>> you mentioned the case which is quite interesting. it is a more immediate want to cite, compared to the pentagon papers. the government ended up dropping the case of the spending years in developing it. this is lobbyists that got accused of violating espionage act by receiving classified information and giving it to both a news organization and an official at the israeli embassy. what the defense lawyers cleverly did was subpoena all the government officials with whom they dealt, including the then secretary of state rice, richard armitage, and a bunch of others from whom they had received classified information intentionally for the purpose of getting it out, the point being

that government officials find various ways to get out classified information -- that they find it useful to their political or bureaucratic interest to get out into the public domain, making a mockery of our secrecy laws and making it virtually impossible, in this case, for the government to simply use the classification standard as a ground for prosecuting somebody. . .

>> if i may, i agree that there are laws and rules of engagement. i wonder if those rules are changing without the explicit acknowledgement or agreement of those parties. the press has documented a skyrocketing number of subpoenas against journalists where, for decades, the rules of engagement were that we would only subpoena you in a special case. if this is a case that is vital, those rules have seemed to have changed. but i agree with you in practice, i do not think that it is safe to rely on that. >> the whole question of journalist sources and subpoenas is a very interesting one.

you are right. there was not an accommodation. people read brandenburg. it was written late one evening. it was going one way and then it was going another way. our colleague from the new york times finally wrote something called "bransburg in the emerging protection for journalistic resources. i am not doing criminal law, here. some of this is criminal and some is simple. at but what they finally came up with was an accommodation that worked. it worked. we have to come up with -- you have to come up with a new accommodation. the accommodation that worked

was that they had a qualified privilege that was recognized. it was a common law of privilege. sometimes they call that a constitutional privilege. the privilege was very simple. we can subpoena journalists, but only if we prove, first, that is relevant, it goes to the heart of the case, and one would think that is overlapping, and third, you cannot get any other source. that is a very simple thing. unless you can prove that you really need it, then you cannot get a journalist source. that sounds like a pretty easy thing. you -- it worked, but the reason it worked was because journalists are generally

witnesses. big deal with here say. they are reporters. they deal with here say. they know all of these things, and all of which can be discovered by a decent lawyer with a subpoena. they never, ever got -- i spent 30 some odd years worried about the subpoena. but could never get through the test. there was always some other way that they would go and find out who your source is and they would subpoena them and give you the information. where it broke down was where people started to worry about leaks. the reason that this was all broken down is because leaks are separate and different. you are an eyewitness to the

crime and you were the only eyewitness to the crime and they got to the position where they could fulfil this test. they would find out who leaked and then they would subpoena that. they dealt with successive drafts of legislation could what do we do when a journalist is witness to a crime and that crime is looking osh is leaking -- is leaking. the draft that i have seen of the shield legislation in the senate is at the first that i have ever seen that has two pages. and they have many paragraphs that the one to try to define, in a reasonably modern way,

rather than saying "the medium." the rules of engagement work. in the judith miller case, one of the question was who leaked. that is when it all broke down. >> the accommodation and the rules of engagement, much of the presidents of the past -- the precedents of the past, many of the television networks had great power, wealth. they were making a ton of money. they were very secure. they were willing to spend money. they enjoyed a great deal public support. for example, in the pentagon

papers case, the public was overwhelmingly in support of what the times was doing the very quickly -- * was doing. -- was doing. they were very foolish for having tried to get these injunctions. no one was paying any attention to the pentagon papers until they made a big issue of it and in every newspaper and broadcaster in the country was focusing on the pentagon papers. the thought that the government was hiring -- hiding something important. my question is, is that all passe? mainstream media is not rich anymore. did not seem to feel very rich. the government does not seem to

quake in its boots anymore when the new york times or the post is about to say something. i am not sure that the public is that clearly on the side of the media anymore. does that change the equation as to this adversary role that exist between the government and the media? >> we are not rich. we are not powerful or popular. that is all true. but knowledge. -- acknowledged. i think all of that is true. i have not noticed a change in how we go about stories or

whether or not to print. i do not think that -- particularly on the concerns over wealth, we could get wrapped up in legal battles that will bankrupt the paper. if those concerns are real happy times, -- are real at the "times," at least i have not felt any pressure not to pursue what we are pursuing because of any of those three reasons. >> look, as mark said, it is true that we are not as powerful as we used to be or as popular.

but the folks in power still do care what we write were put on the air because they care about their political standing at the time. just look over the last couple of weeks how much the barack obama administration has really worked hard to shake coverage of how it handled the christmas bombing incident. they were really concerned about what we all were riding -- writing. it would dramatically change politics in congress on national-security issues, to the point where i mentioned before that the various white house over the years will use

classified information to protect its political interests. the other night, i found it interesting when they hastily called reporters to disclose that the nigerian suspect was cooperating and didn't disclose information about the kinds of things he was cooperating with. that is easily the kind of information that, in another context, if i asked, they would tell me that that was classified and that they could not tell me of what he was telling them. yet, that is precisely what they did. they were trying to show that they should have made the guy a enemy combatant. i want to know as much as i can about that, but that is precisely the kind of classic

example of how they made a decision to disclose information where they would have otherwise told us it was classified. >> i want to make an observation on behalf of the new media that is not here. just as we, the traditional media, we pride ourselves on being authoritative credible. i think that is in part because the new media depends on government or official sources for a lot of our news. so, and there were a number of recreations of how the white house came to the decision around leaders -- or around new

year's. i think that the washington post in the "l.a. times" did take out. they did some analyses of those stories and they pointed out how those stories were straight from the mouth of a handful of approved white house sources or officials who basically wanted to get their point of view out. there was unprecedented access to reporters. they would get these big front- page sunday stories. i was not reporting on that, but i read them and i thought that they were well britain stories. -- well-written stories.

i thought that we might get manipulated because of our position and our authority. >> there was a front-page article, and the question that was raised was whether courts, which are presumptively open, have not been closed for more than they used to because the traditional media will not spend the money to keep them open. that was his question. >> one question about the mainstream media questions.

if the power goes, things look pretty bleak for newspapers for not migrating successfully into cyberspace and broadcasting seems to be in trouble, too. if the power and wealth of the mainstream media continues to decline, who will play the watchdog role that powerful media adversaries of the government have played for the last 60 years? >> there was a congressional hearing on this issue where the creator testified and he said that the next 20 years are known to be a terrific time for corruption in local and state governments. his point is that there will

always be people to cover congress and the white house, but the wisconsin public legislature? maybe not. people will not spend a month doing an exhaustive analysis that the normal newspaper would hang a reporter over deep-seated corruption. i do not think that anyone will do that sort of investigative work anymore. >> i agree and i think that is the primary problem. i think that the big guys will be ok. we will figure out a way to monetize that, probably through pale walls -- pay walls. it will take some time i started my career working for a local television station in orlando. local television news but --

does not always have the best reputation. there was an investigative reporter and an action reporter that did consumer stories. now, they're no longer is. -- they're no longer is. they require more time to put the story together. unfortunately, this is one of those things where i see the problem and i do not see the solution. david simon is probably right. on a national level, monica comes to national security and intelligence, i do not see that as a problem. i think there will be another big organizations and i think we will have enough power and wealth and influence and popularity. the government is not necessarily as rich and powerful for trusted by the people. we are not necessarily in an

adversarial relationship, it is not necessarily a zero sum game. just look at the associated press and their state and local coverage. it is very disheartening. if anybody has a solution to that, you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams if you can figure that out because i think that is the major gap in journalism. >> i am sure that we have people out there in the audience that are dying to ask some questions of these panelists. is that all right to go to questions? >> yes. bucs all right, go ahead. what i wanted to follow-up on the discussion from earlier about the increasingly threatening moves by the federal government in the last decade or so as to whether they are changing the rules of engagement to legal maneuvers. you mentioned the apac case.

i was heartened to hear that sound like the consensus was that it cost too much of a chilling affect. what about possible other sources and whether you would imagine a chilling affect following that? are you seeing a ratcheting up by the federal government, especially since 9/11, not only directly against journalists, but towards whistle-blowers within or outside of the government? it looks like that is another area where the government has been trying to send a stronger prosecutorial message.

there were moves that the government made, for instance, in the one case. i am curious if you have the impression that the government performing some saber rattling? are you seeing more intimidation among sources or potential sources? the second question, it is sort of heartening to hear the threat of espionage prosecution has not seen the chilling to those on the panel. i believe in 2000, both houses of congress did vote to approve an act which would go further than the espionage act. it would automatically criminalize that information.

