Defector: 'North Prepared to Invade South Korea Despite Sunshine Policy'

A former North Korean Colonel who defected to the South several years ago reports that despite the South’s “Sunshine Policy” toward the North, the Kim Jong-Il regime stockpiled weapons in bunkers along the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) in preparation for a possible invasion of the South. 

Construction of the bunkers began in 2004, the second year of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, which continued the so-called Sunshine Policy of its predecessor.

“Pyongyang had built at least 800 bunkers including an unknown number of decoys by 2007 to prepare for a possible invasion of South Korea,” the ex-colonel claimed. “Each bunker contains military equipment that can fully arm 1,500 to 2,000 soldiers.”

“If a soldier carried all his military equipment, which weighs 32 kg, and came to the DMZ in full gear, he would already be exhausted before reaching the South,” the defector said. “So they built bunkers at the DMZ and put all their operations equipment there. In the bunkers, there are South Korean military uniforms and name tags, so that they can disguise themselves as South Korean troops. Also reserved are… 60-mm mortar shells, condensed high explosives, and all sorts of ammunition.”

“Despite Seoul’s appeasement policy, or whatever the South does toward the North, Pyongyang hasn’t given up its aim of unifying the Korean Peninsula by military force. They are sticking to this principle and teaching North Koreans about it,” he said.

The South’s policy of appeasement was doomed to failure because sunshine and butterflies are no match for demented dictators and evil religious cult leaders like Kim Jong-Il.  It wasn’t hard to predict that the South, or the rest of the global community, would get nothing in exchange sucking up to the North except kidnapped citizens, continued human rights actrocities and nuclear build up. 

Bottom Line Up Front:  APPEASEMENT NEVER WORKS

Graham to Holder: 'If We Capture bin Laden, Do We Read Him His Rights and Give Him a Lawyer?'

Republican-SC Senator Linsdey Graham grilled Attorney General Eric Holder at yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting over the precedence of trying 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in a federal court rather than in military tribunals; as a common criminal rather than an enemy combatant, and over problematic procedural issues. 

Holder didn’t have clear answers:

GRAHAM: Can you give me a case in United States history where an enemy combatant caught on the battlefield was tried in civilian court?

HOLDER: I don’t know, I’d have to look at that, um, I think that, you know, the determination…

GRAHAM: We’re making history here, Mr. Attorney General, I’ll answer it for you, the answer is ‘no’..,.. we’re making history, and we’re making bad history…

Senator Graham asked the Attorney General these questions:

• If Osama bin Laden is captured, where would he be tried?


• Why would he be tried someplace different than KSM (Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in NYC)?


• Does it matter if you use the law enforcement theory or the military theory?


• Where would you put him?


• If we catch bin Laden tomorrow, when does custodial interrogation begin?


• Would he be entitled to Miranda rights at the time of capture?


• What would you tell the military commander that captures Osama bin Laden? Would you tell him he must read him his rights and give him a lawyer?  And if you do tell him that, would you jeopardize the prosecution in a federal court?

These are some of the basic questions the administration needs to be asked, and there are no sure answers.  Attorney General Holder’s answers, “It depends” and “there are a variety of factors that would determine that” show that this endeavor to try enemy combatants in federal criminal courts is fraught with vulnerabilities that favor the terrorist, not the American citizen and not justice.

Good work, Mr. Lindsey.  And I don’t say that often.

Republican Senator Jon Kyl from Arizona asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder about his assertion that the only reason he decided to try 9/11 terrorists in federal court because he’d be “more likely to get a conviction” there than in a military tribunal:

KYL:  How could you be more likely to get a conviction in federal court when Khalid Sheikh Mohammad has already asked to plead guilty before a military commission and be executed?  How could you be more likely to get a conviction in an Article 3 Court than that?

And there was applause!

5-Year Old NC Girl Sold into Sex Industry by Mother Found Dead in Woods

Another hideous, disgusting crime committed against a small child in the United States:

A missing 5-year-old whose mother was accused of offering her for sex was found dead off a heavily wooded road in a rural area Monday, ending a weeklong search, police said.

Two people have been charged in her disappearance, one of them her mother, Antoinette Davis, 25. Police charged Davis with human trafficking and felony child abuse, saying Shaniya was offered for prostitution.

Authorities also charged Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, with kidnapping after they said surveillance footage from a Sanford hotel showed him carrying Shaniya there. Authorities said McNeill admitted taking the girl, though his attorney said he will plead not guilty.

