resulting in the tragic murder of officer stephen tyrone johns. this was a murder based on hate and malice and took the life of a good man. a security officer for six years at the holocaust memorial museum and resident of temple hills, maryland, which is the district in which i represent, officer johns was beloved by his family and friends. colleagues called officer johns big john. he was known as a gentle giant and remembered for his friendliness, soft spoken nature and gentle demeanor. this morning i had the opportunity to speak to officer johns' mother and stepfather. the entire family is grieving this senseless loss. above all, the family wanted america to know that stephen was dedicated to his job and his family. his mother said he loved his job and he took his duty at the holocaust memorial museum very seriously. so seriously that he ended up paying the ultimate sacrifice. as we join officer johns' family in struggling to find answers, the truth is that this was a senseless act and a senseless murder that has resulted in a great loss. office

kilroy: to the grieving family of stephen tyrone jones, i offer my deepest sympathy. you are in our thoughts and prayers. to the men and women in blue, especially those serving here on capitol hill, i offer my condolences at the loss of your brother officer and recognize the courage and devotion to duty he displayed at the cost of his life. i know that our nation's police forces stand ready each and every day to serve and to protect. this particular outrage is all the more heinous because of the place of the crime, our national holocaust museum and memorial. and because its perpetrated -- perpetrator had a repeated history of public ex-preckses of racism and anti-semitism. it is long past time for us to come together as a nation and put an end to racism to put an end to anti-semitism. to put an eand to homophobea and to eliminate hate crimes. to come together and say that hatred and intolerance should not be allowed, that we should be able to end this as a community and come together as a nation that respects each other for the true gift of the individual that each of

speaking of hate crimes, i should point out with the killing last week of of asserts stephen tyrone jones at the holocaust museum -- the killing last week of stephen jones. i know that senator leahy, who has long been one of our strongest allies, would agree on the need for more aggressive congressional action. s chairman of the senate judiciary committee senator leahy will be presiding over the confirmation proceedings for judge sonia sotomayor, who i am thrilled to know is currently in line to be the first latino american member of the united states supreme court. perhaps we will hear and i suspect we will more about the confirmation process when senator leahy takes the podium. i should make one final point. senator leahy recently reestablished the judiciary subcommittee on human rights in the law, a move that i strongly support and help will eliminate what is essentially an artificial distinction between what we usually referred to as domestic civil rights and what we call global human-rights. the first that we should take is to restructure the u.s. civil rights commission, but i will

tyrone is on the phone from memphis. caller: how are you doing? we are spending too much money on foreign stuff, all these wars and stuff. we've got a lot of problems over here. we need to bring all of the troops back and give these people jobs over here. a lot of folks here in the united states -- we need to get the jobs that instead of concentrating on other folks issues. host: thank you for the comment. let me go back to something we saw earlier -- senior administration officials say they want to "talk our way through this" with key players in honduras. who is talking to whom? guest: well, at this point, i think that the head of the oas is doing a lot of the negotiating, and that is proper. there is a sense that democracy is the official governing doctrine of the americans, and any coup requires a meeting of foreign ministers of the organization of american states. but you can be certain that the american ambassador is also negotiating here. and we must negotiate the return of zelaya. that is the crucial point. he is the elected president of ho

speaking of hate crimes, i should point out that with the killing last week of officer stephen tyrone jones of the holocaust museum, it appears we may be seeing a new, perhaps boulder phase of the hate crime problem, and i know senator leahy, who has long been one of our strongest allies in an effort to pass a stronger hate crimes law would agree to the need for more aggressive congressional action. as chairman of the senate judiciary committee, senator leahy will be presiding over the confirmation proceedings for confirmation sonia sotomayer sonia sotomayer -- for sonia, who i am thrilled to learn is -- to know is currently to be the first female hispanic member of the supreme court. i will hear more when senator leahy takes the podium in just a moment. i should make one final point. senator leahy reason to reestablish the judiciary subcommittee on human rights and law -- recently reassembles the judiciary's the committee on human rights and law, a move that i hope will eliminate an artificial distinction between what we usually referred to as domestic civil rights and what we call g

host: tyrone is next from los angeles. good morning. caller: hi. it's steve actually. that's ok.i wanted to find out if you would be interested in reviewing a friend of mine's book who is a ph.d. at the university of maryland it talks about how the iraq war is for israel and basically the palestinian situation is based on that, how the neoconservative that i've spoken with you at the university of maryland a few years ago, the name of the author is dr. see iten sagastki, university of maryland, ph.d. guest: i certainly would be happy to see the book. i don't know about reviewing. but i'd be happy to see the book. host: irene is next from monroe, north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. guest: good morning to you. caller: i enjoy your conversation this morning. and you're exactly on the nose, on the dime -- guest: thank you. caller: when it comes to the lebanese situation. now, i wanted to say something about the israelis. dth the israelis from the time of 1948 when they became a state, they were mostly ruleded -- ruled from the group that came from london and europe. t

on the holocaust memorial museum, a despicable anti-is he met eck act that killed officer stephen tyrone johns, and so eloquently articulated by so many of my colleagues yesterday during that debate, we a lule officer johns for his bravery and his courage and extend our deepest condolences to his family. i rise today not only to express my support for h.res. 529, but also thank my good friend and colleague, mr. klein, for introducing it and including me as a co-sponsor. mr. speaker, the holocaust memorial museum is a noble and vitally necessary attempt to remember and honor the victims of the holocaust. the memorial itself is a witness to truth and the promotion of human dignity and tolerance. wednesday's attack on that museum by a crazed hate philed gunman is yet another chilling reminder that our society still harbored a dangerous collection of bigots and racists who hate jews. unparalleled since the dark days of the second world war, jewish communities around the world are today facing violent attacks against synagogue, jewish cultural sites, cemeteries, and individuals. anti-semitism