Soviet Russia Claims South Ossetia

(From The Times)

Kremlin announces that South Ossetia will join 'one united Russian state'

Tony Halpin in Moscow

The Kremlin moved swiftly to tighten its grip on Georgia’s breakaway regions yesterday as South Ossetia announced that it would soon become part of Russia, which will open military bases in the province under an agreement to be signed on Tuesday.

Tarzan Kokoity, the province’s Deputy Speaker of parliament, announced that South Ossetia would be absorbed into Russia soon so that its people could live in “one united Russian state” with their ethnic kin in North Ossetia.

The declaration came only three days after Russia defied international criticism and recognised South Ossetia and Georgia’s other separatist region of Abkhazia as independent states. Eduard Kokoity, South Ossetia’s leader, agreed that it would form part of Russia within “several years” during talks with Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian President, in Moscow.

The disclosure will expose Russia to accusations that it is annexing land regarded internationally as part of Georgia. Until now, the Kremlin has insisted that its troops intervened solely to protect South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgian “aggression”.

Interfax news quoted an unidentified Russian official as saying that Moscow also planned to establish two bases in Abkhazia. Sergei Shamba, Abkhazia’s Foreign Minister, said that an agreement on military co-operation would be signed within a month.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that agreements on “peace, co-operation and mutual assistance with Abkhazia and South Ossetia” were being prepared on the orders of President Medvedev. Abkhazia said that it would ask Russia to represent its interests abroad.

Georgia announced that it was recalling all diplomatic staff from its embassy in Moscow in protest at the continued Russian occupation of its land in defiance of a ceasefire agreement brokered by President Sarkozy of France. The parliament in Tbilisi declared Abkhazia and South Ossetia to be under Russian occupation.

Gigi Tsereteli, the Vice-Speaker, dismissed the threat of South Ossetia becoming part of Russia, saying: “The world has already become different and Russia will not long be able to occupy sovereign Georgian territory.

“The regimes of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should think about the fact that if they become part of Russia, they will be assimilated, and in this way they will disappear.”

Lado Gurgenidze, the Prime Minister of Georgia, scrapped agreements that had permitted Russian peacekeepers to operate in the two regions after wars in the early 1990s. He called for their replacement by international troops.

Vyacheslav Kovalenko, Moscow’s Ambassador to Georgia, described Tbilisi’s decision to sever relations as “a step towards further escalation of tensions with Russia and the desire to drive the situation into an even worse deadlock”.

Russia attacked the G7 after the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan condemned its “excessive use of military force in Georgia”. In a joint statement, they had called on Russia to “implement in full” the French ceasefire agreement.

The Foreign Ministry said that the G7 was “justifying Georgian acts of aggression” and insisted that Moscow had met its obligations under the six-point agreement.

Having been rebuffed on Thursday by China and four Central Asian states, Russia will seek support next week from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) for its recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The CSTO comprises Russia and the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The signing of the military agreement with South Ossetia will take place the day after an emergency summit of European Union leaders to discuss the crisis. The French presidency of the EU said that sanctions against Russia were not being considered, contradicting an earlier statement by Bernard Kouchner, the Foreign Minister.

Russia told the EU that any sanctions would be damaging to both sides. Andrei Nesterenko, a Foreign Ministry official, said: “We hope that common sense will prevail over emotions and that EU leaders will find the strength to reject a one-sided assessment of the conflict . . . Neither party needs the confrontation towards which some countries are being energetically pushed by the EU.”

Russia also lashed out at Nato, saying that it had “no moral right” to pass judgment on the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Foreign Ministry said: “Further sliding to confrontation with Russia and attempts to put pressure on us are unacceptable, as they can entail irreversible consequences in the military-political climate and in stability on the continent.”

The US confirmed that the flagship of its Sixth Fleet, the USS Mount Whitney, would deliver aid to Georgia next week. Two other warships are moored off Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi, and Russia has ordered its fleet to take “precautionary measures”.

Mr Medvedev has accused the US of shipping weapons to Georgia along with aid, a claim dismissed as “ridiculous” by the White House.

Another Bank Fails

The tenth bank has failed in this wonderful mortgage crisis. These banks need to learn their lesson, yet the government continues to bail-out each bank. This is good for the customers, but these companies need to learn their lesson, but how?

Here's the article from Bloomberg:

Integrity Bank Becomes 10th U.S. Failure This Year (Update2)
By Alison Vekshin and Ari Levy

Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, Georgia, was closed by U.S. regulators today, the 10th bank to collapse this year amid a surge in soured real-estate loans stemming from the worst housing slump since the Great Depression.

Integrity Bank, with $1.1 billion in assets and $974 million in deposits, was shuttered by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Regions Financial Corp., Alabama's biggest bank, will assume all deposits from Integrity, which was run by Integrity Bancshares Inc. The failed bank's five offices will open on Sept. 2 as branches of Regions, the FDIC said.

``Depositors will continue to be insured with Regions Bank so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship to retain their deposit insurance,'' the FDIC said.

Banks are being closed at the fastest pace in 14 years as financial companies report more than $505 billion in writedowns and credit losses since 2007. California lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc., which had $32 billion in assets, was closed July 11 in the third-largest bank seizure, contributing to a 14 percent drop in the U.S. deposit insurance fund that had $45.2 billion at the end of the in the second quarter.

Regions will buy about $34.4 million in assets and will pay the FDIC a premium of 1.01 percent to assume the failed bank's deposits, the FDIC said. The FDIC estimates the cost of the Integrity failure to its deposit-insurance fund will be $250 million to $300 million.

Told to Raise Capital

Integrity was ordered by federal and state regulators in May to present a capital-raising plan within 60 days. At the time, the company had been trying without success for at least eight months to raise $40 million after loans to residential and commercial developers were hurt by the collapse of the real estate market.

``Banks must meet certain regulatory minimums to ensure safety and soundness,'' Georgia bank commissioner Rob Braswell said in a telephone interview. ``When those minimums are not able to be met and solvency is in jeopardy, we have no choice but to close the institution and to place it into receivership.''

Integrity Bancshares, which sold for more than $14 a share in January 2007, closed today at 4 cents in over-the-counter trading.

The FDIC insures deposits of up to $100,000 per depositor per bank, and up to $250,000 for some retirement accounts at 8,451 institutions with $13.3 trillion in assets.

`Problem' Banks

The FDIC this week said 117 banks are classified as ``problem'' in the second quarter, a 30 percent jump from the first quarter. The agency doesn't identify ``problem'' lenders.

``More banks will come on the list as credit problems worsen,'' FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said at an Aug. 26 Washington news conference.

The credit market turmoil may topple some of the nation's biggest banks, Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said in Singapore Aug. 19.

``Like any shrinking industries, we are going to see the exit of some major players,'' Rogoff told Bloomberg, declining to name the banks he expects to fail. ``We're really going to see a consolidation even among the major investment banks.''

Before today's action, the FDIC had closed 36 banks since October 2000, according to a list at fdic.gov. The U.S. shut 11 banks in 2002, the highest in the period. In 1994 the government had closed a dozen institutions by the end of August.

U.S. regulators this year also closed Columbian Bank and Trust of Topeka, Kansas, on Aug. 22; First Priority Bank of Bradenton, Florida, on Aug. 1; Reno-based First National Bank of Nevada and Newport Beach, California-based First Heritage Bank in July; Staples, Minnesota-based First Integrity Bank and ANB Financial in Bentonville, Arkansas, in May; Hume Bank in Hume, Missouri, in March; and Douglass National Bank in Kansas City, Missouri, in January.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alison Vekshin in Washington at avekshin@bloomberg.net; Ari Levy in San Francisco at alevy5@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 29, 2008 18:17 EDT

A look at Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin is introduced as John McCain's vice presidential choice in Dayton, Ohio. Video is from C-Span via YouTube.

