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John Batchelor’s show begins at 10 p.m. ET. Then, at 10:30 p.m. ET, DON’T MISS LARRY JOHNSON TONIGHT on the Batchelor show, via KFI 640 AM.

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight. John Batchelor’s KFI show begins at 7:00 p.m., so tune in early.

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The Kim regime follows the stunt of its paymasters in Tehran by moving to prosecute American journalists.

You recall that last week the Tehran Twelvers condemned Roxana Saberi of New Jersey and North Dakota to eight years in Ervin Prison for spying.

Now the Kim regime will prosecute American journalists (for Al Gore’s TV network) Laura Ling and Euna Lee, whom North Korean thugs abducted on the China/North Korean border several weeks back.

Gordon Chang, Forbes.co, will report Sunday 26 on the Kim regime’s routine and predictable provocations in order to wring concessions and cash from the Six Party Talks.

This past week, the IAEA finally admitted to the obvious and declared North Korea a nuclear weapon state capable of miniaturizing warheads to mount on the recently tested Taepodong IRBM. The Kim regime and the Tehran regime move in tandem, the servant and the lord.

How soon until Ling and Lee are condemned to eight years in prison for spying? How soon until the IAEA declares that the Tehran Twelvers are a nuclear capable state with miniaturized warheads for the Shahab-3 IRBM? The Obama administration provides no fresh answers. It moves to engage the Twelvers in a sterile dialogue even as it exhales in despair at the mischief of the Kim regime. This is a freshly convenient ignorance of the evil-doing duo.  The eastern Syria nuke site that Israel struck on September 6, 2007 was built by North Korea technicians and was paid for by Tehran.  Berlin, Tokyo and Rome worked the same game seventy years back.

France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, whose unhappiness was recorded by American Girl in Italy on April 6th, objected to Obama’s rude commentary on how Europe should treat its Muslims. On Friday, newspapers reported that Sarkozy finds Obama “inexperienced,” and also said this:

Mr Sarkozy voiced concerns that Obama was “not up to standard” in terms of his decision-making or his efficiency. Mr Sarkozy did praise Obama as being “very intelligent and very charismatic” but said there were certain areas in which Obama “did not have a position.”

Now we have Hugo Chavez brazenly strutting up to Obama and handing him a book — clearly a symbolic gesture indicating that Hugo doesn’t think that Barack is very informed.

The title of the book that Hugo gave Barack is Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.

Some smartie on MSNBC suggested that Barack give him one of his own books. Uh. How does a book about Obama’s ME ME ME begin to compare to a scholarly treatise on five centuries of European domination of Latin America?

Here’s the raw press pool report via Time’s Mark Halperin (who knew that pool reports were really this raw):

“I have a lot to learn and I’m very much looking forward to listening,” POTUS says. ^* [SEE FOOTNOTE.]

He is seated at the head of a U-shaped table, with the leader of Chile to his right. Chavez was all the way to his left, at the far end of the U. Your pooler asked if he had gotten any reaction from the other leaders to his speech. “We’ll find out right now.”

There was a terrible din outside from pushy camera crews trying to get in. POTUS acknowledged the ruckus –u will get a transcript. When the pool entered the room Chavez was busy talking to other leaders. Then Obama spoke, and as the pool was being ushered out Chavez walked over to him. Obama stood up and Chavez handed him the book The book is :

Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina
By eduardo Galeano

(The Open Veins of Latin America). A helpful Chilean delegate who did not want to be named described it as an academic book that is the basis for the 60s-era “dependency theory” that latin america depends on the north.

The North Koreans are so not worried about Obama that they’ve merrily done away with every bit of progress that the Bush administration accomplished (admittedly not nearly enough), and are gleefully shooting rockets into the air with the knowledge they have NOTHING to fear for doing so. Kim is beside himself with gaiety:

(Learn more about Kim Jong Il and his “wocket” at TheNoseOnYourFace.com. H/T Potfry.)

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

^*FOOTNOTE:
RE: “‘I have a lot to learn and I’m very much looking forward to listening’, POTUS says.”

