That letter went to the , we would of sxsw love to hear your thoughts again. Hugh forrest is the interactive organizer for south by southwest in austin. Lets take a look at his response. E writes that is from the interactive director for sxsw. That is the interactive film and music Conference Held each year in austin, texas. A deal pretty conference. Lets go now to some of the headlines around that. In pr has a great take on this issue. Our first call this morning comes out of texas. Tony is on our line for independence. Tony, what you think about Edward Snowdens appearance . I look forward to it. I hope we are able to look at it. I think Edward Snowden is a type of hero because he has taken the chance to get information out there about the wrongs that are being perpetrated on the American People. It is people like Edward Snowden that are our only way to fix this stuff. I would want the doors opened up so we can find out what is really happening. There is just too much corruption. There arent too many lies and there is too much war mongering going on out here. The American People are not going to have a leg to stand on everybody spying on in the world. It is not going to be long before you have the whole world coming down on the United States, in my opinion. Most want, what you to hear Edward Snowden address when he speaks later today . Want Edward Snowden to unleash everything that he knows about. I want the American People to know exactly what is going on, and i want the American People to act on it. I want this resolved. Thatt the corrupted people are destroying our country and allowing this to happen to be taken out of office. They need to be prosecuted. They are violating our laws. There violating all of our constitution for their own selfish greed. I cant understand how long were going to allow this to go on. Another highprofile speaker at this years sxsw festival, it is Julian Assange who is the founder of wikileaks. That from Julian Assange who will also address the videoconference. He is at the Ecuadoran Embassy in london, also not in the United States. Our next caller, what you think of Edward Snowden speech . Aller caller i have one question for the United States. Why does the oneman to us and tells us that the doing states is still this still has his job. And why does the man who is exposing it having to hide for telling the truth . I want to look at how sxsw is billing the speech. They say the conversation will be focused on the impact of the nsa spying on the community. Next up is richard in malden, massachusetts. Im waiting to hear what he will say. This government of ours is so corrupt and they are running it like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. They said they would interview nsa, but they wont come on because this government is so secretive. We have no idea what they are really doing. We are not free and we are not open with the American People. I thank you for letting me speak. All right, lets go to some of your tweets. Our topic this morning is Edward Snowdens upcoming speech at sxsw, the film interactive and Music Festival in austin, texas. He is scheduled to speak later this morning. Our next call is from florida. It is from the democrat line. I understand that guy from texas. The me tell you something. If we want our freedom, american freedom, Edward Snowden is a traitor. You are going to china and russia and tell them our business . The 50s, a long time ago, you are not going to talk on the phone about killing anybody are doing that kind of stuff. Once they do, they need to catch you. Not trying to hurt anybody so i dont mind them spying on my phone records. I love my american freedom, and with the technology that these how were they able to bombard us on 9 11 . You for letting me speak this morning. Ray is on the line for independence from massachusetts. Four independent for independents from massachusetts. Caller i think yuck to be tried and executed like benedict arnold. E is nothing but a traitor if he likes being in russia, let him stay there, let his family go there. That is all i have got to say. I want to point your attention to a story that is on the front page of this mornings usa today. Next call comes from jacksonville, florida. Fran is on our line for democrats. Say that ialled to really dont want to you anymore from Edward Snowden. Isnderstand that america upset about him revealing that the government has been spying on americans and looking into our personal business, but it is another thing for them to be revealing what we are doing to foreigners and people in other countries. That is what the nsa i thought was about, a security agency. Theyre supposed to be protecting us against outside interests. I understand that he is revealing all the stuff about us and we are upset about that, but at oddsold world is knowing what we are doing with them. What is the point in having spies if you have someone within your country telling the whole world that we are spying on them . Russia, of allto places. No, i dont want to hear anymore about Edward Snowden. Everybody should be upset about what he has done. Fran, do you think the festival should allow him to speak . If you had a question to ask them, what would you want to know . To let himy are free speak. I am just saying that im upset about him and what he has done. I dont want to hear what he has to say. Hes time he is trying to come off as being just a concerned american. That is not what the outcome has been. He has revealed too much to the whole world, and the fact that he has revealed to us what is been happening to us is not going to forgive the other stuff that he has