The Italian edition of Vanity Fair said that it had found George Hussein Onyango Obama living in a hut in a ramshackle town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Mr Obama, 26, the youngest of the presidential candidate’s half-brothers, spoke for the first time about his life, which could not be more different than that of the Democratic contender.

“No-one knows who I am,” he told the magazine, before claiming: “I live here on less than a dollar a month.”

According to Italy’s Vanity Fair his two metre by three metre shack is decorated with football posters of the Italian football giants AC Milan and Inter, as well as a calendar showing exotic beaches of the world.

Vanity Fair also noted that he had a front page newspaper picture of his famous brother - born of the same father as him, Barack Hussein Obama, but to a different mother, named only as Jael.

He told the magazine: “I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist.”

They do now George.

Students for a Free Tibet has an update:

Beijing - Brian Conley, creator of the well-known videoblog, Alive in Baghdad, was detained with his friend, Jeffrey Rae, early Tuesday, August 19th in Beijing. Their detention appears to have taken place at the same time as that of international artist James Powderly, whose detention was reported Tuesday. Three other bloggers and activists, Jeff Goldin, Michael Liss, and Tom Grant, have also been missing since Tuesday morning. Conley, 28, Rae, 28, Goldin, 40, Liss, 35, Grant, 39 are all American citizens.

The five “citizen journalists” and activists were in Beijing to support and promote human rights, freedom of expression, and freedom for the Tibetan people. They and numerous others have acted as an independent media centre for the dozens of pro-Tibet activists in Beijing who have sought to draw attention to the Chinese government’s occupation of Tibet during the Olympics. Rae and Conley shot and released online high-resolution photographs and footage of the recent protest by Students for a Free Tibet supporters at the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park.

A little additional information has leaked out - but not much:

At about noon Tuesday, Conley’s wife in Philadelphia received a text message from him reading “In Jail. All fine.”

Events like this just focus additional attention on a question many more people should be asking. Just why does the IOC allow brutal totalitarian governments like China to host the Olympics?

Update:
Follow the discussion on Twitter.

Related:
Alive in Baghdad (Brian Conley)
BaghdadBrian (Brian Conley on Twitter)

Folks are thinking that Obama needs to add someone with, you know, actual experience to the ticket. Howard Fineman sees the Obama camp leaning toward Biden:

Within the last few hours I’ve spoken with two of the finalists for the role of Barack Obama’s running-mate, and to two other sources who are close to the process.

My bottom line is this: Barring a big surprise or last-minute change of heart, the choice is likely to be Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

He is a lively and feisty if unpredictable campaigner with working-class roots and a street-level feel for the hot spots of the globe — which he can use to go toe-to-toe with Sen. John McCain.

Unpredictable? That word doesn’t quite do Joe Biden justice:

Biden would be the worst of the likely choices for Obama since he comes from a solidly blue state, nobody cares that he’s traveled around the world, and he’s a giant, gaffe-prone goof ball.

Put aside Biden’s gaffe-prone-goof-ballness, for a second, and there’s still a massive problem facing Obama. An Obama-Biden ticket raises a very important question - one that will have voters scratching their heads. Why is the experienced guy playing second string? This question is coming up regardless of Obama’s selected running mate. He can’t possibly select a running mate that has less experience than he does (a T.G.I Friday’s assistant manager perhaps?) so he’ll have to deal with the internal experience gap either way. His camp will probably try to deflect the question by positioning the VP choice as a integral part of the administration, not just a tie-breaking funeral attender. He, or she, will be a new kind of VP. Right.

Selecting Biden would raise other issues:

Fineman lists the reasons for that popular line of thought but Biden’s own words during the primaries before he dropped out of the presidential race could come back to haunt Obama as well as Biden if he is the choice.

On ABC News’ “Political Radar” Blog, 8/2/07, Joe Biden lashed out at Obama saying, “Having talking points on foreign policy doesn’t get you there.”

As reported by SunTimes, George Stephanopoulos asked Biden and said, “You were asked is he ready. You said ‘I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.”

Biden’s response was clear when he stated, “I think that I stand by the statement.”

Those statements won’t be deal breakers but Obama and Biden will have to dance as fast as they can to explain them and the excuses will be transparent. It will be politics as usual from the Obama camp - not change.

Update:
Biden is sort of denying that he’s the pick - sort of:

Biden returned from his outing to dial back his “its not me” statement from earlier.

He rolled down his passenger side window and said to reporters don’t you have anything better to do?

The “It’s not me” from earlier is now “I have not spoken with anyone” repeated several times to several different questions.

Have you spoken to the Obama campaign?

