Many of my fellow conservative are often heard lambasting the concept of the right to privacy as being a fallacy, nothing could be further from the truth.  Just because the words are not explicitly stated anywhere in the bill of rights and subsequent amendments the exsistence of such a right is easy enough to see by looking at the plain meaning of the words of the fourth, ninth and fourteenth amendments.  their protections and inhabitions create a clear and readily identifable concept of privacy that was in the monds of the men who wrote those words. The words below offer a fine insight into the view of the court on this issue when the right to privacy was first articulated.

     Justice John Marshall Harlan II famously wrote, "the full scope of the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause cannot be found in or limited by the precise terms of the specific guarantees elsewhere provided in the Constitution. This 'liberty' is not a series of isolated points pricked out in terms of the taking of property; the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures; and so on. It is a rational continuum which, broadly speaking, includes a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions and purposeless restraints."

      On a point by point basis I will examine and explain how each of the three amendments I have noted above contribute to the exsistence of a right to privacy.  The first and perhaps most pertinent amendment is one of the two least talked about amendments of the constitution along with its companion, the 9^th.

     The enummeration of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

     The 9^th amendment is an interesting creature, massively important, yet terribly ignored by the courts and the legal profession.  This amendment was along with the 10^th the comprimise necessary to get the Federalists to go along with the Anti-Federalists demands for a bill of rights.  To put it simply it allayed the fears of the Federalists that just because a right was not mentioned did not mean it didn't exsist.  Rather it does exsist and it belongs only to the people as only rights can.  Thus it follows that the right to privacy does indeed exsist, even though it was not specifically enummerated, and is given protection equal to the enummerated rights.

     Given that , in the words of John Adams freedoms are more inumerable than grains of sand upon a beach one must indeed tread lightly when it comes to dismissing a right just because it isn't in the constitution as it is written.

    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and siezures will not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, amd particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be siezed.

     The 4^th amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and siezures, but what is more important is what it describes as being protected.  ones person, home, papers and effects (property).  What is this but the right to privacy described in excruiating detail?  This gives people the right to be free from state interference in their lives by forbidding the state from prying into the activities of its citizens.  Except when in posession of a valid warrant the government can not violate your person, home, property and papers except in rare and very specific circumstances.  Here in plain english is the right that so many people have said is not in the constitution is right before them if they would choose to see it.

     Article 1:  All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.  No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privliges and immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shallany State deprive any person of life. liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.

     Article 5:  The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisons of this article.

Note: (Articles 2, 3, and 4 deal with issues related to the civil war and former comfederates and the public debt of the US and are excluded for non-relevance and brevity.) 

     The 14^th amendments contirbution to the right to privacy is the hardest to articulate, and therefore tends to come in for the most criticism.  The basic position is that, each individual must be treated equally by the state, and the stae can not discriminate in the treatment of it's citizens by applying laws to some and not to others.  These cases sighting this facet of the right to privacy tend to revolve around things like birth control, abortion and state laws prohibiting certain types of consenual sexual intercourse.  Generally though I see the 14^th amendment as forcing the restrictions of the 4^th and 9^th amenments onto the states, as the drafters of the 14^th amendment intended.

     No one who espouses to be a conservative can not make a decent argument against the exsistance of the right to privacy, rather they revert to the charge of Judicial activism.  This is largely motivated by a desire to advance the 'conservative' (read moral) agenda on abortion and gay marriage.  Two topics about which I give exactly a damn.  I have a strong libertarian streak when it comes to what consenting adults do to themselves and between themselves.  I believe abortion is morally reprehensable, but that does not give me, or anyone else the right to tell someone else what they can do with thier body.  I want less government at every level, not more, and trying to legislate morality is simply counter productive to that goal.  I hope that this election cycle we can discard the 'moral' issues and focus on the real problems in the world today, like say terrorism and the war, or lowering taxes etc, etc.  Well enough ranting for now.

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From First Multi National Force Iraq and Defend America:

Airmen Patrol Streets of Baghdad.

Diamond heroes visit battlefield heroes.

