HILLARY CLINTON GREETS THE NEW YEAR IN THE HOSPITAL

THE SECRETARY OF STATE  

IS KEPT FOR OBSERVATION 

OF A BLOOD CLOT 

HILLARY CLINTON 

in the service of 

her country 

at the APEC summit 

in Vladivostok, Russia 

September 2012  

Some of the details of 

the hospitalization 

"serious but treatable" 

since December 30, 2012, here 

BOXES FOR BOXING DAY

BOXES IN THE 

THRONE ROOM 

GEUNJEONGJEON THRONE HALL  
KYONGBOK (GYEONGBOK) PALACE 
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA 

A bit of a wider view, here 

A WHITE CHRISTMAS

A SNOWY, FOGGY 

CHRISTMAS MORNING 

MONOCACY RIVER 2012 

FORMER SPEAKER JIM WRIGHT IS NINETY

JAMES C. WRIGHT, JR. 

b. December 22, 1922 

JIM WRIGHT (D-TX)  

in his Congressional Leadership Days 

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives 

1955-1989 

Speaker, 1987-1989 

His Congressional Biography here 

THE SEOUL BLUES: A RAINY TWILIGHT

NORTH FROM 

GANGNAM 

LOOKING ACROSS THE HAN RIVER 

AS NIGHT FALLS ON A 

RAINY DAY IN SEOUL, KOREA 

CHRIS MATTHEWS IS SIXTY-SEVEN

CHRISTOPHER JOHN MATTHEWS 

b. December 17, 1945 

CHRIS MATTHEWS 

AT THE KENNEDY LIBRARY FORUM 

CELEBRATING THE CENTENNIAL OF 

THOMAS P. ("TIP") O'NEILL 

Boston, Massachusetts 

December 9, 2012 

THE VIDEO here 

MORE ON THE TIP O'NEILL CENTENNIAL
here and here and here and here 

MORE ON TIP O'NEILL here 

TOM O'NEILL & THE TIP O'NEILL KENNEDY LIBRARY CENTENNIAL IV

THE KENNEDY LIBRARY 

CELEBRATES THE CENTENNIAL 

OF THOMAS P. O'NEILL,  JR. 

THOMAS P. O'NEILL III LISTENS 
Boston, Masschusetts 
December 9, 2012 

MORE ON THE CENTENNIAL 
here and here and here 
THE VIDEO here 
More on TIP O'NEILL here 

KIP O'NEILL & THE TIP O'NEILL KENNEDY LIBRARY CENTENNIAL III

KIP O'NEILL HONORS 

HIS FATHER 

CHRISTOPHER R. ("KIP") O'NEILL 
SPEAKS AT THE KENNEDY LIBRARY 
FORUM CELEBRATING THE CENTENNIAL 
OF SPEAKER THOMAS P. ("TIP") O'NEILL, JR. 
Boston, December 9, 2012 

The video is here; Kip O'Neill comes in at about 1:27 
More on the Kennedy Library Forum is here 
More on Tip O'Neill here 

TIP O'NEILL IS HONORED AT THE KENNEDY LIBRARY II

SCENES FROM 

THE CENTENNIAL 

CELEBRATION OF 

THOMAS P. O'NEILL, JR. 

CHARLES GIBSON (l) TELLS A 

TIP O'NEILL STORY; AL HUNT (r) 

IS AN APPRECIATIVE AUDIENCE 

John F. Kennedy Library 

Boston, December 9, 2012 

TIP here 

More to come 

IN HONOR OF THE CENTENNIAL OF TIP O'NEILL

THOMAS P. ("TIP") O'NEILL, JR. 

b. December 9, 1912 

TIP IN A TUX 

REDUX 

More Tip 

To be celebrated at the Kennedy Library 
December 9, 2012 

Video of the Kennedy Library Forum 
"Celebrating the Life of Tip O'Neill" 
here 

NEW YORK AT NIGHT: "THE LIGHTS ARE MUCH BRIGHTER THERE"

NEW YORK, NEW YORK 
DAZZLES 

A MOMENT IN WHICH 
THERE IS STILL 
THE JOY OF FLYING 

BRIDGE ON THE RIVER HAN...THE NIGHT VIEW II

NIGHT BRIDGE 

WITH TRAIN 

A TRAIN RUNS THROUGH IT 
A RHAPSODY IN 
ORANGE AND BLUE 

Another view here 

CHINA MAKES A NEW LAW AGAINST SELF-IMMOLATION

AGAINST 

SELF-IMMOLATION 

MARCHING PAST THE GREAT HALL OF THE PEOPLE 
THE FIRST DAY OF THE 18TH CONGRESS 
OF THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY 
Beijing, November 8, 2012 

The Washington Post reported on December 6, 2012, that "Self-immolators and their abettors [in China] will be charged with murder." The Post notes that "An unprecedented 91 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in the past 18 months...." 

The security clampdown during the 18th Party Congress has been much remarked.  One element of it was the presence of men with

firefighting equipment marching past the Great Hall of the People (above) and otherwise present nearby, including notably on Chang'an Jie, the Avenue of Eternal Peace. 

JIM PLUNKETT TURNS SIXTY-FIVE

JAMES WILLIAM PLUNKETT 

b. December 5, 1947 

JIM PLUNKETT 
AS 
 A NEW ENGLAND PATRIOT 

Quarterback:  Winner, Heisman Trophy (Stanford, 1970); 

Two Super Bowl Victories, XV & XVIII 

(Oakland Raiders, 1980, 1983) 

A long profile from recent years, here; two articles, here and here (with contemporary photographs). 

HANDICAPPING THE REPUBLICANS WHO DID NOT LISTEN TO DOLE

THE REPUBLICANS 

TURN THEIR BACKS ON DOLE  

Senator ROBERT J. DOLE (R-Kansas) 

Photographed for Business Week 

Published in the July 19, 1982 issue (p. 52) 

Former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican Presidential Nominee Bob Dole, disabled serving his country in World War II, came to the Senate floor today, in a wheelchair, to lend his support to the American ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  Only eight of the U.S. Senators of the Grand Old Party voted to ratify the treaty.  Thirty-eight Republicans having voted against, the two-thirds majority needed for ratification was not reached. 

HANDICAPPING THE PUTIN VERTICAL

VLADIMIR PUTIN'S SPINE 

IS ONCE AGAIN 

IN THE NEWS 

PRESIDENT PUTIN 
HOLDING A PRESS CONFERENCE 
AT THE END OF THE 2012 APEC SUMMIT 
Vladivostok, Russia, September 9, 2012 

"Transfers" can be hard (transferring from standing to sitting, or from sitting to standing); ask someone who knows. 

Why this is in the news again:  Since the Vladivostok APEC Summit (above), Vladimir Putin had been taking to working at his country home (which sounds like a variation on the Yeltsin-era "working with documents").  In Vladimir Vladimirovich's case, the noble reason given was to not tie up Moscow traffic.  But the president was also canceling meetings with foreign leaders, those who would have come to him as well as those whom he would have had to travel to meet. 

Finally, he emerged to travel to Turkey to meet with Prime Minister Recep Erdogan on December 3.  Then he was reported to have "winced as he lowered himself into an armchair," prompting the Prime Minister to "bend solicitously as if to help him," and a photograph was made. 

More on Istanbul excursion and some speculation here and here and here. 

A little more on the backstory:  Just before showing up on Vladivostok's Russky Island for the Russian Far Eastern APEC Summit, Putin undertook to help some endangered Siberian cranes.     

 He suited up (a rather dazzling white suit) and took off in a motorized hang glider to lead "a group of the captivity-raised birds onto their correct migratory path." 

It was afterwards speculated that this stunt might have injured (or re-injured) his back.  But it also gave the president a chance to boast that only the "weak" cranes did not follow his lead. And he did sit for a longish press conference. And then came his sixtieth birthday, and then the non-appearances. 

BEIJING HANDICAPPED SIGN: IN HONOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

A BEIJING HANDICAPPED SIGN 

AT NIGHT 

ON CHANG'AN JIE 

ON THE NORTH SIDE OF 

TIANANMEN SQUARE 

In Honor of December 3, 

the International Day of  

Persons with Disabilities 

"Over one billion people, or approximately 15 per cent 

of the world’s population, live with some form of disability." 

