as the magna carta provided to all free men of our kingdom, we have also granted for us and our heirs forever all these liberties written out before, to have and keep for them and their heirs. that revolution reached full flower in philadelphia in 1787 and the constitution that began from to radical premises. first that our rights did not come from kings or queens or even presidents, but on god almighty. as the declaration observes, we hold these truths to be self- evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. second in the constitution, the framers inverted the

understanding of sovereignty. power comes not from the monarch on down, but instead of from we the people. and the constitution in turn lends authority to those in office for just a brief time. as james madison explained, "if men were angels, no government would be necessary. in framing government which is to be administered men over men, the great difficulty lies in this. you must first enable the government to control the governed. and in the next place oblige it to control itself." in my short time in elected office, i can assure you there are no angels in washington. that is why, as thomas jefferson put it, the constitution serves as chains to bind the mischief

of government. when government is limited, rights are protected and rule of law is honored, freedom flourishes. all of you know this already. hillsdale does not subscribe to the notion that all books published before 1900 are obsolete. against all odds, the college speaks up, as it did during the 19th century, for permanent things. with those foundations, what has freedom rocks? simply put, the american free market system is the greatest engine for prosperity the world has ever seen. freedom works. no other nation on earth has allowed so many millions to come with nothing and achieve anything. and all the centuries before the

american revolution, the average human lives on between one dollar and three dollars a day, with little difference between asia or africa or south america. from that point, the beginning of the american experiment, for the first time in history, per capita income in a few countries began to grow rapidly and none more so than the united states. over the last two centuries, the u.s. growth rate has far outpaced average growth rates throughout the world, producing per capita income about six times greater than the world average. 50% higher than the incomes in europe. put another way, the united states holds for wave five percent of the world population and produces a staggering 22% of the world output. infraction which has remained

stable for two decades, despite growing competition from around the world. america's predominance is not new. by the 1830's, the late british economist angus madison observed american per capita income was already the highest in the world in the 1830s's. this was the result of american economic freedom which enables on the norse of small businesses to flourish. today the u.s. dollar is the national reserve currency. english is the standard language for commerce. the strength of the u.s. economy allows us to maintain the mightiest military in the world, effectively enforcing a pax americana. on culture, tv, the u.s. is preeminent in the world. 80% of the movies seen in the world are made in the united states. a disproportionate number of the

world's great inventions in medicine, electronics, the internet, technology come from america. improving, expanding, and saving lives. america is where the telephone, the automobile, and the airplane were all invented. americans were the first to walk on the moon. we invented pong, space invaders, and the iphone. but most importantly, freedom produces opportunity. i would like to encourage each of you to embrace what i call opportunity conservatism, which is every domestic policy which is conceptualized, articulated should be viewed with a laser focus to how it impacts the most vulnerable among us. we should view every policy through the lens.

how does it impact the most vulnerable? the most fundamental difference between left and right is both look at the economic ladder and those on the left was to physically move people up the economic ladder, and that is almost always driven by noble intentions, and yet it never, ever, ever works. the only way anyone has ever climbed the economic ladder is to pull him or herself up one rung at a time. [applause] as president reagan observed, how can we love our country and not love our countrymen? and loving them, heal them when they are sick and revived opportunity to make them self-

sufficient so they will be will in fact and not just in theory? historically our nation has enjoyed remarkable economic mobility. 60% of the households that were in the lowest income quintile in 1999 were in a higher quintile 10 years later. 60%. simultaneously almost 40% of the richest households fell to a lower quintile in 10 years. this is a nation where you can rise or fall, climb the economic ladder, based not on heredity, the blessings of aristocracy, but based on your talent, your passion, your perseverance, your willingness to fight for the american dream.

economic freedom and the prosperity it generates reduces poverty like nothing else. studies over and over again five countries with higher level of economic freedom like the united states have poverty levels as measured by the united nations, that basket of conservatism, 75% lower than countries that are mostly repressed. i remember some time ago of former texas senator, phil gramm, participating in a senate hearing on socialized medicine. and the witness their explained that government would just take care of us all. senator gramm gently demurred and said, i care more about my family than anyone else does. and this wide-eyed witness said, oh, no, senator. i care as much about your children as anyone.

senator gramm smiled and said really? what are their names? [laughter] thanks to america's free-market system, the average poor american has more living a's than the typical nonpoor -- has more living space than the typical nonpoor worsen in sweden, france, or the united kingdom. in the year i was born, only 36% of the u.s. population enjoyed air conditioning. today 80% of or households in america have air conditioning. and $.96 of poor parents stated 96% of poor parents stated they are children not go hungry during the year because they could not afford food. now there is still need. and all of us should act to help our fellow

man. but more and more government is not the answer. to say otherwise is to ignore the fact that all major european nations have higher levels of public spending than the united states does and all of them are poor. human beings are not happiest when they are taken care off by the states. those who depend on the yoke of the government are among the least joyous in our society. we all flourish when afforded the opportunity to work and create and accomplish. economic growth and opportunity is the answer that works. the prosperity and opportunity of the american remarket system gives us better healthcare, higher levels of education, the means to better protect the

environment. pneumatic where you look in the world, the evidence is clear, as a strategy to create greater well-being, freedom works. the advancement of economic freedom, empowering individuals to decide for themselves where to work or how to spend or invest their resources outperforms government programs, centralized plants or increasingly regulated markets. it is for that reason so many millions have risked everything for a chance at the american train. 55 years ago, my father fled cuba. he had been imprisoned and tortured as a teenager in cuba. today my father is a pastor in dallas. to this day his front teeth are not his own because they were kicked out of his mouth when he was a teenager. when he landed in austin, he did not speak a word of english.

he had $100 sewn into his underwear. i do not advise keeping your money in your underwear. he got a job as a dishwasher. he graduated from college. he got a job. he started a small business. he worked for the american dream. imagine if the minimum wage had two dollars an hour instead of hanging able to work for $.50. he may not have gotten that first job. i cannot tell you how many times i have said they got some well- meaning liberal did not come to him when he landed and put his arm around him and said, let's take care of you. let me make you dependent on government. and by the way, don't bother

learning english. instead, my dad like so many millions before him came seeking a better life. when i was a kid my father used to say to me all the time, when we faced oppression in cuba, i have a place to flee to. if we lose our freedom here, where do we go? my entire life my dad has been my hero. i will tell you what i find most incredible in his story. how commonplace it is. every one of us here today has a story like that. we could, pier 1 at a time to this podium and everyone could tell the story of our parents or grandparents or great great rant parents. we are all the children of those who risked everything for liberty. that is the most fundamental dna of what it means to be american.

the value of freedom and opportunity above all else. in 1976, margaret thatcher delivered her pivotal written awakes speech. she said "there are moments in our history where we have to make a fundamental choice. this is one such moment, a moment when our choice will determine the life or death of our kind of society and the usurer of our children. let's ensure our children have caused to rejoice we did not forsake their freedom." if we do not fight to preserve our liberty, we will lose it. and each of you with a world- class education is perfectly situated to lead the fight. to communicate one-on-one with your peers and neighbors and colleagues on facebook, on twitter, with internet videos, with creative communication, to

tell and retell the story of america re-. -- america the free. to so many young americans who have never had the opportunity to hear that story from the media, from the schools, and certainly not from hollywood. the 287 men and women graduating today are ideally situated to win that argument, tell that story. thatcher continued, "of course, this places a burden on us, but it is not one we are reluctant to bear it our freedom survives." at hillsdale, you are all prepared to go forward. carry the torch for freedom so each one of us works to ensure that america remains a shining

city on a hill, a beacon of hope and freedom and opportunity for the rest of the world. thank you and god bless you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> university of minnesota, morris held its commencement. this year's speaker was al franken. the former saturday night live performer spoke to the graduates about their efforts in energy sustainability and its affect on energy policy.

this is 25 minutes. [applause] >> thank you. wasn't holly great? [applause] i told her i wish she would have shared one of those 25 drafts with me. [laughter] thank you, chancellor johnson, for your leadership here, for your stewardship of this great tradition of intellectual achievement and engagement, and most of all for that really warm introduction. i want to begin by congratulating some people who truly earned a day of celebration.

a day to take pride in their accomplishments and vinyl he relax a little bit after lifetimes of taking an impossible journey to get to this day. i'm referring of course to the parents of the class of 2013. [laughter] [applause] look, graduates, i will say nice things about you in a minute. [laughter] as someone who has been looking forward to having kids graduate from college myself, i can tell you your parents are every bit as rob today as you are. they are also every bit as stressed as you during the endless application process, every bit as miserable as you the wrist time you got homesick, every bit as anxious as you when you had a

big paper or a final exam coming up. your parents have grown up with you and gone through all the ups and downs with you for the past 22 years or so, including the four or five years you have been here. and they did not even get to go to the parties. [laughter] so please hug them. [laughter] later today and in the future a lot. got it? ok, sappy lecture over. now it's time for you who are graduating today to give yourself a deafening round of applause. now! [applause]

now, in the program, next to your name, it lists your degree like it's no big deal. like you showed up on campus four years ago. there you are. i can understand why they kept it short. if they really wanted to be descriptive, it should have been your name, where you are from, and something like "never made anything less than an a-in high school, and then she got a c and actually had to go to the professor for help" or "he auditioned for jazz fest sophomore year and did not get in, auditioned junior year and did not get in, and then he ended up with one of these solar's and it was that the solos and it was spectacular" or " everyone in her family was a doctor, but she realized her passion was history and she had

to go home for thanksgiving." [laughter] and she had to explain to her cardiologist mom why medicine just was not for her. many of you felt lonely. maybe all of you sometimes felt overwhelmed. many of you -- definitely all of your -- made mistakes. sometimes the states that at the time made you thought you had ruined your entire lives. but you are still here and you are getting your degrees. it is incredible you made the dean's list or the founders club or broke some athletic record at school. is it in some weird way impressive you want strike eight red bulls in a row so you could finish a paper in one night?

