PAST EVENTS
Governor Tim Kaine on the Election Cycle
The Common Good had a luncheon discussion with former Governor of Virginia, former head of the DNC, and current Senate candidate Tim Kaine.
The Common Good had a luncheon discussion with former Governor of Virginia, former head of the DNC, and current Senate candidate Tim Kaine.
Governor Kaine, whose experience as Virginia’s 70th Governor offered a model for economic growth and reform, shared his views on the critical economic issues in the election cycle and what changes he believes should be implement to create a stronger and fairer economic system in our country.
Tim Kaine has served people throughout his adult life as a missionary, fair housing attorney, teacher and elected official.
Tim grew up in Kansas City, working in his father’s ironworking shop, where he learned the values of thrift and hard work. He graduated from the University of Missouri and Harvard Law School.
Tim began his public service career when he took a year off law school to work with Jesuit missionaries in Honduras. He served as principal of a technical school that taught teenagers carpentry and welding. There, Tim committed his life to serving others and grasped the power of education to enable each person to live up to their God-given potential.
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DA Cyrus Vance: Cybercrime, Counter-Terrorism and More
New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance joined The Common Good for a lunch discussion about cybercrime, counter-terrorism, youth crime reduction, and technological improvements in not just fighting, but reducing, crime.
New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance joined The Common Good for a lunch discussion about cybercrime, counter-terrorism, youth crime reduction, and technological improvements in not just fighting, but reducing, crime.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., became District Attorney of New York County on January 1, 2010. Mr. Vance is a recognized leader in criminal justice reform and proposed a compelling vision for moving the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office forward, with a focus on crime prevention.
Since taking office, Mr. Vance has reorganized and consolidated the resources of the District Attorney’s Office by creating the Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau, the Major Economic Crimes Bureau, the Special Victims Bureau, the Public Integrity Unit, the Violent Criminal Enterprises Unit, and the Hate Crimes Unit. Additionally, the groundbreaking Crime Strategies Unit for the first time gives Manhattan Assistant District Attorneys, in partnership with the New York Police Department, a geographical understanding of the multifaceted crime issues in all of the communities they serve.
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It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism
The Common Good hosted distinguished authors Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, whose latest book It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism has been a central discussion topic since its publication several weeks ago.
The Common Good hosted distinguished authors Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, whose latest book "It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism" has been a central discussion topic since its publication several weeks ago.
Hyper partisanship has gridlocked the American government. Congress's approval ratings are at record lows, and both Democrats and Republicans are disgusted by the government's inability to get anything done. In It's Even Worse than It Looks, Congressional scholars Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein present a grim picture of how party polarization and tribal politics have led Congress—and the United States—to the brink of institutional failure.
The authors bring their seminal book up-to-date in a political environment that is more divided than ever. The underlying dynamics of the situation—extremist Republicans holding government hostage to their own ideological, anti-government beliefs—have only gotten worse, further bolstering their argument that Republicans are not merely ideologically different from Democrats, but engaged in a unique form of politics that undermines the system itself. Without a fundamental change in the character and course of the Republican Party, we may have a long way to go before we hit rock bottom.
Norman Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies politics, elections, and the US Congress. He is a cohost of AEI’s Election Watch series, a contributing editor and columnist for National Journal and The Atlantic, a BBC News election analyst, and the chairman of the Campaign Legal Center.
Thomas E. Mann is a political scientist, author, and pundit who works at the Brookings Institution. He primarily studies and speaks on elections in the United States, especially campaign finance reform. In The Rise and Fall of the Media Establishment, Darrell West calls Mann “The king of the pundits”, for his numerous appearances on CNN and in prominent newspapers such as The Washington Post.
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Clean Energy and the Water Defense Fund
The Common Good was honored to have hosted the Hulk of Clean Energy, Mark Ruffalo, for an open talk on clean energy, fossil fuels, and Mark's organization: the Water Defense Fund.
The Common Good was honored to have hosted the Hulk of Clean Energy, Mark Ruffalo, for an open talk on clean energy, fossil fuels, and Mark's organization: the Water Defense Fund.
