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A year ago, Moscow recognised South Ossetia as an independent state, but the population of the tiny Caucasus country has still not figured out what that is supposed to mean. South Ossetians celebrated through the night on August 26 last year when they heard Russia had recognised their independence, which they proclaimed after winning a war against Georgian troops in 1991-2. A year later, they say they feel safer knowing Russia will protect them, but locals say the government was not ready for an independent status and may not even want it. “Perhaps it is about adapting to the new...

MOSCOW. Aug 21 (Interfax) - South Ossetia is equipping its own borders strictly in accordance with international agreements, said its president Eduard Kokoity. "We are acting strictly in accordance with the regulations, and we are equipping our border in accordance with the arrangements and agreements signed between Russia and South Ossetia," Kokoity told journalists in Moscow on Friday. All possible measures are being taken "to protect our republic and people and to prevent a repeat of the August 2008 tragedy," he said. Kokoity has denied Georgia's accusations that South Ossetia is moving its borders deeper into Georgia. "I would not...

MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) - South Ossetia will seek to join the union being formed by Russia and Belarus, the former Georgian republic's leader said on Friday. "We will seek this with great pleasure," Eduard Kokoity told reporters, suggesting that Belarus would recognize South Ossetia as an independent state soon. The only country so far to have followed Russia's example in recognizing South Ossetia and the other self-proclaimed Georgian republic, Abkhazia, is Nicaragua. Belarus has sent mixed signals on whether it will recognize the two regions. Last month, Belarus's foreign ministry advised Belarusian nationals to abide by Georgian laws...

TBILISI, Georgia — Georgia's defense minister said Friday that training his troops will receive from the U.S. military before heading to Afghanistan could also be used in Georgia's "very difficult security environment." Asked if he was referring to the possibility of another war with Russia, Georgian Defense Minister Vasil Sikharulidze answered: "In general, yes." "This experience will be important for the Georgian armed forces itself — for the level of training," Sikharulidze said during an interview with The Associated Press in his Tbilisi office. Later, Sikharulidze cited what he called several Russian violations contributing to the simmering feud between Tbilisi...

dBack in 2004, there was a documentary that was supposed to change the direction of an election. That documentary was Fahrenheit 911 and while it made loads of money for it's film maker, Michael Moore, it had absolutely no effect on the election. In 2010, another documentary may also have a real effect on another election. This time, in an ironic twist of fate, this documentary may wind up being seen by absolutely no one. The name of the documentary is Do No Harm and the election is the election for Attorney General in the state of Georgia. Here is...

After nearly two years of investigating non profit hospitals, Albany, Georgia surgeon Dr. John Bagnato and his accountant, Charles Rehberg, were convinced that they had uncovered systemic corruption in the non profit hospital system. While their investigation encompassed the non profit health care system as a whole, its nexis began at the local non profit hospital, Phoebe Putney. The two of them were certain that they found irrefutable evidence that Putney was making hundreds of millions each year, charging unnecessarily high fees to their poor patients, all while their executives enjoyed handsome compensation and the hospital paid no taxes because...

LEXINGTON, Ga. — An elderly woman killed by a pack of wild dogs had been out for a walk when she was attacked, and her husband died trying to fight off the mauling animals when he discovered the bloody scene near their rural Georgia home, authorities said Tuesday. Preliminary autopsy results showed Lothar Karl Schweder, 77, and his 65-year-old wife, Sherry, died from multiple animal bites.

WASHINGTON -- Russian hackers hijacked American identities and U.S. software tools and used them in an attack on Georgian government Web sites during the war between Russia and Georgia last year, according to new research to be released Monday by a nonprofit U.S. group. In addition to refashioning common Microsoft Corp. software into a cyber-weapon, hackers collaborated on popular U.S.-based social-networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook Inc., to coordinate attacks on Georgian sites, the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit found. While the cyberattacks on Georgia were examined shortly after the events last year, these U.S. connections weren't previously known. "U.S. corporations...

