My colleague Nir Rosen, who is also a contributor to The Washington Note, is quickly becoming the preeminent Robert Kaplan-esque chronicler of Islamist insurgencies and conflict. Rosen’s latest piece, “How We Lost the War We Won: A Journey Into Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan” appears in Rolling Stone.

Watch CBS Videos Online Seems to me, Joe the Plumber (aka, Samuel “Joe” Wurzelbacher) wants to be a Fox News host more than being a plumber anyway. Turns out the guy does not have a license to be a plumber. Well, you know. . .more government regulation. . .

There is one book that explains the Bush presidency just about better than any other I have read — and it hardly deals with Bush. It focuses on Vice President Cheney’s all-but-in-name presidency.

I saw a graphic like this recently — in which it showed all of the world except the U.S. in a “gray color” labeled “Supports Obama.” And then the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii were labeled “undecided.” Here is a new take at IftheWorldCouldVote.

I’m in Barack Obama’s home base town, Chicago, and will live blog this debate. I’m sitting here with Martin Walker, editor emeritus of UPI and Director of AT Kearney’s Global Business Policy Council, as well as his wife, Julia Watson, who publishes the blog, Eat Washington. Bob Schieffer — whose brother Tom is George W….

One of these days, I’m going to post a long roster of foreign policy speeches and other writing by Senator Chuck Hagel.

Financial Times correspondents Daniel Dombey and Carola Hoyos have an interesting alert in today’s paper. They write: Pipelines vital to Iraq’s oil industry are in such poor condition they could rupture at any time, choking off the supply of oil from the region and devastating the country’s economy, according to the US State Department.

Yesterday in Baghdad,Turkish leaders met with Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, for the first time in four years.

Senator Chuck Hagel‘s wife, Lilibet, may be watching the debates tonight with Michelle Obama at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York — but I’ll be watching (and live-blogging as usual) in Barack Obama’s home base city, Chicago.

(I would have loved to have been the official blogger with these guys. . .) When I started The Washington Note, my colleagues (particularly my boss) were not thrilled.