Clinton's visit is a surprise, and Clinton is the highest-profile American to go to North Korea since Madeline Albright's trip in 2000 (Jimmy Carter went in 1994). The Obama administration reportedly considered a number of other possible envoys, including John Kerry. The choice is especially surprising given that Hillary Clinton has been so deeply involved in efforts to free Ling and Lee. However, she has recently been trading insults with North Korean officials, comparing them to "small children and unruly teenagers." The North Korean Foreign Ministry in turn called her a "funny lady" who "is by no means intelligent." Bill Clinton, on the other hand, maybe popular in North Korea because US-North Korean relations were at their best during his administration.

Researcher and ex-North Korean official Jang Cheol-hyeon says Clinton "can surely bring the two journalists back home." Victor Cha, a former Bush advisor on North Korea, concurs, saying, "it would be very difficult for the North not to give these people up" to Clinton. Scott Snyder of the Asia Foundation, however, has concerns. He tells the LA Times, "The question is going to be how could he go to Pyongyang without some assurance that they would be released. For someone at his level to go without a prior assurance of some kind would be to risk a huge loss of face." But analyst Mike Chinoy thinks this is actually evidence that Clinton is confident about the journalists' release. He says, "I suspect that it was made pretty clear in advance that Bill Clinton would be able to return with these two women otherwise it would be a terrible loss of face for him."

Experts are debating the larger diplomatic implications of the visit as well. Obama administration officials say Clinton will try to avoid linking the issue of Ling and Lee to North Korea's nuclear program, and that they aren't willing to offer the North incentives to return to six-party diplomatic talks. But South Korean professor Kim Yong-hyun says of Clinton's visit, "I think it's not just about journalists. It will serve as a turning point in the US-North Korea relations." Senator Lindsay Graham agrees, saying, "Maybe we can build on this to do something better with nuclear weapons. ... I don't know if this is the beginning of something bigger." Jack Kim of Reuters reports that the former President's trip "allows the [North Korean] government to show to a domestic audience, facing deepening poverty, that the nuclear weapons program is making the outside world take it more seriously and the visit will be certain to be portrayed as tribute by the United States." And North Korea expert B.R. Myers says, "It sends all the wrong signals," such as that the United States will reward kidnapping with high-level attention.

However, at least one expert thinks Clinton's trip offers a valuable intelligence opportunity as well as a humanitarian one. Think tank president Ralph Cossa says Clinton will be able to gauge Kim Jong Il's reportedly failing health, and find out who is really running North Korea. He says,

For me, this is a stroke of genius on the part of the Obama administration. Kim Jong Il will have to meet with a former U.S. president. Given his ego and desire for attention, this is a photo opportunity he doesn't want to miss. If he doesn't meet with Clinton, we'll know he is on life support.

Reports: Bill Clinton Arrives In N. Korea [Washington Post]
Bill Clinton Arrives In North Korea [Guardian]
Bill Clinton Visits North Korea In Bid To Free Journalists [LA Times]
Bill Clinton In North Korea To Seek Release Of U.S. Reporters [NY Times]
Bill Clinton In N. Korea For Journalists [CNN]
Bill Clinton In North Korea To Win Reporters' Release [Reuters]
White House Mostly Mum On Clinton's NKorea Mission [AP]

