One person's "cause" is another's curse

Just yesterday afternoon, Taiwan's High Court threw out a lawsuit filed by the pan-blues in an attempt to annul the March 20, 2004 presidential election. (The reaction by pan-blue supporters is still not "peaceful.") Among their various and sundry excuses for asking that the election be annulled was the referendum that was held simultaneously. The High Court said in their verdict that the Central Election Commission had done nothing illegal in holding the referendum and that "one cannot say a referendum held simultaneously with the election violated the principle of the secret ballot," giving a detailed explanation as to why. (Follow the link under "threw out" for more info.)

If it ain't one thing, it's another
Inadvertantly revealing how weak each and every one of their arguments against the validity of the election is, the pan-blues futilely pile this crap about the referendum atop their crackpot theory that the March 19, 2004 shooting of Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu was "staged" and, therefore, the reason they lost.

Here's the content of page 10:

[LARGE HEADING:] Referendum Without a Cause

Throughout the campaign, the incumbent DPP party used divisive tactics by playing the "ethnicity card" to vilify China and alienate any individuals with relations to the Chinese Mainland. This was most notable in the strong handed way in which Chen used his executive powers to invoke an emergency clause in the newly minted Referendum Law (Article 17: When the country faces an external threat, so much so that national sovereignty may be altered, the President may, through a Cabinet resolution, put the matter of national security to a referendum) to call a referendum to be held on the day of the election. To the protests of the opposition, who felt Chen had abused his powers, and that the issues to be voted on were totally meaningless, Chen pushed ahead and used public funds to widely publicize his "Peace Referendum" and exhort his supporters to come out and create history by voting to show their patriotism.

This is just one example of many campaign tactics that have been labeled as "dirty," "immoral," and not even legal.

"Divisive tactics"
Go back to my post of March 1, 2004, and read about the "228 Hand-in-Hand Rally" promoted by Chen Shui-bian and the pan-greens, whose explicit purpose was to unite ethnic groups within Taiwan in solidarity against a common enemy. It was not against Chinese immigrants -- it was against the Chinese government, specifically because they have missiles all along the coast of China which are aimed at Taiwan. Many Chinese immigrants -- such as Hsieh Chih-wei, Ruan Ming, Chin Heng-wei, and Cao Changqing -- have accepted Taiwan as their new home and can identify with Taiwan much more strongly than Lien Chan can.

"Taiwanese identity" was indeed an issue during the runup to the election, but some people may need reminding about how the KMT government suppressed Taiwanese languages and culture for decades. The effects of that suppression still exist today. I recently found my wife's National Geography and History textbooks from when she was in junior high school. A very small percentage of each of these books covers Taiwan. The Geography textbook includes all of the PRC plus Tibet and Outer Mongolia in the territory they call "this country." These propagandistic aspects of Taiwan's education system are the vestiges of KMT rule which still affect the ability of many Taiwanese to understand their own identity. The KMT would prefer "blissful ignorance" amongst the population, but the truth pisses many people off on both sides of this issue.

Go back to my post of April 21, 2004 ("I've got your 'ethnic divisiveness' right here!") to learn more about how nonsensical this pan-blue claim is.

Ethnicity card stud
Who needs an "ethnicity card" to "vilify" the Chinese government, anyway? Just how does one "vilify" the objectively vile?

China is a foreign country that's pointing missiles at Taiwan and constantly threatening to "crush" Taiwan.

During the SARS crisis of 2003, China blocked assistance from the World Health Organization for a month and a half while hiding the effects of the disease within their own borders. They are currently considering an "anti-secession" (read: "unification") law with which to threaten Taiwan.

An IQ of 50 should be more than sufficient to see the difference between recognizing one's true enemies and "ethnic division."

Of mice and men
Is Chen Shui-bian really "strong handed"? He merely took advantage of the referendum law passed by the pan-blue dominated legislature.

What are they trying to say? "How dare he follow the law we wrote!"? Since when does that make a president "strong handed"? Are they saying that the Chinese missiles don't constitute enough of a threat to give the president the right to invoke the emergency clause? If so, what the fuck are they thinking?!

What is the meaning of this?!
If the referendum had "no meaning," as the pan-blues claim, what are they so upset about? Ah, I see! If they admit that it has meaning, theyre shooting themselves in the foot. What a conundrum, eh?

How to use public funds and power without "abusing" either
The pan-blues accuse Chen Shui-bian of "abus[ing] his power," yet their own instigation to get local governments to boycott and impede the referendum was illegal. Before the election, I received a pan-blue flyer in my mailbox which illegally discouraged voters from participating in the referendum. How's that for hypocritical?

By the way, by holding the referendum alongside the presidential election instead of separately, Chen actually saved public funds.

Look for the pan-blue label
The pan-blues would know about labels of "dirty," "immoral," and ["]not even legal["] -- these are obviously their own charges being repeated as if they were stated by someone else! This is at least the third time they've pulled this bullshit in "Bulletgate." (See Part 5 and Part 10 of this shootdown for more on this meaningless tactic.)

Oh, and Lien Chan -- the chairman of the organization that produced "Bulletgate" -- wouldn't know the meaning of "dirty" or "immoral" if they bit him on the ass, considering that he has made statements such as this: "Chen Shui-bian is a cheater president, and anyone can kill him." Does Lien sound like "presidential" material to you?

UNRELATED LINK:
* The full text of a December 10, 2004 interview of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage by Charlie Rose on PBS, the implications of which were repeatedly distorted by media around the world by not providing the full question and answer about "Taiwan" being a "[landmine]."

NEXT UP: The Devil's Dictionary vs. the Rogue's Thesaurus

William Pesek, Jr. (hearts) the KMT/China

If I tell a reporter something, and that reporter then prints what I said without attributing the quote to me, would it be unethical for me to quote myself anonymously? What if I were using my own quote as "evidence" of "public opinion"? Do you see where this is leading?

Meet the motherfockers
We've already seen this type of behavior demonstrated by the pan-blues earlier in "Bulletgate." This time, it would seem that William Pesek, Jr. is acting as the pan-blues' mouthpiece, because an article he wrote is supposedly the "source" of the term "Bulletgate."

Take a look at the content of page 9 of "Bulletgate," and see if you agree:

Bloomberg News Service has dubbed the shooting incident as "Bulletgate," stating that "While Chen's razor-thin victory was certified, the 53 year old may never shake legitimacy questions. He won't have much of a mandate to revive the economy or alter the island's relationship with China." (Mar 29, 2004) The Washington Post has repeated its warning of "the risk of war with China" due to Chen's actions. (Mar 29 and Apr 12, 2004)

China issued a warning that if Taiwan's political crisis dissolves into chaos, "we will not sit by and watch idly."
-- CNN, March 26, 2004

As far as I can tell, the pan-blues "fed" these words and all the information that went into the articles in which they were wrapped to Pesek, CNN, and the Washington Post.

