This just in - from North Korea

[Grace]

CNN is reporting that the 2 U.S. journalists, held in North Korea, have been pardoned.

[lvpets2002]

:) Yes I just read that too.. Many Thanks to Bill Clinton.. He is the one that went there to get their release.. I think its the greatest of news..

[Hellow]

N. Korea pardons US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/06/09/2009-06-09_n_korea_hell_may_await_jailed_journos.html
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/6560461.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090804/ap_on_re_as/as_nkorea_journalists_held
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/03/report-president-clinton-heading-n-korea-talks-jailed-journalists/

From Newsvine:
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/08/04/3117841-north-korea-2-us-journalists-pardoned

[Daisy and Delilah]

YAY YAY YAY !!!!! I'm so happy to hear this and even happier that it happened so quickly after he intervened!! I didn't expect much but this is fabulous!!:)

[RICHARD]

YAY YAY YAY !!!!! I'm so happy to hear this and even happier that it happened so quickly after he intervened!! I didn't expect much but this is fabulous!!:)

Hopefully both these women have learned their lesson.

Now we have to go to Iran and get three other idiots freed.

Morons.:rolleyes::mad:

[Karen]

The news reports, just to clarify, are saying that there was a lot of negotiating going on lately, and likely former Pres. Clinton didn't have a whole lot to do with the actual release.

I wonder how soon the "book deal" will be signed - when they land at the airport in the US?

[lizbud]

The news reports, just to clarify, are saying that there was a lot of negotiating going on lately, and likely former Pres. Clinton didn't have a whole lot to do with the actual release.

I wonder how soon the "book deal" will be signed - when they land at the airport in the US?



Wow, I never thought you were a cynical person. Are you joking?

[Grace]

They are on their way home, in the plane with President Clinton.

CNN said this has been in the works for a couple of weeks, and the North Koreans wanted him to come over.

[RICHARD]

Both work for Current TV- I have watched some of the programming on the channel and it's an "old hippie/green the earth" stuff.

Both those yahoos have had programs on before and they have been carrying around sharp sticks while traveling around the area of NK.

Do they deserve to be jailed for 12 years and hard labor? No, not really. But they should have their passports revoked for a couple of years.

What ever the U.S. gave or agreed to to get these twits out of jail will never be known. That's part of the 'transparency" of the current regime. They'll get a book deal and we will never get the straight answers we deserve.:rolleyes:

[Marigold2]

Bill Clinton was always my favorite president. :D:D Yes my name is Monica but that is beside the point.

[blue]

Did BJClinton have a victory party before heading home?

[Grace]

:) Yes I just read that too.. Many Thanks to Bill Clinton.. He is the one that went there to get their release.. I think its the greatest of news..


YAY YAY YAY !!!!! I'm so happy to hear this and even happier that it happened so quickly after he intervened!! I didn't expect much but this is fabulous!!:)

I'm delighted that they are on their way home to freedom and family. I'm sure their families breathed a huge sigh when they saw them boarding that plane with President Clinton.

Now we need to get the three in Iran home - safely.

[RICHARD]

Now we need to get the three in Iran home - safely.

Of course,

But why do Americans walk the planet with the idea that the U.S. will do almost anything to get them home?

I will never forget the kid who had his head hacked off by those idiots who kidnapped him. Didn't that teach anyone a lesson?

The gal who was recently kicked out of Iran because she was making a film?
Hey, it's wonderful to be kidnapped and released alive, but what 'inspires' someone to go to areas on the planet where they know shiat is going down?

I feel for the poor people who live along the US/Mex border that cross south and get punked down there?:(

Why are people so willing to ignore travel advisories? Who were the missionaries who ended up getting nabbed and spent years in central/south America dragged around in the forest? National Geo has a great program on people trying to smuggle dope, and get caught?

If you go to Everest and fall off, freeze or get all jacked up because you want to climb a mountain?

Yeah, I'll go for that, but when you start playing Red Rover with NK border guards carrying Chinese made AKs? Stay there stupid. Quien te mando?:eek:;)

[Grace]

Richard, after the three in Iran come home, I say bring home the troops - every last one of them. From Korea, Japan, Germany, Iraq and Afghanistan, from wherever they are on the face of the earth - bring them home.

Read George Washington's Farewell Address.

