Yes, you are sick about seeing stuff about it. Yes, here it is one more time.
I have a piece on the US beef issue in today’s Korea Times. The first half mainly deals with how the Lee administration was totally unready to deal with the rapid spread of misinformation regarding the issue. The second half gives my humble opinion on some things Lee can to to turn things around.
Here is a bit on the involvement of our friends at the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union:
It is no accident that at least half of the participants in earlier protests were middle and high school kids, and not only because they are more susceptible to believing Internet rumors.
Members of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union have been pushing propaganda CDs and other materials on their students in an attempt to fan fears of death by eating American beef. A KTEWU chapter in North Chungcheong province went as far as to post banners saying, “We Don’t Want American Mad Cow Beef” at a Children’s Day festival on May 5.
Source: Ye Olde Chosun
There may be legitimate issues with US beef, but they are not what is driving the protests.
Here is a bit that might raise an eyebrow or two:
The Lee administration must also be more effective in dealing with Internet rumors and fear mongering campaigns conducted by groups like the KTEWU….
The presidential campaign of Barack Obama, which has also had to deal with numerous Internet-based falsehoods, has established a site solely dedicated to debunking rumors (entitled “Fight the Smears”). It publishes documents to counter the most common falsehoods spread about him and gives supporters the means to quickly reply to rumors spread online. A similar site regarding the beef issue could be a step in counter Internet-based misinformation.
I have already been accused of loving Obama, but it is just not so. I sincerely want him to lose this fall.
That being said, all these Internet rumors against Obama as just as bad as the Internet circus going on over US beef. I hope that Obama site helps put some of them to rest.
I don’t want folks to vote against Obama because of Internet rumors about him. I want folks to vote against him because is a leftist (7.37% lifetime American Conservative Union ranking, perfect score for the liberal Americans for Democratic Action this year except for some missed votes) pretending to be a moderate.
I am in no way an Obama supporter.
In other words (let me channel the Maverick himself for this one):
Vote McCain, damn it!
54 Comments
I’ve thought that all along — Lee needs to just flood as much verifiable, citation-rich information onto the internet, and everywhere else, as he can. Giving up the internet message boards in Korean politics is like giving up air power in a real war.
Yes! Vote McCain! Stop stupid Korean internet rumors!
Mr. Jackson:
Enjoyed reading your article, and I agree with most of your ideas… except regarding McCain, Damn it!
I’d like you to read this article.
http://counterpunch.org/valentine06132008.html
Yes, I know the website is one of the biggest left-wing American websites on the web.
But the author, Douglas Valentine, isn’t a real contributor to the website.
He’s a war historian.
And he did A LOT of research into McCain’s past.
I’m not an Obama fan either, but there are some SERIOUS issues with McCain.
Come November, I’ll be casting my absentee ballot for Bob Barr.
Keep up the great work!
On behalf of the outside world, please America, don’t let us down again.
McCain . . . the freshest thing about Mr. McCain may be the growth he had cut off his nose some time back, bless him.
Still, the anti-rumor site is a fine idea.
High oil prices have many countries around the world, on their knees. South Korea is an exporting country. Souh Korea does not have any natural resources. Without exports, South Korean economy will tank. Yet here they are, the government officials who should be working day and night to come up with policies to counter this crisis, are on the streets, protesting US beef and calling for the overthrow of the LMB government. Without the National Assembly opening, the Korean government is totally immobilized to make any policy decision. Yet South Koreans just protest US beef. Not only that, they complain Lee Myung Bak is not doing anything to improve the economy. How can he improve the economy if he’s not even given a fair chance?
Too bad Lee Myung Bak caved so fast to the opposition party and the usual “leftist” nuts. He should have tossed the protest organizers in jail and gone on TV saying exactly the things CM mentioned here–talk some sense instead of apologizing for trying to boost Korean trade.
McCain’s got to remove the perception that he’s “Bush’s third term:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne.....7694.story
And Obama’s got to disprove he lacks experience:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/thomas (his Senate record)
That said, it’s just another Lesser of Two Evils election for me, and I haven’t made my mind up yet–it’s the candidate’s baggage, not the candidate, that you’re voting for.
If being against the war in Iraq means Obama is a liberal….then I will GLADLY vote for him for being a “liberal.” If him wanting to reform healthcare means Obama is a liberal….then that makes me a liberal, too.
Makes the word “conservative” sound almost like a bad word.
#8
After nearly 28 years with the neo-con boot on the throats of Americans, you’re saying it still isn’t?
Remember kids: Vote McCain for more of the same.
Oh! How about these ones?
