My new year would be somewhat happier if President Bush became a magnanimous leader who committed himself to doing whatever it took to build national and global trust and to decrease fear in the world. Probably won't happen. We have seen the world slip into a high fear/low trust dynamic that is very hard to turn around. . .and too many of George Bush's friends and fellow travelers benefit from a high fear/low trust world.

I'd also manage to be happier if Tom DeLay was indicted and removed from his leadership position in the Republican Party and House of Representatives. Nearly every policy area I care about would improve with his departure. Congress might begin behaving again as the founding fathers envisioned -- as a check on the naturally expansive powers of the Chief Executive.

2005 would be better if we withdrew from Iraq and replaced our unfortunate engagement there with a more enlightened foreign policy that brought allies to our side in fighting those who are real enemies -- and at the same time finally became a credible and concerned partner with citizens in developing nations who actually do aspire to the benefits of modernity. We are doing very little to demonstrate to the rest of the world that those beyond our borders matter to us; this is one of Bush's largest mistakes.

There is a lot I could add -- but I am going to go spend the evening with at least one influential Member of Congress and other friends talking about what we should do in 2005 to bring down the neoconservative-driven foreign policy of this country and replace it with an international agenda more englightened and more befitting the 21st century than the 12th.

My entire 2005 will be dedicated to finding others who want to take the foreign policy helm back from those now in control. We will be high-minded and offer alternatives to what the administration has delivered to this nation and world.

But we will also embarrass them every chance we get. To win this battle of ideas, some of the fights will be in the op-ed pages and via conferences -- and other fights will be in the courts, in the scandal pages, and in the gutter.

I have to run now, but I'll be writing more about a road map I and others have conceived to get American foreign policy back on a healthy track.

As best you can, given all of the trauma in the world right now, have a good new year -- and think of those who just can't and never will again.

-- Steve Clemons

Since Christmas night, when I first heard of the massive earthquake off of Indonesia and that several hundred people might have been killed by a massive tsunami, I have watched the numbers climb. The numbers killed have worn me down and somewhat numbed me in a way that I can only think about this tragedy and very little about what is happening in normal, day to day life.

This must be one of the worst natural disasters of all time, and George Bush decided to stay home clearing brush on his land and enjoying good, safe times with his family. George Bush has me beat on religion, particularly in the clever ways he publicly displays his faith, but I am drawn to what he said in one of the presidential debates with Al Gore when Bush said that Jesus was his favorite philosopher.

What would Jesus do now, Mr. President? Would he have gone about his normal day and routine, waiting to hear news about just how big this whole thing was, before he uttered a word about one of the most horrific natural disasters of all time?

I wrote something on the day of the quake -- but I have been unable to write about this tragic situation since and haven't wanted to address other public policy questions I have been working on. Everything seems so small compared to what everyone is seeing on television now. And what we are seeing in Phuket is the manageable, relatively ordered side of this debacle. The worst are in those places in Indonesia where tens of thousands died, but without the networks of support and media that Thailand has been able to muster.

Phuket was bad, but it's clear to me that there are places that were several orders of magnitude worse and we aren't seeing much of that on television.

It sickens me that Fox News is wrapped up in whether it was appropriate or not for a United Nations official to call American aid levels stingy. I admire Jan Egeland who made the comment because his job is to get aid to those people and places hit by this quake and tsunami -- and his comments shamed American policymakers into immediately doubling what we had previously offered.

And still, this paltry commitment of official U.S. dollars is less than the cost of the parties of next month's inauguration for President Bush's second term.

I have two short thoughts on this.

First, before the first Gulf War, Japan was ridiculed by many for not doing more to contribute to the world's coming collision with Saddam Hussein. Richard Solomon, then Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific and now President of the U.S. Institute of Peace, admitted that he had prodded Japan publicly for not putting its soldiers on the line in the Gulf War -- and shamed them into contributing $13 billion in cash for the effort. The Japanese people were the only citizens on the planet to impose a tax on themselves to pay for that war. Japan actually did a great number of things proactively before the Gulf War went hot -- offered desalinization facilities and gas masks as well as conducted a huge global survey of supplies and sources for materials needed in desert combat.

But the bottom line is that Richard Solomon wanted money from Japan, not soldiers, not gas masks, not desalinization facilities -- he wanted the cash. By publicly embarrassing Japan, Solomon got what he wanted. Jan Egeland did the same.

Secondly, America is supposedly great at complex systems integration. We have financial resources to offer, as do many other countries, but the skill set that this country has to offer is managing the integration of many processes into one powerful effort that can produce a sum far, far greater than its parts. Why are we not in the center of this massive response and recovery effort, acting as the systems integrator for the world's contributions to the region?

We are not there because our President does not understand or fathom the technical competencies of this nation that he leads. We should be out in front ferociously and vigorously helping these people. It cannot be allowed to stand that the American president can act indifferently to 116,000 plus dead, many more injured, in one of the greatest natural disasters of our time. What was he thinking?

When the much more minor earthquakes hit Los Angeles, splitting my living room wall, killing many in a Northridge apartment complex, and causing part of the Santa Monica Freeway to collapse, Japanese firms cancelled many of their parties and donated the funds to local charities helping those who had been harmed by that earthquake. This was a good idea -- and I want my Japanese friends to know that I and many others remember well their generosity.

George Bush has been anointed and sworn in once already. Some great parties were had in this town. We don't need a second round.

President Bush, ask those who have raised the $50 million for your inauguration to add it to that which individuals and taxpayers have put forward to help those who have had their lives, families, and homes destroyed.

Cancel your parties and demonstrate for the entire world what compassionate conservatism, and a compassionate America, really are.

That kind of gesture would be a far more successful stabilizer of global affairs than the next $50 BILLION your request from Congress for our war in Iraq.

-- Steve Clemons

Here is an interesting write-up by Hamid Mir, a well-known Pakistani journalist and editor who has interviewed Osama bin Laden four times. Mir was also speaker at the Al Qaeda 2.0 Conference that I recently helped organize with colleague Peter Bergen and Karen Greenberg, Executive Director of the NYU Center on Law & Security.

Read the whole thing, but here is a quick roster of statements Hamid Mir thought were important from the conference:

. . .Michael Scheuer (AKA, "Anonymous") believes there is a need to build pressure on Al Qaeda inside Afghanistan, and not in Pakistan because Islamabad is already doing a lot in the war against terrorism. He thinks the Al Qaeda leadership is still planning new attacks in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia while hiding in Afghanistan. Many areas in southern and eastern Afghanistan, he added, are not under the Hamid Karzai administration's control.

. . .Yosri Fouda of Al Jazeera told the conference that the United States should declare war on illiteracy, hunger and disease instead of terrorism. He demanded that the US stop supporting undemocratic governments in the Muslim world. These governments are not popular among Muslim youth, and when bin Laden criticises these corrupt governments, angry young Muslims view him as their hero, Fouda added.

For those of you who follow Al Qaeda and the issue of radical Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Hamid Mir writes must read commentary.

-- Steve Clemons

I have been through a number of scary earthquakes, including two relatively big ones in Los Angeles, a couple in Tokyo and one in Alaska.

But nothing compares to a 9.0 quake. These quakes I experienced were scary to me -- but I can't even imagine the devastation that is now being reported in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Somalia, and other places around the rim of countries surrounding the Sumatran region of Indonesia and the Andaman Islands.

It is also a bit eery to note that the devastating earthquake that hit the ancient Iranian city of Bam hit on December 26, 2003 -- exactly one year after yesterday's quake off of Indonesia.