Reuter's news story about McCain's VP Choice Palin

Dr. James Dobson backs Palin choice, McCain

Who is Sarah Palin?
Wikipedia article
Alaska Governor's Office
McCain-Palin Campaign Website

Good Choice for McCain with Palin

In a campaign that has been about "hope" and "change", it was John McCain who picked a candidate that was not a Washington insider. Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, is as far outside of Washington as you can be, you have to leave the continental United States (the lower 48) in order to get to the wild frontier of Alaska.

As I have heard today in the media, this is what Palin has done in the past:
*journalist
*mother (hockey mom)
*member of the PTA
*member of Wasilla, AK city council
*Wasilla mayor
*Alaska governor

I am still leaning towards Bob Barr, but this new vice presidential candidate has left me wondering, does John McCain have a chance to beat the messiah? Yes. McCain picked a right person for the job. And, the Hillary Clinton supporters may cross party lines to McCain.

I will have to pay close attention to the G.O.P. Convention this coming week, this McCain-Palin ticket looks pretty good right now. Obama better be worried.

Below is an Associated Press article from Yahoo! News:
--------------------------------------

McCain chooses Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for V.P.

By LIZ SIDOTI and BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 7 minutes ago

DAYTON, Ohio - John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a maverick conservative with less than two years in office, as his vice presidential running mate Friday in a startling choice as the Republican National Convention drew near.

At a raucous rally in the swing state of Ohio, McCain introduced Palin as the political partner "who can best help me shake up Washington and make it start working again for the people who are counting on us."

Palin, the first Republican woman tapped for national office, promised: "I'm going to take our campaign to every part of our country and our message of reform to every voter of every background in every political party, or no party at all."

"... Politics isn't just a game of competing interests and clashing parties," added the woman who has built her career in large measure by challenging fellow Republicans. "The people of America expect us to seek public office and to serve for the right reasons."

In a fast-developing presidential campaign, McCain made his selection six days after his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, named Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, as his running mate.

The contrast between the two announcements was remarkable — Obama, 47, picked a 65-year-old running mate with long experience in government and a man whom he said was qualified to be president.

On his 72nd birthday, McCain chose a 44-year-old running mate who until recently was the mayor of small-town Wasilla, Alaska — and made no claim she was ready to sit in the Oval Office.

His campaign issued a statement saying she was, but even so, it wasn't a point lost on Obama's campaign.

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency," Adrianne Marsh, a spokeswoman for Obama, said in a written statement.

Unlike Biden, who attacked McCain sharply in his debut last week, Palin was indirect in her initial attempts to elevate McCain over Obama.

"There is only one candidate who has truly fought for America and that man is John McCain," she said as the Arizona senator beamed. McCain was a prisoner of war for more than five years in Vietnam.

McCain trails Obama in the polls among women voters, and Palin moved quickly to remedy that.

She mentioned that she followed in the footsteps of Geraldine Ferraro, who was the Democratic vice presidential running mate in 1984, and referred favorably to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who drew 18 million votes in her unsuccessful run against Obama for the Democratic nomination.

"But it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all," she said.

Republicans said that McCain hoped to blunt Obama's message of political change with his pick, and it appeared likely she could remove all doubt about her home state in the fall campaign.

Obama has targeted Alaska and its three electoral votes, one of several he hoped to turn competitive in the fall despite its long tradition of voting Republican.

Palin has a strong anti-abortion record, and her selection was praised warmly by social conservatives whose support McCain needs to prevail in the campaign for the White House.

President Bush complimented McCain for "an exciting decision."

"Governor Palin is a proven reformer who is a wise steward of taxpayer dollars and champion for accountability in government," a presidential statement said. "By selecting a working mother with a track record of getting things done, Senator McCain has once again demonstrated his commitment to reforming Washington."

"It's an absolutely brilliant choice," said Mathew Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law. "This will absolutely energize McCain's campaign and energize conservatives," he predicted.

With his pick, McCain passed over more prominent contenders like Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, as well as others such as former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, whose support for abortion rights might have sparked unrest at the convention that opens Monday in St. Paul, Minn.

The timing of McCain's selection appeared designed to limit any political gain Obama derives from his own convention, which ended Thursday night with his nominating acceptance speech before an estimated 84,000 in Invesco Field in Colorado.

Public opinion polls show a close race between Obama and McCain, and with scarcely two months remaining until the election, neither contender can allow the other to jump out to a big post-convention lead.

At 44, she is younger than two of McCain's seven children.

She is three years Obama's junior, as well — and McCain has made much in recent weeks of Obama's relative lack of experience in foreign policy and defense matters.

In its formal announcement, the campaign pointed to her powers as head of the Alaska National Guard and the mother of a soldier herself as evidence that she "understands what it takes to lead our nation..."

McCain has had months to consider his choice, and has made it clear to reporters that one of his overriding goals was to avoid a situation like 1988, when little known Sen. Dan Quayle was thrown into a national campaign with little preparation.

A self-styled hockey mom and political reformer, Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, population 6,500, until she became governor.

Palin flew overnight to an airport in Ohio near Dayton, and even as she awaited her formal introduction, some aides said they had believed she was at home in Alaska.

She became governor of her state in December, 2006 after ousting a governor of her own party in a primary and then dispatching a former governor in the general election.

More recently, she has come under the scrutiny of an investigation by the Republican-controlled legislature into the possibility that she ordered the dismissal of Alaska's public safety commissioner because he would not fire her former brother-in-law as a state trooper.

Palin has a long history of run-ins with the Alaska GOP hierarchy, giving her genuine maverick status and reformer credentials that could complement McCain's image.

Two years ago, she ousted the state's Republican incumbent governor, Frank Murkowski in the primary, despite having little money and little establishment backing.

She has also distanced herself from two senior Republican office-holders, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don young. Both men are under federal corruption investigations.

She had earned stripes — and enmity — after Murkowski made her head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. From that post, she exposed ethical violations by the state GOP chairman, also a fellow commissioner.

Her husband, Todd Palin, is part Yup'ik Eskimo, and is a blue-collar North Slope oil worker who competes in the Iron Dog, a 1,900-mile snowmobile race. The couple lives in Wasilla. They have five children, the youngest of whom was born in April with Down syndrome.

___

Associated Press Writer Liz Sidoti reported for this story from Denver.

Who is best qualified to be our next president?

After reading up on the issues and reading the campaign websites of Barack Obama, John McCain and Bob Barr, I have come to the realization that Bob Barr is the man who is most qualified to be our next president. I was on the fence between McCain and Barr and after tonight's Glenn Beck Show on CNN Headline News I have chosen who I will vote for in November.

The videos from tonight's Glenn Beck Show are below. Please watch and in the mean time, please read the political campaign websites. Read up and know who you are voting for.

Clinton Supporters Still Upset at DNC Convention

(Video from YouTube.com from CNN)

Ann Price Mills wants experience in the White House and she isn't a lock on Barack Obama. But, she will not vote for John McCain. Could she vote for Bob Barr? Who will the Clinton supporters vote for? Or will they vote at all?

A Look Inside Invesco Field Awaiting the Messiah's Speech

ABC News reporters arrested outside Denver hotel

Since when can't people take pictures in public?! The Democratic National Convention means that there is no more freedoms. Journalists and the rest of the public can't do their jobs, they only can praise the Democrats and the most merciful lord Barack Obama. We must all be in the tank and not question anything.

Below is the ABC News article about the arrests.
-------------------------

(Link to ABC News article)

ABC Reporter Arrested in Denver Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors
Asa Eslocker Was Investigating the Role of Lobbyists and Top Donors at the Convention

By BRIAN ROSS
Aug. 27, 2008

DENVER--Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.

Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.

A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.

Eslocker was put in handcuffs and loaded in the back of a police van which headed for a nearby police station.

