Category: General

Sorry for being down a day. Lots of stuff going down.

Earlier today, both here at TWN and at TPM Cafe, I noted that WTOP was running a poll based on Congressman Henry Bonilla’s (R-TX) proposal to rename 16th Street in Washington, DC — “Ronald Reagan Boulevard.” At the time, those in favor of the change were leading 58% to 40%.

TWN is thinking of asking for an interview with him. We will probably get rejected, but I would like to discuss with him — in a serious way — what his vision is for the United Nations and how it converges or diverges from those in America who despise the institution.

So, here’s my just-in-time submission that will pick up on a couple themes from recent posts. It was an honor to be asked to contribute to TWN in Steve’s absence. I’ve never blogged before, so I await the potentially well deserved keyboard lashings in response to this rant.

Two separate, unrelated items — both concerning issues that I know Steve will continue to cover upon his return to active blogging… The first concerns Iran.

I have not read all of the posts and commentary made by a roster of diverse and fascinating guest-bloggers, but from a few emails I have been able to quickly glance at, I know that there has been some intense debate — a good thing.

The PR contortions over shifting the slogan of the anti-terrorist war from GWOT, to GWOE, to GSAVE, to ‘what-the-hell-ever’ has backfired so badly that it is only reinforcing the perception of administration failure to craft an effective communications campaign to exist side-by-side with its military campaigns.

OK, I’ve been sitting on the sidelines watching the fur fly. A new article in the New York Review of Books prompts me to post. Tony Judt takes a very dim view of where things are headed, even to the point of likening, at least implicitly, the U.S.

Before he left for his “undisclosed location,” Steve had alerted TWN readers about the launch of a new bipartisan initiative, the Partnership for A Secure America. This group had its debut this week (see Jonathan Kaplan’s report in The Hill, at ), and Scot Lehigh’s op-ed in today’s Boston Globe.

The inaugural issue of the Yale Journal of International Affairs contains an interview with David Brooks.