Missing The Point

With all due respect to Donald Gregg and Don Oberdorfer, who wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post, they are missing the point here. They call, quite strenuously, for more dialog with North Korea rather than sanctions.

But the North Koreans are not negotiating.

The issue here is that it is all well and good to call for more talks, it doesn't really work if the people you need to talk to won't sit down with you. If they were negotiating - at all, even with bad intent, you might have a chance to alter outcomes. But the North Koreans have walked away and are not talking.

The only path to success with North Korea is negotiation, which President Bush and others have endorsed on many occasions. What is needed is sustained engagement to persuade Pyongyang to return to the regional talks and cease its confrontational actions — not new sanctions that will make such a course even more difficult.

Pyongyang's ballistic missile tests of July 4 were a provocative mistake that led to unanimous condemnation by the U.N. Security Council and sharp cutbacks in aid from South Korea. The tests especially angered China because of Kim Jong Il's refusal to accept a high-level envoy who was to express China's unhappiness about them. Beijing took the remarkable step of voting to condemn its fraternal neighbor. It slowed down but did not stop its crucial food and energy assistance for fear of creating instability on its border. China is unsympathetic to further U.S. sanctions at this time and most unlikely to follow suit.

Recent U.S. financial sanctions based on North Korea's money-laundering and counterfeiting of U.S. currency have been painful for Pyongyang's free-spending leadership. But neither these sanctions nor the impending comprehensive sanctions are likely to lead to the demise of the 60-year-old North Korean regime or to a positive shift away from its militaristic actions. Instead, the predictable result of new sanctions now is new steps by Pyongyang to prove it will not be intimidated: additional tests of ballistic missiles or an underground nuclear explosion to validate its declaration early last year that it is "a full-fledged nuclear weapons state."

In June 2005 Kim Jong Il told a South Korean emissary that his country possesses nuclear weapons but that it does not need to test them. Semi-official U.S. estimates are that Pyongyang has sufficient nuclear material for six to 12 nuclear weapons, though the status of bomb assembly is unknown. Should Kim's regime be spurred to test such a device, the repercussions of a successful test for the global drive against the spread of nuclear weapons would be great, with especially powerful political and military impact in Northeast Asia. Such an event might prompt extensive new arms programs, possibly including nuclear weapons programs, by South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

If someone will not talk, now do you get them to come to the table? You have to get their attention and make them realize they need to cooperate. How do you do that?

Sanctions may be the only method.

Blair Stepping Down Next Year?

Reuters is carrying a report, based off the newspaper The Sun, that Tony Blair is planning to step down as Prime Minister of Britain on July 26, 2007. The report is not confirmed by Blair's government yet.

The report comes a day after a top Blair ally said the prime minister would probably leave office within a year.

The Sun said Blair would step down as head of the Labor Party on May 31, less than a month after his tenth anniversary in office. He would resign as prime minister eight weeks later, after an election to choose a successor as party leader, expected to be his finance minister, Gordon Brown.

Blair, winner of a record three consecutive elections for Labor, has already said he will not stand for a fourth term.

His popularity has plunged after a series of government scandals over sleaze and mismanagement, as well as controversy over the Iraq war. Opinion polls put Labor well behind the opposition Conservatives — resurgent under their youthful, pro-environment leader David Cameron.

Blair's office declined to comment on the Sun story: "We have no intention of commenting on any speculation of the timetable," a spokeswoman said.

The right-leaning tabloid, Britain's largest-selling daily newspaper, has a reputation for accurate political scoops.

"It's been known to me for some time that the prime minister has had a date in mind, and we've been working hard on it," political editor George Pascoe-Watson told Sky News television.

"We've actually been able to nail down the date that he has put in his diary."

Blair has been a strong ally in the war on terror. I have not particularly cared for some of Britain's internal policies in the past few years, but he has been a steadfast friend to the US and to democracy.

Disorderly Border

A very insightful post from John Krenson, posting at One Hand Clapping on the situation at the Mexican border. It makes a very strong case for why we really need control of the border - and it does so in a moral context. I think he hits it just right here.

I must admit that I had personal reservations about the role of the National Guard in this mission. There are no hostilities on the border. There is not a natural disaster. There is no rioting. These are the typical roles for the Guard - temporary emergencies. I feared that border security would become a permanent mission for the Guard keeping us away from home when we might be needed for state emergencies and causing a decline in our combat readiness for our national war time missions.

