Eulji_Mundeok comments

Maybe the PRC should have found a way to placate Steven Spielberg (as former artistic director). There's so much traditional/historical cool stuff to showcase in China but they just threw random stuff around in the vain attempt to entertain us.

A good thing Japan carried both the hinomaru and the PRC flag- I didn't see anything thrown at them this time.

Spot on article. Seems like the perfect solution to me.

Journalism has always been about making money, first and foremost, and there's a lot of it to be made in China.

Which ..is why...they're being...so...critical of China...yeah, it all makes sense to me now. . . Sure, they are businesses, but network TV news in America has usually been a "window-dressing" money loser- which is why many newsrooms can afford to be so Lefty.

Interesting that you bring up Rupert Murdoch's Fox News- Mr. Murdoch has not exactly been one of China's fiercist critics...

Anyway, even in the USA, try to look at "subversive" websites.

Are you suggesting that Amnesty International is pushing child pornography? I mean really?

The people and Mayor of Hiroshima have every right to remember and memorialize this.

Agreed- just as Japanese politicians have every right to visit Yasukuni Shrine.

I would like to note, however, that although neither the people of Hiroshima or Nagasaki "deserved" to be nuked, neither also would Kyushu have deserved a far bloodier invasion (magnifying the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa by at least a factor of ten) or Hokkaido and Tohoku have deserved to be turned into a Japanese version of North Korea.

Japan may have been on its last legs/"defeated" by the spring of 1945 (just as Germany was "defeated" in late 1944), but just as the Allies marched (and fought) all the way to Berlin, we shouldn't expect the Americans (or the Soviets) to have stopped short of Tokyo and an occupation of the entire country.

You seem to prefer imposing political correctness to stifle the debate, however.

...which is a good indication of just how enclosed your bubble is, Betzee. You just can't take criticism of the laogai camps or Maoism without feeling "stifled"...

Reverend Wright's words are covered by freedom of speech.

...as are David Duke's and Pat Buchanan's. But just as they have the right to spew their bile, so, too, do other Americans have the right to critique their views. I'm aware of no American law that grants individuals immunity to criticism.

I'm sure el Rushbo et al will point out, "We never told anybody to do that."

(But we all know that el Rushbo orchestrated the Oklahoma City bombing, don't we!!)

I know, he was too busy telling his listeners how to manipulate the primary system so "Barack Hussein Odumbo" would be the Democratic nominee!

...which is a consequence of various states' open primary policies. Are we to believe that the Democrats themselves didn't cross over in the primaries to vote for John McCain?

It is true that are too many right-of-center folks endlessly drawing attention to Obama's middle name and it's getting old. It's not like the man is related to the late Iraqi dictator or the Jordanian Hashemites . . . plus many Republicans probably don't even know John McCain's middle name.

Dang, I'm hitting the sack.

I simply can't argue with the full force of the New York Times, LA Times and Betzee in conjuction.

Happy "decontextualized" dreams everyone!

ZZZZZzzzzz.... . . . .

Sentences such as this show that racism has been decontextualized from power relations.

Oooo- someone give me a Tylenol before she starts with the "Africanist granularity" . . .

Reverend Wright can be called a racist

[against other white people??]

but he's no modern-day Bull O'Connor, the chief of the Birmingham Police during the civil rights movement. He simply doesn't have the power to enforce his views on others. While that doesn't make them benign, the distinction still needs to be acknowledged.

Well, that takes Pat Buchanan off the hook . . .

Clearly, it was a mistake for the West to engage China in the first place and assist provincial governments in their local oppression, though post-Cultural Revolution it probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Needless to say, your Great Leap Forward solution to all of China's ills is a bit creepy...

So uncannily similar was it to a book which came out the same year by Robert Kaplan, who'd traveled extensively in Africa and Central Asia, entitled The Coming Anarchy which details "how scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet" that I keep them next to each other on my bookshelf.

