David Brooks Talks Tucson, Mental Illness, Politics, & More

New York Times columnist and "PBS NewsHour" commentator David Brooks addressed a standing-room-only Commonwealth Club of California audience January 11 in San Francisco. More than 500 people showed up to hear the conservative writer cover some of today's most talked-about issues – and one of the least talked-about aspects of the current hot-button topic.

He began by talking about the recent shooting tragedy in Tucson, stressing the mental illness issue that likely caused the event. But he also spoke about a number of other important topics, such as the Tea Party candidates in office, his assessment of President Barack Obama, possibilities for cooperation between the two major parties in Washington, D.C., and much more. You can watch it all in the video below, courtesy of our video partners at Fora.tv.

Why Is President Obama Reading Ben Sherwood's "The Survivor's Club"?

President Barack Obama was recently photographed carrying a copy of Ben Sherwood's book The Survivor's Club. (To see the full photo, click here and scroll almost to the bottom of the page.)

You can find out what interested the president so much yourself on October 13, when Sherwood will be speaking at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. All are welcome to attend.

Even presidents.

Obama Visits Beijing: Yuan, Human Rights, Climate on Docket

Obama’s upcoming visit to China next week is generating global interest amid the release of an inflammatory Human Rights Watch report, repeated calls for climate change discourse and China’s giant holdings of U.S. foreign reserves.

The visit, Obama’s first to China, is already marked by a decidedly different tone than that of administrations past. U.S. concerns for human rights interests remain on the foreground, especially with regard to supporters of an independent Tibet. And an international cry has gone up over “An Alleyway in Hell,” the 53-page report by New York-based Human Rights Watch describing China’s use of unlawful jails and detention centers to quell political dissent – especially on the lead-up to visits by foreign leaders.

However, this time around the U.S. will be approaching China on an altogether more deferential note, owing entirely to two huge factors: the immense power now abiding within an artificially undervalued yuan, and the looming nuclearization of North Korea.

China’s status as the single largest holder of U.S. foreign debt places it in predictable position at the center of the post-recession economy. Any significant divestitures would ratchet up U.S. interest rates, reducing consumption at home and severely impacting foreign exporters. Complications arise as China’s expanding middle class increasingly seek their own avenues for consumption.

China is also a major player in the Obama administration’s strategy to persuade Pyongyang to discontinue pursuit of nuclear arms, the acquisition of which would certainly lend considerable instability to an already rocky relationship with North Korea. For more on the latter, watch video of Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher's recent Commonwealth Club speech and discussion.

With the approach of December’s Copenhagen climate conference, climate change won’t exactly be written off the agenda – especially given China and America’s shared title as the world’s largest CO2 producers. Whether China will be open to any pot-vs-kettle name calling or shrugs off any urging from the Obama administration remains of keen interest to many, given China’s burgeoning market for green technology.

--By Andrew Harrison

Dr. Gloria C. Duffy's Latest on Huffington Post: Nuclear Treaties

You can read the latest InSight column by Commonwealth Club President and CEO Dr. Gloria Duffy over on Huffington Post:

Eyes on the Real Prize

It certainly was an "October surprise" when the Norwegian Nobel committee awarded President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. The immediate reaction was to wonder what this would mean -- for the President's agenda at home and abroad, and for the American people. The U.S. is entering a season of key international negotiations, during which two arms control treaties that have been languishing for years will hopefully be completed.

Read the entire article

Helen Thomas: White House Watchdog Tells All

"If elected [U.S. President in 2012], I will serve.” Giggle.

So said legendary White House reporter Helen Thomas to a sold-out crowd yesterday afternoon at The Commonwealth Club. In conversation with San Francisco Chronicle Vice President Phil Bronstein, Thomas regaled the audience with stories of her interactions with past presidents, who, in her opinion, have been everything from fascinating to woefully fallible. In her 60-year career, Thomas – an ardent JFK fan – has covered 10 presidents and spared none.

"I don't waste my sympathy on them," she explained. "[But] They ask for it."

The White House Press Corps veteran made the switch from straight news to opinion in 2000, and has embraced her new assignment with the same journalistic zeal. "Now I wake up every morning and ask, 'Who do I hate today?'" Thomas shared. "That's how you write a column!"

Still, as a reporter, Thomas acknowledged that her words hold a considerable degree of power. “My biggest fear? Making a big mistake. Hurting a lot of people. You have a big weapon in your hand when you're a reporter.”

