organizations was a liability. so they began to cut back and as they began to cut back, specifically, with hamas, iran rushed to fill the void. and began to provide hamas with more funds and more assistance and then by the time the elections took place in january of '06 and sanctions were put in place by the west, it was iran that completely filled whatever, you know, hamas was not getting from outside actors. >> i'll ask you one more question and then i'm going to begin to go to the audience for questions as well even though i have about 30 more questions here and about 40 more in my head and that is you also have at this point and the interesting predicament that saudi arabia and

right now we want to hear from organizers who have built winning organizations around big progressive ideas. each of them represents the kind of constituent wednesdayies that will have to work together if we're going to turn the theoretical majority in the congress into an active majority for change. hires the question i want them all to address -- how did we get here at this dramatic moment in history, and how do we move fort together. our first speaker is an insider who orgs like an outsider. i won't say mitch stewart is responsible for barack obama being in the white house, but mitch and steve hildebrand played an enormous role in the crucial victory of the iowa caucusses, and you know how crucial those iowa caucusses were. and then mitch went on to pull off another miracle, turning the commonwealth of virginia blue for barack obama. he is director of the new 13 million strong grass routes and online force to emerge from the campaign to help obama win new victories. mitch will talk about how they won the mission of organizing for america and how they plan to work with outside group

six human-rights organizations have been fairly good. there is a palestinian center for human rights which has done good work. the red cross has done a little bit but there are regular reports of chastising israel for a disproportionate force which we would expect and gaza but then the warfare that there have been good reports on that. but i was struck by the first week of coverage of the operation which we've just discussed, the headlines were huge and splashed everywhere talking about is really is going into the gaza strip or erred in the gaza strip and if you compare casualties and the kind of violence, the palestinian war that broke out june 2007 paled in comparison to the arab-israeli conflict. it underscores a point* that i talked about in my book. that is it is very easy for those in the mainstream media to cover the arab-israeli conflict. we know it is easy, it sells them it can make headlines and grab people's attention. to go and cover the palestinian conflict is a lot more challenging and requires journalists going into danger

right now we want to hear from organizers who have built winning organizations and around a progressiveideas. each of them represents the kind of constituencies that will have to work together if we are going to turn this year radical majority of congress into enacting a majority for change. so here's the question i want them all to address -- how did we get here and systematic moment in history and how we move forward together? our first speaker is an insider who or illnesses like an outsider. i will say mitch stewart is the responsible for barack obama being in the white house but he and steve hildebrand played an enormous role in a crucial victory in the iowa caucuses and you know how crucial the those iowa caucuses or and then he went on to pull off another miracle turning the commonwealth of virginia blue for barack obama. [applause] he is now director of the new organizing for america, the 13 million strong grass-roots an online course that emerge from the campaign to help obama win victories. mitch will talk about how they won the election, the mission of organizing for america a

our organization did not receive any seed money from the holy land foundion. when confronted with the i.r.s. forum on which the holy land foundation disclosed the contribution, he changed his position in supplemental testimony submitted to the subcommittee saying that, quote, the amount in question was a donation like any other. care ultimately filed an amicus brief seeking removal from the list of unindicted co-conspirators in the holy land foundation case. in september of 2007, prosecutors made several arguments in favor of maintaining care's status saying, quote, care has been identified by the government at trial as a participants in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization, a conspiracy from which care never withdrew. the holy land foundation trial revealed more about care than simply its ties to that particular entity. rather, the trial brought to light were the genesis of the organization. according to an october 14, 2008 "dallas morning news" story, quote, testimony has suggested that care's founder a

to produce negative information about the organization. those assertions are patently untrue and would not even warrant a response. were it not that they were symptom attic or i believe a larger pattern of intimidation undertaken by care. intimidation which is of great consequence given the national security matters at stake. as my letter to the f.b.i. indicated, i was seeking to better understand the bureau's position in access information about what led to the decision. it is a conclusion which i agree with my senate colleagues is absolutely appropriate based on reports i read for years which again marks a change in course for the bureau and as such deserves further explanation. it is north worthy that on april 28 following my initial unsatisfactory reply from the bureau, senator kyl received a more substantive response to the f.b.i. to his letter. in this letter to senator kyl the bureau was more detailed in explaining and validating the original news report regarding its relationship with care. the letter reads as follows. quote, as yo

