House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi

The Common Good was pleased to host House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who spoke on a range of topics from current developments in the Middle East to tackling the fiscal cliff, economic recovery, deficit reduction and how to cure the political dysfunction in Washington.

Nancy Pelosi is the Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress. From 2007 to 2011, she served as the first woman Speaker of the House and is also the first woman in American history to lead a major political party in Congress, having served as House Democratic leader from 2003 to 2007. Leader Pelosi has represented San Francisco, California’s Eighth District, for 25 years.

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Col. Jack Jacobs & Colin Kahl, Middle East Hot Topics

The Common Good held a lunch discussion with Col. Jack Jacobs, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, best-selling author and respected commentator on national security and foreign affairs, and Colin Kahl, Middle East expert at Georgetown University, who will brief us on “Middle East Hot Topics” – Iran’s nuclear game, Pakistan as danger zone, easing NATO and US troops out of Afghanistan and other key areas.

Colonel Jack Jacobs, who entered military service through Rutgers ROTC, earned the Medal of Honor for exceptional heroism on the battlefields of Vietnam. He also holds three Bronze Stars and two Silver Stars. Jacobs was an adviser to a Vietnamese infantry battalion when it came under a devastating fire that disabled the commander. Although bleeding from severe head wounds, then-First Lieutenant Jacobs took command, withdrew the unit to safety, and returned again and again under intense fire to rescue the wounded and perform life-changing first aid. He saved the lives of a U.S. adviser and 13 allied soldiers.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a director of the Medal of Honor Foundation. He is also a military analyst for NBC/MSNBC.

Dr. Colin H. Kahl is a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) focusing on Middle East security and defense policy and an associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Dr. Kahl has published widely on U.S. defense policy in the Middle East, including articles in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Security, The Los Angeles Times, Middle East Policy, The National Interest and The New York Times. He has also published numerous works on the sources of political instability and violent conflict in developing countries, including States, Scarcity, and Civil Strife in the Developing World (Princeton University Press, 2006).

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Economist Dambisa Moyo on “Winner Take All: China’s Race for Resources and What It Means for the World”

The Common Good hosted a luncheon with globally-recognized economist Dambisa Moyo, as she discusses her recent book Winner Take All: China’s Race for Resources and What It Means for the World.

Winner Take All  is about the commodity dynamics that the world will face over the next several decades. In particular, it is about the implications of China’s rush for resources across all regions of the world. The scale of China’s resource campaign for hard commodities (metals and minerals) and soft commodities (timber and food) is among the largest in history. To be sure, China is not the first country to launch a global crusade to secure resources. From Britain’s transcontinental operations dating back to the end of the 16th century, to the rise of modern European and American transnational corporations between the mid 1860’s and 1870’s, the industrial revolution that powered these economies created a voracious demand for raw materials and created the need to go far beyond their native countries.

So too is China’s resource rush today. Although still in its early stages, already the breadth of China’s operation is awesome, and seemingly unstoppable. China’s global charge for commodities is a story of China’s quest to secure its claims on resource assets, and to guarantee the flow of inputs needed to continue to drive economic development. Moyo, an expert in global commodities markets, explains the implications of China’s resource grab in a world of diminishing resource

An international economist and one of the world’s leading experts on macroeconomics and global affairs, in 2009 Moyo was named by Time as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” and was named to the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders Forum. Her writing regularly appears in economic and finance-related publications such as the Financial Times, the Economist, and the Wall Street Journal. In September 2009 Moyo was featured on Oprah Winfrey’s “Power List” of twenty remarkable visionaries. She has appeared as a guest CNN, CNBC, BBC, and Fox Business. She has done numerous speaking engagements at organizations including OECD, World Bank, IMF, Council on Foreign Relations, and the American Enterprise Institute. In 2009 she spoke at the TEDx conference at the EU Parliament. She holds a PhD in economics from Oxford and an MPA from Harvard. She lives in New York and London.

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Jodi Kantor on her new book “The Obamas”

Thanks to Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century (DL21C), The Common Good presented a unique event with Jodi Kantor, award-winning New York Times correspondent and author of the bestselling book The Obamas, about the President and First Lady’s years in the White House. Jodi discussed her latest book The Obamas and shared her insights on the president’s first term and give a more personal picture of the powerful couple. In her work, she reveals the human beings behind the political figures—their ambitions, biographies, challenges and successes.

When Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, he also won a long-running debate with his wife Michelle. Contrary to her fears, politics now seemed like a worthwhile, even noble pursuit. Together they planned a White House life that would be as normal and sane as possible. Then they moved in.