Pesek seems more than happy to spread these rumors and push the "distrust" element. What he's done here is to help the pan-blues generate a meme that will be repeated over and over until it "becomes the truth" -- which will then be repeated some more.

By the way, though the gist is pretty much the same, the words "the risk of war with China" which appear between quotation marks on this page of "Bulletgate" do not appear in the April 12 Washington Post article. Liars!

Not legit enough to quit?
What Pesek is actually telling us when he says that Chen "may never shake legitimacy questions" is that the pan-blues will never, ever, EVER accept defeat. Instead of doing so, they prefer jumping up and down with glee whenever China (either directly or by proxy) threatens Taiwan, as if to say, "Look, it's all Chen Shui-bian's fault." The disinformation the pan-blues feed to the foreign media always attempts to place blame for the tension on Chen rather than on the 600 missiles China has aimed at Taiwan.

Latest related news
Just today, Taiwan's High Court announced that they had rejected the pan-blue losers' request to annul the results of Taiwan's March 20, 2004 presidential election, saying that "the election commission did not break any laws," and thus upholding Chen Shui-bian's election victory. Despite the lack of evidence, pan-blue politicians exhibited cartoonishly melodramatic behavior (such as falling on the ground and wailing) for the TV cameras when they heard the announcement. Pan-blue spokespersons on Taiwan's talk shows tonight continue to spout lies about "dead people" having voted in that election, make ludicrous comparisons to the recent situation in the Ukraine, and claim that their post-election protests back in March and April were "peaceful."

If the pan-blues had an ounce of proof that there was any voter fraud, the presiding judge (a pan-blue supporter!) would certainly have ruled in their favor -- but it didn't happen, so their theatrics will apparently continue 'til the end of time.

RELATED LINKS:
* The March 26, 2004 CNN article quoted above
* The March 29, 2004 Washington Post article quoted above
* A March 31, 2004 Taipei Times article: "Presidential Office blasts 'Washington Post' for distortion"
* The April 12, 2004 Washington Post article quoted above

NEXT UP: Rebellion without a cause, or "Democracy is evil"

Taiwanese gentlemen, stand up please!

In their desperation, the pan-blues are having a 3-legged race with their own "logic." Here we are, on page 8:

[Large headline:] Bulletgate

[An image of President Chen, surrounded by a phalanx of presidential aides/guards, entering Chi Mei Hospital on foot]

[PHOTO CAPTION:] Chen walks into private Chimei Hospital on his own power minutes after the alleged assassination attempt. Citizens throughout Taiwan shook their heads in disbelief when this photo was released, for nowhere in the photo is there a sense of urgency to match the alleged deed, or even blood from the wound.

The poor, poor, pitiful pan-blues. Hao ke lian de! How they must wish Chen Shui-bian would have just fallen down and died! But he didn't even fall down, they complain. He walked into the hospital "on his own power," Boo hoo!

Countering the pan-blues' statements in real time, President Chen said just three days after the shooting, "It was because I am the president of Republic of China, I can never fall down." If he's strong, they say he's a dictator. If he's weak, he's a wuss. Poor, poor, insatiable pan-blues.

Poor, poor, incredibly anxious pan-blues. They're upset that the photo they chose to print didn't convey a "sense of urgency." The phalanx of guards moving people out of the way wasn't enough to convey that to those who did not wish to see it.

Poor, poor bloodthirsty pan-blues. They can't see the blood that they want to see -- and they want to see a lot of blood! (Could it be that Chen Shui-bian's arms are directly in front of his wound?) The pan-blues can't see themselves in the mirror, either. Therefore, they are obviously vampires.

They blinded me with pseudo-science
Dr. Henry Lee, the forensics expert recommended by the KMT, had already explained that in this type of grazing wound, the lack of blood was likely due to a "cauterization" from the heat of the relatively slow-moving bullet. He also reiterated just over a week ago that Chen's wound was indeed caused by a bullet, that he had seen this sort of wound before, and that Chen did not inflict the injury upon himself.

Got realism?
If someone were to fake such a thing, I'm pretty sure that they'd want more blood to appear and that they'd fall down for a greater effect. The way it happened on March 19, 2004, it doesn't sound like (as the argument I shot down back in Part 6 goes) "the incumbent party milked the incident to maximum effect."

No, that would be the domain of the pan-blues.

NEXT UP: Loopy "legitimacy"

Gettin' "regular"

In case there's anybody who has been following this who remains unconvinced or otherwise believes any of the pan-blues outright false claims about the person they have called a cheater, a dictator, and an emperor, let's take a look at the vague, unsubstantiated accusations and outright lies which continue on page 7 of "Bulletgate":

[A blurry image of hands, flags, and signs reading yàn piào, or "recount"]

[PHOTO CAPTION:] Flags of the Republic of China, in tandem with protest signs demanding a recount of all votes.

The voting itself was marked with many documented irregularities that have led ordinary citizens to hold continuous large-scale protest rallies for days and nights on end. After weeks of political haggling, a recount is now in process. With one third of the voter registers reexamined by the end of May, 350,000 disputable votes turned up, far surpassing the margin of 29,000 votes in Chen's alleged electoral victory.

Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?

Picture this
Those signs that are being waved around by the protesters are mass-produced. I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that, but they don't say anything about recounting "all of the votes." For more details, re-read a post on this blog from April 2, 2004 "Would you like fries with that recount?" -- especially the part that says: "KMT-PFP alliance wants to examine only ballots cast in favor of Chen, Lu"!

It sure sounds to me like the pan-blues only wanted to count 50.2 percent of the votes.

Go on a high-fiber diet or somethin'!
There's nothin' "irregular" about these irregularities and nothin' "ordinary" about these "ordinary citizens."

Let's get some fiber in here to clear the bullshit out.

If these "irregularities" were "documented," why don't they quote any sources here? Is it because, like I described in Part 5 of my shootdown of "Bulletgate," the "documentation" to which they refer is actually the so-called "reporting" of KMT/China toe-lickers Mike Chinoy and William Pesek, Jr. as they echo the words the KMT feeds them?

Make mine an "extra-ordinary"
The "ordinary citizens" were rent-a-mobs brought to the protests by gangsters. These people hurled fire extinguishers and Molotov cocktails at riot police, destroyed electrical boxes near police headquarters, and used flagpoles to beat reporters covering the situation.

Political haggling at the bizarre bazaar
Every time an offer was made in an attempt to reasonably meet their outrageous requests which attempted to go outside the law, it was the pan-blues who balked like chickens -- over and over and over again. Go back to the post I wrote on April 2, 2004 ("Would you like fries with that recount?: Another day, another absurd shift in their requests") to read all about it.

Chen Shui-bian stated his approval of a recount just three days after the election, and formalized it within two weeks, it was the pan-blues who continued protesting, making rather "creative" demands along the way such as wanting to recount only the Chen-Lu ballots -- y'know, to be "fair" and all.

