When asked by Rick Warren at the Saddleback forum about his beliefs on when human life begins, Democrat Presidential wannabe Barack Obama obfuscated, finally responding that the answer is “above my pay grade.” Obama apparently hoped to at once avoid criticism from any who would disagree with him if he got specific, while attempting to claim the moral “high ground” on the basis that he would leave such decisions to a higher authority.

In truth, Obama accomplished neither. Hardly offering a nuanced answer, the Illinois Senator was spotlighting his consistent unwillingness to recognize the humanity of the unborn. And by so doing, he was making an absolute moral determination that the littlest and most helpless among us could not count on any protection from the likes of Barack Obama. Rather, during his brief political career he has been a reliable champion of those who promote the destruction of innocent life through abortion.

Human existence contains only two defining instants, which are conception and death. And this is not a matter of “religion” but of biology. All other milestones, no matter how dramatically recognized in society, amount to transitional phases in the human life cycle. So despite all of the grandiose but empty oratory, any individual who does not advocate the defense of all innocent human life between those two landmarks is an individual who holds no regard for the sanctity of human life on the whole.

Under even casual scrutiny, it is evident that Obama’s implied assertion that the best recourse might be to leave such decision making to God is in no way backed by the actions of his public life, nor those of his political allies. Democrats and liberals (and Obama is the most liberal of Democrats) long ago made a political calculation on the nature of human life, and in particular, the unborn. It is their contention that such helpless life is easily trivialized and discarded at the pleasure of those who hold the reins of power.

Obama, with his absolute no-holds barred, pro-abortion track record, rightly carries the torch for a political party that has for several decades built its legacy on a foundation of moral ambiguity. As a result, the “above my pay grade” effort at defusing the question was as transparent as cellophane, and echoes the rationalizations offered by every prison guard at Auschwitz, along with every enabling minion of every corrupt tyrant in history.

Nevertheless, whether considering those in the womb, the aged, or the infirmed, liberals have habitually sought to “play God” when determining who among the innocent will live, and who ostensibly lacks sufficient “quality of life” to be allowed to do so. Only when deliberating the fate of murderous criminals does the left suddenly find within itself a soft spot that forbids the taking of a life. And at such times this “principle” is trumpeted to the rest of society in a deluge of moralizing and sanctimony.

It is further noteworthy that while they flee from such a thoroughly defining topic as the definition of human life, Obama and his liberal cohorts have never shirked any opportunity to establish moral boundaries on virtually every other aspect of life in America.

Having virtually done away with the annoying limitations imposed by traditional (read: Judeo-Christian) morality and the Constitution, those on the left believe they are now free to substitute an entire code of their own, dealing with every issue from “correct” speech to the greater good served by properly inflating one’s tires, to the right amount of property and material possessions to own, to the right temperature at which to set the household thermostat.

Liberalism along with all of its derivatives including environmental extremism, are at their common core a set of warped moral/religious tenets. Thus, a left-wing politician who strenuously opposes any involvement of true Biblical precepts when crafting a law (“Separation of church and state,” we are told) can flagrantly tout a socialist agenda on the basis that it is simply the “right thing to do,” as if some universal understanding of collectivism exists as a canon of self-evident absolutes transcending all human experience.

Increasingly, the voices of traditional America are being systematically silenced from even being able to voice any objection to the onslaught of leftist ideology and its accompanying moral decay. Currently, under the perverse auspices of “political correctness,” the same social entity that removed the customs and institutions of a comparatively moral society proceeded to supplant such things with its own ideological boundaries. However, on the propriety of its precepts, no flexibility, and indeed no room to even question its veracity, is allowed.

If such an assessment seems overstated, consider the harsh and oppressive “speech codes” imposed on America’s college campuses where liberalism reigns supreme. And as the product of those campuses fans out into society, so does the blight of “political correctness” that was inculcated into its members.

So Barack Obama, who has inarguably spent far more time as a student in far-left academia than he has in the United States Senate, now assumes the role of standard bearer for such thinking within the Democrat Party, and if he wins in November, for the United States Government as a whole. Yet when pressed he would have us believe that he would impose no moral judgments of his own as edicts requiring strict compliance from the rest of us.

No amount of window dressing will dilute the dire nature of Barack Obama’s radical liberalism, or that of the entire socio-political movement he represents. Time is running out for America to recognize his leftist ideology as the poison that it is.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives National Response Team, along with ATF special agents from the Charlotte Field Division, have entered the investigation of a large commercial fire that occurred Sunday, August 17, 2008, at 200 Kennedy Street in Robbins, NC. The NRT responded at the request of the Robbins Fire and Police Departments.

