The Judges

 Ben Affleck

 Writer/Actor/Director/Producer

Ben Affleck is an Academy Award-winning Writer/Actor/Director from Cambridge, Massachusetts. After the original screenplay Good Will Hunting (which he co-wrote with Matt Damon) was nominated for 9 Academy Awards (winning two), Ben has gone on to star in a stream of both blockbuster films (like Armageddon, Shakespeare in Love, and Pearl Harbor) and cult favorites (like Clerks, Mallrats, and Dogma). Ben recently directed and produced the critically acclaimed and Academy Award-nominated film Gone Baby Gone, winning the BSFC Award for Best New Filmmaker.

 Steve Buscemi

 Writer/Actor/Director

Steve Buscemi is a multiple-award winning actor and director from Brooklyn, NY. Originally a firefighter with Engine 55 in the Little Italy section of NYC, Steve has starred in both blockbusters like Con Air, and a number of modern film classics such as Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and Ghost World. Steve has directed the critically-acclaimed films Trees Lounge, Interview, Animal Factory, and Lonesome Jim, and also serves as an associate member of NYC experimental theatre company The Wooster Group.

 Matt Damon

 Writer/Actor/Producer

Matt Damon is an Academy Award-winning writer/actor/producer from Cambridge, Massachusetts. After his original screenplay Good Will Hunting (which he co-wrote with Ben Affleck) was nominated for 9 Academy Awards (winning two), Matt went on to star in such films as The Bourne Identity, Ocean's 11, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Syriana, and Saving Private Ryan. His desire to help aspiring filmmakers led him and Affleck to create the trailblazing HBO reality series, Project: Greenlight, which documented and bankrolled untried aspiring filmmakers' attempts to create a motion picture to be released by Miramax. The show resulted in the films Stolen Summer (2002) and The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003), both executive produced by Affleck and Damon.

 Donna Edwards

 Lawyer/Community Activist

Donna Edwards is a lawyer and progressive community activist who defeated the incumbent congressman in Maryland's 4th congressional district in the 2008 primary. She is favored to win the general election, and will be the first black woman to represent Maryland in the Unites States House of Representatives if she wins. Edwards got her first degree from Wake Forest University and her law degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire. She co-founded and served as the first executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence (an advocacy and legal support group for battered women), and was instrumental in helping to pass the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. She later worked with Public Citizen, and then as the executive director of the Center for a New Democracy.

 Michael Franti

 Musician/Poet/Composer/Activist/Filmmaker

Michael Franti is a musician, poet, composer, and activist. He is the creator and driving force behind Michael Franti & Spearhead, and an outspoken supporter for a wide spectrum of peace and social justice issues. In the early 90s, Michael founded the seminal group The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, combining biting, progressive lyrics with a fusion of industrial and hip hop. The Heroes first album won wide acclaim for its social commentary, and they were chosen by U2 to open for their Zoo TV Tour. His latest group, Michael Franti & Spearhead, follows the same trailblazing path, combining affirming lyrics with rock chords, plus the groove of reggae, dancehall, bossa nova, Afrobeat, and funk. Michael Franti and Spearhead have ignored traditional music distribution channels and have gained a passionate worldwide audience through extensive touring and appearances in alternative media like Mother Jones Magazine and Democracy NOW!. Franti is also a passionate advocate for peace in the Middle East. His award winning first film I Know I'm Not Alone features Franti traveling to Iraq, Palestine, and Israel to explore the human cost of war by connecting with people on the ground through music.

 Adrian Grenier

 Actor/Musician/Director

Adrian Grenier is an actor, musician, and director from Brooklyn, New York. Best known for his starring role as Vincent Chase in the huge HBO hit Entourage, Adrian has also starred in both independent films like James Toback's Harvard Man and blockbusters like The Devil Wears Prada. In 2007, Grenier made his directorial debut on HBO with the documentary Shot in the Dark, a deeply personal film that chronicles his years-long search for his father. In addition to being an actor and filmmaker, Adrian is an accomplished musician, playing guitar, drums, French horn, and the piano, and is a member of the New York band, The Honey Brothers.

 Ted Hope

 Producer/Partner/Founder This is that corp.