so then some faulty organizers. the organizers in the movement.nsportation system, but it was not as effective as it could have been. there are still some people we have to bring in. we tried and came close. individually they afford not successful. but because they received 40 percent of the total vote, which is a remarkable number. 80 percent of the african american vote, they were able to get on the ballot. but we haven't even recognized by the state. the black panther, later on they adopted the black panther symbol and it became part of the state of alabama for elections. >> was the republican party a viable action at all? >> no. so it was democrats or nothing. they entertain. they detained the idea of joining the democratic party in the drowning. as soon as they begin to register in mass in 1935 in federal registrars and come in for the first time because of the pressure they're putting on the federal government the democratic party says, we are going to raise the filing fee from $5 to $500. the average african american was making $900 which i

none of them would have likened themselves to an organized crime. business was business as usual, that they were playing by the same rules as everybody else. saying they were doing what was best for the company. i would think to myself, you broke about 14 loss before breakfast, how could you fail to see that what you were doing was wrong? i have also seen executives who did not starting -- are up to break the law, they started to believe their own explanations. it is a very slippery slope from behavior, to ethical or legal boundaries, behavior that crosses the line. we in the fbi are investing our jobs -- are best in our jobs when we have the trust of the american people. the same can be said for the business community. if this financial crisis has taught us anything, maybe that it is time for a cultural shift, of back to basics approach with a sound business judgment, risk assessment from the top down. let me spend a brief moment talking about an aspect of financial crime, economic crime, and that is public corruption. unfortunately, the private se

and organizing to change public policy to improve the lives of poor people. he's made the center a leader on immigration reform, helping to build the fair immigration reform movement, many of those folks are. town and will be joining us tomorrow. i hope all of you will come on tuesday night's awards dinner. or he and the center for community change will receive a are paul wellstone progressive leadership award. [applause] please welcome him. [applause] >> it morning. the morning. i want to think this incredible panel. in is a great honor to be with you here today so what is the progress of a challenge ahead of us? as i see it, it has two dimensions, is going to sound like i'm about to contradict myself when i talk about the two dimensions but bear with me. the first time mention is that we have to win out and have to win rights, and a second endive mentioned is we're going to have to deal with the ideas, the infrastructure it will take to put in place progress of governance for decades to come here and winning out and winning right, what's bad about? john may

i am personally in personal debt and gratitude to this organization. the great leadership that it brings upon the youth of america. with that, madam speaker, i urge my colleagues to support this resolution and reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: madam speaker, we have no further speakers but i'll continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: thank you, madam speaker. i yield as much time as mr. hall may consume, my distinguished colleague from the state of texas, mr. hall. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman. mr. hall: thank you very much. mr. speaker, madam speaker, i of course rise today in support of h.r. 356, expressing support for the designation of february 8, 2010, as boy scouts of america day to honor the nation's largest scouting organization's 100th anniversary. congressman chaffetz has done a very go

far along the stream that definitely where a lot of organization reforms and accountable care organizations concept of working on to explain the hatters on this line mrs. trying to work by us at health care reform at brookings and the dartmouth instituted for clinical services for health policy in clinical practice. a collaborative effort and any anaheim accountable care rescission is we want to support providers organize and away the can manage continuum of care. the whole set of care for patients. maybe not too formal organization been having accountability and focusing payments on the results for a population of patients. not for specific episode but for a population of patients. this requires the care organization to be large enough to support comprehensive measurement of performance and provide a critical mass with the kinds of targeted support services benefit for particular patients and also needs to be enough organization in these accountable care organizations to be able to plan ahead and take steps that are going to improve care and reduce cost. lots of different ways and a co con

in chicago to organized crime, for corruption. and here in new york we have shifted resources to address white-collar crime. we have moved from a quantitative to a qualitative approach, and we are using intelligence to pinpoint the greatest threats to each of our communities and working hard to prevent those threat from becoming reality. turning to the fbi's role in combating white-collar crime, there are many lenses through which to view the financial crisis. from financial institutions that traded in risk itself, to lenders and real estate professionals who sidestepped the standard rules of practice, to homeowners whose purchases exceeded their pocketbooks. risk is quite obviously central to this crisis. in truth much of what led to the financial meltdown was the result of a failure to properly assess the risks, risks to businesses, risk to investors, risk to homeowners, risk to the economy at large. and yes, there are those who intended to defraud others. but in part, the subprime lending crisis may have been more a matter of a