U.S. military trainers arrive in Georgia for Afghanistan mission 2009-08-16 15:44:50 TBILISI, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Five trainers from the U.S. Marines have arrived here to instruct a Georgian battalion that will be deployed to Afghanistan next year. The five, part of a group of 60-70 U.S. trainers, arrived here Saturday, Georgia's Kavkaz Press reported. The training mission will formally start on Sept. 1 to instruct the 750-soldier Georgian battalion. Pentagon sent a similar training mission to Georgia last year, but it was suspended after Georgia was involved in a military conflict with Russia. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Thursday...

It's really amazing how soon the Obama administration's chickens are coming home to roost. They made a big deal out of finding a "reset" button for U.S.-Russia relations. They wanted to reject what they saw as George W. Bush's truculence over the Russian invasion of Georgia last summer. So they went out of their way to send a message to Russia that they wanted a new beginning in their relations with Moscow. Well, they've gotten it. London's prestigious Financial Times reports that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has sent a tough "ultimatum" to Ukraine's leadership. Medvedev sent his blunt warning in...

CLARKESVILLE - U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, walked into a North Georgia Technical College auditorium Tuesday evening to a standing ovation, holding three thick white binders. "Folks, this is Obamacare," he said, holding the binders over his head. "Let me start this by telling you what I think of this bill and Obamacare," he said, and slammed the binders on the ground. With that, Broun set the tone for a town hall meeting on health care reform. The Democrats' proposal is too expensive and will threaten millions of Georgians' jobs and lives, he said. "This is a stinking, rotten fish,...

Georgia: One Year Later by: Anthony Kang, August 14, 2009 A year ago this month, Russian forces invaded the territory of Georgia; five days of heavy military conflict and damage to all sides ensued. Though great disparities exist in official numbers, according to Reuters approximately 400 soldiers and 800 civilians were killed. Of the estimated 200,000 civilians displaced by fighting, approximately 20,000 remain in exile today. But just last week, in events eerily reminiscent of activities leading up to last year’s war, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Georgia of firing mortars into South Ossetia, while Georgia charged the Russian...

TBILISI, August 12 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia's Foreign Ministry is preparing a note of protest over the Russian prime minister's visit to Abkhazia, a senior Georgian diplomat said on Wednesday. Vladimir Putin on Wednesday paid his first visit to Abkhazia, which Russia recognized as an independent state last August after a five-day war with Georgia over South Ossetia, which Moscow also recognized as independent. "This visit is an absolutely illegitimate violation of all international law provisions," Alexander Nalbandov, a deputy Georgian foreign minister, said, adding that a note of protest would soon be submitted to the Swiss Embassy in Georgia....

Georgia Democrat Rep. David Scott was asked some questions about healthcare reform by Dr. Brian Hill at a recent town hall meeting.  The Congressman, perhaps assuming he was dealing with an outsider went into a tirade.  According to the Washington Times, Rep. Scott got quite agitated. "I'm listening to my constituents, OK? These are people who live in the 13th Congressional district, who vote in this district. That's who I've got to respond to ... So what you've got to understand, those of you who are here, who have taken and came and hijacked this event we dealing with here,...

Does the USA supply weapons to Georgia? 12.08.2009 Source: Pravda.Ru August, the 12th is the anniversary of the end of the war in South Ossetia. The question that interests Russia in connection with this anniversary is the USAÂ’s activities to supply military hardware to Georgia. The question arises as the present condition of the Georgian army slightly differs from that before the war. As estimated by Russian experts, Georgia has the 28,500-strong army. The National Gendarmerie has 6,500 people, and the Border Surveillance Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 5,500 and 100,000 reservists. It seems obvious at first...

If true it would be exactly the sort of thing the far left would do to make it 'appear' as if ordinary, constitution-defending conservatives are nazi-loving lunatics. Also to support Nancy Pelosi's insane allegations about the town hall protesters. I wouldn't be surprised if his own staffers did it. Bad thing is, a large part of the public will believe it was done by actual conservatives. No link available yet. It was something just reported on Fox News Channel.

