of morn relations talked about the danger faced by his family and what he calls the lawlessness in china. >> what i am most concerned about is also the most important question is the state of law in china, it is still very much being tram pelled on and more specifically after i left my home the local authorities have been having retaliating against my family in a frenzied way. please think about this. >> just in to cnn a couple minutes ago the syrian government is denying any involvement in the massacre that left more than 100 people dead in the village of houla. a government spoexz man in damascus blames what he calls armed groups, not the syrian military, for going house to house and slaughtering entire families, mostly women and children. it was last friday. you're about to see an up close look inside the village where it happened. itn's alex thompson. >> the u.n. warned you're past the last syrian army check point and then it is no man's land and space out the vehicles as we go across and if shooting starts, do a u-turn and get the hell out, you're on your own. it is a chilling mile long straight drive through the broken empty buildings. watch for the dead horse rotting in the street on the right and past that and the abandoned personnel carrier of the syrian army and you are into rebel held houla. they want to scream and shout and chant and show us fragments of shells. i have scarcely seen people so desperate to tell their story. u.n. observers simply embraced before they can observe anything at all. they're chanting the release, the anger is palpable in this place and very few people from the arab side and certainly never a journalist here since they over took this town back on friday. from that moment we were taken away and swept up and led from house to house where everyone has a story to tell and when it comes to the men that carried out the massacre here on friday, this is the same one. this man who didn't wish to give his name speaks for everyone here it seems. you know where these militia came from. >> yes. >> which villages did the militia come from, tell me that. >> kabul, and the gang. >> you think these are aloewhites. >> yes, 100%. >> how do you know they're sheer? how do you know? >> they wear black cloths and we are writing on the foreheads. >> it is a sheer slogan in this region. houla is on the plain, overwhelmingly suni and the killers came down from the hills to the west where the villages are sheer and alowhite, and this is kabul named again and again as a village where the killers have come from. so, too, houla to the northwest named by different people at different times in different locations as being a place where the killers lived. time and again they showed us the videos of the massacre aftermath. we can't show pictures of children decapitated by knives, women with faces shot away, and tiny mutilated bodies of toddlers. survivors scarred by all of this constantly brought to our attention like three-year-old sadara wounded by shrapnel but her mother is dead. for now, though, time is up for the red crescent and the u.n. we had to move out. south back across no man's land and away from this stricken place. alex thompson, channel 4 news, houla. barney frank is about to become the first member of congress in a same sex marriage. we'll talk to him about that and his plans to retire from congress. the official portrait of george bush will be unveiled this hour at the white house. we'll take a look at his legacy and my tour of the white house art collection. >> it was paint the by samuel morris who invented the telegraph. >> here is what we're working on this hour. >> barney frank is about to become the first member of congress in a same sex marriage. i will talk to him about it and his plans to retire from congress. the official portrait of george w. bush will be unveiled this hour at the white house. we'll go there live and take a look at george w.'s legacy. we're america's natural gas and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us. now's the time to move from to where you want to go. look up. with u.s. bank let's get the wheels turning. use our strength & stability to open new opportunities. to lend, and lift ...every business...every dream... to new heights of prosperity. good things are happening. just look up. with u.s. bank. in absolute perfect physical condition and i had a heart attack right out of the clear blue... he was just... 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[ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kaopectate. 1kr. barney frank leaves after 32 years in the house. he is joining us to talk about his legacy. i do want to get your thoughts on a story that broke regarding the defense of marriage act. a federal appeals court in massachusetts ruled the defense of marriage act unconstitutional. it defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman and the court says the act discriminates against same sex couples. is this part of a sea change, do you think, taking place in this country when you look at that are you heartened to see that? >> yes. i was pleased but not surprised. it does not say that anybody anywhere has a right in america to marry someone of the same sex. it says very carefully done by excellent lawyers at the gay and lesbian advocates in boston where a state has recognized marriage, whether it is between people of the opposite sex or same sex, the federal government cannot discriminate. in america marriage is always been defined at the state level. what the defense of marriage act said in part and it is the only part up in the decision is the federal government will say, yes, if you're a man and a woman married and you will get social security benefits and joint taxes, et cetera, and if you're two women marrying, you don't. what the district court judge said and the three judges unanimous at the circuit court said that's not right. you have to treat people equally and it is a denial of fundamental federal doctrine of equal protection and the argument that president obama made when he said earlier he wasn't going to defend the law and vindication of his position. >> what do you make of what's happened here? there does seem to be a sea change regarding same sex marriage. president obama coming out in support of it. you were really a pioneer