Sony Pulls The Interview From Theaters After Suspected North Korean Hackers Issue Threats

Sony Films announced this week that they were cancelling the release of the Seth Rogen comedy The Interview after the studio's emails and files were on the receiving end of a sophisticated hack.

Sony has confirmed it has no plans to release the satirical film The Interview internationally, in any form, following threats from hackers.

Cinemas in the US cancelled screenings of the film, about a plot to kill North Korea's leader, prompting Sony to shelve it altogether.

But there has been dismay in Hollywood, with Ben Stiller calling the move "a threat to freedom of expression".

Hackers had issued a warning to cinema-goers who planned to watch the movie.

Sony said it was "deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie".

"We respect and understand our partners' decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theatre-goers," the studio said.

It added: "We stand by our film-makers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome."

The cancellation comes after hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace released emails and data stolen from Sony in late November.

In a later warning to cinemas screening The Interview, they referred to the 9/11 attacks, claiming "the world will be full of fear".

"Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time," the hacker group wrote, in a message on Tuesday.

"Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment."

Sony had given theatres in the US and Canada the option to bow out of showing The Interview in the wake of the threats.

Sony had given theater chains throughout North America the option to pull out of showing The Interview. Once major chains like Regal Cinemas [NYSE- RGC], Cinemark [NYSE- CNK] and AMC Cinemas [NYSE- AMC] opted out of distributing the film that reportedly had a cascading effect on other distributors.

The comedy stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as two bumbling Hollywood insiders who manage to land an interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him.

The move by Sony to pull The Interview from its scheduled Christmas day release as condemned by many in Hollywood, Washington DC and on social media, with actor Rob Lowe [who has a cameo in the film, according to the IMDB- NANESB!] tweeting that Sony's decision "would've made Neville Chamberlain proud". Comedian Steve Carell simply tweeted a clip from Charlie Chaplin's 1940 satire The Great Dictator in which Chaplin was mimickinng Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's speeches and mannerisms.

Shortly after Sony announced the cancellation of The Interview, some theaters announced that they would be airing the 2004 comedy Team America: World Police which mocked Kim Jong Un's father and then North Korean-leader Kim Jong Il. However, Paramount Pictures has told theaters not to air the movie.

Antigovernment Protests Continue Throughout Venezuela Despite Carnival Holiday

Thousands of antigovernment demonstrators throughout Venezuela continued marches and rallies throughout the country over the weekend, many of them skipping the traditional Carnival and Holy Week holidays to take part.

The demonstrations, part of a wave of nearly month-old protests that have left 18 people dead and more than 260 injured, were called in outrage at insecurity, government repression and shortages of basic goods.

"This is the people's struggle against the inefficient government. Maduro, you have lost today the streets of Venezuela because the streets belong to the people," Central University of Venezuela student leader Juan Requesens told nearly 20,000 people gathered in Caracas.

The students called for a "genuine dialogue" with the president and for discussion on ending the standoff marred by violence.

Several hours later, a group of radical protesters armed with sticks and stones gathered in the capital's Plaza Altamira and faced off with members of the National Guard who responded with water cannons, tear gas and birdshot.

Officials said the clash left 17 wounded from birdshot or suffering from gas inhalation.

The official death toll from the clashes between the government and protestors is said to be 18- although opposition leaders claim the body count is much higher. Although the Andean college town of San Cristobal is considered the flashpoint for the most recent round of demonstrations, antigovernment rallies quickly spread to the capital city of Caracas. Since the, the protests have spread to the cities of Barquisimeto, Valencia and Puerto Ordaz.

Meanwhile, the military and supporters of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro were gathering for ceremonies to mark the one year anniversary of the death of president Hugo Chavez. An heir apparent to Chavez's socialist 'Bolivar Revolution', Maduro narrowly won a special presidential election last year. However, the food rationing, skyrocketing crime and shortages of basic consumer staples that had been endemic under Chavez continued to worsen. Just months into Maduro's rule, he declared all of Venezuela's problems were caused by external 'threats' [meaning the USA- NANESB!] and imposed strict price controls while limiting commercial profits.

