Via Blazing Cat Fur:
China
Reaction Of Chinese Christians After Seeing A Bible For The First Time
Politifact Tells Whoppers! 2012 Lie of the Year
Via Breitbart’s article, “Reuters Debunks Politifact; Fiat Will Build Jeeps in China”
On Sunday, Reuters reported Fiat and Chrysler, which Fiat owns, are on the verge of signing an agreement to produce Jeeps in China, and they may make the announcement as early as Monday at the Detroit Auto Show:
Italian carmaker Fiat and its U.S. unit Chrysler are set to sign a new agreement with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co to produce the Jeep vehicle for the Chinese market, Il Corriere della Sera said on Sunday.
In an unsourced article, the Corriere said the head of Fiat and Chrysler Sergio Marchionne could announce the agreement at the Detroit auto show, which kicks off on Monday.
Under the agreement, off-road vehicles under the Jeep brand will be produced at GAC’s Canton factory, the paper said.
This report debunks the supposedly neutral fact-checking organization Politifact’s claim that Mitt Romney’s campaign advertisement during the 2012 that alleged Obama sold Chrysler to Italians “who are going to build Jeeps in China” was 2012’s “Lie of the Year.”
Politifact announced that Mitt Romney’s “Jeep” ad was its “2012 Lie of the Year” even though the ad was factually true.
Romney slightly misspoke on the stump about Fiat’s intention to produce Jeeps in China, but reports about Fiat, which owns Chrysler, building Jeeps in China surfaced as early as 2010. And the campaign ad simply stated:
Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China. Mitt Romney will fight for every American job.
Even liberal publications like Mother Jones and mainstream newspapers like the Washington Post conceded the advertisement was factually true or true on the merits.
This is not the first time Politifact’s “lie of the year” has been completely debunked after the fact.
In 2009, Politifact announced that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s claim about “death panels” in Obamacare was its “Lie of the Year.” After Palin revealed what Rush Limbaugh said was a “hidden truth,” the Obama administration removed the so-called “death panels” from its initial Obamacare bill. And three years later, former Obama adviser Steve Rattner, in a New York Times op-ed, said the country actually needed “death panels” to ration health care.
Here are some FACTS about death panels from an older post: Kirsten Powers says in this interview/debate that Bush made this law, Gateway Pundit has this correction:
Republican analyst Matt Schlapp corrected this latest lie [right around the 6:40 mark] by the Obama Administration. Bush vetoed the end of life provision that went into law in 2008.
[….]
RedState has more.
What The Hill’s Jason Millman forgot to mention in his article was that President Bush VETOED the 2008 bill and the Democrats, along with some “good-willed” Republicans OVERRODE Bush’s veto forcing him to sign the legislation into law. The bill dealt with doctors’ reimbursements and more, but the Democrats slipped in the end-of-life planning by opening up the Social Security Act, which I have stated many times is dangerous, because once changed, it is difficult to amend again and allows for tinkering with the Medicare fee schedule and covered services definitions and requirements.
The fact that the Obama Administration claimed that the Bush Administration supported the end of life provision is a complete lie. And, they know it.
Obama Admin May Do What Only China and Myanmar Have Done ~ Ban (through legislation) `Little Sisters of the Poor`
Via Gateway Pundit:
The Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic religious group for women who have dedicated their lives to the service of the elderly, is concerned that after more than a century of service the Obama Administration will force them out of the United States. The order was previously banned in China and Myanmar. The Obama Admininistration may force them out of the United States.
The religious order claims the so-called contraception mandate in ObamaCare will make it impossible for them to continue their work in the United States.
FOX News reported:
Tidal Bore ~ China
China Buiding-and Building-and Building
All Players In the Middle-East/Mediterranean (Eschatology Watch)~NATO [Europe],America,China [East]
Christian Journalist Jailed in China
My son is in China, and one of the gifts — out of the many — he is giving the host family is the book, Genesis and the Mystery Confucius Couldn’t Solve. Pray that if his host family is not saved that this book [via the new information about the reality of God spurned on by the Holy Spirit] will be instrumental in leading them to the Lord. Related to China is this story of a Christian journalist getting 10-years in jail for writing articles in foreign publications that the Chinese government would disagree with. Pray that the many people like these would have a miraculous freedom from the hand of their captors. And if not, pray that their time in jail is as fruitful as Paul’s (or pray for both). My son is only in China for 10-days, but any and all prayers for his safety are much appreciated:
Chinese Christian journalist gets 10-year sentence for articles government doesn’t like
A veteran Chinese political dissident and writer has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, but it’s not his first stay behind bars. Liu Xianbin received the harsh sentence for simply writing articles for overseas publications that the government did not like.
Bob Fu of ChinaAid tells OneNewsNow that Liu has been persecuted since 1989 when he was a student. “As a result of that he was sentenced to more than two years,” Fu states, “and after that in 1999 he was sentenced to another 13 years.”
The government will not tolerate internal dissidence, says Fu. “Basically if you want to speak up your mind or write a few articles deferring from the party line,” he says, “this is the way they will handle you — put you in jail.”
