we are teaching young kids, men and women in our communities, that it's more important to go out and run fast and dribble a basketball, to throw the ball and jump higher, whatever, than it is to work with the most important muscle that you have and that's what's between your two ears. again, i think it comes back to a cultural thing of us raising our kids to go out and be athletes or entertainers or whatever but not raising our kids to go out and be the next generation of business owners. it's about the examples that we have to set. and i think it's a tragedy. you think about those five young men. if they do get drafted, okay? if they get drafted, they're 19 years of age. if they make ten years in the national basketball association, at 29, what are they going to do? what are they going to have? that's the failure in our

community. we're raising athletes we're raising singers and dancers. we're not raising the next generation of businesses and businessmen and women and entrepreneurs. what's the this forum wants to try to change. >> we're going to get to michael brown. i see a lot of hand going up. let's go to the gentleman with the mic. >> i'm bill maher si. i'm a republican. marcy. the mississippi ii district and hopefully up this fall i'll be up here with congressman west. i'm going to represent the mississippi delta and i know some of you might have heard about it. the delta runs down the mississippi river from tennessee all the way down past fort gibson from the river back east past jackson. in that district we have an unemployment rate of african-americans of 25 to 50%. what has happened to us in the last 20 years is an act 20 years ago called nafta.

they branded our businesses out of the united states. at one time, we had 65,000 furniture manufacturers employees in our state. at the present, we have less than 1,000. at one time, the cotton that we grow, the lords that has given us to grow throughout the years in mississippi and in abundance, we don't gin it, mill it or create any textiles out of it. we ship it in containers over to indonesia indonesia to mexico and at that point in time it gets to walmart. we have destroyed our own economic base. the question to our congressmen is -- what can we do to look at that treaty that we made, the north american free trade treaty and repeal it. so that american jobs will come back to america? >> well, once again, it's about pro growth economic policies. your tax and regulatory policies

allowing the repatriation of capital that can come back here so you can produce and manufacture. this is where sometimes people get mad at me. there's such a thing as free trade but then there's also fair trade. we're creating trade and balances for the united states of america at the expense of american workers. that's why i got a problem with the decision that was made on friday, coming from the administration, because we got 23 million americans that are underemployed, unemployed or absolutely discouraged. we have to start having economic growth policies that put america first and right now we don't. i think that that's the most important thing is to turn around and -- we have to have tax code reform and i think that when you do that you'll see people -- when you put the capital back into their pockets in the black community or wherever, they'll have the opportunity to be able to grow and expand but right now is d.j. talked about the uncertainty that's out there. the unpredictability that's out

there. it's causing people to sit on the sidelines and not get engaged and i think we need to go back and look at how these free trade agreements that we have. not just north america but china, has put the american worker at a disadvantage. >> thanks a lot. >> i'm from new jersey, right across from new york city. heavily democratic area and all that. but my main question is, the 3.2 million blue collar jobs in america, unfilled, i saw a couple of months ago, is there any ideas how to get the jobs filled? i know it's probably debated between prooi private sector and public sector training and government programs. >> are you saying there's 3.2 million jobs -- >> blue collar jobs. >> that are looking for workers? >> i remember reading that. >> go to the u.s. army, navy and air force and catch them coming

back home. that's first base. >> also, i think you're talking about the jobs opening but there's also a couple of million stem jobs out there which gets back to what we talked about stem being science, technology, engineering and math. we talk about jobs and good jobs, that's where the great money is going to be and we talk about the influence of entertainers. dr. dre', everyone wants beach head phones but drop. dre' i give him credit for making a lot of money for that but the guy that started that company was an engineer from asia that came to this country with no money. there's a lot of jobs in this country that are going unfill filled for a lot of reasons and the most shameful is the lack of education for those great jobs and we better figure it out no matter what because those jobs are going to find works and if this they have to find them outside the country they will. >> unemployment insurance is one thing we have to talk about. if you get unemployment benefits