Soldiers capture kidnapper, free hostage. (Adhamiyah)

Concerned Citizens discover improvised explosive device. (Arab Jabour)

Citizen volunteers vastly improve security in Iraq’s Diyala Province.

Marines team with Iraqi Security Forces.

International news links, Oct. 13, 2007.

Scouts assist in propane distribution. (Arab Jabour)

Coalition forces disrupt terrorist operations; one killed, 17 detained.

New Iraqi Air Force Continues to Grow.

Afghan National Police Continue Progress.

Coalition forces clear former insurgent stronghold.

Renovations Bring Reliable Power.

The ships of the US Navy's Destroyer Squadron 15 Steaming in the Pacific during exercise Valiant Shield '06.

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     Of all the things I mentioned as positives for Welcome to the N.H.K. I forgot to add that this book is populated by crazy people.  I don't mean they think their Jesus or Napoleon crazy, but obsessed, compulsive craziness that drives the characters to do what they do.  The deeper into this story I get the more intrigued I become.  TokyoPop bills this series as a comedy, but I think that is a disservice to both this series and to straight comedic series.  This more of drama with a pinch f romance and fair helping of gallows humor.  Even the person who at first appears to be the most stable and together of the bunch turns out to have a lot of problems of their own.  By the close of this the most recent volume I am left with the conclusion that the main characters represent to sides of the same coin, and as a result are antaganistic toward each other as defense mechanism to keep from admitting that they are alike, and consequently being able to provide a counter balance for the other.  They both fear essentially the same thing, but they express it at opposite ends of the spectrum of human behavior.  Can they ever come to see that they need each other, but not as opposites, but rather as two parts of a whole.  Take these ramblings for whatever they are worth to you, I could be totally wrong, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense to me.

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       File this one under some people have all the luck, as for me, well I saw an Action #1 once, at a convention, in locked bulletproof glass case.  This dude on the other hand is wondering around a yard sale and finds a NM Detecive #27.  Man I would settle for Giant Size X-Men or Spiderman #1, much less finding one of the legendary Golden Age books.

From Fox News: Near-Mint Comic Featuring Batman's Debut, Worth $250,000, Found in Pennsylvania Attic.

     A near-mint copy of Detective Comics No. 27, a pre-World War II comic featuring Batman's debut, was recently found in an attic and sold to a local collector.

     The comic is considered to be the second-most valuable available and can fetch up to $500,000. The only comic considered more valuable is Action Comics No. 1, in which Superman makes his first appearance.

     Collector Todd McDevitt said the Batman issue he bought is worth about $250,000, but he won't say exactly how much he paid or who sold it to him.

     "It was a typical story of someone cleaning up junk in their attic and finding an old comic book and wondering if this was one of those ones that was worth a lot of money," McDevitt told the Beaver County Times.

     When the seller walked in with the Batman issue, "my eyes almost popped out of my head," McDevitt said.

    Even through the massive fog of envy I can give this piece of advice, hand carry that bad bpy to CGC and get it graded, because then it will be worth an even more ridculous amount of cash.

^{lucky bastard.}

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From the Taipei Times: State of a hemmed-in nation.

     This is one fine editorial, I sympathize greatly with Taiwan, she has been betrayed by her protector and denied the basic recognition that is the right of every sovergein government, of which Taiwan's certainly is.  It is heartening to see that despite her difficult situation Taiwan continues to mature and develop as free and democratic nation, in stark contrast to the illegitimate and repessive regieme across the strait.

     We noted last year that beyond the hardware, these nationalist displays have a hollow core and that nationalism is ill-served by symbols and rhetoric that simply serve as face-saving mechanisms for organs of state. Meanwhile, the alternative -- that Taiwan is part of China and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is the natural party to rule all of China -- is so discredited now that even chunks of the KMT cannot bring themselves to spout it in public.

     By and large, however, Taiwan is chugging along nicely, with solid economic credentials and growth, even if inflationary pressures are building. Shunting aside media hyperbole, Taiwan remains one of the safest countries in the world, with encouraging standards of education, growing (if erratically distributed) income and a good international reputation in various sectors.

