(All around Tokyo in Early Spring)US Presidents & Ah-Q
(A Big Story and A Humble Story)
[Updated in January 2012]
Gallup's approval and disapproval ratings for all elected presidents since World War II, indicating the first-year performance in each presidency:
• Eisenhower, 69-22
• Kennedy, 77-11
• Nixon, 59-23
• Carter, 57-27
• Reagan, 49-41
• George H.W. Bush, 71-20
• Clinton, 53-39
• George W. Bush, 86-11
• Obama, 49-46
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/dec/17/karl-rove/rove-says-obamas-approval-ratings-after-year-are-w/
The worst is indeed Mr. Barack Obama.
But now, Japan's Prime Minister Mr. Yukio Hatoyama is only credited (by 25% of voters) in a ratio twice worse than Mr. Obama's.
Maybe Mr. Yukio Hatoyama has already accomplished his mission as a very honorable politician who achieved a real regime change that occurred only once in half a century in Japan.
The coming Upper-House election scheduled in this summer must have been coupled with the 2009-30-8 general election from the beginning.
SECTION I: Who Defends George W. Bush?
No one respects former President Mr. George W. Bush, since he launched a war on Iraq based on a false reason that Iraq had nuclear bombs, chemical weapons, or biological arsenal prepared for use in terror to America.
There are now ten thousand or more Americans or ex-U.S. soldiers who were killed or lost their lives, part of their bodies, or normal functions of minds and hearts.
The total costs of the Iraqi War is now estimated to $1 to $3 trillion, forcing the U.S. Government to sell its Treasury bonds more to Japan and China and making full introduction of the reformed health care system more difficult without mentioning difficult handling of the Wall Street triggered financial crisis.
Accordingly, no one respects former President Mr. George W. Bush, even in numerous tea parties.
But, former President Mr. George W. Bush could be said to have prevented a possible fierce terror on America or American Presidents including himself, his father, Mr. Bill Clinton, and even Mr. Barack Obama.
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Rangoon bombing
The 1983 Rangoon bombing was an assassination attempt against then-South Korean President, Chun Doo-hwan, allegedly orchestrated by North Korea...
On October 9, 1983, President Chun Doo-hwan was on an official visit to Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. During the visit, he planned to lay a wreath at the Martyr’s Mausoleum, to commemorate Aung San, who founded the independent Myanmar and was assassinated in 1947.[2] As some of the president’s staff began assembling at the mausoleum, one of three bombs concealed in the roof of the memorial exploded. The huge blast ripped through the crowd below, killing 21 people and wounding 46...
As a result of the bombing, Burma suspended diplomatic relations with North Korea. China, which had passed on a diplomatic note requesting trilateral talks between North and South Korea and the US on North Korea's behalf just prior to the bombing, reprimanded North Korea in the state media. Chinese officials refused to meet or talk with North Korean officials for months afterward. [3]
In 1994, the representative of South Korea to the United Nations General Assembly linked this incident with the downing of Korean Air Flight 858 which he alleged was sponsored by the same government acting with impunity..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangoon_bombing
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9-30-02
How Do We Know that Iraq Tried to Assassinate President George H.W. Bush?
By FBI Study
This is an excerpt from Part II of Section D of the report 'The FBI Laboratory: An Investigation into Laboratory Practices and Alleged Misconduct in Explosives-Related and Other Cases', published by the Office of the Inspector General, Department of Justice, in April, 1997.
Former President George Bush visited Kuwait between April 14 and April 16, 1993, to commemorate the allied victory in the Persian Gulf War. Accompanying Bush were his wife, two of his sons, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, former Chief of Staff John Sununu, and former Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady.
In late-April 1993, the United States learned that terrorists had attempted to assassinate Bush during his visit to Kuwait. The Kuwaiti authorities arrested 17 persons suspected in the plot to kill Bush using explosives hidden in a Toyota Landcruiser. The Kuwaitis recovered the Landcruiser, which contained between 80 and 90 kilograms of plastic explosives connected to a detonator ( the Bush device or Bush explosive device ). The Kuwaitis also recovered ten cube-shaped plastic explosive devices with detonators (the cube-bombs ) from the Landcruiser. Some of the suspects reportedly confessed that the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS ) was behind the assassination attempt.
The DOJ and CIA reported that it was highly likely that the Iraqi Government originated the plot and more than likely that Bush was the target. Additionally, based on past Iraqi methods and other sources of intelligence, the CIA independently reported that there was a strong case that Saddam Hussein directed the plot against Bush.
On June 26, 1993, the United States launched a cruise missile attack against a building housing the IIS in Baghdad in retaliation for the assassination attempt on former President Bush...
http://hnn.us/articles/1000.html
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North Korea, envious of South Korea's planned Olympic Games hosting, started to terrorize South Koreans, by trying to kill the S. Korean President and actually killed many high-ranking S. Korean officials in 1983 and jet-plane passengers of Korean Air Lines in 1987.
Today, North Korea is secretly equipped with nuclear bombs and many middle-range missiles as well as some long-range missiles that could reach Hawaii and Alaska.
If former President Mr. George W. Bush had not launched a war on Iraq, today Iraq might try to be secretly equipped with nuclear bombs and many middle-range missiles as well as some long-range missiles that could reach Jerusalem, London and Washington D.C.