Video taken at the scene shows a man, wearing the uniform of a Boulder County sheriff, ordering Eslocker off the sidewalk in front of the hotel, to the side of the entrance.

The sheriff's officer is seen telling Eslocker the sidewalk is owned by the hotel. Later he is seen pushing Eslocker off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic, forcing him to the other side of the street.

About 15 minutes later, on-duty Denver police arrived and placed Eslocker under arrest after Eslocker asked why he was being ordered away from the front of the hotel. Dozens of pedestrians can be seen walking by the hotel, located in the heart of downtown Denver.

Eslocker and his ABC News colleagues are spending the week investigating the role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors at the convention for a series of Money Trail reports on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

Obama now believes he is a god

(Picture from DrudgeReport.com)

Barack Obama, the most merciful messiah of the world, now believes he is truly a "god." His campaign, or the DNC, has constructed a Greek temple or to some a Roman temple where he will speak on Thursday at Invesco Field. Just read the article and see how goofy this really is. What a joke.

------------------
From ABCNews.com

Obama Speech Stage Resembles Ancient Greek Temple
August 26, 2008

DENVER (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple.

The stage, similar to structures used for rock concerts, has been set up at the 50-yard-line, the midpoint of Invesco Field, the stadium where the Denver Broncos' National Football League team plays.

Some 80,000 supporters will see Obama appear from between plywood columns painted off-white, reminiscent of Washington's Capitol building or even the White House, to accept the party's nomination for president.

He will stride out to a raised platform to a podium that can be raised from beneath the floor.

The show should provide a striking image for the millions of Americans watching on television as Obama delivers a speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination.

Politicians in past elections have typically spoken from the convention site itself, but the Obama campaign liked the idea of having their man speak to a larger, stadium-sized crowd not far from where the Democratic National Convention is being held, at the Denver pro basketball arena.

Obama was taking a page from the campaign book of John Kennedy in 1960 when the future president delivered his acceptance speech to 80,000 people in the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Once Obama speaks, confetti will rain down on him and fireworks will be fired off from locations around the stadium wall.

Democratic convention organizers said the theme for the evening is "Change We Can Believe In," which has been a consistent message of Obama's presidential campaign.

Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson will sing the national anthem that night.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; editing by David Wiessler)

Copyright 2008 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved.

Pelosi Stands by Comments

Pelosi stands by abortion comments
AP foreign, Wednesday August 27 2008

(Link to AP article)

By ERIC GORSKI

Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) - Under fire from U.S. Catholic bishops, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not backing off contentious comments about abortion she made during a weekend television talk show appearance.

Pelosi said Sunday on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' that ``doctors of the church'' have not been able to define when life begins. That prompted swift rebukes from Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl and Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, who said Pelosi was incorrect and that Catholic teaching has consistently condemned abortion.

Cardinal Edward Egan of New York voiced similar sentiment Tuesday. Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William Lori, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Doctrine, also issued a statement correcting Pelosi.

Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi, said in a statement Tuesday that she ``fully appreciates the sanctity of family'' and based her views on conception on the ``views of Saint Augustine, who said: '... the law does not provide that the act (abortion) pertains to homicide, for there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation ...'''

The statement from Rigali and Lori said ``uninformed and inadequate theories about embryology'' in the Middle Ages led ``some theologians to speculate that specifically human life capable of receiving an immortal soul may not exist until a few weeks into pregnancy. While in canon law these theories led to a distinction in penalties between very early and later abortions, the Church's moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development.''

Daly said that while Catholic teaching is clear that life begins at conception, many Catholics do not agree. He said Pelosi ``agrees with the Church that we should reduce the number of abortions'' by making family planning more available such as increasing the number of comprehensive age-appropriate sex education and adoption programs, Daly said.

The Catholic Church is opposed to artificial contraception.

Biden, Pelosi told not to take communion

Vice Presidential hopeful Joe Biden and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi have been told by the Washington and Denver archbishops to not take communion because of their statements and record regarding their belief in Catholicism, particularly on abortion and on when life actually begins.

-----------------

Archbishop of Washington Chides Pelosi; Dencer Archbishop Warns Biden to Skip Communion
Fox News
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

By Bill Sammon

Irked by pro-choice Democrats who tout their Catholicism, the archbishop of Washington is chiding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for misstating church history and the archbishop of Denver is warning vice presidential hopeful Joe Biden not to take Communion.

The unusual public rebukes come as both Pelosi and Biden are talking up their faith in a bid for swing voters as Democrats stage their national convention in Denver. In an interview Sunday, Pelosi claimed to be an expert on the church’s abortion stance.

“As an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time,” Pelosi told NBC’s Tom Brokaw, who had asked her when life begins. “And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition. And St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know.”

When Brokaw pointed out that the Catholic church “feels very strongly” that life begins at conception, Pelosi said: “I understand. And this is like maybe 50 years or something like that. So again, over the history of the church, this is an issue of controversy.”

In an interview with FOX News on Tuesday, Archbishop Donald Wuerl said people need to reflect more before they start talking about church doctrine. He also issued a statement calling Pelosi’s explanation of the church’s abortion stance “incorrect.”

“The current teaching of the Catholic Church on human life and abortion is the same teaching as it was 2,000 years ago,” Wuerl noted. “From the beginning, the Catholic Church has respected the dignity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death.”

Wuerl cited a passage from the church’s catechism that condemns abortion as “gravely contrary to moral law.”

“Since the first century the church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion,” the catechism states. “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.”

In an afternoon response, Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said that as mother of five, the speaker appreciates the “sanctity of family.”

“While Catholic teaching is clear that life begins at conception, many Catholics do not ascribe to that view. The speaker agrees with the Church that we should reduce the number of abortions. She believes that can be done by making family planning more available, as well as by increasing the number of comprehensive age-appropriate sex education and caring adoption programs. The speaker has a long, proud record of working with the Catholic Church on many issues, including alleviating poverty and promoting social justice and peace,” said spokesman Brendan Daly.

Biden too has disagreed with the catechism, as evidenced by a 2006 interview he gave to C-SPAN, which asked him about abortion.

“That debate in our church has not morphed, but changed over a thousand years,” Biden said. “It always is viewed by the church as something that is wrong, but there’s been gradations of whether it was wrong. You know, from venial or mortal sin, as we Catholics say, and versions of it.”

But Biden added that since Pope Pius IX’s reign (1846-1878), “it’s been pretty clear that’s been automatic — moment of conception.”

Over the weekend, Biden’s pro-choice views raised the ire of Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput.

“I presume that his integrity will lead him to refrain from presenting himself for communion, if he supports a false ‘right’ to abortion,” Chaput told The Associated Press.

As for Pelosi, Chaput called her “a gifted public servant of strong convictions and many professional skills. Regrettably, knowledge of Catholic history and teaching does not seem to be one of them.”

Chaput added that abortion “is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it.”
During that 2004 presidential campaign, Chaput and a dozen other bishops called on Democratic nominee John Kerry to refrain from taking Communion. The church has also objected to former GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani taking Communion.

“I think some of it is regional,” said Pelosi, whose district encompasses San Francisco, in a recent interview with C-SPAN. “It depends on the bishop of a certain region and, fortunately for me, Communion has not been withheld and I’m a regular Communicant, so that would be a severe blow to me if that were the case.”

On Saturday, when Obama introduced Biden as his running mate, both men made a point of mentioning Biden’s Catholicism. Obama has struggled to win over Catholics, 52 percent of whom voted for President Bush in 2004.

Bill Sammon is Washington Deputy Managing Editor for the FOX News Channel.

Lou Dobbs, Rendell: Media is in the tank with Obama

This says it for itself. The media (NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, etc.) are in the tank with the messiah, Barack Obama.



Link to Lou Dobb saying statement on his CNN show.

Nancy Pelosi is now a spokesperson for the Catholic Church

Nancy Pelosi now speaks on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. She knows when life begins and it's not when a large percentage of Americans believe. She does not believe that a life begins at inception. And she spoke as if she was a Vatican spokesperson on NBC's Meet the Press.

Will the Vatican speak up on this? And, since when does she want to act Catholic? It sure isn't in her voting. By the way, the Catholic Church believes that life begins at inception.


Pelosi speaks on "Meet the Press"
-----------------------------
Nancy Pelosi: Must be Excommunicated from from RCC

by mrdirt, 8/25/08 18:35 ET

(Link to story on website)

On the August 24 “Meet the Press” show on NBC-TV, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) was asked to comment on when life begins. Democrat Pelosi said “I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition.”

Responding, moderator Tom Brokaw told her that the Catholic Church “feels very strongly” that life begins at conception. Pelosi said, “I understand. And this is like maybe 50 years or something like that. So again, over the history of the Church, this is an issue of controversy.”

William Donahue of Catholics United for the Faith reponded in a statement “Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: ‘Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.’ It also says, ‘Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.’ Looks like Pelosi didn’t study the subject long enough. But not to worry: We are sending her a copy of Catholicism for Dummies today (the Catechism is like maybe a bit advanced).

“Whether Joe Biden is as ignorant of what his religion teaches remains to be seen. What is not in doubt is the enthusiasm which NARAL showed when he was selected to join the ticket. The radical pro-abortion group was delighted, as were the radical pro-abortion delegates to the Democratic convention: as reported in today’s New York Times, 64 percent of Americans reject abortion-on-demand, yet only 23 percent of the delegates do. It is only fitting, then, that NARAL’s president will speak today at the Convention and Planned Parenthood’s president will speak tomorrow.

“So there we have it: the man running for president on the Democratic ticket supports selective infanticide, his running mate is a pro-abortion Catholic, the delegates are wildly out of step with Americans on abortion and the Speaker of the House hasn’t a clue what her religion teaches on the subject.”

Many Clinton Advisers Skipping Obama Speech in Denver

Clinton Advisers Skipping Obama Speech
By Matthew Mosk, Washington Post

A number of Sen. Hillary Clinton's top advisers will not be staying in Denver long enough to hear Barack Obama accept the nomination for president, according to sources familiar with their schedules.

Clinton will deliver her speech Tuesday night. She will hold a private meeting with her top financial supporters Wednesday at noon, and will thank her delegates at an event that afternoon. Former president Bill Clinton will speak that night. Several of Hillary Clinton's supporters are then planning to leave town. Among them, Terry McAuliffe, Clinton's campaign chairman, and longtime supporters Steve Rattner and Maureen White. Another of Clinton's top New York fundraisers, Alan Patricof, did not make the trip to Denver.

Robert Zimmerman, a Clinton supporter who is trying now to navigate between the two camps, will be staying for Obama's speech. But he said in an interview that it would be unrealistic to expect there would not still be some tension between the two camps -- he noted that the same was true with supporters of Gary Hart and, to a lesser extent, Howard Dean.

"This convention provides a very important opportunity for the Obama campaign to bond with the constituencies that supported Hillary Clinton," Zimmerman said. "It's not about Barack or Hillary. It's about bringing in the people here who voted for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Senator Obama and Senator Biden are, without question, qualified to do that."

Obama-Biden Campaign Song

U2 - City of Blinding Lights



The more you see the less you know
The less you find out as you go
I knew much more then than I do now

Neon heart, day-glow eyes
The city lit by fireflies
They're advertising in the skies
And people like us

And I miss you when you're not around
I'm getting ready to leave the ground

Oh you look so beautiful tonight...

Don't look before you laugh
Look ugly in a photograph
Flash bulbs, purple irises the camera can't see

I've seen you walk unafraid
I've seen you in the clothes you've made
Can you see the beauty inside of me?
What happened to the beauty I had inside of me?

And I miss you when you're not around
I'm getting ready to leave the ground

Oh you look so beautiful tonight...tonight
In the city of blinding lights

Time...time....time...won't leave me as I am
But time won't take the boy out of this man
Oh you look so beautiful tonight
Oh you look so beautiful tonight
Oh you look so beautiful tonight

In the city of blinding lights,
The more you know
The less you feel
Some pray for, others steal
Blessings not just for the ones who kneel, luckily

--------------------------

Image before substance. This is Barack Obama. This is the song that Obama walks out to the podium to.

Guess who Biden wanted on 2004 Dem presidential ticket ?

Click this link to find out.

Hint: He is running for president in 2008.

Obama: China is superior to the United States

The messiah, the most merciful, the anointed one, the magic negro Barack Obama said in Chester, Virginia on Thursday that the People's Republic of China's infrastructure is vast superior than the United States of America.

Here is the quote:

"Everybody's watching what's going on in Beijing right now in the Olympics. Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are all vastly superior to us now, which means if you're a corporation deciding where to do business, you're starting to think Beijing looks like a pretty good option."

How can this guy think he can be president when time after time he puts down the United States?! Why does he like the rest of the world and not the United States?! The rest of the world (for the most part) has some version of a socialist government or in the case of the PRC it is COMMUNIST!!!!

Obama tries to appeal to Lutherans in Wisconsin

Go to "Christianity News" blog for more information.

Protests begin as DNC Convention is ready to kick off

Some protestors say to "stop occupying Puerto Rico and Hawai'i." When a Fox News reporter went to ask a protestor why he is walking in the march he replied saying, "f*** Fox News" and soon a chant around him followed with the same three words. Notable people at the protest are Cindy Sheehan, Ward Churchill and Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney were speakers. These speakers and many others made anti-war statements, anti-Democratic Party statements and radical-left statements. The protesters are calling themselves "Recreate '68."



Below are articles about the protests:

*Anti-War Protesters Greet Convention Goers in Denver
*Critics Question DNC's pick for Islamic Speaker at "Interfaith" Gathering
*Thousands protest immigration crackdown

A look at McCain's "The One: Part II" ad

McCain: "The One: Part II" ad

This ad really does nothing to help the McCain Campaign. The people that see this ad are already people who may support McCain or are actual voters who want to see both campaign websites. This ad may be true, but who does it help? It glorifies Obama, but not McCain. Now, Obama may believe he is the messiah or Moses as he is portrayed in the web ad, but it doesn't display the issues. But as I have said before, most Americans don't care what the issues are.


OBAMA POLITICAL HISTORY

Talks about himself not being ready to be president in 2004.


Small-town America clings to guns and religion.


Hillary Clinton's response to Obama's statement about small-town America.

Obama's "New Energy" ad

Click "Play" and listen to Barack Obama's new energy solutions.

Didn't hear a solution? I didn't either. Just talk. Notice the beginning of the ad? John McCain has spent 26 years in Washington. Joe Biden has spent more time. Does that work, anymore?

Listen to the ad again.


Still didn't hear anything. Yep. Obama's new energy policy.

Why wont Obama and McCain talk about the REAL issues?

As much as I love know that Barack Obama and John McCain live in multiple houses, I don't see why this is a political issue.

Then, what is a real issue? Well, I don't know, what about the falling U.S. dollar?! But, really, do Obama and McCain feel the crunch when they purchase something at the store or go to a foreign country and realize that our dollar means zilch? No. They aren't exactly suffering money wise. And add in Joe Biden. Six-terms in the U.S. Senate means that you have a lot of dough and money is no issue.

Prices are on the rise.

But the candidates are more concerned with the number of houses they own.

What's another issue? Oh, I know, the People's Republic of China. The PRC is an emerging communist superpower and we don't care. Another problem? Russia wants to be the Soviet Union again. (And I'm not talking about the Georgia conflict, it's bigger than that.)

