The Gepper, Dick Gephardt, is poised to become House speaker in the forthcoming november US elections. Since the guy is an opponent of free trade, who enjoyed Japan-bashing back when it was trendy, voted against the Gulf war, and fought tooth and nail aginst NAFTA, one hopes his ambitions end there and he is nowhere near the White House in days to come.
Speaking of free trade, North Korea has quietly introduced the market economy. What the hey? There were no announcements. One day there was a control economy, the next, free for all. Kim Jong Il is a weird guy though - he firmly believed that the world would flock to North Korea for tourism (to see 100,000 children dance) and thinks ostriches are the meat of the future. Too bad he has the world's third largest army at his disposal.
Back in the US, Jim Traficant got booted out of Congress. He is just as weird as Kim Jong Il, with his references to Star Trek quotes during speeches, and his defence against corruption charges in which he referred to himself as "my client". He has previously avoided gaoltime for taking $100,000 from the mob by convincing the jury that he was involved in a one man sting operation. Heh.
In China, Jiang Zemin, current president, is in the process of juggling power in the face of the forthcoming congress which will vote on his successor. Jiang currently holds three positions - head of government, head of the communist party, and head of the armed forces. The current generation of power holders in China have introduced market economy reforms, but are fearful of allowing a Chinese Gorbachev into power, with the consequence that China will beome a democracy. Jiang's annointed successor, Hu, is a younger man in his 50s, and his position on many things is not clear. Jiang must give up being head of government, but is trying to jockey for retention of the posts of head of the party and head of the military. Pundits think he'll not keep the job as head of the party, but will still be head of the army. The Chinese government is concerned to maintain stability in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympics. I'm hoping that a younger set of leaders might introduce democracy to the world's most populace country, but I'm not optimistic.
