By Steve Clemons

I just arrived in Chicago super early this morning and will be speaking in two Yearly Kos Convention panels today.

Over the last day and a half, I’ve been connecting with folks in the military, in intelligence, from the Department of State on the American side of the equation, as well as chatting with some well-placed Brits and even Iraqi government officials, and a good passle of journalists in order to kick the tires of…

We are expanding our team. Sameer Lalwani will be joining us as a regular commentator at the The Washington Note. Sameer is a policy analyst with the New America Foundation’s American Strategy Program concentrating on the geopolitics of the Middle East and South Asia.

Jim Lobe has written a terrific response to the stridently arrogant oped, “Britain Cannot Have Two Best Friends,” by John Bolton in yesterday’s Financial Times.

(New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlines PlaNYC proposals) In the coming days, the U.S. Government will make a critical decision that has the potential to change America’s standing in the world: whether to approve a $537 million grant that will help make New York City the first environmentally sustainable megacity in the 21st century.

(Max Blumenthal took this picture in the Gila National Forest, near Silver City, New Mexico. TWN used this picture during the effort to block John Bolton’s confirmation as US Ambassador to the United Nations.

(Vice President Richard Cheney, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and TWN guest blogger Clayton Swisher) Clayton E. Swisher, a former Marine, is director of programs at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC and is author of The Truth About Camp David (New York: Nation Books, 2004).

I have just returned from a quick weekend trip to London which I will write about soon I hope, but am catching up with the drama of DC debates about Iraq, Iran, the Middle East in general.

A former “comfort woman” in South Korea Mindy Kotler is director of Asia Policy Point a Washington nonprofit research center that studies the U.S. policy relationship with Japan and Northeast Asia. Thank you Steve for this opportunity to guest blog about Asia on TWN.

(photo credit: James Fallows) I just received a short note from Atlantic Monthly national correspondent James Fallows who is living (and coughing a lot because of the ridiculously high levels of pollution) in China this year. He shared these two blog posts — first and second — that I want to pass on.