That is what prevented the Central Election Commission from approving a recount any sooner than it did.

Shoot first, ask questions later (Ouch!)
Before the recount was even over, the pan-blues were writing "Bulletgate." This sure makes it seem like they weren't very confident of the numbers coming out in their favor in the end.

If so, they were right about that. But even after the recount was over, the pan-blues still produced and distributed a document that said "a recount is now in process." That was an outright fucking lie.

If at first you don't succeed, cry, cry again
When the recount was finished, Chen still won. If the "disputable" votes had counted, it would have actually given him a greater margin of victory. Those 330,000 invalid ballots were actually invalid! (Damn those biased facts!)

You might have doubts as to why there were so many invalid ballots, but the answer is rather simple. Don't expect the pan-blues to tell you anything about it, though, because it knocks their argument on its ass before you can say "xuan jü wu xiao."

It partly has to do with a movement whose goal was to purposely create even more invalid ballots than they actually did!

A group called the "Millions of Invalid Votes Project" together with the "Alliance of Fairness and Justice" said that they were dissatisfied with politicians on both sides and wanted people to use this method to have their voices heard. I'd bet they never imagined that the wails of Lien Chan would drown them out completely.

Another element which contributed to the high number of invalid ballots was a change in the voting rules. Even though I knew about, a lot of people either didn't or simply forgot.

Instead of stamping the voting "chop" on the candidate's picture as they did previously, voters were now supposed to stamp the empty box above the picture. Old habits die hard, I suppose, and lots of people stamped the picture anyway. Many of the people who did so stamped Chen's picture. Despite being able to determine voter intent very clearly, those votes didn't count.

No, the pan-blues will never tell you that.

NEXT UP: Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down

Taiwan's English newspapers seem to be short of translators and/or have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy

Today's Taiwan News has the first English-language news that I can find on the missing "gas bomber" (AKA "anti-Taiwan independence bomber," "Taipei Railway Station Bomber," and "dangerous mofo") Kao Pao-chung. Here's part of what the Taiwan News had to say more than 48 hours after I posted the information on this blog about Kao's unknown whereabouts:

Since walking free from the Taipei Detention Center Saturday morning, Kao has not returned to his residence in Taichung. His family told cable TV reporters that he wanted to calm his mind somewhere else.

In his motion have the bail ruling set aside, Prosecutor Huang revealed that the suspect was found to have plotted the bombing for one month.

Kao told interrogators that he spent NT$15,000 to rent a house where he re-equipped the gas tanks and confessed that he had destroyed some pieces of evidence before the arrest. The confession raised prosecutor concerns that he was capable of and likely to launch another attack if he remained free.

Prosecutors also believed that Kao's failure to surrender of his own will undermined Judge Ting's judgment that the suspect had shown contrition for his actions. [Emphasis mine]

A China Post article on the same story takes a different tone, however. Besides still not mentioning that the suspect is missing, it draws attention away from the judge and tosses it instead in the direction of DPP legislator Lin Chung-mo, whose "generous amount of profanity" uttered in protest of the decision to release Kao on bail was more than justified in the light of the situation.

"Bulletgate" shootdown delayed, hopefully not denied much longer
Recent events have kept me away from attending carefully to the details of tearing the writers of "Bulletgate" a collective new asshole, but if you're patient, your wait will be rewarded.

"WTF?!" Part 3

Although all 3 of Taiwan's English newspapers (China Post, Taipei Times, and Taiwan News) reported yesterday that the "gas bomber" had been released on bail Saturday, there was no mention of him already violating the conditions of that bail. While I originally thought that this may have been because the news came out only after their deadlines had passed, none of today's editions of those 3 papers has anything either.

The story was also conspicuously absent from yesterday's TV news. While another story of the potential capture of notorious kidnapper Chang Hsi-ming dominated the day's news, missing "gas bomber" Kao Pao-chung was not mentioned even once in all the news I saw. This would make him "meta-missing."

RAPID UPDATE: Before posting this online, I was informed that the Chinese-language Liberty Times has an article [Use this link before Dec. 21, Taiwan time] on the case. According to the article, Kao is said to be staying with his father, yet no one has been able to confirm that he is actually there. It also says that the judge has given another laughable reason for releasing the suspect: Kao is not a "political fanatic."

Oh, really?! He only set off an explosion in Taiwan's capital 2 days before an election and gave anti-Taiwan independence as the reason for placing the bombs, four of which did not succeed in detonating. While Kao has not yet been convicted and should still have rights, the evidence collected is obviously enough to detain him until a trial can be held.

And Chen Shui-bian is accused by the pan-blues of "controlling the judiciary"?

WTF?!

Taipei Railway Station bomber has already disappeared

Although he was allowed to leave with family members on the condition that he would return home just yesterday, Kao Pao-chung, the Taichung man arrested on Friday for setting off an explosion near the Taipei Railway Station is not home, according to TV reporters who tried to interview him there just a few hours ago. I would think that the relatives that were supposed to take him home would now be subject to criminal indictment.

Since the suspect's family couldn't come up with the NT$100,000 bail money, it was his lover (whom witnesses conveniently verified had been seen with him earlier) who provided the bail money. By the way, Kao is married, and his wife is pissed. As if she wasn't already...

The judge who released Kao has said that he did so because the authorities know where the suspect lives and that he didn't get the impression that Kao would run off or do such things again. (Wow! A psychic judge!) Kao had also admitted to the crime and didn't destroy the evidence, despite the time that had passed.

However, by releasing Kao, this judge fails to consider a few obvious things:

* A potentially deadly crime had already been committed.
* Despite the time that had passed since both his crime and the election which the bombing may have been an attempt to influence, Kao hadn't turned himself in.
* If he hadn't been confronted with the evidence, there's no way of knowing if Kao would have admitted to the crime.
* Recidivism is a recurring topic in Taiwan's news.
* Kao said that he had been influenced by the "rice bomber," whom Taiwan's pan-blue media is trying to turn into some sort of a "hero."

Who? No, W-T-O (and WT-F?!)
The "rice bomber" was caught recently after a string of bombings which were supposedly motivated by an opposition to Taiwan's participation in the WTO. Being that Taiwan is so small compared to so many countries, I imagine that the rice farmers for whom this guy supposedly did these things would more likely benefit from Taiwan's entry in the WTO.

A news analysis about Kao's release posted online a short while ago by the Taiwan Daily reflects the sentiments in my post immediately below this one: "WTF?!"

FTV News had a big title across the screen earlier this morning reading: "Hey, Judge! Do you know the people's fear?!" You can bet there will be more outrage over this today from other thinking people.

RELATED LINK: A Taipei Times editorial cartoon done prior to Kao's release

We once again interrupt the shootdown of "Bulletgate"

Kao Pao-chung, the unemployed 46-year-old Taichung man arrested just yesterday for causing the van explosion near the Taipei Railway Station just 2 days before this month's legislative elections has already been released on NT$100,000 (US$3,089.76) bail, according to TV news reports on SETN, CTI, and ETTV.

