From an elated Associated Press:

A South Ossetian woman walks near destroyed buildings in Tskhinvali.

South Ossetia says Russia intends to absorb region

By YURAS KARMANAU, Associated Press Writer

TSKHINVALI, Georgia – Russia intends to eventually absorb Georgia’s breakaway province of South Ossetia, a South Ossetian official said Friday, three days after Moscow recognized the region as independent and drew criticism from the West.

Georgia, meanwhile, said it would recall all diplomatic staff from its embassy in Moscow on Saturday because of the Russian military presence in Georgia. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nestrenko criticized the move, saying it “will not benefit our bilateral relations,” Russian news agencies reported.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the region’s leader, Eduard Kokoity, discussed the future of South Ossetia earlier this week in Moscow, South Ossetian parliamentary speaker Znaur Gassiyev said.

Russia will absorb South Ossetia “in several years” or earlier, a position was “firmly stated by both leaders,” Gassiyev said…

Meanwhile, Russia and South Ossetia plan to sign an agreement on the placement of Russian military bases in South Ossetia, the province’s deputy parliamentary speaker Tarzan Kokoiti said. How many bases that involves will become clear on Sept. 2, when the document is set to be signed, he said.

He said South Ossetians have the right to reunite with North Ossetia, which is part of Russia.

“Soon there will be no North or South Ossetia — there will be a united Alania as part of Russia,” Kokoiti said, using another name for Ossetia.

“We will live in one united Russian state,” he said…

The Sudetenland has always been German.

And, gosh isn’t that John McCain sneaky?

From the oft-surprising ABC News:

Should Biden Share Blame for Foreclosure Crisis?

Experts: Many Americans Lost Homes Due to a Bill Championed by Biden

By JUSTIN ROOD

August 28, 2008—Experts say hundreds of thousands of Americans may have lost their homes due to a bill championed by Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Barack Obama’s vice-presidential running mate.

At least two studies have concluded that the United States’ foreclosure crisis was exacerbated by a 2005 law that overhauled the nation’s bankruptcy law. That conclusion is echoed by other experts, although the banking and credit industry disputes it.

Congressional Republicans drove the effort to pass the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) of 2005. But Biden who has enjoyed hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from credit industry executives endorsed the measure early on and worked to gather Democratic support for it.

Biden’s early and vocal support was “essential” to the bill’s passage, said Travis Plunkett of the Washington D.C.-based advocacy group Consumer Federation, which opposed the measure. Biden “went out of his way to undermine criticism of the legislation,” and his efforts helped convince other Democrats to support the bill.

“Biden was a fairly strong proponent of that bankruptcy bill,” said Philip Corwin, a consultant for the American Bankers Association, which represents banks and lenders. However, Biden was “not in our pocket in any way,” he added.

Biden’s Senate office did not provide comment for this story.

Asked if the Obama/Biden campaign was concerned Biden’s record was a liability when discussing economic security, David Wade, a spokesman for the Obama/Biden campaign, said, “Barack Obama and Joe Biden have real solutions for struggling families in danger of losing their homes because of the Bush economy and abusive lending practices.”

BAPCPA “is directly responsible for the rising foreclosure rate since the end of 2005,” concluded a 2007 study by Credit Suisse. The law “increased foreclosures and the number of homes for sale,” echoed a July 2008 study by U.S. Treasury researcher David Bernstein. That study estimated the law had pushed foreclosures or forced sales on 200,000 homeowners since it went into effect, but noted that was a rough, “back-of-the-envelope” calculation…

The bill was backed by banks and credit card companies including MBNA, which is headquartered in Delaware, Biden’s home state. They wanted the bill because it would make it harder for Americans to use bankruptcy to avoid repaying credit card debt. MBNA executives had been Biden’s single largest source of campaign donations, and MBNA has employed Biden’s son Hunter as a company executive, lobbyist and consultant. The Obama campaign has said Hunter Biden did no work for MBNA on the bankruptcy bill. MBNA has since been bought by Bank of America.

Over the past two years, sub-prime mortgage borrowing and a weakening economy have pushed increasing numbers of Americans into dire financial straits. Under the old rules, many could have declared bankruptcy, shed much of their debt, restructured their mortgages and held onto their homes, according to experts and the two reports.

But the 2005 law Biden championed made it more expensive and more difficult to declare bankruptcy, experts conclude. That forced hundreds of thousands of distressed homeowners to sell their homes, or default on their mortgages, after which the bank would sell their former home, according to the studies. That flood of homes going up for sale in an already-weakening market further depressed home prices, according to the two reports, snowballing into the current crisis.

