How long have I been saying this?  Michelle Wie should win a women’s tour event and at least become one of the best female golfers in the world before trying out PGA tour events.  Well now it appears some people are actually beginning to agree with me:

The ever-fickle media seem to be turning their back on the teenage golfer Michelle Wie. To take reports in the international press these days, Michelle Wie is nothing but hype. On top of a string of disappointing finishes, the decisive turn in press sentiment may have been her withdrawal from the John Deere Classic PGA event that opened on July 15. Why, oh why has the press turned against its erstwhile darling?

It was Golf World Columnist Jaime Diaz who threw the first stone. Ahead of the opening of the John Deere Classic, Diaz said in a column provocatively titled, “Wie shouldn’t compete on PGA tour,” “Unless she makes the cut, this week’s John Deere Classic should be the last time Michelle Wie accepts a sponsor’s exemption to play in a PGA Tour event until she becomes the best woman golfer in the world.” Other golfers on the same circuit were also quoted as making unkind comments.

It is not just the media but even some women golfers that are fed up with the Wie phenomenom:

Jeff Gove offered some advice: “She’s got to learn to play faster and be a little more respectful of the other players, things of that nature.” Wie was up on the chopping block at the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship early this month. A bewildered Pak Se-ri said at the time, “I tried to talk to her a few times, but she wouldn’t even give me a response.” The LA Times says Wie found herself going head-to-head with the men because PGA officials, her parents and the press pushed her to do so.

How could she turn her back on and ignore a fellow Korean?  I thought she was “definitely Korean”, well at least according to her dad she is.

Michelle Wie has been playing in these PGA tour events in order to build her brand name image and make money from it.  However, she is doing this at the expense of all the much better LPGA golfers out there which is effecting the image of the LPGA and their players as them being below Wie and a lesser league even though many of the golfers in the LPGA are better than her.  If Michelle Wie consistently played LPGA events and lost which she probably would her name brand image would sink dramatically but the quality of the image of the LPGA would improve because it would show how much better the other female golfers are compared to Wie.  However, by consistently playing in PGA events and losing it gives her some kind of creditbility in order to make money and that is what it is all about.

Michelle Wie is young and has unlimited potential and will have plenty of opportunity to challenge the PGA in the future, but she should at least become a serious contender before challenging the PGA.  How would the LPGA feel if golfers that couldn’t make it in the PGA joined the LPGA?  It would decrease the quality of play of the league and that is what Michelle Wie is doing compared to when a serious female golfer like Annika Sorenstam plays in PGA events.  Even a minor leaguer in baseball can strike out a big leaguer every once in a while but are they really ready for the big leagues?

So says North Korea:

NORTH Korea has defended its missile launches ahead of an Asian security forum expected to focus on them, describing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a “political imbecile” for criticising the tests.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) accused Dr Rice, who called North Korea a “completely irresponsible” and “dangerous” state for test-firing seven ballistic missiles on July 5, of distorting the facts.

However, the communist state also came in for criticism from a United Nations official who said the launches had prompted a cutback in food aid.

Dr Rice and her North Korean counterpart Paek Nam-Sun are due to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum in Kuala Lumpur on Friday amid international tensions over the missile tests.

Now my big question is, is this garbage being taught to South Korean students?:

Materials show that the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union excerpted a North Korean history textbook verbatim to write more than two-thirds of a 92-page long booklet without disclosing the source. It was then used in a seminar for the members of its Busan chapter in October. The textbook was reprinted in South Korea by Ilsongjeong publishers in 1983.

The booklet reproduces North Korea¿s tall claims for the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung¿s anti-Japanese activities during the Japanese colonial era and describes the Korean War as a ¿struggle to liberate the motherland.¿ Quoting a U.S-based sociologist, it also hails North Korean leader Kim Jong-il¿s Songun or military-first policy as a ¿unique achievement.¿

Je Seong-ho, a law professor at JoongAng University, said the materials are illegal under the National Security Law since they deny the historical views of South Korea while promoting the North¿s perspective. More worryingly, teachers thus instructed could pass on these warped views to impressionable students.

Anyone think President Roh will make any statements condemning the teacher’s union? I don’t think so he is to busy bashing the US again:

¿Are any ministers here who say the U.S. made a mistake going to be reprimanded at the National Assembly?¿ Roh continued. ¿Are you saying we should suffocate Pyongyang? Do you think that the U.S. is a country without fault? Do you believe that we should always keep quiet when the U.S. makes a mistake?¿ The president urged ministers to voice their conviction when answering lawmakers at the National Assembly, saying, ¿Ministers are supposed to speak straight from their own convictions.¿ The remarks come amid a widening gulf between Korea and its long-term ally over additional sanctions Washington wants to impose on the North. Roh has rarely made a secret of his critical attitude to the U.S., saying during his election campaign in 2002, ¿I don¿t go to the U.S. just to take a picture with the president there¿ and asking in yet another rhetorical question, ¿What¿s wrong with anti-Americanism?¿

It just seems this guy is on a mission to make his legacy as ROK President as the guy who ended the Korea-US alliance. I guess he thinks this will be a good thing to be remember for in Korea, but I tend to think that history will judge otherwise.

