a small dose of reality

Let's get this straight.  The test firing of a nuclear weapon was a cry for attention and help.  "We want to be your trading partners and we want you to give us financial aid, please pay attention to us."  Folklore has had it that the Asian mind moves in mysterious ways, but this one is a puzzle.

HELLO Kim, the United States simply means what America says.  Don't overthink it dude.  Listen to the words.  The words resonate truth.  The U.S. invade North Korea?  Are you nuts with Chavez and Castro so conveniently located?

CNN anchor John King discussed the tests Wednesday with former chief U.S. weapons inspector David Kay.

KING: What is [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-Il's calculation?

KAY: ... We all ought to be honest, there's very little that we know about the internal dynamics of that regime, but that here is an individual who desperately wants attention.

He needs a deal with the United States, he believes, both for security and economic reasons. And essentially, the Bush administration has stiff-armed him, not being willing to come forward with direct negotiations outside of the group-of-six discussions.

So I think it's a desperate play. It obviously didn't work. And I think the most interesting sidebar story is going to be what happens in Pyongyang? Who vouched for the reliability of this missile, and what are the consequences now that it failed? ...

KING: Many would reflexively say, if the test of this new long-range missile failed, that it weakens Pyongyang's hand. But this is, as you said, a secretive, reclusive regime. We don't know much about its internal calculations. Could it cause some desperate reaction, if you will?

KAY: I worry as much about weakening Pyongyang's hand as strengthening [it] because we know so little about it. The one thing we do know -- or think we know -- is it has five to six nuclear warheads and is a secretive regime. So, a weakened Pyongyang might not necessarily be more in the interest of stability and peace on the Korean Peninsula and that part of East Asia.

I don't think we know enough to know how this will play out. I think that probably is the focus of what limited intelligence gathering we have right now.

KING: [Some] have said they wish the administration was more generous in what it was willing to put on the table, the carrots, if you will. ... One would assume the last thing the president would be inclined to do is to put more carrots on the table.

KAY: I think that's absolutely true. Although I must say, the carrot that they really want -- North Korea really wants a relationship with the United States. ... We've spoken the opposite way, of asking the Chinese to bring more pressure on the North Koreans.

My read of North Korea, and my discussions when I've been in Asia recently, is that the North Koreans are deeply suspicious of the Chinese. They realize how much economic power [the Chinese] have over them. And they would like a relationship with us as much to counter the Chinese.

I think it likely this was a stupid, ill-advised ploy on their part. But it also shows how little they understand the U.S.

Read a little Confucius Kim and get your shit together, you are confused bud

copywrite 2006 - Barry G.

Among the treaties is an agreement that Venezuela will attack the United States if the United States forces Iran to stop it's nuclear enrichment program.  Why was Hugo even let into this country to speak at the UN?  Oh...free speech.  Oh...Chavez is not an American Citizen.  Oh...the UN is not the United States.  Oh...the UN is in the United States and could be closed down tomorrow. 

To me the whole UN deal is an example of America showing interest in and shoveling more money into the rest of the world.  The gratitude of course is not there, but that is not why America does it.  There are a lot of things the United States does because they are the right thing to do.  I bet we would even defend France again.  Huh?  But there you are.

Chavez has been entirely out of line during this visit. 

Despite tepid relations with Bush, two House Democratic leaders and a long-serving senator took exception to remarks by Chavez, who twice has called the U.S. president "the devil" while delivering remarks in New York City this week.

"Don't come to the United States and think, because we have problems with our president, that any foreigner can come to our country and not think that Americans do not feel offended when you offend our chief of state," New York Rep. Charles Rangel said in remarks delivered on Capitol Hill.

On Thursday, however, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi did criticize Chavez.

"The manner in which he characterized the president demeaned himself and demeaned Venezuela. He fancies himself a modern day Simone Bolivar ... But he is an everyday thug," said Pelosi, D-Calif. Bolivar was a statesman known as "the Liberator" for leading Venezuela's revolt against Spain in the early 19th century.

With Iranian nuclear aspirations gaining notice, it's worth directing attention to the growing relationship between Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez. The Reagan administration repulsed Soviet efforts to set up camp in Central America. Iranian designs on Venezuela perhaps deserve similar U.S. attention.

The warmth and moral support between Ahmadinejad and Chávez is very public. The two tyrants are a lot more than just pen pals. Venezuela has made it clear that it backs Iran's nuclear ambitions and embraces the mullahs' hateful anti-Semitism. What remains more speculative is just how far along Iran is in putting down roots in Venezuela.

In September, when the International Atomic Energy Agency offered a resolution condemning Iran for its "many failures and breaches of its obligations to comply" with its treaty commitments, Venezuela was the only country that voted "no." Ahmadinejad congratulated the Venezuelan government, calling the vote "brave and judicious."

Three months later, in a Christmas Eve TV broadcast, Chávez declared that "minorities, the descendants of those who crucified Christ, have taken over the riches of the world." That ugly anti-Semitic swipe was of a piece with an insidious assault over the past several years on the country's Jewish community. In 2004, heavily armed Chávez commandos raided a Caracas Jewish school, terrifying children and parents. The government's claim that it had reason to believe that the school was storing arms was never supported. A more reasonable explanation is that the raid was part of the Chávez political strategy of fomenting class hatred--an agenda that finds a vulnerable target in the country's Jewish minority--and as a way to show Tehran that Venezuela is on board. Ahmadinejad rivals Hitler in his hatred for the Jewish people.

It's tough to tell whether Chávez is a committed bigot or whether his anti-Semitism and embrace of the mullahs are simply a part of his calculated efforts to annoy the Yanquis. But it doesn't make much difference. The end result is that the Iranian connection introduces a new element of instability into Latin America.

In his efforts to provoke the U.S., the Venezuelan no doubt hopes that saber rattling against imperialismo can stir up nationalist sentiment and save his floundering regime. That view argues that the U.S. would do best to ignore him, but it's not easy to ignore a Latin leader who seems intent on forging stronger ties with two of the worst enemies of the U.S., Ahmadinejad and Fidel Castro.

At the rate the two president einsteins are going they will be invited to move to Cuba when they are overthrown...better yet they should be outsourced to a "black torture prison".

Jail friends waiting for their new bitches to arrive

copywrite 2006 - Barry G.

President Bush declares fatwa.  Vice President Cheney programs Tivo for the dictator's speech.   Ahmadinejad spent the time playing parchesi with cab drivers in front of the UN building.  He got pissed off when Rumsfeld asked him how much the fare was to the World Trade Center site.  Rummy said, "Get in your cab and drive or I will have you deported fool." 

Of course  Ahmadinejad's actions are fine with the french.   

"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion."

--General Norman Schwartzkopf

"I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me."

--General George S. Patton

"France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country. France has usually been governed by prostitutes."

--Mark Twain

fascist dictator arrives at UN and proceeds to men's room with Sharpie for graffiti writing

copywrite 2006 - Barry G.

Most teenagers read the Ayn Rand novels which flesh out the struggle individuals have with moral integrity.  Ms. Rand certainly never had all the answers, especially in her personal life.

In the back of everyone's mind is a conscience, in some closer to the front.  For those who try to ignore it, it does not go away, but is ignored but still nags.

I found this article ringing true for me: