Were their brains eaten by aliens?
An appeal to Taiwan's Supreme Court by The Journalist magazine in an attempt to overturn a libel verdict handed down against them early last year has left them in the same position they were before this week's appearance in court -- losers.

In November 2000, The Journalist "published a story accusing [Taiwan's Vice-President Annette] Lu of spreading a rumor that [President] Chen [Shui-bian] was having an affair with one of his female aides [his then-interpreter Hsiao Bi-khim]." [LINK] During the call in which it was described by The Journalist that these allegations were made, Lu supposedly laughed, "Heh, heh, heh." This onomatopoetic description accompanied Lu's photo on the cover of the magazine, starting the sensationalist ball rolling.

From the very start, Lu denied that she had made the call, and at first she merely requested an apology from the magazine. After the magazine responded by calling Lu a liar, charges of libel were then filed against the magazine by attorneys for the Vice-President.

The article behind all this alleged that Lu had made the call in an attempt to unseat the president because of a (rumored) power struggle.

Before the article was published, Yang Shu-mei, a reporter from The Journalist, contacted Wu Shu-chen, the wife of President Chen, and asked about the allegations. Even the First Lady suggested that the accusations being made against Lu were unfair. Yang Shu-mei also failed to contact Hsiao Bi-khim directly, but instead asked friends of Hsiao's, who replied that the allegations were "impossible to believe." While this information made its way into the article, it was the sensational cover that caught and held everyone's attention. [LINK]

The magazine's editors and staff cried that "freedom of the press" was being stifled. Anyone with a couple of brain cells to rub together might realize that this case is not about "freedom of the press," but rather about the fact that the media has no right to smear people with zero evidence backing them up.

What about the kind of witnesses who could be called in a trial? Well, the person who supposedly received this "Heh, heh, heh" call just happens to be Yang Chao -- the editor-in-chief of The Journalist. He's the only one who can "attest" to the occurrence of the call. The two "witnesses" he did name (Tseng Chao-ming, Chen Shih-ning) denied any knowledge of Lu making such comments.

Credible? Hardly.

I promise to correct any errors to this post and apologize to aliens who are offended if the brains of so-called "journalists" are not, in fact, a part of their diet
The Taipei Times reported on Wednesday that Lo Ming-tung, attorney for The Journalist, argued that "Reporters are responsible for reporting, not investigating," and that "It is impossible for reporters to come up with '100 percent accurate' stories."

On the second count, he's right, but on the first part of that statement, he's 100 percent wrong. Furthermore, even if he's right on the second count, inadvertant inaccuracies should be corrected when discovered, and if they have harmed someone's reputation, deserve at least an apology.

In January 2003, although she wasn't "100 percent satisfied," Lu apparently accepted the verdict anyway.

The release said that Lu was not 100 percent satisfied with the decision by the court that changed her original request to ask the magazine to publish a clarification with an apology in Taiwan's 32 major newspapers and radio and TV stations. The second verdict required the convicted Journalist employees to print apologies in only four newspapers.

"Though the decision was not satisfactory, my name shall be cleared by the publication in the four newspapers anyway. As a result, I decided not to appeal," Lu said.

The Taiwan High Court upheld the verdict of a lower court that The Journalist magazine did not libel Lu when it reported that she had called its editor-in-chief to spread a rumor of an affair involving Chen on Dec. 13, 2001. But it ordered the publication and five of its personnel to bear the costs of publishing a correction.

However, The Journalist copped out on their obligations then, and they're still doing so.

The lack of any evidence (phone records, recordings) to back them up is what got The Journalist's appeal thrown out, as it should have been. It's not about "freedom of the press" at all. It's about the rights of people to not be smeared by unfounded rumors. The online eTaiwanNews was clear about that almost a year and a half ago:

Media must get the facts straight
2002-12-16 / Taiwan News, Staff Reporter /

Recent court verdicts have declared news media the losers in prominent slander suits brought against them. While the media workers involved have characterized these court decisions as setbacks for freedom of the press, the issue actually highlighted by them is the question of whether Taiwan's news media are capable of reflecting upon their unprofessional handling of information and rash publication of reputation-damaging accusations without conscientious ascertainment of the facts. [Emphasis mine] [LINK]

Hear, hear!

For a funnier look at this, take a peek at an editorial cartoon in today's Chinese-language Liberty Times. On the "shooter's" back are the words "Xin Xin Wen" ("New News," AKA The Journalist magazine). The person in the background talking on a cell phone is saying "The truth has been revealed. Ha ha ha!" -- a reference to the opposition pan-blues' incessant and illogical demands to know "the truth" regarding the pre-election assassination attempt and so much more.

Can you say "cover-up"?
With SARS back in the news, Taiwan has received another powerful reminder of why it shouldn't trust the Chinese government.

The World Health Organization (WHO) refers to Taiwan as a "Province of China," thus expecting Beijing to provide information and assistance in crises such as the SARS epidemic of 2003 and the recent recurrence of the disease.

However, during the initial SARS outbreak last year, Beijing did nothing to help Taiwan, and even blocked assistance from the WHO for two months. When SARS cases reappeared recently, Taiwan officials found out about the situation neither from the WHO nor from Beijing -- they heard it on the news. Thanks a whole lot -- for nothin'!

On a related note, a letter to the editor from a Lee Long-hwa in today's Taipei Times suggests that "we rename the 'one China' policy to emphasize its true intent. Henceforth, we should call it the 'we hope China doesn't bomb Taiwan, wipe out Tibet and turn Hong Kong into Tiananmen Square' policy."

I couldn't have said it any better.

How do you keep an "earthworm" in jail?
He's already serving a 2-year suspended sentence for "violating the Election and Recall Law last year," but People First Party (PFP) law-breaker Chiu Yi (AKA "earthworm") has finally been indicted on charges of "damaging public property" in Kaohsiung where he was videotaped riling up protesters who tried to crash a campaign truck through a gate outside the local Prosecutors' Office in the early morning hours of the day following Taiwan's recent presidential election. Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 18 months for Chiu, but I think this is way too lenient. His actions were merely the beginning of what turned into weeks of violence.

The pictures of Chiu "crying" over this "persecution" in print editions of some of yesterday's Chinese-language newspapers are ridiculous, especially when considering statements he made on April 7 in which he said he was "ready to go to jail" for his actions. (Sorry, the "crying" images don't seem to be available online. You may be able to view video of the press conference here.) It's amazing to see the difference when he's all alone facing the courts and when he has an angry mob behind him willing to use a truck to try to crash through a gate and attack police who have nothing but shields and batons at their disposal.

Then again, he did manage to stop crying long enough to slip in this barb at his press conference: "I wonder whether those (prosecutors) who drafted the indictment would not worry about being struck by lightning." Knowing the way Chiu talks, that sounds a lot like a thinly-veiled threat to me.

"Dictators" vs. "truth-seekers"
The pan-blues' violence-prone supporters didn't take to the streets yesterday, but President Chen Shui-bian held a rally last night to thank supporters in Taichung for their votes and to talk about some of the changes he would like to see in the next four years. I wasn't able to attend, but I caught about the last half hour of it on live TV. One of those changes Chen mentioned would be to prevent convicted criminals from being elected to office. Hear, hear!