     In recent years the picture of Taiwan in the international eye has bounced back and forth between the predatory neuroses of China and the political mandates of competing foreign-affairs factions in the US -- the balance of which has not helped Taiwan to expand its global space.

This an excellent piece of writing go read the whole thing, go on read it all here

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From the Taipei Times: Fukuda seeks greater military role.

     Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda yesterday told a resurgent opposition that Japan must not be a "bystander" in the US-led "war on terror" as he fought to extend a naval mission in the Indian Ocean.

     The opposition won control of one house of parliament in July elections and has vowed to defeat government proposals to extend the naval mission providing fuel and logistical support to US-led forces in Afghanistan.

     It has so far ignored a government compromise that would stop refueling operations backing combat troops, restricting support to ships policing the Indian Ocean.

     Addressing a parliamentary committee attended by key lawmakers from the ruling coalition and opposition, Fukuda said that Japan, as the world's second-largest economy, needed to contribute to international security.

     Saying that the international community was united after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, Fukuda said: "How can we sit back as a bystander?"

     He also assured the opposition that the Indian Ocean mission does not violate Japan's pacifist Constitution, which was imposed by the US after World War II.

     "First of all, the mission is not an act of force," Fukuda said. "It does not infringe on the Constitution at all."

     Ok, Ozawa doesn't want the MSDF to support combat ops but he is OK with sending ground troops to participate in ISAF, where the inevitable result would be real, live (or dead) Japanese casaulties.  This plays up what I was saying earlieer, the longer you go with out adressing the reality of the situation the more warped your preception of reality becomes.  If Fukuda wants to play a bigger role in such military operations he should go ahead and do one of three things.

1.  Bluntly admit that the mere exsistance of the SDF violates the constitution (which it does as noted here) and that of you are already in violation then there is nothing holding Japan back from violating the rest of article nine.  Call this the 'in for a penny, in for a pound' approach.

2.  Force through a revision to the constitutional amendment law to get rid of the three year waiting period before the constitution can be amended and move for an immeadate amendment of article nine.  This is the legalistic approach, and the one that offers the most legitimacy, at least to those that would scream bloody murder if Japan went for option one.

3.  Deny that the current constitution is not binding on Japan due to the fact that it was adopted under duress.  This of course ignores the fact the current constitution was ratified by a plebicite before it came into effect, but the argument can be made that the involvement of the occupying power in the drawing up of the governmental charter taints it due to the clearly superior-inferior status of the two nations. 

     Of these three options I would say one would only happen if a PM had an unassailable majority in both houses, massive popularity and a mjor crisis on Japan's doorstep, in which case national security takes precedence over what other people may think.  Number two is by far the most likely, but still a long shot as the DPJ was largely opposed to the current amendment law that was passed back in may.  As for number three it is only possible on an earth in some paralell universe, the political  and practical fall out at home and abroad would simply not be worth the results in any sense of the word.

     So how do you play a bigger role in military operations when you can not allow your military to actually fight?  That is a question that I certainly can't answer, one can either fight or not.  I am deeply apreciative of the actions that Japan has taken thus far, but once more I have to say that Prime Minister Fukuda should change the debate from wether or not Japan should be supporting such operations, but rather why she must participate directly, and that article nine is a relic of the past that needs to placed firmly where it belongs, in the past.

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From Fox News: Democrats Edge Away From Troop Withdrawal Legislation Despite Heavy Rhetoric.

     WASHINGTON  —  Congressional Democrats have put on the back burner legislation ordering troops home from Iraq and turned their attention to war-related proposals that Republicans are finding hard to reject.

     The legislative agenda marks a dramatic shift for party leaders who vowed repeated votes to end combat and predicted Republicans would eventually join them. But with Democrats still lacking enough votes to bring troops home, the party runs the risk of concluding its first year in control of Congress with little to show for its tough anti-war rhetoric.

     "We can no longer approach the discussion on Iraq as a partisan issue," said Rep. John Tanner, a conservative Democrat from Tennessee. "Our soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and Guardsmen aren't fighting as Democrats or Republicans but as Americans."