Mark Ruffalo is an environmental activist and actor known for his portrayal of Bruce Banner/the Hulk in the movie 'The Avengers' and its sequels. Ruffalo is widely known as an environmental activist, particularly focusing his efforts on combating fracking in New York state. Receiving an environmental award at Dickinson College in early 2015. Ruffalo founded the Solutions Project, which pushes for 100 percent renewable energy, and is active with Water Defense, a group dedicated to clean water initiatives.
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Governor Christine Todd Whitman
The Common Good on May hosted a lunch and discussion with Governor Christine Todd Whitman, where she spoke and answered questions about Campaign Finance Reform, Americans Elect, Citizen's United, and a host of other issues confronting Americans today.
The Common Good on May hosted a lunch and discussion with Governor Christine Todd Whitman, where she spoke and answered questions about Campaign Finance Reform, Americans Elect, Citizen's United, and a host of other issues confronting Americans today.
Governor Christine Todd Whitman serves as co-chair of the Republican Leadership Council (RLC), which she founded with Senator John Danforth. The RLC’s mission is to support fiscally conservative, socially tolerant candidates and to reclaim the word Republican. The RLC was created in March of 2007 by joining forces with Governor Whitman’s political action committee, It’s My Party Too. She is the author of a New York Times best seller by the same name, which was published in January of 2005 and released in paperback in March 2006.
Governor Whitman served in the cabinet of President George W. Bush as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from January of 2001 until June of 2003. She was the 50th Governor of the State of New Jersey, serving as its first woman governor from 1994 until 2001.
As Governor, Christie Whitman earned praise from both Republicans and Democrats for her commitment to preserve a record amount of New Jersey land as permanent green space. She was also recognized by the Natural Resources Defense Council for instituting the most comprehensive beach monitoring system in the nation. As EPA Administrator, she promoted common-sense environmental improvements such as watershed-based water protection policies.
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World Premiere: #WHILEWEWATCH with SnagFilms
SnagFilms in conjunction with The Common Good presented the Live World Premiere of the Occupy Wall Street documentary #whilewewatch. The screening was followed by a live Q&A session with director and “Occupy Wall Street” participants featured in the film. Q&A questions will be taken from the global web audience during the live streaming.
SnagFilms in conjunction with The Common Good presented the Live World Premiere of the Occupy Wall Street documentary #whilewewatch. The film was directed by Kevin Breslin, whose recent documentary “Living for 32” (2010) was short-listed for an Academy Award. #whilewewatch was the vision of Australian Producer Mike Vanderfield and produced by his company, 8docos.The screening was followed by a live Q&A session with director and “Occupy Wall Street” participants featured in the film. Q&A questions will be taken from the global web audience during the live streaming.
#whilewewatch is a gripping look at the media revolution that emerged from Zuccotti Park in New York City to the world. It is the story of how many people came together in the sun and rain, day and night, broke and loaded with energy and hope to get their story out to the world. #OWS [Occupy Wall Street] has galvanized the world. #whilewewatch is the real inside story of great people who have no fear. They don't back down from police, big business or city government. When regular media paid no attention to this movement they decided to tell the world their story.
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Dylan Ratigan “Greedy Bastards”
The Common Good held a lunch and discussion with Dylan Ratigan, host of MSNBC The Dylan Ratigan Show, about his new book Greedy Bastards. In his new book Greedy Bastards, Dylan Ratigan explains how “vampire industries” like oil and coal have forged “an unholy alliance with government based not just on the money that they contribute to political campaigns and spend on lobbying, but on their ability to hypnotize us with false prices.”
The Common Good held a lunch and discussion with Dylan Ratigan, host of MSNBC The Dylan Ratigan Show, about his new book Greedy Bastards.
In his new book Greedy Bastards, Dylan Ratigan explains how “vampire industries” like oil and coal have forged “an unholy alliance with government based not just on the money that they contribute to political campaigns and spend on lobbying, but on their ability to hypnotize us with false prices.”