Zebedee T. Graham, special agent in charge of the ATF Charlotte Field Division, said that the business, formally the Milliken plant, suffered significant fire damage and early estimates of the damages are in excess of $1 million. Fire departments from 5 surrounding counties assisted in suppressing the fire.

The NRT has brought definitive expertise and an array of state-of-the-art equipment to the investigation of major fire and explosives incidents since 1978. Four regional components, organized geographically to cover the United States, comprise the NRT. The team can respond within 24 hours to assist state and local law enforcement or fire service personnel in onsite investigations.

The responding NRT component normally has 18 members, including veteran special agents who have post-blast and fire origin-and-cause expertise; forensic chemists; explosives enforcement officers; fire protection engineers; accelerant detection canines; explosives detection canines; and intelligence, computer forensic and audit support. A fleet of fully equipped response vehicles strategically located throughout the United States provides logistical support. The responding NRT Team Supervisor is Supervisory Special Agent Chris Porreca stationed in Jacksonville, Florida, and the Team Special Agent in Charge is Carl Vasilko, stationed in Louisville, Kentucky.

ATF’s partnership with federal, state and local officers is vital to the most effective processing efforts at an explosives or fire scene. The NRT capitalizes on that by working alongside its partners in reconstructing the scene, identifying the seat of the blast or the origin of the fire, conducting interviews and sifting through debris to obtain evidence related to the explosion or fire.

In addition to investigating hundreds of large fire and explosives scenes, the NRT trucks were deployed for the 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon; the Olympics and other major sporting events in the United States; presidential inaugurations and the national political conventions; and major international conferences.

This is the 4th NRT activation in the Carolinas over the past 14 months, including activations in Spruce Pine and Salisbury, NC, and Charleston, SC in 2007. The NRT program began in 1978 and has been activated 656 times since, with 17 activations so far in 2008. Other agencies involved in the investigation are the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the Robbins Police and Fire Departments, the Moore County Fire Marshal, and the Lee County Sheriff’s Department.

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he’s a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org).  In addition, he’s the new editor for the House Conservatives Fund’s weblog. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty. He’s former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed “Crack City” by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations.  He’s also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country.   Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He’s a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com and PHXnews.com.  He’s also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he’s syndicated by AXcessNews.Com.   He’s appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc.  His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com. Kouri’s own website is located at http://jimkouri.us

Why is the American left not reacting to the Russian invasion of Georgia in the same way that they reacted to the American invasion of Iraq? Where are the liberal protesters gathering in the streets and burning the Russian flag in objection to this “unjustified and illegal” invasion? Where is all the shouting that Georgia doesn’t have WMDs, a nuclear program, or ties to al Qaeda? But more importantly, why isn’t the U.S. doing more to help Georgia repel the Russian invasion of their country, as we did when Iraq invaded Kuwait?

At the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia was one of the Soviet bloc countries that broke with Russia and chose to ally with the U.S. and create a western style democracy. Ironically, instead of condemning the aggressive Russian invasion of Georgia, the American left has blamed it on Georgia itself, and the United States because we trained Georgian troops to defend their country and we support their pro-western president.

No sooner had Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev blamed Georgia for starting this war and accused Georgian president, Saakashvili, of ethnic cleansing, did the American liberals jump right on the bandwagon with claims that it is all America‘s fault for supporting their pro-western ally on Russia’s southern border.

For example, Newsweek had this to say:

“Since the cold war ended, the United States has been pushing the buttons of Russian frustration and paranoia by moving ever further into Moscow’s former sphere of influence. And we have rarely stopped to consider whether we were overreaching, even as evidence mounted that the patience of a wealthier and more assertive Russia was wearing very thin.”

“Georgia, another breadbasket and location of a critical pipeline, is the birthplace of Stalin, who’s enjoying a new revisionist popularity in Russia. Putin warned repeatedly that he would never permit NATO in the Caucasus, but we kept shrugging this off as more bluff and bluster. Once you’ve driven a bear into a cave, it may be wise to stop poking him with a stick. We seemed to delight in it.”

“The Bush administration has only stepped up this policy—it is one of the few areas where there has been real continuity between Clinton and Bush—with its unwavering effort to set up missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic.”