I have a good friend, a former public relations genius for AT&T and citizen activist, who lives in Phuket, Thailand -- and this note came in from him yesterday:

In case you are Wondering.......................

M.

America's Gulf region has devastating hurricanes, and there are many disasters of incredible scale around the world. Bad stuff happens, and it's at these times that magnanimity and humanity are measured.

I hope that Americans help lead aid efforts and generously help rebuild and assist those mostly impoverished communities who have been destroyed by this natural disaster.

I'll never forget hearing conservative California-based journalist and former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate Bruce Herschensohn say that communities that suffer "act of God" natural disasters should help themselves and reject federal government assistance and help from other outsiders. He said this after Hurricane Andrew hit Florida and Louisiana hard and also after the 7.3 magnitude Landers, California earthquake in June 1992.

Bruce Herschensohn further clarified that he felt that the federal government ought not to aid communities devastated by earthquakes, hurricanes, mudslides, tornadoes, fires, tidal waves, and other natural disasters. Bruce was a very popular conservative in California politics -- but let's hope that his brand of compassion is out of style.

Politically speaking, my gut tells me that China is going to further advance its interests in the region by pouring aid and support into all of those communities that have been hit. Francis Fukuyama skeptically outlined China's thus far successful charm offensive in Asia, and I think he gets it mostly right.

The question is whether America is going to allow the distractions at hand in the Middle East distract from global engagement elsewhere.

-- Steve Clemons

This was taken tonight on the back lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The tree is magnificent and from Virginia.

Speaking of Virginia, some are projecting a 2008 presidential battle between George Allen and Mark Warner. That would be interesting.

I stopped by the White House Christmas Tree scene as well. I saw all the little Christmas trees from every part of the country -- even American Samoa, plus the big one that the Bush family lit.

I saw the manger scene, the official menorah. and a big pit with burning yule logs. Next to the yule log fire was a sign noting that in pre-Christian days, there was a "gay festival honoring the mythical god Thor" which was later merged by early English Christians into the celebration of Christmas.

It gave me a good chuckle, and the fire warmed me up on what is a very, very cold night here in Washington.

All the best to you, your friends, and family.

-- Steve Clemons

I got an email today allegedly from John Kerry -- but clearly from what's left of his "Friends of John Kerry" staff -- that makes the case that Americans need to support the needs of soldiers with phone cards and other donations. Here is his letter.

While Paul Wolfowitz is pushing anthrax vaccinations which rightly or wrongly have aggravated the mistrust between soldiers and those in control of the Pentagon helm, progressives addressing this war's shocks on soldiers and their families is the right thing to do -- and good politics.

I have just returned from a trip and was surprised to find several hundred letters with checks to the Walter Reed Society, the USO, and other support organizations that are trying to address the needs of returning soldiers, particularly those who are casualties of America's operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The support has been overwhelming in emails and the mail I have received.

One Chinese-American network generated nearly a year's worth of phone card minutes (for a single person if talking 24 hours a day) and donated those to Walter Reed for soldier use.

I have now heard from Walter Reed Medical Center that they now have had had such a surge in phone cards sent to soldiers that they estimate that they have enough phone minutes for all of their convalescing soldiers through June 2005. This does not preclude the need for phone cards for other troops in other hospitals, but it does speak to some of the success of this effort at one of the better known military hospitals.

I am pleased to say that many people chose to financially contribute in ways that allow support organizations to acquire books, special support pillows, and provide other support to soldiers and their families. I will be listing soon the amounts donated by TWN readers that I have managed, but in my discussions with the organizations I have been dealing with, I can tell that many sent donations directly -- which is terrific.

Because Walter Reed has had its phone needs met by donations, I am going to look at other options for people who have acquired phone cards and want to mail them in. John Kerry recommends the USO -- but that organization seemingly wants cash to purchase the minutes rather than phone cards.

For those of you who have written about this, I will find a different set of military hospitals to send these cards to and will report back.

But I want to make a larger point here -- beyond the considerable and moving level of charity by Republican and Democratic Americans for those fighting and carrying the real burden of this war.

Donald Rumsfeld & Co. made these soldiers greater victims than they already were. Out of a $450 billion defense budget, it seems outrageous to me that someone in the Pentagon hierarchy didn't work to get the long distance block removed for those who are casualties of this conflict and recovering.

Rumsfeld's continuing distance from the real world circumstances of people he has sent to die for this country is an embarrassment and tragedy for everyone.

Rumsfeld is now scrambling to get armor on the Humvees, promising to sign his own name on condolence letters (rather than the auto-signature), and seems to be holding steady in his job despite increasing evidence that he and Bush were both complicit in encouraging prison-interrogation techniques that amount to torture.

But he is still not doing right by these soldiers (whom I believe are in the wrong war, at the wrong time, in the wrong place) -- and progressives should be rubbing his nose in this, as well as George Bush's.

Kerry's letter is a small step in the right direction.

-- Steve Clemons

There is a remarkable recount story unfolding in Washington State. When so many stories of misdeeds and voter system mismanagement that favored Republicans appeared elsewhere in the nation, it is interesting to see the Republicans making similar statements as Dems in this Washington State race.

The $750,000 the Dems needed to raise to force this hand recount looks like it might get a big payoff.

Speaking of payoffs, I'm still in Las Vegas having fun. I head home tonight on the red eye flight after seeing Cirque du Soleil's "O". There is a lot wrong with Vegas, the largest city in the United States founded in the 20th century, but there is also a lot right.

It's a city based on crass consumerism, sex, gambling, shows -- but it also has amazing sights, some of the most beautiful shopping malls I've ever seen -- like the one at Caesar's Palace that seems to stretch for several football fields. I can understand now why so many from around the world are drawn here despite the inexpensive sin packages.

It's all artificial, but it somehow works. Kind of like Singapore. If you speak to staff here, they have all had FBI background checks on them, even the janitorial staff supposedly. There is freedom here, but also a very heavy lurking authoritarianism just under the surface. Again, just like Singapore.

More later, particularly after I get back to Washington.

-- Steve Clemons

There is an increasing pool of cases of active duty military whose nervous systems have responded negatively to the anthrax vaccines ordered by the Department of Defense. When I wrote 'A Soldier's Story' at the end of October, the person with whom I conversed told me that he had a deal with his sergeant that he and those who worked for him would not take the vaccine. He reported that one soldier from his section had responded very negatively to the vaccine and had had his nervous system "messed up" by the vaccine.

John Files of the New York Times reports that the Pentagon is now asking for authority to start readministering the vaccine. Files writes that Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz is leading the charge, citing a classified intelligence assessment:

"There is a significant potential for a military emergency involving a heightened risk to United States military forces of attack with anthrax," Mr. Wolfowitz wrote. He cited a classified intelligence assessment from last month to support his concern, adding that it was the basis for continuing to vaccinate troops serving in South Korea and the Middle East.

More from the report:

Anthrax vaccinations for armed forces personnel were suspended in October, when a federal judge ordered the military to stop requiring troops to be vaccinated without their consent. The judge, Emmet G. Sullivan of Federal District Court here, found that in approving the vaccine, the F.D.A. had not followed its procedures, which require it to seek public comment on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines before approving them.

Representative Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, sent letters Thursday to Mr. Thompson and to Porter J. Goss, the director of central intelligence. Mr. Shays asked Mr. Goss to allow members of his subcommittee to review the intelligence report cited by Mr. Wolfowitz.