he has been the center all about grass roots community organizing and organizing to change public policy to improve the lives of poor people there and he's made the center a leader on immigration reform, helping to build it there immigration reform movement. many of those folks are here and will be joining us tomorrow. i hope all of you will come on tuesday night's awards dinner where deepak and the center for community change will receive our paul wellstone progressive leadership award. [applause] please welcome deepak bhargava. [applause] >> this morning. >> good morning. >> i want to thank roger in this incredible panel hearing is a great honor to be with you today. the so what is the progress of a challenge ahead of us? as i see it, it has two dimensions, is going to sound like i'm about to contradict myself when i talk a lot to dimensions but where with name. the first dimension is that we have to win now and have to win right and the second to mention is that we're going to have to build of the ideas come in the infrastructure it will take to put in place progressive baroness for d

my effect is very small but really when we organize and that's why i believe in organization. in fact, we have two major objectives in our association, the arab women solidarity association. number one, to unveil the mind. we are as writers -- we're not only writers. we have to unveil, to help in unveiling our mind and the mind of others. and just by the knowledge, by having the courage to speak up our mind -- we may be wrong and then we learn from discussion, from different opinions, but we have to speak our mind and pay the price because freedom has a price. freedom means responsibility. you have the price of creativity. you have to pay it. in order to do it. nothing without a price. so our major one objective in our association is to unveil the mind. so reeducate people and to reeducate the self, to undo what education did to us, to undo what religion did to us, we have to work on that individually and collectively. and then the other goal is to organize. when the majority start to have irreversible true knowledge of what's happening in the world, there will be a social rev

on the local level chapters partner with local communities to my face and civic organizations and also stepped up efforts to assure that committed these two and one organizations hacker disaster information. it relied to a knowledge to ms. durden the good work that the united way has been doing in this area. in addition we cultivated, and strengthen partnerships from such diverse groups as hope nationwide, the national association of colored people, the legal services corporation and the buddhist foundations. in addition we were close to the national association judicial interpreters, translators, the national rich will translation center, national council later, national disability rights work and save the children, and also worked with groups such as u.s. him in society. seeing that my time is short i will move on to say that this red cross is also in moral two in continuing to improve our disaster response and cost-effective way, the economic turndown in the post magnified by disasters at the same time that the donations to charitable organizations are decreasing. like many nonprofi

like many nonprofit organizations, we are faced with financial challenges. the major disasters of 2008 like the wild fires and the hurricanes created expenses with foreign based donations. >> could you please try to finish?

organizations have disaster in permission -- information. i would like to acknowledge the work done in this area. we called it a strong partner shops -- develop strong partner -- developed a strong partnerships with various organizations. in addition, we worked closely with the national association of judicial interpreters and translators, the national virtual translation center, the national council of la raza, the disability rights network, and save the children. worked for groups such as u.s. humane society. seeing that my time is short, i will move on to say that the red cross is also involved in continuing to approve our response in a cost-effective way. the most vulnerable are magnified by disasters at the same time the charitable donations are decreasing. like many, we are faced with financial challenges. the major disasters of 2008, wild fires, flooding, and hurricanes, created expenses that far outpaced the nation's. with that, i will conclude my presentation. if you have questions, i would be happy to answer them. >> thank you. it

and there also needs to be enough organizations in these accountable care organizations to be able to plan ahead, be able to take steps that aren't going to actually improve care and reduce cost. lots of different ways that an acl could format a lot of these are big considered an legislation right now. what should the requirements be. my own view is that it's probably best to provide some flexibility here given that there are lots of different practice settings in which these kinds of accountable care steps may occur. he might have an organization that is very integrated between primary care providers, especially providers and hospitals. on the other hand, these kind of support or better results for population of patients with a lower cost could occur at a regional level, could occur with a loose or virtual relationship or informal relationship between providers that might be spread out more geographically. maybe including a hospital, maybe not. it's important to consider that there are other elements that get brought in when you think about changing payments that focus on better outc

