GOP Vixen

Less stimulating economic stimulus

No, I haven't gotten that check, but I did get the direct deposit of my whopping $10 federal tax refund!! (I had to pay the state.) Why, thank you Uncle Sam for rewarding my hard work so... shall I buy a roll of laundry quarters, or a gyro plate at Firehouse?

This is the time of year I start lusting for Steve Forbes again: Flat tax!! FLAT TAX!!! And as far as the black hole where my tax money goes... cut those useless wasteful programs!! Reduce spending!! Chop, chop, chop...

No, I haven't gotten that check, but I did get the direct deposit of my whopping $10 federal tax refund!! (I had to pay the state.) Why, thank you Uncle Sam for rewarding my hard work so... shall I buy a roll of laundry quarters, or a gyro plate at Firehouse?

This is the time of year I start lusting for Steve Forbes again: Flat tax!! FLAT TAX!!! And as far as the black hole where my tax money goes... cut those useless wasteful programs!! Reduce spending!! Chop, chop, chop...

Dith Pran: A true hero

Very, very sad news about the passing yesterday of Dith Pran, the "Killing Fields" survivor who became a photographer for The New York Times -- and strove to ensure that Pol Pot's genocide would not be forgotten:

"I'm a one-person crusade. I must speak for those who did not survive and for those who still suffer. Since coming to America, I have visited Cambodia three times to evaluate the ongoing Cambodian crisis. The problems Cambodia faces are not only political but also economical and social. The Khmer Rouge have brought Cambodia back to year zero and that's why I'm trying to bring the Khmer Rouge leaders to the World Court. Like one of my heroes, Elie Wiesel, who alerts the world to the horrors of the Jewish holocaust, I try to awaken the world to the holocaust of Cambodia, for all tragedies have universal implications."

"Part of my life is saving life. I don't consider myself a politician or a hero. I'm a messenger. If Cambodia is to survive, she needs many voices."

The 25 most emasculated guys

A little Monday morning fluff, courtesy of GQ's "The Whipped List." Their No. 1 most emasculated man? Mr. Madonna, who used to be the man's man director of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and then got, er, "Swept Away." Plus, as they note, Guy Ritchie is now making a documentary to go with Madonna's Kabbalah fad.

Other funny bits on the list include Rupert Murdoch's arm candy Wendi Dang, who "once asked him in front of colleagues, 'Are you going deaf, old man?'" And on the political front, GQ picks John Edwards:

"After Ann Coulter referred to the former senator and failed presidential candidate as a 'fa---t,' Edwards did the stand-up thing: He let his wife, Elizabeth, call in to Hardball and tell the right-wing harpy off but good. John, meanwhile, looked like a man holding his wife’s purse."

Ah, but in the name of emasculated bipartisanship, Rudy Giuliani also comes in on the list:

"If the former New York mayor is serious about ever running for office again, he should think twice about paying his wife, Judy, a six-figure paycheck for 'writing' speeches she’ll later interrupt with her phone calls."

Merkel boycotting Olympic opener: Way to go!!!!

We already know that Bush and Gordon Brown have no cojones when it comes to standing up for China and boycotting the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- Forbes' most powerful woman in the world and now Honorary Vixen -- has become the first leader to put her foot down and do the right thing:

"As pressure built for concerted western protests to China over the crackdown in Tibet, EU leaders prepared to discuss the crisis for the first time today, amid a rift over whether to boycott the Olympics.

The disclosure that Germany is to stay away from the games' opening ceremonies in August could encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to join in a gesture of defiance and complicate Gordon Brown's determination to attend the Olympics.

Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, became the first EU head of government to announce a boycott on Thursday and he was promptly joined by President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic, who had previously promised to travel to Beijing.

'The presence of politicians at the inauguration of the Olympics seems inappropriate,' Tusk said. 'I do not intend to take part.'

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, confirmed that Merkel was staying away. He added that neither he nor Wolfgang Schäuble, the interior minister responsible for sport, would attend the opening ceremony.

