The official news agency of China, Xinhua, published a long and detailed piece about the highly successful launch of the Shenzhou 7 space mission. The article even included conversation between the three astronauts (or whatever the Chinese call them).
The article was published hours before the launch occurred. Now there's a news organization for you.
BEIJING - A news story describing a successful launch of China's long-awaited space mission and including detailed dialogue between astronauts launched on the Internet Thursday, hours before the rocket had even left the ground. ADVERTISEMENT
The country's official news agency Xinhua posted the article on its Web site Thursday, and remained there for much of the day before it was taken down.
A staffer from the Xinhuanet.com Web site who answered the phone Thursday said the posting of the article was a "technical error" by a technician. The staffer refused to give his name as is common among Chinese officials.
Excerpts of the article are included in the report.
Path of 1998 North Korean Missile Launch (right over my family's house in Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan)
Japan's Defense Ministry, in cooperation with the United States, is planning a test of a missile defense shield. With North Korea once more behaving in an erratic and dangerous way this is very necessary, especially remembering North Korea's aggressive actions toward Japan.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is planning a ballistic missile defence test in cooperation with the United States in November, the Defence Ministry said on Monday, as fears rise over North Korea's plans to restore its main atomic complex.
North Korea's firing of a ballistic missile over Japan in 1998 spurred Japan to build a missile defence shield in cooperation with Washington, its most important ally.
Japanese navy personnel aboard the newly upgraded destroyer Chokai will use an SM-3 missile to try to shoot down a dummy ballistic missile in space over the Pacific near Hawaii, Japan's Defence Ministry said on Monday.
A similar test using the equipment supplied by Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon last December went smoothly.
It is sadly ironic that, however much we may wish to see the end of the monster Kim and the destruction of that regime, it is so poor with an industrial base that is so old and broken down that its collapse is as dangerous as its continued existence.
Gary McKinnon has lost his appeal to avoid being extradited to the US for tapping in to 97 American military and Nasa computers from his London home.
He could even be sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the notorious camp where America holds its terror suspects.
McKinnon was never charged in the UK after admitting the offence but Law Lords now say the US should be granted their request to put him on trial there.
He may be locked up for a long time. Let us hope that our feckless government decides to grow a spine and really punish this criminal.
McKinnon has been warned by US authorities that he faces a life sentence rather than a couple of years in jail, if he does not plead guilty and accept extradition.
Without co-operation, say the authorities, the case could be treated as one of terrorism.
Such a charge could result in up to 60 years behind bars in a maximum-security prison, should he be found guilty.
It has previously been reported that US prosecutors wanted to "see him fry".
This is an older report that I have just now run across. There is speculation that the North Korean regime is in danger of collapse in the face of the worst starvation since the 1990's. Even then there was a danger that the Monster Kim would be overthrown, but the liberal use of mass murder and death by starvation helped him avoid that threat (with a little help from his friends Russia and China). Now they face the same threat but are more isolated. Russia and China also seem less interested in helping.
This piece by Richard Halloran in the Washington Times provides some insight.
Analysts everywhere point to a decade of hunger that has left 7-year-old North Korean children 8 inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than their South Korean cousins. North Korean soldiers in a regime that gives priority to the military forces have been reduced to two skimpy meals a day. Factory workers nap on the floor for lack of food and energy.
That has led to conjecture that North Koreans, despite the pervasive controls in the Hermit Kingdom's police state, may throw caution to the winds. "We just don't think they can go along with this much longer," said an American official with access to intelligence assessments.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington reports that North Korea, after 10 years of food shortages, stands on the precipice of famine that could have political consequences. "The possibility of widespread social distress and even political instability," the institute said in a study, "cannot be ruled out."
Another study, from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, says: "Dismal economic conditions also foster forces of discontent that potentially could turn against the Kim regime - especially if knowledge of the luxurious lifestyle of Communist Party leaders becomes better known or as poor economic performance hurts even the elite."
Regarding North Korea's "friends";
China and Russia no longer seem to have an ideological commitment to their fellow communists in North Korea and were clearly miffed when North Korea detonated a nuclear device in 2006. Japan has begun to negotiate warily with North Korea to get an accounting of the Japanese it kidnapped over a long period. Most sanctions remain in place.
Seoul's contacts with North Korea slowed after, among other things, a North Korean soldier killed a South Korean woman taking an early morning walk on a beach near the North Korean resort she was visiting. Moreover, South Korean young people have shown less interest in reconciliation with North Korea than their parents and grandparents because of the cost.
...
The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, a political event if ever there was one, reflected power relations in East Asia. President Hu Jintao of China was the host, of course. U.S. President George Bush, the 43rd U.S. president, was there along with his father, President George H.W. Bush, the 41st. Premier Vladimir Putin represented Russia, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda represented Japan, and President Lee Myung Bak represented South Korea.
Sadly, it seems that our feckless government will remove North Korea from the list or state sponsors of terrorism. The monster Kim will not be held accountable for his very many crimes and deterrence will fail. Criminals and mass murderers are enabled worldwide. Now, and in the future, genocide, state sponsorship of terrorism, government mass murder, and all manner of state criminality will be permitted by weak willed bureaucrats who think that words (ignored by the criminals), not actions, are sufficient. These words will be sufficient only to the relieve the self guilt of those who could do something and are too spineless to take action.
Barack Obama and his followers, being liberal™ supporters of free speech, are trying to sue opponents into silence. they have been threatening radio and television broadcasters who broadcast criticism of Obama, donors to the GOP, and have particularly targeted Harold Simmons. Mr. Simmons has produced an ad that shows Obama's close association with terrorist Bill Ayers and Obama does not like it, so he wants the Department of Justice to file criminal charges against Mr. Simmons. That's a real commitment to free speech there.
Apparently, for liberals™, free speech refers only to pornography and political attacks against their opponents, not to free speech for conservatives or Republicans.
American liberalism™ is a move to socialism and a loss of our freedoms.
Here is the ad, entirely true, that Obama is suing to keep you from seeing.
A big "Thank You" to Michelle Malkin for her excellent work. Read her column about how the DOJ will not go after GOP donors here.
"Journalists" working in the national press (I won't call it the mainstream press because they are not mainstream - note the falling ratings) routinely deny that they have a bias for any political ideology, party or candidate. Of course simple observation show this to be a lie when top Democratic Party members say that the Press is a chorus for Obama.
Now, a recent Rasmussen Poll show that, however hard those in the Press work to deny it, we the people are not being fooled.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50% of voters think most reporters are trying to help Obama win versus 11% who believe they are trying to help his Republican opponent John McCain. Twenty-six percent (26%) say reporters offer unbiased coverage (demographic crosstabs available for Premium Members).
Just last week a Rasmussen Reports survey found that 51% of voters believed reporters were trying to hurt McCain’s running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, with their news coverage.
Interestingly, while 83% of Republican voters think most reporters are trying to help Obama, 19% of Democrats agree, one percentage point higher than the number of Democrats who believe they are trying to help McCain. Unaffiliated voters by a 53% to 10% margin see reporters trying to help Obama.
Forty-five percent (45%) of Democrats say most reporters are providing unbiased coverage in the current presidential campaign, but only 20% of unaffiliateds and nine percent (9%) of Republicans agree.
This is what it is like for anyone who is not a Muslim to live the hellhole that is Pakistan (or any other Islamic country). Islamic societies claim to have a highly developed culture. I don't know how they define that, but it is clear from the high level of emigration from those countries and the continuing oppression of the people who live their that it is not true. Let me be clear, Islamic religious and political structure are not capable of developing free and prosperous societies.
"The girl told me", her uncle continues, "that in order to convince her, some of the Muslims threatened her with death, in addition to promising her expensive presents".
The two girls were kidnapped from the village of Chowk Munda, in the province of Punjab, while they were visiting their uncle. Afterward, the kidnappers stated that they had converted, and that the older one had married "of her own will".
On July 14, the Christian parents asked the Muzaffargarh Sessions Court for custody of their daughters, but the tribunal responded that, since they had converted to Islam, they can no longer live with their Christian parents. This verdict was overturned by the high court in Aneela's case, because she is only 10 years old. Her relatives say that Saba is only 13, as shown by official documents, but the court has accepted expert testimony that she is over 16 years old, and therefore capable of marrying "of her own will".
Here is Dr. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp, a Texas state representative, delivering testimony to a Senate committee about what the real purpose of the Second Amendment to the Constitution is. Here is a clue - it has NOTHING to do with hunting or target shooting.
She was in a cafeteria in Texas when a madman entered and began shooting. Because she made the mistake of obeying an idiotic law that makes it illegal to carry a gun in a purse she left her weapon in her car. Because of this she was unable to defend herself or her parents, both of whom were murdered that day.
Did Chucky Shumer understand a word of it? Does he even care? Probably not - he is a simple ideologue and would rather see people die undefended than violate his ideology.
Watch and listen. This story is truly tragic.
And to add to the tragedy, Chucky and his friends could not possibly care less than they do right now.
Kim Jong-il, the Dear Mass-Murderer of North Korea, has not been seen in public since August 14th. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea has reported that the Dear Murderer-Freak has heart disease and diabetes. The speculation is that he is so ill that he cannot walk 30 yards.
The 66-year-old has not been seen in public for three weeks and newspaper reports suggest his health may be getting worse.
