North Korea Moves to Test-Fire Missiles

from The Korea Times
by Kim Jong-chan
5-22-2009
Assistant Managing Editor

North Korea is showing signs of preparing to test-fire short-range missiles, a defense ministry official said Friday.

The North began to relocate missile-related equipment and vehicles on its east coast, and banned ships from nearby waters, the official said on condition of anonymity.

``We've been seeing brisk activities along the North's east coastal area over the past two to three days, indicating trucks mounted with mobile rocket launchers are on the move,'' the official was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.

``Judging from an analysis of military movements, the North appears to be preparing to test-launch short-range missiles,'' he said.

An official at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that a shipping ban usually comes ahead of a short-range missile test or a live-fire drill.

According to the Japanese Coast Guard, North Korea advised ships to stay clear of waters within a 130-km radius of the northeastern city of Gimchaek until the end of this month, Yonhap said.

The ban, effective from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., follows Pyongyang's threats to conduct further missile tests to protest the U.N. Security Council condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch.

North Korea has said that the launch from its east coast put a satellite into orbit, while the U.S. and Japan say no object entered space.

Pyongyang has also threatened to conduct a second nuclear test ― it first tested a nuclear device in October 2006.
Click to read the article

North Korea Better Watch It or Obama Will, Well He'll, You know...

President Pantywaist - there is a new surrender monkey on the block…

from Don Surber
April 10, 2009

Gerald Warner of the Times of London: “Watch out, France and Co, there is a new surrender monkey on the block…”

Maybe it is just me, but I don’t think Warner is too impressed with President Obama’s performance in Europe.

In fact, Warner pointed out that the world leaders in public lavished praise on the young president — and then did nothing for him in private.

Help in Afghanistan?

Warner wrote: “The One retired triumphant, having secured a massive contribution of 5,000 extra troops — all of them non-combatant, of course — which must really have put the wind up the Taliban, at the prospect of 5,000 more infidel cooks and bottle-washers swarming into the less hazardous regions of Afghanistan.”

That does free our troops from having to pull KP duty, I suppose.

But Warner’s real point is our president’s reaction to the North Korean missile launch was decidedly wanting: “President Pantywaist is hopping mad and he has a strategy to cut Kim down to size: he is going to slice $1.4bn off America’s missile defence programme, presumably on the calculation that Kim would feel it unsporting to hit a sitting duck, so that will spoil his fun.”

I let Warner use the British newspaper stylebook.

I must agree that at a time when we are squandering trillions on stimulus packages that are spooking investors, cutting any spending in Washington is like emptying the ocean by the spoonful.

President Pantywaist.

Wrote Garner: “Watch out, France and Co, there is a new surrender monkey on the block and, over the next four years, he will spectacularly sell out the interests of the West with every kind of liberal-delusionist initiative on nuclear disarmament and sitting down to negotiate with any power freak who wants to buy time to get a good ICBM fix on San Francisco, or wherever. If you thought the world was a tad unsafe with Dubya around, just wait until President Pantywaist gets into his stride.”
His column is here.
Click to go to Don Surber article

57% Wanted a Military Response to North Korea Missile Launch

57% Wanted Military Response to North Korea Missile Launch - It's too bad 52% decided to elect a coward for Commander in Chief!

from Rasmussen Reports

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of U.S. voters nationwide favor a military response to eliminate North Korea’s missile launching capability. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 15% of voters oppose a military response while 28% are not sure.

North Korea defied international pressure and launched a missile last night. Officials from that country claim a satellite was placed in orbit. U.S. defense officials confirm that a missile was launched but that no object was placed in orbit.

"With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations,” President Obama said. (But he did NOTHING!)

The telephone survey was conducted Friday and Saturday, April 3-4, the two days immediately prior to North Korea’s launch. The question asked about a military response if North Korea actually did launch a long-range missile.

Support for a military response comes from 66% of Republicans, 52% of Democrats and 54% of those not affiliated with either major political party. There is no gender gap on the issue as a military response is favored by 57% of men and 57% of women.