Despite that fear and despite the potential consequences of giving tough questions to presidents, Thomas maintains that reporters have a duty to hold presidents accountable for their actions. “We were afraid of being called unpatriotic, un-American for asking the tough questions,” Thomas recalled, referring to earlier in this decade. “I don’t think any of us ever entered journalism expecting to be loved…[And] I don’t think we’re superior – I think we’re dedicated to truth.”

Thomas charged that truth was conspicuously absent from the information put forth by the former Bush administration. Bush "hung the albatross of torture around our necks,” she lamented. “I felt deception was a terrible thing. The American people can take the truth, but they can't take lies."

But Thomas also had some tough words for the new Obama administration, including the accusation that Obama “lacks courage … to do the right thing,” a charge that drew a gasp from some members of the audience. Thomas, author of the just-released Listen Up, Mr. President, had a few partisan words of advice: “There is no such thing as bipartisanship.... Stop catering to the Republicans, because they're not going to help you!” she insisted.

To Helen Thomas, the goal of journalism has always been clear. “Seek the truth, and let the chips fall where they may.”

--By Commonwealth Club Media & Public Relations Department

David Letterman and the Commonwealth Club

(Image from CBS TV online video.)

Last night, President Barack Obama became the first sitting president to appear as a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman. (Obama had previously appeared numerous times while a senator and presidential candidate.) The appearance was part of the president's campaign to make his argument for his policies, chiefly health-care reform.

The appearance is getting a great deal of press attention, as you'd expect. But one throw-away line from the night was of particular interest to us here at The Commonwealth Club, and it made us wonder if Letterman and his staff are Club aficionados.

During the Top Ten List, the host read out the top 10 "reasons President Obama agreed to appear on The Late Show." The reasons ranged from the odd ("Heard the lady with the heart-shaped potato was going to be here" -- long story) to the political. But one of them resonated with us: Reason Number Seven: "Every president since Teddy Roosevelt has been here."

Well, we all know that the place that has hosted every president since Teddy Roosevelt is The Commonwealth Club of California, don't we? Roosevelt kicked it off by making the case in his Club speech for federal involvement in protection of common lands. Republican and Democrat, they've made their appearance here before our Bay Area audiences and -- through our national radio and internet arms -- before the whole country. So naturally we're looking forward to hosting a speech by President Barack Obama, and he's welcome to bring the jokes.

Changing the Direction of North Korea-U.S. Relations

In his private mission to North Korea today, former President Bill Clinton secured the release of the two American journalists arrested along the Chinese North Korean border in March. In this unpublicized visit, Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong II and negotiated the release of Euna Lee and Laura ling, the reporters for former Vice President Al Gore’s Current TV. The two young women had been sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and allegedly committing “hostile acts.” It has now been reported that the two journalists are returning to the United States on Clinton’s plane.

The official Korean central news agency said that Clinton and the North Korean leader discussed a wide range of topics, including the release of Ling and Lee and the status of the North Korean nuclear weapons program.

The dramatic events come at a time of heightened international tensions. The Obama administration had voiced concern about North Korea’s recent testing of nuclear and ballistic missiles, which violates UN Security Council resolutions. In late May, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned North Korea that it could face “unspecified consequences for this aggressive behavior.” Meanwhile, for the past several months she had also been working to negotiate the release of the two journalists.

Senior North Korean officials greeted Clinton with a warm welcome and bouquet of flowers at the airport, after which he was treated to a banquet at the state guesthouse. Analysts say that, though Clinton is no longer president, the broad smile on Jong II’s face indicated a possible upturn of events in what seemed to have become a downward spiral of Western-North Korean relations.

Experts believe that Bill Clinton’s visit came at the behest of North Korean leaders, who had indicated they might release the two young women with a formal apology and a visit from a high-profile U.S. emissary.

When asked in a KCBS radio news interview for her reaction to Clinton’s success, Dr. Gloria Duffy, president and CEO of The Commonwealth Club, responded, “I not surprised. I am very pleased by the pardon. And I am wondering what this will lead to. What other topics were discussed? Why was North Korea so interested in opening the door to perhaps further positive developments?

Duffy, who worked with President Clinton as a nuclear arms negotiator during his first term in office, added, “The last successful agreement that was negotiated with North Korea about its nuclear program was under the Clinton administration. So there is a positive history there. That was the Agreed Framework negotiated in 1994 that was dispensed with some years later during the Bush administration. That’s important symbolism. The North Koreans have wanted to meet with a United States president for some time. Kim Jong Il has wanted to be seen as a world leader…, so the symbolism is very important to him being equated with a senior American leader –again, one [Clinton] who had a relatively positive relationship with North Korea. In fact under President Clinton’s leadership, many positive things happened.”