hillel was organized, adopted a new mission statement and became the organization we recognize today. for 85 years hillel has supported jewish expression and helped to break discriminatory barriers. its mission is to enrich the lives of jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may enrich the jewish people around around the world -- and around the world. provides grants, educational peer-organized trips and jewish content. it also educates non-jewish students to help break down religious and cultural barriers. hillel is open to any interested college student. today, hillel foundations are found in israel, south america and the former soviet republics. affiliated organizations are found in australia, canada and great britain. hillel students around the world connect jewish people and understand jewish life. over 600 hillel professionals are at work around the world engaging jewish students. by engaging jewish students and promoting understanding of non-jewish students, hillel has been on the forefront of combating anti-semitism. in light of recent occurrences at the holoc

some organizations, some of the i.t.organizations do but follow up with the actions just aren't getting accomplished to the extent government organizations have agreed to do. >> and talking with a lot of the agencies of other issues, we are often told we have a process by which we can't offer sole source contracts. we have to bid every contract out, yet you mentioned kbr contract for certain activities. could that contract have been bid out? is there a process the department of defense has to go through if they don't get contract at, there is a jna that has to be issued. why are they able to still have these contracts sole sourced >> mr. flecha is an excellent question. it has been some years the department of defense tried to have a leader contract in which there would be -- later version which there would be three competitors, and they i think the talk about that goes back at least two years. they are now slowly phasing and the successor arrangement that would have competition among the companies but it is still not in

office be vis-a-vis the abortion issue and those multilateral organizations? mr. berman: my view is, if the gentleman will continue to yield, is that that office cannot do through indirection, that is by going through some agency, anything that it is not allowed to do on its own. it is not allowed to do the things that you are concerned about. and the purpose of the manager's amendment -- the chair: the gentleman from new jersey's 10 minutes has expired. mr. smith: will the gentleman yield a minute on his time? the chair: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. berman: i yield more time to discuss this, but first i'm going to yield to the gentleman from maryland who has been waiting patiently, then we can if you want to, we can come back to this the chair: how much time does the gentleman from california yield? mr. berman: two minutes. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. >> i ask permission to revise and extend my remarks. the chair: without objection. >> i support a provision relative to the international traffic and arms regulations. itar is a s

this has bolstered by the talented group and organization the department of homeland security. it gives me optimism and should give optimism to americans the federal government is continuing to perform and improve its ability to support communities and states dealing with emergency disasters of all kinds. but to be fair however even with this great leadership team the federal government is but one part of america's prepared this equation. federal readiness shouldn't imply national readiness other parts, local and state government nonprofit, private sector and american citizens have equally compelling important roles in all aspects of communities. in all aspects of communities deal just government actions we need to make sure the entire community is ready for the hurricane season. our recent work with private-sector to the flu outbreak provides anecdotal evidence to suggest pipe was sector prepared eckert and consistent and not necessarily like were made with government officials and communities where these businesses operate. even with heightened attention to nationwide pandemi

this puts a lot of pressure on the organization's and the local community organizations. understanding this and the possibility of the pressure on the organization's what faults do you have about that process? are you thinking of changing that or is it your opinion that it's a fair process that everybody is on even playing ground? and would you also can it to meet with the national minority aids council so they can also express themselves for themselves the way that we see the issue? and i think that those issues will come and they will express that with you. i hope that you will be able to make some time for them. the other area is the health disparities. the try caucus i want to emphasize there's a recognition there is a stark disparity and it is evident in their tribal reservations where her very few people who take the time to visit but it is stark and i think it is time for this country to take a kodel through the tribal areas and look and understand what's going on and what's not happening in those areas. coming back to the other areas of disparities when we look at

since 1994, more than 570,000 individuals have served with the organization. these individuals have tackled some of the nation's toughest issues, including illiteracy, gang violence, homelessness, and drug abuse. they have worked with thousands of organizations, ranging from habitat for humanity to the red cross. after their terms of service, these members remain engaged in their communities as volunteers, as teachers, and nonprofit professionals at disproportionately high levels. in my district in the capital region of new york state, we have a large americorps program with the self-advocacy station of new york. the members travel around the state giving presentations, promoting the importance of self-advocacy for people with disabilities, general awareness of disability related illness and the importance of full community inclusion of people with disabilities. this is important work and i'm so pleased we have these volunteers back home in my congressional district. mr. speaker, we realize that as this current economic downturn puts millions of americans at r

