Free Republic

With the situation in North Korea having gotten pretty dicey in recent months, Gov. Bill Richardson – a favorite of the North Korean government – may be heading back there next week. That’s according to the Washington Post: “Adm. Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, is off this week to South Korea to tell officials that the United States is standing with them. And there’s talk that outgoing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson may be off to North Korea next week for a private chat with top officials at the invitation of key people in the nuclear crowd...

South Korea and the United States will push ahead with a joint naval exercise to warn North Korea against making attacks on the South, officials in Seoul and Washington said. But a defense ministry official told the JoongAng Ilbo that the two countries have arrived at a compromise to avoid angering China, which objected to the exercise being held in the Yellow Sea near its own territorial waters. “We will hold drills in both the Yellow Sea and the East Sea,” the official said. In addition, the U.S.S. George Washington, a U.S. Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, will participate in the exercise...

Brilliant, Pres. Obama. Simply brilliant. Way to go to fortify relations with our reliable allies in the region, particularly with a key lynchpin like JAPAN.The upshot in the original Japanese was that Japan was snubbed in D.C. for an individual "summit meeting" with Obama, while Obama on the other hand kowtowed and gave the Red Chinese the red carpet (literally) treatment.Note, no "kowtow" to Prime Minister Hatoyama (Japan) that there was to Red Chinese President Hu Jin Tao. This I assure you was not lost on Tokyo (nor Beijing, Seoul, Pyongyang, Taipei, Moscow, Teheran, Damascus, Tel Aviv etc for that...

President Barack Obama greets Chinese President Hu Jintao during the official arrivals for the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, Monday April 12, 2010

President Barack Obama greets Chinese President Hu Jintao during the official arrivals for the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, Monday April 12, 2010.

U.S. envoy Bosworth arrives in Pyongyang: N. Korean media SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. envoy on North Korea arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday, the North's media said, in the highest-level visit to the communist nation since the Barack Obama administration took power in Washington early this year. Stephen Bosworth and his entourage "arrived in Sunan Airport" just outside the capital, the Korean Central News Agency said. Bosworth departed from the U.S. Osan air base in South Korea at around 2 p.m. on a three-day mission to bring the North back to a multilateral forum on its nuclear program

Via BNO News: Yonhap: Former U.S. President Clinton will visit North Korea on Tuesday to win the release of two detained American journalists. No link to story yet

As Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner heads to China, critics who hoped the Obama administration would bring change to U.S. policy toward that country are voicing disappointment. So far, the new administration’s economic policies on China do not differ from the Bush administration’s, according to domestic manufacturing groups and their supporters in Congress. While some note the new administration has been office a short time and remain hopeful change will come, others see trade irritants are being pushed to the side by an administration worried about other priorities. This week’s missile test by North Korea could make it even more difficult...

by Multiple Personality Disorder09-Apr-2009  A transcript of a senior staff meeting in the White House has been leaked to underground blogsphere.  Meanwhile the White House officials remain mum about the validity of the transcript, possibly because according to unsubstantiated reports, recording of the conversation also exists.  The following is a part of what is claimed to be the conversion between the President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, code named OB1 in the transcript, and the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodman Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, code named Hill Billy:   Hill Billy:...

Did President Obama bow to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at last week's G-20 meeting? Conservatives say yes – and some aren't happy about it. The White House, meanwhile, says the president did nothing of the kind. Ben Smith has the story. As he notes, the president met Abdullah last week in London and appeared to bow to the Saudi leader, prompting outrage from some conservative quarters. "The President of the United States executed a bow to a monarch so deep that he literally had to take a step back to balance himself," wrote Hot Air. "No American President should...

A photo of President Obama apparently bowing in front of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is stirring a royal-size controversy. The photo and a video were largely ignored by mainstream media outlets but created outrage in some quarters. “Such an act is a traditional obeisance befitting a king's subjects, not his peer. There is no precedent for U.S. presidents bowing to Saudi or any other royals,” said the conservative Washington Times. An Obama aide speaking anonymously denied that the president was bowing. “It wasn’t a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he’s taller than King Abdullah,” the...

The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London, a scene that drew criticism on the right and praise from some Arab outlets. "It wasn't a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah," said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.The Washington Times called the alleged bow a  "shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate" and said it violated centuries of American tradition of not deferring to royalty. The Weekly Standard, meanwhile, noted that American protocol apparently rules...

The Secret behind Obama's Bow to the King08/04/2009By Muhammad Diyab If Arab poet Abu Tayyeb Al-Mutanabbi had not written the verse "I sleep soundly without a worry, while the people remain sleepless and anxious [about what I have done]" then American President Barack Obama might well have said it first, for this epitomizes the situation that he is facing. Many Americans have been concerning themselves, even now, with Barak Obama's religious affiliation, and whether he is a Christian, as he has said, or a Muslim whose political ambitions have forced him to conceal his faith. Public opinion polls indicate...

Most Americans like having a leader whom foreigners adore. But some wish he was feared a bit more AFTER Barack Obama’s first long jaunt abroad as president, Americans are in two minds. Some are delighted that so many foreigners love him. Others fret, like Machiavelli, that it is often better to be feared than loved, and that the people who ought to fear America don’t take Mr Obama seriously. ...North Korea, which has already made at least one illegal nuclear bomb, fired a test missile over Japan. Though the missile crashed into the sea, many Republicans think it illuminated Mr...

Let the new president grow into the job -- but he'd better do it fast! Plus: Readers ask about everything from talk radio, morality, Mary McCarthy, and a big movie about a sinking ship.In your column, you say, "President Obama has been ill-served by his advisors and staff..."CharlesPennsylvania You are absolutely correct! The buck stops with the top executive. But we all know how little executive experience Barack Obama has had. He was elected for his vision and his steady, deliberative character, not his résumé. For better or worse, Obama is learning as he goes -- and surely most fair-minded...

President Obama prepared to end his first overseas trip at the nexus of Europe and Asia having received a crash course in the strengths -- and limits -- of his popularity when it came to forging foreign policy... ...Obama mugged for the cameras with Russia's Dmitry Medvedev, chatted with Chinese President Hu Jintao, and kept tea time at Buckingham Palace. His few stumbles included giving the queen an iPod on the heels of widespread mockery over his earlier gift of a DVD set to Brown, and appearing to bow upon shaking hands with Saudi King Abdullah, an image that has...

Even with the heavy media blackout - the video of our so-called president bowing down to the Saudi King, has made it onto the "most viewed" index at YouTube. This is starting to go viral.

Michelle Obama up close and personal with the Queen - how lovely ...Michelle Obama's popularity now tops her husband's in America, and if anyone needs lessons in diplomacy (or a White House Head of Protocol – the position is reportedly unfilled), it's the president rather than his wife. On blogs of the more robust Republican sort, there is real clamour about President Obama greeting the king of Saudi Arabia. The video shows Obama lolloping into view, extending a hand and bending forward – from the waist – into what you can only call a deep bow. President Bush was once...

Can't post the article "due to copyright complaint". At the link, an article in an Australian daily about the Obama kowtow. The article points out that the US MSM isn't touching this.