Will Incident Escalate Between China and Japan, Right Wing Roungup

On Newt's Meltdown:
Kathleen Parker
Maureen Dowd
On Tea Party Victories:
Steve Kornacki
EJ Dionne Jr
Dana Milbank

“People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz. I see evil all around me every day.” - Newt Gingrich

"Why not go full-throttle into crackpottery? From Gainesville to Ground Zero, it's all the rage." - Kathleen Parker

"That's probably true: Tea Party candidates this year have voiced opposition to masturbation, support for prohibition and a fear that bicycle-sharing would lead to world government." - Dana Milbank

As if there's not enough bad vibes in the world, now it seems that Togo is dissing Bahrain., by sending over some second-rate "fake" team, instead of its national soccer team, to play the Bahrainian national team. Bahrain won 3-0.

Bahrain went through all of the proper channels, arranged for special visas, only to be handed a completely different team roster minutes before the game... So, the question is why? Are there international soccer mafias trying to make a few bucks, or did someone try to intentionally embarrass Bahrain, who has put in an offer to host the next World Cup games? Could this possibly have anything to do with the recent Palestinian peace talks in Cairo, does Togo feel left out of the process? Or could it be engineered by Iranian intelligence, meant to create havoc and mistrust among the Gulf states and certain South Seas island nations? I think I have touched on all of the conspiracy theories surrounding this mishap, because we all know how much politics controls sports; we'll see what develops in the days to come...

Perhaps Togo's shenanigans are a symptom of the high weirdness escalating around the South china Sea. First, we have the paranoia of the North Koreans directed at the taunting by South Korea and the US war maneuvers. Then, we have a change of government in Japan over whether the US would move a military base off of Okinawa. Yesterday saw another election in Japan, the basic issue being which candidate was more charismatic and what kind of relationship they would forge with the US.

Recently, an incident occurred between a Chinese fishing boat and a Japanese Coast Guard ship, which ended with the Japanese ship being dented and banged up, and the Chinese boat captain currently gracing a Tokyo jail cell. Japan may try to put the captain on trial, and China is going ballistic in its rhetoric trying to obtain the release of the man, being very aggressive and threatening: "It will be the last straw for Beijing if Japan insists on trying the Chinese captain for his fishing operation off the Diaoyu Islands, in the East China Sea," said the Global Times. "Although Japanese leaders hope the fishing boat issue will be seen as a stand-alone incident and will not hurt the two countries' normal relations, it is impossible for China's protest to remain verbal only."

More ominous, if this incident begins a naval battle between the two countries, is the US moving in several submarines to dock in Japan. This is a watery chess match that isn't getting any attention in the US press, despite Hillary Clinton's hawkish pronouncements of protecting US interests. Or, maybe everyone is getting together for a big beer kegger and will jointly invade some neutral country which won't have a clue beforehand. In that case, New Zealand is toast...




With Christine O'Donnell's win in the Delaware primary, I wanted to write about the rise of women in conservative, right wing extremist politics, but then there were also the wins by Joe Miller, Rand Paul, and Ken buck. Despite Ken asking for people to vote for him because he doesn't wear high heels, these could all just be the pigs wearing lipstick that we've heard so much about...

Usually, in the formation of a cult, its formed around a charismatic male, and the women play a subservient role. But in the tea partys, it seems that women are being empowered to enter politics as never before. In many ways, this is the true death knell of the old Republican Party, as these candidates have shoved out the more politically correct Republicans. If any of them get elected to Congress, they will spend their short-lived careers throwing as many monkey wrenches into the works as possible. If you are an old sixties burnout, this is pure anarchistic street theater at its best, get a good seat in the audience and bring your own popcorn because you won't want to miss any jaw-grinding moment...

We the people have been griping and complaining about our government, the structure of the bureaucracy that begets uncaring policies and inherent graft and corruption for almost 300 years. Certainly, I've heard complaints all my life, and made my share. Maybe the climate is ripe to sit down and make serious changes to the structure of our government and how it does business. Robert Gates has made a good start that has reduced the Pentagon's spending by over $100 billion, let's see what the legislative and judicial branches can do to top him...