This is so unbelievably sick.  Let me quote myself from a previous similar post:

When is this going to stop?  At what point are people going to start bringing out the pitch forks and protesting in the streets as we saw with the healthcare debate?  Or is our message to children, “We’re just not that into you?”

The irony of this lovely girl being (presumably) raped and disposed in a landfill when millions of unborn every year are legally violated and murdered, and subsequently dumped into landfills, should not be overlooked.  THERE IS A CONNECTION.  When children are viewed as a burden, inconvenience, or as our dear leader put it, “a punishment”, how can we not expect the depraved among us to exploit this vulnerability?

Another child used for sex and disgarded as trash.  So what’s it going to take, America?  How many more children?

PREVIOUSLY:

7 Year Old Florida Girl Who Disappeared Found in Landfill

U.S. Government Suggests Rationing Preventative Care for Breast Cancer

To the amazement of the American Cancer Society, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force  says women in their 40s should stop routinely having annual mammograms and older women should cut back to one scheduled exam every other year.  The guidelines also recommended that women not do regular breast self-exams and that women over 74 should not have mammograms or preventative measures to detect breast cancer.

What the….? 

The reason given for the new recommendations:

Mammograms produce false-positive results in about 10 percent of cases, causing anxiety and often prompting women to undergo unnecessary follow-up tests, sometimes-disfiguring biopsies and unneeded treatment, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

Is this a joke?  Mammagrams can produce false-positives in 10% of women, causing anxiety and unnecessary follow-up tests?  Does the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force know what the alternative is, like perhaps not diagnosing cancer early enough resulting in mastectomies or death?

DANIEL B KOPANS, radiology professor at Harvard Medical School:   “Tens of thousands of lives are being saved by mammography screening, and these idiots want to do away with it. It’s crazy — unethical, really.”

Is the federal government recommending cutting costs and rationing care????

Some questioned whether the new guidelines were designed more to control spending than to improve health. In addition to prompting fewer doctors to recommend mammograms to their patients, they worried that the move would prompt insurers to deny coverage for many mammograms.

The new recommendations took on added significance because under health-care reform legislation pending in Congress, the conclusions of the 16-member task force would set standards for what preventive services insurance plans would be required to cover at little or no cost.

The dichotomy between private sector research organizations like the American Cancer Society and the federal government cannot be any clearer.

For all the mocking Democrat politicians do when anyone suggests their healthcare plan will include rationing, death panels and risky cost-cutting, does anyone need more proof that a U.S. run healthcare system will look like that of Canada or Britain?

And is that  what we really want???

The American Cancer Society responds.

Federal Government to Take Over Subway and Train System?

Washington Post- The Obama administration will propose that the federal government take over safety regulation of the nation’s subway and light-rail systems, responding to what it says is haphazard and ineffective oversight by state agencies.

Under the proposal, the U.S. Department of Transportation would do for transit what it does for airlines and Amtrak: set and enforce federal regulations to ensure that millions of passengers get to their destinations safely. Administration officials said the plan will be presented in coming weeks to Congress, which must approve a change in the law.

The proposal would affect every subway and light-rail system in the country, including large systems in Washington, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

ABC: Many Jobs Created and Saved by Stimulus Money are Bogus

It’s about time the main stream media started doing its job.  Here ABC News reports on White House claims, via the White House’s Recovery.Gov website, that the $812 billion dollar stimulus package that said to have created and saved jobs throughout the States have actually done so in many state districts… THAT DON’T EXIST. 

Example? The White House reports the stimulus created 30 jobs for $761,420 in Arizona’s 15th Congressional District.

Arizona has only 8 Congressional districts. 

The White House reports that the stimulus created 25 jobs costing $0 in Connecticut’s 42nd District.

There is no 42nd Disctrict in Connecticut.

Is the White House lying, inventing or incompetent?   Whichever, it’s not good.

Sarah Palin on Oprah Concerning Trigg: Why Us? Why Not Us?

One of the things I love the most about Sarah Palin is that she lives her pro-life position.  Sarah Palin, former Alaska Governor and Republican VP nominee, told Oprah that when she told her husband Todd that the child she was carrying had Down Syndrome, she was scared, but that when she asked him, “Why us?”, he asked, “Why not us?” 

What a couple.

Conservative Blogs Go Nuts Over Obama Bow in Japan

Many of the top tiered Conservative blogs are having a conniption over President Obama’s “breech of protocol” in Japan when he greeted his hosts, Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, with a deep bow. 