[blue]

Shocking as it is, Im going to disagree with Grace.

Once the 3 in Iran are home, ONLY once the women there are as free as Grace, lizbud, and ES, should we leave the warzones. To do so before hand is irresponsible.

I am suprised at how many free women want muslim women to live under Sharia law.

Free women who cant forget that women in the USA once couldnt vote or own land or a business and yet they are willing to let other women be treated as chattle, as property, that disgusts me.

[RICHARD]

Richard, after the three in Iran come home, I say bring home the troops - every last one of them. From Korea, Japan, Germany, Iraq and Afghanistan, from wherever they are on the face of the earth - bring them home.

Read George Washington's Farewell Address.


The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500


--------------


Oh, I whole heartedly agree. We have to blow up the rest of the world that want's to kill us.

On 9/11 my heart hurt because I knew what the people in New York were feeling.

I have lived thru three HUGE EFFING earthquakes here in Lost Angeles, So, having something like the WTC disappear from your peripheral vision is really traumatic.

Mom Nature and 19 morons really can screw our world up.

Since we can't prevent EQs, tornados, twisters and hurricanes, we have to capitulate in that regard. THat AH OBL thought we'd pickup and leave because we were hurt and stunned.

Again, We want our troops home, I want them home.

But, if we do and someone walk into your center of the universe and starts to blow shiat up and kill kids and women? WHat are we going to do?


I'd didn't vote for BO. So, I can't make any kind of assessment as to when the troops will come home. He says one thing then changes course, mid- stream.

He's the bus driver and I am on the bus, so far.

I really don't care for the route, so I may be getting off this ride sooner than later.

If it was up to me?
I take some of the "TV" time him and the Buffoon Pres Sec use on the airwaves then tell every country on the planet......


"Here's the deal-If any terrorist threat starts in YOUR COUNTRY, I am going to send Fire, Brimstone and every GD bomb I have at my disposal to your house, until you nose and your rear bleeds. First warning. You only get one."

And then work it from there.


If we can work two DSs out of NK, why can't BO use his powers of gab to get the Iranian hikers out?

---------

So, WTF did we agree to with that little moron Il?
Why would you sent an ExPrez to pick up on the goods?

What is he hiding?:rolleyes:

[Karen]

Wow, I never thought you were a cynical person. Are you joking?

I grew up with a major distrust of politicians, after all, the first memory I have involving a President is Richard Nixon.

I am not usually a cynical person, really, but when it involves politics and media, I don't really trust much of anyone to tell us the unvarnished truth.
And while I don't think the two journalists intentionally went into North Korea to be captured so they could get a book deal, I've gotta imagine one has been in the works in some publisher's head since the story first broke.

By the way, I have met Bill Clinton. He seemed like a genuinely nice, likable guy.

[blue]

Read George Washington's Farewell Address.

Didnt George Washington own slaves? Didnt George Washington believe that women shouldnt be allowed to vote or own property.

[blue]

He seemed like a genuinely nice, likable guy.

I think thats why I voted against him twice.

[RICHARD]

"The door opened and there was President Clinton.":eek:


--------------------------

The local news just released the news that Paula Abdul will not be coming back to American Idol.

She is going to North Korea as part of a deal for the two 'journalists' that were released.

Kim Jung Il is producing a show where he will compete against himself as the next Korean Idol and he specifically asked that Paula be sent in exchange for the captured women.

Al Gore, the loser of the "Next American President" competition, would not confirm or deny the report.

[Grace]

"The door opened and there was President Clinton.":eek:


I just read that account - can you even imagine what must have gone through their minds when they saw him !!

I'm so glad they are back home, with their families.

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/homepage/hp8-5-09m.jpg

[RICHARD]

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/homepage/hp8-5-09m.jpg

Ling: THANK GOD I'M HOME! I HAD to sit next to Bill the whole flight home-Talk about a tense trip!

I am sorry for being so glib- It was cool they got out and I bet that either one of them might have thought, "Hmmmm, Bill or Labor Camp, Bill or Labor Camp...I'll take my chances with Bill.....":eek:

I also had to laugh about the statements in the media about HC not being there to escort the group back to the U.S.

She should have, to make sure nothing 'untoward' happened on the plane.