Dear President Obama:

You know, it is not necessary to point out your ignorance. We who’ve had the sad task of closely following your every move area intimately familiar with your lack of knowledge and qualifications. Unfortunately, all the world’s leaders are similarly informed.

Furthermore, it’s flat-out embarrassing to us U.S. citizens who take pride in leaders who know what they’re doing and have also read and studied global foreign policy for years. Like Hillary Clinton, for example.

Modesty has its virtues. But we remain the world’s only superpower, and in that there is in superpower status an intrinsic, essential power that we must protect for the good that it can do, for the destruction it can prevent, and for the threats that it can authoritatively issue or carry out.

Keep your ignorance to yourself, please. It’s bad enough that they all know you’re clueless. You needn’t draw attention to your deficits.

We must also remain somewhat fearsome because then, and only then, will despots listen to us. You are “greenlighting” the world’s dictators that they can continue their despotic, cruel ways with impunity!

Here’s an example. Can you please SKIP the warm gesture of a hand on Chavez’s arm and that silly grin?

And here’s Jake Tapper, one of the few reporters who doesn’t feel compelled to suck it up all the time, who describes how you reacted when Chavez walked over and handed you the book:

At President Obama’s meeting with the heads of South American countries this morning, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stood, walked over to him, and presented him with a copy of "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano.

Obama politely posed for a photograph with Chavez, shook his hand, and accepted the gift.

WHY???

Fellow NoQuarter Regulars: HOW WOULD YOU HAVE REACTED if Chavez had handed you a book? That book?

For starters, I doubt you’d have shaken his hand and posed for a photograph. Had I been Obama, I might have stood up, to show the advantage of my height, taken the book but not extended my hand. I wouldn’t have smiled either since it was obviously another typical Chavez stunt — which anyone with a clue would instantly recognize. One would avoid being duped into willing participation.

Jake Tapper also reports:

The copy of the book Chavez gave Obama appears to be in Spanish, a language Obama does not speak.

At the start of the first plenary session at the Summit of the Americas later this morning, President Obama was asked what he thought of Chavez’s gift.

“You know, I thought it was one of Chavez’s books," Obama answered. "I was going to give him one of mine.”

Hello? If the book is in Spanish, it’s clearly intended as an insult.

CALLING LARRY JOHNSON (who knows so much about how to behave in diplomatic settings that he teaches the subject): Larry, can you instruct this doofus in how to behave with dignity and how to avoid such trickery?

LARRY: Can you also show him how to make himself look a bit more like a powerful leader, rather than a subservient, please-be-my-friend, babe-in-the-woods chump?

The post-superpower meme might be fashionable in the salons of Fareed Zakaria and Charlie Rose but it’s downright embarrassing to most American citizens that our president behaves like a subservient, unskilled, gawkish capitulator.

At 10:35 p.m. ET, don’t miss Larry Johnson, a regular Sunday night expert on the great KFI AM radio show hosted by John Batchelor, one of the sharpest analysts in all of radio (or television). John’s provocative show is dashing, daring, and thoughtful (a rare AM offering). Tune in early at 10:05 p.m. ET via Los Angeles’s KFI-AM 640. If you haven’t listened via KFI before, come early to download small, easily installed software. Here are TONIGHT’s TOPICS:

705P Pacific Time:  John Stoll, Wall Street Journal, re  the car czar Steven Rattner negotiates hardball with the GM bondholders, forcing rugged terms, as the GM bankruptcy saga continues.  With Simon Constable Dow Jones. 

Blankfein called for new compensation standards for Wall Street executives and said he understands why the public is angry about industry pay.  China Limits Executive Pay  China’s government disclosed that it had set limits on executive pay for 2008 at state-owned financial companies  With Simon Constable Dow Jones.  

James Lambright, chief investment officer of TARP, at right in the photo, is an embodiment of how power in the economy has shifted — for good or ill — to Washington.  Real Time Econ:TARP Diagnostic

 920P:  Mary Kissel,   Thai Summit Halted Amid Protests 

Check out the full slate of guests and topics, all starting at 10:05 p.m. ET.

