>> his from lebanon. he is an american now, but his family is from lebanon. i e-mail with him sometimes. one of the great wonderful things about writing these pieces for the "new yorker" is that you get to meet these extraordinary people that you would never be otherwise and spend time with them and get to know them and get -- and keep in touch with them. i did a piece a couple of months ago about this brilliant software mobile and silicon valley -- so off wheremogul -- software mogul, who began to coach his daughters basketball team. he encounters one of our little closed cultural world. what happens? he took this team of gross of the national championship. -- of girls to the national championship. when what i had met him? you write the story and you get to know these people. >> was story did you write that was the easiest? >> the opening piece in the volume, the profile of ron popeil, the great kitchen gadget entrepreneur. the king of late-night infomercials. one of my favorite pieces that i have ever written, and far away the most interesting. because he i

you have to take into account of what we have witnessed over time with lebanon, gossip, our own experiences as american-moslems, the kind of indecencies we have been exposed to as good, law- abiding american citizens for the period of time, has affected our community. even though you should give this administration credit, we have lived through a lot so far, not just the past eight years but the previous history, the 60 years that i visited refugee camps in lebanon. these are palestinians from 1948 and allies are no better than when they got there are this is a longstanding history. he cannot stop his fingers but we believe that more can be done because we have seen that when there is political will in the united states to mobilize american forces, what can be done when there is that will in washington. that is what we are asking for. that is a sentiment that you feel coming from a community of people who are not palestinian but who care about the decency and dignity and justice for this population that has suffered so much for such a long tunnel. [applause] >> thank you. i would like to th

the 60 years that i've visited refugee camps in lebanon, these are palestinians from 1948. their lives are no better than when they first got there. this is a longstanding history. and you are right, he cannot step -- snap his fingers. what can be done when there is that will in washington, that is what we are asking for. that is the sentiment that you feel. this population really has suffered so much for such a long time. [applause] >> i would like to thank you all for attending. i hope you enjoyed the panel. i would like to thank all the panelists. what i take from this discussion is a deep admiration and a deep love of the united states and its best. that is something that we all agree on. i think there is disappointment at times when the nation does not live up to its values and it is those areas where there is clearly room for criticism. what we would like to see, and i would encourage everyone to carry through on these policies, these kind of policies that have improved the standing in the world. hopefully we will see it to state solution and see palestine born before

. >> yeah, my wife is from lebanon air guy here that occasionally, like when some is in an argument with me about a certain point and you know, they are losing or whatever. [laughter] >> well, you're not really black anyway. like, how is that an invalidate anyway. i black enough for the both of us. the thing is that blackness is whatever you are. there's no authentic way of being black. there is no one sort of thing, and didn't like jim brown is black and what else it is deviations away from him. you, or malcolm x is the standard and everybody else deviates away from him. we all perform blackness in our own way. it's a little different for everybody. you know, and even clarence thomas is black. he can't get away from it. we may not like the way that he performs blackness, and that he thinks about blackness, but he's still in the tent. you can't kick them out. >> i'm just happy i need a hill is a woman. i will say there was one thing, i don't know if my family knows this, in the '70s when my dad wrote the book, i remember he got a letter, a phone call from someone and he was really upset.

and these go all the way back further, but go back to the 1983 bombing of our troops in lebanon. so there has to be a way. and i think what has to happen, we have to adapt to the threat that we face. it's not what we did in the cold war. it's a new type of threat. we're learning painfully, we're learning as we go along. i think we have it right now. it's taken us several years to get it right. but i'm optimistic here that we can prevail. america must prevail. if we're going to preserve civilluation as we know it. >> host: your background is political, not military. but the president referring to the $30 billion price tag for the war in afghanistan that did not outline a way to pay for it. congressman suggested that maybe we need a war tax. >> i would leave that up to the congress to decide. i understand this is a painful time for americans given the economy that we are in right now. all i would say is if you are going to put troops in harm's way, they have to have the resources to match the mission, the requirements. and i think it's important that we do that. i hope we can take