president clinton vetoed that. the second question is more hypothetical. if they were to make a strong statement like that an president obama sign that -- signed it, but it said more of a chill through the organization's? -- through the organization's? -- organizations? >> let's call it a leaker. the question is, which side of the line is that on? i am not so sure. here goes my reputation. i am not so sure that making government employees keep secrets is not precisely what they are supposed to be doing. once the secret gets out, it is

when we talk about being on this side and on that side. >> my impression was affirmed by the previous statement of the journalism linking -- journalism leaking you have people leaking from the local government. putting aside weather is good or bad, if that is the premise, the question could be phrased the script -- a descriptive leaper it is it true that government has been taking a harder line? if so, are you seeing more reluctance? >> there have been a lot of investigations of leaders and --

of leaderkers and whistle-blowe. i am actually not aware of prosecutions. i may be forgetting something. the investigations themselves become intimidating. this is to everybody around the whistle-blower. this is a way by which the authorities put the fear of god and to employees about what could happen to them. there is one other point about the threat to journalists. i know something about this because i have been in the middle of it. the real threat from subpoenas

to journalists over the last few years has not been the criminal arena, it has been the civil arena. when lawsuits are brought by people in which they try to smoke out the sources of journalists, we had a very damaging opinion in the d.c. circuit that forced the new york times to settle rather than have the reporters go to jail to protect their sources. that was then copycat in the steve and hatfield case -- the stephen hatfield case. it has been really bad for journalists. from what i know, that has been the biggest threat to reporters and their source relationship. >> the government is

increasingly finding it difficult to prosecute leakers. and officials first task is to come up with a more administrative internal solution to prevent leaks. obviously, it is something that the government is concerned about. there is difficulty in convictions. what that also means is that the investigation part of it does not have a deterrent effect that they want. the other thing is that the new reporters that are living in this regime are using tricks as far as what they do with their notes. you can anticipate that, six months down the road, someone

might want to see your notes. again, you do not want to do it after you get a subpoena because that would obviously not be legal. but, journalists are taught ways reduce the chances that if the sapida was brought forward, the evidence would be turned over, but it would not be as much as you would think because information would not be communicated in ways that were necessarily retrievable by a subpoena. it absolutely does have a chilling affect, -- a chilling effect. but the point about the civil suits and the case law is something that i have not quite considered.

i agree that it is troubling. i believe that there are six that are up our sleeves that meant that slightly less threatening, particularly now that we have a general sense of the larger picture. again, i am not advocating that reporters destroy their notes. >> just briefly, as an outside the beltway person, your bias -- you are biased by your experience. you say that you are not worried about civil suits. we were mostly were about civil suits. would you go in there and you are sued for defamation and reporter comes in with a stack like this and says that you said this and this and this pimm this -- and this, you do not

have recollection of the source problem. a reporter wrote a story and a few weeks later, they fired one of their vice-president and it was not the source. they thought it was the source, but it was not the source. what is a reporter do about this? >> one thing that i do is that i will put source on a hot dinner receipt and not the name of the source. if anybody has questions, they can come to me and i can verbally tell them. you can argue in some way that i am anticipating -- >> i think that corruption of

justice is the word you are looking for. >> i have no pre consciousness of guilt. -- pre-consciousness of guilt. i would assume that most reporters have a version of the same thing. we do it for a very specific reason. it affords -- if protect us from a paper trail that, down the road, we may not want to disclose. >> maybe i revealed something here. i could be sued by the journalist court. >> i just wanted to say that this is a great, experience panel. i am worried about the changes in journalism and having people bought out and reporting news

releases. leaving that aside, i in interested in hearing more about your experience between the legislative branch of the executive branch. the legislative branch is very constrained and fearful of having meaningful conversations to try to rebut or respond to what the executive branch is saying. i am sure that it affects the way that the information is conveyed by you wall. invariably, we end up in a situation where we are happy to be called, but often it is the >> of a naysayer. -- it is the >> of a naysayer. -- is the quote of the naysayer.

the legislative branch cannot talk to us and the executive branch just holds most of their cards. i am wondering if you can talk about this issue of these legislative branch reverses the executive branch and the types of access that you have or do not have. >> i think that that is a generally true observation. from my minimum experience, the observation that congress -- some members of congress, in general, seemed to be extremely reluctant, not just about these types of decisions, but about anything sensitive relating to the executive branch, where as the executive branch seems to hold many of their cards and

they seem to be -- i do not know what to do about it or if there is anything to be done. it may reflect the structural imbalance. speaking of the executive branch. >> i see this on a daily basis. there is a growing plethora of web sites and journalists who are essentially one guy with a computer. how, in fact, as we talk about media shield laws, with the growing number of people that call themselves journalists, how will you define what the media is, going forward? who was courted to be credential and these folks? -- who was going to be credential and these folks -- who is one to be providing these

folks with credentials? that is a discussion that we have to have, considering future interaction. i guess that would leave you with another example. one man was indicted in boston and he had been a blogger for most of the year. he would to be a part of all qaeda and ultimately return home. could he be considered a member of the media, going forward? i just want to speak about going forward when we talk about legislation. who will be defining this? >> most of my proposals at a national security exemption.

-- pat and national security exemption. we need to start with -- have a national security exemption. we need to start with defining what the national media is. if you haven't read that, start there. it is a very interesting thing. i was on a panel where i found out it is harder to moderate that it is to sit and tell stories. we were on a panel with patrick fitzgerald. he had a wonderful story about gains in chicago and one of the gangs poverty figure out -- one of the gains cleverly figured out how to hijack a low-power christian radio station. if you would to a certain part of the city, all of a sudden, got disappears and there is a

voice that comes over and tells you that the cops are over here and at our game is here and there is a group of us over here and there are drugs being sold over here. the authorities were trying to figure out if they were media or not. dave will always come up with something. >> -- they will always come up with something 3 >> -- something. >> one guy described himself as an archivist and people kicked over newspaper boxes and some how, a police car was set on fire. since part of the police car was paid for with federal money, the charges were brought up in

federal court. he spent a good time in prison. there does have to be some incorporation of some new media and i do not know what the corporation would be -- the corporation would be. -- the incorporation would be. >> i think there needs to be some accommodation for new media. >> a reporter that was a bald on the other side of the judy miller case had a more difficult question. the reporters want one thing and what happens to the reporters after they go to jail, they usually got a better job when

they got out people knew who they were -- got out. people do they were. assuming that they are responsible for your not having turned it over, it becomes a different kind of a problem. >> i just found out the name of that blotter -- blogger. joshed smith. >> it seems to me of that it is structural, whether we are talking about the fact that it affects the wall street journal. in regard to what you cover, one question that comes to mind,

does it make any difference at all that barack obama is president with regard to your getting any information, or is it, in fact, the truth that we are talking about more structural problems so that when you talk about the government, it really does not matter. it does not matter who the president is. it does not matter to the secretary of defense is. there is something that is giant, called the government. does it really matter who the chief justice is? i am curious to know if the election last year made any difference at all to the ease with which to conduct your job? >> not nearly as much as you think. the first full day that obama

was in office, he signed his transparency order to fulfil the promise that this would be the most transparent administration in american history. that was followed a few months later by a memorandum that changed this the and -- of the standards for me -- standards of the freedom of information act so that you have to show that the government had to have foreseeable harm to withhold. i do not see any significant changes as a result of that order. freedom of information's act requests are still held up. they were largely cosmetic moves. core issues that were of great controversy under the bush administration such as state secrets and that is where the

obama people have come down pretty much identical where the bush people were. the classic example of that was last summer. the obama/holder justice department was withholding the fbi dictating interview. you would faint that this would be a no-brainer. these sorts of bits of affirmation have been released before. -- information have been released before. yet, there was day lawyers for

the justice department working for eric holder and arguing that this document have to be withheld under folia -- foia. explain to me but the damage would be in this closed case that had no possible implications for on going law enforcement proceedings, and they came up with this argument that future white house officials might be chilled from talking to the fbi because they might get ridiculed by late- night comics like john stuart. this was their standard for not letting loose the document that showed how far the people would go to protect their positions,

even when officials at the top proclaimed a new standard. >> another example, last spring, there was the big debate over the release of the opinion of where they ultimately decided that they put the memos out. the thinking was that one should be classified memos, then there was going to be a flood of declassification about other aspects regarding the cia detention program. once you say that the memos are not classified, how do you classify other things? they have drawn a line and have argued in court that the memos were a different case and all

the operational traffic, nothing else has come out. there was a long and drawn after the memos and so, the predictions that we would have a flood of information about that program have not come out. >> obama raised expectations by his rhetoric campaign is that his administration would be more forthcoming and more transparent. he has set up this declassification center, but the jury is still out as to whether it will be classified significant documents. -- it will de-classifiey significant documents.

they wholeheartedly embraced the expiring patriot act. the trend was one of continuity from the past administration because towards the end of the bush administration, the most objectionable programs had already been softened. i think that that also reflects that, politics aside, there are institutional prerogatives at the agency will, whether you are talking the cia, the fbi or those that transcended party. there were civil servants and bureaucrats who had a vested interests in keeping policies going and programs going and

secrets going. >> a student said that obama had an expansive view of executive power. if you look at what he proposed during the campaign, there are some modifications to it. they're actually has not been that much of a discontinuity. it has certainly been a discontinuity in terms of if you were looking at the emotional tone of what he said he would do. i do think that there have been two changes. one is that the obama administration feels compelled to justify some of these continuities. when he upheld the state secrets privilege, it would make an

argument as to why they would disclose that. i do not think that there is the institutional prerogatives of the executive decisions to determine what information should be deemed to national security information and then the mechanisms by which to protect which obama seems to appear to -- and here to -- adhere to, they do not seem to have to hear to the basic institutional prerogatives. that does not change anything

that anybody has said on this panel. vice president biden does not have the personality of vice- president cheney. nor does he have the desire to keep the reasons for policy decisions secret. i think that we have a transparent sense of what happened during the afghanistan policy that they had, i think that is a great thing for the country. we saw this debate played out in real time. not to say that anything might not be true, but i think there are different dimensions to it that are different. i will make the caveat which

will make what i said completely irrelevant, but i did not cover these issues. i covered politics. it is quite policy that i have absolutely no idea what i am talking about. [laughter] >> this audience has been terrific. this is the end of two long days. i especially want to think this panel. it is great for you to come down and spend your day with us. [applause] >> you can watch this program and other recent america and the courts programs at our website. just click on america and the courts under the spencer riesling. join us next week for "america and the courts." saturday nights at 7:00 p.m. eastern on >> i think that there is a huge lack

of knowledge about how this town works. >> when you're doing the actual research work, you just have to do that yourself. bucs this weekend, richard norton smith and douglas brinkley will talk about their work, their books and their profession. we will get their first appearance on our network. >> you are watching c-span, created for you as a public service by america's cable companies. up next, a look at black leadership priorities and public policy issues. first lady michelle obama host women at the white house for the annual take our daughters and sons to work day. after that, a discussion of the appointment process for supreme court nominees. >> coming up next on c-span, a look at leadership priorities in public policies. we will hear from radio talk

show host tom joyner among others. this last about 1.5 hours. >> we are very happy to host " measuring the movement." we are in a new his -- a new century with new circumstances and we need tangible results, not just one-liners and sound bites. today, we hope to start that a new conversation. we must hold everyone accountable, from government to our own institutions. we must be accountable from the white house to your house and my house. you must be accountable, too. in that spirit, the president of the united states has sent a message.