Now, I’m as Conservative as the next.  In fact, I’m a Reagan Conservative.  I was 13 in 1980 and was enticed into love of country and political thought as I began to follow Ronald Reagan’s speeches, how he responded to world crises, and particularly his presidential debates.  My political thought was formed in my young teenaged years as a direct result of Ronald Reagan’s expression of Conservatism and how it buttressed my own personal beliefs.

That said, I love blogs like Gateway Pundit, Hot Air and Michelle Malkin.  This changes nothing.  But I do think their criticism of Barack Obama’s bow to Japan’s Emperor and Empress is unfounded.

This is President Obama bowing to Japan’s Emperor and Empress:

The criticism seems to come from the fact that Obama actually bowed, based on a breeched protocol, a protocol which no one seems to be able to specifically identify, and the fact that it was Obama, and that Obama did it. 

It’s also based on an opinion piece in the LA Times by Andrew Malcolm titled, “How Low Will He Go?  Obama gives Japan’s Emporer a wow bow”.  I’m not sure what expertise Mr. Malcolm has in Asian culture, but hisargument that "To some in the States, an upright handshake might have looked better” isn’t exactly overwhelming.

As a military wife living in South Korea for a year and a half now, I can tell you that bowing is cultural common place.  It is not a sign of disrespect for your own country, it is not a sign of subversion, it is not a sign of obedience, it is not a sign of surrender, it is not a sign of worship; it is a sign of respect. 

I bow dozens of times a day.  The depth and length is up to the individual and usually determined by the estimate of the person being bowing to.  Age and seniority are factors.  I bow to the cleaning lady and man, ajumas and adashis daily.  I bow to store clerks. 

If I want a deep bow, I go down to the local ritzy department store and men adorned in long red coats will give it to me. That’s always special.

Yes, I did see the several smaller bows by the President directed to the Emperor and Empress after his initial, and short, deep bow.  That’s akin to a westerner nodding in agreement or giving acknowledgement.  I do it when I pass through security points or when I pass Korean construction workers directing traffic. 

I also noticed that the Emperor extended his hand to Obama.  Both men are trying to meet each other where they are.  I also noticed that the Empress gave Obama several slight bows or nods. 

Emperor Akihito an historical figure being part of the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy.  His country is also a close ally, unlike Saudi Arabia.

Barack Obama brought a lot of this criticism on himself because he surrounds himself with unpatriotic staff and criticizes his own country with such frequency and ease.  Suspicion, even if knee-jerk, is warranted with this Commander in Chief.  But unless we want to be guilty of the same sort of  Derangement Syndrome liberals directed at George W. Bush, we should focus on critiquing his policies, theologies, ideologies, morality and governance.  He gives us plenty of material; slamming him over this is an unworthy and ignorant battle to choose.

Obama Admin Gives 9/11 Terrorists Constitutional Rights in NYC Civilian Trials

While insinuating that the Bush administration dragged out justice for 9/11 terrorists, Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday that five high level 9/11 terrorists, including the mastermind behind the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be given U.S. Constitutional rights and be tried as common criminals in a civilian court in New York City rather than be tried as war criminals in front of a military tribunal.

“After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September 11th will finally face justice,” Holder said.

Meanwhile, some of the family members of the 9/11 victims are very upset: 

“If we have to bring them to the United States, New York City is not the place to have it, let alone in a courthouse that is in the shadows of the twin towers,” Lee Ielpi, whose firefighter son died in the 9/11 attacks, said. The city’s wounds, he said, are simply still too raw.

“Ripping that scab open will create a tremendous hardship,” he said.

“We have a president who doesn’t know we’re at war,” said Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles Burlingame, had been the pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon. She said she was sickened by “the prospect of these barbarians being turned into victims by their attorneys.”

There’s a reason why this announcement was made on a Friday afternoon, when the President of the United States was out of the country touring Asia:  this decision is indefensible. 

Chinese, Turkish Researchers Find Significant Link Between Breast Cancer and Abortion

Chinese researchers claim to have found a 17 percent increased breast cancer risk among women who have had induced abortions.

Peng Xing and other researchers in the Department of Oncology at the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University enrolled in their study 1,417 patients diagnosed with breast cancer and 1,587 women without a prior breast cancer.

The researchers’ findings indicated that induced abortion increased a woman’s risk of breast cancer by a “statistically significant” rate of 17 percent.

A  Turkish study published earlier this year reported a 66 percent increased breast cancer risk among women who have had abortions.

Karen Malec, CABC president, said the Chinese and Turkish studies are relevant to the debate in the U.S. over government-funded abortion.

“Government-funded abortion means more dead American women from breast cancer,” she charged.

