Donle’s Daily Dispatches

Volume 1 Issue 154             Today’s News and Views         Wednesday, May 31, 2006

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Update of US Casualties in Iraq: 2471

Update of US Casualties in Afghanistan: 296

Figures provided by

the Iraq Coalition Causality website

For Immediate Release                                                                                                May 30, 2006

2500 American Deaths in Iraq are Near:

We say, “Not one more.” Call for Peace Now.

Press Contacts:

Harold P. Donle, Veterans for Peace, Inc. #49, hdonle@insightbb.com 317/698-2450.

Heather Allen-Garde, Hoosiers for Peace, heather@hoosiersforpeace.org, 317/202-9302.

Jim Wolfe, Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center, jwolfe@butler.edu, 317/255-3857.

Members of Veterans for Peace, Chapter 49, Hoosiers for Peace and the Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center are asking Indiana citizens to assemble on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis on the day that the 2500^th American is reported killed to mark this tragic occurrence. The target date at the current rate of KIAs is on or about Tuesday, June 13^th, thirteen (13) days from today.

This action is to honor the soldiers who have lost their lives in Iraq and their families, and to give our fellow Indiana citizens a visual representation of what 2500 looks like. We are against war because it kills our family members, wreaks havoc on our national treasury, makes the world a more dangerous place, and psychically damages our humanity.

Hundreds of Hoosiers have been invited to participate in this event that will combine an installation of 2500 flags to honor the dead and a memorial ceremony to call for an end to war. If the number is reached on a weekday (Mon.- Fri.) the group will gather at 6 P.M and if the number is reached on a weekend the group will gather at 4 P.M. at Veterans Memorial Plaza  in downtown Indianapolis. (The Plaza is bounded by Michigan to the south, Meridian to the west, North Street to the north, and Pennsylvania to the west.) At that time, the assembled will a field of flags on Veterans Memorial Plaza. The group will reserve 64 flags to represent the Hoosiers that have been lost in Iraq and they will plant those 64 flags around the base of the obelisk. There will be a period of brief remarks and a memorial ceremony in closing.

For more information contact Harold Donle at (317)698-2450.

Support Our Troops

IMPEACH Bush/Cheney

Hoosiers for Peace requests the honor of your presence…

What: Share Sunday Gravy with Local Progressives at Pasta for Peace. Good Food, Stimulating Conversation, Inspirational Music, Film, and Art and a Silent Auction. Did we mention the pasta was shaped like peace signs? To reserve your seat, call 202-9302 or e-mail heather@hoosiersforpeace.org. Seats are limited and going fast.

When: June 25, 2006 from 1 to 4 p.m. (with dinner at 2 p.m.)

Where: Indianapolis Peace and Learning Center (6040 DeLong Rd.) in Eagle Creek Park.

Why:  Now is the time to spread the word to mainstream America to unite and stand up for peace. Hoosiers for Peace is sponsoring a statewide advertising campaign, which is focused on uniting the community to call for peace. This campaign will cost $14,000. This money will be used to pay for a full-page ad in the Indianapolis Star to ask more than 700,000 Hoosiers to call for peace. To find out more visit www.hoosiersforpeace.org

Cost: Adults $20, Children 5-12 $7, Children under 5 eat free. All proceeds will go towards the advertising campaign. Seats are limited, contact Heather for tickets today: 202-9302 or e-mail heather@hoosiersforpeace.org.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. 
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

May 7, 2006

Dear Peacemakers,

Will you help to spread and encourage peace? With a record number of American soldiers dying in April 2006 and possible military action against Iran becoming daily news, now is the time to spread the word to mainstream America to unite and stand up for peace.

Hoosiers for Peace is sponsoring a statewide advertising campaign, which is focused on uniting the community to call for peace. This campaign will cost $14,000. This money will be used to pay for a full-page ad in the Indianapolis Star to ask more than 700,000 Hoosiers to call for peace. We are contacting dozens of organizations to make a proposal to form a coalition to raise funds and send a collaborative message to Hoosiers to Call for Peace. The message is: Call your friends, your family, and your representatives and ask them to support the Call for Peace.

Like most Americans, we oppose war based on the following, which will be reflected in the advertisement:

A.    War Kills. More than 2,400 American Soldiers have died and nearly 1,000 Hoosier soldiers are in harms way.

B.    War depletes our resources. Billions of dollars are going to sustain war efforts while ordinary citizens struggle for social services.