Never mind that the missile defense program that Poland has just eagerly accepted is designed to defend against Iranian missiles and is no threat to Russia. Does this Newsweek writer believe that when former Soviet bloc countries choose western democracy, we should tell them no, go back to Russian oppression and domination? Going a little deeper, Antiwar.com has this to say:

“They may be talking of Georgian atrocities, but we in the West have not heard them – nor will we, given the bias of our media, which is in thrall to the Georgia lobby and its U.S. government sponsors. The “mainstream” has already settled on a narrative to explain events in the Caucasus, and nothing short of a South Ossetian holocaust will wake them from their hypnotic state. The Russians, in their view, have got to be the bad guys, i.e., the aggressors. Anything that doesn’t fit into that storyline is cut from the script.”

“The U.S. is now delivering “humanitarian” aid under the aegis and protection of the U.S. military, a gesture that underscores the Bizarro World absurdity of a foreign policy that has us arming the Georgians and then paying to clean up the damage done by our proxies. This is truly an odd sort of “humanitarianism,” one inextricably linked to the inveterate sadism of our foreign policy.”

I bring all this up because it is just this kind of domestic criticism that has brought America to it’s knees in the face of Russian imperialism. These are the same people who accuse America of imperialism for simply defending our country against Islamic terrorism, yet when Russia invades a neighboring country, it’s all our fault.

What’s all this about “the bias of our media?” Now the left doesn’t even believe their own liberal media reports on Georgia and thinks Bush is controlling them? They didn’t seem to have a problem believing their media about alleged American atrocities in Iraq and Camp Gitmo. The “Georgia lobby?” I didn’t know the country of Georgia had a lobby in Washington. This must be one special interest group that the Democrats don’t support.

Apparently, we shouldn’t be supporting our allies, even those like Georgia, who sent troops to Iraq to help us fight Islamofascism there. When we sent those troops back home to help defend their own country, Russia was outraged that we would do such a thing, and the American left fell right in line with their communist mentors.

While Saddam Hussein, with chemical weapons, a nuclear program, support for terrorism, and a history of aggression against his neighbors, was considered a major threat to the region and the western world by nearly every western intelligence agency, Georgia was a threat to no one.

Yet the invasion of their country by Russia has met with little criticism from the left, while our own invasion of Iraq was met with nothing but scorn by the blame America first crowd who once again say “it‘s all America’s fault.” This hate the American left has for our own country is nothing short of an irrationality that stems from the psychological disorder of liberalism. Get these people some Prozac, even if we have to pay for it with Medicare! The benefits to the country would be enormous.

I’ve been posting daily updates on GreatAmericanJournal.com regarding the conflict in Georgia, but in case you haven’t kept up, here in a nutshell, is what has happened.

The province of South Ossetia, located on the Russian border, is divided between Georgian loyalists and Russian separatists who want to break away from Georgia and reunite with Russia. Of course they believe all the anti-Georgian propaganda fed to them from the Kremlin which has been encouraging them to rebel against the Georgian government. The time finally came; they turned to revolt.

Georgia sent troops into So. Ossetia to quell the violence. Russia responded with a Russian troop incursion over the border to drive the Georgian troops out. This was not simply a spontaneous response by the Russians. They have had this planned for months and already had the tanks and troops in place to pull this off while the world’s attention was focused on the Olympic Games in China.

Although it is true that Georgian troops have fired weapons at Ossetia citizens and press reporters, it is not clear what provoked them to do so. It is also not clear whose bombs or artillery shells were falling on Ossetia. Reports of rogue elements of the Georgian army disobeying orders and firing on civilians out of frustration are also likely true.

Again, the fact that we see no reports of what provoked them to start this carnage cannot be overlooked. Something had to set them off, and there can be little doubt that Russia was behind it. Late reports claim that Georgian military uniforms were stolen by Russian troops, who then wore them while attacking Ossetian civilians while news cameras rolled.

Russia didn’t stop with So. Ossetia. They then sent tanks and bombers into central Georgia to destroy the Georgian military and infrastructure. They want to oust the pro western, democratic president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and replace him with a pro Russian leader. Russia is also very interested in taking possession of the major independent oil pipeline that runs through Georgia, from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, which provides a significant amount of oil to much of Europe. Russia wants to own that monopoly, to increase their power over European countries, in their quest to regain the Russian Empire of their former Soviet years.