[Grace]

How it came about. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25822.html)

[RICHARD]

How it came about. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25822.html)

Why does the headline of the story make me laugh?:eek:

[Edwina's Secretary]

Tough crowd! I wonder...if Walter Cronkite had been taken captive while in say...Viet Nam....would he have been called a bimbo for being there? Do you think he went to Viet Nam to get a book deal? Or should that be the ubiquitous...."moron"....

Anyway...if these journalist write a book about their experience...I am sure it will be a far more interesting one than Ms. Palin will write about her abbreviated experience as a "cut and run" governor!

[lizbud]

Hopefully both these women have learned their lesson.


Morons.:rolleyes::mad:


What lesson would that be Richard ? By the way, do you know what project they were working on when they were arrested?

[RICHARD]

What lesson would that be Richard ? By the way, do you know what project they were working on when they were arrested?

Don't walk around another country with a sharp stick trying to figure out the pain tolerance of the local constabulary?

http://www.lazygranch.com/images/fg/fgsg1a.jpg

That is a picture of the signs around Area 51. You know, the UFO base. So if we post that many signs around an AFB, there are probably half as many on the SK/NK border and a whole bunch of armed people running around. I am also sure that Ding A Ling and her friend were doing something wrong-One story is that they crossed over the border to pick up rocks? As keepsakes?

Again, some journalists are way too stupid to be let out of the U.S. and too stupid to be roaming around the border area of a country that we do not see eye to eye with.

I flipped to the Current Channel and am watching Ling a dinga Ding Dong reporting from Brazil and trying to expose a slave trade...One great comment?

As the cops she hooks up with go looking for slaves, she looks into the camera and says, "I don't know where we are going with the police". Great, ride around with a bunch of cops that may take you out to the country side, have their way with you, maybe gut you like a fish after?

And no one will ever know.


I saw her sister come out and do a nice dodge on the question about how and why they were busted in NK. If they won't admit to being stupid and acting like kids-'nyah, nyah, nyah, I'm stepping on your turf!!!!!!!'-they deserved a free vakay at the NK hilton.

----------------------

What project was she working on when she got busted??

Her stay in NK has overshadowed her work-Can we send her back to finish?



Let's say that one of the transparent things that we agreed to was that we would not sanction them or make any comments that were critical of their nukes, then they drop one on Japan or Hawaii?

Seriously, notice all the news about the nuke arsenal have pretty much dropped off the radar. We were panicked around the 4th of July that NK was jacking missles into the air and now no one is paying attention?

Good thing Hawaii is far away from the West Coast. I heard that radiation poisoning really sucks.:eek:

------------------

On the tube at the moment, Ling is in China trying to access sites on the web, that the government has blocked. She plugs in some software called ULTRA REACH, then goes opening up the links.

She looks at the camera and slyly says, "I hope I don't get into any trouble!"

Again,

Cuando le buscas tres pies a el gato? Vas a mirar cuatro!

[lizbud]

I grew up with a major distrust of politicians, after all, the first memory I have involving a President is Richard Nixon.




Well, Nixon would do that to you. :)

[RICHARD]

Hey!

I just saw our intrepid reporter doing a story about Haitian gangs!

She's got on the obligatory baby blue U.N. helmet and flak jacket on, riding with some of the peacekeepers on patrol in Port Au Prince, Haiti!

SHe states that UNPKs get shot at frequently, so to get to the gang areas, she hires a private driver and that will take her into the area and show her around.

Hmmm, smart thinking!:eek:

------------

Reporters and journalists?

Reporters usually get to hang around because they are there, often in between the two sides of the story. Most of them get permission from the people who control the ground the operate on.

Journalists, more often than not, run around the area and 'journal'-What was the Iranian gal, the one that was championing women's right in the country, doing that got her tossed in the clink?

Look, It's not really proper form to go to someone's house, look into their medicine chests, then broadcast the contents. Look at the paraonia from Iran, NK, China-So, do we really blame some backwards country, with even more backwards rules, when they get nervous because a camera/journalist are in the area?

I am all for equal rights for everyone. But, I get a little uneasy when people, especially U.S. citizens, start running around and publically shake their fingers at some government because they (Fill in the Blank) to their people.

Many of us want to get out of the Mid East, yet they want the U.S. and the world to know and to do something about the little things going on other spots.