Overall, 75% of voters say they’ve been closely following news stories about the possible launch. That figure includes 40% who’ve followed the news Very Closely.

Seventy-three percent (73%) are at least somewhat concerned that North Korea will use nuclear weapons against the United States. That’s up just a few points from 69% who held that view in October 2006. Prior to that survey, North Korea had successfully conducted an underground nuclear test.

Currently, 39% are Very Concerned about a possible nuclear attack from North Korea.
Just three percent (3%) of voters view North Korea as an ally while 46% say it’s an enemy.

Click to read the article

Satellite launch sparks conflicting claims

By Wang Linyan (China Daily)

2009-04-06

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Sunday it launched a satellite into orbit which was circling the Earth transmitting songs - but the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK) said it had failed to enter orbit.

The "Taepodong-2" rocket was launched at 11:20 am local time (0220 GMT) from the East Sea Launch Ground in the east coast of the country, the DPRK's Korean Central News Agency said.

The "Kwangmyongsong-2" satellite was sent into orbit at 11:29 am local time (0229 GMT), the agency said.

But North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and US Northern Command officials issued a statement disputing any success.

"Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan," the statement said. "The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean. No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan."

ROK Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said that Seoul had judged that the DPRK had failed to put its satellite launched into orbit, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

"Based on our judgment made so far, all first, second and third (stage) rockets fell into the ocean, and thus nothing has been put into orbit," Kyodo quoted Lee as telling a parliamentary session in Seoul.

US, ROK and Japanese officials - who monitored the launch from nearby warships and high-resolution spy satellite cameras - have said they suspect the DPRK was testing long-range ballistic missile technology that could be used to carry a nuclear warhead to Alaska or beyond.

The US insisted it was a missile launch, but the ROK, in a U-turn, said it was a satellite. Japan used "flying object" to describe it.

Click to read the article

U.S.: North Korean 'satellite' did not make orbit

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- No object entered orbit, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said Sunday, after North Korea claimed it had launched a satellite.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket Sunday, and called it a successful, peaceful launch of a satellite. But U.S. and South Korean officials called it a provocative act, amid international fears that the launch could be a missile with a warhead attached.

International reaction to reports of the launch -- which took place at about 11:30 a.m. local time -- ranged from calls for an immediate U.N. Security Council meeting to calls for measured diplomacy.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, the U.S. and a Canadian organization that monitors space activity released a statement about the launch. What do you think about North Korean rocket launch?

"Officials acknowledged today that North Korea launched a Taepo Dong 2 missile at 10:30 p.m. EDT Saturday, which passed over the Sea of Japan and the nation of Japan," the statement said. "Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean. No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan."

Click to read the article

N.Korea Rocket Launch Likely to Fail: Rand

from The Korea Times
April 4, 2009

North Korea’s rocket launch is likely to be unsuccessful up to 80 to 90 percent, said a prominent analyst at the U.S.-based Rand Corporation.

“I estimate the possibility of North Korea’s rocket launch failure up to 80 to 90 percent,” said Hahm Chai-bong of Rand. He added, however, that in case it succeeds, it will pose a “serious security threat” to Japan, Yonhap reported Saturday.

Hahm believes that North Korea aims to strengthen its domestic power grip through the missile program and its development of nuclear weapons, while also trying to get the attention of Washington which has been preoccupied with other priorities, including the economic crisis, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Surrounding the debate on whether what North Korea plans to launch is a missile or satellite (as North Korea claims), Hahm said things will get worse anyway because, after all, the underlying technology for both is the same and North Korea will want to show off its military achievement with the thinking of selling the weapons to other countries.

Meanwhile, Hahm said that with the rocket launch Pyongyang will put China, its staunch ideological ally and also the main economic benefactor, in a dilemma by further scaling down Beijing’s room to advocate Pyongyang in international community.