On April 5, North Korea’s so-called “Kwangmyongsong-2 Communications Satellite” (yeah, right—most believe it is actually an upgraded version of the Taepodong-2 military missile) failed to reach orbit, instead dumping two satellite-carrying stages into the Pacific Ocean. This is North Korea’s third botched attempt to launch a long-range missile.

That Kim Jong Il’s plans fizzled once again was hailed as mostly good news by the rest of the world. But this is not three strikes and you’re out.

These failures could potentially lead to disastrous confrontations. For example, had the debris landed on Japanese soil, an international incident would have been likley. (Korea is partially land-locked, so whatever they shoot up is likely cross over other countries. So far the fallout has hit water.) Also, this last rocket went a lot farther than any previous attempt. They haven’t got it right, but they are getting better at it.

President Obama has called this move a “provocative act.”

“In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up,” Mr. Obama told a huge crowd in Prague’s central square. “Black market trade in nuclear secrets and nuclear materials abound. The technology to build a bomb has spread.”

He said the North’s testing of “a rocket that could be used for long-range missiles” illustrated “the need for action, not just this afternoon at the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons.”

Sun-won Park , a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies of the Brookings Institution offers the following conclusion:

North Korea is neither a nuclear state, nor an ICBM state, but a failed rogue nation with a potentially dangerous nuclear program and the ability to jangle the world’s nerves by attempting to demonstrate this program, or proliferate its technology.

The rest of the world community should remain worried about this diminutive dictator who wants to be a big player. (Does this tiny guy really think that the high hair and heels are fooling anyone?) Whether through blackmail–“Give me what I want and I will tell you I will stop the testing”–or eventual technological success, I doubt he will quit trying. That’s not good news.

Is it a pipe dream to make them all go away? Well, probably. But it is the worthiest cause that true princes of peace could undertake. For now, there is no prince. But, better yet (!), there is a queen leading the cause. First, here’s a wrap-up of North Korea’s childishly provocative, attention-needy rocket launch (I swear that Kim Jong-il reminds me most of South Park’s Cartman, in girth and in prima donna petulance.)

Now, here is the queen who is campaigning for the noblest, and most needed, cause on this planet:

Are you curious where to learn more about Queen Noor’s good fight? Go here: Global Zero.

Ask yourself what alternative we have? Yes, well. Reagan tried. (Giggles all ’round.) Then listen to Lord John Marbury at 4:11 of this video of “best scenes” from Season 2 of West Wing:

Here is the full list of signatories to Global Zero — look at the last name. Gen. Anthony Zinni. The man who should have been our ambassador to Iraq, and who’d been told he was, until Obama capriciously … but I digress.

