and no, despite the same last name we are not related, his family coming from the Ukraine and mind from Poland.  My long-time cello teacher, Lillian Rehberg Goodman was married to Saul Goodman, long-time tympanist of the NY Philharmonic, who on occasion remarked on some perceived phsyically resemblance I bore to the famous man.  But that is not why I write this.

Leonard Bernstein is a seminal figure in American musical and cultural history - and in the latter case one should if interested read Tom Wolfe's Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers.  Bernstein was a man of broad scope whose influence upon the musical life of this nation and much of the rest of the world cannot in truth be overstated.

I will take some time to reflect on that scope, although I will not attempt to recapitulate his entire career.  Rather, I want to describe the influence he had on my own musical life.

Not only have Democrats found their voice, they may well have pointed the administration and the country toward a realistic and modestly hopeful course on Iraq.

Those are the final words of a David Broder op ed originally published November 27, 2005. Entitled Signs of an Iraq Policy, it went up on the Post website yesterday morning, with the following introduction:

Editor's note: We bring you this column as part of our RePosted feature, where we dig through our archives to find opinion pieces that shed light on current events. On Nov. 27, 2005, David Broder identified Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden as the voices of an emerging Democratic consensus on Iraq. Today, presidential candidate Obama announced Biden as his vice presidential pick.

  And in his first sentence of the piece Broder said that while it had taken a long time

the Democrats finally have come close to defining a sensible common ground on the issue of Iraq.

I have more below the fold.  

and another school year official begins - for them.  For me, I had to report back a week earlier.  We have four official days of teacher prep week.  They give us Friday "off" for one last weekend before the students arrive, although most teachers need that day to finish preparing for the arrival of students, especially when, as was the case in my school, only one copying machine was working (out of 4 reserved for teachers) and that one was not stapling, this for a staff of over 150 teachers.  I still have the syllabus for my first unit in AP Government to tweak and copy, but since I have a coupon for Staples I will copy it there tomorrow afternoon.

I want to use my diary this morning to help non-teachers realize how much we have to do before the students arrive.  I invite you to keep reading, and at the end I will invite your commentary, even though, as I will explain in the tip jar, I will not watch this diary quite as closely as I normally do.

the expression "made man" may be relevant given the criminal associations of Cindy McCain's father discussed in this piece by Noam Schreiber at The New Republic.  Let's start with one quote that should go into the common knowledge about how abusive McCain can be in pursuit of his ambition.

Back in February of the previous year, as McCain was formulating his plans to run for office, he and Cindy sat down for dinner at the Biltmore with Bill Shover, Tully's right-hand man at the Republic, and his wife. McCain expounded on his political ambitions for the better part of an hour. Toward the end of the discussion, Shover noticed that Cindy hadn't uttered a word. "Cindy, don't you have something you want to say?" Shover asked. This elicited a few incomprehensible grunts, at which point McCain stepped in. "Cindy had oral surgery today, and she's in a lot of pain. She can't talk because she had her jaws wired." Shover was aghast. "My God, why didn't you wait till she got better?" he asked. "Because I wanted to get to know you," McCain said. Cindy just looked on silently.

Has the traditional media worm turned?  Is it possible that Jerome Corsi is the occasion when what we have called the main stream media has finally had enough?  Today I offer an example that may provide a hint.

Scot Lehigh of The Boston Globe is the centrist voice of that major publication's stable of op ed writers.  And today's column, addressing "Doctor" Corsi's latest opus is entitled Doctoring the facts against Obama and is a major takedown of Corsi's Obama Nation.   In his first paragraph he describes the book as a "revelation."  Lest that scare you, it is intended as a sarcastic remark, which he quickly makes clear by noting how often Corsi reminds us he has a doctorate:  on the cover, on the title page, in the author bio (which tells us it is from Harvard), in the preface, and  

Oh, yes, and as a header on every other page throughout the book.

Unfortunately for Corsi's, um, scholarly reputation, the last high-profile work he was involved with didn't withstand independent scrutiny

You should now be relaxed enough for the rest of this review.

With his permission, I am below the fold going to post part of the contents of an email Barry Welsh, our netroots candidate in IN-06, sent me early this morning.  Barry is quite optimistic, even though he is running a low-budget campaign.

Let me start by offering some facts about this race.