He, however, was less hopeful about what the international community can do about North Korea’s belligerence. “The U.N. Security Council sanctions will be the ‘least and at the same time the maximum’ response the international community can take,” and that the sanctions will eventually turn to be a mere symbolic political gesture.
Click to go to the article

OOPS! - Japan issues wrong info on N. Korean rocket launch

from Kyodo News
April 4, 2009
TOKYO, Japan

The Japanese government provided erroneous information that North Korea had launched a rocket Saturday, mostly because the Air Self-Defense Force was confused about radar information, a Defense Ministry official said.

''We caused a great deal of trouble to the Japanese people. This was a mistake in the transmission of information by the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces,'' Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters. ''I want to apologize to the people from my heart.''

The government released information that ''North Korea appears to have launched a projectile'' at 12:16 p.m. via its e-mail-based Em-Net emergency information system, but retracted it five minutes later, saying it was a ''detection failure.''

By then, media organizations at home and abroad had reported the rocket launch as breaking news based on the false information.

The confusion occurred after the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported earlier in the day that the rocket ''will be launched soon.'' North Korea has said the launch is for a communications satellite but Japan, South Korea and the United States suspect the launch is a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test.

According to the Defense Ministry, the ground-based FPS-5 radar at the ministry's Iioka research and development site in Asahi, Chiba Prefecture, picked up a trace over the Sea of Japan on the radar screen.

The information was immediately conveyed to the ASDF's Air Defense Command in the suburbs of Tokyo, but the person who received it mistook the information for satellite early warning information provided by the U.S. military.

The satellite early warning information is based on data sent by the U.S. Air Force's Defense Support Program satellite orbiting the Earth. Equipped with an infrared telescope, it is normally the quickest means to detect ballistic missile launches.

The erroneous information then got passed onto the SDF's Central Command Post at the Defense Ministry headquarters, from which it was conveyed to the crisis management center at the prime minister's office, according to the ministry.

The prime minister's office sent an emergency e-mail message to local governments across the country and media organizations based on the false information.

One minute after the Central Command Post received the launch information, it was notified that the trace had disappeared from the radar screen and that no satellite early warning information had actually been received, the ministry said.

''They should have confirmed on computer terminals that satellite early warning information had been received. The mistake could have been avoided if they had done so,'' a ministry official said.

The official said he does not know why the airman at the Air Defense Command mixed up the radar and satellite early warning information.

A misstep was also reported at the local level in Japan's northern areas, over which part of the rocket is set to pass if it flies according to the plan announced by North Korea.

Before the central government's false report, the Akita prefectural government issued an erroneous report to all municipal governments in the prefecture that North Korea had ''fired a missile,'' and one of the municipal offices communicated the report to all households through a radio transmission for disaster management.

According to prefectural officials, a SDF member at the prefectural government's disaster preparedness headquarters received a communication from the Defense Ministry that the rocket was ''launched at 10:48 a.m.''

The SDF member verbally communicated the message to a prefectural government official, who then passed on the information to relevant officials of all the municipalities through mobile phone text messages six minutes later, the officials said.

Sixteen of the 25 municipalities in the prefecture conveyed the central government-issued information to their residents via a community wireless system and other means, and corrected the information later.

Tottori Prefecture, also on the Sea of Japan, issued faxes to its municipalities soon after the central government issued the wrong information and had to hastily correct the content.
Click to read the article

N. Korea Threatens to Retaliate With 'Thunderbolt of Fire'

from Fox News.com
Thursday, April 02, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea's military on Thursday threatened immediate retaliation if "even the slightest effort" is made to intercept a long-range rocket it has begun fueling and that it plans to launch in the next few days.

President Barack Obama warned the liftoff would be a "provocative act" that would generate a U.N. Security Council response, but North Korea's military threatened those who opposed the launch with a "thunderbolt of fire" if they interfered.

A Korean Central News Agency report made a veiled threat against the U.S. In an apparent reference to American warships that have reportedly set sail to monitor the launch, the Korean-language version of the report said: "The United States should immediately withdraw armed forces deployed if it does not want to receive damage."

