Check out the video below, it is a promo for a video I am producing with my partner, Levelle. It's on his hometown, Seaside, CA. We are currently looking for funding right now, so if you are interested, please contact us!
Thanks. Peace!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Homeless World Cup 2007
Check out this video from the Homeless World Cup 2007!
Its definitely a hot video and a cool event.
I stole it from my man kc at kevincarrollkatalyst.com. thanks kc!
Its definitely a hot video and a cool event.
I stole it from my man kc at kevincarrollkatalyst.com. thanks kc!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Video: Black Youth Vote! Conference
Here is the video I created from Black Youth Vote!'s 2006 Conference in Atlanta, GA.
I was also an assistant in coordinating last year's conference and voter registration efforts. This summer I am working as a graduate assistant with the program again, hopefully building off the great momentum from last year.
Our next Civic Leadership Conference will be in Washington, DC. September 27-29 2007. For more info: jmthierry@gmail.com
I was also an assistant in coordinating last year's conference and voter registration efforts. This summer I am working as a graduate assistant with the program again, hopefully building off the great momentum from last year.
Our next Civic Leadership Conference will be in Washington, DC. September 27-29 2007. For more info: jmthierry@gmail.com
Share those Connections, Son!
Check out this article from the NY Times by Ben Stein. He makes some great points on the importance of taking advantage of our privileges and connections--and to share them.
BEN STEIN
Published: July 15, 2007
TO begin, I am lying in a lavish sleeper bed in first class on a wonderful British Airways Boeing 777, heading from Heathrow to Dulles. I am the only person in first class who isn’t asleep. Even my night owl wife-for-life is fast asleep on the bed next to me.
I am happy because I just finished a pleasant two-week stay in Frankfurt, Berlin and London, working on a movie, staying in great hotels and eating amazing filet of sole. And I hardly had to pay for a penny of it. That was a big part of why I enjoyed it so much.
I can’t sleep, though, so I close my eyes and think about something soothing and reassuring — namely, my late father, Herbert Stein. I think about him for a long time, and what comes to me is this: Almost everything I have I can trace back to my father and mother. To their efforts, to who they were, to their character.
For example — and the list could go on forever — here I am writing this column about economics and finance. But how do I know a tiny bit about them? Because my father was a learned economist who talked about it around the dinner table, along with my mother, who was also a highly educated economist.
Because my father and mother’s close friend from grad school at the University of Chicago, C. Lowell Harriss, was my teacher for three economics classes at Columbia University and was especially kind to me, often walking with me for a long time after class to elaborate on what he had just been teaching. Because another great economics teacher at Barnard College, Robert Lekachman, was also a family friend and took extra time with me.
And because I had grown up around economics, I just assumed that I could learn it and assimilate it, and so I had confidence in my abilities in the field. This led to my getting good grades and helped me get into Yale Law School and Yale’s graduate school, where I studied with still more friends of my parents, like Henry Wallich and James Tobin.
And how did I get started as a writer? Because I had written an essay about Richard Nixon and pop culture and did not have a clue about where to sell it. My mother and father were friends with the powers that be at the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, and that greased the skids there, during and after my time writing speeches about economics for Mr. Nixon and Gerald Ford at the White House.
And of course, I got my first full-time writing job there in good measure because my father was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers for President Nixon from 1972 to 1974.
From then on, I’ve been writing about economics, especially how it affects individuals.
And what about my wife, the world’s most nearly perfect human? Well, we met at the Junior Foreign Service Officers’ Ball at the State Department on July 4, 1966. I was there because my father had gotten me some consideration as a summer intern at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, now defunct, at the State Department. If I had not gotten that job, who knows?
How did I get my start as a performer in front of the camera? Well, here we go again. It was from a chain of connections I made starting in 1973 at a Yom Kippur breaking of the fast at the home of William Safire, then a Nixon speech writer and fast friend — and later pallbearer — of my father’s. His wife, Helene, was a close friend of my mother’s.
So all of it can be traced back to the help of my father and mother: the first-class seat, the wife next to me, the fact that I am writing this at all.
Now, there’s a point to all this. I write mostly about investments, and they are important. But for most people everywhere, their livelihood comes primarily from working. Their success depends largely on a combination of education, ability, work habits and connections. If you are like me and a great many other people who fly first class, you started out with some connections and made the most of them, or at least made something of them.
When I consider my friends who are extremely successful (much more successful than I am), many of them were given a big push in their education and career from family members.