And there are many more. But do these two politicians care? Nope. You know why? I do. Most Americans don't care to care. It is that plain and simple. So, wake up! Before the America you know and love is gone.

Messiah picks six-term running-mate

The messiah and lord Barack "the magic negro" has chosen his vice presidential running-mate. I am sure by now everyone who is anyone in the United States knows who this person is. But let's first talk about when this all happened.

The not-quite one-term U.S. Senator Barack Obama's choice was known at about 2 a.m. EDT via a leak within his campaign. MSNBC broke into its non-news news coverage to let the world know what "the chosen one" has done. However, CNN and Fox News kept on their late-night opinion news shows to only put a banner at the bottom of the screen that Obama had picked Joe Biden as his running-mate.

Now, it is nothing new when the Democratic Party's mouthpiece broke into coverage to show the most merciful Barack Obama. NBC wants Obama to win.

The text-messages went out to the Obama disciples at about 3:02 am EDT. I feel sorry for them when NBC had to beat them to the punch. NBC was the first to announce it, then CNN and Fox News soon followed.

But what did Obama say when he began running for ruler of the earth? He said that he wanted to "change Washington" and not let the insiders continue to run Washington. So of course he picks a six-term senator from Delaware. Now, I have nothing against Biden, he seems to be a qualified man, but Obama did not follow through on his promise of change.

So, why Joe Biden? What does Obama know about him? Better yet, what does the Obama campaign know about him? Well, he does know about foreign policy and Obama doesn't, unless you talk about the Bulls playing the Pacers as foreign policy.

But, I will say that the Obama campaign did pick a good time to announce his running-mate. It was a Saturday morning. No Rush Limbaugh. No Sean Hannity. No Glenn Beck.

One thing for sure is that one half of the vice presidential puzzle is solved. Who will John McCain pick? And that person better be a conservative. But, he may do something to get many Hillary Clinton supporters. The ball is in McCain's court now and it's his race to lose.

General Electric, the Olympics and the News

What do General Electric, the Beijing Olympics and NBC News all have in common?

They are all run by GE!!! GE is powering the Olympic venues in Beijing and GE makes light bulbs. Doesn't sound that bad, right?!

GE is pushing for a new cleaner way of getting energy. NBC reports that as the way of the future. Viewers believe NBC because it is the news. But should we believe NBC News when they are run by a giant multi-national company that wants to make money?

You be the judge.

GE and NBC want global warming. Even if NBC knew that global warming wasn't true, I bet they would say it was true because of GE. GE is making record profits from their new energy saving light bulbs that NBC says is great. GE wants to build new wind turbines for cleaner power because coal and nuclear isn't safe (that's what they said). I think it is just a giant conspiracy by GE and NBC to make people go crazy so they make more money.

GE is making their money from their products, commercials aired on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC and all the other networks they own.

Come to wonder, the NBC-Universal networks are doing another "green week" soon. Go figure!

Brainwashing Starts Early: Sesame Street

Sesame Street used to be a show where children learned how to count and read, but today's show brainwashes young children into believing PBS' left leaning views.

In this episode of Sesame Street (4160), The Grouch News Network begins to brainwash children by using subliminal messages. At the end of the video above, Sesame Street out right attacks Fox News Network by calling it "Box News, now that's a trashy news show."

The show also says that we must get both sides of the news story, yet, the Grouch News Network only shows one side. Is this hypocritical?

Public Broadcasting System is getting money from viewers and from congress, yet it is now putting out trash. This is just the beginning now that they have hijacked Sesame Street. The liberals want to have full control of the media. They have done it once before and are still doing it today. If you don't know where the liberals have gotten control of the media, look no further than Russia, China, North Korea and Cuba. Now these are severely left leaning countries, and severely left leaning is communism.

This is a warning. The fairness doctrine better not ever come into affect ever again in the United States. If it does, we will lose Fox News Channel, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity. We will only have the left leaning networks and newspapers that follow the liberal agenda.

We must always have both sides, no, all the sides of the story. There is never two sides to a story, there are many more and we must find those ways.

Soviet Russia threatens former bloc countries

Today, members of the Russian government and military have threatened the Ukraine and Poland. The Ukraine and Poland are allies of the United States just like Georgia.

Soviet Russia is expressing its power lately against Georgia because of Georgia's pro-NATO views and that Russia believes that two regions of Georgia belong to Russia. This conflict between Russia and Georgia is more than these two countries, in many of the missiles that Russia sent to destroy sites within Georgia there were messages on them and they were not pro-American and pro-NATO.

Below are two news stories about Soviet Russia's plans to attack the Ukraine and Poland. (This is something you should know...the power players in the United States' Democratic Party are siding with Soviet Russia.)

--------------------------------------------
(Link to news story)

Russia: Poland risks attack because of US missiles

Aug 15, 7:23 AM (ET)

MOSCOW (AP) - A top Russian general said Friday that Poland's agreement to accept a U.S. missile defense battery exposes ex-communist nation to attack, possibly by nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported.

The statement by Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn is the strongest threat that Russia has issued against the plans to put missile defense elements in former Soviet satellite nations.

Poland and the United States on Thursday signed a deal for Poland to accept a missile interceptor base as part of a system the United States says is aimed at blocking attacks by rogue nations. Moscow, however, feels it is aimed at Russia's missile force.

"Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike - 100 percent," Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff, was quoted as saying.

He added, in clear reference to the agreement, that Russia's military doctrine sanctions the use of nuclear weapons "against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them." Nogovitsyn that would include elements of strategic deterrence systems, he said, according to Interfax.

U.S. officials have said the timing of the deal was not meant to antagonize Russian leaders at a time when relations already are strained over the recent fighting between Russia and Georgia over the South Ossetia region.

--------------------------------------
(from Australian News Corp.)

Russia, Ukraine tensions rise

By Russia correspondent Scott Bevan

Posted Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:42am AEST
Updated Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:09pm AEST

Tension between Russia and Ukraine is escalating, with Ukraine demanding to be informed of the movements of Russian warships based in its waters.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has signed a decree which requires the command of Russia's Black Sea fleet to seek permission to move ships outside its Ukraine base.

Under the rules, the Russians are expected to submit an application for approval 10 working days before any ship movement.

Moscow has dismissed the decree as not serious and against the spirit of a Friendship and Co-operation Treaty the two countries have.

Ships from Russia's Black Sea fleet have been sitting off Georgia in response to the South Ossetian conflict, and have reported sinking at least one Georgian naval vessel.

Saakashvili writes column in Washington Post

Russia's War Is The West's Challenge

(From the Washington Post)

By Mikheil Saakashvili
Thursday, August 14, 2008; Page A17



TBILISI, Georgia -- Russia's invasion of Georgia strikes at the heart of Western values and our 21st-century system of security. If the international community allows Russia to crush our democratic, independent state, it will be giving carte blanche to authoritarian governments everywhere. Russia intends to destroy not just a country but an idea.

For too long, we all underestimated the ruthlessness of the regime in Moscow. Yesterday brought further evidence of its duplicity: Within 24 hours of Russia agreeing to a cease-fire, its forces were rampaging through Gori; blocking the port of Poti; sinking Georgian vessels; and -- worst of all -- brutally purging Georgian villages in South Ossetia, raping women and executing men.

The Russian leadership cannot be trusted -- and this hard reality should guide the West's response. Only Western peacekeepers can end the war.

Russia also seeks to destroy our economy and is bombing factories, ports and other vital sites. Accordingly, we need to establish a modern version of the Berlin Airlift; the United Nations, the United States, Canada and others are moving in this direction, for which we are deeply grateful.

As we consider what to do next, understanding Russia's goals is critical. Moscow aims to satisfy its imperialist ambitions; to erase one of the few democratic, law-governed states in its vicinity; and, above all, to demolish the post-Cold War system of international relations in Europe. Russia is showing that it can do as it pleases.