Full List of Signatories

James Arbuthnot
Lloyd Axworthy
K. Shankar Bajpai
Kanti Bajpai
Hugh Beach
Margaret Beckett
Lawrence Bender
Sandy Berger
Alexander Bessmertnykh
Ela Bhatt
Carl Bildt
Robert Blackwill
Bruce Blair
Barry Blechman
Lincoln Bloomfield, Jr.
Naila Bolus
Lakhdar Brahimi
Richard Branson
Matt Brown
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Zbigniew Brzezinkski
William F. Burns
Richard Burt
Richard Butler
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Frank Carlucci
Jimmy Carter
Ray Chambers
Naresh Chandra
KunMo Chung
Joseph Cirincione
Richard Cizik
Philip Coyle
Liru Cui
Ivo Daalder
Romeo Dallaire
Tarun Das
Jayantha Dhanapala
Anatoli Diakov
Michael Douglas
Lawrence Eagleburger
Rolf Ekéus
Tetsuya Endo
Gareth Evans
Lawrence Freedman
Jake Garn
Hans-Dietrich Genscher
Bates Gill
Jamshyd N. Godrej
Mikhail Gorbachev
Thomas Graham, Jr.
Chuck Hagel
Lee Hamilton
David Hannay
Gary Hart
Frank Von Hippel
Stanley Hoffmann
Pervez Hoodbhoy
Charles Horner
Liming Hua
Douglas Hurd
Lynne Hybels
Wolfgang Ischinger
Takahiko Ito
Igor Ivanov
Max Kampelman
Sergei Karaganov
Jehangir Karamat
Yoriko Kawaguchi
Peter B. Kellner
Don Kendall
Bob Kerrey
Shaharyar Khan
Alan Khazei
Steve Killelea
Verghese Koithara
Lawrence Korb
Konstantin Kosachev
Martha Krebs
Heinrich Kreft
Roland Lajoie
Anthony Lake
Jan Lodal
Ruud Lubbers
Mikhail V. Margelov
Evgeny Maslin
Talat Masood
Jack F. Matlock, Jr.
Robert McFarlane
Robert McNamara
Merrill A. McPeak
Brajesh Mishra
C. Raja Mohan
Amr Moussa
Rolf Mützenich
Klaus Naumann
Her Majesty Queen Noor
Pam Omidyar
Mabel van Oranje
Vladimir Orlov
David Owen
Zhenqiang Pan
G. Parthasarathy
Guangqian Peng
George Perkovich
Thomas Pickering
William Potter
Vasantha R. Raghavan
Fidel Ramos
Malcolm Rifkind
Mary Robinson
Michel Rocard
Douglas Roche
Sergey Rogov
Adam Daniel Rotfeld
Roald Sagdeev
Henrik Salander
Yukio Satoh
Jonathan Schell
Jack Sheehan
Martin Sherwin
Jennifer Allen Simons
Jaswant Singh
Jeffrey Skoll
Mário Soares
Tyler Wigg Stevenson
K. Subrahmanyam
Toshiyuki Takano
Strobe Talbott
Horst M. Teltschik
John L. Thornton
Desmond Tutu
Shashindra Pal Tyagi
Ehsan ul-Haq
Evgeny Velikhov
Eckart von Klaeden
Fred Whitridge
Jianmin Wu
Xuetong Yan
Jiemian Yang
Muhammad Yunus
Igor Yurgens
Uta Zapf
Philip Zelikow
Anthony Zinni

Here’s HILLARY on the missile launch as well as another video that provides excellent backgrounder info, with a partial world MAP of North Korea’s possible trajectory towards Alaska:

From my story of Greta’s interviews of Hillary Clinton in Mexico this past week:

Now, here’s a “breaking news” story on Japan’s and the U.S.’s movement of battle ships — and a helpful map of the positions of the ships related to from Studio B on March 27th — as well as the left-leaning POV of P.J. Crowley of the Center for American Progress:

This is an especially IMPORTANT video, as will be more we’ll post for you from Fareed Zakaria’s Sunday CNN program, a riveting hour. Really! (I stopped working on the blog, and listened! That’s rare!) We’ve differed with Zakaria’s views, but I admire his persistence in bringing world news to Americans, who often ignore international news, despite our gathering closeness. Right? I plead guilty and wish I knew more about the rest of the world. That’s why I make myself watch Zakaria’s program and PBS’s WorldFocus. So I honor Zakaria’s success in bringing this program to CNN. I imagine it wasn’t easy to sell an essentially American news network to devote a Sunday morning hour to world news!

FAREED ZAKARIA: “… Secretary Clinton’s trip to Asia, critiqued by some of the region’s best minds.” (The full transcript is below the fold.)

I’ve also included a fascinating remark that Zakaria used to open his program this morning on CNN in praise of the statements of Secretary Clinton about the besieged people of Burma – and ALL of the countries that we are affecting with our economic sanctions:

FIRST, before what Zakaria said about Hillary’s remarks on Burma and all of the economic sanctions we impose around the world thre are these reports from the BBC News and the New York Times:

New York Times, United States - Feb 18, 2009
“Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn’t influenced the Burmese junta,” Mrs. Clinton said to reporters after meeting with Indonesia’s …

TRANSCRIPT 1, Zakaria’s opening remarks that refer to Secretary Clinton’s progressive view on economic sanctions in re Burma:

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST: This is GPS, the GLOBAL PUBLIC SQUARE. Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world. I’m Fareed Zakaria.

It’s been a week full of news — the housing bailout, more troops for Afghanistan — and we’ll get to all of it.

But I noticed something I thought was significant. On her trip through Asia, Hillary Clinton acknowledged that our policy of economic sanctions against Burma — Myanmar — has not worked.

