Daily Archives: September 5, 2008

The Democratic and Republican conventions are over.  Thank god.  All the political pomp, demigod worship, endless biographical tales, self-congratulation, repetitions of God Bless America, convention protesters and chants of U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A have reduced to a low simmer.  Now the pundits and campaign gurus are weighing in.   To my surprise McCain beat Obama in the preliminary TV ratings:

Across all broadcast networks Thursday, Sen. McCain’s speech ended the night with a 4.8 rating/7 share, compared to Sen. Obama’s 4.3/7 average, according to overnight numbers from metered households in 55 U.S. markets measured by Nielsen. These ratings are preliminary, however, and are subject to change.

I have lots of thoughts on the both party’s performances which I won’t belabor here.  Suffice to say I think Obama gave a good speech until he began to promise the world.  At that point I promptly turned him off.  McCain’s speech was just boring.  As everyone knows, ..read more

As I noted the other day, Teimuraz Khugaev, head prosecutor for the Ossetian government, announced that 1692 Ossetians were killed in the Georgian assault last month.  Now the Public Commission on the Investigation of War Crimes in South Ossetia has published a list of the names, birth date, cause of death, place of burial of 311 victims.  So far this is far below initial claims.  However, the press release states that the list is still incomplete. One can assume that more names will added to the list in the coming days, if not weeks.  Here is a translation of some of the entries (kindly provided by frequent SRB commenter Chrisius Courtappointedrussiafriendlius, formally known as Chrisius Maximus)

1. Ataev Alan Muratovich. b. 1971. Died in the course of military action. Buried in the yard of his home. 2. Kelekhsaev Murzaba V. b. 1944. Shot by Georgian sniper. Buried in Tbet village. 3. Petoev Albert ..read more