as openly gay in congress. did you ever imagine it would gain so much support that you would be still in congress and see this kind of change happening? >> i was hoping it would happen and happening more quickly than i wanted it to, not as quickly as it should. we're talking about a premise that never had rational basis in the first place and i think what's happening is reality defeats prejudice. for many years those of us gay and lesbian and i was in the category until 25 years ago when i volunteered that i was gay when it came up, we were hiding and so these inaccurate vicious stereotypes about us were all people knew. as we have become honest about our sexuality, we don't discuss our sexuality any more than straight people do and there is a difference. when we talk honestly about our sexuality, it is called coming out. when the heterosexual majority does it, it is called talking. we all talk about our sexuality, and that's helped defeat the prejudice. marriage is an example. wherever marriage has been in effect for any period of time, the opposition to it dies away. same sex marriage, because it is clear it doesn't hurt anybody. >> do you fear there will be a bab lash? we heard from several pastors of churches throughout the country really some fiery rhetoric, some of them even threatening to kill gay people in the community. is that a concern at all that you might -- we might see something like that? >> i am not in fear with that. yes, there is a backlash. there always has been whether it was african-americans, women, any group that has decided they're no longer going to accept second class or third class treatment and that fights for its rights will excite some opposition. as long as you're willing to be supined, people will be much nicer to you. what we found, however, is this one, those who express those views clearly in the minority and especially generationally. what gives me the most optimism is this. if you ask people under 30, it is clear they don't understand what this is all about. they don't understand why we're two other people who happen to be in love should be of any negative concern to them and that's why this thing is changing. that and as i said the reality. take don't ask don't tell. a year ago we had prediction from my conservative friends that if we allowed gay and lesbian people to serve in the militarily openly, they have been serving for years, it would cause chaos. it has been in effect for months and nobody noticed. this is what we see. the reality, people get to see what gay people are like and lesbians are like and that the prejudice is shown to be baseless. >> talk a little about your record and your legacy. 32 years in congress. what are you most proud of? what do you hope people remember you by? >> i guess i hope that it is the same question. i am not sure it is. i can't be sure that what i am most proud of is what people will remember me by. obviously the financial foreign bill was very important and i worked very hard to try and promote affordable rental housing. i think it was misunderstood. for most of my career i am focused on trying to build rental housing for low income people and we were sidetrack and had too many others were pushing into homeownership which wasn't appropriate. i feel good about having helped diminish not unfortunately abolish altogether the prejudice against us and i am proud that in 1998 i was on the judiciary committee then when newt gingrich tried to impeach bill clinton in one of the great acts of hypocrisy, and we were able to defeat that and i think it was a great success for democracy and i am proud now finally the country is focusing on the need to reduce excessive military expenditures and tell the european allies they should defend themselves and not expect us to restrict medicare or social security or programs in the quality of life at home so we can subsidize the defense budgets >> when you look at the election and the campaign season here, what do you think president obama has done right, that he has gotten right and what do you think he needs to work on? >> what he clearly has done right is help turn around the mess of the economy. he inherited the worst economy since the great depression. interestingly, because he was trying to be somewhat bipartisan, he did himself a political damage by not stressing how bad things were. i think that's part of the reason people said, oh, well, didn't move quick enough. the american economy today of all the economies in the advanced nations in the world, japan, europe, we're doing the best and doing the best because we're mixing policies. we have been retarded by conservative opposition. we have created in the united states since the beginning of the turn around late in 2009 maybe about 4 million private sector jobs. unfortunately we have lost over 600,000 jobs from state, local government, teachers, fire fighters, police officers because the right wing has cut back on that. i think he dealt with the economy well. >> do you think mitt romney has a good record? do you think he is an adequate regard as the governor of massachusetts and also a businessman to lead forward. >> no, no, he was a terrible governor of massachusetts. i represented among other areas southeastern massachusetts, a working class area where there had been national economic trends and we had a number of things we were trying to do to help the fishing industry and to get commuter rail built from the cities from new bedford to boston and to support other institutions and it was as if that area didn't exist. he became governor for one reason, to run for president, and he was seriously neglectful of the area of the state that i represented that most needed his help. we also of course got a little whiplash because mitt romney, the liberal, was running against ted kennedy in 1994 and then mitt romney the moderate ran for governor but by the time his term was ending he was mitt romney the conservative running for president and got a little dizzy watching the road runner go through the paces. >> will you actually campaign? will you help president obama this go round? >> very much so. i am not a great fan of campaigning for myself, but campaigning for others is important. yes, i will work very hard for the president. let me be honest, there is one area where i