Friday night lights movie

Friday Night Lights is the 2004 drama film that documents the coach and players of a high school football team and the Texas city of Odessa that supports and is obsessed with them. The book on which it was based, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, was authored by H. G. Bissinger and follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they made a run towards the state championship. A television series of the same name premiered on October 3, 2006 on NBC. This movie ranked number 37 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies. The release of the film saw it premiere in Franklin, Tennessee.

Plot

Bissinger followed the team for the entire 1988 season, which culminated in a loss in the State semi-finals against Carter High School from Dallas, who eventually went on to win the championship game but would have their title stripped for playing an ineligible player. However, the book also deals with — or alludes to — a number of secondary political and social issues existing in Odessa, all of which share ties to the Permian Panthers football team. These include socioeconomic disparity; racism; segregation (and desegregation); and poverty.

The coach, Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton), is constantly on the hot seat. Tied into the successes and failure of the coach and the team in general are the conflicts the players struggle with on and off the gridiron. The coach overuses his star player, running back James "Boobie" Miles (Derek Luke), who gets seriously injured (Miles tore his ACL, missed the playoffs, and had a limp for the rest of his life). When this happens, sports radios are flooded with calls for his resignation. Miles' once-arrogant attitude vanishes as he sees his once promising chance of playing big-time college football disappear and starts to question his future after he notices his not-so promising academic standing. Quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) struggles with being able to play consistently, and his inability to make decisions for himself. Fullback Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund) has a rocky relationship with his father (Tim McGraw), who won a state championship at Permian and carries on a feud with his son for not performing on the level he'd like to see, despite the fact that Don doesn't do anything to light his father's temper. Third-string running back Chris Comer (Lee Thompson Young), who takes the spot of Miles after his injury, attempts to get rid of his fear of being hit and getting injured, especially when the player who last occupied his spot suffered a season ending injury. His obsession with fame and recognition also comes at a high price that he is at first not ready to play. Safety Brian Chavez (Jay Hernandez) is easily the smartest player on the team, and the most confident in his future after high school football. One of the themes of the movie depicts the coach as a father-type figure for the players.

Coach Gaines triumphs and struggles with winning football games and connecting with his players a number of times during their tremulous season. His job depends on the Panthers making the playoffs, and his team is in a three-way tie with two other teams at the end of the regular season. Under Texas rules for ties, the tiebreaker is a coin-toss. In an effort to prevent a riot, the location of the coin-toss is kept under wraps. Permian gets a spot. They make it to the finals, where they narrowly lose to a powerhouse Dallas high school team.The movie ends with the coach removing the departing seniors from the depth chart on his wall. Notably, the depth chart has "Case" at quarterback. This refers to Permian's real-life backup quarterback in 1988, Stoney Case, who would go on to lead Permian, along with Chris Comer, to the 5A state title the following year, and still later made it to the NFL. The final scene consists of Winchell throwing a football to a bunch of pee-wees playing pick-up football before leaving with Billingsley and Chavez.

Cast

* Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Gary Gaines
* Lucas Black as Mike Winchell
* Garrett Hedlund as Don Billingsley
* Derek Luke as James "Boobie" Miles
* Jay Hernandez as Brian Chavez
* Lee Jackson III as Ivory Christian
* Lee Thompson Young as Chris Comer
* Tim McGraw as Charles Billingsley
* Connie Britton as Sharon Gaines
* Amber Heard as Maria
* Julius Tennon as Coach Freddie James

Differences between the movie and actual events

Players

* Many players names and numbers were featured in the movie. Some of these were real and some were false. Brian Chavez's number was actually 85, and Boobie Miles' number was actually 35. However, player's numbers such as Wide Receiver Michael Aguirre's number 15 were correct. Other differences included where the Panthers lost and won games or where the games were actually played.
* In the movie James "Boobie" Miles is depicted as one of the team's three captains with Don Billingsly replacing him after Miles' injury, but that honor was held by Ivory Christian, Mike Winchell and Brian Chavez.
* In the movie some of the players' numbers and positions were changed: Boobie Miles in the movie is #45 and playing tailback, but in the book he is #35 and playing fullback with #26 Don Billingsley at tailback (Note: At the beginning of the film, as the camera pans over Coach Gaines' depth chart, you can see the name 'Miles' listed under the FB tag, but at the end when Gaines removes graduating seniors from the depth chart, you see Billingsly listed at FB). In the movie, Brian Chavez is #4 and plays strong safety, while he was actually the #85 tight end and defensive end. Ivory Christian, in the film, is a defensive end and wears #90, while he was really the #62 middle ("Mike") linebacker. Chris Comer was also the backup fullback in the book, not a third-string tailback. One of the athletic directors in the stadium booth also mentions "I think he's a Sophomore," when Comer was really a Junior in real life. Comer also wore #45 in the real season, but in the movie he wears #42. Also, Alan Wyles is depicted as a starting wide receiver, but in reality he was a placekicker who is listed on the roster as a wide receiver.
* Don Billingsley's father Charlie is depicted in the movie as having won a state championship. In reality, his Permian team lost in the state finals.

Regular season

In the movie the team is depicted as practicing in full pads and with full contact on the first day of practice. Under rules of the University Interscholastic League (UIL), the governing body for Texas public-school sports, teams cannot use pads or hit until the 4th day of practice.

* A Permian booster is heard toasting Coach Gaines' second season as Permian's head coach. It was actually his third.
* Boobie Miles, in the book, injured his leg by getting his foot caught on AstroTurf during a pre-season scrimmage against Amarillo Palo Duro at Jones Stadium in Lubbock. In the movie he is tackled by two players at the knee during a blowout non-district game at Ratliff Stadium.
* In the movie, the top-ranked Permian Panthers defeated the hapless Marshall Bulldogs in a non-district game, the game is the season opener, and played on a Friday night in Odessa. In real life, the third-ranked Marshall Mavericks (whose colors are red and white, not purple and gold) defeated fourth-ranked Permian 13–12, and was Permian's second game of the season, and played at Maverick Stadium in Marshall on a Saturday afternoon. Permian's football team chartered a jet for the 500+ mile trip from Odessa to Marshall, spawning controversy on the cost of the trip. Played before a crowd of more than 12,000 fans at Maverick Stadium, the game was on a searing September afternoon where the temperature topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 °C). (The footage shown in the movie is from a game against the Midland High Bulldogs, who weren't mentioned in the movie. Permian defeated the Dawgs 42–0 in district play, but the two teams ended up in a three-way tie along with Midland Lee for the district title.)
* In the movie, district play began in week 2. In the real regular season, district play would have begun in week 4.
* In the movie, Permian defeats "North Shore Galena" in a mid-season (presumably district) game. In reality, North Shore High School is located in Galena Park, a suburb of Houston, over 500 miles (800 km) southeast of Odessa. Although North Shore and Permian have both been 5A football powerhouses, they have never played.
* In reality, the three teams tied for best district record were Permian, Midland Lee, and Midland High, all with 5–1 district records. In the movie, Permian and Lee are joined not by Midland but by Abilene Cooper, and each team has two district losses. The tie breaking coin flip was held at a truck stop outside of Midland, and Midland High lost (Cooper in the movie), so Permian and Lee went on. Midland High's missing the playoffs was particularly poignant as it had not been to the playoffs since 1951 and would not get to go on to post-season play until 2002.
* In a few scenes, players are shown wearing Under Armour-branded apparel and Ridell Revolution helmets, when in 1988, Under Armour and Revolution helmets hadn't been invented yet (future Under Armour founder Kevin Plank was a high school football player in 1988). The book actually says Dallas-Carter wore green visors, which at the time of filming had been declared illegal both by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), high school football's national governing body, and by the UIL. (Note that the UIL's ban is separate from that of NFHS—the UIL does not use the NFHS football rulebook.) Also when they show the town right before Boobie Miles goes to see the doctor you can see a beige Dodge Durango, which was not introduced until 1997 (for the 1998 model year).
* At one point in the movie, the camera flashes to the scoreboard where you can see that Bank of America was the sponsor, later on in the movie, you see the same scoreboard with Nations Bank as the sponsor. However in 1988-89, the bank name was actually North Carolina National Bank. The name changed to Nations Bank in 1991 and then to Bank of America 5 years later.
The playoffs

