Category: General

A regular TWN reader sent this endearing picture of his pup, Nickee. I empathize completely with the dog and feel up to my neck in all sorts of stuff. More tomorrow.

Fidel Castro has just given the world the opportunity to ponder a new direction for Cuba. Castro has issued a statement that is vague but nonetheless signals that he sees himself departing the political front line and making room for a new set of leaders.

Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the clear frontrunners in the Democratic primary race, and the comparisons between them are going to be tough-edged over the next couple of weeks. I have been very critical of both, and applauded both.

(photo credit: Alexander Steffler) I’ve just flown home from Pittsburgh and was looking through some photos that a good friend and blogger, Alex Steffler, took of my house. The one above is of a step after a recent snow.

In response to my note that “The Guantanamo Detainee” be named TIME‘s person of the year because of the legal and political convulsions and hemorrhaging that will be caused for years ahead by institutionalized extralegalism there, Michael Scheuer sent me a thoughtful note of his own on the subject that needs to be read.

(Graphic credit: Mario Loundermon) Gary Sick of Columbia University sent me today this fascinating and thoughtful essay, “The Coming Liberal Cycle,” written by Matthew Kohut.

An interesting set of headliners — including former National Security Adviser to Ronald Reagan Robert “Bud” McFarlane, former NSA Director and Bush family pal Bobby Inman, and Committee on the Present Danger Co-Chairman R.

J.K. Rowling is way ahead of Al Gore and Barack Obama on Time Magazine‘s poll for “Person of the Year.

So far, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Bill Richardson and Barack Obama have returned Global Solutions Candidate Questionnaires. Much of what they have to say is predictable, but there are a lot of important differences in rhetoric and even some key differences in substance. They’re worth a read through.

As of this writing, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change talks in Bali have not yet produced a final agreement. That’s ok. The tectonic shift in international climate politics has already occurred. It was clear almost from the beginning of the event that the U.S.