What should South Korea and the United States do to North Korea for bombing the South Korean island?  What will the United Nations do to North Korea? 

North Korea has now sunk a South Korean ship and killed citizens on the South Korean island through artillery shells.  Is North Korea trying to justify their transfer of power?  Will China come to the aid of North Korea--again?

The United States and South Korea prepared for war games today as South Koreans demanded vengeance over a deadly North Korean artillery bombardment that has raised fears of more clashes between the bitter rivals.

The North, meanwhile, worked to justify one of the worst attacks on South Korean territory since the 1950-53 Korean War. Four South Koreans, including two civilians, died after the North rained artillery on the small Yellow Sea island of Yeonpyeong, which is home to both fishing communities and military bases.

North Korea said civilians were used as a "human shield" around artillery positions and lashed out at what it called a "propaganda campaign" against Pyongyang.

It claimed the United States orchestrated last Tuesday's clash so that it could stage joint naval exercises in the Yellow Sea with the South that include a U.S. nuclear powered supercarrier — enraging the North and making neighboring China uneasy.

Only eight months ago, according to the findings of a South Korean-led international investigation, a North Korean torpedo sank a South Korean warship in waters farther west, killing 46 sailors.

The aggression could be linked to the North's attempt to strengthen its government as it pursues a delicate transfer of power from leader Kim Jong Il to a young, unproven son. It also may reflect Pyongyang's frustration that it has been unable to force a resumption of stalled international talks on receiving aid in return for nuclear disarmament.

The attack laid bare weaknesses 60 years after the Korean War in South Korea's defenses against the North, which does not recognize the border drawn by the U.N. at the close of the conflict and which considers waters around Yeonpyeong as its territory.

The skirmish prompted President Lee Myung-bak to replace his defense minister on Friday.

At a funeral Saturday near Seoul, South Korea's marine commander, Maj. Gen. You Nak-jun, vowed a "thousand-fold" retaliation for the attack. Dignitaries and relatives laid white flowers at an altar for the two marines killed in the North's attack. The mother of one of the victims fell forward in her chair in grief.

Passers-by paused at Seoul's main train station to watch funeral footage on a big screen.  "Once the enemy attacks us, it is our duty to respond even more strongly," said student Jeon Hyun-soo, 19. "The South Korean people want this."

Elsewhere in Seoul, about 70 former special forces troops protested what they called the government's weak response and scuffled with riot police in front of the Defense Ministry, pummeling the riot troops' helmets with wooden stakes and spraying fire extinguishers.

"Let's go!" the activists shouted, as police, numbering several hundred, pushed back with shields.

North Korea's state news agency said that although "it is very regrettable, if it is true, that civilian casualties occurred on Yeonpyeong island, its responsibility lies in enemies' inhumane action of creating a 'human shield' by deploying civilians around artillery positions."

The North said its enemies are "now working hard to dramatize 'civilian casualties' as part of its propaganda campaign."  South Korea was conducting artillery drills Tuesday from the island, located just 7 miles (11 kilometers) from North Korea's mainland, but fired away from the mainland.

The North said it warned South Korea to halt the drills on the morning of the attack, as part of "superhuman efforts to prevent the clash to the last moment."  The North said that Sunday's planned U.S.-South Korean war games showed that the United States was "the arch criminal who deliberately planned the incident and wire-pulled it behind the scene."

North Korea on Saturday warned of retaliatory attacks creating a "sea of fire" if its territory is violated.

President Lee told top officials "there is a possibility North Korea may take provocative actions during the (joint) exercise," and urged them to coordinate with U.S. forces to counter any such move, according to a spokesman in the president's office who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing official protocol.

Washington and Seoul have pressed China to use its influence on Pyongyang to ease tensions. A dispatch from Chinese state media on Friday — saying Beijing's foreign minister had met with the North Korean ambassador — appeared to be an effort to trumpet China's role as a responsible actor and placate the U.S. and the South.  China is impoverished North Korea's biggest benefactor and its only major ally.