i guess so. [laughter] but i think the best part of what each of you has done individually is you know you felt uncertain, you know you screwed up at times, you kept going. you made it. congratulations. of course, well each of you have accomplished so much individually, what makes this an extra special place is what you have accomplished together. this school's identity -- you can see it in the traditions of providing free tuition for native american students. you can see it in the government structure that actually gives students a real voice in how the school is run.

you can see it and the way the college and the community's support each other. morris did not become a leader in technology by accident. and it would not be a world either if the community and the college had not worked together to make it that way. it may be the first school in the nation to have on your campus -- the money that gets pumped into the economy when you buy corn for the gasification plant, the student-run recycling program that processes more than 200 thousand pounds -- 200,000 pounds per year. it all happens because everyone at the school considers

themselves to be a member of this immunity and everyone in this community considers themselves to be cougars. [laughter] i know folks here have heard a lot, i know folks have heard a lot about sustainability and sustainable energy. you know who else has heard a lot about it? the other 99 members of the united states senate. [applause] see, as chairman of the senate subcommittee on energy, i spend a lot of time trying to convince people out in washington that not only does sustainable energy and energy conservation really important, it is also something we can do.

and as a senator, thank you. [laughter] and as a senator who represents this state, well, i spend a lot of time bragging about you in particular. at a time when too many in washington will not admit that climate change is a real problem, one committee is showing us what a real solution looks like. and you're doing it in a way that really exemplifies the best about what morris means. you are reaching out and including everyone. you are organizing on the grounds instead of waiting for someone else to lead. you are bringing the change you want to see in the world. now, when it comes to the change

we all want to see in this country's energy policy, well, it won't be easy. but you have proven that change can come from the ground up, and don't think for a minute that you aren't making a difference beyond this campus. a decade after morris made the commitment to become a green school, it encouraged other schools to be more like morris. princeton review surveyed nearly 10,000 college applicants this year, and 62% said the school commitment to the environment would affect their decision to apply. you are making a real commitment. that is what this school is like. you know, world last local art

schools do not spontaneously appear. [laughter] morris was founded here in the middle of the night, america. because a group of ordinary citizens got together and decided a liberal arts college would be a good idea and got together to make it happen. no wonder morris turned out so many people who learn how to make a mark on the world. working in washington the way that i do, i am looking for so many morris graduates. go hang out in any minnesotan's office on capitol hill, it will not be long before you meet a friendly, passionate morris

grad. someone like jerrod from the class of 1978 who is working with the board members of congress. i'm lucky enough to have a time of morris graduates on my staff. lana petersen is my state office and is one of my closest advisers. shelley schaefer, less of 1997, my deputy. adam, class of 2009, coordinate our internship program in washington.

cougars tend to find themselves in leadership positions and that is a good thing, if you ask me. we could use more people in washington who know what it means to work, who always thinks to reach out to the community. who understand how to work with others. to make positive change. i know that many members of the class of 2013 spent some time organizing on behalf of political candidates. i know that many organized for me, thank you. i know many of you may be thinking about which leadership position you plan to attain when you leave here. hopefully not mine. [laughter] at least not for a while, ok? ok? [laughter] but even if you are in the politics business, you are thinking about what kind of leader you will become, what

kind of places you will go and what kinds of things you will achieve. that's a fun thing to think about. and what makes the dream more than a dream, what makes it a goal is the impressive potential you have already shown right here at morris. and you guys are overachievers. something like 25% of you are double or triple majors. but all that potential can also lead to a lot of pressure. especially because there are only so many nobel prizes to go around. some of you will walk out of here with a plan and execute it

flawlessly. you will think you know exactly what you want to get out of life and exactly how to get it, and you will be right. you will never doubt yourself. you will never struggle. you will never make a mistake. good for the two of you. [laughter] as for the rest of you, remember the times you felt lonely, overwhelmed, the times he made mistakes, felt like the end of the world. that will not stop happening just because you got a diploma today. don't worry. this is not me telling you that failure is a better teacher than success. failure actually kind of sucks. and so do the useless platitudes told by speakers like me at commencement addresses like this

one. like failure is a better teacher than success. here's another one. it's lonely at the top. actually, it's a lot lonelier at the bottom. here's one i particularly don't like. when one door closes, another door always opens. first of all, that's not true. [laughter] and even when another door opens, sometimes it's a trap door. leading to that very lonely place at the bottom. [laughter] can i see the trap door? oh, man, this is fun. now, all these platitudes aside, nearly all of you will experience failure.

some of you will have failure you recover from. yes, learn from. yes, be all the better for, because once you have the failure, that's the only good option. too take something from it. some of you will never recover from your failures and statistically 2 in 5 of you will spend some part of your life in prison. [laughter] and interestingly, it's one of those graduates will consider prison to be the best thing that ever happened to them. [laughter] just for the sake of argument, let's say there's a middle ground between the white house and the penitentiary.

the middle ground in which you have a leg up over most college graduates, who in turn have a leg up over pretty much everyone else, but in which you are not exempt from anxiety and indecision, and yes, failure. i know it sounds like a mixed bag, especially considering this is supposed to be an inspirational speech. [laughter] but i have good news for you. you can make your mark on the world without conquering it first. and you can do it without leaving town. that may be one of the most important lessons you learn when you spend time on campus here at morris. morris is morris because generations of students, faculty, administration,

neighbors who selflessly gave up their time, their resources, their potential to make it the landmark campus that it is. mattie graduated in 1976 with a degree in philosophy and the talent for graduating -- four writing. she has spent her career right here in morris, hoping to lead this community by organizing alumni to give back and telling incredible inspiring morris stories to the world. doc carlson, class of 1965, made his alma mater come alive by making jazz his profession. making this camp is more inclusive by incorporating different of different cultures into the life of the school. tommy roberts, class of 1968. could have been a history professor anywhere.

he was a brilliant teacher. but he was a cougar most of all. a former leader in student government and came back and contributed decades to this campus. his wisdom and his loyalty and his wit touched the lives of what must have been thousands of students who no matter who they were or what they are doing today, just would not be the same without him. i am not trying to convince you to stay in morris forever, although i bet mattie would appreciate that and you could do worse than staying in a community in close proximity to don's. but milkshakes do not count as breakfast after the age of 25. [laughter] i'm here to suggest you can make a big impact on the world by

making a big impact on your community wherever that turns out to be. it's possible your path will lead you somewhere you never expected to be. somewhere far away from the place in your mind today. it's possible that your path will turn out to exist and you will just have to invent it. success does not always come the way you think it will. the word success does not always end up meaning the same thing you thought it would when you started out. but whether you end up starting a business or running for

business or discovering a planet or finding a job you like and raising a family and coaching little league and taking vacations, you are going to belong to a place. you're going to be part of a community area -- are going to be part of a community. if you're lucky, you will find yourself in a community just like this one, the one you have been part of for the past four years. but no matter what community you write yourself in, you will do everything you can to make it more like this one. no matter what you end up doing, no matter what your path turns out to be, and no matter how many faults starts and wrong turns you encounter, you can always make a difference in the world by making your community a little bit more like morris, by making it a little more inclusive, by making it a little more fun, by making an example for the rest of the country and the rest of the world. you are part of a select group of people seeing firsthand what a community like that can accomplish. although, as i mentioned, i spent a lot of time trying to tell other people in washington

about the secret, with everything you learned here, whether it is what you learned about chemistry or history or anthropology, what you have learned is about organizing and coalition building and the rush you get when you change the world around you. the question is not whether you will make your mark. it is where. so what can i tell you as you get ready for this next step? don't freak out when you fail. don't wear socks with sandals. [laughter] really. don't forget to hug your

parents. beyond that, all i can really think to say is thank you. thank you for working tirelessly for social justice. thank you for setting a great example for the rest of us. and thank you for inviting me to this remarkable place to share this remarkable day with you. thank you. >> st. john's university saluted peter king or his work in congress in the aftermath of hurricane sandy. the university awarded him an honorary law degree during it

commencement ceremony last week. .espite the student protests here is the 10 minute address. >> it is my pleasure the congressional leader of new york. let me first congratulate today's graduates and wish you continued success based upon the outstanding education you have received, the lasting friendships, the enriching

experiences and the life lessons you have learned. other also thank harrington for his many years of dedicated service and all that he accomplished to leading this to higher academic heights. it is an honor for me to be your commencement speaker. as someone who grew up in new york city, this moment is particularly meaningful to me. some of you are more enthusiastic than others. that is what separates our country and our society from so

much of the rest of the world. americans welcome the clash of ideas. they are not afraid to listen to opinions and ideas other than our own. we encourage free speech and do not attempt to silence those with who we might disagree. leading university such as st. john demand academic freedom and refuse to be intimidated by political correctness. st. john's has the commitment to service and welcomes all students as the integral part as the st. john's family, no matter what their religion, ethical backgrounds. st. john's is rooted in the principle of the st. paul who dedicated his life to serve the poor, the needy, the sick and the victims of tragedy and disaster. these three sets of are needed today. we live in a world that is increasingly seduced by wealth, status, and worldly possessions. this is however, not the world of st. john's. that is why so many of you have donated during your years here

at st. john's to voluntary in nursing homes, soup kitchens and what you did during hurricane sandy. thankfully, it was these kind of valley use that the great people of new york and new jersey demonstrated when we stood together as one after we were ravaged by superstorm sandy last fall. sandy was the worst natural disaster to hit our region in 75 years. in new york alone, it was almost $33 billion in overall damage. more than 300,000 damaged homes, more than two million residents were without power, that is larger population of 15 states and over $300,000 in damage to hospitals and health facilities.