During the monthlong protests, Maduro has ordered the expulsion of journalists from CNN and Colombia's NTN network as well as three US diplomats. On Tuesday, the Maduro regime announced that they were suspending all diplomatic ties with Panama after Panamianian president Ricardo Martinelli suggested the Organization of American States (OAS) monitor the ongoing situation in Venezuela and attempt to mediate between opposition and the Maduro regime.

Venezuela Rocked by Escalating Anti-Government Protests As Maduro Orders Crackdown on Opposition

Amid several days of clashes between police and antigovernment demonstrators in the capital city of Caracas, Venezuela's embattled president has ordered paratroopers to crack down on protests that have been spreading to other cities.

President Nicolas Maduro's opponent from last year's presidential election- Miranda governor Henrique Capriles- hasn't taken as active a role in the demonstrations, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez turned himself over to authorities who were seeking his arrest on charges of fomenting unrest against the state earlier this week. Capriles and others have condemned the Maduro regime's detention of opposition figures, but have cautioned supporters to avoid violence.

Early reports indicate that the death toll is at least eight after antigovernment demonstrators clashed with riot police and masked Tupamaros- masked urban guerillas operating in support of the regime- opened fire on a crowd of protestors last week.

Skyrocketing inflation, rampant crime, government expropriation of businesses and shortages of basic consumer goods such as flour and toilet paper led to a massive antigovernment demonstration in Caracas calling for Maduro's resignation from office on Feb 12th, and angry college students have not let up. Nicolas Maduro, the successor to strongman Hugo Chavez, narrowly won a special presidential election in 2013 after the death of Chavez and has carried on nearly all of Chavez's economic policies. As a result, the country is currently experiencing an inflation rate of more than 56%, one of the highest murder rates in the world and near-constant shortages of basic consumer goods, food and fuel.

According to publications in both Venezuela and the USA, the demonstrations got their start in the Andean border town of San Cristobal, which is home to three universities. After the attempted rape of a female student on one of the university's campus, students demonstrated in public, protesting the lack of adequate security on campus. The police reacted swiftly and harshly, reportedly arresting five demonstrators and sending some of them to a detention facility hundreds of miles away. The police reaction led to an even larger demonstration with students from all three universities in San Cristobal as Venezuelans in other cities joined in, using the demonstrations to protest over unemployment, crime, inflation and curbs on the freedom of the press. Maduro has blamed the demonstrations on 'right wing extremists' and 'foreign agitators' while sending paratroopers to the border city of San Cristobal to crack down on demonstrations there, implying that Colombia has sent agent provocateurs across the border to foment further unrest in western Venezuela.

One of the most widely known casualties in this month's demonstration was former beauty queen Genesis Carmona, who was shot in the head during an antigovernment rally in the city of Valencia- to the west of Caracas. Carmona was a student at the university in Valencia and relatives said that she was a semester away from graduating. In 2013, Carmona served as Miss Turismo Caribobo. Eyewitnesses said that about 50 men brandishing handguns and riding on motorcycles drove up to the assembled students and began firing indiscriminately. Carmona was shot in the head and later died from her wounds at a nearby hospital- cameras recorded her limp body being carried off on a motorcycle to a nearby hospital. Government officials claim the fatal shot was fired by opposition demonstrators.

Relatives described Genesis as apolitical but was likely drawn to the rally by worsening economic conditions in the world's 4th largest oil producing nation. Beauty pageants are to Venezuela what baseball is to the Dominican Republic or College Football to Texas- the country has produced seven Miss Universes, more than any other nation.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's oil minister has announced they are suspending fuel shipments to areas under opposition control [How this is any different from the routine shortages under Chavez and Maduro, I'm not sure- NANESB!] oil minister Rafael Ramirez announced via Twitter on Friday. And speaking of twitter, it was becoming rapidly apparent that the social networking site was at least partially blocked by the Maduro government when users attempted to tweet pictures of the demonstrations and attacks by masked Tupamaro gunmen on motorcycle.

Reports have also been circulating that Cuban president Raul Castro has sent Cuban troops to bolster Maduro's regime- although thousands of Cuban troops were reportedly stationed in Venezuela under Chavez, long before the most recent demonstrations. Even after Chavez's death, Venezuela remains a source of cheap oil for the communist island nation- a supply that could be cut off should Maduro's regime collapse.

