Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is lending her star power this week to the re-election effort of Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.

Palin’s campaign appearances for Chambliss—four total—were her first since she and Republican presidential nominee John McCain stumbled on Nov. 4. Georgia Republicans clearly were looking ahead, with supporters waiting in the cold for more than an hour to attend the rallies. Vendors in Augusta sold bright pink “Palin 2012″ T-shirts and “Palin for President: You Go Girl” buttons. Chants of “Sa-rah!” greeted Palin.

Palin’s appearance really should put Chambliss over the top in Georgia. Much to the chagrin of elitist republicans like David Brooks, Sarah Palin has a very bright future in the party — a very bright future indeed.

Saxby’s democratic challenger Jim Martin on the other hand has hip-hop superstar Ludacris on the campaign trail with him.

I like Luda’s music a lot, but I’m betting the ‘Cuda has a bigger effect than Luda.

-Chris Jones

Georgia’s president is reporting that more than 100 tanks are heading towards Georgia’s second largest city.

Mikhail Saakashvili says the convoy is about halfway between the cities of Senaki and Kutaisi. He spoke to foreign reporters Thursday and appealed for international help.

It’s pretty obvious that Russia has no intentions of honoring the cease-fire. This doesn’t have anything to do with Georgia and has everything to do with seizing Georgia’s oil pipeline to turkey.

The United States must intervene in the current conflict between Russia and Georgia. We have spent billions training Georgia’s military and have done everything to assist that young democracy. Now in the face of outrageous aggression by Russia, President Bush is going to let that country be destroyed?

If we allow Russia to seize control of Georgia and its valuable oil pipeline then all the President’s talk about spreading freedom and democracy ring hollow. Georgia has been a staunch ally of the U.S. and now their country is being stolen by Russia.

Georgia’s U.S. trained military is vastly superior to Russia’s in terms of training, but with a force of less than 50,000 they are no match for Russia’s 750,000 poorly trained, poorly led, and poorly equipped drunks. The real problem for Georgia is air power. Georgia has no fighter aircraft or attack choppers while Russia has more than 1,200 attack aircraft.

The latest reports out of Georgia are that more than 50 Russian aircraft are flying above Georgia. With no aircraft the only thing the people of Georgia can do is hide.

Georgia had the third largest troop commitment in Iraq behind Great Britain until this week when the Pentagon began flying Georgian troops home to fight the Russians.

Russia’s intention is to seize control of Georgia’s valuable oil pipeline that carries oil to Turkey. It’s the only pipeline in the entire region that the corrupt Russian government doesn’t control — at least not yet.

I understand that we “need” Russia to back us on UN sanctions against Iran, but that rationale is really pretty absurd. The Russians play lip service to President Bush about the need to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, while at the same time building a nuclear reactor for Iran.

The situation is undoubtedly complicated, but what we absolutely must not do is sit around jawboning at the UN forever. The United Nations is one of the most ineffective and corrupt organizations on the planet and what’s worse is that it’s largely funded by us.

Barack Obama’s tepid response in the beginning and the moral equivalency he drew between a democratic ally of the U.S. and Russia speaks volumes about how he would conduct his foreign policy. His call for UN peacekeeping troops is also ridiculous, because if history is any indicator UN peacekeepers are nothing more than props. UN peacekeepers have never ‘kept peace’ anywhere, and as with everything involving the UN it takes years to see a boot hit the ground.

What the U.S. should do is give Russia a simple ultimatum. Either Russia immediately and unconditionally withdraws from Georgia or we will make Ukraine a part of NATO as early as next week.  Russia’s biggest fear is having Ukraine become a part of NATO, and this above all else is our biggest leverage on Russia.

Russia is surrounded by young democracies and if the U.S. allows Russia to topple one democracy it will weaken them all. Georgia has done everything it can to create a free and democratic society after decades of Soviet tyranny.

America has a moral obligation to help its friends when they’re in need, and right now Georgia desperately needs our help.

-Chris Jones

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has taken to the pages of The Wall Street Journal to dish on the current conflict between his country and Russia. Georgia is a close ally of the U.S. and until yesterday had the third largest troop commitment in Iraq behind Great Britain.

Georgia’s military is U.S. trained and has been a big help in Iraq. Unfortunately, the sudden outbreak of war with Russia forced President Saakashvili to immediately order his 4,600 troops home to help fight off the Russians.

To show our appreciation for Georgia’s help in Iraq, the U.S. military began flying Georgia’s troops home yesterday.

The former Soviet Republic of Georgia is alleging that a Russian Mig-29 fighter jet illegally crossed into Georgian airspace and shot down an unmanned drone conducting routine surveillance over Georgian territory.

Russia of course completely denies the incident and calls the allegation “nonsense.”

A spokesman for Russia’s air force, when asked about the Georgian allegation, said: “Nonsense. What would a Russian jet fighter be doing over Georgian territory?”

The problem for Russia is that Georgia released high-resolution video recorded by the drone as it was being shot down. The footage which you can see above clearly shows a Mig-29 firing a missile at the drone. Russia now says the video may show a Mig-29, but it’s not from Russia.

However, considering that Georgia has no Mig-29 aircraft and neither do its closest neighbors, it’s painfully obvious that it’s a Russian aircraft. Like its Soviet predecessor, Russia denies anything that happens in the region even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Russia likes to antagonize Georgia because of its close ties to the U.S. and NATO which makes both the incident and the denial not terribly shocking.

The former Soviet Republic of Georgia descended into chaos as riot police fought pitched battles with demonstrators, special forces stormed an opposition TV station and President Mikhail Saakashvili blamed Russia for the crisis.

Saakashvili announced he was expelling three Russian diplomats from Georgia and withdrawing his ambassador from Moscow, claiming he had evidence that Russian intelligence was behind six days of mass protests.

“We cannot let our country become the stage for dirty geo-political escapades by other countries,” he said in a television broadcast. “Our democracy needs a firm hand of the authorities.”

Saakashvili has previously trumpeted his country as a shining example of democracy and respect for human rights in the volatile Caucasus region, which is mainly governed by authoritarian leaders.

Relations between Georgia and Russia were already at all-time lows. Saakashvili’s desire to join NATO and his drive to regain sovereignty over two breakaway pro-Russian provinces have angered Moscow, which last year cut all transport links.

Russia frequently tries to create unrest in an attempt to destabilize the young Democracy. President Bush considers Saakashvili a close ally and has provided significant military aide to Georgia to help defend its sovereignty from Russia.

-Samantha Giles

Georgia’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of a young man who has been imprisoned for more than two years for having consensual oral sex with another teenager.

The court ruled 4-3 that Genarlow Wilson’s 10-year sentence was cruel and unusual punishment.

Wilson, 21, was convicted of aggravated child molestation following a 2003 New Year’s Eve party at a Douglas County hotel room where he was videotaped having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl. He was 17 at the time.

The 1995 law Wilson violated was changed in 2006 to make oral sex between teens close in age a misdemeanor, similar to the law regarding teen sexual intercourse. But the state Supreme Court later upheld a lower court’s ruling which said that the 2006 law could not be applied retroactively.

Maybe if the black community would have marched as hard for this kid as they did for the “Jena 6″ this situation would have been resolved much sooner. Giving a kid 10 years for having oral sex with another kid is one of the most outrageous things I have ever heard.

-Chris Jones