Just read reponses to CNN report on conditions in N. Korean prisons

[leftyladyfrommo]

I know that the two reporters should probably not have been there - should have realized that they shouldn't mess with N. Korea. Should never have actually crossed into N. Korea. It was a dumb thing to do considering what we know about N. Korea.
Especially right now when N. Korea is using anything they have as bargaining tools.

But boy the wingnuts are out on this one. I'm sorry but no one Diserves to spend 12 years in a N. Korean labor camp. The conditions are just god awful and a lot of people never survive.

It just seems to me that so many people these days are just full to the brim with bitterness and hatred and just plain awfulness.

Sometimes just a little human kindness goes a long, long way.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I've noticed that, too

I'm hoping it is just the anonymity of the internet that allows people to speak this way.

[Pirate Smile]

2. They also want GM and Chrysler to go under. Hateful, little, bitter people.

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. I think they just like to see other people "get theirs."

My parents were kind of like that. I think it makes them feel better about their own poor situation.

I don't get it. That attitude just brings everyone down. Its pointless and its cruel and its just plain stupid.

[SoCalNative]

17. I want GM to tank too

but only for their role in destroying public transportation in So Cal decades ago along with Firestone Tires and Standard Oil.

May they all rot in hell.

[leftyladyfrommo]

20. If only the company could fail without taking all their employees with them.

They made a lot of mistakes but those people working the lines weren't the ones who diserve to lose their jobs and benefits.

[Selatius]

25. Y'know, when World War 2 began, FDR told those factories to start putting out weapons.

It didn't matter what those factory workers were making prior to the war, but when the war began, FDR ordered many of those autoplants to switch gears and start building bombs, guns, tanks, warplanes, etc. The nation was switched to wartime production over the course of several months.

I honestly don't see why the president, now, could do something similar. He could tell the factories of bankrupt GM and Chrysler to start producing something else rather than let all of them get shut down with thousands of workers out on the streets. He could order them to build wind turbines and solar panels for alternative energy power or even mass transit buses to reconnect American cities with suburban neighborhoods. We're going to have to spend money on these workers who will be unemployed anyway. We might as well do it by putting their labor to good use instead of simply writing them checks for unemployment insurance and food stamps.

[leftyladyfrommo]

26. That's a very interesting idea.

We have tons of people here in the Kansas City area that work in GM plants. Losing those jobs will have a real ripple effect thru our whole economy. And we don't need any more ripples of that sort.

[elehhhhna]

32. ...clinging to their guns and religion

he was right about that, yep.

[Araxen]

3. Not for me it isn't

Do the crime and be ready to do the time if you get caught is all I have to say. You don't go around fucking with Serial Killers do you? Why in the world would you mess around with NK. They deserve what they get. They knew what they were getting into and quit wasting my tax money on their stupidity.

[cali]

9. congratulations. yours may well be the most moronic post of the day.

that's always quite an achievement. What crime, dear? Do tell? And there is no evidence that Ling and Lee were on the N. Korean side of the border. Deserve what the get? Screw your disgusting lack of compassion. But hey, your post would fit in perfectly in Freeperville.

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. They weren't in NK?

It kind of sounded to me like they were right on the border.

[cali]

13. It's unknown which side of the border they were on. In any case

they don't deserve a 12 year sentence of hard labor.

[leftyladyfrommo]

14. If they hadn't gotten caught they probably would have gotten the

Nobel Peace Prize.

[anigbrowl]

30. Not hardly.

I'm extremely sympathetic to their situation and suspect the North Koreans hopped over the border and nabbed them when all the journalists had in mind was a shot with 'behind me is the border of one of the world's most secretive countries, North Korea', intending to stay firmly on the Chinese side. I also think that they were trying to report a worthy story.

But c'mon, it was just a news assignment, not the scoop of the century. I want them released ASAP too, but 'nobel peace prize' is taking it a bit far.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[crikkett]

19. see my post #18

may you remain safe and sound in your comfortable home.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. I assume you mean the responses on the CNN site. Some of the DU responses

were shocking, too.

Response #3, for example.

[cali]

10. Disgusting. Simply repulsive. Fuck that kind of crap.

[KharmaTrain]

5. They Won't Spend A Fraction of the 12 Years...

They're bargaining chips...and very valuable ones. The last thing the North Koreans want is for western journalists to see the real dark side of their gulags. They're more valuable as propaganda tools...traded down the road. Here's hoping this happens soon and their detention is short.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. I hope they are freed. But with NK you just never know.

They are not rational. They depend on their irrationality to get them attention.

[crikkett]

21. "We are not Guantanamo Bay"

That's an actual quote of a N. Korean Official as reported by Rachel Maddow.

Chickens coming home to roost and such.

[leftyladyfrommo]

24. Really!

From what I have been reading Guantanamo Bay is a cakewalk compared to their labor camps. Very little food, no medical care and 10 hours a day of hard labor. And horrible crowded conditions. Probably no heat and the winters there are unbelievably cold. Lots of people just don't live very long.

