Question i have regards accountability. You were saying before someone in the private sector has a certain job description. They are hired to do a job. They dont do the job come under fire. If youre in the government and you dont do the job you move to another division. Plus i learned in college there are games played with the budget. So youve got a certain amount of budget and youve only used 70 of that, you better figure out how to spend 30 next week. Exact way. Youre voting on a bill that will cost 200 million. You need to see the feasibility of the money youre spending and how it will affect your constituents. That people need to see the exact same thing. Pure accountability. Let it be posted for a month before you can vote, online for every citizen. Thats one example of accountability or let me give you second one i think hold people accountable. They are not accountable because there in washington and you were here. I wouldnt care about gfi 3000 miles away. Its human nature. I dont see why i do all my business from vegas. I dont travel that much. Unless im on tour. Generally every business idea sitting in my home in las vegas and i do it on conference, on tv, skype, conferences, Conference Calls and skype if you dont need it in washington. I think all congressmen and senators should conduct business phone office in the district instead of spending all their time meeting with lobbyists in washington they would spend time meeting with constituents are knocking on their door who live right there with them. Then when congress meets it meets on the tv and theyre all on closedcircuit television. I want to bring everybody closer to the people. Thats the way the Founding Fathers wanted to. We are not doing it that way and thats why this country is getting away from us, out of hand. Scary stuff there i want to bring up, it ties in kind of, want to bring government employs one more time because thats a huge issue that nobody is dealing with. Can you imagine if every Small Businessman or woman retired with a five to 10 million golden parachute. I dont know any Small Business person who owns one restaurant or one pet store or one bar every time with 10 million. But i know a lot of governor bush to retire with 10 million. Wayne, youre crazy, government employs to retire with 10 million. Yesterday. Every single day. They dont get 10 million up front. They get 200,000 per year for the next 50 years if you live to 100 to retire at the age of 50. Thats pure insanity and bankruptcy for america and the taxpayers and its got to stop. They shouldnt get that. Who gives pensions of 200,000 a year for not working. If you apply that philosophy to the private sector, can you imagine every time he walked to the pizzeria the guy with the area go, that will be 800. You have to pay for everyone who ever worked a third in 40 years ago. How suicidal is that . In las vegas the average fireman, and i love firemen, but the average fireman makes 199,000 a year. Is that amazing . 199,000 a year. Keep in mind these are not the captains, the chief, the average fireman on the rig coming to knock your window down when theres smoke is getting 199,000 a year. There are fire captains because its accountability in nevada, they print the source of every government employee. There are fire captains and please captains who make four, five, 600,000 a year. Insanity. So folks, it wont work longterm. One more question. Im catherine you win the prize, last question. It better be a good one. Im putting pressure on. Question one, what in your view is an ideal Health Care Policy . And question two, what is the take on quantitative easing . To easy questions. Two great questions. Im glad you asked me. Its almost as if i asked you asked me. Quantitative easing, thats simple, its the fans program that allows wall street to get rich while the rest of us go in debt. Thats a problem with quantitative easing. Let me stress the point her i love austria. Those of you are part of wall street from your great. I love you. As long as you are not asking me to pay for your getting rich. As long as youre not asking me to pay for your kids to go to harvard to of had enough trouble paying for my own daughter to go to harvard. How can you ask a government and the fed to print money so you can get rich and fix the stock market and turn it into a rigged craps game . Thats what it is but you all know that. It is a rigged craps game come rig to make it go up and up and up, and the worst the Economic Statistics are, the more it goes out because that means the fed has to spend more money. Quantitative easing is a ripoff of the middle class and the murder of the middle class. Health care, i am for health freedom. I dont want government involved. Did you know before obamacare the two most expensive states for Health Insurance were in new york and new jersey. Why . They lead the country in government regulation of Health Insurance. Whatever government touches turns to crap. Its no good. So i dont want government in health care. I want to make it 100 taxdeductible, every time you spend on what you been up to by policies over state lines so if id find a better, cheaper policy manager i confide in arizona. I want to make sure most people have just a simple cheaper policy the exact opposite of obama. Hazard when seen the seinfeld episode where Jason Alexander goes from being the biggest loser to being George Steinbrenner shrunken man and he gets people women companies eating at fancy restaurants . Psychosocial the biggest loser in the world. How did you turn a life around . Simple, i do the opposite everybody thing i thought. The only way to save america is whatever is being done by the government now, do the opposite. They want more government in health care, i want no government in health care. I want john mackey in charge, the founder of whole foods. I want tax deductible for healthy food and vitamins and gym. And i will most important for the left out of obamacare that would health care, toward reform. The problem is lawyers. Get them out. Toward reform. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for inviting me. Its been a pleasure. Thanks. [applause] booktv continues on this threeday Holiday Weekend with more nonfiction authors and books. To do interviews from booktvs recent visit to ucla where john cummins starting now our booktv, marjah mills talks about the life, career and opinions of harper lee, author of to kill a mockingbird. Ms. Mills moved next door to harper lee and her sister in monrovia of them of breaking months and spent time with the two women on a regular basis. This is about an hour and 20 minutes. Well, lets see if this my mic is hot. It is. Good evening. Right on cue. Im jake reiss with the alabama booksmith, and on the health of our dedicated staff of awesome booksellers, it is entire crew, the magnificent alabama theater, and the geniuses of Penguin Press who published the book the literary world has anticipated for half a century, it is my privilege and pleasure to welcome you to a mockingbird tribute. We also say a big hi yall to the viewers on cspan. Our theater audience has enjoyed watching and hearing personal harper lee stories before the start of the main event. Each attendee has received a signed First Edition of the mockingbird next door with their ticket. Many of you wanted extra copies for a friend and for deaths. They are available at alabama bookstore. Com. The folks sitting here will also soak up the ambience of this article in a Century Movie palace that has been lovingly restored to its original charm. The final perk of being present is that one lucky patron will walk away tonight with this 50th Anniversary Edition of to kill a mockingbird with a bookplate signed by harper lee. The rest of the evening format will be opening remarks our distinguished visitor, a conversation with replies to our inquiries, questions from the audience that you have written down as you enter the theater, and then the drawing for the prize. This podium will soon belong to the author of the hottest book in america. We just found out about two hours ago, and youre the first to know, that it will debut this sunday on the New York Times bestseller list at number four. Its only been out a few days. [applause] and you own a signed First Edition. It has been praised and damned by the New York Times, the washington post, and almost every other newspaper, radio talk show, and Television News programs out there. Not to mention blogs, tweets, Facebook Comments covering the planet. Many of you, like quite a few of these reviews we have seen, have an opinion before youve read the book. We ask that you reserve judgment until youve heard the presentation, and the answers to the questions posed. We hesitate to take anymore of the speakers time for much of an introduction, as the media has done that job for us. We will share that the georgetown graduate owns a Pulitzer Prize, a marvelous sense of humor, and a respectful, gentle manner that will be apparent as soon as you meet her. Even though she spent quite a bit of time in our state and watched many College Football games, she will not tell us the if she tells roll tide, or roll the goal. There is one controversy, she does not avoid. When it comes to the coke and pepsi wars. Since her grandfather ran a twoman cocacola bottling plant back in her hometown of Black River Falls wisconsin she maintains a small preference to diet coke. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back to sweet home alabama, marja mills. [applause] thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Just thrilled to be here and see this gorgeous theater ive been hearing about and reading about for quite some time. Thank you, jake, for what you said and for putting together just a magical evening. It was for me such a privilege to get to know harper lee and her older sister, and to have them share these stories with me, those that chose to share and im privileged to share them with you. So my favorite ones were, around the Kitchen Table in the house that are rented next door to theres in monroeville. I hope you just pull up a chair to this Kitchen Table with us, lets share some stories, celebrate with them and their friends and family in that town who so generously helped me to understand the context of their lives and of that down. And please pull up a chair to i would love to have a good chat around the Kitchen Table. Short and sweet. Lets just, we will just get right to it and then spit ive been edited for some time now as i was preparing this book and am always trying to see if i can use your words which is not usually the first option that comes to mind. No editing this evening. You have carte blanche. All right. I will make a great opening comment, if you would share with the audience just what went through your mind when youre at the best western motel in monroeville alabama, the telephone in your room rings, and the voice on the other end says hello, this is harper lee. I wonder if we might meet . And i try to keep my voice from rising a couple of octaves, and fellows in the wizard of oz had just placed a call to my hotel room. And was surprised and just thrilled at the chance to speak with her. Right away i think i had the sense of what a downtoearth person she was. And not as shy as i think i had pictured perhaps. Just it would be all right to come by the next day. And i said yes. And she showed up at the appointed time and began the first of what was many conversations over the years. One of my, wha one of the first times ive never shot a good laugh with her, the first of so many, was one of those are about my reason for being in monroeville of which was the Chicago Library system have selected to kill a mockingbird as its first selection in one book one chicago which was designed to get people around the city from all walks of life reading and talking about the same book. And so i was telling her more about the activities