According to police quoted in the Taipei Times article linked above, Kao is "a second-generation Mainlander and passionate about politics." Police also said that "he had admitted that he had been politically motivated."

Despite evidence -- and a confession -- that he is also responsible for bomb threats at Taipei 101 (currently touted as the "world's tallest building") on the same day as the van explosion, a judge from the Taipei (City) District Court has released him because [translation mine] "he poses no further threat to society." The van used in the explosion, by the way, was "stolen from a dealership in Taichung County," according to another article in last Sunday's Taipei Times.

Captain, this is highly illogical
The opposition pan-blues constantly say that President Chen Shui-bian "controls the judiciary." If this is true -- and I assert that it is a highly dubious claim -- then the bombing suspect, who has claimed "anti-Taiwan independence" motives for his actions, would not have been released so quickly.

Sigmund Freud would have had a hell of a time analyzing these lying motherfuckers

On the next page of "Bulletgate," there is a sepia-toned photograph of a hunched-over person emerging from one in a row of nearly identical tents erected in front of the phallic-looking Presidential Office. This is the office (their mothers are apparently hermaphroditic) for which the pan-blues would seemingly be willing to kill their fathers (in an Oedipal rage) in order to obtain.

Here's the scant text of page 6:

[Large headline]
Widespread Vote Fraud

[Photo caption]
Protesters camped in front of the Presidential Office for 2 weeks after the election, holding peaceful rallies where they declared "Democracy is Dead" and "The Truth Must be Known."

PEACEFUL, MY ASS!!! It must be known that their brains are dead!

If you want to know something about the truth, look at a few examples of how unpeaceful the pan-blues were both before and after the presidential election:

A LAUNDRY LIST OF PAN-BLUE VIOLENCE:
* PFP Chairman and pan-blue V-P candidate James Soong "predicts" that rioting will follow the election. (Gee, how'd he know?)
* KMT chairman, two-time loser presidential candidate, and chairman of the National Policy Foundation (the organization which published "Bulletgate") Lien Chan tells an already frenzied crowd, "Prepare to annul the election."
* PFP legislator Chiu Yi crashes the gate of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office during a riot on the very night of the presidential election.
* PFP legislator Shen Chih-hui incites crowds in Taichung to riot the same night, telling them that "Chen Shui-bian is scared to have a recount."
* Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (KMT) reneges on a promise to clear the crowds demonstrating in front of the Presidential Office, thus encouraging them to continue.
* "Independent" legislator and media whore Sisy Chen says that "Chen Shui-bian should thank his assassin(s) for being such a good shot."
* On March 23, just three days after the election, Lien Chan claims that the crowds are "out of [his] control," yet continues stirring the crowd's emotions.
* On March 26, Chiu Yi leads another riot at the Central Election Commission in Taipei, but the police show what is either remarkable restraint, poor performance, or collaboration with the rioters by allowing them to smash their way into the building. This is the beginning of the second weekend of rioting.
* PFP legislator Liu Wen-hsiung threatens to bring a bulldozer to the second weekend of protests to attack the Presidential Office.
* During the third weekend, the pan-blues start to get tired of themselves while simultaneously promising to continue protesting.
* Then came the fourth weekend of rioting.
* PFP legislator Thomas Lee (Lee Tung-hao) openly urges people to "shoot President Chen dead."
* The pan-blues publish "Bulletgate," stirring their already violent supporters with groundless accusations.
* Lien Chan, borrowing the words of Confucius, calls Chen Shui-bian a "cheater" president and says that "anyone can kill him."
* The front page of the pro-unification United Daily News (mentioned in a recent post) has a large headline which reads, "Support the Rice Bomber: 10,000 People (Should) Protest Taiwan's Entry into the WTO." [Alternate link] [Try a Babelfish translation (Chinese-trad. to English) on either one.]

"Peaceful"? Feh!

Crackpot theories redux
The pan-blues' latest crackpot theory has to do something with a hole or lack thereof* in Chen Shui-bian's underpants (which weren't part of the evidence examined by Henry Lee anyway). The logic goes something like this: There's no blood on his underwear, so the shooting was faked.

[*NOTE: A Taipei Times article translates one of the 319 Truth Commission's points of contention as being that there were "two bullet holes in both Chen's shirt and his pants," but Commission member Chen Hsi-fan -- whom I was just told did the English translation of "Bulletgate" (though I can't confirm this yet) -- mockingly says in an article on chinataiwan.org [translation mine]: "Chen Shui-bian must only wear his pants up to his 'LP' (a recently overused Taiwanese-language slang reference to the testicles)."]

Chen Shui-bian's wound was just a few centimeters below his navel, and even the photos on the 319 Truth Commission's web site show impressions from the waistband of the president's pants below the wound on his belly. I suppose that wouldn't make any difference to anyone who's oblivious to facts.

Still, Chen Hsi-fan -- one of the proponents of this theory -- was on TV Wednesday night on a show called Yu tou fan shu peng, which is supposedly a humorous way of saying "Mainlander (Chinese) meets Islander (Taiwanese)." He used this as "proof" that you don't need to know anything about law to be part of the 319 Truth Commission -- you just need to have (and he used English to say these two words) "common sense."

I guess that anyone with "common sense" (in "quotes") would agree that because he used English (even though there's a precise term in Mandarin to say the same thing), he must be right.

NOT! This is pure nonsense! A crackpot theory doesn't "prove" anything, but it does demonstrate the psychological state of the people who continue to promulgate it.

I can see clearly now
Take a look at the first two letters to the editor of the Taipei Times on this page for a comparison of nonsense and common sense, respectively. Note especially that both letters were written within eight days of the March 19 shooting.

The first writer takes flimsy evidence and a couple of absolute falsehoods and comes up with a very typical "conspiracy theory" about a "rifle" and a magic bullet that can turn 90 degrees -- thus "proving" that it was fake. The second writer takes what is known about the case and works things out using the laws of physics as we understand them, drawing a conclusion that matches forensics expert Dr. Henry Lee's report on the case (which was only released in November of this year) almost exactly -- thus demonstrating that it was quite possible.

The blue pill or the true pill? Decisions, decisions!
The "truth" the pan-blues are looking for would be more easily found in a padded cell. A few Valiums after the election might have done wonders.

Part 6, redux
When I wrote in the last post about Henry Lee's dismissal of the possibility of a "political assassination," I had forgotten about this doozie from the National Policy Foundation web site:

Lien Chan and his running mate James Soong have asked Henry Lee, director emeritus of the Connecticut state police laboratory, to come to Taiwan to assist in the forensic identification of all the evidence collected so far.

[...]