At the end of the rally, Chen said "Thank you" and "Goodnight" to his supporters, and without the president even having to tell them to do so, it appeared that the celebrants all began leaving peacefully. These are people who have waited over a month to release their pent-up energy and finally celebrate victory in the March 20 election. I wonder why Lien Chan and James Soong were unable to do that for 4 straight weekends in Taipei. Maybe they didn't want to?

Jackie Chan not banned by Taiwan
At least one news source has reported that "Taiwan considers banning Chan movie." This is not true. "Taiwan" has not considered banning Jackie Chan or his movies.

There was, however, one idiot within the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) -- Parris Chang -- who came up with this lamebrained idea on his own, but it was shot down immediately by the rest of his party (who apparently know how to put their brains in gear before opening their traps). Yesterday, a DPP spokesman already said publicly that Taiwan respects both Chan's freedom of speech and the rights of Taiwanese who want to watch his movies and would not take the same kind of action that a Communist government might in a similar situation.

An anal-retentive analysis

When rumors, distortions, blatant lies, and outright libel/slander are being spread like the flu, I find myself wanting to investigate every misplaced hyphen.

Why the hell shouldn't I just believe everything the media tells me?

Well, beyond the contradictions that jump right out and grab you by the throat if you pay enough attention, I guess there really isn't any reason to distrust the media -- which is to say, you would do well to question everything you see, hear, and read (especially this post).

Which brings me to my main point.

The latest meme in Taiwan's news coming from the opposition crybaby losers in the recent presidential election (and from at least one turncoat within the Democratic Progressive Party), is that all of the trouble in the universe since the beginning of time was not caused by Clinton's penis, but rather by Taiwan's president Chen Shui-bian and his "campaign trick" of "ethnic divisiveness."

(I did say to question this post, didn't I? Okay, just double-checking.)

On Monday night's "Xin wen wa wa wa" ("News, dig, dig, wow!"), Tung Chih-sen, an editor from the Chinese-language, pro-unification United Daily News stated that the pan-greens were the ones that created the so-called dichotomy of: "Do you love Taiwan or not?" This is incredibly bad framing of the debate because it never happened! This question was formed as a negative reaction by Taiwan's opposition (the pan-blues) to the people on the pan-greens' side who simply said they were standing up because they love Taiwan.

Is there any-fucking-thing wrong with that?!

An editorial in Tuesday's eTaiwanNews ("National identity, not ethnicity, is issue") takes a stance similar to my own position on this subject:

In essence, the question of whether someone "loves" or "sells out" Taiwan is more of an issue of national identity than of ethnicity or ethnic identity.The groundwork for our current "ethnic" problems was laid by the arrival of the Kuomintang-ruled "Republic of China" regime in 1945, which immediately put Taiwanese into the category of "this province" similar to people from provinces all over the China mainland. This division created considerable divisions and resentment during the following decades and inhibited the assimilation of "mainlanders" into Taiwanese society.

Another historical source of the current social tensions is undoubtedly the decades of fear, frustation, humiliation and hatred imposed on native Taiwanese by the massive slaughter of the February 28th Incident in 1947 and the series of "white terror" repression and numerous other cases of political suppression and human rights violations. During this time, the KMT also played on ethnic divisions within Taiwan society, brewing mutual suspicion among the Hokhlo, Hakka and indigenous peoples. [MORE]

Sisy Chen is another politician who loves, loves, LOVES to "ethnically divide," and now, even the KMT is starting to turn against her. She is a whore in the truest sense: she'll say anything for money and fame, no matter how ludicrous it may be. Once, The-One-Who-Can't-Spell ("Sisy Fuss"?) tried to fool people with her "good English" in a TV interview where she said she had gone to the Federation of American Scientists' web site (where it had been explained by Chen Shui-bian's administration that the information about the Chinese missiles aimed at Taiwan could be found by one and all) and done a search for "496 missiles." Because she got no hits, that meant that President Chen was "lying." (Isn't her logic just amazing?!)

Haha!!!

I was able to find the information, but that's only because I didn't limit myself to those search terms. (Sisy Chen obviously can't do math, either.) Here's something with more of an explanation:

In fact, the cited figure of 496 missiles does not appear on the FAS web site. It was evidently inferred from satellite photos and relied upon assumptions about the number of missiles per missile launcher detected and the number of launchers per brigade. [Emphasis mine] [LINK]

Now, if we expand the earlier statement to say that the fas.org web site was where some of the information about the 496 missiles was found, and consider the ability to do simple multiplication and addition, it turns out that President Chen was not "lying" at all. (If you want to see what is probably the original source of the information regarding the "496 missiles," take a look at this page on the FAS web site which has maps, satellite images, and descriptions of the types of missiles at various locations along the coast of China facing Taiwan.)

By the way, certain pan-blue politicians said that by telling the people of Taiwan about the missiles President Chen was "leaking state secrets." To tell the public that another country is pointing missiles at them is considered "leaking state secrets"?! I guess that shows which side of the Taiwan Strait their hearts are on, eh?

Who's creating this "ethnic divisiveness" again?

"Thanks" to one of my Taiwanese relatives
I was just reminded of something very relevant just this past Sunday when one of my sisters-in-law gave me a VCD commemorating the "228 Hand-in-Hand Rally." One of the first things you can hear on the VCD is a line that was shouted out by one of the event hosts on the same stage with Chen Shui-bian just as the 500-kilometer-long chain of people held hands and raised them in the air: "Zu qun da tuan jie, qian shou hu Taiwan." Directly translated, that's, "Great union of ethnic groups, hold hands [to] protect Taiwan," or translated a little more loosely, "All for one and one for all, join hands to protect Taiwan."

That doesn't sound very "ethnically divisive" to me!

This theme has been mentioned repeatedly since at least December 25, 2003. An article in the Taipei Times on that date says that the organizers were "calling for brave Taiwanese, regardless of their political preferences and racial differences, to show up and pressure Beijing to remove over 500 missiles targeting Taiwan." [Emphasis mine]

Does that sound "ethnically divisive" to you, or does that sound more like the behavior of the pan-blues (who were invited, but didn't show up at the rally -- which attracted around 2 million participants anyway)?

A quiz for those interested in "the truth" of the matter
To be perfectly clear about who -- if anyone -- is being "ethnically divisive," you only have to answer these questions:

* Who opposes teaching Taiwanese history in Taiwan's schools?
* Who wants Taiwanese students to learn more about China's geography than they learn about Taiwan's?
* Who in Taiwan can't speak -- or even understand -- the Taiwanese (Hokkien) language?
* Who "prohibited people from using Hokkien and Hakka and imposed censorship on the press, making the people of Taiwan feel inferior about their culture and oblivious to their history"?
* Who controls most of the media today, indoctrinating people on a daily basis with language like "throughout the province (of Taiwan)," "Mainland (China)," and "(the) national language" (Mandarin)?

If you answered "the pan-blues" to most of these questions, you'd be absolutely correct!