this can go and an own. through the suffering and anguish, lesser people would have given up or worse, turned against one another or looked out for only themselves. that was not the spirit of new york or new jersey. not only did we refuse to give in but communities came together. police officer, firefighters, e.m.t.'s, voluntary associates displayed uncommon bravery and concern. political and government leaders in new york and new jersey worked across party lines and state boundaries for the greater good. as you follow politics today, you know that is not the norm in

our country. this unity proves to be essential. for the first time in recent history, congress was refusing to approve the natural disaster aid that was so desperately need. the storm that hit louisiana and mississippi congress gave them more than $65 billion. after two months after sandy, new jersey and new york has received almost nothing. instead of trying to blame it on another party we fought as hard as we could. the governors from the two states and all our senators and members of our congressional delegations knew our obligation was the suffering people we represented and who so desperately needed help. governor christie and i in particular, have taken on the leadership of our own party.

this was a small price to pay compared to our constituents whose homes were destroyed, who were without power, in many cases lost everything. this was a tough, difficult fight. we finally prevailed and congress appropriated the money and recovery is under way and we'll come back stronger than ever. by making sandy, the suffering and the aftermath the theme of your commencement today. you have demonstrated your commitment to the ideal which is what st. john's university is about. today, you're entering into a world con fronted with many critical challenges, severe economic instability, north korean rockets and the constant

threat of terror attack, which is what we saw in boston last month. i'm confident as you go forward from st. john's you will successfully and courageously confront and outcome those challenges, doing what is right, whether or not it is happens to be popular. the knowledge you have received and the ideals you have acquired and accept as your own, will guide your life as you make a lasting difference. i wish you well. thank you very much. \[applause][captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> elizabeth warren spoke of ways to be flexible with future plans and embrace the improbable. this is 15 minutes. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you very much, thank you senator for that very kind introduction. thank you, president flanigan, board of trustees, the framingham board, and congratulations to the class of 2013. fabulous. [applause] i have to say, from one state school grad to another, you have done a good thing. you can do a lot more. i'm really happy for you. i want to say to the class of 2013, as you are are going out into the new world, as with any journey, it can be scary. no more lunchtime with edith. no more ice cream from mad willy's. and hardest of all, no more e- mails from the dean. [laughter] it is true.

but seriously, as you head out, i know that some of you are very worried about graduating into a tough economy. some of you are concerned about finding a job. and some of you are working hard to persuade yourself that moving in with mom and dad is almost as good as having your own apartment. i know it is hard out there. what i have high hopes for everyone of you. i mean that. every single one of you. i have high hopes because even at this time of transition, and in this hard economy, you have already done stuffing top. you have graduated. hoorah. hoorah. it was a smart decision, a good education is the foundation for a better future. people do graduate or more resilient financially and they weather economic downturns

better than people that don't graduate. people who graduate are likely to be more economically secure, likely to be healthier and live longer. a college degree puts a lot in your corner and in just a few minutes you will have one. so, whatever comes your way, you have the right start. and you have that right start by planning carefully and working hard toward a specific goal. in fact, you got here today by following the advice of about a zillion teachers, cabdrivers, bartenders, and everyone else who told you to set a goal and stick with it. but on this beautiful day, this last day before we turn you loose into the world, i want to make a pitch for something else.

among all of the goal setting and the perseverance, i want to talk with you about something different. i want to talk with you about being open to the unexpected. about making room for the improbable and the unlikely. now, i know why i am here. it is not my fashion sense or my ability to telling a joke, i was invited here today because i'm your senator. what does that mean? for some of you it means i'm the person sending you e-mails asking for money. it means i am the person standing between you and some more gatorade. [laughter] for others of you, i am the person you are wondering, will she finish in time for me to hit the bruins game? [cheers and applause]

and the answer is, maybe. listen closely. so, in any case, i am here today because i am your senator. but the funny thing is, i never planned to get into politics. if you don't believe me, try to find a political consultant anywhere in the country who will tell you that the best way to get elected to office is to become a professor and pick fights with ceos of banks. nope. i pretty much that my whole career as a teacher. and after i graduated from a commuter college, which cost 50 dollars a semester, i taught elementary school. i thought i had my life planned. two years and one baby later, i decided to go to law school, thinking i could be a trial

lawyer. i thought i had my life planned. three years and another baby and another move later, i became a law professor. teaching bankruptcy and writing books about the economic issues facing middle-class families and i was sure i had my life all planned. and then one day i got a phone call. it was in the 1990s. i had been teaching law 15 years. it is a former congressman who has just been appointed to head up a commission to rewrite the bankruptcy laws. he wanted to be able to give help to families in terrible financial trouble. he thought i could come to washington and help him. i thought he was crazy. i had a job. i was sure about what my job was. my job was to teach classes and do research and write books. i did not know anything about washington politics. frankly, i did not want to. and then he offered me a deal.

he said if i come up with a few good ideas, ideas that would help families, he would figure out the politics and turn them into law. i did not think i could stand the politics but he pushed and i decided to try. for me, this first the trip ended up being about fighting for families that were getting squeezed out of the middle-class class. and taking on an army of lobbyists working for big banks. for me it was about the optimism that if we work hard and work together, we can make a difference that matters. as it turned out, i had the honor of fighting along senator kennedy and others trying to protect families that were hanging on by their fingernails. one fight to lead to another, bringing accountability to the bank bailout, setting out a section bureau and now representing the people of massachusetts.

so here is where i see this, the congressman made an improbable offer. he brought me into a fight that changed my life. it has been tough but all in all, it made me a believer in the incredible power of trying the unexpected. class of 2013, all of the planning and although the the preparation the world can't prepare you for the many twists that are coming your way. like just today, it you might need the guy you will marry or the guy you will divorce. [laughter] maybe both. you can't predict it all. people will tell you to plan things as best you can. they will tell you to focus. they will tell you to follow your dreams and they will be right. but they will also be a little bit wrong. never be so faithful to your

plan, that you are unwilling to consider the unexpected. never be so unfaithful to your plan that you are unwilling to entertain improbable opportunities that come looking for you. and never be so faithful to your plan that when you hit a bump in the road, or when it hits you, you don't have the fortitude, the grace, and the resiliency to rethink, and regroup. this openness to the improbable, the ability to get out of your comfort zone and we work a plan, consider something new, this is part of the american spirit that has made our country great. not far from here, 400 years ago, puritans and pilgrims landed on the shore of a land they knew nothing about. they had left everything they knew, by the way, with no ability to call, text, or e-mail anyone they left behind. and they sat across a giant ocean to start something different.

surely nobody spent a career planning that trip. a generation of people who had been born as colonists, who had lived as subjects of the most powerful empire decided they were going to get rid of the monarchy and create a democracy, a form of government that had really been seen on this earth since the ancient world. unexpected, you bet. end of the time their success was deeply improbable. but they did it anyway. and keep in mind, and it was not one of the elder statesman of the 19th century that freed the slaves and won the civil war. it was a newcomer, a country lawyer best known for debates that occurred during his senate

campaign he lost. it was not a diplomat who won the first nobel peace prize. it was teddy roosevelt who had been well known for wanting to take america in the war and lead the charge. but to left himself open to making peace. and it was not one of the dynastic families whose favorite son ended world war ii. nope, it was an ordinary fellow from missouri who came home and opened a haberdashery. i do not think anyone in this country particular plan or he would go. these are the stories we know from our political history. but our country is filled with stories of the unexpected. people like ruth wakefield, class of 1924. she ran out of chocolate one day and improvised with roque and

pieces of a chocolate bar and invented the chocolate chip cookie. people like o'neill who after tornadoes in massachusetts in 2011 created recovers.org to help communities with disaster recovery. and ended up a hero with a friendship forged in the heat of tragedy. throughout our history, we have seen people abandon their well constructed plans, when an opportunity opened up or a challenge hit them. this has been a driver of our success, the willingness to take risks, innovate, adapt when our plans do not work out as we expected. so to all of you that have always known exactly what you wanted to do when you grow up, go get them. good for you.