I don't see your Ralph Nader participating in the debate of how "scarcity, crime, overpopulation [here comes that support for state-coerced late-term abortions!], tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet"...should Mr. Nader be arrested and have his organs extracted for some sick Canadian somewhere?

And it was his naturalized citizen neighbors in Silicon Valley, home to many educated immigrants who hail from all over the world who, as he was feted as a freedom fighter by the American media, quietly questioned whether it was appropriate for someone to become a US citizen when his commitment was clearly to another country.

Sorry Betzee, you'll have to provide us the link to your Salon Media source on this one.

It fact it was other naturalized citizens who wondered whether becoming an American citizen was anything more than a get out of jail card free to Harry Wu (who's widely viewed as an egomaniac within China).

With regards to the PRC's Laogai/education-through-labor system, I share Harry Wu's (and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's) "narcissism". Also, if Chinese Americans truly feel this way about Harry Wu, perhaps it's not Mr. Wu who's still loyal to the PRC as the "mother country".

You don't follow trends in China too well do you? They've been moving toward free-market authoritarianism for quite a few years now.

Quite right- the PRC's Poliburo has been "moving toward [semi-]free-market authoritarianism for quite a few years now." And your point is...?

They are grappling with some of the same questions our founding fathers did. Do you have a problem with that?

Just that your analogy is off a bit- clearly, the people who are "grappling with some of the same questions your Founding Fathers (TM) did" are none other than the 1979 Iranian Revolutionaries and Al Qaeda in Iraq.

As for Harry Wu, his imprisonment in China in 1998 caused a reassessment within the community where he lives (Silicon Valley) over our policy of allowing anyone to apply for a US passport after five years of permanent residence.

Because tweaking American immigration policy is more important than say, condemning organ extraction from live prisoners in slave labour camps.

The Chinese are well aware democracies typically run deficits since elected officials need to spend lavishly on their constituents to get reelected.

...but apparently unaware of the need for basic infrastructure, clean drinking water, and (my personal favorite) the introduction of building codes for school buildings.

It's an uphill battle for those who, like, tell the voters the truth...

Because you just know that, like, China's ruling CCP is totally overflowing with "truthiness"...

like the infamous "bridge to nowhere," an earmark that got through the US Congress.

Oh, you mean that bridge in Alaska that leads to the only airport in the region? Nope, don't need that.

Some Chinese have looked at the British model where the House of Lords is appointed. While that may sound elitist

(because it is- a bit),

like our founding fathers they don't trust the common man to make good choices at the ballot box.

So let's go beyond the Electoral College for presidential elections and make a full transition to the Middle Ages. How good of you to remind people of the ultimate goal of the International Left- an appointed Politburo.

with respect to our efforts to promote democratization in China is that we're far better off dealing with this government than what a democratic election might yield.

It should be noted that Betzee's PRC itself has been pushing uber-nationalism ever since Maoism collapsed, so I don't see how Han Chinese could get any nastier than they are now under a potential democratic system- besides, in a true democracy the ruling party's worst enemy is not any foreign power, but the "loyal oposition" that is always waiting in the wings should the ruling party screw up.

Of course we would have the Tibet issue even in a democratic Chinese state, but that government might not stoop to arresting Chinese lawyers who offer pro bono help to Tibetan dissidents and would at least provide a bare minimum of civil rights, cultural preservation and clean drinking water to its Han Chinese majority.

GWB seems to have forgotten how awkward it was for him when groups like Hezbollah prevailed at the ballot box.

Today's game is called "name those other groups similar to Hezbollah that 'prevailed at the ballot box'" (and I do mean one not run by A.C.O.R.N.). . .

adaydream, it's good to hear that you support a unilateral, preemptive war on the WMD-less, oil-rich, predominately Muslim nation of the Sudan.

And since you already support the Iraq War, an intervention in Sudan should be no problem for you.

I have a healthy skepticism of the UN and ICC, but otherwise this article reads like a Ron Paul newsletter or maybe something from a John Birch Society rag.

But now they have no-one of quality that they wanted, so they choose the old guy.