Ted Hope is one of the most respected independent producers in the film industry, producing over 50 films to date that have won numerous awards, honors, and citations, including several Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and the Palm d'or at Cannes. Together with partners Anthony Bregman and Anne Carey, Ted runs the New York production company This is that, formed out of the production and development arms of the groundbreaking indie production house Good Machine. This is that's first year alone yielded such films as Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 21 Grams, (starring Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro & Naomi Watts), Michel Gondry & Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (starring Jim Carrey & Kate Winslet), and Kip Williams' The Door in the Floor (starring Jeff Bridges & Kim Basinger, based on a novel by John Irving). Ted Hope has also produced/co-produced the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winner American Splendor, Todd Field's In The Bedroom, and many of Ang Lee's films including The Ice Storm, and the Academy Award-nominated The Wedding Banquet. Hope got his start as a producer collaborating with Hal Hartley, on eight films in all, including Amateur, Simple Men and Trust. During Hope's time with Good Machine, the company produced over 50 feature and short films, and in 2001, Good Machine was honored with a ten-year retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

 Reverend Jesse Jackson

 Civil Rights Activist

The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., Founder and President of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, is one of America's foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. Over the past forty years he has played a pivotal role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice.

Reverend Jackson has been called the "Conscience of the Nation" and "the Great Unifier," challenging America to be inclusive and to establish just and human priorities for the benefit of all. He is known for bringing people together in common ground across lines of race, culture, class, gender and belief. Reverend Jesse Jackson began his activism as a student in the summer of 1960 seeking to desegregate the local public library in Greenville, and then as a leader in the sit-in movement. In 1965 he became a full-time organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He was soon appointed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to direct SCLC's Operation Breadbasket program. In December of 1971, Reverend Jackson founded Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) in Chicago, IL. The goals of Operation PUSH were economic empowerment and expanding educational, business and employment opportunities for the disadvantaged and people of color. In 1984, Reverend Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition, a national social justice organization, based in Washington, D.C, devoted to political empowerment, education and changing public policy. In September of 1996, the Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH merged in the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to continue the work of both approaches and to maximize resources. Reverend Jackson's two presidential campaigns broke new ground in U.S. politics. His 1984 campaign registered over one million new voters, won 3.5 million votes, and helped the Democratic Party regain control of the Senate in 1986. His 1988 campaign registered over two million new voters, won seven million votes, and helped boost hundreds of state and local elected officials into office. Additionally, this civil rights leader won an historic victory, coming in first or second in 46 out of 54 primary contests. His clear progressive agenda and his ability to build an unprecedented coalition inspired millions to join the political process.

As a highly respected and trusted world leader, Reverend Jackson has acted many times as an international diplomat in sensitive situations. For example, in 1984 Reverend Jackson secured the release of captured Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman from Syria, and the release of 48 Cuban and Cuban-American prisoners in Cuba. He was the first American to bring hostages out of Kuwait and Iraq in 1990. In 1999 Reverend Jackson negotiated the release of U.S. soldiers held hostage in Kosovo. He has traveled extensively in the Middle East and Asia, and was a special guest of President Fernando Cardoso of Brazil in honoring Zumbi, the leader of slave revolts that led to the end of slavery in Brazil.

A renowned orator and activist, Reverend Jackson has received numerous honors for his work in human and civil rights and for nonviolent social change. In 1991, the U.S. Post Office put his likeness on a pictorial postal cancellation, making him only the second living person to receive such an honor. He has been on the Gallup List of the Ten Most Respected Americans for more than a dozen years. He has received the prestigious NAACP Spingarn Award, in addition to honors from hundreds of grassroots, civic and community organizations from coast to coast. Reverend Jackson has received more than 40 honorary doctorate degrees, and frequently lectures at major colleges and universities including Howard, Yale, Princeton, Morehouse, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and Hampton. The most prestigious honor yet came on August 9, 2000, when President Bill Clinton awarded Reverend Jackson and other distinguished notables the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. The Presidential Medal typifies a life of service and a concern for the least fortunate.

From 1992 to 2000, Reverend Jackson hosted "Both Sides With Jesse Jackson" on CNN (Cable News Network). He continues to write a weekly column of analysis which is syndicated by the Chicago Tribune/Los Angles Times. He is the author of two books: Keep Hope Alive (South End Press, 1989), and Straight From the Heart (Fortress Press, 1987). In 1996, Reverend Jackson co-authored the books Legal Lynching: Racism, Injustice, and the Death Penalty (Marlowe & Company, 1996) and It's About The Money (Random House, 1999) with his son, U.S. Representative Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.