For an earlier posting on 

"Two Decades of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 

see here 

For the story of 

"Crossing Tiananmen Square by Wheelchair," 

ask (post a Comment, below) 

For show & tell on 

"Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy," 

see here 

RODERICK MACFARQUHAR HAS A BIRTHDAY ... AND A CONFERENCE

RODERICK MacFARQUHAR 

Birthday December 2 

CELEBRATION-cum-CONFERENCE 

November 30-December 1, 2012 

"Chinese Politics Past and Present: The 18th Party Congress" 

LANDING AT LOGAN AIRPORT AT NIGHT

LOGAN AIRPORT 

AT NIGHT 

BOSTON 

IN THE BACKGROUND 

"DO NOT DRIVE TIREDLY": WORDS OF ADVICE FOR RETURNING THANKGIVINGERS -- OR BEIJINGERS

"DO NOT DRIVE 

TIREDLY" 

A WORD TO THE WISE 

ON THE ROADS 

IN BEIJING, CHINA 

November 2012 

"THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING" ... IN OLYMPIC PARK, BEIJING

ALL WRAPPED UP 

A COLD DAY IN 

OLYMPIC PARK 

BEIJING, CHINA 

SIDNEY RITTENBERG: "THE REVOLUTIONARY"

BACK IN 

BEIJING  

SIDNEY RITTENBERG 

"THE REVOLUTIONARY" 

Mao Zedong's English translator in Yan'an after World War II 

American member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 

Prisoner of the PRC/CCP 

Activist of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 

Prisoner of the PRC/CCP Again 

American Entrepreneur/Consultant 

RUSLAN KHASBULATOV IS SEVENTY

RUSLAN IMRANOVICH KHASBULATOV 

Руслан Имранович Хасбулатов 

b. November 22, 1942 

RUSLAN KHASBULATOV 

at the height of his political power 

Chair of the Russian Supreme Soviet 

Arriving at the Russian White House 

Moscow, 1993 

Sharing the stage with Boris Yeltsin at Yeltsin's first Inauguration, July 10, 1991, here 

More contemporary photographs here and here 

A review of Khasbulatov's book, here 

More stories about Khasbulatov over the years  here and here and here 

SANTA CLAUS LANDS ON A BEIJING ROOFTOP

SANTA CLAUS 

& FRIENDS 

HAVE ARRIVED 

IN BEIJING 

THE POLITBURO STANDING COMMITTEE IS INTRODUCED: XI JINPING THE FIRST AMONG "EQUALS"

XI JINPING 

GIVES HIS FIRST ADDRESS 

AS GENERAL SECRETARY OF 

THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY 

习近平
EAST HALL 

GREAT HALL OF THE PEOPLE 

Beijing, November 15, 2012 

English text of the speech 
here 

TRUMPETING OUT THE 18TH PARTY CONGRESS IN BEIJING

WINDING UP THE 

18TH CONGRESS 

OF THE 

CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY 

TRUMPETS FOR THE LAST DAY 

Great Hall of the People, Beijing 

November 14, 2012 

MAO AT NIGHT I

THE MAO MAUSOLEUM 

AT NIGHT 

AT THE TIME OF 

THE 18TH CONGRESS 

OF THE 

CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY 

Beijing, November 9, 2012 

More MAO 

including 

Mao's cave house in Yan'an 

Mao's horse 

Mao's monument to Jinggangshan 
(inscribed in his own calligraphy) 

MAO AT NIGHT II

PASSING BY  

MAO'S PORTRAIT 

ON THE GATE OF 

THE FORBIDDEN CITY 

AT NIGHT 

AT THE TIME OF 
THE 18TH CONGRESS 
OF THE 
CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY 

Beijing, November 9, 2012 

For more on Mao, 
Follow the links here 

HU JINTAO'S LAST HURRAH -- AT LEAST, AS GENERAL SECRETARY

HU JINTAO 

REPORTS 

TO THE 18TH PARTY CONGRESS 

HU'S SWAN SONG 

-- as General Secretary 

of the Communist Party of China, at least -- 

November 8, 2012 

On the first day of the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of China, Hu Jintao, the outgoing General Secretary, reads the Report ("FIRMLY MARCH ON THE PATH OF SOCIALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS AND STRIVE TO COMPLETE THE BUILDING OF A MODERATELY PROSPEROUS SOCIETY IN ALL RESPECTS" -- their capitals, not mine) from the podium of the Assembly Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, surrounded (as usual, in these events) by flowers.  No one has died; this is the first step, in this Congress, in a choreographed handover of power first officially telegraphed at the preceding (17th) Congress, five years earlier. 

Hu Jintao twenty years earlier, introduced as the most junior member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the 14th 

Congress of the Communist Party of China (1992), here 

Hu Jintao five years earlier, at the 17th Party Congress, here 

Hu Jintao escorting Jiang Zemin off the dais 

of the 17th Party Congress (2007), here