for a year or longer, why are you incentivize toegd and look. that has to play a small role. >> there's a lot of incentives these days for people not to work. i talked about the idea that in a three-year period everyone saw saw their network decline except the people that didn't work, their net worth doubled. that's an odd thing. >> good afternoon. i've been nodding my head and tapping my toe. i'm karen austin and i'm an entrepreneur and have been an entrepreneur for 11 years and what i'm about to state isn't being elitest or showing any type of prejudice it's just who i am and why i think the way that i do. my grandparents are from incorporated black towns in oklahoma. i'm a fourth-generation college graduate and third-generation entrepreneur. so i think very specifically about black businesses. representative west, thank you

for having this. this is my first introduction to you even though i am a republican. i'll say it out loud. my biggest client is d.c. government so i have to keep that quite quiet living here in the district. however, i'm very tired of having this conversation. i feel like i've been having it my entire life about what's happening in our community and what's happening with our businesses. one of the things that i do to give back and iemd going to ask my question, one of the things i do to give back is i teach entrepreneurship and i've been doing it for a long time and i teach it to low, income and disadvantaged kids. and it's very frustrating and to charles' point, discussion that we aren't having is the role models, unfortunately, aren't the family. the role models are the culture. and that's where our young people are learning from.

if you ask the ceo that they know, the answer is jay-z. it's not jamie diamond. if we don't have ap conversation about how we start to influence the people that we're listening to and get them in the room with us, a lot of them are entrepreneurs. talking about how they can get those messages out -- >> what's your question? >> here's my question -- i'm sorry. >> no problem. >> forgive me, charles. here's my question. how do we get more people in the room with us to talk about influencing our children and the next generation? that's my question. so it's not just the people that are here, not that you aren't extremely talented people, but the people that are doing the albums and making the movies and creating the content. >> the people with the influence. >> exactly. >> jay-z is a genius and a very

successful business person. and the admiration of my 27-year-old twin sons they think the guy has it going on. i agree with them. jamie diamond is elected by h stock holders. he's not a entrepreneur, mr. diamond. jay-z is definitely a sbre sbroe prenur and has made millionaires out of many. i don't hate it. >> but how could you get them in this room. >> zmee how do i get who in this room? >> yeah, i guess i'll have to send him a letter. the man's married to beyonce and he has all the money he wants. >> he asked bob johnson before he left. he knows him personally. >> no. no, that's a very important points. it's not just a synergy between state, county, local government and federal government. it's also a synergy out there

with the people that are in our industry, the entertainment and sports industry. how do we connect with them, those who have been entrepreneurs and maybe that's the next level that we will take that to and work with the chamber representatives here and make something like that. >> let me tell you about my nephew. let me tell you about my nephew. he plays instruments. he's a musician. he had a scholarship to the university of the michigan and said i'm not doing hit the way. i'm going out and make my own living. left his sophomore year. i really shook my head. >> now he's a producer, of bruno mars. >> but we're picking out exceptional examples and that's probably one of the things that led a lot of black people astray. 40 million black kids can't be producers or rappers. i want to talk about where do we go from here. real short. d.j., where do we go from here?

>> you have to have some economic certainty right now. we have to deal with deal with our massive tax system. we have to stop the job-killing regulations. so it will flow down. if we -- if you start that right there, private sector will start hiring again, as you much as you may be a fan of government jobs or infrastructure, the private sector hires the most. 7 of every 10 new jobs are from small businesses. that's a fact. >> small businesses, too. >> to your point. >> emily, where do we go from here. >> i was talking about the entrepreneurial spirit of people. they will land on their feet somewhere. >> i don't disagree. i think we should spread the true entrepreneurial spirit but the problem is we narrowed it down to such a smile niche where our kids think they can be entrepreneurs. emily? >> we focus on equality of opportunity. there's over a half a trillion dollars in government contracts being spent each year. we make sure that small,

minority-owned firms have every opportunity to compete for and win those contracts because you can't grow a business without any work. >> thank you, ruth? >> where do we go from here? i believe we continue to look at the tax system which is causing a great deal of problems all up and down the chain. whether you're in a enterprise fund or enterprise area or not, as well as believe we need to continue to move forward as we begin to look at the incentives. and what we can do to try to encourage the banks and the other facilities to release some of them dollars that they have. the dollars are there. it's just with all of the uncertainty. >> they're holding back. >> they're not releasing the money. >> thank you very much. ashley, you had some great points. where do we go from here? >> we have to look at, you know, we hear these slogans like "yes, we can." "we" needs to be the family, the individual. not "they" the government. we don't need to look to the government to solve our