Polish arms hit Russian aircraft in Georgia 10.08.2009 12:52 Poland produced and sold missiles to Georgia – the same missiles that were shot at Russian planes in the war a year ago, reports the daily Dziennik. The paper reports twenty accounts of the man-portable air-defense system, commonly known as the ‘Grom’ missile (grom means thunder in Polish) produced in the south-central Polish arms factory MESKO, being used in Georgia. The missiles have been used by Polish ground forces since 1995 and are commonly used to target and shoot down low-flying helicopters and airplanes. Of the twenty missiles used, twelve were...

For at least a year now, Emory University has been the subject of two separate though similar investigations. The first focused on Dr. Charles Nemeroff. Nemeroff, for more than two decades, took money from drug makers while working on making examinations of drugs from the drugmakers that were paying him. He failed, systematically, to disclose the conflicts of interest that these mixed relationships created to the public. He rarely disclosed it when he published articles that spoke favorably in articles that analyzed said drugs in medical journals. Nemeroff gained a reputation in the early 1980's and used that reputation to...

The panther a hunter shot last year in Troup County was a Florida panther which likely wandered north, officials said Wednesday after genetic testing showed it was a federally protected animal. A deer hunter last November shot the panther when he observed the cat from his tree stand. Genetic testing by the National Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, indicated that the panther came from a resident southern Florida population, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced. The hunter reported the killing to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and has not been charged in the case. Authorities took...

Who Is It Good For? BBC Monitoring 7 August 2009 An oppositionist Russian website says South Ossetia’s leaders are angling for another war that neither Russia nor Georgia really wants. [A year after the August war between Georgia and Russia, the rhetoric sounds familiar, with each side accusing the other of aggression. Many Russian media have speculated on whether or not war will break out again. Others, including Boris Vishnevskiy, the author of this commentary, suggest that Moscow has bought itself a headache through its support of South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity – TOL.] Text of Boris Vishnevskiy report: "Just...

For GA Freepers from the 10th District, Representative Paul Broun (a darn good conservative!!) will be holding a townhall meeting on 10 August @ the Columbia County Board of Education building in Evans, GA. Event will begin @ 6:00 P.M. I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say on the healthcare issue. Dr. Broun is a pretty good conservative representative and I can't see his supporting this garbage.

How Russia Defines Genocide Down By CLIFFORD J. LEVY Published: August 8, 2009 MOSCOW — After the conflict between Russia and Georgia broke out a year ago, each side accused the other of atrocities, but the Russians went farther. They spoke of marauding Georgian soldiers who systemically killed hundreds if not thousands of civilians in the separatist enclave of South Ossetia. Georgia was guilty not just of war crimes, they said. It was genocide. “Eyewitnesses say Georgian army units ran over women and children with their tanks, drove people into houses and burned them alive,” Vladimir V. Putin, the prime...

Ukraine may follow in Georgia’s footsteps, expert warns August 07 2009 22:05 Addressing a press conference in Kyiv, Georgia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Grigol Katamadze, noted that Russia can appeal to Ukraine to stop the arms sales to Georgia. But the decision depends entirely on sovereign Ukraine, our Kyiv correspondent reported Aug. 7. If Russia threatens Ukraine with sanctions, it is a threat, not an appeal, the amb opined. Georgia will accept any Ukraine’s decision, Katamadze confirmed. He stressed that Georgia is buying arms from a number of countries besides Ukraine. Analyzing the current situation in the wake of Aug. 8,...

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. - Thomas JeffersonThe arrogant, elitist response of the Congressman to one of his constituents clearly demonstrates his mindset in regard to his office and the people who elected him to serve. This sort of arrogance and "in your face" attitude is doing nothing to dissuade the opponents of ObamaCare. It only strengthens their resolve and determination. Upon hearing of the successful attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto said: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant, and...