An unidentified senior U.S. military official said Pyongyang has started to fuel the rocket, a move that indicates final preparations for the launch. Experts say the missile can be fired about three to four days after fueling begins.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted unidentified officials as saying the North had moved a squadron of MiG-23 fighter jets to a base near the launch site in what appeared to be a response to Japan's deployment. Seoul's Defense Ministry declined to confirm the reports.

An English version said the U.S. forces could be hit in a retaliatory strike against Japan.

North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit on a multistage rocket sometime from Saturday to Wednesday. The U.S., South Korea and Japan think the reclusive country is using the launch to test long-range missile technology; they've warned the move would violate a Security Council resolution banning the North from ballistic activity.

Regional powers have also begun to deploy ships to monitor the launch, and Japan is preparing to intercept any debris that might fall if the launch goes awry — moves that have prompted several threats of retaliation from Pyongyang, including one Thursday.

The North countered with its own warnings against any efforts to intercept the rocket, take the issue to the Security Council or even monitor the launch. It says its armed forces are at a high level of combat-readiness.

The North has said debris from the rocket could fall off Japan's northern coast, so Tokyo has deployed battleships with anti-missile systems to the area and set up Patriot missile interceptors. It says it has no intention of trying to shoot down the rocket itself.

"If Japan imprudently carries out an act of intercepting our peaceful satellite, our people's army will hand a thunderbolt of fire to not only interceptor means already deployed, but also key targets," said a report Thursday by the North's official Korean Central News Agency that quoted the general staff of its military.

Click to read the rest of the article

Obama Should Shoot Down North Korea’s Missile

photo of Aegis missile firing

The danger to America will multiply if Obama is perceived as weak and indecisive early on.

April 2, 2009
by Nicholas Guariglia

Vice President Biden once warned that the world would “test” Barack Obama. According to a multitude of reports, that slimy toad Kim Jong Il will be the first to take up the challenge. North Korea is preparing a launch of its Taepodong-2 long-range missile, which would constitute an unjustified provocation from North Korea, although it would be entirely consistent with Kim’s previous patterns of behavior.

Victor D. Cha, the former director for Asian affairs in Bush’s White House, describes these North Korean escalations as “coercive bargaining” in his 2003 book Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies. Cha explains:

These provocations are deliberate pinpricks — i.e., they fall short of all-out war but are serious enough to rattle the allies and raise concerns about escalation. Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo are thus manipulated into the awkward position of wanting to respond punitively to DPRK misbehavior, but are constrained by fears of provoking an unnecessary and costly larger conflict.

As a result, the allies usually issue a denouncement of the DPRK act, but still come to the negotiating table to reduce tensions. From Pyongyang’s perspective, the purpose of these provocations is not to win some military advantage but to create a crisis, disrupting the status quo and initiating a coercive bargaining process that eventuates in a new status quo on current or new negotiations more favorable to the North.

It is high time we stop playing Kim’s game. There is no better person than a new president — and no better time than an economic crisis — to take serious and swift action against such a tyrannical despot hell bent on nuclear proliferation.

In short, we should blow the North Korean missile out of the sky. Here’s why:

Struggling through an economic downturn, Americans are more worried and anxious about domestic issues. The world’s tyrants sense this and look on advantageously. Additionally, President Obama is perceived around the world as a borderline pacifist. His is not only a new, untested administration, but he himself is a new, inexperienced face on the international scene. (In case you’re wondering, the tyrants like that, too.)

Kim Jong Il no doubt feels more comfortable provoking Obama than he would have, say, John McCain. It should be President Obama’s mission, then, to force Kim out of his comfort zone by taking a hard line against Pyongyang. Standing up to North Korea in a brazen fashion would be unexpected at this time and would be unexpected from this administration. It would come as a surprise to Kim’s inner circle — and to dictators all over the globe — which is all the more reason why Obama should consider doing it.