     Damn, I thought my head was going to explode there for a minute.  Some little birdy must have reminded that next year is an election year and that pandering to the far left was a sure way to get un-elected.  Now I don't believe for a minute that most of these dummy Dems are merely following the latest polling data, and would say they supported an immeadate invasion of North Korea if they thought that was what the public wanted to hear.  Their Viet Nam legacy has once more bitten them in the ass, the American public, unlike Dimocratic legislatures want to make damn sure another Viet Nam doesn't happen. Why can't these America hating hippie commie wanna bes just hurry up and fade from the scene already.  Their rhetoric was tired in the seventies and it is only more so thirty some odd years later.

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From the China Post: Taiwan demonstrates military prowess at National Day parade for the first time in 16 years.

(itallics mine)

     TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's president decried China's government as totalitarian Wednesday as residents gathered for the island's first National Day parade of military hardware since halting such displays in 1991 to ease tensions with Beijing.

     In an address to officials before the parade, President Chen Shui-bian renewed a pledge to continue seeking membership in the United Nations, saying the self-ruled island has the right to rejoin the world body despite objections of rival China.

     "Taiwan and China are two separate states that don't belong to each other, and this is a historical fact as well as the reality," Chen said in front of the ornate presidential office.

     "The problem in the Taiwan Strait today does not rest with Taiwan .... but with China's totalitarianism, authoritarianism and dictatorship," he said.

    I can now offically confirm that President Chen Shui-ban has a pair of giant brass ones between his legs.  Not only did he blatantly state that Taiwan is an independent nation, he also called out the mainland commies for the murdering totalitarian bastard they are.  Bravo sir, bravo indeed.  Those last words will sting for the same reasons Reagan's words about the USSR being the focus of evil in the modern world stung, because they are true, and the people on the receiving end know that to be the case.

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     Prime Minister Fukuda's honeymoon continues, as the newest numbers show that his cabinet's approval ratings went up slightly since he first took over form Abe.  But then again he has had a pretty easy couple of weeks hus far, character after all is defined by how we handle adversity, not by how we handle normality.  Fukuda can tkae comfort in the fact that the public is generally supportive of his position on the major issues facing Japan at the moment, now we get to see if he can turn that support and goodwill into results.

From the Yomuiri Shimbun: Fukuda Cabinet's approval rating at 59%

     The Cabinet of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has achieved the fourth-highest approval rating for a cabinet since surveys of new cabinets began in 1978, polling 59.1 percent approval and 26.7 percent disapproval, according to the findings of a nationwide Yomiuri Shimbun conducted Friday and Saturday.

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     Talking about military issues in Japanese politics is like trying to have a frank discussion about social security in the US, everyone knows the issue needs to be adressed yet no one really wants to risk the political backlash of changing the status quo.  Largely this is the result of years of smeantic footwork to avoid and conceal the fact the Japanese government has long been in violation of Article nine of the Japanese constitution.  See my previous thoughts on that issue here.

Exhibit 1: PM treads softly on collective self-defense issue.

From the Yomuiri Shimbun:

     Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Tuesday at the House of Representatives Budget Committee that the issue of the right to collective self-defense has to be handled "carefully," a departure from former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's tendency to lean toward approving the use of the right.

     "Sufficient discussions are necessary on what kind of international activities the Self-Defense Forces may exercise the right to collective self-defense in terms of the constitutional interpretation," he said.

      Under the government's interpretation of the Constitution, Japan has the right of collective self-defense under international law, but may not exercise the right.

     So we can have a military but we can not use it.  If that is the case then why maintain a military at all?  Everyone knows that this is utter bullshit but no mone has the stones enough to stand up and say so.  If Japan is ever going to become a normal nation the continual self deluding, feel good semantic trickery needs to come to an end.  Just as when the SDF was formed no one bought into the concept of a military witout military potential as it was described, I do not think anyone really believes the position that has been continuously put forward by the Japanese government, even by the current PM.  For him it is simply an excuse to shoot down a proposal by the DPJ, one that he probably should have siezed and run with because, A) it would help to further normalize Japan militarily and B) because Ozawa probably figured that Fukuda would reject his offer.  If he had agreed he could have shifted the playing field further toward normal than by only pursuing the current path, which is important and helpful, but why have just one piece of cake when the offer of two is on the table?

