Arab American Institute President James Zogby just included me tonight on the distribution of his 14 April 2008 Washington Watch report titled “The Disconnect: How Arabs and Americans See 2008“.

I hear that there are about 500 of them here, and many Saudi officials — from advisers to the King to Members of the Shura Council — say that blogs are undermining official media and breaking up cartels of media control.

James Pethokoukis of US News & World Report has just published an interesting article titled, “The Return of Big Government.

I’m still in Saudi Arabia and haven’t had the time to absorb everything that has been churning this last week with the Petraeus/Crocker hearings and other Senator Foreign Relations Committee meetings focused on Iraq that Senators Joe Biden and Richard Lugar have called.

(Gas pipeline map from The Economist, Jan. 24, 2008) One of the leads for this week’s Economist emphasizes the role of energy security for Europe, and in particular, pipeline diversification over missile defense.

Ben Smith of Politico points out that Barack Obama has “drawn a line” regarding which of the world’s problematic bad guys should be met by Presidents like himself — and Jimmy Carter. He thinks Carter should not meet any Hamas leaders.

This picture, which found its way into my inbox today, is a pretty good reflection of the trajectory of U.S. versus Russian influence at the moment. Don’t get it? Look closely — there’s a second Head of State in the background.

Laura Rozen has penned a fascinating piece on the bumpy ride that hyper-conservative “Freedom’s Watch” has had thus far in its emergence as a conservative challenger to MoveOn.org.

Frank Luntz comments on the thread below regarding his appearance at USUN. And anyone who takes the time to comment on a post concerning him or her deserves some front page attention in my book. This is Frank Luntz here.

Hillary Clinton is making a wrong-headed play in her call to President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games. After the collision of an American EP-3 spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter in April 2001, neoconservative high priest Richard Perle advocated preempting China’s bid to host the 2008 Olympics.