In the Obamas, Jodi Kantor takes us deep inside the White House as they try to grapple with their new roles, change the country, raise children, maintain friendships, and figure out what it means to be the first black President and First Lady. Filled with riveting detail and insight into their partnership, emotions and personalities, and written with a keen eye for the ironies of public life, THE OBAMAS is an intimate portrait that will surprise even readers who thought they knew the President and First Lady.

Jodi Kantor is a prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and a best-selling author. For six years, Ms. Kantor wrote about Barack and Michelle Obama. Her book "The Obamas" chronicles their behind-the-scenes adjustment to the jobs of president and first lady. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Ezra Klein said, “Jodi Kantor’s ‘The Obamas’ is among the very best books on this White House.” Before becoming a reporter, Ms. Kantor was the New York editor of Slate magazine and The Times’s Arts & Leisure editor. (1)

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(1) Material from the She Said (the book) website.

Joel Benenson: Obama’s political strategist and pollster

Thanks to Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century (DL21C), The Common Good was pleased to present a unique event with Joel Benenson, lead pollster and senior strategist to President Barack Obama.

Joel Benenson shared his insights on his work on the President’s historic 2008 run, how the race is shaping up this year, and took a look at New York politics and the role of the women’s vote in the election this November.

Joel Benenson was the lead pollster and a senior strategist for President Barack Obama during the 2008 election, and he continues in that role today. He has also been a pollster and strategist for U.S. senators, governors and mayors from around the country. He played an integral role as a pollster for the DCCC in 2006, when the Democrats won back the majority in the House of Representatives. The team Benenson was on won eight of 10 races, including three in which incumbents were defeated.

In addition, Benenson is the President of the Benenson Strategy Group, which he co-founded in 2000. His extensive experience, prior to his becoming a pollster in 1995, includes working as a political journalist for the Daily News in New York and serving as communications director for Gov. Mario Cuomo’s 1994 campaign. He was previously a vice president at the New York ad agency FCB

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Aftermath: Supreme Court & Health Care with Carl Bernstein, Jeffrey Toobin & Susan Blumenthal

The Common Good hosted a lunch discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carl Bernstein, expert legal analyst for CNN and The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin and former Assistant Surgeon General and Senior Global Health Advisor for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal.  They will discuss the implications of the Supreme Court decision regarding Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

What are the ramifications for health care policy?  Will John Roberts’ vote with the majority and ruling shape future law?  What is the political fallout in an election year?  Please join us to discuss this monumental Supreme Court decision with one of the most consequential journalists of our lifetime and our other stellar discussants.

Carl Bernstein shared a Pulitzer Prize with Bob Woodward for his coverage of Watergate for The Washington Post. In the four decades since, in books, magazine articles, commentary, and television reporting, Bernstein has continued to build on the theme he and Woodward first explored in the Nixon years—the use and abuse of power: Political power, media power, financial power, and spiritual power. His most recent book is the best-selling biography, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. He is the author, with Woodward, of All the President’s Men and The Final Days, and, with Marco Politi, of His Holiness: John Paul II and the History of Our Time; and the author of Loyalties: A Son’s Memoir — about his family’s experience in the McCarthy Era.

Carl Bernstein shared a Pulitzer Prize with Bob Woodward for his coverage of Watergate for The Washington Post. In the four decades since, in books, magazine articles, commentary, and television reporting, Bernstein has continued to build on the theme he and Woodward first explored in the Nixon years—the use and abuse of power: Political power, media power, financial power, and spiritual power. His most recent book is the best-selling biography, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. He is the author, with Woodward, of All the President’s Men and The Final Days, and, with Marco Politi, of His Holiness: John Paul II and the History of Our Time; and the author of Loyalties: A Son’s Memoir — about his family’s experience in the McCarthy Era.

Rear Admiral Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A. served as U.S. Assistant Surgeon General and Senior Global Health Advisor in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where her work for over 20 years as a top Federal government leader focused on a broad range of public health and science issues facing the Nation and world. She is an internationally recognized medical expert and leader who has been a major force in bringing important public health issues including women’s health, global health, disease, obesity, and violence prevention, and mental illness to increased scientific and public attention, helping to place them at the top of our nation’s health care agenda. Dr. Blumenthal has also been involved in the national public health response to terrorism, emergency preparedness, biotechnology issues, and emerging disease threats including pandemic flu and AIDS. She has established many international health collaborations including a Middle East Health Initiative. She was a pioneer in applying information technology to improve health and was among the first in the government to use the Internet for health education, envisioning and establishing several award winning health websites. Dr. Blumenthal was recently decorated with the Distinguished Service Medal of the U.S. Public Health Service, its highest honor, “for distinguished and pioneering leadership, groundbreaking contributions and dedicated public service that has improved the health of women, our Nation, and the world.