Further reading:
* Taiwanese identity
* Annette Lu says ethnic conflict is not a real concern
* Alex Tsai's historical contortions
* Special Report: China's Missile Threat to Taiwan

There's a first time for everything

While it is said that "more than 300" opposition protesters showed up on Saturday where there had been "thousands" of protesters -- and riots -- on each of the four weekends since the March 20 presidential election in Taiwan, I haven't yet seen any reports of violence over this past weekend. As of last Sunday, I certainly wasn't expecting this.

Could it be that the China Times is telling the truth in their poll which, according to Friday's Taipei Times, says that the sore losers of the election, Lien Chan and James Soong, have shown a double-digit decrease in their "popularity" ratings since the riots of April 10? Or perhaps those numbers understate the decline of Lien and Soong.

In the meantime, both the opposition and at least one turncoat within the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are still spewing rhetoric blaming President Chen Shui-bian for creating "ethnic strife" by promoting "Taiwanese identity" during the election campaign. I hope to post something with more detail on that subject soon.

Unless you're a pan-blue politician, that is

Just yesterday I posted something about People First Party (PFP) legislator Thomas Lee's (Lee Tong-hao) unbelievable statement encouraging the public to "shoot President Chen dead." According to a Chinese-language article in this morning's Taiwan Daily, Lee bowed 6 times in another so-called apology for going beyond the normal limits of "freedom of speech." (Think "crying 'fire' in a crowded theater.")

Is Lee just trying to cover his ass? Let's take a closer look at what he said in this apology. Here's my synopsis of the article:

Lee said he was making a formal apology to Taiwan society for the third time. He also said that the President and the Executive Branch of government should respect the Legislature, and that what he said the day before was just a way of emphasizing that feeling. However, he admitted that he had failed to say anything about that when he talked about "killing the president."

You would probably think that even pan-blue politicians might be able to learn something from their own past mistakes and those of others like Lee, but that's apparently not the case. Today's Taiwan Daily also reports that Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) legislator Kwan Yuk-noan (Hanyu pinyin: Guan Wo-nuan) suggested that it would be better if President Chen Shui-bian would just "commit suicide." Kwan also refused to apologize for this comment when reporters asked him if he would do so. I suppose that he thinks that the president's suicide would relieve the pan-blues of all their self-induced troubles, right?

Wrong.

First of all, it ain't gonna happen. Chen Shui-bian doesn't cry on TV like Lien Chan or repeatedly get down on his knees like James Soong. Chen doesn't disrespect the law the way Lien and Soong do. Chen didn't abuse his authority when summoned to testify at the Hualien Prosecutors' Office in January and didn't ask for any special privileges when doing so.

The pan-blues: so many contradictions, so little time.

A traitor in their midst
Speaking of contradictions, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Shen Fu-hsiung has made some astounding statements himself. According to an article in this morning's Taipei Times, he "issued four statements to explain why the DPP should abandon the 'love Taiwan' campaign theme":

Shen said since most Taiwanese, up to 90 percent of them according to various polls, said they love Taiwan, those who "don't love Taiwan" are not a strong enough force in society to jeopardize the country.

As for the definition of whether a person loves Taiwan, Shen said it is unfair to determine the degree of a party's or an individual's love for Taiwan by their China policies, the degree of their Chinese nostalgia or the time they arrived in Taiwan -- the Hoklo Taiwanese's arrival dates back to two centuries ago while the Mainlanders' arrival was only five decades ago.

"There is no objective and scientific method to gauge the magnitude of a person's love for Taiwan. That someone claims to love Taiwan very much doesn't necessarily mean he or she loves Taiwan more than other compatriots," Shen said.

He concluded that if the DPP agrees with him, it should stop using the "love Taiwan" theme as an election gimmick.

If there is no way to gauge how much someone loves Taiwan (as he says in his third statement), then his first statement has no meaning (and vice-versa). Someone who "loves Taiwan" -- or even merely "gives a fuck" -- might display some reservations about their dealings with a country that interferes with Taiwan's international relations and participation in organizations such as the World Health Organization. They might be hesitant to identify with a country that has at least 496 missiles aimed in Taiwan's direction and constantly threatens bloodshed. Someone who "loves Taiwan" might be willing to stand up for Taiwan -- or at the very least let others do so.

Shen Fu-hsiung has shown his "true colors," and it's time to kick him out of the DPP. He's either a sell-out or was a "spy" all along.

Why reasonable people experience frustration

Just when you were thinking they couldn't outdo themselves, Taiwan's pan-blue opposition has provided even more serious reasons to lock 'em up and throw away the keys.

An article in this morning's Taipei Times reveals an unbelievable statement from a PFP legislator:

Likening Chen to a despotic emperor, Emperor Chou of the Shang Dynasty, and Yuan Shih-kai, a warlord in the early 1900s who overthrew the Republic of China and declared himself emperor, PFP legislator Thomas Lee encouraged the public to "shoot President Chen dead" if they run into him.

[Democratic Progressive Party] legislative caucus whip Tsai Huang-lang criticized Lee's remark as "anti-democracy aimed at provoking confrontation and violence."

Branding Lee an "uncivilized instigator" and his remark "nearly insane," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung requested Wang [Jin-pyng, Deputy Chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party] uphold justice and revoke Lee's legal immunity as a lawmaker and send him to the legislature's discipline committee for punishment.

"We condemn such inappropriate and shameless remarks about the president and we're sorry to hear such remarks uttered by a highly-educated intellectual and college professor," Lin said. "It'd be the appeasement of the worst sort if we kept quiet about such demented, defamatory and negative comments." [Emphasis mine]

While it's on the front page of the Taipei Times, the title gives no indication of how serious that comment sounds. The Taiwan Daily put the story on page 3 of today's print edition under a three-centimeter tall headline reading: "Lee Tong-hao incites public to 'shoot to kill' head of state" (my translation of "Li Tong-hao tiao dong ren min qiang sha yuan shou").

Lee made the remarks at the Legislative Yuan on Thursday morning, but later the same day faxed an "apology" to the media simultanously blamed them for "misinterpreting" his comments, which he says weren't clear in the first place. He "clarified" his points by saying that he was really trying to say that the president has "stolen" the country and that if the executive branch weren't "dissolved" then somebody should "kill the president" -- as if that's any better. It sounds to me like Lee belongs behind bars.

Like vampires, they can't see themselves in the mirror
The opposition has lost their second presidential election in a row, but instead of getting introspective and trying to fix their own problems, they can only put the blame on the president for getting shot. They incited people to riot, then they ran away, blaming the DPP for instigating the violence. They made unreasonable demands, then cried "too late" when a reasonable solution was offered. They threatened to bring students to "charge into" the Presidential Office (hoping for another Tiananmen-like Massacre?). For years, the KMT forbade school kids from speaking Taiwanese, yet they accuse Chen Shui-bian of creating "ethnic divisions" by encouraging a "Taiwanese identity."

Can you believe these are the same people who say they are being "reasonable" and claim to be seeking the "truth"?!