Let's really test North Korea and see how far they will go since their people are starving and they do not have the resources to fight a war.  South Korea has to show some force and threaten North Korea enough so they will not attack again.

What is the strategy of going after Israel for building houses, yet not going after Russia for helping Iran build nuclear reactors?  What is the Obama strategy for dealing with critical issues facing the security of our nation?  Why didn't Secretary Clinton walk out of her talks with Russia when they announced that they will help Iran with its nuclear reactor program? 

Russia said Thursday that it will start up a nuclear reactor it is building at Iran's Bushehr plant in the summer.  It is clear that Moscow will not support new U.N. sanctions on Tehran and support the U.S. position of a non-nuclear Iran.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the Russian decision just hours after Mrs. Clinton arrived in Moscow.  "The first reactor at Iran's nuclear power plant in Bushehr is to be launched already in the summer," Mr. Putin was reported as saying by Russian news agencies during a visit to the southern city of Volgodonsk.

Mrs. Clinton, who is scheduled to meet with both Mr. Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday, said their plan was not a good idea and urged them to further postpone the reactor's launch.

"Iran is entitled to civil nuclear power. It is a nuclear weapons program that it is not entitled to. And if it reassures the world, or if its behavior is changed because of international sanctions, then they can pursue peaceful, civil nuclear power," she said at a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Last week Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. visited Israel to encourage renewed negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinians.  With an announcement that Israel was proceeding with the construction of a small number of residential units - 1,600 in a section of Jerusalem with more than 400,000 inhabitants, roughly 181,500 Jewish and 229,000 Muslim - was interpreted as a slap in the face to the United States.  VP Biden walks out on them and chills our relationship with Israel.

As Biden was leaving Israel, the vice president made his displeasure clear. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had apologized after insisting that the announcement had been made at a low level in his government and was not meant as a provocation.

Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned Mr. Netanyahu and raised hell for 43 minutes. Whatever she said, tensions between the United States and Israel, according to Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, reached an intensity not experienced in more than three decades. Within days of her phone call, young Palestinians were emboldened to violence throughout Jerusalem - again, tension not experienced in years, and in this case, quite bloody tension.

Next week when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addresses the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Monday, what will she say and what will be the new U.S. foreign policy?

Congress Passed What?

The “Stimulus Package” or the so-called Recovery Act has been passed by the US Congress and no member of Congress has read the entire bill.  With over 1,100 pages handed to law makers at 11 PM on Thursday night, Speaker Pelosi pushed an early vote because she was leaving for Rome to consult with the Pope. 

President Obama had promised at least 48 hours for the members of Congress to read and understand the package bailout plan before voting.  This did not happen and NOT one Congressman or Congresswoman had time to read the 1,100 pages.  Yet members of Congress voted for something they did not see, understand, or comprehend.  They did not allow the voters to voice their opinions about something that will “change” our country into a socialist regime and require more taxes to be collected from us.  Also, they just screwed-up the E-Verify program and did not require businesses to hire American citizens for these new jobs.  Without using the E-Verify system, illegal immigrants will be used in this "job recovery" program.

Our Congress is dangerous, out-of-control, and conducting business, not on behalf of the American people, but on behalf of their special interest groups.  Congress has stripped language from the stimulus bill that would help ensure illegal aliens don’t take jobs from Americans and legal immigrants. It is mind-boggling to think that our representatives are so spineless that they can’t even stand up to the Hispanic Caucus at a time when jobs are disappearing at astonishing rates and many Americans are faced with financial ruin.  E-Verify is fast, simple to use, and discriminates against nobody.  It simply verifies that a person is legally entitled to work in this country.  We know it sounds simple, but Congress found a way to screw it up.

America citizens are on their own and must look out for themselves since elected members will not.  Illegal immigrants are not only taking American jobs, but they are involved with the drug wars spilling across into the U.S.  Members of Congress are not doing the job they were elected to do for the American taxpayer.