All I know is that Rumsfeld's comment that the "anthrax vaccine is safe and effective" is easily falsified by the increasing number of victims of this vaccine. Some other reporting on this vaccine is available here, here, here, and here.

I think there is a problem with this vaccine, but I'm not an expert on such things.

However, what is clear is that the bonds of trust between those in the military and those commanding them and making decisions has become dangerously and irresponsibly frayed.

Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld have done little to rebuild trust with their troops, and from my perspective, Wolfowitz's anthrax vaccine holiday gift to his soldiers is just going to make things worse.

-- Steve Clemons

Remember Lt. General William "Jerry" Boykin? He's the bible-belting general who described America's campaign in Iraq as a crusade against Satan.

Here is a report on some other gems:

. . .the former commander and 13-year veteran of the Army's top-secret Delta Force is also an outspoken evangelical Christian who appeared in dress uniform and polished jump boots before a religious group in Oregon in June to declare that radical Islamists hated the United States "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian. . .and the enemy is a guy named Satan."

Discussing the battle against a Muslim warlord in Somalia, Boykin told another audience, "I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

"We in the army of God, in the house of God, kingdom of God have been raised for such a time as this," Boykin said last year.

On at least one occasion, in Sandy, Ore., in June, Boykin said of President Bush: "He's in the White House because God put him there."

Today, the New York Times reports that Boykin, who is Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, is "drawing up a plan that would give the military a more prominent role in intelligence-collection operations that have traditionally been the province of the Central Intelligence Agency, including missions aimed at terrorist groups and those involved in weapons proliferation."

Apparently, the key new idea in the Pentagon report is the notion of "fighting for intelligence." In other words, "the Pentagon would commence combat operations chiefly to obtain intelligence."

Boykin's "crusade for intelligence" sounds pretty much like standard operating procedure to me, particularly an administration that seems to care little about empirical reality or feedback from its policies. Now, the Pentagon wants to make intelligence an after-the-fact item, not something that ought to precede combat operations.

To all of those who argued that the neocons had no place to go because the messy war in Iraq would constrain them and their future choices, let me remind you that Boykin seems to be thriving in his job. Douglas Feith has his. Wolfowitz seems to be holding on just fine.

The Pentagon's mission and budgetary creep is out of hand.

I will be in Las Vegas for the next several days and will be posting from there. If any of you know good wifi spots on the strip, let me know.

Last evening's holiday party at my place was packed with interesting people and will be sharing some thoughts about some of the issues discussed, as well as some of the gossip dropped as people drank a bit.

More later.

-- Steve Clemons

I have had a surprisingly strong reaction to what I wrote yesterday about a very anti-competition decision from the FCC that allows Baby Bells to choke off fair access to local facilities under their control.

I thought these kinds of competition and telecom issues would not generate much interest -- but I have already had more than 100 emails in reaction.

These facilities were once part of the AT&T telecommunications monopoly -- arguably bought and paid for by U.S. consumers paying monopolistically determined rates for those facilities now under the control of these Baby Bells. To ensure competition, the Congress passed the 1996 Telecommunications Act to compel those controlling these facilities to provide wholesale access to competitors -- so as to promote competition and in order to benefit the consumer.

Well, because of the FCC's decision yesterday and other recent FCC rulings, America is back in the pre-1996 era, and consumers are screwed.

I argued yesterday that the pattern of decisions that Michael Powell and his cabal have pursued make no sense because they so blatantly fly in the face of the public interest. Whose interests are being served?

All I can figure at this point, until someone makes a better case to me, is that Michael Powell is serving his own interest as well as, perhaps, the economic interests of his staff.

This note came in today from an informed TWN reader:

Steve -- Apropos of your speculation on Michael Powell's future career plans, I wanted to draw your attention (anonymously, if you don't mind) to the fact that News Corp hired two Powell aides -- Susan Eid and Paul Jackson -- as lobbyists not long after Powell released a set of media ownership rules that would have benefited Fox and other big station groups. (Check out Broadcasting & Cable, "Capital Watch," 3/1/2004 -- it's in Lexis/Nexis.)

It's particularly curious that News Corp would have hired Jackson, formerly the FCC's congressional lobbyist, considering the FCC had horribly bungled its relationship with Congress and received one of its strongest rebukes ever in the form of various votes against Powell's ownership rules. Only the administration stepping in at the last minute allowed the ownership cap to be lifted as a matter of law.

What corporate boards is Michael Powell going to be invited on?

I think that the action plan here is to get the administration to reverse its rule relaxation on employment and lobbying by senior officials leaving government. As reported December 5th in the Washington Post:

. . .the Office of Government Ethics declared that it was relaxing prohibitions on lobbying by former Cabinet secretaries and other top officials.

Until now, senior officials at Cabinet departments and agencies had not been allowed to lobby former colleagues for a full year after leaving office -- a rule designed to prevent an obvious conflict of interest. But, in a notice in the Federal Register, the ethics office issued a new rule invoking its power to declare that "a former senior employee who served in a 'parent' department or agency is not barred . . . from making communications to or appearances before any employee of any designated component of that parent."

Before 9/11, the Enron fiasco looked as if it was going to take the Bush administration down. John McCain was licking his chops and planning to challenge Bush who had done little to curtail the collusiveness and corruption that had penetrated many of America's blue chip firms.

This relaxation of ethics rules is a big deal, and I will be writing more about this soon. I would enjoy hearing from any in appropriate positions how best to compel the administration to reverse this decision.

In the mean time, The Washington Note is going to pay close attention to the job and consulting relationships of Michael Powell, his fellow anti-competition FCC commissioners, and other FCC staff.

-- Steve Clemons

True to President Bush's odd celebration of people and policies seemingly at odds with his own administration, Bush has often celebrated Teddy Roosevelt, who broke up America's big trusts and monopolies -- while Bush and his team build them up.

Today, the FCC ruled in a contentious battle to deny wholesale rate access to competitors of regionally monopolistic Baby Bell firms, like Verizon. Why is this important?

Because we are going to see rates to businesses and household consumers rise. We are going to see incumbents entrench themselves in old technologies with slower rates of innovation. The powerful forces that were driving costs down while at the same time generating new and bold innovations in information technology are being strangled.

The problem is that collusive interests are undermining the will of the U.S. Congress which tried to make absolutely sure that facilities that the Baby Bells inherited after the break-up of AT&T were made available at fair rates to competitors who could not be expected to create massive new regional and national facilities to reach consumers.

Since the facilities provided both a windfall to the Baby Bells as well as a potential choke point to strangle competition -- Congress decided in the 1996 Telecommunications Act to force open access to these Baby Bell controlled facilities to ensure competition as well as new investment in rival technologies.

This regime has been collapsing for some time. The bottom line, in my view, is that Michael Powell knows his days are numbered at the FCC and he's going to need a job soon.

Not only is Powell not protecting the country from the nefarious consequences of concentrated media power, he is driving it. He has exploited Janet Jackson's boob-stunt to create fear throughout the broadcast media on the viability of provocative educational and political content. And now, he is stifling America's broadband-rich potential and taking us back to a time of oligopolies in technology firms.

He wants to work for one of these telecom firms, maybe be on a few boards. But if he ends up on the Board of Directors of Verizon, Bell South, or any of the other Baby Bells; or perhaps on the board of News Corp -- lawyers of the world unite because it will cap off an incredibly corrupt game of self-dealing by Powell that has at the same time ripped off consumers and businesses in this nation, dramatically harmed the spread of broadband, and helped take us into an era of concentration of power in media and telecom firms that undermines democracy and working markets in this country.