 Rory Kennedy

 Director/Producer/Writer

Award-winning producer, director, and writer, Rory Kennedy is co-founder of Moxie Firecracker Films, an independent documentary production company that she runs with partner Liz Garbus. Kennedy has produced and/or directed award-winning documentaries for HBO, Lifetime Television, A&E, Court TV, The Oxygen Network and The Learning Channel, covering a variety of topics including the global AIDS crisis, human rights, domestic abuse, poverty, and drug addiction. Rory Kennedy is on the Board of Directors for a number of non-profit organizations including The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, The Legal Action Center and the Project Return Foundation. She served as Chairperson of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation Associate Trustees Program from 1993-1995 and has served as a member of the Board of the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation since 1999. She initiated and helped develop the Teacher Transfer Program between the U.S. and Namibia in the fall of 1990 after her work there at the Dobra Resettlement Camp. Kennedy was a member of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights delegations during human rights trips to the following countries: South Africa (1996); South Korea (1989); Japan (1989); South Africa (1989); El Salvador (1988); and Poland (1987).

Rory's latest documentary, The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, debuted on HBO in 2007.

 John Legend

 Musician/Songwriter/Producer

John Legend is an award-winning singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer from Springfield, Ohio. His debut studio album, the platinum-selling Get Lifted, was released in late 2004, and his second platinum-selling album, Once Again, was released in 2006. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied English with an emphasis on African American literature & culture, Legend has won 5 Grammy Awards and is currently working on his third studio album.

 Lawrence Lessig

 Professor, Stanford Law School/Founder, Center for Internet and Society, Creative Commons/Author

Lawrence Lessig is a professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of its Center for Internet and Society from Rapid City, South Dakota. He is founder and CEO of Creative Commons and a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and of the Software Freedom Law Center. In March of 2008, Lessig launched a new project called Change Congress—a website that helps provide technological tools voters can use to hold their representatives accountable and reduce the influence of money on politics. Lessig is the author of several books, including Code and Other Law of Cyberspace, The Future of Ideas, and Free Culture.

 Moby

 Musician/Songwriter/Producer/Activist

Moby is an award-winning, Grammy-nominated worldwide multi-platinum-selling recording artist, producer and musician with 14 albums under his belt. He's a prolific songwriter and producer, having written and/or produced artists as diverse as Guns N' Roses, Britney Spears, and Michael Jackson. He's also a devoted activist for progressive causes and co-founder of MoveOn.org's "Bush in 30 Seconds" project. Moby's latest album, Last Night, hits music stores in April, 2008.

 Markos Moulitsas

 Publisher/Author/Founder of Daily Kos

Originally from Chicago, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is founder and publisher of Daily Kos, the largest progressive community blog in the United States. Named "the single most successful entrepreneur of the progressive movement" by NY Times magazine writer and author Matt Bai, Moulitsas is also co-author of the critically acclaimed book Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics, a contributing columnist to Newsweek Magazine and, as of January 2008, a weekly columnist at The Hill newspaper. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the world by People en Español, clocked in at third in Forbe's Web Celeb 25 rankings, and was listed 26th in PC World's list of the "Most Important People on the Web". Moulitsas served in the U.S. Army (1989-92) as a 13P—Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) Fire Direction Specialist. He trained at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma and served the remainder of his three-year enlistment in Bamberg, Germany.

Moulitsas earned two bachelor degrees at Northern Illinois University (1992-96), with majors in Philosophy, Journalism, and Political Science and a minor in German. In addition to running Kos Media, LLC, which publishes Daily Kos, Moulitsas is also founder of the SB Nation network of sports blogs, and co-founder of Vaster Books. He's an avid pianist and composer.

 Tom Ortenberg

 President, Lionsgate Theatrical Films

Tom Ortenberg is the President of Theatrical Films for Lionsgate Entertainment. Tom was Lionsgate's first employee in Los Angeles, opening an office in Santa Monica in 1996 staffed by only himself and a part-time assistant. Today the Lionsgate Santa Monica office boasts approximately 400 employees. Tom Ortenberg started his film career in the San Francisco branch distribution office of Columbia Pictures in 1985, rising from the position of assistant cashier to Sales Manager in four years. In 1989, Tom left Columbia to join the start-up domestic distribution and marketing operation at Hemdale Film Corporation, where he became President of Distribution and Marketing, before leaving in 1995 to start his own entertainment industry consulting firm. Ortenberg left the consulting business in October of 1996 to join Cinepix Film Properties, the forerunner to Lionsgate.

During Ortenberg's tenure Lionsgate has generated a string of prestigious and provocative commercial and Award winning hits including Crash, Monster's Ball, Girl With a Pearl Earring, Fahrenheit 9/11, the Saw horror film franchise, all of Tyler Perry's films including Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Why Did I Get Married and Madea's Family Reunion and 3:10 to Yuma among many others. Upcoming theatrical releases on Lionsgate's schedule include Religulous, a documentary on religion by Larry Charles and Bill Maher, The Forbidden Kingdom, starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li, Bangkok Dangerous starring Nicolas Cage and My Best Friends Girl, starring Kate Hudson and Dane Cook.

