I'm siding with the lefties on President-Elect Obama's choice for Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton) and on less reliable reports that he's considering keeping W's Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, around for a while.

These moves, combined with his backing off his campaign pledge to end the war in Iraq as he continues to soften and qualify his position, make me nervous. I wasn't a big Obama fan from the beginning but he won me over when my first two choices -- Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards -- fell by the wayside, principally because he seemed so staunchly opposed to the Iraq War. Now he names a Secretary of State who supported the war from the beginning and whose stubborn refusal to admit her mistake probably cost her the Democratic nomination. And although Gates is a far more moderate SecDef than his predecessor (Atilla the Hun would qualify for that description), he represents the position that a "safe" withdrawal from Iraq will take far longer than it really needs to.

This could all become moot if the Iraqi parliament passes what they call the "Withdrawal Plan" this week. That bill -- which has pretty strong bipartisan backing in Iraq -- calls for U.S. troops to be out of Iraqi cities (and thus most of the combat) by the end of June next year. All combat troops would have to be withdrawn roughly by the end of 2010. While I think we could withdraw much more quickly than that, I like the Iraqi idea of getting us disengaged first.

Obama hasn't yet taken office so we don't really know how he'll govern but the moves to center he made during the late stages of the campaign to lock up his mandate look like they're becoming a permanent part of the Obamascape. That is not encouraging.

One of the newsletters I get is from the Association for Global New Thought, a group of churches who are part of the modern metaphysical spiritual movement. Unity, Religious Science and other such churches belong to the association.

Following is a letter from a well-known Italian peace and interfaith worker-activist about the election of Barack Obama to be our next President. Perhaps it helps explain a little bit of why I am so completely taken with the concept of having this man as our leader for the next four or eight years. It's been a long time since an American President evoked this kind of overseas response.

As I was mentioning to you earlier, about the enthusiasm for President elect Obama being great everywhere. We keep on seeing wonderful images of people throughout the planet celebrating this victory. I do not recall ever having happened before! We see people in Russia as well as in all capitals cities of Europe, in different parts of Africa and Asia, in South America, everywhere, even in China, just happy, as if relieved and hopeful for a better future. It is as if a wave of confidence and new hope has reached at the same time all corners of the world!

I was able to follow live, together with millions of Italians, until 5 A.M. the long night which led us to the great news: that President Obama made it, and in an incredible way! I could follow three TV national channels as well as BBC and CNN simultaneously and every now and then we were connected with people watching the same program live in different places of the five continents. Amazing!!

By noon today we could hear in TV and read in the papers the wonderful messages sent to President Obama by all the world leaders, including our President Napolitano, Pope Benedict XVI, our Premier, our head of the Senate, our head of the Parliament, all top political Leaders. And the same from the Leaders of most nations . Our TV news programs lasted more than one hour, instead of the usual 15 or 20 minutes; special talk shows are going on in sequence, almost nonstop, in every TV channel throughout Europe.

I can assure you that something like this never happened before!

This shows the great impact that President Obama's victory has on the entire planet.

What impressed everybody, also, is the new spirit of involvement, of interest, of personal participation of so many millions and millions of American Citizens, so many young ones, who revealed an authentic image of the vitality, the true spirit of Democracy, which is one of the best characteristic of the United States of America!

It was touching to see the painstaking work of millions of volunteers who truly gave all their best energies to guarantee that all this could happen!

We are proud of being not only spectator, but "actors" of an important historical moment! We shall not stop short here, just rejoicing of an important, historical event. We shall keep working hard for that "new world" we all dream of, knowing that, united, "WE CAN"!!

I was wiping tears from my eyes as I read this. It just feels good.

Despite the sometimes exaggerated and often inaccurate claims of some people teaching the connection between intention and manifestation, there is a Universal Law at work in such processes. One of the writers best known for documenting and supporting this type of research is Britain's Lynn McTaggart, whose major work, The Field, has been a major international best-seller.