C.    War will not make us secure. Studies have shown that the U.S. is no more secure today than it was before 911.

Hoosiers for Peace, a website sponsored by Progressive Indiana, requests your support to make this advertisement a success. We will use the advertisement to call for peace. Each group in the coalition  working on this project will be listed in the ad. Each group will be asked to raise $1000 by October 1, 2006. Below are some suggestions for fundraising:

1.                Letter Writing Campaign: Contact your family and friends and ask them to support this call for peace. Tell them how many people we can reach and ask them to make a generous donation and spread the word. You may collect the money through your organization or you may refer them to Progressive Indiana. Donations may be sent through our secure online giving by going to www.progressiveindiana.org and click on donate now or log onto www.hoosiersforpeace and click on donate now. Checks may also be made payable to Progressive Indiana and mailed to:

                Progressive Indiana

                P.O. Box 55253

                Indianapolis, Indiana 46205-0253

2.                Host a house party. Go grassroots and organize a pasta dinner or backyard barbecue and ask for a donation from each guest. Play poker and donate half of each pot to the campaign for peace. Have a bake sale through your church or place of employment.

3.                Plan a small event.  Invite your community to an event and ask for donations for the ad. Small concerts, speakers, and socials are some ideas for these events. Get creative and network!

We need at least 14 groups to join the coalition and many more people to join the campaign to help fill in possible gaps. If we join together we can make this happen and we can bring Hoosiers together through this ad. As we Honor the Dead, Heal the Wounded, and call for an End to the War we can stand united for peace. We can make a difference by showing ordinary Hoosiers that there are many people like them working for peace. Please contact us as soon as possible if you would like to participate in this campaign. With a little work and collaboration we can make a large impact on our community.

In Peace,

Heather Allen-Garde

Director, Hoosiers For Peace

heather@hooisersforpeace.org

heatherreneeallen@yahoo.com

317/202-9302

It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it – Eleanor Roosevelt

David Korten

Butler University

June 26, 2006

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Today's News and Views

High court limits whistleblower lawsuits

By GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer

10 minutes ago

The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it harder for government employees to claim they were retaliated against for going public with allegations of official misconduct.

By a 5-4 vote, justices said the nation's 20 million public employees do not have carte blanche free speech rights to disclose government's inner-workings. New Justice Samuel Alito cast the tie-breaking vote.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the court's majority, said the First Amendment does not protect "every statement a public employee makes in the course of doing his or her job."

The decision came after the case was argued twice this term, once before Justice Sandra Day O'Connor retired in January, and again after her successor, Alito, joined the bench.

The ruling sided with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, which appealed an appellate court ruling which held that prosecutor Richard Ceballos was constitutionally protected when he wrote a memo questioning whether a county sheriff's deputy had lied in a search warrant affidavit.

Ceballos had filed a lawsuit claiming he was demoted and denied a promotion for trying to expose the lie.

Dissenting justices said Tuesday that the ruling could silence would-be whistleblowers who have information about governmental misconduct.

"Public employees are still citizens while they are in the office," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens. "The notion that there is a categorical difference between speaking as a citizen and speaking in the course of one's employment is quite wrong."

In a separate dissent, Justice David H. Souter wrote: "private and public interests in addressing official wrongdoing and threats to health and safety can outweigh the government's stake in the efficient implementation of policy."

The ruling is significant because an estimated 100 whistleblower retaliation lawsuits are filed each year. Bonnie Robin-Vergeer, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group which represented Ceballos said that employees may now be fearful of reporting problems with such things as hurricane preparedness and terrorist-related security.

"If that information cannot be aired, government cannot be held accountable and problems cannot be corrected," she said.

The Bush administration had urged the high court to place limits on when government whistleblowers can sue, arguing that those workers have other options, including the filing of civil service complaints.

Kennedy noted in his ruling that there are whistleblower protection laws. The ruling, which had the votes of the court's conservatives including new Chief Justice John Roberts, showed great deference to the government.

"Official communications have official consequences, creating a need for substantive consistency and clarity. Supervisors must ensure that their employees' official communications are accurate, demonstrate sound judgment, and promote the employer's mission," Kennedy wrote.

He said government workers "retain the prospect of constitutional protection for their contributions to the civic discourse." They do not, Kennedy said, have "a right to perform their jobs however they see fit."

The case is Garcetti v. Ceballos, 04-473.

On the Net:

Supreme Court decision: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/05slipopinion.html

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc.

May 29, 2006

Frameshop: Amnesia in America

A Moral From The Enron Trial: 'I Don't Remember' Is The Disease, 'Responsibility' Is The Cure

As Americans across the country celebrate Memorial Day, I want to take a minute to talk about the amnesia epidemic afflicting America.  This silent plague has become the number one killer of 'responsibility' amongst U.S. citizens, and  unless we deal with it boldly, amnesia will spread to every man, woman and child--destroying everything in its path.  In recent years, a few bold New York trial lawyers who have dedicated their lives to the fight for a cure.  But they cannot win this battle alone.  They need our help.