Things to send 'em up the river for:
The print edition of today's Taiwan Daily (but not the online version) provides this excellent list of some things that have been said by the pan-blues since Chen Shui-bian and Vice-President Annette Lu were shot on March 19, just one day before the presidential election [translation, bracketed comments mine]:

* 3/19: Sisy Chen said that a nurse at Chi Mei Hospital told her that she had heard beforehand that "something big" would happen that afternoon. [No evidence was provided to back up her claims.]
* 3/20: Shen Chih-hui sent an e-mail to the media and supporters saying that A-bian's [Chen Shui-bian] gunshot wound was "perfect." [i.e., too perfect to be real]
* 3/23: Lien Chan says that using this kind of election "trick" to win means that the country has been stolen. James Soong says that because Chen Shui-bian hasn't responded to their demands [many of which were unconstitutional], the people have protested, and the stock market has declined as a result. [The stock market has bounced back.] Lien Chan also said on this day that the protests were already "out of his control."
* 3/24: James Soong expressed doubts that any other country in the world would continue an election after both the president and vice-president had been shot. [On March 19, Lien Chan said that "the assassination attempt ... would not ... influence the election's outcome] How could the president's attending physician be a plastic surgeon? What sort of plastic surgery was the president having? [More than one doctor attended to the president after he was shot.]
* 3/26: PFP legislator Pang Chien-kuo said that PFP legislator Liu Wen-hsiung was ready to give up his life and would bring a bulldozer to smash the barricades in front of the Presidential Office at the next day's protests [LINK]. PFP legislator Chiu Yi said he would bring 500,000 people to surround the Presidential Office and that the "horn of revolution had been sounded."
* 4/5: PFP Chairman James Soong threatened that if Chen Shui-bian would not respond to the demands of the pan-blues, he would bring students to break into the Presidential Office.
* 4/13: James Soong described April 10 protests as "southern cops beating Taipei citizens." KMT spokesman Tsai Cheng-yuan likened the April 10 situation to the infamous incident in Tiananmen Square when Deng Xiaoping brought in troops from Mongolia to Beijing.
* 4/14: James Soong said of Chen Shui-bian's invitation for him and Lien Chan to attend the May 20 inauguration ceremony that he and Lien should be the ones being inaugurated. He also said that President Chen on May 20 will be "declaring himself president." Furthermore, since Chen has also begun to name his new cabinet, Soong said he is harming Taiwan's Constitutional rule and bringing unprecedented danger. Also, Soong said that he thinks the May 20 inauguration will bring Chen even more "backtalk" from "the common people."
* 4/15: PFP legislator Thomas Lee (Lee Tong-hao) says [all the things mentioned at the top of this post]

Winning these people over via "reason" would appear to be an impossible dream.

Perhaps this latest incident was a reaction to recent statements by the DPP that they would change their "cutthroat" strategy to a "decapitation" strategy because the "opposition's head is still clinging to the neck after the March 20 election." It doesn't sound to me like they're threatening to kill anyone. As they've explained, they're simply hoping to put an end to the madness caused by the pan-blue majority in the legislature which fights the DPP every step of the way.

The pan-greens have never advocated "assassinating" the people who are accusing Chen Shui-bian of being a "dictator." Until they "decapitate" that beast which is the KMT-PFP alliance, they will have a long, difficult struggle ahead.

Updating the Shen Chih-hui farce

More details have emerged in Taiwan's English-language media regarding the arrest of an employee of People First Party (PFP) legislator Shen Chih-hui. While I updated the previous post with a link, it actually merits a whole separate post.

The main point of the relevant article appearing in today's eTaiwanNews.com is the lawsuit being filed against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for "defamation" as a result of charges by KMT spokesman Lin Fong-cheng that the DPP was involved in inciting the violence which occurred at opposition protests in front of the Presidential Office this past Saturday night.

The kicker, however, is that PFP legislator Shen Chih-hui's own "aide and driver" was arrested for "being one of a crowd of people attacking the riot police" during the protests "despite telling police he was [Shen's] aide." [Emphasis mine] Shen wants a "public apology from the city's police chief" and wants Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (KMT) to "punish the law enforcement officer responsible for the alleged wrongful arrest."

(How dare the police uphold the law or defend themselves when the offending parties work for the PFP!)

Another important point: Shen, it just so happens, was one of the PFP legislators telling people to "Charge!" when the riot police were attempting to disperse protesters after their permit expired.

A short time afterwards, I saw Shen on TV with tears streaming down her face -- in startling contrast to the kamikaze role she had been acting out moments earlier -- saying that she had been injured by police, boo-hoo. She apparently checked herself into the hospital at some point that night for "a battery of tests," which according to the article, "revealed Shen was unharmed." [Emphasis mine]

To review: the pan-blues started the riot, they were caught doing it, they cried when the police didn't budge, they blamed the DPP for the mess they made, and they wasted valuable hospital resources when (according to the latest figures) "140 people, including 86 police and 14 journalists, were [really] injured," many of whom required real treatment.

Doesn't that sound a little too much like the behavior of a 3-year-old for someone to actually be an elected official?

How much more must they endure?

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) finally held a rally Sunday night to express its gratitude to supporters of Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu in the March 20 election. Chen and Lu won by a margin of only 0.228 percent, and the opposition pan-blues have been crying like spoiled babies ever since, denying pan-green supporters the opportunity to celebrate their victory in the election.

Pan-blue politicians and their supporters attacked prosecutors' offices on election night, staged a noisy week-long sit-in in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei (making demands that would violate the Constitution while crying that "Democracy is bleeding," claiming they want "the truth," etc.), accused the DPP of election fraud (providing absolutely no evidence), rioted at the Central Election Commission building when the outcome of the election was officially announced on March 27, threatened to storm the Presidential Office, backed a "hunger strike" of supposedly "non-partisan" students (who actually worked for pan-blue parties), and rioted again just this past weekend.

All the while, pan-green supporters have been "biting their tongues" and holding to the letter of the law when in their gut they'd just like to rip the fucking throats out of some of these evil motherfucking violent pan-blue bastards.

Chen Shui-bian finally said something that he's surely been refraining from saying out of political considerations, despite having been called a "dictator" and compared to Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and Adolf Hitler by the opposition since before the election:

"What is the truth? The truth is that they [Lien Chan and James Soong] are being sore losers. The truth is that they are being irresponsible by not stepping down [as chairmen of their respective parties] after their loss. They are making society pay for their irrationality." [Emphasis mine]

It's time to stop them from running up the tab any further.

Sons of bitches (and their mothers, too)
A Chinese-language article in today's China Times (This is Taiwan, mofos!) informs us that one of those arrested in Saturday night's riots in Taipei was Tsai Fu-jen [UPDATE LINK 4/13/2004, spelling corrected], someone who works for People First Party (PFP) legislator Shen Chih-hui. Are you as unsurprised as I am? Shen was one of those two-faced assholes leading the battle cries of "Charge!" when facing off with riot police (who didn't start trying to disperse demonstrators until 20 minutes after the time allowed by their permit had expired) who then broke into tears after police stepped on their toes.

Boo-fucking-hoo!

While PFP party chairman and crybaby loser V-P candidate James Soong put on airs of "kindness" by visiting the "injured" PFP legislators who went to the hospital with exaggerated complaints (but had, at least, stopped screaming like banshees for the moment), he didn't spend one moment visiting any of the Era News and other journalists who had violence inflicted upon them by protesters. Besides, these fakers were taking attention away from people who probably needed real help, and the media attention given to their crocodile tears surely made things at the hospital more difficult.