Yep we could invade Indonesia and liberate all the slaves making tennis shoes for us, or better yet, whoever makes those cheap circuit boards in our TV sets that go south in the middle of the Super Bowl!;)

I wonder where the two will make a triumphant return to the job they love so well?:eek:

[Grace]

Richard - do you remember your thoughts back in 1983, when Jesse Jackson, then a potential candidate for President, went to to Syria to secure the release of a captured American flier, Navy Lt. Robert O. Goodman, Jr?

I know the situations were different - Goodman was shot down over Lebanon while on a mission to bomb Syrian positions in that country.

Many people thought Jesse was grandstanding; Reagan had misgivings. But he got the job done - and then didn't even get nominated.

Were you as cynical back then as you seem to be now?

Susan Estrich, in her column today, talks about this event. She finishes it up with these thoughts -

I don't care if the North Koreans are using him, using us, using sob sisters like me. Two girls are coming home. Two families can breathe again.

North Korea's welcome mat was a well-staged performance by an outlaw nation, but it's also something of a relief. At least they want to look better in the eyes of the world. They want to look like a regular country, the kind of place that presidents and former presidents visit, the kind of place with pretty little girls in fancy dresses carrying beautiful flowers.

Of course North Korea is not a regular country. We don't sit around wondering whether regular countries can bomb Hawaii. Or whether they will. North Korea doesn't play by the rules that we think, generally, make "states" less dangerous, which is why the girls were seized, why the families held their breaths, why it took Bill Clinton to bring them home.

Still. Being used is better than being bombed. Lives are more precious than photo opps. It's still a happy ending, and there aren't so many of those to celebrate that I'm going to give this one up.

Emphasis is mine.

[blue]

Tough crowd! I wonder...if Walter Cronkite had been taken captive while in say...Viet Nam....would he have been called a bimbo for being there? Do you think he went to Viet Nam to get a book deal? Or should that be the ubiquitous...."moron"....

Yes.

Mr Cronkite should have kept his opinion to himself about the war and just reported the news.


What lesson would that be Richard ? By the way, do you know what project they were working on when they were arrested?

Dont enter a country illeagaly should have been the leason, regaurdless of the project they where working on. NK isnt the USA, NK actually enforces their laws on who enters their country.

[RICHARD]

Richard - do you remember your thoughts back in 1983, when Jesse Jackson, then a potential candidate for President, went to to Syria to secure the release of a captured American flier, Navy Lt. Robert O. Goodman, Jr?

I know the situations were different - Goodman was shot down over Lebanon while on a mission to bomb Syrian positions in that country.

Many people thought Jesse was grandstanding; Reagan had misgivings. But he got the job done - and then didn't even get nominated.

Were you as cynical back then as you seem to be now?



I was LUI back then.

Hey! We are finally bringing Scott Speicher home. Which politicians do we thank for that?

Hey, what every happened to the F-111 that was lost when we went to bomb Ghaddafi? Did they ever come back?

Andy McNab walked his way out of Iraq, on his own, after a huge effup happened on his way to kill Iraqis..

I am very cynical.

Getting a serviceperson out of a jam is very different than what these two were into.

These two were being cute, way too cute to even bother with. Watch CURRENT and check out all the hijnks this moron was into...She seems to be always working outside the rules to get a tape.

Drive around town and find the house with the meanest dog in the yard.
Try to sneak over the fence and walk around.:eek:

Remember the incident on the SK/NK border where people were hacked to death- Panmujon?

Wanna bet that neither one admits to crossing the border?

The big, bad border guards swept down from the hills, and kidnapped them from SK territory?;)

---------------

Here. Let's do it like a Tom Clancy novel?

Two western 'journalists' cross the NK border for a story, and are seen by the NK goons. They run to the south, get fired up and killed when the NK border guards chase them into SK.
The SK guards, not knowing that the "journalists" are there and being chased, begin to fire up the NKs.

Everyone starts to shoot bigger and bigger guns until some one decides a really big bomb will solve everything.

The End.

------------

P.S.
I remember the buffoon, Daryl Gates, who at the time was the police chief of El Lay and father of the modern day SWAT team, wanted Carter to give them the go ahead to fly to Iran and save the hostages.

Lovely thought and the same idea as journalists going to different countries and acting stupid.

-----------

I vote for Margaret Cho to play Ling.