“I have not spoken to anyone.”

So you’re not ruling out you could be picked?

“I have not spoken to anyone.”

“You guys know as well as I do,’ he said as he drove down his driveway with admonitions that your staker outers should be careful on the treacherous road outside his house.

Stay tuned.

I like adventure too - but you have to take your brain along if you want to survive. Mr. Kearney left his at home, too much Xtreme Mountain Dew perhaps, but got lucky (assuming he recovers) anyway.

NR has learned that the McCain campaign has been calling key state GOP officials around the country the last couple of days and sounding them out about the consequences of a pro-choice VP pick. The campaign is asking about the reaction of conservative grass-roots activists to such a pick and whether a pro-choicer can be sold to them.

This has, not unexpectedly, set off a round of conservative hand-wringing. Michelle Malkin gets right to the point:

Is McCain going to screw conservatives (again)?

Wouldn’t put it past him. Would you? Which is why, despite all the encomiums he’s received from his Saddleback appearance, I haven’t joined the ga-ga bandwagon (and won’t).

Dan Riehl, who shares my relative lack of interest in the abortion issue, sees a more fundamental flaw in McCain:

I don’t consider myself Pro-Choice or Pro-Life in the contexts they generally seem to be defined. The abortion issue has simply never been a primary driver in my political views. Unfortunately, what we’re hearing from McCain as per above would likely make it extremely difficult to actively support him in the Fall.

This trial balloon, and I hope that’s all it is, suggests McCain is determined to always do things his way, do only that which he wants to do to such an extent as to call his judgment as a political leader into question.

Besides that, at 71, he would be setting up, at best, a middling Republican like Ridge to take his place in 4 or even 8 years. And Lieberman, though I respect him, is out of the question for me, too. He’s far too Liberal beyond his national defense views.

If that’s McCain’s wish, it’s his campaign. Frankly, what he should do is select a qualified genuinely conservative woman. I suspect that combination couldn’t be beaten in the Fall.

Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, if it’s always going to be “John’s way,” he can go it alone. He simply wouldn’t be the man to unite, let alone lead the Republican Party.

I’d rather ignore politics for a spell as I did during the early Clinton years and find something else to occupy my time. Let the Dems have it and muck it up. We’ll just have to gamble on coming back in 4 years - hopefully with better leadership.

I’m not nearly as pessimistic as Michelle and Dan although I understand where they’re coming from. John McCain is far from my ideal candidate. He is, however, the only man running against Barack Obama. In McCain we have a highly experienced war hero with rock solid national security credentials and a less than ideal, from the conservative perspective, domestic track record. So, a McCain presidency is not conservative nirvana but it’s far better than the alternative.

McCain is running against a man with a resume so thin he can hardly be called a serious candidate. I’m not going to refuse to participate in the political process, or toss a vote to the guy who body surfed during the Georgian War, because John McCain, or his VP choice, isn’t perfect. That is inviting disaster.

Update:
More from Dan:

Blogs of War has a good round-up of blogger reax. He’d still be with McCain and I understand his points. Problem is, it would so de-motivate a critical portion of the base McCain needs - I honestly believe the issue would be moot. It would end up Obama hands down due to McCain’s poor choice and lack of respect for a significant portion of the Republican base.

If he can’t respect them, why should they respect him as a candidate for President? Actually, it would be more than a lack of respect for them he’d be demonstrating - contempt might be a better word at this point.

Others Blogging:

Right Wing News
Honestly, I think that if this is really the batch it’s down to (and who really knows), I’d go with Pawlenty because he’s the only one who wouldn’t rile up the right. At this point, given that Obama and McCain are neck and neck, I don’t think McCain needs to reopen wounds with conservatives by taking a VP who reminds them of why they didn’t like him in the first place (and yes, with segments of the GOP base, Mitt Romney would produce that same reaction). At this point, a “better safe than sorry” VP pick should beat a “high risk/high reward” selection for McCain.

Commentary Magazine
All that said, I do agree that Barack Obama has proven himself to be so extreme on social issues and so frivolous on matters of national security that McCain, rightly or wrongly, may feel empowered to choose a candidate who is less than ideal to the conservative base. Where are they going to go on Election day? (”Home!” might be the answer, but McCain may not be convinced.)

The Other McCain
McCain brings enough seniority and national-security cred for the ticket. What he needs is a fresh, energetic, popular domestic-policy guy — Pawlenty or Jindal. It’s important for McCain to have a young CONSERVATIVE running mate, to reassure conservatives about the future of the Republican Party in the post-McCain era.

