Anju: Congressgnome Kucinich goes down
Last night, Dennis Kucinich (D-Middle Earth) was defeated by fellow Democrat Marcy Kaptur after redistricting pitted them against one another. The defeat of Kucinich is not entirely good, because for Kucinich to advocate a cause is to easily identify it as a fringe position. On the other hand, his long-standing ties to Christine Ahn (Kucinich wrote a foreward to a book she wrote years ago) gave a congressional voice to some extreme policy positions on North Korea. Also, the man was a constant source of entertainment to millions.
PEACE IN OUR TIME! “North Korea threatened ‘sacred war’ against the South in a huge rally in the capital Sunday just days after the secretive state agreed with the United States to suspend its nuclear weapons tests and allow back international nuclear inspectors.” By now, I’d have expected to see NYT op-ed by Selig Harrison, telling us how Kim Jong Eun is a misunderstood moderate who wants better ties with America.
I wouldn’t call this a great loss: North Korea denies Greta Van Susteren a visa.
A few of you have asked me about, “A North Korean Corleone,” by Sheena Chestnut Greitens. Unfortunately, my reaction will have to wait until I have time to read it, but meanwhile, here’s a link so that you can offer me your reaction while it’s still fresh.
I didn’t have time to attend yesterday’s CECC hearings on China’s repatriation of North Korean refugees, but let’s hope that the imprisoned refugees’ chances of survival have improved with the expression of congressional views opposing their repatriation.
here is a link to the “Soprano State” prologue-piece by Sheena Chestnut Greitens
http://www.opensourcesinfo.org/journal/2006/1/23/the-sopranos-state-north-korean-involvement-in-criminal-activity-and-implications-for-international-security.html
Michael Moore’s Twitter:
“Congrats 2 Rep. Marcy Kaptur on her win in Ohio ystrdy! But tragic that Kucinich is no longer in Congress. We have not heard the last of him.”
I think the criminal gummint argument is overblown, even though it’s entirely clear that the DPRK is a Mafia state.
The upperclasses of the DPRK don’t need a whole lot of money to maintain their lifestyle, and that can come from the profits of Kaesong, Rajin and the Yalu free trade islands. When Rajin starts up properly next year, they’ll all be lying in fields of clover.
The senior military, almost a separate state within the state, finances its lifestyle from Chinese mining on DPRK territory, and from missile sales.
The basic societal problem is that the proletariat is diminishing in size and ability, and is perpetually hungry…but the USA will shortly take care of that in exchange for the DPRK’s pointless agreement to stop making nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons exist to terrify the ROK.
The money’s in Free Trade Zones for the Party, and in missiles and mines (and also now in the demonstrated effectiveness of their torpedoes and medium-range artillery) for the military. Criminality is just free money, that proves how overripe the West is.