Interesting blog over at the Telegraph. It seems the American Bishops are hammering Joe Biden over his ridiculous stance and comments on abortion.

• Joe Biden loses Barack Obama the Catholic vote

Read some of the comments. FREAKS!

I find it quite interesting that all who support abortion are alive.

Russian President Medvedev has called for a halt. Effectively a cease fire. Let's see how long it lasts. In the meantime, it should be interesting in what ways each party (Russia, Georgia, and America) claims "victory."

UPDATE: Or maybe not.

The most clear thing I've heard on the Georgian War to date. As posted to The Belmont Club by OldSalt.

I’d like to say that I’m shocked and amazed of the number of posters on this forum and others who treat this as some sort of internal dispute between a bully (Saakashvili) and an ethnic minority, with the Russians in effect doing a very bad thing, but probably the only thing they could do.

It’s the FSB/KGB playbook - period. Or, it’s the pre-WWII isolationist playbook, avoid foreign entanglements, and the such. Take your pick. Neither describes the real world as it is.

Then there is the absolute fantasy (no insult intended) of perhaps giving nucs to Georgia, of rushing the 82nd Airborne in to key points (followed by what? their reduction via 500 Russian tanks and local air power?), of blowing Iran to hell just because it might make Putin feel bad, or of miracle resupply of superman SOCOM operators changing defeat to victory overnight. It’s not happening, folks.

And of course, there’s the obligatory “it’s all about oil.. oil is bad.. oil causes war..”.

Let’s get serious here, people.

1. This is well planned, naked Russian aggression. The situation on the ground in S. Ossetia was and is irrelevant, and particularly so to Putin. The Russians identified Georgia as a strategic goal on their shopping list for national expansion, and they’re just going to take it. They want the black sea naval base, they want the oil pipeline, and they want the strategic military road network (Southern terminus of the Sukhumi Military Road, the Georgian and Ossetian Military Roads).
2. Putin is a man of great ambitions. He has already set Russia on a course to restore the USSR. If Gorbachav and Yeltsin were the authors of the USSR’s demise, Putin will be the father of a new Union. The FSB is back in full force. Putin has eliminated by force every potential political opponent as well as the free press. He has set a path of confrontation against the U.S. for the past five years, and has returned to the prior Soviet strategy of working to isolate and divorce American from Europe.
3. Energy: Again, lose the left-wing Al Gore storybook fantasy. Natural resources are a strategic concern, and oil is the top concern - bar none. He who controls the world oil supply (if it can be done), controls the world. Oil is not evil. Oil is freedom for America and the West. Those who would deny America access to oil only strengthen our enemies. Those who are enemies of “oil” are also enemies of freedom.
4. We need to view the current Russian campaign and a potential Georgian capitulation in the long view. My heart goes out to the Georgians, but as Saakashvili said, it’s in their hands now. Air superiority, 500 tanks a 5:1 advantage in troops trumps anything the Georgians will put in the filed. Much as France and Eastern Europe were lost in the early days of Hitler’s Blitzkrieg, Georgia may very well be lost to Russian. It’s is vital for the future of Georgia that the nucleus of their leadership and military not share the fate of the Polish military officers and families in the Katyń Forest. They are not fighting for territory, but for survival.

The world cannot wish away tyrants. While America might be able to ignore an insignificant little dictatorship minutes from her shore (that would be Cuba, folks), we cannot ignore a reinvigorated, rearming, territory-hungry Russia, a man of continental ambitions such as Chavez, or a lunatic such as Iran’s Ahmadinejad.

The first lessons I learned and took to heart during my Navy officer training was America’s position in the world as an island nation, the importance of “free sea lanes of communication”, and the value of power projection versus playing defense from one’s own back yard. We need to recognize Putin’s game. We would tend to think “limited excursion”, because the west simply could not fathom a nation state seizing control of another nation state by force. WE would not do it, not in Iraq, not in Iran, not in post WWII Europe, so certainly, no other civilized society would do so. Banish that thought from your FSB-confused little minds, and look at the facts as we know them.

Russian is making it’s move, and Putin will not stop unless stopped. He may not have the remilitarized society he needs to fulfill his ambitions, but he’s been moving methodically to put those pieces in place. A lot of planes, tanks, and submarines can be put into service in 2-3 years, if a country has the will to do so, and the petro-rubles.

We need to think in terms of a long term, military campaign. It may be a cold war, it will certainly be a hot one at times, but it’s not our choice and yet it’s coming. Whether Obama or McCain is the next President is now a pivotal issue. I really do not have a dog in that hunt, i.e. I can support neither candidate based on their history. However, at this point, the fantasy-world-view of the Democrats may prove fatal for America’s future security.

You want change that you can believe in? Well, ask a Georgian about the relevant value of change. It’s time to get real, America.

Follow this most excellent thread at The Belmont Club.

A recent comment from Wretchard (of The Belmont Club):

The US is saying that Russia lied to it about its intentions; gave false assurances of their objectives and planned this assault for a long time. Official Washington, rightly or wrongly, seems about to regard this as a major act and treacherous act of aggression. Bush is now saying Putin lied to him in Beijing. Deliberately.