* Permian's first opponent in the playoffs was Amarillo Tascosa (31–7) and not Dallas Jesuit as in the movie. In fact, in 1988 Texas public schools (such as Permian, Carter, and Amarillo High) and private schools (such as Jesuit) competed in separate leagues with separate playoffs. Jesuit was not allowed to join the previously all-public school UIL until 2003, starting football competition in 2004. Dallas Jesuit and Strake Jesuit of Houston are currently the only private schools who play in the UIL, the rest competing in leagues such as TAPPS and the SPC. Also, given the district setup at that time, it would have been impossible for Permian to play a team from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex until the third round for the playoffs. Now, however, Permian would play Fort Worth-area teams in the first round of the playoffs (they actually defeated Irving Nimitz 48-7 during the Regionals/3rd round; Chris Comer rushed for 221 yards and scored four touchdowns-[3]), but still could not play Jesuit until round 3. Permian did play Dallas Jesuit in Odessa during the regular season in 1988, winning 48–2 (Winchell had two rushing touchdowns and junior fullback Chris Comer rushed for 185 yards on 13 carries). Jesuit's only points came on a missed-PAT return, which was a new rule instituted that year.
* In the movie, it is said that Carter was the state's top-ranked team, Carter was ranked #1 and Permian was ranked #2 in the Southwest Region, and Carter was ranked #12 nationally (Permian was not ranked nationally) in the National Prep Football Poll.
* Carter is depicted playing Hays High School in the playoffs. Hays High is depicted as wearing green and white and nicknamed the Rams. The real Jack C. Hays High School, located 15 minutes south of Austin in Buda, instead uses red, white, and blue as its colors, and its nickname is Rebels. Hays was a Class 4A school in 1988 and did not become 5A until 2000. Hays was in the movie because the makers filmed crowd shots at Hays High during a Rebels home game against the Austin Westlake Chaparrals, another team depicted as being a Permian playoff victim. *In the movie, Permian plays Amarillo High School in the semifinals. Amarillo is depicted wearing blue and white, while their actual colors are black and gold.
* Permian was also depicted as playing “San Angelo” in the quarterfinal round. There are actually two high schools in the San Angelo Independent School District; San Angelo Central High School (the district's only 5A school) had, until 1998, been in the same district for football as Permian (having since been transferred, for football only, to the district with Lubbock and Amarillo schools), and could only have played Permian in the quarterfinal round (owing to the structure of UIL playoffs) if they had qualified. However, Central finished 5th in the district that year, and as only two teams from each district qualified in 1988, Permian and Central did not play in the 1988 playoffs.
Permian vs. Carter

* Since 1982, the UIL Class 5A football playoffs have had six rounds (though a second, parallel playoff bracket of five rounds was added in 1990, later also expanded to six rounds in 2006), so while Permian did play Dallas Carter in the fifth round, in reality it was a semi-final and not a final. In the Texas playoffs, a team from North or Western Texas always plays a team from Southern Texas in the final. So the Carter vs Permian final would not have been possible. The actual final featured Carter versus Converse Judson (who would later defeat Permian in the 1995 state championship). The Carter-Permian game was played in front of 10,000 people in a heavy downpour at The University of Texas at Austin's Memorial Stadium, not in front of 55,000 in the Astrodome in Houston. The movie highlights a call made by a black referee of a catch where the ball skips the ground; that play did or did not happen depending on which side you supported. The incident is mentioned in the book however. While the game in the movie was a high-scoring affair (34–28), the score of the actual game was 14–9 in favor of Carter. In real life Permian held a 9–7 lead for most of the game and it was Carter who made the dramatic fourth quarter comeback to win. On the last play of the game, Winchell threw an incomplete ball tipped by Carter player and later NFL-Pro Bowler Jessie Armstead, rather than running it himself close to the goal line.
* Many people in Dallas were highly upset at how the Dallas Carter coach was portrayed as villainous. The actual coach, Freddie James, was highly respected and considered a Dallas legend. The movie version of the book depicted the Carter team as unsportsmanlike and arrogant. The game was played without incident and without any confrontation between either team.
* While Carter won the 1988 Texas 5A Championship against Converse Judson by a score of 31-14 on the field, Carter was later stripped of its title when a University Interscholastic League rules violation was discovered (Carter had an ineligible player). As a result, Converse Judson was declared the official champ and the score is recorded as a 1-0 victory for them. The disqualification did not roll back to any prior games, however, so Odessa Permian's grittier performance in the semi-final game against Dallas Carter still stands as a 14-9 loss. Fans are left to speculate on the result of a Converse Jusdson vs. Odessa Permian final.

The school and the city

* Ratliff Stadium is depicted as the location for Permian football practices. In reality, the team mostly practices on campus, and the stadium (which both Permian and Odessa High use) is on the outskirts of town in a fairly unpopulated area and about three miles (five km) away from the Permian High campus. It is also unlikely that children would be playing touch football near the stadium, as depicted in the movie, as few houses were nearby at that time. The area around the stadium has grown dramatically since then (which caused an anachronism in the movie — the houses you see near the stadium weren't there at the time).
Anachronisms

During a football scene, the modern logo for Bank of America can be seen underneath a stadium scoreboard. Although Bank of America existed in 1988, the logo seen in the film was not used until 1998, when today's Bank of America was created via the purchase of the original Bank of America by NationsBank. In other scenes, however, period-specific ads were used, including Pan Am and Oldsmobile logos at the Astrodome.

In the championship game versus Dallas Carter, the Carter players are wearing Under Armour products; the company was not founded until 1996, and in 1988, the founder Kevin Plank was a high school football player in the Washington, D.C. area. In addition, while showing scenes from the town, a silver Dodge Durango can be seen, which was not produced until the 1998 model year.
A "goof" that wasn't

During the opening kickoff of the championship game between Dallas-Carter and Permian, the Permian returner attempted to run the ball out of the end zone and is tackled at the three yard line.

Most followers of high school football would consider this a "goof", because under NFHS rules, the ball is ruled dead immediately and a touchback is called once the ball enters the end zone by breaking the plane of the goal line. However, this scene is actually an accurate depiction of Texas high school football – the UIL, although being a member of NFHS, does not use NFHS rules for football, choosing instead to play under NCAA rules (with minor modifications, the most substantial being the duration of quarters (12 minutes instead of 15) and the kickoff location (40-yard line instead of 30)). Under NCAA rules, a kickoff that crosses the plane of the goal line remains a live ball and can be run out.

It should also be noted that the rule allowing a missed PAT to be returned by the defense for a 2-point score, mentioned earlier in the article, is also an NCAA rule that is not used by NFHS but is used by UIL.

Goofs

The players wearing darkened or coloured visors, which have been banned for use in high school football in Texas, is not an inaccuracy on the part of the filmmakers. According to the book in reference to the Dallas Carter team: "Several of them wore dark green visors over their helmets, a new equipment feature that served no obvious purpose other than to make football player look more menacing and killer-like than they already did.

Main characters also had their positions changed, scores and even outcomes of games were changed for the film. The book clearly states that the average Permian player was 160 lbs soaking wet, yet the Permian players in the movie appear to be built like pro athletes. Many attribute this to the "high school film aging factor." In most high school movies, characters in their teens are portrayed by actors in their 20's, making them look much older than the average student.

Cameo roles

* Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Roy Williams (a Permian alumnus) has a cameo in the movie, ironically, as an assistant coach for Midland Lee (Permian's arch-rival).
* New York Jets cornerback Ty Law plays a wide receiver for Dallas Carter, the team Permian plays in the movie's state championship game (as noted earlier, the real Permian-Carter game was a semifinal). He wears jersey #2, his last name is Graf, and he eventually catches a one-handed touchdown pass.
* The real James "Boobie" Miles plays a Permian assistant coach in the film. Although he has no lines, he is seen several times. In the locker room scene at halftime of the state championship game, he is seen standing next to the fictional "Boobie" Miles as Coach Gaines gives his speech.
Soundtrack
Main article: Friday Night Lights (soundtrack)

The soundtrack for the film predominantly features post-rock band Explosions in the Sky. Music by Daniel Lanois and rock band Bad Company are also included. The pump up song that is featured as the team runs through the tunnel in the game against Dallas Carter is "New Noise" by the seminal Swedish punk band Refused. Also, during the start of the third quarter during the Championship game, the song "I Wanna Be Your Dog" by The Stooges is used.

Laura bush killed a guy want to know more about it

Laura Lane Welch Bush (born November 4, 1946) is the wife of the forty-third President of the United States, George W. Bush, and was the First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2009.

Mrs. Bush has had a love for books and reading since childhood, and her life and education have reflected that interest. She graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1968 with a Bachelor's degree in education, and soon took a job as a second grade school teacher. After attaining her Master's degree in Library Science at the University of Texas at Austin, she was employed as a librarian. She met George Walker Bush in 1977, and they were married later that year; in 1981, the couple had twin daughters.

Bush's political involvement began with her marriage. She campaigned in her husband's unsuccessful 1978 run for the United States Congress and later his successful Texas gubernatorial campaign. As First Lady of Texas, Bush implemented many initiatives focused on health, education, and literacy. In 1999, she aided her husband in campaigning for the presidency of the United States in a number of ways, most notably delivering a keynote address at the 2000 Republican National Convention; this gained her national attention. She became first lady after her husband defeated Democrat Al Gore in the 2000 election.

Polled by Gallup as one of the most popular first ladies, Laura Bush was involved in topics of both national and global concern during her tenure. She continued to advance her trademark interests of education and literacy by establishing the annual National Book Festival in 2001 and encouraged education on a worldwide scale. She also advanced women's causes through The Heart Truth and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She represented the United States during her foreign trips, which tended to focus on HIV/AIDS and malaria awareness.

Early life and career

Laura Lane Welch was born in Midland, Texas, as the only child of Harold Welch (1912–1995) and Jenna Louise Hawkins Welch (born 1919). Her father was a home builder and later successful real estate developer while her mother worked as the bookkeeper for her father's business. Early on, her parents encouraged her to read, leading to what would become her love of reading. She said, "I learned [how important reading is] at home from my mother. When I was a little girl, my mother would read stories to me. I have loved books and going to the library ever since. In the summer, I liked to spend afternoons reading in the library. I enjoyed the Little House on the Prairie books and Little Women, and many others... Reading gives you enjoyment throughout your life."[4]

She attended James Bowie Elementary School, San Jacinto Junior High School, and Midland Lee High School in Midland. She graduated from Lee in 1964 and went on to attend Southern Methodist University in Dallas where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta. She graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in education.

