After nearly seven years of constant controversy, it certainly looks like Guantánamo's days are numbered after President-elect Obama reiterated his campaign pledge to close the prison camp at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The debate has now shifted away from the simple argument about whether it should be closed and now focuses on how the Obama administration will actually do it.

Major decisions remain on whether to keep, modify, or scrap trial by military commissions, leading to further questions about when, how, where, and even if some detainees can be put on trial. Serious obstacles loom in the path of any effort to transfer other detainees back to their native countries as some can not simply be sent back home and little progress has been made to date finding other countries willing to accept them.

Please join our distinguished panel, each of whom have authored reports on closing Guantánamo, for a discussion of these and other challenges facing the incoming Obama administration.

InThe Tyranny of Dead Ideas, Matt Miller offers a unique blend of insights from history, psychology, and economics to illuminate where today’s destructive conventional wisdom came from and how it holds our country back. He also introduces us to a new way of thinking - what he calls "tomorrow's destined ideas" - that can reinvigorate our economy, our politics, and our day-to-day lives. These destined ideas may seem counterintuitive now, but they will coalesce in the coming years in ways that will transform America.

A strikingly original assessment of our current dilemma and an indispensable guide to our future, Miller's provocative and path-breaking book reveals why it is urgent that we break the tyranny of dead ideas, for it is only by doing so that we can move beyond the limits of today's obsolete debates and reinvent American capitalism and democracy for the twenty-first century.

Copies of The Tyranny of Dead Ideas will be available for purchase at the event.

Confronting the growing economic crisis will be the first order of business for the new Congress and the incoming Obama administration. Should the incoming administration work to deliberately increase the size of a federal deficit already projected by the Congressional Budget Office to exceed $1.2 trillion for the current year? How big should a stimulus package be? How should it be structured?

These are the questions that a Center for American Progress panel on fiscal stimulus will grapple with at an upcoming event. Part of the discussion will involve what the Labor Department's December employment report (to be released an hour and a half before the beginning of the event) will tell us about the future course of the economy and the need for stimulus.

The incoming Obama administration and the new 111th Congress will have a historic opportunity to boost U.S. economic competitiveness and broad-based economic growth through targeted reforms of our country's patent system and scientific research-and-development and workforce development programs. Our patent system and today’s federal programs were designed to address 20th-century problems, not the new challenges posed by globalization and worldwide economic distress.

The latest edition of the CAP's Science Progress journal presents the results of two roundtables convened to consider ways to reform our patent system and encourage the growth of regional centers of innovation around the country. Those recommendations will be unveiled in Science Progress along with two panel discussions on the topics. Please join our distinguished panelists, including participants of our two roundtables and authors of some of our new policy recommendations.

Matt Miller, host of KCRW's "Left, Right & Center" and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, will discuss his provocative new book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas, in which he lays bare the greatest threat to our economic future: the things we think we know – but don't.

InThe Tyranny of Dead Ideas, Matt Miller offers a unique blend of insights from history, psychology, and economics to illuminate where today’s destructive conventional wisdom came from and how it holds our country back. He also introduces us to a new way of thinking - what he calls "tomorrow's destined ideas" - that can reinvigorate our economy, our politics, and our day-to-day lives. These destined ideas may seem counterintuitive now, but they will coalesce in the coming years in ways that will transform America.

A strikingly original assessment of our current dilemma and an indispensable guide to our future, Miller's provocative and path-breaking book reveals why it is urgent that we break the tyranny of dead ideas, for it is only by doing so that we can move beyond the limits of today's obsolete debates and reinvent American capitalism and democracy for the twenty-first century.

Copies of The Tyranny of Dead Ideas will be available for purchase at the event.

During the 2008 campaign, President-Elect Barack Obama repeatedly voiced themes of change, unity, and innovation. How will the new administration bring those themes to bear on a topic as divisive as reproductive rights? How will it balance Obama's commitment to the reproductive rights recognized in Roe v. Wade with his commitment to a new, less divisive politics? Are there areas of common ground where meaningful progress can be achieved and issues that should never be compromised?

Join us for a lively discussion of these and other pressing questions.

The time has come for the U.S. to renew its promise of global life sciences leadership. With the ascendancy of the Obama administration and a more progressive Congress, the opportunity for renewal has never been greater. The United States must now stake its claim as the world leader in regenerative medicine, which is almost certain to become a vital component of cutting edge biomedical innovation in the 21st century. To ensure that the research in this newly emerging field of the life sciences is conducted responsibly and ethically, the federal government must reform its stem cell research policy and fund embryonic stem cell research in a manner that is robust and comprehensive as well as cautious and principled.

The greatest potential for regenerative medicine lies in the ability of scientists to tap into the process of cell differentiation and development. This can only be achieved by tracing the development of human cells from the very beginning. To do so, scientists need to conduct research on embryonic stem cells so that they can discover how these all-purpose “pluripotent” cells can change into any one of over two hundred different cell types in the human body. Indeed, this research will provide us with unprecedented insights into human development, how it can go wrong, and how it can be fixed—perhaps leading to 21st century medicine's biggest paradigm shift.

Please join us for the release of CAP's new report, “A Life Sciences Crucible: Stem Cell Science and Innovation Done Responsibly and Ethically.” The release event will include a panel discussion featuring Amy Comstock Rick of the Coalition for Advancement of Medical Research and John Gearhart, professor of cell biology at the University of Pennsylvania. The event will be moderated by Michael J. Rugnetta, the Fellows Assistant for the Progressive Bioethics Initiative at the Center for American Progress.

The Bush administration has finished with a flurry of midnight regulation, completing more "significant" regulatory actions in the third quarter of 2008 than in any preceding quarter of the last eight years, according to a CAP paper by Anne Joseph O'Connell that will be released at the event. This spike in regulatory output is typical of most outgoing administrations. But perhaps no previous administration has been so driven to dismantle regulatory safeguards, from drug safety to environmental protection to family and medical leave. A new joint report from CAP and OMB Watch will also be released listing Bush midnight regulations. Now attention turns to how the Obama administration will respond.

Please join the Center for American Progress for an expert discussion that will explore ways to reverse Bush midnight regulation while launching forward with a positive regulatory agenda.

The Latino population is now so large, its trajectory of growth so rapid and its contrast in relative age to that of the general population so stark, that it will not be possible for the United States to advance without substantial, and so far unimagined, gains for the nation's Latino community. The Census Bureau's mid-range estimates for 2050 assert that the nation's Latino population will grow by 63 million people or a stunning 48% of total U.S. growth, and that Latinos will constitute 25% of the United States population in 2050.

Please join the Center for American Progress in hosting Henry Cisneros and Arte Público Press of the University of Houston to celebrate the launch of their new book, Latinos and the Nation's Future and take part in an engaging debate on what Latino growth means for our country, and what the next administration needs to do about it. Latinos and the Nation's Future is a landmark collection of essays by leading Latino figures such as Raul Yzaguirre, Lionel Sosa and Aida Alvarez, among others, about the most pressing issues facing Latinos today and how the future of the nation is inextricably linked to that of the Hispanic community.

Success in today's knowledge and innovation economy depends on education and skills development beyond high school, in postsecondary education. PSE is correlated with higher personal income, economic growth, and innovation. Additionally America is now tenth in the OECD rankings for college attainment among young adults ages 25 - 34, with 39 percent of the population with an associate degree/technical certificate or a bachelor's degree.

To regain our global leadership in postsecondary attainment, The Center for American Progress has set a bold goal, in the College Ready Students, Student Ready Colleges policy agenda, of increasing the number of 25 - 34 year olds with postsecondary education to 50 percent. As part of its ongoing series of higher education research, CAP will release two papers that explore the challenges enhancing academic preparation and creating a college going culture in America’s high schools.

The relationship between the United States and China may well be the most important bilateral relationship in the world. In recognition of that fact, the Center for American Progress is releasing a new report entitled, "Strategic Persistence: How the United States Can Help Improve Human Rights in China." The report provides both fundamental principles that should guide U.S. policymakers in their efforts to effect positive change in China's human rights practices and concrete recommendations to advance those efforts.

Please join us for a release event and panel discussion that will introduce the main concepts of this report.