It’s no longer about what Russia has done in a small Caucasian enclave like South Ossetia. It’s about the signal that has been sent from the Kremlin to Washington. Bush has a few months to go in office. One of the things he can do, and which everyone ought to consider very carefully, with the utmost gravity, is whether to respond in a manner that will commit his successor, whoever it may be to a definite course. This is structurally like the Cuban Missile crisis, only Bush has many fewer options. All the options now available to GWB mean entering the same high stakes casino Putin’s actions have set up. It means betting a lot, more than we can even calculate.

If you look back at my earliest posts on Georgia, I had the idea of deploying air superiority nearby quickly to send a signal. To keep it from getting this far by dissuading the Russians from doing something stupid. Unfortunately, Bush chose to believe Putin, who was playing, we now see, for time to carry out his plan. But the Georgians have had their say in this drama too. I think the Russians didn’t expect five brigades to be able to delay their army and yet stay together as a fighting force. The Russians are throwing in more and more men. It’s a race still, but whether to oblivion or to security — we’ll see. Hold on to your hats.

Hold on to your hats indeed! Putin, the man who Bush judged with a look into his eyes and soul, lied -- lied to Bush's face while they enjoyed the Olympics in Beijing together. The US obviously knew what was going on -- the Russians could not mass any sort of force without US intel getting wind of it rather quickly. So, Putin put his "plans" on the table in advance for Bush and told him it was only a South Ossetia operation. Bush believed him and then was promptly burned by The Bear.

Let's quote Bush regarding Putin.

I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue.

I was able to get a sense of his soul.

This is going to get not just ugly, but quite damn scary. While there are a million possible predictions of what may come, I have a feeling that Iran is going to get drug into this one way or the other.

While this is obviously "his" side of the story, I suspect - regretfully - he may be dead on with his last statement.

If Georgia falls, this will also mean the fall of the West in the entire former Soviet Union and beyond. Leaders in neighboring states -- whether in Ukraine, in other Caucasian states or in Central Asia -- will have to consider whether the price of freedom and independence is indeed too high.

The War in Georgia Is a War for the West

As suspected would happen, the Russians have left South Ossetia and have taken Gori, a city in Central Georgia. Looks like the Ruskies are really not going to stop until the Saakashvili administration is running for its collective life, a puppet government is installed, and they control the pipelines.

Lovely!

Russian forces occupy Georgian city of Gori

UPDATE: Mon Aug 11 23:19:12 UTC 2008

It won't be much longer now (a few days?) until Russia will have complete control of the country. From the Boston Globe:

Georgia's president said his country had been sliced in half with the capture of a critical highway crossroads near the central city of Gori, and Russian warplanes launched new air raids across the country.

And...

An Associated Press reporter saw Russian troops in control of government buildings in this town just miles from the frontier and Russian troops were reported in nearby Senaki.

So far, the best coverage and analysis I've seen on the South Ossetia/Georgia War is on The Belmont Club. Wretchard has some of the best commentators on the net.

I've been following this particular thread for hours.

Belmont Club » What next?

Barrack Obama now has his own offical seal. GMAFB!

Barack Obama appears with personalized presidential seal [nydailynews.com]

It really is amazing. This guy can lie, fib, break promises, and he NEVER gets taken to task for it. McCain, dare he point out any of Obama's horse shit, gets portrayed as the typical, mean, ugly Republican.

http://tinyurl.com/5meal4 [patterico.com]

This act by Obama reminds me that I'm reading a book right now, "Makers and Takers: Why Conservatives Work Harder, Feel Happier, Have Closer Families, Take Fewer Drugs, Give More Generously, Value Honesty More, Are Less Materialistic and Envious, Whine Less ... and Even Hug Their Children More Than Liberals" (author: Peter Schweizer). Very, very interesting it is. Liberals, of course, simply say the author is a lying, mean, money grubbing Republican. Check out an interview with Mr. Schweizer at C-SPAN.

I just got the following email from the Thomas More Law Center.

ANN ARBOR, MI – Last night, Military Judge Colonel Steven Folsom, USMC, informed counsel that the hearing in the Chessani case, originally scheduled for three days, June 16–18, has been changed to only one hour on Tuesday June 17, 2008 at 9:00am PST. Col Folsom indicated that the only business he will address is his ruling on the defense motion to dismiss LtCol Jeffrey Chessani’s case because of unlawful command influence.

On June 4, 2008, a military jury consisting of seven officers, acquitted First Lieutenant Andrew Grayson, USMC, of all charges related to the Haditha incident. After his acquittal, Grayson, referring to LtCol Chessani, declared that he was “one of the most steadfast men… He led by example and he knew the difference between right and wrong.”

After all the acquittals and 'not guilty' verdicts in the cases against all the Devil Dogs who actually did the fighting (LtCol Chessani was not even on the battlefield), I can't imagine this could be a bad thing for him. Here's to hope!