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