But we shouldn’t hold our breath. Secretary of State Clinton has talked about a “response” to the looming missile launch and the “range of options available … in the wake” of such a provocation. Secretary of Defense Gates has said, “I would say we’re not prepared to do anything about it.”

Nonsense. Admiral Timothy J. Keating, commander of PACOM, has explained in great detail the military’s capacities and capabilities. There are 18 U.S. Navy ships off the Korean peninsula with the Aegis missile defense system; Japanese and South Korean warships have the system, as well. Navy vessels with interceptor missiles are prepared to fire “on a moment’s notice,” according to Admiral Keating. “Should it look like something other than a satellite launch, we will be fully prepared to respond as the president directs. … Odds are very high that we’ll hit what we’re aiming at. This should be a source of great confidence and reassurance for our allies.”

Keating’s right. And have no doubt this is not a mere benign “satellite launch” — despite what Pyongyang claims. Missile experts from the Iranian theocracy are present at the launch site to “help” the North Koreans. Ahmadinejad has sent a letter to Kim, stressing the importance of cooperation in nuclear and missile technology. And remember, Pyongyang was caught red-handed in the A.Q. Khan black-market network and was also caught helping the Syrians with their nuclear program. Kim’s is a cash-strapped nation and his nuclear program is for export — in other words, for cash.

Even if the Obama administration, by some divine miracle, convinces Tehran to forgo its pursuit of atomic bombs and to embrace values derived from the Enlightenment, the mullahs can still ascertain a nuclear arsenal on a moment’s notice — with the appropriate intercontinental ballistic missile technology to go along with it — should the North Koreans make the price right. Therefore, stopping North Korea’s export business should be atop the list of our concerns.

In July 2006, the North Korean regime fired two Taepodong-2 missiles, both of which fell into the Sea of Japan minutes after their launch. Although it remained unclear at the time whether or not the test launch was a “success” for the regime, it still allowed Kim’s hermit enclave to perfect intercontinental ballistic missile capability. At the time, Bill Clinton’s former Pentagon chief William Perry and his assistant Ashton Carter actually recommended destroying North Korea’s missiles at their launch site.

Of course, no such action was taken. The result was an unpredictable dictatorship armed with nuclear weapons and capable of testing an ICBM, thereby violating international accords and threatening regional peace. The previous administration took no adequate measures to prevent the launch or to punish thereafter.

President Obama should not repeat this mistake. Unlike President Bush, he should shoot North Korea’s missile down — or, if he truly wants to send a message, blast the ICBM off the launch site before Kim is able to conduct the test.

Yes, risks are involved. A war on the peninsula would be disastrous. But I’m convinced action can be taken to stop North Korea’s proliferation racket and we can still walk back from the precipice of full-scale conflict with Pyongyang. It has been our inaction and inability to confront Kim Jong Il that has emboldened him to this extent and has brought us to this point.

Mr. Obama has made it known that he wants to champion diplomacy during his presidency. He can do that cause a great long-term service if he draws a line in the sand now. Future diplomacy with the North Koreans, with the Iranians, with the Palestinians — with whomever — will carry a lot more credibility in 2010, 2011, and 2012 should Obama prove himself to be no pushover in 2009.

This is a perfect opportunity. Obama should seize it.
Click to read the article

World War III or World War 3 - whichever way you prefer it...

As always, telling it like it really is...with an attitude to get your attention!

Owning the expert...

This latest video from How the World Works is in direct response to a "so called expert that challenged him on several issues from his previous ones. It covers climate change, socialism, federalism, capitalism, the depression and a few more. It's 21 minutes long, but worth every minute of your time.
Rees

5 arrested in G20 'bomb plot'

Well, it appears the G20 rioters are well organized. They've got fancy posters and even a web site. Do these professional rioters have their own union to protect them from unsafe rioting conditions? Just curious.

I'll bet our rioters from back in the 60's are sitting in their rocking chairs right now, and shaking their heads about how things could have been, if only...

Rees

Five activists arrested in G20 'bomb plot' as London goes into lockdown for world leaders

By Stephen Wright and Luke Salkeld

from the MailOnline.com

31st March 2009

Five people were arrested under anti-terror laws yesterday after an imitation Kalashnikov rifle and other weapons were seized by police investigating a possible plot to cause havoc at the G20 summit.

Three men aged 25, 19 and 16 and two women of 20, were held after the eldest man was seen allegedly spraying graffiti in Plymouth. [maybe he ran out of printer paper for his riot posters]

In searches of several homes, officers found a range of imitation and deactivated firearms from handguns to hunting rifles and a Kalashnikov-style assault rifle.

They also found 'improvised explosives made of fireworks'.

Detectives are investigating the possibility that the group were planning to mount protests in London against the G20 summit.

Assistant Chief Constable Paul Netherton said 'politically sensitive material' had been found.

Sources said the suspects were not linked to any religious group. All five were being held under the Terrorism Act.

The arrests were made after the 25-year-old man was held in Plymouth on Friday evening, for allegedly spraying graffiti on a wall, and his home was searched.

Mr Netherton said the operation had no connection to Nicky Reilly, 22, the Muslim convert from Plymouth who was jailed for 18 years earlier this year for an attempted nail bomb attack on an Exeter restaurant.

In London, Scotland Yard said the Metropolitan Police was liaising with the Devon and Cornwall force but the investigation was at a very early stage.

The spokesman added that police were seeing 'an unprecedented level of activity amongst protest groups not seen since the late 1990s, involving some individuals we have not seen on the protest circuit for some time'.

Organisers of a planned protest in the City of London tomorrow are to meet Scotland Yard officers today to discuss their concerns over how it will be policed.

Activists from the Climate Camp said they had been trying to open communication following 'increasingly sensational police predictions' of violence. The group said it was concerned it was the victim of a 'smear campaign' ahead of the demonstration.

More than 3,000 police officers will be on duty during the summit period, with up to 100,000 protesters expected to stage rallies and marches. Police estimate the cost of the security operation at £8 million - the largest in UK history. A huge cordon will be thrown around the Excel centre in London's Docklands, the headquarters of the summit. A ring of steel will also be constructed to keep protesters away from the U.S. embassy in central London.

Senior officers fear a repeat of the violent anti-capitalist and MayDay protests of 1999 and 2000. Shops and other businesses were damaged and dozens of arrests made.

Click to read the article and comments

Obama Just Displayed His Middle Finger...Again! This time it was to the American People!

Did you see that? Obama just gave America the middle finger!

His choice of Harold Koh exhibits a level of arrogance that's pathologically extreme in its nature. He's chosen someone that's so anti-constitution and anti-American, there may be even some Obamabots that might oppose him. I can't imagine anyone would want this man serving in the Obama Administration.

Obama has basically said "screw you" to the American people. He doesn't care what we think. He is going forward with his plan and daring the the republicans to try and stop him. It only take one Republican vote for this guy to be approved. Anyone who does approve him should be asked to resign immediately.
Rees (now I feel much better)

OBAMA'S MOST PERILOUS LEGAL PICK
Koh: Wants US courts to apply "world law."

from The New York Post

By MEGHAN CLYNE
March 30, 2009

- 'JUDGES should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms."
- Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts.
- The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq.

JUDGES should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms." Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts. The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq. Those are the views of the man on track to become one of the US government's top lawyers: Harold Koh.

President Obama has nominated Koh -- until last week the dean of Yale Law School -- to be the State Department's legal adviser. In that job, Koh would forge a wide range of international agreements on issues from trade to arms control, and help represent our country in such places as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice.

It's a job where you want a strong defender of America's sovereignty. But that's not Koh. He's a fan of "transnational legal process," arguing that the distinctions between US and international law should vanish.

What would this look like in a practical sense? Well, California voters have overruled their courts, which had imposed same-sex marriage on the state. Koh would like to see such matters go up the chain through federal courts -- which, in turn, should look to the rest of the world. If Canada, the European Human Rights Commission and the United Nations all say gay marriage should be legal -- well, then, it should be legal in California too, regardless of what the state's voters and elected representatives might say.

He even believes judges should use this "logic" to strike down the death penalty, which is clearly permitted in the US Constitution.

The primacy of international legal "norms" applies even to treaties we reject. For example, Koh believes that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child -- a problematic document that we haven't ratified -- should dictate the age at which individual US states can execute criminals. Got that? On issues ranging from affirmative action to the interrogation of terrorists, what the rest of the world says, goes.

Including, apparently, the world of radical imams. A New York lawyer, Steven Stein, says that, in addressing the Yale Club of Greenwich in 2007, Koh claimed that "in an appropriate case, he didn't see any reason why sharia law would not be applied to govern a case in the United States."
A spokeswoman for Koh said she couldn't confirm the incident, responding: "I had heard that some guy . . . had asked a question about sharia law, and that Dean Koh had said something about that while there are obvious differences among the many different legal systems, they also share some common legal concepts."

Score one for America's enemies and hostile international bureaucrats, zero for American democracy.

Koh has called America's focus on the War on Terror "obsessive." In 2004, he listed countries that flagrantly disregard international law -- "most prominently, North Korea, Iraq, and our own country, the United States of America," which he branded "the axis of disobedience."

He has also accused President George Bush of abusing international law to justify the invasion of Iraq, comparing his "advocacy of unfettered presidential power" to President Richard Nixon's. And that was the first Bush -- Koh was attacking the 1991 operation to liberate Kuwait, four days after fighting began in Operation Desert Storm.

Koh has also praised the Nicaraguan Sandinistas' use in the 1980s of the International Court of Justice to get Congress to stop funding the Contras. Imagine such international lawyering by rogue nations like Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela today, and you can see the danger in Koh's theories.

Koh, a self-described "activist," would plainly promote his views aggressively once at State. He's not likely to feel limited by the letter of the law -- in 1994, he told The New Republic: "I'd rather have [former Supreme Court Justice Harry] Blackmun, who uses the wrong reasoning in Roe [v. Wade] to get the right results, and let other people figure out the right reasoning."

Worse, the State job might be a launching pad for a Supreme Court nomination. (He's on many liberals' short lists for the high court.) Since this job requires Senate confirmation, it's certainly a useful trial run.

What happens to Koh in the Senate will send an important signal. If he sails through to State, he's a far better bet to make it onto the Supreme Court. So Senate Republicans have a duty to expose and confront his radical views.

Even though he's up for a State Department job, Koh is a key test case in the "judicial wars." If he makes it through (which he will if he gets even a single GOP vote) the message to the Obama team will be: You can pick 'em as radical as you like.
Click to go to the article
Meghan Clyne is a DC-based writer

Breaking: Defense Sec. Gates announces new missle defense strategy

This administration is beyond incompetent. Obama's foreign policy, if one actually exists, wreaks of weakness, appeasement and outright recklessness. The lack of coordination between the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense and our Military is frightening.
Rees

Monday, March 30, 2009
from Joshua Pundit

Secretary of Defense Gates Sends A Message To North Korea, Iran And Israel

In an interview with Chris Wallace on FOX last Sunday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was asked about North Korea's impending missile test and simply said "I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it."

This, after Gates admitted, "I don't know anyone at a senior level in the American government who does not believe this technology is intended to mask the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile."

In the same interview, Gates also danced around direct questions from Wallace about the Obama Administration's desire to severely cut funds allocated for missile defense.

There's a message here to a number of interested parties. The Mullahs of Iran now know that if the US is unwilling or unable to interfere with the North Koreans' ICBM test or take any effective action against their illegal nuclear program, the current occupant of the White House is certainly not going to interfere with Iran doing the same thing.

And the Israelis, if they're paying attention, should realize that the US either couldn't or wouldn't do anything to stop North Korea, they're not going to stop an Iranian missile strike on Israel either. And that any guarantees the Israelis get on that score are pretty much worthless.

Last but not least, of course is the message to the American people, who mostly aren't paying attention. Allowing rogue states to obtain and perfect nuclear weapons will eventually affect us severely, and the people supposedly in charge of dealing with this sort of thing apparently have more pressing concerns.
Click to read the rest of the article

When you wish upon a car...

image by rees

And Now.....Car Salesman of the Universe!!!!!!

Hey Barry! Before you offer the incentive to the customer, don't you first need to ask them:

What's it going to take to get you into this car today?
or
What kind of payment are you looking for?
and
When Barry tells you the deal he's offering you is so incredible, that he needs to go get it approved by the "secret manager in the bowels of the auto complex", is he really just telling you that he need's to go talk to Tim Geithner?

Obama offers incentives to spur auto sales

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says the federal government is preparing to offer several incentives to get Americans to buy more U.S.-made cars.

In a White House speech, Obama said the IRS will start notifying consumers who purchased cars after Feb. 16 that they can deduct the cost of any sales and excise taxes. The program would remain in effect till year's end.

Obama says he wants to work with Congress to use parts of the economic stimulus package to fund a program that would allow consumers to get a "generous credit" when they replace an older, less fuel-efficient car and buy a new, cleaner car.
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Kim Jong-il - Watch The Evening News!

Timely BMD Test: Aegis Downs 2 Missiles Off California

As North Korea nears the brink with the scheduled launch of its longest range ballistic missile, the Aegis destroyer USS Benfold achieved another first for US missile defense --- successful simultaneous intercepts of a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) and a cruise missile:

During the event, Benfold's Aegis Weapons System successfully detected and intercepted a cruise missile target with a SM-2 BLK IIIA, while simultaneously detecting and intercepting an incoming short range ballistic missile (SRBM) target with a modified SM-2 BLK IV. This is the first time the fleet has successfully tested the Aegis system's ability to intercept both an SRBM in terminal phase and a low-altitude cruise missile target at the same time.

While this SM-2 test did not demonstrate the capability to intercept an ICBM (that's the job of larger SM-3's), it once again showed the Navy's skill at fleet protection against Scuds and cruise missiles, the original mission of Aegis.

Combine North Korea's historical tendency to salvo multiple shorter range missiles in tandem with its long range Taepodong tests (as it did in both 1998 and 2006) with the very busy naval action in the Sea of Japan (South Korean, Japanese and US Aegis fleets moving into position) and this successful test could not be more timely.
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North Korea Warns The World

North Korea readies missile, makes new threat

from Reuters
By Jonathan Thatcher
March 27, 2009

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday that if the international community punishes it for next month's planned missile launch it will restart a nuclear plant that makes weapons grade plutonium.

The secretive state this week put a long-range missile in place for a launch the United States warned would violate U.N. sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for past weapons tests.

The planned launch, seen by some countries as a disguised military exercise, is the first big test for U.S. President Barack Obama in dealing with the prickly North, whose efforts to build a nuclear arsenal have long plagued ties with Washington.

North Korea warned that any action by the U.N. Security Council to punish it would be a "hostile act."

"... All the processes for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula ... will be brought back to what used to be before their start and necessary strong measures will be taken, "the North's foreign ministry spokesman said in comments carried by the official KCNA news agency.
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The Stench of Incompetence

Hillary Clinton: "US Has No Plans To Intercept North Korean Missile"

from Closing Velocity
March 27, 2009

Well, that's that:

The United States has no plans to shoot down the North Korean rocket, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday in an interview with CNN’s Jill Dougherty, but will raise the issue with the U.N. Security Council if Pyongyang carries out a launch.

It's rare I get to say this, but I told you so.

Perhaps it never dawned on Hillary and Obama that the very threat of intercepting the North Korean missile may have very well kept the thing on the ground. And perhaps she could have played coy with CNN and just silently left a menacing arrow in her diplomatic quiver. But she didn't.

Excellent work, Hillary.

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