The reason I think this is significant is that I’m hoping it is the beginning of a rethinking. There’s a standard U.S. policy toward any regime that we don’t like. There’s not much we can do about it, and we can’t change the regime’s policies. But we decide we can’t just sit there, so we slap sanctions on the country.

Now, look at the effects. In Cuba, 50 years of sanctions have allowed Fidel Castro and his brother to wrap themselves in the mantle of Cuban nationalism and stay in power.

In Iraq, sanctions destroyed the middle class, leaving a civil society composed of criminals and religious zealots.

In Pakistan, which we sanctioned for their nuclear tests in 1990, two generations of army officers were deprived of any contact with the U.S. and grew to be anti-American — and in many cases, pro-Taliban.

In Iran today, sanctions have allowed the regime to claim that they are heroically battling efforts by Washington to strangle the nation and its aspirations.

So, how much more evidence, in the form of misery for the people and power for the dictators, do we need before we conclude that economic sanctions are a feel-good policy that have had only bad effects on the ground?

[...]

Stay with us.

TRANSCRIPT 2, Zakaria’s panel on Secretary Clintons’ trip to Asia:

ZAKARIA: The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has just wrapped up her first foreign tour to East Asia. Significantly, 1961 was the last time that a secretary of state chose that region for a first visit.

Joining me now, three experts on Asia, two of them from Asia, to talk about what that trip accomplished.

From Singapore, Kishore Mahbubani, the dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School and author of “The New Asian Hemisphere.” From New Delhi, Shekhar Gupta, the editor-in-chief of “The Indian Express.” And here in New York, the China scholar Minxin Pei of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.

Welcome, gentlemen.

Kishore, what do you make of the fact that Hillary chose East Asia as her first region?

KISHORE MAHBUBANI, AUTHOR, “THE NEW ASIAN HEMISPHERE”: Well, I think it’s a clear indication, frankly, of how power is shifting to Asia.

And frankly, at a time when you’re facing the greatest financial crisis in several decades, to put Asia on top of the list of priorities is also a clear signal that, if you want to have a solution to this massive financial crisis, you have to work with Asia, because this is where all the reserves are.

Hillary is coming at a time when she is essentially representing — you know, in the past, secretaries of state represented symbols of power. Now, there is the sense that the United States is a wounded animal, a deeply wounded animal coming to some extent to Asia for assistance.

So I think they’re looking for a signal to see, is the United States now ready to deal in a position of equality with the Asian countries and say, can we work together to get out of this mess?

ZAKARIA: Shekhar, the one thing that Indians have worried about the Obama administration is that it is going to be a little — how shall I put it — softer on the war on terror, that it might be a little bit more willing to accommodate itself to certain forces, whether they are, you know, militant — forces of militant Islam. And one of the problems Hillary Clinton will probably face in private conversations in Japan is their concern that both Bush and, now, Obama will be too soft on the North Korean issue.

Is there a fear that the United States is kind of losing its muscle in Asia?

SHEKHAR GUPTA, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, “THE INDIAN EXPRESS”: Well, I think there is a fear that the United States may be distracted. They’ve got so many problems back home that they may become more inward-looking.

Because we believe that many of the problems we face in our region, particularly that India faces in terms of terrorism, that the U.S. can’t walk away from them, because they were largely responsible for creating them — the creation of the Taliban, before that the mujahedeen. You know, there is no need to go into the entire history.

So you can’t create all of that, and then walk away. We’ve got a nuclear weapons power sitting next door to us.

On the other hand, many of us here believe that Obama, because there was some expectation that he might be soft on terror, he will in fact go out of his way to show that he has focus in that area. And frankly, what we have seen so far from Richard Holbrooke’s visit in the region suggests that that is true, that he is focused on the terror issue.

But the other big concern in these parts about the Obama administration, which I think is a more real concern, is this whole protectionism. And I think that, to me, is a bigger concern right now.

ZAKARIA: Kishore, let’s pick up on something Shekhar Gupta talked about with regard to protectionism.

We’re all in this crisis together, and yet, all the governments of the world are busy protecting all their banks, their inefficient industries. They’re raising tariffs everywhere.