Chinese authorities barred all but immediate family from the sentencing.
“Only his wife and another relative were allowed to be in the court,” Fu adds. “He was only allowed to speak a few sentences declaring himself basically innocent and denouncing this human-rights violation.”
Liu is a Christian and is the 35th person convicted of inciting subversion of state power since 1997. ChinaAid is encouraging Americans to pray for Liu and to write letters in his support to their elected representatives in Washington, DC.
Jasmine Revolution Update
Via Big Peace:
BEIJING — Jittery Chinese authorities wary of any domestic dissent staged a concerted show of force Sunday to squelch a mysterious online call for a “Jasmine Revolution” apparently modeled after pro-democracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle East.
Authorities detained activists, increased the number of police on the streets, disconnected some mobile phone text messaging services and censored Internet postings about the call to stage protests at 2 p.m. in Beijing, Shanghai and 11 other major cities.
[….]
On Sunday, police took at least three people away in Beijing, one of whom tried to lay down white jasmine flowers while hundreds of people milled about the protest gathering spot, outside a McDonald’s on the capital’s busiest shopping street. In Shanghai, police led away three people near the planned protest spot after they scuffled in an apparent bid to grab the attention of passers-by.
Many activists said they didn’t know who was behind the campaign and weren’t sure what to make of the call to protest, which first circulated Saturday on the U.S.-based, Chinese-language news website Boxun.com.
~Jasmine~Revolution in China?! Whaaat?
Some expert input on the North Korean Crisis
These are the two takes on the crisis that I think are the closest to what has and hasn’t worked and what the deal is is right now. I think combining the two make the most sense in this problem. My son asked so I posted this on his FaceBook after the following two videos (in the second video zero in on Charles Krauthammer):
Kim Jong-il is passing on the countries reins to his son, Kim Jong-Un. I like the last experts take on this whole thing. They have been producing since the 50’s, we have failed to stop it since 93′ — and there is a new nut taking control → all under the guise of China’s wanting it this way. The only way we can respond to this to make China really figure out that we aren’t playing their game anymore is to let Japan and South Korea respond in kind to North Korea’s and China’s capabilities. Almost like Reagan putting ICBM’s up along the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
North Korea-on the front burner
What was in the background of our foreign policy has now steamed to the forefront with the shelling of South Korea. The Wall Street Journal asks and answers if this incident was different than others in the past, in that while there have been military flare-ups between North and South, this is the first time a civilian area was hit. And it was almost fortuitous that I decided to post the night before this indecent a commentary by Chasrles Krauthammer that is worth re-posting here:
So how does all this change our foreign policy overnight in regard to this military cult? Jane’s posts a bit on one aspect that is now under scrutiny (non-subscriber section):
Scientist confirms activity at North Korean nuclear site
US nuclear scientist Dr Sig Hecker has confirmed Jane’s reports of activity at Yongbyon Nuclear Complex in North Korea and revealed that a state-of-the-art uranium enrichment plant is in operation at the site.
Hecker, who visited Yongbyon for the fourth time in mid-November, identified construction at the site as the foundation of a 100 MW thermal light-water reactor, a finding that has been confirmed by new satellite imagery.
A co-director of Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Hecker wrote in a CISAC report published on 20 November that he had also seen a “small industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility with 2,000 centrifuges that was recently completed and said to be producing low enriched uranium (LEU) destined for fuel for the new reactor”.
The existence of the new reactor site is confirmed by satellite images taken on 4 November 2010 by DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2. They show the newly paved concrete pad of the reactor core and the foundation of the reactor containment wall. The circular pad is about 22 metres in diameter and is situated within a 43 m 2 recently entrenched cut that will accommodate the reactor containment building.
Jane’s first reported renewed activity at this site after analysis of a 24 September 2010 GeoEye-1 satellite image showed four construction vehicles preparing the site. The concrete pad of the reactor has since been laid and two massive cranes – one tower crane with a 54 m horizontal jib and one mobile crane – have been deployed to the site.
The Telegraph also mentions this facility:
US says China must put pressure on North Korea
China must persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear plans, a senior United States official has said, after the rogue state’s latest atomic plant was revealed.
The revelation that North Korea is building a new light water nuclear plant at its Yongbyon site was proof that it remains a “dangerous country” intent on making nuclear weapons, said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We have to continue to bring pressure on [Kim Jong-il] specifically.
[….]
Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear scientist at Stanford University, revealed at the weekend that he had been taken to a plant at the Yongbyon nuclear complex this month where he saw hundreds of centrifuges that North Korea said were operational.
North Korea has said the new facility is for electricity generation, but the sophistication of the plant has surprised experts, and drawn a warning from Robert Gates, the US Defence secretary, that North Korea may use the plant for enriching uranium.
Pyongyang may have deliberately shown its hand in order to gain an advantage in any upcoming negotiations on aid for disarmament.
So the question is this, and is really Charles suggestion, would it be wiser for us to ramp up Japan and South Korea (and Taiwan) to make the point hit home that China better do something with North Korea and stop playing games?