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Excellent program today, especially the first hour but it was all good.

#3, I couldnt agree more. This is one of Obama's position changes that has now completely turned me off to him. With his recent political moves I feel a have a choice between bad and bad. Change has become a crock.

I am curious about the funding for this conference. Presumably corporate sponsors are behind the scenes here as elsewhere. Could Brian give us some specifics please?
AC

Boy, what a lot of platitudes. And I'm sorry, but Thomas Friedman, Karl Rove? And as soon as I see "book signings" as part of the overview, I get suspicious.

I clicked on the Arts and Culture track to check out the videos. I didn't see one on either. I spent 22 years in the dance world until I could no longer make a living in it because of all the dance spaces that disappeared in New York and all the companies that closed or had to cut back on their activities.

People at this festival should realize that skepticism is the order of the day when one sees these big name people at these big name get togethers talking about "challenges" for the future.

The building I live in, with 148 apartments, just spent around %400 thousand dollars to install a new boiler. I asked all the engineers we interviewed about alternatives to old energy. "Like what?" was the answer I got.

Why isn't there some easily available and affordable way for every building in the US that gets a few hours of sunlight daily to get solar cells installed?

The New York metropolitan area has a lot of old factories sitting around. Why not start local auto industries that would build, or at least assemble, cars like Prius', but American designed? If there were tax breaks for taxi companies and the local municipalities agreed to buy them, you could start a whole new, green transportation industry.

Another comment:

A quick survey of the list of speakers at the "Ideas Festival" reveals _not one_ speaker who could be characterized as left or progressive.

No one even approaching the left-liberalism of someone like Bill Moyers -- and no one can deny that he is a man of ideas.

Plenty of conservatives. And a horde of so-called moderates.

Is that creative? Daring? Big?

Congresswoman Harman should realize that support for the FISA bill, especially with telcom immunity is dividing the Democratic party. I, along with a lot of people in the blogworld, will not give money or other support to the party if this bill passes.

We will work to elect representatives to oppose the bill's supporters. And it doesn't help that Obama is supporting it.

Here's TR in 1897, writing to a friend: "In strict confidence . . . I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one."

Dare anyone at the "Big Ideas" festival to mention that.

Theodore Roosevelt (like Winston Churchill) supported eugenics. (A large number of prominent political figures and others did until Hitler and the Nazis.)

Among other things, TR referred to Thomas Paine as a "filthy little atheist". (Without Paine's appeal to popular sentiment in Common Sense, it's quite possible the popular support for the Revolution would never have happened. The populace rightly saw Washington, Hamilton and others advocating the wellbeing of the rich in the colonies.)