Walter Russell Mead calls them Jacksonian Americans. Anatol Lieven calls them pugnacious nationalists. I call them “Fuck Yeah Americans.” If you missed Team America: World Police, you need to watch this music video.

Folks will have to bear with me today. I have a rotten head cold, and my temperament is set on the “difficult curmudgeon” setting this morning — sort of like William Safire on most days. There is so much that can be said about William Safire, and many in the progressive community are saying them….

In the film, Guarding Tess, Secret Service Agent Doug Chesnic (played by Nicholas Cage) shoots the foot of the man who kidnapped the President’s widow (Shirley MacLaine).

Many of you who stop by to read The Washington Note are very familiar and may have even begun your journey to my site through Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo. His site turned four years old on November 12th, but he forgot until today to note his anniversary — which we too want to salute….

I gave a talk at the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany a few days ago and was impressed with the city and the quality of thinking demonstrated by the students.

Peter Bergen, my colleague who interviewed Osama bin Laden in 1997 and wrote the book Holy War Inc.

In January 1998, Federal Reserve Board Deputy Governor Laurence Meyer gave a talk at the Economic Strategy Institute titled “The Economic Outlook and Challenges Facing Monetary Policy.

I have just arrived back in the U.S. from a trip from Hamburg that took me through Frankfurt, then JFK Airport, then had an interesting taxi cab ride to La Guardia — and then the bumpiest flight I’ve had in years from La Guardia to Reagan National. But, I’m back.

Tom Engelhardt and Chalmers Johnson have a must-read double hitter on the CIA on the TomGram today. Chalmers Johnson’s article, “HOW TO CREATE A WIA: A WORTHLESS INTELLIGENCE AGENCY,” follows Engelhard’s thougtfully provocative introduction.

If there is one gap between Americans and the rest of the world that I immediately notice whenever I travel and talk politics, it is that the rest of the world is often irritated by and envious of American self-confidence.