president obama sent a message to us that will be read by a young african-american staff member who works with him in the white house every day. me welcome michael blake shot may well come michael blake. [applause] >> deer river chart and -- dear reverend, the president regrets that he is unable to join us today. [applause] this has been one of the most challenging times in our nation, but because of the work on the recovery act and policy is that we have enacted, we are starting to see the beginning of the signs of economic recovery. however, we are aware that there

is a high unemployment rate in america. we understand the critical need to create jobs and develop pathways of opportunity. that is why we have provided $1 billion in capital for minority businesses and underserved communities and all the rise in other programs to develop more than 100,000 jobs in more than 21 states. we are also investing in a skills agenda by increasing the amount of pell grant awards so that workers have the tools that they need to be successful in to take advantage of future opportunities our success in enacting health care reform will serve to reduce the alarming help disparity among african- americans. new benefits like for a preventive care and increased access to community health centers, in addition, no patient

can be denied, ever again, for a pre-existing condition or lose their health care. [applause] more than 32 million uninsured americans will not access to health care and millions of them are african american. another important part of our administration agenda is working on a world-class education system that supports the aspirations -- [applause] -- of all americans from big cradle to the grid. we have drawn a much-needed attention. in the schools across our nation, jobless rates are too high and expectations are too low. we are calling for more rigorous accountability in our schools. we will reduce our dropout rates

and we will raise the bar and improved outcome for our youngest children before they reach kindergarten. we will chart a new course for a better life a bit brighter future. since its founding, the national action network have been without help and without hope. your organization is working to see this carried out. at today's forum, offers the opportunity for the challenges we face as a nation. we know that too many communities of color were living on the market even before -- before the recession hit. we will significantly increase the lives of many throughout our country. congratulations on today's events.

sincerely, president barack obama. >> thank you, michael. let's get to work. >> live, this is the reverend al sharpton special election network forum. >> i have the host and managing editor. >> i am tom joyner and i am thrilled to be here to set some goals to move our community forward. >> this is not a chat session. that indeed is obvious. we are with some of the top leaders, thinkers called politicians and activists for a two hour working session to discuss what needs to advance the black agenda as to how they

will achieve goals over the next 12 months. >> this is not about [inaudible] is about what the nation's first black president should be doing. it is about what everyone, including the president and civil rights leaders an unnamed balks should be doing to answer the call. if you are looking at this as a discussion were we would meet, talk and discuss, you are at the wrong place. this is about folks coming together to mobilize and to act. but not just the folks in the room, but also those of you at home and online. everyone has a role to play >> as we know that the government cannot solve every problem. but i will always be honest with

you about the challenges that we face. i will listen to you, especially when we disagree. above all, i will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way that it has been done for 200 years, block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand that by calloused hand. [applause] >> the folks on this panel will also be asking for your help as well. this conference showcased the most powerful and important people in america. these well-known folks were here in new york for a variety of panels and networking but the time for talk is over. at the time for action is now -- and the time for action is now. >>[applause]

>> we want people at home to participate as well. we will be getting comments from audience members. will be sharing the input all throughout the two hours past the two hours of the show. -- the two hours of the show. i will be back with the first question from the audience and the first of our web comments in just a few moments. let us introduce our panel spirited -- our panels. >> rev. al sharpton and the third highest ranking democrat and the highest ranking african- american in congress. mark morale, danny bay quells

senior is also known as the -- of denny's bankwell sr., also with us today is tamika malory, angela sailor, dr. scott, the chairman of the national black caucus, the mayor of philadelphia at, the cofounder of the all stars project. [applause] . .

>> we can get a rhetoric on that.

we are going into six of the main and critical states in the midtown elections and we are going to register voters and do voter turnout. this is a commitment. we will increase turnout in those states by 5%. people can go with us if they want. we are going into ohio, california, illinois, and we will up the ante. we will set the stage for the defeat for the president in 2012 if we do not win at the midterm elections. >> the reality is, we are pushing it on the web and our radio show. why do we need somebody to call us when we are most affected by the mayors in the cities?

the same numbers but added for obama. we would have had a black mayor in houston. at some point, when do we truly exercise our power? >> what is real is that people are trying to keep their families -- can you hear me now? what is real is that we have to ask why we have been fighting for 100 years to push people out to vote each time. you have got to get out, go door-to-door, and educate people. if you care enough, you should be working with people to sign

up and volunteer to turn folks out. >> i would think that we have to recognize that we need -- many of these politicians are not addressing the needs in our communities. [applause] they are not dealing with the health care in our community. you give money to general motors and aig but you do not have money for black folks. we need people to deliver for us. if you deliver for us we will deliver for you. if you do not deliver for us we are not doing anything. [applause] >> how many people in the rams' supported president barack

obama? [applause] how many people in this room had been to a town hall meeting? that is my point. when it came time to demand health care, we did not show up. at one. -- what point do we say that we have to be in the game as well? >> what we have proven since the 2008 election pledge to the fact that we need a double wake-up call. the wake-up call for ourselves is the president is not an emperor or a king. therefore, you do not elect a president and then go back to be political spectators. [applause] we have got to be engaged in every single election process because voting needs to be a habit. we do not need to vote like we

get to the movies or light we listen to music that we do not like. danny's point is very well taken. there has got to be a better degree of engagement by elected officials of both black and white to pay attention to our community after the election. [applause] it is a double wake up call. it is a wake-up call for us that if we do not sustain our petition -- participation levels, we will lose ground. it is a wake-up call for elected officials that once you get elected, you have got to keep coming back, yet got to keep in beijing, and you have got to keep delivering. >> we have got to take a break right now. we now know about the loss of momentum in 2008. the question is how do we get it

back? we will answer that right after this break. [applause] we are back at the first corinthian baptist church in harlem. >> i have four kids, 12--- 12 through 17. i cannot afford any of the summer programs or the camps that their schools offer. what should i do? philip from detroit. >> we're talking about this whole issue of politics, when it comes to some of the critical issues for african-americans, what will you be trying to drive through congress? >> thank you for having us here. let me focus on what we need to

do to regain our momentum. we did lose momentum. when we got around to being real, knowing the other side was not going to give up the filibuster, and we got the 50 percent plus one, what we did was health care reform was the first step in regaining momentum. a lot of people missed it. at the same time we were doing health care reform, we did tremendous reform to education. we have gotten pell grants. i think we have taken two significant steps to regain momentum. >> what is next? >> the next is to do financial, regulatory reform. it will be brought to the senate

next week. we are going to do something. we are going to do a big summer jobs program. >> relative to the reclaiming of the election and the momentum, every movement for social justice in america has been spawned and developed on the camera -- college campuses of this nation. we have 55 historically black universities in america. we have students who are ready to take on the leadership. we understand that many of the parents are working several jobs and cannot go to the meetings. our college campuses or the spawning grounds for the next group of leaders. relative to the sisters question about what to do with her students, by strengthening college campuses, our campuses

or the epicenter of activities in the communities. there are problems -- predominantly black institutions all over. our campuses are places where our students can come to use the facilities. the nation's historic elite black colleges and universities are the answers to all of our issues. whether it is the economy are building activities. >> i think we have to do what we were told to do 80 years ago. we have to start talking about black street, not just main street are wall street. it was grass roots organizing door by a door. we are not doing that. i submit that we have to start a

new movement and i would like to call it the cocoa party. every time the tea party shows up, the cocoa party must be there. >> it is very simple. the folks of the tea party are taking advantage of constitutional rights. other folks are sitting at home. i say, shut the hell up. from a political standpoint, what is happening in our cities? congress is one thing. >> i want to thank reverend sharpton for the opportunity. the question was, the lady has

four children and cannot afford the ymca. i am not suggesting what the mayor should do. they need to find an alternative. that is on the ground. what really has to happen in cities, we talk about jobs. jobs are going to happen in cities and the metro areas. i appreciate the work that our majority whip did. in many cities of america, those dollars have not gotten to the cities. you want to put people to work. they are going to get work in the cities. the recovery at, the dollars are flowing, but we need more. >> do we need a jobs bill? >> we absolutely -- i agree.

