Over the next few weeks, you will notice design changes to the website. The first has been added today, just before New Year’s. I realize that these changes may have some kinks to sort out, particularly given the fact that people view them through different browsers. Just send a note if you are having problems….

TWN hopes everyone is preparing for a safe and fun New Year’s Eve. I’m back in Washington and headed to Philadelphia for the next couple of days. I just learned that I’ll be going to Saudia Arabia on January 5th for a few days and any insights appreciated.

I have received word this morning that two people, one whom I know, have had direct phone contact with Karim Chrobog, son of former German Foreign Ministry State Secretary Juergen Chrobog, who both along with three other family members have been kidnapped by Yemeni tribal clans.

(photo of Juergen Chrobog, former State Secretary of the German Foreign Ministry) A loyal reader of The Washington Note and very good friend, Karim Chrobog, as well as four other members of his family were kidnapped in Yemen according to various news reports.

Last August, I ran into Katrina van den Heuvel, editor of The Nation, who remarked to me after reading both something on The Washington Note and after Ari Berman’s excellent article, “The Strategic Class,” that “realism had become the new liberal ideology.

I don’t have much time to write about this now, but TWN — which was keenly focused on blocking John Bolton‘s confirmation as Ambassador to the United Nations — will be launching a “Bolton Watch” division of The Washington Note in early 2006.

I am in Los Angeles this morning and was drawn to two op-eds that ran in today’s Los Angeles Times, one by Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations and the other by journalist Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent of Britain’s The Independent.

The Washington Note was the first to get out the news that Douglas Holtz-Eakin was leaving his post to accept a position at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Anne Gearan’s interesting piece on Condi Rice yesterday got me thinking about what structurally is enhancing or constraining the Secretary of State’s success.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! Oakley and I wish you a fantastic holiday weekend. I’m working with my new Apple Powerbook and appreciate all of the advice from knowledgable Mac practitioners. While Oakley has the blue ball, it seems that my powerbook does have the blue tooth — so many things are possible.