I Took the Red Pill
Pro-choice people are more than welcome in the Republican Party as voters, but not as leaders who could have a profound impact on policy. Just like pro-life people are more than welcome in the Democrat Party as voters, but not as leaders who could have a profound impact on policy.

The Independent Streak
With two of the country’s most prominent conservative magazines mentioning the possibility, is McCain seriously thinking about picking Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), whom McCain often refers to as his “favorite Democrat?” Obviously, such a move could help shore up support among independents and inject an element of excitement into the campaign with the prospect of a bi-partisan ticket. But many religious conservatives have warned that this would spell disaster for McCain among this pillar of the GOP base.

The computer models have mostly been in agreement (and quite accurate) this season but, as Dr. Jeff Masters points out, they’re all over the map with Fay:

The computer models continue to disagree on the long-term path of Fay. Most of the models now agree that the trough of low pressure pulling the storm to the north will not be strong enough to finish the job. Fay will probably be left behind by the trough, and forced westward by a ridge of high pressure expected to build in. The official NHC forecast keeps Fay over Florida and turns the storm to the west over southern Georgia. However, most of the models expect this turn to occur further south, and have been trending further south in recent runs. I give Fay a 60% chance surviving its traverse over Florida, then turning back to the west over the northern Gulf of Mexico by Saturday. This would allow the storm to regenerate, before potentially making landfall again along the northern Gulf Coast between New Orleans and the Florida Panhandle early next week. The GFDL has the rather unnerving solution of pushing Fay out into the Atlantic Wednesday, intensifying it to a strong Category 2 hurricane that then hits the Georgia/Florida border region Friday night. The HWRF is similar, but foresees that Fay will only be a 50-55 mph tropical storm when it hits Georgia. Given the rather high levels of wind shear (15-20 knots) predicted to be over Fay late this week, plus Fay’s recent inability to build an eyewall in the 24 hours it had over the Florida Straits, I am discounting the GFDL model’s solution of a hurricane hitting Georgia. However, Fay may push out to into the Atlantic far enough to regenerate some on Thursday or Friday, before it is forced back west again over northern Florida or southern Georgia.

A track over the Gulf of Mexico would present the worst case scenario for this storm since it’s warm waters would present Fay will an opportunity to strengthen. You can follow Fay with my collection of hurricane resources.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Tuesday that the Russians are not now honoring the terms.

“There can be no business as usual with Russia under the present circumstances,” Scheffer said.

The announcement came after foreign ministers from NATO member nations gathered in Belgium for an emergency meeting over the crisis between Russia and Georgia which also involved U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Hopes of resolving the conflict had been boosted when on Tuesday Georgia and Russia exchanged soldiers who had been captured during the fighting, then Russia agreed to a beefed-up monitoring mission for Georgia’s disputed region of South Ossetia.

Russia also began deploying troops from the strategically key Georgian city of Gori, The Associated Press reported.

Rice arrived at NATO headquarters on Tuesday a day after saying that Moscow was playing “a dangerous game” by re-asserting its power across the border.

NATO ministers were expected to discuss what the alliance can do to support Georgia and “deny Russia’s strategic objectives,” Rice said.

NATO’s internal debate, which centers around the level of diplomatic contact with Russia, is relatively modest:

Washington called on Nato nations to consider at least suspending ministerial meetings with Russia, but Britain and others said it would be counter-productive to cut channels of communication with Moscow now.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who attended the meeting, is flying to Georgia to voice support to Tbilisi.

Before leaving he told Sky News: “Russia wants to be a respected international player and it can only be so if it lives up to its international commitments.

“I think it’s important that we don’t pursue a policy of trying to isolate Russia. What we need is hard-headed engagement. But we will make sure it’s not business as usual.”

The possibility of Georgian membership in NATO won’t be officially discussed until December:

Membership Action Plan (MAP) status for Georgia and Ukraine is due to be reviewed at a December meeting.

“I don’t expect that we will — and nor have we sought to — accelerate MAP for Georgia,” Rice said.

“We have said that was a matter for December and we will take that up in December.”

Some Obama supporters are claiming that McCain saw the questions before the forum began, giving him a leg up on Obama.

They’re dead wrong. That’s just sour grapes. They both did fantastically well. The only question he knew, I gave them the first question and I was changing the questions within an hour [before the forum began.] I talked to both of them a week before the debate and told them all the themes. I talked personally to John McCain and I talked personally to Barack Obama. I said, ‘We’ll talk about leadership, talk about the roles of government,’ I said I’d probably have a question about climate change, probably a question on the courts. I didn’t say, ‘I’m going to ask which Supreme Court justice would you not [nominate]. They were clearly not prepared for that.