>> we do need a massive jobs bill. >> we need people to go to job training programs. >> of what some of that cocoa. [laughter] >> it is different than -- in harlem. [laughter] >> this president and this congress passed $817 billion stimulus package. it is there. you're not getting it because governors are not getting it to the cities. we have to make the president accountable. i know he is better than anyone else on this panel. i know his heart and his soul.

he likes criticism. so let us tell the president what we want and what we need. he is not on the supreme court. but, he is someone will make an enormous difference in our economy. tell that sister that we will put her in touch with her congressman. we have the resources. let's talk about our own people to get something happening in our own community. >> this is a comment not a question. are you going to be on the short list for the supreme court? >> we want to talk about bipartisanship to be focused on the people. >> my concern is that political

activists -- what do we do about partisan politics? we need to reach out more to each party. i want to ask our political leaders to get back on one page. not just the party page, but the people page. >> when we come back, i want to go around the horn and a talk about what we are going to commit to in the next 12 months. whether it is the policy. we will be back in a moment. you can shoot us an e-mail at

blackamericaweb.com >> we are going to go back to tom joyner. >> italia from charlotte. i have diabetes and little help insurance. i may be dead by the dog the help for care -- health care reform bill kicks in. >> one of the questions from the artists -- audience dealt with by partisanship. >> when we start talking about getting this on the ground and turning things out to grass- roots advocacy, we are open for business. our community needs to know that we are open for business. we are inviting the community to come to us.

>> what are you going to do in the next 12 months? >> our candidates are ready to hear the agenda of our community. we are going to push that agenda. what we need is for the great leaders on this stage and the ones who are not here to help push our people back to our leaders to say that this is what we need for our life and our liberty. >> this is all about commitment. from a political standpoint, what is the naacp going to do in the next 12 months? >> we have 2000 volunteers in 100 places increasing the census count by 5%. that is what we are doing right now. >> at the national urban league we focus on jobs. we are going to commit to try to

assist 10,000 people in finding employment in the next 12 months. [applause] >> the black press is going to get the word out to our people in every community throughout this country. we are going to make sure that the black community agenda is not only in the homes of black people -- we are going to put the black people's agenda on the agenda of the politicians. >> nothing else will do. i need a specific. of the individual commitments made here, are you going to send out your people to regret what you say? what is your one commitment when it comes to politics? >> we want to teach people that they are not just democrats and

republicans. in new york city i will be working over the next 12 months on a non-partisan election. there are 1 million registered independents that cannot vote. 20% of them are african americans. 25 percent of them are under the age of 30. reverend sharpton will join me in this fight. we will get black leadership. people are locked out of the system. >> i have talked to reverend sharpton and we want to have more collaboration and cooperation between the naacp

and black activists. we need better cooperation between the public side -- these organizations influence public policy. therefore, the agitation is not in the washing machine. with that in mind, we want to get to the heart of the matter. we must marry politics and community activism. that is what planes at the close is the agitation. >> we are committed to putting 500,000 students out in the community for elections through the national coalition of black student participation. we are also committed to the pipeline in bringing in the next candidates. >> the specific right now is 500,000 students to cover the

next election. >> you have to have a pipeline. mandatory early childhood, upward bound programs -- >> i have to go to our next topic. we will come back and get some specifics. send us an e-mail: twister. -- e-mail: twitter. we are at the first red the and baptist church in harlem. [applause] the commitment from the national action network in the next 12 months -- >> we are going to increase turnout by 5%. we are going to lay out an agenda. we need to demand what they are

going to do on education. the third thing is, i think that we ought to have our own immobilization in the communities. i do not know if this is going to call -- if we are going to call it the cocoa party. we need to build up towards mobilization on financial reform. we are going to work with the urban league and the naacp. we need to go out into the streets. we need to register and recommit to those numbers. we need to not stop talking about young of leadership. jamaica mallory is not even 30 years old. -- tamika mallory is not even 30

years old. >> we're going to chance for from politics to economics. >> we gained political freedom. >> pure and simple. the assistant professor of finance at syracuse university is joining us. we had the president of the black nurses association. georgetown university professor and author is also joining us. [applause] recently i talked to the congressional oversight panel.

50% of black wealth could be wiped al as a result of the all foreclosure program. let's be honest, it has been a failure. when it comes to economics, what do we need to do when it comes to the home foreclosure issue to deal with black well not be wiped out? >> excuse me for being frank, but when i spoke to the white house recently i told them that president obama is the economic a visor's should be removed immediately. the reality is that no matter how much academic training you have, if your heart and your conscience is not in the right place you do not have the ability to solve the problems. when i look at the president's economic the advisers, the

reality is that our issues were not put on the table when it comes to economic concerns. when you look at unemployment, i see you are putting money into everything. the proof is in the potato salad. black unemployment has gone up. we need a better solution. >> the president said in a terms -- in terms of economic plan, when you talk about education you have a targeted program. if you have an hiv problem, you can say here is the overall budget and we will target those who are most in need. the economic plan must be specific to the unemployment rate. >> we did do that.

if you look at the recovery package, you will see that it targeted every community. 20 percent or more of the people were beneath the poverty level. can% of the money as well as the tax credit must be targeted to those communities. that is in the bill. it is amazing to me that people are not aware that we did indeed target that money. >> with the stimulus funds you mentioned earlier, the reality is 1% have gone to black firms. >> said the money to the mayors, not the governors. >> when you say we recommended this, --

>> the idea is that money went to state governments. we think that if you are going to target, if you are going to get money into local communities, they ought to go to city governments are community- based organizations together. here is the point, the stimulus is what the stimulus is. we needs a jobs bill that all is a different model than the stimulus. that is what the urban league's six point plan is. the governors have held up money. i am talking about across the nation. new york may be a different situation. in most communities, it is the state governments and the governors that are not sensitive to the days of the communities. >> i am going to a web content. >> do you believe the high rate

of foreclosure and school closings in the black community are plots to get poor blacks and hispanics to move out so that wealthy white people can buy up the property and price it out of reach? how can we keep that from happening? that is from pasha in little rock. >> what we are looking for our specifics. things we need to do over the next 12 months. we will deal with that when we come back. >> welcome back to this special. before we went to the break we had a question from the web.

the what you address that? >> when someone hits you you have got to hit back. the reality is that we have been hit by bankers. we are suing banks now saying that you have to change the way you treat our people. your one home can have the same bankruptcy protection that john mccain's six homes have. the reality is that your 1 home should be protected by the courts. we have got to hit back. >> are those names on your web site? >> it is naacp.org.

>> you are moving people to deposit money in community banks. >> we keep talking about the government. the government is not our father. if we target our money to black america, they will be targeting us. i am asking for a commitment from everybody in radio and television, we have $150,000. in two weeks -- let me say something else, as a bankruptcy attorney, they put us in sub- prime loans. we need to educate the consumers that they have been taken advantage of. we need to make these politicians put money in our

black banks. they have taken everything from our community and have not put anything back in it. [applause] >> i want to hear this issue from a small business standpoint. what must we be doing from an individual perspective to help small businesses? >> economic distribution was clearly not equal. if we only got 1% of the stimulus money, the money did not come down. it must be executed correctly and distributed correctly. all politics is local. most of the state of illinois is in a deficit. to give it to them is like, what did you do with that? it did not come.

we need the money to come. it needs to go local. it needs to go to the mayors. take it to the aldermen, ticket to the calcimine, ticket to the community organizations. -- take it to the councilmen, take it to the community organizations. >> from a small business standpoint, what a small business do? is it lines of credit? is it access to capital? >> 23 years ago when we started, it was our home because we bought home foreclosures. if you take that away, where you build the wealth? small businesses are the backbone of the country for jobs. we can hire and train and sent

people out to the gun business people if they so choose. but if they do not have the access to capital, it is over. >> we talk about economic power, what specifics do you have to get people to save? spending for the government is great in terms of getting access to capital. if you cannot save, you do not have a shot at owning a house. >> some of the comments that have come in today, we do not have any concrete things that people can do today. we should be talking about economic politics. you have to dot -- fine people and develop them to go into the

community and be politicians. that is how our problems will be solved. >> the one thing we heard -- you make the point on opening checking accounts. >> we pay city, state, and federal taxes. we need to make the city, state, and federal government put some of our tax dollars in the black banks. why do they not have our money deposited in our banks? [applause] >> that will allow our community to open businesses and have

employment. >> we by 25% of general motor's cars. they do not give us 25% of our budget back. the are not picking 25% side of our people on the board of directors. we have a billion dollar budget, but we do not get 25% of it. >> hold on. we are going to a break. keep it tight because i will cut you. [applause] will have your audience comments when we come back. people want to note who is in charge of making these decisions

about where the money is going from the stimulus programs? who do we hold accountable? here is the person in charge of this money? this -- >> what changes to public policy must be made to help improve our financial condition? >> we will combat with specifics about what commitments we should make. what are the folks here going to do to make it a reality? >> welcome back to the national action network for on. we are at the baptist church in harlem. >> shanna from chicago, i filled out by census form and mail it back. i am wondering how long it will

be before i see some benefits in my neighborhood. we have a park with no lights. when will i see the benefits of the 2010 census? >> you have to organize and fight. that is why people joined the naacp. not on cissus they are voting day, that change happens every day. >> my parents formed a city's club in our neighborhood. it is not what they are going to do, it is what you are going to do in your neighborhood. >> everybody makes a commitment. what think you have to remember, this president was a community organizer. he knows the difference between

fraud, talking loud and black is not going to do anything. you have to organize. half the people criticizing him have never organized. they are sitting high and looking at low. [applause] >> we talked about economic specifics. warren, i want to go to you. >> we are specifically calling on investment in black owned at banks. every corporation, every type of industry would be begging to be the target of our money. we would have the control to purchase homes, we can be our own stimulus package. [applause] >> we have got to get

stimulated. it is stimulus, not stimuthem. disproportionate numbers of black and brown people live in cities. most of the stimulus money has gone to nine diverse states. disproportionate numbers of black and poor people have not been benefited by the stimulus. we have got to get out and vote for the mayors and the state senators and the state representatives because when you talk about the distribution of economic capital, unless you go to the polls, you cannot get the money redistributed to the banks. if you cannot get to the senators and state representatives -- you and i

have to recognize that we will that be power. we want to hold the president, the congress people and the senate responsible. we also have to hold ourselves responsible by voting with our bank accounts. we have got to get to black businesses, we have got to go to black banks, we have got to go to black churches because we still think that the white way is better. then we have a better future. >> the specifics out of all that is by black. -- buy black. one second. we talked about health care and what is happening.