Exhibit 2:

From the Japan Times: Ozawa's Afghan gambit rejected.

     Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura on Tuesday rejected Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa's suggestion that Japan participate in NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

     Afghanistan is "a very dangerous area and can be called a combat zone," Machimura said during a session of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.

     "Based on the Constitution (which prohibits the use of force), we cannot support" Ozawa's opinion that Japan should participate in ISAF activities, he said.

     The semantic confusion surrounding the SDF creates another problem, namely that it isn't entirely clear who has the final say regarding the conduct and scope of ongoing SDF missions.  This lack of a readily identifiable civilian commander and chief is something that I have noted before, here.  The editors at the Japan Times seem to think that the Diet needs to approve evry detail of the operations as the continue, at least that is how I read what their syaing.  You have to give someone a final say, because if you let the whole of the diet run things nothing will ever get done as any slightly contentious issue gets bogged down in days or weeks of debate when an important decision might need to be made in hours or even minutes.

Exhibit 3:

From the Japan Times: Refueling bill undercuts Diet.

     The ruling coalition has presented the opposition bloc with an outline of a new law to continue the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. The new law, if enacted, will replace the current special law, which expires Nov. 1. Although similar to the current law, the new law would undermine civilian control of the Self-Defense Forces because it would not require Diet approval for starting a new operation.

     Under the current law, the MSDF is refueling naval ships of the United States and other countries to support antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. The law, which was enacted in late October 2001 and remains in effect for two years, has been renewed three times.

     At some level a degree of autonomy must be given, because the person on the scene is typically much better equipped to make a decision than some one commanding a desk in Tokyo.  The smeantic maze that Japanese defense issues are trapped in can only be escaped from by a prime minister saying what should have been said long ago.   That Japan will take any actions she deems necessary to maintain her security, up to and including pre-emptive unilateral military action.  Every other country in the world takes this position, so why should Japan be any different?  She shouldn't be, and it is time to accept that break with the past.  Idealism is all well and good, but the world today calls for hard and cold pragmatism.  Until then the endless semantic maze will keep Japan's full potential on the international scene trapped inside.

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From the Yomuiri Shimbun: U.S. texts 'prove secret deal' Show Japan-U.S. agreement on Okinawa reversion, N-weapons.

     Japan and the United States reached a secret agreement to allow the United States to bring nuclear arms into Japanese territory in exchange for the return of the U.S.-occupied Okinawa islands in 1972, according to declassified U.S. government documents.

     The memorandums, bearing the dates of Nov. 12 and 13 in 1969, were discovered at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The documents were declassified in 2005 and recently discovered by Nihon University Prof. Takashi Shinobu.

     In his book, Kei Wakaizumi, an aide to former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato who was involved in secret talks with the United States on the return of Okinawa, mentioned the secret agreement between Sato and then U.S. President Richard Nixon to allow U.S. nuclear weapons into Japan. However, the recently discovered documents are the first U.S. official documents that prove the existence of the agreement.

     There is nothing surprising about this, after all if Japan wants to be shieled by America's nuclear umbrella then they have to be prepared to allow for the tools of that protection to be available to do so.  Really this is merely confirmation of something that everyone has known for a long time but this is the first written irrefutable proof that such an agreement was reached back in seventy two.

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     The Cowboys won, that is good, but I nearly died watching them do it.  The NFL needs to put a stop to this timeout right before the snap business, it is getting real old real fast.  Tony Romo looked, well awful, but the mark of a great team is the ability to overcome your mistakes and to find a way to win, which the boys did.  So now to prepare for New England next week in Dallas.  That should be a good game, and hopefully nowhere near as terrifying as this one was at times.