However, it might not have been Saddam Hussein that ordered the 1993 terror on former President Mr. George H.W. Bush in Kuwait.
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Published on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 by the Inter Press Service
So, Did Saddam Hussein Try to Kill Bush's Dad?
by Jim Lobe
...
During a campaign speech in September 2002, Bush cited a number of reasons -- in addition to alleged terrorist links and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) about why Saddam was so dangerous to the U.S., noting, in particular that, ''After all, this is the guy who tired to kill my dad.'' ...
While the alleged plot was never cited officially as a cause for going to war, some pundits -- including Maureen Dowd of the 'New York Times'-- have speculated that revenge or some oedipal desire to show up his father may indeed have been one of the factors that drove him to Baghdad -- as the sign of one demonstrator suggested in a big anti-war march here just before the war: ''I love my dad, too, but come on!''
''(Saddam) had to have had some idea that his ability to run operations outside Iraq was not very good, because we had foiled so many things before the war. So you have to ask why someone who was a risk-taker but clearly not suicidal would undertake to assassinate a former president of the United States,'' pointed out Wilson.
Larry Johnson, a top counter-terrorist official at the State Department, said he still has ''no doubts'' about the plot, recalling Saddam's ''gangster'' ethic. ''Personal honor was involved,'' he said.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1019-05.htm
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If it was not Saddam Hussein that tried to assassinate the father of former President Mr. George W. Bush, the War on Iraq seems to have fully warned and suppressed real perpetrators behind the scene.
It really looks so, since it was not nuclear bombs that have emerged in the wake of the War on Terror but Dubai (false) prosperity, unlike the case of North Korea with real nuclear bombs and some ballistic missiles.
You cannot blame former President Mr. George W. Bush alone on Iraq, though President Mr. Barack Obama's case on Afghanistan is yet to be checked...
SECTION II: A Chinese Story Written before 1937
Everybody understands the meaning of being good or bad, superior or inferior, rich or poor, and happy or unhappy in addition to his likeness and dislikeness.
The worst student in a class has the same understanding as the best in terms of being good or bad, superior or inferior, rich or poor, and happy or unhappy in addition to his likeness and dislikeness.
The poorest man in a society has the same understanding as the most celebrated in terms of being good or bad, superior or inferior, rich or poor, and happy or unhappy in addition to his likeness and dislikeness.
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Lu Xun
The True Story of Ah-Q
Chapter One: Introduction
...
Chapter Two: A Brief Account of Ah-Q's Victories
....
However, the truth of the proverb "misfortune may be a blessing in disguise" was shown when Ah Q was unfortunate enough to win and almost suffered defeat in the end.
This was the evening of the Festival of the Gods in Weichuang. According to custom there was a play; and close to the stage, also according to custom, were numerous gambling tables. The drums and gongs of the play sounded about three miles away to Ah Q who had ears only for the stake-holder's chant. He staked successfully again and again, his coppers turning into silver coins, his silver coins into dollars, and his dollars mounting up. In his excitement he cried our, "Two dollars on Heavenly Gate!"
He never knew who started the fight, nor for what reason. Curses, blows and footsteps formed a confused medley of sound in his head, and by the time he clambered to his feet the gambling tables had vanished and so had the gamblers. Several parts of his body seemed to be aching as if he had been kicked and knocked about, while a number of people were looking at him in astonishment. Feeling as if there were something amiss, he walked back to the Tutelary God's Temple, and by the time he regained his composure he realized that his pile of dollars had disappeared. Since most of the people who ran gambling tables at the Festival were not natives of Weichuang, where could he look for the culprits?
So white and glittering a pile of silver! It had all been his . . . but now it had disappeared. Even to consider it tantamount to being robbed by his son did not comfort him. To consider himself as an insect did not comfort him either. This time he really tasted something of the bitterness of defeat.
But presently he changed defeat into victory. Raising his right hand he slapped his own face hard twice, so that it tingled with pain. After this slapping his heart felt lighter, for it seemed as if the one who had given the slap was himself, the one slapped some other self, and soon it was just as if he had beaten someone else—in spite of the fact that his face was still tingling. He lay down satisfied that he had gained the victory.
Soon he was asleep.
...
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lu-xun/1921/12/ah-q/ch01.htm
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As the more you are given by God, the more you are requested to give, a person like Ah-Q would be far less sternly judged by the God.
Yet, if there had been millions of Ah-Qs in China in 1930's, should have the Empire of Japan been to blame?
*** *** *** ***
Among 242 seats of the Upper House of the Japanese Diet, the Democratic Party of Japan led by P.M. Mr. Hatoyama has only 115 seats while a majority threshold is 122.
The party holding the casting vote in this context is the People's New Party led by Mr. Shizuka Kamei, an anti-Wall Street veteran Cabinet minister in charge of financial affairs and postal service privatization, since it has 6 seats in the Upper House.
The Social Democratic Party has five seats in the Upper House as one of ruling parties, though without counting the SDP the DPJ and others can secure 122 seats.
Yet, the PNP and the SDP have enjoyed very advantageous positions so far. Accordingly, their fates after the coming Upper-House election are also issues of high concern.
(http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/dontcomeeasy.htm
If something comes easy, think nothing comes easy in this world especially for you, though everybody fails in this test...)
Mar 4:16 And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;
Mar 4:17 And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.
Mar 4:18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,
Mar 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.