The historical parallels are stark: Russia's war on Georgia echoes events in Finland in 1939, Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Perhaps this is why so many Eastern European countries, which suffered under Soviet occupation, have voiced their support for us.

Russia's authoritarian leaders see us as a threat because Georgia is a free country whose people have elected to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic community. This offends Russia's rulers. They do not want their nation or even its borders contaminated by democratic ideas.

Since our democratic government came to power after the 2003 Rose Revolution, Russia has used economic embargoes and closed borders to isolate us and has illegally deported thousands of Georgians in Russia. It has tried to destabilize us politically with the help of criminal oligarchs. It has tried to freeze us into submission by blowing up vital gas pipelines in midwinter.

When all that failed to shake the Georgian people's resolve, Russia invaded.

Last week, Russia, using its separatist proxies, attacked several peaceful, Georgian-controlled villages in South Ossetia, killing innocent civilians and damaging infrastructure.

On Aug. 6, just hours after a senior Georgian official traveled to South Ossetia to attempt negotiations, a massive assault was launched on Georgian settlements. Even as we came under attack, I declared a unilateral cease-fire in hopes of avoiding escalation and announced our willingness to talk to the separatists in any format.

But the separatists and their Russian masters were deaf to our calls for peace. Our government then learned that columns of Russian tanks and troops had crossed Georgia's sovereign borders. The thousands of troops, tanks and artillery amassed on our border are evidence of how long Russia had been planning this aggression.

Our government had no choice but to protect our country from invasion, secure our citizens and stop the bloodshed. For years, Georgia has been proposing 21st-century, European solutions for South Ossetia, including full autonomy guaranteed by the international community. Russia has responded with crude, 19th-century methods.

It is true that Russian power could overwhelm our small country -- though even we did not anticipate the ferocity and scale of Moscow's response. But we had to at least try to protect our people from the invading forces. Any democratic country would have done the same.

But facing this brutal invading army, whose violence was ripping Georgia apart, our government decided to withdraw from South Ossetia, declare a cease-fire and seek negotiations. Yet Moscow ignored our appeal for peace.

Our repeated attempts to contact senior Russian leaders were rebuffed. Russia's foreign ministry even denied receiving our notice of cease-fire hours after it was officially -- and very publicly -- delivered. This was just one of many cynical ploys to deceive the world and justify further attacks.

This war threatens not only Georgia but security and liberty around the world. If the international community fails to take a resolute stand, it will have sounded the death knell for the spread of freedom and democracy everywhere.

Georgia's only fault in this crisis is its wish to be an independent, free and democratic country. What would Western nations do if they were punished for the same aspiration?

I have staked my country's fate on the West's rhetoric about democracy and liberty. As Georgians come under attack, we must ask: If the West is not with us, who is it with? If the line is not drawn now, when will it be drawn? We cannot allow Georgia to become the first victim of a new world order as imagined by Moscow.

The writer is president of Georgia.

RELATED OP-ED COLUMN:
Charles Krauthammer- How to stop Putin


Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (the man who pulls the strings in Soviet Russia)

Glenn Beck interviews the President of Georgia

Glenn Beck interviews Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili who reveals that bombs dropped on his country contained anti-US and anti-NATO inscriptions. Headline News, August 13, 2008.

(Video from Glenn Beck at YouTube.com)

Russia continues attack on Georgia

Explosions Heard in Gori as Russian Troops Cripple Georgian Military

(from FoxNews.com via the Associated Press)

Thursday Aug. 14, 2008
Associated Press

GORI, Georgia — Russia's foreign minister declared Thursday that the world "can forget about" Georgia's territorial integrity, and American and Georgian officials said Russia appeared to be targeting military infrastructure — including radars and patrol boats at a Black Sea naval base and oil hub.

An AP Television News crew in the oil port city of Poti saw one destroyed Georgian military boat, and two Russian armored vehicles and two Russian transport trucks. Soldiers who identified themselves as Russian peacekeepers blocked the crew from going further.

Russia's president met in the Kremlin with the leaders of Georgia's two separatist provinces — a clear sign that Moscow could absorb the regions. The comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared to come as a challenge to the United States, where President Bush has called for Russia to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia."

The Russian refusal to withdraw from Georgia presents a challenge to the cease-fire agreement designed to end seven days of fighting. The EU-sponsored accord had envisioned Russian and Georgian forces returning to their original positions.

In Washington, an American official said Russia appears to be sabotaging airfields and other military infrastructure as its forces pull back. The U.S. official described eyewitnesses accounts for The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The official said the Russian strategy seems like a deliberate attempt to cripple the already battered Georgian military.

The United States poured aid into the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Thursday and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice launched emergency talks in France aimed at heading off a wider conflict.

Russia's deputy chief of General Staff Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said he was not sure that the U.S. planes carried exclusively humanitarian cargo. "It causes our concern," he said.

At least 20 explosions were heard near Gori, along with small-arms fire. It could not immediately be determined if the blasts were a renewal of fighting between Georgian and Russian forces, but they sounded similar to mortar shells and occurred after a tense confrontation between Russian and Georgian troops on the edge of the city.

The strategically located city is 15 miles south of South Ossetia, the Russian-backed separatist region where Russian and Georgian forces fought a five-day battle. Russian troops entered Gori on Wednesday, after the two sides signed the cease-fire.

In Washington, a Pentagon official said U.S. intelligence had assessed that the number of Russians in Gori was small — about 100 to 200 troops. But the Russian presence in Gori, only 60 miles west of Tbilisi, was viewed as a demonstration of the vulnerability of the capital.

Nogovitsyn said Russian troops went to Gori to establish contact with local civilian administration and take control over military depots left behind by the Georgian forces. "The abandoned weapons needed protection," he said.

Georgian government officials who went into the city for the possible handover left unexpectedly around midday, followed by a checkpoint confrontation outside Gori which ended when Russian tanks sped toward the area and Georgian police quickly retreated.

A Russian general in Gori had said Wednesday it would take at least two days to leave the city.

Besides the hundreds killed since hostilities broke out, the United Nations estimates 100,000 Georgians have been uprooted; Russia says some 30,000 residents of South Ossetia fled into the neighboring Russian province of North Ossetia.

Russian troops also appeared to be settling in elsewhere in Georgia outside the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"One can forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state," Lavrov told reporters.

The White House bluntly rejected Lavrov's message.

"Our position on Georgia's territorial integrity is not going to change no matter what anybody says," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday. "And so I would consider that to be bluster from the foreign minister of Russia. We will ignore it."

Georgia's coast guard said Russian troops had burned patrol boats and destroyed radars and other equipment at the port city of Poti, home to Georgia's main naval base and a major hub for oil exports to Europe. The APTN crew saw one destroyed boat, about 60 feet long.

On Poti's outskirts, the APTN crew followed a different convoy of Russian troops as they searched a forest for Georgian military equipment.

Nogovitsyn avoided comment on the Russian presence in Poti, saying only that Russian forces were operating within their "area of responsibility."

Another APTN camera crew saw Russian soldiers and military vehicles parked Thursday inside the Georgian government's elegant, heavily-gated residence in the western town of Zugdidi. Some of the soldiers wore blue peacekeeping helmets, others wore green camouflage helmets, all were heavily armed. The scene underlined how closely the soldiers Russia calls peacekeepers are allied with its military.

"The Russian troops are here. They are occupying," Ygor Gegenava, an elderly Zugdidi resident told the APTN crew. "We don't want them here. What we need is friendship and good relations with the Russian people."

Georgia, bordering the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

A steady, dejected trickle of Georgian refugees fled the front line in overloaded cars, trucks and tractor-pulled wagons, heading to Tbilisi on the road from Gori. One Soviet-era car carried eight people, including a mother and a baby in the front seat. The open back door of a small blue van revealed at least a dozen people crowded inside.