Foreign doctors have now been in the communist country for more than a week, according to a mass-circulation newspaper.
Kim was last seen out in public on August 14, when he inspected a military unit.
There are rumors and speculation that he is dead, and has been since 2003. While that may sound crazy, in a place like North Korea it is not inconceivable. No major policy decisions have been made since they joined the nuclear disarmament talks then. Just after that Kim disappeared for 42 days. People who have presumably met with him since then report a dramatic change in his appearance. Were they meeting with a double?
Is Kim Jong-il for real? The question has baffled foreign intelligence agencies for years but now a veteran Japanese expert on North Korea says the “dear leader” is actually dead – and his role is played by a double.
The expert says Kim died of diabetes in 2003 and world leaders including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hu Jintao of China have been negotiating with an impostor.
He believes that Kim, fearing assassination, had groomed up to four lookalikes to act as substitutes at public events. One underwent plastic surgery to make his appearance more convincing. Now, the expert claims, the actors are brought on stage whenever required to persuade the masses that Kim is alive.
The Guardian is an openly leftist news organization. They admit it openly and honestly. I respect them for that. However, I very rarely if ever agree with any point of view that anyone over there expresses. Nick Cohen has hit the nail on the head.
For once, the postmodern theories so many of them were taught at university are a help to the rest of us. As a Christian, conservative anti-abortionist who proved her support for the Iraq War by sending her son to fight in it, Sarah Palin was 'the other' - the threatening alien presence they defined themselves against. They might have soberly examined her reputation as an opponent of political corruption to see if she was truly the reformer she claimed to be. They might have gently mocked her idiotic creationism, while carefully avoiding all discussion of the racist conspiracy theories of Barack Obama's church.
But instead of following a measured strategy, they went berserk. On the one hand, the media treated her as a sex object. The New York Times led the way in painting Palin as a glamour-puss in go-go boots you were more likely to find in an Anchorage lap-dancing club than the Alaska governor's office.
On the other, liberal journalists turned her family into an object of sexual disgust: inbred rednecks who had stumbled out of Deliverance. Palin was meant to be pretending that a handicapped baby girl was her child when really it was her wanton teenage daughter's. When that turned out to be a lie, the media replaced it with prurient coverage of her teenage daughter, who was, after all, pregnant, even though her mother was not going to do a quick handover at the maternity ward and act as if the child was hers.
And more...
Journalists who believe in women's equality should not spread sexual smears about a candidate, or snigger at her teenage daughter's pregnancy, or declare that a mother with a young family cannot hold down a responsible job for the pragmatic reason that they will look like gross hypocrites if they do. Before Palin, we saw hypocrisy of the right when shock jocks who had spent years denouncing feminism came over all politically correct when Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Read the whole thing. Mr. Cohen goes on to discuss the effects of expressions of hatred by the liberal press on political campaigns in both the US and the UK.
UPDATE: A Rasmussen poll shows that the American people are not being fooled into believing that the liberal Press is anything like objective or professional.
According to Rasmussen, fully 68% of voters believe that "most reporters try to help the candidate they want to win." And -- no surprise -- 49% of those surveyed believe reporters are backing Barack Obama, while just 14% think the media is in the tank for Sen. McCain.
Meanwhile, 51% of those surveyed thought the press was "trying to hurt" Mrs. Palin with its coverage.
Perhaps most troubling for the press corps, though, was this finding: "55% said media bias is a bigger problem for the electoral process than large campaign donations."
I haven't been trying to keep track of all of the lies that the Left are spouting now. There are too many of them and other bloggers have the time and resources to track them. Still, while reading LGF, this gem caught my eye:
“You know, I actually did,” Obama said. “I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school. And I was growing up in Hawaii. And I have friends whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, military bases there.
“And I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honorable option. But keep in mind that I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it's not an option that I ever decided to pursue.”
A lie. Charles did the research, from Wikipedia;
On March 25, 1975, Pres. Gerald Ford signed Proclamation 4360, Terminating Registration Procedures Under Military Selective Service Act, eliminating the registration requirement for all 18-25 year old male citizens. Then on July 2, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed Proclamation 4771, Registration Under the Military Selective Service Act, retroactively re-establishing the Selective Service registration requirement for all 18-26 year old male citizens born on or after January 1, 1960. Only men born between March 29, 1957, and December 31, 1959, were completely exempt from Selective Service registration. The first registrations after Proclamation 4771 took place on Monday, July 21, 1980, for those men born in January, February and March 1960 at U.S. Post Offices.
I am a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer and a freelance performing 'cellist who brews his own beer. I am an Orthodox Christian. I am NOT a professional journalist, therefore nothing prevents me from writing what is true. I am now working as an Engineering Technician at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