Verizon just sent me a really nice, official 2004 White House Christmas Ornament. I like it and bet this post gets me taken off the firm's Christmas gift list, but curtailing competition is not good for Verizon or any of the other players in this industry, and government has abandoned its crucial responsibilities in this sector.

Teddy Roosevelt would be incredibly pissed off at you, Michael Powell.

And George Bush does nothing.

-- Steve Clemons

I really enjoy the White House pool reports.

Wonkette (AKA, Ana Marie Cox) posts many of these for the public to enjoy, but the ones she selects make it to the top of her list if they have sexual innuendo or intrigue.

I'm going to share one pool report here written by Gannett News' Greg Wright.

Just for fun, juxtapose what Greg Wright reports here:

Berlusconi praised Bush, saying he is "direct," "straightforward," "full of truth," and says yes when he means yes and no when he means no. These qualities were likely a major factor in Bush's reelection, Berlusconi said through an interpreter.

with this statement by Bush in the same meeting:

"The policy of my government is a strong dollar policy," Bush said. "We believe that the market should make the decisions about the relationship between the dollar and the euro."

Does anyone out there think America is pursuing a strong dollar policy?

It seems to me that America has a weak dollar policy that screws Europe, helps some U.S. exporters, but has China with an equally weak currency able to keep American consumers happy with cheap products -- and has Japan scrambling for currency balance.

If Bush is telling the truth -- then why aren't any journalists or commentators challenging him on the fact that his so-called strong dollar policy is failing? Who is getting fired because we have a weak dollar and the president is not getting what he wants?

Up is down, black is white, lies are truth.

Here is the full passage:

TO: White House print reporters
FROM: Greg Wright, Gannett News Service
DATE: December 15, 2004
SUBJECT: Pool report on Bush-Berlusconi meeting

Bush said by spring the United States an Italy should agree on a joint helicopter construction venture by spring.

Don't you love the last line?

Let's be sure to do a joint helicopter project next year? And have lunch. . .

Can you say: C O R R U P T I O N? I knew you could.

-- Steve Clemons

. . .a provision buried in the Bush administration's tax reform plans.

According to a very well-connected economist who is meeting just about every one with the word "economic" in his or her administration title, the administration is planning to disallow the exemption on federal taxes allowed now for state income taxes paid.

This is a brilliantly devious way for the Bush crowd to punish blue state taxpayers because tax rates in blue states are higher than red -- and the financial burden will be carried by those in the northeast and on the west coast far more than all of those who put George Bush back into the White House for another four years.

I am hopeful that even though red state tax payers will see their blue state brethren carrying a disproportionate share of new federal tax burden, those in the red will still see that they too will be paying higher taxes under this provision as their own state tax payments will be disallowed as a deduction.

Happiness (or its alternative) is a function of relative deprivation -- even if red state relative deprivation is less than blue state.

I can't and won't mention the source of this information as I hope he/she continues to have White House access and feeds me more such info.

-- Steve Clemons

Oops, I meant the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This highest civilian award in the U.S. recognizes individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, or to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Today, L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer III, General Tommy Franks, and CIA Director George Tenet (who is reportedly asking $5 million for his ghost-written memoirs) all get this distinction to add to their trove of mementos recognizing their service to the empire.

Jerry Bremer failed to pacify and rebuild Iraq. Tommy Franks failed to think about the after-war war. George Tenet has miserably low standards for what he thinks is a slam dunk and duped his country and fellow citizens on Saddam Hussein's WMDs.

Others who got this award -- Katherine Hepburn (was a tireless campaigner for UNICEF), Lady Bird Johnson (beautified the nation's highways), Doris Day, Bob Hope, Cesar Chavez, David Brinkley, NY Fire Department Rev. Mychal Judge, Walter Wriston, Beverly Sills, Arnold Palmer, Estee Lauder, Paul Nitze, Pope John Paul II, National Geographic Chairman Gilbert Grosvenor, Douglas MacArthur, Billy Graham.

There are many who have received this medal -- initiated by Truman, pumped back to life by Kennedy, and then awarded semi-prolifically since.

But the three awardees today are flacks and spear-carriers for George Bush's failed enterprise in the Middle East today, and the perceived stock value of this highest of all civilian awards just fell to historical lows today.

-- Steve Clemons

First of all, democracy via the ballet box in this country is fragile. Look at this mess in Washington State.

A friend caught this on NPR this morning. Some King County election official disqualified a number of ballots because their local computer did not have electonic copies of signatures for all those voting stored. This was apparently figured out by the local Democratic party chief who found his own vote among those disqualified.

According to a local news report, "A King County election official says his board takes 'full responsibility' for mistakenly rejecting 561 absentee ballots in the Washington governor's race. Elections Director Dean Logan says it happened because signatures on the ballots weren't on file in the county's computer system. He says they'll be counted soon."

What does that mean? Is he resigning and checking himself into jail? If it's just 561 signatures, why isn't he sitting down right now and counting them? This is criminal idiocy.

What is really interesting is that before the recount, Republican Dino Rossi led Democrat Christine Gregoire by 42 votes. This report says that Rossi has picked up 46 votes in the recount thus far, giving him a potential 88 vote lead in the race.

According to National Public Radio this morning (transcript not yet available), Christine Gregoire has an 89 point net lead over Rossi among the disputed King County ballots (so someone apparently counted them).

If things stayed the same -- and there were no more shenannigans discovered -- Christine Gregoire would beat Dino Rossi by one vote.

Anyone for mandatory sentencing for ballot tampering?

-- Steve Clemons

From my perspective, Donald Rumsfeld had some good ideas on technology and modern war at one time -- and his and other's notions on modernization and the revolution in military affairs made some sense to me.

But I also believe that the Pentagon has become the least accountable, powerful bureacracy in the history of the planet -- and Rumsfeld has worsened the problem by an order of magnitude.

Just to be fair, I thought that for a 'nano-second' in time Rumsfeld demonstrated uncharacteristic honesty (at least in the introspective questions he posed) about the wrong-headed direction the administration had taken in the so-called war on terror. Cem Oezdemir and I wrote about this in a piece about the famous Rumsfeld memo.

However, there were many points before and during the Iraq War when it became clear to me that Rumsfeld had to go. Frankly, many others should go as well -- but I strongly feel that the top guy has got to accept responsibility for this mess we are in, for the horrors of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and now for his impromptu interaction with the troops this past week.

The New Republic's Peter Scoblic puts America's Rumsfeld problem quite nicely here. And even John McCain, whom I no longer think is pursuing the Department of Defense job, says he has "no confidence in Rumsfeld."

I had a long talk tonight with a friend whose name I won't mention who thinks that the best thing to hope for now is that everything gets much worse. He thinks we should stop trying to buffer the American public, the nation, and the world from the errors the Bush administration is making. He thinks that the only way for things to get better is for things to get much worse -- so that Americans finally wake up and take their government back.

I'm less sure because I fear that we may be heading towards a dark and troubled future in any case and that dumping Rumsfeld for someone better, for example, may help at the margins.

But I have to admit, there are times when I think that the "let it all fall apart" view of some on the left is appealing. On better days, I still think, perhaps naively, that determined, reasonable people can prevail over the idiocy and "keystone cops approach" to government we are seeing.