Political scientist Han Park says North Korea might release Laura Ling and Euna Lee if the US issues an official apology for their actions. • And US officials like Hillary Clinton seem to be changing their language accordingly, suggesting that Ling and Lee did in fact do something wrong and asking for "amnesty" rather than "release on humanitarian grounds." • Colleen Shipman will marry astronaut William Oefelein, undeterred by his ex and fellow astronaut Lisa Nowak, who drove 900 miles in 2007 to pepper-spray Shipman. • The "Amora sex academy" in Berlin includes 50 "interactive displays" such as the "Spank-o-meter" and a mannequin that lights up and screams when you find her G-spot. • The Blanden Memorial Art Museum in Fort Dodge, Iowa is holding an exhibition of art related to women's suffrage. Check it out on your way to see the butter Michael Jackson. • A study by Planned Parenthood, undertaken before and after off-label vaginal use of Mifeprex, shows that giving antibiotics to every patient regardless of ingestion method significantly reduces post-abortion infections. • In an Australian study, women 37 and older dealt with pregnancy just as well emotionally and physically as younger moms, but were more anxious about their baby's health. Maybe because of widespread rhetoric about the evils of "delaying" childbearing? • The author of a book called Boobs: A Guide to Your Girls warns women to cover up their cleavage at work, saying, "I don't think women are stupid I just don't think anyone knows the rules." O RLY? • Defense lawyers for evangelist Tony Alamo want the word "polygamy" excluded from his trial, despite the fact that he exchanged wedding vows with and gave rings to the underage girls he allegedly slept with. • Debbie Downer says playing in the sand gives kids diarrhea. • Good news for adulterous jetsetters and others too busy to sit down at a computer for their extramarital liaisons: cheating website AshleyMadison.com is now available on iPhone and Blackberry. • Despite a suit by female ski jumpers, women's ski jumping will not be included in the 2010 Olympics. • "The Good Witch of West Marin" has been banned from her local farmers' market for practicing "her skills as a counselor, herbalist and Wiccan healer" without a proper permit. • Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha al-Huwaider has traveled unaccompanied to Saudi Arabia's border with Bahrain three times to protest a law that prohibits women from leaving the Kingdom unless they have permission from a male relative. • Is a spate of cat deaths in West Columbia, South Carolina the work of dogs, or another cat killer like Tyler Weinman? •

Lisa Ling, also a journalist, has been referring to her sister and her friend Euna as "girls" in public statements for several weeks. She told the May 31 edition of People, "We desperately hope that at the conclusion of the June 4 trial, the government of North Korea will show clemency and allow the girls to return home to their families. [...] We would like to thank all of those individuals who are organizing to secure the release of the girls." But her use of the word has intensified in a PR blitz following new claims by the North Korean government that Ling and Lee have confessed to intentionally crossing into North Korea to record footage for a "smear campaign" against the country.

On this morning's Today show, Ling said, "it was obvious that the girls confessed to the charges that were levied against them [...] we now hope that the North Korean government will show compassion and allow the girls to come home." And on CNN last night, she called Ling and Lee "girls" at least six times. She reiterated that, "the girls have admitted to whatever charges were levied against them" adding, "we now hope that the North Korean government will just show compassion and leniency and let the girls come home." Asked if she had any message for Ling and Lee, she said,

I would just tell the girls to please stay strong, and know that we are trying to do everything we can, our government is trying to do everything they can, to try and bring them home, and just focus on the day when we can all be together again, is what I would say to the girls.

Laura Ling's cousin Angie Wang also called the two detained journalists "girls" on CBS this omrning, perhaps suggesting a family-wide rhetorical decision. It's possible that the family believe that referring to the journalists as "girls" rather than "women" will make them less threatening to the North Korean government, and perhaps more deserving of compassion and forgiveness. Repeatedly saying "girls" probably goes against much of Ling's journalistic training — in most of her professional TV appearances, the word "women" would be more appropriate — so her choice seems especially conscious.

All of Ling and Lee's supporters appear to be choosing their words extremely carefully to avoid offending the North Korean government and make a quick release more likely. North Korea's claims are bizarre — it says Ling and Lee have confessed to "criminal acts ... prompted by the political motive to isolate and stifle the socialist system of the DPRK by faking up moving images aimed at falsifying its human rights performance and hurling slanders and calumnies at it" — and any confession seems likely to have been obtained under duress if it was obtained at all. But the families of the journalists have studiously avoided criticizing North Korea or questioning the confession in any way. They merely reiterate that the "girls" are "sorry," and ask North Korea to relent and send them home.