Callers to Wang Pen-hu's Taiwan Call-in TV program tonight have been expressing a lot of their pent-up anger at the idiots rioting in Taipei and the politicians who are stirring all the shit up. Even the pro-unification Chinese-language United Daily News has printed an article today saying that many people within Lien Chan's own party are asking him to stop all the whining and "gracefully step down."

He should really take their advice, because I'd take it even further. The arrests of politicians like Shen Chih-hui, Chin Huei-chu, Sisy Chen, Diane Lee, her brother Lee Ching-hua, Liu Wen-hsiung, Chiu Yi -- all the way on up to James Soong and Lien Chan for their post-election rabble rousing (absurd accusations with zero evidence) -- are long overdue. They belong in jail for serious crimes against the whole of Taiwanese society.

As Lien Chan admitted shortly after starting this mess, "It is out of [his] control." If they have all made their own [prison] beds, I don't think there should be too many qualms about letting these people lie in them.

Taiwan's pan-blue supporters bring Elton John classic to life

I was awake until past 7:00 AM today viewing the Saturday night riots in Taipei and the "instant replays" on TV from the safety of my living room sofa. This is the fourth Saturday in a row during which opposition protesters have gathered in front of Taiwan's Presidential Office with the express purpose of creating havoc. Some in the international media have even referred to this as becoming a "weekend tradition." The images I saw on the news overnight could easily be edited into a music video for the 1973 Elton John classic "Saturday Night's Alright (for Fightin')."

At "seven o'clock" last night, opposition supporters were ready to "rock." A short time after confrontations erupted as a result of barricades being broken down and scaffolding being toppled by protesters who decided to "use a little muscle," police, following orders from Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou, had to turn the water cannons on the "barrel full of monkeys."

According to a Chinese-language article in today's Liberty Times, at around 7:30 PM protesters using wooden planks and flagpoles damaged a utility box supplying electricity to a police station nearby the Presidential Office in an attempt to disrupt their communications. Although power to the station was knocked out, emergency lights and wireless communications kept them in operation.

According to local Chinese-language news reports, among the 127 injuries reported to have occurred as a result of the overnight violence, 81 (almost 2/3) were police officers. Of the remaining 46 injured, 14 were reporters. Some of these reporters were beaten up when they refused to turn over their film or tapes to protesters who had been photographed or videotaped fighting with police. One of those reporters was shown on TV news being dragged away from the crowd by protesters. One hoodlum ran up behind this reporter while he was being restrained by both arms and whacked him several times with a flagpole -- flag still attached. (Why do KMT supporters hate Taiwan so much?) The reporter ended up a bloody mess before being carted off to the hospital.

Some of the weapons used against police by the protesters included flagpoles, steel poles (taken from the scaffolding), wooden sticks, plastic chairs, plastic and glass bottles, tables, bricks, fire extinguishers (I saw one on TV being hurled at police over the barricades, flying at least 10 meters), and 3 scaffolds which were knocked down and used as battering rams against the cordons of riot police. At least two Molotov cocktails "set the [place] alight." One was thrown at the police station which had its power cut off, and the other exploded as the protesters were being dispersed, but there didn't appear to be any injuries which occurred as a result of either.

Among 19 people who were arrested, 6 were found to have had criminal records with ties to local gangs. According to local TV news reports, some of those arrested were also discovered to be in possession of slingshots, bottles of corrosive acid, box cutters, wooden "swords," and large quantities of gasoline.

After most of the violence was over, some of the very People First Party (PFP) legislators (Chin Huei-chu, Shen Chih-hui, Liu Wen-hsiung, and others), who moments earlier were inciting the crowd with cries to "Charge!" into lines of riot police, were literally crying that the police hurt them while simultaneously blaming the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for all the trouble.

KMT spokesman Lin Fong-cheng, however, accused the DPP of planting the instigators of the night's violence among the crowds. In response, the DPP's Lee Ying-yuan, who lost last year's mayoral election in Taipei to the incumbent Ma Ying-jeou, demanded a public apology from Lin unless he could produce evidence (which the pan-blues don't ever seem to be able to do).

Taipei City mayor Ma Ying-jeou (KMT) similarly passed the blame for the "political instability" to President Chen Shui-bian. Lien Chan (KMT crybaby loser presidential candidate) called Chen a "dictator," and James Soong (PFP crybaby loser V-P candidate) referred to the DPP as "Nazis" in an attempt to console the crying PFP legislators while visiting them for a few minutes. While I have absolutely no idea whether Soong went home to have sex with his dead grandmother and/or to microwave dozens of live kittens, I do know that Soong touched Chin Huei-chu's right shoulder with his left hand and that his elbow seemed to "inadvertantly" (nudge, nudge) touch her stomach as he sat down in front of her (upstaging her in front of the TV cameras). In fact, while Chin was seated before him, Soong stood in front of her. At one point while someone was blocking the camera, who knows what could have been going on between Soong's crotch and Chin's filthy mouth?! What a fucking pervert, that James Soong is!

For those who are unfamiliar, "Taiwan's" flag -- or perhaps I should say, the "Republic of China" (ROC) flag which is used in Taiwan -- just happens to also contain the KMT's (Chinese Nationalist Party) flag in its canton, and their party anthem is also the ROC National Anthem. Gee, I seem to remember another group -- I believe they called themselves the Nazis -- had a similar situation. If Chen Shui-bian were a "Nazi" or a "dictator," he might be overriding the Constitution like the KMT wants him to do. And instead of letting the Taipei mayor (mis-)manage the crisis and use mere water cannons when things get out of control, he might be machine-gunning the protesters on Ketagalan Boulevard just as the Beijing authorities did to students in the Tiananmen Square massacre.

How much more could I say about this? Hmmmm. The KMT was responsible for 228, White Terror, police state, tapped phones, oppression of local languages, "black gold," etc. The list goes on and on.

A well-known Chinese-language saying goes something like this: "A horse doesn't know its own face is long, a monkey doesn't know its own ass is red." In other words, "Mr. Pot... meet Mr. Kettle."

Related subjects:
* Read about the so-called "hunger strikers" who turned down Chen Shui-bian's offer of a "public meeting" because... well, the tone of his voice wasn't satisfactory!
* "Extraordinary claims" about the March 19 assassination attempt on Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu.
* Henry Lee uses evidence to prove "Ms. Fu" to be complete nutcase.
* Henry Lee explains the "wetness" on Chen Shui-bian's jacket.

Be sure to tune in next weekend for... "More of the same."

Cao Changching, one of the editors of the compilation Tibet Through Dissident Eyes: Essays on Self-Determination (and the author of a couple of the essays contained within), has written an op-ed article in today's Taipei Times reflecting some of my recent thoughts on the "rumored-to-have-been-lobotomized" Chinese "democracy activist" Wu'er Kaixi:

I cannot help but pity Wu'er. The Tiananmen massacre happened 15 years ago, and he is now almost 40 years old. It seems that with the passage of time he has lost the ability to differentiate between dictatorship and democracy. He seems to think Taipei is Beijing, and muddles the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with the Chinese Communist Party. His values are utterly confused. After more than a decade living in the free world, Wu'er doesn't seem to have learned anything.

