I have heard from a definitive, first tier source tonight. Barack Obama’s VP selection process has not played itself out. There will be no announcement that Evan Bayh is his running mate tomorrow when the Democratic presidential candidate appears in Indiana.

My phone is ringing off the hook. Some top sources tell me that they buy Bahy’s denial. One high source tells me not to count the pro-life Virginia Governor Tim Kaine out. Another says Biden is still kicking. . .

Rumors are flying that tomorrow in Indiana, Barack Obama is going to name Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) as his running mate. Bayh denies it — and says that he doesn’t think anything special is being cooked up tomorrow. This all could be a head fake — or a couple of head fakes.

This debate over oil and energy policy disgusts me because both Obama and McCain are trying to force short term, knee jerk responses to a major policy challenge for the nation. I remember hearing John McCain once tell me that “Congress never makes good policy decisions in the heat of a crisis.

This video of a seemingly innocent taxi getting demolished by a tank in Iraq has awakened in me all of the reasons we must withdraw from that country. American soldiers are too distant from the fate of Iraqis and on a systems basis can’t ever act in their interests.

(UT Austin LBJ School Dean and potential Obama National Security Advisor candidate James Steinberg) There are four horses out front — way ahead of everyone else who might be considered.

Peter Rodman died of complications from leukemia on Saturday, August 2nd. I didn’t know he was ill, and over the last decade we weren’t close friends but were well acquainted. I think he disliked my foreign policy views and political direction quite a bit — but he was always a gentleman when we crossed paths.

Gung Ho Films Director Michael McDermott in Beijing just sent me these pics of his computer in Beijing. For the first, time he has been able to access Amnesty International and BBC Chinese over the net.

(photo credit: Michael McDermott) My friend Michael McDermott runs the largest foreign film production operation in Beijing, Gung Ho Films, and he sent me this photo that he took on August 1st in Beijing. I have to admit that the air ‘looks’ good — which may bode well for the Olympic Games.

My good friend James Fallows turns 59 today. Wish him a happy birthday. He’s done tons for this country.