--Commonwealth Club Media and Public Relations Department

What Will Dambisa Moyo Think: G-8 Promises More Aid to Poor Countries

When Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo spoke at The Commonwealth Club in June, she made clear her contention that rich Western countries should evolve their African development programs away from open-ended commitments of money and toward investment in poor countries in ways that create jobs and strengthen institutions there. [Listen to audio.]
She argued that governments on that continent had grown content and corrupt from the flow of aid dollars, often with few strings attached, and they had no desire or need to actually provide the services their citizens need to create businesses and jobs and civic institutions. Moyo's views have been very controversial, especially among the international aid community, but they have made her an important voice in the debate over how to charge up Africa's development process.

One wonders her reaction to today's news that the G-8 leading economic powers (well, China's the third largest economy and it's not a part of the G-8, so we're going to have to think of another way of referring to that group) has pledged $20 billion over three years to poor countries in an attempt to create "food security." Critics are complaining that much of the aid pledged is recycled from previous commitments, but it might also mark a move toward Moyo's view that investment and not handouts will do more for Africans.

Reuters India reports:

... Obama, travelling to Ghana on his first trip to Africa as president, [used] the L'Aquila summit to push for a shift towards agricultural investment from food aid. Washington will make $3.5 billion available to the 3-year programme.

"There is no reason Africa should not be self-sufficient when it comes to food," said Obama, recalling that his relatives in Kenya live "in villages where hunger is real", though they themselves are not going hungry.

Not a Kinder, Gentler Khamenei

Looks like Reza Aslan's sources might be wrong. Aslan, we noted yesterday, suggested that Friday's prayer message from Iran's leaders would be a reflection of whether attempts by opponents and reformers (not necessarily the same people) to forge a compromise were making headway. A softer tone in his Friday message would suggest the efforts were bearing fruit.

Well, the fruit is spoiled. The New York Times reports today:

At Friday Prayer in Tehran University, the senior cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami [not related to reformist former president Mohammad Khatami], referred to the demonstrators as rioters and declared, “I want the judiciary to punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson.” Reuters quoted him as saying that demonstrators should be tried for waging war against God. The punishment for such offenses under Islamic law is death, Reuters said.

This morning at a press conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Barack Obama repeated his condemnation of the violence against Iranian protestors. And he rejected the call for him to apologize to Iran, saying that he doesn't take Iranian President Ahmadinejad seriously when he makes such demands, and that Ahmadinejad should think more about apologizing to the families of the demonstrators who have been attacked.

Aslan will address The Commonwealth Club on September 1 in San Francisco.

Fixing America's Health-Care System

Early this week, President Obama made a landmark decision to grant the federal government, through a new office in the FDA, authority to regulate the content, marketing and sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Despite his own well-known cigarette habit, he says his intention is to reduce health risks from tobacco and make cigarettes both less accessible and less inviting to young people. The move, aimed at focusing on health wellness and disease prevention, is in line with his much larger health-care plan for America. He made reference to his proposed health-care agenda in his Tuesday, June 23, 2009, news conference.

“This is legislation that must and will be paid for,” said the president. “It will not add to our deficits over the next decade. We will find the money through savings and efficiencies within the health-care system, some of which we’ve already announced.”

President Obama also stated that the government’s reform would work to lower the cost of health care, and he warned that doing otherwise would leave millions more Americans uninsured. He further emphasized that the current state of the health-care system needs drastic change and that “the status quo is unsustainable and unacceptable.”

“So reform is not a luxury,” said President Obama. “It’s a necessity, and I hope Congress will continue to make significant progress on this issue in the weeks ahead.”

The president’s web site outlines his health-care reform package. Among his recommendations, he cites the necessity to reduce the growth of health-care costs for businesses and government, protect families from bankruptcy or debt, and assure affordability for all Americans. He also supports guaranteeing choice of doctors and health plans, investing in preventions and wellness, improving patient safety and quality of care. Moreover, he advocates ending barriers to coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Will his changes go far enough, or might they go too far? The Commonwealth Club has heard from a number of health-care advocates, economists, and others seeking to change the system. Zeke Emanuel, chair of the Department of Clinical Bioethics at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health and the brother of Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, spoke to The Club on January 8. (See embedded video below.) Zeke Emanuel urged a roots-and-branches overhaul of the system, but it's not clear that such a change is politically feasible. In his talk, Emanuel said, “Most Americans understand that the system is broken. We understand that we have a problem in this country, and I think it’s very widespread.”