on the local level, chapters partner with local community, faith-based and vividdic organizations. we have also stepped up efforts to insure that community two on one organizations have current disaster information. i would like to acknowledge ms. sternun. in addition we've cultivated and strengthened partnerships with such groups as hope nationwide, the national association of colored people, the legal services corporation, and the buddhist foundation. in addition, we work closely with the national association of judicial interpreters, translators, the national virtual translation center, national counsel of la raza, national disability rights network and save the children. we've also worked with pet rights groups such as the u.s. humane society. seeing that my time is short, i'll just move on to say that the red cross is also involved in continuing to improve our disaster response in a cost-effective way. the economic turndown and needs of the most vulnerable are magnified by disasters at the same time that the nation's charitable organizations are decreasing. like many non-profi

we will work with countries and nongovernmental organizations to get programs into the countries. one of the things in my office we work with the foreign prosecutor's offices so they can have the links with the nongovernmental organizations. it is interesting because when you have a situation, say for instance, with child soldiers. a lot of nongovernmental organizations that have done work with child soldiers trying to bring them out of their situation, trying to help the children, 12, 13-year-old boys that have been forced to do just incredible atrocities, sometimes forced to kill their own family so they then are replaced with the regiment becomes their family. bringing those kids out of that situation is something a lot of nongovernmental organizations have a lot of expertise with. on the other hand, a lot of governments, especially in a destabilized place don't necessarily know how to handle the guerilla leaders or war criminals that are basically doing this to these children. we're happy to see that because of the report and diplomatic pressures from the u.s. we were able to

organizations. there also some organizations that help. the help publishers and songwriters collect their and come through a blanket licenses, etc. that is our business model. our model was also -- we have been more resilient than any other business model and the music business because we do have all these various revenue streams. the songwriters and our business is going through a very challenging time. the mechanical and come related to the sale of those disks -- record sales are being tremendously impacted by the change in new technology and the access to free or legal. we're struggling to that as a whole industry faces those challenges. >> the television broadcasters have taken a tentative step towards free tv on computers through hulu. the uc something like that in the music feature? -- do you see something like that in music's future? >> i mentioned we were launching an on-line video site call vivo. i did not know if the plan is to launch with a fee or if it is at supported. i think they're ac

organizations that raise funds and promoted jennings pending trial threw leaflets and fliers. according to one of these fires reprinted in the book homosexual to name the committee primarily intended to stand against brutality and go by recent scientific research and statistics by such eminent authorities, as donald webster quarry, bottled -- dr. alfred kinsey, dr. william kroger, dr. clara thompson and others, homosexuals have become aware of themselves as a social minority. and the group culture characteristics patterns, problems and oppressions that are common to all minorities similarly prosecuted by baseless and it's and vulgar prejudices the committee intended to expose all eyas, the much-publicized trial began on june 23rd, 1952. jennings admitted his homosexuality in court but he adamantly denied any wrongdoing. after 10 days the jury deadlocked, 11 to one, and jennings favor. although the arresting officer had been caught in a lie, one person stymie the jury. the judge then dismissed the charges and a stun jennings left the courthouse a free man. he later said quote,

. >> and try to organize my many questions. i think this is another one for both of new it is has an offshoot of that era to correct this clause if i'm wrong. though i thank you are both writing history in coming to it from where studies perhaps and from -- and this sounds condescending but these books are really ratable. they read like a novel because they are covering some very dramatic interesting stuff and these are solid academic people and in writing these books and that anybody, it is so absorbent. when you made these decisions about how you are writing this story what sort of, do you feel the distance of time that you're seeing a whole shift of the history in front of you in terms of basically going into these things from the inside, are we supposed to now look at this material, are we supposed to be the anthropologist looking away from a distance? distance on the subject is a weird way around this question done. >> will take a stab at answering that, i came as a person who studies and rises reeducation so falling prett

organization. but you're going to start to build an organization throughout the country which is what barack obama did or you're going to decide, i'm just -- i'm going to raise as much money as i possibly can and that's the way i'm going to realize my dream. and that's what rod blagojevich decided he wanted to do. and so what -- and the way he wanted to do it was to use his position as governor of illinois in order to be able to hand out favors, to hand out jobs to control seats on boards and, however, if you wanted one of those positions, and if you wanted to do business in illinois, you had to pay to play. and part of that money would go to go into the rod blagojevich campaign fund. friends for blagojevich. that was the whole key to the -- what patrick fitzgerald called a criminal enterprise which was for the benefit of personal benefit and political benefit of rod blagojevich. so when you put that national fundraising operation together, everybody who -- not everybody but most people who wanted