Obama Skirts Japanese Reporter's Question on His Knowledge of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

President Obama from Japan today unable to give historical context to the A-Bomb and whether it was the right thing to do for the U.S. to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Why?  Because to Obama, victory is a dirty word.

REPORTER: What is your understanding of the historical meaning of the A bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Do you think it was the right decision? 

OBAMA: Now obviously Japan has unique perspective on the issue of nuclear weapons as a consequence of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.    You had one more question… And I’m not sure I remember it.  What it North Korea?

REPORTER: No, it was that did you believe that the U.S. dropped the bomb..

 OBAMA: No, no, no, there were sets of questions…out asked about… North Korea?

REPORTER:  Yes, North Korea.

Change the subject strategy is it?

 During the campaign, Obama referred to “the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor” and Japan’s Emperor signing a surrender document to the Americans.  Both of course, historically incorrect.

In my previous entry highlighting George W. Bush’s speech on human freedom, he referred time and time again to history, and how human courage and solidarity changed the future. Obama in contrast seems to detest history, looking only forward to hope and change, never looking back to see what can be learned. 

You know, those who don’t learn the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them.

G.W.Bush: 'Those In Need of Freedom, We Hear Your Voice and Stand With You'

Now this is a presidential speech, the sort of message a U.S. President should be sending to the world.

Former President George W. Bush delivered an inspiring speech yesterday at the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, launching the Bush Institute which will act as a center for research and humanitarianism.

The four main areas of focus at the institute are:

1. Education
2. Global Health
3. Human Freedom
4. Economic Growth

The upcoming 2010 Conferences are outstanding.

Laura Bush is heading up the Women’s Initiatives portion of the institute saying which focuses on human rights for women and children throughout the world.

Here, President Bush describes Human Freedom and the need every individual has for it.   Do yourself a favor and watch the whole thing. It’ll restore your hope in America as a beacon of hope in the world:

BUSH: “With the Freedom Collection, the Bush Institute will send a message to dissidents and underground preachers and political prisoners around the world, ‘We hear your voice; and as you stand for your freedom, free people will stand for you.’ “

Wow, that was refreshing.

Contribute to the George W. Bush Institute (I did!):

Muslim Veterans Group Reports No Incidents of Troops Harrassing Muslim Soldiers

But I thought the Ft. Hood murderer U.S. Army MAJ Nidal Malik Hasan  killed 14 people this week because “he cracked” under the pressure of harassment for being Muslim in the U.S. military by other troops. 

Not according to the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, who say they haven’t received even one report of harassment from Muslim troops:

Abdul-Rashid Abdullah, deputy director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, told FoxNews.com that the nonprofit group has not received a single report recently of a U.S. soldier being harassed “simply because he was Muslim.”

“That kind of report is inconsistent with what we’ve heard,” Abdullah said prior to a press conference in Washington to denounce Thursday’s shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 dead and 38 wounded. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist who was reportedly due to be deployed later this month, is accused in the mass shooting.

Abdullah said his organization, which condemned the “unspeakable” attack, serves “several thousand” Muslim soldiers.

Don't Rush to Judgment, But the Last Domestic Attacks on U.S. Soldiers in 6 Months Were by Muslims

In less than 6 months, U.S. troops have been murdered on their own turf twice by Islamic extremists.  Coincidence?

In June 2009, a hapless youth named Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad shot and killed one U.S. soldier and wounded another at an Army recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Muhammad, a covert to Islam with ties to terrorist groups who was at one time detained in Yemen, shot to kill because he opposed the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That is the same reason U.S. Army MAJ Nidal Malik Hasan gave to support the thesis that Muslim soldiers might lead to “adverse events” during a medical seminar at Walter Reed 2 years ago.  Instead, Hasan ranted about suicide bombers and the Koran.  Hasan murdered 13 fellow soldiers and one unborn baby this week at Ft. Hood, Texas.  (MAJ Hasan’s report on Muslims in the U.S. Military from 2007)

The military has a habit of being politically correct to benefit select individuals.  Take for example the military’s affirmative action programto promote particular individuals over others based on sex and race.  If two soldiers are facing promotion and their written records are similar, race and sex often determines which is promoted.  In fact, this practice is so pervasive in the military that white males up for promotion often list themselves in their promotion packets as “Other” rather than “Caucaisan” to give themselves a fighting chance at selection.

But we can take comfort in the words of our Commander in Chief Barack Obama to “not rush to judgment” when connecting the dots with Muslim terrorists who kill U.S. soldiers here at home.

