Theodore's World

Red State Update at Saddleback Forum Pt. 1

Pt. 2-Red State Update at Saddleback Forum

Wild Thing’s comment……..
LOL this is so funny. Does Soros think anyone with a brain will not see what a fool Soros’s money has paid for?

Viewers question credential design …..DNC attendees have holograms in hand
The tickets are for Obama’s speech at INVESCO Field.

Colorado 9 News
Some viewers contacted 9NEWS Saturday, questioning the design of the credentials to see Sen. Barack Obama accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination at INVESCO Field at Mile High.
The viewers say with the stars and blue field in the lower left corner, it looks like an upside down American flag. Published flag etiquette states the stars should always be displayed in the upper left corner. An upside down flag represents an international symbol of extreme distress.

Matt Chandler with the Obama campaign says the flag is not upside down. He says it is a stylized flag designed to blend the stars on Senator Obama’s shirt with the flag blowing in the wind.

Natalie Wyeth with the Democratic National Convention Committee sent 9NEWS the following statement Saturday night:

“The DNCC community credentials incorporate patriotic design elements. They do not depict an actual American flag. The DNCC has full and complete respect for the flag and all rules of display.”

Wild Thing’s comment………..
I am so sick of this anti-American actions, and words too from the left!!!
So the design with flag elements, not a real flag. Silly me – I interpreted it as an actual upside down flag.
How tone deaf are these people, anyway??
“The DNCC has full and complete respect for the flag ….”
Sure long as they can burn them.
An upside down flag, if I recall correctly, is a distress signal.
How else can they insult America? It just never ends! Democrats can’t take a single breath of air without insulting this country.

Rep.: Half of House Dems may vote Hillary at DNC
Politico
Rep. Loretta Sanchez says she’s happy for the chance to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Democratic National Convention — and she predicts that as many as half of the Democrats in the House could join her.
Just how many former Clinton supporters will vote for the former first lady during the symbolic first ballot is anybody’s guess, but each of them will be called upon to do so — whether they want to or not.
On Friday, the Obama campaign confirmed that the floor vote in Denver, intended to assuage Clinton supporters still stewing over her narrow loss, will be conducted as a state-by-state roll call. Under proposed convention bylaws, delegates would be forced to register their votes on a tally sheet with the convention secretary — the rules could be altered or suspended before the start of the convention.

“By putting her name in nomination, you’re putting people on the spot,” said former delegate counter Matt Seyfang, adding a second potential drawback: “Having a roll call … just chews into your broadcast time.”

Lower-key options were available. For example, Clinton’s name could have been entered into nomination, followed by laudatory speeches, ending with her release of delegates to Obama and proposal that he be nomination by acclamation, Seyfang said.

Said Sanchez: “I believe there are a lot of supporters for Hillary among the superdelegates, especially now that they’ve agreed to place her name in nomination. I think half the House Democrats would probably be Hillary supporters, especially women. … I felt she was the most experienced and the best candidate and I still feel that way.”

A longtime Clinton adviser said it was “crazy” to guess at numbers but estimated that the former first lady would garner between 600 and 1,200 delegates — considerably short of the approximately 1,800 she had collected at the time of her departure from the race in early June.
“It’s a bizarre strategy,” said one Democratic strategist of the roll call. “It could backfire and show that her influence is waning. Chances are, she’s not going to have as many delegates vote for her on the floor as she had in the primary.”
Indeed, many Hillary diehards, including at least one member of the New York delegation, are reluctant to vote for Clinton after switching over to Obama.
“I think that most superdelegates, including myself, are going for Obama,” said New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who campaigned with Clinton around the country. “I made my decision for Obama, and I’m not switching again.”
Other onetime Clinton backers are reluctant to reverse course for fear of angering their black constituents.
“My boss is totally conflicted about it — and pissed Hillary is putting us in this position,” said a congressional staffer for another New York House member. “We still haven’t made up our mind and I don’t know when we are going to.”
Another New York delegate, speaking on condition of anonymity, predicted that as much as 30 percent to 40 percent of the New York delegation would pick Clinton over Obama during the symbolic vote.