Christina Romer, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Obama Administration, made the economic case for health-care reform in her June 8 speech at Club headquarters. She shared the president’s vision for reform. She observed, “The overarching goal is to develop a cost-effective health-care system that preserves quality, expands coverage, and ensures choice and security for all Americans.” (See video here.)

More recently, former U.S. Secretary of State and former Secretary of Labor George Shultz and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow John Shoven explained their plan for handling the nation's spiraling social service commitments, specifically health care costs and Social Security. See video below.



--Commonwealth Club Media and Public Relations Department

Firoozeh Dumas Stresses U.S.-Iranian History

Writer/humorist Firoozeh Dumas has written at length about the painful experience of being an Iranian immigrant in the United States after the beginning of the hostage crisis in Iran three decades ago. As American anger toward the revolutionary regime in Iran increased, Iranian-Americans found themselves dodging hostility from neighbors and strangers alike. It got to the point that when Dumas' mother was asked where she was from, she'd say without hesitating, "Turkey."

Dumas herself does more than her mother to try to bridge the differences between the two countries, and she -- like millions around the world -- is closely following the dramatic events in Iran. She does not, however, put herself on the side of those urging the United States to be like Europe and take a more combative public stance against Iran. She writes in a post on her blog:

Do I believe the election was rigged? Absolutely. Do I believe that Obama is doing the right thing by not getting more involved? Absolutely! Some of you have asked why [he] is not doing more. Here is a quick history lesson: In 1953, the CIA and the British staged a coup and ousted Iran’s only democratically elected leader Mohammd Mossadegh. Why did they do this? One word: oil. Mossadegh wanted to nationalize the oil industry which had been under British control. (This meant that oil was real cheap.)

That history is alluded to in the Iranian government's harsh response to the protesters, claiming Western interference in its internal affairs. But it's also possible that the current events will undo some of the automatic anti-Iranianism of some in the West and replace it with a growing respect for the bravery of the demonstrators.

Things certainly do appear to be changing. Dumas gave more context in her May 8, 2008, Commonwealth Club of California in Silicon Valley [watch the video], noting, "Over and over again, I see that stories that have to do with Iran tend to be frightening. I find that so upsetting.... Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, [Iran's] president, is not speaking on behalf of the Iranian people; he's speaking on behalf of himself." Now, perhaps moreso than ever.

Christina Romer: Health Care Reform Is "Good Economic Policy"

Citing a series of benefits to the nation's businesses, public coffers and individual citizens, Christina Romer -- chair of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors -- made the case for tackling health-care reform.

Romer, speaking Monday, June 8, 2009, at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco, gave some backing to people who've been seeing some recovery from the nation's economic crisis, at least if one measures that by her workload. She said that in the first few months of her tenure in the Obama administration, she dealt with a number of crisis-related topics that were all in her professional comfort zone: banking, fiscal stimulus, recession. But after his first 100 days in office, Obama announced his intention to tackle health-care reform, which led Romer to come up to speed on health-care economics.

"I've gone from being a positive but somewhat passive advocate of health-care reform, to being a passionate advocate," she said of the experience.

She worked on a report that looked at the benefits and costs to the country of reforming -- or not reforming -- its health-care system. She said that by the year 2040, health-care expenditures could be as high as one-third of the nation's economy if the system isn't reformed. A failure to reform, she said, could result in stagnating take-home pay (as insurance premiums eat up an ever-larger share of income) and the number of uninsured could rise from an already-alarming 46 million to 72 million people.

But if the country can meet the president's goals of slowing the growth of health-care costs and expanding coverage to the uninsured, Romer said that significant amounts of money could be freed up for investment in other things, savings will increase (which could also result in lower interest rates), unemployment will drop, and and the inflation rate would be lower.

"Good health-care reform is good economic policy," she summarized.

You can read a copy of the report via a link on this post on the White House blog (yes, they have one, too). A critique of the report's approach from libertarian Michael Tanner of CATO Institute is here. Politico.com reports on the political give-and-take over the report.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation!

Obama Seeks New Understanding with Muslim World

Watch CBS Videos Online

"America is not, and never will be, at war with Islam," President Obama pledged to an audience in Cairo, Egypt. "We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists, who pose a great threat to our security. Because we reject the same thing people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children."