What is 'Amnesia in America' and how can we stop it?

Stage -1 Amnesia:  'I Forgot'
'Amnesia in America' is a disease that afflicts corporate and government leaders who commit crimes.

First, these leaders steal money from shareholders, or manipulate accounting books, or violate finance laws, or willfully subvert The Constitution, or leak classified information for political revenge, or lie during testimony to Congress--or generally violate the public trust.  Then, when they are caught, instead of taking responsibility for their actions, they say, 'I do not recall' doing anything wrong.  It is a terrible, crippling disease.

Steve Martin used to tell a joke about Amnesia that was called 'You can be millionaire and never pay taxes.' It went something like this:

"You say, 'Steve, how can I be a millionaire and never pay taxes?' Two simple words. Two simple words in the English language ... 'I forgot.' How many times do we let ourselves get into terrible situations because we don't say, 'I forgot'? Let's say you're on trial for armed robbery. You say to the judge, 'I forgot armed robbery was illegal'."

Believe it or not--this strategy of knowingly saying 'I forgot' to avoiding the consequences of committing a crime--this is only 'Stage-1' amnesia.

To break the law and then pretend to not know the law, is a form of early-onset amnesia.  In this condition--we know that we have acted immorally.  The cure is intervention--a quick moment of confrontation where we are are told, either by a judge or by a friend, that the law is no joke.

The cure is the confrontation.  Stage-2 Amnesia is much much worse because the strategic aspect starts to give way to real forms of forgetting.  The sufferer of Stage-2 Amnesia truly believes it when they say, "I do not remember."

Stage-2 Amnesia:  'I Do Not Recall.'
Consider the following cased taken from the recent headlines, featuring high-profile cases of Stage-2 Amnesia in America:

Jeffrey Skilling, convicted criminal and former Enron Executive.  Said during sworn trial testimony, "I really don't know if I knew that."

Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States.  Said during unsworn Congressional testimony about abuse of Presidential power, "Sir, I don't recall having conversations with anybody in Congress about it."

Karl Rove, top advisor to President Bush. Said during sworn testimony to Grand Jury that he 'did not recall' revealing state secrets to a reporter.

I. Lewis Libby, top advisor to Vice President Cheney.  Said during sworn testimony to Grand jury that he 'could not recall' details of the case where he leaked secret information to the press.

These are just a few cases, obviously, from a list that is much, much longer.  What all these patients have in common is that Stage-2 Amnesia has taken over the part of their brain that produces moral behavior based on American values of personal responsibility.  In the case of the Corporate Executive, he breaks business laws and swindles shareholders and employers out of their life savings, but Stage-2 Amnesia prevents him from remembering.  In the case of the Attorney General, he violates The United States Constitution that he is sworn to uphold, but Stage-2 Amnesia prevents him from remembering.  In the case of the top advisors to the President and the Vice President, they breach national security, but Stage-2 Amnesia prevents them from remembering. 

It is plainly a crippling disease--worse in many respects than polio or childhood diabetes.

As we can see, Stage-2 Amnesia festers and spreads so long as it is left untreated.  The best way to discover if someone has Stage-2 Amnesia is to require the patient to undergo extensive Grand Jury testimony and court room prosecution.  The treatment is criminal conviction. 

But the problem with this approach to Stage-2 Amnesia is that it deals with the symptoms, but leaves the disease to flourish.  This leads to the much more deadly form of the disease: Stage-3 Amnesia.

Stage-3 Amnesia: 'I am Truth'
Like Joseph Merrick and elephantitus, Stage-3 Amnesia has its celebrity victims.

Richard Nixon suffered from Stage-3 Amnesia and he embodies its characteristics.  At this advanced stage, the Amnesia no longer destroys the patient's ability to take responsibility for just one act, but impairs the ability to take responsibility for any act committed at any time.

In this advanced stage of Amnesia, the patient believes that he or she not only has forgotten that a crime has been committed, but is unable to recall that they are capable of committing crimes or immoral acts.   The Stage-3 Amnesia patient, thus, becomes deeply convinced that they are the living embodiment of truth and virtue--despite leading a life of criminal behavior and total lack of personal or moral responsibility.

Years after the Watergate scandal virtually brought our system  of government  to collapse, Richard Nixon still believed that if the President did something--if he did something--then it could not be illegal.

In the current moment, we have several prime candidates suffering from what appears to be acute case of Stage-3 Amnesia.