After graduating from SMU, she began her career as a school teacher of the second grade at Longfellow Elementary School in the Dallas Independent School District. She then taught for three years at John F. Kennedy Elementary School, a Houston Independent School District school in Houston, until 1972.

In 1973, Welch attained a Master of Science degree in Library Science from the University of Texas at Austin. She was soon employed as a librarian at the Kashmere Gardens Branch at the Houston Public Library. The following year, she moved back to Austin and took another job as a librarian in the Austin Independent School District school Dawson Elementary until 1977. She reflected upon her employment experiences to a group of children in 2003, saying, "I worked as a teacher and librarian and I learned how important reading is in school and in life.

Marriage and family

She met George W. Bush in 1977 at a backyard barbecue at the home of mutual friends, John and Jan O'Neill. After a three-month courtship, he proposed to her and they were married on November 5 of that year[8] at the First United Methodist Church in Midland, the same church in which she had been baptized. The couple did not have a honeymoon. The year after their marriage, the couple began campaigning for George W. Bush's 1978 Congressional candidacy. After narrowly winning the primary, he lost the general election.

The Bushes had tried to conceive for three years, but pregnancy did not happen easily. In 1981, Laura Bush gave birth to twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna. The twins were born five weeks early by an emergency Caesarian section, as Laura had developed life-threatening pre-eclampsia (toxemia). The twins graduated from high school in 2000 and from Yale University and the University of Texas at Austin, respectively, in 2004. To date, Laura Bush is the only First Lady to give birth to twins.

George W. Bush credited his wife with his decision to stop drinking in 1986. She is also credited with having a stabilizing effect on his private life. According to People magazine reporter Jane Simms Podesta, "She is the steel in his back. She is a civilizing influence on him. I think she built him, in many ways, into the person he is today.

Several times a year, Laura Bush and her husband travel to their sprawling family estate, the Bush Compound, better known as Walker's Point. Located in Kennebunkport, Maine, the compound is where Bush family gatherings have been held for nearly 100 years.

First Lady of Texashough during her years in the Governor's Mansion, she did not hold a single formal event, Laura worked for women's and children's causes including health, education, and literacy. She implemented four major initiatives: Take Time For Kids, an awareness campaign to educate parents and caregivers on parenting; family literacy, through cooperation with the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, she urged Texas communities to establish family literacy programs; Reach Out and Read, a pediatric reading program; and Ready to Read, an early childhood educational program.

She raised money for public libraries through her establishment of the Texas Book Festival, and established the First Lady's Family Literacy Initiative, which encouraged families to read together Bush further established "Rainbow Rooms" across the state, in an effort to provide emergency services for neglected or abused children. Through this, she promoted the Adopt-a-Caseworker Program to provide support for Child Protective Services. She used her position to advocate Alzheimer's disease and breast cancer awareness as well.

Her husband announced his campaign for President of the United States in mid-1999, something that she agreed to. She did say, however, that she had never dreamed that he would run for office. She had previously told him that she would not give a speech, but reneged on that promise that July as she delivered a keynote address to the delegates at the 2000 Republican National Convention. This speech put her on the national stage. In December 2000, her husband resigned as Governor of Texas to prepare for his inauguration as President of the United States in January 2001.

Bush became the First Lady of Texas when her husband was elected as the Governor of Texas and served as first lady of that state from January 17, 1995, to December 21, 2000. Asked about her interest in politics, she responded, "It doesn't drive me.

First Lady of the United States

As First Lady, Laura Bush was involved in issues of concern to children and women, both nationally and internationally. Her major initiatives included education and women's health.

Education and children
The First Lady shares a laugh with fifth graders in Des Moines, Iowa, 2005

Early into the administration, Bush made it known that she would focus much of her attention on education. This included recruiting highly qualified teachers to ensure that young children would be taught well. She also focused on early child development. In 2001, to promote reading and education, she partnered with the Library of Congress to launch the annual National Book Festival. To promote American patriotic heritage in schools, she helped launch the National Anthem Project.

Immediately following the September 11, 2001 attacks; Bush spoke regarding America's children:

"We need to reassure our children that they are safe in their homes and schools. We need to reassure them that many people love them and care for them, and that while there are some bad people in the world, there are many more good people.

he following day, she composed open letters to America's families, focusing on elementary and middle school students, which she distributed through state education officials. She took an interest in mitigating the emotional effects of the attacks on children, particularly the disturbing images repeatedly replayed on television. On the one-year anniversary, she encouraged parents to instead read to their children, and perhaps light a candle in memoriam, saying, "Don't let your children see the images, especially on September 11, when you know it'll probably be on television again and again — the plane hitting the building or the buildings falling.

Later in her tenure, she was honored by the United Nations, as the body named her honorary ambassador for the United Nation's Decade of Literacy. In this position, she announced that she would host a Conference on Global Literacy. The conference, held in September 2006, encouraged a constant effort to promote literacy and highlighted many successful literacy programs. She coordinated this as a result of her many trips abroad where she witnessed how literacy benefited children in poorer nations.

Women's health

Another of her signature issues were those relating to the health and well being of women. She established the Women's Health and Wellness Initiative and became involved with two major campaigns.
Laura Bush attends a Heart Truth event, February 15, 2006

She first became involved with The Heart Truth awareness campaign in 2003. It is an organization established by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to raise awareness about heart disease in women, and how to prevent the condition. She serves in the honorary position of ambassador for the program leading the federal government's effort to give women a "wake up call" about the risk of heart disease. She commented on the disease: "Like many women, I assumed heart disease was a man's disease and cancer was what we would fear the most. Yet heart disease kills more women in our country than all forms of cancer combined. When it comes to heart disease, education, prevention, and even a little red dress can save lives. She has undertaken a signature personal element of traveling around the country and talking to women at hospital and community events featuring the experiences of women who live, or had lived, with the condition.[25] This outreach was credited with saving the life of one woman who went to the hospital after experiencing symptoms of a heart attack.

With her predecessor, former First Lady Nancy Reagan, Bush dedicated the First Ladies Red Dress Collection at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in May 2005. It is an exhibit containing red suits worn by former First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush meant to raise awareness by highlighting America's first ladies. She has participated in fashion shows displaying red dresses worn on celebrities as well.

Bush's mother, Jenna Welch, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 78. She endured surgery and currently has no further signs of cancer. Laura Bush has become a breast cancer activist on her mother's behalf through her involvement in the Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She applauded the foundation's efforts in eliminating cancer and said, "A few short years ago, a diagnosis of breast cancer left little hope of recovery. But thanks to the work of the Komen Foundation... more women and men are beating breast cancer and beating the odds. She used her position to gain international support for the foundation through the Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research of the Americas, an initiative that unites experts from the United States, Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico.

Popularity and style

Laura Bush's approval ratings have consistently ranked very high. In January 2006, a USA Today/CBS/Gallup poll recorded her approval rating at 82 percent and disapproval at 13 percent. That places Bush as one of the most popular first ladies. Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said, "She is more popular, and more welcome, in many parts of the country than the president... In races where the moderates are in the most trouble, Laura Bush is the one who can do the most good.

In November 2001, she became the first person other than a president to deliver the weekly presidential radio address. She used the opportunity to discuss the plight of women in Afghanistan during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, saying, "The brutal oppression of women is a central goal of the terrorists. In May 2002, she made a speech to the people of Afghanistan through Radio Liberty, a radio station in Prague, Czech Republic.


She disagreed with Fox News' Chris Wallace in 2006 when Wallace asked why the American people are beginning to lose confidence in President Bush, saying, "Well, I don't think they are. And I don't really believe those polls. I travel around the country, I see people, I see their response to my husband, I see their response to me. There are a lot of difficult challenges right now in the United States... All of those decisions that the President has to make surrounding each one of these very difficult challenges are hard. They're hard decisions to make. And of course some people are unhappy about what some of those decisions are. But I think people know that he is doing what he thinks is right for the United States, that he's doing what he — especially in the war on terror, what he thinks he is obligated to do for the people in the United States, and that is to protect them... When his polls were really high they weren't on the front page.

During the January 2005 second inauguration ceremonies for her husband, Laura Bush was looked highly upon by People magazine, The Washington Post, and others for her elegance and fashion sense. At the inauguration she wore a winter white cashmere dress and matching coat designed by Oscar de la Renta. Following the inauguration were the inaugural galas, to which Bush wore a pale, aqua lace gown, sprinkled with crystals, with long sleeves in a silver blue mist. The tulle gown was also designed for her by de la Renta. According to The Washington Post, It made her look radiant and glamorous.

Foreign trips
Laura Bush talks with Raphael Lungo of Zambia as a part of her 2007 African trip


During President George W. Bush's second term, Laura was more involved in foreign matters. She traveled to numerous countries as a representative of the United States.

As First Lady, she took five goodwill trips to Africa.The purpose of these has mostly been to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and malaria, but Bush has also stressed the need for education and greater opportunities for women. She has taken many other trips to other countries to promote and gain support for President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief; these countries include Zambia (2007), Mozambique (2007),[42] Mali (2007), Senegal (2007), and Haiti (2008).

n mid-2007, she took a trip to Burma where she spoke out in support of the pro-democracy movement, and urged Burmese soldiers and militias to refrain from violence. Later that October, she ventured to the Middle East. Bush said she was in the region in an attempt to improve America's image by highlighting concern for women's health, specifically promoting her breast cancer awareness work with the US-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research. She defined the trip as successful, saying that stereotypes were broken on both sides.

