defenders in their everyday life, which i have done, but also use it to try t

a lot of us grew up watching "perry mason." you don't see those kinds of movies now it seems to be almost seasonal that you have, you know, either positive or negative portrayals. but it seems to follow a certain cycle. we have so many shows on tv now about, you know, police and law enforcement. i think we have, what, maybe three different "c.s.i. i "series now, "law & order" parts one, two, and three. what do you think counts for the portrayal of our justice system and how it shifts over time? and also if you've seen in terms of what writers have done or haven't done. >> you know, i was -- when i was listening to mr. serra, i was thinking, you know, actually the law is this huge thing. and there are parts of it that work really well. and when i started out, i was a young lawyer at a large wall street law firm. and believe it or not, we did really good work. and since we typically litigate against or are involved with other large corporate law firms, the other people did railly good work. and since we were typically in federal

philadelphia again he's celebrating someone he thinks was unjustly he's not celebrating this is perry mason we're talking about now is this the most brilliant lawyer of all time this and let me ask your question are you familiar with leonard peltier yes ok leonard peltier was convicted of killing and you know we're going to wounded knee it's a similar no it's not you know why is it because you pay you five in you should it's the exact same thing it's a guy convicted of killing a law enforcement official now guess who wrote a song about leonard peltier yeah donna ok yes where he was right who you are that's a rapporteur. peltier and the average of all names and faces that you might be familiar with if you happen to watch this network. and the stacks of pardon applications were those of prisoners like native american activist peltier it's staying all the way but u.s. government is letting this out it's a letter peltier was sentenced to two life terms in prison for allegedly killing two f.b.i. agents but the initial trial was corrupted some argue peltier's only crime was his political activism

one in philadelphia again celebrating someone he thinks was unjustly he's not celebrating he's perry mason we're talking about now he's just the most brilliant lawyer of all time this coat on the loose for sure are you familiar with leonard peltier yes. leonard peltier was convicted of killing you know we're going to wounded knee it's a similar right no it's not your life is it because you're petty fogging you should it's the exact same thing it's a guy convicted of killing a law enforcement official no guess who wrote a song about leonard peltier yeah. ok that's where he was right who you know all right that's a rap word leonard peltier to me of which i'm all names and faces that you might be familiar with if you watch this network. in the stacks of persian applications were those of prisoners like need of american activist lynyrd peltier it's shameful the way the u.s. government is letting the capital letter peltier was sentenced to two life terms in prison for allegedly killing two f.b.i. agents but the initial trial was corrupted some argue poti years only crime with his political acti

police lawyers and courts were confined to parking tickets and wells in watching perry mason. we had no idea how to help even if we wanted to. >> that is where we began. we were living in that space for a while. we did not know the pictures were and just saw the newspaper reports. nobody had seen the photographs. i felt as the mother of the boy those close to her daughter i had to do just to show you do have to help people in need. i felt i could not get on a soapbox to say this woman is innocent but i believe she believes she is innocent and i trust that she believes that. i set up a legal defense fund is so i could raise money. she had lost her job as a school bus driver as you can imagine. and there will be paid legal fees and i think people were grateful because it gave them something to do without getting up on a soapbox. things change during the children's services case because 30 of us were subpoenaed to testify. fellow parents, soccer coach, teachers, a violin teacher, people who have standing in the community and all 30 of us were shown the photographs and once we saw

i read the old perry mason -- my nickname in budapest when i was 9 years old was harry --perry u mushon't pronounce mason. my favorite novelist, somerset maugham who has written so much, i haven't caught up with him though i am still reading him regularly and loyally but i read all kinds of other authors. one of the most interesting things about fiction to me is half of these authors managed to put you in the minds of other people. things you would never be able to achieve by your relationship to other people unless you are extremely close to them. instead you have these wonderful novelists of all kinds. i have favorite novelists who are commies. artists about penetrating human consciousness and looking out word from a new perspective. to me that is without doubt a major value in human life. >> host: an e-mail, the first half is how the mortgage crisis fits in with ayn rand. we talked about that. the second part is what is your solution for the $14 trillion problem the country has. >> guest: i don't have a solution. this is a problem. suppose somebody throws you out of 870 story buildin

perry in charge of four but we'll see where this thing goes. it's the good the bad of the very very when soon to see notably the good mason the dog back head april twenty seventh in alabama tornadoes snatched the mason out of his family's garage and swept to far away mason's owners have given up on hearing that he was killed and it's right there on monday more than three weeks after the storm yes i'm sure that back at home base. he's got two broken legs and they're just a radio owner fractures they've not been able to be in alignment so neither one of them the field so he had to call on two broken legs to get home. mason is healing now and there are talks of making him a mascot for storm survivors who says that we can learn a lot from our four legged free runs the bad dick cheney the former vice president and man without a pulse gave a keynote address at an energy conference yesterday during a question and answer session cheney was asked what he thought about paul ryan his plans to privatized medicare and he had this response. worship the ground that paul ryan walks and i think it's an enormously talented individual and he's trying to do the rig

stanley -- in fact, my nickname in budapest when i was only 9 years old was perry ma-shon because i didn't know how to pronounce masonader of all kinds of books. my favorite novelist is, of course, somerset mom although i can't chasm up with him. although i'm reading them regularly and loyally. but i read all kinds of other authors and i -- and one of the most interesting interesting things about fiction to me is how these authors put you in the minds of other people. things that you would never be able to achieve by your relationship to other people unless you are extremely close to them. instead, you have these wonderful novelists, of all kinds -- and i have -- i mean, i have favorite novelists who are commies like what's his -- menchel, the swedish guy. and they're just artists about penetrating human consciousness and looking outward from a new person. and to me that is without a doubt a major value in human life. >> host: here's an email and you've addressed the first half but the not second. the first half how does the mortgage crisis and banking foreclosure fit in with ayn rand and we talked about it but what