Because we don't have anything else to worry about, right?

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles on Thursday, further stoking tension in the region that was already high due to Pyongyang's nuclear test and threats to boost its nuclear arsenal in response to U.N. sanctions.

North Korea fired two surface-to-ship missiles off its east coast that flew about 100 km (60 miles) and splashed into the sea, a South Korean defense official said.

A South Korean daily said that the secretive North may also test fire mid-range missiles in a matter of days.

Washington said this week it had tightened its crackdown on firms linked to the North's lucrative proliferation of missiles, a major source of cash for the destitute state, and has sent the U.S. point man for sanctions to Asia for discussions.

And were wondering why:

Millions of people across the Middle East and Asia have lost access to the internet after two undersea cables in the Mediterranean suffered severe damage.

Huge numbers in Egypt and India were left struggling to get online as a result of the outage, when the major internet pipeline between Egypt and Italy was cut.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) throughout the region, including those in United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, also reported problems. International telephone calls, which have also been affected, are being rerouted to work around the problem.

Bush was asked at a White House press conference last week if he would consider a “goodwill mission to restore the country’s good name abroad.” The president said, “That’s what I do during my presidency. I go around spreading goodwill and talking about the importance of spreading freedom and peace.”

Apparently, he meant it. Yes, the president is planning some road-trips.

President George W. Bush’s diplomatic passport will acquire a slew of new country stamps during his final year in office as he tries to rebuild the U.S.’s international standing and create a foreign-policy legacy beyond Iraq.

The president plans trips to the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America, which would make 2008 his busiest year abroad. While his major domestic initiatives may get stalled by a Democratic majority in Congress and the gridlock caused by election-year politics, he still has an opportunity to exert his influence overseas. […]

While the president will strive to strengthen alliances, it won’t come at the expense of continuing to prosecute the war on terror, said Jim Jeffrey, the deputy White House national security adviser.

“We want to be well-perceived in the world,” Jeffrey said in an interview. “But more importantly, we want to formulate policies that will protect the American people.”

With all due respect to the White House, maybe we’ll be “well-perceived in the world” if the president stays home and changes his policies, instead of traveling abroad and keeping his existing policies?

The Belgravia Dispatch: Large swaths of the Middle East and South Asia are in turmoil. What follows are (somewhat random) dispatches meant to give a sense of the depth of the multiple crises that are contributing to a destabilization of the wider region.

Amygdala: How did the U.S. come to adopt interrogation techniques copied from the Soviet Union?  And speaking of Russia...

Empire Burlesque: Holy Terror

The Pump Handle: When a man with extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is told not to board a plane and then does so anyway, you have to expect the public health bloggers to come out in force.

King of Zembla: Rants worth reading...

Angry Bear: Comparing how the various Presidents did according to measures like real growth rates, abortions, national debt, etc. So far, the series show Democrats doing better than Republicans. (A not complete list can be found here.)  Here's an update...

NY Times (reg. req.)

The year 2006 was the deadliest for journalists and news media workers worldwide, with at least 155 killings and unexplained deaths, the International Federation of Journalists said Sunday.

The group, which represents half a million journalists in more than 100 countries, said in its annual report that Iraq continued to be the most dangerous place to work; 68 media staff members were killed there in 2006, bringing the total since the war began in March 2003 to 170.

The federation also pointed to continuing attacks on journalists in Latin America, where 37 media staff members were killed. Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela stood out.

Thirteen journalists died in the Philippines, pushing the total of such deaths in Asia up to 34, the federation said.

"2006 was the worst year on record, a year of targeting, brutality and continued impunity in the killing of journalists," said the federation's general secretary, Aidan White. Read on...

The "bubble" that protects the president from competing ideas and possible critics here in the United States has gone international. Consider Bush's recent trip to Vietnam, and the "connection" the president made with the Vietnamese people.

On Saturday, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, conceded that the president had not come into direct contact with ordinary Vietnamese, but said that they connected anyway.

