Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20150403

Here is the front page of the wall street journal this morning. Iran agrees to outline of deal inside the wall street journal. What each side agreed to. The accord calls for ran to reduce the number of installed centrifuges to 6,104 from about 19,000. Of those just 5,060 will be used for the next ten years. Iran must also refrain from enriching uranium over 3. 67 purity, the level suitable for power plants but not weapons for 15 years. And allow International Inspectors regular access to all Nuclear Facilities as well as their supply chains. Those are some of the conditions that iran must agree to. And the u. S. And its partners will begin to lift many sanctions against iran within four to 12 months of a final accord depending on how quickly iran implements procedures. And snap back sanctions if iran is found a range of sanctions penalizing domestic and Foreign Countries for establishing economic and financial ties with iran. Those are some of the conditions in the agreement. Another article in the wall street journal before we move on to other papers and their take on this law makers oppose early easing of sanctions. Congressional republicans worried the framework of a nuclear deal with iran may provide too many concessions at the ran. Law makers said theyre still examining the details but the reaction still broke upon party lines. The House Speaker said my long time concerns about the parameters of this potential agreement remain. My immediate concern is the administration signalling it will provide nearterm sanctions relief. Bob corker, republican tennessee, said that the Framework Agreement didnt persuade him from pressing through with lets begin with daryl in cleveland. What do you think about this Nuclear Framework . Caller i think its i basically think its horrible. Its a horrible, horrible deal. Host why . Caller because youre giving iran which is a sponsor of terror number one in the world, this Supreme Leader who is a religious nut. Youre giving them all this relief up front on these sanctions. In the short term iran doesnt care about the Nuclear Weapons. In the short term what they care about is the lifting of the sanctions because they know if they get the sanctions lifted that means hundreds of billions of dollars they get it lifted up front. It isnt like you know in a year were going to lift some sanctions, theyre getting all these sanctions lifted up front. They already got what, 12 billion, theyre going to get hundreds of billions of dollars this will make iran essentially a superpower because theyll get hundreds of billions of dollars and in about four or five years once theyve built up all this money and had control in places like yemen, syria, libya, places theyll become a superpower in the region they can just break the deal and theyll be too powerful for anyone to stop. Sanctions are meaningless then host and this is tyrone in north carolina. Good morning. I would like to say i pray to god that this works. Im tired of republicans opposing everything the president do. Give this thing a chance to work to see what happens and we wont have to send more lives over there to get destroyed. Wait to see how things work out. Host mary says give peace a chance. Jane says were screwed. Adam says tree son ason treason. Up next is herbert in georgia. Please go ahead. Caller you know what you have a conscience. You know what let me tell you something, iran the United States is trying to come together with other countries. People cant see that. You have people sitting up there on fox news to see the president do anything successful she says id rather give a blood transfusion transfusion, if i had to get it from obama, id rather die. Especially on a news station. You want to see success i dont care republican or democratic president for the people we need to stop this bickering. Peter, news is a ministry. Its not in the church but its a ministry that god has and people need to start honoring their ministry by not being biased. Host thats herbert in georgia. Rick is in louisville ohio. Please go ahead caller since obama got in office he has not really done anything to stop what bush and cheney created. When bush and cheney got elected, you had the state of israel and the state of texas team up to go to war to manipulate oil and the amazing thing about this relationship is that the fracking industry and oil, to get oil to 100 a barrel, you have to have the fed. Now you start bringing in the fed and you go to the Central Banks around the world and what was happening is that the state of israel took over our banking system, took over our fed. This goes back to host can you just give an idea of the source you got for connecting all these dots . Caller i have an accounting degree, i write books about this. Im 100 correct. In fact, what happened back in october is that they stopped quantitative easing and this was put in place through the jews that have been running the fed. And when they quit that host were talking about the nuclear Framework Agreement reached with iran and several other larger powers on the world. Numbers are up on the screen if you would like to comment on what was announced yesterday. Wed love to hear from you. Heres a little bit more of the president from yesterday. So this will be a long term deal that addresses each path to a potential Iranian Nuclear bomb. This there will be strict limits on iran for a decade. Additional restrictions lasting for 15 years. The unpress tented transparency measures will last for 20 years or more. Indeed some will be permanent. And as a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty iran will never be permitted to develop a nuclear weapon. In return for irans actions, the International Community has agreed to provide iran with relief from certain sanctions. This relief will be phased as iran takes steps to adhere to the deal. If iran violates the deal sanctions can be snapped back into place. Meanwhile, other american sanctions on iran for its support of terrorism, its human rights abuses its Ballistic Missile program will continue to be fully enforced. Host heres the front page of the New York Times this morning. Iran agrees to detailed nuclear outline. Eric is here in the suburbs in maryland. Democrat. What do you think about this Framework Agreement reached . Caller well i dont like this deal because iran has to pay u. S. And russia to take care of all the nukes and everything. Our future children have to pay for a lot of removal of stuff. I would rather america to bomb those areas so that america pays for it not us. Im iranian, and i hope this deal doesnt happen. Host so do you see it as a bad deal for iran . Caller yes. Because irans future is going to pay for this, billions of billions of dollars. They already paid to build it. And we have to pay again to remove it. Host eric it seems to have been a lot of celebration in at the ran and throughout iran yesterday after this agreement was announced caller well iranians are dumber i live in washington d. C. Almost 35 years and, i dont know. I just want the ayatollah not to sign this. Host thats a unique perspective. Heres the wall street journal, iranians see victory, hope for new image. Iranians reached an agreement on its Nuclear Program thursday night with expressions of hope. Families drove along the street in central at the ran playing loud music into the early hours of friday. A group of young men blockaded one street and chanted freedom, only freedom. Iran stands to reap a huge economic boost from sanctions relief if it completes a final Nuclear Agreement with the u. S. And five other powers by june 30th. Thursdays agreement left the timing of and conditions for sanctions relief unanswered but it was clear that many economic and financial sanctions could be suspended over the next year. U. S. Secretary of state john kerry said it could start as early as four months after an agreement providing a potentially huge lift to the iranian committee. Moe, california independent. Good morning caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I was born in iran and i have been living here for some time. As much as i dislike ayatollah in iran i have the same dislike for the regime in israel. The question that has been missed is not the question of nukes. Israel doesnt care if iran has a nuclear or not because israel knows that big daddy america is behind them and they can, you know just you know wipe iran off the map if iran tries to do something. But the question that all the press misses is why israel is doing this. Israel is doing this because host im sorry israel is doing what . Caller israel is trying to find out how much power they can they can have in this country. And how much they can push government. You can see netanyahu coming here and going against d host Prime Minister netanyahu has already expressed great disaagreement with this greement with this deal. Caller no, no no, no hes going against obama. Host all right. Back to the wall street journal this morning, israel expresses dismay at outcome. It would bolster irans economy and increase aggression and terror throughout the middle east and beyond according to Prime Minister netanyahu. Now, the president of iran sent out a tweet yesterday and we had it here a minute ago. This is his tweet, hes quite a twitter user. Solutions on key parameters of Iran Nuclear Case reached. Drafting to start immediately to finish by june 30th. Irantalks. Caller good morning. I have a different approach to this. My mother actually used to work at the embassy of iran here in washington and during the revolution in the 1979 she was one of the last people who was actually allowed to stay at the embassy to work there. The embassy didnt know that she was actually jewish because shed hidden that fact from the iranians. Shed worked there for many years. We love the iranian people and we have to remember that the iranian people come from a wonderful history, a wonderful culture, and theyre educated people. When the revolution happened many, many iranians were unhappy about it and have this to wear hijab and do things they didnt necessarily want to do. I was there when they poured all the champagne out in the streets in washington and made iran a very dark country. But just as we got rid of their cowboy president they got rid of their cowboy president too. They want to be welcomed back into the community. They dont want to be pari i cant anymore. Theyve been working with us. We have to keep those things in mind. Theyre not arabs. Theyre not al quaeda. Theyre iranians. Host Prime Minister netanyahu is also using the hash tag, irantalks. Caller good morning. The lady that was just on there is 100 exactly right. First let me say that you folks at cspan perform a service that is beneficial to those of us in america and the world who want to really know whats going on. The people in iran are not arab. Theyre not jewish. Theyre persians and the persians are a very very peaceful society. If the American People need to get on their computers and go and look dont google because google is hooked into the nsa anyway look into the 1953 coup that the United States Central Intelligence agency initiated to throw out the legally elected president of iran and put in this shah of iran. As to sanctions, the sanctions are between russia, whoever, whatever, the sanctions only hurt the innocent people down the street trying to make an honest living host all right. This is mike in concordia, kansas. Caller hi. My name is mike and the way i see it is i think the Peace Agreement is a good deal because we can always go to war later. But if you really want to put an end to these wars just bring back the draft. Thats what a big problem is a lot of these people that are gung ho to go to war, they dont have to go. But if they are drafted youll see a lot of disagreement about going to war. War is the worst thing you got. Like they said on the mash Television Show war is war and war is hell. Host Speaker Boehner tweeted Congress Must be allowed to fully review detailed of any iran agreement before any sanctions are lifted. Greg in vermont your thoughts . Caller i read that the cia says that the iranians were not making Nuclear Bombs and recently i read in the newspaper that the mossad says the same thing so im just wondering how this matches with what our politicians are saying or do they honestly disagree with their own Intelligence Services which is a little embarrassing or scary caller hello . Host louise please go ahead caller hello . My question is what does iran need a bomb for anyway . What do they want to bomb . And another thing is their past shows theyre unstable and we have trouble there. And another thing, clinton and obama when they were out there a long time ago running for office would never let israel down. Never. Thats all i have to say. Host thats louise in pennsylvania. Heres the president from yesterday a little bit more. In the coming days and weeks, my administration will engage congress once again about how it can play a constructive overnight role. Ill begin that effort by speaking to the leads of the house and senate today. In those conversations, i will underscore that the issues at stake here are bigger than politics. These are matters of war and peace. They should be evaluated based on the facts and what is ultimately best for the American People and for our national security. For this is not simply a deal between my administration and iran. This is a deal between iran the United States of america, and the major powers in the world