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Chris Hayes: Getting Past the “Fail Decade”

The Common Good hosted a lunch discussion with Chris Hayes, host of Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, about his new book Twilight of the Elites, which analyzes how our institutions have imploded, spawning a lack of trust between citizens and the elites. Chris spoke about the shortcomings of contemporary American financial and social meritocracy, with the intelligence and humor we’ve come to expect from him.

Over the past decade, Americans watched in bafflement and rage as one institution after another – from Wall Street to Congress, the Catholic Church to corporate America, even Major League Baseball – imploded under the weight of corruption and incompetence. In the wake of the Fail Decade, Americans have historically low levels of trust in their institutions; the social contract between ordinary citizens and elites lies in tatters.

How did we get here? With Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes offers a radically novel answer. Since the 1960s, as the meritocracy elevated a more diverse group of men and women into power, they learned to embrace the accelerating inequality that had placed them near the very top. Their ascension heightened social distance and spawned a new American elite--one more prone to failure and corruption than any that came before it.

Christopher Hayes is Editor at Large of The Nation and host of Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC (Sat 8-10am and Sun 8-10am.) From 2010 to 2011, he was a fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J Safra Foundation Center for Ethics. From 2008-2010, he was a Bernard Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation. From 2005 to 2006, Hayes was a Schumann Center Writing Fellow at In These Times.

Since 2002, he’s written about political culture and political economy. His essays, articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Time, The Nation, The American Prospect, The New Republic, The Washington Monthly, The Guardian, and The Chicago Reader.

His book about the crisis of authority in American life, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy, will be published by Crown in June 2012

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Governor Ed Rendell on “A Nation of Wusses”

One of nation’s most candid, smart and disarming politicians, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, joined The Common Good to talk about his new book, A NATION OF WUSSES: How America’s Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great.

Governor Ed Rendell explains why America’s leaders rarely call for sacrifice for the greater good—to avoid making any sacrifices themselves!

Rendell has seen job security become the primary consideration of any person with power in America—their own job security! Most politicians and bureaucrats can see no further ahead than the next election, sometimes no further than the next press conference. Americans are rarely afraid of sacrifice and hard work when they mean building a better future, but when was the last time you heard of a leader of anything making a sacrifice for the greater good? The people can only win when they make it clear to the powers that be that making the right choices, even the hard ones, is the key to winning the next election.

• Explains in rollicking stories ranging from the profane to the profound that most hard choices are only “hard” because the polls conflict with your principles

• Ed Rendell rose to the top of Philadelphia, then Pennsylvania, then national politics, by doing what he thought was right, and there were plenty of times that looked like it would be his downfall as well

• This book revisits the high points of Ed Rendell’s career and current landscape to define the political fights his peers seem just as afraid of winning as losing

• Rendell is a former head of the Democratic National Committee, a current MSNBC Senior Political Analyst, and a Partner at Ballard Spahr LLP

Among current office holders and candidates, he sees politicians pretending to stand on principle while, in fact, pandering to their bases; flip-flopping on issues, not because of new information, but because of new polls; and criticizing rivals for actions they would have praised if done by allies. While not at all shy about singling out Republicans like Scott Walker, Eric Cantor, and Mitch McConnell, Rendell has no trouble taking on Democrats who refuse to stand up to the teachers’ unions or distance themselves from allies who run into trouble. Other politicians might have left out of their memoirs stories like what happened to their plaque in the park, the story of Swifty the five-legged donkey, a dirty Al Gore joke, the time they considered pretending to faint, and who they’re already supporting for president in 2016. Luckily for readers, Ed Rendell is not that kind of politician. Complete with a scathing list of the “Top Ten Reasons Why Most American Politicians Are Wusses” and packed with uproarious tales of politicians in action that will make you wonder why these folks keep getting elected, you might have to go back to Ulysses S. Grant to find a politician with a book as lively and honest as A Nation of Wusses.

“Ed Rendell is one of the more refreshing and insightful voices in the conversation around American politics. He is a rare breed who tells the truth even when it doesn’t support his agenda. This book is a clever, intelligent, and entertaining retrospective on his life in politics featuring many of the characters he met along the way.”

— Sean Hannity

“Ed Rendell gives us more than a political memoir—his book is a fun, funny, and authentic account of a life spent in government, and a no-holds-barred argument for bold leadership in America.”