Hans-Gert Pöttering, the politician from Merkel's Christian Democratic party who chairs the European parliament, encouraged talk of an Olympic boycott this week and invited the Dalai Lama to address the chamber in Strasbourg, while another senior German Christian Democrat, Ruprecht Polenz, said a boycott should remain on the table."

This is awesome news!! And I'm willing to bet that Sarko will take the boycott route.

Don't play China's games anymore

Lots of interesting reaction -- including my first Chinese death threat! -- to my Los Angeles Daily News column this week on China's game-playing (and we're not talking about the traditional Olympic variety).

It seems there have been some new events added to the Beijing Summer Olympics!    

Adding the Asthma Run through the city's smoggy streets would be no surprise. But blocking live broadcast feeds from Tiananmen Square could be a sure sign that China plans to add the Running of the Tanks to the events schedule. Journalist Shi Tao would be there to cover it, but unfortunately he's in prison for reporting on restrictions on uttering a word about that 1989 Tiananmen blip.

Recent events also indicate authorities may be considering moving the sharpshooting contest to Lhasa. And when global outrage rears its head, just whip out the new event called Blame the Holy Man. The goal? Convincing people around the world that this wise, placid, saffron-robed guy is the devil incarnate.

The games might not kick off until August, but the Tibet crackdown has inspired an early exhibition of the Chinese government's favorite event: P.R. Gymnastics.

Bold-faced lies fly through the air with the greatest of ease in this event, like when slamming the Dalai Lama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for trying to bring attention to the repression in Tibet.

"`Human rights police' like Pelosi are habitually bad tempered and ungenerous when it comes to China, refusing to check their facts and find out the truth of the case," state-run Xinhua published in a Sunday editorial.

Human rights being such a bad thing and all. Tibet's government in exile said Monday that 130 Tibetans had been killed in China's crackdown. In the Communist Party Math Bowl, the figure was whittled to 22 deaths.    

When will the time come when we refuse to play China's games anymore?    

How many more people have to die like Wei Wenhua, who was beaten to death by officers in Hubei province in January for filming villagers protesting against Chinese authorities dumping garbage in their neighborhood? (A little pre-Olympic "housecleaning" on China's part.)

How much longer will Tibetans have to suffer under forced "re-education" and, as the Dalai Lama aptly put it, "cultural genocide"? How many more journalists and bloggers have to be thrown in prison? How many dissidents must disappear? When the world wows at the Olympic spectacle, will they care how many poor people had their homes razed or how much migrant labor was exploited for "beautification" projects or gaudy stadiums?

The time has come for action. Not as members of any political party, or adherents to any particular religion, but members of the human race who respect the dignity and inherent freedom of each and every individual.

Read the whole thing!

Great U.N. video

Roz Rothstein of Stand With Us tells it like it is to the Human Rights Council as Egypt and Iran interrupt her. Watch it here!

Classic: Amnesty International's new poster playing off Beijing's Olympic slogan 'We Are Ready!'

China bans live Olympic broadcasts from Tiananmen Square

Then how will audiences watch the Tank Run event?

Also from the AP:

"In another sign of the government's unease, 400 American Boy Scouts who had been promised they could go onto the field following a March 15 exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres were prevented from doing so by police."

Yeah, Boy Scouts, agents for the Dalai Lama, what's the difference? Keep digging that hole for yourselves, Beijing...

Fewer dropped calls at Gitmo!

This is either:

a) anti-war protesters pretending to be Gitmo/Abu Ghraib hybrids, or

b) an ad for AT&T cellular -- more bars in more places!

Misleading, racially charged Obama newspaper lede of the day

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A black-skinned man raised by a white family, Barack Obama has had a view of both sides of the racial divide unlike any other presidential candidate in history.

Holy cow. The man's mother is white. It's not like he was a black child dropped on the doorstep of a white family.

Of course, the media coverage of Obama's speech today has been more fawning than ever. Comparing it to JFK's "don't hate me 'cause I'm Catholic" speech. Saying he aimed to bridge the racial divide when he was actually just dipping into his oratorical skills to try to get himself off the hook over Paster Wright. And, notably, defending his association with Wright as a key tie to the black community -- thus essentially enforcing a racial divide instead of MLK's dream of one colorblind community hand-in-hand.