The U.S. has this “buy America” provision in the fiscal stimulus. But frankly, so do almost all countries in one way or the other.

Is this the end of the kind of world trade system that Asia grew prosperous in?

MAHBUBANI: I completely agree with Shekhar that we should be very deeply, deeply worried about the rise of protectionism and of us backtracking away from the system of the past.

But I think the big difference in Asia is that the Asians have not lost their faith in globalization.

And what’s interesting is that, you know, when you watch — I was listening to your program earlier on, the American economists talking about the American reaction to this crisis. You know, there’s an old expression: never waste a crisis.

And the sense I have is that, if you look at the Chinese, for example, the Chinese government is not wasting this crisis. It is actually using this crisis, using this stimulus plan, to focus on the long-term investment and doing the right things.

And the Chinese, by the way, have become the biggest believers in globalization, because they know that they and India are going to become the biggest beneficiaries of globalization. So there is no intellectual retreat from globalization in the Chinese and Indian elites in the way that you see in Europe or America.

ZAKARIA: Minxin, what do you think the Chinese want from America? What do you think they conveyed to Hillary Clinton privately?

MINXIN PEI, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: First of all, keep your rhetoric down, don’t raise expectations. Second, I think, on the…

ZAKARIA: On issues like?

PEI: … on protectionism, of course, they do want Obama — and, of course, Secretary Clinton — to take their stand and draw a line in the sand, because the initial noises from Congress are not very reassuring.

But I want to say something. Right now, it’s very hard actually to make protectionism work, because of globalization. Half of China’s exports are made by American companies and other multinationals. So, half of Chinese exports to the U.S.

If you want to stop Chinese exports, you are actually penalizing American companies. So, not many congressmen actually get this. Once they look deeper into this, they will find that the task is almost impossible for them.

ZAKARIA: Shekhar, what do you think the Japanese have been pressing? Because there is sometimes talk about how the rise of China means that India and Japan are kind of moving closer together, and the U.S. is encouraging this kind of anti-Chinese — or perhaps not anti- Chinese, but a hedge strategy against China.

Do you think Hillary Clinton’s trip has in some ways as a backdrop this idea?

GUPTA: Well, I don’t think there is any juice in this idea in India. I don’t think there’s any section of Indian society, Indian politics, Indian elites, which wants to join any kind of a bulwark against China.

At the same time, India understands that unless it gets its act together, unless it takes the process of reform forward, it’s going to get left so far behind China. That’s why India is going to be watching both China and America very carefully.

ZAKARIA: And we will be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAKARIA: And we are back Kishore Mahbubani from Singapore, Shekhar Gupta from India, of New Delhi, and Minxin Pei of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Kishore, what is being described, in a sense, is an Asia that is, I wouldn’t say optimistic, but seems fairly comfortable, forward- looking, even though this crisis has devastated Asia economies. I mean, the news this week was that Taiwan’s economy shrunk by 8 percent. Singapore is in very bad shape.

Why is this not producing massive social turmoil, pessimism, things like that?

MAHBUBANI: Well, I’m glad that you have confirmed the thesis of my book, that Asia is the most optimistic place in the world. And I think it’s important to emphasize the difference between short-term and long-term perspectives.

This year will be very bad. Singapore will shrink minus 5 percent, Taiwan is shrinking, Japan is shrinking. But, you know, most Asians actually — you know, we had just gone through the Asian financial crisis only about 10, 12 years ago — which was massive, you know.

But we went through it, and came out of it stronger. And the one reason why the Asians are in some ways more relaxed about this crisis, they say, “Hey, we’ve been through this once before. And we’ve actually accumulated the reserves that we needed for this crisis. So we are ready for it.”

And in some ways, this crisis may create wonderful opportunities for the region.

And one of the points I completely agree with Shekhar about is that the Indians no longer see the world as a zero-sum game, that China’s rise is not necessarily bad for India, and nor is India’s rise bad for China. In fact, the region actually wants to see both China and India succeed and be the two new engines of economic growth to drive the region up.

So, frankly, when I talk to people in the region, yes, they’re worried about the next 12 months or so. But they’re absolutely confident that, when this crisis is over, Asia will bounce back faster than any other part of the world.