Today, President Obama gave his long-anticipated speech in Egypt, addressing head-on perceptions and misperceptions between the United States and Islam.

The CBS video of the speech is above. In it, Obama spends considerable time drawing connections first between himself and the Muslim world and then between the United States and Muslims, harkening back to the country's founding and even the first country to recognize the United States' independence: Morocco. In short, he's trying to build an alliance with Muslims to take on common challenges (such as radicals of all sorts, including Islamist terrorist groups) and to help build a new relationship in this age of globalization.

"Any world order that elevates one nation, or group of people, over another, will inevitably fail," Obama told the crowd. "So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners to it."

Obama's speech has already begun to be picked over in detail, but it will be interesting to see what is said about the speech from people who have been covering the Islam-U.S. relationship for years. Paul Barrett, director of the investigative reporting team at BusinessWeek, spoke to The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco February 20, 2007. His speech talked about assimilation and identity among Muslims in America -- a topic Obama proudly touted in his Cairo speech. (See Barrett video below.)



On January 23, 2007, Dinesh D'Souza took the topic and viewed it from a different angle. D'Souza, a conservative Catholic, looked at America as he thought Muslims might view it. (See D'Souza video below.)



And, to add a humorous aspect to this (but one with a serious point), political cartoonist Khalil Bendib spoke to The Commonwealth Club September 18, 2008, about Islamophobia -- and reminds any who needed reminding of the broad range of Muslims and attitudes.

Michael Eric Dyson: We're not Post-Racial Yet

Georgetown University sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson made a return engagement at The Commonwealth Club on May 27, discussing issues of race, power, and politics today. How does having an African-American president change attitudes and hopes? Watch the video above to find out Dyson's thoughts.

"Hip Hop Intellectual" Wants More from Obama on Race

Michael Eric Dyson has no problem following a quote from Frederick Douglas with a shout out to Snoop Dogg. In fact, it's one of the reasons he is considered by some to be one of the most thoroughly thoughtful and entertaining intellectuals in America and when it comes to race, there are few who see the subtle cues and put downs more vividly than Dyson.

Speaking at the Commonwealth Club of California, the Georgetown professor and noted author on race, both excited the crowd with searing rhetoric reminiscent of an old time preacher along with hip-hop soliloquys of rap's most provocative lyrics. His thoughts on the place of an African-American in the White House may have caught some off-guard, though. Dyson, while thrilled to have President Obama in the Oval Office, believes he fails to confront race fully.

“He is forced into sometimes-narrow considerations. Pocket of reserve and critical reflection when it comes to issues of race, class and culture. Obviously, he doesn't want to be painted into a corner of being the black president. Ain't nobody going to miss he's a brotha. Just look at the way he walks to Air Force One,” Dyson said while mimicking Obama's soulful strut. He also accused the president along with society of failing to cozy up to the ongoing issue of race. “Blackness has been the disturbing, formidable presence of a negative that not be totally eradicated. So, we are uncomfortable with it -- the president, I would add, too.”

Much of the night featured Dyson issuing poignant comic jabs at the president, Rush Limbaugh and the role of Michelle Obama. He lamented the sorry state of the U.S. economy just as Obama took office when he quipped, “Of course they would hand a brotha a key to a sinking ship.” and added. “It's good that we have an African-American president, I think at this particular point. Like Tupac [Shakur] said, 'A brotha know how to make a dollar out of fifteen cents.' He certainly will have to make much more from far less.”

Recent calls by Republicans of reverse racism levied against Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for citing her Latina heritage struck Dyson as ridiculous, as he charged Limbaugh of piling on a historically marginalized race and gender. He said her racial background is a positive. “Rush Limbaugh goes on his warpath and says, 'What do you mean? That's reverse racism!' It's the former racism that I'm worried about,” said Dyson, “Taken out of context — looking like the woman is out to be playah hating on white men, that ain't the point. The point is, if you've been dominated, it's often been rendered irreversible, therefore, invisible. Not seen, Mr. Limbaugh.”

With Tuesday's ruling from the California Supreme Court upholding the state's ban on gay marriage still on many minds, Dyson discussed the opponents of Proposition 8 and their linkage to the plight of blacks in the Civil Rights Era. He noted some African-Americans do not take the co-opting of their struggle by gays lightly, but points out the Civil Rights movement was heavily borrowed from Mahatma Gandhi's principle of non-violence. Dyson admitted that the eradication of homophobia from his mind is still a work in progress and views homosexuality in physiological terms.