But what if you don’t have a well-connected father? What if you don’t have a well-connected mother? What if you don’t have a father at all? What if you are an immigrant without any connections, with parents who barely speak English, if at all? What do you do?
What if you are a young man or woman who has some talent and ambition but little or no idea of how to get onto the ladder? To tell you the truth, I am not at all sure what you do.
But I do know that there is a large class of baby boomers who have done well in their financial lives. They are retiring now and looking for things to do to help the community that gave so much to them.
I KNOW that I have beaten this drum before, but let me beat it again. I wonder whether there is some well-organized human being in the government or private sector who could create an organization that would go into schools on a continuing basis and teach people how careers are made. I wonder whether there could be some link with teachers in schools in nonrich neighborhoods who could tell helpful men and women about boys and girls who need mentors to get them going into higher education and entry-level jobs, and then to counsel them about how to behave on the job and in school.
I keep thinking that if the big hedge funds and investment banks and private investment firms deployed even a tiny fraction of their ability to help boys and girls, and if they really are as effective as they seem to be, and if they worked with retired boomers looking to make a difference, they could do a lot.
There is an immense problem of inequality in this country. It is getting worse, not better. It cannot be solved entirely by tax policy. And it certainly cannot be solved by monetary policy. But we could take a stab at it, even if it’s a small stab, by sharing the skills and connections that some of us have — and were born with — with those young people who have what it takes in the cerebral cortex but need an outside connection.
My father was one of those kids. His mentor was a professor at Williams College named F. Taylor Ostrander. His friendship and support of my pop changed his life. What if there were a league of Taylor Ostranders out there? It would not change everything for everyone, but it would change life for some, and that’s a good day’s work.
Ben Stein is a lawyer, writer, actor and economist. E-mail: ebiz@nytimes.com.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/business/yourmoney/15every.html?ex=1342152000&en=aa8016d0980e2982&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
BEN STEIN
Published: July 15, 2007
TO begin, I am lying in a lavish sleeper bed in first class on a wonderful British Airways Boeing 777, heading from Heathrow to Dulles. I am the only person in first class who isn’t asleep. Even my night owl wife-for-life is fast asleep on the bed next to me.
I am happy because I just finished a pleasant two-week stay in Frankfurt, Berlin and London, working on a movie, staying in great hotels and eating amazing filet of sole. And I hardly had to pay for a penny of it. That was a big part of why I enjoyed it so much.
I can’t sleep, though, so I close my eyes and think about something soothing and reassuring — namely, my late father, Herbert Stein. I think about him for a long time, and what comes to me is this: Almost everything I have I can trace back to my father and mother. To their efforts, to who they were, to their character.
For example — and the list could go on forever — here I am writing this column about economics and finance. But how do I know a tiny bit about them? Because my father was a learned economist who talked about it around the dinner table, along with my mother, who was also a highly educated economist.
Because my father and mother’s close friend from grad school at the University of Chicago, C. Lowell Harriss, was my teacher for three economics classes at Columbia University and was especially kind to me, often walking with me for a long time after class to elaborate on what he had just been teaching. Because another great economics teacher at Barnard College, Robert Lekachman, was also a family friend and took extra time with me.
And because I had grown up around economics, I just assumed that I could learn it and assimilate it, and so I had confidence in my abilities in the field. This led to my getting good grades and helped me get into Yale Law School and Yale’s graduate school, where I studied with still more friends of my parents, like Henry Wallich and James Tobin.
And how did I get started as a writer? Because I had written an essay about Richard Nixon and pop culture and did not have a clue about where to sell it. My mother and father were friends with the powers that be at the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, and that greased the skids there, during and after my time writing speeches about economics for Mr. Nixon and Gerald Ford at the White House.
And of course, I got my first full-time writing job there in good measure because my father was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers for President Nixon from 1972 to 1974.
From then on, I’ve been writing about economics, especially how it affects individuals.
And what about my wife, the world’s most nearly perfect human? Well, we met at the Junior Foreign Service Officers’ Ball at the State Department on July 4, 1966. I was there because my father had gotten me some consideration as a summer intern at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, now defunct, at the State Department. If I had not gotten that job, who knows?
How did I get my start as a performer in front of the camera? Well, here we go again. It was from a chain of connections I made starting in 1973 at a Yom Kippur breaking of the fast at the home of William Safire, then a Nixon speech writer and fast friend — and later pallbearer — of my father’s. His wife, Helene, was a close friend of my mother’s.
