March 2013


www.hamptonroadsmessenger.com


Dennis Rodman Takes a Shot at Basketball Diplomacy in North Korea


BY FREDERICK H. LOWE Dennis Rodman, a


member of the National Basketball Hall of Fame and former member of the world champion Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons, is engaging in basketball diplomacy with North Korea, similar to ping pong diplomacy in the 1970s that led to improved relations between the United States and China.


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Defense Information, estimates that defense spending will revert to 2007 levels. Amid the sky-is-falling rhetoric from politicians and gullible media, Wheeler says a little belt-tightening can be curative.


“(The Pentagon’s) procurement


and research and development show their distorted priorities. They have it exactly wrong. They need to get the junk out of the procurement budget,” he told the Washington Times.


An economist at the Stanford Uni-


versity-based Hoover Institution — no left-wing think tank — says provincial politicians must share the blame.


Dennis Rodman surrounded by reporters as he arrives in North Korea


Rodman and three members of


the Harlem Globetrotters and a camera crew are in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, to shoot footage for a television show that will air on HBO in early April.


"It's true. I'm in North Korea.


Looking forward to sitting down with Kim Jung-un. I love the people of North Korea," Rodman tweeted on Tuesday. On Thursday, Rodman got his wish. He sat next to Kim Jung-un during a basketball game between teams from the U.S. and North Korea.


Rodman later told Kim Jung-un


before a crowd of thousands, "You have a friend for life," according to news reports.


Kim Jong-un, who took power


in North Korea in December 2011, following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, is a fan of the NBA, particularly the Chicago Bulls. Gawker, an online website, posted a photo of Kim Jong-un wearing a Chicago Bulls jersey with Rodman's number, 91.


He 51-year-old Rodman, who has


dyed his hair orange and boasts nose and mouth rings and lots of tattoos, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that, "I come in peace. I love the people of North Korea. I am not a politician. Kim Jung-un and the North Korean people


are basketball fans. I love everyone. Period. End of story."


He tweeted that maybe he would


run into the "Gangnam style dude while I'm here." Psy, the Korean rapper, who made the hit record and video, "The Gangnam Style," however, lives in South Korea.


Rodman is accompanied by


Globetrotters Bull Bullard, Buckets Blakes and Moose Weekes. "Our aim is to entertain and inspire children everywhere," said Kurt Schneider, Globetrotters CEO.


Rodman's weeklong visit is


occurring at a time of heightened tension between North Korea and the United States. The countries are still technically at war, subsequent to the Korean War, which began in June 1950 and ended in a stalemate in January 1953.


Two weeks earlier, North Korea


conducted an underground nuclear test in defiance of U.N. bans against atomic and missile activity.


Rodman tweeted: "They love


basketball here. Honored to represent the United States of America."


The U.S. State Department has


declined to comment on Rodman's visit.


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David Henderson noted the


example of House Speaker John Boehner pushing for an alternate engine for the F-35 joint strike fighter over the objections of (then) Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who called it “a waste of nearly $3 billion.”


Yet Boehner continued to push


because the engine’s manufacturer had about 1,000 employees working on the engine in a facility near his home base of Cincinnati at the time.


Only an effort by Rep. Tom


Rooney, R-Fla., succeeded in halting the project.


Still, politicians of both parties —


up to and including President Obama — continue to wave the bloody flag. The administration site projects that sequestration would furlough 90,000 civilian defense workers in Virginia and reduce gross pay by $648 million, the biggest hit among the 50 states.


U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Norfolk,


traveling with Obama to Virginia’s naval bases on Tuesday, said he would support raising revenues via “tax reform” to avoid sequestration.


U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes,


R-Chesapeake, wants to remove the Department of Defense from sequestration altogether.


“That would give lawmakers an


opportunity to blunt the debilitating impact of the cuts on national defense,” Forbes said.


Obama appeared in the Navy town


of Newport News to rouse resistance to sequestration’s mandatory cuts due to kick in Friday. Ramping up the rhetoric, the administration says the total reductions will total $1.2 trillion — a figure 14 times bigger than the CBO’s.


The Navy says it will scuttle


maintenance work on 11 ships stationed in Hampton Roads, delay work on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and stall deployment of the USS Truman. Some 90,000 civilian furloughs have been threatened in the region.


Retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters


told the Washington Examiner the Navy’s actions were “ostentatious.”


Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell,


joined this week with Democratic Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to warn that sequestration could send both states “into a recession.”


Susan Stimpson, chairman of the


Stafford County Board of Supervisors and Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, told Watchdog: “Government has plenty of revenue and we need to cut spending, (but)


The Hampton Roads Messenger


3


sequestration is not the intelligent way to do it, and Republicans never should have put it on the table. But it’s what President Obama wanted, and congressional leaders agreed to.”


Though Stimpson favors making


cuts in a more “targeted fashion,” she said the ‘sky-is-falling’ rhetoric is shameful.”


“Even with sequestration, the


government is still spending more than it did last year, and out of a $3.6 trillion budget a cut of $44 billion is only about 1.2 percent. The adminis- tration’s apparent desire to mismanage the cuts to scare people into raising taxes is another divisive failure to lead,” Stimpson said.


Still, politicians of both parties —


up to and including President Obama — continue to wave the bloody flag. The administration site projects that sequestration would furlough 90,000 civilian defense workers in Virginia and reduce gross pay by $648 million, the biggest hit among the 50 states.


U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Norfolk,


traveling with Obama to Virginia’s naval bases on Tuesday, said he would support raising revenues via “tax reform” to avoid sequestration.


U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes,


R-Chesapeake, wants to remove the Department of Defense from sequestration altogether.


“That would give lawmakers an


opportunity to blunt the debilitating impact of the cuts on national defense,” Forbes said.


Obama appeared in the Navy town


of Newport News to rouse resistance to sequestration’s mandatory cuts due to kick in Friday. Ramping up the rhetoric, the administration says the total reductions will total $1.2 trillion — a figure 14 times bigger than the CBO’s.


The Navy says it will scuttle


maintenance work on 11 ships stationed in Hampton Roads, delay work on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and stall deployment of the USS Truman. Some 90,000 civilian furloughs have been threatened in the region.


Retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters


told the Washington Examiner the Navy’s actions were “ostentatious.”


Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell,


joined this week with Democratic Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to warn that sequestration could send both states “into a recession.


Susan Stimpson, chairman of the


Stafford County Board of Supervisors and Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, told Watchdog: “Government has plenty of revenue and we need to cut spending, (but) sequestration is not the intelligent way to do it, and Republicans never should have put it on the table. But it’s what President Obama wanted, and congressional leaders agreed to.”


Though Stimpson favors making


cuts in a more “targeted fashion,” she said the ‘sky-is-falling’ rhetoric is shameful.”


“Even with sequestration, the


government is still spending more than it did last year, and out of a $3.6 trillion budget a cut of $44 billion is only about 1.2 percent. The adminis- tration’s apparent desire to mismanage the cuts to scare people into raising taxes is another divisive failure to lead,” Stimpson said.


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