President Bush believes that any act he commits during a time period that he alone defines as a 'war on terror'--is legal.  Stage-3 Amnesia has taken him over to the extent that he can no longer recall that he is capable of committing immoral acts, the he too can break the law.

Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, Attorney General Gonzales, Ambassador Negroponte, Secretary Rumsfeld--all suffer from the same, late-stage symptoms of Stage-3 Amnesia.  All are unable to recall, as a result, their legal, moral and personal fallibility. They have become, in their own eyes, the living embodiment of truth.

'Amnesia' Is the Disease, 'Responsibility' Is The Cure

The great danger Amnesia presents in all of its stages is that it will become airborn--and in so doing, leap from the diseased-ridden executive and government offices in places like Washington, DC and Houston, to locations not previously infected, such as schools, the home, and America's quiet streets.   If Amnesia were to become airborn, the damage would be catastrophic as the moral foundation of our nation would collapse.

The cure, of course, is large doses of responsibility. But not just personal responsibility.

When the disease of smoking addiction had taken hold of and threatened to destroy America, the cure did not come in the form of individuals alone chosing not to smoke.  The cure took the form of a cure for the disease pushed at the highest levels of government and industry.

We live in a moment, however, where it is taboo for corporate and government leaders to discuss Stage-1, Stage-2 and Stage-3 Amnesia.  It has become such a shameful disease that, like the early stages of the AIDS epidemic, it is difficult for people in positions of power to talk about for fear of embarrassment or stigma.

But we must talk about it.

As a nation we must talk about the problem of Amnesia and we must confront it.

Our role model on this Memorial Day 2006 are the courageous jurors who returned the verdict in the Enron trial.  Jury duty is a difficult task--often a thankless task--but the Enron jury lived up to the great American value of responsibility and took the first important step to cure the disease before it reaches its deadly, airbone stage.

What can we do to follow the leadership of the Enron jury? 

Anytime we hear leaders in America claiming not to remember or recall the crimes or immoral acts they committed, we must identify them as suffering from a disease.

And we must demand that our candidates for office be dedicated 100% to fighting this disease.

We can cure Amnesia in America through swift and fearless enforcement of corporate laws.

We can cure Amnesia in America through fair and balanced tax policy.

We can cure Amnesia in America through publicly financed elections.

We can cure Amnesia in America by removing its victims from office--and giving them immediate treatment.

And we can cure Amnesia in America by talking about it relentlessly with our families, our children, our students, our  co-workers, our employees--our fellow citizens.

The time has come to acknowledge and to end this terrible disease.

Let's work together to make Amensia in America a thing of the past.

©  2006 Jeffrey Feldman

It is inconceivable President Bush did not lend a helping hand in getting Peanut and Julian Flannery accepted into HBS. Loyalty is this administration’s affirmative action policy and loyalty to Bush seems to be Harvard’s too.

– Sam Davis

Filed under: Administration

Posted by Guest May 27, 2006 11:16 am

© 2005-2006 Center for American Progress Action Fund

News

Bush’s Personal Aide To Enroll at Business School

Gottesman, college dropout and former beau to Bush daughter, to begin in the fall

Published On 5/22/2006 2:12:14 AM

By PARAS D. BHAYANI

Crimson Staff Writer

A 26-year-old college dropout who carries President Bush’s breath mints and makes him peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches will follow in his boss’s footsteps this fall when he enrolls at Harvard Business School (HBS).

Though it is rare for HBS—or any other professional or graduate school—to admit a student who does not have an undergraduate degree, admissions officers made an exception for Blake Gottesman, who for four years has served as special assistant and personal aide to Bush.

Gottesman, a Texas native who attended Claremont-McKenna College in California for one year, has long had ties to the Bush family. He dated the president’s daughter, Jenna Bush, nearly ten years ago when he attended St. Andrew’s Episcopal School of Austin.

After completing his freshman year at Claremont in 1999, he left to join the Bush presidential campaign and later served as a junior aide to former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. In February 2002, he became the president’s personal assistant.

In his current role, Gottesman performs a wide range of duties, from dog-sitting the president’s Scottish terriers, Barney and Miss Beazley, to carrying the president’s speeches and giving him the “two-minute warning” before a speech begins.

Gottesman has declined all requests for comment on his business school admission, but White House staffers have described him as loyal, warm, and fun-loving.

“He is a friend and adviser to every employee of the White House, from career maintenance workers to cabinet secretaries,” Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin told The Myrtle Beach Sun News. “He is consistently kind and warm and generous with his time and provides extraordinarily good advice.”