“When do you choose to be heterosexual?,” he said, “At seven years old, you rode on your mama and said, 'Look, I'm going to need me a Corvette and a black book because I'm going to be macking the ladies and a decent basement, so when we come down here, it's going to be looking good'.”

Perhaps surprisingly, he lauded the rise of Michelle Obama as the “Mom-in-Chief” as a significant breaking of racial stereotypes regarding black women, but only to a certain point. “The momification of Michelle Obama nullifies the narrative of the black woman as a reckless mom — the welfare queen. She just juxtaposes that. She's a super-heroic figure,” he said. “But her mama is in the crib, too. A lot of so-called welfare queens don't have mama in the crib and, if she does, mama has children, too.” He also referred to Queen Elizabeth's notable breaching of protocol when she touched Michelle Obama's arm and in a tongue-in-cheek manner envisioned the first lady's future presidency.

“I think Michelle Obama is an extraordinary person,” he said, “I think when she becomes president she'll find Bin Laden the first week."

North Korea's Nuclear Test may be Obama's First Challenge

North Korea's detonation of a nuclear bomb in the mountains near the Chinese border may be the initial foreign test Vice President Joe Biden infamously foresaw earlier this year. Last March, New York Times Chief Washington Correspondent told the Commonwealth Club that an administration's first crisis may not portend disaster. Sanger noted the Bush Administration's successful responses to the China EP-3 controversy when an American fighter jet collided with a Chinese jet over Hainan Island, and the handling of the post-9/11 up until the invasion of Iraq.

Sanger believed that an international incident including North Korea would likely be early in President Obama's first term and an unfortunate leftover from the previous administration's foreign policy regarding the communist nation.

"North Korea, to my mind, was probably the single biggest failure of diplomacy of the Bush Administration -- not that they didn't try in the second term -- but if you look at the moments when the North Koreans got their nuclear fuel, it was January, February and March of 2003, just as we were heading to Kuwait and up into Iraq," said Sanger, "That was the moment they picked, in full view of our satellites. I suspect North Korea could end up, just because it wants the attention, to be one of the early crisis."

The size of the nuclear bomb is unclear, although seismic readings suggest a blast one-quarter the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. To exacerbate international outrage over the test, it was reported that the North Koreans launched three short-range missiles, and some reports suggest the regime of Kim Jong Il is showing strength in the face of his waning health and uncertainty over who will succeed him.

Some experts are suggesting that the response to a nuclear test by North Korea seems to have hit the Obama Administration flat-footed.“As much as they understood this was going to be an issue, they weren’t ready for a nuclear test in May,” an expert on North Korea told the New York Times. “They’re in a situation now where they have to contain and manage a crisis.”

How the president handles the situation will likely give the Iranians -- who are also believed to be actively pursuing the development of nuclear weapons -- an indication of how the administration will play its cards, yet each scenario has it differences. While Iran is believed to be seeking nuclear protection from a strike by either Israel or the U.S., some believe that North Korea has always used the procurement of nuclear weapons, in simplistic terms, to draw the attention of the Western world. Wendy Sherman, a policymaker in the Clinton administration, said succinctly, “The North Korean leadership cares about internal matters, not external matters. They care about external matters only insofar as it helps ensure the survival of the regime.”

For some important background on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, watch this May 25, 2007, video from the Commonwealth Club speech by Gordon C. Chang, author of "Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World."

The Fight over the Bush Administrations' Terror Policies

With the high-stakes speeches this morning from President Barack Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney (see above and below), the United States is beginning to get what Obama has long said he wanted to avoid: rehashing the past. Today, Cheney's speech tried to defend the actions taken during his time in office, saying they protected Americans from further attack, and Obama gave a blistering attack on those actions, noting that traditionally Americans closed down torture chambers around the world.


Both views will likely be analyzed and spun ad nauseum in the next couple weeks. But it's really just a continuation of a long-running battle, super-charged by critics from the Right who believe the Obama administration has weakened our anti-terror protections and critics from the Left who believe Obama has backtracked on pledges to end inhumane practices.

Some of those latter people recently met with President Obama to talk about his plans for tribunals for alleged terrorists and other actions that have alarmed human rights groups, Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports. Anthony Romero, head of the American Civil Liberties Union, left the meeting feeling impressed with the president's command of the issues but disappointed in his policy decisions. Romero has been a vocal proponent of prosecuting leading figures in the Bush administration over torture allegations, as he argued in his recent Commonwealth Club discussion.