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     Sometimes somebody has to state the obvious and this is just such a case.  The Japanese have managed to muddle through each crisis as it developed, but the inadequacy of having a basic framework fro using and governing the use of her military Japan hamstrings herself even in situations where she has both a vested interest in participating in operations and a public consenus to do so.

From the Japan Times: Permanent SDF law should set dispatch principles: Ishiba.

     Japan needs a permanent law that lays out the basic rules for dispatching the Self-Defense Forces overseas, instead of enacting short-term special laws for each mission, newly appointed Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in a recent interview.

     "We should set basic principles and rules to decide under what conditions we will send (SDF units) overseas," said Ishiba, a noted expert on defense issues. "Enacting a special law each time is problematic.

     Given the fact that the world is only going to become more unsettled before stability returns one hope that the Diet will sit up and take notice of Defense Minister Ishiba's words.  The current mission in the Indian ocean looks to be continued despite the opposition of the DPJ, so why not prevent such wasted energy and time in the future by permanently fixing the problem now than putting off down the road for a nother two years.  The results would likely be the same and would give Japan a lot more manuvering room on the international front.

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     Despite all of the progress that China has made in the last two decades the country remains deeply troubled.  I once described, and accurately I believe, China as a feudal society to which had been applied a veneer of modernity.  The greivences of the people are the same as they have been for the past hundred plus years and they show no sign of abaiting.

From the Yomuiri Shimbun: Chinese villagers seize city hall / Frustration at corruption spills over in southern village of Xiantang.

     Residents of a small village in southern China infuriated by corrupt municipal government officials have illegally occupied a municipal office building for three months.

     While Chinese President Hu Jintao continues to repeat his pledge to build a harmonious society, people around the nation have been unleashing pent-up frustrations, of which the building occupation is just one example. The timing of these protests has worried authorities who are nervous about any social unrest that might cause problems in the run-up to the 17th Chinese Communist Party Congress on Oct. 15.

     The village of Xiantang is located in the west of Shunde district in Foshan, Guangdong Province. The district is home to many Japanese-affiliated automobile parts makers.

     With farming being the main source of income in the village, most of the 3,500 residents there are poor. In the impoverished surroundings of the village, the sight of the grand five-story government building in the center of Xiantang is incongruous to say the least.

     The illegal occupation of the building was triggered by the municipal government's refusal to disclose its accounting records. Villagers suspect the mayor and government officials misappropriated public funds for the construction of the government building.

     China is a massive explosion of public outrage and discontent waiting to happen yet again as it did in 1989.  If that happens again can the Chinese government afford to act as ruthlessly as it has in the past?  I do not believe so, to do so today would to be invite economic and political repercussions that would destroy the one thing that currently holds China together, economic prosperity in the cities, without which the Communist regieme would be doomed.

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From the Yomuiri Shimbun: Man resisting arrest shoots cop in buttock.

     A police sergeant was shot in the buttock at point-blank range by a man who grabbed his gun while resisting arrest on suspicion of stealing from a roadside vending machine in Tagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, early Friday, police said.

     The sergeant arrived at the scene at about 4:40 a.m. with two other officers after a security company reported to Tagawa Police Station that a vending machine on a national highway selling DVDs and other items had been ransacked about 20 minutes earlier, according to the police.

     The police tried to restrain two men they found in a car near the scene. One, Akira Uranaka, 29, of Kama in the prefecture and a member of the Taishu-kai crime syndicate, tried to escape, but was caught by an officer about 40 meters away. The other, unemployed Masamichi Oda, 21, of Tagawa, tried to break free when being held by the other two officers, grabbed the 29-year-old sergeant's gun from his holster and shot him.

      Since nothing more is said I think we can safely assume that the officer is going to make a full recovery.  No matter how much time passes he will be hearing about this form his buddies until the day he dies.  I would also venture a guess that he is going to be shopping for a level 3 holster as well.  This time its funny, but it reinforces the lesson that weapon retention is important for any one who carries a weapon.  The only thing worse than being shot is being shot with your own gun.

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From the Japan Times: DPJ faces dilemma as MSDF support grows.