Gottesman has likened his role at the White House to that of Charlie Young on the NBC television program “The West Wing.” When asked about his similarity to Young in an interactive question-and-answer session on the White House’s Web site, Gottesman wrote, “Charlie seems to be smarter, funnier, and better-looking. But, from what I remember—our jobs are probably pretty similar.”

HBS spokesman James E. Aisner ’68 explained the decision to accept Gottesman, even though he is not a college graduate, by telling The Economist that “extraordinary circumstances will sometimes compel it to drop [its] rule” of only admitting students who hold bachelor's degrees.

He refused to comment specifically on Gottesman, citing Harvard’s policy of not commenting on the admission of any individual student.

Aisner also pointed out to The Economist that Harvard would surely admit applicants like Bill Gates and Michael Dell, both of whom are college dropouts.

But the often-snarky British weekly noted: “Needless to say, holding the president’s hand-sanitizer is a far cry from heading a Fortune 500 company.”

—Staff writer Paras D. Bhayani can be reached at pbhayani@fas.harvard.edu.

Copyright © 2006, The Harvard Crimson, Inc.

Apocalypse now

Bill Moyers to college grads: "We're really sorry for the mess you're inheriting."

May. 25, 2006 | I will make this brief because I know you have much to do between now and your farewell to Hamilton tomorrow, and that you are eager to get out and enjoy this perfect day in this glorious weather that somehow never gets mentioned in your promotional and recruitment literature.

I know so many Hamilton alums that I feel at home here. One of my closest friends and colleagues, David Bate, graduated in 1938, and patriot that he is, headed right for the U.S. Navy where he served throughout World War II. David's father graduated from Hamilton in 1908 and two of his children continued the tradition. I asked David what he learned at Hamilton and he told me Hamilton is where you discover that being smart has nothing to do with being warm and dry ... Just kidding!

Thank you for inviting Judith and me to share this occasion with you. Fifty years ago both of us turned the same corner you are turning today and left college for the great beyond. Looking back across half a century I wish our speaker at the time had said something really useful -- something that would have better prepared us for what lay ahead. I wish he had said: "Don't Go."

So I have been thinking seriously about what I might say to you in this Baccalaureate service. Frankly, I'm not sure anyone from my generation should be saying anything to your generation except, "We're sorry. We're really sorry for the mess you're inheriting. We are sorry for the war in Iraq. For the huge debts you will have to pay for without getting a new social infrastructure in return. We're sorry for the polarized country. The corporate scandals. The corrupt politics. Our imperiled democracy. We're sorry for the sprawl and our addiction to oil and for all those toxins in the environment. Sorry about all this, class of 2006. Good luck cleaning it up."

You're going to have your hands full, frankly. I don't need to tell you of the gloomy scenarios being written for your time. Three books on my desk right now question whether human beings will even survive the 21st century. Just listen to their titles: "The Long Emergency: Surviving the Convergence Catastrophe"; "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed"; "The Winds of Change: Weather and the Destruction of Civilizations."

These are just three of the recent books that make the apocalypse prophesied in the Bible ... the Revelations of St. John ... look like child's play. I won't summarize them for you except to say that they spell out Doomsday scenarios for global catastrophe. There's another recent book called "The Revenge of Gaia" that could well have been subtitled, "The Earth Strikes Back," because the author, James Lovelock, says human consumption, our obsession with technology, and our habit of "playing God" are stripping bare nature's assets until the Earth's only consolation will be to take us down with her. Before this century is over, he writes, "Billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be kept in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable." So there you have it: The future of the race, to be joined in a final and fatal march of the penguins.

Of course that's not the only scenario. You can Google your way to a lot of optimistic possibilities. For one, the digital revolution that will transform how we do business and live our lives, including active intelligent wireless devices that in just a short time could link every aspect of our physical world and even human brains, creating hundreds of thousands of small-scale business opportunities. There are medical breakthroughs that will conquer many ills and extend longevity. Economic changes will lift hundreds of millions of people out of absolute poverty in the next 25 years, dwarfing anything that's come along in the previous 100 years. These are possible scenarios, too. But I'm a journalist, not a prophet. I can't say which of these scenarios will prove true. You won't be bored, that's for sure. I just wish I were going to be around to see what you do with the peril and the promise.

Since I won't be around, I want to take this opportunity to say a thing or two that have nothing to do with my professional work as a journalist. What I have to say today is very personal. Here it is:

If the world confuses you a little, it confuses me a lot. When I graduated fifty years ago I thought I had the answers. But life is where you get your answers questioned, and the odds are that you can look forward to being even more perplexed fifty years from now than you are at this very moment. If your parents level with you, truly speak their hearts, I suspect they would tell you life confuses them, too, and that it rarely turns out the way you thought it would.

