North Korea

By Dave Lindorff

Last week, a US federal district judge, Henry Kennedy, ruled in
favor of a case brought by the survivors of the crew of the USS Pueblo,
a spy ship captured by the North Korean Navy in 1968, who were held
prisoner by North Korea for 11 months, and who were reportedly tortured
in captivity. The judge awarded the men $65 million in damages from the
state of North Korea.

Now I’m happy for the plaintiffs. Torture is flatly banned under
international law, and nobody should be tortured under any conditions
(whatever Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia may think). But let’s
not ignore the irony of this ruling. In general, the federal courts
have been incredibly reluctant about making such rulings against the US
government for doing the same thing that North Korea did, or even worse.

By Dave Lindorff

What the hell is Barack Obama talking about?

He says that America should be talking with leaders in Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Korea, Syria. Fine. But he calls this “talking with our enemies.”

What enemies?

Let’s get something straight. Enemies are people who are fighting against you, who are trying to destroy you. Is Cuba fighting against America? Is Iran fighting against America? Is Venezuela fighting against America? Syria? China? No. These countries may be rivals, but they are not enemies.

The closest we come to having an actual enemy in today’s world is North Korea, where we are technically still in some kind of truce following a hot war, but of course that war itself has been over for half a frigging century, and nobody has been killing anyone on the Korean Peninsula in decades.

THE NEED FOR IMPEACHMENT GROWS MORE URGENT DAY BY DAY

ACTION PAGE: http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/88

First the American people spoke in overwhelming numbers on November 7, soundly repudiating current policy, with ENDING the Iraq war/occupation at the top of their list. The Bush administration heard nothing. Then the Iraq Study Group delivered its report, which despite its timid recommendations on actual troop withdrawal again sent the message that something had to change immediately. The Bush administration did not get it. Instead we are told that Bush is on a "listening" tour, apparently desperately trying to find some half-credible person somewhere who will tell him what he wants to hear, that no fundamental change of course is necessary.

We are told that Bush is asking all the "tough questions." We are told that Cheney is taking "copious notes." One has to wonder how intelligent decisions could have been made by any other previously insular method. But at the same time we hear that Bush is "resolutely defiant," and in fact plans on sending even MORE troops to Iraq. So what we are witnessing is yet another Karl Rove photo-op, a dog and pony show of attentiveness, with absolutely no intention of taking any advice they would not have given themselves in the first place.

When our founders drafted our Constitution, the thing they feared most was that a despot would arise to arrogate dictatorial power, which is why they made repeated references to the procedure of impeachment as the ultimate check and balance. Most of all they sought to guard against the kind of abusive, absolutist power that they had fought a revolutionary war to escape. And what Bush and Cheney have given us if a textbook example of what they strove so mightily to ensure against as our heritage.

Rightwingers led by John McCain are determined to blame Bill Clinton for North Korea's nukes. But that's a strategy that will backfire bigtime when Americans examine the facts:

McCain Covers Up For Bush’s Nuclear Failures 

Senator John McCain’s claim that Bill Clinton is responsible for North Korea’s nuclear test this week is dead wrong. He should know better.

One more time, here are the facts:

North Korea’s bombs are built with plutonium. They produce their plutonium in a reactor they built during the Reagan presidency, starting around 1984. They separated enough plutonium for perhaps two bombs during the first Bush presidency.