Industry gets tax breaks, subsidies, military support in volatile regions, the right to use our air and water like a sewer, and assurance that the government will clean up its environmental messes. Politicians get campaign contributions, a steady flow of dirty energy, and a talking point to brandish about how they kept gas affordable.
But the American public just gets screwed.
We get stuck with a dirty, polluting energy regime; one that enriches a few one percenters while making the public sick and hobbling American innovation. As Ratigan puts it in his book, a handful of greedy bastards are fleecing Americans with a “Very Bad Deal”.
Dylan is partner and co-founder of a Louisiana-based manufacturer that integrates systems to grow food, purify water, produce solar electricity, establish wireless connectivity, create jobs and provide essential community services. This venture was inspired by US combat veterans who described plug and play integration of housing, food, power and water systems as fundamental to global security.
Known by his strong voice for economic justice on Bloomberg and NBC, Dylan now serves as Chief Skeptic at Tastytrade and Advisor to CyndX. He speaks out daily for transparency, integrity, choice and aligned interests as a commentator, film producer, and author of New York Times Best-Seller “Greedy Bastards.”
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Robert Greenwald “Koch Brothers Exposed”
The Common Good hosted a discussion and screening with Robert Greenwald on his documentary titled Koch Brothers Exposed, which takes a closer look at the relationship between politics and money through the story of David and Charles Koch.
The Common Good hosted a discussion and screening with Robert Greenwald on his documentary titled Koch Brothers Exposed, which takes a closer look at the relationship between politics and money through the story of David and Charles Koch.
Robert Greenwald is a producer, director and political activist. Greenwald is the founder and president of Brave New Films, a new media company that uses moving images to educate, influence, and empower viewers to take action around issues that matter. Under Greenwald’s direction, Brave New Films has produced a series of short political videos, including the Fox Attacks and Real McCain campaigns. One of the more notable Real McCain videos focused on McCain’s Mansions; after Brave New Films produced this video, McCain notoriously said he was not sure how many houses he owned and a media firestorm ensued. In total, Brave New Film’s short videos have been viewed over 56 million times in the past two years, inspired hundreds of thousands of people to take action and forced pressing issues into the mainstream media.
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Gloria Steinem with Special Guest Gayle King
The Common Good was honored to host women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem for a screening of her new HBO documentary “Gloria: In Her Own Words” and a discussion with Gayle King, co-anchor of CBS This Morning.
The Common Good was honored to host women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem for a screening of her new HBO documentary “Gloria: In Her Own Words” and a discussion with Gayle King, co-anchor of CBS This Morning.
Among our group of accomplished women who will co-host for the evening: Dori Berenstein, Candace Bushnell, Catherine Crier, Maria Cuomo Cole, Matilda Cuomo, Patricia Duff, Elizabeth Holtzman, Catherine Keener, Kay Koplovitz, Debra Messing, Michelle Paige Paterson, Sharon Patrick, Deborah Roberts, Charlotte Ronson, Rachel Roy and Debora Spar.
Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, editor, and feminist activist. She travels in this and other countries as an organizer and lecturer and is a frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality. She is particularly interested in the shared origins of sex and race caste systems, gender roles and child abuse as roots of violence, non-violent conflict resolution, the cultures of indigenous peoples, and organizing across boundaries for peace and justice. She now lives in New York City, and is currently at work on Road to the Heart: America As if Everyone Mattered, a book about her more than thirty years on the road as a feminist organizer.
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Congressman Jerry Nadler: What Every Voter Should Know
The Common Good hosted a lunch discussion with Congressman Jerry Nadler about voter suppression and how money in politics may effect upcoming elections.
The Common Good hosted a lunch discussion with Congressman Jerry Nadler about voter suppression and how money in politics may effect upcoming elections.
“Jerry Nadler not only represents New York well, but he has represented the United States very well.”
Congressman Jerrold “Jerry” Nadler represents the Eighth Congressional District of New York, which includes much of the West Side of Manhattan, the Financial District and a number of diverse neighborhoods in southwestern Brooklyn. He began his political career in 1976 in the New York State Assembly, where he served for 16 years. In 1992, following the death of Congressman Ted Weiss, Nadler was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election and has served in Congress ever since. He was re-elected to his tenth full term in 2010, receiving over 75 percent of the vote.