One thing must be made very clear. Dr. Lee will only do criminal identification. He is not investigating the case. He may find out the shot that grazed Chen's abdomen was fired from within a dozen meters of an open jeep carrying the campaigning president and vice president. He may even prove the shot was fired a day before. But he cannot tell us why the sniper shot at the president and the vice president or who was, if there was, behind the sniping. [Emphasis mine]

For yet greater emphasis, I'll repeat part of that:

[Henry Lee] cannot tell us why the sniper shot at the president and the vice president or who was, if there was, behind the sniping.

Juxtapose that with this quote from earlier in the "Bulletgate" pamphlet:

[E]ven the noted forensics expert Dr. Henry Lee [...] has written off the possibility that it could have been a political assassination attempt. [Emphasis mine]

Can you say "contradiction"? I knew that you could.

RELATED LINKS:
* The arrest of the "rice bomber" suspect
* "Rice bomber" suspect confesses
* Civic groups including the Democracy Action Alliance and Erlin Community University plan a rally to support the "rice bomber"
* Suspect in explosion and bomb threats that occurred 2 days before this month's legislative election caught
* Henry Lee is back in Taiwan. Will the media do their jobs and ask him about the big contradiction?

NEXT UP: Regularly out of the ordinary

The pan-blues' Echoplex is all out of whack!

Is there an echo in here in here in here? We're only on page 5 page 5 page 5. I'll have to attack this page of "Bulletgate" in chunks chunks chunks:

Foremost among the irregularities in this election was the alleged shooting, on the eve of the March 20 election, of the incumbent Chen Shui-bian and his Vice Presidential running mate Annette Lu. This incident, in which neither "victim" was more than grazed, happened in such improbable circumstances, under so many breaches of security procedure, that even the noted forensics expert Dr. Henry Lee, of the O. J. Simpson case fame, has written off the possibility that it could have been a political assassination attempt.

We're still subjected to this deafening repetition of things about an "alleged shooting" and the placement of quotation marks around the word "victim" in a not-so-concealed attempt to say that the shooting, er, "alleged shooting" was "staged." This technique is borrowed directly from China's state-run media which, whenever Chen Shui-bian is in the news, puts words such as "election" and "president" in quotation marks.

This is simply further proof that both the pan-blues and the Chinese government are real-live Queens of Denial.

Another example of pan-blue denial is their insincere use of the phrase "even Henry Lee." "Even Henry Lee"?! Remember: He was the guy "recommended by the KMT" (to add a bit of reverb to the pan-blues' echoes)! This is the only thing I've noticed Lee saying without real evidence to back it up. Does a "political assassination" have to be well-planned or successful to meet the definition? As I stated in the post immediately below this one, I would tend to think that until the shooter or shooters is/are caught, we simply cannot determine if this was or wasn't a "political assassination."

Even if we give Dr. Lee the benefit of the doubt on this point, he had already said that the president was shot, and that his wound wasn't self-inflicted.

Even if we declare ourselves insane and propose the crackpot theory that a Chen supporter took a crappy handgun and shot the president and V-P in order to get sympathy votes -- and somehow did it with pinpoint accuracy while they stood on a moving vehicle (How's that for "improbable circumstances"?) -- it doesn't amount to a "staged" shooting or a "fraudulent" election.

Moving on to the next paragraph:

To this day no suspect has been identified, and there have been no witnesses, though the alleged shooting took place in broad daylight, before thousands(including over 1,400 security personnel) and live television cameras. More revealing, perhaps, was the fact that the Presidential Office decided to decorate General Chen Tsai-fu, the President's Chief Aide-de-Camp who sat in the front seat of the jeep at the time of the shooting, and to give a commendation to General Shen Tsai-tien, the deputy chief on May 19, the eve of the President's inauguration.

All along the route of the President's motorcade, fireworks were being set off in traditional Taiwan campaign fashion, creating clouds of smoke and noise which exceeds in decibels the pan-blues' echoes within "Bulletgate." As the president and vice-president drove by, where do you think most of the spectators were looking? If you answered "at the president," you'd probably be correct!

The statements in the above paragraph are lies painted in broad strokes. There may have been "over 1,400 security personnel" on duty that day, but I doubt that a majority of them were at the scene of the shooting.

Here's a video grab from the scene of the shooting of someone who's "wanted for questioning." It's probably the best image investigators have to work with. Take a look and see if you could identify the guy.

"[N]o witnesses," though? According to Tainan Prosecutor Wang San-jung, quoted in a Taipei Times article from July 23, 2004, "investigators have interviewed everybody in the video, except the person in the grey shirt [whose] explanation and testimony are needed, because eight witnesses have testified against him." [Emphasis mine] While this information wasn't revealed until after "Bulletgate" was published, its publishers drew their own conclusions without evidence, planted the seeds of suspicion in their supporters' minds, and fertilized them with the assistance of pan-blue media bullshit.

Lastly, I don't exactly know what is so "revealing" about Chen giving commendations to people who were right in the line of fire with him. Why don't the pan-blues just come out and say whatever it is on their minds? Could they be being so vague on purpose? Planting more seeds of suspicion without providing any evidence?

Next:

The incumbent party milked the shooting to maximum effect, and swung the election to a melodramatic, heart-stopping 0.2% margin the next day in favor of Chen.
[Emphasis mine]

Haha! Milk this!

As we have already seen in Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of my shootdown of "Bulletgate," it is the pan-blues that have "milked" this incident for their own benefit.

But finally we've gotten a minute glimpse of "truth." We're being told -- albeit accidentally -- that "Bulletgate" is about a bullet that couldn't kill the president, but which stopped the hearts of the pan-blues!

Or maybe it was simply the "truth" of the matter that stopped their hearts.

NEXT UP: Segment Fraud!

"319" bulletmaker identified?

According to reports released yesterday and today, the person who made the bullets used in the March 19, 2004 shooting which injured Taiwan's president Chen Shui-bian and V-P Annette Lu as they campaigned on the eve of the presidential election has been identified.

The suspect -- as I assume we should still call him -- Tang Shou-yi, was first arrested in Kaohsiung on August 15 of this year during an illegal gun sale. According to a report in today's Taipei Times, a blueprint of a bullet matching the ones in the March 19 shooting was discovered in an October 12 raid on Tang's home in Tainan, which also served as an illegal weapons factory. Tainan is Chen Shui-bian's hometown as well as the site of the March 19 shooting.

Dr. Henry Lee says that "[i]t's like catching a needle in [the] ocean, and they did it," and calls this "significant progress." The pan-blues have been on television as recently as just last night claiming that Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been hampering the investigation with their lack of cooperation. If that's true, then these police must be more awesome than even Lee could imagine.

How about "Bulletmaker-gate"?
Geez! I'm quite curious as to how this would've affected this past weekend's legislative election if this information had been released just a few days earlier -- or even back in October, for that matter.

A suggestion for the media
Just the facts, man! If you are so lazy that you need me to provide you with some more accurate "memes," I'd be happy to oblige.