Views on policy

Bush is a Republican and has identified herself with that party since her marriage. Her views on matters are generally conservative.

When asked about abortion in 2000, Bush said she doesn't believe that Roe v. Wade should be overturned. She did not comment on whether women had the right to an abortion. She did say, however, that the country should do "what we can to limit the number of abortions, to try to reduce the number of abortions in a lot of ways, and that is, by talking about responsibility with girls and boys, by teaching abstinence, having abstinence classes everywhere in schools and in churches and in Sunday school.

Bush responded to a question during a 2006 interview concerning the Federal Marriage Amendment by calling for elected leaders not to politicize same-sex marriage: "I don't think it should be used as a campaign tool, obviously. It requires a lot of sensitivity to just talk about the issue... a lot of sensitivity.

On July 12, 2005, while in South Africa, Bush suggested her husband replace retiring Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor with another woman. On October 2, during a private dinner at the White House with Laura, President Bush asked Harriet Miers to replace O'Connor. Later that month, after Miers had faced intense criticism, Laura Bush questioned whether the charges were sexist in nature.

Traffic incident

In 1963, then 17 years old, Laura Welch ran a stop sign resulting in a fatal car accident.The driver of the other car was her classmate Michael Dutton Douglas, her 17-year-old former boyfriend, who was killed.

In May 2000, the two-page police report detailing the fatal crash was made public in response to an open-records request. The report revealed that on November 6, 1963, Welch was driving her Chevrolet Impala sedan with one passenger (Judy Dykes, also 17). It was a clear Wednesday night, shortly after 8 p.m., when Welch entered the intersection of State Highway 349 and Farm to Market Road 868 (now Loop 250) (at 32.04362300°N 102.08530400°W). Welch failed to observe the intersection's stop sign and collided into Douglas' Chevrolet Corvair sedan. Welch and Dykes sustained minor injuries; Douglas was pronounced dead on arrival at Midland Memorial Hospital. Welch was not ticketed or charged in connection with the collision. According to the accident report released by the city of Midland, neither driver was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and no charges were filed.

Awards and honors

During her tenure as the First Lady, Laura Bush received a number of awards and honors. In October 2002, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity honored her in recognition of her efforts on behalf of education and the American Library Association honored her for her years of support to America's libraries and librarians in April 2005. The Progressive Librarians Guild opposed her being honored, because of her support of the USA PATRIOT Act and her cancellation of a poetry forum due to concern that some of the poets would express opposition to the war in Iraq.

She received an award in honor of her dedication to help improve the living conditions and education of children around the world, from the Kuwait-American Foundation in March 2006. She accepted The Nichols-Chancellor's Medal on behalf of disaster relief workers around the world in May 2006 from Vanderbilt University.

Three learning facilities have been named for her: the Laura Welch Bush Elementary School in Houston, Texas, the Laura W. Bush Elementary School in the Leander ISD just outside Austin, Texas. and the Laura Bush Education Center at Camp Bondsteel, a U.S. military base in Kosovo. She was awarded the 2008 Christian Freedom International Freedom Award.

She is portrayed by Elizabeth Banks in Oliver Stone's film W.

Curtis Sittenfeld's bestseller novel "American Wife" is based on much of Laura Bush's life.

Jerry lewis telethon 2009 want to know more about it

Jerry lewis telethon
The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon (also known as The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon) is hosted by actor and comedian, Jerry Lewis to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). It has been held annually since 1966.

As of 2007, the telethon had raised $1.46 billion since its inception. It is held on Labor Day weekend, starting on the Sunday evening preceding Labor Day and continuing until late Monday afternoon, syndicated to approximately 190 television stations throughout the United States.

In recent years, the telethon generally runs live for 21 hours, from 9PM ET to 6PM ET, though actual start and end times may vary by station. MDA calls its network of participating stations the "Love Network". The show has originated from Las Vegas for 23 of the 40 years it has aired.


History

Lewis began hosting telethons to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America in 1952 after a plea from a staff member who worked on Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis' editions of the Colgate Comedy Hour. The shows first originated from a variety of locations in New York City in 1954, as local telethons seen exclusively on WABD-TV Channel 5 (later WNEW-TV, now WNYW). After Lewis conducted many 4 hour shows in the NY area to benefit the organization, the idea of a big Telethon came about. The organization (MDAA) approached Lewis to host the big event and he agreed. Organizers of the telethon chose Labor Day weekend as it was the only time available to hold the event. Many expected that the Labor Day broadcast would fail with many people out of town or away from their TVs on Labor Day weekend. Even New York City officials were skeptical that it would succeed, which made them reluctant to issue them a fund-raising permit. Nevertheless, in 1966, the first Labor Day telethon—a 19-hour affair—was so successful that Lewis had to paint a "1" on the 6-digit tote board when the final tote reached $1,002,114. The show repeated its success in 1967 raising $1,126,846. In 1968, after word of mouth of the success and stars appearing on the show, the "Love Network" was created when four other stations picked up the telethon -- WHEC-TV in Rochester, WGR in Buffalo, WTEV in Providence and WKBG in Boston. However, they met some opposition from the Theater Authority, an organization that represented theatrical-related labor unions, in which their permission is required before the representing talent can perform without charge. That year, permission was granted for talent to appear on the small telethon "network". The addition of the other stations helped raise the total to $1,401,876.

While they originally intended for the entire telethon to be seen, with the obligatory local pauses for station identification, WHEC chose to break in a few minutes every hour to show local volunteers in Rochester taking calls, and, as a result, WHEC had higher proceeds than the other "Love Network" stations. This is how the local cutaway was born. From here on, every Telethon had cutaways and other Telethon events used this formula as well. By 1970, the telethon was seen nationwide on 64 stations; that year's edition was also the first coast-to-coast telethon, when it added Los Angeles to its station roster. It was also the year the Theater Authority lifted its ban on nationwide telethons. Proceeds this year came to $5,093,385. The show continued to gain popularity and huge stars throughout the next 2 years. Then, in 1973, with 150 "Love Network" stations in tow, the telethon moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where it originated at the Sahara Hotel. It was also the year the telethon broke the $10 million mark, with its final tote being $12,395,973. However, the tote board, which was operated on a solari board, only had seven digits (to just under $10 million), so Jerry repeated his 1966 stunt of painting the "1" on the left after Ed came yelling off stage saying "I have a brush, and I have some paint...". The following year, an additional solari number flipper was added to the current seven digits, which would allow for displaying to just under $100 million.

In 1976, the "Love Network" grew to 213 stations; it was also the year of the reunion of Jerry and his former partner, Dean Martin, which was arranged by a frequent telethon guest, Frank Sinatra. Jerry Lewis anchored the entire broadcast—which would eventually expand to 21 1/2 hours—from its inception until 1983, when he rested for a few hours offstage after undergoing bypass surgery the year before. Lewis still continued to host at least 16 hours of his telethon until 1999 (a year when he would suffer from various medical issues) when he would appear for the first five hours and the last five hours of the telecast, with an extended pre-recorded segment presented during late-night hours, and other celebrities filling in for Lewis and Ed McMahon during the morning hours. Co-hosts have included talk show host Larry King, comedians Norm Crosby, Elayne Boosler, Bob Zany, TV personalities Chad Everett, David Hartman, Casey Kasem, Jann Carl, Leeza Gibbons, John Tesh, veteran singers Tony Orlando, Julius LaRosa (who began co-hosting for Jerry in remote locations since 1975), Sammy Davis Jr., and many others. During the telethon's Las Vegas years in the 1970s and 1980s, the show originated at the Sahara until 1982 when it moved to a bigger space at Caesars Palace. The show continued there until 1989 when it originated from the Cashman Center in Las Vegas - the first and only time it was transmitted from a non-hotel in Las Vegas. In 1990, the telethon originated from the Aquarius Theater in Los Angeles, then returned to Las Vegas and the Sahara Hotel until 1995 when it moved again to Southern California, to the CBS studios for 9 years and then in 2005 to Beverly Hills.

In 1998, MDA's all star landmark show became the first to be broadcast on the Internet by RealNetworks on the association's website. After the telethon, the site features a special highlights reel of the telethon for that year.

The telethon returned to Las Vegas in 2006 at the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa (which was the South Coast its first year there), and has remained there through the 2009 telethon.

In 2009, the telethon extended its coverage to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, offering additional information and behind-the scenes material for followers of these services.

Ed McMahon

Ed McMahon was Lewis' long-time co-host. Ed McMahon was involved with the telethon beginning in 1967 and co-hosted the telethon with Jerry from 1973 through 2008. Similar to his regular position as co-host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, McMahon was Lewis' co-host, announcing the intros and outros of each segment, welcoming corporate and charitable sponsors with their donations, and of course, calling for a roll of a timpani drum for each million dollar mark passed on the tote board.

The trend of taking a break during the telethon was started in 1985 by McMahon. As with Lewis, McMahon would also appear only when Lewis appears, with his duties as co-host filled in by others.

Ed McMahon died June 23, 2009. The 2009 edition of the telethon paid tribute to McMahon with a special video tribute narrated by Lewis, which played during the first hour of the show. Following the tribute, Lewis introduced McMahon's wife, Pamela, who was in the audience.