In addition to Rudy Guiliani's pathetic excuse for a campaign strategy, Mike Huckabee dividing the anti-McCain vote, and plenty of anti-Mormon bigotry, there seems to have been a lot of Democrats crossing over to vote for McCain in the primaries (like some Republicans did for Hillary in Texas)- so I don't think it was so much of Republicans "changing their minds" post-GW Bush as much as the weird consequences of some states' open primary laws.

Yet if material benefits are not a major draw, then why do so few whose parents can afford to pay for a four-year college education enlist? Again, the answer is that "it's volunteer."

Not a lot of rich kids "volunteer" to be firefighters, police officers, or paramedics, either (also, the "first-responders" of Beverly Hills, Manhattan, etc. don't usually themselves live in those communities).

Well, the President of the USA is a civilian office and Wesley Clark may be right if he's simply suggesting that military service in and of itself should not be a litmus test for election to America's Oval Office (but being a tin-pot, "dugout Doug", generalissimo? Why, that's another matter entirely...).

That said, it's quite interesting to see American Democrats go through rhetorical contortions trying to explain how all that super-duper Vietnam War experience that Bush, jr. lacks suddenly doesn't matter anymore (sorry, folks! We were just kidding!).

Did I mention John McCain's Absolute Moral Authority (TM)?

the very first item that popped up when I went there was "Gas Price Manipulation and Gull Island Oil" and it's located at http://www.rense.com/general82/gull.htm.

As I was saying- [in my hour-long google search for info on Gull Island] all I've gotten are individual blog posts, Alex Jones-style conspiracy sites and various rants in the comments of some major news articles.

Unless you can provide me with something a bit more authoritative (hell, even The Nation, Mother Jones or The New Republic would be a step up), you'll just continue embarrassing yourself (but don't let me stop you).

Here's what I did the last time I heard about the magical "Gull Island":

Eulji_Mundeok at 06:47 AM JST - 11th June

I've been google-ing "Gull Island" for the past hour and all I've gotten are individual blog posts, Alex Jones-style conspiracy sites and various rants in the comments of some major news articles. Apparently: 1)this island is off the coast of Alaska 2)it's so named for the "rare seagulls" that inhabit the island 3)it's claimed that it holds "more oil than Saudi Arabia" 4)oil is apparently not being pumped out of the field either to protect the "rare natural habitat", or to serve the Carlyle Group 5)Gene Kelly once visited Gull Island while searching for Brigadoon

My brain hurts- can I go now?

circulated on conservative Republican blogs for weeks and was repeated by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

Well, sure, the various center-right blogs were "circulating" that the claim made by "conservative Republican(??)" blogger Larry Johnson was likely fake.

The right-wing blogger Michell Malkin has cited a few reasons why Mr. Larry Johnson is not trustworthy: http://sweetness-light.com/archive/why-does-anyone-believe-larry-c-johnson

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjgzYzQ1ZjA4YzdlNTJhYjBiZjM5YmRjMDU5NTYzMWY=

Most of the root causes of the war—notably the power struggle between Sunnis and Shiites—remain unresolved.

Yes, it's always "root causes" and "cycles of violence" when either Iraqi Shiites or Darfurians decide to fight back.

I don't suppose Pakistani Sunnis blowing up Shia mosques in the years leading up to the American invasion of Iraq would be a "root cause" for anything . . .

Thank you for your search which rounded up two of the usual suspects which is enough to please everyone, corporations and environmental wackos!

D'oh!! Punk'd by Salon Media again! (Grrrr....)

I've been google-ing "Gull Island" for the past hour and all I've gotten are individual blog posts, Alex Jones-style conspiracy sites and various rants in the comments of some major news articles. Apparently: 1)this island is off the coast of Alaska 2)it's so named for the "rare seagulls" that inhabit the island 3)it's claimed that it holds "more oil than Saudi Arabia" 4)oil is apparently not being pumped out of the field either to protect the "rare natural habitat", or to serve the Carlyle Group 5)Gene Kelly visited Gull Island while searching for Brigadoon

My brain hurts- can I go now?