     Opposition camp leader Ichiro Ozawa is facing his first big challenge since his party marked a historic victory in July's Upper House election — a widening gap between public support for Japan's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean and his resistance to it.

     While new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is calling on Ozawa for dialogue on the contentious diplomatic issue in the Diet, which reopened Monday, everyone is waiting to see how Ozawa can survive what critics are calling a "shrewd" trap set by the soft-spoken and more seasoned prime minister than his inexperienced predecessor, Shinzo Abe.

     Ozawa, head of the Democratic Party of Japan, is against a government plan to continue the refueling mission by Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels to support antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan on the grounds that there is no U.N. authorization for the naval mission. The special temporary law authorizing the mission expires Nov. 1.

     The public apparently backed Ozawa's argument several weeks ago, with a Kyodo News poll showing at the end of August that 48.2 percent opposed the continuation of the mission, while 38.6 percent supported it.

     However, after Fukuda took office Sept. 25, the trend has reversed, with 49.6 percent in the latest poll saying the government should continue the MSDF mission and 39.5 percent opposing it.

     This is reversal is due to two things, the utter comitment and resolve the LDP has shown and the politically brilliant move of obtaining the UN Resolution praising the JMSDF's mission in the Indian ocean.  Whoever came up with that play is a master, understanding and using the Japanese public's love of multilateral organizations to give the mission a huge amount of piblic legitmacy.  That will be difficult to overcome, as the Japanese man on the street wants his nation to be respected and admired in the brotherhood of nations, and perhaps even more so given Japan's past.  I would be willing to sya that the DPJ is going to have to except a new law allowing the mission to continue, and use what political capital they have to win concessions to advance other parts of their platform.

The JDS Mashu resupplies the USS Anzio in the Indian ocean. (USN Photo)

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     Today the Space Age offically entered its fiftieth year, as today marks fifty years since Sputnik roared off the pad at Baikanor Cosmodrome and into history.  Amazingly only twelve years later man would walk on the moon.  Since the end of the Apollo progeram one has to wonder if the intervining years of space exploration have been wasted.  I would say that they have not been wasted, but rather under utilized.  Our continuing efforts in space have returned massive dividends here on earth, but we need to and finaly are resuming the path of outward human exploration of our solar system.  The Orion program to return to the moon is a well thought out and well designed program, it combines the early NASA grand vision and seemingly impossible goal (manned missions to mars by 2030 or so)  with all of the knowledge and experince NASA has gained through the shuttle and robotic exploration programs of the last thirty five years.  What will the next fifty years of the Space Age bring?  Who knows, but I would benture to guess that in the next twenty five years Space will be opened to the average man and woman as commercial space tourism and other commercial ventures in space go from a niche market catering to the super rich (current) then the well to do (SpaceShip 2, 5 years or so away) to afforable to all (10-15 years from now).

Posted by: raging tachikoma at 07:22 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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     I have advanced this same line myself here, but a realistic assesment of the situation and China's past actions lead me to believe that they will continue to run interference for their loyal vassal.  I would not be surprised to learn that the orders to put down these demonstartions came from Beijing rather than Yangon.  From the Japan Times: The road to Myanmar passes through Beijing

     NEW YORK — Three hard facts set the boundaries for the talks that United Nations negotiator Ibrahim Gambari is undertaking as he shuttles between Myanmar's ruling generals and the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

     First, despite the heroic leadership of the Buddhist clergy and the prodemocracy community, almost 50 years of military misrule and terror tactics have worn down Myanmar's people, who will likely find it hard to maintain their defiance unless there are obvious splits among the ruling generals or widespread desertions among ordinary soldiers.

     Second, Myanmar's generals know that they face a stark choice: Either maintain power or risk imprisonment, exile, and possible death. In their eyes, this leaves them with virtually no choice but to hold on to power at all costs.

     Finally, as long as China provides political, financial and military support for Myanmar's rulers, it will be all but impossible for any meaningful change to occur. Until China decides that it has more to gain from a more legitimate government in Myanmar than it does from the current incompetent military regime, little can happen.

