illinoisreview

Byrne: A pawn for a pawn?

Today's Dennis Byrne column in the Trib makes an interesting suggestion as to how to handle Putin.  Is Byrne crazy, or crazy like a fox?

Russian boss-man Vladimir Putin probably figured he scored a big one for his reawakening empire by barging into the pro-Western, democratic nation of Georgia.

Fine, if that's how Putin Bonaparte wants to play it, we'll take . . . hmmmm . . . Cuba. We'll roll right in, just like the Russian tanks and fleet rolled into Georgia, and say, "Hello, Fidel. Good-bye Fidel."

Why not? The conventional wisdom is that we can't do a lot about Georgia, now a Russian captive nation like Soviet days of old, because ultimately we fear a direct face-off between U.S. and Russian military forces. Thus, we are limited to diplomacy and sanctions. We've got little to offer Putin that would appease his restore-the-Russian-Empire dementia, so diplomacy amounts to nothing more than a stink in a windstorm. Sanctions? To get the UN to impose any, the Security Council would have to approve them, over Russia's veto. We could impose our own sanctions, which might be considered an act of war. Throw Russia out of the global economic powerhouse of the Group of Eight or reject its application for membership in the World Trade Organization? Maybe, but who knows?

Link: The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, proprietor.

Chinese Pastor arrested and escapes Beijing officials

BEIJING,

August 10 /Christian Newswire/ -- Submitted by Beijing Church Reporter, Zhang Lujia: Today, President Bush visited TSPM's Kuanjie Church established by the government and attended a service. As a result of this, Brother Hua Huiqi, renowned Christian social activist in Beijing, was arrested once again by the Chinese police. Photo: pastor Hua Huiqi

At about 6 a.m. this morning Beijing time, brother Hua Huiqi and his 51-year-old brother Hua Huilin were illegally arrested by the Chinese police on their way to Kuanjie Church. The two brothers were detained in the courtyard of Hong Kong New World Development Limited Company in the vicinity of Chongwen Gate of Beijing. At about noon, Hua Huiqi took an opportunity and fled. He is now at large.

Over 10 years ago, Hua Huiqi was baptized at Kuanjie Church. Later, he began to worship in house churches. As the Olympic Games were scheduled to be held in Beijing, Hua Huiqi's movement came under the surveillance of the Chinese police in the past few months. As a result, Brother Hua and his family had to go back to Kuanjie Church to attend the services.

Do Olympic Games Stand for Anything Good?

by Mark Rhoads

The Washington Post reported yesterday that dissident Chinese farmers who live hundreds of miles from Beijing have been thrown in jail due to a government campaign against all dissent in advance of Olympic events that start on Friday. "The Olympic Games have become the occasion for a broad crackdown against dissidents, gadflies and malcontents this summer.

Although human rights activists say they have no accurate estimate of how many people have been imprisoned, they believe the figure to be in the thousands." CLICK HERE to read the full story. There is of course a legitimate need for security at the Olympics. The venues are a tempting target for terrorists. But Chinese officials appear to be too eager to use that excuse to camouflage a very broad sweep against government critics.

A Very Bad Call Mr. President

by Mark Rhoads

The White House press office on July 3 said President Bush will attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Beijing. During 14 months in 1974 and 1975, former President George H. W. Bush, father of President George W. Bush, served President Gerald Ford as the Head of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China. He did not have the title of "ambassador" from the US because the US still recognized the government of the Republic of China on Taiwan at that time and did not switch until Jimmy Carter started his term in 1977.

But since 1974, many in the Bush family have always had a soft spot for business opportunities associated with the Communist regime in Beijing and that kow-towing obession has been beneficial to the Communist Chinese and effective political cover for a regime with an absolutely horrible record on human rights. As recently as 2003, the elder President Bush was serving the board of The Carlysle Group, a very large private equity investment firm doing business in China.      