But then I heard the words of an experienced and wise Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO). He said “Taking care of the nation is our business.” That’s the bottom line. And he is right. So often it takes the words of an NCO to put things simply and provide common sense.

My rotation on the border has given me a chance to perceive more clearly the intellectual case and the practical case for how the business of taking care of the nation by the National Guard includes protecting our borders. That may be for only a couple of years or even a couple of decades or more. But it must be done and somebody has to do it.

This one really is a must read if you are at all concerned about illegal immigration.

This Is Somewhat Disquieting

The Russian government, with no warning and quite publicly, just canceled long-standing plans to conduct joint military exercises with American forces. The exercises have been held in the past with no problems. Suddenly, the Russians are claiming that there are disagreements over the status of US troops (who were supposed to be unarmed during the exercise).

MOSCOW, Sept. 5 — Citing legal problems, Russia's Defense Ministry on Tuesday abruptly postponed joint military exercises with American forces that were scheduled to start later this month in central Russia. The exercises were drawing increasing criticism from the Communist Party and other groups angry over the prospect of U.S. troops on Russian soil.

Disagreements over "the status of U.S. personnel who planned to participate in the exercises" brought on the Russian decision, an unidentified ministry official told the Russian news agency Interfax. Granting U.S. requests on this question was impossible, the official said, "because any decision by Russia not to exercise its jurisdiction over arriving foreign contingents runs counter to the laws of the Russian Federation."

The Defense Ministry declined to explain the status issues or why they arose now between two countries that conducted joint exercises in Russia as recently as last year. Nearly 300 U.S. and Russian troops held joint maneuvers outside Moscow in an exercise called Torgau, named after the German town where American and Soviet troops met up in the final days of World War II in Europe.

The ministry now wants a ratified agreement on the issues that concern it, Interfax reported.

In Washington, a Pentagon official said the U.S. side had received no official word of a postponement and held out the possibility that the exercise might go ahead if remaining issues with the Russians can be worked out. Speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions remain open, the official said the size of the U.S. force has been a point of contention.

This is an odd situation. The object of the exercise was to enable US and Russian forces to be able to operate together in case of need. The abrupt cancellation sends a signal that Russia has no desire to do so, even if they are halting the exercise for internal political reasons.

Walking The Walk

In death, Steve Irwin proves that he was not just an entertainer, although he did that quite well. The Crocodile Hunter, who died Monday after being struck in the heart by a stingray's barbed tail, really walked the walk of the conservation he believed in.

He bought 90,000 acres of land to preserve habitat for endangered species.

Irwin, 44, who was killed on Monday by a stingray while filming an undersea documentary, had bought the land,about the size of the Isle of Wight, to preserve the habitat of koalas and porcupine-like echidnas threatened by land clearance.

He had repeatedly urged individuals as well as corporations to buy and preserve the habitats of threatened species. “You know, easily the greatest threat to the wildlife globally is the destruction and annihilation of habitat. So I’ve gone, ‘Right, well, how do I fix that?’ Well, making a quid here. People are keen to give me money over there. I’ll buy it. I’ll buy habitat,” he said in an interview. Most of the land is in Queensland.

After viewing footage of his final moments, Queensland police said yesterday that Irwin had not been intimidating the fish that killed him.

The naturalist died after being stabbed in the heart by the barbed tail of a bull stingray, thought to weigh about 220lb (100kg), during filming on the Great Barrier Reef. The footage shows Irwin swimming above the ray when it lashes out with its tail, a movement performed when stingrays feel threatened. Irwin then pulls the serrated barb from his chest.

He didn't demand others or the government do it for him. He did it himself. The world is bleaker with his loss.

You Haven’t Really Been Smacked….

…Until Ann Althouse smacks you. Not only is she a Constitutional Law professor, she is also a very, very sharp critic on much of pop culture. She has just provided a review of Katie Couric's debut as the anchor for the CBS evening news. Me, I do NOT watch network news and have not done so more than a few times since the 1980's. But Althouse bites the bullet and takes one for the team.

Now she's interviewing Tom Friedman, who seems to really be trying to help by speaking extra quickly and smiling, beaming at Katie. They've got two armchairs angled together, with just enough room for Katie's bare, sinewy crossed legs.