McCain: Just because it’s broke doesn’t mean you got to fix it.
McCain: Just like Ronald Reagan without having sold his soul to Satan…. Yet.
McCain: There’s no way he can live out a full term, is there?
William G, am I mistaken, or are we on the same side on this one?
I think the lack of experience is actually a positive in this instance. I think that had a great deal to do with why Obama won the Democratic nomination. Hillary kept pounding the experience issue and people don’t want POLITICAL experience. They equate it with smoke filled rooms and back door cronyism. They want someone new who has no qualms about sending these pompous, comfortable bastards outdoors into a snowdrift in their underwear.
Kinda difficult to proofread with the new format, isn’t it?
“Makes the word “conservative” sound almost like a bad word.”
Almost?
Despite the fact that I support Obama, I have no hatred of McCain… Basically, after Huckabee and Romney dropped out of the primary race, I stopped worrying.
And I think “fact”-sites and forums are great ideas… fight ignorance with the very tool that was used to spread it.
commentary worth repeating.
Lee Myung-bak’s term has gotten off to a rocky start, but this early stumble is an opportunity to retool and emerge as a more effective president.
Lee Myung-bak’s term has gotten off to a rocky start, but this early stumble is an opportunity to retool and emerge as a more effective president.
U should seperate the two topics instead of putting them together, and what is McCain view on this U.S. beef thing talk about both sides of the topic not one that being bias!
I think Obama might end up being America’s Roh Mu-hyun, who could not see the forest for the trees. I have a feeling that Obama is a stubborn, shortsighted man who will recklessly put US national security at risk.
I do not think McCain can beat silver-tongued Obama, so for four years the US is going to be up a crick with only a left-handed paddle.
Oh yeah… my thoughts exactly.
To gbevers regarding #15:
Well, we disagree on one more issue (no suprise). And once again, you’re full of opinions but not facts to support them.
So what, pray tell, makes you say that Barack Obama cannot see the forest for the trees? How will he “recklessly put US national security at risk”??
He was the one person who was consistently against the war in Iraq….well BEFORE the invasion in 2003. And we had an idiot in the White House who, when he had the chance to obliterate Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden once and for all in Pakistan, stupidly diverted men, money, and arms to wage a warm against Iraq.
It’s like one of the reviews for the 2005 movie “War of the Worlds” with Tom Cruise said: “This movie is supposed to be an analogy of 9/11? Does this mean that if Mars attacks us we invade Venus???”
JK,
Yes, Obama was against the war in Iraq even though there was intelligence that crazy Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction. Also, Hussein was playing games with the inspectors and acting as if he did have the weapons, which made him look even more guilty. However, even with all the evidence pointing to Hussein’s having or developing weapons of mass destruction, Obama seemed to just want to ignore it and hope for the best. That means that Obama was essentially closing his eyes to a serious threat.
And the last I heard, Obama wants to pull our troops out of Iraq before the country is stablized, which will essentially be giving the country to the terrorists. That is shortsightedness.
I think it was a good idea to invade Iraq and take out Hussein because it helped to divide up that dangerous region. There have been mistakes made in fighting the war, but it was still right to go in there. Now we have to stick it out and finish the job.
If I had a choice among McCain, Obama, or reelecting Bush for a third term, I would reelect Bush.
Jesus, I hate to agree with JK…I’ll have to reconsider supporting Obama.
McCain thinks he knows more about foreign policy than Obama? Pfft…. as the narcissist said, Obama was consistently against Bush’s oedipal war in Iraq. He also knows enough about diplomacy not to go around singing “Bomb bomb Iran” like a demented twelve-year-old.
1. Let’s see, the State Dept. under Colin Powell warned Rumsfeld’s Defense Dept. that if an invasion of Iraq were to take place that a civil war of between three different peoples would ensue. Rumsfeld said nonsense and that the war would be over quickly. Bush and Cheney sided with Rumsfeld like the idiots that they were (and are). Turns out the State Dept. under Powell was right.
2. General Eric Shinseki was nudged out of his position as Chief of the Army by Sec. Donald Rumsfeld, with President Bush’s blessing, after he truthfully answered a question in early 2003 by Senator Carl Levin that several hundreds of thousands of soldiers (and atleast several months of continued fighting and occupation) would be needed post-victory over Hussein’s government. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were furious with Shinseki for giving such a “dour” prediction. Guess who was right?
3. The US invaded….and found no WMD aimed at the US (much less any WMD period). Oh well.
4. Hussein and Iraq were not behind 9/11.
5. Hussein and Iraq were not behind 9/11.
6. Hussein and Iraq were not behind 9/11.
7. Recruits into Al-Qaeda have been pouring in from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Middle East since the US invaded Iraq. Weren’t we supposed to be going AFTER Al-Qaeda in rather than helping it with fresh recruits?
Bring the troops home. Go Obama!
Extra note: I get no pleasure in noting that I and the weight-watcher support the same candidate. But yes, Bush is an idiot.
“There have been mistakes made in fighting the war, but it was still right to go in there. Now we have to stick it out and finish the job.”
And when will that be, gbevers? I know people about to go on their third tour of duty. Do you see an end in sight? I don’t. I think it was all the way back in 2004 or 2005 when Dick Cheney mentioned the insurgency being in its “last throes.”
US troops are in no position right now to go to war with any country that truly IS a threat to our national security because so many of our troops are tied up in Iraq.
JK, I can say “JK has black hair and brown eyes” and have a 99% chance of being correct. You, on the other hand, naturally talk out of your ass. You continue to lie about me — betraying your essential nature.
Tell you what — get on Acela and come see for yourself that I’m not fat or STFU, you flat-faced egotist.
Well, you know where I live, dogbert.
And “flat-faced”? Didn’t you live in a country full of, what you call, “flat-faced” people? Aren’t many of the white commenters, including the owner of this blog, married to people with faces like mine? Careful what you say now, doggie boy.
“JK, I can say “JK has black hair and brown eyes” and have a 99% chance of being correct.”
I can say Dogbert probably looks like Vlad Putin right now, since I remember you saying something about how you looked like Putin when you were little
Can we stop the whole “My body is hotter than yours” thing? It is getting a bit too creepy.
I don’t know where you live, but I can guess it’s a Korean enclave in northern Virginia. Thanks for doing your part to reintroduce segregation.
Too bad you are too stupid to take Netizen Kim’s advice. I’m through — arguing with you is like kicking a retarded chihuahua.
Careful with what I say, tough guy? LOL … all I have to say to you, little guy, is, you want some, come get some.
“Now we have to stick it out and finish the job.”
You can bet this workman-like phrasing was well-tested by Karl Rove’s spin-meisters. Who could be against ‘finishing a job?” These are words meant to mislead, and you have been mislead Mr. Bevers. Listen, it’s not a job, it’s a catastrophic blood-stained fucked-up mess. It’s a trillion dollars of US taxpayer money that has flown out of the United States forever. It’s a fantastic body-count of human lives, men, women and children. There is no ‘job’, here.
Good thing Nixon didn’t agree with you about this sentiment in Vietnam, or America would still be bleeding blood and treasure and losing an unwinnable insurgency there. At some point you face reality, call something a fucked-up unfixable foreign policy mistake, and put it behind you.
What if sticking it out means ANOTHER 8 years of financial haemorrhage? Go look at the numbers for the Iraq fiasco, they are sobering. I’m not a US citizen, but if you guys fuck up your economy it affects my country too. Could America turn on its fiscal brain, please?
Sorry, bumfromkorea, I’ll tone it down.
Why do you continue to play Pawi’s white alter ego?
You must be mistaken, miss — pawi and I have nothing in common.
Re #30,
Dogbert,
Please pardon the direct question - I’ve asked how to do a private comm., but haven’t found out. Were you stationed in Osan in the early 80s?
Hi, Cactus,
No I wasn’t.
The problem is not Al-Qaeda; it is radical Islam.
It is better that we have begun dealing with radical Islam sooner than later. Maybe, if we had stated dealing with Hitler soon, the world could have been saved a lot of grief.
Oliver Kamm essentially has it right: “Bush made the world a safer place.”
JK,
Stop looking at the trees.
Trouble was, Gerry, Saddam was one of those keeping radical Islam in check.
#28 Johnson, You may want to study the history of the Vietnam War again. The communist insurgency was beaten during the Nixon administration by the efforts of the US and SVN after a significant change in strategy under a new field commander, General Creighton Abrams. Ultimately, the North had to resort to a conventional invasion to achieve its aims. The North’s 1972’s Easter Invasion was stopped because the US was still committed to help defend RSVN, with air and seapower particularly. But by then the US had tired of the war, and afterwards completely disengaged. RSVN succumbed to another outright conventional invasion in 1975. Consequences of the communist victory were severe for many throughout former Indo-China. Consequences of disengagement and failure in the Middle East today would also be severe, and with the terrorist aspect of this conflict likely continue to ripple outside the Mid East. A simple call to withdraw is not an adequate solution to the current problem, regardless of the objective, rational decision criterion used (or not) to go in in the first place.
