Obamaville October 14 - Ask Pelosi not Republicans for Budget Cuts!

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Why do the liberal media and Democrats in the House and Senate keep complaining that Republicans will never give ideas on how to cut the budget? They make it sound as if there is some conspiracy of silence as a result.

If I were a Republican, which I am not, I would remind the liberal media and incumbents who are running scared that Nancy Pelosi, yes the Democratic Speaker of the House, is responsible for passing the federal budget, not the Republicans. I would also remind them that Nancy Pelosi has been in charge of the budget FOUR years running, not just two since Obama got elected.

They seem to forget the last two years of the Bush Administration it was Speaker Pelosi and a Democratic majority in the House in charge of the largest deficit increase in history before Obama took office and promptly shattered the record the last two years.

Okay, so the Democrats have been in charge all through the massive deficits of the last two Bush years and first two Obama years. What about the current budget for next year that was due last October 1, what cuts did the Democrats approve now that they control EVERYTHING in Washington?

My friends, the United States of America, under the leadership of Obama, Pelosi and Reid, has NO APPROVED BUDGET for the current fiscal year. No budget, no cuts, no guts to even pass a budget. Why doesn't the liberal media attack this truth? Why doesn't Obama demand itemized cuts from his fellow Democrats who are Constitutionally responsible for passing the budget and have ignored their duties?

Truth seems to be in awfully short supply in our nation's capitol. I trust at least the people know the truth.
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Cable News Watch - Blowing the Chilean Rescue - What Fools...

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After spending almost 24 hours glued to the tube watching one the of most heart warming and tear jerking stories in ages, last night as the last miner was being pulled from his tomb nearly half a mile underground, where he had been trapped for a record 70 days, I watched in astonishment as all three of our cable news networks blew the golden ratings goose that had been handed them on a silver platter.

I have worked with television a long time and have a pretty good idea what qualifies as quality news coverage.  What I saw was a pathetic joke.  I mean the entire world was watching the events unfold and come to a climax.  Don't you think the cable networks would have had their best news anchors and reporters handling this historic moment?

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, center with tie and no sunglasses, poses Thursday with the 33 rescued miners at the hospital in Copiapo where they are undergoing medical exams.

First let us look at CNN where they blew it beyond belief.  Here is the self-proclaimed most popular cable news network who has brought us incredible coverage of major news events over the years from Viet Nam to Afghanistan.  Yet they scheduled a Senate debate in Delaware instead.  To add insult to injury, just when the debate was beginning to get intriguing they cut off the debate broadcast and pick up the mine rescue.

For some really odd reason this network with some exceptioal reporters like Anderson Cooper and others had new political anchors Eliot Spitzer and his co-host Kathleen Parker, both who are new to television and oblivious to news coverage, handle the conclusion of this historic moment and they made a shambles of it.

CNN had no English translation of the Chilean ceremony marking the successful conclusion so rather than let the audience watch and listen the two talked over the ceremony with senseless and classless blabber that had nothing to do with the history being made.  No mention of incredible human interest stories about the miners.  No mention of all the American contractors who were unsung heroes in the rescue.  No mention of the exceptional job by the President and Mining Director of Chile who took over full responsibility for the rescue and directed every step of it.

No mention that this was the second major disaster in Chile this year, with the massive earthquake just last spring, that had been successfully handled by the nation.  No mention of the contrast with American disasters like the BP Spill where our president barely had time for soundbites, let alone leading the disaster rescue efforts.

The crackpot CNN team told senseless jokes during the solemn activites making light of the moment and assuring I will never again watch CNN during a disaster.  The sad part was CNN had by far the best coverage until they turned it over to the ill-informed political pundits rather than legitimate reporters.

So I flipped to MSNBC who was committing the same mistakes when they had access to the entire NBC news team.  It was a joke as well.  Finally I went to Fox News and there was Sean Hannity, yet another political hack, anchoring the final coverage.  At least Fox had a Spanish interpreter giving a translation yet it was only a matter of time before Hannity, used to hearing only his own voice as the voice of authority on TV, could not resist interrupting the broadcast and translation for more trivia.

It was a sad commentary on our cable news media when none allowed the events unfolding to dictate the coverage and when they did talk, it had nothing to do with the amazing stories surrounding the miners, the government of Chile and it's leaders, or the American heroes who played a key role in the historic rescue of the miners.

What a shame the only news on cable is 15 second sound bites and senseless babble.  America used to be better than that.
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Delaware Debate - Another CNN Fiasco - O'Donnell didn't bring her broom but sure did cast a spell.

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Like many others I tuned in out of curiosity to watch the CNN debate between Republican Christine O'Donnell and Democrat Chris Coons. The lead up to the debate on CNN and MSNBC had me waiting for the witch to appear on a broom and cast a spell on her opponent. Pre-debate liberal hype left me wondering how long it would take before the undertaker appeared to haul away a shattered O'Donnell.

At first I wondered if the panel was really as stacked against O'Donnell as it appeared. While Coons carefully spouted the Obama party line, O'Donnell keep trying to focus the often bizarre questions on the issues rather than the idiotic.