Food is one of life's most basic necessities. However, in 2007, 36.2 million Americans, including 12.4 million children, either did not have enough food or feared that they wouldn’t have enough at some point during the year. This problem has only intensified in the subsequent two years due to spikes in food prices and a recession that has expanded the demand for food stamps and emergency food services while driving people to increasingly purchase cheaper, but less nutritious foods.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a provacative discussion of the current data on hunger and food insecurity, the recovery package and other federal legislation that can help address the problem, the impact of lower incomes on food choices and household nutrition, and ideas for how the Obama administration can reach its goal of ending child hunger by 2015.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected the first Catholic president of the United States. How did Kennedy approach religion--and what can we learn from his campaign about the role of religion in politics today? Are there parallels between Kennedy's approach to religion and Obama's? What role did Catholic and evangelical voters play in both elections? How has the politics of religion changed since 1960? Would Kennedy's response to his religious critics suffice today? Join E.J. Dionne and Shaun Casey for an illuminating and provocative discussion of Casey's new book, The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960.

Out of Exile brings the crisis in Darfur and other parts of Sudan out of the policy realm and into the lives of people who never meant to carry the label "refugees." Decades of conflicts and persecution have driven millions from their homes in all parts of Sudan. Many thousands more have been enslaved as human spoils of war. In their own words, the narrators of Out of Exile recount their lives before their displacement, the reasons for their flight, and their hopes of someday returning home.

Out of Exile includes the personal stories of 17 Sudanese people, as told to Craig Walzer, a former legal services adviser to Darfuri and other Sudanese refugees in Cairo. They describe life in the major stations on the "refugee railroads": in the desert camps of Khartoum, the underground communities of Cairo, the humanitarian metropolis of Kakuma refugee camp, and the still-growing internally displaced persons camps in Darfur.

Darwin's radical deduction that random mutation and natural selection can explain all the diversity of life on Earth shook longstanding beliefs that humans are inherently superior creatures, uniquely capable of being moral, already fully evolved, and made in the image of a perfect creator.

Since then, waves of research have expanded and strengthened Darwin's seminal observations, prompting a century-and-a-half of reflection and reassessment about the place of humankind in the universe, the relationship between humans and a divine creator, and the nature of faith itself.

Join our distinguished panelists for a conversation about the ways evolutionary theory has revolutionized our understanding of the struggle between personal freedom and the common good, and to explore the role of religious thought as humankind gradually gains the capacity to direct its own evolution.

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE:  BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community.

But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

"The Garden" has the pulse of verité with the narrative pull of fiction, telling the story of the country's largest urban farm, backroom deals, land developers, green politics, money, poverty, power, and racial discord. The film explores and exposes the fault lines in American society and raises crucial and challenging questions about liberty, equality, and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion immediately following the film.

In The Breakthrough, veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama's stunning presidential victory and introducing the emerging young African-American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.

The Breakthrough is an essential foundation for understanding the future of American democracy in the age of Obama. Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion around this remarkable look at contemporary politics.

Copies of The Breakthrough will be available for purchase at the event.

Transatlantic tensions were often strained during the Bush years due to disagreements over Iraq, detainee policy, the relevance of international law, and other issues. At the same time, the Atlantic Community has been faced with a growing number of security challenges—from the need to stabilize Afghanistan to the desire to prevent an Iranian nuclear capability—that require cooperation between the United States and its traditional European allies. What are the problems and prospects for strengthening the ability of the United States and Europe to improve their cooperation in meeting the pressing security challenges in the coming decade?

Please join us as The Right Honorable Des Browne MP, former UK Secretary of State for Defense, discusses the future of transatlantic security relations with Reuben Brigety, Director of the Sustainable Security Program at the Center for American Progress.

In his new book, The GET, Robert Hefner shows that civilization is experiencing the last stage of what history will record as a brief liquid energy transition between unsustainable, dirty, limited solid forms of energy to a future epoch of sustainable, clean, virtually limitless gaseous forms of energy. He believes this natural evolutionary energy transition reveals which energy sources and technologies are the most likely winners that will accelerate energy use toward a sustainable future. Hefner proposes policies that will level the economic playing field among competing energy sources and technologies, and work to accelerate the GET. He believes that by implementing policies that result in natural gas use for a major sector of our vehicle fleet as well as most non-wind and solar produced electric power by 2020, America can accomplish many of its near and mid-term energy and environmental goals.

This event is now closed. Please view the live webstream  here .

After years of policy drift, the announcement by President Barack Obama of a 17,000-strong U.S. troop increase in Afghanistan and the recent inaugural tour of the region by newly appointed special envoy Ambassador Richard Holbrooke signal renewed attention to a challenge shared by the United States, Afghanistan, its regional neighbors, and the world. Reports of rising civilian casualties, sustained insurgent violence, and destabilizing drug cultivation all add urgency to ongoing strategic reviews by the White House and other government agencies. A concerted international effort by the Afghan government, the United States, NATO allies, and other regional partners will be crucial to addressing these issues.

Please join the Center for American Progress for remarks by His Excellency Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Afghanistan, to be followed by a question and answer session.

The education community is virtually unanimous that effective teaching is critical to all other education reform efforts, and this consensus led to an increase in policies focused on improving teacher quality. One increasingly prominent strategy is the development of alternative preparation and certification programs. These programs have the potential to increase the supply of talented teaching candidates, particularly for subject shortage areas and high needs schools.

While these programs are among the most promising strategies for expanding the pipeline of talented teachers, states frequently do not have policies in place that support them. Join us for a lively conversation with our expert panelists about why rigorous alternative certification programs are needed and how state policy can be more supportive of them. The discussion will be informed by a paper by Robin Chait and Michele McLaughlin, "Realizing the Promise: How State Policy Can Support Alternative Certification Programs."

Seeking the promise of America, a beautiful young Honduran woman, Sayra (Paulina Gaytan), joins her father and uncle on an odyssey to cross the gauntlet of the Latin American countryside en route to the United States. Along the way she crosses paths with a teenaged Mexican gang member, El Casper (Edgar M. Flores), who is maneuvering to outrun his violent past and elude his unforgiving former associates. Together they must rely on faith, trust, and street smarts if they are to survive their increasingly perilous journey toward the hope of new lives.

Please join us for a provocative discussion immediately following the film.

Please be advised that this film contains graphic violence and brief nudity.

This film is in Spanish with English subtitles.

The Center for American Progress and the Glaser Progress Foundation are pleased to announce the launch of the new Progressive Studies Program at CAP. The Progressive Studies Program is a unique interdisciplinary project exploring the history, intellectual foundations and public understanding of progressivism in America. The program seeks to increase public awareness of progressive ideas and values, as well as to educate public officials and policymakers through lectures, seminars, articles, public events, book discussions, new media tools, and training seminars with activists and young people. The Progressive Studies Program aims to develop thoughtful, honest debates about modern progressivism and its relationship to the earlier Progressive era and other political and social movements throughout American history. The public research component will complement these discussions by documenting and tracking American ideological attitudes and demographic trends in the country.

The launch will feature the release of two major reports:

State of American Political Ideology, 2009, the Progressive Studies Program's first national study of American beliefs about the role of government, cultural values, economic and domestic policy, and international affairs based on the results of a national survey of 1400 Americans and a companion survey of young people; and

New Progressive America, a detailed analysis of demographic, geographic and attitudinal trends following the 2008 election based on exit poll data, county-level voting returns, census and American Community Survey data and important post-election surveys.

For more information and the event video, visit the event page.

The bursting of the housing bubble and the resulting foreclosure epidemic have exposed major flaws in the U.S. housing finance system. All agree that significant reforms are necessary in all areas of mortgage finance—origination, primary lending, and secondary markets for mortgage-backed securities including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—but there is little consensus on what the system should look like when reforms are in place.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion about the aims and challenges of mortgage market reform.

Los Angeles, CA

The U.S. economy is experiencing its worst recession in decades. Our nation seeks to recover from a recession that has cost 3.6 million jobs since December 2007. Every single state has experienced the consequences of an economy ravaged by failed economic policies and regulatory institutions' failure to do their jobs. The road back to a robust economy is going to be a long one. We will almost certainly continue to see job losses for the rest of the year and possibly beyond even with Congress and the president taking action. But will the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the new budget put a brake on the downward spiral that is currently consuming the economy, and set the stage for a rebound?

Michael Ettlinger will outline the Obama administration's next steps on the budget, recovery, and stimulus, and how we can move the country forward. Michael will also highlight how the Employee Free Choice Act and the fight for green jobs will play a part on the road to recovery.