including some of our closest allies. Host little bit from the New York Times editorial. Randall in maryland what do you think about all of this . Caller well i want to say that im very proud of my president. Im proud because he lived up to all the expectations that he was supposed to. Thats why the world gave him the nobel peace prize. Because this president wants to take the high road. He wants to take the high road. And thats the best way to do it. Thats why people trust you. And when you take the high road and you dont talk and you do whats right, but you have to understand the republicans are very narrow minded people. Barack obama was raised literally all over the world. He has a worldly view of things. And not only that hes lived in chicago for years. He knows about the inner city. He knows about a lot of things that republicans care not to even want to know about. Take for instance dick cheney, this guy takes the low road all the time. He plays double politics. He says stupid things like the president is the worst president in his lifetime. I guess obviously he forgot all about his performance, his performance performance. Thank you very much. Host senator bob corker is chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and heres a tweet he sent out. He remains to commit to vote on iran Nuclear Agreement review act on april 14th. Paul in houston. Good morning caller good morning. Thank you. I appreciate what you are doing up there. Im calling just to be able to understand. This world belongs to everybody. Nobody owns it. And america as a nation has the right to protect its citizens. At the same time participate in peace all over the world. The republicans cannot hold us hostage. America should be able to theyre holding this country hostage host thank you, paul in houston. Host this is arnold in north carolina. Another democrat. Hi, around. Oops i hit the wrong button. Sorry about that. Around you with us . Caller hello . Host go ahead caller how you doing . I like host arnold . I think arnold hung up on us. Harry reid tweeted out that he was cautiously optimistic about this Framework Agreement. Now is time for thoughtful consideration and not rash action that could undermine success. Neil from north carolina. Caller i appreciate the opportunity to get a chance to come on. First of all, let me say that that gentleman that had the derogatory and racist comment. Theres an under current of that, that we dont get a chance to hear and i think that its important. But on this Iran Nuclear Deal i think that is a great opportunity for america to show the world that we are the leaders that we say we are. That means we can go for peace, try to reach out to the high levels of folks and the opportunity for us to show the world how the world should be led rather than reducing to the very lowest the most ignorant of the world can do. Elevate and show the world where we ought to go as a people and then if we have to go to war, then we are justified that weve tried everything we can. Its great day for america and the world. Keep up the good job at cspan host Washington Times obama and iran head through with nuclear deal. Greg is in jacksonville, florida. Youre on the air, greg caller good morning. Im a 35year watcher of cspan. Always appreciated the show. Im the alter ego of my friend in georgia you hear from sometimes. Its good to talk to you. Let me send a very strong american thank you to cspan for all the coverage you bring to the American People. I also wanted to say to you just quickly that i just appreciate that call from texas that is very i think that disagreement is good for the country. I also think that the president and john kerry and all those people on both sides of the aisle deserve a hand in trying to support this deal that has come up. Its very interesting again with all due respect to the people of israel that they have not signed the nonproliferation Nuclear Agreement that most other countries have signed. They do have Nuclear Weapons, all the other countries, pack stand, india they have Nuclear Weapons. I actually see this as iran trying to have some assurances themselves that they will be protected by all the hostility in the middle east. So i never really understood that if someone had a weapon and said that they didnt like us why a person cant defend themselves. Caller thank you. I am proud to be american when i listen to this show and how we stand up for im very proud of president obama. Thank you president obama. It reminds me of a speech that i heard from kennedy when he said there is only one choice in this decision and that is a peaceful choice, a peaceful solution. And i believe obama has the same ideas. Thank you so much. Thats my opinion. Thank you. Host raymond georgia, republican. Caller hi. Hi. Good morning, sir. I actually think this deal with iran is a terrible deal. Its a horrible, horrible deal. Host why . Caller with all due respects the iranians cant be trusted. If you go back and check persian history, iranian history, theyve never gone through with any deal whatsoever theyve ever had. We have to understand that we should not the iranians are shiites. They make up about 10 to 20 of the Muslim Population so were going to make the sunnis mad that make up to 80 to 90 of the Muslim Population. It will actually set up a Nuclear Arms Race in the middle east. Everyone in the middle east is going to want Nuclear Weapons now. Its a little bit astonishing. I dont understand the way liberals think. No disrespect. I do understand that people want peace, but they should not settle for less. We are a superpower. The decisions we make affect the world. Host where are you from originally . Caller west Africa Nigeria host all right. Thank you. What do you think about the recent election over there in nigeria . Caller it was a fair election. Jonathan give up the seat and im very proud of him. Nigeria is moving forward. They need to do something about boko haram. Host heres politico, mark kirk republican illinois senator will back lo are the at that lynch when her confirmation comes retta lynch when her confirmation comes lily is a democrat in san francisco. Lily good morning to you caller yeah. I think this is possibly a good deal. If you look at what has been happening with us, weve been trying to leave that region and have also become more Energy Independent and iran sort of had is looking at what it wanted which is to be the main influence in the area they got a little bit of an idea how it would look and basically, it looks pretty chaotic. I think now were sort of i think they maybe need us more than we need them for once and it gave us a little bit of bargaining power. So they have a reason now to make a deal and hopefully will have a reason to stay with the deal. Host early reports indicate this is Obama Administration spinning diplomatic failure. Mary is in florence wisconsin. Caller good morning. I believe that the president s efforts here are an effort to enhance his legacy only. This is all he wants to do is have something to put in his biography and unfortunately, the iranians are fully aware of this. Even if some treaty or whatever they would call it would be signed this will not change the behavior rubeio. I am reminded of all of the negotiations with north korea and i wonder what did that ever accomplish. Host some of the tweets that weve been getting about this issue. This is laura, if five nations think its a good framework, its probably worth pursuing. Another, the framework seems promising but the devil is in the details. Mondaytyty says congratulations to a world with less nukes. Sandy is in North Charleston south carolina. Democrat. Hi sandy caller thank you for taking my call. I think what happened with the agreement was a good thing. Weve already been through war, you know, without any other power backing us and we didnt win the war. We were stuck with debt and this way, you know come to the table, you know have the other powers help us and if it doesnt work, it wont work but you know, in human history, people have tried to work things out before they would just go into allout war. And i think these people are trying to cooperate with us and i just think that we need to go with the other people that are trying to have a peaceful resolution to the nuclear situation. Host thank you, maam. Caller thank you very much host will tennessee caller yes. Good morning. We really thank cspan for the Wonderful Program we have. We got a good look at whats going on in not only america but the world and theres a lot of things that both america and the world needs to know. And if christians are alert today, they know that the holy spirit is making it also possible. A nation going across the internet and throughout the whole world about the problems were having as a nation. Theres a lot of problems that we need to correct in order to avoid a total disaster. The scriptures very easily point out that in the days when god was trying to correct his people they were told over and over by the prophets you better be prepared. All the blessings theyre receiving. Host all right. Well leave it there and move on to rob in kansas. Caller good morning. I just wanted to remind everybody who is criticizing obama on this deal, we did the same thing with the russians over the nuclear issues. Theyve had Nuclear Weapons pointed at the United States for 25 years. We lived through that fear. I remember it very well. Let the deal go forward. Iran had 100 now they have 19,000 reactors. Who what good has it done . Absolutely nothing. Thank you for your time host and joseph caller i think iran is trying to show its dominance in the middle east right now. If they are allowed to pursue a Nuclear Power, youre going to have saudi arabia and the other countries also wanting Nuclear Weapons and this is going to cause more chaos and israel is not going to stand back and just allow this to happen. So the iranians in the past history has proven, they cannot be trusted and so a deal that allows time to go by and allows them to build up centrifuges and other things that can lead to Nuclear Weapons in a country that produce sos much oil for them to use the excuse that they need Nuclear Power to power their country is very poor excuse and the ayatollah has already come out very very strong to say that they want to destroy israel and, therefore, any type of Nuclear Power that is given to them will only cause the region to be more upheaval. Eye tollayatollah produce soss soo host all right. Later in the program well be doing an open phone segment where you can talk about whatever you want to discuss. We have go segments coming up this morning. First up were going to be joined by david smith. Hes an attorney. Used to work at the Justice Department. Were talking about civil asset its known as policing for profit, a shorthand way of walk talking about that. After that religious issues in indiana and arkansas and how that is playing out politically as well. Thats whats coming up in the washington journal this morning. I think in particular in congress itself we have a lack of true statesmen. As much as i may disagree with him, senator john mccaine did something very impressive last year he committed to the Veterans Affairs reform bill. I think at the point where we have people who are willing to cross the aisle and make these decisions with people who they may not often agree with, thats essentially what we need to maintain the security and integrity of our nation as we go on. Host now we want to introduce you to david smith, the former deputy chief of the Asset Forfeiture office of the Justice Department. What does all that mean . What did you do at the Justice Department . I basically supervised their Forfeiture Initiative at that time. It was just starting when i was in the Justice Department and it was very different than it is today. But some of the seeds for todays problems were planted back then. Host when we talk about forfeiture legally, what are we talking about . Guest theres two kinds of forfeiture. Most of the debate has been around civil forfeiture but theres another type called criminal forfeiture which requires a criminal conviction. Thats not as controversial but i keep telling people that in are at least as many problems with criminal as well as civil forfeiture. Civil forfeiture is the longestablished practice of bringing a suit against property not the person but against an object like a car or a plane or a bank account and the property is considered guilty believe it or not because it was used in a crime or it is the proceeds of a crime, you know the profits derived from the crime. And it has kind of a very interesting and ancient sort of history in america and in europe and in Great Britain which i dont know if we have time to go into. But believe it or not, in the middle ages they would have trials against animals that put people in harm. For example, during the plague they put rats insects on trial finding them guilty of harming them and they actually appointed lawyers for the animals. Host bring it up to date. Give us a current case example of civil forfeiture and how it affects would it affect you and i . Guest whats been causing so much controversy are highway see sure of cash that people take with them on the seizure of cash that people take with them on the highway. Many of them have been very abusive, just to raise money for the Law Enforcement agency involved. Unfortunately under most state laws and under federal law to some extent the agency that seizes the property gets to keep it so they can selffund their Police Department