Oh, America was not defeated in Vietnam, but instead won the war and gave the country to the defeated Norht Vietnamese as a magnanimous act of chivalry.
USA and its running dog allies got its ass delivered by a more smarter, more determined, more efficient, better adversary. Don’t reel out this pillow talk your drill Sargent gave you. America is currently in the process of taking in up the ass now.
It asked for it, it is getting it, and if its not enjoying it, it merely needs to get used to it.
Americans like Gerry, who can’t tell the difference between secular Saddam and Islamist Al-Qaeda ’cause Arabs all look and think alike, are why Bush was able to sell his war.
Andy, unfortunately the candidate you are supporting is probably clinically insane. As the campaign heats up I look forward to seeing him crack - better it happen during the campaign than when he has his finger on the nuclear button.
He has also been repeatedly deceptive about his time in Iraq, lying about the level of safety there. And with even more stuff like this out there, even were he not insane, he would not be qualified to be the President.
#21: 1. That’s a new one: State Dept. omniscience.
2. Shinseki was already scheduled to retire when he made his remarks. That lie seems to have as much traction as Bush’s plastic turkey among the left.
3. Yes, the intelligence agencies of Germany (the primary guilty ones with their Curveball asset), France, the UK and US were wrong on that one. Too bad they suck.
4-7. No shit, although there certainly were Iraq/AQ connections (meeting in Malaysia, anyone?). That wasn’t the reason for the invasion.
8. AQ is all but defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan, with a cleaner gene pool to show for it. Turns out blowing up Muslims wasn’t a winning strategy after all for Bin Laden’s boys.
I guess you people didn’t get the memo that the Iraq war is all but won; even WaPo seems to get it. If Obama keeps up his “bring the troops home” cry during the general election campaign he could end up doing worse than McGovern. The segment of the population that likes to see America lose wars is still a minority.
We’ll revisit that quote in the future.
very Buddhist, this talk of “all but won”
“even wapo seems to get it”
oh, if the media is swallowing the cum dripping from washington , then it must be true? and how did the american peoples swallow this cum in the first place?
jk’s an idiot.
the great wjk has predicted well way before other minds posting it, that Obama is just like Roh Moo Hyun. Look at his voting record.
Look at Obama. He doesn’t take criticism very well. He also seems to have an anger and a denial problem. This has come up quite often. But, people are dishonest, and they try their best to ignore it. Roh Moo Hyun was the same.
He says it’s not about race, but he also strongly gives the message that it’s racist not to vote for him. What? It’s racist not to vote for a liberal?
vote for Obama. He guaranttees wealth re-distribution. Unless you make kindergarten teacher salary, your taxes are going up. The irony of course, is that everyone cheats on their damn taxes.
Bush protected the country, revived the economy from the dot.com bust.
Stupid people borrowed too much to become home owners and weakened the economy.
It still amazes me how Bush somehow kept the US mainland safe from another 911.
I thought the likes of kimchipig et al were bragging that they were traveling south for shopping with the mighty Canadian dollar? People from a socialist country generally are expected to think like Obama. Not happy with the mighty Canadian dollar?
Obama is bad for national security. Clinton did the same. At the end of his Presidency, American bases were terrorized frequently, as a consequence. 911 came about while Clinton’s system was “protecting” America. Bush’s way of doing things kept America safe. And you call it a fascist state.
Look to China for the definition of a fascist state.
Obama is bad for America. Obama is really bad for South Korea.
jk is not wjk.
McCain has his faults, too. It’s dishonest to support buying Canadian drugs to support American healthcare.
wjk will make a prediction. Blue states on the very ends of the west and east. Republican states elsewhere. Democrats are welcome to act on their vows to move to Canada or France. I don’t expect them to. It’s all talk.
It’s a fallacy that Shiites and Sunnis would fight each other to keep North America and Europe safe.
While those people can’t wait to immigrate to North America and Europe, they always had a united interest of attacking the “western infidels”.
Tell me, is Syria safer to travel to versus Iran?
Another group of people that annoys me is the Vietnamese and the Chinese. They fought freedom, democracy, and capitalism at a cost matching World War II.
Now, all they think about is money, money, money.
#36, Dogbert,
No, Saddam was one of the tyrants in the Middle East helping to foster radical Islam by mass murder, terror, and by simply sucking all hope from people.