my wife is from lebanon, i hear that occasionally, like, when somebody's in an argument with me about a certain point and, you know, they're losing or whatever. [laughter] well, you're not really black anyway. like that. how is that an invalidator, you know? i'm black enough for the both of us. [laughter] but the thing is, you know, blackness is whatever you are. there's no authentic way of being black, there's no one sort of thing and then, you know, like jim brown is black and everybody else deviates away from him or malcolm x is the standard and everybody else deviates away from him. we all perform plaqueness in -- blackness in our own way. it's a little different for everybody, you know? and even clarence thomas is black. [laughter] he can't get away from it. we may not like the way that he performs blackness, that he think thinks about blackness, but he's still in the tent. we can't kick him out. >> well, i'm just happy anita hill is a woman. [laughter] i will say there was one thing, i don't know if my family knows this, when my -- in the '70s when my dad wrote the book, i remem

was basically silent during the attack on lebanon and so forth. there is this sense of what are the standards? is there a double standard that undermines our authority as the federal government that people across the world has to take stock with a? it is a reality that affects. [applause] >> i appreciate what you're saying. this administration, beginning with a the president visiting and a stumble and continue his speech in which a visiting istanbul and continuing his speech in other places -- this administration, beginning with the president visiting istanbul and continuing to speak in cairo, there were a lot of the issues that caused tension over the past years. to speak frankly about issues on which we agree and the issues on which there are differences, to recognize that small slum communities are diverse, that they exist in a variety of different places, that in different communities have different issues that are most important to them, different priorities with respect to the united states, and we want to pursue relationships that go beyond

the 60 years that i've visited refugee camps in lebanon, these are palestinians from 1948. their lives are no better than when they first got there. this is a longstanding history. and you are right, he cannot step -- snap his fingers. what can be done when there is that will in washington, that is what we are asking for. that is the sentiment that you feel. this population really has suffered so much for such a long time. [applause] >> i would like to thank you all for attending. i hope you enjoyed the panel. i would like to thank all the panelists. what i take from this discussion is a deep admiration and a deep love of the united states and its best. that is something that we all agree on. i think there is disappointment at times when the nation does not live up to its values and it is those areas where there is clearly room for criticism. what we would like to see, and i would encourage everyone to carry through on these policies, these kind of policies that have improved the standing in the world. hopefully we will see it to state solution and see palestine born before

to get an answer to that question, we need look no further than what has been loaded with lebanon. and that a tent at a peaceful revolution that happened they did their own peaceful revolution, and a paralyzed beirut for more than a year. i think it is a matter of in previous decades, the 1980's, really, the 1990's, and the beginning of this decade, you really had the advantage, but increasingly, they are learning this tool book and using it for their own purposes. >> question here. >> [inaudible] >> please wait for the microphone to get to you. >> i'm from voice of america. in your documentary, in your opinion, what is the main message that you want to describe? i have another question. you must have had time to talk to the people. what do you think the opinion is with regard to how important is the nuclear issue for them? the government claims that it is for the people. what is your opinion on that? >> these are both really difficult questions to answer. i will start with what should be easier one, even though i actually sort of took a distance from the documentary before it was

they are in yemen, iraq, lebanon, gaza, afghanistan, syria, sudan. its agents and proxies are practically everywhere in its aspiration for regional dominance, not to mention our own back yard. tomorrow's nuclear iran would have a compounding effect with severe consequences for regional security and u.s. security. the time for action is long past now. this bill would help address this threat, targeting the regime's achilles heal. but we need a broad-based policy not just based on iran's nuclear program but one to protect u.s. and its allies and speaks out against human rights abuses and bolsters its democracy supporters. disturbingly this administration has backed away from missile defense in europe and the democratic movement inside iran. the administration must realize that promoting democracy in iran and improving our national security go hand in hand. i would just mention that sanctions help bring down apartheid in south africa and ended the south african program to end nuclear weapons. as ranking member of the subcommittee on terrorism, nonprolif

you create a public option, doesn't mean someone from lebanon or about a taeuf i can't or -- or batavia or cincinnati or middle town or hamilton has to take that public option. but it does mean because of the existence of the public option there will be more competition and the insurance company will behave better. you'll get better quality, lower prices. and you won't have these companies dropping coverage because of preexisting condition. let me just add one other thing, madam president. there was a story in the dow jones story a couple days ago entitled humana's third quarter profits up 65%, cease strong medicare advantage gains -- sees strong gains. humana's third quarter earnings rose 65% amid improved margins its government. the company gave an initial 2010 forecast which the health insurer projects substantial membership growth resulting in well above the analyst forecast. the forecast takes into account reductions in medicare advantage overpayments. madam president, we sat on this floor the last few days listening over and over to my friends on the other side of the aisle defend

