i think i was inspired by michele alexander's booke." >> it is my pleasure to say, ms.

i think i was inspired by michele alexander's booke." >> it is my pleasure to say, ms. colvin, without you we would not be where we are. [applause] thank you for sharing your story, and keep telling your story because we need to know, and our children need to know, and our children's children need to know your story. and we want to thank our sponsors today. we have the san francisco unified school district. we have marked as bookstores, who will be selling this -- ms. colvin's book, written about her, by philip house. we have sponsorship from the african diaspora, and the friends of the san francisco public library. i serve as part of the african- american interest committee that helped put this program together, and i want to thank all of you for coming, and i want to thank sfgtv for taking the program today. we want to thank the department here at san francisco public library, and we are having a reception in l58, and we want to thank read your catering for providing some delicious food for us to nibble on today, so will you please join us and say thank you again to m

michelle alexander calling it the new jim crow. between the 1960's and 1970's, the prison population across the country doubled. in the 1970's and 1980's, it tripled. in california, and build no new prisons between the 1960's and 1970's, the height of political action. between the 1970's and 1980's, they build more prisons in california alone and in the past 100 years. one thing that has happened is the warehousing of black folks in these facilities. if you think about what slavery is, the parallels, it is not just a metaphor when you talk about modern-day slavery. slavery denied black folks the ability to be mobile. you were trapped on one location, in a plantation. it broke up our families. it subjected us to daly wants and violence. anything can happen to you -- an example to you for somebody else. it exploded us for our free labor. all of those things happen in prison today. the u.s. has 5% of the world's population and over 25% of the world's prison population. that is a big part of the equation. i am not waiting for superman,

as michelle alexander made clear in her book, which the reverend brought up, "the new jim crow" the disparities between sentencing are absolutely terrible. but it's also a huge waste of taxpayer money. thank you very much. chairman mirkarimi: thank you very much. quite agree about the drug war. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. thanks for the opportunity to speak. i received the invitation from rob on your staff. i'm with the aclu of northern california. and we have been working with counties around the state as the realignment. legislation came down try to help advocate for really plans very much like the one that we have seen coming out of our probation department so we think it's a good plan overall. i think that the chief is still to be commended and the folks on the executive committee. we do have a few concerns that i would like to share with you briefly, and also some suggestions about thinking about the future. we share the concerns that have been expressed by the public offenders office about how exactly this is going to roll out in terms of the post release supervision rev indi

those of you who have read michele alexander's booke, it says that this needs to be a national conversation. part of the national conversation, i hope, is here. that is why we are going to turn it over to you, to engage in some conversation with our guests. >> i just want to say to the young people today, especially teenagers, boys and girls, some of whom might have been incarcerated, what advice would you give to them? >> first thing i would say -- believe in yourself. if you do not believe in yourself and have some kind of faith and try to work hard, and listen to your teachers and take advantage of all the resources that you have, learning resources. >> today is super bowl sunday. what can our black men in the nfl do to help us have some great people? that is the only place i get to see a positive role model is by watching sports. i think we have a lot of cultures we could really bring together, but we are not joining. >> great question. in 1968, when we saw the black system in the air, that did not happen in a vacuum. it happened in the context of a broader movement. i think we have to

alexander, 1999, expectations high, he underperforms them. that's tim pawlenty's problem. if he finishes third behind micheleul, he can stay in the race. will he stay in the race? >> michele bachmann or mitt romney who is under more fire? >> bachmann. i think bachmann. the person in iowa, they're talking about the straw poll, most of them are competing for straw poll votes at this point. mitt romney is not in the straw poll. >> remember the caged animal is the -- the cornered animal smoeft dais the most dangerous. >> they need to go at bachmann. romney will get his fair share. i think they need to go at bachmann and knock her down a peg. >> remember who had the most influence in debates was a candidate that was an asterisk in the democratic side, chris dodd. >> absolutely. >> chris cillizza, jackie kucinich, two of the 700 reporters that have gotten credentials for the ames straw poll. fantastic. this sunday on "meet the press," meet the candidates, congresswoman michele bachmann, david gregory's exclusive guest, hours after the straw poll results are announced. a special edition of "meet the press" live fro

michelle franzen in asbury park, new jersey. we'll check back in with you, thank you. as coastal residents are fleeing the hurricane, a small group of scientists are flying into the eye of the storm. peter alexander spent some time with the air force's hurricane hunters. he has this storm from bill loxy, mississippi. >> this is an inside look at the storm that thois of americans fear. irene making its way up the east coast. at 10,000 feet the veteran crew is heading right into the eye of the storm. >> it looks like it's going to be pretty close -- >> the flight plan fly through the eye wall four times. their mission to collect data for those come computer models that predict a hurricane's path and its intensity. constantly sending their results to the national hurricane center in miami. john talbot the squadron's chief meteorologist has flown into more than 150 eye walls over 26 years. >> the most critical element in that plan is the geographic position of the center of the storm. >> if you don't know where it's starting you don't know where it's going to finish. during our flight researchers released sensitive probes with gps built in. they fall toward the ocean with a tiny pair ra chute relayin