ZAKARIA: Minxin, a lot of people wonder whether this economic crisis has rattled the Chinese elite, rattled the Communist Party, you know, that they will not actually be that outward-looking, because they’re going to face internal protest, turmoil.

What is your sense of the impact of this economic crisis on the Chinese leadership? PEI: Well, indeed, they have been deeply, deeply rattled. Initially they were not prepared for this. They did not understand the depths and the potential risks of this crisis. And now, I think they’re caught in a downward spiral, because the deceleration of growth in China has exceeded all the worst forecasts.

And now with unemployment looming in China, and then a leadership succession coming up in three to four years, the Communist Party’s leaders are now, of course, much more focused on domestic affairs.

So, this trip may do some very nice door-opening or getting-to- know-you. There are substantive issues I’m not so sure that the Chinese leaders are ready to talk or engage on a really substantive level.

ZAKARIA: Kishore, do you think that the Chinese are in the mood to be very cooperative with the U.S.? Or are they — is there some feeling that they have been swindled by the Americans, that they have made massive investments in America from Treasury bills to private equity firms, all of these investments are doing badly, and there is a sense that maybe they need to turn away from the United States?

MAHBUBANI: I think it’s important to emphasize one thing. You know, when the Chinese look at these things, they always take a long- term perspective and not a short-term perspective. I mean, yes, they may lose some money from U.S. Treasury bills, but there are much larger long-term considerations.

And I was trying to see what I think would be going on in Chinese minds as they receive Hillary Clinton. I see the combination of two or three factors. One, of course, they are very happy that she is coming to send a signal — hey, Asia matters, China matters. And they welcome that.

And the other point that is also critical in Chinese minds is that they realize that we are all in the same boat. We have to get out of this big crisis. And the only way we get out of this is to work together.

And if that’s the attitude of the United States, China will say, yes, we will cooperate with you to fix this.

ZAKARIA: Minxin, finally, Hillary Clinton comes back from Asia. Do you think that this, you know, that her trip will have in some way laid the groundwork for some shift in policy that the Obama people will put in place?

PEI: No, no. This is a symbolic trip, no substance attached to it. Well, if anything that will come out of this trip where China is concerned, I think is climate change, because she brought with her the top person on climate change, Todd Stern.

And if Obama wants to accomplish something in his first term that will be of truly historic proportion, an agreement with China on climate change will be it.

ZAKARIA: And on that note, Minxin Pei, Shekhar Gupta from New Delhi, Kishore Mahbubani from Singapore, thank you very much.

WAIT! THERE IS MORE TO COME! STAY TUNED!!!

Later today, stay tuned for more fascinating offerings from Fareed Zakaria on Pakistan.

You will NOT want to miss it, I promise you.

A little over a month ago, the woman who cares for our horse called to say she had found the CUTEST dog at her place of employment, and I just HAD to see it. She thought the dog would be a good addition for my mother and her dog. As it turned out, I was getting ready to go stay with my mom the night before I had knee surgery. So, the dog stayed at the vets, got her shots, got all cleaned up, and started eating regularly. She was completely emaciated. Despite that, and the sores on her pads from walking so much, she was just as sweet as she could possibly be. Lovely dog.

Well, it was clear that Lucy’s food obsession was going to be too much for my elderly mother to deal with, so we brought Lucy back home with us after my surgery. Here she is:

You can still see her ribs in this photo, even though she was eating three meals a day at that point.

Well, we got her down to two meals a day. But then we started to notice something. She was still getting bigger. Oh, you could still feel her ribs, and her spine, but she was getting bigger. And bigger. Here she is now:

Yep. She’s pregnant (our dog, Sasha, is behind her in this photo). With AT LEAST (!) eight puppies. And she is due any day now. A friend asked if we knew who the baby daddy is, but he came along before we got her, so no clue as to his identity.

Sigh.

When I was growing up, I didn’t really get that expression, “no good deed goes unpunished.” Adulthood changed all that. Too many examples of that very thing happening over the years to get into, but this is one with very obvious, living, breathing, adorable, results.