The Russian General Prosecutor's office on Thursday said it has formally opened a genocide probe into Georgian treatment of South Ossetians. For its part, Georgia this week filed a suit against Russia in the International Court of Justice, alleging murder, rape and mass expulsions in both provinces.

More homes in deserted ethnic Georgian villages were apparently set ablaze Wednesday, sending clouds of smoke over the foothills north of Tskhinvali, capital of breakaway South Ossetia.

One Russian colonel, who refused to give his name, blamed the fires on looters.

Those with ethnic Georgian backgrounds who have stayed behind — like 70-year-old retired teacher Vinera Chebataryeva — seem increasingly unwelcome in South Ossetia.

As she stood sobbing in her wrecked apartment near the center of Tskhinvali, Chebataryeva said a skirmish between Ossetian soldiers and a Georgian tank had gouged the two gaping shell holes in her wall, bashing in her piano and destroying her furniture.

Janna Kuzayeva, an ethnic Ossetian neighbor, claimed the Georgian tank fired the shell at Chebataryeva's apartment.

"We know for sure her brother spied for Georgians," said Kuzayeva. "We let her stay here, and now she's blaming everything on us."

North of Tskhinvali, a number of former Georgian communities have been abandoned in the last few days. "There isn't a single Georgian left in those villages," said Robert Kochi, a 45-year-old South Ossetian.

But he had little sympathy for his former Georgian neighbors. "They wanted to physically uproot us all," he said. "What other definition is there for genocide?"

Glenn Beck: Media Bias

(from GlennBeck.com Current Events, click to also listen to Glenn Beck)

August 13, 2008 - 13:02 ET

GLENN: Have you seen the story of the woman who is a delegate to the Democratic party, who's having her credentials revoked? She's being disinvited from the Democratic convention because she's outspoken against Barack Obama and questions his ability? Oh, you can't have him you can't have her speak. God forbid you have her start to speak out at the Democratic convention. Yet where are the people that are going to speak out? Where are the Democrats? Where are the good Democrats? I told you four years ago your party is being hijacked by the extreme left. I don't know if anybody heard me then, but I hope you hear me now. They have been hijacked by Marxists. Very small number of freaks that have hijacked the Democratic party. And that very small number is taking the Democratic party into a direction that I know Democrats, the good Democrats that I know don't want to go. But they are willing to just coexist, thinking that they are using them for fuel to make sure they get the next win because that evil George Bush and Dick Cheney. You are wrong. You are going to be silenced just like Joe Lieberman has been silenced. Just like the Blue Dog Democrats that went to congress have been silenced by the extreme left. And now if the extreme left takes control of congress and the White House, the rest of America will be silenced through the Fairness Doctrine and it's not just talk radio. Remember, where did the original heat come from on Jeremiah Wright? It wasn't in the mainstream media. It was in talk radio. And then it coupled with the Internet. Well, here's the neat thing. This is great. The Fairness Doctrine, according to the now head of the FCC, he says it's going to come back but it's also going to include the Internet, so the government can control the Internet. Well, that's fantastic. Oh, that's great. We can be just like China. You know what, we're becoming China. Look at the evidence. Google it. I mean, unless you're in China. But here's what he said and see if this sounds like a familiar charge that they leveled against the Bush administration when nobody was trying to shut down free speech. You just didn't buy a movie ticket to go see a movie because you couldn't take Tim Robbins. That's what you picked. Nobody in the government was saying don't go see Tim Robbins. Nobody sass weighing that. Nobody was saying, we'll never make a particular Robbins, Tim Robbins will never work in this city again. Nobody said that. Just didn't want to buy his movie ticket. That's my right as an individual. But what's interesting is he said, the head of the FCC, it's coming back, members of congress are working on it right now but it will not be called the Fairness Doctrine. Of course it won't. It will be the Sunshine and Lollipop Act, somebody H something that will make everybody sunshine, it will be the hope and change act. No, you know what? It needs to be more it needs to wrap itself up into the Constitution. It will be the patriotic defense of the First Amendment act. And if you say yes, you'll get your free flag lapel pin. It's the freedom of expression and integrity act, while we close down and monitor the Internet and we monitor talk radio. It will be the Universal Free Speech Act. Actually I think these clowns, with everything that they said about, oh, how evil it is, how evil it is to wrap yourself in the flag, you notice how many flags are flying behind Barack Obama, a man who said he wouldn't wear a flag lapel pin and now he would? Please, they don't stand for anything. They don't say what they mean or mean what they say. It will be the lost last words of George Washington while he was not chopping down a cherry tree to save the environment, while wrapping himself in a flag in hopes for change act. That's what it will be called.

So I read that last night and then I get up this morning and the first thing I see on television I turn on is a story about this Tropical Thunder movie. And the first thing I think of, there is controversy around Tropical Thunder and I think, jeez, have they not gone are we really talking about Robert Downey, Jr. and blackface? You know what, I'd pay attention to this story if everybody were outraged at two African Americans wearing white face. How about white chicks? "Oh, my gosh, I was so hurt by that. Why didn't they just get two white guys to dress up as chicks? Why did they just get two white chicks to dress up as white chicks?" I wasn't really offended. I don't care. So I'm already on, okay, here we go, more political correctness. Boy, wish we could control the Internet and free speech on talk radio because God forbid we talk about what's going on in the world. No, that's not what it is. That's not what it is.

By the way, the movie's getting a general pass because on the blackface thing because it's Robert Downey, Jr. If it were me, oh, my gosh, I'd never work again anywhere. Well, I could be the best actor in the world and I still wouldn't have gotten a Hollywood movie because of my opinions. But if it was because of my opinions and I was in blackface, I would be Hillaried. But Robert Downey, Jr., not only is he an Oscar winner, he's also done heroin. What a guy. Oh, the things he's gone through. He's done heroin. He's almost Heath Ledger. That's fantastic. He will be the best guy in blackface ever. If he just died before the movie would come out, we could give him an Oscar.

That's not the problem. I'll tell you the problem now, and I've had enough. I've had enough.

AP: Hispanics soon to be American majority

I am all for the "American dream" and who wouldn't?! So I have nothing against legal immigrants. They have the right to live in the United States of America. What I have a problem with are the illegal aliens that cross the border and who "want" amnesty (according to congress and the president). Americans should want to make a national language if we want to be united in the future. If hispanics, or when hispanics become the majority, why would these people want to speak English if most of the country is hispanic? We need to make English our national language. If we don't, this will be a divided nation.

Below is the AP story from Yahoo!


(from Yahoo! News via the Associated Press)

White Americans no longer a majority by 2042

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer
55 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - White people will no longer make up a majority of Americans by 2042, according to new government projections. That's eight years sooner than previous estimates, made in 2004.

The nation has been growing more diverse for decades, but the process has sped up through immigration and higher birth rates among minority residents, especially Hispanics.

It is also growing older.

"The white population is older and very much centered around the aging baby boomers who are well past their high fertility years," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "The future of America is epitomized by the young people today. They are basically the melting pot we are going to see in the future."

The Census Bureau Thursday released population projections through 2050, based on rates for births, deaths and immigration. They are subject to big revisions, depending on immigration policy, cultural changes and natural or manmade disasters.

The U.S. has nearly 305 million people today. The population is projected to hit 400 million in 2039 and 439 million in 2050.

That's like adding all the people from France and Britain, said Steve A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that advocates tighter immigration policies.

White non-Hispanics make up about two-thirds of the population, but only 55 percent of those younger than 5.

By 2050, whites will make up 46 percent of the population and blacks will make up 15 percent, a relatively small increase from today. Hispanics, who make up about 15 percent of the population today, will account for 30 percent in 2050, according to the new projections.