McTaggart has been conducting some large-scale intention experiments over the Internet with mixed but interesting results. I've participated in some of them.

On Sept. 14, she is calling togeether a world peace intention experiment that I intend to join. I'd like it if you would both join it and let me know that you are doing so. If you're a registered user here, you can add a note to this post in the form of a comment and let me know of your intent. If you're not a member, consider becoming one so we can engage in dialog about this and other issues of mutual interest.

Check out this video, with which the annual Season for Non-Violence launched last week. You can learn more about SNV at the Association for Global New Thought Web site.

One of my heroes on peace:

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

Seems strange to me and I'm not sure fighting is the way to get peace, but it's nice to remind myself that smarter men than I have believed peace to be crucial.

Check out this delightful, uplifting prophetic video based on the teachings of Willy Whitefeather. It's a little over 8 minutes long and is a wonderful juxtaposition of apparent reality and the hope of peace that lies within each of us.

It happens that this video is one of dozens in what I hope will be a rapidly growing collection of insightful, inspirational and beautifully produced short films at The Culture Collective.

It seems to me that specialized, focused video sites and communities like this one may emerge as very important social touchpoints in coming months and years. YouTube, Joost, Miro, Google Videos, and others are large-scale, general purpose video sites but finding something really worthwhile among the thousands and thousands of videos posted there is difficult. The Culture Collective points the way to a new way of "doing video community." I think it has enormous potential.

Famed activist and spiritual leader Van Jones inspires higher thinking and clearer action in this one-minute must-see video:

Please.

Right now.

Go to StopIranWar.com and sign the petition to the White House Resident demanding that he back off his saber-rattling and threats of war against Iran.

War is not an option. War is not an answer. Don't let him get away with it. Again.

President Bush never has been one to play nice with others. Oh, he puts up a bold and vocal front but the fact is, he's the worst kind of demagogue, not only unwilling to admit he's wrong but unwilling even to compromise regardless of the cost.

His latest shenanigans in dealing with Congress' co-equal responsibility for overseeing his War on Iraq are vintage Bush and hardly surprising. He'd rather cut off the funds to spite his face than to compromise on his imbecilic hard line that only he among politicians is entitled to any influence on the conduct of a war he and his cronies have mismanaged from the start.

Democrats in Congress must not allow this man to force them to send him what he demands: yet another blank check to fund more violence in an unwinnable war. They should keep sending him funding bills with timelines and milestones until he is forced by his commanders in the field to compromise. He and his supporters screeching about Democrats wanting to cut off funds for the troops in harm's way are only proving the depth of their willingness to deceive in the interest of maintaining what little remains of their power. As Rep. Dennis Kucinich points out repeatedly -- and not one responsible official has argued with him -- there is enough money already approved and in the pipeline to fund an orderly and safe withdrawal of troops right now. The only "funding emergency" arises from the Bush Regime's blind desire to continue to pursue this war into the next Administration.

In the face of such recalcitrance and obstructionism, Democrats must be leaders. They must narrow the scope within which this madman can continue his folly in the Middle East and do all they can to bring that misadventure to a prompt end. Anything less would be a betrayal of the party's integrity.

I was watching MSBNC's post-debate coverage on last night's Democratic Presidential Candidate set-to when Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Constitution made a comment that sickened me.

She said that Rep. Dennis Kucinich's statement and belief that he could end war for all time is "hopelessly naive." None of the political pundits take Rep. Kucinich seriously, of course, because, after all, he's "so far out of the mainstream." But I wonder if Americans were asked if they wanted an end to all war in their lifetimes, how they'd respond. Whether or not you believe it can be accomplished, isn't it a worthy goal?

Shame on you, Ms. Tucker. You have essentially declared yourself to be one who believes that war will of necessity always be with us. And so long as you and other media types and other politicians keep believing that, it will continue to be so. But why not become a more hopeful commentator? Why not, as we used to say in the 60's, give peace a chance?