GOP Vixen

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.

Vietnamese regime scripts its political oppression

Plenty of countries claim up and down that they don’t hold political prisoners, and those eager to do business with that country are usually too eager to buy their story. But a recently leaked copy of a secret politburo document should leave everyone with little doubt that not only does Vietnam persecute political prisoners; they’re worried about learning to persecute more efficiently so they’ll catch less flack from the international community.

Read all about it in my Los Angeles Daily News column today:

“When pressed last year on human rights during his historic visit to D.C., Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet passed off violations as a ‘different understanding’ that needed to be taken in context of ‘historical backgrounds and conditions.’Pro-democracy Vietnamese, however, understand well the conditions in place to systematically keep their voices silent. Now an apparent memo from the top tells the story.

The top-secret, just-leaked Vietnamese government document urges Communist Party officials to become more conscientious in their quest to ‘limit the spread of false ideas in the population about democracy, human rights, religious freedom, which impacts negatively on the Party and the State foreign policy,’ and work ‘to institute effort to neutralize these organizations and individuals who conspire to maneuver against the country and socialism.’

The document titled ‘NOTICE: Conclusion of the Political Party, concerning raising the bar of quality and effectiveness in the execution of the political trials in the face of new development’ and dated Sept. 12, 2007, was distributed to provincial authorities, party officials and leading technocrats, as noted in the memo.

Signed off and stamped by Standing Secretariat Member Truong Tan Sang, the Politburo sent out numbered copies on a recall basis. Yet a copy of the document was leaked by a Communist Party member to the People’s Democratic Party of Vietnam, which advocates a multi-party system and is thus banned by the Vietnamese regime.Reading the document - the English translation provided by the PDP - is a window into a regime that systematically conspires to silence dissidents and fears international scrutiny could derail its attempts at global acceptance.

‘The quality and effectiveness of the execution of the political cases have not met the requirements to enable the struggle to prevent and deal with these crimes,’ the memo reads, complaining that ‘the charges and rulings in a number of cases have not been appropriate’ and trials have been ‘allowing the accused excessive responses.’

‘…To fight and defeat the attack plot of the enemy forces is our first line of defense, urgent and immediate.’…”

Read the whole thing!

You, too, can stand with the Tibetan people

The Olympic torch run is set to pass through San Francisco -- its only U.S. stop -- on April 9. Now, Mayor Gavin Newsom refused to even listen to human-rights advocates who said that welcoming this tainted torch in the city stands against SF's liberal traditions. And now, he's trying to corral protesters into designated "free-speech areas" -- out of sight of the torch path so as not to offend the delicate Chinese government. Which, as I've been told, thousands of protesters may not take kindly.

The weekend's tragic, bloody crackdown on freedom-seeking Tibetans in Lhasa should make everyone angry -- and should stress the need to hold China's feet to the fire. Mark your calendar for a pre-torch rally at UN Plaza in San Fran on April 8, followed by march to the Chinese consulate and candlelight vigil that evening; then on April 9 the torch run is expected to go through the financial district, where tens of thousands of protesters are expected to gather. I'll be there, and I hope many Angelenos can make it!!

Spitzer thought of the day

From a friend (and former Daily News co-worker!):

"If you ask me, the Spitzer case isn't even about sex, it's about POWER. Eliot Spitzer liked having the power to buy a $1,000 an hour prostitute. After all, he got his Harvard educated lawyer wife to quit her job and take care of their kids - I have a feeling this is a guy who won't let anyone else in his life outshine him and has to bully others. Hence the hookers. Ick."

Good point. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, baby...

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Thought for today: Eist le fuaim na habhann agus gheobhaidh tú breac.