• The resignation of Ehud Olmert could begin a chaotic period in Israel. Olmert said he'd step down in September, after the ruling party, Kadima, had selected a new leader. Here's what is going to happen next:
  Primary elections for the Kadima leadership will take place in two rounds in September. The winner will then have 28 days (and 14 more if needed) to form a coalition. If he or she succeeds in doing so, the winner will complete Olmert's term, due to end in 2010. If not, new elections will be held within three months - and the most likely outcome, according to current polls, would be a win for Likud rightwinger Binyamin Netanyahu.
  Sharon formed Kadima by combining moderates that defected from Likud with Labour, and a few smaller parties, to form a majority, and Olmert succeeded him. Its up in the air whether either of the two mentioned leaders (Livni or Mofaz) would be able to continue the coalition. There's a lot of speculation about what's next, and some poll numbers showing it very close. Livni would be much more preferable than Mofaz or Netanyahu, as the next PM of Israel.

• In Malaysia, the AP is reporting that Anwar Ibrahim's wife is stepping down to make way for his return to Parliament in Malaysia. She resigned from a seat in the Permatang Pauh constituency in the northern part of the country, and a by-election will be held within 60 days of her resignation. His wife, Wan Azizah, had won in a landslide election in the March general election.

  When I was over there in June, and met with the PM, he mentioned that he'd heard of cases where Anwar was trying to bribe lawmakers to defect from the ruling party to the opposition party. So it's not surprising to hear him tell the same thing to the AP yesterday, that he has heard many stories about Anwar allegedly making "monetary offers" for defections. Anwar would need about 30 defections to take power in the 222 member Parliament (recent polling).

• Here's an account from a Obama supporter that came from Prague to Berlin, to listen to Obama. It really was quite an audacious move to hold a rally in Berlin for 200,000 people by Obama. His global understanding is the most compelling reason to vote for Obama. And there's little doubt that the McCain campaign is trying to make Obama's Berlin speech at the Victory Column his "Mission Accomplished" moment, with their Celeb ad, which has become the current #1 video on YouTube in the past few days. Much has been said about the layers of attack in this ad, but the focus on Hilton & Spears (which Ruffini gives a 'triple' rating) overshadows the 'issue-based' attack over Obama meaning "New Taxes" and more "Foreign Oil" with the text of 'foreign' next to Obama's face.

  That, and shake up Obama with some attacks on his campaign style of often joking about the attacks that are made over his being black. This move seemed like it was planned out quite a bit ahead of time, and the unstable cover given by Obama's staff was overly defensive. Martin and Smith have a very good account of how the race issue moved to center of campaign, and Scott Rosenberg notes that its about that time... August in an election year.
  

Update [2008-8-1 11:1:35 by Jerome Armstrong]:I just received this statement from Al Gore (this is in regards to the sodomy charges against Anwar):