It's interesting that supporters of Ling and Lee have this particular rhetorical tool at their disposal. If the detained journalists were men, no one could ask North Korea to release the "boys." Of course, it's not uncommon to refer to grown women as girls — we've certainly done it, particularly in pop culture stories. Still, the fact that women can still be infantilized well into their thirties, when they have families and established careers, is ordinarily an unfortunate one. In this case, however, if calling Laura Ling and Euna Lee "girls" helps get them home faster, we can't help but support it.

Thanks to video intern Joanna Farah for putting together the clip.

Jailed Journalist's Sister: Show Compassion [Today Show]
Video: Families Plead With North Korea [CNN]
Journalist's Family Speaks [CBS]
N. Korea: U.S. Journalists Were Creating 'Smear Campaign' [CNN]
Families Hold Out Hope For Journalists Detained In North Korea [ABC]

In an interview with the Today Show, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said the sentence — for illegal entry and an unspecified "grave crime" — was "harsher than expected." And it may mean that Ling and Lee are the first Americans ever to enter North Korea's notoriously horrific prison system. However, some say that the sentencing is actually the first step towards the journalists' release.

Former South Korean foreign minister Han Seung-soo says, "now that they are sentenced, we can think and talk about making arrangements for their release. It is ironic but with the sentencing we now have something more tangible to negotiate about." Richardson agrees, saying that, "in previous instances in which I was involved in negotiating releases, you couldn't even start until the legal process had ended."

In fact, the twelve-year sentence may not be the actual amount of time North Korea expects the women to serve, but rather a message to the West. North Korea expert Andrei Lankov says, ""The verdict does not mean much, since they will get released. Unfortunately, right now the North Koreans want to keep tensions high, so it will take many months and perhaps a year or more before the Pyongyang authorities will decide that it's time to make some friendly gesture to Washington."

South Korean lawmaker Hong Jung-wook says, "the sentence can be seen as an indication that North Korea is now expecting a very prominent envoy to come for the negotiations over their release." This envoy could be Richardson himself, who has negotiated with North Korea before, or it could be Al Gore, head of the journalists' employer, Current TV. But Richardson told the Today Show that "talk of an envoy is premature because what first has to happen is a framework for negotiations on a potential humanitarian release." He said the US will seek a "political pardon" for the journalists. In return, North Korea may demand that an envoy visit and discuss its nuclear program. Or the government may want humanitarian aid, such as food.

In the meantime, Andrei Lankov says Ling and Lee "are very unlikely to be sent to a real prison, since there they would learn too much about things outsiders are not supposed to know. I am pretty sure that the authorities will keep them in relative comfort, in conditions far better than the average prison, but still perhaps tough for the average American." The two have become the latest in a long list of foreigners North Korea has seized over the years. Kidnap victims include a 13-year-old Japanese girl named Megumi Yokota, a South Korean businessman whom the North continues to hold as a rebuke to South Korea, and a famous South Korean film producer, Shin Sang-ok. Shin eventually escaped, but not before being forced to make a socialist version of Godzilla.

American Journalists Convicted In North Korea [Today, via MSNBC]
Reporters Get 12-Year Terms In N. Korea [CNN]
N. Korea Convicts 2 U.S. Journalists [Washington Post]
North Korea Jails US journalists [BBC News]
North Korea Sentences U.S. Journalists [Wall Street Journal]
N. Korea Sentences 2 U.S. Journalists To 12 Years Of Hard Labor [New York Times]
Why North Korea's Jailing of U.S. Journalists Isn't Shocking [Time]

The two are accused of illegally entering North Korea while working on a Current TV story about refugees on the China-North Korea border. Some say they were actually arrested in China, and never trespassed into North Korea, but on thing seems clear — the North Korean government now wants to use the women's detention to pressure the United States. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who has negotiated the release of Americans held in North Korea before, says, "The North Koreans want to use these two American detainees as bargaining chips. [...] They want direct talks with the United States. It's a high-stakes poker game." The stakes have gotten higher since a recent nuclear test worsened US-North Korean relations.