UN Climate Official: Communism Most Effective Form of Government to Fight Global Warming

Once upon a time, if you were suspicious of climate change alarmism on the grounds that it was some sort of international plot to undermine representative government and economically cripple developing nations, you would've been written off as some sort of fringe black-helicopter conspiracy theorist. 'What do you mean global warming is simply a tactic to scare free societies into allowing unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats to control an increasing number of aspects of their daily lives? That's just right-wing climate-denier crazy talk!'

However, nowadays it seems as though some of the adherents to the cult of global warming are confident enough to be more straightforward on their endgame.

Enter UN Climate Chief Christina Figueres, who openly declared earlier this week that Communist governments were the best means to combat global warming. In her prepared statements, she favorably cited Beijing for making improvements in China's environmental policy, whereas 'climate change' legislation has mostly died in the United States Congress [although the White House has been using regulatory fiat through the EPA to circumvent lawmakers- NANESB!].

China may be the world’s top emitter of carbon dioxide and struggling with major pollution problems of their own, but the country is “doing it right” when it comes to fighting global warming says Figueres.

“They actually want to breathe air that they don’t have to look at,” she said. “They’re not doing this because they want to save the planet. They’re doing it because it’s in their national interest.”

Figueres added that the deep partisan divide in the U.S. Congress is “very detrimental” to passing any sort of legislation to fight global warming. The Chinese Communist Party, on the other hand, can push key policies and reforms all on its own. The country’s national legislature largely enforces the decisions made by the party’s Central Committee and other executive offices.

Environmentalists often hail China as a model for fighting global warming, since they are a “leader” in renewable energy. The country set a goal of getting 15 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020. In 2012, China got 9 percent of its power from renewables — the U.S. by contrast got 11 percent in 2012.

However, the country still gets 90 percent of its power from fossil fuels, mostly from coal. In fact, Chinese coal demand is expected to explode as the country continues to develop. China has approved 100 million metric tons of new coal production capacity in 2013 as part of the government’s plan to bring 860 million metric tons of coal production online by 2015.

China has publicly made big efforts to clean up its environment. The country’s booming industrial apparatus has caused so much pollution that the skies have been darkened over major cities and the air quality has heavily deteriorated.

The Wall Street Journal notes that China’s air quality was so bad that about “1.2 million people died prematurely in China in 2010 as a result of air pollution” and Chinese government figures show that “lung cancer is now the leading cause of death from malignant tumors. Many of those dying are nonsmokers.”

The Soviet bloc’s environmental track record was similarly dismal.

The Communist Party’s National Action Plan spent $275 billion to combat rampant pollution through 2017, including reducing particulate matter 2.5 levels in the Beijing region by 25 percent.

Beijing's long-standing air pollution problems became an international issue when the city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, leaving athletes to wonder if they'd be competing for medals amid a thick blanket of smog. China's Communist government was able to partially alleviate that problem in the weeks and months leading up to the Olympiad by severely restricting vehicle traffic in Beijing and relocating factories and power plants to provinces outside the capital- however, after the closing ceremonies in August 2008 the pollution returned and has only worsened since then.

The problems aren't limited to Beijing, however. Pollution in major waterways like the Yangtze River are killing off fish and making the water unfit for human consumption. China has also suffered widespread deforestation over the past few decades with dozens of square kilometers being clear-cut simultaneously. To the east and across the Yalu River in North Korea, deforestation is thought to have contributed to the massive drought and famine in the 1990s.

Figueres' claim that communism is somehow better for the environment than a free market and democratic system is also laid to waste by just a cursory look at the former Soviet Union. Perhaps the most stark example of communist stewardship of the environment would be the irradiated and uninhabitable territory around the former nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. An April 1986 meltdown and explosion at the facility just outside the city of Pripyat sent plumes of highly radioactive materiel into the skies over the western USSR as well as Scandinavia and western Europe. Unlike the devastation wrought at Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophic 2011 Sendai quake and tsunami, Chernobyl happened due to a simple test. To this day, an 'exclusion zone' of nearly 2600 km stretches through what is now the Ukraine and Belarus with Chernobyl and the ghost city of Pripyat at the epicenter.