Wild Thing’s comment………..
Verrrrry interesting, well it will not be dull that’s for sure. hahahaha

Obama’s Islamist Problem
Townhall
Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama’s appearance before a large evangelical congregation in Orange County over the weekend underscored an evident imperative of his campaign: Emphasize his Christian faith and put to rest insistent rumors that he secretly adheres to the Islamic creed of his father and youth.
The effort to minimize any grounds for fearing Obama has an abiding, if covert, attachment to Islam has prompted him to risk offending Muslims in order to avoid off-message controversies and photo ops. It is, therefore, curious in the extreme that he is giving a prominent role at next week’s Democratic convention to a leader of an organization identified by the Department of Justice as a Muslim Brotherhood front organization and an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism financing conspiracy.
Dr. Ingrid Mattson is the president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an organization created by the radical, Saudi-financed Muslim Students Association. She will represent the Muslim community at the first-ever interfaith prayer service at a Democratic nominating convention.
Now, we know from the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial that ISNA is one of many Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups operating in America. We also know from a Brotherhood document entered into evidence in that case (which is currently being retried after the first prosecution resulted in a mistrial) that,

“The work [of Brotherhood members] in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within, and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

The question is why would Barak Obama’s campaign – which has prevented Muslim women wearing headcoverings from being in the background of photographs with the candidate and which recently fired a Muslim-outreach coordinator who had ties to another unindicted HLF co-conspirator – allow itself to be put in such company?

Presumably, the response will be one heard from the Bush administration: ISNA is a large, “mainstream” Muslim-American organization that is an appropriate vehicle for outreach to that community. In fact, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and former Under Secretaries of State Nick Burns and Karen Hughes are among the senior U.S. government officials who have lavished praise on the group and legitimated ISNA by meeting with Dr. Mattson and others.
The difference is that, for whatever reason, Sen. Obama clearly is exercising care about his public associations with Muslims. Given that, one would think that he would want, in particular, to avoid any actions that could be described as a “third term” for a Bush administration that has repeatedly embraced and allowed itself to be influenced by Muslim Brotherhood fronts.
Certainly, such would seem to be the message of Sen. Obama’s cashiering of Mazen Asbahi, his campaign’s erstwhile Muslim coordinator. The problem was not simply that Asbahi had served on a board with Jamal Said, who the government chose not to indict but nonetheless implicated in the HLF racketeering conspiracy in support of the terrorist group, Hamas.
It was that the board on which Messrs. Asbahi and Said served was for a company owned by yet another Saudi-funded, Brotherhood front and un-indicted coconspirator: the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). The company, Allied Asset Advisors, is, as the Wall Street Journal put it: “a subsidiary of the North American Islamic Trust…which is supported financially by the government of Saudi Arabia, holds title to many mosques in the U.S. and promotes a conservative brand of Islam compatible with the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and also akin to the fundamentalist style predominant in Saudi Arabia.” NAIT is, in other words, a powerful instrument in the Islamists’ campaign to dominate and radicalize the Muslim community in America. ISNA’s Dr. Mattson is an ex officio member of the NAIT board of directors.

Another problem for Sen. Obama would have been that Allied Asset Advisors is one of a growing number of companies that engages in Shariah-Compliant Finance (SCF). This practice ostensibly eschews investments involving interest, pork, gambling and other activities considered impure by authoritative Shariah advisors.
Far from being just one of many religious-based “socially responsible” investing options, however, SCF is a vehicle for legitimating the Islamists’ repressive, totalitarian Shariah code and establishing its seditious tenet that Muslims here will not be governed by the U.S. Constitution and laws.
Whatever the reasons for the Democratic presidential candidate’s sensitivities about the Islamic faith, he has an obligation to make clear his attitude towards the Muslim Brotherhood, its mission in America and his willingness to be associated with its front organizations.
It is still the case that most Muslims in this country do not want any part of Shariah law. It behooves Sen. Obama to make known now whether he is willing to embrace those who do, and his true attitude towards their ambition to impose the Islamists’ barbaric code here through such subterfuges as Shariah-Compliant Finance.