The Web is home to a rich array of original source data from government agencies, think tanks and nonprofits. There are powerful tools that cost absolutely nothing to use that allow even the least technically proficient journalist to quickly search, sift, mine and analyze it. We'll show you where to find all kinds of data--from government contracts to tariff suspensions, from the latest data on the multi-trillion dollar effort to shore up the banking system to the smallest earmark in the omnibus--that allow you to find out what's going on in Washington. We'll also teach you how to use some very simple tools that allow you to quickly navigate huge documents on deadline, to parse legislation down to the paragraph, to analyze columns of numbers and even to do simple mapping and visualizations. Bill Allison, a veteran investigative journalist and a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, leads the two-hour session that points to data sources and provides hands on training on tools.

While there have been many studies on the best military approaches to take in the Afghanistan conflict, there have been comparatively few efforts to examine how the United States and its allies should best use their foreign assistance resources to achieve success.

The Sustainable Security Program at the Center for American Progress commissioned an innovative scenario exercise to test how much “bang for the buck” the U.S. government could achieve in stabilization and reconstruction operations if it undertook many of the foreign assistance reforms advocated in previous CAP reports. Over the course of three days, we learned that robust foreign assistance reform should be seen as a key national security priority.

Please join us for the release of "Swords and Ploughshares" as Dr. Reuben Brigety and Dr. Patrick Cronin discuss this new approach to sustainable security in Afghanistan.

Click on this link to watch a short video highlighting CAP's recent Sustainable Security simulation, which featured participants from the White House, the Pentagon, USAID, and the State Department.

As the Obama administration takes its first steps to advance a sustainable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and as a new Israeli government prepares to take office, Middle East Progress, Americans for Peace Now and the American Task Force on Palestine invite you to a discussion with Israeli Brigadier General (Ret.) Ilan Paz and Ghaith al-Omari, a former senior adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The conversation will examine key issues, including how to best to rebuild Gaza, how to avoid strengthening Hamas while bolstering Palestinian moderates, and how or whether the United States should engage with a possible Palestinian national unity government.

On his first day in office, President Obama, in his Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, directed his administration to develop recommendations for an "Open Government Directive" that moves government towards being "transparent," "participatory," and "collaborative." OpenTheGovernment.org's webcast presents a great opportunity for the public to be involved in the crafting of this directive. During the webcast, individuals who are intimately involved in formulating the administration's policies and agendas will explain the initiative's goals, receive feedback from the audience, and let members of the public know how they can continue to participate in the discussion.

The event will feature a discussion between speakers and the audience on what the Obama administration hopes to achieve, the policy issues facing this administration, the Obama administration's vision for e-government, and financial and economic transparency. Also during the event, Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, and Ari Schwartz, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), will release a report based on the results of Show Us the Data, a web-based survey used to discover what restricted information the public wants to get access to and use.

While the Wyeth v. Levine case represents a victory for consumers injured by negligent drug warnings, those harmed by faulty medical devices face a different legal landscape. The Supreme Court ruled last year that clients cannot bring a state tort action against manufacturers, as a result of the Riegel v. Medtronic decision. Legislation would overturn this case before Congress, restoring the consumers’ ability to go to court when injured by faulty medical devices.

An upcoming event will include a screening of "Hit and Run," a short documentary produced by the Alliance for Justice, followed by a panel of experts who will discuss issues raised by the aforementioned cases and the prospects for congressional action.

With G20 member countries representing at least three quarters of global GDP, energy consumption and carbon emissions, they are in the position to offer a clear signal to the world that they are successfully tackling the double challenge of economic recovery and climate protection. They also have the human and financial resources necessary to push technological boundaries, creating positive spill-over effects and synergies needed to drive the much needed change.

Professor Ottmar Edenhofer from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Sir Nicholas Stern from the London School of Economics (LSE) were commissioned by the German Foreign Office to conduct this study, with the aim of broadening the momentum for immediate G20 action at the London Summit in April 2009.

The main finding of the study recommends the G20 nations to focus their recovery programs on strategic areas such as energy efficiency, infrastructure and clean technology markets.

Please join Ambassador Klaus Scharioth as he discusses the findings of this report at the Center for American Progress.

As President Obama heads to London early next month for the second meeting of the G-20 nations' leaders, the pressing issue on the agenda is rescuing the global economy from the worst recession since the Great Depression. It is therefore imperative that President Obama and the G-20 leaders agree on necessary measures to stem the global crisis. The Center for American Progress believes that these measures entail restoring normal functioning of financial markets, coordinating economic stimulus measures, providing much needed assistance to developing countries, avoiding protectionism, and taking new steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

But agreement alone is not enough. For this reason, the Center is calling for the G-20 leaders to establish an empowered, resourced and permanent but evolving "G-20 leadership forum" with the immediate mission to restore stability to the global economy, but with a longer term mandate to broker global deals, provide direction for multilateral organizations and cope with economic aspects of global challenges as they arise.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion around these recommendations.

The Medicare program has successfully offered health insurance coverage to all Americans over age 65, as well as many people with disabilities, for more than 40 years. While the health reform debate has focused on changes to the health insurance market to offer a choice of private and public health plans, and Medicare exemplifies a universal, public approach to coverage, Medicare nevertheless offers a number of key lessons for health reform.

According to a paper by Marilyn Moon, which will be released at the event, Medicare's successes and its shortcomings highlight promising directions and potential pitfalls for the nation's latest effort to control health care costs and provide affordable coverage for all.

Please join a distinguished panel of experts and the Center for American Progress to consider how the Medicare program can inform this year's health care reform debate.

On April 3, the Center for American Progress will host an event to discuss the implications of the Obama administration's strategy for Afghanistan and the region announced on March 27.

The event will also serve as the release of the Center's Afghanistan strategy, “Sustainable Security in Afghanistan: Crafting an Effective and Responsible Strategy for the Forgotten Front.” The report is the product of the Center’s review of U.S interests, goals, and strategy in Afghanistan and the region.

Since 2002, the New Jersey State Department of Education has partnered with city school districts in an attempt to close the achievement gap between poor, minority students in urban districts and their counterparts in the predominantly white, affluent suburban districts. Created as a result of the landmark New Jersey Supreme Court case Abbott v. Burke, the program provided generous funding to improve educational outcomes in poor districts. Many of the state’s poorest school districts made dramatic progress by focusing on high-quality instruction and introducing effective early literacy practices.

Please join the Center for American Progress and The Century Foundation for a discussion of the book In Plain Sight, Simple, Difficult Lessons from New Jersey's Expensive Effort to Close the Achievement Gap by Gordon MacInnes. The author and our expert panelists will discuss the lessons learned by these districts as well as the implications for state and federal policy.

On April 13, the Center for American Progress and Middle East Progress at the Center will host a discussion with Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, and Major General Arnold Fields, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

The lessons from Iraq reconstruction efforts are particularly relevant today, with the Obama administration unveiling a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan last month that includes large increases in development assistance to both countries, as well as a tripling of nonmilitary aid to Pakistan over the next five years. Stuart Bowen and his team produced a series of reports and recently published a book, Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience, with important recommendations on how to avoid waste, fraud, and abuse. Major General Arnold Fields (Ret.) was appointed Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction by President Bush in the summer of 2008 and reports directly to both the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State.

Copies of Hard Lessons will be available for purchase at the event.

Ever since the 1989 publication of The End of Nature, Bill McKibben has been in the top tier of public ambassadors on the science, policy, ethics, and urgency of climate change. Now, 20 years later, he has emerged as one of the most important on-the-ground organizers on this issue as well. He is now working with 350.org to call global attention to the need to forge an international agreement to decrease carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million. According to NASA's Jim Hansen, this is the concentration target essential to "maintain the climate to which humanity, wildlife, and the rest of the biosphere are adapted."

Join us for a conversation between McKibben and CAP Senior Fellow Andrew Light on the current state of McKibben's campaign and the upcoming deadlines for forging an international agreement on climate change.

While some nonprofits are chronically underfunded and understaffed, others can raise a million dollars at a single event. Their boards are full of energetic, knowledgeable, and connected people, they have grown steadily over the last decade, and they are the go-to groups on their issues.

The reason for the success of these nonprofits is not charismatic leadership. Not every charismatic leader runs a successful organization, and not every successful organization has a charismatic leader. Rather, nonprofit boards and staff through careful design and active outreach can build an organization that is both effective and enduring.

At this book event, co-authors Shirley Sagawa and Deb Jospin will share their research on "charismatic organizations" and how to apply these lessons even during an economic downturn.

Copies of  The Charismatic Organization will be available for purchase at the event.