these attacks go back further to the 1983 bombing of our troops in lebanon. there has to be away. what has to happen is we have to adapt to the threat we have faced. it is not what we did in the cold war, it is a new type of threat. we are learning as we go along. we have -- it has taken as several years to get it right, but i am optimistic that we can prevail. america must prevail if we will preserve civilization. host: your background is military, but also a reference to the fact that the president referring to the $30 billion price tag for the afghanistan war but did not outline a way to pay for it. david obey suggests maybe we need a war tax. guest: i would leave that up to congress for the side. it is a painful time given our economy. if you are going to put troops in harm's way, they have to have the resources to match the mission. it is important we do that. i hope we can take that into consideration with our own economy. we have to find ways to pay it. i am sure congress can be convinced of the importance of this mission. they have always found a way to support troops, and

host: carl, democrats line, lebanon, oregon. caller: i would like to us can -- to ask him what we're going to do about this but that we got, and if he is talking about keeping labor down, and i can we not come to a happy medium -- why can't we come to a happy medium where we have a fair wage? a worker has got to be able to live. guest: he is absolutely right. we have to have a fair wage, but as i explained, the wage is not fair and is going down because the money is being depreciated. his question about the debt, that is important. what are we going to do? we are not one to pay it off, we know that. when a country gets so deeply in debt that it cannot in -- cannot get paid, they liquidate it by default. when you have $10,000 in the treasury bill you are always going to get your money, but the government and the federal reserve -- of money supply last year, so if you have a treasury bill -- doubled the money supply last year, so if you average rodrigo -- have a treasury bill, you may not get as much back. the dollar is worth less

so i think to get an answer to that question we need to look no further than what hezbollah did in lebanon following the killing of the president at the time and that attempt at a peaceful revolution that happened. well, they just copied the techniques of the peaceful revolutionaries and they did their own peaceful revolution. they paralyzed beirut for more than a year. so i think it's a matter of, you know, from previous decades from the 1980's, the 1990's and the beginning of this decade you really have the advantage. but increasingly sort of repressive regimes are learning this, this tool book and they are using it for their own purposes. >> question here. away from the microphone if you could. >> i'm from voice of america. in your documentary, in your opinion, although it was a documentary, but what was the main message? i have another question. during your stay in iran, you must have had the time to talk to the people. what do you think their opinions in regards to how important is the nuclear issue for them as their government claims that it's for the people , what is your opinion on

in the afternoon the president welcomes the president of lebanon on to the white house. while the economy is the bulk of the white house meetings today, violence continues in afghanistan well today taliban fighters killed 16 members of the afghan national police. admiral mike mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs, speaking earlier to reporters said he is deeply concerned about the growing level of collisions between afghan militants and extremists taking refuge across the border into pakistan. he made the comments after arriving in kabul to discuss the upcoming surge appeared the u.s. military is commenting on last week bombings in iraq in a statement to the associated press. the military said it warned iraqi officials about possible attacks in baghdad on the same day that bomber struck government sites in the capital last week. however, the information did not include specific actionable intelligence. those bombings killed 127 people. an update on the americans being held in iran. the country's foreign minister said three americans jailed since crossing the border from i

to get an answer to that question, we need look no further than what has been loaded with lebanon. and that a tent at a peaceful revolution that happened they did their own peaceful revolution, and a paralyzed beirut for more than a year. i think it is a matter of in previous decades, the 1980's, really, the 1990's, and the beginning of this decade, you really had the advantage, but increasingly, they are learning this tool book and using it for their own purposes. >> question here. >> [inaudible] >> please wait for the microphone to get to you. >> i'm from voice of america. in your documentary, in your opinion, what is the main message that you want to describe? i have another question. you must have had time to talk to the people. what do you think the opinion is with regard to how important is the nuclear issue for them? the government claims that it is for the people. what is your opinion on that? >> these are both really difficult questions to answer. i will start with what should be easier one, even though i actually sort of took a distance from the documentary before it was