This discussion I had today does make me angry -- because I am having to defend a centrist sensibility that looks conservative to the most passionate on the left and yet looks wildly liberal to those in power today. But I am not angry with my friend; I'm angry at Rumsfeld and those who are not playing by the rules of our democracy.

Rumsfeld failed in Abu Ghraib, in Guantanamo, in the invasion of Iraq itself. Show the world that America also has "rule of law" and accountability and remove yourself, Mr. Rumsfeld, since Bush won't do it for you (not unless you become a huge PR liability for him).

But even that -- even dumping Rumsfeld from the Cabinet then -- when he no longer brings popularity even from the most devout on the war-mongering right -- is a crappy and cynical way to run this government.

American leaders need to do the right things, inspired by conscience and by a sense of the constructive and possible, rather than finally doing the right things (dumping Rummy for instance) when ultimately forced to.

I simply can't imagine the circumstances in which any nations are going to trust our government for years to come. I can imagine some incremental improvements here and there, but only in the most optimistic scenarios which involve dumping the majority of the Bush administration's cast of foreign policy characters. We might have had an opportunity if Rumsfeld had resigned after the Schlesinger Report on Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

For now, I'm going to stick to my view that tenacious commitment to common sense principles in foreign policy can rise above the short-sighted policies of those who conducted this war with and occupation of Iraq.

I'm also very focused on who the next Republican and Democratic candidates are going to be. America and the world need better than we have at the helm today.

-- Steve Clemons

Check out the New York Times Magazine this Sunday (page 96).

Jason Zengerle has profiled my notion of "Stock Options for Soldiers." I like the entire article -- which ran among many in the annual New York Times Magazine 'The Year in Ideas: A to Z' issue. Here is my first post on this subject last September.

However, I particularly like the last graf:

Initially, Clemons conceived of the plan somewhat facetiously, mainly as a way to call attention to what he considers war profiteering by hawkish Bush supporters who have benefited financially from the war in Iraq.

"There'll be a lot of kickback the further this idea goes," he says. "But I think the country would like to see the establishment of something broader for the people on the front line -- because the people profiting right now aren't on the front line."

Now, I have more work to do hammering out a credible version of this proposal -- while at the same time encouraging reputable Senators to hold hearings on war profiteers among us.

-- Steve Clemons

I am in Chestertown, Maryland this weekend where I have a place situated in some back woods.

I am at one of those points where I have two feet of articles and papers to plow through and want to comment on lots of what I'm reading. Lurking behind all of this policy drama on my kitchen table is the bizarre problem of a giant lake that has all of a sudden appeared down near my quarter mile long dirt and gravel road that runs along a creek. This lake is enormous, relatively speaking, and there were about five thousand Canadian geese in there this morning enjoying themselves doing lots of goose stuff.

It's all idyllic in one sense -- but behind this beauty are some very industrious beavers that have dammed up the creek. They have created a ten foot wall of mud, leaves, trees, and other stuff that have just made a lake, and it is rising. Anyway, I'm not quite sure what to do about it -- so I'm going back to the papers.

The Valerie Plame affairs has now morphed into a new story -- about journalistic freedom and protecting the identity of sources. Lots of others have commented on various sides of the debate about the standoff between Judge Thomas F. Hogan and Matt Cooper and Judith Miller, so I will defer on that subject.

But I want to comment for a moment about our President who expressed great dismay and concern about Plame's identity being revealed by one or more of his staff. I heard George Bush say that he wanted to get down to the bottom of who leaked her identity and that those responsible would be severely punished.

Mr. President, this must be a topic of gossip in the White House mess. You must have some moles among your staff telling you what your retainers are saying. Who do they say did it?

Bob Woodward in Bush at War recounts a story of you, Mr. President, looking into the eyes of Vladimir Putin and seeing a "man of faith, a good man." Have you looked into the eyes of all of your key staff and put the question squarely to them:

Karl, did you leak Valerie Plame's CIA identity to anyone in the media? Come on, tell me.

We'll forgive them, but we need to get to the bottom of this and punish him, her, or them just a bit -- and then forgive.

I think that the story is as much about the fact that the President has said he wants to know who did this among his staff -- and that someone or some few are lurking in the White House as liars and scoundrels.

I'd think that just in case these evil-doing agents decided to harm American national security again, George Bush would be scheduling meetings with each staff member, looking into that person's eyes, and asking them, "Tell me, did you do it?"

At minimum, finding the person ought to be on the President's Christmas wish list.

I know I'm being somewhat naive here and facetious -- but really, hold the President to his own condemnation of the Plame leakers.

-- Steve Clemons

Down at Cary Christian School in the Raleigh-Durham area, students are (well, WERE until yesterday) reading a book suggesting that slaves lived "a life of plenty, of simple pleasures."

According to a News-Observer article:

Leaders at Cary Christian School say they are not condoning slavery by using "Southern Slavery, As It Was," a booklet that attempts to provide a biblical justification for slavery and asserts that slaves weren't treated as badly as people think.

The article highlights some potential conflicts of interest between the pro-slavery booklet authors and the Cary Christian School.

One of the co-authors of the pamphlet is a Moscow, Idaho pastor Douglas Wilson. According to the News-Observer's T. Keung Hui:

Wilson's Association of Classical and Christian Schools accredited Cary Christian, and he is scheduled to speak at the school's graduation in May.

The booklet's other author, Steve Wilkins, is a member of the board of directors of the Alabama-based League of the South. That is classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights group.

On Wilkins and Wilson, the article reports further:

"Doug Wilson and Steve Wilkins have essentially constructed the ruling theology of the neo-Confederate movement," said Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report.

The school has 623 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. With a relatively low tuition -- up to $5,000 -- it has attracted families from 55 churches. At least one parent must be a regular attendee of a church.

After the article appeared yesterday, Cary Christian School dropped the pamphlet and issued this statement:

"Southern Slavery, As It Was" removed from CCS curriculum.

We apologize for this oversight and covet your prayers for our school.

I believe in debate and the ongoing struggle between those who hold different views of history, of policy, of what our society should look like.

But as I have written before, the extreme wing of the social conservative movement has been far better at intimidating some of the blue chip members of American civil society than these institutions have been at defending their right to air constructive and educational material, even if provocative.

But this is a case where shining a spotlight on a disconcerting practice at a school produced a good result. We need more of this -- more open debates with and public exposure of those who want to stifle reason.

There is nothing that the extreme wing of the social conservative movement has that can't be matched and overwhelmed by those in this country who value progress, rationality, and common sense -- and who can manage these right along side their personal religious faith.

While there are tens of thousands of madrasas in the world, and this is just one American Christian school -- powerful political ideology wrapped in religion is toxic in such schools.

I applaud Cary Christian's decision to change course on the pamphlet -- but encourage your sister schools and your own teachers to educate and stimulate high-quality thinking and inquiry in the minds of your students.

Don't radicalize them with politically-motivated religious zealotry. If your students want to revisit history, even the history of slavery in the South, make that their personal decision -- not your school curriculum's.

-- Steve Clemons

Since the several posts I have written about how important it is to help those soldiers returning from America's Iraq and Afghanistan operations, I have been flooded by notes from those wondering where they can send checks.

Some soldiers' familes are economically undermined because of the long-term deployment of the man or woman deployed abroad. This is particularly severe in the case of National Guard men and women deployed in these conflicts. But those wounded physically or psychologically have a set of adjustments ahead an order of magnitude greater.

I think that the American government and private sector are going to have to partner to find ways to assist these soldiers and their families -- but in the mean time, I have done some digging into some options for those of you who want to do something.