In 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg created a Commission for Economic Opportunity to analyze the causes, scope, and consequences of poverty in New York City. In response to the Commission's report, the Mayor established a Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) to test and implement an ambitious set of initiatives to address poverty, combined with rigorous evaluation. The wide range of initiatives particularly target the needs of young adults, the working poor and children.

On April 21, 2009, the Center for Economic Opportunity will release its 2nd Annual Report, describing progress to date, highlighting the initiatives that are and are not working, and describing its future plans. Mayor Bloomberg will discuss the lessons and insights from New York City's initiatives, as well as New York City's proposal for a Federal Urban Innovation Fund to fight poverty. After he speaks, a panel will explore the New York City experience in greater detail, and discuss its relevance for addressing urban poverty and federal poverty policy in the Obama Administration.

Introduction by:

Shirley Sagawa, Visiting Fellow, Center for American Progress

Performers include members of congress, the local Sitar Art Center's Saints Band, and Josh & Cora Dunham, the husband & wife rhythm section for Prince.

The Music National Service Initiative (MNS) is a new 501c3, social enterprise that uses music as a strategy to address civic and social needs. In the fall of 2009, MNS will pilot MusicianCorps, a "musical Peace Corps" that recruits, trains and places musicians in under-resourced public schools and low-income neighborhoods in 3-5 cities nationwide.

Since MNS's event at CAP with Governor Mike Huckabee and Congressman Joseph Crowley in September, the Serve America Act has passed with the inclusion of an Artist Corps. While the bill awaits President Obama's signature, let's thank Mr. Crowley, co-chair of the new Congressional Musicians Caucus, and other congressional supporters who made it happen by enjoying their performance as well as D.C.'s Sitar Art Center’s Saints Band - both backed by Prince's rhythm section.

MusicianCorps is a first step that should be replicated in all artistic fields and scaled rapidly across the nation. Come celebrate progress for music and the arts in America and join the discussion of how we plan to move forward.

For more information visit The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage

In the summer of 2004, the United States Congress unanimously declared the conflict in Darfur, Sudan to be genocide. Following the passage of this historic resolution, a massive grassroots movement formed in the attempt to stop the atrocities in Sudan and influence elected officials to make addressing this situation a top priority. Ever since this anti-genocide movement formed to address these complex foreign policy issues, there has been a debate about how this constituency and others like it can best use their power as citizens to influence foreign policy.

With the recent issuing of an arrest warrant for Sudan's President, some commentators have gone so far as to suggest that U.S. activists are making it harder, not easier, to resolve the conflict in Darfur. Does foreign policy "activism" do more harm than good? How can an active and engaged citizen constituency positively influence U.S. foreign policy?

Join the Enough Project and the Center for American Progress for a lively dialogue on activism, intervention, and Sudan. John Norris, Executive Director of the Enough Project, and Rebecca Hamilton, author of an upcoming book on the Darfur activism, will share their views and engage in a town hall discussion with the audience.

The current debate over the scope of conscience regulations in health care raises important questions for all of us. How broad should conscience refusal rules be for health care providers who object to providing medical treatment on religious or moral grounds? Should conscience refusal rules apply to institutions as well as individuals? What are the consequences of refusal rules for patients—and their conscience? How do we resolve conflicting issues of conscience in a diverse democracy?

Please join us for a lively and enlightening conversation on this important issue.

"The Age Of Stupid" is the new cinema documentary from the Director of "McLibel" and the Producer of the Oscar-winning "One Day In September." This enormously ambitious dramadocumentary- animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching "archive" footage from 2008 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change while we had the chance?

Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion immediately following the film.

After eight years during which science and innovation took a backseat to politics and ideology, the Obama administration has ushered in a new era. In that spirit, please join us for a celebration of the release of Science Next: Innovation for the Common Good. This is the informed citizen's essential guide to science policy: an accessible compendium of essays on how public knowledge and understanding of science as an engine of progress will reveal solutions to today's most pressing problems, including climate change, national security, and the need for access to affordable health care. Join us for a discussion of how science and technology policy improves the lives of all Americans, and shouldn’t just be the domain of beltway insiders. After all, "wonk" spelled backwards is "know."

Copies of Science Next will be available for purchase.

Entrepreneurial ventures such as The New Teacher Project, New Leaders for New Schools, and the KIPP Academies are expanding the boundaries of traditional education models by creating innovative frameworks for schooling. Yet federal and state regulations and policies can often hinder rather than support the growth of education innovations. These barriers must be removed to better serve American students.

A new report by the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for American Progress, New Profit Inc., and Public Impact offers politically viable solutions to these challenges. At this event, entrepreneurs will share their experience in changing the traditional education landscape and, together with education policy experts, offer their perspective on how federal and state policy can better support the success and growth of innovations in education.

Please join John Podesta and American Progress for our 2009 Progressive Party, an evening of celebration in support of our work and our mission and a rededication to our goals and our work on behalf of all Americans.

Health insurance policies are complex and consumers cannot always obtain key information about how coverage works. And with many health insurance policies, consumers may face financial risks they do not anticipate.

As policymakers consider national health reform proposals designed to improve the health insurance market for individuals and small businesses, one key question is likely to be how to ensure transparency of information on health insurance policy designs, and consumers' potential financial exposure.

Karen Pollitz, a nationally recognized health insurance expert, has recently compared the adequacy and transparency of health insurance policies in California and Massachusetts. A summary of this research will be released at this event. Her work not only highlights the risks that consumers unknowingly assume today, but also provides lessons for policymakers who seek to build a functioning health insurance marketplace.

The new administration faces profound challenges in antitrust and competition policy. The Bush administration adhered to a minimalist approach based on the "Chicago School" theory that government regulation more often makes mistakes and the self-correction of private markets almost always leads to the best result. The collapse of the U.S. and global economies challenges this fundamental premise on many fronts, not the least of which is antitrust. But it also leads to calls to weaken antitrust standards to sustain distressed industries.

In light of these profound issues, what should the Obama administration's competition policy and antitrust enforcement agenda look like?

Newly confirmed Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney will offer her preliminary thoughts on the challenges ahead for and objectives of the new administration in antitrust, followed by a panel of distinguished experts.

"The Least of These" explores one of the most controversial aspects of American immigration policy: family detention.

The film explores the government rationale for family detention, conditions at the facility, collateral damage, and the role - and limits - of community activism in bringing change. The film leads viewers to consider how core American rights and values - presumption of innocence, the protection of children, upholding the family structure as the basic unit of civil society, and America as a refuge of last resort - should apply to immigrants, particularly children.

Amid strapped state and local budgets and a weak national economy, some states and districts have responded to their budget woes by shortening the school week, laying off teachers, and withholding resources from innovative education reforms. Often, these decisions have been made with little regard to their impact on student achievement. Instead, the scarcity of resources should provide an opportunity to prioritize and make investments in strategies and reforms that are likely to yield positive academic outcomes in the long-term.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act offers an unprecedented opportunity to encourage bold, innovative education reforms that will bolster and strengthen America's economic future. Strategic investments include initiatives that will support high quality instruction in the classroom and the hiring and retaining of effective teachers; school improvement strategies, such as expanded learning time, to help turn around struggling schools; and promising new models, such as early college high schools, to redesign American high schools and better prepare students for college and the workforce.

Join the Center for American Progress in an event to take stock of the current opportunities in education reform and discuss how strategic allocations of resources can lead to long-term education and economic growth. Speakers will discuss viable ways to use stimulus funds for reform, strategies to improve our schools, and how we can make sure highly effective teachers are in the places we need them most. In addition, several new reports related to expanded learning time and performance-based compensation for teachers will be released.

“Could improved health for people and planet be as simple as eating fewer animals, less junk food, and super-refined carbohydrates?” The answer is an emphatic yes, says Mark Bittman, a New York Times columnist and best-selling author of How to Cook Everything. This lifestyle choice “could help you lose weight, reduce your risk of many long-term or chronic diseases, save you real money, and help stop global warming.”

The addition of the White House garden offers a unique opportunity to educate Americans on the nutritional and environmental value of locally grown and organic food.  Acclaimed chef José Andrés has made it his personal mission to appeal to President Barack Obama about making nutrition education a mandatory part of elementary through high school curriculums.

Please join the Center for American Progress as both chefs discuss food and nutrition, energy consumption, and sustainability.

Copies of Made in Spain, Food Matters, and How to Cook Everything will be available for purchase at the event.

The United States is the largest national donor of foreign aid in the world. It is also engaged in two major wars that require development assistance, and faces a variety of challenges around the world that demand effective responses.