BAPCPA “increased home foreclosures, increased the dollar value of financial assets in default, and put additional downward price pressure on real estate markets,” concluded the Bernstein report. Bernstein conducted the report as an individual, not as a representative the Treasury Department.

You can bet that this errant report from ABC is the first and last we will ever hear about this.

From the cultists of recession at Reuters:

The U.S. economy expanded at a stronger-than-first-reported 3.3 percent annual rate in the second quarter, as consumer spending and net exports were more robust than initially estimated and inventories fell less sharply, a government report showed on Thursday.

Second quarter growth revised upward to 3.3 percent

By Mark Felsenthal Thu Aug 28

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy grew at a solid 3.3 percent annual rate in the second quarter, much stronger than first thought, but many economists expect growth to flag as the year progresses.

The U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday said consumer spending and net exports were more robust that initially estimated and that inventories fell less sharply. A month ago, it had said U.S. Gross Domestic Product had expanded at a 1.9 percent rate in the quarter.

Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting the annual rate to be revised to 2.7 percent.

U.S. equity index futures rose and the dollar pared losses, while Treasury debt prices fell on the report. Federal funds futures showed increased prospects for interest rate hikes…

However, many analysts worry that exports and consumer spending, which have buoyed the economy, are likely to taper off in the second half of the year as spending from government stimulus checks dries up and weakening global growth and a stronger U.S. dollar crimp demand from abroad.

Consumer spending, which fuels two-thirds of the U.S. economy, grew at an upwardly revised 1.7 percent rate in the second quarter rather than the 1.5 percent pace first reported.

Meanwhile, exports grew at a 13.2 percent annual rate instead of the 9.2 percent pace initially estimated…

Meanwhile, inventories dipped at an annualized $49.4 billion in the quarter, rather than the $62.2 billion drop first reported, a possible sign that businesses are less pessimistic than believed.

Separately, the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell by 10,000 last week, government data on Thursday showed, but remained at elevated levels indicating a weak labor market.

As always things have turned out far better than what the media’s economic experts foretold. But their predictions always get put on the front page, while the actual facts gets buried somewhere next to the classified ads.

By the way, note the graphic Reuters supplied with the story.

Once again Reuters (like the rest of the media) are still trying to pretend that the US has had periods of negative growth. That simply is not true. But when has that ever stopped them?

And even when they grudgingly report the truth, they have to explain how the facts are actually lying.

For instance, here is an all too typical article from CNBC:

Economy May Be Strong, But It Feels Like Recession

GDP, ECONOMY, ECONOMIC DATA, JOBLESS CLAIMS, CORPORATE PROFITS

CNBC staff and wire reports
28 Aug 2008

Despite the surprising growth in the US economy in the second quarter, many economists—and average Americans—aren’t convinced that the country has avoided a recession.

“The reason this feels like a recession is—from the standpoint of the consumer—it basically is,”  David Ressler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. “Consumer spending is very weak and isn’t going to get any stronger anytime soon, and that’s with the benefit of the economic stimulus.”

The Commerce Department attributed the unexpected 3.3% jump in the gross domestic product to stronger-than-expected consumer spending and exports, while inventories fell less sharply. GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the U.S. and is the best barometer of the country’s economic health.

Still, a growing number of analysts fear that the country will hit another economic pothole in the third and fourth quarters as the impact of the tax rebates disappears and exports tail off as other countries’ economies slow down.

“Export growth will NOT be repeated with global growth slowing,” said Robert Brusca, chief economist for Fact and Opinion Economics. “Domestic spending will LOSE its boost from tax rebate checks.”

Even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently warned the economy will be weak through the rest of this year.

“We’re going to get negative growth in consumer spending for the first time since late 1991 in the third quarter.” said Ressler. “Consumers at least are certainly in a very weakened state and that’s going to be evident in the data going forward. We’re not going to get as much help from exports down the road either.” …

—Reuters and AP contributed to this report.

(Thanks to NotSoYoungJim for the heads up.)

From ABC News:

ABC Reporter Arrested in Denver Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors

Asa Eslocker Was Investigating the Role of Lobbyists and Top Donors at the Convention

By BRIAN ROSS

Aug. 27, 2008—DENVER — Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.

Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.

A cigar-smoking Denver police sergeant, accompanied by a team of five other officers, first put his hands on Eslocker’s neck, then twisted the producer’s arm behind him to put on handcuffs.

