A Convoy Heads for Gori to Investigate Rumors of Plunder

OUTSIDE GORI, Georgia, Aug. 13 — Near a sign reading “J. Stalin’s Home Country,” Russian military vehicles lumbered along the highway, rifles pointing out from drivers’ windows. Most of the soldiers inside looked stony-eyed at the civilian cars going past. But a few nodded and gave casual waves, as if their presence there were no big deal.

It was a big deal for Alexandre Lomaia, secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council. Along with Estonian Ambassador Toomas Lukk, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy and a group of Georgian and foreign journalists, he had come hoping to see for himself the place where hostile troops were said to be ravaging what was left of the town.

“There were numerous reports that the Russian regular army let the irregulars into the city this morning, and immediately after that, we started getting desperate calls from the people, saying, ‘Help us, they are looting, they are humiliating us, they are crushing our houses.’ “

The “irregulars,” according to Lomaia, were Cossacks, Chechens and — perhaps most terrifying for Georgians in this conflict — Ossetians. Ossetians and Georgians fought a vicious ethnic war in the early 1990s. The current conflict was ignited last week in South Ossetia.

Read more: A Convoy Heads for Gori to Investigate Rumors of Plunder

More drilling is part of a strategy that works

I do not understand how anyone can say that drilling for offshore oil and oil elsewhere will not affect our situation. I also disagree when it is said it will not have an effect for years.

Let’s turn back the clock about 35 years. The oil gangsters of OPEC decided to cut the production of crude oil and drove up the price. The United States then decided to allocate several billion dollars to exploration for oil and for alternative energies. When the oil gangsters realized the United States was serious about this, they opened up the oil faucets and drove the price of crude oil back down, and in the process made that several-billion-dollar investment in new oil and energy sources unattractive.

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Lights go out in Georgia

RUSSIA’S lopsided five-day war with Georgia was nasty, brutish and short – to borrow philosopher Thomas Hobbes’ view of life. And as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called a halt to fighting Tuesday, Moscow had achieved its war aims.

Georgian forces were driven from the separatist South Ossetia enclave that wants to join Russian North Ossetia. Georgia’s U.S.-trained military was routed and “disorganized” (in Mr. Medvedev’s words), having fled to the outskirts of their capital, Tbilisi.

The Russians pursued them into Georgia’s undisputed territory, destroying bases, airfields and command centres, bombing urban areas and taking control of the main east-west highway.

Georgia’s ambitions to join NATO and the European Union have been set back and its ability to offer Europe a secure oil-and-gas pipeline route that isn’t controlled by Russia has also been cast in doubt.

By humbling and destabilizing a troublesome U.S. ally, Moscow has shown there are limits to what America can or will do to confront Russia in its old sphere of influence.

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Russia and Georgia agree to truce

The heavy fighting between Russian and Georgian forces appears to have ended after the two sides agreed to an EU-backed ceasefire plan.

Speaking early on Wednesday in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president who currently holds the rotating EU presidency, confirmed that both sides had agreed to pull back their troops.

The peace plan demands that Russia and Georgia immediately end all hostilities and allow free access to the region for humanitarian assistance.

But the exact details of the truce must still be finalised and there are still reports from both sides that some fighting has continued.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, had ordered an end to military operations inside Georgia, but Georgia said Russian aircraft continued bombing villages and towns, killing several people.

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Putin is solely responsible. Saakaszwili had no choice

“Russian journalist: Putin is solely responsible. Saakaszwili had no choice.” Marcin Wojciechowski (Gazeta Wyborcza, 2008-08-10; the full interview to be published on Monday
Who is right in the georgian-russian conflict – Moscow or Tbilisi?
Oleg Panfilow:

Georgian President Saakashvili had no choice but to attack South Osetia. For more than 10 days Georgian territory was shelled from Osetian positions. Russian peacekeepers watched it passively. Saakashvili called on Russia to calm down the leadership of South Osetia, threatened to use force, and finally it all boiled over … Russia did nothing to diminish the tension. And that’s how Georgian military action in South Osetia turned into regular war (…) They (the Russians) bombed all military airfields, harbor in Poti, several military bases. Georgians can;t believe that they are in regular war with Russia. Nobody expected that Russia would react so violently to the events in SOuth Osetia. Georgians are astonished and upset that Russia used a pretext to start a regular war against Georgia.
MW – Are Georgians ready to fight Russia?
OP -