but for everyone else, the people with plans, the people with no plans, keep space in your heart for the improbable. i promise you won't regret it. congratulations, class of 2013. >> i begin with integrity because it is so essential to who and what you ultimately will become. many of you have a career path in mind. many of you have no idea where you will end out. a few of you may be surprised life takes by where

you. it is not only what we do but how we do it. tweeting to start by this. this only take a second. when i woke up this morning and started writing my speech i was thinking about my first month on campus in september when i was a freshman and the football team went into that season rate number one in the nation pre--- season. i remember that september. there was all that excitement on campus. we went up there and we lost 21-14. there was crushing disappointment. i would like you to think of that soaring expectation followed by crushing dissent ointment as a metaphor for your next 20 minutes with me. including robert moeller and

florida governor rick scott and saturday at 830, business leaders including dick costello and steve wozniak. >> after grover cleveland loses his bid for reelection in 1888, his wife tells the staff. >> i want you to take care of all the richer and ornament and not let any of them lost and broken. i want to fight everything as it is now warm he come back for years from today. >> they did come back, winning the election of 1892. the life of francis cleveland when we consider -- continue the series on first ladies. >> we will discuss the enforcement of tax exempt laws.

ken walsh will discuss his new book "prisoners of the white house." it begins live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> next, a look at environmentalism and academia from a concerted coupon with remarks from steve milloy. year from the president of the national association of scholars who hosted this event earlier this year in new york. it is close to one hour. >> it is my pleasure to introduce our luncheon speaker, steve milloy.

he is a prolific author on such things as health care scams, epa cleanup standards, the nuclear power industry. he is a biostatistician, with degrees from johns hopkins, also an attorney with degrees from georgetown and the university of baltimore. he has concurrent positions at the competitive enterprise institute, the center for security policy, and the american tradition institute. he has appeared in "the wall street journal" and is a commentator on fox news. he is the author of five books, including his most recent,

"green hell." as the many writers present here know, authors are not always responsible for the titles of their books. editors and publicists have a hand as well. i am not quite sure whether the all-out frontal assault on environmentalists in the title of the book was his idea, but it might well be. he is a pull-no-punches guy when it comes to the efforts of some environmentalists to invent what they cannot know to extrapolate beyond the bounds of reason and

to sew fear based on imaginary dangers. i will let him demonstrate all of that in his own inimitable style in a few minutes, but before i unleash steve, i want to present a context for why i have asked him here today. environmentalism is a relatively new topic for nas. there's no mention of it in the early volumes of academic questions in the 1980's, and only a few passing glances in the 1990's -- the topic was not in focus for nas as a source of campus mischief, comparable to efforts to dismantle the core curriculum, the politicization of science, and so on. wait a minute. the politicization of science? yes, that was a longstanding area of inquiry for the nas, but nas somehow failed to register the affinity between activists and environmental alarms. that changed in october of 2007, when nas bumped into the university delaware's documentation program, which forced hard-core leftist ideology on students and sent

those who resisted to what the university itself called the treatment. [laughter] the foundation for individual rights in education, fire, did a splendid job in shaming the university of delaware into dropping the program, temporarily, it appears, while the nas worked behind the scenes. as the dust settled, it was pointed out that delaware program, which focus on sexuality and race and had little to do with environmentalism, was, according to its internal documents, a sustainability program. to the extent that word means anything at all, what it means to us is warmed-over environmentalism, but we were wrong. we wondered why it was called

that and began to tug on that thread. we soon discovered that the word "sustainability" was a term of a much broader scope than it sounded. to its main proponent, the word designated a combination of anti-free market economics, a collective struggle for a social justice agenda, and an anti- fossil fuel environmental agenda, frequently pictured as three circles overlapping and sustainability as this center of the overlap. this is not the place to talk about how this applies to higher education, but nas continues to be the only systematic effort among higher education watchdogs to track what the sustainability movement is up to. for a while we called it how many delawares? we devoted a special issue on the movement. we created an online

encyclopedia, adopted a policy statement, and published over 100 articles on our website about the movement. the topic fronts on the debate over global warming, and here comes a disclaimer. the national association of scholars is not going to weigh in on the substance of scientific dispute, and we have members on both sides of that debate. when it comes to the science of global warming, we are resolutely in favor of good science, transparency of methods, open access to data, and a peer review process kept free of intimidation. the existence, consequences, causes, possible remediations of global warming are not our subject, but the misuse of science to advance a political agenda, any political agenda, is very much our concern. one last prefatory remark and i will turn this over to steve, steve is here as a white knight. in our original planning i intended this luncheon to

feature a debate between myself and a leading advocate of the sustainability movement in higher education. over the months, i contacted all the sustainability giants, and one by one not one of them would accept and invitation to debate their agenda. some were busy, but one of the tactics of the sustainability movement is its insistence we are long past the point where there is anything left to debate. the science is settled. catastrophe is imminent. the time for discussion is past. the time for action is upon us. dissent from any of these declarations is worse than intellectual folly. it is a kind of treason. that train of thought, you might call it the sequestering of recent inquiry and the shunning of evidence that does not fit the narrative, is the signature of a dangerous ideology. it is why the national association of scholars has taken up this issue and why we will stick with it, and here to

explain how the movement has planted itself in academe is steve milloy. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon. it is an honor to be here today. i want to thank ashley for remembering me from a couple of years ago when i met her. it takes an amount of courage for a group that calls itself the national association of scholars to invite a guy from a website called junkscience.com. peter asked me to talk about the sustainability movement. it is incumbent upon me to explain why i might be qualified to pontificate on the serious topic of sustainability. who is steve milloy?

why am i here? in the spirit of national association of scholars, i have spent time in school myself. by the time i was 30, many moons ago, i had a graduate degree in biostatistics, and i had worked as a computer systems engineer for wall street firms. i worked as a lawyer for the sec. so far you are not seeing the connection between me and the environment. until i was 31, there was not one. i made up for that. in 1990, i lost my job for the second time. desperate to find a new job, i got hired by a washington lobbying firm. the firm was run by the man who advised ronald reagan to

classify ketchup as a vegetable in the school lunch program. while that sounds silly, my boss knew how the government worked, where the bodies were buried, and he actually buried some. he hired me because as a lawyer and a biostatistician he felt i had good skills that he thought would be useful in the field of environmental risk assessment. my lack of knowledge was apparently not a problem. as i have learned over the past 20-plus years, hardly anyone knows anything about the environment. i got lucky. i was thrust into the assignments that dealt with broad issues about pesticides, radiation, secondhand smoke, epa, fda, health regulations,

and i worked on a project to get george h. w. bush to issue an executive order to tell agencies like the epa how to mitigate risk. i became so knowledgeable about environmental risk assessments that i successfully pitched to the u.s. department of energy to hire me as a consultant to help them fight the epa. why would the department of energy hire an outsider to fight a sister agency? the epa was pressing the department of energy on cleanups for the its chain of weapons laboratory, like oak ridge, sandia, and others. the epa also wanted energy to vacuum its nevada test site. epa wanted the department of energy to vacuum up the top one inch of soil, decontaminate it, and replace it over a vast area. this work was projected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars

20 years ago. my project was to review u.s. government environmental policies to determine if they had been developed on the basis of science or politics. this was great for me, and i spent the next year studying environmental policies. we interviewed hundreds of people, government agencies, activist groups, trying to get to whether policies is based on science or politics. in the end we produced what i thought was a fantastic report which concluded that environmental policies across the board are based more on politics than science. i sent my report up the chain of command at the doe for review so we could get it published. i was excited and proud. everything came to screeching halt. i was called to a meeting and

was told my report would not be seeing the light of day. he implied that if i knew what was good for my future contracting business, i would follow orders. there was no criticism of my report related to me. i was told to put a lid on it. even though i was a political novice, it was easy to figure out the problem. although my project started under bush, it was completed under clinton. as far as the clinton administration was concerned, what i did was incredibly politically incorrect. the environmental movement and epa was sacrosanct and not open to question. what they did not count on was that i do not care for authority or their organizations, so i said goodbye to my career as a beltway bandit, took my report, and published it. i pitched it to "the wall street journal." i related the story not because of what i was about today to tell you about the sustainability movement, it comes from a career's worth of trench warfare, combat with the epa, the environmental movement, and their victims.

let's talk about sustainability. what is it? its basic conceit is we only have one earth. that is true. if we use it up or pollute it beyond recognition, there will be no earth for tomorrow, but we cannot use the earth up tomorrow either since we will need it the day after. since we need to use and pollute at least part of the earth to make it through today and tomorrow and into the day after, we need to figure out a way to ration our use of the earth so we do not use it up and pollute it all at once. rationing of the earth's resources is sustainability. while the theory of sustainability appears to have a great deal of intuitive appeal, reality of sustainability is quite different.

in all the years that i have worked on environmental issues, i have only run across one example where the concept of sustainability was actually test driven. it almost was. in the mid-2000's, i managed a publicly traded mutual fund. taking a page from the environmental activist book, we bought shares in companies that were being assaulted by radical environmentalists or had already been captured by them. one of these companies was the investment bank of goldman sachs. in 2005, we discovered goldman sachs had used about $60 million of shareholder money to purchase 800,000 acres of land at the bottom of the world at tierra del fuego, and then donated the land to a green group called the wildlife conservation society. we took our complaint to the goldman shareholder meeting, which was the last one for hank

paulson, a fearsome wall street personality who was later treasury secretary. we turned a 10-minute meeting into a one hour nightmare. paulson was not only the ceo of goldman sachs, he was also the chairman of the nature conservancy. paulson's son was a trustee of the wildlife conservation society, the group that picked up the acreage. that was only the tip of the iceberg. we learned the whole sordid history of this tract of land and its nightmarish intersection with sustainability. the land had been purchased by a washington state timber company named trillium. the ceo of that company turned out to be rather green for a timber company ceo. he had purchased the 800,000 acres nine years earlier to save it from a japanese purchaser who wanted to clear-cut the land and sell the wood. trillium outbid the japanese, bought the land for $200 million, and announced it

intended to do the world's first sustainable logging project. trillium hired respected foresters to develop a plan that was hailed by conservationists as visionary. conservationists are distinct from environmentalists. in short, trillium said it would harvest only a small portion of the trees and put some parts of the tract permanently off limits to logging. trillium invited the environmental community to bless its plan and invited people to implement it as well. trillium worked with the nature conservancy, which at the time had a board member named wendy paulson, hank paulson's wife. while the nature conservancy pretended to help trillium with its project, the rest of the environmental movement formed a global alliance determined to stop trillium. lawsuits were filed.