their father was not somebody who came up in the organization and especially for nick he didn't reallyin on till he was middle-aged basically and he started trying to make a little extra work with his brothers loan shark business and kind of gets drawn in. it was a slow sinking to the types of crime he winds up doing where he is first driving around collecting money running sports books, that type of thing and graduates into helping with one murder and at that point there's nowhere for him to go and understand he communicated many times just the level how trapped he felt and a lot of the murders he did he knew even to say no to the order would have meant his own death so he felt like he was completely not in control of his own life. >> what is the state of counterfeiting if you know and you must be able to make a good guess. my theory is these craftsmen much like newspapermen are dying out and they are now teaching the way they used to and the art is fading away and the bills are becoming technologically difficult to malkoff. it is a vanishing art. >> absolutely it is a daunting art an

into, you know, how to put together this organization. he also turned to a political strategy firm out of+ washington, d.c.,Ãsquire, knaap and dunn, they were trying to position rod blagojevich to be a national candidate. and that's what happened to a lot of his politics in illinois because many of his policies that he was so passionate about, such as some kind of universal healthcare, even the all-kids program which was a very successful program, many of those were based -- i mean, he believed in these things but they were also -- would position him very well for a run of a presidency. he liked these big national issues that could get national press to put himself in a position to run. we called it sort of -- he was governing by press conference on these national issues that he never built a real constituency for in illinois and certainly he didn't build it in the illinois legislature. >> i can see the strategy of saying, okay, i want to -- to create an image of the can-do governor, the guy who worked the illinois miracle, right? >> righ

it is interesting that there are 11 such organizations that have issued reports since the outset of the two wars. we have looked at a total of 537 and cross-reference those reports, and derives 1287 different recommendations over that period. many of these recommendations have not been fully implemented and a major focus of our near term activity will be to try to understand why they have not been implemented and those organizations said they would take action, why they have not taken action. the u.s. government uses as its key logistic program in theater what is referred to as logcap, the army augmentation program. this is a multibillion-dollar contract over $30 billion to date that covers the myriad of services from vehicle made in. >> dining hall operation for the third iteration of this contract logcap free was awarded to kbr as the sole vendor. the logcap contract awarded in 2008 requires competition, competition among three vendors, kbr and dyncorp international but the president's logcap three still stores in terms of contract. dcaa director april stephenson stated that the commi

you have made difference corporately with it organization. you have made a difference in my life. you have made a difference in the lives of all with whom you have worked. you and your beautiful bride have been friends for a very long period of time and i'm here on behalf of all of us who you have touched and who you have made wiser and more effective in the service a we try to perform for this country, to say thank you. thank you from a grateful jor n majority leader, a grateful member of congress, but, more importantly, a grateful friend. thank you. pl [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, al from. [applause] >> steny, thank you very much. i still have that first check. i have been going through my old records and i have a copy of it. and it actually cleared. first of all, i want to thank everybody for coming. i know the hour is late and i'm not going to talk long tonight, if you can believe that. but i'm so overwhelmed and humbled by the tributes. rachel sha rach rachel, thank you. president clinton, haired, bruce. my friend the rabbi. tom vilsack. thank you for the wonderful tri

people who came brimming with ideas, staffers who kept the organization at the cutting edge. supporters who offered resources and ideas even when it wasn't easy or popular to do so. and elected officials who put their careers on the line for reform. on behalf of all of those co-conspirators i want to thank appear for the lessons he taught us he showed us that ideas matter and obstacles don't. he is a thinner man than he was back then but our party is stronger because of his thick skin. he showed us that orthodoxy is a one-way ticket to the wilderness. when our party had to break some china, al from was the donkey in the china shop we needed. [applause] >> most of all, al showed us that in the end the fickle fashions of washington don't really matter. he never cared who was up and who was down. he just woke up every day determined to keep fighting for the same principles he believed the night before. it is a rare man that can stay true to his heart for a lifetime in this town and we are forever thankful for him to it. he didn't do it alone. he couldn't have done did without yo

