This is sort of a public service announcement. I can’t put the child’s name on the blog — other than that his name is “Alexander” — and won’t put a pic up, but an 8 year old boy got separated from his mother at the Philadelphia AMTRAK train station.
The Brussels Forum, which I just left this morning to return to Washington, DC, convened a terrific array of policy and political talent from both sides of the Atlantic — and had a distinguished group of attendees from Russia and Japan as well.
This is a note from a good friend — unnamed — in the Senate regarding my earlier post about US Senators on their way to the Brussels Forum getting stuck in Newfoundland: Hey Steve, I just saw your post. I was on that broken-down plane, along with my boss Senator XXXXXXXX.
For the last two days, I have been deeply embedded in German Marshall Fund President Craig Kennedy’s “Brussels Forum“. In years previous, I have been to the World Economic Forum, the Clinton Global Initiative, Economist Intelligence Unit seminars, McKinsey sponsored meetings, and I generally like them all.
One of the very coolest and most informative blogs I check in on a daily basis is ArmsControlWonk.com published by my New America Foundation colleague Jeffrey Lewis. Both of us were asked by the Better World Campaign to offer comments for its “On Day One” initiative. He talked nukes, and I talked Cuba. . .
Cuban President Raul Castro has started his reforms — well, he did quite a while ago actually though few noticed. But the new news is that the Cuban government has removed restrictions on the sale of computers, DVDs, and video players inside Cuba. Old story first.
Today at 9:30 am, Former Israel Foreign Minister Schlomo Ben-Ami will be speaking about his work to encourage a Gaza ceasefire and then how to trigger moves in a positive direction for Israelis and Palestinians. He’ll be at the New America Foundation today in Washington, DC, and yours truly will be moderating the meeting.
Washington, DC is actually, really, seriously becoming a hip place. Helene Cooper — the New York Times‘ diplomatic correspondent — is occasionally forced to write for other sections of her paper, and she’s been asserting that DC hipsterism is on the upswing more by assertion than empirical surveys. . .but I’m now with her.
In its infinite wisdom, the Senate Budget Committee slashed $4.1 billion from President Bush’s proposed International Affairs budget. International Affairs, which includes our diplomacy, development and international organization expenses, comprises just over 1.2% of our total federal budget and 6% of our national security spending. It accounts for almost all of our global non-military footprint.