trillium persevered. the lawsuits went on for nine years, and in the end trillium emerged victorious from the litigation, but it was a pyrrhic victory. trillium had weakened to the point it had filed for bankruptcy. trillium was unable to raise money, and hank paulson and goldman sachs acquired the land. you might think that the goldman sachs would take the forest, a multibillion-dollar asset, and log it for itself. instead, hank paulson gave the land, worth billions of dollars, to the wildlife conservation society and took only a $34 million text deduction. when this was brought to the attention at the meeting, the directors fined paulson $100 million, but the dirty deed was not unwound.

today the 800,000 acres remains unproductive. trillium had anticipated revenues of $150 million annually from its project. instead, the wildlife conservation society is now trying to figure out how to develop it as a site for eco- tourism, which is pure foolishness. the sad tale is the reality of sustainability. it is only a notion, the purpose of which is to fool people to think that environmentalism exists on a higher moral plane than the rest of us. it is the environmentalist that are thinking of and planning for the future. otherwise the rest of us would just wreck the planet for future generations.

sustainability is a con, a fraud. the real essence of sustainability is denial, saying no, no, you cannot cut trees down, no, you cannot use fossil fuels, no, you cannot use water. you're not even supposed to be. when i started working as a consultant, one of the huge environmental controversies was trash. consumption and waste disposal was not sustainable, because the environmentalists said we were running out of space. 20 years later we have more people buying more stuff, creating more waste, even with all the recycling that goes on, even though we are throwing away more than three times the trash than we did 20 years ago. we have a huge surplus of

landfill space, which is why it costs so little to have your trash picked up and disposed. giving the reality challenge environmentalists friends the benefit of the doubt that they were concerned about the scarcity of landfill space, we can only conclude they made the same mistake that a demographer made in the late 18th century. it was projected that population growth would outstrip food production and that ensuing famine and starvation would cut population down to size. what was failed to be foreseen was the development of knowledge and technology that would greatly expand the food supply so that never-ending surpluses of food are actually what happened, not famine and starvation. we will jump forward in the timeline to the woman who is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, rachel carson. carson warned that the continuing use of chemical

pesticides would decimate bird populations. of course, it never happened. in fact the great bird populations that carson said were threatened were actually on the rebound when ddt use was at its highest. the bald eagle was not on the verge of extinction in 1960. it was on the verge of extinction in 1916. ddt had nothing to do with the fate of any of the great birds. ddt was banned by the epa in 1972, a ban that was exported worldwide, and since then tens of millions of poor people have died from malaria around the world. especially in sub-saharan africa. after rachel carson was paul ehrlich. he predicted hundreds of millions perished from famine and starvation. to avoid this, he advocated, among other things, the government spike drinking water with contraceptives. he fretted it was unsustainable. he was bachelet al gore before algore was al gore. he turned out to be wrong, but

that is a topic for another discussion even though his population global fear mongering was entirely wrong and because environmentalist are so totally beyond shame, he went on to that julian simon in 1980 the prices of five medals -- metals would be scarcer and cost more in 1990 and 1980. simon won the bet as availability of each increased during that 10-year period. just for grins, president of hamas current top science adviser helped erlich pick the metals to bet on. let's talk about some other sustainability myths and realities. we hear from environmentalist fossil fuel use is not

sustainable. if not complaining about air pollution and global warming, it will simply run out of fossil fuels. the air quality reality is that we burn more fossil fuels than ever in our air, talking about china -- not talking about china but u.s., it is clean and safe as it was before the industrial revolution. i only want to talk about global warming because it is worth a separate discussion, but suffice it to say over the past 17 years we have in it more than 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and everyone agrees there is been no meaningful change in global temperatures during that time. we know from atmospheric physics the next 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted will have less impact than the previous 500 billion tons. we dispense with air pollution

and global warming, are we running out of fossil fuels? the answer is in an phatic no. even without considering the new fracking technologies, and other technologies making it possible to recover more oil than from known and even previously tapped out formations, humanity so far has used about a trillion or so barrels of oil but recently, at least 200 barrels were discovered in the australian outback. that may hold trillion barrels of oil. now we bring in fracking which has been an energy game changer. and the last five or six years, the u.s. has gone from having enough natural gas to export. we of so much the gluttonous a secure the prices are so low that it endangers the viability of the u.s. -- which has several hundred years of reserves itself. the new york times recently reported on the shell formation in the western u.s. called the green river formation which has been estimated to hold three

trillion barrels of reserves, more than all the known reserves in the world. i am not saying we're going back to 50 cents per gallon gasoline which is what it was when i started grow -- driving, but we're not running out of also fills the air. water? this should not be news to anyone, water is the most abundant substance on the planet.

>> environmentalist certain love for the planet people take a backseat. tens of millions of africans and others died and sicken from malaria since the sustainability moved a unsustainable. eight million children die annually from invite man a deficiency. now we have developed vitamin a rich golden rice many of these might be saved. it might be sustainable for those poor children or some of

them dying from vitamin a deficiency. the number one killer in the world is poverty. around the globe efforts to improve basic living standards are routinely blocked by environmentalist. our green friends worry about global warming causing flooding in bangladesh but not because they're interested in preventing the disaster so they can use the notion of floodinged as a a tragedy to advance their political cause in the u.s. paul irwick is still a member stanford university. he said in the population, the ideal global population around 1 to 2 billion. that was 45 years ago when population doubled his ideal level. who's going to step off the planet. irwick's problem is that they view people as burdens on the planet. the rest of us know from

experience paul irwick is dead wrong. people are blessings and resources. the second aspect of the population sustainability issue is actually the real sustainability problem that sustainability advocates have entirely overlooked. that problem is the sustainability of the well in our state. -- welfare state. in the interim not only we jack up social security wages we add medicare and now obamacare. meanwhile our sustainability friends have been pushing birth control and abortion. as far as a libertarian like me to tell people how to manage their reproductive activity, the welfare state will be unsustainable if we continue the war against reproduction. finally let's talk about sustainability movement on college campuses. college campuses are the perfect

breeding grounds for sustainability. most of what they learn about the environment amounts to little more than political correctness. as we all know universities are stocked with left leaning academics to start with. the academics do research on environmental issues more than likely get grant money from the sustainability and government. kids come in college not knowing anything about the environment are not likely to graduate knowing anything either. environmental topics in college are taught dogmatically. sticking a shoveler in the ground destroys the local ecosystem and no development is allowed. what's not taught is any sort of critical thinking. the way i learned about environmental issues is by asking questions. i read somewhere a certain chemical or pesticide was a

cancer risk. i would ask the question, how do you know that? i subsequently learned the organization making the assertion doesn't know whether the chemical was a problem or not. you got intellectually vulnerable adults on academic corrupt campuses and that bad combination is exploited by radical environmental groups. for example, the hot green issue is the keystone xl pipeline which will bring tar sand oil from albert a to refining and exporting. environmental movement -- since the greens hate fossil fuel and the canadian sands the last thing they want to see commercialize. we want benefits.

environmental forced rely on the last line of defense. middle bury college professor who's radical activist group 350.org and sponsored by green announce and he's, just last week in washington d.c. they held the largest global warming rally in history. back on the campuses 350.org is organizing college kids across the country to petition and pressure their universities to divest fossil fuel investments from their endowment. they're trying to equate fossil fuel with apartheid and even slavery. now because no talk about the environment is complete without a swipe at al gore. i think i already had one. consider this several weeks ago

harvard university al gore told the student, if he was young he will be agitating for diversement along with them. just a week or so earlier al gore announced he was selling his current tv to al-jazeera. what is to be done about mindless and radical environmentalism and sustainability on the college campus. is it even important as young adults, will they simply grow up? i'm no in the business of predicting the future, may be look at the baby boomer experience. where the cleanly radicals in the 1960s grow up. the ones that didn't now run the

country. intellectual corruption on college campuses does have consequences. i don't blame colleges for this trav vestty. we have allowed this to happen. we can say we divide the political spectrum left and right. folks on the right spend 40 or more hours per week creating wealth. the other side spending 40 or more hours a week how to redistribute it. they do it on a full time basis. since the beginning of the progressive movement the left spent time capturing institutions like universities. by now the left captured virtually every major society institution including most large publicly traded corporations. we have let it happen because we've been too busy creating wealth they want to redistribute. what can we do about this? i can name probably 10 or 15

others who fight the environmental and sustainability movement on a full time basis. i would say that we're all doomed. the greens are strangling our economy, they're strangling our economy. it appears all is nearly lost. i'm not a malfeesian. my fellow global warming skeptics and so far frustrated the greens from capturing the control of the economy through carbon emissions. now since i don't know how much longer the small band of skeptics continue to struggle

gets huge green movement. we are getting older and the battle does get wearisome. i currently all of you -- encourage all you have to get involved. even a simple letter to the editor. i urge you to become passionate about this issue. the sustainability movement is not about save the polar bears. it about totalitarian control of our lives. these people want to tell you where to work and where to live, how much water you can have, how much electricity, what kind of food you should eat. every aspect of your lives. we already have green approved toilets, we're implementing green approved light bulbs. in california the greens tried to ban sale of dark colored cars. you couldn't have the color car you wanted.

