Search Results for: swift

Every Korean election year, the political parties’ festering grudges and tribal feuds, catalyzed by ambition, render the entire Korean political party system unstable. Parties shatter into mercurial gobs, collide, and reform. — OFK, 5 January 2006 ============= The Center ============== The first test tube hit the laboratory floor today: Goh Kun made it clear on Thursday that he intended to run for the presidency, and the reaction in political circles has been swift. Especially with the Uri Party in disarray...

Let’s just be clear that Professor Kang Jeong-Koo is a lying Stalinist media whore and failed petty tyrant: In a lecture in Incheon last year, Kang said, “Had the United States not intervened, the Korean War would have ended in a month with the death toll in both South and North less than 10,000. But 3.99 million more people died additionally because of the American intervention. The U.S. is the main culprit in the war and Douglas MacArthur its advance...

On North Korea, President Bush said very little: “The demands of justice require their freedom as well [specifically naming the people of North Korea, Syria, Burma, and Zimbabwe, among others].” The rhetoric was no more soaring, and certainly no more specific, than anything I’ve heard him say before. I can live without soaring rhetoric for public diplomacy’s sake, but what I can’t forgive is that this president has frittered away six years without forming a forceful or even a particularly...

Since I’ve been experiencing some of the busiest weeks in my professional life lately, I haven’t been able to sneak out of the office to attend hearings, but there are two interesting highlights to report. The first is the latest House hearing, which took place October 27th, covering the U.S. government’s implementation of the N.K. Human Rights Act. Here is a link to all of the testimony, which I freely admit I haven’t the time to review in full. Still,...

Hyundai Asan Update. We’re starting to learn more about the corruption of Kim Yoon-Kyu, Hyundai Asan’s ousted VP and Kim Jong Il’s favorite business partner: A Hyundai Asan source said, “Last July, during Hyundai Groups internal audits, Kim was accused of 10 instances of malfeasance including receiving kickbacks from construction in Mt.Kumgang, subcontracting corruption related to two joint construction projects and putting exorbitant sums of money on company expenses.” Background here. Expect Kim to get a swift presidential pardon before...

Don’t let the entertainment value fool you. This one appears to have been a bust of major significance, which the feds claim “decapitated” one of the largest crime syndicates operating in the United States: The guests thought they were headed to an early afternoon wedding on a yacht docked near Atlantic City. They ended up in jail instead, courtesy of an elaborate ruse by federal authorities hoping to bust up an international smuggling ring. Lengthy undercover investigations on opposite sides...

The Sixty Minutes “exclusive” on Bush’s National Guard service (yawn) is the mirror image of the Swift Boat story–not terribly relevant to this, this, this, or even this, but a great indicator of how bad our news media have become. It’s a reminder of how tempting it is to believe something, if you want to believe it badly enough. The Sixty Minutes story appears to be based on a collection of fourth-rate forgeries. Look at the documents here, here, here,...

The Sixty Minutes “exclusive” on Bush’s National Guard service (yawn) is the mirror image of the Swift Boat story–not terribly relevant to this, this, this, or even this, but a great indicator of how bad our news media have become. It’s a reminder of how tempting it is to believe something, if you want to believe it badly enough. The Sixty Minutes story appears to be based on a collection of fourth-rate forgeries. Look at the documents here, here, here,...