But it does not have a comprehensive, coherent strategy to guide its development assistance programs. With the advent of a new administration, it's time to have a serious discussion about a National Strategy for Global Development.

The Sustainable Security Program at the Center for American Progress has written a National Strategy for Global Development, which it hopes will spark debate. The authors of the document, Dr. Reuben E. Brigety, II and Sabina Dewan, will discuss their proposal for an NSGD at this event. They will be joined by Mr. James Kunder, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and former acting deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

President Barack Obama has set a bold goal that, by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion in college graduates in the world, arguing that every American should have access to at least one year of postsecondary education.

Given the population growth rates and the size of the U.S. workforce, attaining the president’s goal will require assistance for many Americans who have not traditionally completed postsecondary credentials. This will mean an "affordability plus" approach that invests in preparing colleges and universities to provide quality education experiences that help working Americans, underserved youth and under-prepared populations actually succeed in college and obtain a credential of value to employers. There will have to be new approaches to teaching and learning, technology and partnerships that reach beyond the walls of higher education and engage the workforce system, business, unions and community organizations.

Please join the Center for American Progress and key thought leaders on postsecondary attainment as we explore opportunities and challenges of meeting the president's challenge to increase the number of Americans with postsecondary credentials.

In the same way charismatic individuals attract followers, charismatic organizations draw dedicated donors and committed champions. These groups don't depend on charismatic leaders - rather, they strengthen their core and build strong networks of support within and around themselves.

In The Charismatic Organization, experts Shirley Sagawa and Deborah Jospin show nonprofits of all types how to restructure their organizations, internally and externally, to become more charismatic—and more effective.

At this book event, co-authors Shirley Sagawa and Deb Jospin will share their research on "charismatic organizations" and how to apply these lessons even during an economic downturn.

Copies of The Charismatic Organzation will be available for purchase at the event.

The Obama campaign—and now the Obama administration—blazed a new trail in the use of Web 2.0 technology, featuring videos, social networking tools, and new forms of participatory and interactive technology. This event will feature government, technology, and new media leaders in addressing the special challenges and opportunities of doing Web 2.0 in the federal government. Please join this exciting discussion moderated by American Progress Senior Fellow Peter Swire, who also served as counsel to the New Media team for change.gov and the revision of whitehouse.gov. This event will also feature the release of three reports by Peter Swire:

• It's Not the Campaign Any More: How the White House is Using Web 2.0 Technology So Far
• New Media Challenges: Legal and Policy Considerations for Federal Use of Web 2.0 Technology
• How to Buy Free Software: Procuring Web 2.0 Technology for the Federal Government
• Video: White House 2.0
• Science Progress podcast: You Have a Friend Request from The White House

Together the United States and China account for approximately 40 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, and only through concerted and coordinated action can we meet the climate change challenge that, in the words of President Barack Obama, is "slowly killing our planet."

Please join us for a discussion with the Obama administration's Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern. He will be addressing the challenges and the opportunities of working with China in the context of our broader climate and clean-energy policy.

As Israelis and Palestinians consider reopening negotiations, the final status issues—such as Jerusalem, refugees, security, and borders—loom on the horizon. For over a decade, Palestinians, Israelis, and others have been working on creative solutions to these seemingly intractable challenges.

Middle East Progress at the Center for American Progress invites you to hear from three experts who have been looking at the issue of Jerusalem, the city at the heart of the conflict. The discussion will focus on the multiple challenges Jerusalem poses to any resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian and broader Arab-Israeli conflict and how they might be resolved.

The Obama administration portrayed its release of legal memos on torture and harsh interrogation, the closing of Guantanamo, and its reevaluation of military commissions as the first steps toward restoring our government's moral integrity and adherence to the rule of law. These steps also play an important role in rebuilding U.S. capacity to support human rights and democracy in the Middle East.

Please join the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), the Heinrich Boell Foundation, and the Center for American Progress for a panel of writers and scholars to discuss how the Obama administration's recent steps have improved U.S. credibility on human rights and democracy in the Middle East, as well as what steps are the most important for the United States and Europe to take to restore credibility on human rights and democracy in the region.

The United States has long prided itself on being a human rights leader. It has often called other countries to account for their abuses. But it has frequently been reticent to submit itself to the same strict standards to which others are held.

This panel will address how an international human rights framework that encompasses both civil and political as well as social and economic rights within the United States can advance American interests around the globe. Thus, in addition to addressing traditional notions of national security, civil liberties, and civil rights, panelists will also address how violations of social and economic rights implicate U.S. national security and how it is in the national interest of the United States to embrace a broader policy approach that emphasizes sustainable security.

The recession is taking a toll on most Americans and has resulted in job losses not seen in almost 25 years. There are less jobs available, but black men have long faced limited employment prospects and disproportionately high rates of unemployment. To address this crisis, policymakers are actively focused on creating more jobs, but the issues that impact black men go beyond job creation.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion that will explore the root causes of black men's difficulties in the labor market and examine policy solutions that will reduce inequities and promote equal opportunity. Speakers will address the current status of black men's labor market participation; race-based employment discrimination; barriers to employment posed by criminal records; and relevant legislative approaches to eliminating barriers to work.

Twenty-five years ago Congress established a regulatory regime to facilitate generic drug creation, and the availability of these drugs has resulted in substantial consumer savings. With Congress addressing the health care issue this summer, it is important that we now consider the potential public savings made possible from ensuring access to affordable medicine through increased generic competition.

Many are also concerned that patent settlements involving innovator and generic firms are delaying new generic drugs from entering the market. These settlements significantly increase health care costs, and some commentators estimate that they cost consumers billions annually in higher drug prices. Congress and antitrust enforcers are taking steps to address this problem.

Please join the Center for American Progress as Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz discusses recent developments on the issue. A panel of distinguished experts will also talk about generic drug competition and a report issued by CAP on competition in the pharmaceutical markets.

The secret is out: Current teacher evaluation systems in the United States are entirely inadequate. Evaluations bear little or no relation to student achievement, and they fail to provide teachers with information about what they do well and what they need to do better. Furthermore, as a condition for receipt of State Fiscal Stabilization Funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Governors may have to report the percentage of teachers rated in each evaluation performance category, district-by-district. Nobody should be surprised if the percentages of teachers rated below par are extremely low.

But why does this matter? Rigorous teacher evaluation systems represent an important tool for aligning teacher policies with the goals of improving instruction and student achievement. In particular, tenure policies meant to protect teachers from arbitrary dismissal, have developed a reputation for protecting incompetent teachers. In the absence of rigorous evaluation systems, tenure will surely continue to draw fire from critics of long-standing employment practices.

Paul Butler was an ambitious federal prosecutor, a Harvard Law grad who gave up his corporate law salary to fight the good fight—until one day he was arrested on the street and charged with a crime he didn't commit.

The Center for American Progress will host a panel and a Q & A discussion around Butler’s book, Let's Get Free, in which the author gives an insider's view of the “lock-'em-up” culture that makes every American worse off. Butler also offers innovative methods for citizens to resist complicity and stand up for their rights, and introduces the concept of strategic jury nullification—voting "not guilty" on principle—as a powerful way to protest unfair laws.

Copies of Let's Get Free will be available for purchase.

U.S.-Russia relations are at a critical turning point. This key bilateral relationship was in tatters when President George W. Bush left office. The Obama administration has begun the process of healing the rift with the "reset button," a tactic intended to improve the toxic atmosphere that it inherited. The reset has been relatively successful thus far, but the real test of it will come during President Barack Obama's summit with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in Moscow on July 6-8.

Please join the Center for American Progress and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen for the launch of the Center's new report "After the 'Reset:' A Strategy and New Agenda for U.S. Russia Policy," written by Dr. Samuel Charap, and a discussion of the issues the Obama administration will face during the Moscow summit.

Due to the economic downturn, low-income families have increasingly faced issues such as foreclosures, bankruptcies, and access barriers to unemployment insurance and other safety net programs. A good lawyer could be the difference between being overwhelmed by these circumstances and effectively surviving these harsh times. Yet, just as the economy is negatively impacting the poor, it is equally affecting the lawyers who serve them.

The American Constitution Society, Center for American Progress, and Washington Council of Lawyers are co-sponsoring this event featuring experts representing a variety of perspectives. They will discuss federal level policy solutions, the nationwide impact of the downturn on legal services programs, and an in-depth look at how one community —Washington, DC— is coping with strained resources amidst a swelling demand for services.

