Category: General

I’m back.

At long last, a member of President Bush’s inner circle has publicly “broken up” with him. Matthew Dowd, who was inspired by Bush’s style as Texas governor, switched parties and took a high-ranking post on the Bush-Cheney communications team. Six years later, he’s a Bush supporter no more.

Peter O’Toole’s performance as T.E. Lawrence in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia should remind us that all of us, of all political stripes, are dealing with stereotypes that could throw our foreign policy way off course. The prevailing Republican view is well-documented.

New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman was one of the headliners at a star-studded annual “Opinions Award” dinner sponsored by The Week in partnership with the Aspen Institute on Tuesday night.

Interesting. In a 50-48 vote, proponents of an Iraq withdrawal timeline prevailed against an attempt by Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS) to rip out that language in the Iraq supplemental spending bill being debated and voted on today. Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) joined the Dems.

Cheney and his team are disurbingly impressive in their ability to constantly get away with sabotaging the work and efforts of President Bush and his team.

AP is reporting a very important story today about Indonesia’s battle for control over H5N1 avian flu strains with the World Health Organization. WHO should have access to the viral material and should share it with pharmaceutical companies working on a vaccine. But Indonesia’s gripes are legitimate and deserve to be taken seriously.

Senator Chuck Hagel has fired a warning shot across the White House’s bow. On George Stephanopoulos’ This Week, Senator Hagel expressed frustration that Bush was ignoring Congress’s steps to drive a new direction in America’s Iraq engagement.

Last year, I wrote an article in the Washington Post, “The Rise of Japan’s Thought Police,” suggesting that Japan’s right-wing was harassing important intellectuals, political leaders, business leaders, and other important voices that were engaged in a fair debate about Japan’s relations with China and about the future character of Japan’s imperial institution.

Former CIA Director James Woolsey is speaking at Yale University next Thursday afternoon. If you are nearby, you should go. Woolsey will be speaking for he Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism on Thursday, 29 March, at 4:15 pm in Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Room 101, 63 High Street in New Haven.