The moderators, CNN's Wolf Blitzer and longtime Delaware news anchor Nancy Karibjanian of Delaware First Media, seemed to be pressing O'Donnell and interrupting her far more than they did Coons as if CNN had a vested interest in proving their latest poll showing O'Donnell far behind was the gospel truth.

The more O'Donnell spared with the moderators the more they cut her off and before long it was a contest whether the moderators or the Democrat would lose their cool first. It was obvious Karibjanian was of the liberal elitists who seem to hate Sarah Palin and Nancy was out to prove O'Donnell a dunce as if it would make Palin less as well.

But I agree with the New York Times, normally a liberal bastion, who wrote of the debate the following.

But the Republican Senate candidate, Christine O’Donnell, used the 90-minute debate to present a different image to the country than the ones captured on comedy show videos from her youth.

On a range of issues, Ms. O’Donnell offered answers familiar to conservatives.

Ms. O’Donnell’s opponent, Democrat Chris Coons, sought to rebut Ms. O’Donnell, but appeared frustrated, repeatedly telling the moderators that “there’s so much there.”

What really makes me wonder about CNN besides the obvious bias against O'Donnell was how they cut off the debate midway through just when O'Donnell was beginning to dominate the debate and leave Coons flustered. It seems his canned and well rehearsed responses were not holding up to the withering attacks from O'Donnell.

Now long before the debate CNN knew there was a chance the last miners would be rescued. CNN could easily have run the debate in it's entirety on CNN Headline news and still not interrupted the debate. Why stop it just when O'Donnell was clearly starting to dominate? It was as if someone in the production booth suddenly came to the realization O'Donnell had cast a spell and she was starting to win points with the audience. Pull the plug and protect the liberals.

I believe O'Donnell clearly connected with the public mood and her feisty debate with the moderators, not the Democrat, was just becoming good theater.

If it is true O'Donnell is not a viable candidate then why in the world is President Obama, his wife Michelle and Vice President Biden all coming to Delaware to raise money and campaign for Coons, the Obama mouthpiece? With Democrats in trouble all across the country why waste all their time on a race already in the bag?

Maybe there is more going on in Delaware than we have been told.
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How do I know if I am a Republican or Democrat in America Today?

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Now that is a very good question but in light of the surge in the voter registration for Independents one must re-phrase the question to How do I know if I am a Republican, Democrat or Independent? You see, just this past spring the number of Independents surpassed the number of either Democrats or Republicans in America for the first time in the last 100 years.

Roughly speaking there are now about 40% Independents, and 30% Democrats and Republicans. If you are an Independent you are not responsible for the political nonsense in Washington because your party has not been in charge the last century. Free of blame you are also free to condemn all the crooks in Washington.

Of course it is also true that Independents gave the margin of victory to Obama in the last election so you really aren't completely off the hook for blame. Another problem for Independents is that every party or group from conservative to progressive, radical to just plain nuts, has no other place to go so they are part of your group. Just look on the ballot at all the splinter groups listed as Independent of the two main parties.

That means there is no common platform other than most Independents think the best government is no government, they want a balanced budget, no more national deficit, and get government out of their lives. Things like regulations and laws, taxes and fees drive them nuts.

Democrats seem to like fees, higher taxes, more deficit spending and a big fat federal government. They would rather reduce individual liberty than let maniacs have guns, or free speech if it is opposed to the Democrat party line. They love unions though many have no idea what happens to all the union dues paid. Most lawyers seem to be Democrats though they may work for Republicans.

Socialists are Democrats though Democrats may not be socialists. Liberal advocates are Democrats like the Civil Liberties Union who have sued to get God out of America though most Catholics are also Democrats who kind of like having God around. The means both pro-abortion and pro-life advocates are Democrats as well who seem to cancel each other out in elections.

Of course a lot of Conservative Republicans are also pro-life so one wonders why so many Catholics are Democrats. Just about all Blacks are Democrat though it was the Republicans who freed them from slavery under Republican President Abraham Lincoln. As for Hispanics, illegal immigrants would be Democrats if they could vote but most Cuban Hispanics are Republican because the Democrats gave away Cuba to Castro and Communism.

Anyone oppose to big government, deficit spending or increasing the national debt is a Republican because there is no way the Democrats can please all the radical factions that demand more money for their pet (special) interest. If you believe in cradle to grave care (socialism in other countries) you are Democrat but if you believe in making and keeping your own money you are Republican.

Republicans most likely are strict civil libertarians while Democrats often want to coddle criminals in the interest of criminal rehabilitation which causes the Republicans to make sure we can all own guns to protect us from the people who should be in jail or institutions.

Corporate fats cats used to be mostly Republican until Democratic President Clinton started acting like a Republican and passed the NAFTA act and other big business friendly bills and a bunch of Democrats became fat cats themselves. President Obama claimed to be the innocent outsider though he was the first Democrat to get more money from fat cats than the Republicans. Two years later his legislative agenda seems to have driven the corporate world back to the Republicans, ever since he and sidekick Joe Biden declared war on corporations and small business.

Independents are those mostly silent Americans who have watched the two parties and their schizophrenia and decided there just wasn't any difference between the Democrats and Republicans and wanted nothing to do with either political group.