So all of it can be traced back to the help of my father and mother: the first-class seat, the wife next to me, the fact that I am writing this at all.
Now, there’s a point to all this. I write mostly about investments, and they are important. But for most people everywhere, their livelihood comes primarily from working. Their success depends largely on a combination of education, ability, work habits and connections. If you are like me and a great many other people who fly first class, you started out with some connections and made the most of them, or at least made something of them.
When I consider my friends who are extremely successful (much more successful than I am), many of them were given a big push in their education and career from family members.
But what if you don’t have a well-connected father? What if you don’t have a well-connected mother? What if you don’t have a father at all? What if you are an immigrant without any connections, with parents who barely speak English, if at all? What do you do?
What if you are a young man or woman who has some talent and ambition but little or no idea of how to get onto the ladder? To tell you the truth, I am not at all sure what you do.
But I do know that there is a large class of baby boomers who have done well in their financial lives. They are retiring now and looking for things to do to help the community that gave so much to them.
I KNOW that I have beaten this drum before, but let me beat it again. I wonder whether there is some well-organized human being in the government or private sector who could create an organization that would go into schools on a continuing basis and teach people how careers are made. I wonder whether there could be some link with teachers in schools in nonrich neighborhoods who could tell helpful men and women about boys and girls who need mentors to get them going into higher education and entry-level jobs, and then to counsel them about how to behave on the job and in school.
I keep thinking that if the big hedge funds and investment banks and private investment firms deployed even a tiny fraction of their ability to help boys and girls, and if they really are as effective as they seem to be, and if they worked with retired boomers looking to make a difference, they could do a lot.
There is an immense problem of inequality in this country. It is getting worse, not better. It cannot be solved entirely by tax policy. And it certainly cannot be solved by monetary policy. But we could take a stab at it, even if it’s a small stab, by sharing the skills and connections that some of us have — and were born with — with those young people who have what it takes in the cerebral cortex but need an outside connection.
My father was one of those kids. His mentor was a professor at Williams College named F. Taylor Ostrander. His friendship and support of my pop changed his life. What if there were a league of Taylor Ostranders out there? It would not change everything for everyone, but it would change life for some, and that’s a good day’s work.
Ben Stein is a lawyer, writer, actor and economist. E-mail: ebiz@nytimes.com.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/business/yourmoney/15every.html?ex=1342152000&en=aa8016d0980e2982&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Beware of the Transformers---You might want to wait 'til it comes on TBS to see it...
Everyone I asked about it said it was worth seeing. So, my lady friend and I decided to check it out. You've probably seen it, but if you haven't, the film opens with a violent scene in the middle east, of transformers bombing an American military base. They commit the ultimate sin, but don't worry, they will surely pay for it.
The characters are never introduced, I can only name two of the characters---optimus prime and "Sam" who ironically helps Uncle Sam defeat the space-tech beasts. The film was typical in the old End-of-the-World story, young handsome white guy with brown hair is the military Captain and one of the few heroic types in the film, willing to risk his life (although he is a recent father of a daughter he has yet to see in person) in order to kill the bad transformers. Bernie Mac makes a quick cameo---in a matter of 3 minutes he manages to lie, tell an elderly black woman to fuck off, and prove himself foolish. Oh but wait, there's also Anthony Anderson, another black man who tells his grandmother to shut the hell up, his second line in the movie. As a young black man, I find it hard to believe that these men would talk to their elder black women this way.
Even without these moments, the film was terrible.
The story was non-existent. The characters were very undeveloped, and their relationships with one another were unclear.
There was no continuity, characters somehow obtained crucial information off-screen. Also, the world was supposedly going to end, and no one was really freaking out about it. People acted as if nothing was happening, even when huge meteors were crashing in crazy patterns.
Lastly, I find it difficult how people tolerate, even enjoy, seeing buildings blow up in New York City, despite the nations sensitivity around September 11th. Folks go to Ground Zero and cry, and mourn, and we defend the NYC firefighters and US soldiers to death, but watching NYC being bombed the hell out of doesn't touch a nerve? Interesting.
I enjoyed the first Spiderman, Armaggedon, Independence Day, and even I-Robot. But this film was not worth my money nor time. I seem to be unique in my opinion of this film, so make sure you get a second opinion!