we'll talk about economics. what would your association be doing when it comes to economics? >> those people who have health insurance now is low. we are committed to ensuring that there is a quality, high- class work force. that means people who look like us. we represent only 4.5%. >> the number of black nurses that you want to bring into the field in the next 12 months -- >> in the next 12 months i want to bring in 10,000. we are talking about mentoring and coaching because our students have a difficult time. everybody in here -- >> the york black world

coalition has 70,000 members nationwide. we have a financial literacy program we created to challenge people to add one at revenue stream to their income. you do not have job security if you just have one job. we are also going to expand the program to include formerly incarcerated individuals. >> we need some new formulas. i want to pick up on something that reverend sharpton said. we spend the taxes. we paid the taxes. proportionately what we get back from the taxes is not correct. we need some new formulas in place for contracts, in the white house -- i do not know if this is commerce or the president -- we need an overseer to look at what is going on in

black businesses. something is wrong when we only get 1%. >> we are pushing for city, state, and federal funds. we can heal some of our own issues if we are empowered. >> what are you going to be pushing for? >> we are going to be pushing for the new jobs bill. that is the bill that we think we can pass in a few weeks. it is a big jobs bill. healthcare is a big creator of jobs. i want everyone to understand that we put in $11 billion for additional community health centers. we put money in for new training. i want everybody to understand that when we talk about this new pell grant that is going up to

$5,900 per person, that is the kind of money that can get us into these training programs for nurses and everything else. $2 billion in the health care bill is for community colleges. we believe that if you are a lawyer you need a plumber. if you are a plumber you need a doctor. if you are a doctor you need an electrician. we need to focus on where these fields or. >> 15 seconds. >> if a gay and lesbian people yesterday argued that they should be able to visit their people who are in the hospital, if we do not know the money is there, the people who need to get the money that do not know

the money is targeted towards them -- we have to target black communities so that the of bird -- upward mobility can be catalyzed. >> you cannot separate education and economics. our people are miss educated. specifically, we have to stop the achievement gap. we have got to put our history -- we have started the rising network. we'll start them in the church and the communities on the grass roots level. -- let me say this, if you want

to talk about economic power, if our people do not graduate you can forget all of this. we have got to make sure they stay in school. [applause] when we come back -- we have talked about politics and economics, we will talk about reestablishing the black family. we'll tackle that with specifics up next. >> welcome back to the national action network forum. this form is designed to bring about change in the african american community. sell them. we are back on tv. settle down. the bible says the harvest is

principle but the laborers are few. >> i am sorry. i was busy going through the blogs on the web. the irs is dragging their feet with my home buyers' credit refund check. >> what is next? [laughter] >> come back to me. >> for so many years, many thought we would never see an african-american president. president barack obama proved them wrong. he often speaks about raising expectations in our communities.

the president has dealt with the issue of father would, of family -- father did, family, and values. -- fatherhood, family, and values. we just talked about political economics. when you look at the statistics, the reality is you have a greater chance of owning a home, building wealth, voting, not going to prison when you are operating from a two-parent household. what are the 100 black men doing to deal with this whole issue? black men being responsible fathers and husbands that contribute to that political and

economic power. >> 100 black men of america recognizes an epidemic in our nation. when you do not have the pipeline being created, we will step up to provide mentors for our young people. we are in the schools and mentoring them. this is not a one-off discussion. this is not a project we are involved in. we are committed long term. >> we have 116 chapters around the world. >> people to -- this is a critical issue. how do we bring the black family back together? what should we specifically be doing from an organizational standpoint, a policy standpoint, or an individual standpoint?

take your pick. >> i think the black family is suffering at the same level of the broader community. i think that the church needs to increase its effectiveness in how it deals with -- we spent more time talking about if marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman. i think there needs to be a fundamental process by which we are understanding what marriage means as it relates to commitment, as it relates to childhood, as it relates to finance. it the family does not work, the rest of the community does not work. if we do not have -- we have forgotten how to be families. we have young mothers that believe that nobody is supposed to help them raise a child. when we came up in multigenerational families -- it

was not just women, it was man in a multigenerational framework that understood that without this framework -- >> on that point, we are talking about specifics. are there any ministers in the room? stand up. i wrote about this on a block. i said that no pastor should --

if there is a specific, a pastor should get to the heart of it. you are at the point of building a family. you are part of the problem. >> i think two things on that. i think you are absolutely right. i think we also have some with mentoring programs. a lot of people who are criticizing the church have not been to church in 20 years. they do not understand that there are some churches to arguing that.

the other thing is that there are other obligations where we can mentor people. i came from a single-parent home. reverend william jones and others made a difference for me. you cannot tell a kid because a daddy left it is over. we all have to be somebody's daddy. >> i want to go to leslie. average graduation rate at fisk is 28% of young black men. all this whole issue of black families, what are some of these universities are doing to reach

out and get them earlier and earlier to pull them into the process? >> we recognize the challenge. one of the things we are doing is partnering with 100 black men, but also the children's defense fund, a dream academy -- we are starting pre-k and recognizing that we will not have enough children to fill our seats. on our campuses, we are not just academic institutions. we reinforce the social, the cultural, the mores that you should be getting at home. we are also starting rales for strong black families. >> when you talked about

reception the other day, you talked about being a single- mother. what do you think organization leaders should be doing when it comes to black families whether it is dealing with black women are black men. >> we challenge media conglomerates to stop allowing ourselves to be denigrated and this respected. that is one major area we have to challenge. we cannot allow our men to wear their pants hanging down. once we deal with that, it is not part of culture. once we respect ourselves, other folks will respect us and our families. >> when my 10 and 11-year-old children watch television in prime time, they see black

people portrayed as a buffoons on comedy shows. we need to do something about that. >> i say this to the mother, you pay the cable bill. you tell your kids what to watch. that is selling those in my family. >> black man tell each other you love each other and that you are proud of each other and that you support each other. sometimes just talking to these kids -- i went to chicago and sell a boy with a gun on the side of his hip. he told me that he listens to me all the time. i told him he had to put the gun down if he wanted to talk to me. it was a teachable moment.

he asked me about president obama as health care reform plan. i asked him why he wants to know this. he said he was 19-year old and had just had a baby. i had an event to go to. he gave me his gun and made a commitment to be there for his child. >> you took the time at the very moment to mentor. >> [inaudible] or communicate with black people every week. get your black newspaper. subscribe to those newspapers. we are committed to changing the images that you see. when you read those newspapers, use the positive things about black people. we are not to stigmatize.

we have a lot of black men who are standing up and are taking care of their families. those are the stories that we have to tell. >> i think we have got to stop criminalizing black men over this black father issue. we have to stop criminalizing our brothers. there has to be safe daddy houses where they can be trained and get the education to raise their children. we have to understand the root cause of the separation of the black families. all of these things we are saying we should be doing are not going to happen until we deal with it. church by church, school by school, it is a systemic problem. there is a problem -- until we

raise our greatness, our men, women, and children will continue to act this way. >> where you start if you lay down with somebody, you've got to wait for something else. we will be back in a moment. >> welcome back to the national action network for on live from the first correct the and baptist church in harlem. >> the comments from the web are hot. we will continue to have these talks unless we address the black family. values are in stilled by a parent. that is from blackamericaweb.com my nephew has been in prison from -- for eight years. he will come home to a neighborhood of gang members and

drug dealers. there are no jobs or services out year. i almost think he is better off in prison. i have denise right here. >> my question is i would like to know what type of programs we are going to put in place for young men when they come home after being incarcerated. >> like the lady says, she thinks she picked -- he is better off in prison. >> jobs are essential to all of this. families cannot stay together. when the unemployment rate goes up, the marriage rate as down. .

. >> what kind of incentives?