Another participant in the meeting, Vincent Warren (photo at right), executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, is reported by RebelReports as having commented, "I came out of the meeting deeply disappointed in the direction that the administration is taking ... I don’t see meaningful differences between these detention policies and those erected by President Bush."

Whether that comment will cheer conservative critics of Obama is unclear, but people on all sides of this issue can hear more from Warren when he speaks at The Commonwealth Club tonight. The title of his speech couldn't be more clear: "Neutralizing the Bush Legacy."

Torture Touches Everybody

Torture allegations may be a defining accusation of the Bush administration by history's standard, but that does not mean it cannot plague Democrats, too, as U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is finding out and as the president is working to avoid. For a nation starting to come to terms with "enhanced interrogation techniques" and possible new photos of prisoner humiliation and mistreatment and the whole issue of torture and who's responsible, this is a time where some people are asking, At what point does the new government's cautious approach and the American people's earlier disinterest make it complicit in allowing torture to have occurred in the first place?

Just this week, Michael Kinsley wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post charging Americans with collusion in the awful deeds: "If you're going to punish people for condoning torture, you'd better include the American citizenry itself." Salon's Gary Kamiya similarly wrote, "How would these people react to an investigation of those Bush officials who planned and authorized the very deeds that they themselves supported?"

It may seem a tenuous argument at best to charge 56 million voters with complicity when they did not choose to re-elect George W. Bush in 2004 based solely on whether or not he approved waterboarding. But it might help to note that these facts were known before Americans went to the polls. Jacob Weisberg, in an article for Newsweek, lays out what we knew earlier than 2004. Various media outlets had already published reports of illegal extradition of suspected terrorists to CIA "black sites" in foreign countries, and knowledge of the excessive waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed along with photos from Abu Ghraib were widely written scandals.

Weisberg also does a fine job of recreating the atmosphere of fear fed by the Bush administration's warnings about the consequences of insufficient vigilence during those years. New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks remarked about it today and believes Pelosi should own up to participating in that atmosphere of uncertainty: "Why can’t she just tell the obvious truth? She was influenced by the climate of the time. In retrospect, she wishes she had raised her voice in protest." In an appearance at the Commonwealth Club of California last month, Pelosi did not mention the already simmering issues of torture.

After President Barack Obama choose this week to withhold the release of new photos of detainee abuse of terrorist suspects (taken as early as 2004), this issue looms as an issue for which Obama has taken ownership. In so doing, he raised the ire of the ACLU. The president's rationale of protecting the troops and avoiding to inflame the anger of the Muslim world is similar to the policy of the previous administration.

Today, Pelosi publicly charged the CIA and the Bush administration for misleading her about waterboarding, attempting to deflect Republican claims this week that she knew about the situation. "To the contrary ... we were told explicitly that waterboarding was not being used," CBS quotes her as telling reporters today in reference to a 2002 briefing she had with CIA officials.

Since another terrorist attack on U.S. soil has not materialized, this is a political issue of high energy but it's difficult to discern in terms of real impact. But a lot of Americans are concerned about who knew what when, what the real story is about the United States' involvement in torture, its effectiveness or ineffectiveness, and the consequences for U.S. soldiers, America's moral standing, and the rest of the world.

ACLU chief Anthony Romero makes no mystery of where he stands, as he told The Commonwealth Club April 30th. The video is below:


By Steven Tavares

King Coal Fights an Uphill Battle Against Environmentalists

King Coal is already the subject of the next big battle pitting environmentalists against big business. People involved in the issue are trying to determine how we can limit the use of the dirtiest and cheapest form of energy, and whether the notion of "clean coal" is a credible science or panacea.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. made news this week when he charged President Obama and many politicians with been too cozy with coal producers. Though the message was overshadowed by his use of the phrase "indentured servants" when characterizing political backers of clean coal, the son of RFK has been a long-time critic. Here's what he wrote for the Huffington Post in late 2007:

In fact, there is no such thing as "clean coal." And coal is only "cheap" if one ignores its calamitous externalized costs. In addition to global warming, these include dead forests and sterilized lakes from acid rain, poisoned fisheries in 49 states and children with damaged brains and crippled health from mercury emissions, millions of asthma attacks and lost work days and thousands dead annually from ozone and particulates.

Both sides of this debate have featured vociferous opposition to each other. Jeff Goodell, the author of Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future, will attempt to moderate a panel containing a scientist, two lobbyists and a venture capitalist next Tuesday at the Commonwealth Club of California.