Don't call the March 19 incident a "mysterious shooting." That simply promotes the pan-blues' bullshit. Simply call it "unsolved," instead.

Don't say "[a shooting] which angry opposition politicians said was staged." A real journalist would have exert the extra effort to follow that up with the other side of the story, too. If you say instead, "There is no evidence to support the opposition's claims that...," you'll have less work to do, you lazy fucks!

And don't quote Henry Lee saying that it "could not have been a political assassination," because this "conclusion" is drawn from a mere lack of evidence. Instead, say that "the assassination attempt, although unsuccessful, came frighteningly close to killing the president, and until the shooter is caught, we cannot know whether this was a 'political assassination' (attempt) or simply the act of a lunatic."

Late as usual
I still haven't posted "Part 6" in my shootdown of "Bulletgate," which I hoped would be up yesterday, but other things have been keeping me occupied. We will return to that when I can focus more clearly on matters at hand than I did during "Part 5."

He's their lapdog, plain as day

In a report I saw on the 3 PM (local time) edition of CNN World News, Mike Chinoy distorted the fuck out of all things great and small.

The first thing that stood out was his claim that President Chen Shui-bian was planning to change the country's official name from "Republic of China" to "Taiwan." Chen has stated repeatedly that if this is done, it must be done through a public referendum.

Chinoy also played an ugly language trick which will be lost on those who can't read Chinese. One of the shots in his report clearly showed pan-blue supporters holding a Chinese-language sign reading "Zha qi zong tong, ren ren de ke zhu zhi" This means, "Cheater president, anyone can murder him," and is a very slight variation of the words KMT chairman Lien Chan spoke early last month when he encouraged such despicable behavior.

Do you think this shot was just coincidental? I don't.

On CNN's web site, an introduction of Chinoy says this [Emphasis mine]:

Fluent in Mandarin, Chinoy earned a bachelor's degree in Chinese studies from Yale University and a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Hmmmm? Dude, where's the fluency, and where's the journalism?!

Oh, I suppose Chinoy could use the excuse that he's not fluent in English as a last resort [Emphasis mine]:

"All relevant agencies in international settings that are easily confused with those of China should gradually rectify their names [to Taiwan,]" Chen said at a news conference held at the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

[...]

"Domestically, we should do away with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-like phenomena of no differentiation between party and state," Chen said.

[...]

Saying that he is the defender of Taiwan's identity, Chen said that to highlight Taiwan's identity is not tantamount to changing the country's official national title.

"Until a majority consensus with the public is reached and formed, to hastily push for a change to the country's name would only divide people's power and affect the country's unity," Chen said.

Apparently the pan-blues didn't "feed" Chinoy this info, and/or he chose not to read it.

Chinoy's bio also fails to mention what his reporting (original Chinese version) reveals: his close relationship with the KMT and his apparent hatred of Chen Shui-bian's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Chinoy, maintaining his complete lack of journalistic integrity, only gets quotes from the pan-blue side of the story on the March 19, 2004 shooting of Chen and his running mate Annette Lu. Take a look at a sample of his reporting on Taiwan politics to see this bias.

"China Boy" Chinoy -- stay the fuck away from Taiwan! CNN -- send someone who: A) can speak Chinese; B) can speak Taiwanese; C) can speak English; and D) can be a real journalist!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled shootdown of "Bulletgate"

Oh, hell! The pan-blues got their majority.

According to the latest info I saw on TV, the pan-blues got at least 113 seats (some channels are reporting 114 or 116) compared to the pan-greens' 101. 113 seats were needed for a majority, and the remaining seats have already been called for smaller party and "independent" candidates. From what I can see, the winners list is replete with insane individuals and criminals involved in "black gold" (hei jin, or bribery and graft) and people from the "black way" (hei dao, or gangsters). In fact, one candidate from Miaoli, who recently fled to China to escape prosecution, was elected to office again today.

Somebody get me a (spin) doctor!
But I also notice that comparing the numbers of winners from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with those from the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT), you get a different picture. The DPP won 89 seats, but the KMT won only 79 or 80. The remaining votes were picked up by the pan-green Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU, 12 votes) and People First Party (PFP, 34 votes), respectively.

There has been rapid deterioration of the already troubled relations between the KMT and PFP recently, so we'll have to wait and see if they continue this in the legislature to determine if there is a "true" pan-blue majority. Unless they're able to act in perfect synch, the pan-greens may still have power against them.

Can you say "Explosiongate"?
Two days before this election, a van packed with gas canisters was lit on fire near the Taipei Railway Station, setting off an explosion which destroyed the van and two other vehicles. The police released video footage caught by a security camera at a nearby convenience store as the suspect gave two letters to a FedEx courier to deliver to TVBS and TTV, and a reward of NT$1,000,000 has been offered for information leading to his arrest. The letters contained threats to set off four more explosions before election day.

Lien Chan said things on yesterday's TV news that could be taken to mean that the explosion and threats were actually a "show" by the DPP. It was therefore no surprise when a pan-blue supporter I talked with earlier today repeated the charges as if that were exactly what he said.

More from the darker side of this election
My wife tells me that members of her own family and the family of at least one of her associates have collected money that was promised in exchange for their votes for candidates surnamed Lin and Chen. (Without more direct evidence, however, I won't give their full names.) Her associate's family alone, with at least six voters receiving NT$2,000 each, collected at least NT$12,000. At the polling station where my wife voted, she was witness to her mother's neighbors exerting strong "influence" as she entered to cast her vote. The way it was described sounded rather like voter intimidation.

RAPID UPDATE: Before I have even finished checking all of the details and proofreading this post, President Chen Shui-bian, who is also chairman of the DPP, was on TV giving the kind of speech Lien Chan should have given on the evening of March 20, 2004 when he lost the presidential election. (This just after TVBS said in their scrolling newsbar that Chen was "too embarrassed" to show his face!) Chen congratulated all of the winners and put out a call for unity. Unlike me, he's not mentioning the bad stuff. I admire him, because it's something I don't think I could ever do.

I'll probably get back to the "Bulletgate" shootdown on Monday. Stay tuned.

Could you repeat what CNN said you told 'em to tell me?

Crunch all you want. We're still on page 4:

[A grayish text box, as if this were something special]

"No arrests have been made, no weapons found and no suspects identified despite the offer of $400,000* for information about the shooting suspects -- leading to accusations of political interference in the investigation."

-- CNN, March 23, 2004

* The total amount offered from various sources has since increased to NT$63,000,000 (or close to US$ 1.9 million). [Emphasis mine]

Hmmmm.... I wonder who could've made such "accusations." Could it beeeeeee.... Satan?!

