By Steve Clemons

The New America Foundation is organizing a major forum in March, and yours truly is deeply involved.

3:30 pm EST today, I am hosting journalist and author Ron Suskind who will discuss his book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism. It will stream live in the box above.

Before reading this bit about a sobering set of messages offered at a very nice Financial Times reception, the must read assignment first is Martin Wolf’s “Japan’s Lessons for a World of Balance-Sheet Recession.” Now you can proceed. . .

Tomorrow night at about 9:30 pm EST, Rachel Maddow will air an interview on her MSNBC show that she has done with former Guantanamo guard Army Pvt. Brandon Neely about his experiences with prisoners at the Cuba-based detention facility. From an unfortunately not too shocking Associated Press report: Army Pvt.

I just ran across some of my notes from a conference organized by the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Hakone, Japan from March 12-13, 1999. I was about to toss these scribbles until I glanced through them and found so many gems they should probably go to the National Diet archives.

I like a lot of movies, but my bar for “like” is probably pretty low.

My New America Foundation colleagues Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann have secured a full page in today’s Outlook Section of the Washington Post in a special graphic depiction full of useful data sets titled “Obama’s War.” For a full sized pdf, click here.

Though it sometimes frustrates friends, one of my core beliefs is to engage those who disagree with my views — and also to give credit when and where credit is due. When I saw that the right-anchored Jerusalem Post was running an interview of Elliott Abrams with Ruthie Blum Leibowitz, I expected the worst.

Former US Senator Tim Wirth (D-CO) who for many years has served as president of the United Nations Foundation hosted a very nice welcoming reception at the Metropolitan Club for incoming Colorado Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet.

The Department of Treasury has a whole lot on its hands — like keeping the financial sector from cratering further, keeping Citibank management from sneaking another private jet into their own stimulus plans, and convincing the rest of the world that Americans really do know how to run a capitalist economy (if in fact we…