These requests may sound trivial given the scale of the problems we are writing about -- but the number one request from wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center is phone cards.

According to contacts I have at Walter Reed, the government does not pay for long distance phone calls for the troops who are convalescing there. The phone cards can be purchased in many places and can be of any denomination, even as small as $5.00 I am told.

Books and cds are also welcome and are often requested.

There are two ways to send things in if you feel inclined to do something on this front.

The first is to send purchased phone cards to:

Medical Family Assistance Center
Walter Reed Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001

Secondly, you may send a check directly to me if you prefer, and I will gather the money and purchase cards and other items that these soldiers have specifically requested. I will run the donated money through the Walter Reed Society, a 501(c)3 organization which has agreed to direct donations received for the soldiers to supporting their needs. I will make sure that tax-deductible receipts are sent to those who donate through this route.

The checks should be made out to WALTER REED SOCIETY.

Those who prefer this second option should just send checks to me at the following name and address but mark on the check "Soldiers Donation." The address is:

Steven Clemons
The Washington Note
1630 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC 20009

I don't think that purchasing phone cards goes very far in addressing the heavy burdens that deployed soldiers and their families are managing, but during this season -- this is a nice way for modest dollars to help these folks stay in contact with their friends and families.

-- Steve Clemons

Any long-term readers of this blog will know that I am a great fan of Bill Condon and his masterful work on Gods & Monsters as well as his latest thought-provoking film, Kinsey. My previous posts on this are here, here, and here.

I argued some time ago that Kinsey is a deeply political film that depicts the struggles between science, rationality, and the Englightenment on one hand and purposeful ignorance, blind faith, and Medievalism on the other. Your evening would be well spent watching Condon's depiction of the trauma and convulsions a society goes through when compelled to rewire itself. Alfred Kinsey's reports on human sexuality forced that kind of socially systemic rewiring.

This blog was the first to report that WNET, Channel 13 had refused to air Kinsey ads appopriate to public television and consistent with the standards and protocol of other such ads run by the station. Many TWN readers -- hundreds I know of and perhaps thousands -- wrote to WNET's public affairs staff to complain about this censorship, which when added to the ABC decision not to air Saving Private Ryan as well as other recent FCC decisions to intimidate broadcasters regarding content amounts to a very disconcerting trend.

Frank Rich of the New York Times ran with this story and has done a great job exposing this WNET/Kinsey travesty and is pushing back those on the right who have scared broadcasters from airing educationally constructive and thought-provoking content.

Frank Rich writes in the coming Sunday Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times:

When they start pushing the panic button over "moral values" at the bluest of TV channels, public broadcasting's WNET, in the bluest of cities, New York, you know this country has entered a new cultural twilight zone.

That explanation quickly became inoperative anyway. The "Kinsey" distributor, Fox Searchlight, let the press see an e-mail from a National Public Broadcasting media manager stating that the real problem was "the content of this movie" and "controversial press re: groups speaking out against the movie/subject matter" that might bring "viewer complaints."

In his wrap-up, Frank Rich draws the important parallel between Kinsey's struggle to stay true to science and social inquiry and depicts how those hostile to rationality squelched his later work and choked the ecosystem of curiosity and thirst for knowledge that had originally fueled the nation's excitement about Kinsey's research.

Rich writes in his last grafs:

While "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" was received with a certain amount of enthusiasm and relief by most Americans in 1948, the atmosphere had changed radically by the time Kinsey published his follow-up volume, "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female," just five years later.

Based on what we've seen in just the six weeks since Election Day, the parallels between that war over sex and our own may have only just begun.

While Frank Rich's article pretty much just takes this important debate out to a wider audience and increases the echo chamber of concern about this censorship trend, this is still just reporting and commentary.

The problems at the FCC still have not been fixed. Ambiguous guidelines still intimidate censors. And anti-intellectual zealots are still gaining ground -- but maybe just a little less so as of this Sunday.

Thanks Frank.

-- Steve Clemons

Christian Bourge at UPI is reading the legislation he is reporting on even if Members of Congress are not.

In this article just reported shortly ago, he writes about provisions in the intel and the recent omnibus spending bills:

Another unadvertised provision in the intelligence-reform bill would ban butane lighters from being carried into the passenger section of commercial aircraft.

Consumption of the meat is prohibited in the United States.

Staffers I just spoke to have reported that all lighers will be banned from airplanes, but matches will be allowed.

I don't smoke and don't usually need a lighter -- but those smokers out there are going to be irritated. Lots of them are red state folks, maybe the majority -- but slaughtering and selling wild horse meat to France might assuage their frustration.

Another UPI piece by Mark Benjamin that just hit the wires is that one million U.S. troops have gone to war in Afghanistan or Iraq since those wars were initiated.

-- Steve Clemons

UPI's Mark Benjamin adds a dimension to an already high pile of concerns I have about how the Bush administration is neglecting the plight of soldiers fighting this war in Iraq.

The link to the UPI story is here, but the first bit of the story reads:

U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.

"It was more of a rush. They put us in a warehouse for a while. They treated us like cattle," Arellano said about how the military treated him on his return to the United States.

I caught Howard Dean at Restaurant Nora the other night (great place, by the way) dining with Donna Brazile and others, lobbying for the top post in the Democratic National Committee no doubt. Dean is pressing the Dems not to lurch right.

That may be good advice -- but Dems need to be out front on embracing these soldiers and working hard to make sure that progressives -- whether or not they support the Iraq War and Occupation -- rank high among their priorities those who have sacrificed for this country.

Frankly, addressing and solving the "return problems" and financial security issues of returning combat veterans should be something both progressives and conservatives should support.

But so far, there has been little action from the White House on these matters -- and the Dems are missing both a political and an important substantive opportunity to help people in need.

-- Steve Clemons

I have never been invited to a Hanukah Party until today thanks to Matt Dallek. But Hanukah parties have been on my mind lately because I am hosting a "holiday party" at my home on December 17th, and several of my friends cannot make it because of competing Hanukah soirees.

I keep slipping and sometimes calling my party a christmas party, and then self-correct and say 'holiday party' -- which it is -- but it's really a Christmas party, the pagan kind, with trees and dessert and the theme to a "Charlie Brown's Christmas" going in the background.

My weimeraner will hopefully look like the Grinch's dog, Max, and have some antlers. I'm still deciding whether to let Oakley have eggnog that night.

Anyway, I think it's cool that Hanukah parties are raging around town and hope to get invited to more of them as the season moves on. But my holiday party is back to being a Christmas party with everyone invited who will tolerate my more fun, paganesque celebration of the season.

Thanks for the inspiration, Arnold.

-- Steve Clemons

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte

Florence, Italy was born in 59 B.C. as a resettlement site for Roman soldiers who had returned from Caesar's campaigns in Gaul. Soldiers who fought and sacrificed for the state were rewarded.

Today's soldiers -- the rank and file -- fighting for American prerogatives abroad are really screwed. Yes, a soldier may get education benefits; may escape an otherwise limited set of life options where he or she may be living; may learn skills in computer science, systems management, and tactics and strategy that provide good job opportunities after retiring from military service.

I was a military dependent growing up. I know all the good stuff that can come from military service, but I know the bad too.

What I also know is that whether one agrees with Zell Miller's lofty tribute to America's soldiers or not, Zell Miller and the party he adopted are irresponsibly silent when it comes to addressing the enormous life impacts sustained by soldiers deployed in this war -- and collectively, as a nation, we are shrugging our shoulders and ignoring the plight of those who are willing to sacrifice their lives and their own and their family's financial security for this country.