I find I am alternatively afraid, cantankerous, bewildered, often hostile, sometimes gracious, and battered by a hundred new sensations every day. I can be filled with a pessimism as gloomy as the depth of the middle ages, yet deep within me I'm possessed of a hope that simply won't quit. A friend on Wall Street said one day that he was optimistic about the market, and I asked him, "Then why do you look so worried?" He replied, "Because I'm not sure my optimism is justified." Neither am I. So I vacillate between the determination to act, to change things, and the desire to retreat into the snuggeries of self, family and friends.

I wonder if any of us in this great, disputatious, over-analyzed, over-televised and under-tenderized country know what the deuce we're talking about, myself included. All my illusions are up for grabs, and I find myself re-assessing many of the assumptions that served me comfortable much of my life.

Earlier this week I heard on the radio a discussion in New York City about the new Disney Broadway production of "Tarzan," the jungle hero so popular when I was growing up. I remember as a kid almost dislocating my tonsils trying to re-create his unearthly sound, swinging on a great vine in a graceful arc toward the rescue of his distressed mate, Jane, hollering bloody murder all the time. So what have we learned since? That Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weismuller, who played Tarzan in the movies, never made that noise. It was a recording of three men, one a baritone, one a tenor, and one a hog caller from Arkansas -- all yelling to the top of their lungs.

This world is hard on believers.

As a young man I was drawn to politics. I took part in two national campaigns, served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and have covered politics ever since. But I understand now what Thomas Jefferson meant back in 1789 when he wrote: "I am not a Federalist because I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men, whether in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or anything else. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all." Of course we know there'll be no parties in Heaven. No Democrats, no Republicans, no liberals, no conservatives, no libertarians or socialists. Just us Baptists.

The hardest struggle of all is to reconcile life's polar realities. I love books, Beethoven, and chocolate brownies. Yet how do I justify my pleasure in these in a world where millions are illiterate, the music never plays, and children go hungry through the night? How do I live sanely in a world so unsafe for so many?

I don't know what they taught you here at Hamilton about all this, but I trust you are not leaving here without thinking about how you will respond to the dissonance in our culture, the rivalry between beauty and bestiality in the world, and the conflicts in your own soul. All of us have to choose sides on this journey. But the question is not so much who we are going to fight against as it is which side of our own nature will we nurture: The side that can grow weary and even cynical and believe that everything is futile, or the side that for all the vulgarity, brutality and cruelty, yearns to affirm, connect and signify.

Albert Camus got it right: There is beauty in the world as well as humiliation, "And we have to strive, hard as it is, not to be unfaithful ... in the presence of one or the other."

That's really what brings me here this afternoon. I did put myself in your place, and asked what I'd want a stranger from another generation to tell me if I had to sit through his speech. Well, I'd want to hear the truth: The truth is, life's a tough act, the world's a hard place, and along the way you will meet a fair share of fools, knaves and clowns -- even act the fool yourself from time to time when your guard is down or you've had too much wine. I'd like to be told that I will experience separation, loss and betrayal, that I'll wonder at times where have all the flowers gone.

I would want to be told that while life includes a lot of luck, life is more than luck. It is sacrifice, study, and work; appointments kept, deadlines met, promises honored. I'd like to be told that it's okay to love your country right or wrong, but it's not right to be silent when your country is wrong. And I would like to be encouraged not to give up on the American experience. To remember that the same culture which produced the Ku Klux Klan, Tom DeLay and Abu Ghraib, also brought forth the Peace Corps, Martin Luther King and Hamilton College.

And I would like to be told that there is more to this life than I can see, earn, or learn in my time. That beyond the day-to-day spectacle are cosmic mysteries we don't understand. That in the meantime -- and the meantime is where we live -- we infinitesimal particles of creation carry on the miracle of loving, laughing and being here now, by giving, sharing and growing now.

Let me tell you one of my favorite stories. It’s by Shalom Aleichem and it has stayed with me for many years now. The story is about Bontshe Shvayg, one of the accursed of the Earth. Every misfortune imaginable befell him. He lost his wife, his children neglected him, his house burned down, his job disappeared—everything he touched turned to dust. Yet through all this Bontshe kept returning good for evil everywhere he could until he died. When the angels heard he was arriving at Heaven’s gate, they hurried down to greet him. Even the Lord was there, so great was this man’s fame for goodness. It was the custom in Heaven that every newcomer was interrogated by the prosecuting angel, to assure that all trespasses on Earth had been atoned. But when Bontshe reached those gates, the prosecuting angel arose, and for the first time in the memory of Heaven, said, “There are no charges.” Then the angel for the defense arose and rehearsed all the hardships this man had endured and recounted how in all the difficult circumstances of his life he had remained true to himself and returned good for evil.

