J.K. Rowling is way ahead of Al Gore and Barack Obama on Time Magazine‘s poll for “Person of the Year.

So far, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Bill Richardson and Barack Obama have returned Global Solutions Candidate Questionnaires. Much of what they have to say is predictable, but there are a lot of important differences in rhetoric and even some key differences in substance. They’re worth a read through.

As of this writing, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change talks in Bali have not yet produced a final agreement. That’s ok. The tectonic shift in international climate politics has already occurred. It was clear almost from the beginning of the event that the U.S.

In the last week, I’ve had over ten meetings with Senate staffers on the Law of the Sea Convention (I hope this explains and excuses my recent absence from this blog). In every meeting — without exception — staffers have agreed that U.S. interests are served by ratification of the Convention.

Imagine a society where even the firemen were trained to spy on a nation’s citizens — reporting back to central “big brother headquarters” what suspicious things that they may have seen while in someone’s home ostensibly to save lives and squelch fires.

Delancey Place has a nice clip from Anthony Everitt’s Cicero: The Life and Time of Rome’s Greatest Politician. Cicero’s efforts 2000 years ago to balance monarchy, oligarchy and democracy became the defining feature of the American Constitution and republic.

The Washington Post and ABC News have just released a new national poll on the relative positions of Democratic and Republican candidates: Republicans Giuliani — 25 pct Huckabee — 19 pct Romney — 17 pct Thompson — 14 pct McCain — 12 pct Paul — 3 pct Hunter — 2 pct Democrats Clinton — 53…

Sorry for the late notice, or early — depending on your spot on the globe, but I’ll be doing a segment on Australia’s ABC Radio National Late Night Live with Phillip Adams in a few minutes (at 6:15 AM EST).

It speaks volumes about the moment United States Cuba policy is in that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus holds a hearing and invites three strong, articulate voices for a new Cuba policy and only two of the old guard clinging to underwhelming rhetoric of Fidel the communist and constructing painful rhetorical stretches about Cuba’s…

Last Thursday, the 6th of December, I spent my evening at a 50th Anniversary black tie dinner commemorating the founding of the Japan America Society of Washington DC with former Vice President of the United States and Ambassador to Japan Walter Mondale.