And as the casualty count climbs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the wounded return, or the remains of those killed, nothing happens that substantially lightens the huge burden placed on those on the front line of this conflict.

I keep looking for evidence that George Bush cares -- but there is little either symbolically or substantively -- that I see this President doing to call on the rest of America to do what needs to be done to make sure that those wounded and maimed in this conflict have a way forward in the years ahead.

This article in today's New York Times about vulture lenders preying on the financial fragility of soldiers and their families underscores the point.

These shady financial outfits charging hundreds if not thousands of percent annualized interest on loans to strapped military personnel and their families are war profiteers.

James Woolsey and the many public intellectuals who sit on boards of defense firms, or serve as consultants for those trying to make a buck off of this conflict, while also pretending to be objective commentators on the nation's foreign and defense policies are also war profiteers -- "big-time," as Dick Cheney would say.

Harry Truman, as a Senator and while holding hearings in the same Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building in which our Al Qaeda 2.0 conference was held last Thursday, called war profiteering "treason."

I have serious problems with the modern military, this war, the Pentagon's priorities, and the seeming absence of accountability in the sprawling bureaucracy of the Pentagon. With 5% of the world's population in the United States spending on defense what all other nations in the world combined spend -- and Americans still not feeling safe -- the security deliverables our military is providing are not good enough.

But the soldiers are victims of this lack of accountability as well -- and they deserve more support than they are getting.

Last night, I attended a festive holiday party at the home of former Oklahoma Congressman Dave McCurdy and his wife Pam, who is a well-known child psychiastrist. McCurdy now serves as President of the Electronic Industries Alliance.

Dave McCurdy is another example of a Democrat who knows a lot about selling well in a red state, Oklahoma. McCurdy overcame Tom DeLay's efforts to prevent the EIA from hiring a Democrat. He's a great guy -- even if he did help empower one of his Oklahoma buddies -- James Woolsey -- climb the power ladder in Washington.

When McCurdy curtailed his expected run for the presidency in 1992 and was the person who nominated Bill Clinton for President at the Democratic Convention, McCurdy was in line to be appointed Secretary of Defense. Bill Clinton and chief-of-staff Mack McLarty wanted to give the post to McCurdy, but Hillary and George Stephanopolous went to the mat for Les Aspin, who proved to be disastrous in the job.

As a concession prize, Clinton offered McCurdy the directorship of the CIA, which McCurdy rejected -- and when polled about who might be good for the job, McCurdy suggested James Woolsey. Unfortunately, Woolsey's ego couldn't handle the criticism about post-Aldrich Ames criticism and a President who would never meet with him.

Woolsey's radicalization began then. Interestingly, I was watching Colin Powell's September 30, 1993 retirement as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on C-Span the other night, and as the cameras scanned the audience assembled eleven years and some months ago, then Clinton administration CIA Director James Woolsey appears. He seemed stiff and tormented, and slightly leaning to his left -- as if needing a pal. Who was seated to his left? Dick Cheney.

One very sobering conversation I had at the McCurdy home was with a guy who had recently been up to Walter Reed Medical Center where there are many seriously wounded and maimed soldiers back from combat. This guy said that there are lots of folks -- from active duty military as well as weekend warriors from the National Guard -- who are going to spend the rest of their lives adjusting to lost limbs, paralysis, and psychological and other physical shocks that are going to constrain their options in the future -- and as he said it, "our nation needs to embrace these people not with momentary, feel-good gestures, but over the long haul."

I think that support of soldiers should not be a partisan issue -- but frankly, I don't see a lot of broad concern for the life circumstances of these people in either party. John McCain gets it -- and Hillary Clinton does get a salute from me for getting her colleagues to address the limited health care options for National Guard families whose principal had his or her deployment extended.

So, as I add a list of items that 2008 presidential candidates should consider -- a lot of support for soldiers, particularly the families of those killed and wounded.

I have proposed the outlines of a plan called "Stock Options for Soldiers" which I will be rolling out in greater detail in the coming weeks. I know that there are lots of problems with the cosmetics and substance of providing more resources to soldiers from private sector sources.

But if the government is not going to act responsibly, then other options need to be debated.

I'd rather hug soldiers than hug a flawed Pentagon. And so should the next set of presidential candidates.

-- Steve Clemons

Many thanks to everyone for the myriad cold-killing recipes that have been sent to me. I've tried quite a few and am happy to report that something, not sure what, is beginning to work. I think it was the mint tea and bourbon.

I am sitting in the same spot in the Starbucks at Connecticut and R in Washington where Josh Marshall launched his blog four years ago. Dave of Fugop apparently blogs at this Starbucks too. But it really is a fascinating place -- kind of like the Georgetown Safeway. Everyone eventually walks through here, well not everyone -- but lots of politicos and pundits.

I just bumped into and talked with a Dem Senator from a Red State, Max Baucus of Montana, who just got back from Australia last night. He and his wife get their coffee here most mornings, led along by a cute little white poodle. Max and I chatted about organizing a large conference on America's global economic agenda in late January/early February 2005 that would be designed to embarrass the Bush administration's "absence of strategy" in economic policy.

Max Baucus is an interesting guy and good example of the type of person who sells well in red states. I have been in his Senate office many times and really like this one wall of photos he has.

It is what he calls his "Day-In-The-Life" wall.

Here is what his promo bio says about this:

Throughout his career, Max has never forgotten where he came from or who he represents. For a full day each month, Max experiences a "Day-In-The-Life" of citizens all over Montana. He has conducted workdays at farms, ranches, schools, highway construction projects, local ice cream parlors, and hospitals.

Recent workday activities include building houses with Great Falls High School Students, joining workers at a high-tech aerospace firm in Helena, and pitching in to build a grandstand at the Glendive fairgrounds. And in 1995 and 1996, Max walked the entire 820-mile length of Montana.

Some people may see such a thing as corny because Max is reportedly quite a wealthy guy and comes from one of the most powerful ranching families in Montana. But I like it.

Max's photo wall shows him flipping burgers (and looking like he really was getting into it), laying pipeline in a lot of muddy ground, pouring asphalt, working fields, and so on. He isn't running for president -- but if he were going to -- this wall would be an enormous asset.

A "Day-In-The-Life" wall was something John Kerry didn't have in his tool box.

George Bush communicated his contrived "I'm an average guy too" persona by clearing brush off of his ranch in the hot summer sun of August -- lots of sweat, lots of drama. As one close friend of mine and another Texas rancher told me, "no real Texas rancher clears his brush in August. Ranchers clear in November when it's cool."

Kerry's goose-hunting foray just highlighted in neon flashing lights with sirens his distance from average folks.

Before it looks like cheap positioning and tokenism before the next presidential race, those who aspire to live at 1600 Pennsylvania -- Mark Warner, Bill Richardson, Wes Clark, John Kerry (again), Chris Dodd, John Edwards, and Hillary -- ought to consider walking the length of their respective states or doing some kind of Baucus-inspired "day-in-the-life" work once a month between now and November 4, 2008.

-- Steve Clemons

Wow. I just received email #513 requesting either a transcript, tape or weblink from the conference Al Qaeda 2.0: Transnational Terrorism Since 9/11 which Peter Bergen, Karen Greenberg and I produced on Thursday for the New America Foundation and NYU Center on Law & Security.

