Wow

US totally grifted by random Afghan:

For months, the secret talks unfolding between Taliban and Afghan leaders to end the war appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the appearance of a certain insurgent leader at one end of the table: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement.

But now, it turns out, Mr. Mansour was apparently not Mr. Mansour at all. In an episode that could have been lifted from a spy novel, United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor, and high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appear to have achieved little.

“It’s not him,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved in the discussions. “And we gave him a lot of money.”

It really just kind of sums everything up, huh.

Severe own goal

I can't believe this happened. Really? Really, Ehud Olmert?

Condi Rice sponsored a U.N. ceasefire resolution. Olmert wasn't happy. Olmert called Bush, Bush called Rice, Rice abstained from the U.N. vote.

How do I know this is the chain of events? Because Olmert said so in public.

...

So. Condi already just got herself humiliated and backstabbed by Bush (and, it turns out, Olmert) at the U.N. at the end of her tenure as Secretary of State. Now Olmert is going to go out and tell the world that this happened because he "shamed" Bush into it?

Olmert is going to simultaneously humiliate his greatest and staunchest ally and confirm the Arab and global perception that Israel is the tail that is wagging our particular dog?

I don't know what to make of this other than to say that that was incredibly stupid. So stupid was it that I assumed I must have read something wrong at first. Especially given how the Gaza offensive has been going and the timing of this incident, this is going to come back to haunt Israel but good. As Levy wrote (linked above):

This is not a way to publicly treat your friends. What example does this set for Israel with its other friends when the prime minister embarrasses an outgoing president and secretary of state in this way? Message to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton: whatever you do for Israel over the next four to eight years, don’t be surprised if this is the gratitude you get. Not a clever message.

[...]

When world leaders take phone calls from their Israeli counterparts and are convinced to take on-board an Israeli position and act on it, should they now always expect to be similarly publicly humiliated?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece

HAHAHAHAHA BRILLIANT.

Biblical satire of Obama's world tour. It's pitch-perfect. LOVES IT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--Vaz9jW054

Hilarity from a Hungarian rapper (yes, that's what I said) and peacenik.

You have to watch all the way through to the end when the one guy starts riffing on the melody.

Okay, so.

A while ago, Nouri al-Maliki, the president of Iraq, said that he likes Obama's plan for a 16-month withdrawal of US troops. By name. He said "Obama."

So this leaves John McCain pretty well fucked. He's been arguing for a continued troop presence in Iraq, and the president of that nation just came out and said he was wrong. The campaign has argued that al-Maliki doesn't actually believe this, that he's just playing domestic politics, but that's a dumb-ass argument--all it says is that the Iraqi people, more than one man, want us out. Oh, well, then, guess we should settle on in.

On top of it all, Obama is expected to have a million people at his rally in Germany, making it the largest political rally in German history. Just think about that for a minute.

This is an ouchy weekend for McCain.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16229.html#more-16229

This is really interesting. Obama's about to go on a grand tour of Europe and the Middle East. People there are really excited about it. He's got between 53% and 72% variables in England, France, and Germany. Leaders of Ireland and Lebanon complained he wasn't going to visit them, too.

The general line going around is that basically the world is totally ready and willing to love again. Specifically, to love the U.S. again, and Obama is the key to its heart.

Such a big deal is this that CBS, NBC, and I forget what other network are actually going to FOLLOW HIM AROUND and do their nightly broadcasts from campaign stops. I mean, damn.

The McCain camp is kind of hung from their own petard on this one. They made their overseas trips at the height of the Democratic primary battle, and they made a big deal of agitating for Obama to go overseas. Now he is, and he's getting massive amounts of attention for it, partly due to their hammering away at him for not having gone before. Oops.