You can send us a tweet if you go to twitter. Com cspanwj. On our facebook page, facebook. Com cspan. Or email us. We will begin with the front page of the Washington Post this is what the attorney general is going to propose, that lowlevel, nonviolent drug offenders with no ties to gangs or largescale drug organizations will no longer be charged with offenses that impose severe mandatory sentences. It goes on to say it goes on to say we want to get your thoughts on this. What do you think about the attorney general setting this forward . This is his goal. He wanted to be part of his tenure. What are your thoughts about reforming the american prison system . The front page of the usa today robert in windsor mill, maryland, a democrat. You are up first. What do you think . Caller good morning. I think this is definitely a move in the right direction. Although i think it is going to continue in baby steps. What is really needed is first fullblown legalization of class d drugs such as marijuana and things like that. A lot of these guys that are being incarcerated are basically stigmatized as secondclass citizens. They are not able to get jobs. They cannot vote. Advocatepeople who private prisons are doing for profit motives. I think these profitdriven industries such as private prisons are a detriment to our country because when these , crimes were initiated nationally was at an alltime low. The socalled drug war that was initiated through the Reagan Administration at the time took place during an alltime low as far as drug crime and so forth. What happened was they needed to justify the socalled war on drugs. That is when they went down towards Central America and got caught with their hands in the cookie jar come as far as selling drugs up through the country with the cia. Is what they use to justify their war on drugs. They used a National Marketing campaign by painting certain cities as being drug havens. They even had a socalled poster child, willie horton, back in a 1980s. In the 1980s. This was during a time when historic drug crime was at an alltime low. Host we will hear from another democrat, tim and mt. Hope, arkansas. Caller good morning. Finally we are seeing common sense in washington. This is a very important day. Host why do you say that . Caller we are starting to see we are starting to think straight. We are not thinking straight when we lock people up for smoking marijuana, especially when it is proven medicine. Ive got glaucoma. I suffer from severe neck and back pain. If i was in any other state but state thatny other allows medical marijuana, i would be a patient driven in arkansas, i am a criminal. Ive been arrested a few times for marijuana. It is always the same thing. They want your money. They want to lock you up. They want to harass you. They want to search her home. They want to take your cars. It is kind of like a mafia state down here in arkansas as far as keeping medical marijuana users from their medicine. Host have you had to do prison time . Caller no, but i have points 20 i have spent plenty of time in the back of the county jail. It is not a fun experience being labeled a criminal when youre just trying to medicate your glaucoma and chronic neck and back pain. Maybe our society has become little bit more compassionate. Host how come you havent had to serve prison time . You know, i havent gotten in trouble enough. It is always a misdemeanor. If you stay out of trouble for three or four or five years, it is always every four or five years, i always seem to get in trouble. Host vance, oklahoma city, a republican. Caller hello. I think this is a political move on the part of the obama administration. Obama has been probably the most oppressive and most antilibertarian president this country has had since woodrow wilson. Moveis going on with this baracklder is this obama wants to divide the libertarian wing of the Republican Party led by rand paul from the authoritarian gop establishment. I predict within the year that obama and holder will call for the total legalization of marijuana. A vast part ofp the Democratic Party constituency, which it is no secret, many of whom are pot smokers or x pot smokers, and number two, to simply divide the gop. This is a way to lay the and 2016k for the 2014 elections. This is what is going on right now. Host listen to this. This is from usa today what do you think, vance . Caller i think it is interesting that jeb bush and Newt Gingrich have actually come along on this, because they have traditionally been with the authoritarian wing of the Republican Party, and i of course applaud rand paul for calling for judicial discretion in these cases. Sentencing wasum a very bad idea because it was a onesizefitsall approach to judicial sentencing, and sentencing should be done on a casebycase basis. Host a little history for our viewers. This is from the d. C. Bar association, from their website. In june 1971, president Richard Nixon declared that the United States was launching a war on drugs. Federal lawthat enforcement agencies would mount a frontal attack on our number one public enemy. In the decades that followed, the demand for top Law Enforcement became a staple of american political rhetoric, and mandatory minimum sentencing laws came to be viewed as a powerful weapon in the nations drug war. Here is what supporters of mandatory sentencing say. First, they believe the harsh penalties would act as a deterrent, fewer people would be inclined to risk involvement with drugs, and second, those convicted of Drug Trafficking would be incapable of committing further crimes because they would be in prison. It goes onto say, third, in order to avoid extremely long prison sentences, those arrested would be more likely to cooperate with lawenforcement, enhancing the ability of the government to put drug gangs and drug cartels out of business. John, saratoga springs, an independent. Caller hello . Host you are on the air. Go ahead. Caller yes, it is a real deterrent when we have like one Million People in prison right now. That is working out real good for them. They are making all kinds of money off of this. It comes to the time when you have to do the right thing. Im not going to call in with some political thing. But i do notian, want to be like republicans trying to get democrats they are half the problem. They do not do what is right. They do it will screw over the other side. The fact of the mayor the matter is that marijuana should be legalized. It is safer than alcohol. It is safer than cigarettes. Im 50 years old. I have friends who are dying from drinking. They have been drunk in all their lives are ruined. Somehow marijuana got on the bad list of drugs could it is pretty much a drug drugs. It is pretty much good a joke. It can be used as a medicine. They deny that for years. No, there is no medical value, but now of course they have to admit theres medical value. It is just a bad law. It is just a bad law. It is not a political thing. It is just putting innocent people in jail basically, the whole marijuana drug war enforcement thing is a total failure. Host here are some numbers for you. These have been quoted in the newspapers this morning on this story about eric holder set to announce that he would like to reform the american prison system and reduce mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug offenders. E are some numbers for you from 19802008, incarceration quadrupled. You can see the numbers these numbers are from the naacp as well as the center on juvenile and criminal justice. Africanamericans incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. Lets hear from richard in huntsville, texas, a democrat. Caller thank you for taking my call. All i can say it is about time. This is about time. It has been 4050 years that this should have been done. It is said that the only thing we as americans learn from history is that we refuse to learn anything from history. If you want to look at a perfect example of this, look at the prohibition. 21st at the 18th amendment amendment. Prohibition made millionaires out of thugs. Now we are making millionaires out of thugs with the socalled war against drugs. It is about time. Said forcaller whatever reason they made marijuana illegal if you look at the history, it is all about racism. I am white. Let me get that clear. Host john, pensacola, florida. A republican. Caller hello, good morning. Watcher of cspan for many years. Im 70 years old. I have tried many times to get through. I have had no luck until today. Comments, ie my would like to state that somebody doesnt do his math correct. In an article you read about 1971, it alsoin stated it was 30 years ago. Not according to my math. Host it is probably an older article. My fault. [laughter] caller tying that into a pursuit in color, he too was lay in all of this trouble at the foot of the Reagan Administration. That is incorrect. I have been there in those days. I was a young man living on long island in the days of the beatniks going into new york city before i got out of high school in 1960. I will tell you, within two that thewas convinced legalization of marijuana should hashish andd, maybe other like drugs. Im glad to see this is coming about. You got in today. Thank you for watching all of those years. The front page of the Washington Times the piece is written by guy taylor, who joined us on our newsmakers crowe graham program. Quotes our guest, Dana Rohrabacher, a california republican. I want to show you the part that guy taylor put in his piece. The congressman is responding to and howa administration it uses its drug policy. Mr. Rohrbacher said here is congressman rohrabacher in his own words on newsmakers. [video clip] im sure sending a drone is legal, but sending a guy with a highpowered rifle is illegal. That type of nonsense weve got to get over if we are going to confront the radical islamic terrorist threat that will murder thousands of our people, even hundreds of thousands of our people, if they get a chance. Host that was congressman rohrbacher on our program. You can go to our Video Library at cspan. Org if you want to watch the whole thing. In a rohrbacher Dana Rohrabacher also tweeting out saying he would defund white trash, but not our vets, seniors, and other deserving americans to provide benefits to those here illegally. He tweeted that out in response to a constituent complaining about immigration policy. That on the Huffington Post website this morning. Sticking with National Security, heres the front page of the New York Times this is the front page of the sw york times, eric schmidt piece. On the domestic side, here from the Washington Times, a couple stories about gop efforts to try to defund the healthcare law. This from inside the paper if you have been attending town gohmert,ings, louie texas republican, says he knows his partys deeply divided on risk in a Government Shutdown by taking a stand against obamacare, but he thinks constituents over the august recess will change peoples minds. Is anext to that story story about senator ted cruz who was in ames, iowa. He takes a swipe at obamacare. Winoes on to say, we can this fight of the defunding effort in washington. The debate goes on during the august recess while members of congress are away and president obama is on his vacation at marthas vineyard. Morning, about the domestic front and battles in washington, to hear from the wall street journal that happening in washington too as members of congress are on this august recess. By the way, we are going to be covering over this month town Hall Meetings that are happening in your area. Today atwe are airing 6 30 this evening pm eastern time is a town hall meeting in richmond, virginia with congressman bobby scott, democrat of that area. Tune into cspan. Live coverage of that town