But ecological catastrophe in the former communist Eastern bloc isn't just limited to Chernobyl. Factories in Russia and the former Soviet satellite states are still home to factories that spew pollutants into the air and water unchecked- with some cities competing for the dubious 'honor' of being the most polluted spot on earth.

The Aral Sea- at one time one of the largest lakes in the world- has been shrinking at an exponential rate since a massive Soviet public works project in the 1960s diverted water from two of the rivers that fed the Aral sea to irrigate cotton fields. By the 1991 breakup of the USSR, the central Asian former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan inherited two polluted, shrunken and depleted lakes where there used to be one Aral Sea. Considered one of the biggest environmental catastrophes on the planet, between 1960 and 1998 the total area of the Aral Sea shrunk by more than 60%. Although Kazakhstan has been able to partially restore the northern portion of the Aral Sea in recent years, the southern half continues to recede leading to sights such as a pier stretching out over nothing but grey desert or camels standing near the hulks of abandoned ships, miles away from the nearest navigable body of water.

Even more problematic is a former Soviet bioweapons facility that was once housed on Vozrozhdeniya Island in the Aral Sea- the facility was once on an island and Red Army scientists experimented with weaponized strains of botulism, smallpox and anthrax. In 1971 a weaponized strain of smallpox was released and infected a passing research vessel. An infected crewmember disembarked at the port of Aralsk and infected their family. The disease spread and Soviet officials quarantined the city and vaccinating some 50,000 residents- although this incident wasn't generally known to the public until 2002. Since the outbreak, Vozrozhdeniya became a peninsula and then part of the mainland as the Aral Sea shrunk. The facility itself was hastily abandoned in 1992 shortly after the collapse of the USSR and weaponized strains of anthrax and bubonic plague were improperly stored in containers that continue to deteriorate over time.

Lake Baikal- the world's largest freshwater lake and dubbed 'The Pearl of Siberia'- also suffered considerably in Soviet times. The 25 million year old lake is home to several species not found elsewhere such as the Baikal seal or golomyanka fish. In the 1960s, the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill was constructed along the lake's southern shore and discharged waste directly into the lake. Ironically, even though the plant continued operation well into post Soviet times, it was ultimately killed by capitalism when it was shut down in 2009 due to unprofitability.

Perhaps the most galling thing about Figueres' statement is that she likely knows EXACTLY how poor a steward of the environment communism has been but has decided to praise the same system that drained the Aral Sea and gave us Chernobyl and countless polluted rivers and lakes throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia. More likely, the people pushing for unilateral government action on 'global warming' are doing so under the premise that they'll be exempt or they can purchase some sort of exemption through carbon offsets or a cap and trade system. I suspect even if they get their way, the carbon footprint of aircraft, ships, trains and automobiles won't bother them so long as those methods of transportation are providing them with conveyance or goods and services.

Hugo Chavez's Successor Expropriates Venezuela Toilet Paper Factory

The logical end result of socialist economic policies:

A Venezuelan government agency has ordered the 'temporary' seizure of a paper mill that produces toilet paper in the state of Aragua in what it claims is an attempt to relieve ongoing shortages of consumer goods.

In a tweet on Thursday, Venezuela's Vice President, Jorge Arreaza, said authorities would 'not permit hoarding of essential commodities, or any faults in the production and distribution process'

'The action taken at the producer of toilet paper, sanitary napkins and disposable diapers corresponds to the obligation of the state to guarantee the normal supply of primary necessities,' price regulator Sundecop said in a statement.

President Maduro has cut dollar supplies for importers since winning election in April, creating shortages of goods including toilet paper and butter and stoking one of the world’s highest inflation rates.


Critics say the nagging shortages of products ranging from bathroom tissue to milk are a sign his socialist government's rigid price and currency controls are failing.


Annual inflation accelerated to 45.4 percent last month from 42.6 percent in July, while the scarcity index measuring the amount of goods out of stock on store shelves reached 20 percent, the central bank said.

The country devalued the official exchange rate to 6.3 bolivars per dollar from 4.3 bolivars in February.

