I completely didn't see this coming. Barak Obama has just won the Nobel Peace Prize. From Salon.com:

President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama's name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president...

The Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage. The plaudit appeared to be a slap at President George W. Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama's predecessor for resorting to largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
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Tom Perriello was one of the candidates I most wanted to win...but who was definitely a long shot. I figured it was a case of someone I HAD to support because he was so good, but I'd probably lose.

Why did I like him so much? His diplomatic experience was superb and I figure we need some of that right about now. You can read about the context of his diplomatic experience with regards to Sierra Leone in my book review of a book about the Sierra Leone civil war.

Well, with the recount all done, it is now official: Tom Perriello won the Congressional race for the VA-5 district. He won by about 750 votes. Yet ANOTHER example of how EVERY SINGLE VOTE COUNTS, and why YOU should be active in your local politics. You matter!

Here is Tom's comments on officially winning:
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We know American media kind of sucks. In fact, it tends to be so right wing biased that even lies from the Republicans are reported as truth and true statements by Democrats are reported as being controversial.

I prefer getting my news from various sources. NPR, Salon.com and CurrentTV are good American sources of news. But I also like getting foreign news. BBC is excellent most of the time. But I also get email updates from Guysen International News, an Israeli news source that actually seems pretty right wing. I do not always agree with their editorial slant, but I do find their news enlightening.

On July 29th they had a series of headlines that pretty much contradicts American media on American news. I think this serves as something of an indication of how bad American reporting is.

First, American media and the Republican Party are telling us, in the imortal words of the first President Bush, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" about the economy. Bush and McCain keep telling us things aren't so bad, we aren't in a recession and it's all in our minds. Well, it seems Israel sees it differently:
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While Bush yammers about development of nuclear weapons by Iraq (based on the word of Chalabi, someone KNOWN to be unreliable) and Iran, North Korea has largely been ignored since they actually showed they COULD detonate a nuke. The lesson Bush taught the world is better be ready to detonate before you talk because he's too scared to challenge you if you really have nukes.

Deals have been made and broken by N. Korea over and over. Recently, though, Bush out of the blue sends Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico, four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and candidate for President, to N. Korea supposedly to negotiate the return of the remains of US soldiers who died in the Korean War.

Well, Richardson succeeded in negotiating the return of the soldiers' remains, but what really made news was the fact that he ALSO seems to have negotiated some progress in the stalemate with N. Korea over their nuclear program. The deal that was apparently reached was some money N. Korea wants would be unfrozen in exchange for the return of UN inspectors.

Now it seems like maybe, just maybe, more was negotiated. There are reports on BBC News that N. Korea may be shutting down its controversial reactor:
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