The Commonwealth Club of California announced today that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will appear at The Club on Friday evening, October 15, in San Francisco.

In what will be a much-talked-about event, Secretary Clinton will address important issues of climate change and women around the world, as well as the future of American leadership. She will be speaking at a special program of The Club's Climate One division.

With a bruised economy and developing countries on the rise, can the United States still lead the world in the 21st Century? What challenges do soaring budget deficits, globalization and an unstable climate present for U.S. national interests? Can America's tradition of innovative ideas and technology keep us ahead of the world's biggest problems? How can educating and empowering women around the world help reduce carbon emissions and raise living standards? Join us for a conversation with Secretary of State Clinton at the intersection of diplomacy, innovation and the prospects for a clean and safe future.

Tickets are certain to go fast, so order today.

It’s that time again. Midterm elections are beginning to be the talk of the nation once more. With more than a month until election day, major news stations are beginning their up-to-the-minute coverage of pre-election news.

We see the media excitement is building, and with it, the encouragment of people to get out there and vote.

One organization that is mobilizing for this election is The Rock the Vote campaign, with the goal of encouraging millions of young people to register to vote by using a sort of pop-culture marketing vibe.

Another mainstream vote-promoter is CNN. CNNPolitics online said, “U.S. midterm voters choose who makes decisions that touch millions of American lives. These issues range from taxes and national security to Social Security benefits and Medicare.”

Contrary to these conventional words of encouragement about civic duty, P. J. O’Rourke will be telling attendees at the Club on September 30, “Don’t Vote: It Just Encourages the Bastards,” which is the title of his latest book. (In a recent interview with CBS, he said that he apologizes for the vulgar language in the book, but politics is a vulgar subject.)

For those who prefer to follow politics through a more comedic medium, cnn.com may not be your first choice. There is an ever-growing following of political satire. Some of the most popular contemporary satirists can be seen on liberal shows “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central. But don’t think that liberals are the only ones pumping out witty and enlightening critiques of our political system. O’Rourke is one of the conservative kings of political humorist material.

“The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop,” O’Rourke famously said.

This is not the first time O’Rourke will be visiting the Club. His past visits, which have all been popular, have covered topics such as an analyses of The Wealth of Nations or America’s cash-for-clunkers program.

This time, O’Rourke said, in a recent CBS interview, he wants to “remind Americans that we don’t vote to elect great men, we vote to throw the bastards out.”

If that sounds overly cynical, O'Rourke adds that voting isn't the be-all of solving our problems: “We cannot vote that oil away,” he said of the BP oil spill.


O’Rourke will be speaking at the Club at noon on September 30.

The newest edition of The Commonwealth, the members' magazine of The Commonwealth Club of California, is in the mail at this moment. If you're a member, watch your mailbox for the October/November 2010 issue, which is filled with interesting people and thought-provoking and even controversial ideas.

The cover story features a bipartisan duo of former U.S. secretaries of state: Madeleine Albright and George Shultz, who discuss with veteran journalist Marvin Kalb the most important issues facing our country today and tomorrow. Other articles include author and Iran expert Stephen Kinzer discussing the relationship between Iran and the United States; Anglican priest Kapya Kaoma on America's export of its culture wars to Africa; author Anna Quindlen discussing family with writer Ellen Sussman; an all-star panel (Laura Tyson, Paul Saffo, Nancy Pfund, Robert Klein, Robert Hertzberg, and Sydnie Kohara) discussing California's economic future; journalist Sebastian Junger on the ground with our troops in Afghanistan; author Nicholas Carr (in conversation with Google's director of research, Peter Norvig) talking about whether the internet is making us stupider; Commonwealth Club President & CEO Dr. Gloria Duffy on financial abuse of the elderly; and we say good-bye to a longtime friend of The Club and a giant of California's modern history, Bill Lane.

If that doesn't keep you occupied for the next month, check out the magazine's calendar of upcoming Club events and start marking your schedule for our great lineup of speakers, travel, and other opportunities in the Bay Area and beyond.

The Commonwealth Club of California welcomes a new chair of its California Book Awards selection committee. Mary Ellen Hannibal is a longtime professional journalist and editor, having served as book reviews editor at Esquire and Signature magazines, authored three books, and more. She currently chairs the advocacy and communications efforts of the board for the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. Her reviews can be found online at The Readers Review.

Hannibal succeeds Roy Eisenhardt, who headed the jury for a number of years. Eisenhardt has, in addition to serving as moderator for many Commonwealth Club events over the years, served as the president of the Oakland Athletics and executive director of the California Academy of Sciences.

Hannibal has served on the California Book Awards jury for the past five years, where she says she


has "repeatedly been moved both by the first-rate quality of California writers, and by the power of our award to help frame the importance of books in our culture."

The California Book Award winners for 2010's major categories, presented in June 2010,  included Rebecca Solnit, William Vollman, and Yi Yun Li, "by any measure among the most prominent writers in the United States today," says Hannibal. "While the subjects tackled by each of these authors are disparate, they share a deeply compassionate perspective on our world. Listening to their acceptance remarks, I wondered: Is the act of writing itself a moral act? Yes, we live in a digital age, but the power of thoughtful, reasoned, and beautifully written narratives remains a unique testament to human understanding. The California Book Award celebrates this endeavor. I'm very excited to continue working with an exemplary jury to uncover California's best books, and bring them to a wider audience."

Submissions are currently being accepted for next year's awards. Learn more.