it really is every aspect of your life. i would be remised if i didn't tell you the united nations have a sustainability program called agenda 21. it's a plan for global management for the 21st century. wish i had a powerpoint to show you the picture. when you go home today i want you to google agenda 21 map. you'll get a mostly yellow, orange and red map of the u.s. that lays out how the u.n. and agenda 21 plan. it's shocking with red, orange and red except for a little bit of green. for natural born any -- i learned it was based on a pack of lies to start with, i became sense. i urge you to become sense too.

thank you. >> questions? we have a hand held microphone. if you want to ask a question, raise a hand. someone will find their way to you. >> as i recall from my visit down there years ago, that longs to argentina. >> it's the 800,000 acres was part argentina. >> all right, chile and

argentina. aren't they players in there. are they accepting the fact that you locked away that very large piece of real estate that can be converted into wealth? >> they are unprepared to deal with the sustainability movement. i believe it's the guy that started it. he has bought enough land. he has almost chile with his land holdings. there's ongoing litigation about this. all of this stuff -- i think societies are sufficiently corrupt where you can make things go away with money and money goes a long way. they don't really have the strong sort of free enterprise movement we have here. no, i think this country fell asleep at the switch.

>> julian simon, hermon, there are a literally dozens of books representing a position consistent with yours. why aren't they assigned? >> that's a great point. i have a very dear friend who's a physician in texas. he's extremely well read and knows about everything. there's a problem with folks on the right. we know what's wrong but we're too busy doing other things and we don't prioritize actually taking action. whereas the other side, they don't spend any time learning anything and they just act. it really does work. >> would you comment about our glorious mayor and his agenda and the fact that many conservatives particularly conservatives with money like very much?

second, what is he likely to do with his foundation when he leaves office on this front? >> well, i would say for the most part, michael bloomberg is new york city's personal tragedy. i think he's way off base with his nannying on salt, transfats, the going after 16-ounce sodas. the real problem i have with bloomberg, for example, he has given this sierra club $50 million and they are using that money to go around shutting down coal and fire plants. which is making us more dependent on natural gas. which right now is cheap but natural gas is a very spikeky thing. bloomberg is a problem on national level because of his foundation. he will use his money.

he is very anti-coal. last week in washington d.c., he gave a speech where he said coal -- coal provides 35% of our history. it's ridiculous. when you have a lot of money like george soros you can do what you want. >> i'm wondering what role large corporations play in this debate? do you find them to be helping you or they just kind of pandering? >> two is a great question. when i started out, large corporations would be interested in supporting people like me. they were interested in science, sound science, sound economics. but that is no longer the case. they have been hijacked by greens. you have the chairman goldman

sachs. it makes a difference. even companies don't sign on really the green agenda like the oil companies. they have frankly have been intimidated from taking too high profile on these issues. it's unfortunate because they're in the right. it's easy to demonstrate. corporate america, they're either squeamish or taking over. this is why i started this mutual fund in the mid-2000's to push back on this. you really find out there's just a lot of -- if they're not empty suits on the environmental issues, they are like green plants. it's a real problem for america. >> could you just give us a very

simple distinction useable for students between weather and climate? >> well, weather is what's happening right now. climate is a longer term atmospheric condition. we hear the term climate change. i think it really misused. climate is always changing. however it's changing, it changes very slowly. you can hardly notice it. people are calling what's going on right now climate change. there is some climate change, i don't know we can really detect any significant climate change. thirty years ago, the environmentalist were panicking about global cooling. then it became global warming. when that stopped panning out it became climate change. they starting to realize silliness of that and efforts are speeding up. last year was extreme weather

and hurricane sandy. now i'm picking upstream weather is not where they want to go, they want to go with climate disruption. we would have to spend a couple years debunking climate disruption. whatever that mean. whatever short term climate is very long term. >> thank you so much. i think most of the people around respond well to almost everything, i think. one question with respect to population. what if we do a little cost benefit analysis. we say to ourselves, why shouldn't we want half the population that we currently have in 10 or 20 or 30 years

with a downside. the only downside you pointed to is we won't be able to afford social security and medicare. if that's the case, eventually a price is going to have to be paid. we can't continue the increase in population in order to support medicare and social security. why shouldn't we struggle to try to limit population to some extent and avoid some of the problems. up admit there are some environmental problems that come with population. >> i have central planning. i think central planning is a failure. population control as a matter of central planning just makes me -- there's a natural effect when a society get wealthier, they have fewer children. you don't need to have 10 children with the knowledge that only three of them will survive. you can have three children and

odds are good they will grow up and do well. i'm not for having more people to support social security in the welfare state. i'm saying that's the liberal sort of hypocrisy, sustainability problem. i don't think we should be saying who can be born or can't be born and how many there should be. i think this is a big planet and there's lots of resources as long as we have the ability to use them. the wealthier society become, the cleaner, the healthier they become. there is going to be a central planning policy, it should be encouraging economic development so people can become wealthier. when we become wealthier we become cleaner. look at united states compared with russia and china and brazil and mexico, environmental live in dirt environments because

they're poor. look at the air pollution in china now. even with all the chinese economic growth, they still don't feel they can afford the basic controls on their smokestacks. the answer there is, not necessarily make chinese pass a clean air act, it's for china to become more economically successful so they feel like we can afford to clean up the air. hope that answers your questions. >> thank you, can you comment on the recent narrative that if congress doesn't pass any action regarding environmental stuff, that the president will do some executive order action on this? >> well he doesn't really need executive order per se. he's got the environmental protection agency and thanks to justice anthony kennedy who granted the epa the authority to

regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the clean air act. the epa can do what it want. it's difficult to sue and beat epa in court because the laws has been constructed -- first of all these laws were written by environmentalist. they were written by environmentalist to be enforced by environmentalists. they were not written -- contrary to the image of industry lobbyist out there getting these laws just the way they want, that hasn't happened in the environmental field. industry tends to be victims. any way you can beat epa in a federal court if you find some procedural error. you cannot question epa science. you cannot question epa economics, you cannot question epa decision-making. all you can do is hope to find

they trip place. president obama can do a lot through the epa. in his last administration, essentially proposed to ban new coal fire power plants. in this administration, he is expected to set standards for existing coal fire power plants that will drive them out of existence. i think -- people think, president obama is for fracking and natural gas. in my view, he is only using natural gas to destroy the coal industry. natural gas prices, there's a glut of natural gas and he likes to glut because his glut has reduced prices so much that the coal can't compete. utilities are starting to plan for a noncoal future. i can assure you that president

obama and possibly a president hillary after that, once coal is killed, they are going to kill fracking. then what are we going to do? in my book, i describe how the environmentalist, they don't like fossil fuels, they don't like nuclear power. they don't really like solar either. wherever they can they block these thing. senator diane feinstein, she had a bill to block solar panel and how they might interfear with the desert. offshore wind farms, you got environmental impact statements that focus on how the wind turbine might interfere with whales. it's crazy. to answer your question, president obama has a lot of executive authority and with a

split congress, the only tool the republicans have is to say no. in the last four years, they passed a lot of bills to try to rein in the epa and president obama. those things never had a chance in the senate and they seem reluctant to use their budgetary power. they could just say no. they could cut back funding for the epa but they haven't done that so far. >> after president grover cleveland loses his bid for reelection, his wife tellings the staff. >> i want you to take good care of the furniture and ornaments in the house and not let them get lost or broken. i want to find everything just as it is now when we come back four years from today. >> they did return to the white house winning the election of 1892. the life of frances cleveland as we continue our series on first

lady live tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span, c-span 3 and c-span radio and c-span.org. >> on the next "washington journal," we'll discuss the enforcement of tax-exempt laws with marcus owens a former director of the i.r.s. division. ken walsh senior white house correspondent will discuss his new book" prisoners of the white house" about the lives of u.s. presidents in office and the white house bubble. "washington journal" begins live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> earlier this month, former arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords received the profile encourage award at a ceremony in boston. our coverage began with journalist al hahn introducing caroline kennedy. this is 15 minutes. >> we have a very high power committee which we know earlier, there are senators and there are

house members, republicans and democrats, ceo's some of america's greatest lawyers even newspaper editors. all of those us know who our leader is. see inherited her father and mother's intelligence, charm, grace and diplomacy. her heart and soul of this magnificent place and that marvelous award, caroline kennedy. >> thank you al. that was so much nicer anything ken ever says. thank you chris as well. thank you all for coming. this is all a special day for my family and for the county

library as we commemorate my father's birthday and honor those who possess the in dispensable dispensable virtue. our family is still suffering from the heart break of gun violence. no one should have to lose a husband, a wife, a father a child to senseless murder. as our honoree has shown out of that pain and tragedy, we must find the strength to carry on to gave meaning to our lives and build a just and peaceful world. the work my uncle did year end and year out to carry forward my father's vision, the heroic selfless acts the people in boston, remind us all our precious life is and how the

human spirit can triumph over hatred and violence. before we begin today's presentation. the ceremony and courage, i like to salute the first responders and citizens of boston. all americans have been inspired by the countless acts of bravery and action that struck this city on patriot's day. today we pray for those who lost their lives and those fighting to recover. ....