When the angel was finished, the Lord said, "Not since Job himself have we heard of a life such as this one." And then, turning to Bontshe, he said, "Ask, and it shall be given to you."

The old man raised his eyes and said, "Well, if I could start every day with a hot buttered roll..." And at that the Lord and all the angels wept, at the preciousness of what he was asking for, at the beauty of simple things: a buttered roll, a clean bed, a beautiful summer day, someone to love and be loved by. These supply joy and meaning on this earthly journey.

So I brought this with me. It's an ordinary breakfast roll, perhaps one like Bontshe asked for. I brought it because it drives home the last thing I want to say to you.

Bread is the great re-enforcer of the reality principle. Bread is life. But if you're like me you have a thousand and more times repeated the ordinary experience of eating bread without a thought for the process that brings it to your table. The reality is physical: I need this bread to live. But the reality is also social: I need others to provide the bread. I depend for bread on hundreds of people I don't know and will never meet. If they fail me, I go hungry. If I offer them nothing of value in exchange for their loaf, I betray them. The people who grow the wheat, process and store the grain, and transport it from farm to city; who bake it, package it, and market it -- these people and I are bound together in an intricate reciprocal bargain. We exchange value.

This reciprocity sustains us. If you doubt it, look around you. Hamilton College was raised here by people before your time, people you'll never know, who were nonetheless thinking of you before you were born. You have received what they built and bequeathed, and in your time you will give something back. That's the deal. On and on it goes, from generation to generation.

Civilization sustains and supports us. The core of its value is bread. But bread is its great metaphor. All my life I've prayed the Lord's Prayer, and I've never prayed, "Give me this day my daily bread." It is always, "Give us this day our daily bread." Bread and life are shared realities. They do not happen in isolation. Civilization is an unnatural act. We have to make it happen, you and I, together with all the other strangers. And because we and strangers have to agree on the difference between a horse thief and a horse trader, the distinction is ethical. Without it, a society becomes a war against all, and a market for the wolves becomes a slaughter for the lambs. My generation hasn't done the best job at honoring this ethical bargain, and our failure explains the mess we're handing over to you. You may be our last chance to get it right. So good luck, Godspeed, enjoy these last few hours together, and don't forget to pass the bread.

Copyright ©2006 Salon Media Group, Inc.

Why Hillary Clinton Is No Bill Clinton

05/29/2006 07:41:27 PM EST

By Cenk

So, why shouldn't I be happy to see Senator Hillary Clinton running to the center again? Because the center has moved!

To paraphrase the late Lloyd Bentsen: Senator Clinton, I knew Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Bill Clinton.

When Bill Clinton came into office I was a Republican. By the time he left, I had voted for my first Democrat, Al Gore. I haven't voted for a Republican since.

Bill Clinton ran towards the center back when there was a center. As a Republican, I wanted to balance the budget. Clinton and the Republican Congress made that happen. As a Republican, I wanted to make sure we had welfare reform. Clinton and the Republican Congress made that happen.

I wanted real security in our streets. President Clinton put a 100,000 cops on the street and the crime rate went down all across the country (for a variety of reasons, but his program helped the process). I wanted an effective military that had clear missions and executed them. President Clinton led the Kosovo War, where we completely achieved our objective without a single US casualty.

Bill Clinton brought the Democratic Party to the center. Accordingly, he left office with enormous popularity - 66% approval rating, more than double President Bush's current numbers. He made a lot of people like me think that the Democrats were far more reasonable than we had suspected. He got us to open our minds to the Democratic Party.

So, why shouldn't I be happy to see Senator Hillary Clinton running to the center again? Because the center has moved!

The mainstream media seems to be very slow to recognize this enormous political fact. The Democratic Party of today is exactly where the political center used to be in the 80's and 90's. The Republican Party of today is to the far right of Ronald Reagan. To run towards the Republicans today is not running to the middle, it is running to the extreme right.

Reagan raised taxes repeatedly after 1981. Read that again. No one talks about it, but it's true. Reagan realized (with the help of the Democratic Party and pragmatists inside the administration) he had cut taxes too much and that the deficit was out of control. So, he adjusted and raised taxes.

George H.W. Bush knew it was a politically suicidal move, but he also raised taxes. Why? Because they ultimately cared about the country. The state of our budget and our economic health in the long run was more important than their ideology.

Reagan made the mistake of going into Lebanon and 241 US Marines were killed. But instead of staying the course so that thousands more could die in the middle of the Lebanese civil war, he changed course.