Current scheduling

In recent years, more "Love Network" stations over the years have opted not to show the entire telethon, opting to join the show in progress after the 11PM/10PM local news, or even on Labor Day morning, after the network morning shows, while some break from the coverage during the afternoon to show sports, such as CBS' coverage of the U.S. Open.

One such station is Chicago's WGN-TV, which, since the 1970s, pre-empted the afternoon segment of the telethon for Chicago Cubs or Chicago White Sox baseball (except for the 1994 telethon, due to the baseball strike). In another case, some use a sister station affiliated with either The CW, MyNetworkTV or an independent to show the telethon start, and/or air the station's network programming while the telethon station continues to air the telethon; this is the case with CBS affiliate WDJT in Milwaukee and its independent sister station WMLW-CA, which in 2007 aired the first four hours of the telethon during CBS prime time, then aired U.S. Open coverage on Labor Day to allow WDJT to carry the telethon. In Pittsburgh, WPXI carried the telethon, while sending NBC's coverage of the Deutsche Bank Championship golf tournament to independent station WBGN-LP.

Theme songs

* Since the show's inception, its theme has been Smile, a song from Charlie Chaplin's 1936 film, Modern Times.

* The telethon's toteboard theme song is an instrumental version of Burt Bacharach's What The World Needs Now Is Love (1965). It was used from 1970 through 1989 in different arrangements. At the show's 25th Anniversary in 1990, it wasn't used, but returned for the 1991 edition back in Las Vegas. In 1992, the song was replaced by various orchestral fanfares to give the show a fresh effect, but it returned in 1996 at Lewis' request. It remained the tote theme since then, though the 2008 edition used the song only for the final tote while a generic fanfare marked the others.

* The song Jerry Lewis perennially sings to conclude the event, You'll Never Walk Alone, was originally written for the 1945 Broadway musical play, Carousel by Rodgers and Hammerstein. According to Lewis' account at the end of the 2007 telethon, the song was suggested to him in 1964 by a disabled child, walking with a cane. It was suggested to Jerry as a song that would specifically represent physically disabled children.

Canada

Through the 1980s, there were also Canadian "Love Network" affiliates, whose telethon presentations there benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Canada, an organization unrelated to the American MDA, but used Jerry's US telethon for fund raising. The telethon also helped launch a new station—in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CKND-TV's first program on August 31, 1975 was Jerry's telethon.

Today, no Canadian station airs the telethon, though it is available on cable and satellite from WGN, as well as from border US stations. As of 2007, Muscular Dystrophy Canada continued to operate pledge call centers during the telethon to collect Canadian donations. The corporate donation segments still occasionally mention their Canadian donors, and WGN's telethon includes a number for Canadians to call to make a pledge, 1-800-567-CURE, which connects to the pledge center in Toronto. Most border stations would also show either the local pledge number for the Canadian portion of their viewing area, or the national Canadian number.

The final Canadian-based local broadcasts of the telethon aired from Ottawa in 2001. After this, MDC officials canceled the local broadcasts claiming cost savings. The Ottawa broadcasts were first hosted by CFRA radio's Ken Grant, who expressed concern that there would be fewer donations due to the loss of local broadcast features. Ottawa's telethon broadcasts were conducted for 31 years, most of which originated from the Skyline Hotel (later known as the Citadel Inn).

In French Canada, a province-wide telethon for MDA Canada was televised in Quebec in the late-1980s on the Radio-Québec network; first televised in 1987, this telethon was hosted by entertainer Michel Louvain.

Hurricanes Frances, Katrina and Gustav

Telethon tote board pledges for 2004 were down nearly 2%, to $59,398,915 (from $60,505,234 in 2003). Hurricane Frances had struck through most of the Florida peninsula late on September 5, during the telethon, significantly reducing pledges from the southeast United States. As many Florida stations devoted their air-time to coverage of Hurricane Frances, most Love Network stations in Florida cancelled the local segments of the telethon and either showed only parts of the telethon, moved the telethon to a digital subchannel, or not show the telethon at all. On a Saturday afternoon in early December 2004, some Florida Love Network stations showed a special three-hour telethon, as a way to recoup some of the lost pledges.

Telethon pledges were down another 7.5%, to $54,921,586 in 2005 due to significant Hurricane Katrina disaster relief efforts in New Orleans and throughout the region. That year, Jerry and his guests urged telethon viewers to also give donations to The Salvation Army and the American Red Cross. The MDA itself donated $1 million to The Salvation Army for hurricane relief efforts.

Prior to the hurricane-effected results of 2004 and 2005, the only other time the telethon raised less than the previous year was in 1982 ($28,400,000), during the recession of the early 1980s.[citation needed] One source said, however, that it was due to Jerry sitting out most of the telethon, due to his heart attack earlier. However the next year - 1983, the Telethon succeeded again in raising more money than its previous year and by 1984 was back to its record breaking pace.

In 2006, the final tote board tally was $61,013,855 as 5 major regional stations knocked out during previous telecast came back online. It was the first time since 2003 that the telethon raised more money than the previous year. In 2007, the telethon again raised more than any previous year, closing the show with tote board pledges totaling $63,759,478.

On Labor Day in 2008 (September 1, 2008), Hurricane Gustav struck the coast of Louisiana. Some Love Network affiliates in the affected area cancelled the telethon for safety and informational purposes. Meanwhile, in New Orleans, the local telethon segments on WNOL-TV were also postponed, with WGNO, the local producer (as well as WNOL's co-owner) urging those wanting to give to do so through "the national telethon". Nationally, Jerry Lewis mentioned Hurricane Gustav and wished those in the affected area, especially his "kids", luck. Neither he nor his guests made pleas for donations to The Salvation Army, contrary to a press release that said he would, although guest host Tom Bergeron did make a plea for donations to the Salvation Army during his hosting stint on the morning of September 1, as Gustav made landfall. However, with less than 10 minutes remaining in the 2008 telethon, the tote board update reflected an increase from the 2007 total, racking up $65,031,393 in donations, exceeding 2007's tote. Lewis had spoken about his concern at not making his goal of "one dollar more" due to economic conditions and Hurricane Gustav. When the tote board updated to show they'd gotten over 2007's total, he screamed three times, "I got it!"

Tote board

* The telethon's toteboards varied from year to year; in the 1970s it was operated on a Solari-board, consisting of seven (later eight) number flippers using a white background and black numbers. Instead of using blank numbers, all flippers began with zeros. This tote board was discontinued after 1989 and replaced with a new tote board, first operated with the "eggcrate" display common on game shows, then later to an LCD-type "vane" display. By 2003, the tote board was changed to a screen display.

* Elgin Watches was the sponsor of the telethon's toteboard as the "Official Timekeeper of the Telethon" in the late-1960s and early-1970s, at least during the telethon's New York years. From the mid-1970s to the early-1980s, Helbros was the toteboard sponsor. Since the early-1980s, the tote board had no dedicated sponsor, though some local stations continue to have a sponsor for their local tote boards.

Criticism

The MDA and Jerry Lewis have been criticized by disability rights activists for their tendency to paint disabled people as, these advocates say, "pitiable victims who want and need nothing more than a big charity to take care of or cure them. Critics argue that focusing the public's attention on medical cures to "normalize" disabled people fails to address issues like providing accessible buildings, transportation, employment opportunities and other civil rights for the disabled.

Disturbia movie want to know more about disturbia movie

Disturbia movie
Disturbia is a 2007 American thriller film directed by D.J. Caruso and executive produced by Ivan Reitman. It is an updated version of Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Rear Window. Disturbia stars Shia LaBeouf as a teenager who thinks he witnesses a murder when he was spying on his suspicious neighbor while serving house arrest.

Plot

Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf) is the only child of Daniel (Matt Craven), an author, and Juliet Brecht (Carrie-Anne Moss), a school administrator. Driving home with his father after a fishing trip, they are suddenly caught in a car accident that results in Daniel's death. A year later, a noticeably subtle Kale is reprimanded in high school Spanish class by his teacher Señor Gutierrez (Rene Rivera) for an incomplete assignment. He becomes enraged after at a mention of his father and punches his teacher in the face. Kale is subsequently charged with assault but is let go easy with three months house arrest after the judge takes pity on him.

Now fitted with an ankle monitor which prohibits him from roaming beyond the boundaries of his lawn, Kale keeps himself entertained by surveying his surrounding neighborhood with his binoculars and keeping track of their tendencies and schedules while dealing with the police officer assigned to him, who is coincidently Señor Gutierrez's cousin who treats him harshly in retaliation. Kale slowly becomes suspicious of Robert Turner (David Morse) after he returns home in a dented 1960s Ford Mustang, matching the description of the car owned by a brutal serial killer from Austin, Texas. Along with his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo), the two begin to snoop his house. His next-door neighbor, Ashley Carlson (Sarah Roemer), notices them and joins their investigation.

One night, a camera malfunction gives off Kale to Turner, who then flirts with his mother and subtly threatens him. That evening, Kale becomes jealous of boys flirting with Ashley at a party she is hosting next door and attempts to ruin the party by blaring Minnie Riperton's Lovin' You out his window at considerable volume. She angrily confronts him and his voyeurism habit. The two confess their attraction to each other and kiss.