If Ling and Lee are convicted, as many assume they will be, they may face up to ten years of hard labor in a North Korean prison. However, some take it as a good sign that the women were allowed to call their families. Ling's sister, TV journalist Lisa Ling, says Laura is "extremely scared" and believes that "the only way that she may be able to get released is if our two countries communicate." Hong Jung-wook, a member of the South Korean defense committee, says the phone calls mean "North Korea has left the door ajar." He adds,

Because the American reporters can be used as the trigger for bilateral dialogue with the United States, the North is not likely to mistreat them. The North Koreans will release the women when the timing is most favorable for North Korea's eventual purpose of engaging the United States.

The women's families and supporters hope this is true. Vigils on behalf of Ling and Lee were scheduled in several American cities last night. Protests have been held in the US and in South Korea. Meanwhile, Lisa Ling says she is drawing support from Facebook:

Through Facebook..., this whole grassroots movement has been born. I've been at home, late at night, feeling emotional, and I'll post something so intensely personal on Facebook, so random, I'll just type, 'I miss you Laura.' And I don't know who's reading it. But after I hit update, I'll think to myself, 'Why did I just post that for thousands of people I don't know to see?' And I think the reason is because there is no support group for this. For some reason, when people I don't even know, send me a message that says, 'We support you,' 'We're praying for you,' 'We're behind you,' somehow there's the strangest comfort in that.

UPDATE: While other media outlets are following the trial, Gawker wonders why Ling and Lee's employer, Current TV, has remained entirely silent on the issue.

North Korea To Hold Trial For Two U.S. Journalists [Reuters]
North Korea Tries US Journalists [BBC]
Journalists Caught In The Nuclear Crossfire [Independent]
Lisa Ling: Facebook Has Provided The 'Strangest Comfort' [BayNewser]
North Korea Puts Two U.S. Journalists On Trial [Washington Post]

Related: Current Stays Silent as Its Reporters Stand Trial in North Korea

Although NPR's Weekend Edition terms the Kansas-born Paddleford a "forgotten food writer," as her biographer Kelly Alexander makes clear, the pioneering culinary anthropologist casts a long shadow. A gifted writer and editor, Paddleford chronicled the history of American food for the better part of the 20th century, flying herself around the country in a single-engine plane. As she summed it up, "I have eaten with crews on fishing boats and enjoyed slum gullion at a Hobo Convention," she wrote. "How does America eat? She eats on the fat of the land. She eats in every language. For the most part, however, even with the increasingly popular trend toward foreign foods, the dishes come to the table with an American accent." [NPR]

ABC News:

Jezebel.com takes a look at a Redbook cover shoot of Faith Hill — before and after the photoshopping. It will make you gasp.

Thanks to Jezebel, we have yet another example of how fucked up magazine airbrushing is. Perhaps at her next concert Faith Hill will dedicate this song to the crack photoshopping team at Redbook.

Check out that picture of Faith Hill and she's lookin' pretty darn fine for a millionaire mom of three who's about to turn the big 4-0. She's even on the cover of Redbook this month! Anddddd that's where her trouble begins. Jezebel got their hands on the original version of Faith's cover photo prior to it being touched up with the magical tools that only magazines and wizards possess, and holy Hollywood standards are the results horrifying. The more you look at the touched up cover picture, the more you'll wonder why we as a society like our celebs to look like straight-up aliens. If the difference in her arm's shape and size isn't enough to freak you out, check out her eyes, her back, her posture and, oh, her disappearing hand. Faith was way better looking before she went under the digital knife, crow's feet and all.

This happened on the cover of Redbook. Not Playboy or Vogue or even Cosmopolitan, but Redbook, which is supposedly geared to more mature female readers. The fact that this same July cover includes lead stories such as "The new skinny pills — yes, they work!" and "Look and feel your hottest" only underlies the utterly depressing and spooky state of the American medium.... I'm appalled at what Redbook has done to Faith Hill, and everyone else should be, too, and this includes men, because most of you have wives or moms or girlfriends or sisters, or especially young daughters, the latter of whom are increasingly doomed to be swept away by our culture's perfection-obsessed tsunami.