revealed. June is on the line for. Dependents caller the extreme hypocrisy of Edward Snowden whining about, oh, the americans are spying on everybody. Listen, russia is monitoring his very thoughts, ok . Not just his phone calls and whatever else. To leavewas not forced america. If he was really concerned about what is going on here, he should have stood before a congressional hearing and said , butand that and the other where does he go . Bastion of freedom, russia. And before that . China. Theres something very wrong here for people thinking that this man is an American Hero and he is in the very country that is trying to get the world on the brink of another war because of their failure to provide freedom for people . , wean, Edward Snowden really need to pray for him and all of those that think he is this tremendous hero who has tried his best to destroy this very country that gave him the freedom to spy on us. Host ay god bless him host arent next caller is steve. Heres on the line for democrats. Caller my wife and i are here on ocean short. Tip of thethe iceberg. Let him speak, but he seems too scripted. Fukushimaoncern is to Nuclear Disaster and why the bouys were turned off. People need to go to global sky watch on facebook and see what is going on. Anda is admitting srms chemical cloud seeding. I would like to know why our reporter has a gag order on this. As i first thought of it, i went to our reporter and he told me again, our topic this morning is Edward Snowdens upcoming speech at sxsw in austin. Please keep your tweets coming o. Next up is ashley. She is on our houston, texas line for democrats. Is a very liberal city, first of all. I am not surprised that they would have something there on snowden. I have no use for snowden. As far as i am concerned he is a traitor. Anyone that takes our things and take some abroad. I would be real worried about this with russia invading ukraine and all of the things that are going on. I have no use for Edward Snowden. I think he is a traitor and i think he should be in jail. I thank you. Clarion, pennsylvania on the line for independents. What do you think . Congress knows about it and i am letting you know about it or it i think it is wrong. I dont understand these people with this attitude that he has done something wrong. The Daniel Ellensburg of our time. If Daniel Ellsberg had not pointed out that that war was only for defense contractors to make that kind of money, we would not have known. About russia this , heing, over the weekend was asked whether russian president Vladimir Putin saw a weakness from president obama. Lets take a look at what he had to say. [video clip] playing is paying a clear cost. President putin is acting out of a position of weakness. Understand what has happened here. This is gone on for several months now. Country that was taking aggressive action against its own people has left a government that is more oriented toward the in here that is what president putin is afraid of. I think what you are seeing is the United States leading in this effort, and the president doing the leading. Somehowon that this is the result of syria makes for a little sense to me. This is about ukraine. The suggestion is that the president looked weak in syria. The russians went into georgia and took over territory there under the Bush Administration when there were hundreds of thousands of american troops deployed in iraq and afghanistan. Didnt stop the russians from going in. That is because this is not about what we do or we say in the first instance, it is about russia and its perceived interests. We made very clear now that there is a choice russia has to make any cost it will pay if it continues down this path. I think the impact of what we have already done in terms of the pressure on russia has been significant. It will go stronger, but it is also the responsible thing to do to figure out if we can resolve this in a diplomatic way. That is why we have offered a path forward that will take into account russias concerns. Cannot change the status quo through use of force. Host that was from this weekends cnns state of the union. Aboutepublican was asked what president putin really wants. [video clip] is scoring huge points on his foreignpolicy. I think that has bolstered his ability to try to be out of the box when he does Something Like put troops in crimea. I do think he wants to be back on the world stage, he wants to be a world influence. If he has to do it through brute force, he will do it. That is his mentality. We should not underestimate the kinds of things he will do, that he thinks is in russias best interests. A differentt was century and the administration thought well, if we just act nice everyone will act nice with us. That is unfortunately not the way that resident who team and the Russian Federation sees the rest of the world. Host House Intelligence Committee chairman mike rogers speaking on cnn this week. Neil, what can we expect to hear on capitol hill today . It is a slow start to the week as is often the case. , certainly for the cspan audience, will be that the senate plans to not come in until 4 00 this afternoon, but once they start, they plan on spending all night in session. There is a large group of democratic senators, at least 28 members of the Democratic Caucus so far, who plan on giving for speeches around the clock, basically, on the subject of Climate Change. This has been in the works for a few weeks. This thursday they finally locked it in and finalized it. They are going to be in session all night, probably until at least 8 00 or 9 00 in the morning on tuesday with speechmaking