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Meet & Greet: Governor Howard Dean
We invited sponsors and their guests for an opportunity to meet Governor Howard Dean for lunch about “Issues and Trends influencing US Governance and Politics in the New Year.” Dean’s frank and experienced voice will provide candor and insight about the year ahead in politics.
We invited sponsors and their guests for an opportunity to meet Governor Howard Dean for lunch about “Issues and Trends influencing US Governance and Politics in the New Year.” Dean’s frank and experienced voice will provide candor and insight about the year ahead in politics.
Howard Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from Vermont. He served six terms as the 79th Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009. Although his U.S. Presidential campaign was unsuccessful, Dean is regarded as a pioneer in raising the profile of Internet-based fundraising and grassroots organizing.
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Tea Party Congressman Joe Walsh
Congressman Joe Walsh joined us for an afternoon discussion on the upcoming election. Joe has run spirited campaigns for elected office twice, first as a Republican candidate for the United States Congress in 1996 and then as a Republican candidate for the Illinois State House in 1998 so he speaks about his own experiences and predictions for the 2012 elections.
Congressman Joe Walsh joined us for an afternoon discussion on the upcoming election. Joe has run spirited campaigns for elected office twice, first as a Republican candidate for the United States Congress in 1996 and then as a Republican candidate for the Illinois State House in 1998 so he speaks about his own experiences and predictions for the 2012 elections.
Joe Walsh has dedicated his professional life to service and advocacy. He has advocated on behalf of a wide range of public policy issues and causes, most notably advancing market-based solutions to education reform and urban poverty.
Joe began his career with Jobs For Youth, working in inner-city Chicago teaching high school dropouts basic academic and job skills; he worked on state and local public policy issues with the Heartland Institute, a free market think tank; he ran the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, a Chicago-based privately funded school voucher program which gives high school scholarships to low-income Chicago eighth graders; he helped launch the Legislative Education Action Drive and Americans for Limited Government, national organizations working to get fiscally conservative state legislators elected in targeted states and advance the causes of limited government; he raised funds for and helped advance the cause of school choice for two of the nation’s leading school choice organizations, the American Education Reform Council and the Milton & Rose Friedman Foundation; and he continues to build support for an international charity which uses education and micro-enterprise to deliver Nicaraguan children from poverty, the Fabretto Children’s Foundation.
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Author Jill Iscol on her book “Hearts on Fire”
The Common Good hosted Jill Iscol for a Lunch Discussion about her new book Hearts on Fire, in which she features a series of “visionaries” who are changing our world for the better. Ms. Iscol shared her views about how these active leaders and citizens will eventually transform the world into one united behind a shared humanity.
The Common Good hosted Jill Iscol for a Lunch Discussion about her new book Hearts on Fire, in which she features a series of “visionaries” who are changing our world for the better. Ms. Iscol shared her views about how these active leaders and citizens will eventually transform the world into one united behind a shared humanity.
Educator and activist, Jill Iscol, Ed.D, is President of the IF Hummingbird Foundation, a family foundation established in 1989 to support domestic and international efforts to strengthen democracy and reduce the social, economic, and educational inequalities that threaten it. For the past two decades Jill has developed an expertise in identifying visionary leaders and programs at early stages of their development. She fosters their advancement by providing seed capital and guidance enabling them to become stable, sustainable and successful organizations, impacting lives around the globe. In the past these organizations have included Prep for Prep, Stand for Children, Facing History and Ourselves and Vital Voices Global Partnership. They currently include Acumen Fund, where she serves as a Founding Advisory Board Member, City Year New York of which she was a Founding Co-Chair, and the Iscol Family Program for Leadership Development at Cornell University.
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Orthodox Culture Constraints Faced by Women in Israel with Dr. Rachel Adato
Dr. Rachel Adato discussed Israel and the challenges women there face from the conservative patriarchal Orthodox Jewish society.