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Wild Thing’s comment…………..
I honestly believe Obama’s Primary religion is “OBAMA!” I believe Obama’s mind is so shallow and infintile and his ego so deliriously beserk, that he can only worship himself, the delusionsionally warped Osama Obama HUSSEIN!
But the evidence supports that Obama is Muslim inside and Muslim outside. His Mentor Rev. Wright is now proven to have been a Black Muslim and a close follower and associate of Loius Farrakkon before founding his “Christian Church”. My proof was when Quaddaffi of Libya came out and declared
Obama a Great Prophet of Islam and an Excellent Muslim.
More evidence click and scroll down
The Obama File

Obama’s Rapid Response Backfires
Investors Business Daily
Barack Obama’s fierce attack on Jerome Corsi’s best-selling book, “The Obama Nation,” has backfired. He has been forced to confirm things he’d hoped would stay buried.
Obama, for example, for the first time has acknowledged that the mysterious “Frank” in his 1995 autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” is in fact Communist Party USA member Frank Marshall Davis, who during the height of the Cold War was investigated by both the FBI and Congress as a pawn of Moscow.
As we’ve noted, the late Davis was Obama’s early mentor with whom he shared whiskey and rage while growing up in Hawaii. The militant black poet influenced the young Obama’s decision to become a pro-labor community organizer and agitator in his hometown of Chicago.
Corsi writes about Davis in his critical new book, “The Obama Nation,” which has hit No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list. In an unusual 40-page rebuttal posted on his campaign Web site, Obama tries to smear the entire book as a “series of lies.”
Only, Corsi’s book is basically a critique of Obama’s own first book, “Dreams From My Father,” written in 1995. It finds hole after hole in the narrative. Dates don’t add up. Stories don’t square with reality. Identities of central characters like Davis are hidden from view.
In his angrily worded report, Obama attempts to play down the influence Corsi says Davis had on him. But he doesn’t dispute anything the book documents about Davis’ un-American activities with the Soviets.
Instead, Obama takes issue with Corsi claiming Davis’ angry poems provided “a voice for Obama’s black rage.” He calls it a “lie.”
In fact, Obama’s own words appear to support the claim. On Page 171 of “Dreams,” Obama flies into a fit over chronic black poverty in Chicago’s South Side, blaming whites who took flight to the crime-free suburbs and took jobs with them. He’s overcome by the same black rage Davis radiated in his Waikiki bungalow years earlier.
Obama took to heart Davis’ advice to “keep your eyes open” to signs of institutional racism. He became race-conscious like never before. He admits he never “let it go,” even when he could see that overt racism was a thing of the past.
But that wasn’t even the point Corsi was making in his section on Davis, which he subtitled “Obama’s Communist Mentor.” The issue of black rage was a side point. The main point is Davis’ communist influence, something voters have a right to know more about.
Obama in his rebuttal leaves that point completely unaddressed. He doesn’t want to go there — for obvious reasons.
Obama’s rapid response to Corsi’s alleged “swift-boating” backfires again in the same report when he defends his wife, Michelle, against the charge that she was influenced by another black Marxist revolutionist, Stokely Carmichael, in formulating her Princeton thesis on black separatism.
Again, Obama calls it a “lie.” But turning to Page 139 of his memoir, “Dreams,” we find that he himself was inspired by Carmichael, a civil rights leader turned militant black nationalist. Changing his name to Kwame Toure, Carmichael wrote a book on “Black Power” that propounds an explicitly socialist, Pan-African vision.
While living in New York, Obama says he was in “search of some inspiration” one day and “went to hear Kwame Toure, formerly Stokely Carmichael of SNCC and Black Power fame, speak at Columbia.” He clearly knew the background of the source for his inspiration that day.
“At the entrance to the auditorium, two women, one black, one Asian, were selling Marxist literature and arguing with each other about Trotsky’s place in history,” he wrote, describing the scene. “Inside, Toure was proposing a program to establish economic ties between Africa and Harlem that would circumvent white capitalist imperialism.”
Obama, who has family in Kenya, is proposing his own bailout of Africa.
Obama wants to run from this radical past, but his first memoir — written long before he had serious White House aspirations — is a peek into his soul. “Dreams” has become more of a nightmare, and he may just come to regret ever writing it.

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Wild Thing’s comment……….
This is an excellent article.
LOL I like this part of the article:

“Corsi writes about Davis in his critical new book, “The Obama Nation,” which has hit No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list. In an unusual 40-page rebuttal posted on his campaign Web site, Obama tries to smear the entire book as a “series of lies.”
Only, Corsi’s book is basically a critique of Obama’s own first book, “Dreams From My Father,” written in 1995. It finds hole after hole in the narrative. Dates don’t add up. Stories don’t square with reality. Identities of central characters like Davis are hidden from view.”