Lionsgate has received 26 Academy Award nominations and dozens of Golden Globe, BAFTA, and other Guild and Critics groups awards and nominations during Ortenberg's tenure, including Halle Berry's historic Oscar win for Best Actress for Monster's Ball and the Best Picture Academy Award win for Crash.

Tom is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS); is a Trustee of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), East Coast; is Treasurer and on the Board of Directors of Film Independent, sponsor of the Independent Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival; has been honored with the Leadership Award from the Hollywood Film Festival, among other tributes from various film festivals; was recently listed #2 in the Indy Power Issue of The Hollywood Reporter; and has served as a guest speaker and panelist at film festivals and classes around the world.

Born and raised in Briarcliff Manor, New York, Ortenberg graduated from The Pennsylvania State University in 1982. It was while at Penn State that Tom got his start in the film business, programming 16mm movies on campus on the weekends to raise money for various student organizations he was involved with. Tom, his wife Edie and his two sons, Jason, 13, and Andrew, 10, live in Santa Monica, CA.

 Heather Rae

 Producer/Director/Native American Activist

Heather Rae (Cherokee), as Director of the Native American Program for the Sundance Institute from 1995 to 2001, nurtured the work of more than fifty emerging Native American screenwriters and filmmakers. She has also worked to develop the field of Native filmmaking through her work with Akatubi Entertainment's Film and Music Program on reservations throughout the West. In 2005 she premiered Trudell, which she directed, at the Sundance Film Festival. Rae has worked in various capacities on more than a dozen documentary films including the series 500 Nations for CBS, Turner Broadcasting's The Native Americans and Storytellers of the Pacific for PBS. In 2005 Rae produced American Monster, starring Adam Beach, Gary Farmer, and Udo Kier. She is currently producing Randy Redroad's The Space Between All Things. Rae chairs the True West Cinema Festival, and sits on the board of Treasure Valley Television, in Boise, Idaho. She is an adjunct professor of communications at Boise State University. Rae is from rural Idaho.

 James Schamus

 President of Focus Features/Producer/Writer

James Allan Schamus is an American Academy Award-nominated, BAFTA Award-winning film producer and screenwriter, noted for his work on critically-acclaimed independent films such as Safe, The Brothers McMullen and the Academy Award-winning film Brokeback Mountain. He is perhaps best known, however, for his longtime collaboration with writer/director Ang Lee, with whom he co-wrote and produced such films as Eat Drink Man Woman, The Ice Storm, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and for founding seminal indie production house Good Machine with producer Ted Hope.

Schamus is also a published film historian, and currently holds a faculty position at Columbia University. He is currently the head of the film company Focus Features.

He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his bachelor's degree (1982), master's degree (1987), and Ph.D. (2003), all in English.

 Russell Simmons

 Chairman/CEO Rush Communications

Russell Simmons has been instrumental in bringing Hip-Hop to every facet of business and media: in music with the immensely successful Def Jam Recordings; in film with Simmons Lathan Media Group; in television with HBO's Def Comedy Jam and Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry; on Broadway with the critically-acclaimed stage production Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway; in magazine publishing with OneWorld Magazine; and in the community with Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation and the Hip Hop Summit Action Network. Russell and his ventures are driven by a personal and corporate belief that hip-hop is an enormously influential agent for social change which must be responsibly and proactively utilized to fight the war on poverty and ignorance. In April of 2007, Russell published his first book, Do You! 12 Laws To Access The Power In You To Achieve Happiness And Success, with Gotham Books, and is a regular contributing blogger to the Huffington Post.

 DJ Spooky

 Artist/Writer/Musician

Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) is a conceptual artist, writer, and musician working in New York. His written work has appeared in The Village Voice, The Source, Artforum, Raygun, Rap Pages, Paper Magazine, and a host of other periodicals. Miller's first collection of essays, Rhythm Science, was published by MIT Press in April 2004, and was included in several year-end lists of the best books of 2004, including the Guardian (UK) and Publishers Weekly. In 2005, he published Sound Unbound, an anthology of writings on sound art and multi-media by contemporary cultural theorists.

Miller's work as a media artist has appeared in a wide variety of contexts such as the Whitney Biennial; The Venice Biennial for Architecture (2000); the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany; Kunsthalle, Vienna; The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and many other museums and galleries. His 2004 solo show at the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, Path Is Prologue, echoed his live music/theater/film performance, "DJ Spooky's Rebirth of A Nation", which ran simultaneously at the Lincoln Center Festival after premieres in Vienna and at Spoleto USA in Charleston, SC and continues to tour globally.