How might public policy be different if Americans saw government as an innovative force, lowering costs, improving performance, and yielding ever higher returns on taxpayer investments?

The private sector becomes more efficient every year, at a long-term average of 1.64 percent in the United States. Research suggests that public-sector productivity, however, is flat or even down. A new McKinsey report points to at least three key reasons for this stagnation—diffuse government authority, lack of clear performance metrics, and insufficient attention to improving nuts-and-bolts operations. Addressing these problems could boost government productivity by at least 5 percent, according to McKinsey estimates. With the economy shrinking, deficits ballooning and the public's expectations of government rising, the need to achieve productivity gains has never been more urgent.

Please join the Center for American Progress for an expert discussion that will explore ways to boost government's productivity and achieve budget savings.

Please find the reading to be discussed at the event below

Government's Productivity Imperative

How Can American Government Meet Its Productivity Challenge?

There is a strong consensus that the way we pay teachers in this country does little to help districts meet their strategic goals. In fact, the single salary schedule and other ineffectual human resource policies for teachers mean that schools—particularly those serving low-income students—have trouble attracting and retaining top-teaching talent.

Fortunately, an increasing number of states and districts are experimenting with reforms to teacher compensation systems, and increased federal investments through the Teacher Incentive Fund make the time ripe for this experimentation. Yet, states and districts should maximize the impact of these reforms by thinking about how compensation systems can be leveraged to build the capacity of schools and districts.

Join our expert panelists for an insightful conversation about how compensation reforms can be designed to drive school improvement.

Please join us for the second event in our Progressivism On Tap series featuring Ezra Klein, of the Washington Post, and Matt Yglesias, of ThinkProgress. The progressive bloggers will discuss how they use political ideology, history, and philosophy in their own work, and how these ideas are shaping domestic and international policy debates.

Health IT is a critical foundation of successful health care reform that can help us achieve our nation's cost and quality goals through delivery system innovation. Please join us to discuss strategies for aligning health IT investments and health reform efforts as we take a close look at implications and opportunities for implementation.

The Markle Foundation, the Center for American Progress and the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform have been working with a wide array of collaborators to develop criteria for the "meaningful use" of the ARRA's health IT investments to increase their sustainability and foster and support health system transformation.

Please join us for the third event in the inaugural Progressivism on Tap series featuring Washington Post columnist, E.J. Dionne, Jr., discussing the Social Gospel movement, the rise of Catholic social justice work, and the contemporary role of faith in progressive thought and politics. 

***This event is full and we will not be able to accommodate your attendance. We invite you to download the podcast here. We apologize for any inconvenience.***

Please join us for the final event in the inaugural Progressivism On Tap series featuring Jared Bernstein, chief economist and economic policy advisor to the Vice President, discussing the intellectual foundations of the Obama administration’s economic policies.  

Many thanks to everyone who has attended the series so far. Your support and interest has helped to make the program a real success. We look forward to seeing you next Tuesday. 

Note: This event has changed

Ukraine remains mired in a deepening political crisis with seemingly intractable conflicts in the parliament and between the executive and the legislature paralyzing governance. The country is also gearing up for presidential elections in January 2010. U.S. attention has once again turned to Ukraine following Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Kyiv on July 20-22.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a special event featuring three leading experts on Ukraine. David Kramer, now Senior Transatlantic Fellow at The German Marshall Fund of the United States, was previously assistant secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, responsible for Ukraine. Steven Pifer, currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, was ambassador to Ukraine in 1998-2000 and also had responsibility for Ukraine as deputy assistant secretary of state and a senior director on the National Security Council. James Sherr is head of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia Program and is a widely respected authority on Ukraine. He frequently consults NATO, the EU and the UK government on security in the former Soviet region.

In their presentations, the speakers will offer their thoughts on Ukraine's domestic political situation, its relations with the United States under the Obama administration, and its ties with Russia in the context of the "reset" in U.S.-Russia relations.

EVENT CANCELLED: Due to unforeseen circumstances this event has been cancelled. We apologize for the late notice and any inconvenience this may have caused.

Violence in Afghanistan continues to escalate, with July being the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the U.S. invasion in 2001. General Stanley McChrystal formally assumed command of NATO-ISAF in early June 2009 and has begun to change the emphasis and direction of military operations in Afghanistan. He is currently conducting a 60-day strategic review of operations in Afghanistan.

Please join the Center for American Progress and Sarah Chayes for a conversation on General McChrystal's strategic shift and the challenges in Afghanistan, including the renewed emphasis on a population-focused campaign, civilian capacity-building, and the expansion of the Afghan National Army. Ms. Chayes will also share her on-the-ground insights into military operations in Helmand and challenges in the NATO alliance.

The Obama administration and Congress have articulated innovative proposals to improve the postsecondary attainment of all Americans, including changes to the student loan system, Pell Grants, and historic investments in community colleges. Realizing the promise of these proposals will require institutional innovation that questions basic assumptions about higher education and skills training.

Please join the Center for American Progress and key experts to discuss its latest postsecondary education report, "Working Learners: Educating our Entire Workforce for Success in the 21st Century," and toexplore recommendations for targeting community college investment, changes to improve the workforce development system, and a new focus on career coaching to enhance the effectiveness of human capital.

One week before Afghanistan's elections, please join the Center for American Progress for the first public discussion with an Interagency Team led by Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Moderated by Center for American Progress President and CEO John Podesta, the discussion will highlight the groundbreaking integrated approach to address the security challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

For a number of years, the far right has used a "culture war" mentality to fuel a polarized debate around key cultural and religious issues in an effort to grow and mobilize their base. Immigration has been among the issues at the heart of their strategy. Repeated election cycles demonstrate, however, that heated immigration debates may turn up the volume, but do not turn out votes. Still, the far right is clinging to their scare tactics, including in the current health care debate. Will the fear mongering finally pay off for the far right, or are they drinking a slow poison by alienating moderates, communities of color, and the millennial generation—groups that are growing in numbers and influence?

Please join the Center for American Progress in a discussion on how the culture wars strategy is coming to an end with a panel of noted experts.

On August 20, the Afghan people went to the polls to vote in the country's second presidential elections since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Despite record levels of voter registration, a heavy campaign of intimidation by insurgents is reported to have depressed turnout, and allegations of fraud in the run up to and conduct of the election have raised questions about how legitimate the eventual announcement of official results will be perceived by the Afghan people.

Please join the Center for American Progress for an assessment of the elections and their implications for the future Afghan government and U.S. policy in the region, featuring observations from international election monitors Eric Bjornlund and Brian Katulis and NPR National Security Correspondent Jackie Northam.

Money-Driven Medicine provides the essential introduction Americans need if they are to become knowledgeable participants in healthcare reform. Produced by Academy Award-winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side; Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) and based on Maggie Mahar's acclaimed book by the same name, the film offers a behind-the-scenes look at the $2.6 trillion U.S. healthcare system, how it went so terribly wrong and what it will take to fix it.

Money-Driven Medicine reveals how the "medical-industrial complex" has wrested power from doctors, turning medical care into just another commodity and patients into profit centers. The result? While many uninsured and underinsured Americans receive too little care, the well-insured often get unnecessary, even risky care.

Please join us for a provocative Q & A immediately following the film,including how screenings of Money-Driven Medicine can advance comprehensive health reform.

For more information on the film or to purchase DVDs, visit www.moneydrivenmedicine.org.

In September 2007, President George W. Bush signed legislation significantly expanding reporting requirements for those who registered as lobbyists. During last year's presidential campaign, Barack Obama refused to accept campaign contributions from lobbyists and, following his election, precluded lobbyists from working on his transition team in the fields of policy on which they had lobbied. Upon becoming president he banned people accepting positions in the new administration from taking positions as lobbyists for two years following their departure from government and severely limited the number of appointments available to those who had in previous years worked as lobbyists.

Join the Center for American Progress and American University's Center for Congressional & Presidential Studies for a symposium on the impact of special interests, featuring expert panels and a keynote speech by Norm Eisen, Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform.

EVENT CANCELLED: Due to unforeseen circumstances this event has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Haiti has been plagued by variety of intractable problems throughout its history, but a rare "dual opportunity" exists in the country right now. Haiti's physical security is better than it has been in a long time and the United States can rethink its U.S.-Haiti policy. CAP researchers traveled to Haiti in June 2009 to examine Haiti as a sustainable security case study, looking at security and development challenges.