i would like to applaud this organization to guarantee democracy worldwide. i wish to acknowledge it. thank you all delicate. thank you. -- delegates. thank you. and not been put on trial. i have not been called to the stand to defend myself. nobody has told me what my crime is. nobody has indicated what might error is. no accusations have been brought to my attention by any judge. i assumed the president in 2006 after elections were held in 2005. i haven't a margin of 3%-5% over the rival candidates. -- i had a margin of 3%-5% over the rival candidate. we broached a new era in the country immediately applying democratic, peaceful standards with one single -- system participation. this is an assembly. a nation is an assembly. participation takes place in an assembly. that does not mean an isolated group or an elite or a group of politicians with specific interests who only uphold the specific interests. it is the participation of the citizenship which empowers democracy and shows the true significance. we wish to provide this quantity for democracy. i never t

put it into foundations or other organizations within those countries. and right now there's $900 million that's sitting out there of american taxpayers' money that's going to foundations and other countries and we don't believe all that money should go there because it's not for its intended purpose. so if they want to do that, we think we should get at least half of our money back which would be $450 million. i can't for the life of me figure out why the rules committee wouldn't want to get at least half of our money back that's not used for its intended purpose. it makes no sense to me. and lastly jerusalem and israel is our best ally in the middle east. since the 1967 war, israel has maintained that -- a united jerusalem is indivisible in the eternal capital of israel. and in -- november 14 of 2005, congress mandated that the embassy be moved to jerusalem. we mandated our embassy be moved from tel aviv to jerusalem in 2005. we did give the president waiver authority under certain circumstances. every single year there's been a waiver granted that doe

i want to thank -- i would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the many organizations in the united states, including the national italian american foundation, working to raise funds to aid the rebuilding efforts in abruzzo. the italian american community's support and solidarity with the nation of italy has only increased in the aftermath of this natural disaster. i also want to commend the italian ambassador for his leadership and commitment to the italian american community. i urge my colleagues to join me in passing this resolution to offer our sincere condolences to the nation of italy, for its tremendous loss, as well as pledge our continued support to the italian government. will i do so also this afternoon when i greet the president. the g-8 summit is being held july 8, 9, and 10 and that has been moved to the abruzzo region to redirect funding to that region to help with the general reconstruction. canada, france, germany, japan, russia, united kingdom, united states of course, and our president, president obama, will be there with our italian friends. i urge the

-- organization and what it means to the general aviation. i concur with the ranking member and also concur with the gentleman in his remarks with respect to the importance of this bill. and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. petri: i have no further requests for time. i urge passage of the bill and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. boccieri: and, madam speaker, with swift passage -- swift passage of this bill is very important. i yield back my time as well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 472. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the resolution is agreed to and without objection a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio rise? mr. bocc

we have a grass-roots board of directors, 25 of our member organizations. they spent several years working on this issue. we invested resources in educating them, our field that work and the public, about the various approaches and issues around health-care reform and we develop a framework for a health-care system guaranteeing access which was submitted with my written testimony. we need a system of patient, centered care, a term that gets thrown around quite freely but you know the problems. there were some stories at identified in my written testimony, and so many more. when and sharing prescription drugs, delaying treatment, losing their jobs, losing insurance, facing a diagnosis of breast cancer. our focus as a nation should be on solving those issues only centered on the patient, the individual. how do we reform the system so that everyone has access to the quality care that they need, when they needed. it guarantees everyone comprehensive set of basic benefits based on evidence contributing to the evidence base. we know you have many pressures from m

how do you want to position your organization with it? and then if you could do that in one minute or less or two and then also comment on this idea that has been moving around here about a -- sort of a civilian-ready reserve that could supplement both fema and the national guard in terms of trained personnel that could be called out in the event of a catastrophic disaster which obviously we can't maintain, you know, on call everyday. but it would be nice to maybe have something like that. maybe we don't need it. maybe that's what the red cross is going to do or maybe that's the role the national guard plays but if there is a gap, so comment on the national guard and then this ready reserve idea. >> national guard is the ability to respond to natural disasters. again with your leadership upon my confirmation one of my first visits with general mckinley commanding general the national guard bureau having worked very closely knowing that relationship we have a very strong mutual aid system under e-mack. we leveraged with the national guard