The teaser going into the break is about gas prices, and we see the image of a gas pump nozzle, slowly rising, rather lewdly, I have to say, as if CBS felt the need to provide — albeit symbolically — the missing phallus.

After the break, there's an aggressively edited segment on oil. Lots of color and graphics and moving cameras and Shell logos gliding through space and guys yammering about hurricanes and whatnot.

Next, there's a segment called "freeSpeech." Not "free speech" or "Free Speech" or "freespeech" or Freespeech." "freeSpeech." Get it right. And it's Morgan Spurlock, fast talking, wearing a purple striped shirt and a purple paisley tie, and he's saying civil discourse, it's important. Okay, Mr. Spurlock, if you could, please don't wear that shirt and tie again.

Now the show veers into the female territory we were so worried about. That "freeSpeech" thing seemed to be the bridge. They're showing the Vanity Fair cover with the photo of the spawn of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise. The baby's name is Suri, and Katie — Couric — does the pun "Yes, sirree."

Couric, she's cute, she's perky, she's photoshopped and she's been smacked.

Oh, on the sign off line thing: don't use "Courage". Rather stupid you know.

Heir For The Japanese Throne

Princess Kiko of Japan has given birth to a boy, heading off a budding constitutional crisis by providing a male heir. This has been a big item of concern in Japan for some time now.

TOKYO - Japan's Princess Kiko gave birth to a boy early Wednesday, the royal family's first male heir to the throne in more than 40 years, the palace announced.

The birth came about an hour after Kiko, 39, was reported to have undergone a Caesarean section. The boy is the third in line to the throne, after Crown Prince Naruhito and Kiko's husband, Prince Akishino.

The boy, the first male heir born in Japan since Akishino in 1965, was born at 8:27 a.m. and weighed about 7 1/2 pounds, the palace said.

Pretty healthy sized little guy.

UPDAT: The New York Times coverage has more on the debate that was raging when no male heir was waiting in the wings.

Romney Refuses To Provide Security For Khatami

Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has refused to provide any state resources to handle security for former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami's weekend visit to Harvard. He calls the lecture nothing but propaganda and will not have anything to do with it. Federal authorities are providing security.

Khatami is due to speak on Sunday at Harvard University in Cambridge on the "Ethics of Tolerance in the Age of Violence."

Romney said Khatami will not receive a state police escort or any other state help. Federal officials will attend to his security.

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said the state normally provides a police escort to visiting dignitaries. He said U.S. State Department officials had contacted the state police's tactical unit, which typically coordinates traffic-stopping escorts, prior to Romney's statement.

Romney, a 2008 Republican presidential hopeful, called the visit "a disgrace to the memory of all Americans who lost their lives at the hands of extremists, especially on the eve of the five-year anniversary of 9/11."

"The U.S. State Department listed Khatami's Iran as the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism," Romney said. "For him to lecture Americans about tolerance and violence is propaganda, pure and simple."

Frankly, he's quite right. Those who have left comments here that Khatami is nothing more than a private citizen, therefore there is no problem with him meeting with Jimmy Carter are caught in their own logic on this one. If he's a private citizen, he is not entitled to state resources for security. Can't have it both ways, though I'm sure there will be some who will try. Good for Romney for calling this lecture for what it most surely is.

UPDATE: Romney's press release is even more blunt than the AP article lets on. In fact, it is very harsh indeed.

UPDATE: The Boston Globe has an even more blunt statement from Romney.

Increasingly Irrelevant

The Miami Herald has a devastating critique of leftist loser Andrés Manuel López Obrador's strategic blunders in his blind lust to win the presidency of Mexico. It is extremely harsh and would appear to predict that AMLO has destroyed his political career.

MEXICO CITY - In the days after ballot results showed him losing an agonizingly close presidential election, candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador was in fine form, leading the largest rallies Mexico has ever seen and convincing most Mexicans of the need for a recount.

Six weeks later, the Mexican public has largely turned its back on the charismatic leftist, who has been transformed into a marginal figure — to a degree even within his own party.

If the July 2 election were held now, conservative Felipe Calderón would trounce López Obrador by 24 percentage points, a recent newspaper poll showed.