or Sheriffs Department through seizures and thats the root of the current problem. It began in 1984 when i was still with the Justice Department they enacted a new law which allowed the money to be used for Law Enforcement purposes host are you saying that people should not travel or are not allowed to travel with larges amounts of cash guest they are but the problem is the police act on the assumption that anyone who travels with what they consider to be a very large amount of cash that could be just a few thousand dollars, is a drug trafficker and thats the basis on which theyve been seizing a lot of peoples money host and legally, they can seize that money without any proof . Guest no they have to have proof. Problem is theres a myth that we live in a rule of law society and you wont hear this very often on television but the fact is there are large stretches of this country where the only law is the sheriff and his local friendly judge and basically theyre along for themselves so they can get away with basically stealing peoples money and giving it to the Sheriffs Department host there was a recent editorial in usa today policepaid Bounty Hunter was the title of it are you familiar with this case . Caller very familiar host can you explain what happened to mr. Ming . Guest yes owned a restaurant in the deep south in georgia and he wanted to buy a second Chinese Restaurant in louisiana and he made arrangements with the lady who owned the second restaurant to come to louisiana and pay for the restaurant in cash which is not uncommon among asianamericans to make fairly large transactions in guest nothing wrong with concealing a large of amount of cash. Officer took the money. He was able to question him because he couldnt speak english, and officer couldnt speak chinese. He took the money. Host did he arrest . Guest these people are almost never arrested. There is no basis to arrest them. There is also no basis disease to seize the money. They are not interested in arresting them. They are interested in seizing the money which goes into the Sheriffs Department or state troopers budget. Heres the part that really bugs me. The state Law Enforcement agency then turned the money over to the feds to ice customs control to federalize the case. Until very recently, they were running a program called equitable sharing so that state and local cops would take the seize money from them, run it through the federal forfeiture mill, and return 80 of the money back to the local state or local Law Enforcement agency. The feds are not supposed to just take these illegal seizures, they are supposed to investigate themselves as to whether there is probable cause. In reality, they were not doing what they were supposed be doing. They were just taking almost every that case that was brought to them, so they took this case and were going to forfeit the money. This chinese gentleman went to a chinese woman lawyer. Only one a mobile, alabama. Only chinese lawyer. She had just opened her practice. Of course, she could speak chinese. She was very diligent, but she had no experience whatsoever and forfeiture. Instead of contesting the forfeiture, which is what she should have done, she filed what is called a petition of remission of forfeiture. It is an administrative request on part of our client. She explained what had happened. She sent customs and affidavit from the client. She swore that he was on her way to buy a restaurant, which is pretty good proof that this was a legitimate transaction, and of course she had evidence that he had opened up Chinese Restaurants already. He was an outstanding lawabiding person. Guess what . Customs denied her petition with no explanation. This is entirely typical of what happens because that whole remission process has become a joke. Its held out as a remedy, but in fact, it is not a remedy, at least the customs or dea where these petitions are routinely denied. That would have been the end of the case and he would have lost of money if any other agency had been involved other than customs. They dont give you a Second Chance to file a claim and contest the forfeiture in court, once your petition for remission is denied. Customs is the one agency that does give you a Second Chance. We were able to then file a claim to contest the forfeiture. Once we filed the claim, lo and behold, they had to return the money. The u. S. Attorneys office would not take the case. Thats what happens with so many of these bad seizures. If someone files a claim and says, i want my day in court the u. S. Attorneys office will give them back their money because they know there is no case there. Unfortunate, about only 20 of people victimized by these seizures actually file a claim. You need a lawyer basically to do that. Most people dont want to spend the money, or cant afford a lawyer, or even if they have the money, they can find a lawyer that does this sort of case. Theyre only about 10 or 12 lawyers in the whole country who handle these cases on a fairly regular basis. Host so, did he get his money back . Guest he did. Every penny back, but only because he was lucky. Host how undertaken . Guest the total process took about i think it was eight months. He lost the opportunity to purchase that restaurant because the woman had already sold it to someone else. Host what are the changes . Heres a headline from the Washington Post. Holder announces limits. What was announced this week . Guest the attorney general announced that he was adopting a new policy with respect to one kind of forfeiture case called based on structuring. Most people dont know what structuring is. It is a crime. , federal crime. What it means is breaking down currency amounts of more than 10,000 into smaller deposits or withdrawals from a bank. Lets say a Small Businessman has 15,000 of cash in received. He is running a cash intensive business. Instead of ringing the 15,000 to the bank for deposit, he decides he will only deposit 5,000 at a time. For a variety of reasons. Perhaps he is afraid to take that much money to the bank, or perhaps he doesnt want the bank to have to go through the trouble of filling out a report that the bank is required to file if more than 10,000 is deposited. It flows down the line at the bank and frequently the teller tells the customer, please keep it under 10,000 because we are busy and we dont want to take time to fill out this form. That is structuring. That is a federal felony. Most people dont know that is a crime. Host making three 5,000 instead of 150,000 is a felony . Guest that is a felony. If you are doing that for the purpose of preventing the bank from filing this report. Many people know that if you deposit more than 10,000, the bank must file this report. Unfortunately they dont know that it is against the law to break down your deposits in that manner making this even more ridiculous is that the federal government discourages telling clients that this is a crime. You wont see any signs in any bank saying that structuring is this, dont do this. Its sort of like a speech at. They are hiding the fact that this is a criminal offense from the depositors at the bank so that they can trap more innocent people into committing a crime which they dont know is a crime. Its truly amazing. There are thousands of these structuring cases around the country. Theres a special task force that does nothing but structuring cases in any one of the federal districts. This brilliant idea was jumped up a few years ago by the Justice Department basically as a way to raise money for state and local Police Departments which participate in these tough forces. The people ive represented ive represented 50 or more of these people in structuring cases. It started in my district, the Eastern District of alexandria. They were the pioneers of this excellent program. I got a lot of the cases. Finally, frankly, im taking some credit here because even though there were thousands of these cases being brought nobody at a high level of the Justice Department was paying attention to these abuses, neither was congress because there is no oversight usually. Finally, i got the New York Times to do an article. It turned out to be a frontpage article. Boom. Everything changed. A program like this cant survive scrutiny. There was no scrutiny going on. Host heres a chart. This is from the Washington Post. In at is Asset Forfeiture spike in recent years. Why the spike in recent years . Guest im looking at your chart. Really, the spike is in one year. The statistics can be greatly distorted by a few large, or even one, large case. These very large cases typically , out of the Southern District of new york manhattan, where the use forfeiture very aggressively to go after foreign banks that are moneylaundering or violating art trade sanctions. You get these billiondollar forfeitures. One case like that can distort the statistics. Host lets take some calls. Weve tried to explain a little bit what the civil forfeiture does and some changes made by the Justice Department this week. The numbers are up on the screen. If you would like to call in and talk with david smith, former deputy chief of the Justice Departments Asset Forfeiture office. Natalie of florida. You are first. Caller good morning. I have a question basically regarding the program. The program, when it started, was there any oversight . This seems like it is unconstitutional. I do commend you for coming out and saying basically, announcing a highway robbery. Another question do local Police Departments have any framing to know who is violating these civil forfeiture rules . Basically, it sounds like they find anyone with a large amount of cash and create a crying afterwards. Host maam, the training is very minimal for local Police Departments in the area of forfeiture. I think most of the officers who are enforcing these forfeitures are have very little understanding of the law involved. They get involved in the seizing of the property and unfortunately, one of these scandalous aspects of the Washington Post story that ignited congressional interest in this whole area was the badgering the Police Departments were receiving funded with federal government money from the dea. In other words, training money supplied by federal taxpayers was being used to train officers in extremely aggressive seizure tactics that were way over the line and encourage a culture of Competition Among local Police Department as to how much they could seize willynilly. Protecting the citizen from illegal seizures was not emphasized in these training programs. To the extent that there was training, it was bad training. Host jodi tweets into you, mr. Smith, if you can prove your claim and get your money back, why cant you sue the police for breaking the law . Guest actually, you can sue the police for breaking the law. As a practical matter, its impossible. Legally, you can, but it takes a lot of money which people dont have. Its a task for their lawyers because the local Law Enforcement agencies will always defend the police to the hilt. Judges are generally very hostile to any attempt to sue the police, and will bend the law in favor of the police. It just becomes a futile exercise and a waste of money to sue them. Thats not to say that some class action suits dont succeed. If youve got an organization like the aclu to back you up for free, and they are freeing suing an entire Police Department or city, as they have done in some cases theres a case they are doing in philadelphia like that now in which the institute of justice is also working on. If you are an individual trying to sue the Police Officer who wrongfully took your money, its going to be very frustrating and it will cost you way more money than it is worth, unless you are filthy rich. Host howard from lynn, germany on our republican line. Caller ive been studying some of the bureaucratic machinery of the 1930s here in germany where im studying. There was a huge bureaucratic machine involved in confiscating jewish property at that time. Based on legal means. When i see some of these stories you refer to like if your son is smoking marijuana in his bedroom and the police come, they conceivable house the house of the parents who had nothing to do with it based on the fact that the house is being used in the commission of a crime, possibly involving the sale of marijuana. Just to give you a minute here, we had something called formed based plundering where the jews, for example, were told that they had to make arrangements for immigration. However, when they start making these arrangements, such as getting their money out of the country to another place, they then found themselves in violation of cisco regulations. These regulations all existed before hitler. They just and force them ruthlessly and meticulously. From what you are saying, mr. Smith, it seems like that is whats happening here and a lot of small communities and even in larger communities. It is very frightening. I will take my, off the air. Guest i think if the police were merely ruthlessly enforcing the law, it would be bad enough. And the kinds of cases im talking about, these highways seizures, they are really not enforcing the law. They are just using the law as a kind of means to excuse what is a lawless operation. They are not following the law. The problem is, as i was just talking about, it is almost impossible as a practical matter to sue the police. Who will stop them . Very few attorney generals state attorney generals will do anything about it because they work with the police. The local prosecutors will not do anything