A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.

Eslocker was put in handcuffs and loaded in the back of a police van which headed for a nearby police station.

Video taken at the scene shows a man, wearing the uniform of a Boulder County sheriff, ordering Eslocker off the sidewalk in front of the hotel, to the side of the entrance.

The sheriff’s officer is seen telling Eslocker the sidewalk is owned by the hotel. Later, he is seen pushing Eslocker off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic, forcing him to the other side of the street.

It was two hours later when Denver police arrived to place Eslocker under arrest, apparently based on a complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel, a central location for Democratic officials.

During the arrest, one of the officers can be heard saying to Eslocker, “You’re lucky I didn’t knock the f..k out of you.”

Eslocker was released late today after posting $500 bond.

Eslocker and his ABC News colleagues are spending the week investigating the role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors at the convention for a series of Money Trail reports on ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson.”

Here is how an unconcerned Associated Press is reporting the incident:

ABC News Staffer Jailed in Denver Amid Convention

ABC News producer working on convention story is arrested outside Denver hotel

By DAN ELLIOTT

DENVER — An ABC News producer covering the Democratic convention was pushed into traffic by a sheriff’s deputy on Wednesday and then arrested, the network said.

Asa Eslocker was arrested on charges of interference, trespass and failure to obey a lawful order.

Authorities said Eslocker repeatedly had been told to stop blocking a sidewalk and an entrance to Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel. He wasn’t arrested until three hours after the first warning, police said.

ABC said Eslocker and a film crew were trying to photograph senators and donors for a story on the role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors at the convention. The network said video of the incident shows a deputy telling Eslocker that the sidewalk is owned by the hotel, then pushing him into traffic.

“We expect to see that kind of thing in Myanmar, not on the streets of Denver,” ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said in a written statement.

Denver police Lt. Ron Saunier said he had no information on the claim that Eslocker was pushed into traffic. He urged the network to show the video to law enforcement…

“The Denver Police Department is committed to looking into each and every allegation of unnecessary force,” Saunier said.

Saunier said authorities have tried to accommodate the news media this week. “One instance with the media shouldn’t paint the entire event,” he said.

Eslocker is the first journalist reported to have been arrested during the convention. More than 100 other people have been arrested during protests.

Note how the AP avoids any suggestion that these newsmen were arrested for covering something that the Obama camp might not want shown.

As always, they must protect their masters.

(Thanks to Yonason for the heads up.)

From those impious imps at the New York Post:

TEMPLE OF DEM ON MT. O-LYMPUS

GOP MOCKS GRAND STAGE AS GREEK HUBRIS

By JEREMY OLSHAN and GEOFF EARLE, Post Correspondents

August 28, 2008

DENVER – Democrats will kneel before the “Temple of Obama” tonight.

As if a Rocky Mountain coronation were not lofty enough, Barack Obama will aim for Mount Olympus when he accepts his party’s nomination atop an enormous, Greek-columned stage – built by the same cheesy set team that put together Britney Spears’ last tour.

John McCain’s campaign mocked the massive neoclassical set created for Obama’s speech at 75,000-seat Invesco Field. Some Republicans have dubbed it the “Barackopolis,” while others suggested the delegates should wear togas to fit in among the same Doric columns the ancient Greeks believed would stroke the egos of Zeus and Athena.

“It’s only appropriate that Barack Obama would descend down from the heavens and spend a little time with us mere mortals when accepting the Democratic nomination,” said Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz.

The McCain campaign quickly dispatched a memo calling the stage the “Temple of Obama.”

“We would have expected to read something like this in The Onion. Fortunately for us, it’s true. Unfortunately for Obama, it’s true,” a McCain adviser told The Post.

But the set is designed to evoke the White House and the Lincoln Memorial, not the Acropolis, said staging supervisor Bobby Allen, a Spears set vet.

“We’ve done Britney’s sets and a whole bunch of rock shows, but this was far more elaborate and complicated and we had to do it in far less time,” said Allen, of RDA Entertainment…

“The biggest challenge has been making sure we don’t damage the playing field underneath.”

Asked who is harder to satisfy – the Democrats or Britney – Allen replied: “I better not answer that.” …

Democratic delegates defended the grandiosity as fitting with the monumental importance of this election…

Kathy Knight, a North Carolina delegate, said the Republicans will say anything to bring Obama down.

“All they can reach for is what’s negative,” she said. “That’s just tacky.” …

Britney Spears set?