The students who gathered in Tiananmen on that day in June were protesting against a dictatorial government that had deprived more than a billion Chinese of the freedom of choice. Taiwan, on the other hand, has already had three elections in which its president was directly elected, in addition to countless democratic local and legislative elections. How is it possible to equate democratic Taiwan, in which the government is elected by the people, with China?

The students taking part in the Tiananmen protests resorted to hunger strikes because this was the only way to make themselves heard. The media and legal processes were completely controlled by the Communist Party. Taiwan, by contrast, is already well along the road toward a healthy democracy and enjoys freedom of the press. Sure, the government has its problems, but it owes its existence to democratic elections. Sure, there is room for improvement in the media and the legal system, but at least they are free and independent.

How can Wu'er justify saying that these mechanisms are being controlled by the DPP? It is common knowledge that a large part of the media is actually biased in favor of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party.

[Emphasis added] [READ MORE]

Thank you, Cao Changching, for reiterating these points.

An editorial in Thursday's eTaiwanNews.com smashes to bits the latest ravings of the illogic-fueled pan-blue crybaby sore losers of Taiwan's recent presidential election, echoing some of the very sentiments I expressed in a post I wrote earlier the same morning.

The editorial points out the pan-blues' mass demonstrations, disavowal of responsibility for the ensuing chaos, lawsuits to "invalidate the result and nullify the election," cries for supporters to "storm the Office of the President," and demands that the president "set aside the Constitution and declare a 'state of emergency.'" They left out the demands of Lien Chan and James Soong to meet with the president and their subsequent refusal to do so when he offered a meeting which dropped previous conditions demanding that they first end the street protests, the investigators that were brought in at the opposition's request and the following continual demands for an independent investigation, and the "sexual innuendoes" that were made by James Soong in connection with Vice-President Annette Lu's description of the assassination attempt.

The "false data" referred to in the editorial comes from an "open letter" from the pan-blues in the form of a half-page advertisement in some of Wednesday morning's local Chinese-language newspapers. The ad is full of statements which are easily proven to be false by the eTaiwanNews.com editorial. These include claims about pre-election polls, attendance figures at pre-election rallies, and effects of the March 19 assassination attempt. The ad also accuses Chen Shui-bian of being "afraid" of doing certain things demanded by the opposition -- things which may, in fact, be unconstitutional. ("What? Us pan-blues aren't afraid of tearing up the Constitution! Why is Chen Shui-bian, the 'dictator' afraid to?") But that won't stop the pan-blue supporters from believing the crap.

Go read the editorial to see the point-counterpoint of this farce by the pan-crybabies. It's not their latest (that would be their withdrawal and refiling of one of their election-related lawsuits), and I'm sure it won't be their last.

You've been out ridin' fences, for so long now

Desperado James Soong stooped to a new low yesterday in making what local TV news called "sexual innuendoes" about comments made a day earlier by Vice-President Annette Lu "describing her experience in the March 19 attempted assassination of President Chen Shui-bian and herself in Tainan City." [LINK]

An eTaiwanNews.com article says Lu "penned the account in hopes of clarifying for citizens the actual facts of the incident." The written account, according to the article, says that after realizing that she had been grazed by a bullet the Vice-President "inadvertently touched Chen's left side with her right arm and discovered that his jacket was moist and sticky and only then noticed that the president was bleeding from a wound, later shown to be minor, to his belly."

While this sounds rather unusual, as the images originally purporting to show blood on Chen's jacket were proven to be an illusion, it makes just as little sense for her to be making this up. But far exceeding this is the senselessness of James Soong's apparently calculated reaction to this information. According to the same article, Soong (as if he has access to the evidence) "said that it was 'impossible' for [Lu] to have felt moist blood from Chen's wound, and used suggestive gestures to question how Lu's right hand could have felt Chen's lower left side."

Perhaps it is fortunate that I missed it, if it was on TV. While I can only imagine what exact "gestures" Soong used, Lu's response was appropriately harsh. The article tells it like this:

Lu said Soong's description "displayed a perverse mind and obvious personality problems."

In other words, "He's a sick pervert!"

A DPP legislator appearing at a press conference shown on TV news Wednesday evening had a good comeback for Soong. She said (jokingly?) that unless he could provide a doctor's statement certifying his mental health within 2 days, she would ask the Central Election Committee to have Soong committed and thus declared ineligible for further participation in the recount process he's seeking.

Ever since Soong's partner Lien Chan whined during a televised debate he had with Chen Shui-bian that it was "unfair" (because the shorter Chen was standing on a box), it has been clear to me that the pair were quite desperate to regain power. While pre-election polls showed the Lien-Soong team leading Chen and Lu by about 3 percent, the margin of error of such polls (usually around 4 percent), coupled with the fact that these polls were conducted by pan-blue media, makes it rather unsurprising that the incumbent Chen-Lu duo won by 0.228 percent. This is exactly why all the unsubstantiated claims of "election fraud" and "staging" the assassination attempt ring so hollow among thinking individuals.

By the way, if there are any Taiwanese university students out there who are interested in fighting against those "fake lilies" at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Plaza, here's an idea for you. Go out there with a whole bunch of delicious food, surround the protesters, and taunt those idiots (who are working for the sore loser crybabies) with it. Slurp, belch, rub your belly, moan out loud how good it is, offer them some of it -- but do this in a large group, and be sure police are nearby to protect you from the inevitable physical attacks that will occur. I would be so proud of anyone who could get at least one of the fakers to take off his or her mask and cry for the TV cameras about how little they're being paid by their leaders to suffer like that.

Wilhelm Reich might have diagnosed Soong as an "armored organism" and told him "[he]'d better let somebody love [him], before it's too late."

On both Sunday and Monday, I wrote about "those 'Taiwanese' 'students' who want 'truth' and 'democracy.'" Several articles in yesterday and today's news restate and verify a lot of the information contained within those two posts.

Here's a (relatively) brief look at several news items of the past two days [with a whole lotta emphasis and a tiny bit of commentary added]:

Tuesday, April 6, 2004

Students in league with pan-blue alliance: DPP (Taipei Times)
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the students staging a "hunger strike" at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall of being in allegiance with the pan-blue alliance.

According to the DPP, some of the students played active roles in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-People First Party (PFP) alliance's election campaign.

[...]

The deputy director of the DPP's Information and Culture Department, Cheng Wen-tsan, yesterday said that some of the students participating in the hunger strike had ties to the pan-blue alliance.

Cheng said that one student, Chen Hsin-ju, was the vice convener of the pan-blue campaign office's information department, and also served as a student representative to the PFP's national congress. Another student, Chen Cheng-feng, was supported by the KMT in his unsuccessful attempt to be elected president [Whoa! You scratch my unsuccessful back, and I'll scratch yours?] of National Taiwan University's student union.

At a media conference yesterday, the DPP displayed photographs of the students posing with KMT Chairman Lien Chan and PFP Chairman James Soong.

The DPP said the hunger strikers' Web site, http://dyu.hopto.org, was connected to the home page of a pan-blue youth organization. The e-mail address on the students' Web site is pfpe2k@yahoo.com.tw. According to the DPP, "pfp" refers to the political party, while "e2k" is the name of youth summer camp held regularly by the PFP. [NOTE: I believe "youth summer camp" is a mistranslation of what should be "youth camp" in the sense of the "youth division" of the PFP.]