problems. we talked about taxation so much but we can't look to socially engineer our way out of this. the tax code is not the end answer. and if we're going to ask "what next?" that needs to be to that junior in high school. what next for you? so many times we ask them ten years down the road what they want to be, but what next tomorrow? what are you going to do tomorrow? when you get out of high school. if you ask those questions and help them see the path to entrepreneurship. there's so many hurdles in their way to owning their first business somebody has to fill in the gap and someone like these leaders here need to say this is what's next and after that, here's comes this and shows them the roadmap. >> harry has been doings that a long time. what's next? >> the saying goes, give 10% to god and give 10% to the king. the king has gotten way outs of hand. way out of hand. taxation is a crippler. a crippler of our economy and it's anti-capitalistic. i think for advice, to youngens,

to be a business person or an entrepreneur takes a lot of discipline and you'll have to have a lot of where wiherewitha to look your wounds. go into the military. i went at a draftee, the best thing that happened to me. >> i was in the air force myself. >> army. >> at the national black chamber of commerce we'll do what we do best and that's find opportunities and take our black entrepreneurs to them. >> thank you very much. toya? >> absolutely. we'll continue to focus at the u.s. black chamber at access to capital, contracting and entrepreneur training. we have a number of resources related to all three of those areas on our website, u.s. black chamber.org. you can check the resources and the black business statistics. everything you can think of. if you're in need of assistance, feel free to reach out. >> i want to thank robert

johnson who had to leave, art laugher and knick bernard. and congressman allen west who made this possible. >> i want to -- no problem. we did have the co-chairman of the republic national committee were sharon day was here but she had to leave to catch a 4:00 train and a representative i from speaker boehner's office. it comes rooirt back down to what you heard. understanding the right roles and responsibility of federal government and creating the right type of tax and regulatory and to ak as solve capital pom sis and we have to understand how we prioritize and focus the resources so we can look at thousand empourment zones and the enterprise zones. the sum of the parts of our economy will never be able to restore if we continue to see the type of statistics that we're seeing. in closing, i want to give you this very telling statistic. percentage of people working in the public sector in government, for the white community, it's 14.2%.

for the hispanic community, 10.4%. the black community, it's 19.3%. we need to get more blacks working in the private sector. more blacks out there creating businesses, generating jex-generation of wealth and opportunities than working in the government structure. i think that's a very big key along with education and discipline. thank you all for coming and things our moderator. >> that's right. that's right. thank you very much.

jamie diamon -- committee

republicans say he has failed to turn over documents related to the fast and furious gun-running operation. that gets under way at 10:00 a.m. eastern on wednesday and live on c-span3. supreme court justice ruth bader ginsberg spoke to the american constitution society last week and touched on several cases the court heard this term including strip searching people arrested for minor crimes, arizona's immigration law, and the health care law. after introductions justice geinsberg spoke for about half an hour. wow, thank you. i know you're very excited about

what's to come and i'm excited about this packed room. how fabulous. we know the place to be on friday night in d.c. here we are. i have -- it just seems to be a fabulous job that i have and i have another special privilege this is -- which is get to introduce peter rubin whom many of us consider to be the father of acs and i would say feeling a little bit of slis rivalry because i thk peteruben will be the father of another child. so i mean, we should congratulate peter and jennifer.

now a member of the massachusetts appeals court. a krill justice professor at georgetown university law center and it was there that he led a group of law students, scholars and lawyers and founding acs and beginning to build what has become our vibrant network of progressives, to counter the right-wing legal movement. so i hope you will extend a very, very warm welcome to our founding father, justice peter rub ruben. >> i hope you join me in thanking caroline frederickson and all the ac staff now doing everything to make this such a great convention. it is not often one getion to

introduce a living legend. and among those in our shared profession, the law, there's no legend greater than that of our next speaker. i had the wonderful experience for serve exampling for many years on the georgetown faculty with justice geinsberg's late husband, marty and a special pleasure for me to introduce because of her personal dprendship and because of her early and long-standing support of acs. justice geinsberg spoke at acs's first convention right here in this room and now she honors acs at its tenth annual convention. acs has no better friend and all the members and friends of acs are grateful to you. before she took the bench, justice geinsberg had a profound impact on the shape of american law. the first woman to become a tenured law professor at colombia and at the director of the women's rights project at the aclu and won landmark