In 2006 Barry was outspent 1.5 million to 50,000, but still raised the Democratic share from 28% in 2004 to over 40%, by drawing 73,000 votes.

In the primary, Barry drew 94,000 votes, more that twice what Pence drew.  Of greater importance, Barry thinks his elect number is about 127,000, so in a primary he is over 75% of what he needs in the general.

So now, please continue reading below the fold.  And btw, consider making this good news more widely known.

It is Sunday.  I open my Washington Post, B Section, and on the inside is a piece with a long introduction by Josh White, explaining of his long interest in a man originally known as Detainee #261, who tried to kill himself when his lawyer stepped out of the room, whom the U. S. long asserted was a dangerous terrorist who had tried to recruit others and who was arrested in Afghanistan, where he had ostensibly gone to fight for the Taliban.   And yet, despite having been held  at Gitmo since January 2002 and having been subjected to brutal treatment,

Nevertheless, he was never charged with a crime, never admitted any connection to terrorism and was ultimately released to Saudi Arabia in July 2007.

White has stayed in touch with the man, whose real name is Jumah al Dossari.  And the bulk of the piece are his words, and they are entitled I'm Home, but Still Haunted by Guantanamo.  Remember, he was in the custody of our government, held and mistreated by our personnel.  This was done in our name.  And miraculously, he offers no bitterness in his words.

no, I don't mean the elections, although that is also true.  I mean my school year.  Officially it starts on Monday, when teachers report back for four days of meetings. That is deceptive, because for many of us our work has already begun.  

But that is true every year.  So how is this year different?  

It will be the first time I am not coaching soccer.

It will be in the context of a presidential election (although I taught government in 2000 and 2004, so this is not totally new)

We are facing more standardization in what we must do.

My student teacher will actually report to me on Monday.

Let me offer a brief explanation of all of these.

The facts are sobering. About 5,000 Americans have been killed, including military personnel, contractors, and aid workers. Another 30,000 or more are wounded, and estimates of those with post-traumatic stress disorder are as high as 300,000. The financial costs are estimated to reach $3 trillion eventually.

Those are just a few of things that give the lie to the notion that Iraq is a success.  And lest someone, say McCain or a supporter, argue that having expended that much in blood and treasure, we are required to "stay the course" we need to ask, as does the article from which I took those words, What counts as 'success' in Iraq?. John Tirman of MIT writes in the Boston Globe that we need to frame this with two questions, (1) is there a favorable and sustainable outcome due to the "surge," and (2) if there is, can we justify the cost.  The paragraph quoted is only part of the costs. I will explore the article, and more broadly, the situation in which we now find ourselves, which also means exploring Bush - and McCain.

The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that our own Jared Polis has won the primary in the 2nd Congressional District in CO, with his principal opponent conceding.

And in Virginia, there are reports from the Board of elections that 2/3 of the new registrations since January are people under 35, which should bode well for Obama.

Let me get this diary up, and then I will update with more information.

Go below the fold for some more detail

For reasons not directly relevant to this posting, I have been going through a large number of my previous diaries, and encountered one posted 4/12/2006 entitled "Living in a bulls-eye."  As I read it I was somewhat shocked to realize how relevant it still was, given our current dispute with Iran and especially in light of the recent conflict in the Caucasus.

I had not intended to do a diary today - I have many other tasks.  But since this merely requires me to repost, I thought I would, and see if you, like me, still think what I wrote more than two years ago here is still relevant.

BTW - the original was not on the recommended list, but it was part of diary rescue.

Peace.

The most striking characteristics of the policies of the current administration would appear to be a lack of balance and sustainability. The size and distribution of the tax cuts were excessive. The unwillingness to raise any revenue to pay for the heavy cost of the Iraq war pushed the nation to uncomfortably high levels of borrowing. The dramatic expansion of credit created excessive debt and distorted the price of housing. It also weakened the dollar, pushing up oil prices.

But all of these stimulative policies were necessary because of the extraordinary transfer of wealth that took place between ordinary households and the extremely well-to- do, and the effort by this administration to address the consequences of that problem without addressing the root cause. That transfer drained the American consumer of the resources needed to keep the economy humming, and we have been able to sustain it only by borrowing from future prosperity and weakening our long-term capacity for growth. Ultimately we will have to relearn the lesson of Henry Ford: lasting prosperity is shared prosperity.