God Bless the Irish for Being Stubborn and Free

by Mark Rhoads

No matter how many times a new European constitution gets defeated by the voters, the bureaucrats in Brussels just keep trying to revive it by skating around their own rules. In a welcome surprise last Friday, voters in Ireland rejected the lastest scheme for more complex, more bureaucratic, and a less free European Union constitution called the Lisbon Treaty.

Jack Cafferty, for once, is right

by Mark Rhoads

Southern Illinois politicians used to be very fond of the sage axiom "Even a busted clock is right twice a day." I am not normally a fan of Jack Cafferty at CNN who is often a tiresome windbag. But when he is right, he's right. Supposedly ethnic Chinese in Los Angeles are demostrating support for the current Beijing party line in demanding that Cafferty and CNN apologize for Cafferty's recent characterization of Chinese political leaders as the same old gang of "thugs and goons" who have led the Communist regime for almost sixty years. Now there are apologists for American businesses who see profit in China who have previously jumped all over me for my condemnation of Chinese Army killings in Tibet on March 15-16. They will no doubt jump again.

Iraq: Peace, Love and Understanding

by Matt Gauntt

Elvis Costello had a song years ago entitled "Peace, Love and Understanding". In it, he wrote the lyrics:

So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?

Knowing a little bit about Mr. Costello's politics, I would guess that he and I might not agree with the following political analysis, but his words match the point that I'd like to make. When it comes to Iraq, we need a little love and understanding with our Iraqi counterparts, if we expect to arrive at peace.

Many in the main stream press and on the left side of the political aisle in Congress have suggested numerous maladies facing Iraq and the war effort. Among some of those maladies, is the Iraqi's lack of ability to get to a consensus government. While it is easy for liberals to look down their noses at the Iraqi's, it might serve all of us well to take a short stroll down history's memory lane to see just how well we did as a young country.

New Proof of Reagan's Wisdom

by Phyllis Schlafly

The U.S. Navy gave Ronald Reagan a dramatic 25th anniversary gift on February 21. A Navy missile raced into outer space and destroyed an orbiting satellite, thereby providing new proof of the vision President Reagan proclaimed in his then-sensational televised address on March 23, 1983.

While the Navy SM-3 missile didn't knock down an incoming nuclear missile, the direct hit on a satellite proved again that our anti-missile technology is mature and reliable, and that an effective anti-missile system is within our grasp. Traveling at 6,000 miles per hour after being launched from a cruiser in the Pacific, the SM-3 missile was even more accurate than anyone had predicted because it struck precisely at the satellite's dangerous fuel tank.

The successful kill of the satellite also confirmed the ability of the SM-3 to intercept at a higher elevation than had ever been tested before. It revalidated the Bush Administration's expenditure of $10 billion a year on anti-missile defenses.

Link: New Proof of Reagan's Wisdom.

IR Focus: Jimmy Lee, GOP candidate in 11th CD

UTICA -- When U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller announced this past fall that he had decided not to seek re-election in 2008, Republicans in the 11th CD scrambled to find a successor. Just before the December petition filing deadline passed, three GOP candidates emerged: Utica resident Jimmy Lee, New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann and Terry Heenan, also of New Lenox.

The 11th CD race has almost been totally ignored by the district's mainstream media until just this week, when a call for debates among primary candidates was sent out by a new name and face on Illinois' political landscape: LaSalle County's Jimmy Lee.

Nuclear Fog

Guest Commentary by Chris Robling

HBO’s “White Light / Black Rain, The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” premieres Monday August 6 on the cable network.  A documentary by Stephen Okazaki, an Oscar recipient American filmmaker, it fills an empty space that has existed when we have considered the war-ending use of nuclear weapons on August 6 and 9, 1945.  Okazaki simply lets victims and participants tell their stories.  He shows how individuals of both groups became survivors of the same events. 

It is an extraordinary film.  I saw it at a preview July 31.  Okazaki has done something unique – screening first person accounts of the brilliant summer mornings on which, in a millionth of a second, millions of lives changed forever.