The following afternoon, Kale and Ronnie decide to break into Turner's car parked outside after witnessing him put a bloody blue bag inside the previous night while he is at a tool store buying a shovel. They fail to find the bag but manage to get Turner's garage door opener code. A few hours later, Ronnie realizes that he left his cellphone in the car and enters Turner's garage to retrieve it, fitted with a portable camera hooked up to Kale's television. He finds it and the bag but the garage door suddenly shuts and the camera turns off. Kale runs out of his house to rescue his friend, and by crossing the invisible barrier around his home, alerts the police. They arrest him for violating house arrest but search the Turner house to verify Kale's suspicions. The officers on the scene find the blue bag and open it to reveal the carcass of a deer that Turner had hit on the highway, explaining why he was purchasing a shovel. Now facing trial in the morning for twice violating terms, Kale's mother goes to talk to Turner in the hope of avoiding criminal charges. Adding insult to injury, Kale later finds the missing Ronnie hiding cowardly in his closet to avoid being caught by the police. Kale watches the recording of his friend's escape, but notices something Ronnie himself didn't see while he was fleeing: the face of a dead woman in a plastic bag, stuffed behind an air vent. At the same time, Kale's mother is suddenly attacked by Turner and taken into the depths of the home.

Turner then breaks into Kale's house, knocks out Ronnie with a baseball bat and after a struggle knocks out Kale and binds and gags him with duct tape. He reveals to Kale that he plans on framing him for the murders of both Ronnie and his mother, taking advantage of his unstable behavior over the past year. Kale is forced to write a suicide note to Ashley, but Turner is distracted when Ashley enters the room suddenly, giving Kale an opportunity to escape. After Ashley unties Kale and the pair escape, Kale orders Ashley to call the police while he rescues his mother. Upon searching Turner's house, Kale finds evidence that Turner murdered the women he dated, and staged their exits from his house by dressing up in their clothes and wearing wigs. Meanwhile, Officer Gutierrez enters the house and is killed by Turner, but not before calling for backup. Kale eventually finds his mother tied up in Turner's basement, which is full of female corpses in various stages of decay. Turner returns after Kale frees his mother, but Kale manages to kill the murderer by stabbing him with a pair of garden shears and pushing him into a hole full of dead bodies. Kale and his mother exit the house scratched and bruised.

The next morning, Kale is released from house arrest for "good behavior". He gets revenge on neighborhood kids who pranked him twice throughout the movie by revealing their covert viewing of adult films to their mother. The movie concludes with a bruised Ronnie videotaping Kale and Ashley kissing.

Cast

Shia LaBeouf as Kale Brecht, a 17 year old high school junior. Carouso auditioned over hundred males for the role in five weeks before settling on LaBeouf as he was looking for someone "who guys would really like and respond to, because he wasn’t going to be such a pretty boy". LaBeouf was attracted to the role because of the director's 2002 film The Salton Sea, which he complimented as one of his favorite films. Before filming started, the two watched the thriller films Rear Window, Straw Dogs and The Conversation starring Gene Hackman. They also viewed the 1989 romantic film Say Anything... and "mixed all the movies together.

LaBeouf says he spoke to people on house arrest and locked himself in a room with the bracelet to feel. He commented in an interview, "it’s hard. I’m not going to say it’s harder than jail, but it’s tough. House arrest is hard because everything is available. The temptation sucks. That’s the torture of it. Carouso gave him the freedom to improvise whenever necessary to make the dialogue appeal to the current generation During filming, LaBeouf began a program that saw him gain twenty five pounds of muscle in preparation of his future films Transformers and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Sarah Roemer as Ashley Carlson, the love interest of Kale.
Aaron Yoo as RonnieKale's best friend

David Morse as Robert Turner, the serial killer across the street from Kale's home. To prepare for his role, Morse barely spoke to LaBeouf, Roemer and Yoo onset.
Carrie-Anne Moss as Julie Brecht
Matt Craven as Daniel Brecht
Rene Rivera as Senor Gutierrez
Jose Pablo Cantillo as Officer Gutierrez
Viola Davis as Detective Parker


Production

Disturbia was filmed on location in the cities of Whittier, California and Pasadena, California. Filming began on the morning of January 6, 2006 and ended on April 28, 2006. The homes of Kale and Mr. Turner, which were supposed to be across from each other, were actually located in two different cities. Most of the movie was filmed in Whittier, California.

Reception
Box office performance

Disturbia was released on April 13 in the United States and opened at #1 in its first week at the box office with $23 million. Despite a 10 million decrease in its second week, it remained on top of the box office. In it's third week, it held on with $9.1 million. In it's fourth week, it earned $5.7 million and finished second behind the record-breaking Spider-Man 3.

Reviews

On the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 165 reviews, with the consensus that the film is "a tense, subtle thriller with a noteworthy performance from Shia LaBeouf". On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 62 out of 100, based on 28 reviews.

The film earned a "two thumbs up" rating from Richard Roeper and A.O. Scott (filling in for Roger Ebert), with Roeper saying, "This is a cool little thriller with big scares and fine performances." However, many have criticized the change of atmosphere two-thirds of the way into the film, when the initial pacing and action morphs into that of a "run-of-the-mill slasher horror film".

The film won 3 Teen Choice Awards including Choice Movie: Horror/Thriller, Choice Movie: Breakout Male (Shia LaBeouf) and Choice Movie Actor: Horror/Thriller (Shia LaBeouf) .

Controversy and lawsuit

The Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust filed a lawsuit against DreamWorks, its parent company Viacom, and Universal Studios on September 5, 2008. The suit alleged that Disturbia infringed on the rights to Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder" (the basis for the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window), and that DreamWorks never bothered to obtain motion picture rights to the intellectual property and evaded compensating the rights holder for the alleged appropriation. (Ownership of the copyright in Woolrich's original story "It Had to Be Murder" and its use as the basis for the movie Rear Window was previously litigated before the United States Supreme Court in Stewart v. Abend, 495 U.S. 207 (1990).)

Home media release

The film was released on DVD and HD DVD on August 7, 2007 and on Blu-ray Disc on March 15, 2008.

Richard seymour want to know more about richard seymour

Richard seymour
Richard Vershaun Seymour (born October 6, 1979 in Gadsden, South Carolina) is an American football defensive end for the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League. He was drafted sixth overall by the Patriots in the 2001 NFL Draft. He played college football at Georgia.

Seymour has played in five Pro Bowls, has been named to four All-Pro teams, and has been a member of three Super Bowl-winning Patriots teams. Some have considered Seymour to be the best defensive lineman in the NFL. He has also been described as the best #6 overall draft pick of all time.

Seymour has gone to the Pro Bowl both as a 4-3 defensive tackle and as a 3-4 defensive end. He has also occasionally played fullback on short yardage and goal line situations. However, Seymour hasn't seen work as a fullback since suffering a knee injury on a one-yard Corey Dillon touchdown run against the San Diego Chargers in September 2005.

Early years

At Lower Richland High School in Hopkins, South Carolina, Seymour won first team All-Region honors, won first team All-Area honors, and as a senior, was voted the team's best defensive lineman, was a team captain, won an All-Area Player of the Week award, led his team to four All-Area Team of the Week honors, and finished the season with 8 sacks and 83 tackles.

College career

Seymour played college football at the University of Georgia and was part of a defensive line that consisted of four future first-round draft picks: Seymour, current Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Marcus Stroud, New Orleans Saints defensive end Charles Grant, and former Patriots teammate Johnathan Sullivan.

A housing and consumer economics major, Seymour was a four-year letterman at Georgia (1997-2000) who played in 41 games for the Bulldogs, starting 25. He finished his career with 223 tackles (106 solos), 9.5 sacks, 25.5 tackles for losses and 35 quarterback pressures.

He was selected two times to the All-Southeastern Conference first-team (1999-2000). As a senior Seymour was named All-American first-team selection by the American Football Coaches Association and Walter Camp, and was selected by The Sporting News for their second team.

Seymour appeared in nine games during his 1997 freshman year at right defensive tackle and made two tackles and had a quarterback pressure. He also appeared in every game in 1998 as a sophomore and made 4 starts. He finished fourth on the team with 69 tackles (32 solos) and had 4 sacks and 14 quarterback pressures.

In 1999, as a junior, Seymour started all 11 games at right defensive tackle and led the team with 74 tackles (38 solos), including 10 tackles-for-loss, four sacks and seven quarterback pressures. He also picked of a pass. He was named SEC defensive player of the week for his performance against the South Carolina Gamecocks. In that contest he collected six tackles (5 solos), including a pair of sacks, three stops for minus 12 yards and a pressure that resulted in an interception in a 24-6 victory.

As a senior, Seymour started ten games at right defensive tackle, recording 78 tackles (35 solos) and a team-leading 10.5 tackles for loss, and 1-1/2 sacks plus 13 quarterback pressures. He earned SEC player of the week honors following his performance versus the Tennessee Volunteers.

Professional career
2001–02 seasons

Seymour was drafted by the Patriots in the first round (sixth overall) of the 2001 NFL Draft. On July 24, 2001, the Patriots signed Seymour to a six-year, $14.3 million contract. He played in 13 games in his 2001 rookie season, starting 10 of them, amassing three sacks mainly as a 4-3 defensive tackle. Seymour missed the season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals as well as two late October games with a leg injury. In Super Bowl XXXVI, Seymour started at defensive tackle and earned a Super Bowl ring for the Patriots' victory over the St. Louis Rams.

