Tonight is the first night I’ve been able to see any of the Democratic convention. First things first: I really didn’t like the video tribute to Hillary Clinton that was aired tonight. It was all about Hillary Clinton, the woman candidate — which does Hillary Clinton, the brilliant policymaker and effective advocate, a great disservice….
Apart from this, I haven’t posted at all recently, in part because I’ve been moving back to New York and into a new apartment.
Here’s a challenge: find a poltician who currently campaigns on energy issues and doesn’t promise to end U.S. dependence on foreign oil. I doubt it’s possible. The rhetorical drumbeat for and promises to achieve “energy independence” have gotten louder and more frequent.
I just accomplished a goal that I set over a year ago — getting a copy of John Bolton’s book without paying for it.
(U.S. Global Leadership Campaign Director Liz Schrayer and pollster Geoff Garin explain U.S. military leadership attitudes on U.S. national security — partial video) Bob Gates sent shockwaves through the national security community last year at Kansas State University when he dared suggest that the non-military instruments of power are under-resourced. Turns out, he’s not alone….
I don’t usually plug organizational promotions, but this is just a bit too cool to keep to myself. Hopefully candidates for office — especially Congressional candidates, who don’t have large bureaucracies or pools of advisors to educate them — will take this quiz and do well.
I’m in Portland, Maine, heading back through Boston tomorrow to New York on Tuesday. Between apartment hunting, work and traveling, I’ve finally had a free second to take a peek at the latest of the promising presidential transition-related initiatives, this one launched by the power players at the Connect US Fund.
The week shouldn’t go by without some acknowledgement of International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s decision to seek an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Bashir, who stands accused of crimes against humanity and genocide, is the first Head of State to be charged by the ICC.
Or at least, so says an informal, unscientific (and thus at least partially worthless, but still interesting) survey of people in four countries transitioning to a market economy that I conducted last month.
The monstrous Hotel Rossiya — Europe’s largest hotel with 3,200 rooms — was demolished in 2006. My Muscovite friends tell me that when it was taken down, every building within a half-mile was immediately overrun with cockroaches. Gross. Two years earlier, the Moskva was taken down to make room for a new Four Seasons.