#39, Sonagi,
Saddam was not secular. He was a tyrant who would do whatever it took to stay in power. Maybe the reason there are so many radical Islamists in Iraq today is that they, like you, they mistook Saddam’s brutal autocractic regime as an example of a secular government?
gerry stop trying to reason with them
its a lost cause
It doesn’t matter who goes into office in the US - the country is still owned and operated by evil. All countries are (to a lesser extent). And the biggest problem with US politics is that too much of it happens on TV - and this is where voters make their decision over a far too long and arduous period of time. Get it over with already! Things get crooked when campaigns have larger budgets than the GDP of most African nations. True democracy would standardize and limit campaigning, and appearances on Letterman would not enter the fold.
Sooey! Go kiss your kind in Hanoi or Beijing, or Pyongyang, whichever you like - your chum is stinking up the net! If you wish to share something edifying, you’ll have to try harder than you are now with your current drivel, capisce?
My responses to wjk:
“jk’s an idiot.”
Well, based on your own comments, you’re the one looking like an idiot, as I will now show.
“the great wjk has predicted well way before other minds posting it, that Obama is just like Roh Moo Hyun. Look at his voting record.”
Uh, what in his voting record says he is just like Roh Moo Hyun? Please tell us.
“Look at Obama. He doesn’t take criticism very well. He also seems to have an anger and a denial problem. This has come up quite often. But, people are dishonest, and they try their best to ignore it. Roh Moo Hyun was the same.”
Obama has an anger problem? Give me an example please. If anything he has come across as poised and calm even during times of stress. McCain on the other hand truly DOES have an anger problem, as even he himself admitted.
“He says it’s not about race, but he also strongly gives the message that it’s racist not to vote for him. What? It’s racist not to vote for a liberal?”
He said this? He strongly gave this message? Please show when he did this or stop making statements you can’t back up.
“vote for Obama. He guaranttees wealth re-distribution. Unless you make kindergarten teacher salary, your taxes are going up. The irony of course, is that everyone cheats on their damn taxes. ”
No, not everyone cheats on their damn taxes. And your taxes go up only if your salary is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than a kindergarten teacher’s, wjk.
“Bush protected the country, revived the economy from the dot.com bust.”
Protected the country??? REVIVED THE ECONOMY????? I didn’t realize times were so good in America. I guess all these people suffering from growing unemployment and high gas prices and a malfunctioning healthcare system should open their eyes and see how good Bush has made it for them, huh?
“Stupid people borrowed too much to become home owners and weakened the economy.”
Uh, it was the Federal Reserve under Greenspan and Bush who encouraged home purchases by people who could not afford to do so.
“It still amazes me how Bush somehow kept the US mainland safe from another 911.”
Uh, read this: http://rawstory.com/news/afp/F.....72008.html.
But one thing I DO know is that an invasion of Iraq did not make America safer.
“Obama is bad for national security. Clinton did the same. At the end of his Presidency, American bases were terrorized frequently, as a consequence. 911 came about while Clinton’s system was “protecting” America. Bush’s way of doing things kept America safe. And you call it a fascist state.”
Actually, Bush and Rice were warned repeatedly about Al-Qaeda by Clinton’s (and Bush’s) anti-terrorism czar, Richard Clarke. Read this again: http://rawstory.com/news/afp/F.....72008.html
“Look to China for the definition of a fascist state. ”
Uh, your point is?
“Obama is bad for America. Obama is really bad for South Korea. ”
I could care less if Obama is good for South Korea. Obama is good for America.
“jk is not wjk.”
You got that right.
And asteroids. Don’t forget asteroids…. ooh… and dinosaurs… bird flu too… gremlins?
Zonath, I generally regard you as somewhat of an EDUCATEd, but truly misguided lawyer.
It took EFFORT to keep America safe.
Regardless of your political affiliations, you must acknowledge the fruit.
Asteroids falling. Random disaster.
JK, please do the real Koreans a favor, and don’t flash your US passport to Southern Korean girls.
Look who’s changing positions on NAFTA today.
this guy’s rhetoric is polished. His fundamentals are flawed.
He’ll “talk” to Canada and Mexico, and pull out of NAFTA. He’ll “talk” to Iran, and make them give up their nukes.
These are EMPTY promises.
I’m signing off.
Be back in November.
Do me a favor, and acknowledge that I was right, when the Right people win once again.
wjk,
And yet there’s really little or no evidence to show that Bush’s administration actually prevented anything close to a second 9/11-magnitude terrorist attack on American soil. If you really believe that the failure of something to happen proves the effectiveness of countermeasures against that thing happening, absent a clear and certain chance of it happening, I’ve got some volcano repellant to sell you.
By all means I’ll vote for McCain, because…
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/87816
You’re coming across like a real wingnut with this line, Andy. Is there such a thing as decaf koolaid for this condition?
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