Hahahaha A 40 page rebuttal, that is a lot of work for someone that is not guilty.
HELLO Obama, this is Houston Control….YOU have a problem.
heh heh

This is the tracker I have been using, it has a little animated arrow thing that follows the storm.
http://www.local10.com/hurricanetracker/index.html
This is weird, there are two stroms, like bookends. Maybe the storm in the Gulf will bump into Fay and stop her. Just a guess anyway.
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/gmex/loop-avn.html

Hi everyone,
As long as I can get online I will have a posts for you in the morning. If not the storm Fay will be the reason. I am posting this now just to let you know. We are one hour south of Tampa, in a city called Sarasota. It is on the West coast of Florida.( the Gulf of Mexico side) ……… Linda is on the East coast side ( the Atlantic Ocean side) so we aren’t sure which side the storm will decide to go to.
We have water, batteries and everything is all set. Things are cleared off the patio. We live 10 miles inland from the Gulf, out in the country in a wooded area.
Take care everyone,
((((hug ))))
Chrissie

300,000 flee as jihadis attacked
The Australian
A human tide of more than 300,000 civilians has fled the al-Qa’ida badlands, amid indications that the fighting there has reached unprecedented levels, with the Pakistani army using massive firepower to attack jihadi militant strongholds.
Helicopter gunships, fixed-wing strike aircraft, tanks and heavy artillery have been used in the onslaught that followed the visit last month by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to Washington, where he was berated for Pakistan’s failure to wipe out the militants.
The offensive runs counter to perceptions that Pakistan’s new civilian Government is “soft” on Islamic extremism.
This will reassure Washington, whose ally in the war in terror for the past nine years, President Pervez Musharraf, was given by the Coalition Government until midnight last night (4am today AEST) to resign or face impeachment proceedings beginning tonight in the National Assembly.
Pakistani television showed thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire streaming out of the Bajaur, Mohmand and Kurrum agencies during the fighting estimated to have killed more than 500 militants. Tens of thousands of people are camping on the perimeter of Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, and some have reached Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjoining Islamabad.
New security tsar Rehman Malik, the architect of the get-tough policy against the militants who have over-run the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, said at least 220,000 civilians had been displaced. But welfare agencies said the figure was probably well in excess of 300,000.
An NWFP government official appealing for federal assistance said yesterday: “There are hundreds of thousands of people waiting for help and we don’t have the wherewithal to deal with the situation.”
In a speech to the National Assembly on Saturday, Mr Gilani declared the Government was determined to re-establish control in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. “We will establish the writ of the Government at all costs (as) a parallel government cannot be tolerated,” he said.
The offensive, launched without fanfare to avoid conveying the notion it was done at the insistence of Washington, is targeting primarily Bajaur, slated as the most likely hiding place of Osama bin Laden. Fierce fighting is also under way in areas of the NWFP where many of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are believed to be based.
Dr Malik, who accompanied Mr Gilani to Washington, estimated yesterday that a force of more than 3000 well-armed and highly trained al-Qa’ida militants were operating in Bajaur.
“We will wipe them out,” Dr Malik said. “We will not surrender before them.”
Fighting in the NWFP’s strategic Swat Valley, 250km north of Islamabad, is at unprecedented levels.
Relations between Washington and the new administration in Islamabad had been tense, particularly over the case of accused terrorist Aafia Siddiqui.
The Pakistani neuroscientist appeared in a New York court this month after disappearing with her three children in Karachi five years ago. US officials say Ms Siddiqui, 36, is a significant al-Qa’ida figure. Human rights workers argue she was abducted in a joint Pakistani-US operation under the Musharraf regime.
The Pakistani parliament’s foreign affairs committee vowed on Saturday to visit Ms Siddiqui in her New York cell, as well as Pakistanis held at Guantanamo Bay.
Talks between Mr Musharraf’s aides and the coalition Government, which set today’s deadline, aimed at securing him indemnity from prosecution have been hampered by the opposition of Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister deposed by Mr Musharraf in a coup. Saudi Arabia, the US and UK have sent envoys to resolve the crisis.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Pakistani television showed thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire streaming out of the Bajaur, Mohmand and Kurrum agencies during the fighting estimated to have killed more than 500 militants.
Why didn’t they do this 7 years ago??
I heard their top military leader is very close to us. I hope so since we probably have some people in there or very close. Prayers up again for our military beyond the frontline.

