Guest Column

Report from the Georgian Front

By Ilana Freedman As we continue to follow the war in Georgia, and make no mistake, the war is still on; our exclusive sources on the ground have been filling in some of the gaps. A team went out on reconnaissance last night to assess the damage and came back with stories you won't see on the news. Their trip took them well into the next day, and they returned with much to tell about what they had seen. The first thing our source told me was that in spite of all the stories of Russians continuing to move throughout Georgia, the team saw few signs of movement. The Russians seem to be staying in place for the moment. But the team met a group of Russian soldiers, with whom they stopped to talk. The soldiers were angry and bitter because they had clearly outrun their supply chain and were forced to forage for food and clothing.

Before the gunfire, cyberattacks

Weeks before bombs started falling on Georgia, a security researcher in suburban Massachusetts was watching an attack against the country in cyberspace.

Look who came for dinner

In Bittinger, MD area A fawn followed this beagle home -- right through the doggie door in. The owner came home to find the visitor had made himself right at home.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili Appeals To The World For Georgia

By MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI AND CONDOLEEZZA RICE PRESIDENT SAAKASHVILI: Madame Secretary, we had almost five — hour discussion about mechanics to stop ongoing violence and deterring Russian invasion, as well as about massive assistance programs for Georgia from the United States in order to start immediate rebuild, immediate assistance, and immediate normalization of life in my badly damaged country. As we speak now, significant part of territories of Georgia remain under foreign military occupation. You might have heard reports that some Russian APCs were dislocated to move closer to the capital and on — halfway between Gori and Tbilisi.

Political grandstanding won’t help companies find oil on federal leases

Newt Gingrich and Roy Innis Senator Jeff Bingaman, Congressman Nick Rahall, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress who oppose producing more American oil are in a bind. They know voters are hurting from high gas prices and overwhelmingly want the government to allow more American oil production. But they can’t side with the American people and risk upsetting their left-wing base. So they needed a way to make us think they support more drilling – while effectively preventing us from ever drilling a single new well.

Georgia: Europe wins a gold medal for defeatism

To some, China's muscular domination of the Olympic medal table is a powerful allegory of the shifting balance of global power. A far better and more literal testimony to the collapse of the West may be seen in the distinctly weak-kneed response to Russian aggression in Georgia by what is still amusingly called the transatlantic alliance.

Has Mugabe Triumphed Again?

For a brief period in 2008 it appeared that Robert Mugabe’s nearly three decade stranglehold on power in the impoverished nation of Zimbabwe would finally come to an end.

The Russian Georgian war was preplanned in Moscow

Pavel Felgenhauer, Eurasia 15/8/08 Last week military tension in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia escalated into all-out war. The Ossetian separatists were provoking a conflict to give the Russian military a pretext for direct intervention. Late in the evening of August 7, a heavy mortar bombardment of Georgian villages near the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali provoked Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to order a major assault. The night attack by Georgian troops outfitted with Western-made night-vision equipment flushed the Ossetian fighters out and Tskhinvali was overrun in the morning. To stop the Georgian offensive thousands of Russian troops with hundreds of pieces of armor invaded through the Roki tunnel and rushed forward. Russian jets began bombing Georgian military installations and cities (see EDM, August 7).

Our sympathies mustn’t stop with Tim McLean

Tim McLean’s incomprehensible murder onboard a Greyhound bus was sickening and we at PETA are horrified by this appalling crime. We feel sorry for the victim’s family and friends and the passengers who witnessed this gruesome killing, for they will surely be scarred forever by this tragic incident.

Time To Ban The Bans

In 2008 alone, officials in the U.S. banned -- or tried to ban – a multitude of “dangers” in our everyday lives. A small sampling of targeted items includes trans fats, plastic bags, “fast food” restaurants, helium balloons, camp fires, circuses, homeschooling, baggy pants, spanking, and ice cream trucks among others.

The Consequences of Russian Aggression in Georgia

Russia's use of brute force to blast into Georgia over the last week is more than just another local skirmish on the other side of the world; it threatens to shift the balance of global power, and that has unquestionably been Putin's underlying goal for a long time.

The Best Defense Strategy for Lebanon is a Peace Treaty with Israel

Charles Jalkh (Freedom Fighter) Hezbollah’s propaganda has been focusing the Lebanese people into a single argument of how can we defend Lebanon from “Israeli aggressions and designs” over Lebanese territory and resources. Let us analyze Hezbollah’s premise in its 2 parts; the ”assumption” of Israeli aggression, and then the “designs/wants” of Lebanese territory and resources.


President Bush Discusses Situation in Georgia, Urges Russia to Cease Military Operations

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I've just met with my national security team to discuss the crisis in Georgia. I've spoken with President Saakashvili of Georgia, and President Sarkozy of France this morning. The United States strongly supports France's efforts, as President of the European Union, to broker an agreement that will end this conflict.

CNN Avoids Mentioning Islam in Segment on ‘Honor Killings’

By Mark Finkelstein Quite a feat: CNN has pulled off the MSM equivalent of describing a spiral staircase without using one's hands. It has managed to produce a segment on "honor killings" and related violence in the UK . . . without using the word "Muslim" or "Islam." CNN Newsroom anchor Don Lemon introduced the segment this afternoon at 1:37 PM EDT.

China banned child singer with crooked teeth from singing at opening ceremony

She warmed more than a billion hearts with her sweet and pure rendition of one of China’s favourite revolutionary anthems at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

ETFO Honours Toronto Teacher for Assisting Street Children in Ghana

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) today honoured Toronto elementary teacher Heather Menezes for her education and community service.

Toronto Teacher Wins ETFO’s New Teacher of the Year Award

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) presented Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT) member Vana Pistiolis with the New Teacher of the Year Award at its annual meeting in Toronto today.

For all our sakes, Canada must stand with Georgia

Ottawa, Canada - Russia’s invasion of Georgia has made public the brutal face of the Russian bear. Again, Russia has set out to crush independence, undermine sovereignty and mock the democratic aspirations of its former vassal states. The disintegration of the Soviet Union had set back the Russian bear only momentarily, its weakness and lies exposed. But the Russian bear has returned menacingly and turned the clock back to 1968 when it crushed the Prague spring as it is doing today in Georgia.

Michel Aoun Falsifies History… for the thousandeth time


By: Charles Jalkh (Freedom Fighter) During his speech to the Lebanese parliament, which is meeting to discuss the new cabinet program and decide on granting confidence, Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah stooge and leader of the FPM parliamentary block, declared that the Palestinian tragedy is the fault of the United Nations among others. He stated: “It was a decision by the United Nations to create the state of Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people, and as a consequence to this decision, the Palestinians were forced into exile” (speech transcript on the Lebanese Canadian Coordination Council).

Don’t Hijabs Violate Olympic Charter?

This piece comes from sweetness-light.com First another celebratory article from those tireless defenders of the faith at Reuters: