According to The Economist, the five PEW Global Attitudes surveys since 2000 "provide strong evidence that anti-Americanism is more than a blip associated with Mr Bush or Iraq". The PEW polls, which The Economist calls "the gold standard of international opinion surveys", indicate that resentment is not limited any longer to the US president or the United States as a country. Rather the positive image of the American people has declined considerably in 9 of the 12 countries that have been surveyed since 2002, including Great Britain, Poland, Canada, Germany, France, Russia, Indonesia, Jordan and Turkey. While 70% of Germans had a positive view of Americans in 2002, it is only 65% according to the latest PEW survey. Three out of four Germans consider Americans as "inventive", but about half say Americans are "violent" and "greedy."

"Favorability ratings of the U.S. have risen slightly in Germany to 41% (up from 38% in 2004), but remain lower than in 2003 (45%) and considerably lower than in 2002 (61%). 60% of Americans now have a favorable view of Germany, up from 50% last year. But this remains far below the 83% favorable rating in February 2002." Germany received better favorability ratings than the United States, France, Japan and China in this poll, which was conducted in 16 nations. The US was even less popular than China. Amnesty International's China reports seem to be little known.

Pretty good news for the Fulbright program: Yesterday, the House of Representatives approved legislation to fund the public diplomacy and exchange programs of the Department of State for the fiscal year 2006:

"The bill, H.R. 2862, includes $410.4 million for the Department’s educational and cultural exchange programs, an increase of $54.468 million above the FY 2005 level, but $20 million below the President’s budget request. As previously reported by the Alliance, the Senate has not yet scheduled a mark-up session for its version of the State Department funding bill."

This quote and further information from the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange can be found the US Fulbright Association's homepage.

“Some have said that sending you to the U.N. would be like sending Nixon to China. I'm afraid it would be more like sending a bull into a china shop," said Senator Joe Biden to John Bolton, President Bush's nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Jon Stewart's Daily Show sums up the arguments against John Bolton. Short video footage from the Senate hearings.

John Bolton “would be far from the first US envoy to the UN to have the word "controversial" often cited in front of his name,“ writes the Christian Science Monitor. The UN Security Council is “one of the few international forums where we are one of many. We feel we need a distinctive, pointed voice there," remarks Thomas Carothers from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the same article.