In other news...

[akujunkan]

...the DPRK just sentenced Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years of hard labor.

Anyone who cares to know what this means might want to take a look at these books.

Also, Jesus. My thoughts are with Ling, Lee, and their families.

That will be all.

Comments

[bloody-american.livejournal.com]

O.O

"The sentence doesn't mean much because the issue will be resolved diplomatically in the end," Kim said.

Dear God, I certainly hope so.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Well, a lot of the analysis I've read on this case since last night indicates that the sentencings might be a formality, and that there's still a chance the North might trade the two to the U.S. in return for some sort of concession.

Personally, I'm a bit skeptical. North Korea's main concern now is with building up legitimacy for Kim Jong-un's reign leadership reign, and refusing to repatriate two American citizens? Might be one way they plan on showing that they've got Colbert-sized balls. (o.o);;

[bran420-7.livejournal.com]

They manipulated the hard to define territory/border in the area, to further their quest for concessions to their nuclear testing. Using those poor women as pawns to continue intimidating South Korea while holding them as political prisoners to dissuade the US from signing onto increased sanctions. Don't sign, get the women home.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I think the problem is that North Korea's going to keep on pushing the envelop whether or not Ling and Lee are released.

I mean, there isn't anything we can give them that they *want* (aside from bilateral relations, and that's a nightmare not worth thinking about).

[bran420-7.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. Maybe he's jealous of Castro. Maybe he longs for the same thaw. He is abnormally obsessed with US culture.

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna play republican:
Let's bomb the crap out of North Korea! Never mind the fact that we don't have spare military, we're down 13,000 soldiers due to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", despite recruiting felons, and we're over budget and in hoc up to our saucer sized nipples to the neighbors to the East. We have to start bombing and get our girls home!

I feel better now!

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, aren't you glad Dubya blew our wad on a completely unnecessary war and lost the one we probably should have been fighting but that didn't impress Daddy as much?

I don't think it's any accident that North Korea has rachetted up the beligerence since Bush took office--they know we can't respond as effectively as we once could.

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

Part of me wishes we weren't lodged firmly in the buttcrack of the middle east, so we could actually deal with things like North Korea and even Russia a few monthes back when they invaded that one country...bumfuckistan or whatever.

But I'm not sure anymore that bombing and invading are good ideas, for any reason. It's too much of a chainsaw when a scalpel is necessary. And coldly logical, two women aren't worth the collateral damage of my pretend Republican scenerio.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

And, as recent events have just proven, sometimes you get better results by sending in someone intelligent and cautious to talk things over--gasp!--than you do by threatening to kill the fuck out of anyone who looks at you the wrong way. Go figure.

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but don't know, we have legitimized that tyranny by allowing one of our celebrities take photos with dictators and high level beautocrats! And according to Dick Morris, those women should have had to spend time in jail for thier "crimes."

If anyone would randomly read some of the comments on this thread, they'd think I was a douche. I feel like a douche just repeating it. How long of a shower does Steven Colbert have to take every night just joking about the neocon point of view?

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

I think Dick Morris needs to read up on some of the shit that went down in the Iranian and Cambodian hostage crises before he opens that second asshole in the middle of his face. Oops, was expressing that opinion a crime too?

Yeah, it's the difference between the way you talk to someone you've known since before puberty versus how it sounds to some random stranger just surfing in off the net.^^

I'd shower in Stephen Colbert for as long as he'd let me.

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

lately, just listening to the news monkeys talk about health care reform and watching Obama waffle trying to be bipartisan is making me crazy. I taped Meet the Press this weekend because I wanted to see Rachel Maddow take it to Dick Armey (who's journalism got him in trouble...hehehehe).

I think our politicians should shut the fuck up and they should put Jon Stewart on the stump for health care reform. He's doing a better job refuting the right wing crazies than the president is.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed in Meet the Press, because I felt Maddow let Armey and the other conservative Congressman talk over her far too much. And, predictably, all they did was spew talking points and lies, none of it germane to the topic at hand. But then, I've long had the impression that David Gregory is pretty damn conservative himself.