hall meeting. Im sure these issues are likely to come up. He meets with constituents. Lets hear from john and pensacola, florida. You are on the air. John and pensacola . Westmoving onto joe and hartford, connecticut. An independent. Caller how are you . Thank you for cspan. When i heard the topic, i wondered if holder had read a book by michelle alexander. Hello . Host we are listening. The name of the book is called the new jim crow. If you look in the cspan archives, i think you have done an interview with her. She is a professor at ohio state. She is a law professor. Her husband is a u. S. Attorney from cleveland. If you look at his webpage, he specifically says that he does not agree with her position in the book. In her book, what she says is that the drug policy and the resulting prison sentences are really the modern modernday embodiment of slavery. Are theth that provisions that allow local police to keep any money that is seized in the drug war. If you put all of it together, the question is whether or not holders policy is brought forward who would suffer from it . Host on twitter canton, georgia, a democratic caller. Good morning. You are on the air. Caller i am calling from georgia. My son is 17 years old. The police came into his mothers house. With their guns out, they busted him and others. They were kids doing kids things. Now he is going to have to suffer the rest of his life for that. I do not understand the Law Enforcement. They overdo it. They have over done everything for a long time. It is time for them to legalize marijuana. They would probably lay off half the police force in this country. Thats all i got to say. Sorry, i got a little excited. Host on our facebook page, here are a couple of comments facebook. Com cspan if you want to join the conversation there. On twitter, one tweet from the Washington Post story, they say it goes on to say steve in connecticut, an independent. You are on the air. For taking myyou call. I appreciate it. A couple months ago, i had totally no confidence in attorney eric holder. I probably would have laid him off if i were his boss. He seems squishy to me. Since his speech in orlando, florida, at the National Association for the advancement of colored people, i think he really i dont know grown into his own position. I think he is going to have a great legacy as attorney general for the United States. I think this has been a real turning point, especially since that speech. I dont know if it has anything to do with the Trayvon Martin ane, but i think he is attorney general for all the people. Im glad he is taking on the difficult issues. Host we cover that speech. We are showing you a little bit of a be role of that speech broll of that speech could you said you think you will have a good legacy as the attorney general. What about the criticism over benghazi, fast and furious, other criticism, how the department of justice has handled reporters and leaks to reporters what do you think . Caller i agree with a lot of the criticism. I think president obama and eric holder are going down the wrong road with the reporter thing. I would pull back on that. I think if you look at attorney generals overall, bringing it back to eric holder, he was really squishy back then. He was totally on the defensive. I would have fired him. It seemed to me he could not play political ball in washington. He kept fumbling the ball and fumbling the ball. The issue of him taking on these difficult issues, these are racial issues, i am pleased. I think he is coming back as a person. Host ok. Caller in iowa. Caller i hear people talking about marijuana. The real problem is meth labs, heroin, crack. \ i live in a small town, and every week, meth labs are being busted up in every neighborhood. My town is only 18,000 people. It is an epidemic. You can get strung out on heroin. It is so cheap. Five dollars a hit. Host what do you think should be done, butch . Attorney effort by the general, does that make you concerned given what is happening in your area . Caller no one is talking about heroin use. The meth labs, that is dangerous. It is like i said. Small town of 15,000 people im 61 years old when i grew up, there was nothing like that. It is an epidemic. It is not reaching the national level. Host this is the piece in the Washington Times this in the Washington Times if you are interested as we talk about the attorney general seeking to revamp drug sentencing laws and we will continue that conversation. We want to show you some other news, front page of the Washington Times has this headline on the sunday talk shows, michael mccaul, republican from texas, the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, he was on meet the press, and here is what he had to say about the administration Surveillance Program and what the president had to say on friday. [video clip] he has not adequately explain them or defended them. Now he is in a bit of a mess. On the heels of the irs scandal, where people do not trust this government or administration with their tax records, they sure do not trust this administration with their phone records. That was congressman mike mccall, republican of texas. He has up the Homeland Security committee in the house. Dutch ruppersberger, the democrat from maryland, the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee. He was on cbss face the nation. [video clip] thenyone who is working in intelligence area, including the president , understands that this Program Helps to protect us. It might have protected us from 9 11 attacks because we do not know that one of the terrorist was in san diego in the United States. If we had known that, it mightve helped. Do you think any reforms are necessary . Yes, and this is the reason. We have to do with perception, not just reality. We need to do better in educating our public so they are not fearful that we are violating their privacy. That is very imp