From the Chosun:

An Asia specialist with the U.S. Congressional Research Service has presented a report to Congress suggesting the U.S. Defense Department is pushing to change the military command structure as a means to drastically reduce the role of the U.S. Forces Korea. Larry Niksch drew up the 16-page report after North Korea’s volley of missile launches earlier this month, saying part of the plans is thought to be putting the U.S. Forces Korea under the U.S. Army First Corps whose headquarter is to move from Washington State to Camp Zama in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo.

That would also mean lowering the rank of the USFK commander and changes in the UN Command in Korea, which have taken orders from a four-star general since the Korean War.

Niksch’s analysis could mean that moves to downgrade the military relationship with South Korea reportedly instigated by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are well underway. A former high-ranking official in the Bush administration told Grand National Party lawmaker Park Jin last week that Rumsfeld wanted to bring the Korea-U.S. alliance down to a level similar to Washington¿s relationships with the Philippines or Thailand.

The US military’s relationship with both Thailand and the Philippines consists of joint training exercises and not large permanently stationed troops. If this proposal gets approved the US-ROK alliance would for all intents and purposes be over. I think that will probably mean the US-ROK relationship would then be composed of a routine deployment of a Stryker brigade for annual exercises with the ROK Army and maybe keeping the PATRIOT batteries in place until the ROK Army can buy their own. The way it looks now the Air Force will be gone soon unless the Korean government gives them the bombing range they need to train their pilots. No matter what happens I think the writing is clearly on the wall.

For a change, I’m glad I’m not in the Air Force:

The Air Force unveiled the much-anticipated details of the fiscal 2007 portion of its multiyear ¿force-shaping¿ plan Wednesday, announcing that 8,000 officers, mostly those in midgrades, must be eliminated from the roster by Sept. 29, 2007.

Enlisted personnel are safe from the chopping block, but 1,227 noncommissioned officers will be given a choice: switch career fields or get out of the service.

It is days like today that it feels great to be an American with Floyd Landis winning the Tour de France and Tiger Woods defending his British Open title.  You couldn’t ask for two better champions to represent our country.  In Landis’ case I wonder what doping allegations the French will come up with to slime him?

Kim Jong-il has gotten married, but it is not to who you think it is.  Can you say the Korean Wave has hit North Korea?

I’m willing to bet that this is going to work:

Worldcup Arirang Taxi Co. drivers have until Monday to return to work or face being banned as an employee for any current or future contractor with the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, said union and AAFES officials.

Cliff Choy, AAFES Pacific services manager, Saturday told more than 100 protesting drivers the exchange can end working privileges for individuals via a ¿17-I letter¿ citing a worker for unacceptable performance.

I think this article does clear up what the main reason for the strike was and it is not the demand for a $105 pay raise:

The union is at odds with Arirang over a requested $105 monthly raise. On Saturday, some drivers said Arirang also wants to raise the daily quota each driver must make in receipts.

Each driver now must make $87 in fares during a 13-hour shift before splitting fare earnings evenly with the company. Drivers on Saturday said the company wants to raise that to $125.

The company raising the split earnings fare makes sense when the overall taxi fares have risen due to supposedly the increased fuel prices.  If the taxi union can at least get the cab company to keep the split earnings fee at $87 they will get a significant pay increase because the company will be bringing in more money from raising the fares.

Anyway it appears this strike is going to end one way or another real soon and good by AAFES for putting their foot down finally on this issue.  Since many soldiers in Korea cannot own a car taxis are of extra importance when serving in Korea and it will be to everyones benefit to get the taxi service operating again.

Then:

Now:

It looks like Kim Jong-il may have crossed China one too many times::

The Bank of China has frozen North Korea’s accounts at a branch in Macau due to Pyongyang’s counterfeiting and money laundering activities, it emerged Monday. It is the very BOC branch where South Korea’s National Intelligence Service transferred US$200 million to the North to guarantee the success of the first North-South summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and then-president Kim Dae-jung in 2000. U.S. pressure on the Macau-based bank Banco Delta Asia last year to freeze North Korean accounts reignited conflict between the U.S and the North.

Grand National Party lawmaker Park Jin said a former high-ranking U.S. official told him about the Chinese bank¿s decision when Park visited Washington last week. A South Korean government official later confirmed the account, saying Beijing could not turn down Washington¿s demand to clean up dubious accounts since it is well aware of the importance of improving financial transparency for the sake of trade. Analysts say that is one reason behind the recent rift between North Korea and its long-term ally over the North¿s missile tests.

US diplomats have been saying that China has been very helpful during the North Korean nuclear crisis and it appears behind the scenes they have if this latest crackdown is any indication.