The Common Good hosted a panel with the esteemed Dr. Rachel Adato to discuss Israel and the challenges women there face from the conservative patriarchal Orthodox Jewish society.
There is a complex relationship between religion and state, and the contradictory impacts of the integration of the ultra-Orthodox into mainstream society. A consequence of that integration is the ultra-Orthodox making demands anchored in their traditions into mainstream society, such as keeping distance from women. It is very hard for Jewish women in Israel to promote change on issues that directly affect them because the traditional groups they’re a part of often suppress progressive movements to try and maintain their identity and internal cohesion. Moreover, in such societies, women’s issues often come low down on the list of priorities.
The obstacles women face range from personal to socio-political: unhealthy lifestyles, obedience to patriarchal norms, rapid lifestyle transitions, the political situation, poverty and lower socioeconomic status, and limited access to specific health care services. These multi-layered obstacles operate synergistically to limit women's access to social support and health care systems, intensify feelings of powerlessness, and further promote unhealthy behaviors. Most health maintenance strategies being discussed are personal and conservative, and considerate of traditional cultural norms. Another challenge is childcare. Israel has a very high percentage of working women, especially in the Jewish sector, and a significantly higher birth rate than Europe. The trouble is that now, the economy is based on the assumption that both parents work, but policy on childcare has not been reconfigured accordingly.
As an Israeli gynecologist, lawyer, and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Kadima, Dr. Adato has seen and felt these challenges first hand. She provided valuable insight based on her life experiences to illuminate this complicated and under discussed topic and promote further conversation about how to keep moving forward.
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Ambassador Riyad Mansour with Dr. Alon Ben Meir
We were pleased to invite sponsors and their guests for a lunch discussion with Ambassador Riyad Mansour about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how he believes a compromise will be reached.
We were pleased to invite sponsors and their guests for a lunch discussion with Ambassador Riyad Mansour about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how he believes a compromise will be reached.
While Mideast peace talks stagnate, new developments continue to unfold. Earlier this fall, Palestinian leaders asked the United Nations to allow Palestine to be recognized as a state – a move that caused concern and debate from Jerusalem to Washington, DC. The Common Good was very honored to host Ambassador Riyad Mansour, who has served as Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations since 2005. Mansour has devoted his career to finding a solution to the ongoing Israeli- Palestinian crisis and seeking recognition of the state of Palestine. At our Luncheon Briefing, NYU Professor Dr. Alon Ben-Meir will moderate the discussion as Mansour shares his views on the conflict.
Ambassador Riyad Mansour has served as permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations since 2005. From 1977 to 1983, he joined the Permanent Mission of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen to the United Nations in New York as research advisor. From 1983 to 1988, he served as deputy permanent observer to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to the United Nations. Ambassador Mansour has taught at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and the University of Akron in Ohio. He has published several studies and articles, most notably about the Palestinian community in the United States. He has lectured at many American universities and has participated in numerous international conferences, symposia, seminars, and panel debates as a representative of Palestine. Ambassador Mansour obtained his M.S. in education counseling from Youngstown State University in 1973. He received his Ph.D. in counseling from the University of Akron in 1977.
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Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski on “Strategic Vision” and reasserting America’s Strength
The Common Good was honored to host Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor under President Carter, for a special lunch discussion. Dr. Brzezinski introduced his new book “Strategic Vision,” which highlights the need for our country to reassert its position of strength. She discussed today’s changing distribution of global power and how it will affect the future of the United States.
The Common Good was honored to host Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor under President Carter, for a special lunch discussion. Dr. Brzezinski introduced his new book “Strategic Vision,” which highlights the need for our country to reassert its position of strength. She discussed today’s changing distribution of global power and how it will affect the future of the United States.
We were thrilled to announce that Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC Co-Anchor of Morning Joe, will be introducing her distinguished father at our lunch discussion.
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski is a Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981.
Brzezinski is currently Robert E. Osgood Professor of American Foreign Policy at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a member of various boards and councils. He appears frequently as an expert on the PBS program The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, ABC News’ This Week with Christiane Amanpour, and on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, where his daughter, Mika Brzezinski, is co-anchor.