And sweet puppy-eyed Jesus, did you see Stewart's takedown of that "death panel" idiot McCaughey? That woman is the living embodiment of what it means to be a tool, and Jon Stewart is a saint for actually interviewing her. I would have started punching her in the face and never stopping within the first two minutes of her bullshit.

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a chance to watch the entire interview...his interviews have gone long a lot lately as he gets more interesting people on, so you have go online to see the whole thing. The Jim Cramer thing was beautiful. But I did see that she got shitcanned almost the next day. I know Colbert also chewed a leg off of that dumb birther bitch, Orley Tates(??). My favorite was when Stuart called the conservative college kid out on his question of how private insurance can compete with government insurance, and Jon said, "Asked by a student at a government run school to a person who graduated from a private, for profit school."

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I haven't been watching much DS or CR because their respective websites force potential viewers to DL the latest edition of flashplayer or not watch. You know how I am about having shit forced on me. But after watching that little outtake of the interview that Rachel Maddow aired, I took a special trip to the library just to see the whole thing.

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

I understand your pain and your willingness to battle. I also could not go without either show, so it'd be a Pyrric victory for me.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Well, I can watch them at the uni library when I feel like it. But really, I am having such a blast watching Rachel's show that it's not worth bothering to figure out when DS/CR is back from vacation again to get their take on things 90% of the time.

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

I understand, and they are back on Monday. Rachel is indeed awesome as well. If i were in your situation and had to choose, I'd probably only watch the MSNBC duo and catch the comedy central guys when they make the news.

Monday though, I desperately want to see if Jon Stuart catches that Obama used his arguement in the congress to speech.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

I may be cutting back to just Rachel. That shit Keith did with Glenn Beck's Rockefeller Center = teh kommunists conspiracy bit? Was more embarrassing for him than for Beck.

Dude, you're not Stewie and you're not Jon Stewart; you're a 50-year-old-man who built his image on being the next Edward Murrow and you are just hanging your ass out the window when you try to be the former.

I think Stewart will be on to Obama. Question is, in what way will he make his "told you so" funny?

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Beck needs to have someone who daily kicks him in the nuts, but for the most part Stuart/Colbert do a good job of that. I would volunteer, but I'd probably bleed from the ears if I had to listen to more of Beck's shit than I get on the clip jobs.

Cable news as a whole disappoints me, since it's all infotainment. Most are either ideologues or trying so hard to appear inpartial that they can't ask an obvious question. "I might hurt his feelings." Rachel's good but sometimes she bores me. Keith is good but sometimes he's really not funny and it comes off as sad. and I feel like he's just as bad as fox some days when it comes to pure partisanism. (J. Garrafalo should never ever be on a news show.) Everyone else is just a blow hard. I just want some news dammit.

I actually was disappointed. He showed the clip where Obama made his point for him, but they spent so much time making fun of Joe Wilson that he didn't have time for an I told you so.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Seriously. I thought O'Reilly was pretty effing unbelievable. If you had told me three years ago that someone would come along whose idiocy topped his, I would have punched you in the face and stolen your wallet out of principle. And then I would have had to have felt very bad for it now, because you would have been right.

Amen on the news. It's one of the things I think NHK does really well--presenting facts with a minimum of bias (at least in 90% of cases). If we're talking the American news media, then I think Rachel is by far the best. But I'm a wonk at heart so she'd have to try very, very, very hard to bore me. Keith needs to realise that humor is not his strong point, nor is he Stewie, and just going back to being an overly serious blowhard.

And oh, Joe Wilson. I had a reeaalllly freaking hard time trying to explain that one to the Japanese people I know...

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

And oh, Joe Wilson. I had a reeaalllly freaking hard time trying to explain that one to the Japanese people I know...

I bet. I'd be interested in knowing exactly how you explained it, cause I'm at a lose myself. I understand why he didn't apoligize to the House...he'd lose too many campaign donations. That's Politics 101. But the rest is mindboggling.

Anyway, screw decorum. I want a royal rumble match on the senate floor. Maybe then the goddamn liberals would be forced to have some balls and throw a literal punch or two.

either that or open primaries. but I like the WWE solution.