Asians, which make up about 5 percent of the population, are projected to increase to 9 percent by 2050.

The population 85 and older is projected to more than triple by 2050, to 19 million.

___

On The Net:

Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov

A brief history of "hope" and "change"

Using the terms "hope" and "change" are not new when it comes to politics. If you tell the people what they want to hear by using vague terms the people believe that the politician is actually representing them.

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama is using this language today and has gotten a large following. Especially from the younger voters. By using vague terms and not really taking a solid stand on issues it attracts the minds that aren't very politically active. This has won elections in the past. Typically if a candidate can get the majority of the youth vote or even get the youth that believe that this is the candidate that is for them. When asking an Obama supporter on what "hope" and "change" is, they usually come back with a blank look and then make up what they feel this "hope" and "change" is, in their opinion. This is because they believe that Obama speaks for the people.

Adolph Hitler also used "hope" and "change" to get the masses of Germany to believe in him. And, especially the youth. The youth would become to be known as the Hitler Youth. They would do anything to defend Adolph Hitler's image, much like much of today's youth when they defend Obama. Hitler's friend, Benito Musollini also followed this practice. These two offered hope to their people and did bring change. A big change.

Where did Obama and Hitler find out about this vague way of getting political support? Well, they both subscribed to Karl Marx's philosophy called Marxism. Marx believed in getting a form of "hope" into the masses to bring "change" to politics. Marxism has never ever been properly tried, the Russians attempted an extreme version of communism and the Chinese copied it. Only the Cubans have actually come the closest to actual Marxist Communism.

Could Obama be trying to perfect Marxism? He did grow up with a close friend being a member of Communist Party-USA and many communists today like Obama's policies.

Obama is using the youth to get a large percentage of the vote and the people who will only vote Democrat. This is a large percentage of voters who do not want to understand or look up what Obama's policies actually are.

It's rather funny that it takes a person with no political experience and so vague in his speeches to get the youth to come out in large numbers to vote. Although it did take the media to begin to worship him as well to make this work.

Voight: Obama wants a Socialized America

Jon Voight was caught up in the Vietnam anti-war era and through time he has found what a Marxist really is. After all, he is in Hollywood. Below are two of his quotes he wrote in his column that stood out to me.

"The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way. It seems to me that if Mr. Obama wins the presidential election, then Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country and help create a socialist America.

"The Democrats have targeted young people, knowing how easy it is to bring forth whatever is needed to program their minds. I know this process well. I was caught up in the hysteria during the Vietnam era, which was brought about through Marxist propaganda underlying the so-called peace movement. The radicals of that era were successful in giving the communists power to bring forth the killing fields and slaughter 2.5 million people in Cambodia and South Vietnam. Did they stop the war, or did they bring the war to those innocent people? In the end, they turned their backs on all the horror and suffering they helped create and walked away."


Below is Jon Voight's editorial piece that appeared in the Washington Times:

VOIGHT: My concerns for America
Obama sowing socialist seeds in young people

Monday, July 28, 2008

OP-ED

We, as parents, are well aware of the importance of our teachers who teach and program our children. We also know how important it is for our children to play with good-thinking children growing up.

Sen. Barack Obama has grown up with the teaching of very angry, militant white and black people: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger. We cannot say we are not affected by teachers who are militant and angry. We know too well that we become like them, and Mr. Obama will run this country in their mindset.

The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way. It seems to me that if Mr. Obama wins the presidential election, then Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country and help create a socialist America.

The Democrats have targeted young people, knowing how easy it is to bring forth whatever is needed to program their minds. I know this process well. I was caught up in the hysteria during the Vietnam era, which was brought about through Marxist propaganda underlying the so-called peace movement. The radicals of that era were successful in giving the communists power to bring forth the killing fields and slaughter 2.5 million people in Cambodia and South Vietnam. Did they stop the war, or did they bring the war to those innocent people? In the end, they turned their backs on all the horror and suffering they helped create and walked away.

Those same leaders who were in the streets in the '60s are very powerful today in their work to bring down the Iraq war and to attack our president, and they have found their way into our schools. William Ayers is a good example of that.

Thank God, today, we have a strong generation of young soldiers who know exactly who they are and what they must do to protect our freedom and our democracy. And we have the leadership of Gen. David Petraeus, who has brought hope and stability to Iraq and prevented the terrorists from establishing a base in that country. Our soldiers are lifting us to an example of patriotism at a time when we've almost forgotten who we are and what is at stake.

If Mr. Obama had his way, he would have pulled our troops from Iraq years ago and initiated an unprecedented bloodbath, turning over that country to the barbarianism of our enemies. With what he has openly stated about his plans for our military, and his lack of understanding about the true nature of our enemies, there's not a cell in my body that can accept the idea that Mr. Obama can keep us safe from the terrorists around the world, and from Iran, which is making great strides toward getting the atomic bomb. And while a misleading portrait of Mr. Obama is being perpetrated by a media controlled by the Democrats, the Obama camp has sent out people to attack the greatness of Sen. John McCain, whose suffering and courage in a Hanoi prison camp is an American legend.

Gen. Wesley Clark, who himself has shame upon him, having been relieved of his command, has done their bidding and become a lying fool in his need to demean a fellow soldier and a true hero.

This is a perilous time, and more than ever, the world needs a united and strong America. If, God forbid, we live to see Mr. Obama president, we will live through a socialist era that America has not seen before, and our country will be weakened in every way.

Jon Voight is an Academy Award-winning actor who is well-known for his humanitarian work.

Communist Party-USA applauds China's olympics

Commies stick together. The Communist Party-USA doesn't care if millions die as long as they get their way. So they love China. They love Russia. They love Cuba. They love Venezuela. And, they love Vietnam.

(From CPUSA Website)

Here's the CPUSA article:

The Beijing Olympics represent a vision of the kind of future for which the Communist Party USA strives: a world where people from hundreds of countries come together peacefully to enjoy a common cause.

205 states will participate in the Olympic games, many of whom are in conflict with each other. Iraq and the United States, Israel and Palestine, Russia and Georgia, the D.R. Congo and Rwanda, Sudan and Chad: All of these nations and dozens more will be part of a single, peaceful event.

Further, these Olympic Games will take place in a country that, despite some inevitable mistakes and setbacks, has and is continuing to move tens of millions of people out of poverty and works internationally to ensure a peaceful world order.

Millions of people will have the potential to see, with their own eyes, China’s accomplishments. In only a few short decades, according to UN bodies, China has taken more people out of poverty—in raw numbers and per capita—than any other nation in the history of the world. Modern cities have flourished, and while pollution and migration remain problems, these issues are being tackled quickly.

The thousands of people who go to China for the games will see the tremendous strides China has made in the past 25 years, strides towards greater openness and self expression.

Therefore, the Communist Party USA strongly opposes any attempts to politicize, disrupt or boycott the Beijing Olympics.

It goes without saying that we condemn the July 21 terrorist attacks in the Chinese city of Kunming, as well as the recent riots sparked by a small number of perpetrators in Lhasa, in China’s Tibetan Autonomous Region. We are resolutely opposed to all forms of terror, and can never support violence against innocent civilians.

It is no secret that there are many who would like to do whatever is possible to undermine China’s status as a peacefully rising power. We urge the world community to respect China and not interfere in its internal affairs.

While in general we believe everyone has the right to dissent, we fully agree with International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, who said:

“We do ask that there be no propaganda or demonstrations at Olympic Games venues for the very good and simple reason that we have 205 countries and territories represented, many of whom are in conflict, and the Games are not the place to take political or religious stances.”

We believe that any call for a boycott of the Beijing games should be completely rejected.

USA Commies love Obama's "hope" and "change"

Interesting, very interesting. Barack Obama is endorsed by Communist Party-USA.