Perhaps after reviewing the differences or similarities between the Democrats and Republicans, we should not be talking about a third party Independent movement but just get rid of the first two parties.

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. Or many we all need a ballot choice of "None of the Above!"

Besides, Democrats and Republicans are not specified in the Constitution or Declaration of Independence so why do we treat them as some type of privileged class?
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Chile Mine Disaster - The Mysterious White Butterfly or Angel - Was God With Them?

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As the stories of the astounding rescue come to light it is clear the strong faith in God guided the miners through the 17 days they were thought to be dead and the entire 70 day ordeal of being buried alive. As one said upon reaching the surface, "I saw the Devil and I saw God when we first got trapped, and I reached out to God."

Why did the miners break their pattern of eating that fateful day of the collapse and all eat together by the rescue shelter rather than be spread out throughout the tunnels that collapsed where they would have been killed? Where did the white butterfly come from 2,000 feet underground that caught the attention of two miners fleeing during the mine collapse? They stopped to watch it in fascination and seconds later the tunnel just ahead of them collapsed. Was it an angel from God? The distraction saved them from being buried live.

In Chile, 33 miners are still trapped underground. Their families are still waiting patiently. Huddled around a fire on a chilly night, they are now telling the incredible story of how a butterfly was their tiny guardian angel.

In a letter to his brother, miner Jorge Galeguillos says he believes a white butterfly saved his life the day the mine caved.

Mining consultant Miguel Fortt is not given to flights of fancy. He says white butterflies flutter around purple flowers that blossom in the desert early in the morning, but they rarely fly deep into a mineshaft. He says the two miners slowed down to observe the butterfly and that saved them from driving into rockfalls triggered by the first cave-in.

"People who are religious would call this a miracle. From a scientific perspective the butterfly may have flown into the mine on air currents. You can draw your own conclusions but that butterfly saved lives," Fortt says.

Galeguillos' brother, who is also a miner, can't explain how a butterfly flew more than 500 meters deep into the mine. But like most of the miners there, he believes the butterfly was protecting his older brother's life.

Whether or not the white butterfly was an angel or a misguided butterfly who flew 500 feet into the tunnel; its a sign of hope for many people who are praying their loved ones will make it out safely from the collapsed mine. As the miners and the families wait for their rescue, at least they can hold onto this superstition to keep their faith going. This was truly an uplifting story to an otherwise tragic event.

“Here is where we meet every day, here is where we plan, where we pray,” he says. “Here is the meeting room where all of the decisions are made with the involvement of the 33 that are here.”

By Guy Adams at the San José Mine
Wednesday, 13 October 2010

They may not take kindly to being called fortunate, given the fear and discomfort they endured an incarceration that would last almost 70 days, but from the very moment at which they were first trapped underground, the 33 men who have now started to emerge from the San José mine benefited from some crucial strokes of good luck.

The rock fall that first trapped them in struck at around noon on August 5, when the men having lunch in a reinforced rescue shelter roughly 700 metres from the surface. At any other time, during a normal working day, they would have been spread throughout four miles of tunnels, meaning that many of them would have been instantly killed.

When the dust settled, it emerged that the miners had access to roughly a kilometre of what seemed to be stable areas of the San José mine. Crucially, that section contained several vehicles, whose batteries they used to power torches. One of those trucks, which had been driven a former Chilean national footballer called Franklin Lobos, also contained a small supply of bottled drinking water.

Their next piece of good luck involved the type of mine they worked in. Copper mines (in which gold is produced as a by-product) are inherently safer than coal ones, which produce potentially-deadly methane. So although ventilation shafts had been blocked during the accident, the men knew that the only way the remaining oxygen was going to be used up was by them breathing it. In other words, time was on their side.

Thirdly, and perhaps most crucially, the 33 miners had a small quantity of emergency food in the corner of their rescue shelter. They also had leftovers from the lunches they had brought down at the start of their 12 hour shift at the small, privately-owned facility in the Atacama Desert, roughly an hour’s drive from the northern city of Copiapo, where most of them lived.

Realising straightaway that the sheer depth at which they were trapped meant it could be days or even weeks until they were located by rescuers, the men embarked on a rigorous rationing system. They would eat just two teaspoons of canned tuna and a biscuit, every 48 hours. Each of these “meals” was to be washed down with two sips of milk.

It was hot in their underground prison – roughly thirty degrees, according to thermometers – but they were able to avoid serious dehydration by supplementing their bottled water by digging a makeshift canal in the floor. By way of a potential last resort, they also drained the radiators of their machinery.

No-one yet fully understands the mood in the mine, during the ensuing 17 days. A second rock-fall, on August 7, closed off a further hundred yards, presumably adding to the sense of foreboding. There is believed to have been bickering over the rationing system, which some deemed too rigorous. But in subsequent letters, “Los 33” say they’ve since vowed never to publicly discuss any of the tensions that arose.

It seems likely, however, that in the stressful conditions, leaders emerged. One such man was Luis Urzua, a 54-year-old topographer. The eldest son from a large Catholic family, who in childhood had helped bring up his younger siblings when his father died prematurely, he was a natural authority figure, and began taking it upon himself to organise the group.