about it because they work with the police. Also, and half of the states, the prosecutors themselves get a share of the loot to finance their own offices, which is unconstitutional, but virtually unchallenged which is a scandalous situation. The problem is it is a lack of will on the part of state legislators who are usually but holding to the police and reluctant to upset them. It is a reluctance to face the fact that you have to spend more taxpayer money on Police Departments if you dont allow them to seize property for themselves. Its partly a political problem its a problem of lack of public understanding of whats going on. Theres not much of an excuse anymore because there has been a lot of published the publicity recently about these abuses. Host markets in sioux falls, north dakota. Caller good morning. Im glad you guys are talking others. There was a case in Monterey County on the Central Coast of california. A small city called king city, california where this exact same thing is going on. They just arrested a former chief of police. They arrested and in interim chief of police and a few officers. What they were doing was pulling over a few Migrant Workers close to payday, seizing their cars and money. Listening to mr. Smith speak, im wondering if the cops were arrested because the County District attorney wasnt getting any of the money. The chief of polices brother owned the post service in the city, so that was the loop. Host are you familiar with this . Guest no, i wasnt. Thats a great story. That just shows how rank the corruption can get. And how, what seemed like small abuses, if tolerated, get worse and worse. This is obviously criminal. Thats why they were prosecuted. The much more common scenario is police who are engaged in highway robberies, but for the sake of their own Police Department, they are not personally stealing the money although in some cases they do. That abuse, for chile, is very broadly tolerated either the political system and legal system. A just points out many weaknesses in the legal system. As i said earlier, the fact is the idea that we are a rule of law society is largely a myth in many parts of this country. Host mike is in hyattsville maryland. We are on with mr. Smith, talking about civil Asset Forfeiture. Caller it is a pleasure to be with you today in the greatest country in the world. I started listening when i heard that you would rarely hear this on tv. As a relates the forfeiture and the city, state, and federal codes, when the city was incorporated in 18 two, that makes a corporation. As far as jurisdiction, and you repeat when you said what the shares and judge were considered the only Law Enforcement . If you are a dishe jure american citizen with 5,000 or 10,000, what did you mean when you said that share for judge are the only Law Enforcement . Bearing in mind that cities are corporations forprofit . Host are you an attorney . Caller no. I read a lot. Guest i would refer viewers to the ferguson uproar and what that has revealed. Ferguson theres a real direct parallel between what im talking about and what the Reason Department of justice report on ferguson revealed. Ferguson was being run according to the charm of justice report, for profit. The police were handing out traffic tickets and other fines to people just to raise money for the Police Department and for the Municipal Court system and ferguson. It was terribly abusive. They were just milking people for as much money as they could, and threatening them illegally to throw them in jail if they didnt pay all the fines that piled up, and threatening them with debtors prison, which is illegal. We dont have debtors prisons in this country. Were not supposed to but we do. I is another example of what i was talking about. We have laws in Supreme Court decisions, but they are often not followed and practiced by the local governments. This is the tremendous problem. Its not just in the area forfeiture. Whenever governments are supporting themselves through fines or forfeitures, you are going to have tremendous abuses. Host mr. Smith, used to be in charge of getting these assets from people. Did you see abuses at that time . Is that why you are now on the other side . Guest nodded all. As a set earlier in the program back then, this forfeiture was kind of a backwater. The reason that congress in 1984 past what we called the earmarking statue that year marks proceeds of forfeiture is for Law Enforcement purposes was to try to get Law Enforcement interested in doing forfeitures. Up until then, there was very little Law Enforcement introduced. It was something they didnt know about newfangled technical. There were problems with it. It was thought that we need this additional incentive to incentivize Law Enforcement to learn about forfeiture and use it. It was done with good intentions. There was a lot of abuse and forfeiture back then. Law enforcement attitudes were very different. It wasnt a profitmaking venture. Unfortunately we are talking about the early 80s now over the years, American Attitudes towards crime became more and more harsh. We have this massive incarceration system n situation now that didnt exist in 1980. It was just beginning then. The pendulum went too far. Now, its long back. Fortunately the climate is right now for forfeiture reform, and other criminal justice reforms. It is one of the few issues that there is huge bipartisan agreement on in congress. This is the forfeiture reform is a totally bipartisan effort and has been for many years. Host time for a couple more calls. Paul is in oregon. Caller regarding the stacking principle and deposits and withdrawals, is this a statute or is this an administrative develop law meant to enhance the investigation of Money Laundering . Is so, why is it being used against people who otherwise would be an ascent . Islam is like entrapment purposely not letting someone know about the law. I can understand using it, but when they use it against people who dont want to make a deposit because of safety or the bank teller tells them, then the bank teller is complicit. Guest it is a statue. Title 31 u. S. Code, section 53 24. It was enacted in the early 90s. It makes the structuring a felt felony offense. At the time it was enacted, it was thought to be necessary to deal with major drug organizations that were avoiding Money Laundering laws by breaking down deposits of millions and millions of dollars. The law was aimed at major drug organizations. Now, it is being used largely to go after innocent people who didnt know they were doing anything wrong. Its another way to make money for Law Enforcement agencies. The government will tell you differently, but thats really what amounts to. Its very abusive. I believe congress will do something about that law soon. Host to fill up on the callers, this tweet from twitter. So, and innocent person who deposits 10,000 total in 2000 increments to five accounts can lose his funds and suffer prosecution . Guest absolutely. It makes it so that all money is subject to forfeiture. If an innocent businessman has deposited 500,000 over. A period of years, he is liable for 500,000 to the government and criminal prosecutorsion, even though he didnt know he was doing anything wrong. Thats the statute that mr. Holder, just two days ago, decided should be reined in. Now, he says they will only use the statue if the money was from and a legal se an illegal source. That reform does not go far enough. It is just an administrative change. The next attorney general could change it back. Congress is going to deal with that. Host like you said, liberals and conservatives have teamed up on this issue. Guest the irs is one of the agencies that used to enforce this law. The structuring law. There was a hearing on capitol hill, in front of the house ways and Means Committee which has supervision over the irs on february 11 two months ago almost. Six months ago irs backed off this and adopted a new policy. It took the Justice Department until two days ago to do the same. Its a bit late in the game to be adopting reforms. Id like to know why this program went on for 40 years. Nobody at a higher level of the Justice Department did anything about it. Host the last call comes from david in new jersey. Democrat. Caller hi, mr. Smith. I have two questions. How do you keep a Police Officer from having their way with you at a traffic stop. Often times they are very insistent and isd it is very frightening. Also, can you again tell me what the statue is on this forfeiture for banking . Guest yes. The statue is 31 United States code section 53 24. Your first question is a very difficult question. How do you deal with one of those Police Stopped on the highway. It is very intimidating. It is very difficult to the average citizen to tell a Police Officer, no, you cant search my car, which is what they are trying to do. You should. You should stick to your rights. What you can do to avoid getting in trouble is never bring any drugs in a car even a marijuana joint. Dont do that. Also, never travel with large amounts of currency in a car, if you can possibly avoid it. Even though that is perfectly legal, if you are stopped, there is a good chance that the police will seize your money. They wont care what you say or what your explanation is. You will need to get a lawyer to get your money back. That is the situation in todays america. You cannot safely drive around with a large amount of cash. Of course, if you are a senator, you are probably pretty safe driving around with a large amount of cash because once they find out you are a United States senator, they will not take your money. I could drive around with aa large amount of cash and probably get away with it. Host y . Why . Guest is a notorious fact that the police pick on people who they believe they can rob with impunity. Thats why the vast majority of people involved in these cases are Minority Group members. Also, the police will pick on outofstate motorists because they think that those people are the least likely to come back and fight the case in court. Its more expensive for them to higher and outoftown lawyer to do it. They are just easy targets. They cant call their local representative because they are not in that state and complain. If you are a local guy, you are little bit more protected, but not much. Host david smith. Former Justice Department official on civil Asset Forfeiture. We appreciate that the and hope you will come back if and when congress does something. Guest i would love to. Host thanks for being with us. Coming up on this fridays washington journal, a roundtable talking about religious liberty issues. You are watching the washington journal on cspan. Here are some of our featured programs for this Holiday Weekend on the cspan networks. On cspan, saturday at 8 00 eastern, former texas state senator wendy davis on the challenges facing women in politics. Easter sunday at 6 30 p. M. Golfing legend Jack Nicholas receives the gold medal for his contributions to the game and community service. On cspan 2s booktv, on afterwords, colonel west. At noon on indepth, a former New York Post reporter. On cspan 3 on lectures in history, professor Charles Calhoun on ulysses s. Grant. And sunday at 6 00 on american artifacts, a tour of the appomattox courthouse. This weekend, the cspan cities tour learns about the history and literary life of tolls the, oklahoma. Woody guthrie is most famous for writing this land is your land, but he didnt much more than that. We are very proud to have his work back in oklahoma, where we believe it belongs. He was an advocate for people who were disenfranchised. Those people who were Migrant Workers from oklahoma, kansas, and texas during the dust bowl area, who had found themselves in california, literally starving. He found a vast difference between those who were haves and havenots, and became their spokesperson through music. Woody recorded very few songs of his own. We have a listening station that features 46 of his songs in his own voice. That is what makes his music so significant. This land is your land this land is my land watch this event on cspan 2. Washed host now on washington journal, we want to discuss this religious liberty issue that is being discussed around the country. Joining us is Kristina Arriaga with the becket fund on religious liberty. And barry lynn, of americans united for separation of church and state. How do you define religious liberty . Guest it means that we can believe what we want and practice what we want, as long as we are doing it without subsidies from the government, and we have the right to do everything we want including evangelize, as long as we do on our own dime. What we dont have a right to do is our religion is best. We dont ask the government to bless it. And we certainly do not injure third parties by the practice of our religion. Unfortunately, that is my definition, its not everyones. Host Kristina Arriaga, do you agree with that . Guest at the back of fun we believe that religious liberty is the liberty to search for the truth and follow ones conscience. That path must be free of government intrusion. Host you have both given your definition of religious liberty. How does whats happening in indiana with religious freedom fit into what we are discussing . Guest the religious freedom restoration act your viewers know what passed originally and congress 22 years ago. There was a collision of support. It was signed into law by president clinton. It was a great moment in america to have this unity. In 19 night seven, the Supreme