By Steve Clemons

A TWN reader just directed my attention to a very clever roster of New Year’s resolution wishes that ran as the lead editorial in today’s Los Angeles Times.

Josh Marshall has an interesting post today on asset-building. He is praising Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN-9) for his work on an asset-building effort called the “ASPIRE ACT.

My new year would be somewhat happier if President Bush became a magnanimous leader who committed himself to doing whatever it took to build national and global trust and to decrease fear in the world. Probably won’t happen.

Since Christmas night, when I first heard of the massive earthquake off of Indonesia and that several hundred people might have been killed by a massive tsunami, I have watched the numbers climb.

Here is an interesting write-up by Hamid Mir, a well-known Pakistani journalist and editor who has interviewed Osama bin Laden four times. Mir was also speaker at the Al Qaeda 2.0 Conference that I recently helped organize with colleague Peter Bergen and Karen Greenberg, Executive Director of the NYU Center on Law & Security.

I have been through a number of scary earthquakes, including two relatively big ones in Los Angeles, a couple in Tokyo and one in Alaska. But nothing compares to a 9.0 quake.

This was taken tonight on the back lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The tree is magnificent and from Virginia. Speaking of Virginia, some are projecting a 2008 presidential battle between George Allen and Mark Warner. That would be interesting. I stopped by the White House Christmas Tree scene as well.

I got an email today allegedly from John Kerry — but clearly from what’s left of his “Friends of John Kerry” staff — that makes the case that Americans need to support the needs of soldiers with phone cards and other donations. Here is his letter.

There is a remarkable recount story unfolding in Washington State. When so many stories of misdeeds and voter system mismanagement that favored Republicans appeared elsewhere in the nation, it is interesting to see the Republicans making similar statements as Dems in this Washington State race.

There is an increasing pool of cases of active duty military whose nervous systems have responded negatively to the anthrax vaccines ordered by the Department of Defense.