disagree with him. i think he is staying in afghanistan longer than we should and for a higher military spends and even the contrast with the republicans is extraordinary. we have republicans that say we have to reduce the deficit and not raise taxes by a penny and significantly increase military expenditures. people want to invade syria or support an invasion of syria and people want to stay in afghanistan longer and didn't want to get out of iraq and the contrast, yeah, i think the president should be doing less in terms of making america the world's military helper but the republicans and romney in particular are just totally wrong on this. >> do you think he should do more in syria, very quickly? >> no. i don't think every problem in the world is subject to american solutions. if we were to go in in a military way and directly or indirectly to another muslim country, it would be damaging. if there is a problem any mayor why does it have to be the american taxpayer or military to bail them out? the arab league should be involved. the europeans should be involved. we're carrying the brunt in afghanistan. this notion it is always america's job and everybody else can slack off, it is unfair to us and unfair to think about all that's gone on america can now go on and take on frankly a third or fourth military intervention in a muslim country and be fairly judged. yeah, there are terrible things going on and the man is a thug. there are a lot of other countries in the world and my colleagues that act as if everything that goes wrong is america's fault and we have been to the ones to solve it and if we don't solve it it is our fault, they're doing the country a intangible disservice. >> i want to ask about the remark you made created a little dust up about the hoodie at the graduation ceremony recently and you later apologized. >> i didn't. excuse me, i didn't apologize. >> okay. let's play the bit here and maybe you can explain on the other end. >> honorary they give you one of these and i think you now have a hoodie you can wear and no one will shoot at you. i think you will feel, i hope, pretty protected by that. >> if you can explain the remark. i am sorry if you did not -- if i misspoke. >> i think one of the worst issues we have in america is racial prejudice, and i think the incident in florida where the young man was murdered and simply innocently walking home to where he had a place to be or walking to a place where he was staying and part of the reason he was murdered, wearing a hoodie and looked suspicious, that's the kind of terrible attitude and i think the humor is a way to attack it. it was the third time i used line and the first two times i got an honorary degree myself and i said i wonder if this is a hoodie i can wear on the floor of the house and i think efforts to show how damaging that prejudice is, and i think this antihoodie thing, you know, i suppose some people may say the anti-hoodie sentiment is from people burned on the facebook ipo and it is more of a conflict of racial profiling and, yeah, it was a very distinguished guy getting academic honorary degree which comes with a hood and i am not apologizing at all for trying to make fun of and ridicule and hopefully diminish this attitude that says, oh, my god, the man has a hoodie, he must be suspicious? there were some people thought you were making light of it but that was a misunderstanding. >> no, no, humor is an effective political tool. the notion that you can't make a hood joke, maybe it wasn't the funniest joke in the world, but make i was rid kulg the attitude and the notion i guess you could say that satire is making light of things, i don't think so. i think it is an honorable position and debate and the third time i said it and frankly nobody i have talked to in my own district or elsewhere has said anything about it. it is largely a media creation. >> and congressman, i understand you have a wedding planned as well. you're going to be married soon. is that right? >> yep. kim and i, my husband to be, jim ready and i will be ready and married during the summer and that means that i will spend the last few months of my congressional career as a married gay man and i will have the great pleasure of my spouse who is very popular with my colleagues and already well known to them, but i think i said reality defeats prejudice. i think jim and i as a married couple interacting as we will, going to the white house balance in december and as another married couple, i think it is one more fight in the effort to diminish prejudice and give people an alternative reality to the silly stereotypes they sometimes see. >> all right. congressman, thank you very much. 32 years, quite a legacy. thank you once again. mitt romney is in california to talk to the voters there. we'll go live next. people of ireland are voting today. it is not an election, but it is a national referendum. voters are deciding whether ireland should join an economic treaty within the eurozone, those countries that use the euro, that supporters hope will be prosecute prevent a crisis like the hundreds hammering greece and spain right now. richard quest is joining from us london to talk about this. richard, first of all, help us understand this a little bit. what are the irish voting for today? >> it is called the fiscal compact. that's what we know it at. it is a 20-page treaty and what it does is the new rules of the road. it is setting out the ways in which the members of the eurozone will relate to each other, budgets, sanctions, deficits, structural deficits, and in fact some would say this is what they should have been doing for the last ten years. anyway, better late than never. the problem is ireland is the only eurozone country that is actually putting it to a referendum. the rest are doing it through national parliament or ratification processes and ireland needs the money because if ireland says no today, then effectively it is lifeline will be cut off. i mean, it is a bit like vote how you like but we know how you will vote. you get the idea. ireland is expected to vote for the referendum today. >> what's taking place in ireland? are we seeing this as a banking and debt problem or has it really reached a crisis yet? >> ireland is the poster boy and poster child for austerity. they took