Category: Uncategorized
Another General Dissents
Marine General Gregory Newbold was Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He quit in disgust a few months before the war in Iraq was launched, frustrated by the “zealots” determined to go to war. Here’s a quote from a column in Time Magazine that captures the feelings I have had from the beginning. These people will burn for what they’ve done.
“My sincere view is that the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions–or bury the results. “
More Bush Lies
The quote below frustrates me. I had been repeated by many critics of Bush that, reports of his intentional leak of classified information to attack Joe Wilson include no evidence that he knew about the leak of Valerie Plame. Baloney! Haven’t they ever heard of “circumstantial evidence”? Sure, it may not be dispositive in a court of law, but circumstantial evidence can still be very persuasive.
In this case, we’re supposed to believe that Bush and Cheney talked about how to discredit Joe Wilson without discussing his wife’s supposed role in sending him to Niger. We know Cheney knew about it. We know he discussed it with Libby. We know they were all obsessed with trashing Wilson. But yet, there’s “no evidence” that Bush knew that Valerie Plame’s employment was going to be part of the messaging in the “Attack Wilson” campaign.
On the left, to believe that canard is naivete in the extreme. On the right, to believe it is cynicism.
Playing Hardball With Secrets – New York Times: “We have seen no evidence that Mr. Bush authorized the outing of Mrs. Wilson. But at the least, revealing selected bits of intelligence, including information that officials may well have known to be false, seems like a serious abuse of power. It’s not even clear that Mr. Bush can legally declassify intelligence at whim. “
Fields of Freedom
So, here I am at the premier of the movie Fields of Freedom, a short film about the battle of Gettysburg. Cool washington event with much glitterati. Jack Kemp is here handing his business card to Sen john Thune, who looks a bit bemused. Here comes Jack nown waddling down to the front row. (I’m sitting in my prime seat, front and centet, typing on my blackberry).
Had a great conversation with a couple of Civil War re-enactors who are providing color for the event. I asked one how he got into the “wonderful obsession.”. He’s about 28 and told a touching story about the moment his Dad allowed him to come into his private study where he had all his Civil War paraphrenalia. “Once I saw that, I was hooked,” he said.
The movie was a very realistic portrayal of the actual battle, focusing on Pickett’s Charge. I was a bit disappointed that there was very little historical perspective offered. But it was only a 1/2 hour movie and I guess they decided that showing the battle as it actually was would be the best “hook” for visitors to the battlefield, where the movie will be shown on an IMax screen. What does come through the movie loud and clear is the insanity of the battle. These Confederate soldiers marched directly into withering fire, both cannon and rifles. It was suicidal but they kept marching to the point where they almost broke through the Northern line. The portrayal of the “High water mark” was very compelling.
Other luminaries that were there were former Senator Don Nickles and Doreen Gentzler, local TV anchor.
Delay Departs
Obviously, Delay’s departure is a disappointment to me as a Democrat. But, as an American, I have to celebrate his exit. He’s a corrupt, arrogant, sanctimonious cad. There is a small (very small) part of me that respects his political skills. But any admiration of his expertise is overwhelmed by the evil ends to which he applied these skills.
I’ll never forget the day when I was working on the Hill that I encountered him close up and personal. I was walking with my employer, a senior member of the House. We were coming from a meeting of an ethics task force that had been considering limitations on the gift rules in Congress. You know, the more things change….
In any event, Delay came up to my boss and pleaded with him not to ban golf trips. “Please don’t ban the golf trips!” he whined. A very prescient incident.
And now he quits Congress because he doesn’t want the Democrats to “steal” his seat. That theft could only take place with the complicity of fifty plus one percent of his constituents. He apparently doesn’t trust the people to make the right judgment in the next election. Or maybe he does.
Good riddance.
Whew!
One little epilogue. I almost didn’t make it out of Tokyo. I was so immersed in the blog posts below in the airport lounge that I lost track of the time. And when I did check the time online, I checked Hong Kong time, instead of Tokyo time, which is different.
So, after the post below, I just started idly wandering around the lounge looking for one of those flight status boards. No rush, I knew I had time. When I couldn’t find one, I decided to go out to the gate area to look for one, again, taking my sweet time.
As it happened, my gate was directly across from the door of the airport lounge. When I exited, I looked at the gate, which had a big sign that said “Final Boarding.” There was a man at the gate getting ready to shut it off. I ran up to him to confirm that indeed they were about to leave. Yikes!!! I ran back to my little corner of the lounge, slammed my laptop shut and ran to the gate where they closed the door behind me. Close call.
I’m now at LAX, happy to be back in the USA.
Take Me Home
So, that’s about it. Here’s one more Hong Kong skyline shot that I took out of my hotel window before I left.
It was an amazing trip. For those who enjoyed the touristy stuff at the beginning of this travelogue, sorry I had to slip into a lot of FH business. But, given the fact that the company paid the significant expense of the trip, you’ll understand why I had to actually do work.
Asia is an extraordinary place and I do hope to find ways to continue to be involved in the region. It is clearly very foreign in may ways, but it is remarkable how similary many of their challenges are. I was amazed to read in the paper on the way to the airport about the legislation pending in China that would criminalize unauthorized domestic spying. And listening to the local people who spoke to us in Beijing gave new meaning, really new meaning, to the phrase “All politics is local.” Even in undemocratic societies, the opinion of the public matters and cannot be ignored.
