After I moved my stuff out of D.C. last month, I stopped at a small gas station in New Rochelle, NY to fill up my truck before returning it. I didn’t realize that it was all full-serve until the attendant ran out to me.
I was in Beijing just a little over a week ago. Steve isn’t kidding about the smog — on the bad days, visibility is about 10 blocks. On the very worst day, I couldn’t see clearly from one side of Tienanmen Square to the other.
I’ve just returned from an epic trip in Russia, Central Asia and China to find this — a tentative plan by Gazprom to build a direct pipeline from Russia to Abkhazia, a breakaway region in Georgia that is currently the major wedge between Russia and Georgia.
According to UVA’s Larry Sabato, quoted in the Save Darfur Coalition’s press release, it’s the most significant joint statement by rival presidential candidates since advisors to FDR and Dewey pronounced the shared resolve of their bosses to defeat the Axis powers in 1944. The statement is here.
First, in this National Journal interview, John Bolton slams Barack Obama, arguing that negotiation is not a policy but rather a technique. Yet, most of the interview is dedicated to defending the pre-2006 Bush approach of non-negotiation as policy. Then, Bolton is asked about Israel’s recent decision to negotiate with Syria.
No big surprise, but it turns out that many countries really don’t like having to jump through so many hoops in order to apply for a U.S. visa. In 2003, a consular officer in Moscow told me that when the Russian duo t.A.T.u.
As it has done for the past eight years, SustainUS is sending all-star group of young leaders to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. Their group blog is here, and it’s well worth a read. I’ve seen enough young people go through this process to be able to predict how this will read.
Last week I left Citizens for Global Solutions after a few years as an advocate there. I’m doing some personal travel through Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China starting in about a week and probably won’t be up on this blog during that time, but I’ll share pictures when I get back.
Don’t believe anyone who says s/he knows exactly how much power Dmitriy Medvedev will wield as Russian President. My answer, for now at least, is: more than none, less than a whole lot.
In yesterday’s Washington Post, Fred Hiatt makes the case that the UN is at fault for suffering in Darfur and Myanmar.