Wednesday, March 05, 2003
IS THIS "POEM" REALLY A COMBINATION OF ACTUALY PHRASES SPOKEN BY PRESIDENT BUSH?
MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
by George W. Bush
I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mental losses.
Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!
Sadly, yes.
ACCORDING TO SNOPES.COM, THIS PICTURE ISN'T REAL, BUT I THINK IT IS PRETTY COOL NONETHELESS
Tuesday, March 04, 2003
JOSH MARSHALL HAS SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT HOW THE U.S. SHOULD RESPOND TO THE RECENT NORTH KOREAN FIGHTER INCIDENT.
REMNANTS OF A NORTH KOREAN MISSILE FOUND IN ALASKA? Simply put, I don't believe it.
BILL CLINTON CALLED FOR JURY DUTY. If I were a defendant, would I want him on my jury? Probably so.
FIRST KIM JONG-IL OFFERS ASYLUM TO SADDAM HUSSEIN; NOW, CASTRO IS OFFERING TO MEDIATE THE NORTH KOREAN CRISIS. It is a strange world!
WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? North Korean jets shadow and use targeting radar to "lock on" a U.S. reconnaissance plane in international airpspace over the Sea of Japan/East Sea (more here); the DPRK suspends Kumgangsan bus tours from the South; and, this is of course after the DPRK welcome missile fired to celebrate Roh Moo-hyun's inauguration. I have often argued in months past that the DPRK feels insecure and worries that Bush will target North Korea once it has taken care of Iraq. However, if one felt insecure, it would seem more prudent to avoid provocation rather than foster it. I am not yet ready to jump on to the Kim Jong-il = Dr. Evil bandwagon but I confess I do find much of North Korean behavior to be inexplicable.
Monday, March 03, 2003
OUR EARNEST NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER includes a note warning residents about a phone scam involving prisoners posing as phone company officials asking you to dial 90# and getting unlimited long-distance access to your phone thereby. As usual, snopes.com is on the case.
WAS PERUSING THE HEADLINES OF THE XINHUA NEWS AGENCY and was strick by how little coverage there was of North Korea. South Korea got quite a few stories--presidential transition, subway fire in Taegu etc.--but almost complete silence on North Korea (with this exception). Not sure what to make of this.
LATEST NORTH KOREAN RHETORIC:
If the U.S. imperialists ignite a war on the Korean Peninsula, the war will turn into a nuclear war. As a consequence, the Koreans in the north and south and the people in Asia and the rest of the world will suffer horrifying nuclear disasters.
If the U.S. war hawks unleash another Korean war of aggression, the army and people of the DPRK will mercilessly wipe out the aggressors.
21ST CENTURY WARFARE: Overwhelm North Korea with tiny radios.
The radio smuggling is part of a growing public and private effort, including foreign radio broadcasts, to crack an information monopoly in the North that has helped keep the Kim family in power for nearly 60 years. So tight is the information blackout that defectors report that they believed that their country — one of the world's poorest — was wealthier than South Korea and that the United States donated rice as a form of tribute to the powerful Communist state.
I, for one, would certainly prefer raining radios rather than smart missiles.
TROUBLE ON THE HORIZON FOR THE SOUTH KOREAN ECONOMY? Roh Moo-hyun's new economic team speak of the threats posed by high oil prices and skyrocketing consumer debt.
The high levels of consumer debt is what South Koreans get for copying the behavior of many Americans. Will Korea be able to nip this problem in the bud before it becomes unmanageable?
With 11.2 percent of credit card bills reported overdue at the end of January, Mr. Kim said he and other economic officials were "worried about the side effects" of any measures that might artificially aid the economy.
The rate of overdue bills on credit cards, which have caught on as a national fad over the past two or three years, was up from 8.8 percent at the end of December. The risks are such that financial regulators have repeatedly urged banks to tighten the rules on individual loans, including mortgages.
Against the background of looming war in Iraq, the government offered a measure over the weekend to trim tariffs and other taxes on oil imports after the central bank forecast 5.5 percent growth this year, down from earlier estimates.
The high levels of consumer debt is what South Koreans get for copying the behavior of many Americans. Will Korea be able to nip this problem in the bud before it becomes unmanageable?
Sunday, March 02, 2003
HAS KIM JONG-IL OFFERED ASYLUM TO SADDAM HUSSEIN? Stanley Ho Hung-sun, "the wealthy magnate who runs Macau's gambling casinos," claims he has.
Chinese billionaires like Ho do not always possess political acumen but it is usually difficult to take them for a ride. Ho told the SCMP that senior level North Korean officials "told me that there really was a chance to prevent a war and (they) said that Saddam Hussein could step down two days before the US and Britain started to bomb Iraq and he (Saddam) could call democratic elections".
Ho goes on to say that "one of the conditions of those elections would be that none of the candidates would be allowed funding from the US, ensuring that there was no American interference in a future Iraqi democratic state. Anyone who did accept money from the US would be shot"--presumably by a Saddam who had not entirely stepped down prior to the election.
Ho extolled this initiative by saying that "it could be (Saddam Hussein's) trump card. North Korea is willing to give Saddam and his family a mountain in North Korea."
Probably too weird to be true.