>> tax credits, which will allow a second chance. >> what at this point, if we don't know what? that is why people who go to these companies were turned down, because of these groups. we have to press these companies. there are a lot of things that we want without taking a advantage of it because we don't know it. if people don't know it, they will not be able to ask for it. >> first of all, they are stigmatized. when returning prisoners come back to society, if we don't have an organization to receive them with open arms, don't just visit people in prison, but a program where you remove the stigma and reappoint. secondly, we talk about fighting stereotypes with statistics. nonresident black father spend more time with their children --

a study came out from boston to years ago -- then any group in america. third, we cannot criminalize black masculinity. black people are used for our prowess on the gridiron and basketball court, but demonized in the communities. in terms of pop culture, but we have learned, i am just saying, if "booty call" comes out, people go see it, but you vote with their pocketbooks. go see the stuff that you want to see represent. >> that is not the ultimate solution, but the kind of things we have to hold our legacies accountable for, i believe, to be against the law to refuse somebody a job because they have a felony. >> one second. >> all of this talking about

churches and organizations, what needs to happen, nonviolent felons it should not have a felony on their record for the rest of their lives. that is what needs to be happening! so when these guys and girls get out of jail, if they were a non violent felon, within two years of getting out of jail, it is never on the record. i[applause] >> i want to go to public enemy chuck d. >> what stop the momentum of the corporate is asian of these prisons? companies start to invest in these prisons, and all the sub the job market becomes almost like slave labor inside of the prison -- and all of a sudden the job market becomes almost like slave labor inside of the prison. >> if you have been convicted of a crime, they can make you a slave. it what we say, this is modern-

day slavery. that is the truth. >> the systemic racism in education is a pipeline to those jails. it will not go away until we deal with those problems. >> before i go to break, we have been having extensive conversations about felons getting jobs, removing from the record, but the greater conversation has to be how not to become of felon. we want to see you talk about that. he could talk about the industrial complex, but the key is not getting into that complex. if you drop out of school, you have a greater chance, if you don't love your kids, a greater chance of going into gangs. don't look at the present system, look at your household. -- don't look at the prison system, look at your household.

welcome back to the first baptist church in harlem, where we continue on an action plan to advance the black agenda. first, some comments on the web? >> investing in black-owned banks is a must. they are called community banks for a reason. that is one. here is another, do you see a trend in hollywood for celebrating black man -- men who are feminized? where are the strong black male models in the media? >> on this panel, one second, quiet down. on this panel, i did not hear as pacific commitment from you. -- i did not hear a specific commitment from you.

>> as i have said, without going into the banking situation, talking about banks, part of it, i agree, we must have our communities do that, including our churches. but we, the national action network, address state, federal agencies to put our taxpayer dollars there. second, we work with black farmers. we need to deal with the whole farming issue, to develop our farms, developing those that were ripped off. that is an economic part of our community. we will deal with black banks in terms of municipal, state, federal government, and black farms. >> they have come to an agreement on the settlement. when will congress approve the money, billion dollars-plus, for the black farmers? >> we need to decide it today.

>> you need people to call the white house, congress? >> absolutely. it is not just the black farmers but the native american farmers. we think all of that will be wrapped into this next jobs bill, and we will pay for it all together. >> specifics may be when it comes to families? >> we are committed to ending the cradle to present pipeline and helping the -- the cradle to prison pipeline by establishing academies. the academies will target african-american boys, get them into a 10th grade, take them through 12th grade. something happens between the classroom and getting home. >> how many over the next 12 months? >> in the next 12 months, we're trying to have a pilot. we need everybody in the sound

of my voice to call or e-mail and help me to talk to chairman miller in the united states congress, in the elementary and secondary education act, to pass opportunity academies, residential opportunity academies on all around the center. >> the national urban league will expand its efforts to provide job training for formerly incarcerated african- american men. we will take an initiative called the urban youth empowerment program and add 10- 15 sites within the next 12 months. part of reunifying the family is giving men dignity through work, and then they can do a better job to support their obligations. >> let me sound two warnings.

we are losing our kids right around seventh grade, before they ever get to an hbcu. we talk about elementary and secondary. elementary, 1-6, secondary 9-12. but in seventh and eighth grade is where we are losing them, and we have to zero in on that. that is what we're trying to do. >> real quick, ages 8-18 is our focus. we will work with you and others. our focus is getting 1 million at mentors into our communities. >> how many now? >> we are working with susan taylor and other organizations -- >> 100,000 more? >> we want to double it. secondary, we have schools,

charter schools, five more with the eagle academy. >> ok, that is his specifics. you have yours. jeff johnson? use the microphone. >> number 1, the first thing you have to do is use a better job of raising my kids -- i have to do a better job of raising my kids. second, i am working on my own to do things. the first thing i want to do is partner with churches to open the doors. on the day you don't have anything at your church, how can we help you identify something to keep the lights on and partner with nonprofit organizations for tutoring, mentoring on the days they are closed. second, i want to work with people with green for all and brothers of chicago to take those who are in gangs and prepare them to do green jobs

and understand greek economy. last but not least, we want to do a project to work of the next three years to increase the number of black male teachers at the secondary level by 10%. we have to work to recruit them, train them, and support them. those are three tangible things. >> report. >-- real quick. >> this has led to women having problems finding marriageable mates. first, we want to keep them out of prison. second, hbcu should also stand for helping black children up. if you help them in the fifth, sixth, seventh grade, that will help. secondly, we are working on the mentoring movement. finally, if you help with the aspirations of young black kids, you don't have to worry, their paths will follow. but the dreams first, the path

will follow. -- lift the dreams of first, the path will follow. >> we need to put these boys to work at an early age. i have created a lawn service in my neighborhood that employs 22 boys, ages 11-14. >> talking about the mentoring process. we're going to break. when we come back, we will close this out. also, you have a commitment to yourself. we will get to that any moment. welcome back to our last segment. >> this is the last segment? that when fast. >> we are grateful to them, but they cannot do it alone. here in the church, we have passed out commitment cards. hold them up. don't be trying to sit on them,

hold them out. ok, if you don't have a card, you'll get one. fill these out with your name and contact information, and the one issue you want to work on. so they will call on you for help on your issue. for those that have you at home, do the same. send your emails to commitment @tv1online.com. let us know the one commitment that you want to work on it over the next 365 days. the organizations will contact you with regard to your commitment. again, commitment@tvonline.com. >> the most dominating question i have gotten over the internet, who will hold these panelists accountable? >> the number one question >> we

came with answers. first, my show on tv one, tom is on a morning show, black america.com. we have recorded these commitments. every 90 days, we will check in with each individual to see where they are with when it comes to their commitment. if you say, i don't hear it, that is your problem. you need to watch the show. that is how we are going to hold them accountable as relates to honoring their commitments. they came here, made a public commitment, we hold them accountable. but also you and the audience and the folks at home. >> we will also be conducting follow-ups, and, folks, it has been a great day. i think lots has been accomplished. but there is a lot more to do. i want to thank our guests, panelists, studio audience, and all of you out there who watched and participated by e-mail and tweeting.

thank you so much. rahman will close us out with a staple of his work on tv won. -- tv 1. >> when you read the bible, he had a vision to reveal the wall of jerusalem that provided security to those living inside. after surveying the wall, he went to the people and told him -- told them his vision. they said, let us rebuild. and they did. there were those who were haters and they said it would never happen, and i am confident when these folks look at this forum, they may say this was a waste of time and nothing will get done. like they told the people then, keep building. the most appalling aspect of the scripture is when you read about a particular group rebuilding the portion of the wall right in front of their homes. -- the most appealing aspect of the scripture. no one person, no one president can solve all of the issues.

but if every person rebuilds the wall in front of them, whether it is education, crime, economic empowerment, voting power, you name it, progress will be made. where there is progress, others to doubt it, will join in. if you want change, you must work for it. if you want to see a thriving black community, you must lead the effort. and of talking, not complaining. it is time for us -- enough talking, and of complaining. it is time for us to put on our hard hats. we have to ask ourselves, what are you prepared to do? i cannot answer the question for you, but i can guarantee that if you get off the sidelines and get off your butt and off the couch, and joined the fight, you will change and your house will change. when your house changes, you will be the folks on your street to change. when the streets are stronger,

the blocks are stronger. when the blocks are stronger, the neighborhoods are stronger. whenever the stronger, the cities are stronger and then states. when the states are stronger, america is stronger. when america is stronger, the world is stronger. it all begins with you. so what are you prepared to do? thank you for taking part in the national commitment form. -- forum. >> thank you for being here today, especially reverend sharpton and the action network for making this possible. good bye from the first baptist church of harlem. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> still to come on c-span,

first lady michelle obama those the white house event for national take your daughters and sons to work day. after that, to look at supreme court nominees. it after that, a chance to look at black policy and public policy issues. tomorrow, a memorial service for the 29 miners who died earlier this month at the upper big branch mine in west virginia. we will hear remarks from president obama, vice-president joe biden, and west virginia governor joe manchin. watch that live at 3:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> i think there is a huge lack of knowledge about how this town works, how congress works. >> when you were doing research work, you have to do that yourself. >> this weekend, award winning historians will talk about their work, their books, and their professions, and revisit their

first appearances on our networks. that is sunday night on c-span. >> earlier this week, first lady michelle obama hosted children at the white house for the annual take our daughters and sons to work day. she talked about her role as first lady and daily life at the white house. this is about 50 minutes. >> how are you? it is good to see you! how're you doing? hi! hello! yeah, you can pet bo. he is the highlight of the visit today. all right, come on, bo. come on, bo. ok, i will make sure he comes around to everybody. a. how is everybody doing?

that is good. welcome to the white house. how many of you guys have done this? who did this last year? that is good. so, we're going to make this much more informal than my share. last year i talked a little bit, and then you got to ask questions. the truth is, it is more interesting to talk and answer your questions. we will do that today. let me welcome you today. this is an important day for all of us because your parents spend so much time here helping me and president. and we know that a lot of times they do it because you will make the sacrifices to be here. your helping us just as much as your parents are. first of all, thank you. thank you for being patient and making sure that you are doing what you are supposed to do at home, so that your parents can

do what they need to do here. sit down, bo. so let's just start. do you guys have questions? what we start with questions. all right, you and the front. the question is, do i like living in the white house? yes, it is fun living in the white house. [bo barks] bo likes it, too. one of the most fun part is sharing the house with some of the people. we have thousands of people who come here every month just to visit. is really fun to meet a lot of people and make sure that they feel like this house is special for them and to share it with everybody else. 1;svkvyvav1;1;1;av1;1;1;avararar

>> how does it feel being the first lady? >> how does it feel? it feels like being made. you don't change as a person just because you have a different job. what is your name? >> isaiah. >> you know how you feel, isaiah, with the war at home or at school. you are always isaiah, right? i feel the same way. i feel like i am who i am. i have to take care of my kids and i want to do a good job as first lady. i want to make sure i am making my country proud, but i still feel like me. does that make sense? all right. all right, and the couple blue, pigtails, handout. -- aqua blue, pigtails, and out.