in chicago around the selection, the reason ive been sent to monroe 12 as a feature writer for the Chicago Tribune. Not with the thought of interviewing her so much and knowing she was private but with the thought of talking to people around town seeing this place that really is known to readers around the world in the fictional form but it helped inspire any way. And so i was telling her that they were showing the movie as part of this in chicago, and she leaned over this little table actually that was in that best Western River and said, oh, gregory peck, isnt he delicious . [laughter] and adjusted all right, this is going to be a different kind of conversation than i thought. And it was such a delight and it was also the first indication of to me one of the really touching things that came out of that movie that i think means the world to so many of us was the friendship with gregory peck that lasted through his death come and after he died up within 2003 with his widow and with their family, as well as with horton foote, the wonderful playwright who run the who won a playwright for adapting mockingbird to the screen. It was wonderful all those years later about hearing about what she referred to some of the last gentleman. I then shared appreciation of the talent and also the sensibility that came together that would bring us all that movie. Im glad you mentioned horton foote because theres a footnote [laughter] throughout the book youve referenced harper lees sense of humor. And one of my favorite little perks, if you will, was when she received a phone call from horton foote, and i believe his words were god, here. Would you explain that . I will do that, and you even have is gentle, deep texan gentlemans voice down. Nelle have been quoted as saying after all this year horton foote looked like is god looked like id only cleanshaven. We were having breakfast, not too long after that had appeared and she told me that should answer the phone in this modest, always described as modest in the newspaper stories. So i apologize, but in their modest red brick house in a quiet street in monroeville the phone rang and nelle said she answered it and god here. And these two old friends caught up and at the end of the conversation he simply said, remember, god loves you. [laughter] and said was such a twinkle in her eye. I was mentioning to jake earlier today, whos been such a wonderful advocate not only for this book but for so many and truly appreciate what you have done, lets see, where were we with horton foote . You commented with the shape and sense of humor. The theater audience before the main event started got to see Kathryn Tucker windham telling harper lee stories. You mentioned Kathryn Tucker windham in your book, about listening to her audiotapes. Tell us what brought that on . You know, really all i needed and monroeville let me back up by giving you the context in which i move to monroeville. I had known the lead scissors for about three years at that point. Theyve been very helpful in what became a long newspaper store and sidebars are prepared for the tribune. And it encouraged me to come back, which i did. And then spoke with him about the possibility of spending longer, actually spend some time living in monroeville. People in birmingham who know real estate prices here will appreciate maybe that i had the idea that maybe i could just find an apartment over someones garage. I really didnt need very much, didnt want very much but in a small town like that an apartment, a rental is harder to come by than a house, for example, to rent. And a good friend of theirs have suggested that i look at the house two doors down from theres where by the time i spent a lot of time with both of them. Something i could rent for a time in monroeville. And i did say to both nelle and alice, i wonder if that wouldnt be close for comfort but i dont want to in quite about that if that might be the case. But it encouraged me to look at it. And i did but it was far more house than one person needed. But as somebody who lived in Downtown Chicago, the rent that the proposed charging, this was the house that had hoped to sell the in a difficult market were willing to rent. They were going to charge me the outlandish sum of 650 a month for quite a nice house which sounded pretty good for someone who lives in Downtown Chicago. However, when i told the lee assisters about this, nelles response was to words. Highway robbery. [laughter] i think she was offended by the idea that i would pay more than she felt i should be. And the same friend point out the house right next door to the lees had been vacant for some time but it was for celtic this would have been for sale for some time but hadnt sold it it had some storm damage and that the images been on the market quite a while. Nelle harper and alice offered to serve as references to encourage me to look into that as we did and worked it out with a young man who owned the house had been transferred to another city that i would rate it monthtomonth while it was on the market, Perfect Place for me to live and a way for him to have some income while waiting to see in which month is would sell. You could imagine that in the middle of the night i had to fight the urge to go out and take that for sale sign out of the front yard and hide it in his garage. I was hoping that it would be available long enough for me to spend a good amount of time there. And, indeed, it was. I ended up renting the house for 18 months from, lets see, the fall of 2004 until the spring of 2006. And one of my favorite things to hear, when i picked up the phone and my little modest but very nice red brick house was, hi, honey, are you pouring . Wichman, do you have a pot of coffee going and can i come over and talk around the Kitchen Table . We did that quite often as well as pretty regulars, we were regulars at mcdonalds over coffee. Our member having to wait for nelle harper in the parking lot. We had