The Center for American Progress is pleased to host Haitian Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis for a discussion about Haiti's future prospects and the release of the report "Haiti's Changing Tide: A Sustainable Security Case Study."

The Obama administration has made a strong commitment to making Africa a priority in U.S. foreign policy. From President Obama's trips and speeches in Cairo and Ghana to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's August 2009 trip to Africa, the president and secretary of state have emphasized that progress in Africa requires partnerships built on shared responsibility. This is the earliest in any U.S. administration that both the president and the secretary of state have visited Africa.

In Africa, the Obama administration has been working to encourage new solutions to old challenges. Join us for a discussion on ways that we can work with the international community to foster good regional governance, prevent conflict and violence, and provide a foundation for future stability, human development, and sustainable economic growth.

The federal government responded to the 2008 financial meltdown by providing enormous amounts of public funds to troubled financial institutions and markets. These bailouts, which made clear that "systemically significant" financial institutions will receive taxpayer support should they be on the verge of failure, were heavily criticized for lacking measures to ensure transparency and accountability. Against this backdrop, the Center for American Progress is releasing a new report authored by Emma Coleman Jordan, Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, which proposes the implementation of "public directors" whenever significant public funds are directed towards private entities.

Please join the Center for what promises to be a fascinating and timely discussion around Prof. Jordan's proposal, with opening remarks from the Honorable Edolphus Towns (D-NY), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, followed by a panel of distinguished speakers.

Author Colin Beavan, in research for his next book, began the No Impact Project in November 2006. A newly self-proclaimed environmentalist who could no long avoid pointing the finger at himself, Colin leaves behind his liberal complacency for a vow to make as little environmental impact as possible for one year. No more automated transportation, no more electricity, no more non-local food, no more material consumption...no problem. That is, until his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle and their two year-old daughter are dragged into the fray. Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein's film provides a front row seat into the experiment that became a national fascination and media sensation as well as an intriguing inside look at the familial strains and strengthened bonds that result from Colin's and Michelle's struggle with their radical lifestyle change.

As the immigration reform debate heats up in Washington, D.C., hundreds of faith communities across the country are showing a new, grassroots-led activism on behalf of undocumented workers and their families. From Greensboro to Dallas, Lancaster to Bellingham, people of faith are engaged in a wide range of activities and advocacy rooted in theological and moral ground.

A new report by the Center for American Progress documents these efforts, tying them together into an authentic grassroots national faith movement that is urging leaders in Washington to join their cause.

Please join our distinguished panel of faith leaders for an enlightening and provocative conversation on the pressing issue of immigration reform.

Colombia, with U.S. assistance, has fought for more than a decade a high stakes battle for control of the country and its future against both left-wing guerilla and right-wing paramilitary groups that are largely financed through illegal drug trafficking. Colombia's strategy under President Alvaro Uribe has taken a strong line in confronting the armed groups and drug traffickers, but has also emphasized the reintegration of demobilized former combatants, and social and economic development as cornerstones of a peace-building process.

Frank Pearl, High Commissioner for Peace and High Counselor for Social and Economic Reintegration, will discuss the steps Colombia is taking to reintegrate former combatants, gain widespread community support and involvement in the reintegration process, reduce extreme poverty and inequality, and create a more stable and peaceful Colombia.

This year, the federal deficit will exceed 11 percent of the gross domestic product—higher than at any point in the country's post-war history. Though the size of the current deficit is due largely to pre-existing policies, economic recession, and one-time policies to revive the economy, there is no question that public concern over the long-term fiscal gap has intensified.

Please join the Center for American Progress and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities for a conference designed to lay the intellectual groundwork for efforts that the administration and Congress should undertake—once the economy has fully recovered—to put the nation on a more sustainable fiscal path.

At the United Nations General Assembly meeting this week, President Obama made clear the imperative of concluding a comprehensive Middle East peace, including a sustainable two-state solution, not only to Israelis, Palestinians, and their neighbors, but to the international community as well. He urged all the parties to move toward final status negotiations despite the obstacles, history, and mistrust.

Please join Middle East Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, for a discussion with Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a leading congressional voice on Middle East issues, about how to move forward.

"La Americana" is an intimate documentary following Carmen, an undocumented immigrant, on a journey from Bolivia to New York City and back as she struggles to save the life of her ailing daughter. Her unforgettable story is woven into the current immigration crisis in the United States, putting a human face on this timely and controversial issue. Through interviews and a sweeping cinema-vérité narrative, "La Americana" takes its viewers on an international journey following the personal and political tragedy of an undocumented immigrant in New York City.

The Center for American Progress and the Progressive Book Club are pleased to launch "Moving Forward: Foundations of a New Progressive Era," a new authors series that will bring together leading writers and policy experts in a unique in-person and online discussion forum for Americans to learn, connect, and debate progressive ideas.

The series will examine a range of issues emerging from the intersection of history, philosophy, political theory and public policy. Each event will feature a different topic, author, and moderator with live and online audiences ready to debate and discuss the issues raised. The first event in the series will feature historian Kevin Mattson, author of "What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?" Jimmy Carter, America's "Malaise" And the Speech That Should Have Changed the Country.

The Center for American Progress, in partnership with Maria Shriver, has broken new ground with the publication of "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything." By taking a hard look at how women's changing roles are affecting our major societal institutions, from government and businesses to our faith communities, the report outlines how these institutions rely on outdated models of who works and who cares for our families, and examines how all these parts of the culture have responded to one of the greatest social transformations of our time.

Please join us for a conference convening policymakers, policy analysts, state and local advocates, and many others to discuss and examine the ideas that have been raised by the report.

Please join us for the next event in the Progressivism on Tap series featuring William Galston, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former domestic policy advisor to President Clinton. He will discuss the role of philosophy in shaping public policy and politics in the White House.
 

One of the major developments in the human rights field over the past decade has been the increased application of new technologies, such as satellite imaging, database and data analysis tools, medical forensics, mobile phones, and social networking software to situations in which human rights are under threat. The convergence of scientific innovation and human rights advocacy may well represent a major breakthrough in the struggle for human dignity.

Full realization of that promise will require far greater collaboration between government, business, the scientific community, and human rights NGOs than we have seen to this point. Our panel will describe ways in which new technologies are revolutionizing human rights work and make recommendations for how the U. S. government can play a leadership role in promoting the nexus between technology and human rights.

The global agenda to reduce emissions will require a cleaner, greener transportation system. In a carbon-constrained future, electric vehicles and alternative fuels will be essential. Yet the infrastructure and incentives for clean vehicles remain underdeveloped.

On October 21, join BMW Chairman and CEO Norbert Reithofer and former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer for a conversation moderated by CAP energy expert Julian L. Wong on the future of battery electric vehicles, alternative fuels, and the infrastructure and energy production changes that will be needed to reduce emissions in the transportation sector. From their perspectives as leaders in the business community and the German Green Party, our two guests will explore the challenges and opportunities for the growth of clean transportation in developed and developing economies.

On Monday, October 26, Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer will speak at the Center about the importance of health care reform in tackling our nation's deficit. President Obama has made clear that reform must be completely paid for in the short run. Even more significant, however, to our fiscal future is whether reform can genuinely and significantly slow the growth rate of health care costs in the long run. Romer, a top economic advisor to President Obama, will describe the Administration's views on how passing the right kind of health care reform will be an essential step in the path to a sound long-term fiscal policy. Specifically, she will discuss some of the proposals currently on the table from the five congressional committees for cost containment and the potential benefits that they might bring to the economy.

Eight years after the initial invasion of Afghanistan by U.S. forces, the Obama administration is still grappling with questions regarding America's strategic interests in Afghanistan and the best strategy for addressing the threat of terrorism and regional instability in South Asia. In recent weeks, the leaking of a resource-intensive counterinsurgency strategy review produced by General Stanley McChrystal, Commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has prompted a reassessment of core assumptions about Afghanistan and sparked an intense debate about the future of Afghanistan policy -- both in the White House and across the country. The prospect of a runoff in the country's disputed presidential election has further complicated policymakers' options.

Please join the Center for American Progress and the New America Foundation for the first in a series of discussions with experts on these and other issues related to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the future of U.S. policy in the region

Please join us for the next event in the Progressivism on Tap series featuring Sam Fulwood III, senior fellow at CAP and former national correspondent and race-relations reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He will discuss civil rights in the Obama era.