>> what are you doing for birthday? >> earth day? i think we are having a reception this evening. there is a reception this evening for earth day. sasha brought home some energy- efficient bulbs to put in the house. we will do some replacements. all right, you, right there. >> do you miss chicago? >> there are some things i miss about chicago. but i think the things i miss about chicago are the things that i would miss anywhere. one of the things that the president and i cannot do is sort of just walk down the street by ourselves. we cannot just leave the house and walk by ourselves because we always have security and we have to make sure -- we have a lot of people with us. the thing i miss in chicago is

being able to walk out of my house and go down to the lake and ride my bike. but i cannot do that here, either. what i tell my girls is if there is a reason -- if there is something amiss about chicago, it would be my family and everybody is here with me. so it makes it easier to just because all the people i love are still right here. and we have bo, and we did not have bo in chicago. all right, in the orange and white? you want to ask that question into the microphone? >> what do you think are the leading causes of obesity in america? >> that is a very astute question. and you definitely have read my biography and what my issues are. [laughter] that is a good thing. there are a lot of things that cause of the city. i think it is the lifestyle we live. i think a lot of kids these

days spend a lot of time in front of the tv set, on the computer. when we were young, we did not have 120 channels, 24 hours per day, we did not have the internet and computer games. when you were bored, he had to go on outside and play. a lot of kids are driving to school or take the bus to school. i think we're getting less exercise, and people say that we snack way too much, there are a lot of stocks out there, especially for kids. they say the average kid has about five snacks per day, something like that. how many do you have? if you have two, that is good. that is on average, so somebody out there is having more than you. come here, bo. and i think that we have to make sure that we eat and a balanced

way. he cannot live life without vegetables. you have to have pitched balls. [bo barks] yes, you do. i think there are a lot of things -- you have to have vegetables. we have to look at how snacks are healthy, portion sizes. there are a lot of things. that is why with the initiative, we're asking everybody to be involved in figuring out what we can do to make things better. but thank you for that question. all right, some leeway in the back, the maroon sweater. we have time. -- somebody way in the back, what the marin's water. >> is it hard for you and your family to spend time together? >> actually, it is not. it is easier now than it was.

the president's office -- where are we? it is over there somewhere. it is real close, and we live upstairs. so it is very easy for us, when we are working, i can come down from the house and work. a lot of your parents, they have to get on a train, to have to come here. there is a lot of flexibility. we make sure that we are at home when the kids get home and we have dinner together and we spent time over the weekends together. it has been a lot easier than i would have thought for us to spend time together is a family. all right, you. >> what school do your kids go to? >> they go to a school called sidwell friends, and washington, d.c. there is another school in

bethesda. there are two different buildings. have you heard of that school? [bo bark] >>shh, quiet. all right, let's get another question, bo. who is next? we did not do this side. right here, on the edge, light blue. >> what inspired you to become so involved in childhood obesity? >> just watching how children's diets and habits change. i saw in my own households how easy it was, with schedules as busy as they are, parents working a lot of hours, we get into the habit of giving you guys what is easy sometimes, macaroni and cheese, the drive

through a little bit too much. time is just short. i noticed it in my own household. i thought, if i am having these kind of challenges, it must be hard for the average family who does not have a lot of resources and things like that. i think being a mom and seeing my own kids. [bo barks] what? i know! i know! >> when you were a kid, did you ever dream of becoming the first lady? >> when i was a little kid, i probably had dreams like most little kids. i wanted to be a pediatrician because i like kids. i never wanted be a veterinarian. [laughter]

then, after i went to college, i wanted to be an attorney, and i practice for a while. but, no, as a matter of fact, the notion of being first lady of the united states, you know, there had never been anybody of my race who had been here. [bo barks] >> i know. you are going have to go. are you ready to go? [kids say "no"] >> you want to say hi? calle[cheers] i will let him get his energy out with you guys. all right, he is in play mode.

i will take him out, and i will let him come back in. all right, let's go. c'mon, let's go outside. i will make sure to bring him back in when we are done and everybody can get a chance to say hello. all right, take him out, kristen, so we can run. we will bring him back in. i will make sure everybody gets a chance to pet him. yes, yay for bo. does that answer your question? ok, good. let's see, you and the gray sweatshirt. turnaround. >> what are you growing in your garden? >> gosh, lots of things. lots of vegetables. we have a lot of greens, lettuce, almost every kind of

urban, garlic, thyme, rosemary, all the good stuff. we have some peas. we have a beehive. we have honey, berries, rhubarb. have you ever had rhubarb pie? it sort of looks like lettuce. sort of like celery. but it tastes really sweet like strawberries. so it is a good dessert. we have broccoli, spinach. it we had spinach last night from the garden. it was really sweet. we are growing all kinds of vegetables and fruits. i think you'll get a chance to see the garden? is that true? is that part of it? so you let me know how it is coming, right? ok. sounds good. ok, what type of dog is bo? he is a portuguese water dog. they love to swim.

at first, he did not want to swim. we had to teach him how to swim, but now he loves the water. he gets in the water and a chance he can get. they are retriever dogs. they used to bring in boats and do things with fishermen. he is a very active dog and it is a part keep him running and playing. now is kind of like his busy time. there are some parts of the day where he is quiet and sleepy, but with, butbo, they love to play. there are some dogs that are more lap dogs. he is a running, plain kind of dog. you have to give him a lot of exercise. he was a gift from a friend of ours. senator ted kennedy, who recently passed. his favorite breed of dog was portuguese water dogs. we found that we were looking for a dog, he gave us bo. he helped us to adopt him.

he is special not because he is just a special doll but he was a gift from a very special friend -- a very special dog, but he was a gift from a very special friend. all right, let's see. purple, in the middle. >> does bo bite? >> yes. did he buy you? what he does, he is not biting like he wants to bite you, he is playful. does anybody have a baby brother, somebody teething? he is beyond teaching, but dogs play and they like to have things in their mouth. that is the kind of playing that he does. the have to retrain him to make sure -- you have to really train him to make sure, we put our hands in his mouth so he doubts -- knows how hard to bite on a human. plan with a dog and plan with

sasha and malia are two different things. you have to make sure that he is off when it comes to people and skin, right? he gets playful. that is why is support for him to get exercise before he sees everybody. he is just as excited to see you as you are to see him. all right, the young lady in the navy blue, on the end. yes? >> what is your favorite health food to eat. >> my favorite health food? i have a lot. some of my favorite vegetables are spinach, broccoli. those are big in my household. good snacks, some of the sort of power bars that they have. it some of them are nutty, but

some of them have chocolate, too. sometimes those are fun and they make you think like you are having candy and you are not. but it is good food. i love juices, as much as i can get. does that help? ok, the gentlemen and blue striped shirt. >> how is the obesity cure going? >> how is it going? we have not quite solve date yet, but we are on our way. -- we have not quite soft it yet, but we are on our way. some scientists say the way to obesity is genetics, something you are born with. what we are trying to figure out is how we change the behavior, particularly in kids, to teach them different habits.

my theory is that kids can learn to love vegetables just as much as they learn to love the taste of candy. i truly believe that. you may not agree, but i think if you are eating healthy things on a regular basis, you start to like them. you start making choices about snacks. instead of the snack being a piece of candy, a good stack might be a bunch of grapes. right? how many people like grapes? that is one of those learn things. instead of saying, mom, i am hungry, can i have a bag of chips? you will say, mom, i am hungry, i have grapes? and if you ask her that, she will say yes every single time and will be just as good. if we teach different habits and you ask for different things, a mentally that helps your health. if you are moving and exercising, that will make you healthy and solve the problem of

obesity. we have a lot of work to do. we need all of you to help us do it. all right, right in the front. i know, i know. we will try to get to as many people as we can. >> what is your favorite room in the white house? >> my favorite room is the blue room. did you walk past it? it is the oval shape. you walk down the hallway, is in the center. there are only three rooms and the residents that have the oval shape. one is in the bottom called the diplomatic room. the second one, which is the blue room. then there is a room upstairs in our house called the yellow oval room. all of them look out onto the south lawn, and you could see the fountain and the washington monument and so much of washington. it is still a cozy-feeling room.

when we have a lot of guests over, it is nice to have them see the view. when we did the easter egg roll -- i don't know how many people saw that. were you there? was it fun? we walked out, and we walked out onto a balcony. it was the balcony connected to the blue oval room. was that room. -- it was that room. yes, the football activity sessions? yes, that is where the blue oval is. it is important know where the rooms are in relationship to the football activity center. all right, you. "aw." >> are there any things that you have to do that you don't like to do? >> hmm. yeah.

there are always things grownups have to do that we don't want to do. i had this conversation with my kids. they came home, they had homework. but they saw me sitting and i was reading over by work for next week, the tv was on. they said, mom you are so lucky, you have nothing to do. i was like, yeah, it seems that way. but grown-ups, a lot of the stuff we do is stuff we don't want to do. a lot of times we would rather be playing outside and eating candy, playing with our dogs. that is part of being a grownup. i think it is just responsibility. sometimes you don't want any. i don't think runups are any different, right, parents in the room? -- i don't think grownups are any different, right, parents in the room? there are a lot of things i have to do that are fun. like this is something that i

love to do. this is something i have to do? i think so, but it is also something i really love to do and it is a lot of fun to talk to you guys. i got to go with the winter olympians yesterday. we went to a school, shawnee davis, speed skater, very cool. if i have to do that every day, i will take it. right? all right, a green shirt. there you go. you forgot? that is okay. it is ok. when you remember, as in asia remember, we will come back to you. don't feel pressured. -- when you remember, as soon as you remember, we will come back to you. all right, the green raincoat. keep an eye on him.