Some analysts say the former Mexico City mayor has done irreparable harm to his political career by sowing unrest and refusing to accept the constitutional rules for resolving the close election.

Mexico in 2006 is often compared to the disputed U.S. presidential election of 2000 between George Bush and Al Gore, where results in Florida and elsewhere were questioned. Initial results showed Calderón with a razor thin lead amid allegations of balloting irregularities.

The difference is that López Obrador, 53, has refused to recognize the authority of the court that ruled against him or concede defeat in the name of political harmony, analysts say.

The metaphor often used in the Mexican press is that of a martyr, burning himself alive.

''One thing is for certain,'' wrote political columnist José María Carmona last week in the Change of Michoacan newspaper. “The political career of López Obrador is entering its final phase.''

López Obrador last week lost his bid to convince Mexico's highest electoral court to reverse the razor-thin victory of Calderón, 44.

Despite producing boxes of documents, López Obrador was never able to prove his allegation that widespread fraud robbed him of the presidency.

Read the whole thing is you want to see how to overplay a hand and destroy your career. AMLO will continue his antics and become increasingly irrelevant as time passes. (This is much better coverage, by the way, than the wire services are giving us).

Mexican Court: Calderon Wins

A draft report by the Mexican election court declares Felipe Calderon the president-elect of Mexico. The ruling will become official after the vote tallies are certified later today.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Conservative ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon won Mexico's ferociously contested July 2 election and is president-elect, the top electoral court said in a draft ruling on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the court said Calderon had won with a margin of about 234,000 votes. In this latest draft ruling, the court said he could now be declared president-elect, the first time the election body has made this announcement.

The final, official decision is still to be voted on later in the day by a panel of seven judges, who have already thrown out leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's claims of massive fraud.

Mexico, which only introduced full democracy with President Vicente Fox's victory at the last presidential election in 2000, has been gripped by political drama for months.

While as late as yesterday, AMLO was still talking tough, his support may finally failing him. Last night supporters set up camp around the election court vowing to block passage to it. By this morning most had simply drifted away. The few remaining people this morning set off fireworks outside the court which could clearly be heard inside the hearing room. (If that isn't a veiled threat, I don't know what is).

UPDATE: The ruling is now official. AMLO is saying he will never accept the ruling.

His leftist rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, had said he would not recognize the ruling. His supporters wept as the decision was announced and the courthouse shook as protesters set off fireworks outside.

"Felipe Calderon didn't win. Fraud won," opposition supporter Francisca Ojeda said, screaming to be heard over protesters throwing trash at the court and screaming "Fraud! Fraud!"

The court found no evidence of systematic fraud, although it threw out some polling place results for mathematical errors, irregularities, and other problems that trimmed Calderon's 240,000-vote advantage to 233,831 votes out of 41.6 million cast.

"There are no perfect elections," Judge Alfonsina Berta Navarro Hidalgo said.

The tribunal's decision was final and cannot be appealed.

When Caught, Lie

Apparently, that is the new (old) strategy for MoveOn.org. When the Anti-Defamation League catches them with profoundly anti-Semitic comments on their site and sends a letter objecting, they try to blame those evil conservatives.

Perhaps a name change for the group is in order. How about GrowUp? The "it wasn't me it was somebody who just ran by and did it" defense is so second grade.

On any given day, on any given comment thread on the major lefty sites you can find steaming heaps of anti-Semitism and hate. This is not some unidentified "conservative" bogyman. This is the people who flock to those sites. It is about time for the Democrats to realize exactly what they are getting into by pandering to the left. At some point, the rabid hatred of Jews and Israel will start costing Jewish votes. That could well be fatal for the party.

Major Oil Strike By Chevron?

The extent of the find is not known yet, but the deepest offshore well ever drilled in the Gulf of Mexico has begun producing about 6,000 barrels of oil per day.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three oil companies, led by Chevron Corp. have successfully drilled for oil in the Gulf of Mexico's deep waters, suggesting there may be more oil in the region that already provides a quarter of U.S. output, the companies said on Tuesday.

During the test, at record depths and pressure, the Jack No. 2 well flowed at a rate of more than 6,000 barrels of crude per day, Chevron said. That puts it on a par with discoveries in exploration hot spots such as the waters off Angola.