about Climate Change, as they burn through some unrelated to bigtime on a circuit judge nomination. Are the biggest votes youre watching this week in both the house and the senate . Side, over on the house there are two highlights of the week. One is a set of bills that are address what House Republicans view as an undue overreach by the Obama Administration in not enforcing laws. They want there to be more transparency when the officials opt against enforcing statutes, particularly at the justice department. They want to be able to have standing in order to sue to try to get laws to be enforced if possible. The other thing that is big in the house this week is that i weeks and they are supposed to wouldp legislation that maybe once and for all resolve fix. Ocalled doc is an issue of doctors treating medicare patients for longstanding situation where they face a cliff of payment on a basically annual basis. They want to resolve that, and that is on the agenda for the week. Now once the senate is done with the Climate Change speeches, and once theyre done confirming a few judicial nominees, we might well be already at wednesday. It is a week leading into a recess. It is not clear how much we will get done. In theory, they will do a child care and Development Block grant reauthorization, but that seems like it could all get pushed. Side right before he came on, you were discussing the situation in ukraine. The senate is looking to do something probably before they authorizationg an of additional aid to ukraine, and maybe something on the realm of russian sanctions, antirussian sanctions. That would probably trump everything. How contentious is that . Is that expected to pass easily . What are the politics there . Guest it will probably pass easily once it is put together. Mature eem for chair members men and this and corker would get easy passage. On thursday, secretary of state john kerry is supposed to be making his regularly scheduled appearance to review the state Department Budget and the foreign aid budget with the state and foreign operations appropriations subcommittee which is chaired by Patrick Leahy of vermont. Re is a kerry citing i wouldnt be surprised if that veered off topic into news of the day. We have been talking with neils less new ski who covers weast for roll call have been talking with niels lesniewski. House republicans rebuff the president online reset include a separate package of loans from the fund. Next call comes from flint, michigan. Snowden isink a traitor any more than is cheney or bush or rumsfeld. Thank you. Host next call is ron. He is in deadwood, south dakota. I havent really made up my mind if he is a traitor or a shouldut i think they let him speak. I would like to hear what he has to say. You never learn anything if you dont listen. Host ron, if you could ask Edward Snowden one question, what would you ask . Caller i would like to know what his ultimate intentions are , and keep austin weird. Thanks. Our next call comes from dearborn heights, michigan. Independent line. Hey there, you are on washington journal. Are you with us . We could have dealt with it and then we could listen to it. If he wanted to stand out, we could have taken her to court, and he should have stood up like a man. But when he took it out of the country, we dont need that over there. If he had good intentions for america he wouldve kept it in america instead of taking it out of the country. Host more of your tweets coming in again. Next up, in trenton, missouri, robert is on the line for independents. What you think about Edward Snowdens speech . Caller i think we should let him speak. Fair promised an open and government. Backdoorall these conversations and such. We were promised an open and fair transparent government. I dont believe snowden is the traitor. I think he saw the corruption that has been going on and tried to wake america up to it. Everyone also watching the story about the malaysian jet that is still on found. Hear from the wall street journal. Next call on our topic this morning is isabella in weston, massachusetts on the line for democrats. Would like to say that i think Edward Snowden is a real American Hero and he is done our country and the world a huge favor in letting us know what is really going on. Criticizingead of for being inn russia, we should probably realize he would be in jail for revealing our secrets here. Or we really need to be focusing on is what he has revealed, which is outrageous. I hope that our government will up their actning and abiding by the constitution. Host why you think so many people are so upset about the idea of Edward Snowden speaking at south and southwest and having public discussions about his disclosures . Theyr well, i think that are comfortable with the way that he went about this and they are not really thinking about what it is that he has revealed. I think if they did, they would be more uncomfortable what our government is doing than what he has been doing. In terms of calling him a traitor, this man has basically given up his life to save his country. That is why so many of us feel that in fact he is a hero. I hope that someday he will be coming home to america and receive the thanks that many of us would like to give him personally. Our next call is also from massachusetts. Kevin is on the line in boston on the line for democrats. Caller i dont think snowden is a traitor. In thisut people here country who talk about our president . The congress disrespects him. When you hurt america, you hurt the people. Those who are of hiding their money offshore . Dont want to pay their taxes or do anything for the