Facebook Inc. is providing new details of how an attack aimed at a Georgian blogger Thursday disrupted its site and crashed others, including Twitter Inc. and LiveJournal Inc. The company rooted out the cause of the massive denial-of-service attack, said Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt, after noticing that the compromised computers that began flooding its site Thursday morning were directing traffic to the profile page of a single pro-Georgian blogger, who uses the account name "Cyxymu," the name of a town in the Republic of Georgia. The Cyxymu blogger couldn't immediately be reached. In a blog post Friday, Twitter co-founder Biz...

My 2nd great-grandfather was a Civil War Soldier. Grandpa LuckyBogey, Sr., and his two brothers are listed in the muster roll of Company B, 49th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia, C.S.A. of Telfair County, Georgia, known as the Telfair Volunteers. 4th Sergeant LuckyBogey, Sr. was wounded and captured at Petersburg, Va. in April 1865. Grandpa Luckybogey , Sr. escaped from Jackson Hospital in Richmond the next day and as General Lee surrendered, Grandpa LuckyBogey, Sr., , on his own, made his way back home to Georgia. See the History of the 49th Regiment and the 35th Georgia...

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""If war resumes, every citizen of Gori will fight," he said. "Even the women will fight, even my new wife. We have nothing to lose."In the 12 months since a war that stunned the world, Georgia has slipped from its consciousness. Yet tensions remain high. At least 28 Georgian policemen patrolling the administrative boundary have been killed by sniper fire or remotely detonated mines since the end of the war. At border crossings, now sealed, Georgian and Russian guns remain trained on each other." "Capt Zura, the officer commanding the Georgian side of the line, pointed out Russian sniper positions...

"U.S. Defense Department official said Georgia was not ready for weapons acquisition, the issue pushed by President Saakashvili before the Vice President Biden’s visit to Tbilisi. Celeste A. Wallander, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, however, also told a congressional panel on July 28, that the issue was “not off the table” in the future. She made the remarks at the hearing of U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe after she was asked to comment about President Saakashvili’s statement made in an interview with The Washington Post asking the U.S. to provide Georgia with defensive...

TBILISI, Georgia – Authorities in the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia said Saturday that two mortar shells had fired into the territory from Georgia proper, and Russia quickly warned that it might retaliate. Georgia denied the claim and accused Russia and South Ossetia of provocation before the first anniversary of Georgia's short but fierce war with Russia last summer. The Georgian Foreign Ministry called Russia's warning that it was prepared to use force to defend the region an "undisguised threat" that reflected "dangerous designs against Georgia." "There was no kind of firing from the Georgian side," Georgia's Interior Ministry...

"MOSCOW (AFP) - - Russia on Saturday warned Georgia its military reserves the right to use force if the ex-Soviet state continues "provocations" in the Caucasus, one week ahead of the first anniversary of their 2008 war. The Russian defence ministry accused Georgia of firing several times with mortars and grenades over the last four days on the capital of its rebel South Ossetia region which is recognised as independent by Russia. "Such actions seriously worry the Russian defence ministry," the ministry said in a statement on its website. ... As well as creating a rupture between Russia and pro-Western...

According to a report in The Macon Telegraph, Rep. Jim Marshall is trying to get nuclear plants built on military installations. Contained within the 650-page House Defense Authorization bill for 2010 is a line item by Rep Jim Marshall that could bring a host of national security and energy issues to the forefront. The proposal would commission a study, due from the Pentagon by June of 2010, to look at “the feasibility of developing nuclear power plants on military installations.” The bill recently gor approval from the U.S. House of Representatives, while the Senate debates its own authorization bill this...

The Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department has entered into a 287(g) agreement, making it the fourth law enforcement agency in Georgia to do so. The 287(g) program deputizes local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws. Gwinnett is the first Georgia county to enter into such an agreement since a federal Government Accountability Office investigation released in March raised concerns about the program and led the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency to make some changes. Gwinnett's entry into the agreement is being cheered by anti-immigration groups and lamented by immigrant rights activists.