Court ruled that it did not apply to states. Statebystate, they st passed rfra. Indiana passed a rfra, similar to the vet orfra. Host you look at the map. How is the indiana law different . Guest times have changed. There seems the university of virginia professor says a very well, sexual minorities and religious minorities have mutually reinforce wable claims that they are parts of what happens when they conflict . They get their day in court. The original version of the religious liberty of law in indiana was not a magic wand. What it said is that religious believers that cannot do something because of their conscience can go to a court and then the Court Decides whether or not those claims go forward or not. Host did you support the 93 rfra . Guest we did. It passed unanimously in the house, and with the exception of two votes in the senate. It was a very different creature. As kristina mention, it was a different time. We made sure that it dealt specifically with people. If a prisoner once a small short beard, like was just litigated and prison officials say, he can hide a weapon in there, he would at least get to court. A similarly situated prisoner just one. No one expected that churches would make their own independent decisions about their architecture, for example, that a big company like hobby lobby would be considered a person that could exercise religion. They play religious Christmas Music that doesnt make them a religious company. The other thing is that no one ever suggested that this law which was designed to prevent those rare circumstances where government at any level can crush a religious believers ability to act in a religious fashion, no one thought that meant that the exception to a law hurt a thirdparty is ok. Iif senator kennedy or i, or the aclu, were told that this would allow someone to discriminate private individuals the floors to it not give flowers to a samesex wedding or allow companies to not give women contraceptive coverage, hobby lobbyy it would have never been signed into law. Host viewers, you know what we are talking about here. The lines are on the screen. We have set of aside our fourth line for arkansas and indiana residents. I will make it simple, should a Christian Baker be forced to make a gay wedding cake . Guest i think the answer is yes. In america, we have laws that say if youre going to offer service, you are going to have a that bedandbreakfast restaurant, providing cakes for weddings, you have to serve everyone. You can decide because you have a suspicion, or you know the people coming in getting a cake are gay people, you dont have a right, or should have a right in america to say, we are not serving you. That is nasty. Host Kristina Arriaga, your chance to respond. Guest i would like to ask you a question barry . Should a member of the Lgbt Community who is a photographer be forced to take photographs at the Westborough Baptist church. As a cubanamerican, i hate the idea that i would be forced. Guest in the unlikely event that they would be asked to do so by the homophobic Westborough Baptist church if they are in a place with a public accommodation statute, and their service is wedding photographs, i think they would have to say yes under those circumstances. Guest we at the becket fund believe that any artist has First Amendment rights to express whatever they want to express. Host you are saying that you believe that a citizen can deny services to a particular group of people . Guest we believe that a Business Owner or a familyowned business can conduct their business according to their mission or values. A lot of Companies Just came out and said that we dont want investment in the state of indiana. They were asserting their rights to have a valuebased decision on the company. That also applies to religious people. Im glad that gary just brought up to cases that the becket fund just one. One was hobby lobby, owned by the green family of oklahoma. They grew out of their garage and are now in 46 states. They have a very Generous Health care plan. They provide 16 out of 20 fda approved contraceptives. They could just not a for for that because they believe these drugs prevented implementation and was an early form of abortion. The Supreme Court said that the governments case was very weak. On the one hand, the government case said that this was a vital right for americans. In the case of holt, we both agreed and i case, there was an arkansas prisoner who wanted to grow a religiously mandated beard, but arkansas said no, but they did not have a good excuse. I always say to my teenagers, because i say so, but the government does not get to do so, especially in cases closely related to human dignity. Guest can i interject . We are in support of a case that will be heard by the u. S. Supreme court, the marriage of quality case. We are on the side of Marriage Equality. I cannot imagine why, even in your scenario, why getting married, if you are a samesex couple, has any negative affects on the conscience of anyone who makes a different decision. Which side are you on in that case . Guest we at the becket fund have filed a brief in support of neither side. What we say is if samesex marriage is going to happen, thats fine, but when there is a conflict of claims, as a doctor says very eloquently, both sides have very important places in society. What rfra allows is for these minorities to come forward and then the Court Decides. In the second part of it, all of a sudden, it was amended so that one site automatically loses and one site automatically winds. That is not how we resolve things in america. As a cubanamerican, im completely allergic to the government making me do anything of any sort. Im allergic to the idea of having a piece of legislation that makes monolithic. Host lets go ahead and get the callers involved. The numbers are up on the screen, the divided by affiliation, and then our fourth line set aside for arkansas and indiana residents. We will begin with joe in massachusetts. Independent line. Caller how are you doing . Excuse me. I just wanted to make a comment that i grew up as an Irish Catholic the older i got, i realized that my religion, i dont really subscribe to any more. You couldnt go if you were divorced, there were so many things, you couldnt belong. My gay friends couldnt go to church. My uncle was gay. He couldnt go. I was astonished that people i loved no longer belong to the church that they grew up in. My Irish Catholic grandmother was very staunchly religious and catholic. It broke her heart. It broke her heart to find out her own son was gay. Host lets get a response from what you have described. Guest the caller brings up an important point and that is that in america, we are able to leave our church and religion. A great book by a harvard sociologist talks a lot about the nones. People who are no longer affiliated to the church, but are still. Still spiritual. There is no doubt that this whole issue has been wounding. In america, we do not resolve issues by bringing in government wa, we resolve it by democratic process. What is happening now is there is attention of people in favor of lgbt rights are trying to get rid of religious rights for the sake of their own. Guest it is not the kind of a conflict. I think it is possible to have religious rights and rights for the Lgbt Community. Its not a question. You can have both been america. What the caller is talking about the decision by his church they get to make in america. Churches get to make decisions about how their own parishioners should operate, and the circumstances under which they will not be welcome. What they dont have the right to do is impose those religious views on everybody else, and that is effectively what is happening with these religious freedom restoration act at the state level. Now there is a fear of Marriage Equality coming on june 30 to the entire country. What started out as a shield to imposition of tax by government has now been weaponize. Now it is a sword to hurt other people. That is not with the religious freedom restoration act was ever intended to do. Host alain is in olympia washington. She is a republican. Go ahead with your questions or comments. Caller i have a couple of comments. To me, the issue is one is not condoning an activity, and on the other hand, you are not condoning the person. As long as an entity doesnt put down the person, they should be allowed to put down the activity. In other words, getting married is an activity. If a gay couple wants to get married, and someone is opposed to the activity of those two people getting married, they should be able to oppose that for religious reasons. However, if they own an entity that serves the public, a person should be able to go into a public place and be served like any other person. I cant imagine for example, when i was a child, we had a religious story that sold religious books and things. I cannot imagine for one minute that if you had people dressed in lets say, it aint parade attire in gay parade attire, that store would not have the right to save that is inappropriate in the store. It would be like equating someone to divorce another person. This is kind of off, but assuming that a marriage you were forced to partake in activities that were definitely against your religion, but yet you were forced to have just one you know, you had to partake host i think we got the point. Barry lynn, if you want to start a short answer. Guest i agree with part of what she says, but i dont agree that for example, if you walk into a store with a rainbow colored shirt, you dont feel miserable if someone says, by the way, we wont serve you. That is an insult to the very dignity of who you characterize yourself to be. Nothing, by the way, prevents in the case of a baker or photographer prevents a person from having to serve the service of what they are providing. To put on the law, and i think this is even said and one of the cases, we dont agree with Marriage Equality. You can express your own sentiments, but you still have to serve the person involved. To me, that is an accommodation that is proper under the religious freedom restoration act. Guest we have 20 years of rfra can you give me one example where someone underwent that process and went to court and one . When a religious person said, we will not serve a prison because they are gay, and one . Guest i can tell you the religious freedom restoration act was used sadly but successfully in one case where in a spinoff version of the mormon church, someone refuse to testify in a child labor case because he could not testify to the federal workings of a church and the judge of utah said, no you dont have to. This has been used before, sometimes successfully sometimes not successfully, because the courts understand this is not a weapon. Guest was there one case where a member of the Lgbt Community was denied service because of rfra . Guest no, but remember, the indiana case that was champion before it was changed call me a conservative, by believe in legislative history the sponsor said that in this case the floors, the caterer, the photographer have to participate in or serve. Thats what they intended to do. Governor pence decided he must not have heard that. That these every what its about. And i think thats what we know is about. Host governor pence sent out this tweet ive signed rfra clarification bill, make it clear that every person feels welcome in indiana. Do you think the state should have push for this revocation bill . Guest of course not. The point is there has not been a single case in the last 22 years since rfra past. Very was saying that rfra was never intended to cover private that was never true. Since 1996, there have been several courts that have interpreted federal rfra to include corporations. In the Obama Administration, Wheaton College said they could spring a claim on their private practice. Even the hobby lobby decision, the court said that the corporation had rights. The same with free speech. Cspan has freespeech rights. Not only the individuals in cspan. Much most quarters most churches are incorporated. Guest the judiciary act issue is a red herring. The state said that anyone passing the federal rfra think that a forprofit company was going to be able to avail itself or was it Church Autonomy . Somebody wants to change the same stained glass window. The government Landmark Commission says you cannot do that because we liked it the way it was. That is defensible. That is a corporation. It is not hobby lobby and it is not the pizzeria in indiana that got so much attention when it said we would never cater pizza to a gay wedding. Host arkansas government Asa Hutchinson tweets proud to work with the legislature to craft state bill 975, the religious freedom restoration act mirroring federal law. Bill is on the line from little rock on our independent line. Please go ahead. Caller how are you . This new being new bill basically says neither the state or local laws or policies can infringe on ones police unless the government can demonstrate it has a compelling interest in that it is using the least restrict the means to achieve it area that depends on the judge. It depends on who appoints an alexa the judge. I find it interesting. Lady, stick with your guns. If a gay guy went into a muslim bakery and asked the muslim to make a sheet case with the image of mohammed on it, you hear all kind of reaction about how horrible this was. But if you are a christian and you have a business by the way, i love the fact that this pizzeria has gotten about half 1 