To win the right to host these Games, China promised to honor the Olympic ideals of nonviolence, openness to the world and individual expression. Those promises were systematically broken, starting with this spring’s brutal repression in Tibet and continuing on to the ugly farce of inviting its citizens to apply for legal protest permits and then arresting them if they actually tried to do so.
Along the way, government critics were pre-emptively rounded up and jailed, domestic news outlets tightly controlled, foreign journalists denied full access to the Internet and thousands of Beijing’s least telegenic residents were evicted from their homes and out of camera range. On Friday, the Chinese police confirmed that six Americans protesting China’s rule in Tibet had been sentenced to 10 days of detention.
Surely one of the signature events of these Games was the sentencing of two women in their late 70s to “re-education through labor.” Their crime? Applying for permission to protest the inadequate compensation they felt they had received when the government seized their homes years ago for urban redevelopment.
A year ago, the I.O.C. predicted that these Games would be “a force for good” and a spur to human-rights progress. Instead, as Human Rights Watch has reported, they became a catalyst for intensified human-rights abuse.
McCain picks Sarah Palin for VP. More on why I think the pick is gold on Monday.
Nancy Pelosi is an idiot.
N Korea ‘develops special noodle’
“Health-care workers should not be forced to provide services that violate their own conscience.”
Russia is claiming that the US was involved in Georgia to benefit a presidential candidate
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Concerning Russia’s claim that the U.S. is involved in Georgia to benefit McCain (and that link is bad by the way), I think it is a bit more complicated than that. I personally don’t think this is the case.
First of all, let’s examine the so-called democracy in Georgia. Saakashvili’s main backer, and arguably the guy who got him the job, is George Soros. Shalva Natelashvili, leader of Georgia’s opposition party, calls Soros the “real president of Georgia.” Soros, of course, co-opted MoveOn.org by funneling lots of money into it and gaining influence. Of course, Soros and MoveOn are Obama’s staunchest allies. All of you “conservatives” backing Georgian democracy should be aware of this.
If you get McCain, you bring on board the Neoconservative foreign policy of Randy Scheunemann, one of the PNAC boys. If you elect Obama, you’ll get the Polish Zbigniew Brzezinski, the guy from the Carter administration who funded al Qaeda to fight the Russians. In either case, there will be hostility towards Russia.
Here’s an excerpt of Joe Biden’s speech from last night:
“Ladies and gentlemen, in recent years and in recent days we once again see the consequences of the neglect, of this neglect, of Russia challenging the very freedom of a new democratic country of Georgia. Barack and I will end that neglect. We will hold Russia accountable for its action and we will help Georgia rebuild.”
The Pelosi clip reveals something about her. In her mind the minimum wage is not about fair compensation for labor. It’s about paying someone a living wage regardless of what their labor is worth. A university student working as an intern doesn’t need a living wage, because his support is coming from his parents or from student loans. If that same person dropped out of school and got a job at a restaurant, then he deserves a living wage–not because he has earned it by his labor, but because he needs it to live.
It’s all about entitlement. People should be paid what they need, not what they earn. It was never about fair compensation for labor.
I oppose that worldview.
You could have just been like me, and called her an idiot. But no, you want to be all fair and nice and professional…
Jew said, “People should be paid what they need, not what they earn. It was never about fair compensation for labor.”
Come to think of it, this is how your parents are paid.
But I digress.
Colin, I thought that weekly links were supposed to be from this week (not 1989)?
Pelosi certainly sounded stupid, just in terms of her tone and inability to form sentences. She was an idiot for not just saying “there’s a difference between private companies and volunteer organizations/political parties”. End of discussion. The interviewer did no better than her in formulating a coherent argument.
I guess I fail to see how she would have ended the discussion with such a statement. What is the difference?