NEW YORK — New York City is buying one-way plane tickets for homeless families to leave the city. It's part of a Bloomberg administration program to keep the homeless out of the expensive shelter system, which costs $36,000 a year per family. More than 550 families have left the city since 2007. All it takes is for a relative to agree to take them in. ~ snip ~ Families have been sent to 24 states and five continents, mostly to Puerto Rico, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. City officials say none of the relocated families have returned to city

After nearly two years of investigating non profit hospitals, Albany, Georgia surgeon Dr. John Bagnato and his accountant, Charles Rehberg, were convinced that they had uncovered systemic corruption in the non profit hospital system. While their investigation encompassed the non profit health care system as a whole, its nexis began at the local non profit hospital, Phoebe Putney. The two of them were certain that they found irrefutable evidence that Putney was making hundreds of millions each year, charging unnecessarily high fees to their poor patients, all while their executives enjoyed handsome compensation and the hospital paid no taxes because...

U.S. regulators closed seven small banks on Friday, a pace matching a one-day total seen earlier in July and bringing the number of failures so far this year to 64. Six of the banks were in Georgia and were subsidiaries of Security Bank Corp, having a total of 20 branches, $2.8 billion in assets and about $2.4 billion in deposits, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said. State Bank and Trust Co of Pinehurst, Georgia, agreed to assume all of the deposits at the six banks, whose branches will reopen under State Bank's name. State Bank will also purchase $2.4 billion...

It appears that this will not be all that we will see of the film Do No Harm. The film, which chronicles the story of whistle blowers John Bagnato and Charles Rehberg, had been stalled prior to release due to a dispute over scenes used in the film that originally aired on newscasts on the Albany, Georgia station WALB.

Georgia's president is expected to ask U.S. Vice President Joe Biden for advanced weaponry and U.S. observers to monitor a cease-fire along the boundaries of two Moscow-backed breakaway regions. Biden is on a four-day trip to Ukraine and Georgia. The two former Soviet states fear U.S. isolation after President Barack Obama visited Moscow earlier this month to reset ties with Russia. Biden has said that the Western-leaning democracies won't be sacrificed to appease Moscow. Ukraine and Georgia want to join NATO, a move Biden supports.

The U.S. Senate voted 58-40 on Tuesday to halt production of the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. The fighter is built by Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) through its Aeronautics unit based in Marietta, Ga. The Senate’s vote to trim $1.75 billion from a $680 billion defense bill will lead to the loss of thousands of jobs across America, Lockheed has previously said. Production of the F-22 at the Marietta plant will now stop in 2012. However, the plant also builds the C-130J Hercules and will begin building the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Lockheed’s Aeronautics division employs about 2,000 people on...

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Garden City police say two men are dead from gunshot wounds in an apparent home invasion.. Police Chief David Lyons said a man and a woman were inside the residence about 1 a.m. Tuesday when two armed intruders broke in through a bedroom window. Lyons said the resident also was armed and gunfire erupted. He said one of the intruders was hit and ran from the house. He was found dead in some woods about 70 yards from the house. The chief said the male resident was alive when police found him in a bedroom, but he...

Obama Justice Department Decision Will Allow Non-Citizens to Register to Vote in Georgia Decision Bars Georgia From Continuing Voter Verification Process Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel issued the following statement following the U.S. Department of Justice’s denial of preclearance of Georgia’s voter verification process Atlanta - “The decision by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to deny preclearance of Georgia’s already implemented citizenship verification process shows a shocking disregard for the integrity of our elections. With this decision, DOJ has now barred Georgia from continuing the citizenship verification program that DOJ lawyers helped to craft. DOJ’s decision also nullifies...