Playing to the machismo of his colleagues – tough men in a hard-scrabble profession – Urzua is believed to have decided that they had a straightforward choice: perish separately, or work together to defy the odds and give themselves the best possible chance of survival. The key to getting themselves out alive, he believed would be “la solidaridad,” meaning: “solidarity.”

Urzua, whose colleagues called him “Don Lucho,” therefore instigated a system by which none of the 33 men could begin eating their tiny meals until all of them had received food. He organised them into three groups, who would venture out, in shifts, to search for signs of any approaching rescue. If nothing else, adding structure to their existence would help pass the time.

At the surface, meanwhile, a frantic rescue operation was underway. At the behest of Laurence Golborne, Chile’s mining minister, and a President who had pledged to spend anything it took to get the miners out alive, experts from the State firm Codelco had assumed responsibility for the search. Using maps of the sprawling mine, they drilled several exploratory boreholes, sending listening devices into areas where they believed survivors might be alive.

For two weeks, nothing. Then, on August 22nd, came yet another break, this time a crucial one. A probe found its way through a wall just yards from the rescue shelter where the men were based. It returned to the surface with a note attached to the end. “Estamos bien en el refugio los 33,” it read [literally: “all 33 of us are well inside the shelter”]. Those first words had been scrawled in capitals on a scrap of paper by Mario Gomez, the eldest of the miners.

In the first hours after they were discovered, a camera was sent down the borehole. It showed the group peering eagerly out of the darkness, shirtless, unshaven and sweltering, but their eyes blazing with euphoria. Their first request, aside from the obvious supplies of food and water, was for toothbrushes.

The rescue teams, meanwhile, swiftly realised that they had two major problems ahead. The first was practical: how to keep the men supplied with sufficient with medication, clothing, meals and drinks to keep them alive during a painstaking operation they initially believed might not be over until Christmas. The second was harder to fathom: how to ensure the men remained psychologically sound and co-operative during an ordeal that would push any human being’s mental endurance to the limit.

A communication system was swiftly designed by Miguel Fortt, a Chilean national and expert in mining rescue operations. He called it “la Paloma” (“the dove”). It consisted of a three meter-long PVC tube, which measured roughly three inches in diameter and would be lowered via cable to the men, delivering them packages containing whatever could be made to fit inside.

At first, each “dove” took four hours to arrive from the surface, and would contain bare essentials: glucose drinks, together with vitamin and mineral supplements. Later, the system was improved. The PVC was swapped with metal tubes, a further two boreholes were drilled, and journey time improved to twenty minutes. That allowed camp beds, communication equipment and clothing supplies to be sent to make the men’s lives more comfortable.

To maintain morale, the rescue team received advice from NASA, which is used to helping grown men live together in confined spaces for extended periods of time. They encouraged the miners to adopt as many of the trappings of normality as possible, sending down dominoes, books and letters and tape recordings from their families, and widening their diet to include tea, sandwiches, fruit, and later hot meals.

Some aspects of their menus were more rigidly controlled. Beans, a staple of many Latin dishes, were excluded from all dishes for exactly the reason you might think, when grown men share a small confined area. A latrine was established a short walk from the areas where they were largely based, which used running water to wash away urine and faeces.

Organised by Urzua, the men were divided into three groups, Grupo Refugio, Grupo Rampa and Grupo 105 - named after the “shelter,” the “ramp” and “Level 105” which are sections of the mine where they slept. They then established shift patterns, carrying out duties such as unloading new “doves,” cleaning their living area, and clearing debris from three rescue tunnels that were being bored into the mine.

When off duty, they slept, exercised (by running or using rubber exercise bans) and sent video, audio, and written messages to their families, who had been living at the surface since early August. Lights shone from 7.30am until 10pm, mimicking daylight. To keep all the trappings of a normal workplace, Urzua used the bonnet of a mine vehicle as his desk, and sent up maps of the area where they were being held.

Urzua wrote each of the men an official job description. Some became “Paloimistas,” unloading the regular supply of “doves.” Others would patrol the mine to check on the structural integrity of its walls. Jimmy Sanchez, the youngest of the group, was the “environmental assistant,” who monitored conditions underground with a handheld computer that measured oxygen, CO2 levels and air temperature,

Other aspects of daily life soon began to fall in place They would shower each morning under a natural waterfall 300 metres up the tunnel, using supplies of shampoo to clean off the orange-coloured mud that found its way almost everywhere. The more religious men – at least two of them “found God” during their ordeal – would take part in a daily prayer organised by Jose Henriquez. Others would listen to uplifting poems written by Victor Zamora, the group’s in-house poet.

It was, of course, very far from plain sailing. Many developed fungal skin infections, and almost all will now require extensive dental treatment. Medical teams at the surface also repeatedly found themselves clashing with some of the miners, whose natural machismo led them to consider the mandatory daily conversations with psychologists to be un-necessary, and perhaps undignified.

They also took exception to the rescue team’s refusal to send supplies of wine and cigarettes down to them, to prevent depression and keep the atmosphere as unpolluted as possible. They also objected to the decision to censor letters from relatives to the men that were thought to be insufficiently optimistic in tone.

