Luke is a friend and very talented writer.

Se below for his recently published column in the AJC....go here if you need help with your speechwriting....http://www.lukeboggs.com/

Luke Boggs on China

"......The fleet of silver pickups may not have wowed the planet when Atlanta welcomed the 1996 Olympics, but at least the trucks and the marching bands and the gospel choirs were real.

That's more than you can say for two key elements of Friday's dazzling Opening Ceremony in Beijing. Not only were some fireworks faked for TV, but the perfect little girl shown performing a Chinese anthem wasn't the owner of the perfect voice that appeared to come from her mouth. "

This guy's stuff is alwasy pretty funny....

The Morning After the Morning After the Night of the Return of the Living Undead: This Time, It’s Personal.
Denver, Colorado.

By David Kahane

"....I get back from frisking and frolicking with the caribou in Alaska — who, by the way, totally agree with Harry Reid that no way we should drill there — to learn that Hillary is actually going to have her name put in nomination at the Denver convention. Worse, Obama has agreed. When even Maureen Dowd can see at a glance that this is not a good idea, brother Obi-wan — you’ve got a problem!

I mean, my goodness, has the man never seen one of my movies? Has he never seen any horror movie? This may well turn out to be the dumbest move since the president of Georgia double-dog dared the old KGB goon, Vlad “the Impaler” Putin, to do something about South Ossetia while George Bush was fanny-patting the American women’s beach volleyball team in Beijing."

Kahane on NRO

Slate......How I became a soldier in the Georgia-Russia cyberwar.

Some of you may remember that Estonia also came under cyber attack a while back that was blamed on the Russians.

More on this from The Exile, an English language newspaper published by a friend of mine that has recently been shut down by the Russian Government.

Did the Kremlin launch a cyberwar against plucky e-Stonia?

Georgia   [Rich Lowry]

A friend e-mails:

Rich, I have advocated not pushing NATO membership for Ukraine or Georgia against Russian objections, but if Russia detaches the two breakaway provinces from Georgia, I think fast induction into NATO should be the centerpiece of our response.  In the short term, Rice should include a visit to Berlin in her travel; that is where the obstacle to NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia resides; she should convince them that Russian alteration of international borders through violence must have strategic consequences for Russia.  And I don't mean expulsion from the G8 or boycotting the Olympics. I mean something more like ... losing Sevastopol. 

The Russian Black Sea fleet is based at Sevastopol (as it has been for eons) under a 20-year lease that expires on 2017.  The Ukrainian government has made it clear that Russia can forget about renewing the lease.  Sevastopol is on the Crimea peninsula, which is majority ethnically Russian (unlike Abkhazia or South Ossetia, which are not actually Russian) and many leading Russians have said they will never give it back.  Fast-tracking NATO membership for Ukraine and stationing significant NATO forces there, and making clear that the defense of Ukraine's territorial integrity is their role, will guarantee that the Crimea stays Ukrainian and that Sevastopol passes from Russian hands within 10 years.  There may not be a suitable alternative deep-water port on the Black Sea large enough to base Russia's Black Sea fleet.  Russia's ability to dominate the Black Sea and project force into the Eastern Mediterranean could be turned back to the 18th century.

We are not going to go to war over the secession of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.  In our rash recognition of Kosovo, we embraced the principle that justice and self-determination can trump the territorial integrity of sovereign states; in so doing we killed the Helsinki Accords (under which the Soviet empire in Europe was liquidated without any revision of borders) and can no longer stand on them.  When the Russians now say "justice" and "self-determination" they are slapping us with our own text. 

But there is another dimension to this — the balance of power.  Russia knows that its invasion of a democratic U.S. ally and forcible alteration of its borders is a heavy strategic blow to the United States: it makes a mockery of the value of an alliance with us.  Russia must be made to see that its action will be answered by an even more grievous strategic blow.  The loss of Sevastopol — Russia's equivalent of Norfolk — is the perfect punishment.  And what a great new base it would make for the U.S. Sixth Fleet. 

Ukraine, Georgia — welcome to NATO. 

08/14 04:45 PM