With U.S. oil output in decline, big new fields are increasingly rare and oil companies are widening their search to more difficult places. Chevron, the No. 2 U.S. oil company, did not give an estimate of the field's reserves.

Until more test wells are drilled, the extent of the reserves in the find will not be known.

Modern Conveniences

Apparently, some folks on the Island of Crete were tired of waiting for modern conveniences to be installed in the local bank.

So they made their own drive-through. With a stolen bulldozer.

The four robbers used a stolen bulldozer to tear down the entrance to the bank near the town of Hania, lifted the 500-kilo safe and loaded it onto a waiting truck while shooting in the air early on Monday.

"It was a gangster operation," the semi-official Athens News Agency quoted local mayor Pandelis Karagiannakis as saying.

The agency said the robbers managed to escape after blocking streets with several stolen vehicles, including two big cement mixer trucks, preventing police cars from reaching the bank.

Police are looking to give the men all the modern conveniences that can be found in the local jail.

Magpie Mugging Menace

Authorities in Australia are warning people to be on the lookout for marauding magpies menacing people out walking. Its just another sign of spring down under according to them. The fools. It is another sign of the animal uprising. The feathered fiends wait for people to have their backs turned the - whap - they fit them in the back of the head.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Spring has sprung in Australia: the buds are budding, the birds are singing — and smacking into people's heads.

But Australians have been told officially, as they are every year at this time: "Don't panic!"

Most countries have a favourite indication that winter is over — a special flower perhaps, or the sleepy emergence of a cuddly hibernating creature.

In Australia the first sign of spring for a stroller outdoors can be a sudden blow on the back of the head by an angry magpie.

"There is no need for people to panic, but there is a safety risk and we want people to take care for just a few months of each year while these birds are nesting," government wildlife officer Glenn Sharp said Tuesday.

Taking care can take strange forms.

A common cartoon image of an Australian hat has it adorned with swinging corks to keep away the flies. But the best headgear at this time of year, some say, is an upside-down plastic ice-cream bucket with eyes painted on the back.

The magpies, large birds pre-emptively protecting their nests from harmless passers-by, always swoop from behind when their targets are happily gazing at some less startling manifestation of spring.

If you see them first and keep your eyes on them, they'll stay perched innocently on a branch or a wire, but staring wildly about as you stroll can look even sillier than wearing an ice-cream bucket on your head.

If you watch them, they leave you alone. Turn your back for an instant and you're a target. We suspect that their plot is tied to that tip the "experts" are giving. Wear an ice cream bucket to ward them off.

They are trying to make people look stupid!

Maybe Not The Best Strategy

I don't think this is the best possible strategy for the Republicans to use in the run-up to the elections. There are reports that they are effectively planning to table any action on illegal immigration. The strategy is to concentrate instead on security.

Isn't getting control of the border security-related?

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 — As they prepare for a critical pre-election legislative stretch, Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength.

With Congress reconvening Tuesday after an August break, Republicans in the House and Senate say they will focus on Pentagon and domestic security spending bills, port security legislation and measures that would authorize the administration’s terror surveillance program and create military tribunals to try terror suspects.

“We Republicans believe that we have no choice in the war against terror and the only way to do it is to continue to take them head-on whether it is in Iraq or elsewhere,” said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the majority leader.

A final decision on what do about immigration policy awaits a meeting this week of senior Republicans. But key lawmakers and aides who set the Congressional agenda say they now believe it would be politically risky to try to advance an immigration measure that would showcase party divisions and need to be completed in the 19 days Congress is scheduled to meet before breaking for the election.

President Bush had made comprehensive changes in immigration laws a priority, even making the issue the subject of a prime-time address, but House Republicans have been determined not to move ahead with any legislation that could be construed as amnesty for anyone who entered the country illegally. They held hearings around the country in recent weeks to contrast their enforcement-only bill with a Senate measure that could lead to citizenship for some.

“I don’t see how you bridge that divide between us and the Senate,” said Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. “I don’t see it happening. I really don’t.”

Democrats say they are not surprised by the immigration impasse and believe some Republicans would prefer to keep the issue alive to stir conservative voters rather than reach a legislative solution.

Well whichever way they go with this, the Democrats will say they are wrong, so I guess it may not really matter. But it is getting frustrating that we simply cannot control our own border. That is the fault of both parties in all branches of government.