At one point, in mid-September, some of the miners effectively went on strike, refusing to speak to their medical handlers. As a result, the psychologists withdrew TV and music that was being provided via the communication system. When the men agreed to speak with them again, a delivery of cigarettes arrived in a “dove.” This carrot-and-stick approach was described by one medic as: “like an arm-wrestle.”

But by that stage, three drills – Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C – were cutting through the roughly 700 metres of rock to reach the cavern where the men were trapped. By early October, they knew breakthrough was imminent. And on Saturday 9th, the Plan B drill broke through. After two months underground, the final stage of their journey to freedom could at last begin.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera was euphoric in the early hours of Wednesday, minutes after the first of 33 miners reached the surface.

“In this rescue operation we Chileans have shown the best of us,” Mr. Pinera told a press conference at the San Jose copper mine. The miners were trapped August 5 by a shaft collapse in this barren northern Chile desert landscape.

He described the experience as “a wonderful night that Chileans and the whole world will never forget.” “Let the miners’ example stay with us forever,” Mr. Pinera said.

Pinera thanked God and the rescue teams for the success of the operation, stressing it was unprecedented in the history of the world for its magnitude and complexity.

Mr. Pinera noted the “magic number 33,” with reference to the number of miners trapped since August 5 at the San Jose copper mine under the Atacama Desert and to the date of the final rescue, October 13, 2010, which when written in numbers and added up also gives 33.

Chilean president Sebastian Pinera has described the operation to free 33 trapped miners as "without comparison in the history of humanity".

President Pinera and the First Lady have been in the Atacama Desert since the evacuation began to personally greet each man as he emerges from the underground chamber.

Florencio Avalos, the first miner to be rescued from the San Jose mine, received a giant bear-hug from Chile's leader.

Speaking after Mr Avalos was freed from the specially made capsule, Mr Pinera said: "The lesson of the miners remains with us forever."

He added that the group had shown "that when Chile unites in the face of adversity, it can achieve great things".

Mr Pinera has become the champion of the miners during this crisis and the right-wing politician has seen his popularity soar.

In a speech at the San Jose mine ahead of the rescue operation, Mr Pinera praised the "strength and bravery" of the men who have been stuck more than 2,000ft below ground.

"I hope the long journey will end very happily," he said.

Mining minister Laurence Golborne's constant presence at the mine has turned him into a national hero and media star.

He has been on hand to hold press conferences, comfort families and even play the guitar around the campfire in Camp Hope.

His dedication has obviously impressed the public - he has 54,000 followers on Twitter and there is even a Facebook group calling for him to run for president in 2014.

Dios bendiga a Chile!

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The Mysteries of North Korea Revealed - New Heir Introduced

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With one of the largest nuclear arsenals in Asia and at odds with the Obama Administration over a number of issues it is important we understand the nation of North Korea and the future leader of that powerful nemesis. This compilation of information using Korean and UK sources will help us know the people and leaders certain to be at the center of any foreign policy debates in the near future.

The new heir apparent as leader of North Korea is Kim Jong-un, a son of current leader Kim Jong Il. North Korea went to extremes to allow media access to the celebrations introducing Kim Jong-un including opening the Internet to their mysterious country and inviting western media for the first time.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a series of grand celebration activities in Pyongyang Sunday evening, celebrating the 65th anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).

Kim Ki Nam, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee of the WPK, delivered a speech. "The grand evening gala is a festival of victory and glory in high praises of the immortal feats performed by the WPK," he said.

On the Kim Il Sung Square, there were nearly 100,000 Pyongyang citizens dressed in traditional costumes with flowers in their hands and forming various phalanxes. Fireworks of various shapes and colors burst against the sky.

The evening gala, named "Do Prosper, Era of Workers' Party" was made up of five parts, including "Glory to Mother Party," "Party of Comrade Kim Il Sung," "Country where Leader's Desire Has Come into Full Bloom," "Party is Guide of Victory" and the epilogue "Long Journey following General."

It represented the exploits of the WPK, which has made endeavors in economic construction and improving people's living standards in recent years and is a unique Korean-style gala which reflects the desire and sentiment of the Korean people, the KCNA, the DPRK's official news agency, said.

After the evening gala, a banquet was given by the Central Committee of the WPK at the People's Palace of Culture.

There were also splendid firework galas in Hamhung City, South Hamgyong Province and Kaesong City, North Hwanghae Province.

On Sunday morning, a grand military parade was held on the Kim Il Sung Square. The Korean People's Internal Security Forces, the Worker-Peasant Red Guards and the Young Red Guards took part in the parade. Kim Jong Il, accompanied by Kim Jong Un and other leaders of the DPRK's party and government, watched the parade.

After the parade, there was a military might show which showcased the DPRK's achievements in socialist construction and the DPRK people's love of the motherland, aspiration for reunification and hope for peace.

Until now, Kim Jong-un has been such a secretive figure that the world was not even sure of his existence until he was 20 years-old. The only mention of the younger Kim came in a biography by a Japanese sushi chef who had worked for the Kim household in Pyongyang.