Yes, those Republicans are so tacky.

[This is a reprise of an article S&L posted back on March 11, 2008.]

From The Hill:

Clinton camp: Obama must pass ‘security threshold’ to be veep

By Sam Youngman
Posted: 03/10/08

Senior advisers to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on Monday sought to reconcile the campaign’s assertion that rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has not passed the “commander-in-chief test” with the Clintons’ hints in recent days that the New York senator would tap Obama as a running mate.

Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s chief spokesman, said during a conference call with reporters that Clinton would reject any running mate who has not met the “national security threshold,” as Clinton’s military advisers and Wolfson put it on the call. But he added that it is possible Obama could meet that threshold by this summer’s Democratic convention.

Wolfson repeated Clinton’s weekend assertion that picking Obama is “not something she would rule out at this point,” but he also reiterated that Obama is not ready to be commander in chief, a key requirement to being Clinton’s running mate.

When asked if Obama could do something to cross that “threshold,” Wolfson said, “It’s not something that I’m prepared to rule out at this time.”

Obama campaign representatives responded to the confusion created by Wolfson’s statement, with campaign spokesman Bill Burton calling it “perplexing” and foreign policy adviser Susan Rice saying it was “amusing.” …

How hilarious.

No, Mr. Obama is not qualified to be President now — or Vice President. But he may by some miracle somehow become qualified by the time of the Democrat convention this summer.

What a laugh riot the Hillary campaign has become.

At least we think it was to Hillary.

From C-SPAN, via YouTube:

The hilarity begins at about 2:45 in.

Once again in her speech last night Hillary made a now familiar claim, this time using her own mother as the foil:

“My mother was born before women could vote. But in this election my daughter got to vote for her mother for president.”

And once again (and for the third time) Mrs. Clinton ignores the obdurate fact that several states gave women the vote before the 19th amendment was passed in 1920.

Including her mother’s native state of Illinois, which gave women suffrage in 1913, six years before Mrs. Rodham was born — in 1919.

From the local Detroit TV affiliate, WDIV:

Spokesman: Monica Conyers Involved In Denver Hotel ‘Disturbance’

August 27, 2008

DETROIT – Police were called to quell a “disturbance” at a Denver hotel between Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers and staff, according to a hotel spokeswoman.

Dana Berry, spokeswoman for Magnolia Hotel, told the Detroit News an officer assigned to the hotel during the Democratic National Convention had to call for additional police assistance around 4 and 5 p.m. after a heated argument erupted between Conyers and staff about a hotel room.

Berry said Conyers complained that the original room she was given Monday night could not accommodate her family and she became upset when staff members tried to remove Conyers’ belongings from the suite.

Gosh, how shocking.

From the DNC’s lickspittle minions at the Associated Press:

Clinton says election isn’t about her

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 27

DENVER – Hillary Rodham Clinton had a simple message Tuesday for her still loyal supporters: This election isn’t about her.

The former first lady ceded the nomination that was almost hers in a prime-time speech to Democratic delegates, closing another chapter in a long, improbable political career that took her from supportive spouse to political powerhouse.

She was warmly embraced by delegates split between herself and Barack Obama in the primary. Any who were still angry over her loss were drowned out in applause when she opened her speech by declaring herself “a proud supporter of Barack Obama.”

She exhorted her backers — “my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits,” she called them — to remember who was most important in this campaign.

“I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me?” she said. She urged them instead to remember Marines who have served their country, single mothers, families barely getting by on minimum wage and other struggling Americans…

Clinton spoke on the eve of the delegate roll call in which both she and Obama will be nominated for president. But under a deal between the two camps, only some delegates will get the opportunity to cast a historic vote for either a woman or a black man before the split decision will be cut off in favor of unanimous consent for Obama.

Advisers to Clinton and Obama sent a joint letter Tuesday night instructing state delegation chairs to distribute vote tally sheets to delegates Wednesday and return them by 4 p.m. local time, just as the vote is scheduled to get under way.

The letter said Clinton would have one nominating speech and two seconding speeches, followed by Obama’s nominating speech and three seconding speeches — totaling no more than 15 minutes for each candidate. Then the roll call will begin, said the letter signed by Obama senior adviser Jeff Berman, Clinton senior adviser Craig Smith and convention secretary Alice Germond.

Still, many details were unclear — which states would get a chance to vote, whether Clinton herself would cut it off in acclamation for Obama and if floor demonstrations would be tolerated.