Reagan believed in Peace through Strength. Now, we have Weakness through War. The more wars we get into, the weaker we get. George H.W. Bush created the New World Order, which meant that we would defend our allies if they were ever invaded and we would not allow any first strikes. George W. Bush turned that doctrine on its head and launched his own first strike against a country that did not attack us or any of our allies.

This is not your father's Republican Party. These Republicans are extreme right on almost every issue across the board. They have moved the playing field to the right.

Now, when Senator Clinton moves to the right to meet them half way, she is not being moderate, she is heading towards extremism. The fact that she has not yet denounced the Iraq War is stunning.

We have a war against a country that did not attack us, that was absolutely no threat to us, a war that has cost the lives and limbs of thousands of Americans and the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. And Senator Clinton can't even say that was a mistake. That's not a moderate position. That's an extremist position.

When we have an executive branch that is running roughshod over the constitution and refuses to follow federal laws, it is not a moderate position to speak softly on that matter. To acquiesce to clear law breaking is not moderate. It is extreme.

The president says he can ignore Congressional laws through signing statements, he can torture detainees according to his interpretation of the laws, he can track the calls of every American and listen in on all our international calls without a court order. Running towards those positions is not moderate. It is extreme.

The true moderates these days are the ones running away from these radical right positions. Senator Feingold, Al Gore, Jack Murtha have not only the courage to speak their minds when it is absolutely necessary but they also have enough sense to understand that conventional wisdom is wrong - running toward the Republicans is not running to the center.

The party of President Clinton understood where the real center of this country lay. The party of Senator Clinton is so scared of seeming soft on defense (or whatever Fox News Channel and Rush Limbaugh are accusing them of this week), that they have forgotten where the center lies. They have also forgotten their oath of office and why voters put them there in the first place.

They are supposed to protect the Constitution. They are supposed to have the best interest of Americans in mind, not their political careers. The voters of New York voted for a Democrat, not a warmed over Republican.

Alberto Gonzales, who wrote and authorized the torture memos - confirmed! General Hayden, who oversaw the illegal warrantless spying program for the administration - confirmed! Sam Alito, who was the original author of the signing statements - confirmed!

Phase II of the intelligence investigation on whether the administration manipulated the evidence to lead us into war -- never completed. The nine billion dollars we lost in Iraq --never investigated. Whether the torture at Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Base and countless other facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan was authorized by the chain of command -- never investigated.

I understand that the Democrats are not in charge and far more blame goes to the Republicans who are protecting the administration at all costs. But I am afraid that if this mentality of the Democrats continues that things are never going to get better - even if they win back Congress.

If they are still scared of being called liberal whenever they challenge the president's law breaking or aggressive foreign policy, then it's not going to matter that they are in charge. Two thirds of the Democrats voted for General Hayden's confirmation. He would have been confirmed even if there was a Democratic majority. That's hideous.

To be fair to Senator Clinton, she voted against Hayden's confirmation (as did all the Presidential contenders on the Democratic side, except for Biden). But let's get real, she leads the Democratic Party right now. And the sound of silence coming from her office on all of these issues is deafening.

One of the admirable attributes of President Bill Clinton was that he did not shy from a fight. When Gingrich shut down the government, he stood his ground. When the Republicans impeached him over a nonsense personal affair, he stood his ground. When they relentlessly attacked him for eight straight years, he stood his ground. And he fought back!

That's why Senator Clinton, you're no President Clinton.

Other established political clubs in Manhattan — including the upper West Side's Three Parks Independent Democrats and downtown's Gramercy Stuyvesant Independent Democrats — chose in recent weeks to endorse no one for Senate rather than support Clinton.

"Some people wanted to send a message," said Sylvia Feinman, president of the Gramercy club, which has backed Clinton in the past. "I think there is still support for her, but there were also some feelings expressed that she was moving away from the views of her base." In recent months, as Clinton has geared up for what most believe will be a run for President, she has staked out new, moderate stances on several key issues — alarming some liberals in the process.

She has called abortion "a tragic choice," sponsored a bill to make flag-burning a crime, pushed for a crackdown on violent video games and supported the war in Iraq.

Democratic eyebrows were raised again earlier this month when it was revealed that Murdoch — whose conservative Fox News Network regularly lambastes Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton — plans to sponsor a fund-raiser for her.

The senator, who marched yesterday with her husband in a Memorial Day parade in their adopted hometown of Chappaqua, dodged a question about the Manhattan club defections.

"Oh, I'm very excited about going to Buffalo," she told the Daily News, referring to this week's Democratic Party state