President Nicolas Maduro and government agencies also reportedly ordered Venezuelan troops to 'safeguard' the factory during the 'temporary' takeover. Maduro was the hand-picked successor for socialist president Hugo Chavez, who passed away from cancer earlier this year.

In keeping with Chavez's 'Bolivar Revolution' theme, the government had to import more than 50 million rolls of toilet paper earlier this year to counter an ongoing shortage that was reportedly triggered by the socialist government's price controls. The controls have also led to similar shortages of basic consumer goods such as diapers, coffee, milk and butter.

Panama Seizes North Korean Vessel Carrying Heavy Weaponry and Components

Panamanian Troops stand guard aboard the seized North Korean vessel Chong Chon Gang as police cadets prepare to search the ship's cargo hold for additional weapons and military hardware. Carlos Jasso photo

Authorities in Panama discovered a cache of Cold War era weaponry after seizing and boarding a North Korean cargo vessel that was approaching the Panama Canal. Panamanian authorities became suspicious when the vessel approached the canal with its maritime transponder shut off and believed the vessel was carrying drugs.

The captain of the North Korean-flagged dry-bulk freighter Chong Chon Gang reportedly had a heart attack and attempted to kill himself as Panamanian soldiers boarded the vessel while the crew resisted arrest before the vessel was redirected to the Caribbean port of Colon. A search of one of the cargo holds turned up Soviet-era surface to air missiles and guidance system components buried among tons of sugar. The ship's crew and captain were detained by Panamanian troops on charges of violating national security and transporting undeclared weapons.

The freighter was returning from Cuba and the government of Raul Castro claimed that the weapons found were Cuban and being sent to North Korea for refurbishment, despite an international arms embargo against the secretive Marxist regime. A further search of the Chong Chon Gang's cargo hold has also turned up two MiG 21 fighter jets in addition to 15 engines- also concealed among two tons of sugar. Officials estimate there are a total of 27 container under the sugar in the Chong Chon Gang's cargo hold and are awaiting the arrival of a team of UN inspectors to further examine the ship next week.

Under current sanctions, all U.N. member states are prohibited from directly or indirectly supplying, selling or transferring arms, missiles or missile systems and the equipment and technology to make them to North Korea, with the exception of small arms and light weapons.

It also lets countries inspect cargo destined for North Korea if a state has credible information the cargo could violate Security Council resolutions.

The discovery aboard the freighter Chong Chon Gang was expected to trigger an investigation by the U.N. Security Council committee that monitors the sanctions against North Korea.

If Cuba wanted to send the weapons for repairs and have them returned, it would have needed to get a waiver from the Security Council committee monitoring the North Korea sanctions.

According to maritime blogger Convenient Flags, North Korean merchant ships appearing in Panamanian waters is relatively rare, with a grand total of five traversing the Panama Canal since 2010. The Chong Chon Gang passed through the Panama Canal on its way to Cuba earlier with a load of sheet metal- Panamanian authorities inspected the vessel then. The seized freighter's route and ports of call were similar to that of the 2012 voyage another North Korean vessel made in 2012- only the O Un Chong Nyon Ho's voyage didn't attract as much attention at the time.

Cuba had told Panamanian officials that the outbound cargo on board the Chong Chon Gang was a 'donation' of sugar to North Korea and both North Korea and Cuba have called for the ship's release. Former Colombian president Alviro Uribe also speculated that the arms on board could be destined for a third party if they were on their way to being refurbished by North Korea- Uribe says he believes Ecuador or one of the nations that was part of Hugo Chavez's Bolivar Axis was a likely destination.

[I maintain that the ship's final destination was actually Mike Bloomberg's New York, and the contraband sugar would've been smuggled in by hiding them among the MiG jets and surface to air missiles- NANESB!]

Report: North Koreans Sent to Labor Camps By Regime For Not Appearing Distraught Enough While Mourning Kim Il Jong

Not sufficiently weepy? Off to the labor camps with you!

Shortly after the death of North Korean leader Kim Il-Jung was announced last month, the regime-controlled media made it a point to broadcast video and images of grief-stricken mourners wailing in the streets of Pyongyang over Dear Leader's ascent to that worker's paradise in the sky.