million in donations because of the unbelievable nastiness of these people. Instead of, by the way, using lgbt, call them for what they are. Homosexuals, gays, lesbians host bill caller there are people who own businesses who do not want any made either law to go to a wedding and present a cake with two men on top. If they are catholic or orthodox jewish, be made to approve of that but under host bill . You are from little rock, youre calling from little rock. Is there any comparison in your mind to what happened in little rock and the civil rights issues, etc. . Caller absolutely not. When you discriminate because of what someones color is, it is what they are and have been created as a black person. There are plenty of christians who believe because of their religion and the clear biblical terminology, that that person cannot be a catholic or an orthodox jew and go out there and do his business because someone is a practicing gay person. Not because they are gay but because they are trying to get married it is not a marriage, anyway. A colored person, because of their color it is not something they do. It is nothing against the rival traditional christianity host will have to let you go there. Lets start here and i will you finish reverend lynn. Kristina arriaga, and you agree with bill from little rock . Guest in what sense . Lets talk about this fight has been per trade as christians versus gays. Lets talk about the real beneficiaries of the religious Freedom Research acts. Lets talk about my client, a native american. He uses eagle feathers and his religious ceremonies. In 2006, the government sent covert agents to confiscate his feathers, then him with prison and fines. After many years of litigation. Because he was able to assert under rfra, he was able to get his feathers that. Those are the real beneficiaries of rfra. Minority religions that need to be protected. Particularly with the growing group of nones, People Living leaving their churches. Host can i walk into a muslim bakery with a picture or image of mohammed and say i want a cake . I want this on a cake . Guest it depends. Lets say youre a bakery that says we have 50 cakes to choose from and we are not saying making a 51st, including this one, which would offend religion, or anything else. We have a service that provides for 50 displays. Youre right about arkansas and for this reason. I would bet 60 of americans, at least a week and a half ago believed what your caller said. You cannot force people to do this. That is the argument used with often a justification god separated the light from the darkness they say that means i would not assume kristina believes this but some would say that means we have to segregate the races. That was used in the 1960s to justify the refusal to integrate schools and lunch counters. I bet 60 of people, if you were have two tests of in arkansas, alabama, and mississippi at that time would have said nothing wrong with that. There is something wrong. I do not want to get into the debate, but i think the signs is clear, you do not choose to be gay. That is the way you are born. Guest bringing race into this issue is a tired argument. As a latina, race occupies a different place in society. This was established in the Supreme Court by bob jones. This is a red herring. It has no place in this debate. Host william was calling from kosovo, california from our democrat line. Caller i have a comments for your female guest and all people who have her believe. My mother used to say, as a christian, that when something goes wrong something you do not like, put into gods hands and pray for them. For you to pray for someone that means you have to forgive them, first, and love them, to pray for them. It is in gods hands. Let talk let god take it from there because you have done your part. What do you have to say about that . Guest i think it is fantastic that you are brought up in a religious household. Most americans consider themselves religious. I think it is fantastic you can pray. I am sure your grandmother wanted to live by her deeply held convictions, not only at home or at church, but or in the way she conducted is nice. Had she had a business, she would have wanted to conducted according to her religious convictions. Are you able to practice your religious convictions at your business, not only at church and not only at home. Guest selectively, though. The pizza people, i do not know what kind of pizza they made, i never heard of them until this week. They raised a quarter Million Dollars and maybe they can go into some other line of work, because his because pete said business is not doing well, because people were upset about the comments about not being able not being willing to serve in a wedding. Here is the question. I am sure that there are other biblical injunctions, for example, use of port, which is clearly prohibited shrimp jesus said i have, not to change one part of the law. These are things apparently they do. I am sure they put for bid in meet roddicks forbidden Meat Products on their pizza. But they choose to deny the right to obtain a pizza by someone else based on their somewhat idiosyncratic biblical standard. You can have a very narrowly focused, personal religious believes in this country. They do not always get to win. I think the legislative history of this in genesis and currently what may be going on with the in arkansas is they do have a tendency to win, when they could not have one before. That is morally wrong. It is constitutionally wrong. Host gordon is a republican. Hello. Caller good morning. I am a couple again but i was raised in a liberal state in colorado. I am concerned that Small Business might be strapped with some awful constraints if individuals or groups come into a Small Business and their behavior may be disruptive, in the context of social norms. When i was young, in the 1960s, just about every Small Business had a sign that said we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. I will take comments off the air. Thank you. Host Kristina Arriaga . Guest people disagree about sexy and religion in america all the time. It does not make it right because some viewed the owners of the pizza parlor to be threatened with arson, this is not what we do in the u. S. I do not believe anyone says that this is how we should proceed. What the new version of the religious freedom restoration act in indiana takes a small section of the population and allows the government to try those businesses without into nonexistence without views in the u. S. Can be very different, but we do not resolve issues by driving people out of courts. That is all the original rfra was looking for. Guest no one will say that some of the tweets about burning the pizzeria no one is trying to justify that. In social media, i got a death threat on my telephone last night guest i did too guest lets form a church. The truth is, there is nothing fictional about the lien b ullying of gay kids in school. Theres nothing fictional about people getting assaulted because they were gay or trans. No one burned down the pizza parlor. They decided to close their money and collect close their business and collect the money. I think you are ignoring there is a little sense brutal sense that towards gay people, they are secondclass citizen area that anything that can be done to hurt them physically or in more subtle ways. That should not stand in this 21st century of america. Host Kristina Arriaga . Guest i agree, but taking ways taking rights away from religious people is not the way to do this. Guest i am a minister in United Church of christ. The United Church of christ permits me to do samesex marriage ceremonies. If i was in a state that did not permit that now, though i think on june 30 it will be permitted everywhere, would you take my case if i wanted to marry someone conduct a wedding ceremony, under my deeply held religious beliefs, the same that my dumb nomination would want to do. Would you help me trump the law that says in about 12 states today, you cannot do that . Guest we would. We believe the government should not tell you as a minister what you can and cannot do within your church, unless he has very serious reasons. Guest did you support the United Church of christ pastors and north carolina, who filed this lawsuit under the religious freedom restoration act . Guest we supported another pastor making a similar claim. He wanted to anoint a samesex couple in his church. The government should not course ministers. They should not tell you what to do or believe unless there is a serious reason. Host Kristina Arriaga, are these referral laws the states passing, do you consider them antigay . Guest no. Out of the 19 that have passed, only to have language dealing with antidiscrimination. Then we have the 20th in indiana and 21st in arkansas. We have over 30 states that have referlike legislation. Rfralike legislation. There were members of lgbt communities in the 1990s and religious people in the 1990s and no one asserted a refer case. Host in this tweet, i still ask you to cite the action memories peter took which justifies the assault upon them. Guest nothing justifies an assault on them. The fact that the twittersphere blew up over this and people said we are never going there you are a terrible person, that is called freedom of speech. That is what it pizzeria could do, even if it were required to cater pizza to a wedding. They could put up a sign that says we do not believe in samesex weddings. We are against that. We believe the bible is against it. But under some circumstances those public accommodation laws do trump, even deeply held sincerely held religious beliefs. That is the way the country has to work in making the tradeoff. Host lets say the pizza parlor put up the sign, would you be offended . Guest i am offended by things almost every day, or there would not be anything i could do about it. I could not force them to take it down. But as one judge indicated you could put it up to make it clear to everybody where you stand. That is a committed statement. I have no problem with doing that. I just would not go there. Host what it your death threat caller say to you . Guest it was a strange message that said i cannot tell you who wants to eliminate you but you should know that you are at great risk and that if you go to authorities, your death will come sooner. Who knows. Guest i got a nasty long email. Before i finished reading it i pressed delete. It is a very emotional arguments, of course. There are wounded people on both sides. The way to resolve it is not to resort to violence, of course, and not to resort to death threats. The way to resolve it is through our democratic system. Host independent line, please go ahead. We are going to have to move on. Lets listen to your phone turned down the tv. There is a delay. Marilyn in louisiana, republican line. Caller hello. I want to make a comment and state that the love of christ constrains us that we should be bananas to all people. If we do not open our door and make a chance to be an example we have not reached the masses. Whether someone is gay or not or whether they are muslim, come into a bakery and requested him to make a cake, i would welcome this. I believe i can have an in lawrence them i believe i can influence them just by opening the door. By giving another direction later on. A may not make a difference, but that kindness will go further than hatred. Host what you think about these religious freedom restoration acts . Caller i believe there are good and bad in the bills. I do not believe the government, under any circumstance, has the right to calm into your business common into your business come into your business or church and force you to do anything. At the same time, we have to look at this from an overall perspective. We have to have an openminded view. I have a good friend who is gay. He is married to his partner. I did not take part in the wedding because i could not be gone from my job and also i am an ordained minister and it is not cohesive with the views that i have on marriage, but i support their right to do that. We do not openly talk about the difference in what they believe and i believe as far as lifestyles and that type of thing. If it ever comes to that, i would have to give them my version of what i you like the bible says. That does not give me the right to judge them host maryland, you did not attend their wedding because of your religious belief . Caller i did not attend their wedding because i was not able to get off work to go. They had to be gone. We were compadres in our department and could not be gone at the same time. The thing is, i want to be supportive. They adopted a child and are doing a wonderful job raising that child. They are offering that child things he would never have had. These are good people. It is not any different with this we have people every day that struggle with drugs and alcohol, but they are trying to do what they can. I am not saying that gay people are sick, do not misinterpret. You cannot make distinctions everybody has problems. It would be the same thing if you said i will refuse to serve a person because they have cancer. Everyone has things in their life they have to work through. Host marilyn, thank you for calling in. Kristina arriaga, any response . Guest this is one of the great things i love about this country. This woman is an ordained minister, she is clearly conflicted. She would bake the cake, attend the ceremony, that it is her choice. It is not the government telling her she should do that. I