We have her whelping bed all set up now. And we are keeping a close eye on her. But neither one of us has dealt with a pregnant dog since we were children (and it was our PARENTS who dealt with the mother dogs then). Fortunately, our vet has given us a ton of information, which we have both studied religiously. And to think that I was actually waiting for the day we could take her in to get spayed (she was too thin before). I guess I’ll be waiting a while longer.

So, I have one question - anyone want a puppy?!?! How about a matched set?

And now, CLASS: Please compare, and contrast, these two examples of television journalism:

Yes, well. Actually, there was some news in there.

And, Rachel, I’d flat-out kill for Hillary’s coat BUT it is NOT your lead, Rachel. So not your lead! (North Korea, for example

Hillary, you rock. Rachel? You not so much.

And why oh god why Rachel do you over-enunciate and over-emote every single word that comes out of your mouth in a very much too-high-pitched way?

Breathe, Rachel.

Take it from an old former French horn player: Use your diaphragm.

You’re supposed to be engaging, not grating!

Oh, that second example? That’s from the new PBS world news program that I’m very fond of, WorldFocus. Besides the above video, there’s this “blog” report:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Tokyo on Monday night on her first trip as the nation’s chief diplomat.

“I have come to Asia as my first trip as secretary of state to convey that America’s relationships across the Pacific are indispensable to addressing the challenges and seizing the opportunities of the twenty-first century,” Clinton said to a crowd in Tokyo.

Sheila A. Smith, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Martin Savidge to discuss how Clinton will approach North Korea, Japan and how the Japanese view China’s growing economic and military power.

Read what a Worldfocus contributing blogger had to say about Clinton’s stop in Japan and what her visit means for internal Japanese politics: Clinton plans for a rare meeting with Japan’s opposition.

Check out MORE at WorldFocus.

P.S. Last night’s program included a quite disturbing if fascinating examination of the fascination with and admiration for Joseph Stalin that today’s Russians have: “Stalin Makes a Comeback With Russia’s Youth.”

A.P. REPORT UPDATED at 1:25 A.M. ET, Wednesday, February 17, 2009:, via MSNBC

Clinton warns North Korea on missile launch

Secretary of state on her first trip abroad as U.S.’s top diplomat

Japan's Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone speaks as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton listens during their joint news conference at the Iikura Guest House in Tokyo, Tuesday, Feb. 17

TOKYO - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday warned North Korea against following through on a threatened missile launch, saying it would damage its prospects for improved relations with the United States and the world.

In Tokyo on her first trip abroad as America’s top diplomat, Clinton also stressed U.S. commitment to Japan’s security, signed a military deal to advance that and underscored the importance of the alliance by inviting Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso to Washington next week.

Aso, deeply unpopular at home, will be the first foreign leader to visit President Barack Obama at the White House, and the Feb. 24 summit is a sign that the world’s two largest economies know they have a special responsibility to deal the global financial crisis, Clinton said. … [READ ALL.]

In the video below, from the Today show, is part of a statement by Hillary on North Korea, and a description of parts of her itinerary. Below, more on Hillary and North Korea, including a news report and an additional video.

If i could find it for you, i’d post the video of Mitchell’s interview of Bob Baer today who agreed with Hillary’s and the administration’s approach to North Korea, and who joined them in saying that the “tough talk” attitude of the Bush years should be left behind. But I’ve searched everywhere, with no luck. (If any of you spot the video, please e-mail the link to me at susanunpc @ gmail dot com. Thanks!)

ANOTHER VIDEO:

ALSO, at MSNBC from the A.P.:

TOKYO - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on her first trip abroad as President Barack Obama’s chief diplomat, arrived in Tokyo with a warning to North Korea that it needs to live up to its commitments to dismantle its nuclear programs.

“The North Koreans have already agreed to dismantling,” she said. “We expect them to fulfill the obligations that they entered into.” During the now-stalled “six-party talks,” Pyongyang agreed to stop its weapons work in exchange for economic and other incentives.

Clinton made the comments en route to Asia for meetings with leaders of Japan, China, South Korea and Indonesia. She arrived in Tokyo Monday evening. … read all.