The only other glimpse of the 28-year-old, who was promoted this week to a variety of key positions in the North Korean hierarchy, is a grainy video shot while he was a teenager at boarding school in Switzerland.

Although Kim Jong-il, 68, remains North Korea's leader, he has promoted his third son to be vice-chairman of the Central Military Committee and to be a four-star general. The move places the younger Kim squarely in position to succeed his father.

Leader Kim Jong-il likely to use Workers' party assembly to signal he is choosing youngest son Kim Jong-un as successor.
 

 

Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 21 September 2010 18.34 BST

His grandfather is known as the Great Leader, his father as the Dear Leader. It seems only fair to confer a similar accolade on North Korea's dictator-in-waiting: the Phantom Leader, perhaps.

As the party that has ruled the secretive state for more than six decades prepares to anoint Kim Jong-un as its next leader at a rare gathering of cadres in the capital, Pyongyang, the world is still some way off establishing the facts about communism's crown prince.

So little is known about Kim Jong-un, the third and youngest son of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, that even the characters used to write his name and his date of birth are disputed. Aged 27 or 28, he was born to his father's "favourite consort," Ko Young-hee, a Japanese-born dancer who emigrated with her father in the 1960s. Shortly before her reported death from breast cancer in 2004, the state media began referring to her as the Respected Mother, confirming the theory that she is the closest the country has ever come to a first lady.

Like his elder brother, Kim Jong-chol, he received an expensive education under an assumed name in Switzerland. While his brother attended the International School of Berne, Kim Jong-un is thought to have gone to a school in nearby Liebefeld from 1996 to 2000. After rumours of the younger Kim's anointment began circulating last year, Ueli Studer, the town's director of education, would only confirm that a "North Korean youth" had been on the school's rolls. The pupil had been a speaker of English, German and French, Studer said, as well as "integrated, industrious and ambitious".

Kim Jong-un's expected appearance at the Korean Workers' party assembly next week, reportedly delayed because of concerns over Kim Jong-il's health, will offer the world the first verifiable images of the younger man. The main photograph in the public domain shows a cherubic, smiling 11-year-old with a predisposition for his father's chubbiness.

Now, he is the subject of a propaganda offensive aimed at securing him a place in the affections of the country's citizens amid signs that last year's disastrous currency revaluation and tough international sanctions are fuelling popular discontent with the regime.

The Daily NK, an anti-Kim online newspaper in Seoul, published an internal propaganda document praising Jong-un for his skill at organising a fireworks display and his expert handling of military vehicles. "He is a genius of geniuses," the document said. "He has been endowed by nature with special abilities. There is nobody on the planet who can defeat him in terms of faith, will and courage."

His induction into the personality cult surrounding North Korean's ruling dynasty has also been marked by the composition of poems and a song, Footsteps, extolling his virtues as a leader. His name is routinely prefixed by the titles Young General or Our Commander.

The authorities will distribute 10m portraits to be hung next to those of his father and grandfather in every home, factory and office once his succession is official. Every one of North Korea's 24 million people will be expected to wear a lapel badge bearing his likeness.

But what of his personality? The more generous accounts tell of a charismatic figure who honed his natural leadership skills during his five years at Kim Il-sung Military University in Pyongyang. Others say Kim Jong-un, who holds a mid-level position in the National Defence Commission, has inherited his father's mercilessness. "He is more engaging with other people, but then others say he can be cruel," says Ha Tae-keung, president of Open Radio for North Korea in Seoul. "He has already purged people in the defence commission he regards as opponents."

Kenji Fujimoto, Kim Jong-il's former Japanese sushi chef, confirms the image of the younger Kim as a chip off the old block, describing him as the "spitting image of his father in terms of face, body shape and personality".

In his bestselling 2003 account of his 11 years chez Kim, Fujimoto – the name is a nom de plume – recalled meeting a seven-year-old Kim Jong-un, who was dressed in a military uniform: "He glared at me with a menacing look when we shook hands. I can never forget the look in his eyes, which seemed to be saying, 'This is one despicable Japanese guy.'"

The older Kim Jong-un reportedly shares his father's interest in movies – the martial arts expert Jean-Claude van Damme is a favourite actor – can hold his drink and drives around the family's estate in a converted Mercedes.

The son is a keen basketball fan, says Fujimoto, who allowed his ideological mask to slip with his admiration for Michael Jordan, the US player.

Kim Jong-il thought Kim Jong-chul "too girlish" to become leader, while the eldest brother, Kim Jong-nam, ruled himself out when, much to his father's embarrassment, he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, claiming he wanted to visit Disneyland in Tokyo.

The gap between Kim Jong-un's anointing and enthronement could be much shorter than the 14 years Kim Jong-il spent preparing for power, a wait that ended abruptly with the death of his father, North Korea's founder and "eternal president", Kim Il-sung, from a heart attack in 1994.

Given the state of Kim Jong-il's health, some observers believe the transition may be completed as early as 2012, the centenary of Jong-il's father's birth, and a year the official media are referring to as a defining moment in the country's history. "Kim Jong-il doesn't look like he'll be around 10 years from now," says Bradley Martin, author of a seminal book on the Kim dynasty, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader. "Some reports say that he feels pretty low and has a reason to name his successor."The two-day party congress has twice been postponed this month, adding to speculation that Kim Jong-il, who suffered a stroke two years ago, is too weak to attend.

