North Korea @ MindSay 
war
I’ll probably vote Republican for president next year. No big deal. I’ve done it for the past three, and the so-called “top tier” Democratic candidates haven’t done a thing to convince me to do otherwise.
We’ve got Hillary Clinton, the former first lady who rode her husband’s coattails to a Senate seat. If eight years on the sidelines in the White House qualifies you for the U.S. Senate, that elevator operator who was there for 40 years should be King of the World.
Then there’s Barack Obama. Many of the very people who claimed George W. Bush wasn’t qualified to be president after only six years as governor of the second largest state in the nation think this guy is the second coming of George Washington after only three years as one of 100 senators.
And don’t forget John Edwards. He did so much for North Carolina, after all, he surely deserves a shot to screw up the whole country. He gets $400 haircuts and claims to relate to the poor. I had to roll up some pennies to pay for my last $12 haircut. That’s relating to the poor.
There is, however, one Democrat who has been shut out by the national media’s fascination with the aforementioned three stooges. The more I learn about him, the more I like him. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is the one Democrat I could support, and I’m beginning to think he, more than any other candidate of either party, has the right stuff to go all the way.
Richardson has 15 years of experience in Congress, something the Big Three, particularly Obama, cannot boast. Prior to his election to the House in 1980, he worked at the State Department, and then was a staff member for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
As a congressman, he met one-on-one with Saddam Hussein in 1995 to secure the release of two American civilian aerospace workers held prisoner in Iraq after accidentally crossing the border from Kuwait.
In addition to Iraq, Richardson has also negotiated the release of hostages, American servicemen, and political prisoners from North Korea and Cuba. Earlier this year, he traveled to Sudan and brokered a cease-fire between President Omar al-Bashir and various rebel factions in Darfur. While that effort was to prove unsuccessful—through no fault of Gov. Richardson’s—I can’t help but think that a man who has earned the respect of even rogue dictators can surely restore the world’s faith in America as an international leader.
In 1997, Richardson was able to capitalize on his foreign policy experience when President Clinton appointed him U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, where he served for a year before becoming Secretary of Energy.
As secretary, he implemented tough efficiency standards that saved consumers billions of dollars in energy costs. As governor, he has required energy companies to produce 10% of all energy from renewable resources, while reducing carbon emissions; and the state is moving toward 20% by providing incentives for solar, wind, and biofuels. He has promised to do the same as president.
Since being elected governor of one of the poorest states in the nation in 2002, Richardson has cut taxes, balanced the budget, and created 84,000 new jobs...all without the benefit of a $400 hairdo. His efforts have led right-of-center and libertarian groups to praise him for reforming New Mexico’s economy. The libertarian Cato Institute calls Richardson “one of the most fiscally responsible Democratic governors in the nation.”
Gov. Richardson has worked to provide affordable healthcare to all people in his state, and has cracked down on illegal immigration across the New Mexico border.
It is noteworthy that while Democratic frontrunner Hillary is as polarizing a figure as the current President Bush, Gov. Richardson commands respect on both sides of the aisle. He was reelected in 2006, with 40% of the Republican vote. He had a good track record of getting things done in a bipartisan fashion while in Congress, and he’s worked with both parties in the New Mexico legislature to improve their state. His is the kind of leadership we desperately need in Washington.
It’s been said that Hillary and Obama are riding high because people want to say they made history by electing the first woman or the first black president. Okay…if you’re so shallow that that’s the only reason you’ll vote for somebody, issues be damned, vote to elect the first president of Hispanic descent.
You not only will have made history, you’ll have voted for someone who knows what he’s doing, isn’t on an ego trip, and has the experience and leadership to restore pride at home and respect around the world.
© 2007 by J.D. Lewis
On June 25, 1950 the North Korean Army stormed across the DMZ on the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. Lee Jin-tae and Jin-seok were brothers, leading a happy life in Seoul. Jin-tae was a hardworking shoe-shiner engaged to Kim Young-shin, who worked a noodle stand with Jin-tae and Jin-seok’s mother. Jin-seok was a college student, paying his tuition with the combined support of his family. The family’s life was interrupted by the start of the war, and as the North Koreans advanced closer and closer to Seoul, the entire city had no choice but to flee as refugees.