I want to also thank the people who made this conference work behind the scenes because frequently great ideas and substance get strangled by logistics -- and these folks prevented that from happening. Thanks to Jennifer Buntman, Jerry Irvine, Kartik Ramachandran, Joanna Lederman, Katie Willers, and Swati Pandey.

Here's the scoop on transcripts, tapes, and weblinks.

1. You can watch the C-Span tape of the conference at your convenience over the internet by clicking here. You will see several listings, but scroll down to the ones noting the New America Foundation and NYU Center on Law & Security Al Qaeda conference. Part One is 1 hour and 50 minutes long, and part two is 7 hours and 45 minutes.

The C-Span tapes do not appear to be up for sale, as of yet.

2. The New America Foundation will be digitizing its own version of the conference, dividing panel by panel, and posting links on its site. The sound and production quality will not be anywhere as good as that of the C-Span recording, but we cannot digitize and offer C-Span's tape. This will offer the opportunity to people to enjoy more bite size pieces of the conference. This will probably be up by Tuesday or Wednesday of this next week.

3. New America Foundation will also produce video tapes which are copies made of our tape from the conference. We can probably copy these for those who most want or need them -- but given that the entire conference ran for nearly 10 hours, we need to figure out the number of tapes needed for this to work. There will also be some cost involved for those who request them. When that is determined, I will post the amount and contact person here on the web for those interested.

4. Although I generally don't like to produce transcripts of events because they are rarely read, we are going to produce transcripts for this event. It will take at least a week and probably two weeks to produce a full transcript of this conference. I am trying to find a way to make it faster, but that is what the length of probable time is as I look at it right now. What will be produced is only a rough cut at the transcript, rather than an edited version. This will be made available to journalists and others who request it, but it will not be posted on New America's site or the website of the NYU Center on Law & Security.

5. Edited transcripts will be available to the public at some point. We will most likely have a web-based version that is downloadable and a print version that can be made available at some reasonable fee to cover the cost of production and mailing. The NYU Center on Law & Security is going to take the lead on editing this set of presentations, and we are in discussions about the possibility of producing a book -- but that will be a much longer term venture.

So, this is what the distribution of conference content will look like. I'll keep you posted as I learn more.

-- Steve Clemons

Yesterday in the Russell Senate Office Building where we were holding the Al Qaeda 2.0 Conference, Howard Dean walked by and looked slightly interested in the proceedings before running into a meeting room that didn't seem to belong to any particular Senator or Committee.

I tracked him down the hall and told Governor Dean that I was very tardy on writing a debate piece for American Prospect magazine where I was going to argue why he was the better candidate than John Kerry. Garance Franke-Ruta is going to advocate for Kerry, and she attended the conference too.

Dean told me he'd be very interested in checking out that debate.

So, now I really need to finish the first round of writing this exchange with Garance.

Then, John Kerry walked by. He really did. About 30 minutes later. . .same hall, different room.

But he was no fun -- not interested in the conference, or all the cameras, or any of the interesting people. He was above it all. Dean was curious. Remember the criticism about George Bush not being a curious guy?

Well, Dean was more curious than Kerry about the conference we had. There's one check mark in Dean's favor.

But I am wondering what brought Howard Dean and John Kerry to the same hall of the same Senate Office Building within 30 minutes of each other. Take a guess at whose office dominates the hall.

That's right. Ted Kennedy.

My hunch is that there were some negotiations going on yesterday about leadership of the Democratic Party, and with Kerry's election loss and Dean's spot in political purgatory, the guy whose ring needs to be kissed is still Ted Kennedy.

I am not going to analyze this. I am still too doped up on Allegra, Cepacol and Robitussin to think clearly. Just for the record, everything I have written except seeing Howard Dean and John Kerry walk by our mega-conference is speculation.

But I'm delaying the biggest media news about our Al Qaeda terrorism conference.

Last night, though it was not a Top Ten Countdown, David Letterman was spoofing the many holiday specials running on every network and then turned to check out what C-Span was offering and said that his second pick of several C-Span options to watch was "the New America Foundation's Holiday Forum on Global Terrorism!"

No kidding.

I'm not sure why I care about our stuff making it on to the Late Show with David Letterman, but maybe serious stuff getting into comedic, mass market venues is one way to capture more public attention.

And besides, our conference deserved to be talked about on the Letterman Show.

Thanks Dave.

-- Steve Clemons

Folks, the Al Qaeda 2.0 Conference discussed below went superbly, but I am exhausted and am coming down off of all the Robitussin, Cepacol, Motrin, Advil, and Tyleno Flu pills I survived on most of the day.

The event is already being replayed on C-Span, and we will soon have two versions of written transcripts -- one a quick and dirty version and the second an edited and polished transcript more appropriate for publication. I think that Karen Greenberg, Executive Director of the NYU Center on Law and Security, and I will probably edit these along with Peter Bergen.

The big disaster -- avoided because of the fancy footwork of my friend and colleague Jennifer Buntman -- was that the U.S. Capitol Police had decided (unbeknownst to us) to have a terror alert exercise, moving everyone outside at 10 a.m. this morning. We found out at 8:45 a.m. -- and we have 350 people packed in a room; the BBC, Al-Jazeera, CNN, PBS, and C-Span all filming this event, with C-Span running it live.

If this drill had occurred, many of our participants and some of our speakers would have thought it was a deliberate act by the government to disrupt the conference.

When Jenny Buntman got me on the case, I spoke to one police officer, who when I said that this would not go well in the next day's papers, just said "There will be a drill at 10 a.m. -- deal with it."

Well, this may seem like a small and trivial thing, but Jennifer Buntman did her own politicking and found a relatively highly placed U.S. Capitol Police officer who played tennis regularly with Senator John Breaux, who arranged this extraordinary room for us in the Russell Senate Office Building.

Either this guy cancelled the drill because he was sensible and knew that there would be all sorts of unexpected and negative repercussions from the drill, or he cancelled it because Jenny Buntman, a star tennis player, offered this guy a game.

I don't care what got us out of this mess -- but many of you got to see the show go on because Jenny Buntman and other members of our team were overcoming behind the scenes challenges all day.

And as Paul Harvey used to say, "And that's the rest of the story."

Good night.

-- Steve Clemons

But we are way oversubscribed! Always a good problem. I just sent the note below to the email list for the New America Foundation and wanted readers of TWN to see this as well.

We want you to attend -- but just expect the place to be crowded, and bring a couple of cookies or a sandwich in case we run out of lunches.

If you missed the outline of the conference, click here.

But the rest of you who cannot attend, or want to be comfortable, watch the session live on C-Span 2, which can also be watched over the web at C-Span's site.

Here is what New America's email list received:

Dear Friends & Colleagues:

Steve Clemons
Sr. Fellow, New America Foundation
and
Publisher, The Washington Note

My cold is still in full swing, but I am doing a one-hour long radio interview talk show today on "Your Call with Farai Chideya," KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco.

The subject is the falling dollar and what that means for you (and me).

I plan to gargle with NyQuil just before the show starts -- and before I go any further, many thanks to all of you who have sent cold remedies. I'm trying them all.

If you are not in the Bay area and want to hear the show on line, you may listen to it here over the web.

The program starts at 10 a.m. if you are on the West Coast and at 1 p.m. if you are on the East Coast. If you are somewhere in the middle or beyond the edges, you can figure it out.

More later, if I survive. I was glad to see that I didn't have the Family Research Council protesting outside my door after posting this (vulgar, vulgar, vulgar...but patriotic) music video yesterday.

I need to go sneeze, and find the NyQuil.

-- Steve Clemons