The dealmaking and lack of direction left Clinton supporters frustrated. Clinton fueled confusion by refusing to publicly instruct her delegates how to vote, though she said she’ll back Obama when the time comes. She planned to meet with her delegates Wednesday…

All the Clintons, a longtime royal family of Democratic politics, were on hand to pass the torch to Obama. Clinton was introduced by her daughter Chelsea, while her husband watched from a box seat above the Arkansas delegation. Not everyone with a ticket could get in to hear Clinton after fire marshals declared the hall filled to capacity.

The convention hall was brimming with delegates wearing Clinton gear. There were Hillary T-shirts, buttons and stickers. Some delegates brought signs promoting Clinton for president. Many wore white shirts to mark the 88th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

“My mother was born before women could vote,” Clinton reminded them. “But in this election my daughter got to vote for her mother for president.” …

Party leaders said they feared a nationally televised floor demonstration Wednesday that would underscore party divisions.

“It seems to be a little more of a problem than I anticipated,” former Democratic Party chairman Don Fowler told the AP. “All you need is 200 people in that crowd to boo and stuff like that and it will be replayed 900 times. And that’s not what you want out of this.”

Somehow we didn’t get the same message as Ms. Pickler got from Hillary’s speech. But then again  we don’t work for the Democrat Party.

Crew members compare the colors of a pant suits on the podium at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, August 26, 2008.

That Hillary and her handlers picked the pantsuit color that would stand out the most would tend to indicated that, yes, it was all about her.

But as we have noted before, this is merely a Potemkin Village of a convention:

[U]nder a deal between the two camps, only some delegates will get the opportunity to cast a historic vote for either a woman or a black man before the split decision will be cut off in favor of unanimous consent for Obama…

The letter said Clinton would have one nominating speech and two seconding speeches, followed by Obama’s nominating speech and three seconding speeches — totaling no more than 15 minutes for each candidate. Then the roll call will begin, said the letter signed by Obama senior adviser Jeff Berman, Clinton senior adviser Craig Smith and convention secretary Alice Germond.

Don’t you love spontaneity? Authenticity?

The voice of the little people?

From The Weekly Standard:

The Temple of Obama

Reuters reports that “Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple.”

To which a McCain adviser quipped: “Is this from the Onion?”

We’re sick of Hitlerian comparisons as the next person, but still:

Hey, maybe we will get the ‘Cathedral Of Light,’ too:

And what Albert Speer and Mr. Hitler had in mind for Nuremberg was even more similar:

In any case, there are some clinical delusions of grandeur at work.

From Denver’s Rocky Mountain Times:

Code Pink protester still in jail after skirmish

By Paul A. Anthony, Rocky Mountain News
August 26, 2008

A Code Pink protester shown on video being shoved to the ground by a police officer’s baton and later hauled away remains in jail on a charge of interfering with an arrest but should be released tonight, Code Pink officials say.

Alicia Forrest was arrested outside Civic Center after confronting officers and asking them questions about another arrest they were making, said Sally Newman, legal liaison and spokeswoman for the group.

“She was one of a number of people trying to find out where this person was being taken,” Newman said. “They just arrested her along with him.”

The video shows an officer quickly shoving Forrest with the length of his baton, forcing her to the ground with a smack. Later, as she was speaking with reporters, the video shows police coming behind her and dragging her away.

Lt. Ron Saunier, a police spokesman, said the 30-second video is “kind of jumpy” on his computer and doesn’t give the full context of the situation.

“Just shown in that context, you don’t get what the whole dynamics or the full situation is,” he said.

Richard Rosenthal, Denver’s independent monitor, who saw the video online at the request of the Rocky, said the incident warrants additional review.

“Obviously, looking at that, I’d want to look at the use of force report. I’d want the department to look and evaluate,” he said.

Rosenthal declined to share his initial thoughts on the officer’s actions.

“I can’t do that,” he said. “My job is to maintain objectivity until the completion of an investigation. What I can say is I think that that warrants additional review … But I have to maintain objectivity on anything because you can’t rush to judgment.”

Code Pink posted a $500 bail for Forrest, and the group expects her to be released in four to six hours, Newman said.

“It’s really frustrating that we have this incident of violence now,” she said…

It’s about time these terrorist supporters were put in their place.

Of course, as the video clearly shows, the officer barely nudged her.  But the Code Pinkers have long since been trained to always act as if they are being brutalized.

We do wonder if Mr. Conyers paid the $500 bail as usual, or did the money come straight from Mr. Soros this time?