like many nonprofit organizations that depend on the generosity of donors, we are faced with financial challenges. the major disasters of 2008 such as wild fires in california, flooding and midwest and hurricanes gustav and ike based on donations. we are fortunate organization receives support -- >> try to wrap up if you could, i'm sorry. >> with that i will conclude my presentation and if you have questions i would be happy to answer them. >> thank you. ms. durden? >> thank you, chairman landrieu. it's an honor and privilege to have the opportunity to speak today on behalf of the united way and the 211 system across america. as you are aware 211 is an information referral line that connects people to existing community resources like rent and mortgage assistance as well as food and utility assistance. however, to 11 please a vital role in disaster response and recovery. trained specialists assist callers in times of natural disaster in crisis providing real-time information on shelter locations, food and water distribution sites and important evacuation routes. 211 disseminates accura

logical organization. the people running it ar all going to be political leftists and another reason is of course, if you get in the way of a political leftist, they will call you a racist or a sexist or a homophobe and in the academic world, that can be career damaging, shall we say. example, larry summers,est most powerful university president in the history of the modern university, ran afoul of the left at harvard. and became the first university president in the history of the modern university to be censored and eventually fired. i was given out by his own factual. it was only 10% of the harvard faculty but probably 100% of the left wingers on the harvard faculty. his things, he asked cornel west, who has a university professor, making several hundred thousand dollars a year, and then of only 14 so designated at harvard, so you can imagine how elevated this position is, cornel west is an intellectual empty suit. he hadn't produced a scholarly paper if 20 years. and he had spent the previous year comp

and those are the ones that people will pay extra for, and other news organizations may have to fight for a dwindling pool of ad dollars, so, again, i think trustworthiness, fact checking. you know, trust is the new black, and not just for news organizations. >> i want to ask another question, and then we will flippant up to the audience, and people can line up at the microphone if you have questions for craig. with the news, you have been involved in new media projects. tell me a little about what you have been trying to do with this activism and refunding in terms of spawning various forms of media. >> well, when it comes to the business, at best, i am a dilettante. what i am trying to do is talk to the folks who are providing the tools and mechanisms to do increasingly good reporting, particularly investigative reporting, fact checking, and all of that. i abort with i abortnyu. -- i have been working with working with-- i have been working with someone at nyu, where they are working with the huffington post. there are investigative reporters that can look into what is going on in g

and we were very proud of that organization. it was somewhat controversial. and it has remained controversial because al has kept the organization through many great leaders like bill clinton, like harold ford, is harold still here? if harold were speaking, he would have stayed. i guarantee you. tell him i said so, will you please? just yell at the television when you see him come on. but al from kept the faith and kept the focus. and made an extraordinary difference in terms of responsibility, in terms of community and opportunity and education, in terms of commitment to national security. the values that americans knew were important to build our country and were necessary to maintain our country and make it even greater. so i'm here tonight with all of you to honor someone who has made such a difference in our country. a citizen who took his responsibility extraordinarily important to him. a person who preached personal responsibility but more importantly took personal responsibility. personal responsibility to make a difference. al, you have made a differ

i thought about my dear friend and vice chairman and partner in sharing -- in sharing this organization. and of course, my immediate predecessor, my friend, the great governor. for we have all been a part of something very special. mainly because of the courage and determination and tenacity of a fellow black men who is now a fellow again that you will see later, and our friend al from. tonight's dinner is special, not only for those of us in this room. what al did more for our party and the body of politics, and the most to get for our party -- the more he did for the larger body of politics, he helped make our party, or at least a huge wing of it, not only believes in the future, the shapers and chasers of the future. it is his blueprint, and in some new ways, the blueprints that he started that he leaves for bruce and the rest of us to take to new levels and new heights. it has made it possible for some many democrats across the south and the midwest, the south least, the northwest, the midwest, and even the northeast. -- and even the northeast to win. even though i didn't win in 200

, fund-raising, and the appropriation, we should balance our organization. we do project that we will have a balanced budget and we will proceed on that basis. >> thank you. what is your budget? >> i would have to get back to you. it is all will over $3 billion. -- all little over $3 billion. >> can you comment on the bill going through congress and again, what the two or three most important part of that legislation are for supporting a national network of volunteers, in large measure. it is led by staff but leveraged by volunteers. it would provide the only operations, but training necessary to provide backup communications so central in disaster of any size. it is not a small problem for you, but tell us again about the specifics of what you see benefiting in that legislation. >>:4211 is critical. we are going for 100% coverage. but that is 25 counties. there is a map that shows that. and the red states are where we are in development. and it is concerned that there are gaps along the way, all the way up to delaware, l.i., world georgia, and the panhandle