All Georgian opposition united around Saakashvili, despite still recently calling him the worst, accusing him of falsifying the elections, attempting dictatorship, etc. Today it does not matter who believes what politically. Everyone wants to fight for Georgia. Even the former minister of defense Irakli Irakisziwili wanted by the Tbilisi authorities for the attempted coup (probably in hiding in Russia) declared in an interview that he would like to return to Georgia to fight for it as an ordinary soldier. Many of my friends, the reservists, declare readiness to fight the aggressor. The mood is solemn. Strangely, there are no anti-Russian sentiments, in a sense of wanting revenge against ordinary Russians. I am walking around in the streets, I am speaking in Russian, I am not hiding who I am, and nobody confronted me. No even a verbal abuse. To me this is incredible. I hope it stays this way.

Putin is solely responsible. Saakaszwili had no choice

The dance of tutu and politicians

Running for political office in Hawai’i takes more than a Reyn’s shirt and a Web site. It takes the humbling endurance of showing up to every community event, great and not-so-great, and meeting people where they live. There are miles of sweaty hands to shake, ponds of sweaty hugs to accept, and hours of face-breaking make-nice chit-chat. Workin’ it takes so much work.

On Friday, Duke Bainum learned he would run unopposed for the District 5 seat on the Honolulu City Council. Saturday morning in the hot August sun, there he was grinning and glad-handing at the Palolo Pride festival like he had a race to run. The emcee introduced him between senior citizen dance groups and wished him luck, like maybe he still needed it even though Mufi Hannemann’s friend Kirk Caldwell is no longer in that or any other race and the third candidate withdrew his name.

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Blog Bits: Publishing Obama’s prayer; Roy Blunt’s view of Obama; predicting McCain’s running mate

Something fishy

If you felt that there was something fishy about that prayer that Sen. Barack Obama left in the Western Wall while in Jerusalem being stolen and printed in the newspaper as I did, you might have been right. Ma’ariv, the newspaper that printed the prayer, says that the prayer was approved for publication prior to Obama placing it in the wall. The newspaper said, “Barack Obama’s note was approved for publication in the international media…”

Read more: Blog Bits: Publishing Obama’s prayer; Roy Blunt’s view of Obama; predicting McCain’s running mate

Tax plans are source of great division / McCain, Obama ideas holding to party doctrine

WASHINGTON – America’s troubled economy may offer Sen. Barack Obama a golden opportunity to turn the presidential campaign into a referendum on Republican policies, but Sen. John McCain is betting that he can trump him by embracing a favorite move in the GOP playbook – cutting taxes.

McCain and Obama differ widely on the economy. Their approaches diverge over health care, energy, trade, solving the mortgage foreclosure crisis and the role of government regulation. And they have contrasting visions over how to reverse the economic slowdown.

Online: Union-Tribune politics editor Michael Smolens will take your questions on national and state politics during a live online chat from 10 to 11 a.m. tomorrow at uniontrib.com/chat
Their differences are perhaps sharpest over taxes, a winning issue for Republicans since 1980, when Ronald Reagan brought tax-cut religion to the party.

Tax plans are source of great division

ARTHUR IN

FORMER PRIME MINISTER Owen Arthur has beaten current Prime Minister David Thompson in one more election.

Arthur was last night elected an honorary life member of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA), but Thompson did not find favour among BCA members for a similar position during a ballot at the association’s annual general meeting at Sherbourne Conference Centre.

With a very low turnout of only 51 out of a near 2 000 membership, a minimum 34 votes were needed to be elected and Arthur received 37 while Thompson got 30.

Read more: ARTHUR IN

Tool to find the 2008 candidate that represents you best

Glassbooth is a non-profit, non-bias, nonpartisan and transparent organization that hopes to empower the American voter in making an informed decision at the polls. Don’t buy into the political horse race, vote on the issues instead.

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