Next week, Kim Jong-un's rise to the upper echelons of the Workers' party is unlikely to be met with universal approval. "It is hard to know what the other party elites have in mind," says Ha, who says he has sources inside the North Korean military and ruling party. Recent reports speculated that disquiet among political and military elites over Kim's choice of successor was the real reason behind the meeting's delay.

"Officially they have to support Jong-un, or they risk being executed," says Ha. "But some are worried, particularly older members who have been loyal to Kim Jong-il, and wonder how his son will treat them."

Confirmation that North Korea has begun the transition to a third member of the Kim dynasty will come with Kim Jong-un's expected elevation to senior posts in the Workers' party, including that of secretary of the feared organisation and guidance department, which monitors senior officials. "If he gets that position he will be at the party's centre and able to pick and choose his minions," says Martin.

Under Kim Jong-un, many analysts expect a continuation of the current military-first policy and, despite the country's frequent dalliances with economic meltdown and pressure for reform from China, absolute adherence to central planning.

As he confronts his own mortality and surveys the impoverished, isolated state he has ruled for 16 years, Kim Jong-il's apparent choice of heir sits easily with the gross egotism of a man who is desperate to ensure it lives on in his image, whatever the economic, social and diplomatic costs.

"Kim Jong-il chose Jong-un because he reminds him most of himself," says Martin. "Some people have high hopes for change because he was educated abroad, but so were Arab oil sheikhs, and it didn't turn them into liberal democrats. He was chosen because to be a good dictator, you have to be a mean son of a bitch."
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Shades of Nixon's Watergate psyche as Obama, Biden & Axelrod Flail at GOP Straw Dogs in Obama's Watergate

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Like many Americans I lived through the Watergate era and it was a sad time in our nation's political history when a paranoid president and his team was so obsessed with foreign money being given to the Democratic party to oppose the incumbent president that evil possessed the president and they went on to violate law after law before the straw dog collapsed as do most straw dogs and the president and his palace guard were disgraced and thrown from the highest office in the land.

It was 38 years ago when the political paranoia overwhelmed the White House and the Watergate was the outcome. There was the paranoid Republican president, Nixon, his top defender Haldeman, and his political operative Erlichman. The target was the foreign money pouring into the Democratic party to beat Nixon through Democratic operative Lawrence O'Brien.

Today we have a complete role reversal as Obama (Nixon) is raising the charges of foreign money pouring into the Republican coffers to defeat him, while Biden (Haldeman) is running around the country screaming foul about the foreign money for his boss, Axelrod (Erlichman) goes on national TV to denounce the foreign money and all three targeted GOP operative Carl Rove (O'Brien) as the villain.

Just like Watergate 38 years ago, the charges of foreign money influencing the election in 2010, this time by the Republicans unlike Watergate when the Democrats got the money, are baseless, senseless political drama and those feeding lies into the national debate deserve the same fate as the perpetrators of the Watergate.

Democrats should be just as disgusted as the Republicans and Independents by the insane charges and mudslinging by the highest office holders in the land and Obama, Biden and Axelrod should be shamed that they have resorted to Watergate tactics in a selfish and arrogant attempt to con the American voter and public opinion.
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Miley Cyrus - The Seduction of Money in Entertainment

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For several years we have warned of the lure of money in Hollywood on our young teen stars and the seduction of sexuality that can entrap them. Previously we have written about the dangers to young stars like Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift has seemed to manage to control the seduction of Hollywood money to her credit but Miley Cyrus, now just 17, seems to have embraced the seduction in an effort to shock her young fan base and try to compete with the older bad girls who trade off sexuality more than talent.

Here is what Chris Willman wrote about the new Miley packaging for her current album.

Miley's New Video: Parents' Council Would Like To Tame It

Posted Mon Oct 11, 2010 9:11am PDT by Chris Willman in Stop The Presses!

Has Miley Cyrus finally gone so far with her increasingly sensual image that she's been condemned by her own father?

Well, no, not exactly. But her racy new music video, "Who Owns My Heart?," has been slammed by the Parents Television Council. Funnily enough, when you check the list of folks sitting on the advisory board for this conservative watchdog group, the biggest-name celebrity listed there is—you guessed it—none other than Billy Ray Cyrus!

Apparently, Papa Cyrus was not advising the Parents Television Council when they released a statement saying: "It is unfortunate that she would participate in such a sexualized video like this one. It sends messages to her fan base that are diametrically opposed to everything she has done up to this point. Miley built her fame and fortune entirely on the backs of young girls, and it saddens us that she seems so eager to distance herself from that fan base so rapidly."

But by "us," the Parents Council apparently doesn't mean that board member Billy Ray is saddened, too. Or is he, secretly? Even if you don't have any problem with Miley getting so sexy at 17, there's evidence that it's hurting her just on a career level.