For those of you unfamiliar with the North Korean regime, they control just about every aspect of life in the country and any large-scale event (i.e. parades or something called the Mass games) that takes place is typically very well choreographed. Lining people up on the streets of Pyongyang to wail in anguish on cue for cameras would be a fairly simple task given the ornate nature of some of the other events that have been choreographed.

There's a school of thought that the mourning was genuine either because the indoctrination has clearly taken hold or because those wailing the loudest had it pretty good under Kim Il Jong but could face an uncertain future under Kim Jong-Un, Kim Il Jong's heir apparent.

It's also worth noting that not only does North Korea's state-run media have zero connection to reality, they seem to do so with a melodramatic flourish when it comes to anything related to the regime and ruling party. That's not just this lackey lapdog of Yanqui imperialism speaking- check out these reports from the KCNA (North Korea's official media outlet) that Reuters thoughtfully passed along for us.

(Reuters) - The passing of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il has been marked by plunging temperatures, mourning bears and now, according to North Korean state media, by flocks of magpies.

Kim, who died in December aged 69 years after 17 years running the world's most reclusive state, was reputed to be able to control the weather, as well as to have scored a miraculous 38 under par round of golf.

"At around 17:30 on December 19, 2011, hundreds of magpies appeared from nowhere and hovered over a statue of President Kim Il Sung on Changdok School campus in Mangyongdae District, clattering as if they were telling him the sad news," state news agency KCNA reported on Monday.

KCNA reported last week that a family of bears who usually hibernate through the fierce Korean winter had been seen lamenting Kim Jong-il's death.

"The bears, believed to be a mother and cubs, were staying on the road, crying woefully," it said

Now, reports are circulating that mourners in Pyongyang are being sentenced to several month stints in prison camps for not looking distraught enough on camera.

According to South Korea-based Daily NK, authorities have convened 'criticism sessions' with the aim of punishing those who skipped organized events during the mourning period or those who did but didn't cry or "seem genuine".

The informant from North Hamkyung Province told the website: 'The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labour-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organised gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn't seem genuine.'
The source claimed the criticism sessions created a 'vicious atmosphere of fear', which meant the new leader, Kim Jong-un, was being accused of preying on the people now that he has taken power.

It is unclear how many people face incarceration but the figure could be many thousands.

Shortly before the NKDaily reported the official 'criticism sessions' resulting in the incarceration of lackluster mourners, the regime announced a 'Benevolent' amnesty for convicted prisoners to commemorate the 100th birthday of Kim Il Sung. The announcement didn't clarify how many prisoners would be granted amnesty, although there is speculation that this might've been done to make room for the newly-sentenced North Koreans who were mourning insufficiently.

Czech Dissident, Playwright and Former President Vaclav Havel Laid to Rest

Former anti-communist dissident and Czech President Vaclav Havel passed away this week at the age of 75. Active in writing and theater, Havel was with Radio Free Czechoslovakia for the reforms of the 1968 Prague Spring and the subsequent invasion from the Soviet Union. After the Soviet quelled the Prague spring, Havel was banned from theater- although his works were clandestinely distributed throughout Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s.

The 1989 Velvet Revolution saw the collapse of Czechoslovakia's one-party communist rule after days of mass demonstrations and a general strike by Czech and Slovak citizens. Within days, the Communist Part of Czechoslovakia announced that it would dissolve and open up the borders with West Germany and Austria. Elections were called for within a month, and Havel was voted in as president of Czechoslovakia while Alexander Dubček (the secretary of the Communist party who attempted reforms during the Prague Spring) was voted in as the nation's first post-communist speaker of Parliament.

One of Havel's first acts as President was to issue a general amnesty to political prisoners that had been detained by the Communist regime. When Slovakia split apart from the Czech Republic, Havel resigned the presidency claiming he did not want to preside over the nation's breakup (which was pretty amicable compared to elsewhere in Eastern Europe).

However, he stood for election again in early 1993 and won easily, remaining in office for another decade.


Havel passed away on December 18th. His successor- current Czech president Vaclav Klaus announced that a state funeral mass for Havel would be held at St. Vitus' Cathedral in Prague on Thursday.