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan announced his resignation Monday, the eve of an impeachment procedure announced by his government.
BBC
He went on national TV to say that while he was confident the charges would not stand, this was not the time for more confrontation.
He is accused of violation of the constitution and gross misconduct.
The Speaker of the Pakistani Senate, Muhammad Mian Sumroo, automatically took over as caretaker president.
The key issue now is whether the ruling coalition, which had pushed for Mr Musharraf’s exit since winning the February election, can stay united and deliver on its promises, he says.
It will have to agree on a new president, then persuade allies like the US and UK, and its neighbours like India and Afghanistan, that it will be committed to defeating militancy and terrorism, our correspondent adds.
International reaction to Mr Musharraf’s resignation was mixed, with the US hailing him as strong ally against terrorism but Afghanistan welcoming his departure as a boost to democracy.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
I am worried about our troops. I think this will make it worse for them and give a go ahead even more to the enemy. The world has gotten very volatile. At some point in the (near) future, Pakistan will become an islamic fundamentalist state, and radical islam will have its nukes.
This ia all another good reason why reason for NObama.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, as the following map shows, that buffer for Russia disappeared.

August 8th and 9th , 2008

On August 8th, large columns of Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry entered Georgia into South Ossetian through the Roksky Tunnel that penetrates the Caucasus Mountains. These forces, with heavy Russian air support, drove south and after a fierce counterattack by the Georgians was defeated, drove towards the Sough Ossetian capitol of Tskhinvali. Georgian air fileds and military bases all around the country came under attack, during which between 4 and 10 Russian aircraft were shot down.

In Beijing, where both U.S. President George Bush, and Russian Prime Minister (and defacto leader in many eyes) Vladimir Putin, were in attendance, as word of the Russian attack was reported, President Bush immediately held tense, one on one discussions with Prime Minister Putin in Beijing to try and immediately difuse and resolve the crisis.

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August 9th, and 10th 2008

On August 9th the Russian troops opened a second front in Georgia by landing troops in amphibious operations and air transport landings in the other Georgian seperatist province of Abkhazia. These forces, assisted by Russian paratroopers, immediatly began pushing eastward and southward, dividing the country.

The rapid availability and deployment of these two invasion forces by Russia makes it clear that the Russian government had planned, deployed and staged these operations well in advance, raising the natural question regarding whether Russia instigated the attacks/shelling of Georgian villages and positions by South Ossetian forces to provoke the response by Georgia, which Russian then used as a pretext for an already planned invasion.

Fighting was fierce, Russian progress was rapid. On the 9th and 10th the Russians drove into and through the South Ossetian capitol of Tskhinvali, having used air support to loosen Georgian positions and then drive them back with their armored columns, artillary, and the use of SS-21 ballistic missiles.

President Bush statement:

“I’m deeply concerned about the situation in Georgia. The United States takes this matter very seriously. The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia. They mark a dangerous escalation in the crisis. The violence is endangering regional peace. Civilian lives have been lost, and others are endangered. This situation can be resolved peacefully. We’ve been in contact with leaders in both Georgia and Russia at all levels of government. Georgia is a sovereign nation and its territorial integrity must be respected. We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops. We call for an end to the Russian bombings, and a return by the parties to the status quo of August the 6th. The United States is working with our European partners to launch international mediation, and with the parties to restart their dialogue. Russia needs to support these efforts so that peace can be restored as quickly as possible. “

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August 10th and 11th, 2008

By the end of August 10th and into the 11th the Russians had driven into the Georgian city of Gori in the north, after significant air raids there had destroyed buildings, terrorized the population, and softened up the Georgian defensive positions. The Russians also drove on the Port of Poti and the town of Senaki in the west.

A couragous, but doomed attack by four small Georgian missile boats on the large Russian Black Sea fleet failed and two Georgian boats were destroyed in the exchange. Reports indicated that the small force may have damaged the Russian flagship, the guided missile cruiser, Moskva, causing her to withdraw, but those reports were not confirmed by the Russians.

RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER VLADIMIR PUTIN Statement, August 10, 2008

“The actions of the Georgian leadership in South Ossetia are a crime and foremost they are a crime against their own people because a deadly blow has been delivered to the territorial integrity of Georgia, which brings massive damage to its national identity.
It’s hard to imagine after all that had happened and after all that is still happening they’ll be able to convince South Ossetia to be part of Georgia.
In my opinion they are already elements of some kind of genocide of the Ossetian people. I think it would be correct if you instruct the military prosecutor to document all such incidents. “

By August 11th the Georgian military was retreating from Gori and falling back towards the capitol of Tiblisis where the President had called for a defense in depth of the city. Airbases around Tiblisi were under Russian air attack, as was the Presidential residence where the Georgian President had to be quickly evacuated from one press conference when air raid warning went off. The Russians were apparently at that point targeting the Georgian President.