But even with all this, Miller is most well known under the moniker of his "constructed persona" as "DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid." Miller has recorded a huge volume of music and has collaborated with a wide variety of musicians and composers such as Iannis Xenakis, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Butch Morris, Kool Keith a.k.a. Doctor Octagon, Pierre Boulez, Killa Priest from Wu-Tang Clan, Steve Reich, Yoko Ono and Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, among many others. He also composed and recorded the music score for the Cannes and Sundance Award-winning film Slam, starring critically-acclaimed poet Saul Williams.

 Julia Stiles

 Actor/Director/Writer

An acclaimed actor of both stage and screen, Julia Stiles has starred in both blockbuster films like The Bourne Identity, Mona Lisa Smile, 10 Things I Hate About You, The Omen, and Save the Last Dance, and in unforgettable stage productions such as the Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night, and David Mamet's Oleanna at the Garrick Theatre in London, England. Born and raised in Manhattan, Julia began her career at the experimental La Mama Theatre and Kitchen Theatre in New York City, and graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English in 2005. Julia recently wrote and directed her first film, Raving, which debuted on the Sundance Channel in 2007.

 Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern

 Directors/Writers/Producers

Annie Sundberg is a director, producer and writer of film and television. Ricki Stern is a director, producer and writer whose films have shown on HBO and PBS. They are the co-directors, and producers of The Devil Came on Horseback, a production of Break Thru Films, (Sundance 2007, Gotham Award nominee), theatrically released by International Film Circuit, airing on National Geographic (February 2008). The film has won over seven festival awards, including Best International Film at Brit Docs. Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern have been recognized with the Best Female Filmmakers Award by the San Diego Film Festival, the Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award and the Lena Sharpe/Women in Cinema Persistence of Vision Award at the Seattle International Film Festival.

They recently co-directed and co-produced the award-winning documentary The Trials of Darryl Hunt, a production of Break Thru Films, about a man who spent 20 years in prison for a brutal rape/murder he did not commit. The Trials of Darryl Hunt (Sundance 2006) was a 2007 Independent Spirit Award nominee for Best Documentary and has won more than twenty festival awards to date. The film premiered on HBO in early 2007, followed by a theatrical and DVD release, October 2007 (THINKFilm). The company is currently working on the feature film version of Darryl Hunt's story.

Annie also produced the independent feature film Tully, nominated for four 2003 IFP Spirit Awards (Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Debut Performance, Best Supporting Actor). Tully screened at the Toronto and London Film Festivals, and received Best Film at eleven festivals, including the Los Angeles Film Festival.

 Oliver Stone

 Director/Writer/Producer

Originally from New York City, Oliver Stone is a multiple-Academy Award-winning film director and screenwriter. A veteran of the Vietnam war, Stone served with the United States Army from April 1967 to November 1968. He specifically requested combat duty and was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division, and was wounded twice in action. His personal awards include the Bronze Star with "V" device for valor for "extraordinary acts of courage under fire", and the Purple Heart with one Oak Leaf Cluster. His list of award-winning, paradigm-changing films is immense: Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Nixon, Heaven & Earth, Wall Street, Talk Radio, The Doors, JFK, Any Given Sunday, Alexander, World Trade Center, and Natural Born Killers. As a screenwriter, he has written or contributed to such films as Midnight Express (his first Oscar), Scarface, Conan the Barbarian, and Evita. Oliver is currently working on his next film, Bush, a bio-pic about the 43rd President of the Unites States.

 Eddie Vedder

 Musician/Songwriter/Activist

Eddie Vedder has been the lead singer, lyricist and songwriter of Pearl Jam since 1990. Pearl Jam is one of the most influential rock bands of 90s, and continue to make ground-breaking music today. Eddie is a passionate defender of human and environmental rights, supporting, with Pearl Jam, many institutions and causes toward that end. Eddie recently has branched into music for film, winning an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe award for Best Song for his work on the film Into The Wild, and writing original music for the new documentary Body of War.

 Naomi Wolf

 Author

Naomi Wolf is an award-winning, New York Times best-selling author from San Francisco, California. Naomi graduated from Yale in 1984 and was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University. She is the author of The Beauty Myth, Fire with Fire, and Promiscuities. The New York Times called The Beauty Myth one of the seventy most significant books of the century. She is also the author of Misconceptions: Truth, Lies and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood and current New York Times best-seller The End of America. Ms. Wolf was a consulting editor at George Magazine. Her essays appear regularly in The New Republic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Glamour, Ms., and other publications, and is a founder of The American Freedom Campaign, a non-partisan citizens' alliance formed to reverse the abuse of executive power and restore our system of checks and balances.