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."