Breaking News – Angelina Jolie Not a Fan of Obama

I don't even care if this is really true. But I do think I know who has been talking to US Weekly...

Angelina Jolie Not a Fan of Obama – Celebrity News – UsMagazine.com

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Tom Friedman's Chinese Dreams

Tom Friedman is a big fat idiot with a ridiculous porn-stache. There. I said it. Exhibit A (actually - there are many many examples but this is just the most recent): the vile piece of nonsense that was published as his column by the newspaper formerly known as the New York Times yesterday, extolling the virtues of the fascist Chinese state. Here is the money quote:

"One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century."

Friedman should be forced to go and try to work as a journalist in China for a year (or better yet, a coal miner), and then come back and talk about what an enlightened "green" dictatorship they are running over there. Forget about human rights, forced abortion, the Tibetans, the Uighurs, the horrible illegal brick kilns filled with child slave labor, the rivers that have turned black from industrial waste, blah blah blah; they banned plastic bags! China will save us all!

Three Pulitzer Prizes. This idiot has won three Pulitzers. Honest to Betsy.

On the bright side, maybe this will help make more people aware of what an absolute blathering hypocrite of a moron Friedman has become. From his sasquatchian carbon footprint to his fawning leadership of the Van Jones mutual admiration society, I think we may be seeing the jumping of the shark by this fool. At least I hope so. But then again, this is the New York Times - home of the execrable Maureen Dowd, so my hope is probably badly misplaced.

UPDATE: FWIW, A guy has started a blog after reading this atrocious article calling on the NYT to fire Friedman.

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I am calmer now but Jim Webb is still an idiot

Ok. This guy goes to Burma to tell the junta he doesn't like sanctions on them either, and ends up engaged in a little hostage diplomacy with the military dictatorship. Who does this guy think he is anyway - Bill Clinton? Well, Than Shwe seems to be channeling Kim Jung Il, so why not. And he got to meet with Suu? She should have told him to go jump in Lake Inya, along with his new traveling companion, but she is way to classy for that. I hope that she was able to explain to him how he is being used by the junta, since he can't figure it out for himself. For instance:

"It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future," Webb said in the statement.

Riiight. I am really annoyed right now. What is wrong with Virginia? Also, remember that this guy was seriously being considered by The One as vice president material? God help us. And the left makes fun of Palin. This nitwit makes her look positively statesmanlike. And poor Suu having to sit across from this guy for 40 minutes. I suspect that 2 minutes into the meeting she was wishing she could go back under house arrest.

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Jim Webb is an Idiot

Honestly.

That is all.

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Seeking truth from facts

The International Campaign for Tibet highlighted an interesting Xinhua editorial earlier this week in a post on their blog. The Xinhua article was about "mass incidents" in China, specifically one at a steel mill in Jilin province, and criticized the government for saying that the reason for these incidents was that those who rose up against the authorities "don't know the truth." This editorial says that if this is the real cause of anti-government actions, then simply telling the citizens involved "the truth" should be sufficient to stop them from striking out against officialdom. Now, Xinhua is of course talking about the kind of localized protests and anti-government violence that occurs all over China every day (some 90,000 times a year, apparently), but ICT's Stewart Watters makes the point that:

One of the challenges that Tibetans and their supporters face is to reach a point where commentators like Huang Guan or Chinese officials or ordinary Chinese citizens can begin to draw parallels between their own mistrust of the way the government characterizes and responds to mass incidents, and the factors that lie behind the Tibetan mistrust of Beijing.

Good point!

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Xu Zhiyong

Great editorial today in Wash Post about Xu. The lede is priceless and a stinging indictment of the current US approach to China:

AT THE CONCLUSION of the Strategic Economic Dialogue on July 28, the United States and China issued a news release affirming "the importance of the rule of law to our two countries." One day later, Chinese police led prominent legal scholar Xu Zhiyong out of his apartment to be detained indefinitely.

I hope someone in the White House, Foggy Bottom or Treasury bothers to read it and takes a moment to absorb.

Here is a Xu quote that inspires me to have faith in the Chinese people despite their evil government:

"I strive to be a worthy Chinese citizen, a member of the group of people who promote the progress of the nation. I want to make people believe in ideals and justice, and help them see the hope of change.”

Obama is reportedly going to China in November. There are any number of ways he could either make this situation worse or better. If he did nothing but talk about this case, in excruciating detail, it would be a serious "teachable moment" for both the Chinese and the Chinapologists in the Administration. It really is China's human rights situation in microcosm.

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With Friends Like These

Further to my post yesterday on Aung San Suu Kyi's continued detention, the Washington Post had a good lead editorial today that called out the US admin for empty rhetoric. Here's a grab:

There are measures that could be tried: coordinated financial sanctions aimed at the leaders who profit from their compatriots' misery, for example, or a real arms embargo -- particularly apt given recent reports of Burmese cooperation with North Korea in nuclear affairs. A May report by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, commissioned by eminent former judges such as Patricia Wald of the United States and Richard Goldstone of South Africa, compellingly laid out sufficient evidence of the junta's crimes against humanity to justify a U.N. Security Council Commission of Inquiry that could lead to charges in the International Criminal Court. Russia and China, defenders of despots, would be obstacles, but perhaps not insuperable ones, if the United States, Southeast Asia and Europe made this a priority.

And where is the United States? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced early in her tenure a review of U.S. policy toward Burma. While the sham trial of Aung San Suu Kyi was taking place, that review was suspended, leaving the administration surprisingly unready to respond to Tuesday's events. The review will be resumed now -- with, we would hope, a sense of urgency that has been wanting so far.

Well said Fred. Sphere: Related Content