A source at the debate tells me that McCain had access to some communications devices in the few minutes before he went on stage with you and that there was a monitor in his green room, in violation of the debate rules.

That’s absolutely a lie, absolutely a lie. That room was totally free, with no monitors–a flat out lie.

Democrats, not surprisingly, see some sort of Christianist conspiracy at work.

A Russian general on Monday said troops have begun withdrawing from Georgia despite reports that they are moving deeper into Georgian territory.

The statement by General Anatoly Nogovitsyn comes amid uncertainty about whether Russia is fulfilling President Dmitry Medvedev’s promise to begin the pullout Monday.

Nogovitsyn told a briefing that “today, according to the peace plan, the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers and reinforcements has begun.”

Georgia, however, sees reportedly sees no signs that a Russian pullout is occurring:

“The situation still remains unchanged. We see no signs of a pullout,” the Secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council, Alexander Lomaia, said.

“Entry to the city of Gori is practically impossible,” he added, referring to checkpoints on the road to Gori which lies 60km outside Tbilisi.

He added that there were still “dozens” of Russian checkpoints on the country’s main road between the village of Igoeti - 40km west of Tbilisi - to the central city of Khashuri.

I certainly do not trust the Russians on this one but it may take a few days to get the troops and equipment pulled back. We’ll know soon enough.

It’s shameful and shamefully obvious what’s going on here, it actually somewhat began with Reagan. Call the Republican candidate dumb, or not sharp enough until it begins to sink in. Then, when they debunk that myth by besting the Democrat one on one - well, it had to have been cheating.

…Pity the dumbest of the lot here seems to be the media that either goes along with this garbage out of passion, or lacks the intelligence to grasp what’s going on and point it out.

Dumb accurately describes Andrea Mitchell’s decision to uncritically repeat the transparent accusation:

Andrea Mitchell’s floating of the Obama-camp accusation that John McCain cheated by overhearing Obama’s responses at the Saddleback forum, as NewsBuster D.S. Hube reported, isn’t the first time the NBC correspondent has made herself propagator-in-chief of Obama’s conspiracy theories.

The McCain did not tkae Mitchell’s report lightly. They quickly responded in a letter to the President of NBC News:

We are extremely disappointed to see that the level of objectivity at NBC News has fallen so low that reporters are now giving voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims in order to undercut John McCain.

Nowhere was this more evident than with NBC chief correspondent Andrea Mitchell’s comments on “Meet the Press” this morning. In analyzing last night’s presidential forum at Saddleback Church, Mitchell expressed the Obama campaign spin that John McCain could only have done so well last night because he “may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama.” Here are Andrea Mitchell’s comments in full:

Mitchell: “The Obama people must feel that he didn’t do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because what they are putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well-prepared.” (NBC’s “Meet The Press,” 8/17/08)

Make no mistake: This is a serious charge. Andrea Mitchell is repeating, uncritically, a completely unsubstantiated Obama campaign claim that John McCain somehow cheated in last night’s forum at Saddleback Church. Instead of trying to substantiate this blatant falsehood in any way, Andrea Mitchell felt that she needed to repeat it on air to millions of “Meet the Press” viewers with no indication that 1.) There’s not one shred of evidence that it’s true; 2.) In his official correspondence to both campaigns, Pastor Rick Warren provided both candidates with information regarding the topic areas to be covered, which Barack Obama acknowledged during the forum when asked about Pastor Warren’s idea of an emergency plan for orphans and Obama said, “I cheated a little bit. I actually looked at this idea ahead of time, and I think it is a great idea;” 3.) John McCain actually requested that he and Barack Obama do the forum together on stage at the same time, making these kinds of after-the-fact complaints moot.

Indeed, instead of taking a critical journalistic approach to this spin, Andrea Mitchell did what has become a pattern for her of simply repeating Obama campaign talking points.

This is irresponsible journalism and sadly, indicative of the level of objectivity we have witnessed at NBC News this election cycle. Instead of examining the Obama campaign’s spin for truth before reporting it to more than 3 million NBC News viewers, Andrea Mitchell simply passed along Obama campaign conspiracy theories. The fact is that during Senator Obama’s segment at Saddleback last night, Senator McCain was in a motorcade to the event and then held in a green room with no broadcast feed. In the forum, John McCain clearly demonstrated to the American people that he is prepared to be our next President…..

We are concerned that your News Division is following MSNBC’s lead in abandoning non-partisan coverage of the Presidential race. We would like to request a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss our deep concerns about the news standards and level of objectivity at NBC.

Sincerely,

Rick Davis
Campaign Manager
John McCain 2008