What is America doing about this aggressive invasion of one of our best allies in the region? Therein lies the problem. If you listen to our government officials, they tell us there is little we can do - and military action is off the table. It’s not that they are doing nothing. Sec. of State, Condoleezza Rice, was sent to revise a ceasefire agreement worked out by French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, which read an awful lot like what the U.N. usually comes up with. It was an “aggressor takes all” sort of agreement that did little for Georgia. President Saakashvili signed the agreement, and on Saturday, it was signed by Russian president, Medvedev, who agreed to begin removing troops by Monday.

As of Monday night in Georgia, there have been no signs of withdrawal of Russian troops who had captured the strategic city of Gori, and nearly advanced to the capitol city of Tbilisi, leaving a wake of destruction and death in their path. Instead, Russia has been fortifying their positions in Georgia and continuing their efforts to destroy what’s left of the Georgian military and police. It is becoming clear that Russia has no intention of honoring the agreement, or of leaving Georgia.

Russia has now installed short-range ballistic missile launchers in South Ossetia, and is requiring Russian credentials for anyone, including foreign reporters, to work in Georgia. The SS-21 missiles have a range of 40 to 70 miles, meaning they can reach the capital of Tbilisi from practically any part of South Ossetia.

It appears that Russia now considers itself the ruler in Georgia, in violation of Georgian sovereignty, which apparently no longer exists. It’s just a matter of time before Russia removes the Georgian government and installs their own. This is the fate that awaits Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and the rest of the former Soviet bloc countries if Russia isn’t stopped.

All this has prompted the Polish government to rush approval of American anti-missile systems to be installed in their country. Russia has responded to this by threatening to NUKE Poland. Meanwhile, U.S. response is limited to diplomatic measures. The days of combating Iraqi aggression against Kuwait would seem to be long gone.

If we are afraid to stand up to Russia now, simply because they have the big bomb, then what are we going to do about Iran when they finally have their bomb? Will we simply let them destroy Israel, then offer diplomatic solutions to the problem? That is exactly what will happen if we allow the American left to take full control of our government and country.

What all this shows is the difficult position that America finds itself in today. Our lack of military support for Georgia essentially has given Russia a green light to do whatever they want in eastern Europe.

The diplomatic measures being considered against Russia are: expulsion from the G-8; denial of admission into the WTO; refusal to participate, along with other European countries, in the 2014 Russian Olympic games; and the immediate taking in of the former European Soviet bloc countries under the NATO umbrella. Then there are always the useless options of sanctions and embargos against Russia, for what that’s worth. They didn’t do any good against Iraq, and they haven’t helped with Iran.

But suppose we did all of these things, and Russia continued their aggression to recapture the old Soviet Union countries? What then? Do we continue to appease and cower, for fear of starting a nuclear war? That prospect doesn’t seem to bother Russia a bit. It’s not that they welcome nuclear war, it’s that they know that people in the U.S. fear it so much that we won’t do anything militarily to stop the Russians from doing whatever they want to do.

It’s not hard to figure out how Russia got this pacifist impression of the U.S. Look no further than the American left with their antiwar appeasers, their megaphones in the media, and the politicians who pander to them for votes. Is there any doubt that if Democrats controlled both the White House and Congress, that Russia could take back Europe and attack on American home soil without fear of retaliation?

We have lost all respect on the world stage by not maintaining our posture of strength in the world, but rather becoming a paper tiger of the left, afraid, not only to defend our allies, but ourselves as well. We see this everyday in the liberal fight against the War on Terror in Iraq.

America should be ashamed of herself. I know we on the right are, and want to restore America’s position of strength and respect in the world. Standing up to Russia by defending our allies just might be a good place to start. I’m not suggesting that we nuke Moscow or anything like that, but a strong showing of American troop strength on the southern Georgian border, along with a 48 hour warning to Russia to get their troops out of the country might show them that we mean business.

We have this saying in America: “Remember the Alamo!” We lost that battle, but should be reminding Russia at this point, to “remember Kuwait,” and the “highway of death” that followed. Where is Ronald Reagan when we need him?

JR Dieckmann is Editor, Publisher, Writer, and Webmaster of GreatAmericanJournal.com. He also works as an electrician in Los Angeles, Ca. He has been writing and publishing articles on the web since 2000. His articles appear on other publications such as: The Conservative Voice; Real Clear Politics; New Media Journal; Mich News; Daley Times-Post; Renew America, The Reality Check, American Truckers At War, and other conservative websites. JR can be contacted at http://www.greatamericanjournal.com/contact.htm.