By Steve Clemons

This was my wake up view this morning. Oakley continues to make good progress.

Oakley has pulled through the worst of this stomach-turning nightmare, his as well as ours. Those of us who are attached to this pup thank everyone for their effusive, really wonderful and thoughtful notes that have come to us in large waves.

I’m flying across country today, on my way to Reno, Nevada — where from a dingy hotel according to Jonathan Alter’s fascinating new book, The Promise: President Obama, Year One, then candidate Barack Obama triggered the start of a serious White House transition plan.

I just received the press announcement from Bruce Stokes and Andrew Kohut at the Pew Research Center on the just released Pew Global Attitudes Survey. Fascinating stuff — and disturbing. 49% of Nigerians have a “favorable” view of al Qaeda, and a majority of Pakistanis “favor” an Iran nuclear weapons program.

One of my couple of north stars in my life is, in part, a pup named “Oakley the Amazing Weimaraner.” Two days from tonight on June 18th, Oakley will be eight years old. Tonight, he is recovering from surgery — and hopefully can pull through.

How many of you knew that Robert Guest writes (but soon won’t as he is sadly returning to mother England) Lexington’s Notebook for the Economist? And before him, Adrian Wooldridge? Probably not many of you.

Above, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage lays out his views about the Futenma US Marine Air Corps Station fiasco at a CSIS Pacific Forum conference earlier this year.

George Soros said this week in Vienna, “We have just entered Act Two of the drama… when the financial markets started losing confidence in the credibility of sovereign debt.

(Congressman Ike Skelton pays his respects at Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi Memorial, 18 February 2009.

There are some very high powered US-Japan events taking place this next week in Washington, the most prominent of which is titled “150 Years of Amity and 50 Years of Alliance: Adopting an Enhanced Agenda for US-Japan Partnership” co-sponsored by the Center for New American Security, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, and the Ocean Policy Research…