Conditions in the west deteriorated as well. The major east-west higway in the nation had been cut, severing the west side of the country from the east side. Access to the Sea had been cut by Russian forces as well. Conditions for the Georgian Republic appeared very grave.

Some of President Bush’s statement on August 11th, 2008

“I just met with my national security team to discuss the situation in Georgia.
I am deeply concerned by reports that Russian troops have moved beyond the zone of conflict, attacked the Georgian town of Gori, and are threatening the Georgia’s — Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi. There’s evidence that Russian forces may soon begin bombing the civilian airport in the capital city.
If these reports are accurate, these Russian actions would represent a dramatic and brutal escalation of the conflict in Georgia. And these actions would be inconsistent with assurances we have received from Russia that its objectives were limited to restoring the status quo in South Ossetia that existed before fighting began on August the 6th.
It now appears that an effort may be underway to depose Georgia’s duly elected government. Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century. “

RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER VLADIMIR PUTIN Statement, August 11, 2008

“It’s a pity that some of our partners, instead of helping, are in fact trying to get in the way. I mean among other things the United States airlifting Georgia’s military contingent from Iraq effectively into the conflict zone. This of course will not change anything.
The very scale of this cynicism is astonishing — the attempt to turn white into black, black into white and to adeptly portray victims of aggression as aggressors and place the responsibility for the consequences of the aggression on the victims.
Of course, Saddam Hussein ought to have been hanged for destroying several Shiite villages. And the incumbent Georgian leaders who razed ten Ossetian villages at once, who ran elderly people and children with tanks, who burned civilian alive in their sheds — these leaders must be taken under protection. “

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August 12th, 2008
On August 12th a singular surprisingly effective diplomatic effort took place.
This action was coinducted by the five Presidents of European Union nations, all whom had suffered under Soviet domination, and all who bordered the current Russian sphere of influence and control.
These five personally came to the aid of Georgia on August 12th and 13th. The five Presidents, Ukraine’s Viktor Yushchenko, Poland’s Lech Kaczyski, Lithuania’s Valdas Adamkus, Latvia’s Valdis Zatlers, and Estonia’s Toomas Hendrik Ilves , while Russia was still bombing Georgia, and clearly targeting the Georgian President Saakashvili, flew to Tiblisi, Georgia on August 12th and personally sought out and stood with President of Georgia.
They risked their lives in defiance of the Russian military and leadership, in essence placing themselves directly in harms way as a shield to the Georgian President.
From that moment, the tempo of war seemed to ease as the Russian juggernaught, to that point seemingly unstoppable, paused to consider the ramifications of this event and the location of these Presidents in the Georgian capitol.
It should be recorded as one of the most couragous acts by actual leaders of nations in several generations…and it worked.
In addition, French President Sarkozy, as the current President of the European Union, worked tirelessly to broker a cease-fire agreement in Moscow that day that both nations would sign.

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August 13, 2008

After the announcement of the agreement in Moscow, the French President flew to the European Union and then on to Tiblisi.

But, despite the asurance of the Russians, their troops continued to move towards the Georgian capital and continued operations in other parts of Georgia, occupying and destroying bases, demolishing naval vessels, and destroying infrastructure while the Georgian troops withdrew.

U.S. President George W. Bush scheduled and delivered a national message regarding the current status of the Republic of Georgia crisis.

snipet from his speech:

“We expect Russia to honor its commitment to let in all forms of humanitarian assistance. We expect Russia to ensure that all lines of communication and transport, including seaports, airports, roads, and airspace, remain open for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and for civilian transit. We expect Russia to meet its commitment to cease all military activities in Georgia. And we expect all Russian forces that entered Georgia in recent days to withdraw from that country.
As I have made clear, Russia’s ongoing action raise serious questions about its intentions in Georgia and the region. In recent years, Russia has sought to integrate into the diplomatic, political, economic, and security structures of the 21st century. The United States has supported those efforts. Now Russia is putting its aspirations at risk by taking actions in Georgia that are inconsistent with the principles of those institutions. To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe, and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis. “

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August 14, 2008

By the end of the day on August 14th, the Russians advanced to within 30 miles of Tiblisi, blocking the main east-west highway there just beyond the Georgian positions. They also destroyed the major east-west railway near there, destroying a major bridge for that railway. Aside from this however, no further major combat occurred between the two forces, and Georgian forces tensely manned their own positions, watching the Russians.