He went on to tout Russia as a zone of stability able to help the world economy and took a swipe at the U.S. enthusiasm for biofuels, blamed by some analysts for a global rise in food prices.

While Russia offered global energy security, others “emphasized the production of biofuels—and we’ve seen the results of that,” he added.

I wholeheartedly agree with Medvedev on those points, and though I may disagree with some of his claims concerning Russian/American law and economics, you have to admit that this is a huge step up from simply blaming ex-patriot Russian Joooo-ish bankers/investors for most of Russia's ills. . .

uncharacteristically strong message to the leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC

People, if you're going to fight a communist insurgency in your country, you need to first develop a marketing plan/branding strategy- otherwise you get labeled a "right-wing death squad" (though it's probably too late for the private farmers/landowners in Columbia to launch their own "peoples war"...).

Civilian, active duty, in uniform or not, if you're peddling this "epidemic of suicides in the military" story, you're peddling BS.

And since it's been proven by Senator John Kerry that the American soldier represents the segment of the population that didn't even do their homework in high school and got "stuk in Irak", I'm not so sure that JT readers should take seriously the postings of those here claiming to have served in the US military.

But enough of our fuzzy suicide statistics- let's talk about reinstating the draft! 乙支文德

Woowww- the bogus story that refuses to die-

I'm just making it up, of course, that suicides for American males in this age group are high over all- and kinda sorta lower for young males that are in the American military.

And the last time I saw this on JT, most of these suicides occurred among troops that hadn't even been deployed overseas yet. This apparently is the case this time, as well- I'll have to confirm the news piece I just viewed on American television.

Well, it's a bit fishy, but not as pathetic as George Tenet's "At The Center Of The Storm". Still, this "I just now remembered that my colleagues were committing horrible crimes against humanity" and "I was a sniveling, moral coward until I got this book deal" is getting a bit old . . .

He was ordered to say from the press room podium that White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby were not involved in leaking CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity to the press. Later a criminal investigation revealed that they were. Her husband is an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq.

Sorry, folks, but we need to kinda make this up as we go along . . .

Well, I didn't think that the Indian subcontinent tectonic plate continuing to plunge into South Asia in addition to a lack of building-code "enforcement" in southwest China necessarily qualified as "bad (Tibet-related) karma" in the first place, though one can say that the decision to build hydro-electric dams on tectonically unstable land and build flimsily constructed school buildings in Sichuan (as well as Tibet?) has come back to bite the PRC in the behind... I really do want to find out what the damage/casualty count might be in (what's left of) Tibet, though, since the quake happened on the border. Another PRC/Xinhua/CCTV news blackout?

I would probably agree that government subsidizing oil exploration is a waste, but why all the restrictions on drilling? Is the Peoples Republic of China really drilling for oil off the coast of Florida in a more eco-friendly manner than the Americans would be? And I don't think the number of wells is always the issue- California went through an energy crisis a few years back because they refused to increase refinery capacity. Also, it's my understanding that America's railroads are in disrepair largely because post-WWII "windfall-profit" taxes discouraged railroad companies from further investment in infrastructure.

I guess it's perfectly fine for Retired general Sanchez to speak out against the government and fault those very same civilian leaders for being inept.

It's "perfectly fine" (Sanchez being retired), but like George Tenet's book, it's a bit pathetic.

Do you follow inept leaders?

More importantly, do I vote for them in the first place??

I of course think there should be exceptions in the case where your commanding officer orders you to rape an entire village in Southeast Asia (and I don't think military criminals should be paid "compensation" and have their ringleader put on the cover of Life Magazine).

So Sgt. Matthis Chiroux is such a bad guy for speaking out against the war.

If he is who he says he is, he should be taken out and shot for not following a direct order from his civilian superiors. The way I understand it, American soldiers are in the military to serve and protect the civilian populace of the USA, and not the other way around.

It'll be a cold day in Hell before I submit to any tin pot generalissimo- Burmese or otherwise.