Schools around the country are recognizing that community partnerships can be instrumental in increasing student engagement and achievement. By providing an extended menu of social services for students and families and by extending school hours, community schools are able to better prepare students for learning. President Obama has advanced the idea of school-community partnerships through funding for the Promise Neighborhoods program, and legislation to increase federal funding for community schools has been introduced in the House and Senate. The community schools strategy is also being adopted internationally—every public school in England is slated to provide extended services by 2010.

Please join us for an insightful conversation about the community schools strategy and how federal policy can encourage the growth of community schools across the country. The Center for American Progress will release a paper explaining the community school strategy, its benefits, and initiatives in the United States and England.

Please join us for the next event in the Progressivism on Tap series featuring Anna Burger, Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU and Chair, Change to Win, on the historical and contemporary role of labor in the progressive movement. 

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the ecumenical patriarch of Orthodox Christianity, will discuss the nature of progress at a lecture co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress and Georgetown University in Gaston Hall at Georgetown. In His All Holiness's words, true progress is a "balance between preserving the essence of a certain way of life and changing things that are not essential." Orthodox Christianity is a revolutionary faith and is dedicated to change. And even though the faith has never taken up the banner of progressivism per se, it has taken up many causes over the centuries that are progressive by definition. His All Holiness will address three of these causes at his lecture: nonviolence, philanthropy (specifically in the form of health care), and environmentalism.

Vice President Joe Biden, Chair of the White House Task Force on Middle Class Families, will host a panel of leading scholars to discuss the unique challenges facing America's middle class in the 21st century economy.

The Vice President and the expert panel will discuss the many economic developments and trends affecting middle-class families, including changes to the overall labor market in recent decades, shifting gender roles and the need for work-life balance in today's economy, economic inequality and mobility, and the increased gap between productivity and wages.

In the midst of Abdullah Abdullah's withdrawal from the presidential race and President Hamid Karzai's de facto victory, the Obama administration is assessing how to move forward in Afghanistan. The "messy" election process has only complicated their efforts, as the Afghan government, deemed essential to U.S. and NATO efforts, is hobbled by corruption and weak popular legitimacy.

Meanwhile, the Taliban insurgency's strength has grown, with its forces now estimated at 25,000 members—a 25 percent increase over the past year. Policymakers have discussed negotiating with elements of the insurgency to stem its momentum. The diverse range of motivations feeding into the insurgency has convinced many that some Taliban fighters can be persuaded to switch sides in the war in Afghanistan. Little progress has been made thus far in these reconciliation efforts, however, despite overtures by President Karzai and high-level Saudi-brokered efforts.

Please join the Center for American Progress and the New America Foundation for the second in a series of discussions with experts debating key aspects of the ongoing mission in Afghanistan. The panelists will analyze the impact of Karzai's presidential victory on the insurgency, discuss the costs and opportunities offered by negotiation efforts, and share their thoughts on U.S. strategy moving forward.

China's rise is unprecedented. Never before has a pivotal power come of age in such an interdependent world, in which institutions, rules, and initiatives blanket nearly every area of international activity. A central challenge for the Obama administration's China policy is to secure the most cooperation possible on key transnational threats like global warming, economic imbalances, nuclear proliferation, and pandemics like the swine flu. What is China's attitude toward the international architecture that guides cooperation on these threats? Does it play by the rules? Does it seek to weaken or strengthen the international system?

In advance of President Obama's first state visit to China, please join Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg, John Podesta, and Nina Hachigian for a conversation about China's new global role and U.S.-China relations.

Two years ago the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Center for American Progress, and Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute joined together to grade the states on student achievement. In this follow-up report to "Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on Educational Effectiveness" we turn our attention to the future, looking not at how states are performing today, but at what they are doing to prepare themselves for the challenges that lie ahead. After decades of political inaction and ineffective reforms, our schools consistently produce students unready for the rigors of the modern workplace.

Please join us for an insightful conversation about the state of educational innovation today. The authors of the report will share their findings and how they graded the states, and shed light on the tools, incentives, and opportunities education institutions can use to reinvent themselves in profoundly more effective ways.

Please join us for the next event in the Progressivism on Tap series featuring Mark Schmitt, editor of the American Prospect, on the transformation of liberalism in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Obama administration has made it a major priority to turn around the nation's lowest performing schools but there is considerable debate over how to accomplish this goal. Some argue for bringing in new teachers or new organizations such as charter schools to turnaround failing institutions, contending that improved educational opportunities do not require a change in the mix of students in a school. Others argue that magnet approaches can turn around failing institutions by attracting a different mix of students, parents, and faculty.

Join our panelists in a debate over whether or not economic integration is important in raising the achievement of low-income and minority students. At the forum, The Century Foundation will be releasing an issue brief, "Turnaround Schools That Work."

Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, brings to her job a deep understanding of immigration and border issues from her experience as Governor, Attorney General, and U.S. Attorney in the State of Arizona. As the United States looks to fix its broken immigration system, Secretary Napolitano has been speaking with congressional leaders, law enforcement officials, business, labor, and faith leaders, and advocates from across the country—and across the political spectrum.

Join us to hear Secretary Napolitano discuss the work her department has been doing to prepare for broader immigration reform, and her unique perspective on this matter of vital importance to America's future. A Q & A session will follow her remarks.

In 2005, in response to the Bush administration's failed foreign policies in Iraq and Afghanistan and the marginalization of non-military sources of national power, the Center for American Progress released "Integrated Power," a progressive national security strategy. This document was a blueprint for a whole of government approach to dealing with national security challenges in order to protect U.S. citizens, interests, and allies around the world.

Since coming into office, the Obama administration has begun the arduous task of reinvigorating all elements of U.S. national power including bolstering our diplomatic corps, building up our development capabilities, and maintaining an efficient and effective military capability. These efforts are still in their early stages, but the need for an overarching national security strategy to unify these efforts and provide guidance for their implementation is clear.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a conversation on integrating the elements of U.S. national power. This event will also serve as the release for CAP's new progressive national security strategy which offers a framework for the Obama administration's efforts to coordinate and unify U.S. diplomatic, development and military strategies.

We are living in a pivotal moment: pivotal for the earth's climate, for other natural systems, and for world population. The decisions made today will determine whether human numbers grow from 6.8 billion to 8 billion, or even 11 billion, by 2050.

As the world struggles to respond to climate change, concern about population growth is making a comeback—and raising critical questions: To what extent are demographic changes a factor in today's environmental problems? Could renewed interest in population growth present an opportunity to mobilize resources for reproductive health, women's rights and other vitally important programs? Will fears of exponential growth revive population policies that trample, rather than advance, women's health and human rights?

Join Laurie Mazur, editor of A Pivotal Moment: Population, Justice and the Environmental Challenge, and a panel of experts to discuss the complex connections among population growth, climate change and other environmental issues, and explore the policies necessary to advance environmental sustainability and reproductive rights, equity and justice.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion on the challenges and successes of implementing expanded learning time in a traditional public school environment, highlighting the role of teachers and teachers unions.

A new report from the Center for American Progress will launch the discussion. It profiles three traditional public schools to better understand the significant issues that school leaders, teachers, and union leaders must grapple with in moving to a longer day and year. The lessons that they have learned along the way are invaluable to both practitioners and policymakers alike.

In his new book, The Future of Faith, Harvard divinity professor Harvey Cox argues that faith is once again undergoing an important transformation—this time around progressive ideals and away from extremist fundamentalism.

As a writer for The New Yorker magazine, George Packer has captured the big ideas and events of the past decade spanning the September 11 attacks to the election of Barack Obama through the voices of individuals around the world. Packer's new book, Interesting Times, unites investigative pieces with personal essays and detailed narratives of travels through war zones and failed states.

Join the Center for American Progress for a discussion with Packer moderated by the Center's Senior Vice President of National Security and International Policy Rudy deLeon. The conversation will include key issues of the day such as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Obama administration's foreign policy, and current trends in America's ideological debates, as well as broader themes such as the temptations and dangers of idealism, the moral complexities of war and politics, and the American capacity for self-blinding and self-renewal.

***This event is now full and we can no longer accept RSVPs. Please watch the live webcast here.***

Today in America, only half of students who enroll in college earn a degree and half of black and Latino teenagers drop out of high school. Where did we go wrong and what will it take to regain our global edge? To answer these questions, President Obama has put out the call to fix our nation's schools and he's linking billions of dollars in federal aid to states that meet criteria recently released by the U.S. Department of Education. Join three of the country's top education leaders for a frank discussion on this new opportunity to revitalize the country’s education system, and hear them talk about the state of our schools, barriers to reform, and what's at stake for our children and America's future.