((This video is by Georgia State Representative Steve Davis)) ______________________________________________________ Like their sign said: "Freedom isn't Free - We Honor You SSG John Beale" SSG John Beale was killed by an IED 3 short weeks after he arrived in Afghanistan. His funeral was this past weekend. This is a video of the procession that went to pick up his remains and bring them back to Henry County, Georgia, where he was from. After watching this video it's pretty easy to see that there are two kinds of people in America. There are Americans like the ones in this video. The...

Back in 2004, there was a documentary that was supposed to change the direction of an election. That documentary was Fahrenheit 911 and while it made loads of money for it's film maker, Michael Moore, it had absolutely no effect on the election. In 2010, another documentary may also have a real effect on another election. This time, in an ironic twist of fate, this documentary may wind up being seen by absolutely no one. The name of the documentary is Do No Harm and the election is the election for Attorney General in the state of Georgia. Here is...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia has not contributed to promoting stability following last year’s brief war, the US State Department said Tuesday. Medvedev made the controversial trip to South Ossetia Monday and offered financial and military support in defiance of the West and the Georgian government. “Certainly I don’t think that it was any kind of step forward in terms of establishing stability in the region,” US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters. The situation in Georgia over the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia has been a source of...

In an unusual move, President Obama sent a letter to the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee vowing to veto any defense bill that funds more Lockheed Martin F-22 fighter jets. Obama threw down the gauntlet as the Senate took up the 2010 defense authorization bill. The firm commitment to veto any defense bill containing funding for the F-22 puts Obama in a tough position: he would veto bills written by a Democratic Congress. The letter to Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) comes as the two senators introduced an amendment to strip $1.75 billion for seven...

Posted on Tue, Aug. 05, 2003 Macon mayor defends trip to Africa Ellis says Ghana could process city's parking tickets By Mike Donila Telegraph Staff Writer Macon Mayor Jack Ellis on Monday defended his plans to visit Africa, saying that his mission, in part, is to encourage Ghanian officials to import more goods from Middle Georgia. Ellis also said that during his weeklong trip he will lay the groundwork to possibly enable Macon's Ghanian sister city of Elmina to process local parking tickets. "Ghana is very important to the city, the state - even the region where we live. They...

The top Russian military commander, the Chief of the General Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister Army-General Nikolai Makarov during the Paris air show this week said: "Georgia is saber-rattling and preparing weapons to resolve its territorial problems by any means." Makarov accused NATO of supporting Georgian aggressive intentions and E.U. observers of ignoring Georgian rearmament and war preparations. Makarov stated that the Russian army and the FSB Border Guards in Abkhazia and South Ossetia are preparing together with local forces and forming new military infrastructure. He confirmed that the defense ministry will permanently station "somewhat less combat troops in...

• 26-year-old African American admitted to Atlanta lodge • Issue headed for Masonic trial and state courts There is much about Freemasonry that remains shrouded in mystery to the outside world. But a group of members in the US state of Georgia appear to have clarified one thing - the supreme being in which all Masons are required to believe is not likely to be black. Freemasonry lodges in Georgia are at loggerheads over the admission of a "non-white" member to an organisation that was founded on the principles of the Enlightenment but which is apparently still struggling to catch...

Russia will seek assurances from President Barack Obama tomorrow that Washington will cease pressing for the former Soviet states of Georgia and Ukraine to join Nato — a policy that was aggressively pursued by George W Bush. On his first visit to Russia as president, Obama is due to hold nine hours of talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and share a breakfast with prime minister Vladimir Putin. Russian sources say both men will warn him about a risk of repeating last year’s war in Georgia. Russia strongly opposes Georgia and Ukraine joining Nato as this would extend the alliance’s reach...

After being nixed by bitter Obama supporters, protesters will meet at the Georgia State Capitol tonight to discuss their disgust with the government... and watch fireworks. I have very little information on this, having received the heads-up only minutes ago, but for those who live in the Atlanta area, a Tea Party will be held at the Capitol from 6:00 pm until 9:00pm tonight. According to the Tea Party Patriots website, the event is being organized by Dr. Bob Frady. Developing...