The 2002 season saw Seymour starting all 16 games at 4-3 defensive tackle in his second season in the NFL, collecting 5.5 sacks and an interception en route to his first Pro Bowl appearance. Seymour also had a presence on special teams, blocking field goals in back-to-back November games against the Oakland Raiders and Minnesota Vikings.

2003–04 seasons

With the Patriots defense moving to a 3-4 in 2003, Seymour moved outside to defensive end in the scheme and was also named a defensive team captain for the first time in his career. Despite missing a game against the Denver Broncos in October due to a leg injury, Seymour finished with a career-high eight sacks and 57 tackles in 15 games played (14 starts). He was twice named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week, after blocked field goals against the Miami Dolphins in Week 7 and the Tennessee Titans in the divisional playoffs. Seymour and the Patriots would go to win their second championship in three years, defeating the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Seymour was elected to the 2004 Pro Bowl and was a first-team All-Pro selection following the season.

Seymour started all 15 games he played in during the 2004 season, but missed the final regular season and first two playoff games against the Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers after injuring the MCL in his right knee in Week 16. He also recorded the first touchdown of his career on a 68-yard fumble return against the Buffalo Bills in Week 4. Seymour's tackle and sack numbers dipped slightly from the previous season to 39 tackles and five sacks, but he was still named to his third consecutive Pro Bowl and was again a first-team All-Pro choice. Seymour earned his third Super Bowl win with a Patriots victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX, a game he started.

2005–07 seasons

Entering the final year of his rookie contract, Seymour held out of the 2005 offseason minicamps and missed the first four days of training camp in hopes of securing a new contract. While the Patriots did not fulfill Seymour's request, they did give him a pay raise for the 2005 season in order to end his holdout. In April 2006, Seymour signed a three-year, $30 million contract extension through the 2009 season.

Seymour's 2005 season began with the defensive end recording two sacks and averaging more than five tackles in the first four games before Seymour suffered a left knee injury playing fullback in a goal line situation against the San Diego Chargers in Week 4. He missed the next four games, returning on November 13. Seymour finished the season with four sacks and 46 tackles, and was named to his third-consecutive first-team All-Pro team as well as his fourth consecutive Pro Bowl, which he did not play in due to injury.

The 2006 season became the third straight in which Seymour would have to endure an injury; a left elbow injury suffered in Week 7 lingered throughout the season and cost Seymour a start in Week 8, but Seymour still appeared in all 16 regular season games and the playoffs. Seymour was fined $7,500 by the NFL for stepping on Indianapolis Colts offensive lineman Tarik Glenn during a November 5, 2006 game. Seymour was reportedly angered that Glenn was diving for Seymour's knees. Regardless, Seymour professed his regret for the incident and stated he would apologize to Glenn at their next meeting. Seymour, who also had a groin injury and admitted he wasn't 100 percent, tallied four sacks, 40 tackles, and a blocked field goal on the season. He was named to the 2007 Pro Bowl, his fifth straight, and was a second-team All-Pro selection. However, he did not play in the Pro Bowl for the second straight season.

In the 2007 offseason, Seymour had surgery on the left knee he had originally injured more than two years prior, an injury he said had hampered his conditioning and play during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. The surgery kept Seymour out of training camp and the preseason, and eventually the Patriots decided to keep Seymour on the Physically Unable to Perform list, keeping him out at least the first six weeks of the regular season. Seymour was activated from the PUP on October 27, and played the balance of the regular season and the playoffs, including Super Bowl XLIII, a loss to the New York Giants. Recording 23 tackles and 1.5 sacks, Seymour was not named to the Pro Bowl or the All-Pro team for the first time since his rookie season.

2008 season

The 2008 season proved to be a much healthier one for Seymour, who started the first 15 games, only to miss to the season finale against the Buffalo Bills with a back injury. Seymour tied his career high of eight sacks, recorded 52 tackles, but for the second straight season was not named to the Pro Bowl or All-Pro teams.
2009 season

On September 6, 2009, Seymour was traded to the Oakland Raiders for a first-round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft

Van jones resigns want to know more about van jones resigns

van jones resigns
Anthony "Van" Jones (born September 20, 1968) is the former Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Appointed by Barack Obama in March 2009, the newly created position found Jones working with various "agencies and departments to advance the administration's climate and energy initiatives, with a special focus on improving vulnerable communities. Jones resigned from the position on September 5, 2009 amidst a controversy regarding statements he made and political activities before his White House employment.

Jones is an environmental advocate, civil rights activist, attorney and author. He founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in 1996, a California NGO working for alternatives to violence. In 2005, Jones co-founded Color of Change, an advocacy group for African Americans. Formerly based in Oakland, California, Jones founded Green For All in 2007, a national NGO dedicated to "building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. His first book, The Green Collar Economy, was released on October 7, 2008, and reached number 12 on the New York Times bestseller list.

In 2008, Time magazine named Jones one of its "Environmental Heroes." Fast Company called him one of the "12 Most Creative Minds of 2008.

Early life

Jones and his twin sister Angela were born in 1968 in Jackson, Tennessee. Their mother was a teacher at a high school and their father was a principal at a junior high school. Jones's sister says that as a child he was "the stereotypical geek—he just kind of lived up in his head a lot. He has described his own childhood behavior as "bookish and bizarre. His grandfather was a leader of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and Jones sometimes accompanied his grandfather to religious conferences, where he would sit all day listening to the adults "in these hot, sweaty black churches". Jones was a young fan of John and Bobby Kennedy and pinned them to a corkboard in his room in the specially delineated "Kennedy Section." He used to imagine his Star Wars action figures were politicians: Luke Skywalker was JFK, Han Solo was RFK, and Lando Calrissian was MLK. He graduated from Jackson Central-Merry High School in 1986. Jones earned his B.A. from the University of Tennessee at Martin. Before entering law school, Jones worked as an intern at the Jackson Sun (Tennessee), the Shreveport Times (Louisiana) and the Associated Press (Nashville bureau). He also helped to launch and spearhead a number of independent, campus-based publishing efforts. These publications included the Fourteenth Circle (University of Tennessee), the Periscope (Vanderbilt University), the New Alliance Project (state-wide in Tennessee), and the Third Eye (Nashville's African-American community). Jones credits UT Martin for preparing him for life on a global stage:
I left UT Martin confident that I could take on any challenge and do well at it if I studied hard and worked hard and kept my nose clean. I really do think you can get absolutely anywhere from UT Martin . . . because of the quality of caring and individual attention.

After graduating from University of Tennessee at Martin, Jones left his home state to attend Yale Law School. In 1993, Jones earned his J.D. and moved to San Francisco.


Social and environmental activism

Early activism

In 1992, while still a law student at Yale, Jones participated as a volunteer legal monitor for a protest of the Rodney King verdict in San Francisco. He and many other participants in the protest were arrested. The district attorney later dropped the charges against Jones. The arrested protesters, including Jones, won a small legal settlement. Jones later said that "the incident deepened my disaffection with the system and accelerated my political radicalization." Jones said he was "a rowdy nationalist" before the King verdict was announced. By August of that year, he said, "I was a communist. Jones's activism was also spurred on by witnessing racial inequality in New Haven: “I was seeing kids at Yale do drugs and talk about it openly, and have nothing happen to them or, if anything, get sent to rehab...And then I was seeing kids three blocks away, in the housing projects, doing the same drugs, in smaller amounts, go to prison.”

When he graduated law school, Jones gave up plans to take a job in Washington, D.C., and moved to San Francisco instead. He got involved with Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), a group explicitly committed to revolutionary Marxist politics whose points of unity were revolutionary democracy, revolutionary feminism, revolutionary internationalism, the central role of the working class, urban Marxism, and Third World Communism. While with STORM, Jones actively began protesting police brutality.

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

In 1995, Jones started Bay Area PoliceWatch, the region's only bar-certified hotline and lawyer-referral service for alleged victims claiming police abuse. The hotline started receiving fifteen calls a day. PoliceWatch began as a project of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. "We designed a computer database, the first of its kind in the country, that allows us to track problem officers, problem precincts, problem practices, so at the click of a mouse we can now identify trouble spots and troublemakers," says Jones "This has given us a tremendous advantage in trying to understand the scope and scale of the problem. Now, obviously, just because somebody calls and says, "Officer so-and-so did something to me," doesn't mean it actually happened, but if you get two, four, six phone calls about the same officer, then you begin to see a pattern. It gives you a chance to try and take affirmative steps.". By 1996, Jones founded a new umbrella NGO, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which "consisted of a closet-like office and a computer that Jones had brought from his apartment."

From 1996-1997, Jones and PoliceWatch led a campaign which was successful in getting officer Marc Andaya fired from the San Francisco Police Department. Andaya was the lead officer accused of the in-custody death of Aaron Williams, an unarmed black man. In 1999 and 2000, Jones was a leader in the failed campaign to defeat Proposition 21, which sparked a student movement that made national headlines. In 2001, Jones and the Ella Baker Center launched the Books Not Bars campaign. From 2001-2003, Jones and Books Not Bars led a campaign to block the construction of a proposed "Super-Jail for Youth" in Oakland's Alameda County. Books Not Bars later went on to launch a statewide campaign to transform California's juvenile justice system.

Color of Change

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Jones and James Rucker co-founded a Web-based grassroots organization to address Black issues called Color of Change. Color of Change's mission as described on its web site is as follows: "ColorOfChange.org exists to strengthen Black America's political voice. Our goal is to empower our members—Black Americans and our allies—to make government more responsive to the concerns of Black Americans and to bring about positive political and social change for everyone. Within two years of co-founding the organization, Jones moved on to other pursuits, but remains listed on the Color of Change website as "Former Staff".