charles malic was our ambassador to the united nations from lebanon and the president of the u.n. general assembly in 1958, made this statement, 1958, whoever tries to concede the american word without taking full account of the suffering and love and salvation of christ is only dreaming. i know how embarrassing this matter is to politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen and cynics, but whenever these honored -- whatever these honored men think, the irrefutable truth is that the soul of america is at its best and highest christian. that was the u.n. ambassador and president of the u.n. general assembly in 1958. ronald reagan, our 40th president, 1984, said the frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion claim they are doing it in the name of tolerance, freedom and openmindedness. question, isn't the real truth that they are intolerant of religion? they refuse to tolerate its importance in our lives, unquote. ronald reagan, 1984. now, i point out these quotes from our history, could read volumes and volumes of quotes basically along the same lines. not trying to push chr

watts basically talent during the attack on lebanon. is there a double standard that undermines or credibility as an american government in that part of the world that people sort of have to take stock with? it is a reality that affects our community here and muslims throughout the rest of the world. [applause] >> i appreciate what you're saying, and i think there are a couple of points that are important to make here. the first is that this administration, beginning with the president's visit to istanbul, continuing with his speech in cairo and other travel and meetings that have gone on since then is trying to do two things. number one, to speak frankly. we should all agree that the cairo speech, if nothing else, was a very frank discussion of a lot of the issues that have caused tension over the past years. so to speak frankly about issues on which we agree and issues on which there are differences. to recognize that muslim communities are diverse, that they exist in a variety of different places, that different communities have diff

and run for office in lebanon for parliament and decide whether or not you want to come back to the united states or not. the issue here and i spoke with the jdl before and these guys floating back and forth, i think we have issues here we have to look at as a country. i grew up when i saw the pictures of george washington crossing the delaware, i was on the boat with him. when i saw lewis and clark, i was with them. it was my story. we are inhibiting that story from being the dominant narrative when we are in a situation where we encourage dual citizenship and people voting in other elections and then ethiopia invaded my country. i will go and defend my country. when our department of state funded the elections in iraq in this country and the cochair of the republican party of san diego is quoting the l.a. times saying at last for the first time in my life i get to vote, i said what the heck is going on. you just voted in the presidential election in this country. that's your country here. make a choice. we have to look at that. i'm not going to be popular with both parties and even peopl

these attacks go all the way back further, but go back to the 1983 bombing of our troops in lebanon. so there has to be a way. i think what has to happen is we have to adapt to the threat that we face. it is not what we did in the cold war against the soviet union is a new type of threat. we are learning, painfully, as we go along. i think we have got it right now. it has taken us several years to get it right. but i am optimistic here that we can prevail. america must prevail if we are going to preserve civilization as we know it. host: your background in the military, the president referring to the $30 million price tag -- the $30 billion price tag for afghanistan but did not outline a way to pay for it. one congressman suggested a war tax. guest: i would leave that up to congress to decide. i understand it is a painful time for americans given the economy we are in right now. all i would say is if you are going to put troops in harm's way, they have to have the resources to match the mission, the requirements that you give them. i think it is important that we do that. i hope we c

host: lebanon, tennessee. good afternoon. caller: i teach u.s. history to eighth graders. and i love u.s. history. i continue to read and learn about it. thank you for "freedom: a history of us". my problem is teaching u.s. history is motivating my students. do you have any advice for teachers of students who think they do not need to know u.s. history? guest: i would give them projects. i don't know if you know about national history day. i love that. it is an organization. a lot of kids, maybe 600,000 or more participate, and they do projects in history to very high standards. it is a competition. you compete with kids in your own great. you can do a paper. that is usually the least popular. you can do a story board. a lot of the kids -- i have been a judge -- and a lot of the kids have been judged on plays. you can do an individual play where you write and perform it. or you can do the groupthink. the quality of the stuff that kids do. some of the things i have seen, i cannot imagine doing it even as well. this is just on the local, state level and the winner come to wa

host: carl, democrats line, lebanon, oregon. caller: i would like to us can -- to ask him what we're going to do about this but that we got, and if he is talking about keeping labor down, and i can we not come to a happy medium -- why can't we come to a happy medium where we have a fair wage? a worker has got to be able to live. guest: he is absolutely right. we have to have a fair wage, but as i explained, the wage is not fair and is going down because the money is being depreciated. his question about the debt, that is important. what are we going to do? we are not one to pay it off, we know that. when a country gets so deeply in debt that it cannot in -- cannot get paid, they liquidate it by default. when you have $10,000 in the treasury bill you are always going to get your money, but the government and the federal reserve -- of money supply last year, so if you have a treasury bill -- doubled the money supply last year, so if you average rodrigo -- have a treasury bill, you may not get as much back. the dollar is worth less