love this country and democracy. This is how to resolve these. Not to bring in the government and say you are bigoted if you do not think that cake. Guest like the caller, i was born in bethlehem, pennsylvania. I loved 95 , maybe 100 of what she said. This is how we should conduct ourselves, particularly christian people, in this country. I think she touches on something else. This is why there are not extensive amounts of litigation about gay people who could not get a kick a gore what have you. It is because the original religious freedom restoration act, to get to something i said at the beginning, was never construed, never explained there is never one example in the entire legislative history in the early 1990s about this federal law that suggested it could be used to damage third parties. It was all about the kinds of things to have i supported his right to have the sacred eagle feathers. I do not know if it was your client or anothers who as a jehovahs witness, not to have surgery done without a large blood transfusion. She eventually won her case but she was near death at the time. That is what the religious freedom restoration act was designed to do. It is not designed to do with the original sponsors of the indiana bill said. Make sure the acre, photographer, caterer, can say no to a gay couples wedding. That is not what this is about. That is why there were not cases until the ones popping up now. Host careless from indiana on our independent line. Hello. Caller how are you . I have a question for the reverend about these guys were born ready much gay. That is not true. I know there are some that are but most of them are not create it is shoved down our throats every day you can flip on the regular tv during the day and you see two guys kissing. If you have kids, that is not good to see on tv. It is awfully funny that only certain people have the right to say no to things. But because your religious and believe in what you believe in, that marriage is between a man and woman, you should have the right to say no if you do not want that. I do not like it when a guy and girl are going out in front of me in a restaurant, let alone to gays. You being irreverent, i would be ashamed. Christina, keep up the good work. Guest i am not ashamed. The way you deal with children i member the first time my own daughter, there were two guys Holding Hands. She said why are those two guys Holding Hands . That is like what you and mom to . I said people are different in this country. As a consequence, some people do want to hold and supplement. Some guys want to hold hands with men. There was no followup question. That was an ageappropriate sensible, and daresay christian comments on my part, i think. I am sorry you do not agree . Host kristina, what did you hear from her . Guest she wants to raise her children in a particular way. It is her choice. The government only should interfere if there was a serious issue. If there are issues associated with danger to a child education. There are places where the government can say this is into the compelling this is a compelling interest to the country. I think your explanation to your child was beautiful, but it was yours. The government did not give you a text. Guest carol felt that her women were being host carol felt that her georgia were being damaged by what she saw on tv. Guest society changes. The point is we cannot always go with the change. We cannot always agree with it, but we get to pick area we as americans have a very important right to have religious liberty. Religious liberty is not the eccentric uncle of their human rights family. It is a serious right in this country. Host is there anything you disagree with that carol legitimately believes her children were being damaged . Guest i understand. I get letters that say the same thing on a regular basis. I understand. But in america, we have to find a way and which we are going to condemn, as parents, the things we see on television, in the movies, that we disagree with. This is not rocket science. This is a way we can communicate with our own children, the values that we hold the year. That is a good thing. This transcends the day g aylsebian issue. Gaylesbian issue. Thanks to the hobby lobby or i would say not thanks to the hobby lobby decision, we can now discriminate in the case of health care to women. We can deny them some or all contraceptives. The becket fund now believes even signing a paper many groups, Notre Dame University where weise where we represent writers to do women they get a right to not only will we not provided, we will not do with the regulations say, which is sign a 634 word statement and drop in the mailbox that says we cannot provide it as a matter of conscience. That means the government has to find contraceptives through some other party. It is cheap to provide them, if youre talking about insurance. I believe he represent if not Wheaton College and notre dame you represent people who refused to sign a piece of paper proclaiming that they conscientiously oppose providing contraceptives or allowing anyone else to do it. Am i wrong or right . Guest proudly so. We represent Little Sisters of the poor. And or third an order of catholic nuns. They serve the dying elderly. They employ 1500 employees. Though they are the Little Sisters of the poor, the government does not consider them really just enough to get a religious exemption. They cannot, in good conscience provide contraceptives and abortion causing drugs to their employees. Guest known as asking them to. Theyre asking them to sign a paper. Host before you guys go too far, let her finish her statement. Guest what the government initially said is you have to provide the contraceptives. We have to go all the way to the Supreme Court which told the government no. You cannot say that paper is meaningless and at the same time force them to sign it. When the sisters signed a piece of paper, they trigger a contractual agreement for someone else to provide the same medication that they cannot provide to their employees. It is absurd of the government which on that already gives millions of dollars through congress to planned parenthood clinics, women can obtain these drugs for free. It is a shame the government is insisting they need this order to provide these drugs to the 1500 employees. Host both our guests have graduate degrees from georgetown university. Barry lynn has a law degree. Kristina arriaga has a masters. Tim in florida, thank you for holding. Go ahead. Caller i had a question but the gentleman answered it at the beginning. I have a couple comments. I hope you give me a quick minute. My first is that, if you really believe gay People Choose to be gay and they are not born that way, you must believe that we are all attracted to both genders, we just choose to be with one or the other. I do not expect you to answer this on the air, but you must ask yourself, am i really attracted to both genders, i just choose to be with one or the other. Host . What do you think . Caller i think we are born that way. I can remember as a little boy the very first time i thought to a man and thought to myself that is attractive. But i have never seen a woman that way. Even as a 40yearold, as i get to as i look at adult information, if it has something to do with a female or the female form, i am not attracted to that and host go on to the next page host how does that relate to this discussion . Caller as far as the religious liberty deal, as a 40yearold, i have never experienced walking into a restaurant and seeing black people not being allowed to eat there or seen water fountains for one people and one for another set. When i asked my dad, it boggles my mind that in america, there was a time that happened. I always wondered how i got to that point. I can see now how you can hide behind something kind of like the ku klux klan hides behind christianity and why they did or do or think the way they do. You can see how a country can get that way where we start separating ourselves and each other host we only have a few minutes left. Thank you for your input. We start with Kristina Arriaga. Guest it is true. When these issues come up, it breaks through the fabric of society. People feel there is a separation among the citizens. I do not understand i cannot claim i knew i would was in the heart of every person advocating for refer in indiana or arkansas, but i can say taking away religious liberty leads to people like my clients, my pastor and the Little Sisters of the poor, simply because there was a lot of bad press associate with this is not the answer. Guest i do not think it is about dad test. With the eagle feather case, i agree. As of the poor, they do not want to sign a paper, that may trigger something. That is like saying your pacifist. You do not have to pay your taxes because you know some small action of those will be used to trigger the purchase of a weapon or bullet. Guest they went to court and lost. Guest what should they have one won . Guest rfra the religious believer is not right in every single case. Guest i am asking you, under the same trigger idea, isnt it true that i pacifist in a pacifist church should be able to refuse to pay taxes because some portion of it will be used to buy a weapon . Guest that has come up again and again guest with all due respect to the Supreme Court, they are not always right. What do you think . Guest it depends on the case. I believe they get their day in court. You do not. Host Kristina Arriaga, it indiana has a large amish population. Should they be required, in their restaurants and what they may sell in their stores, be required to follow Indiana Health Department Standards . Guest we have many amish clients. They are know for their building. They were persecuted in upstate new york and we defended them. They had a long tradition of building these homes that were great, according to the religious leaders, so they should not eat forced by some sort of code or regulation to violate those. Host do you agree . Guest i agree when it comes to housing, but when it comes to a childs safety, amish meanies and pennsylvania had gone to congress to say that we want young people to use tools that of the state says you cannot use when you are a young child. That is wrong. I believe they are sincere. I do not think they should prevail. Do you . Guest i agree with you. I believe the court can test sincerity. What if the relate what if a religion claimed they can sacrifice humans . As the mother of three teenagers, i am always tempted but of course not. [laughter] guest when i comes to security protecting children, the government has the right to do that towards a sincere belief. Host this conversation will continue sunday, tony perkins on our Newsmakers Program at 10 00 eastern time. Bob is in plymouth, indiana. Go ahead. Caller i want to say, i think i am in a vastly growing minority. I am white, conservative christian male. Open comments against my minorities allowed in many forms. What i want to share in this topic, as a conservative christian, i believe the bible i believe in heaven and hell. I believe in a god and a double. I believe that, as a christian i have three responsibilities. Love all people. It is not my job to judge those that are of the world. But as a christian, my job is to share my faith. And not to participate in world and where the world gets blended. As a christian, i have to speak gods truth. He is my boss. Not the government, not my employer year, but at times, i have to put god on the shelf even myself, because i work in a public institution. I believe in serving all people. I use this analogy often. If i am walking by a pond and someone is drowning, do i help them or not . I would help. I believe that the consequences of sin that separate us from god, i cannot partake in activities that would help a person to go down that path. That is a path that ends in a place, and my believe of eternal separation from gods love. We all enjoy gods love in this life. In this life, i love all people and judge all people host thank you, we will leave it at that. Thank you for calling. We have 15 seconds for each to close. We start with kristina start with reverend lynn. Guest the caller said he is a public job. There is an organization more like the becket fund called the Alliance Defending freedom. They have written to crowd to clerks in those jurisdictions where there is Marriage Equality right now today, saying that they have the authority, if they have a religious and conscientious belief against it not to sign marriage licenses. I believe we have sent out a memo to the same clerks, saying that is completely wrong, that is not what the religious freedom edit restoration act was meant to do. Im curious whether cristina agrees with me or with the alliance. Host you have 30 seconds to close. Guest i love that in this country you can still have a Robust Exchange of ideas. That we can have religious diversity. People who say that certain views are so repulsive, they should not exist in Society People who say you should only practice your religion at home and the church are wrong. At the becket fund we defend all religious traditions. There should not be a preference for any of them in this country. Host Kristina Arriaga, becket fund for religious liberty. Barry lynn executive director for americans united on the separation of church and state. Inc. You for being on washington journal. Please come back. We have about 25 minutes left on this friday. It will be open phones. Public policy topics only. What do you want to talk about. We just finished this subject, but we have talked about iran also. There are also other issues. You can see the numbers on the screen. Start dialing. We will begin taking your calls in just a minute. Every weekend on booktv, which is cspan2 on the weekend and American History tv on the weekend, you get 48 hours of looks and 48 hours of history. We travel around the country and visit different cities to look at their literary sites and look at their historical sites. This weekend we are featuring tulsa, oklahoma on booktv and American History tv. Here is a little from our visit. Tulsa is in the eastern portion of oklahoma, or northeast oklahoma. It is best known for oil. Going back to our founding in the late 1800s, tulsa became a place where people were moving west, the native americans had already begun to settle here, but as industry began to crop up, there was a Community South of tulsa called glenn pool. They were known as a vast oil resource. Glenn pool was the most robust Oil Reservoir in the world at that time. That reservoir of oil allowed tulsa to grow and develop an established itself as the oil capital of the world. We still have a large Energy Segment of our economy. Is it it is a lot more diversified than it was early on. The Energy Industry is broken into many segments. The oil industry, the people who produce the oil. The people who moved the oil through pipes. The people to store and market it. We have all three in tulsa. Washington journal continues. Host that will be a feature on tulsa, oklahoma this weekend on booktv and American History tv. 202 is the area code on washington journal. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488002 for independents. Open phones, Public Policy. They go to a conference at the Atlantic Council and about 20 minutes. That is live on cspan. They will talk about the Iran Nuclear Deal that was announced yesterday. Here is the news. The New York Times, the u. S. Economy gained jobs in march, securing signaling a slowdown in hiring. The Unemployment Rate held steady at 5. 5 . That was Just Announced by the government at 8 30 eastern time. From the hill, michigan governor pledges to veto religious freedom bills. Rick snyder preemptively asserted he would veto a religious freedom bill if one ever passes through his state legislator his state legislature. He is a republican. That was in the destroyed detroit free press. Governor walker, media hype and hysteria driving indiana backlash. Governor walker blamed media hype and hysteria or the act against indianas controversial religious liberty law. Speaking with conservative radio host Charlie Sykes on the inside 2015 show, walker was asked if he would sign a similar ill into law. We do not need to, he notes in wisconsin we have in our constitution. That is the remarkable thing. That is in the hill. Amy is calling from california on our democrat line. What is on your mind . Caller good morning. It is georgia, actually. Host that is what it says. I apologize. Caller not a problem. This is in reference to the religious freedom issue. That is an example of doublespeak. It is not about religious freedom, it is about good, oldfashioned bigotry and policy termination. We are not a theocracy. Everyone has to be accommodated. As an africanamerican, i find it very suspicious that this is being put on people simply because they are gay. They have a right to be served treated like equal citizens, because they are citizens, and our country and we should not have any law to change that. We are not a theocracy. Host eddie is in massachusetts on our republican line. Youre on washington journal. Caller the defense of marriage act, for those who get married wherever, it is a blessing. It is a blessing to have children, to Stay Together to raise them properly. That is what marriage is. Think of it as a payasyougo metal care and social security. As you payasyougo into these funds, since they do not have children, is that fair . Host milly in north carolina. An independent. Caller good morning. I was sorry i did not get through on the last segment. I watched a video by in dearborn, michigan, going into muslim bakeries who refused to make cakes for a gay wedding. I would like to know where is the Lgbt Community on that . Why are muslims allowed to refuse to make cakes and christians are not . Host what was the video you saw and where can other people access it if they are interested . Caller it was on stephen crowders website. He went into dearborn, michigan, into several muslim bakeries. They refused to make a cake for a homosexual marriage. Host do you think they should have to make it cake for a gay wedding . Caller sure. Why are christians not allowed to refuse but muslims are . They hang gay people in muslim countries. Host that is milly and north carolina. Debby in richmond, virginia. Democrat. Hello. Caller how are you doing . I wanted to ask a question. Obviously these people are not jesus followers, right . Host what people . Caller the people who want to discriminate. Because when jesus is discussing marriage in matthews, he straight up says three things. They are born that way. Then he says that they are made that way. There is another one. These people are not following jesus, right . These are people following paul or someone else. I just wanted to know. I can discriminate against christians and do not feel bad. Thank you and have a beautiful week. Host that is debian richmond, virginia. Newspaper feinstein says take the anarchist cookbook and al qaeda magazine off the internet. Senator feinstein says take the anarchist cookbook and al qaeda magazine off the internet. The senator, the top democrat at the Senate Intelligence committee, said that the rest of new york woman allegedly trying to build a bomb is a reminder of the threat facing america from within. She says that these documents are not, in my view protected by the First Amendment and should be removed from the internet. Cindy from texas. What is on your mind . Caller in the constitution, it says to separate church and state. During the last demonstration they took the 10 commandments out of the courthouses. They were not allowed to have them in their. In the bible it says do not bring politics into the church. But again, we have people getting married in front of the law and the justice of the peace the other day. I just wonder if they are legally married. But it does say not to bring politics in the constitution and the bible into government. That is my comment. Host thank you. Jerry is in michigan on our republican line. You are on washington journal. Caller hello . Host hi. Jerry, please go ahead. Caller i would like to ask the question to you, can you . Legislate morality host what is your answer . Caller the answer to that, in my understanding, is no. You cannot legislate morality. Host what is the morality that you referred to . What issue . Are you referring to a Public Policy issue . Caller this is just a general principle. Under the scriptures. Host that said caller with your separation of church and state. God is a god of all there is just one god. I think that you need to address what is worship. I think that may help clear up some of the situations that is being addressed today. Host hussein is calling in from jamaica, new york. Good morning. You are on washington journal. Caller good morning, how are you . Host good, how are you . Caller fine. I have comments about the Old Testament and new testament going on they discussed sexuality. It was mandated as a sin. Why in the 1960s, it happens in america, that it was considered by every psychologist in the 1960s that it was a mental causation. We are human beings. Every day, we are tempted to do something wrong. What stops us . It is our religion that we should not steal should not rape, should be kind to other people. So why no, in this part of society, that there have been so many activation is hype. I do not know why a human being a man has relation with a man and a woman has a relation with a woman. Believe me, i have gone through so many things. People are people are people. In my time, there were only one or two boys which were victimized by the 10th or 11th blood individuals. Even in those countries this i should say this has no rights. Where will we end up . All of our children, that go in to a public school, they have a privilege. Think about the sixyearold or sevenyearold boy who does not know about the importance host of all right, we leave it there. Thank you. Rudy, what is on your mind from california . Caller hello. I would like to say i love this country. I am a democratic liberal, you might call me. With all the stuff about us wanting to go to war, i think we should institute the draft. I think it should be from everybody from the High School Dropouts to the persons who want to go to princeton or yell. Maybe everyone will think about bombing and sending our troops. I have a cousin who died in nam. He was drafted. I hate this idea that everybody is always beating the war drum. Ok we beat the war drum, but that everybody serve. Host that is rudy in california. From the Washington Times, colorados neighbors want to stop its pot trade. Colorados decision to legalize pot trade is stirring the pot in nebraska and oklahoma. Officials say theyre dealing with spillover effects. They are so angry they are taking their case straight to the u. S. Supreme court, hoping justices will accept this under a really use clause of the constitution that lets the Court Considered interstate squabbles directly. Legal analyst says this raises a lot of issues that are still hazy, from the intersection of federal and state drug laws to whether cultural differences are excepting actual policy concerns among the states. Harry reid and a New York Times reporter worked together in downtown las vegas. Here is the article. Read reid to head home on new mission. Mr. Ried reid has appointed the executive vice chancellor of the nevada system of Higher Education as his successor. He says he will put his organizational fundraising machine behind her, the same apparatus that helped him rewin in 2010. Harry reid also said that president obama wasted 18 months of his term, trying to accommodate political intransigence from republicans, but suggested the president would nevertheless be remembered as the rest chief executive in at least 50 years, presumably including bill clinton, the husband of the woman likely to be the 2016 democrats know democratic president ial nominee. Mr. Reid seemed as a clerk as a parent questions about politics and what many of his friends see as improbability of harry reid, a man who sometimes seems to be in perpetual motion, in retirement. I have had many calls from people he said. Al gore called me. Maybe i want to do something with al gore . I have no idea. But he would not be a lobbyist. He said quote i would rather go to singapore and have them eat meat with whips beat me with whips. , is on the republican line. Good morning. Caller i would say that reverend is hypocritical that was performing gay marriages. The bible is very specific about homosexuality. It mentions in leviticus and romans and several other verses that homosexuality is wrong and that it is an abomination of god. It is very specific in the bible. Host all right. Dory from florida. Hello dory, democrat line. Hello . Caller hello . Host . All right. Listen through your telephone, folks. Turn down the tv. Otherwise you get a delay. Here is an article you may be interested in reading. If you go to usa today, taxpayers help pay for cruz political trips. I do Better Research done. Robert from north carolina. We are listening. Caller thank you. On what is going on in indiana, this shows how money is everything to the republican party. Politics, as it may be. It is these if these large corporations would not get involved, they would not do a thing about it. As far as republicans, it is racism, they are homophobic. It is a disgrace that this country is going backwards. What is happening on fox news, it is not a news network. It is not americas new station. Fox news is hate tv. It is entertainment at its lowest level. It is about time this country woke up and started doing something to help everybody instead of just the billionaires. Host al, toledo, washington. Democrat. Caller good morning. Thanks to cspan. There are so many topics this morning. The idea of homosexuality, after 30 years in the navy, having this around, i never felt threatened. I learned to say thank you but no thank you, it is not my scene. We hear people talking about an abomination. Eating shellfish is an abomination. When it comes to war listen to mr. Tom cotton, congressman cotton. A panel he is only learned the who robbed of war but not the reasons we do not go to war. That war is diplomacy by other means. I do not want to go back. I spent 30. I do not know why people have to beat the drums of war over such inane things. Were working toward solutions that may prevent thousands of other young men and woman from being host we will have to leave it there. Thank you for calling in. Final article, dhs revives quest for license plate access. This is in the Washington Post. It will probably make more news over the weekend. There is the article if youre interested. Cspan live continues. We go to the Atlantic Council in washington, d. C. There will be a conversation looking at the framework for a copy handset agreement withahead of the Eurasia Group of the Atlantic Council. That is clifford kupchan. He has the arms control represented. The Atlantic Council represented. This is live coverage on cspan