Rarely has a song gotten so much media attention and yet been as commercially unsuccessful as Cyrus' "Can't Be Tamed," the title track of her latest album. Even after a series of controversial performances of the song on various TV shows and awards programs, the single quickly flamed out, debuting at No. 8 but disappearing from the Billboard Hot 100 chart altogether after a mere 10 weeks. (By comparison, her 2009 smash "Party in the USA" spent 28 weeks in the top 10.) The Can't Be Tamed album is also absent from Billboard's list of the current 200 bestselling albums, just four months after it came out. It's sold 260,000 copies to date, anemic by the standards of the previous three Cyrus releases.

Given the performance at radio and retail of the current album and previous single, you might have expected the 17-year-old singer to retreat to safer territory for the new video. But maybe you didn't get the message last time around: Miley can't be tamed... not even by failure!

And so "Who Owns My Heart?" pushes the same buttons as the last video. She writhes around on a bed without pants on (though there are only quick flashes of what appears to be black underwear). She gyrates freely and suggestively with both men and women on the dance floor at what no one would mistake for a high school sockhop.

Whether this is envelope-pushing or not depends on your frame of reference. Compared to most other dance-pop videos, it's standard fare, if not downright tame. Compared to the videos being put out by other underage girls and/or stars who still have sitcoms running on the Disney Channel, it's provocative.

The fact that Hannah Montana's fourth and last season is still on the air complicates things—or should, to some people's minds. Although taping for the show wrapped up in May, the season is being stretched out long enough by the Disney Channel that its status as a first-run show won't end till next March's two-part season finale.

With her 18th birthday approaching next month and her status as a tween TV idol months away from officially ending, Cyrus seems to feel that there's no time to waste in attracting a demo of fans that are her age or older. Bit throwing one solidified fan base over for a less certain new one is always a calculated risk at best. And Cyrus may have jettisoned her young-girl support before she had a substitute audience of older teens and adults locked in.

It's easy to see how Cyrus and her team may have thought she'd already graduated to the next level of demographics. Initially, she had a hard time crossing over from Radio Disney to Top 40 because programmers saw her appeal as skewing too young. But "See You Again" was just too undeniable a song not to play, as was "Party in the USA." Then came "Can't Be Tamed," and as a single, it was...deniable. Radio Disney couldn't touch it, and Top 40 didn't care. Her move away from guilty-pleasure rock & roll bubblegum to dance-pop suddenly made her a competitor to Lady Gaga and a hundred other hitmakers, and though it worked with Dr. Luke helping her out on "USA," it didn't with the duller songs on the new album.

And it may have been the very raciness of her new image that sunk her with Top 40 radio. All the outcry about her alleged sexualization at 17 just reminded radio programmers of what a chance they'd taken with their older listeners by throwing her in with more mature artists in the first place.

Of course, her history of controversy for supposed suggestiveness goes back two and a half years now. Hard to believe, isn't it, that it was April 2008 when news broke about Cyrus, then 15, posing in bedsheets for Vanity Fair? In 2009, she danced around a pole at the Teen Choice Awards in a fashion that made her not every parent's choice. Also that summer, she broke up with model Justin Gaston, when she was 16 and he was 20, to take up with her somewhat more age-suitable Last Song costar, Liam Hemsworth, who is only two and a half years her senior. Hackles were further raised when a secretly recorded video of the 16-year-old performing a risque dance for a 44-year-old producer at the Last Song wrap party was leaked. "It's what people her age do," explained Billy Ray Cyrus.

This year brought her wearing a corset in the "Can't Be Tamed" video in May, followed by Cyrus simulating kissing a female dancer while performing the single on Britain's Got Talent in June. In July, the New York Times published a story headlined "Fans of Miley Cyrus Question Her New Path," which theorized that it was not prude moms who were rejecting the saucy new image but Miley's own tween fans.

There are still some scolds among the older set, to be sure. Hollywood Life, the site run by former tabloid queen Bonnie Fuller, recently ran a story allegedly quoting a "Cyrus family insider" as saying, "We're concerned for her. She's 17 years old, but is the one who makes the money and calls all the shots in the family. No one tells Miley no." Fuller wrote a separate editorial noting how Cyrus has been seen partying into the wee hours in clubs she can't legally enter, and addressed Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus directly: "Your daughter may be a big star but she's still your little girl and that means you need to be her parents."

So far, Cyrus' image change has been a bust, at least when it comes to affecting her music career. Of course, she's only one smash single away from having a chart comeback and having her accelerated maturation perceived as a brilliant career move. The problem is, the smash single that will turn it back around for her probably isn't "Who Owns My Heart," and probably isn't anywhere else on the Can't Be Tamed album.

So her next chance to prove that this sexy-mama thing is working out for her in terms of numbers and not just blogging controversy is the movie LOL: Laughing Out Loud, in which Cyrus' character engages in some very un-Disney-like behavior. That recently wrapped film won't come out till after Hannah Montana has finally concluded its run. But we have a feeling the Parents Television Council will have something to say about it.

Meanwhile, any bets on how many days or hours it'll take until Billy Ray's photo disappears from the advisory board page on the PTC website? Surely, having an organization that he supposedly helps lead condemn his little girl—and, by implication, his parenting skills—is breaking his achy breaky heart.

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