host: carl, democrats line, lebanon, oregon. caller: i would like to us can -- to ask him what we're going to do about this but that we got, and if he is talking about keeping labor down, and i can we not come to a happy medium -- why can't we come to a happy medium where we have a fair wage? a worker has got to be able to live. guest: he is absolutely right. we have to have a fair wage, but as i explained, the wage is not fair and is going down because the money is being depreciated. his question about the debt, that is important. what are we going to do? we are not one to pay it off, we know that. when a country gets so deeply in debt that it cannot in -- cannot get paid, they liquidate it by default. when you have $10,000 in the treasury bill you are always going to get your money, but the government and the federal reserve -- of money supply last year, so if you have a treasury bill -- doubled the money supply last year, so if you average rodrigo -- have a treasury bill, you may not get as much back. the dollar is worth less

to get an answer to that question, we need look no further than what has been loaded with lebanon. and that a tent at a peaceful revolution that happened they did their own peaceful revolution, and a paralyzed beirut for more than a year. i think it is a matter of in previous decades, the 1980's, really, the 1990's, and the beginning of this decade, you really had the advantage, but increasingly, they are learning this tool book and using it for their own purposes. their own purposes. >> >> question here? >> with a microphone if you could. >> i am from voice of america. in your documentary, in your opinion, what is the message? i have another question. during your stay in iran, he must have had time to talk to the people. what you think their opinion is on the nuclear issue for them? what is your opinion on that? >> vet is a difficult question to answer. i will start with what should be the easy one even though i actually took a distance from the documentary before it was broadcast because it focused very heavily on the human interest story and i was interested in doing the big pic

host: lebanon, tennessee. good afternoon. caller: i teach u.s. history to eighth graders. and i love u.s. history. i continue to read and learn about it. thank you for "freedom: a history of us". my problem is teaching u.s. history is motivating my students. do you have any advice for teachers of students who think they do not need to know u.s. history? guest: i would give them projects. i don't know if you know about national history day. i love that. it is an organization. a lot of kids, maybe 600,000 or more participate, and they do projects in history to very high standards. it is a competition. you compete with kids in your own great. you can do a paper. that is usually the least popular. you can do a story board. a lot of the kids -- i have been a judge -- and a lot of the kids have been judged on plays. you can do an individual play where you write and perform it. or you can do the groupthink. the quality of the stuff that kids do. some of the things i have seen, i cannot imagine doing it even as well. this is just on the local, state level and the winner come to wa

they are in yemen, iraq, lebanon, gaza, afghanistan, syria, sudan. its agents and proxies are practically everywhere in its aspiration for regional dominance, not to mention our own back yard. tomorrow's nuclear iran would have a compounding effect with severe consequences for regional security and u.s. security. the time for action is long past now. this bill would help address this threat, targeting the regime's achilles heal. but we need a broad-based policy not just based on iran's nuclear program but one to protect u.s. and its allies and speaks out against human rights abuses and bolsters its democracy supporters. disturbingly this administration has backed away from missile defense in europe and the democratic movement inside iran. the administration must realize that promoting democracy in iran and improving our national security go hand in hand. i would just mention that sanctions help bring down apartheid in south africa and ended the south african program to end nuclear weapons. as ranking member of the subcommittee on terrorism, nonprolif

>> guest: it was never in lebanon taken at. this is one of the circumstances where in recent days and weeks there are things back and forth kind of ricocheting like a ping-pong ball. but there's an effort here to try to get to the end of a process by which you have reform health care in a way that advances the country's interest that it is not over. we will see when it is over what we have, what do you come down on expanding medicare? >> guest: i think it is not the sort of thing you do just by suggesting it. if it's worthy of doing, and i don't know whether it is or not, you create an intellectual framework for it, studied economics, what's it mean me to current medicare. those who are curley on medicare, what will the cost be. i don't think that's what you can do in today's or two weeks. i think there's a much bigger issue than that. >> host: is the talk is now moving away from expanding medicare, what are democrats looking at to replace this, which was going to be an alternative to the public option? what's the latest? >> gu