Unfortunately, I did not receive a visa in time to participate as a speaker in the 3rd Annual Ravand Institute Conference in Tehran this year. I was invited along with Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution, Michael Kraig of the Stanley Foundation, and Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group.
I haven’t weighed in much on candidates for Congress, but I really do like Darcy Burner who is running in Washington State’s 8th District. Matt Stoller just posted this TV ad from the 2006 race in which her opponent Dave Reichert essentially called Burner a ditz.
(Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell chats with National Intelligence Council Chairman Thomas Fingar) To my knowledge, I’ve never met National Intelligence Council Chairman Tom Fingar, but I’ve been an admirer from afar of his work and approach to intelligence estimate construction.
Well, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei doesn’t seem to be buying Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope or Dreams from my Father, but he does seem to be buying himself a copy of Bill Clinton’s My Life.
I watched the debates and admired Barack Obama’s strongly expressed commitment to “engagement” — particularly with leaders of states with whom America was in conflict. This was a great contrast from Hillary Clinton’s positon — and even a starker contrast with McCain’s.
Tom Edsall thinks so — tomorrow night. Edsall writes: Hillary Clinton has summoned top donors and backers to attend her speech tomorrow night in an unusual move that is being widely interpreted to mean she plans to suspend her campaign and endorse Barack Obama.
I’ve been listening for some time to a number of my friends who have been active in the “net neutrality” debate.
I haven’t had time to read General Ricardo Sanchez’s book on the Iraq War and his critique of Bush and his team, but super editor and writer Tom Engelhardt has.
General William Odom, former Director of the National Security Agency, was an early critic of the Bush administration’s obsession with invading Iraq. He called the decision the worst strategic mistake in American military history in the last century and perhaps since the establishment of the Republic.
On October 19, 2005, Lawrence Wilkerson — Colin Powell’s aide, friend, and chief of staff respectively for 16 years — cleared his throat and conscience about what he saw as a Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal that was warping and distorting the nation’s national security decision making process.