Among the honors Havel received include the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of Canada.

Report: North Korean Communist Dictator Kim Il Jong Dead

Kim Jong Il (left) with heir apparent Kim Jong Un (right) in 2010

North Korea's State TV is reporting that 69 year old strongman Kim Il Jong passed away over the weekend. The reports indicate he suffered a fatal heart attack while travelling by train on Saturday.

Kim Il Jong assumed power in 1994 after his father, North Korean founding father Kim Il Sung, passed away at the age of 82. Both Kim Il Sung and Kim Il Jong maintained a belligerent and acrimonious relationship with South Korea, the United States and Japan since the 1953 ceasefire in the Korean War. Kim Il Jong continued his father's legacy of isolating the country from the rest of the world and restricting the individual rights of North Koreans, subjecting them to arbitrary imprisonment or execution.

However, these abuses under Kim Il Jong's were compounded by widespread famine and his ambitions to see North Korea a nuclear state. It's thought that anywhere from 200,000 to 800,000 North Koreans perished annually during the famine that struck the country in the late 1990s.

North Korea at night as seen from space, standing in stark contrast to free-market and much more technologically advanced South Korea

While outside observers such as the United Nations and the CIA noted that North Korea became a nuclear power in 2009, the nation's infrastructure is crumbling, media and telecommunications remain strictly under state control and to this day isn't self-sufficient in providing food for its people.

In South Korea, President Lee Myung-Back convened an emergency national security council meeting and the South Korean military was placed on alert as a precaution, increasing border and maritime patrols.

In March 2010, South Korean Navy Corvette Cheonan was torpedoed by a submarine from the North, killing 46 sailors. Then in November 2010, North Korea shelled a populated island off the coast of South Korea.

According to South Korea's spy agency, Kim Il Jong's ailing health prompted him to prepare an heir apparent to assume power that much quicker. It appears likely that Kim Il Jong's youngest son, Kim Jong-Un will assume power after having been promoted to 4-star general in the North Korean military and was awarded senior level posts in the ruling party.

Communist Third-World Dictator Gives 0bamacare Thumbs-Up As Waxman Summons Companies to Apprear Before Congress

Former warden of the island prison known as Cuba Cuban dictator Fidel Castro spoke out in support of President Obama's recently passed healthcare legislation in an essay published in state-run newspapers last week.

"It is really incredible that 234 years after the Declaration of Independence ... the government of that country has approved medical attention for the majority of its citizens, something that Cuba was able to do half a century ago," Castro wrote

Curiously, the White House and Congress don't seem the least bit bothered by the dictator's kudos and apparently are far more interested in continuing to sell this turd to the public now that it's actually passed.

House Committee Chairman on Energy & Commerce Henry Waxman (D-Nostril-iaCA) has summoned the heads of companies- so far including AT&T, Valero Energy, John Deere, Verizon, AK Steel, 3M and Caterpillar- to appear before Congress after claiming that the newly passed legislation would increase costs for them and erode prescription drug benefits for retired employees of those companies.

"After the president signed the health care reform bill into law, your company announced that provisions in the law could adversely affect your ability to provide health insurance," Waxman wrote in a letter to the CEO of AT&T and other companies "The new law is designed to expand coverage and bring down costs, so your assertions are a matter of concern,"

[Translation- How dare you contradict us!]
Earlier this week, Boeing and Prudential had announced an estimated hit of anywhere between $100 Million to $150 Million per year to their earnings. The 2002 Sabarnes-Oxley Act mandates that senior level executives are held responsible for disclosing to the SEC accurate and complete financial information regarding the company [including future cost estimates for far-reaching legislation like 0bamacare] by the end of each quarter. For those of you questioning the timing of the various companies announcements, the first quarter for 2010 ended on March 31st. In other words, Waxman is setting up a dog-and-pony show over CEO's complying with SEC regulations and disclosing some unintended consequences in the process.

Meanwhile, despite passing this wonderful, popular legislation that's going to be deficit neutral in the most open, bi-partisan and above-board manner possible, many Democrats are avoiding their constituents during the Easter recess for some reason.