American Morning
Analyst: More sanctions against North Korea won't matter
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/25/intv.walsh.art.jpg caption="International security analyst Jim Walsh speaks to CNN's Kiran Chetry about the North Korean nuclear threat."]
North Korea delivered on its threat Monday, conducting a second nuclear test that angered governments around the globe. The North had threatened to do so unless the U.N. Security Council apologized for imposing sanctions on it following a rocket test on April 5.The secretive communist state also apparently test-fired a short-range missile on Monday, the White House said.
Jim Walsh, an international security analyst at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says more sanctions against North Korea will not work. He spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Monday.
Kiran Chetry: What does this claim from North Korea about the nuclear test and short-range missiles mean?
Jim Walsh: If you're just waking up on Memorial Day and you look at the headline, you say, my gosh, North Korea has had a nuclear test does this mean war, does this mean military conflict? The answer is no… We've had a previous North Korea nuclear test. It did not result in military conflict. And I don't think that's what’s going to happen this time either. What we're really talking about are not military consequences but political consequences. Both inside North Korea, which is undergoing some sort of transition, and regionally with Japan, with China, with South Korea. So it is an unwelcome event, I have to underline that, but there's no reason for panic or fear.
Chetry: If we're trying to understand what's going on with that nation, what does North Korea want, what does North Korea want to prove with these tests?
Walsh: Well, if I could answer the question, what precisely does North Korea want, I would be a wealthy man and I’d be on an island somewhere, not in the studio right now. Because at the end of the day, we don’t know that much about North Korea. Anyone who says they're 100% sure, you know, I wouldn't trust what they say. But we can have some guesses. One theory, a popular theory for some time, is North Korea does this sort of thing in order to improve its bargaining position. By taking a provocative action, suddenly people scamper and want to do something to ratchet back the tension and it also has the effect of dividing the countries in the six-party talks. Japan tends to get quite upset about these things; China, less so.
That divides the parties, improves the country's leverage. That's the traditional theory. There are some, and I'm starting to move to from the traditional theory to this alternative notion, which is this is less driven by external events and bargaining and more by internal concerns. Again, Kim Jong-il had a stroke. There's no clear line of succession. They are now in the process of trying to establish some sort of order for a new leader in North Korea at some point and when that sort of thing happens, governments often have shows of strength and that's not unusual for North Korea in particular to do that sort of thing when there's domestic change at home.
What’s on Tap – Monday, May 25, 2009
Here are the big stories on the agenda this Memorial Day:
- Breaking overnight… North Korea announces it has “successfully” carried out an underground nuclear test and reportedly test-fired a short-range, ground-to-air missile. The world-wide resources of CNN will bring you reaction from Beijing to Washington. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen will join us live with his response to what the White House is calling a “threat to international peace and security.”
- Now it’s his turn. On this Memorial Day weekend, the man who is arguably America’s most popular living general fired back. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell insists he's still a republican, no matter what Dick Cheney says.
- Dad’s clock, tick-toc. When you hear the term "biological clock," you probably think of women, because women are often the ones who worry about the impact of age on pregnancy, but now there's a new study that says men might want to move things along a little faster.
- Same-sex marriage limbo. Tomorrow will be a landmark day in the battle for gay rights, as California’s Supreme Court rules on the legality of Proposition Eight, which banned same-sex marriage in California and made it illegal. Our Ted Rowlands is with one couple we first met on the courthouse steps, minutes after they got married. Now they're anxiously waiting to find out if that marriage means anything at all.
- His life is a movie script in the making. Helio Castroneves won his third Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, the ultimate triumph after facing deportation and prison time a little over a month ago. Now all charges are dropped, he’s on top of his sport again and will join us live.
Meet AM: Emily D'Alberto – Anchor Producer
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/22/emily.dalberto.art.jpg caption="Emily D’Alberto remains in constant contact with producers, writers, and John and Kiran during the show."]
Each Friday in “Meet AM,” we’ll introduce you to the people who get American Morning to air.
Today, we’d like you to meet Emily D’Alberto. Emily is our anchor producer – she helps John and Kiran get ready for their day’s interviews, makes sure the graphics and video they want for these segments are ready, and otherwise makes sure the interviews go well. She’s been with AM for 4 years total.
How did you end up doing what you doing?
I majored in foreign policy at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. But after an internship with PBS my senior year, I decided journalism was my future. I started out as production assistant, and worked my way up through the business. Although I left television to work in politics for the Giuliani presidential campaign, I couldn’t stay away from the news business for long. I re-joined the American Morning staff last year as the show’s anchor producer.
Describe your average day:
My alarm goes off at 2:20am – and I immediately check my blackberry to catch up on the emails I missed while I was sleeping. I get into the office by 3am – and it’s non-stop till the show ends at 9am ET. I read the papers, go through the interview segments and help the anchors prepare for their interviews. I race into the control room at 6am. During the show I’m talking with the anchors, working with the writers and making sure the interviews go off without a problem.