     China's decision to block the U.N. Security Council from condemning the Myanmar regime's assault on the Buddhist monks and other peaceful protesters last week underscores its long-standing political support for the junta.

     Another side effect of the crack down in Burma has been a total dearth of news that I have to believe is being managed by someone with way more political skill and savy than is to be found in the Burmese government.  China will only reign in Burma if it is their best interests to do so.  Unless the west severely punishes China and the Chinese economy they will continue to sit in their hands locally and globally continue to protect the Burmese from international meddling, as they see it, in an internal matter.

Posted by: raging tachikoma at 08:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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From the China Post: Missiles against the mainland?

     Last Friday, both the New York Times and the International Herald Tribute reported that Taiwan, led by a pro-independence government, was deploying long-range missiles against the mainland. It was a follow-up to an AP dispatch from Taipei two weeks earlier. According to these reports, Taiwan has in recent months tested a land-attack cruise missile with a range of 1,000 kilometers, or 621 miles, that could carry a 400-kilogram warhead to targets as distant as Shanghai.

     Offensive missile strikes are now part of Taiwan's planned response to an attack from the mainland. Taiwan's military currently has no long-range missiles that could attack distant targets on the mainland. Senior military officials and lawmakers in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party have confirmed that the land-attack cruise missiles are under development.

     You know I have long wondered if the Taiwanese may have secretly developed a nuclear deterrent force?  The Reasons for doing so are readily apparent, and with this sort of delivery system would provide a strategic check to the PRC's continual threats of invasion for what ever it deems to be politically unacceptable.  Now there are a lot of reasons to believe that they do not posess nuclear weapons, but there also things that point to the possibility as well.  In the against column are the cost to develop such weapons and the specialized infastructure needed to support them, which appears to be lacking on Taiwan.  On the rather heavier for column are the Taiwanese involvement in the development of the block 60 F-16C, which has unrefueled range enough to one way a bomb to Beijing, and you don't do that to drop one 2,000lb GBU.  The development of alternative delivery systems such as cruise missiles and finally the close military relationship between Taiwan, Israel, and South Africa, one de-facto nuclear state and one former nuclear state, and memebers all of the international parriah club.  Makes you wonder doesn't it?  And the Taiwanesse hope that it will make Beijing think too.  If ten or twenty major cities in the PRC get vaporized for military action against the ROC the ability of the Chinese to continue military operations and conduct relief and recovery operations would be strecthed well beyond the breaking point.  So if they're smart the will give that posibility some serious thought.

Posted by: raging tachikoma at 05:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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From the Taipei Times: Tibetan nomads ordered to settle down in cities for the sake of the environment.

     China is ordering 100,000 ethnic Tibetans to give up their traditional nomadic habits and settle in towns because their way of life is threatening the environment, state press reported yesterday.

     Overgrazing from the Tibetan herders' livestock and the growing number of people living on the grasslands of China's Qinghai Province are endangering the source of the nation's great rivers, Xinhua news agency said.

NEW TOWNS

     By the end of this year, 60,000 Tibetans will have been moved into new towns in Qinghai, with the number to grow to 100,000 by 2010, Xinhua reported, citing a government document and local environment officials.

     While the agency highlighted compensation packages of up to 8,000 yuan (US$1,060) a year for families, it acknowledged that not all Tibetans were happy with having to give up the lifestyles their families have known for centuries.

     The real reason for this order is so the commies can keep an eye on their restive and for their liking all too independant and self sufficient subjects.  This along with the deliberate efforts to flood Tibet with ethnic chinese is clearly aimed at creating a situation that short of external miltary intervention it would be politically impossible for Tibet to be free of the Chinese yoke.  This move also reinforces the fact that the reds in china realy haven't changed all that much since the sixties, they still have no respect for history and tradition, given that they are trying to destroy one of the last remaning Asian nomad cultures.  Much like the misguided three gorges dam they don't give a damn about protecting history when it gets in the way of their misguided and foolish schemes.  The sooner these bastards are kicked to the curb the better, for they have inflicted far too much suffering on far too many people for far too long a time.

Posted by: raging tachikoma at 05:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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