in madison in wisconsin, so they took me to the south of carolina, and they put me on trial in strom thurmond federal courthouse in charleston, south carolina. across the street was the confederate cemetery. from the courthouse, they flew two flags -- the u.s. flag and the confederate battle flag, which was the state flag of south carolina. from the court room, i could look out the window and seaport sumter in the distance -- see fort sumter. they put me on a case with no marijuana. they invented imaginary marijuana. they said i was charged with conspiring to contribute 10 tons of colombian marijuana. i pled not guilty. i had a jury trial. i was found guilty on one account, acquitted on nine. i had an appellate case and the supreme court case. i was then facing 15 years. since may to nine. when i went to federal prison, i did time in eight different states in nine different federal prisons, including four penitentiaries -- that is a maximum security. including the united states penitentiary at marion, the first super federal max. that is on a marijuana convention. -- conviction. i spent most

something if he means all americans old enough to remember when cigarettes were harmless and strom thurmondas a democrat. the tea party and the naacp represent this proportionally older memberships. herein lies a problem with some much of our discussion about race and politics in the obama era. we will get back to a little more of that in a few seconds. first, more calls regarding how the president can rebound. nashville, tenn., on the line for democrats, go ahead. hunter? caller: i can't believe i got through. yes, sir. we just saw joe biden yesterday at the jackson dinner here in town. i believe that obama has a shot at coming back. first thing is have his bill as a governing based on fairness, honesty, opportunity. make it known he does not support greed or sloth -- either one of the extremes. the guy who says he is not from america needs to forget about them -- there is no way to change their minds. and i guess the one thing i would have told him was do not run a deficit higher than what bush did because now there republicans have obviously got a problem with the deficit standing. so, w

the same questions trail led largely incapacitated senator strom thurmond into his late 90's as he left the senate at age 100." again, when it comes to congress, how old is too old? justin, neb., republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i do not think that age has so much bearing on it as term limits. i think we have guys in there for too long, they are getting too comfortable. term limits are placed on presidents for a reason. a lot of people think -- forget about how much coal that congress actually has. i think that term limits are something that we should focus on. host: john, saratoga springs, how old is too old in congress? caller: let me preface this by saying that i am about 48. i am not a young man. but once you had about 70, i think you are too old. these men get entrenched in there. some of the things that they do, they are out of touch they have been there for so long. they have more power than the president. everyone blames the president for everything, but these guys make the big decisions, really. once you are not sharp and out of touch with t