In recent years, he has been a supporter of the Prague Process.
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Author William Shawcross: “JUSTICE AND THE ENEMY”
British author-journalist William Shawcross, scribe of many best-selling books and no stranger to controversy, will discuss his new book just as it is published in the US. “Justice and the Enemy: From the Nuremberg Trials to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed” which looks at the ongoing political and legal argument about whether and how to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his co-conspirators for their role in the 9⁄11 attack.
British author-journalist William Shawcross, scribe of many best-selling books and no stranger to controversy, will discuss his new book just as it is published in the US. “Justice and the Enemy: From the Nuremberg Trials to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed”which looks at the ongoing political and legal argument about whether and how to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his co-conspirators for their role in the 9⁄11 attack.
William Shawcross is a distinguished journalist, broadcaster and commentator who has covered international conflicts and conflict resolution and has reported for the “Sunday Times,” “Time Magazine,” “Newsweek,” and “Rolling Stone” magazine, among many other publications. He is the bestselling author of many books including biographies of Rupert Murdoch, the Shah of Iran and the official biography of the Queen Mother. In 2003, he was named “New Statesman’s” Man of the Year. He is a chairman of Article 19, a London based charity and pressure group which defends the rights of free expression enshrined in Article 19 of the Declaration of Human Rights; a board member of the International Crisis Group; and was a member of the High Commissioner for Refugees’ Informal Advisory Group from 1995 – 2000.
“Shawcross stands as the foremost journalist of his generation.”
“…Shawcross holds a mirror up to ourselves as we respond ineffectively to the world’s horrors.”
“It is an intellectual pleasure to read William Shawcross… clear-sighted, objective and rational [and] a relief from the usual fare of fantasising served up by our standing army of the self-righteous”
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Ambassador Peter Galbraith On Afghanistan: Ten Years Later
Peter Galbraith joined us to discuss the Afghanistan conflict as we edge closer to leaving the country. After ten years, Americans are wearying of the war and its ongoing casualties. But with the complications of extricating ourselves from this challenging arena, the complicated relationship with Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai and an aggressive Taliban looking for restoration to power, is there an American victory here?
Peter Galbraith joined us to discuss the Afghanistan conflict as we edge closer to leaving the country. After ten years, Americans are wearying of the war and its ongoing casualties. But with the complications of extricating ourselves from this challenging arena, the complicated relationship with Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai and an aggressive Taliban looking for restoration to power, is there an American victory here? Peter Galbraith served in the war-torn Balkans as the first U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, and in 2009 Galbraith was appointed as United Nations’ Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan where he contributed to exposing the massive fraud that took place in the 2009 Afghanistan Presidential Elections.
Peter Woodard Galbraith is an author, academic, commentator, policy advisor, and former United States diplomat. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he helped uncover Saddam Hussein’s gassing of the Kurds. From 1993 to 1998, he served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, where he was co-mediator and principal architect of the 1995 Erdut Agreement that ended the war in that country.
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Former TARP Special Inspector Neil Barofsky, “Another Crisis is Coming”
The Common Good hosted former TARP program Special Inspector Neil Barofsky, for a lunch and candid discussion about his new book “Bailout” and the fiscal crisis facing the U.S.
The Common Good hosted former TARP program Special Inspector Neil Barofsky, for a lunch and candid discussion about his new book “Bailout” and the fiscal crisis facing the U.S.
In this bracing, page-turning account of his stranger-than-fiction baptism into the corrupted ways of Washington, Neil Barofsky offers an irrefutable indictment, from an insider of the Bush and Obama administrations, of the mishandling of the $700 billion TARP bailout fund. In vivid behind-the-scenes detail, he reveals proof of the extreme degree to which our government officials bent over backward to serve the interests of Wall Street firms at the expense of the broader public—and at the expense of effective financial reform.