"If you'd been part of the president's motorcade as we've shuttled back and forth," he said, reporters would have seen that "the president has been doing a lot of waving and getting a lot of waving and smiles." He continued: "I think he's gotten a real sense of the warmth of the Vietnamese people."

I can't be sure exactly how Hadley defines "connected," but exchanging waves from a speeding car is hardly the ideal way to get "a real sense of warmth."

Unfortunately, this fits into a pattern. When Bush went to India in March, he avoided regular people. When the president barnstormed through East Asia last year, he "visited no museums, tried no restaurants, bought no souvenirs and made no effort to meet ordinary local people."

It's remarkable, but we've elected a world leader who has no real interest in the world.

-Steve Benen

At one time THF didn't like Malaysia very much.

Heritage's new, pro-Malaysian outlook emerged at the same time a Hong Kong consulting firm co-founded by Edwin J. Feulner, Heritage's president, began representing Malaysian business interests. The for-profit firm, called Belle Haven Consultants, retains Feulner's wife, Linda Feulner, as a "senior adviser." And Belle Haven's chief operating officer, Ken Sheffer, is the former head of Heritage's Asia office and is still on Heritage's payroll as a $75,000-a-year consultant

Its called C-A-S-H.

No wait, it must be those nasty liberals that hate Tom Delay.
Please read the full Washington Post article.

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On the Today show this morning, Colin Powell said that the "initial" U.S.
commitment to the disaster relief in South Asia was "$350,000,000"

Click here if player does not work

It's obvious that the administration must be embarrassed by their initial offers of aid to the Tsunami tragedy. As we and other sites have noted, the U.S. started out with pledging 400,000 dollars, then 15 million, than 35 million, and now 350 million dollars. All of us realize that the U.S. and it's citizens would have stepped up to the plate in this world crisis. Why then would Powell openly misstate the facts if not to try and put a spin to the White House's intial pledges. (hat tip Americablog)

by William R. Polk...former member of the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Council, Polk was responsible for the Middle East. He has been a professor of history at the University of Chicago and Founding Director of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He is now senior director of the W.P. Carey Foundation. American Conservative Magazine

From childhood, we Americans are deluged with slogans. We often select our breakfast food, our soap, and our toothpaste by jingles and catchphrases rather than by reading the labels. So we fall easily into accepting evocative expressions in place of analysis even when it comes to national security. Our parents were sold on the slogan that the First World War was the “war to end all wars,” although the 20th century had more of them than any other in history. We went into Vietnam fearing the “domino effect,” although the struggle there had little relationship to events in any other Asian country. We were rushed into the war in Iraq by the assertion that little, poor, remote Iraq was at the point of attacking mighty America, and now we are bogged down there allegedly by a ragtag faction of Ba’athist diehards.

Seldom do we hear hard-headed analysis of what is happening, what is possible, what the alternatives are, how much each will cost in lives, treasure, prestige, and security. When I was the member of the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Council responsible for the Middle East, I had the duty to try to understand the reality in the problems we then faced, to comprehend the forces at work, and to identify what could be done. Now as a private citizen, I ask: what is the reality of Iraq, what do we face there, and what can we do? More

The Tsunami Crisis Center for American Progress

The crisis in the Indian Ocean has left the world stunned and saddened by the scope of the loss. We are heartened, however, by the outpouring of public and private support to provide immediate relief to the people of the region. Now, with billions of dollars pledged to these efforts, the world community has an obligation to monitor the short- and long-term outcome of the global relief operation. How we spend those dollars will ultimately determine our collective success – or failure – in meeting this enormous challenge. Here are seven issues to keep your eye on as this story unfolds.

Why is Colin Powell Lying? Crooks and Liars

On the Today show Wednesday morning, Colin Powell said that the "initial" U.S. commitment to the disaster relief in South Asia was "$350,000,000". Go on over to More