Because there's no way a woman almost 40 years old can have wrinkles and be on the cover of a magazine ... And be sure to also read this great analysis of why it matters.

The cover of this month's Redbook has a stunning photo of country megastar Faith Hill. Well, someone resembling Faith Hill! Thanks to our friends at jezebel.com, who dug up the original photo, TMZ readers can have a look at Faith in all her real glory, and see how she was "cleaned up" for her cover. Through the miracle of Photoshop, they gave 39-year-old Faith a body like 24-year-old Carrie Underwood! For a mother of three just a few months shy of 40 with a non-stop schedule, the real Faith looks amazing!

If someone like Faith Hill is not good enough as is to be on the cover of a woman's magazine, than doesn't it make you question why some of us are killing ourselves trying to look celebrities who don't even look like themselves. It also sends the message that no matter how beautiful you are, you're still not perfect enough. Hmmmm?

As individual women, it can be easy to wonder why we fall into the trap of trying to live up to an unattainable standard. It's something we absorb on an almost subconscious level. Deconstructing this month's Redbook magazine cover shows us just how manufactured the images of beauty we see really are. I didn't think twice about the cover image of country singer and actress Faith Hill when I first saw it. But an untouched original photo obtained by Jezebel shows just how much "digital magic" even a certified star needs to be ready for her close-up....am at a loss for ways to combat the media's standards of beauty. But seeing the curtains of digital magic pulled back to reveal reality can remind each of us to give ourselves a break when we look in the mirror.

To say that magazines contribute to an unattainable ideal is to undersell the point: The art directors and retouchers of the world get paid to create women who literally do not exist and never could. It's worse than the old Women's Studies 101 complaints about Barbie's proportions; everyone already knows Barbie isn't real. The more insidious — and therefore more dangerous — manipulation occurs when they take away the natural crook of a woman's arm or tighten up her droopy earlobe. Really: They digitally adjusted her earlobe!...And to add verbal insult to visual injury, the cover line next to Faith Hill's head screams, "The New Skinny Pills: Yes, They Work!" To my knowledge, science has not yet yielded a pill that can create a 1-inch elbow.

Have Redbook gone a bit too far with this one? Jezebel have a wizzy animated picture so you can see all the details. So what's with the arms? Seriously? Is this what Redbook readers must aspire to? Bone replacement anyone?

Why Don't Women Feel Beautiful? Jezebel.com has uncovered the Photoshopping of Faith Hill committed by Redbook Magazine. It should make every woman mad....No wonder regular women feel bad about themselves - none of us walks around with a photoshop editor fixing our acne and wrinkles or making our actual back disappear - yet, we are told we can expect to look like this picture. NO ONE LOOKS LIKE THIS PICTURE - not even Faith Hill and it's a picture of Faith Hill!

Basically, Redbook has taken a majorly attractive 39-year-old woman and digitally airbrushed her back into some indetermine 20-something age, erasing eye wrinkles, thinning out arms and straightening out her back. The end result looks great; it's just doesn't look like what Faith Hill actually looks like. What should be done about stuff like this? Not much, I suppose; I don't see how, say, outlawing the Photoshopping of celebrity covers on women's magazines would much of anything useful, even if it were constitutionally possible, which it isn't. But what I think that such extensive Photoshopping indicates is a tacit admission by women's magazines that the image they're trying to promote — that they're trying to get their readers to buy and live — is absolutely unobtainable.

Faith Hill is a beautiful, tall, elegant woman, but even she needed to have her imperfections airbrushed out in order to be beautiful enough to grace the cover of Redbook....Why the facade? Why do we accept this? Why do continue you believe this to be true?...It's all part of the game, and they gotcha. I guarantee you will walk past a newstand in the next 24 hours, compare yourself to the covermodel, and think about what you can do to measure up. The fashion industry is demented. From today forward, they can kiss my ass.

Earlier: Here's Our Winner! Redbook Shatters Our Faith In, Well, Maybe Not Publishing But God
Faith Hill's Photoshop Chop: Why We're Pissed