That bodes well for the business I’m in.
The end.
I will return to ranting about George Bush and the Republicans after I get over my jet lag.
Hong Kong
As it happened, while Hong Kong is the city in which I wanted to spend the most free time, it turned out to be the least. I was on the ground for about 20 hours. Oh well, hope I get to go back.
But it is clearly the most awesome of the four cities I visited. It is simply breaktaking in its scale. Vast numbers of high rise apartment buildings, a skyline that I believe beats out New York, an energy and confidence that is pervasive. The word that came to mind while driving in was “muscularity.” It exudes strength and power. Everything is big and bold. Even the port impresses with row upon row of massive cranes that give you a hint of the amount of commerce that flows through this city.
My only activities were to go into the office for a brainstorm on a challenging public affairs client and then to go to dinner with a number of the staff from the office. Here’s a picture of me with Bernd Buschausen from our Berlin office and Nancy Payne, formerly of the DC office, now general manager in Hong Kong. The picture doesn’t do justice to the amazing view from her corner office.
Nancy took me on a whirlwind shopping tour that allowed me to check that last few items off my list. She clearly knows the system and is a tough negotiator. I not only found what I needed, I’m sure I saved a few bucks with Nancy accompanying me.
Here’s a street shot that I liked. Nothing particularly significant, but seems to capture the scene a bit.
From shopping, we took the famous Star Ferry from Hong Kong to Kowloon.
Dinner was at a place called Hutong. It’s on one of the upper floors in a high rise across the harbor provding a magnificent view of the Hong Kong skyline. Many of the building have neon lights whose only purpose is to show well at night. At 8:00 am every night, they do a laser show, which was somewhat obscured by the low cloud cover. You should click on the picture to get a large view.
The food was “fusion” food and I’m not really sure what food types were “fused.” It all seemed pretty foreign to me. Of course, I mean that in a good way. Fortunately, we had our colleague An Wei to do the ordering. Many courses of mysterious dishes. A lot of good cheer for our final night.
Bipartisanship Lives!
I always remember periodic news stories about Asian legislators coming to blows on the floor of their Houses of Parliament. Guys jumping over chairs with fists flying over some rice subsidy or something. I just assumed that politics is a bit more unrestrained, at least among the democracies, over here.
I don’t know if that ever happened in the Korean parliament, but those images came to mind when we entered the lobby of the hotel after dinner. Madame Doh greeted a man who wandered over very enthusiastically and he returned the expression. Yvonne told me that he was the leader of the opposition party. Then, moments later, another distinguished grey haired man arrived on the scene with the same lively reaction to and from Madame Doh and her husband. Turns out that guy was the head of the ruling party. They all seemed very comfortable together.
So, it looks like they follow the Tip O’Neill, Bob Michel model over here, kick each other’s butt during the day, drink together at night. Here’s a picture. Not sure what the significance was of the fact that Madame Doh stayed out of this picture. She did say at dinner that many of the male legislators chafed at her outspokenness. She clearly didn’t give a shit.
Hello, Hong Kong, I must be going
Sadly, I blew through Hong Kong so quickly, that I didn’t even get to post while on the ground. This is the part of the trip (the end) where blogging become more of a chore. I’m in the Tokyo airport waiting for my flight to LA. So, I’ll try to recap briefly the final hours of the trip.
After our tour of Seoul, I visited the FH office there. A beehive of activity as they prepared for what they expected to be the biggest pitch of the year, a nuclear power company. Too bad they had to host the visiting yankees, while preparing for that event. But they never gave a hint that our visit was an inconvenience. In fact, frankly, they ran us ragged….in a good way. Here’s a picture.
Yvonne arranged dinner with a very influential woman, Madame Doh, the Korean Ambassador for Trourism. We met her and her husband, a famous former congressman, at a Korean restuarant in a hotel where she was attending some major event. Of course, with the horrendous traffic, it took us an hour to get there.
No sooner had we sat down than she launched into her description of the things she was doing as ambassador, asked me about myself and FH and just generally dominated the conversation. Her husband didn’t utter a word during the entire dinner. But she was delightful. Funny, charismatic and very impressive. She’s clearly a powerful force in Korean politics and I was very impressed that Yvonne had this connection.
Here we are after the dinner.
Touring Seoul
The head of our Seoul office, Yvette Park, took us on a driving tour of the city. We saw the “Blue House,” which is the equivalent of our White House. Interestingly, the President’s home and offices are a thirty minute drive from the Parliament. It seems they don’t see each other much.
We visited an old market, with a number of antique shops and art galleries. One of the galleries had the heads of famous people scattered around an alley on springs, kind of wierd. Here we are with the head of George Bush on a pike. Sorry the picture didn’t come out too well, but, trust me, that’s George Bush’s head bouncing around. Right after we took this picture, a women ran up and, in a heavy accent said, “I love George Bush!” and embraced the head. Yvette commented dismissively, “She’s Japanese,” as though knowing that fact would explain her bizarre behavior.