What’s the hardest part of your job?
The schedule…as much as I love my job and the people I work with, I never get enough sleep!
What do you like most about working at AM?
I love the fast-paced environment, interesting stories, but most importantly – the people. There is no way I could come in at 3am if I didn’t love the team I worked with everyday.
What do you do outside of work? What do you do for fun?
I love to travel, good food and yes, the gym. It’s the gym that gets me through the constant tiredness!
From CNN's Aparnaa Seshadri
Matalin: Obama's 'soft power' makes us weak
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/22/intv.matalin.art.jpg caption="Former aide to Dick Cheney Mary Matalin tells CNN's John Roberts that Obama's policies have made us less safe."]
President Obama wants to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He made that point clear yesterday during his speech at the National Archives.
“So the record’s clear - rather than keeping us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security. It is a rallying cry for our enemies. It sets back the willingness of our allies to work with us in fighting an enemy that operates in scores of countries.”
A short time after President Obama concluded his speech, former Vice President Dick Cheney addressed the American Enterprise Institute on national security and he offered some blistering rebuttals. He called the release of the Bush-era memos a reckless distraction and belittled Obama's decision to close Guantanamo "with little deliberation and no plan."
CNN Contributor Mary Matalin was an aide to the former vice president. She spoke to John Roberts on CNN’s “American Morning” Friday.
John Roberts: The former vice president has said several times that the Obama administration's policies are making America less safe. Where's the evidence for that?
Mary Matalin: Common sense and history… It’s one thing to say all of the things Obama said on the campaign trail but within hours of being the actual commander in chief, he was suggesting the previous seven years marked by no attacks were policies that were ineffective, were immoral, were illegal. That broadcast to our enemies a weakness. Weakness invites provocation. Secondly, as he was clear in his speech yesterday, he wants to return to a 9/10 law enforcement policy rather than a prevention policy.
Three, the threshold and key tool for fighting this enemy is gathering intelligence. And he’s clearly demoralized and undermined those intelligence gatherers. Four, Gitmo, releasing the hardest of the hardened terrorists into some system, whatever system that might be, either would divulge classified material... if they put them in the prison population, they can hatch plots as was the case in New York. So I could go on and on. But some of these policies, by virtue of the former vice president speaking out, were stopped as in the release of the detainee photos.
Commentary: Wingnuts of the week
Editor’s note: John P. Avlon is the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics and writes a weekly column for The Daily Beast. Previously, he served as Chief Speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/22/terry.codepink.getty.art.jpg caption="Randall Terry (L) and Code Pink protestors at a Congressional hearing in March 2009 (R)."]
When President Obama gave the commencement address at Notre Dame earlier this week he called for a constructive pursuit of common ground, even on difficult social issues. It was a welcome attempt at forging a respectful ceasefire in the culture wars that have divided and bedeviled American politics since the late 1960s.
But wingnuts aren’t interested in finding common ground. Armed with ideological certainty, they come to protest and polarize. They are addicted to their drug of choice – a righteous indignation that makes them unable to see any perspective other than their own. Alternately strident and silly, callous and clueless, they become caricatures. They are unwittingly their own side’s worst enemy.
With this week’s wingnuts we’re shining a light on protestors from the right and left who were in the news this week – Notre Dame protestor Randall Terry and Code Pink.
Longtime anti-abortion protestor Randall Terry embodied the outer reaches of American politics this week with a series of stunts and accusations surrounding President Obama’s speech at Notre Dame. While many anti-abortion protesters were respectful and thoughtful, Randall Terry did not honor their common cause.
Camped out in South Bend, Indiana, Terry began with a particularly colorful protest that got him arrested on campus, pushing a baby stroller across the college with dolls covered in fake blood and bumper stickers that read: “Obama '09, one dead baby at a time.”
He escalated in an interview with CNN days before the President’s speech. The money-shot comparison in hyper-partisan politics is Hitler, with a close second being Pontius Pilate. Terry managed to do both in reference to our president. Take a look
In a few short minutes, Terry not only described President Obama as “the premier promoter of child-killing in the Western Hemisphere and perhaps the world" but described the invitation from Notre Dame as being “like inviting Pilate to speak after he ordered Jesus to be crucified.” Then came the inevitable Hitler reference: “If you and I agreed with [Obama] on every issue but he just wanted to kill Jews, would you say, 'Listen, he builds great roads, he has great economic policies; let's forget that Jewish thing for now'?"
Terry somehow managed to hit a new low soon after. With fake blood on his hands and an Obama mask on his face, he lurched forward to scare a group of children who'd been assembled in what was an ostensibly pro-child photo op. Captured by one vigilant video-blogger and posted on YouTube, you can watch a grinning Randall Terry redefine crazy-town callousness in American politics.
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