— President Bill Clinton

“Ed Rendell’s book is big-city politics at its best. It’s got the roar of the El, the stale cigar smoke of City Hall. Rendell writes with hoagie on his breath—or was that a Philly cheesesteak? It’s The Last Hurrah for the twenty-first century.”

— Chris Matthews

After 34 years of public service, including 24 years as an elected official, Governor Rendell continues to pursue many of the same issues he was passionate about while serving. His commitment to making America a cleaner, more efficient place and to fostering investment in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure is as strong as it has ever been. He continues to participate in national political discourse as a news analyst for NBC. He also serves as Special Counsel at the law firm Ballard Spahr. Additionally, he sits on several boards, is a Brookings Fellow and teaches government and politics courses at the University of Pennsylvania. Governor Rendell also recently penned his first book, A Nation of Wusses: How America’s Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great. In A Nation of Wusses, Rendell chronicles his storied political career with his trademark candor while making a strong statement about the state of American leadership.

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Jack Abramoff on Lobby Reform

The Common Good hosted controversial reformed Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff for a luncheon discussion and Q&A about reforming lobbying practices in U.S. national politics after the release of his highly acclaimed book Capitol Punishment.

Capitol Punishment: The name Jack Abramoff is synonymous with Washington scandal, but the fascinating facts of his case are either largely unknown or wildly misunderstood. His memoir will serve as a corrective – an engrossing, informative work of political nonfiction that is also a gripping real-life thriller. The biggest surprise twist comes in the form of Abramoff himself, a smart, funny, charming, clear-eyed narrator who confounds every expectation of the media’s villainous portrait. He’s a perfect bundle of contradictions: an Orthodox Jew and upstanding family man with a staunch moral streak, caught in multiple scandals of bribery and corruption with an undercurrent of murder. Abramoff represented Indian tribes whose lucrative casinos were constantly under threat from proposed changes in law; though he charged the tribes many millions, he saved them billions by ensuring votes to support the livelihoods of their reservations. Much of Jack’s share was funneled not into his own coffers, but to charities. Abramoff on the front pages could not be further from the Jack Abramoff who’s ready to tell his honest and compelling story.

Jack Abramoff’s rollercoaster life story might as well be a major motion picture. In fact, it is. Dubbed on the cover of Time Magazine as the “Man Who Bought Washington,” Abramoff rose to become the nation’s most successful and prominent lobbyist, before becoming enmeshed in the most harrowing political scandal since Watergate.

Abramoff started his political career at Brandeis University as head of the College Republicans. After becoming national chairman of that group, Abramoff was soon named head of President Ronald Reagan’s grassroots lobbying organization on Capitol Hill. He held that position while attending Georgetown Law Center at night, and obtained his JD in 1986. After a detour into motion picture production, Abramoff returned to the nation’s capital to build one of the most successful lobbying practices in history.

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The Power of Protest: Todd Gitlin & Jesse LaGreca

The Common Good hosted author Todd Gitlin for a lunch discussion with about his new book Occupy Nation and how the protest movement has shaped the political landscape. One of the major leaders of the original movement, Jesse LaGreca, also joined the discussion and provided an insider’s perspective.

Todd Gitlin is a writer, sociologist, communications scholar, novelist, poet, who has become a prominent critic of the tactics and rhetoric of the Left as well as the Right. He emphasizes what he sees as the need in American politics to form coalitions between disparate movements, which must compromise ideological purity to gain and sustain power by working together within the two major political parties. He argues that the Republican party has managed to accomplish this with a coalition of what he calls two “major components – the low-tax, love-business, hate-government enthusiasts and the God-save-us moral crusaders” but that the Democratic Party has often been unable to accomplish a pragmatic coalition between its “roughly eight” constituencies.

Jesse LaGreca has worked as a freelance writer for the Daily Kos under the name MinistryOfTruth for the last three years and is one of their most frequent writers and commenters. He’s a member of various subgroups on the site, including their Anonymous forum, Environmental Foodies, and the Progressive Policy Zone. Mr. LaGreca was a major activist during the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and a frequent speaker on behalf of the movement. His introduction into mainstream media came when an unaired Fox News interview with Griff Jenkins was put on YouTube. In the clip, LaGreca spoke articulately and intelligently about the OWS movement and criticized Fox News for marginalizing the movement. He was named the face of “The Budding Stars of Occupy Wall Street,” according to the Atlantic Wire and was featured in various interviews from ABC’s This Week to The New York Observer.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.”

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.

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.

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.

“Jerry Nadler not only represents New York well, but he has represented the United States very well.”

— Former President Bill Clinton

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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