Those are the last two paragraphs of a document you should read.  Why and by whom will be explained below.

¶The United States has more musicians in its military bands than it has diplomats.

¶This year alone, the United States Army will add about 7,000 soldiers to its total; that’s more people than in the entire American Foreign Service.

¶More than 1,000 American diplomatic positions are vacant because the Foreign Service is so short-staffed, but a myopic Congress is refusing to finance even modest new hiring. Some 1,100 could be hired for the cost of a single C-17 military cargo plane.

The quotes are from a column with the same title as this diary, written by Nick Kristof and appearing in today's New York Times  In this piece. Kristof argues that we overinvest in military toolsand underinvest in diplomatic tools, which results in a foreign policy which is often ineffective and unnecessarily antagonizes the rest of the world.

And he relies upon the words of our Secretary of Defense to bolster his argument.

That is the title of this featured essay in tomorrow's NY Times Magazine.   Written by Matt Bai (yeah, him). it is an examination of the generational divide among black politicians.  Let me offer one early quote:

"Here we are, all of a sudden, in the 60th year after Strom Thurmond bolting the Democratic Party over a simple thing, something almost unheard of — because he did not want the armed forces to be integrated," Clyburn said slowly. "Here we are 45 years after the ‘I have a dream’ speech. Forty years after the assassinations of Kennedy and King. And this party that I have been a part of for so long, this party that has been accused of taking black people for granted, is about to deliver the nomination for the nation’s highest office to an African-American. How do you describe that? All those days in jail cells, wondering if anything you were doing was even going to have an impact." He shook his head silently.

I will explore below the fold why I think you should read the article.

My life flows in endless song, above the earth's lamentation.
I hear the real though far-off hum that hails a new creation.

Chorus:
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I'm clinging.
Since love is lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear that music ringing;
It sounds and echoes in my soul; how can I keep from singing?

Chorus

The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing.
All things are mine since I am his; how can I keep from singing?

Chorus

It is a Quaker hymn.  We actually have those.  But it was at the end of a Catholic Mass of Christian Burial, with music from Taize, and Amazing Grace and a Navajo chant at the graveside.  And although I knew the words, I found I could not sing this Quaker hymn because of weeping, as Greg's body left the church.

No matter how strong the evidence presented by the Justice Department -- and at first blush, it appears damning -- it is an ex parte presentation and will never be subject to the scrutiny and challenge of the other side.

Such evidence, even when seemingly overwhelming and conclusive, is the very sort of circumstantial argument that pegged Richard Jewell as the Atlanta bomber, that linked Oregon attorney Brandon Mayfield to the Madrid bombings, that fingered Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee as a spy, and that cast biodefense expert Steven Hatfill as the original anthrax suspect. In each of those investigations, the news media were largely complicit, conveying incriminating details of the government's case as if they were the gospel.

  The words are those of Ted Gup, a journalism professor at Case Western Reserve University and author of Nation of Secrets, and they appear today in a Washington Post op ed entitled The Anthrax Case: Solved(?) But Unresolved  I want to use the quoted words as an illustration of the broader issue of whether we can trust our government.

Ron Neitzke, noblest of American diplomats, handing me his excoriation of the U.S. government and State Department for "repeatedly and gratuitously dishonoring the Bosnians in the very hour of their genocide" and urging future Foreign Service officers to be "guided by the belief that a policy fundamentally at odds with our national conscience cannot endure indefinitely — if that conscience is well and truthfully informed."

As I write it is late Tuesday afternoon.  The quote, from which my title is taken, comes from a column by Roger Cohen about which I wrote July 24, in I am so tempted to violate copyright  

Our traditional media has failed miserably in informing the American public about policy fundamentally at odds with our national conscience and so such policies have endured.  Today I propose to remind myself, and those who choose to read this diary, of policies fundamentally at odds with our national conscience.  That is, they should be, because if they are not, if they are acceptable, then we are lost already and there is no point in our being here.

My title comes from this exchange:

First, wanderindiana asked

Who will undo it?

    And how can we be sure that damage will be undone when our current elected officials have contributed to that damage?

I responded

good question
         
     but not only who, also how

and finally wanderindiana responded back
         
Someone else, another day...

That exchange took place in the thread on my diary yesterday, entitled If cruelty is no longer declared unlawful . . .

Perhaps the answer should be All of us, starting right now