as she wrote in the new york times a few weeks ago, to do nothing while others are in danger is not the american way. lives thoseds words every day. it is my profound honor to present her now at the 2013 profile in courage award. [applause]

>> thank you, caroline. thank you so much for recognizing my wife posses extraordinary courage. to be honored along with people she admires deeply, like congressman john lewis, or your , issenator, edward kennedy amazing to gabby. i know that. thei have to say determination and valor my wife displays every single day has redefined the word courage for me. and i have spent a lot of time at another place that honors president john f. kennedy. that is the kennedy space center

in florida. the only place on the globe from which humans have departed our planet on a trip to the moon and from where i commanded both space shuttles discovery and endeavor. here not our first time at the kennedy library in boston, but we are glad to be we are so sorry for the violence and terror that all of you have endured. we know what that is like. i saw combat in iraq and kuwait. gabby lived through a mass shooting. we know how violence changes lives. we know for those touched by whatnce it matters less you call it. crime, terrorism, war, madness. violence he five categories. it simply and brutally draws a ,ine in the sands of time

before and after. before, when cristina taylor green's parents in tucson or marchant richards'' parents in dorchester, when they could go to sleep wondering what wonderful thing their child would say when he woke up the next morning and after. for the victims of boston, of the boston marathon bombing, we spent time with today at saplling rehab when they gathered on a sunny day to celebrate the demonstration of an amazing physical strength and determination watching the runners go by and after. now they must find the physical strength and determination necessary for their own recovery. we extend our deepest sympathies to all of you

endured violence and loss here. after. is abotu thut the doing everything we can to make sure fewer parents face that loss. for me, it meant learning more about politics. previously, i handled the space- like travel responsibilities in our marriage and gabby handled politics. now we do the politics together.

for gabby, her courage is the equivalent of a lunar mission. she has set her sights on a distant rising, a country that will be dramatically safer from gun violence, and she works hard each and every day with physical therapy, speech therapy, and also a little bit of yoga to make sure she is in shape to get there. and there are many doubters, many who think the nra and the rest of the gun lobby is simply too powerful, many who think are deep and patriotic support of the second amendment, which, by the way, gabby and i share, would prevent us from making progress. many who view the failure of the senate to pass expanded background checks last week have thrown up their hands in anger and disgust. that is fine. our friend jim lovell, the commander of apollo xiii, remembers being amazed. he was amazed in 1961 when president kennedy said we would get to the moon. jim says that he thought that was impossible. then, as many of you know, he flew there, twice. jim says there are people who

make things happen, there are people who watch things happens, and there are people who wondered what happened. [laughter] to be successful you need to be a person who makes things happen. gabby giffords is a person who makes things happen. [applause] gabby has chosen to help inspire, organize, and motivate a nation that is fed up with violence and fed up with congressional inaction, and she has chosen to focus us on coming together and taking concrete steps that will keep families and communities safer. her courage inspires us daily, but i know she is inspired by the courage of those who came

before her, those she met today and those hundreds of thousands of americans all across the country who are joining her each and every day, those who are sending checks for $5, $10, that they may need in tough times, to stand shoulder to shoulder with gabby, those who are talking to their friends at the grocery store and at the water cooler and on playgrounds and saying, we can do better, and i am standing with gabby giffords to get it done. i know she is inspired by the courage, by her friend and staffer gabe zimmerman, who ran toward her and toward danger during the terrible shooting in tucson and lost his life trying to help. president kennedy said, the stories of past courage can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration, but

they cannot supply courage itself. for this, each man or woman, must look into their own soul. gabby's courage is limitless and powerful. we ask for your encourage in joining us to make sure we achieve our goal of a safer america for all of us. i would like to introduce you to the woman who reminds me each and every day to deny the acceptance of failure, my beautiful wife, gabrielle giffords. [applause] >> thank you to the kennedy family for this award.

i appreciate it very much. i believe we all have courage inside. i wish there was more courage in congress. [laughter] sometimes it is hard to express it. i know. it has been a hard two years for me, but i want to make the world a better place, more than ever. thank you. [applause] thank you. >> thank you very much. >> after 1888, his

wife tells the staff, -- >> they did return to the white house, winning the election of 1892. we continue our series on first ladies live at 9:00 p.m. eastern. >> on the next "washington journal," we are discussing enforcement of tax-exempt laws.

and the senior white house correspondent will discuss his u.s.ook about the lives of presidents in office and the white house bubble. at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c- span. >> earlier today, president obama went to arlington national cemetery to attend the memorial service. the president was joined by chuck hagel. this is 45 minutes.

♪ ["national anthem," instrumental version]

>> order. present. ♪ [drumroll] >> ♪ ["taps" playing]

>> order.

>> order. >> ♪ in the long history of america there are names that shine like beacons in the night ♪ ♪ [singing "last measure of devotion"] ♪

♪ >> the last full measure of devotion beyond the call of duty were their deeds the last full measure of devotion they gave themselves to serve the greater need and for those who did survive and came back home alive they join in praise of comrades who were slain and highly resolve to, most highly resolved that these dead shall not have died in vain ♪

♪ in vain ♪ [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please stand for the official -- and remain standing for the invocation and national anthem. [planes flying overhead]

>> captain colonel michael grainer, the u.s. army military district of washington. major general michael lenington, -- major general michael linnington, commanding general united states army, military district of washington. ms. catherine conden, director arlington national cemetery program. general martin dempsey, chairman joint chiefs of staff. these honorable -- the honorable chuck hagel, secretary of

defense. >> ♪ [a horn playing] >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of united states. >> ♪ ["hail to the chief" playing"] >> ladies and gentlemen, the chaplain. >> let us pray. almighty and eternal god, we ask

that your present be upon us this day, a day which we as a nation come together on this hallowed ground to honor without hesitation those brave men and women who gave all they had for our nation's freedom. it is because of their selfless service at servicevalor that week -- service and valor that we can stand here this day without fear knowing that we can continue sharing a lasting peace with liberty. greater love has no one than this than someone laydown his life for his friends. let us not forget those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. therefore, we continue. those who and died for our country in war and remembering too that this gift of peace often comes from long struggles, the kind of peace that is bound from the blood of heroes, brave men and women who answered the

call, saying send me. brave men and women who witnessed the crucible of war and failed to come home. let us know celebrate this peace and long for an everlasting peace that can come only from you onlygod. lord help us to recommit on our own lives so the service of our great nation, carrying the torch of freedom for generations yet to come. we, your people, give you thanks. amen. and amen. >> please join the united states air force band and the senior master sgt in singing our national anthem. >> drumroll. >> ♪ ["national anthem" being sung] ♪ >> that our flag was still there of say does that star spangled banner yet wave o'ver the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ [applause] >> please be seated.

>> ladies and gentlemen, general dempsey ladies and gentlemen, general dempsey. >> mr. president, members of congress, distinguished guests, veterans, fellow americans, and most especially the families of our missing and fallen warriors. welcome. 150 years ago this november at the soldiers national cemetery in gettysburg, pennsylvania, president abraham lincoln delivered one of the most monumental and enduring speeches in american history. in his gettysburg address

delivered at a ceremony not unlike this one, to an audience much like you, eloquently memorialized those who gave their lives so that future generations of americans might live in freedom. he also reiterated the very principles of our democracy. but lincoln did something more in his 272 were addressed. he challenged the audience to honor the memory of the fallen by every committing themselves to the virtues for which they fought and died. after a humbly miscalculating the lasting nature of his words, he urged, "for us to be dedicated to the great task

remaining before us that from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion." how powerful, poetic, how proper. we stand today in this cemetery, arlington a, created during the war which lincoln spoke. now it's home to our nation's fallen from all of its source. if we stand here thankful stewards of the blessings that these fallen have passed on to us. but we do not stand alone. today across our great nation in crowded cities or in country towns grateful citizens will bowed their heads in honor of our fallen heroes. that is devotion. whether gathered in a picnic or parade or baseball game or a solemn cemetery like this one, americans will remember that the peace and liberty we enjoy each

and every day were made possible by the devotion and sacrifice of a long line of brave men and women in uniform. that line has continued to grow. today, america's uniform the sons and daughters are on patrol in afghanistan and many other places of on the frontiers of freedom throughout the world. our young men and women are serving as honorably and as bravely today as their forefathers. when the nation called them to duty, they came. i'm inspired each and every day by their sense of purpose, their personal courage, their character, and their confidence. there are the best lead, the best trained, and the best equipped force on the face of the earth. as a nation, we must ensure that they remain so. today i join everyone here and across this great land in honoring those who have

willingly sacrificed while donning the cost of our nation. we honor their loved ones who nobly carry on. today i ask all of us to reflect on this great nation founded on service and sacrifice. let us rededicate ourselves to the best of america, it's freedom, its responsibility, and its promise, and made peace be our ultimate cause. may god bless our fallen, are missing, our veterans and their families. may we be forever grateful and may god bless america. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, listen now as the sergeant from the u.s. air force performs "america the beautiful." >> ♪ >> oh beautiful for spacious skies

for amber waves of grain for purple mountains' majesty above the fruited plain america, america god shed his grace on thee and crowned thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea ♪ america, america god shed his grace on thee and crowned thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea and crowned thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea ♪ [cheers and applause] >> ladies and gentlemen,

secretary hagel. [applause] >> mr. president, mrs. obama, secretary shinseki, general dempsey, fellow veterans, service members, and distinguished guests. [cheers and applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, secretary hagel. [applause]