The technique employed here by the pan-blues is a perennial favorite of People First Party (PFP) legislator Lee Ching-hwa, whose sister Diane Lee is also a PFP legislator, a (current?) UFO Radio host, a former Chinese Television System (CTS) anchor and reporter, and wrongful accuser of then-director of the Department of Health Twu Shiing-jer. You'd think that they'd have a little bit more media "savvy" about them, but this kind of behavior just seems kind of sappy to me.

The "self-validation" technique
During legislative sessions, Lee Ching-hwa will, at fairly regular intervals, hold up a copy of the pro-unification United Daily News (whose strings are pulled by the pan-blues, if not China!), show a headline that agrees with a point he's trying to make (maybe 'cuz he pulled the strings to get the headline written?!), and say, "Ni kan!" ("Look!")

No real proof is ever offered by either of the Lee siblings (i.e., independent reports in support of their wild beliefs or charges), yet they behave this way incessantly. Don't be fooled by this all-too-common pan-blue trick. These "anonymous" accusations to which they refer were surely made by the pan-blues themselves.

A whole boatload of conclusions can be drawn from the fact that "no suspects [have been] identified," but going from "no suspects" to "It was staged!" is simply insane. Without actual evidence -- as opposed to a lack thereof -- these kinds of conclusions don't mean much. In a court of law, these techniques wouldn't hold water.

Go long!
"[P]olitical interference"? How's this for "political interference"? On October 28, 2004, the Chinese-language newspaper Taiwan Daily published an article demonstrating what is a complete lack of professionalism and/or political interference from China. The article shows that the two foreign "experts" the "319 Truth Commission" (AKA the pan-blues' "kangaroo court") called in to investigate the case (Warren Levicoff of the U.S. and Robert Tilney of Britain) don't have the qualifications* [SEE "UPDATE" BELOW] to draw the conclusions they made (that Chen's wound was a made by a surgical tool and was not a gunshot wound, as Dr. Henry Lee had already stated). According to the Taiwan Daily article, neither Levicoff nor Tilney has any forensics experience. Tilney is a fishing tackle and firearms dealer. Levicoff is a private detective (the kind who photographs husbands cheating on their wives or vice-versa) and bounty hunter. Furthermore, they did not visit the crime scene, but instead drew their conclusions merely by viewing photographs of the evidence, for cryin' out freakin' loud!

The Chinese Connection
[This section was inadvertantly omitted from the original posting; updated approximately 2 AM]
The Taiwan Daily article also says this [translation mine]:

Actually, Levicoff and Tilney aren't the first "experts" invited by the Kuomintang (KMT). On September 2 of this year, the KMT asked Steve Vickers, who for 18 years worked for Hong Kong's Royal Police and who is now the chairman of a company called "International Risk," to come to Taiwan. At that time, Vickers said that the shooting was possibly a "political stunt" done in order to benefit someone.

After the March 19 shooting, Vickers has accepted an invitation by Hong Kong law firm PC Woo & Co. to conduct an independent investigation into the shooting. On May 10, he published the results of his investigation. The KMT says that the reason they invited Levicoff and Tilney was simply to assist in disseminating the results of Vickers' report and that they had not paid him a single dime.

Criminal Police Bureau chief Hou You-yi expressed doubts on three points:

* None of the experts invited by the KMT have any forensics experience.
* None are ballistics experts. [See "UPDATE" below]
* None visited the scene of the shooting or interviewed any witnesses.

Whoa! A Hong Kong law firm? Hong Kong, as in China?!

Vickers, just like the KMT, fails to name names when he says that "someone" may have pulled a "political stunt." By being so vague, he may inadvertantly be fingering the KMT! The explosions and bomb threats which occurred on Friday in Taipei would be a similarly convenient excuse for the KMT to use if they lose miserably in Saturday's legislative elections. After all, they've already been using the March 19 shooting as their excuse for more than eight and a half months!

The pan-blues are choosing their own investigators until they find one that will give them the answers they want to hear. Everything else falls on deaf ears.

UPDATE: In contrast to what Hou You-yi is reported as saying in the Taiwan Daily article excerpt above, Robert Tilney is listed on this page as having expertise in these areas:

Weapons analysis and identification
Firearms identification and testing
Ballistics and wound ballistics
Weapons: knives/non-firearm

RELATED LINKS:
* December 10, 2004: Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Formosa Incident, Chen Shui-bian promise to create a commission "to restore historical truth and return justice to those who suffered political oppression" during Taiwan's martial law era if the pan-greens win a legislative majority.
* A list of the top 10 political injustices of Taiwan's martial law era.
* Some information about Levicoff and Tilney might possibly be gleaned from this Chinese-language (Big-5 encoding) discussion forum which quotes an article (this one?) from chinesenewsnet.com which I can't access directly.

NEXT UP: Adding some reverb to the pan-blues' echo-perplexia

The bitterest pill is theirs to swallow

Open up! Here comes the next dose of pan-blue mendacity!

From page 4, with a large headline:

Assassination or Melodrama?

[An image of Chen Shui-bian waving to supporters in Tainan while standing behind the roll bar of a Jeep. A bullethole is visible in the passenger side of the windshield, and Vice-President Annette Lu appears to be looking at her leg.]

Tainan motorcade, 1:45PM, March 19, 2004.

At the time this photo was taken, Chen and Lu, riding together in an unarmored jeep, without bulletproof vests, allegedly had already been shot. This is but one of many blatant improbabilities that Taiwan citizens have been forced to swallow in the wake of the election.

"[A]llegedly" shot? We have a bullethole in the windshield, we have two bullets and two shell casings recovered, we have bloody wounds, and we have Dr. Henry Lee's report which corroborates all of this information. The writers of "Bulletgate" may not have had Lee's report available to them at that time, but they did have three months to figure it out. As they have demonstrated time and time again, facts and evidence mean absolutely nothing to the pan-blues.

If anybody has "taken advantage" of this shooting, it has most certainly been the pan-blues.

They are terribly upset that Chen didn't fall down and die when he was shot. At least he should have fallen down, or cried, or something if he were pretending. But he didn't do any of that. He just kept waving to the crowd, despite whatever pain he was probably feeling.

Chen is said to have thought he had been hit by a firecracker, and adrenaline levels were probably pretty high all around.

Although one might imagine it to be rather coincidental that Chen and Lu were shot just when they happened to be without bulletproof vests, there are other things to consider. They were in Chen's hometown of Tainan, and it was a pretty warm day.

A good question to ask when making accusations such as these might be, "Did Chen freqently wear a bulletproof vest prior to the shooting?" . I wondered about it, and if the pan-blues were really interested in the "truth," they'd also be aware of this, which took all of two minutes to dig up:

Chen was not wearing his bulletproof vest, but he seldom does so even when he is not in his hometown, [Secretary General of the Presidential Office] Chiou [I-jen] said.