[crikkett]

43. I read that about the labor camps, too.

my point, which I didn't make very well, was that N. Korea gets to look down its nose at us because of Gitmo.

We have no moral standing against them...

[KharmaTrain]

38. Remember The Pueblo...

Yes, they're irrational, but not stupid. They have already gotten the attention, it's how they try to take advantage of it. Having these prisoners have limited use to them...tweaking the US and the West. I would think that part has been accomplished, now they will push for a deal as they have in the past. Remember, they sentenced the Pueblo crew to long terms as spies and they were released several months later...surely part of some prisoner/material swap.

[leftyladyfrommo]

39. I hope they get something worked out.

I feel so sorry for their families, too. They are terrified. With good reason.

[G_j]

8. they would no doubt sing a different tune, if the two were Christian missionaries

smuggling bibles into the country.

[leftyladyfrommo]

12. Missionaries would probably get the death penalty. n/t

[G_j]

15. yes, possibly, though I was referring to the freeper comments.. nt

[leftyladyfrommo]

23. I know you were.

I was just saying that NK probably kills people for having some kind of religion. I know they are one of the only countries who completely managed to wipe out Buddhism.

I think reading about life in N. Korea is really fascinating. But actually having to try and live there would be an absolute nightmare. Those poor people. They all live on a little rice - they are all malnourished. And just their daily life is so hard.

Reading about life there always makes me want to get down and kiss the ground I walk on.

[G_j]

29. that is why I thought of the example of missionaries

I'm sure they would not be welcome in NK.
It's so hard to comprehend how one dictator can make the life of so many, so miserable.
Are the army given a better life, more food etc.?

[leftyladyfrommo]

34. I think so. I think they at least have food.

What is really odd is that they built these wide roads and there are no cars on them because no one but the elite have cars. I have even seen pictures of the women in their immaculate uniforms standing out there to direct traffic. But there is no traffic.

It is a really strange place.

[customerserviceguy]

16. I do hope for the best for these reporters

but sometimes when you play with fire, you get burned. I sure hope it doesn't cost us anything more than Al Gore bowing and scraping to the little dictator to get them freed.

They made themselves expendable by putting themselves at risk. If it comes down to a choice between getting them out and keeping the world safe from Dear Leader's nuclear missles, I sure hope President Obama chooses the greater good.

[cali]

22. Investigative reporters put themselves at risk quite often.

War correspondents put themselves at risk. I'm grateful they do and I respect the work of real investigative reporters and war correspondents.

[customerserviceguy]

27. I think we can both agree

that war correspondents should not put anyone else at risk, including inspiring other people in the theatre to risk their own safety trying to rescue the correspondent from having done something possibly foolish.

It's hard to say what these reporters were trying to do here, I think we already know that NK sucks, and that it is headed by a dangerous little dictator who makes all of the other current world leaders look sane and reasonable at this point. I'm not sure what story was worth the price of their release will be, even if it means serving out the twelve years at hard labor.

[leftyladyfrommo]

35. Weren't they working on a story about refugees trying to get

across the border? It was definitely a story that would reflect badly on NK.

[crikkett]

18. I've read accounts of N. Koreans crossing borders to

take prisoners in the Sea of Japan and of abducting folks from Japan. I wonder if the women actually crossed into N. Korea.

It's a sad day.

[Pholus]

28. A caller to Diane Rehm's show wanted to blame them too.

Because a free press works well if it stays away from danger, apparently.

[leftyladyfrommo]

36. There is something wrong with that argument. It is kind of

ass backward. People think the oddest things sometimes.

[Pholus]

41. I was shocked

that neither Diane or her guests could articulate that it was important for a free world to have a free press, regardless of the risk.

Oh well, I usually think of my best comebacks 10 minutes out of the room too....

[anigbrowl]

31. Rude (as in offensive) but accurate psychological assessment of these people

[leftyladyfrommo]

37. That does seem to be the case with some people.

But is it really the way they think or are they just trying to stir things up - having their weird idea of fun?

[anigbrowl]

40. Probably 60/40. There is nothing you can do about this: a lot of people are assholes.

[Catherine Vincent]

42. I am certain most of the people making hateful comments are only doing so

because these women are probably liberal and that they worked for Al Gore.

[dem629]

44. They shouldn't have been there.

That's the lesson here. If you know there's a rattlesnake in your garden that shouldn't be there, it's absurd to wander into the garden, get bit, and then claim that the snake shouldn't have been there. At some point, when you knowingly put yourself in a ridiculously dangerous position, you have to take responsibility for that. I wish they weren't in the prison, but I also wish they hadn't been so brazenly naive.

As for some of the right-wing commenters, this has more to do with the fact that they worked for Gore. If these two women were religious missionaries, the same right-wingers would be demanding a special ops rescue ASAP.