>> mr. president, mrs. obama, secretary shinseki, general dempsey, fellow veterans, service members, and distinguished guests. my wife entire greatly honored to be with you today to observe memorial day. together we gathered to remember america's sons and daughters who sacrificed everything in defense of our nation. for generations, americans have set aside this day to honor those who have fought and died to keep our nation safe. civil war veterans, supreme court justice oliver wendell holmes once said, "every year in the spring at the height of the symphony of flowers and love and life there comes a pause. through the silence we hear the lonely pipe of death. every memorial day, america is reminded of these selfless individuals, america's quiet heroes. we also think of america's new generation of defenders, protecting our interests in every corner of the globe, preserving our freedoms and our way of life. they worked for a more peaceful and hopeful world.

as general macarthur said, "the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war." the memories of american heroes. arlington and around america have kept alive our families and communities. this memorial day we honor those families who are heroes left behind. the honor them in appreciation for the sacrifices they have endured. we also honor the perseverance and resilience of our military families today, for they are dealing with all the challenges of life. america thanks you. all of us in positions of trust and responsibility must always make decisions that are worthy of the sacrifices of those who serve our country.

on this sacred day as we recall the words of president lincoln when he referred to the domestic bonds in chords of memory -- we honor america's fallen patriots by striving to be worthy of their great sacrifices as we all work toward making a better future for all mankind. it is now my honor to introduce someone who has shown on wavering commitment to our service men and women and their families and to lead tarnation today with great strength and wisdom -- ladies and gentlemen, help me welcome, our commander in chief, the president of united states of america. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. please be seated, thank you very much. goodmorning, everybody.>>

morning. >> i want to thank secretary chuck hagel, not only for the introduction but for your lifetime of service. a sergeant in the army to secretary of defense and always a man who carries with it the memory of friends and fallen heroes from vietnam. are grateful to you. i want to thank general dempsey, major general linnington, catherine condon has served arlington with extraordinary dedication and will be leaving us but we are so grateful for the work she has done. for chaplain brainard secretary, and secchi, all our guests and almost of all, to members of our armed services and our veterans, to the families and friends who have fallen who we honor today, to americans from all across the country who will come to pay your respects, i have to say is always a great honor to spend

this memorial day with you at this sacred place where we honor our fallen heroes, those who we remember fondly in our memories, those known only to god. beyond these quiet hills, across that special bridge, is a city of monuments dedicated to visionary leaders and singular moments in the light of our republic. it is here, on this hallowed ground, where we choose to build a monument to a constant thread in the american character, the true that our nation and doors because it has always been home to men and women who were willing to give their all and laid down their lives to preserve and protect this land that we love.

that character, that selflessness, beets and the hearts of the very first patriots who died for a democracy they had never known and would never see. it lived on in the men and women who fought to hold our union together and in those who fought and defended a broad in the beaches of europe to the mountains and jungles of asia.

this year, as we mark the 60th anniversary of the end of fighting in korea, would offer a special salute to all those who served and gave their lives in the korean war. over the last decade, we have seen the character of our country again with nearly 7000 americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice on battlefields, in city streets, have a world away. last memorial day, i stood here and spoke about how for the first time in nine years, americans were no longer fighting and dying in iraq. today, a transition is under way in afghanistan and their troops are coming home.

fewer americans are making the ultimate sacrifice in afghanistan and that progress for which we are profoundly grateful. this time next year, we will mark the final memorial day of our or in afghanistan. and so, as i said last week, america stands at a crossroads. even as we turn a page of a decade of conflict, even as we look forward, let us never forget, as we gather here today, that our nation is still at war. it should be self evident. in generations past it was during world war two, millions of americans contributed to the war effort, soldiers like my own grandfather, women like my grandmother the work to the assembly lines. during the vietnam war, just about everybody knew somebody, a brother,, a friend who served in harm's way. today, it is different. perhaps it is a tribute to a remarkable all-volunteer force made up of men and women who stepped forward to serve and do so with extraordinary skill and valor. perhaps it is a testament to our advanced technologies which allows smaller numbers of troops to wield greater and greater power but regardless of the reason, district cannot be ignored that today, most americans are not directly touched by war. as a consequence, not all

americans may always see or fully grasp the depth of sacrifice, the profound costs that are made in our name right now as we speak, every day, our troops and our military families understand this and they mentioned it to me their concern about whether the country fully appreciate what happened. i think about a letter i received from a naval officer, a reservist, who had just returned from a deployment to afghanistan and he wrote me "i am concerned are work in afghanistan is fading from memor/." as we keep this conflict alive in the hearts of our people.

he is right. as we gather here today at this very moment, more than 60,000 of our fellow americans still serve far from home in afghanistan. they are still going out on patrol, living in spartan forward operating basis, still risking their lives to carry out their mission. when they give their lives, they are still being laid to rest at cemeteries in quiet corners across our country including here in arlington. capt sarah cohen had a smile that could lead a prayer room and after graduation she became a former black hawk pilot. was just 27 years old when she and four other soldiers were killed by helicopter crashed during a training mission near kanduhar. she was laid to rest in section

60 and she is remembered today by her mother who says she is proud of her daughter's life, proud of her faith and credit per service to our country. -- and proud of her service to our country. [applause] staff sergeant frank e. phillips came from a military family that and was as tough as they come. combat medic, he was on patrol and afghanistan three weeks ago when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. he was so humble that his

parents never know how many lives he had saved the until soldiers started showing up at his funeral from thousands of miles away. last week, he was laid to rest just a few rows over from sarah. staff sgt eric gin was a born leader, a member of the marine corps special operating command. he had served five tours of duty but kept going back because he felt responsible for his teammates and was determined to finish the mission. on may 4, he gave his life after escorting a high-ranking u.s. official to meet with afghan leaders. later, his family got a letter from a marine who had served two tours with eric. and the marine roche "there were people who measured their success on how many enemies they killed or how many missions they led. eric based to success on how many of his friends he brought home and he brought home many including me." eric was laid to rest here arlington just six days ago. [applause]

today, we remember their service. today, just steps from where these brave americans lie in the eternal peace, we declare as a proud and grateful nation that their sacrifice will never be forgotten. just as we honor them, we hold their families close because, for the parents to lose a child, for the husbands and wives to lose a partner, for the children who lose a parent, every loss is devastating. for those of us to bear the solemn responsibility of sending these men and women into harm's way, we know the consequences all too well. i feel it every time i meet a wounded warrior, every time i visit walter reed and every time i grieve with the goldstar family.

that is why on this day, we remember our sacred honor -- obligation to those who lay down their lives so we can live our lives, to finish the job is men and women started by keeping our promise to those who wear america's uniform, will give our troops the resources they need, to keep faith with our veterans and their families now and always, to never stop searching for those who have gone missing or who are held as prisoners of war. on a more basic level, every american can do something even simpler. as we go about our daily lives, we must remember that our countrymen are still serving, still fighting, still putting their lives on the line for all of us. last fall, i received a letter from candy averett of charlotte, north carolina. both of her sons are marines and

one served two tours in iraq and her youngest was in afghanistan at the time and he was, in her words, 100% devoted to his deployment and would not have had any other way. reading the letter was clear that she was extraordinarily proud of the life her boys had chosen but she also had a request on behalf of all the mothers like her -- she said "please don't forget about my child and every other breed and soldier over there will probably choose to serve their country." and others plea. -- a mother's pleqa - don't forget on this memorial day and every day. let us be true and meet that promise. let it be our task every single one of us to honor the strength and resolve and the love these

brave americans felt for each other and for our country. let us never forget and always remember to be worthy of the sacrifice they make in our name. may god bless the fallen and all those who served and my god bless the united states of america. [applause] [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for the playing of "taps" and the benediction. ♪

>> let us now join together one last time in prayer on these hallowed grounds for our servicemen. almighty god, continued to endeavor president and all our leaders with energy and insight

and send us all of our with strength for the journey that lay ahead, let each and every day remind us to pray for the safety of our brothers and sisters in arms who stand at the tip of the spear for our nation this day for our freedom. continue to bless this nation, our friends and the flag research. made the spirit of god be near

you to defend you within you to refresh you, before you to guide you, behind you to justify you, and above you to bless you for ever more. go in peace brothers and sisters, amen. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain in place until the president has departed and the colors are retired. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] ♪ ...

>> c-span created by america's cable company in 1979 brought to you as a public service by your television provider. >> coming up on c-span, highlights from our first lady series. then tonight's life first lady program on frances cleveland the first first lady to be married in the white house. later president obama takes part in the memorial day services at arlington national cemetery. >> over the next hour, we'll look at some of our first ladies and the places that influenced their lives part of our history series first ladies influence and image. our program on