Senator Lugar: Please Do Not Announce Bolton Hearings Today

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NOTE TO WASHINGTON NOTE READERS: Please immediately call the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Majority Staff) office at 202-224-4651 and state that while you are not opposed to the Bolton Hearings themselves, you are asking Senator Lugar NOT TO ANNOUNCE THE DATE OF THE HEARINGS TODAY.

Naming the Pro & Con Bolton Factions Tonight; Ben Nelson Taking the “Zell Miller Lite” Road

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We will name the factions tonight — but as one TWN reader said, “who cares — we just need to get to work opposing Bolton’s confirmation and flood the appropriate Senate offices with our views.” Soooo right.

John Bolton as Political Operator, Ideologue and Neo-Primitive

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Sidney Blumenthal’s column today exposes the perversity of appointing John Bolton to serve as our Ambassador to the United Nations. Here are the most poignant lines in the piece, but I recommend reading it in full: — John Bolton has been named by President Bush as the US ambassador to the UN.

Tom Engelhardt Fillets Neocons on World War IV Fabrication

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When you have time today, read this very long and very good commentary by famed editor Tom Engelhardt on Woolsey, Podhoretz & Co. on their contrivance of World War IV. I particularly like this excerpt: “World War IV” does many other useful things as well.

Turmoil in the Currency Markets: Tokyo Shows Diminishing Loyalty to the Dollar and George Bush’s Cattlemen Friends

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George Soros must be getting ready for some incredible windfalls. Korea, Russia, and now Japan have discussed diversifying their foreign reserves portfolios and essentially offsetting their heavy dollar dependency with other currencies. Shockwaves.

<em>Deja Vu</em>: Bad Intel Data on Iranian Arms

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According to a New York Times article out today by Douglas Jehl and Eric Schmitt, a high-level panel is going to report to President Bush that our intelligence on Iran’s arms is inadequate. This hasn’t stopped the grind towards an Iran confrontation though.

Jack Oliver & Steve Elmendorf: Odd Bedfellows Tie Up

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Tom DeLay will be upset. Another liberal pol got a job in Washington — and is even co-opting a well-placed conservative. My friend Steve Elmendorf who ran Dick Gephardt’s world for more than a decade has tied up in a lobbying enterprise with Jack Oliver, “former money man for President George W.