Somewhere in the confusion of fleeing, Jin-seok was drafted into the South Korean Army. When Jin-tae went to go retrieve Jin-seok, he was drafted as well. As the train with the draftees took off, the Lee brothers were able to exchange a few words of farewell with their mother and Young-shin.
The film cuts to the front lines, near the Nak-dong river. The Lee brothers were @$$igned to their squadron, and after everyone met each other, the enemy surprised them to a brutal artillery attack in which many people were killed in explosions, or wounded by shrapnel. This brutal awakening to the horrors of combat caused ...Read more
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
July 6, 2007 – U.S. officials are "deeply concerned" that North Korea is close to fielding a new short-range missile that could ultimately end up on the international arms market, an outgoing senior defense official said here today. Richard Lawless, who retired June 30 after almost five years as deputy assistant secretary for Asian and Pacific affairs, told Pentagon reporters the new missile would destabilize the Korean Peninsula and the region.
"As this system approaches operational status and is deployed in large numbers, you have for the first time in the North Korean inventory a solid-fuel, highly mobile, highly accurate system whose only purpose, given its range, is to strike the Republic of Korea," he said.
Army Gen. Burwell B. Bell, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, expressed similar concerns earlier this week at the National Press Club.
Bell called North Korea's nuclear weapons program "extremely provocative, threatening and dangerous." He pointed to North Korea's recent firing of three surface-to-surface missiles, its third test firing of short-range missiles since May 25, an indication that the program is moving forward fast.
"This is a very real threat which cannot be ignored," Bell said.
Lawless said the United States is "talking to the (North) Korean government very actively about this" issue. "We have a problem with this new system because it is much more accurate and much more survivable than the huge Scud (missile) force ... already targeted on the Republic of Korea," he said.
But an even bigger concern, Lawless said, is that North Korea could end up exporting the missiles around the world.
"The North Koreans don't build anything they're not willing to sell to somebody else for the right price," he said. "So if that system is proven and deployable, I would assume it would also go on sale on the international arms market. And wherever it goes, it will have that same capacity (and) that same capability: solid fuel, highly mobile, highly accurate to 120 to 140 kilometers."
Lawless said the missile tests demonstrate that North Korea has no intention of allowing the Six-Party Talks to curb its capabilities expansion. The talks, which include North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, are aimed at a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.
Through the talks, North Korea agreed in February to shut down some of its nuclear facilities in exchange for fuel aid and more normalized relations with the United States and Japan.
"All other five members of that six-party group (are) watching very carefully how the North Koreans execute and whether they execute in sequence and on schedule," Lawless said.
A lot is riding on how North Korea complies with its commitment, he said.
"Immediately in front of us, we have a situation where the North Koreans are responsible for shutting down and then allowing (the International Atomic Energy Agency) to verify the shutdown of some very specific facilities," he said. "If they do that on time as promised according to the sequence schedule, that will be an indicator ... to the United States government that we have somebody that we can deal with."
But past experience casts doubt on that outcome, he acknowledged. "If, on the other hand, games continue to be played -- if there is basically a bait-and-switch approach, which has characterized previous interactions with the North Koreans -- I think we will have to reconsider," he said.
Forget the disastrous policies like pre-emptive military strikes, torture, suspension of habeas corpus (the right to be charged with a crime if held under custody). The Bush Administration is so foolish, weak, and amateurish that they can't stand fast during diplomatic disputes.
Like a fool, Bush is butting heads with the KGB lifer Vladomir Putin, who Bush says he "looked into his soul," because Bush wants to put missile-defense systems in formerly Soviet countries Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Nice claim here:
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack reiterated the US position that the missile defence system is not aimed at Russia and invited the Russians to participate in the programme.Yeah, they want the missiles to defend against Iran and North Korea.
I've never heard anything more absurd. If Poland needs protection against North Korea (one of the poorest nations in the world), then why haven't we pre-emptively invaded them, too? It's 4,500 miles from N. Korea to Hawaii; it's 4,704 from Pyongyang to Warsaw.
Has there ever been a modern foreign policy more based on fear, anxiety, and sophomoric posturing?
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