-jordan
SICKO!----Made me sick to my stomach--IT WAS THAT GREAT
Be prepared to leave the theater slightly depressed, angry, and awake. Hopefully the depression is a thought provoking kind of depression, and combined with the anger it should fade and morph itself into motivation and inspiration--To make a Change. To change a healthcare system that started off on the wrong foot--thanks to Richard Nixon and Henry Kaiser, among others.
As an aspiring documentary filmmaker, Sicko is a great example of the type of work I would like to produce.
Moore is bold, and exemplifies the type of old school investigative journalism where no one was ever granted safety of criticism and scrutiny. Hilary Clinton's story of a failed crusade for socialized healthcare that ended with her recieving contributions from the same major health care crooks she onced criticized.
What is most eye-openning is the healthcare privileges provided to people in other countries, even if they are not citizens. Europe, Canada, and of course, Cuba.
Watching Sicko is an eye-opening, learning experience that I recommend to every one. Its not a liberal/green/conservative issue, this one is straight up ACROSS THE BOARD.
Support the Second Chance Act of 2007
call your congressperson (www.congress.org) and tell them to vote Yes! to the Second Chance Act of 2007.
The Second Chance Act is an extremely needed bill that will provide assistance to Ex-Felons as they Re-enter their prospective communities. Many men and women leave prisons and are expected to find employment within a short period of time, yet have no place to live, no money, no healthcare, etc. This bill will allow prisons to provide services to their former inmates to help them adjust to the lifestyle change and beginning a healthier, progressive new path.
A copy of the Bill can be viewed here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:2:./temp/~c110YRCX98::
I copied this Post from the Congressional Black Caucus's website, check it out:
America Should Believe in a Second Chance
America has more of its people in prison than any other developed nation in the world - more than two million. The vast majority, 95% of the men and women in our prisons will eventually return to the community. That means that every year more than 650,000 offenders are released from state and federal prisons and return back to civilian life.
These men and women deserve a second chance. Their families, spouses and children, deserve a second chance and their communities deserve a second chance. A second chance means an opportunity to turn a life around. A chance to break the grip of a drug habit. A chance to support a family, to pay taxes, to be self-sufficient.
Today few of those who return to their communities are prepared for their release or receive any supportive services. When the prison door swings open an ex-offender may receive a bus ticket and spending money for a day or two. Many leave prison to return to the same environment which saw them offend in the first place. But, as they return they often face additional barriers to reentry: serious physical and mental health problems, no place to stay and lack of education or qualifications to hold a job. As a result two out of three will be rearrested for new crimes within the first three years after their release. Youthful offenders are even more likely to re-offend.
One third of all correction departments provide no services to released offenders, and most departments do not offer a transitional program, placing a heavy burden on families and communities. Considering the cost of incarceration (as much as $40,000 per year) and all the social and economic costs of crime to the community it's just common sense to act to help ex-offenders successfully reenter our communities and reduce recidivism.
That's why I have sponsored the bipartisan Second Chance Act of 2007 (HR1593) along with Representatives Cannon, Conyers, Coble, Scott of Virginia, Smith of Texas, Jones of Ohio, Forbes, Schiff, Sensenbrenner, Chabot, Jackson-Lee of Texas, Cummings, Johnson of Georgia, Clarke and 75 other Members of Congress. A companion bill (S1060) has been introduced into the Senate sponsored by Senators Biden, Specter, Brownback, Leahy, Obama and 10 other Senators.
The Second Chance Act will provide transitional assistance to assist ex-offenders in coping with the challenges of reentry. It will reduce recidivism. It will help reunite families and protect communities. It will enhance public safety and save taxpayer dollars. It is the humane thing to do. It is the responsible thing to do. It is the right thing to do.
The Judiciary Committee held hearings on the bill in April 2007 and quickly voted to send the bill to the full House. I fully expect it to pass very soon. The bill has the support of more than 200 criminal justice, service provider, faith based, housing, governmental, disability and civil rights organizations. President Bush has signaled his support of the legislation as well.
No single piece of legislation is going to solve the reentry crisis we are facing, but the Second Chance Act is a good start. I hope that with the passage of this bill we will begin a new era in criminal justice.
I am convinced that any serious effort to facilitate the reentry of men and women with criminal records to civil society must be prepared do two things. First, we must be prepared to help with drug treatment on demand for everyone who requests it. Second, we need to find work for ex-offenders. Programs won't supply jobs. After ex-offenders have undergone rehabilitation and received appropriate training employers will have to open their hearts and put these men and women back in the work force or they will surely and certainly end up back in prison.
Posted by Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL)
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