Goodell presented the pros and cons of clean coal's main contention in a blog posting for Yale University last year. He wrote that coal's dirty byproduct -- carbon dioxide -- could be liquefied and injected underground, thereby theoretically making the fortified black rocks of energy scrubbed of their ozone-depleting hazards. The science and feasibility, he says, is somewhat dubious, though. "Unfortunately, CCS [carbon capture and storage] is more fantasy than reality at the moment," wrote Goodell.

He does agree with Kennedy on the implication that clean coal is politically expedient and neatly explained. "Politically, CCS is a godsend. Both Barack Obama and John McCain are eager to carry Big Coal (swing) states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, and Ohio, where the promise of 'clean coal' is the easy answer to every hard question about energy security, global warming, and the economy."

One of the leading proponents of Clean Coal is Joe Lucas, the vice president of communications for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) and a member of Tuesday's panel. He was called an "obvious huckster" by David Roberts of the Huffington Post while lampooning his powers of persuasion. "It's old-fashioned street theater, showing you the con and charming you into nodding along anyway," Roberts said. "You kind of have to give him style points."

At a time when populist tendencies are heightened along with broad acceptance of environmental platforms, corporate leaders are being pressured like no time since perhaps the early 1930s. If Clean Coal is nothing more than hokum, the onus of proving its viability to the American public may have passed -- like about six months ago, when more accommodating ears resided in the White House. In the meantime, only the great promise of scientific discovery is their best hope.

Author Jeff Goodell will moderate "Clean Coal: Myth or Reality?" with S. Julio Friedmann, Carbon Management Program Leader, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Ray Lane, Managing Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Bruce Nilles, Director, Beyond Coal Campaign at Sierra Club and Joe Lucas, Senior Vice President, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. The program, April 28, begins at 6 p.m. Click here for more information.

Pelosi Calls for Commission to Investigate Wall Street

With an eye toward quelling the populist anger roiling across the nation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today called for the creation of a commission to root out the causes of Wall Street's meltdown patterned after an obscure Depression-era committee.

In San Francisco to speak about her book encouraging the rise of women in society at a gathering for the Commonwealth Club of California, Pelosi said Americans are angry with the economy and bonuses given to AIG, and at least 75 percent of them want an investigation into the missteps that led to this recession.

"That's what we would do with this commission, is to make sure it does not happen again," she said.

Pelosi spoke with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner this morning about the plan to emulate the Pecora Commission created in 1932. That commission, named after Deputy District Attorney of New York County Ferdinand Pecora, followed two failured attempts but ultimately benefited by Franklin Roosevelt's election to the presidency. The commission's findings led to the Securities Act of 1933 and the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission – itself alleged by many to have been lax in regulating Wall Street (with Bernard Madoff's infamous Ponzi scheme being the poster boy for this age).

“Some people can tell you one piece of it. Others can tell you another piece of it. It's really hard to know. Do you understand it?” Pelosi asked rhetorically. “We need a clearer understanding of how we got here.”

Pelosi is not the first politician to allude to the Pecora Commission in recent weeks. Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan called for a new iteration of the committee along with the resurrection of the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment banking. Many believe its repeal in 1999 was the impetus for banks and investment firms like Citigroup and Travelers to merge and allow the subprime credit markets to run rampant. (Wells Fargo Chairman Dick Kovacevich gave the banks' side of the deregulation story in a speech to The Commonwealth Club in 2008. Click here to view video.) A New York Times editorial last month also called for a Pecora-like commission to be created.

Besides making news with her call for a Wall Street investigation, Pelosi had a full schedule. Earlier in the day, appearing on the local Fox affiliate KTVU, Pelosi characterized an upswing of “Tea Party” tax protests as window dressing for elite conservative interests that mainly wanted lower taxes, mocking them as “Astroturf” or fake “grassroots.”

The Speaker also drew upon her personal biography to encourage woman to continue reaching for more positions of power. Her book, Know Your Power: A Message to American Daughters urges women to get involved in all aspects of community service. Pelosi is the daughter of the Baltimore establishment and said she found politics both exciting and distasteful. “It taught me I didn't want to be a part of it,” she said.

While raising five children with husband Paul Pelosi – who incidentally spent the speech doting over their newest grandchildr – she slowly became immersed in Bay Area politics with her big break occurring in 1976 when she secured Maryland for a youthful Jerry Brown in the Democratic presidential primaries. Pelosi joked, though, that the then-governor of California had a problem with saying, “thank you,” but he nonetheless found time to praise her for delivering Maryland to his campaign.