Scott Farrell of The Farrell Files on 10 Connects and Joe Bardi of Creative Loafing’s Film & TV section were on board again this morning to tape the weekly HoCast, in which we examined the week’s top political stories, made sense out of them and played funny-sounding audio clips.

Here was our tentative show rundown as written before taping; we added the Tampa health care reform “near riot” to the top of the issues list and had some audio from the unpleasantness:

1. BIll Clinton (and Al Gore??) set free the journo-hostages from North Korea. The price? An unsmiling photo-op with an equally unsmiling and flaccid Kim Jong-Il plus some “face” for the North Koreans. Worth it or not? What happens next time a nation takes poeple hostage and we don’t send Slick Willy or a different ex-president to rescue them? Can you imagine the hilarity that would have ensued if we’d sent former President George W. Bush?!? And how long will Hillary stand for Bill upstaging her?

2. Snakes in a State, starring Samuel L. Jackson Jr. Florida is overrun with Burmese pythons, and they’ve started eating our children and other endangered species. Time for a War on Snakes!
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/politicalwhore/2009/08/06/its-war-florida-vs-burmese-python-snakes-with-a-possible-pet-ban/

3. Privatizing BayWalk’s sidewalks: the sidewalk turned from a pathway for pedestrians to a home for the homeless, a protest site for those opposed to the war (nevermind that BayWalk played zero role in the war) and various other sundry uses that damaged the retail center’s business. Now, the city wants to give it control of the sidewalk and push thep public off land that it now owns. What do we think? What other bothersome public lands are we ready to give back to private interests? The Everglades (and all those snakes?)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/06/060959/groups-protest-st-pete-plan-privatize-baywalk-side/news-breaking/

4. Hillsborough County votes to seek $15 million in federal stimulus money to pay for a temporary rehab of the Friendship Trail bridge. Is that what we should be using the stimulus for? And what do we make of the estimate that 600,000 people hike, bike or fish off the bridge every year? That is one in four Tampa Bay residents. Sounds a bit high to me.
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2009/8/5/505115.html?title=Commissioners%20vote%205%20to%202%20for%20Friendship%20Trail%20project&cid=rss

5. John Edwards’ mistress testifies before an NC grand jury about his campaign finances. We ask: how much can one piece of ass cost somebody?
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/08/06/edwards_mistress_testifies_before_grand_jury.html

Here’s the live video stream of our taping, which we get ready for starting at about 10 am and tape at 10:15 am each week. Drop in early and catch our live mic gaffes.
Live TV : Ustream

Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, appeared on ‘Fox News Sunday’ with Chris Wallace this past weekend to discuss U.S. foreign policy. The major topic of discussion was North Korea’s probable launch in the next week. Concerning the launch, Wallace asked “and there’s nothing that we can do about it?”

“No,” Gates replied, “I would say that we’re not prepared to do anything about it.” Watch Robert Gates reply to Chris Wallace below:

It seemed that Wallace wasn’t happy with that answer, as if he was expecting a response from Gates that would imply America’s determination to shoot down North Korea’s launch in self-defense. I have heard a lot from people who would expect the U.S. to take a more aggressive approach to North Korea’s launch, either because they see it as a threat to security, or because it violates the 2006 Security Council resolution that prohibits Pyongyang from any ballistic activity.

However, let’s look at the reality of things.

The foreign policy over the past eight years has been aggressive with threats and likely to justify its actions through self-defense. This hasn’t always been a good thing though. Eight years of the Bush Doctrine has eroded much of our soft power, which in today’s globalizing era is more effective than our might. It doesn’t go unnoticed, then, when a new foreign policy takes a more pragmatic outlook.

Gates makes a smart move by saying that we’re not prepared to shoot down any launch and here is why. The only way to ensure security between the U.S. and North Korea, or North Korea and the rest of the world for that matter, is to encourage North Korea into the modern international system where we govern our actions by law. If the U.S. were to shoot down a North Korean launch then it would be taking the law into its own hands, which is essentially the same offense (non-compliance with law) that North Korea is guilty of. Rather what the U.S. and Japan should do is let the international legal system work as it should. Nothing is more counterproductive, more hypocritical, than acting outside the system that we work so hard to bring North Korea into.

Gates also made a wise observation when he said that economic sanctions would work better than diplomacy. Anybody can see that the six party talks haven’t worked but there is a reason for this; North Korea benefits from resisting rules and norms of the international system. It learned in 1994 how lucrative blackmail could be when the U.S. gave North Korea two light water nuclear reactors given that North Korea would terminate its nuclear ambitions. North Korea restarted its program in 1999 – so much for that. Modifying North Korea’s behavior, then, requires them to understand penalties for inappropriate behavior. However, as I stated before, these penalties should reinforce the legitimacy of rules of the international system, and economic sanctions would do this. Unilaterally shooting down a launch would not.

Ultimately, shooting down North Korea’s launch would only provoke them. It shows distrust of their intentions, and how can we rope them into the modern international system when they feel that they are not trusted by others in that system.

Some people think that this is all fruitless, that Kim Jong-Il is wild-eyed and suicidal. On the contrary, all of his actions have demonstrated an ability to think rationally, as well as a tendency to maximize his own power. The history of North Korea blackmailing the U.S. in the 1990s and then withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty in 2003 when the U.S. and Japan stopped sending oil, shows that Kim Jong-Il has the ability to test the system in a way that benefits his own power. He thinks rationally to maximize his power, which means that he is not crazy or suicidal, but it does mean that he has tested the international system rather than that system testing him.

Hopefully, a new foreign policy under President Obama would work towards encouraging North Korea into the international system, where Kim Jong-Il would learn that testing the system is less productive than working with it.

• Obama gives Clinton $2,300. (Side note: The Times should be shot for using that picture.)
• Novak says Colin Powell will endorse Obama at some point, but not because he’s a fan of Barack. No, he’ll do it to spite W.
• Speaking of traitors to their party: Time has a story on Joe Lieberman that made me puke in my mouth a little.
• Don’t blow your top trying to figure out the energy crisis, there’s a mountain of a solution out there.
• North Korea dynamites the cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear power plant.
• One barrel of oil = 28 Subway footlongs.
• This weekend’s viewing: WALL-E is a “Pixar masterpiece.”
• “Six Crazy Hollywood Stories You Probably Haven’t Heard.”