Ain't elections grand. Kim Jong-Il just broke the record for highest percentage of the popular vote by unanimously being re-elected to a third term as Supreme Leader of North Korea.
What is most impressive is that the Dear Leader actually received a larger percentage of the poplar vote than good old Saddam did in the hey-day of the Iraqi dictatorship. Is it just me or can you not wait for these goons to croak.
Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Wouldn't a world without mean people be nice too...
From the Wall Street Journal this morning.
Speaking at Prague's Castle Square, Mr. Obama told the audience his administration was committed "to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."
"We have to insist: 'Yes, we can,'" he said, reprising a campaign theme recognizable to a crowd a continent away from his election victory.
Sunday's speech followed a meeting Wednesday between Mr. Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, where the two leaders committed to conclude a new bilateral treaty that would reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals below the 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads agreed to in 2002.
Mr. Obama's strategy, however, also seeks to gain the support of developing nations by recognizing their right to develop nuclear power.
The Obama administration is specifically supporting the development of an international nuclear-fuel bank that aspiring nuclear-power states could tap to feed their reactors.
Such a system, say U.S. officials, would undercut demands of countries like North Korea and Iran that they need to develop their own infrastructure to produce nuclear fuel. Such technologies can be easily shifted into producing fissile material for nuclear weapons.
The President has a limited amount of political capital that he can use in both domestic and foreign affairs. Why he would choose to go into a former soviet Bloc country to call for an end to nuclear weapons in what amounts to not much more than a campaign speech is beyond me. The intention is good, but the steps to go about strengthening our position against Russian, Iranian and North Korean hegemony is not to pray for cats and dogs to live together in peace, but to take a substantiative stance against nuclear proliferation, including everything up to a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe as well as the possible use of force against those nations who would use nuclear capacity against there perceived enemies.
One thing that I have realized about the North Koreans is that they are willing to push the envelope but not to step to over the line. (Sorry about the mixed metaphors) In that regard, I believe that the President's response was appropriate. However, Iran is the big issue here. If this is a test, by proxy, of the President by the Iranians, unfortunately he came across in Carteresque fashion.
Speaking at Prague's Castle Square, Mr. Obama told the audience his administration was committed "to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."
"We have to insist: 'Yes, we can,'" he said, reprising a campaign theme recognizable to a crowd a continent away from his election victory.
Sunday's speech followed a meeting Wednesday between Mr. Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, where the two leaders committed to conclude a new bilateral treaty that would reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals below the 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads agreed to in 2002.
Mr. Obama's strategy, however, also seeks to gain the support of developing nations by recognizing their right to develop nuclear power.
The Obama administration is specifically supporting the development of an international nuclear-fuel bank that aspiring nuclear-power states could tap to feed their reactors.
Such a system, say U.S. officials, would undercut demands of countries like North Korea and Iran that they need to develop their own infrastructure to produce nuclear fuel. Such technologies can be easily shifted into producing fissile material for nuclear weapons.
The President has a limited amount of political capital that he can use in both domestic and foreign affairs. Why he would choose to go into a former soviet Bloc country to call for an end to nuclear weapons in what amounts to not much more than a campaign speech is beyond me. The intention is good, but the steps to go about strengthening our position against Russian, Iranian and North Korean hegemony is not to pray for cats and dogs to live together in peace, but to take a substantiative stance against nuclear proliferation, including everything up to a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe as well as the possible use of force against those nations who would use nuclear capacity against there perceived enemies.
One thing that I have realized about the North Koreans is that they are willing to push the envelope but not to step to over the line. (Sorry about the mixed metaphors) In that regard, I believe that the President's response was appropriate. However, Iran is the big issue here. If this is a test, by proxy, of the President by the Iranians, unfortunately he came across in Carteresque fashion.
NY TIMES gets it wrong...Again
This report from the NT Times this morning details the "failure" of the North Korean "satellite" launch over the weekend.
A disgraceful passage.
The command said that North Korea launched a Taepodong-2 missile at 11:30 a.m. Sunday local time, or 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday, and that its first stage fell into the Sea of Japan, which analysts had expected as the point of splashdown in a successful launching.
However, “the remaining stages, along with the payload itself, landed in the Pacific Ocean,” the statement said. Analysts had expected the rocket’s second stage to land in the Pacific but its third stage and its ostensible satellite payload to fly into space.
The command emphasized that “no object entered orbit,” apparently a reference to both the rocket’s third stage as well as the supposed satellite.
North Korea’s public portrayal of the event as a complete success was similar in its celebratory tone to the happy note it struck in 1998 after having failed to loft a satellite into orbit.
News reports out of Japan also said the rocket’s second stage splashed down in the Pacific, hundreds of miles short of the danger zone that North Korea announced last month. Western analysts said that shortfall, if correct, probably indicated a failure of the missile’s second stage.
Does it occur to the "Newspaper of record" that the North Koreans weren't trying to launch a satellite. Perhaps they wanted to rattle the saber at the Japanese and President Obama, who was giving a vaunted, teleprompted speech about a world without nuclear weapons. I know that my liberal friends want to compare the President to Superman, but if he is Superman it is the Superman of the 4th shitty movie; Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
What the situation over the weekend reminds me of is a D.A.R.E officer giving a speech on a drug-free school system while the bad kids sit on the fire escape snorting coke. "Maybe if those bad kids heard how good the speech about the drug-free world is then why would they use drugs." I think that we would be able to stop the Dear Leader's saber rattling by beaming this into the country.
Another case of the Trailer being better than the movie
A disgraceful passage.
The command said that North Korea launched a Taepodong-2 missile at 11:30 a.m. Sunday local time, or 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday, and that its first stage fell into the Sea of Japan, which analysts had expected as the point of splashdown in a successful launching.
However, “the remaining stages, along with the payload itself, landed in the Pacific Ocean,” the statement said. Analysts had expected the rocket’s second stage to land in the Pacific but its third stage and its ostensible satellite payload to fly into space.
The command emphasized that “no object entered orbit,” apparently a reference to both the rocket’s third stage as well as the supposed satellite.
North Korea’s public portrayal of the event as a complete success was similar in its celebratory tone to the happy note it struck in 1998 after having failed to loft a satellite into orbit.
News reports out of Japan also said the rocket’s second stage splashed down in the Pacific, hundreds of miles short of the danger zone that North Korea announced last month. Western analysts said that shortfall, if correct, probably indicated a failure of the missile’s second stage.
Does it occur to the "Newspaper of record" that the North Koreans weren't trying to launch a satellite. Perhaps they wanted to rattle the saber at the Japanese and President Obama, who was giving a vaunted, teleprompted speech about a world without nuclear weapons. I know that my liberal friends want to compare the President to Superman, but if he is Superman it is the Superman of the 4th shitty movie; Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
What the situation over the weekend reminds me of is a D.A.R.E officer giving a speech on a drug-free school system while the bad kids sit on the fire escape snorting coke. "Maybe if those bad kids heard how good the speech about the drug-free world is then why would they use drugs." I think that we would be able to stop the Dear Leader's saber rattling by beaming this into the country.
Another case of the Trailer being better than the movie
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