But what are we to make of the rush to judgment by our president to condemn the shooting of mass abortionist George Tiller while he ignored  Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad’s murder of a troop, and his quick condemnation of a white Cambridge police officer who arrested a black Harvard professor for disorderly conduct while admittedly not knowing all the facts?

PREVIOUSLY:

• Ft. Hood Killer Conflicted Between Devotion to Islam and Duty in U.S. Military
• Obama’s Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting 
• Muslim Army Major Who Spoke of a “Fight Against U.S. Agressor” Kills 12, Injures 30 at Ft. Hood
• Obama Refuses to Apologize for Race Baiting Comments
• Henry Louis Gates: Another Disturbing Obama Association
• Henry Louis Gates 911 Call Reveals No Racism
• VP Biden Serves as Token White at Obama-Gates-Crowley Beer Summit

Obama Rejects All Afghanistan War Options, Leaves Troops Hanging in Combat

President Obama is continuing to turn down requrests for troop reinforcements in Afghanistan where U.S. troops are in combat:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official.

In strongly worded classified cables to Washington, Eikenberry said he had misgivings about sending in new troops while there are still so many questions about the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Obama is still close to announcing his revamped war strategy — most likely shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia that ends on Nov. 19.

This waffling indecision is unprecedented, unbelievable and irresponsible.  There were questions about Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s leadership and that didn’t stop President Bush from winning in Iraq. Bush gave GEN Petraeus the reinforcements he requested and the rest, as we know, is history.  

For that matter, there are questions, particularly under these circumstances, about President Obama’s leadership capabilities.  He won’t hate us, then, if we don’t back him up as our leader, right?

Of course the reason for the dithering is because he has no intention of winning in Afghanistan and is eyeing the exit.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Obama Photo Op Will Build His Case for Retreat in Afghanistan
• 8 More U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan Making October the Deadliest Month of the War
• Obama Tells Troops They Are Why He’s Dithering on Sending Reinforcements to Afghanistan
• Barack Obama Furious at GEN McChrystal Speech on Afghanistan
• Obama Shelves Afghanistan Troop Request
• Obama Has Spoken to His Top General in Afghanistan ONCE Since Taking Command
• Obama Eyeing Retreat in Afghanistan

46% at Least 'Somewhat' Approve of Obama's Job Performance; 53% Disapprove

From Rasmussen polls, President Obama’s approval ratings by American voters look like this:

• 46% ‘somewhat approve’
• 30% ‘strongly approve’
• 53% ‘disapprove’
• 40% ‘strongly disapprove’

This gives Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10.

Meanwhile, Republicans have a 6-point lead in the Generic Congressional Ballot.

True US Unemployment Rate Stands at 17.5%

According to the New York Times:

With the release of the jobs report on Friday, the broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment tracked by the Labor Department has reached its highest level in decades. If statistics went back so far, the measure would almost certainly be at its highest level since the Great Depression.

In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982.

This includes the officially unemployed, who have looked for work in the last four weeks. It also includes discouraged workers, who have looked in the past year, as well as millions of part-time workers who want to be working full time.

Ouch.

BLUF's Video of New Zealand Vacation

I’ve had a lot of fun working on this the past couple days.  10 minutes worth of footage from my April 2009 vacation to New Zealand with my boys:

I neglected to capture some of the most endearing parts of New Zealand because I didn’t want to see New Zealand only behind the lens of a camera, so unfortunately you didn’t see this:

• the city lights of Auckland
• gorgeous green rolling hills filled with fields of sheep, lama and deer buttressed by majestic mountains on our way to Matamata (home of Hobbiton)
• the cute little town of Matamata with their coffee shops and friendly people
• the darling city streets of Wellington with its electric buses, quaint structures and bustling population
• Wellington’s gorgeous aqua bays
• the incredible open skies on our way from Christchurch to Geraldine and all the cute little sheep trying to escape their roomy boundaries and then trying to get back in after they made it out
• the fascinating piles of large smoothed out rock sitting in the middle of green fields (washed there by a historic mammoth flood??)
• the Aspen, Colorado-like center of Queenstown

Hope you enjoyed it anyway!

Why is Obama Not Celebrating 20th Anniversary of Fall of Berlin Wall in Germany?

You tell me.

Is the House Healthcare Bill Dead On Arrival in Senate?

It looks that way.

Democrats need to overcome GOP filibusters.

“The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said.

Democrats did not line up to challenge him. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has yet to schedule floor debate and hinted last week that senators may not be able to finish health care this year.