Editorial cartoon (Taipei Times)
[Two blindfolded men, labeled "Pan-blue camp," holding signs reading "We want the truth," while droplets of saliva come out of their mouths as if they're shouting. One of two passersby says, "If they want the truth, somebody tell them they're lost."]

Pointless protests drag on (Taipei Times)
I have been watching the endless protests since the election on March 20. The pan-blues are demanding a recount, a new election, a state of emergency, a special task force to investigate the election-eve assassination attempt and so on.

It is hard to say what the protests are about because the protesters keep changing their demands all the time, leaving us confused about what they really want. From my point of view, President Chen Shui-bian has given reasonable explanations for all the doubts the pan-blues have raised, but they keep coming up with something new to keep the protests going.

[...]

I read that there were no reasonable facts to support what Lien and Soong have been saying -- they only kept saying the election was unfair, that the election was rigged and that the assassination was staged. When asked if they had any particular evidence to support the allegations, they could not give a satisfactory answer.

So, what do the pan-blues really want? They have been rejecting any proposal that tries to resolve the problem peacefully. It is evident that they want to keep these endless protests going until Lien and Soong are declared unconditionally the winners. Otherwise, they are going to harass our lives forever.

But the question is, are Taiwanese that blind? Are people really so easily cheated with these allegations?

Dispersal of hunger strike students sparks dispute (eTaiwanNews.com)
The dispersal of eight college students on a hunger strike late Sunday night at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall once again created tensions between Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou and the central government.

After investigating the police action, Ma told reporters yesterday evening that the National Police Administration and the Democratic Progressive Party government should bear the greatest responsibility for the illegal crackdown.

'New democracy' reverses democracy (eTaiwanNews.com)
Political figures formerly associated with the DPP, notably former DPP chairman Hsu Hsin-liang, who now support the KMT - PFP alliance have claimed that this campaign represents a "new democracy movement."

But an examination of the demands, the nature of leaders and supporters, its historical background and its vision (or lack thereof) reveals that this creation far short of being either "new" or "democratic" or even anything recognizable as a "movement."

It is an exaggeration of reality for Mr Hsu and his confederates, such as "independent" legislator Sisy Chen and ex-legislator Chu Kao-cheng, to refer to their actions as representing a "movement."

The only organized forces evident in the street demonstrations have been linked with the KMT and PFP and the tone of the actions, including the violent confrontation at the Central Election Commission March 26, have been set by PFP "lawmakers," most of whom by now have dropped earlier references to exploding volcanos and "revolution" in the wake of ebbing support among the general public.

The leaders of the current campaign are clearly named Lien and Soong and the "masses" are comprised mainly of first or second generation mainlanders, many of which are long-time backers of the New Party or PFP who feel their values or interests to be threatened by Taiwan's progressive democratization, a perception which we feel is understandable but mistaken.

[...]

And what, after all, does the "new democracy movement" called for by Hsu and others offer?

Besides refusing to abide by the accepted legal "game rules" and acknowledge defeat, the core position of the KMT-PFP in the past two weeks has been their demand that President Chen declare a "state of emergency," ostensibly to sweep away legal and constitutional barriers to the formation of special investigative tribunals to probe the March 19 shooting of the president and vice president and its possible effects on the polls.

The most neutral sites for investigations into such matters are precisely the Judicial and Control branches, which are institutionally independent of the president.

A declaration of a state of emergency would only accomplish the suspension of the Constitutional order, negate the changes to the political system that have taken place due to the democratization process since 1987 and take Taiwan back to the condition of "rule by law," which evidently the KMT - PFP prefers.

Wednesday, April 7, 2004

'Hunger-strikers' linked to parties (Taipei Times)
The student protesters staging a "hunger strike" at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall yesterday were alleged by fellow students to have worked with the pan-blue camp even as they claimed to be politically neutral.

[...]

Students are taking turns going without food for 12 hours, labeling the action a "hunger strike."

Editorial: Youthful protesters seem misguided (Taipei Times)
The students, however, seem to have no idea of how the government works -- or much knowledge of recent political history. The president is in a position of power, but he is not all-powerful.

For example, take the students' appeal for a Cabinet made up of the party with a legislative majority. Such a significant change to the government system would require a fundamental revision of the Constitution. Such power lies in the hands of the legislature, not the president. Since it is the pan-blue camp that claims a legislative majority, the students should be making this demand to Lien and Soong, not Chen.

[...]

The students appear to be, excuse the phrase, jumping the gun in their demand for a commission to investigate the March 19 shooting. World-renowned forensics expert Henry Lee and his team are already investigating the case and Lee is considered pro-blue. Why don't the students calmly wait for the results of his probe and then see if they have any complaints?

As for their claims to be politically neutral, at least three of the students leading the hunger strike are members of either the KMT or the PFP. Some of them have said that they would withdraw from their parties right away to show their neutrality. But their actions have understandably raised suspicions about whether one or more political parties are behind the students' protest, and has damaged the credibility of the protesters.

Ma tells the central government to back off (China Post [Taiwan, mofo!])
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou yesterday insisted that the central government had no right to ask the Taipei City government to retract an approval for a massive opposition rally to be held this Saturday outside the presidential office.

The DPP-controlled central government in response urged the KMT's Ma to reconsider allowing the demonstration to go ahead in view of the violence that broke out between protesters and police before dawn on Sunday.

[...]

The KMT's Ma yesterday used unusually strong language to criticize the central government, saying that the central government in its treatment of the hunger-striking students was turning Taiwan into a police state.

Today's news also brings up some interesting new points. James Soong's opposition People First Party, which seems to put Soong first and "the people" last, has taken the most absurd measure of planning to "file a malfeasance lawsuit against Chen Tsai-fu (President Chen Shui-bian's chief security guard)" for "failing to protect the safety of Chen and Vice President Annette Lu during the election-eve assassination attempt." While one might tend to make the argument that the ACLU protects even groups like the Ku Klux Klan, it must not be forgotten that the opposition have been threatening violence and revolution after their election loss. While police dare not accuse the opposition of being behind the assassination attempt on the president, the possibility has certainly crossed the minds of many.

An op-ed article in today's Taipei Times also does an excellent job of examining the "man behind the curtain," calling the (local) media "a catalyst for unrest."

Though I'm neither in this for money nor fame, I'd like to thank the World Star Gazette for linking to Monday's post and at least one earlier post. They seem to have brought a few extra visitors to this blog recently, and hopefully this will help people figure out "the truth" for themselves. Go follow some links over there if you're in the mood to do so.

Yesterday, I mentioned eight "students" at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Plaza and their slogans "Fight for Democracy" and "Want truth." I didn't mention that they are staging a hunger strike. Who gives a shit?! Today's news gives us a closer peek at the "man behind the(ir) curtain."

Taiwan's FTV News has reported tonight that among these eight supposedly "nonpartisan" "students," there are at least three who work for the opposition People First Party (PFP) whose chairman James Soong was the crybaby loser V-P candidate in the recent election here.