>> what kind of music do you like? >> that is a good question. i like all kinds of music. this is what is in my ipod, some of the stuff in my ipod. i love stevie wonder. you know stevie wonder? i have some michael jackson. i have some rhianna, beyonce. i have some new usher. i am try to relate the things that you could connect with. sting, anyone? no? what is so funny? and i like jazz. lots of jazz, but i won't go into that. how many people here love jazz? yell out some of your favorite artists. who?

ok, he is not jazz. the we armstrong? don't have any of him, but he is good. -- the we armstrong? don't have any of him, but he is good. it is a lot of different things. i love to dance. i love a good beat. all right, did you remember yet? all right, the little lady and the orange? yes, you. >> i have two questions. >> please stand for two. >> the first question, how often do you use the movie theater? >> good question. almost every weekend, but not always. >> i actually have three. the, ok. [laughter]

>> i don't want anyone from the press to get any ideas. >> the second honest -- the second one is, is your movie theater able to play any movie that you want and new movies? >> the only thing that we cannot play, we cannot play 3d movies. and the engineers? we do not have 3d capabilities -- yet. but we get all kinds of movies. we get movies in theaters now and we get movies that are old movies. you can play the tv on there. we have a big super bowl party and we watch the super bowl. third and final question. >> third and final question. >> ok. >> what do you use the most in the white house? you have a tennis court, you have -- i can't remember what else, but a lot of things.

>> there is a lot of stuff here, there is. right now, i think we are using the tennis court the most because everybody is taking tennis lessons. but when it gets hot, we will use the swimming pool allot. we have not used it yet this season, that is one of those things we use a lot. it is coming. alright. the young man, on the end. i am moving around. i am coming back. >> what do you care about most in the environment? what animal? >> what animal, what plant? we are big tiger savers. malia's one issue for her father is saving the tigers. we talk about the tigers at least once a week, and what he is doing to save the tigers.

he is telling her he is working on it and a lot of people are thinking about it. he has not come up with a sufficient answer yet, but he has a couple more years or so to fix the problem. i think the obama household, we're trying to save the tigers. all right, ok. here comes the microphone. ok. >> do you spend more time with your dog or with your kids? [laughter] >> did everyone get that question? i think the appropriate answer would be my children. no, it is pretty clear it is my kids, because they're my kids. they need me. bo can be with anybody. we try to spend a lot of time together as a family, but during the day, a lot of times bo is

outside, running around. he is not interested in being with me. for now. he was not even that interested in sitting here. i was trying to get quality time with him and he just wanted to play. i was boring. all right, in the pink. yes, you. you, you, you. >> how often do you go into the oval office? >> how often? not as often as you think. i cannot think of the last time i was over there. because that is work, to me. that is my husband's job. sometimes i have to cut through the west wing to get to another building. if i am there, i will stop in, see what is going on. but i don't go there every day, like the president does. because if i need to talk to him, i wait until he comes home.

yes, he is in new york. he just left. did you hear the helicopter? were you here when they took off? he just left to go to new york, you are right. ok. green, he is ready! >> is there any thing that you have and the white house that you did not have in chicago, any of the other stuff? >> pretty much the movie theater and all the other stuff. we did not have any of this stuff. when we lived in chicago, we lived and a regular house, backyard, neighbors. we did not have security or a swing set or the south lawn or the movie theater. we had dvd's. >> any other kind of stuff like the basketball court? >> we had nothing, none of it.

sorry. >> what about bo? >> we did not have bo. we had nothing. [laughter] we had each other. we had love. that is what we had. no, we did not have any of that stuff in chicago. we did, there was a basketball hoop in our backyard. that was about it. it all right, you. get the microphone. >> what is your favorite part about being the first lady and having the power to change the world and stuff? >> the power to change things? >> i guess. >> yeah. my favorite thing is a feeling that even with small gestures that you can impact people's lives. sometimes it is not even doing anything, but the fact i can go

to a school just for a visit and bring attention to what they're doing just by coming to visit, you know? i can use this platform to highlight issues that are important, point out people that are doing really good things. it is not always anything i can do, but it is helping other people get the attention around the good things they are already doing. the hard work and sacrifice, people who are doing things for their families. you know, it is an exciting opportunity to be able to shine the light. like today, we're getting to see how smart you guys are. the whole country is getting to see how bright and engaging you are and how eager you are to ask questions and learned. that is important for us to remember every day, just how important our young people are and how curious it and ready to do anything you all are. that is fun. all right, we in the back.

the red hair. -- weight in the back. right here. >> can do anything to make recess longer? >> to make recess longer? [laughter] ok. caller[cheers] long recess? can i make recess longer? i see "no" over there? we want to make sure that all kids have recess. there are some kids in some schools, some places don't have recess. we want to change that. because during the day, you tell me, doesn't it feel better to get through the day when you get a break and run around a little bit, get some of that energy out, throw a ball, sweat a little bit?

doesn't that help you learn? i believe it helps kids learn. the first thing is we need to make sure that every kid has an opportunity to have recess in their schools and to get exercise and to have p.e. and play sports. once all kids have it, then the question becomes whether it is longer or whether you need to know math. i know, there is the school aspect, but it is a good balance so that kids are getting a little bit of everything. does that make sense? all right, sounds good. ok, the lady next to allen, in the white. >> the movie business. >> is the move it business working well? we just started that initiative and we are pleased with the response.

everybody that we have come across is excited about the possibility that we could make sure that kids are healthier. i have not run into anyone who does not think it is a good idea, because it is all about you all. so far, so good, but we have a lot of work to do, and we won't know how we're doing for a while. we will see it in you all. we will check back again next year, and knickknacks -- asked me that question again. ok? you, young lady. yes, you. yes, you. find the microphone. >> do malia and sasha still hang out with their friends in chicago? >> they do, as much as possible. sometimes on vacation, sometimes for offense. -- sometimes events. but they have made new friends here, good friends, but their

old friends are still people that have known all their lives. you know old friends that you have had since you are 3, right? there is nothing like those friends. they have been lucky to be able to keep those connections. our right, let's see. -- all right, let's see. the first, the tie dyed pink. >> the you help your girls with their homework? >> yes, every night. well, malia is older, so she does her homework on her own. she is very independent. i don't helper, and she does not want my help, quite frankly. sasha is still a little bit younger. yes, third grade. when she needs help, help her, but usually check, to make sure. i try not to redo it, but i check and ask her if she can change things if they're wrong.

our right. how about you, young man. >> how long have you had bo? >> a little over a year. press? i saw a story on his anniversary? it has been a little over a year. he will be 2 in october. his birthday is october. but dogs grow fast. one-year-old dogs are not baby puppies anymore. he is a big breed dog. that is about as big as he is going to get. now he is sort of like a teenager. he is not a baby puppy anymore. yes, dogs have shorter life spans. their life moves a little faster. he is more like a teenager now.

if the dog is 10 years old, that is an old dog, like a grandma, exactly. " that does not offend anyone, but, that is about where they are in their lives. ok, you, young lady, in the glasses, second row. >> the use still communicate with your friends in chicago? -- the use still communicate with your friends in chicago? >> yes, we do. we try to connect as much as possible. that is been a fun thing for me, too. all right. we're going to be able to do a couple more questions. if you asked a question, make sure that your hand is down. make sure that you ask a question that has not been asked before, all right? these are all brand new questions? ok. yes, definitely.

intercoms the mike. i will do it one in each section. one here, one here, one here. does that sound fair? and you can talk amongst yourselves and figure out who the question needs to be. yes? >> i have two. what is bo's favorite toy? >> his favorite toy is a bigot rope. he likes to drop at your feet. -- it is a big rope. he likes to drop at your feet, wait for you to get it. he played tug-of-war, and he tries to win. he wins if he plays against sasha. usually i win, because i am bitter. >> -- i am bigger. >> how early do they have to get

up? >> they get up at 6:00 a.m. they could get up later if they move faster. [laughter] but that is their choice. you move slow, you get up earlier. ok, this section, in the black. >> oh, yeah. >> take your time. am i just remembered. -- >> i just remembered. when did you start the let's move. >> that is a question i answered before, but i want to make sure all kids are healthy and it is important to make sure kids start out early with good habits. if you start out early with good habits, you grow up with good habits, and and we have a healthier nation. if