During the height of the financial crisis in 2008, Barofsky gave up his job as a prosecutor in the esteemed U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York City, where he had convicted drug kingpins, Wall Street executives, and perpetrators of mortgage fraud, to become the special inspector general in charge of oversight of the spending of the bailout money. From his first day on the job, his efforts to protect against fraud and to hold the big banks accountable for how they spent taxpayer money were met with outright hostility from the Treasury officials in charge of the bailouts.
Barofsky discloses how, in serving the interests of the banks, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his team worked with Wall Street executives to design programs that would funnel vast amounts of taxpayer money to their firms and would have allowed them to game the markets and make huge profits with almost no risk and no accountability, while repeatedly fighting Barofsky’s efforts to put the necessary fraud protections in place.
His investigations also uncovered abject mismanagement of the bailout of insurance giant AIG and Geithner’s decision to allow the payment of millions of dollars in bonuses—including $7,700 to a kitchen worker and $7,000 to a mail room assistant—and that the Obama administration’s “TARP czar” lobbied for the executives to retain their high pay.
Providing stark details about how, meanwhile, the interests of homeowners and the broader public were betrayed, Barofsky recounts how Geithner and his team steadfastly failed to fix glaring flaws in the Obama administration’s homeowner relief program pointed out by Barofsky and other bailout watchdogs, rejecting anti-fraud measures, which unleashed a wave of abuses by mortgage providers against homeowners, even causing some who would not have lost their homes otherwise to go into foreclosure. Ultimately only a small fraction (just $1.4 billion at the time he stepped down) of the $50 billion allocated to help homeowners was spent, while the funds expended to prop up the financial system—as Barofsky discloses—totaled $4.7 trillion.
As Barofsky raised the alarm about the bailout failures, he met with obstruction of his investigations, and he recounts in blow-by-blow detail how an increasingly aggressive war was waged against his efforts, with even the White House launching a broadside against him. Bailout is a riveting account of his plunge into the political meat grinder of Washington, as well as a vital revelation of just how captured by Wall Street our political system is and why the too-big-to-fail banks have only become bigger and more dangerous in the wake of the crisis.
Neil Barofsky is currently a Senior Fellow at New York University School of Law. From December 2008 until March 2011, he served as the Special Inspector General in charge of oversight of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Before that he was a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. This is his first book.
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Elections 2012 Forecast – Mehlman, Shrum, Wolffe
We were thrilled to present a special “Elections Panel 2012” with three of the best experts on election strategy. The Common Good presented a powerful bipartisan trio – Ken Mehlman, the brilliant former Chair of the Republican National Committee, Robert Shrum, the amazingly clever Democratic political strategist and messaging expert, and Richard Wolffe, author and journalist, known as a keen observer of the American political scene.
We were thrilled to present a special “Elections Panel 2012” with three of the best experts on election strategy. The Common Good presented a powerful bipartisan trio – Ken Mehlman, the brilliant former Chair of the Republican National Committee, Robert Shrum, the amazingly clever Democratic political strategist and messaging expert, and Richard Wolffe, author and journalist, known as a keen observer of the American political scene. This will be a frank, bold discussion and prognostication of the American political landscape as the economic situation becomes more precipitous and the stakes grow higher.
Kenneth Brian Mehlman is an American businessman, attorney, and political figure who served as the campaign manager for the 2004 re-election campaign of George W. Bush and Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2005 to 2007. In 2007, President Bush appointed Mehlman to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.
Robert Shrum has been a senior adviser to the Gore 2000 presidential campaign, the campaign of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and the British Labor Party. In addition to being the chief strategist for the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign, Shrum has advised thirty winning U.S. Senate campaigns; eight winning campaigns for governor; mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other major cities; and the Democratic Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Shrum’s writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications.
Richard Wolffe is an award-winning journalist and political analyst for MSNBC television. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine, traveling with the candidate and his inner circle from his announcement through election day, 21 months later. Wolffe appears frequently on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Hardball. On NBC, he has been featured as a political commentator on Meet The Press and TODAY.
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The Common Good has been hosting events since 2006 that cover important issues of today, highlighting speakers who have worked to bolster our democracy and can provide great insight on the issues that matter.