Rumsfeld: "Except for my wife and family, that is my favourite photo,"

[Herman Munster]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=410158&in_page_id=1811

Mr Rumsfeld showed the picture to illustrate how backward the northern regime really is - and how oppressed its people are. Without electricity there can be none of the appliances that make life easy and that we take for granted, he said.

"Except for my wife and family, that is my favourite photo," said Mr Rumsfeld.

"It says it all. There's the south, the same people as the north, the same resources north and south, and the big difference is in the south it's a free political system and a free economic system.

"The people in the north are starving, their growth is stunted. It's a shame, a tragedy."

An aide added: "This oppressive regime is too busy trying to make war to make life comfortable for its people."

[leftchick]

1. rummy and NK nuclear reactors

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2003/05/12/342316/index.htm

FORTUNE Magazine) – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rarely keeps his opinions to himself. He tends not to compromise with his enemies. And he clearly disdains the communist regime in North Korea. So it's surprising that there is no clear public record of his views on the controversial 1994 deal in which the U.S. agreed to provide North Korea with two light-water nuclear reactors in exchange for Pyongyang ending its nuclear weapons program. What's even more surprising about Rumsfeld's silence is that he sat on the board of the company that won a $200 million contract to provide the design and key components for the reactors.

The company is Zurich-based engineering giant ABB, which signed the contract in early 2000, well before Rumsfeld gave up his board seat and joined the Bush administration. Rumsfeld, the only American director on the ABB board from 1990 to early 2001, has never acknowledged that he knew the company was competing for the nuclear contract. Nor could FORTUNE find any public reference to what he thought about the project. In response to questions about his role in the reactor deal, the Defense Secretary's spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told Newsweek in February that "there was no vote on this" and that her boss "does not recall it being brought before the board at any time."


Rumsfeld declined requests by FORTUNE to elaborate on his role. But ABB spokesman Bjorn Edlund has told FORTUNE that "board members were informed about this project." And other ABB officials say there is no way such a large and high-stakes project, involving complex questions of liability, would not have come to the attention of the board. "A written summary would probably have gone to the board before the deal was signed," says Robert Newman, a former president of ABB's U.S. nuclear division who spearheaded the project. "I'm sure they were aware."

[flobee1]

2. too stupid to get their own irony

"This oppressive regime is too busy trying to make war to make life comfortable for its people."
:shrug:

[tenshi816]

3. Did you read the comments following the article?

Some of them are idiotic, like this one:

This is an example of why the Liberals want this man removed as Secretary of Defence. He tells the truth about a corrupt regime and makes the defenders of that regime look like the fools they are.

- Mahlon Riggs, Florence, Kansas USA

What liberals have defended the North Korean regime? I'm not aware of any (probably because there aren't any). It's a knee-jerk reaction of Republicans to say such stupid things.

Then there's this one:

North Korea is a perfect example of what happens in America when you let liberals make economic decisions.

- Patriotic American, North Carolina, USA

WTF?

I fear for the future of America, knowing that people like this exist.

[bdamomma]

6. they have been totally brainwashed by our regime.

[elehhhhna]

8. HIs fave photo represents millions of starving people? Figures.

Hey, Rummy, how's the electricity working in Iraq, btw?

[Selatius]

9. If leftists ran America, it would resemble Europe more than Stalinist NK.

But don't let Europe's standard of living get in the way of political ideology.

We wouldn't want socialized medicine, or a network of bullet trains to alleviate interstate traffic, or top notch public schools, or subsidized college education now, would we? It's too socialistic; therefore, it's un-American.

:sarcasm:

[dubykc]

4. There has got to be more electricity in NK than this picture...

shows. Can anyone say PHOTOSHOP??

[RB TexLa]

10. No, that night photo has been like that for years

[Selatius]

11. I believe it's because they ration power at night

North Korea's economy suffered pretty much the same way the economy of the USSR suffered: It was stunted because so much resources were being diverted into military spending that there was little money left for infrastructure or consumer goods. I believe, though, North Korea's living conditions make the conditions in the USSR in the 1980s look very good in comparison.

[bdamomma]

5. geez, the hypocrisy of these people is remarkable

rummy shut the hell up huh?

[Generic Other]

7. 64 cents out of every US tax dollar goes to the freakin' military

you douchbag, Rummy! I think our people might have less crime, better educations, more and better medical care, better jobs, more savings, and a decent environment if someone like you had never been put in power.

Look at Canada you asshole!!!