A few quick things:
1) The Safadi Foundation’s blog (which is good, you should read it) has a useful recap of yesterday’s House Foreign Affairs Middle East Central Asia Subcommittee’s hearing with Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman. Among the highlights, the following question from Chairman Gary Ackerman (who once coordinated with Michel Aoun to turn SALSRA from a dream into a reality… AIG, correct me if I’m wrong about that):
In the two areas we are trying to improve relations with Syria mainly bilateral relations and Middle East peace, are we going to be willing to pay in Lebanese coins?
You see, we’re not being paranoid. Politicians really do talk like that. Click the jump to read more.
2) Rob, of Arabic Media Shack fame, now has a new blog. Wasn’t it Cicero who said that you can take the man out of the blog, but you can’t teach him new tricks? Or something like that. Anyway, subscribe to his RSS feed, but not if you haven’t already subscribed to mine!
3) Listen to Philippe Skaff (president of Lebanon’s Green Party) and Ziad Baroud (Interior Minister/Superman) explain why Lebanon needs urgent billboard reform. (Hint: it has something to do with the panneau blocking the madame from walking along the trottoire with her poussette.)
Qifa Nabki 
Hello,
The main sponsors for the SALSRA of 2003 were Eliot Engel [NY-17] and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [FL-18].
I think Gary Ackerman was already a rep… but i don’t think he voted for the act per se.
kappa
Posted by kappa273 | October 30, 2009, 6:19 pmMuhamad Safadi and development of civil society in Lebanon, that’s a joke. Can he tell us about his role through one of his offices in London in the infamous Bandar Bin Sultan’s BAE scandal?!
Posted by Jihad | October 31, 2009, 7:22 pm