(Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter) More than 400 academics, policy practitioners and journalists over two and a half years have contributed to a large-scale project, the Princeton Project on National Security. The project was co-chaired by former Secretary of State George Shultz and former National Security Advisor Anthony Lake.

The last pre-election loophole through which John Bolton’s confirmation might have snuck through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was at 2:15 this afternoon at a previously called “business meeting” of the Committee.

This has been a tough week. A prominent conservative pol knocked me around a bit in some private communications and caused some real stress because of the view by his staff memer that I am a “firebrand” — a really good one in his view.

AP reports today that John McCain is calling for “quick confirmation” of John Bolton. Senator McCain seems to be doing something that I regretfully admit that I have done on some occasions.

(photo from Crooks and Liars) After the Clinton Global Initiative had ended and in the hours that followed, I was doing some writing and organizing of notes in the CGI press room where Fox News’ Chris Wallace was also hanging around — looking pensive, waiting for what I didn’t know then was an attempted mugging…

(Lincoln Chafee with former President George H.W. Bush and his late father, Senator John Chafee) So far, there has been no sign that the Bush administration’s considerable efforts to get Ambassador John Bolton confirmed are yielding any success in changing the environment currently blocking him.

Yesterday, the Department of State sent a high level emissary to see if any deal-making could be done with Senator Lincoln Chafee regarding his opposition to John Bolton.

Greetings folks. I’ve been giving talks in Nashville, Tennessee (yesterday) and Birmingham, Alabama today — primarily for the respective Committees on Foreign Relations in these cities. More later on that — have to run.

I am struggling with a computer crash — an APPLE G4 17″ Powerbook — that I thought would never go bad, but it has. The computer won’t even boot from the disk. The apple just appears and a little whirling circle just whirrrrs.

Recently, I wrote an article for the Washington Post about a disturbing trend in Japan in which prominent voices on the journalistic right, intentionally or unintentionally, are animating the activities of ideological zealots and thugs.