decisions including read voimplt read and she represented the appellate and five of the six cases she argued in front of the supreme court. altering the course of american constitutional law and opening the path to the recognition of the equality of women under our fundamental charter. appointed in 1980 by president jimmy carter to the united states court of appeals to the district of colombia circuit she was elevated to the seat on the supreme court by president clinton in 1993 and has served there with distinction for almost two decades now. on the high court, she's written significant decisions, yooirts versus virginia, requiring the virginia military institute to include women. and holding that improve roished women could not be denied the right to appeal the termination of their parental rights.

she's written mornt dissents in cases looirk led better versus goodyear tire and rubber and the court held that lilly ledbetter's paid for discrimination was barred because it expired 180 days after the discrimination to discriminate against her was made even though she continued to receive in each paycheck a discriminatory wage and that decision was overturned by congress which amended title vii in the lilly ledbetter fay pair act in 2009 by votes of 61-36 in the senate and 250 to 177 in the house. the theme of this convention is democracy at stake. and perhaps, most significantly, justice geinsberg dissented from the court's decision in bush v gore in a 5-4 vote the court stopped the counting of ballots to determine who had won the presidential election in florida and with thus, the nation. she was also among the dissenters in another case that i know is of real significance

and interest to all of you. senior citizen sniezs united versus fec which allowed corporate independent expenditures in elections, based on a conclusion that such expenditures do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of krupgsz. in a recent statement accompanying a order to grant the stay of the montana court's recent decision in american tradition partnership versus bullock which represents a challenge to citizens united. justice geinsberg wrote in a sentiment that i know many, but not all all of you will agree that the court should, and i quote, consider whether, in light of huge sums currently deployed to buy candidate's ali jant citizens united should continue to hold sway, end quote. i think as americans we all accept the truth of dr. king's words, of which senator harkin reminded us this morning. that the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice. here on earth, the work of

bending that arc requires the concerted effort of human hands working together. no stronger hands have been devoted to that task than those of our next speaker. because of her, we live in a better, fairer and more just america than we otherwise would. ladies and gentlemen, justice ruth bader ginsberg. [ cheers and applause ] >> please, be seated.

that was a splendid introduction but the truth is, i've had more than a little bit of luck in my life to be born when i was and to be a lawyer when the women's movement came alive in the late '60s and early '70s and could lend my whatever skills i had as a lawyer, to nudge that movement along. i think many of you know, it is now flood season at the court. so all i can offer this evening is an impressionistic view of what life has been like at the court in the 2011 to 2012 term. and in doing that, i will borrow heavily from the annual report i made to my circuit, 2nd circuit, at its judicial conference last week.

some years ago, a former law clerk turned law professor, who, perhaps, is in this audience tonight. rank the justices by the number of laughs they provoked at oral argument. he rated me, his former boss, the least funny justice who talks. i remained in last place this term with only two laugh lines. a published tally for which i do not vouch, rated jaw city scalia first among funny justices with 63 laughs. jaw city bryer next with 47. the chief, a distant third with 26. but it may be a promising sign that "the new york times" picked up my best laugh line this term. it was in a case called

zivotovsky against clinton and it concerned afternoon act congress passed permitting u.s. citizens born in jerusalem to designate israel as the birth place shown on their passport. the president resisted the law, urging that it intruded unconstitutionally on his foreign affairs prerogatives. in defense of the legislation, mr. zivotovsky argued that the statute did not tranch on presidential ground it just gave parents a choice. your argument would be stronger, justi justi justi justice kaygen said, if they were born before 1948.

well, justice said, you have to be very old to say palestine. i intervened on behalf of persons aged 64 and over and mindful that next year i will turn 80, god willing. not all that old, i told my youngest colleague. in the past years, lawyers and journalists have paid attention to remarks from the bench, concerning our workload, which some misguided commentators think is too light. should stay with me this weekend and you'll see. justice breyer equipped defensively, i'm not trying to get out of