In FTV's on-air report, one of those who is said to work for the PFP showed his student ID, but much of the information on it was blacked out. Perhaps he is no longer in school -- not necessarily having graduated, mind you -- but still uses it to try to get "student" ticket prices at the movies.

According to the FTV report, the eight "nonpartisan" "students" are also behind a website (http://dyu.hopto.org) which automatically redirects visitors to another site (http://blueyoung.hopto.org) [NOTE: "blue young" = "pan-blue youth"]. An e-mail address which the news report says is listed there (pfpe2k@yahoo.com.tw) represents the People First Party's ("pfp") young supporters ("e2k"). The "hopto.org" addresses are hosted at http://www.no-ip.com/, a site which says they "offer a wide range of services pertaining to your internet presence, from that pesky dynamic IP problem to getting around ISPs who block port 25." [NOTE: Blocking port 25 is done in an attempt to prevent people from sending spam e-mail.] Coupled with all the redirecting and the fact that I can't access either of those web sites tonight, that sounds awfully suspicious to me.

Taiwan's Chinese-language BBS's have been abuzz today with talk of these eight protesters, calling them "fake lilies" -- the term being derived from an actual student democracy movement in Taiwan 14 years ago whose participants called themselves the "Formosan Lilies." (The indigenous flower known as the Formosan lily is "a symbol of the nation's dedication to freedom.")

When Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun (appointed to his position by the DPP government) attempted to visit the demonstrators earlier today, he was physically attacked by pan-blue supporters. On this very same day, Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (KMT) accused the Chen Shui-bian government of trying to impose a "police state" for attempting to have these demonstrators removed. [NOTE: The students, at this writing, are still there.] So far, they've been there for almost three days asking for "the truth," but it seems that they already have their minds made up as to what that "truth" is.

On a side note, while around 50 police were injured in clashes with demonstrators in the early morning hours of April 4 on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office, police were the ones who were forced by opposition lawmakers in the Taipei City Council to apologize to some of the protesters who were injured -- protesters who were throwing metal parking barricades at the police. Does this sound like a "police state" to you? And what of the area's residents, the patients in nearby hospitals, and students attending classes in the vicinity who have been disturbed by the incessant noise for the past two and a half weeks? Who's going to apologize to them?

Some of the original "Formosan Lilies" had a letter published in this morning's Chinese-language Liberty Times which rhetorically asks these students, "Who was it that we know cheated in past elections?" (Answer: the KMT) "Who was responsible for the era in Taiwan known as 'White Terror'?" (Answer: the KMT) "Who controlled the courts for as long as anyone can remember?" (Answer: the KMT) "Who refused to allow Taiwan's local culture [e.g., Taiwanese puppet shows] or languages [Taiwanese, Hakka] to be broadcast on Taiwan's three television stations [before the days of cable madness]?" (Answer: James Soong, when he was the KMT's Minister of Information) "Do [these 'students'], in fact, understand what 'democracy' is?" (Answer: obviously not) [My translation. Parenthetical factual answers and bracketed elements not in original.]

The "Formosan Lilies" letter also requested that these "students" allow the courts to do their job if they really want to understand the "truth," because their protests currently have no point whatsoever. Until the courts have had the chance to do their job, these protesters will not only be hurting themselves with their hunger strike, but will also be causing more damage to social stability. The issues about which they're "asking" are already being addressed through legal channels. Is society just supposed to cave in to the protesters' demands if they shout loudly enough, just as the parents of spoiled brats do?

This reminds me of one bigmouth on local TV who started a saying which subsequently became ubiquitous in Taiwan: "Zhi3 yao4 wo3 xi3 huan1, you3 shen2 mo bu4 ke3 yi3?" (Loose translation, "Why can't I just have whatever the fuck I want whenever the fuck I want it?")

One talk show on the air late this evening had a Soochow University professor (Lin Chien-lung) suggesting that these eight "students" need to do some research into what "reasonable doubt" is. The host of this show (Hsieh Chih-wei) also displayed photos of two of those "students" (Chen Cheng-feng and Chen Hsin-ju [UPDATE: spelling corrected]) standing behind James Soong (PFP) onstage at campaign rallies earlier this year as further proof that the things they're saying couldn't be further from the truth.

I've got my own rhetorical question for these eight "students." Are you really nonpartisan, or are you being paid by the pan-blues to do their whining for them? I want the motherfucking truth, motherfuckers!

Rumor gets started right the fuck here

If Chinese dissident Wu'er Kaixi underwent a recent lobotomy -- or even a not-so-recent one, for that matter -- it might explain his recent comments "labeling the DPP as the Chinese Communist Party."

If he been lobotomized, this might -- possibly -- explain his otherwise inexplicable support of the poor misguided individuals sitting in Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Plaza demanding that the "truth" be told about Taiwan's recent presidential election and spouting some crap about the desire to "Fight for democracy." (See earlier posts, beginning with this one from March 19, if you're lacking background on the hypocrisy being demonstrated by these and other protesters who have been whining for 2 solid weeks.)

If Wu'er had had the entire frontal lobe of his brain removed recently, this might be a plausible explanation for his ignorant statements which "blasted the government in Taiwan for its tight control over the media and the judicial system."

If Wu'er had stated plainly that he was referring to opposition parties' control of the media and attempts to control the judicial system, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with him, because it is the predominantly "pan-blue" media which feeds the public a hate-filled diet 24 hours a day. They have not only criticized Chen Shui-bian and printed false accusations about members of his administration since day one, but when Chen asked for retractions regarding malicious lies which they'd printed without any sort of evidence (instead of putting their editors in jail like they'd do in Beijing), they cried out in pain as if they were characters in a Monty Python film, "Help! We're being repressed!"

This blog farts in their general direction.

A hypothetical lobotomy would also explain Wu'er's desire to go back to China, and all the ass-kissing of that country which he's done recently in various discussions of such a visit with TV and print media.

Pangzi (Wu'er) and I, we go way back
My first face-to-face encounter with Wu'er occurred when I attended a lecture he gave at my university sometime in the early- to mid-1990s. At that time, I was impressed by this guy who led student demonstrators in a charge for democracy which got lots of his fellow student demonstrators killed on June 4, 1989 at or near Tiananmen Square. He wasn't nearly as "full-figured" then as he has since become, now that life in Taiwan has allowed him the luxury of cheap, delicious non-prison food. [CORRECTION: Wu'er didn't do time in a Chinese prison. He snuck out of the country while fellow activists like Wang Dan were jailed for the better part of a decade.]

How soon some people forget!

Is the person making all these dumbass comments about Taiwan in recent media reports the same Wu'er Kaixi who led the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square? Could he somehow be the same Wu'er Kaixi who rebuked Premier Li Peng in front of TV cameras? Did he undergo a full frontal lobotomy? Did he "sell his soul" to the pan-blues?

Of course he did -- unless you have a better explanation. I mean, c'mon!

I'd like to suggest that if this person exhibiting symptoms of atrophy of the brain is, in fact, the same individual, then from this point forward he should be referred to as "Worn-out" Kaixi.

UPDATE: Monday evening on Taiwan's local TV, people were suggesting a different nickname for him -- "Wu'er Kai Liu" -- which means to "slip away" or "skip out."