Chen has prided himself on being accessible to the public as part of Taiwan's flourishing democracy, also opening the Presidential Office building to the public on weekday mornings. [Emphasis mine]

No, Chen Shui-bian has never exaggerated what happened that day. In fact, less than three hours after the shooting, I posted on this very blog that Chen and Lu's wounds "[did] not appear to be life-threatening." The president and vice-president appeared on television late that night to urge the public to remain calm and let people know that things were under control.

Why did Chen and Lu only appear on videotape late that evening? Perhaps they were both medicated and didn't want to pass out or appear out of control while on live television. That would be exactly the sort of thing that would tend to create panic.

The "clouds of suspicion" are the sole property of the pan-blues, promulgated with the eager assistance of Taiwan's sensationalistic media. The most "blatant improbabilit[y]" in all this would be if the pan-blues actually won the election and if more than 20% of "Bulletgate" were true.

"Truth" sure is one bitter pill for the pan-blues to swallow.

ADDENDUM OF THE DAY: Lien Chan's latest display of his inability to use logic to figure things out:

"It is very strange. Right now, we have a minority government in power, with the majority in opposition," Lien said, adding that no normal democratic state should be in such a situation.

Bwahahaha! I guess he's never heard of a guy named Bill Clinton!

Lien Chan, you're an asshole and an idiot!

In Taiwan's legislative elections, vote-buying is also not just a strong possiblity -- it is widespread. (In addition to the "suspected" vote-buying mentioned in the last link, my wife has told me of multiple friends and co-workers who have had their votes solicited in the runup to this Saturday's election. She also said she had to give a verbal smackdown to one person who said they were planning to vote for one of the legislators mentioned in the article behind that last link.) Also, you must consider that those elections are not held simultaneously with the presidential election, so the mood of the day may also have some effect. Let's see what happens this weekend and discuss it more at that point, shall we?

NEXT UP: When you start to run out of bullshit before the bottom of page 4, just quote CNN anonymously quoting you making baseless allegations.

Various vague and vibrant vagaries in vogue with vicious "victims"

No matter how many times the pan-blues repeat themselves, their lies won't magically become true. We're only on the third page of "Bulletgate," and their thusfar vague reference to "dubious tactics" is already being repeated.

From page 3:

Taiwan's vibrant democracy, for years lauded as a model for Asia, is now entrenched in its deepest crisis ever. Suspicious events and dubious tactics used in the recent Presidential election by the incumbent Chen Shui-bian have bitterly divided the otherwise cohesive society, creating deep animosity and mistrust that has damaged Taiwan's social harmony to the core. At the same time, Taiwan's status with Mainland China is at its most volatile,creating unprecedented tension in the Taiwan Strait.

Whole lotta vagueness goin' on
Let's see. The pan-blues couldn't be trying to take credit for that, could they? Just when did people start calling Taiwan a "vibrant democracy"? Hmmmm?

For nearly 40 years while ruled by the KMT -- until 1986 1987, in fact -- Taiwan was actually under martial law. Nope. Couldn't be then. That's still [nearly] a whole decade too early.

Presumably, this "vibrant democracy" only came into being sometime around 1996, when the people of Taiwan had their first direct presidential election. They chose Lee Teng-hui -- the first Taiwanese president to be born in Taiwan! It's not really surprising after being ruled by a foreign (Chinese) occupying power for so long. It simply sounds like the Taiwanese were saying they were sick of it all. Can you say "democracy"?

Big girls don't cry...
At the time, China's attempts to sway the election with missile "tests" backfired (pun intended), and Taiwan got a president who began to move the island nation forward on the road to democracy. It wasn't until 2000 -- after more than 50 years in power -- that the KMT became the "opposition" party, and even though they currently still hold a majority in the legislature, they act like babies whose pacifiers have been jerked from their quivering little mouths.

So, just how long are the pan-blues talking about when they mention all those (vague) "years" of "vibrant democracy"? Eight years? And it's certainly no thanks to the KMT.

Our love's in jeopardy, baby...
Now, onward to the "crisis." What caused it?

Consider these things for starters: Weekly riots by the pan-blues. Groundless lawsuits by the pan-blues. And an unconstitutional "kangaroo court" created by the pan-blues. I guess they don't consider China firing missiles in our direction too much of a "crisis"?

We can't go on together...
What "suspicious events"? The president and vice-president were shot -- but didn't die. A recount was conducted -- but the Lien-Soong ticket still lost. The pan-blues took their request to nullify the election to the High Court -- yet it wasn't granted because they failed to make their case. An investigation of the evidence was conducted by the guy "recommended by the KMT" -- and the results didn't match the answer they wanted.

Evil president, rotten luck, or just a bunch of pan-blue crybaby losers? You decide.

I talked about "dubious tactics" in the last installment, so I won't repeat myself here. (Click the link if you haven't read that part yet. However, if you want to make yourself sound really foolish, just keep saying "referendum" over and over until you pass out.)

Let's talk about this "[bitter division]," shall we? On second thought, let's not. I'd just be repeating what I wrote back on April 21, 2004. (You know what to do.)

A SLIGHT INTERRUPTION: LET X = X, WILL YA?!
President Chen Shui-bian recently announced that he would change the names of Taiwan's overseas embassies to include the word "Taiwan" (as opposed to such awkward avoidances as "Taipei Economic and Cultural Office" or "Chung Hwa Travel Service") and that he wanted all state-owned enterprises in Taiwan to change their names within two years to avoid confusion in the international community. It makes so much sense, I can only wonder if he or his advisors have been reading this blog. After all, can you guess which one of the following companies is not located in Taiwan?:

* Air China
* Chinese Petroleum Corporation
* China Steel Chemical Corporation
* China Airlines
* China Times
* China Post

Answer? It's the first one. All of the other businesses are Taiwanese, and three of them are run by the government.

You'd think that people would be excited about such a good idea, right? Well, that's not quite how China and the U.S. reacted. They're both accusing Chen of trying to change the "status quo." (Why do so many people insist on perpetuating such awful ideas?)

There's a funny side to this, however. When a Chinese reporter asked U.S. State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli about the American position on the matter, she allowed them both to contradict themselves. [Mistakes in original text which I saw displayed on ETTV-S, Channel 44 (Chou Yu-kou's talk show); Emphasis mine]:

The press reports out of Taiwan has said Taiwan Government tries to change their representative office name in New York and change it to Taiwan Mission.

Say, what?! You just called Taiwan "Taiwan," dumbass! Ereli referred to Taiwan as "Taiwan," too! [Emphasis mine]:

"These changes of terminology for government-controlled enterprises or economic and cultural offices abroad," Ereli told reporters in his daily press briefing, "in our view, would appear to unilaterally change Taiwan's status, and for that reason, we're not supportive of them."

You know what? The agreement by which the U.S. sells defensive weapons to Taiwan is called the "Taiwan Relations Act"! Furthermore, the de facto American Embassy here is called the "American Institute in Taiwan."

Duh!

NEXT UP: Not even a barrelful of sugar will help the pan-blues' mendacity go down!