Also on August 14th, true to President Bush’s word, US Air Force C-17 transport planes began arriving in Georgia, unloading supplies, and also U.S. military teams to assess the needs of the Georgians and prepare for the logistical efforts to meet those needs. The thousands of pounds of humanitarian supplies for the Georgian people were much needed and welcomed, as were the U.S. military personnel. An ongoing effort of 2-3 planes a day will provide the logistical and humanitarian needs of the Georgians, which will be augmented later by US Navy vessels coming in on Georgia’s west coast. The Georgian people were beside themselves with joy and relief to see US military aircraft and personnel arriving. They knew full well, like with the five Presidents who came to stand vigil with them, that these troops and this equipment, in addition to the humanitarian effort, provide another shield from Russian attack and all the more opportunity to diffuse the crisis.

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August 15, 2008

Late on August 15th, after a five-hour consultation with the U.S. secretary of State, Rice, the President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili , signed the cease-fire agreement brokered by the French President with the President of Russia. Russian troops had moved to within 30 miles of the capital where that tense standoff with Georgian military continued.

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August 16, 2008

On August 16th, in the morning, Russian President Medvedev officially signed the European Union brokered cease-fire agreemnent.

Under the terms of the agreement, 1500 Russian troops will remain in the Georgian separatist provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and can patrol a buffer zone of five miles outside of those provinces but cannot patrol in Gori and other Georgian cities or hamper aid distribution or control ports, highways or railroads. The Russians will remain until a group of international peacekeepers is identified, accepted, and deployed to the two Provinces.

In the mean time, French President Sarkozy, in his role as the President of the European Union, was working to provide peacekeepers to the Georgian seperatist provinces as soon as possible.

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These girls are FOR Georgia and they are protesting in Berlin!

Protestors shout slogans as they gather during a demonstration against the conflict between Georgia and Russia in Berlin August 16, 2008. Russia defied U.S. demands for an immediate pullout of its troops from Georgia on Saturday, saying extra security arrangements needed to be put in place before a withdrawal could begin.

A protestor holds a placard which reads ‘Europe wake up!’ during a demonstration against the conflict between Georgia and Russia in Berlin August 16, 2008. Russia defied U.S. demands for an immediate pullout of its troops from Georgia on Saturday

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August 17th, 2008

Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili, left, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel speak while meeting in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2008.German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Georgia on Sunday to meet with President Mikhail Saakashvili .

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Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili meets refugees in Tbilisi

‘Putin has given us an order that everyone must leave or be shot’
Times Online

“The soldiers told us they had an order from Putin – leave or be killed.” Manana Dioshvili showed no emotion as she described how Russian troops forced her to flee her home. Her former neighbours nodded in agreement, huddled together in a kindergarten whose windows had been blown out by a Russian bomb.
“That’s how they explained themselves to us,” she recalled of the moment they fled the ethnic Georgian village of Kurta, near the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali.
“They said, ‘Putin has given us an order that everyone must be either shot or forced to leave’. They told us we should ask the Americans for help now because they would kill us if we stayed.”
Vardo Babutidze, 79, was not lucky enough to be visited by Russian soldiers. Her husband Georgi, 85, was shot twice through the chest by an Ossetian paramilitary who came to their house to demand weapons.
“We didn’t have any guns, so he shot Georgi in front of me without saying a word,” she said. “A neighbour helped me to bury him in our garden and then I just fled.”
Manana Galigashvili, 53, whose husband Andrei stared vacantly from a bed behind her, said that Ossetian soldiers had returned later and torched the house. They, too, had left after a soldier threatened to slit their throats.
Frightened refugees told similar stories all over the city of Gori yesterday as the Russian army extended its reach deep into Georgian territory despite a ceasefire agreement signed by President Medvedev that requires them to withdraw.
Troops and tanks moved to within 25 miles (40km) of the capital, Tbilisi, setting up roadblocks and digging in defensive positions in the hills above the highway. A line of tanks faced towards Tbilisi outside the village of Kaspi, a day after soldiers had blown up the railway line linking the capital to Georgia’s main port of Poti.