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.