By Steve Clemons

We have been so distracted by serious problems around the world — and in Washington — that we completely forgot that The Washington Note was founded on August 3, 2004.

(Japan’s Prime Minister INUKAI Tsuyoshi who was assassinated in May 1932 in his official residence by a group of right-wing militarists who opposed Inukai’s recognition of Chinese sovereignty over Manchuria and who was a staunch defender of parliamentary democracy in Japan) Japan is making its way back as a topic of interest on the nation’s…

For those in the DC area, I am hosting a brown bag lunch meeting on America’s Foreign Policy Challenges in the Middle East on Thursday, 24 August, at 12:15 p.m. with Ambassador James Dobbins who directs RAND Corporation’s International Security and Defense Policy Center.

Last time I checked, the Cato Institute‘s financials were in remarkable shape.

One of the things I really enjoy doing is meeting regular folks; TWN readers; students; would be Congressman, Senators, Presidents and US Trade Representatives (in an alternative universe); soldiers who have returned from Afghanistan and Iraq; mothers; and weimaraner lovers when I travel.

John Bolton spent four months and made approximately 70 journalist and editorialist calls setting low expectations for the embryonic UN Human Rights Council. Had he spent nearly this amount of effort working to actually secure a Human Rights Council that met American expectations, we would probably have succeeded far beyond expectations.

Of all the Democratic presidential candidates for 2008 now in the field, the one that Republican strategists most want is Hillary Clinton. That doesn’t mean that she is an easy win for them and doesn’t mean that she won’t clobber her challenger — but the Rove-minions want her.

My friend John Aravosis has just tipped me off to a disconcerting and irritating bit of news that AP has reported.

First of all, as Jeffrey Gedmin is frequently known to say, “I’m overstating for effect.” I am going to debate some points that Gedmin raises in an interesting op-ed in today’s Financial Times, and I — in no way — mean to assert that Gedmin is stupid.

Completely independently of my recent post acknowledging France’s diplomatic maneuvers in securing UN Resolution 1701 calling for an end to the violence between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, I have agreed to help organize a new U.S.-France group of public affairs and policy intellectuals called Le Cercle Lafayette.