Shift to environmentalism and Green for All

By 2005, Jones had begun promoting eco-capitalism. In 2005 the Ella Baker Center expanded its vision beyond the immediate concerns of policing, declaring that "If we really wanted to help our communities escape the cycle of incarceration, we had to start focusing on job, wealth and health creation."[19] In 2005, Jones and the Ella Baker Center produced the "Social Equity Track" for the United Nations' World Environment Day celebration, held that year in San Francisco. It was the official beginning of what would eventually become Ella Baker Center's Green-Collar Jobs Campaign.

The Green-Collar Jobs Campaign was Jones' first concerted effort to meld his desire to improve racial and economic equality with his newer desire to mitigate environmental concerns. It soon took as its mission the establishment of the nation's first "Green Jobs Corps" in Oakland. On October 20, 2008, the City of Oakland formally launched the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, a public-private partnership that will "provide local Oakland residents with job training, support, and work experience so that they can independently pursue careers in the new energy economy.

In September 2007, Jones attended the Clinton Global Initiative and announced his plans to launch Green For All, a new national NGO dedicated to creating green pathways out of poverty in America. The plan grew out of the work previously done at local level at the Ella Baker Center. Green For All would take the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign mission — creating green pathways out of poverty — national.

Green For All formally opened its doors on January 1, 2008. In its first year, Green For All organized "The Dream Reborn," the first national green conference where the majority of attendees were people of color. It co-hosted, with 1Sky and the We Campaign, a national day of action for the new economy called "Green Jobs Now." It launched the Green-Collar Cities Program to help cities build local green economies and started the Green For All Capital Access Program to assist green entrepreneurs. As part of the Clean Energy Corps Working Group, it launched a campaign for a Clean Energy Corps initiative which would create 600,000 'green-collar' jobs while retrofitting and upgrading more than 15 million American buildings.

In reflecting on Green For All's first year, Jones wrote, "One year later, Green For All is real – and we have helped put green collar jobs on the map... We have a long way to go. But today we have a strong organization to help get us there.


Other

Jones has served on the boards of numerous environmental and nonprofit organizations, including 1Sky, the National Apollo Alliance, Social Venture Network, Rainforest Action Network, Bioneers, Julia Butterfly Hill’s "Circle of Life" organization and Free Press. He was also a Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress and a Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. He was a key speaker at the youth conference PowerShift 2009 in Washington, D.C.

During the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election, Jones served as Arianna Huffington's statewide grassroots director.

On October 7, 2008, HarperOne released Jones's first book, The Green Collar Economy. The book outlines Jones's "substantive and viable plan for solving the biggest issues facing the country--the failing economy and our devastated environment. The book has received favorable reviews from Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Laurie David, Paul Hawken, Winona LaDuke and Ben Jealous.

In the book, Jones contended that invention and investment will take us out of a pollution-based grey economy and into a healthy new green economy. Jones wrote:

[W]e are entering an era during which our very survival will demand invention and innovation on a scale never before seen in the history of human civilization. Only the business community has the requisite skills, experience, and capital to meet that need. On that score, neither government nor the nonprofit and voluntary sectors can compete, not even remotely.

So in the end, our success and survival as a species are largely and directly tied to the new eco-entrepreneurs — and the success and survival of their enterprises. Since almost all of the needed eco-technologies are likely to come from the private sector, civic leaders and voters should do all that can be done to help green business leaders succeed. That means, in large part, electing leaders who will pass bills to aid them. We cannot realistically proceed without a strong alliance between the best of the business world —and everyone else.

Jones had a limited publicity budget and no national media platform. But a viral, web-based marketing strategy earned the book a #12 debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Jones and Green For All used "a combination of emails and phone calls to friends, bloggers, and a network of activists" to reach millions of people. The marketing campaign's grassroots nature has led to Jones calling it a victory not for him but for the entire green-collar jobs movement. The Green Collar Economy is the first environmental book authored by an African-American to make the New York Times bestseller list.



White House Council on Environmental Quality

On March 10, 2009, it was announced that Jones would serve as Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley praised Jones's appointment

Van Jones has been a strong voice for green jobs and we look forward to having him work with departments and agencies to advance the President’s agenda of creating 21st century jobs that improve energy efficiency and utilize renewable resources. Jones will also help to shape and advance the Administration’s energy and climate initiatives with a specific interest in improvements and opportunities for vulnerable communities.

Jones, while an ardent supporter of President Barack Obama, originally did not intend to work for the White House, later explaining:

Not only did I say I had no intention of going, when they asked the question, I burst out laughing because at the time it seemed completely ludicrous that it would even be an option. I think what changed my mind was interacting with the administration during the transition process and during the whole process of getting the recovery package pulled together. I began to see that there was an important role at the table, inside the process, to do make sure all the great things the president wants to do can get done well. But the real miracle was Phaedra [Ellis-Lamkins, who replaced Jones as head of Green for All]. Having done such an extraordinary job in San Jose and California, Phaedra was ready to graduate to a national role, wanted to stay in the Bay Area. ... Once you begin to see that you're not indispensable—in fact somebody can probably do your job better than you—then your mind kind of opens up to other possibilities. I couldn't be prouder to be laying my sword on the table along with everybody else in the Obama Love Army, and I'm excited about it.

His position with the Obama Administration has been described by columnist Chadwick Matlin as "switchboard operator for Obama's grand vision of the American economy; connecting the phone lines between all the federal agencies invested in a green economy. Jones's responsibility is to work with various government agencies to make sure the $30 billion from the stimulus earmarked for green-jobs funding attached to it gets "doled out appropriately. Jones describes his position as "the green-jobs handyman. I'm there to serve. I'm there to help as a leader in the field of green jobs, which is a new field. I'm happy to come and serve and be helpful, but there's no such thing as a green-jobs 'czar.'

Political beliefs and public reception

Jones' political beliefs and proximity to the President have been scrutinized by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, who has done a number of segments about Jones on his shows. Beck has referenced Van Jones' (former) self identification as a "communist" and called him a "black nationalist",[36] and a "committed revolutionary". Beck also included Jones in broader criticisms he made of the Obama administration for appointing a number of "czars" that Beck considers dangerous to the United States of America.

Jones was also criticized for comments he made about Republicans during a question and answer session following a speech given at Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative's 2nd Annual Lecture on February 11, 2009. Responding to a question on why Democrats are having trouble moving their initiatives through Congress while Republicans seemed to be more successful when they were in control, Jones replied,


The answer to that is: They're assholes. That's a technical political science term. And Barack Obama's not an asshole. I will say this, I can be an asshole. And some of us who are not Barack Hussein Obama are gonna have to start getting a little bit uppity.

Controversy over these comments and Jones's signing of the "911 Truth Statement" led to calls for his resignation or firing, first by conservative websites, then by Representative Mike Pence, the chairman of the Republican Conference in the House of Representatives. Referring to Jones, Pence said, "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate. Senator Kit Bond called for a congressional hearing about Jones's "fitness" to serve in the administration.

Jones responded to the criticisms by issuing a statement saying, "In recent days some in the news media have reported on past statements I made before I joined the [Obama] administration – some of which were made years ago. If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize. Regarding his comments about Republicans, Jones said those comments "were clearly inappropriate" and that "they do not reflect the experience I have had since I joined the [Obama] administration.


9/11 Truth petition

In 2004, Jones was one of "100 notable Americans" who signed a "911 Truth Statement" from 911Truth.org. The statement called "for immediate public attention to unanswered questions that suggest that people within the current administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.

On September 3, 2009, Jones issued a statement regarding the "incendiary" petition stating, "I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever. A White House official said that Jones did not review the document carefully before signing it.

By September 5, 2009, Representative Mike Pence (R-Indiana) called on Jones to resign or be fired, saying in a statement, "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate." Senator Christopher S. Bond (R-Missouri) urged Congress to investigate Jones' "fitness" for the position, writing in an open letter, "Can the American people trust a senior White House official that is so cavalier in his association with such radical and repugnant sentiments?" Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) added his voice as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The White House issued a statement September 5, 2009 saying that Jones was giving up his post at the Council on Environmental Quality, where he helped coordinate government agencies focused on delivering millions of green jobs to the ailing U.S. economy.


Awards and honors

Jones's awards and honors include:

* 1997-1999 - Rockefeller Foundation "Next Generation Leadership" Fellowship
* 1998 - Reebok International Human Rights Award
* 2000 - International Ashoka Fellowship
* 2008 - Best Dressed Environmental List (#1 of 30); Sustainable Style Foundation
* 2008 - Time Magazine Environmental Hero
* 2008 - Elle Magazine Green Award
* 2008 - One of the George Lucas Foundation's "Daring Dozen"
* 2008 - Hunt Prime Mover Award
* 2008 - Campaign for America's Future "Paul Wellstone Award"
* 2008 - Global Green USA "Community Environmental Leadership" Award
* 2008 - San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Award
* 2008 - Puffin/Nation prize for "Creative Citizenship"
* 2008 - World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader"
* 2009 - Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award[50]
* 2009 - Eco-Entrepreneur Award, Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Innovation; Howard University
* 2009 - Individual Thought Leadership, Energy & Environment Awards; Aspen Institute