Credit Where Credit is Due
March 22nd, 2008 at 01:19am Mark Noonan
And Speaker Pelosi has done a good deed:
US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi made one of the highest-ranking U.S. official visits ever to Dharamsala, India, the exile home of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Llama, today.
While standing next to the Dalai Llama, she denounced “China’s oppression of people in Tibet.”
“If freedom loving people don’t speak out against China’s oppression of people in Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak out against any oppressed people.”
More voices and ever more voices - the world must curb the tyrants in Beijing.
Entry Filed under: Congress, Foreign Affairs
29 Comments
1. Diana Powe | March 22nd, 2008 at 1:25 am
Credit where credit is due. Mark posts this item. Good on you, Mark.
2. Freedom1 | March 22nd, 2008 at 1:34 am
“If freedom loving people don’t speak out against China’s oppression of people in Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak out against any oppressed people.” - Pelosi
Yes, Pelosi did good. However…
“If freedom loving people don’t speak out against [Saddam’s] oppression of people in [Iraq], we have lost all moral authority to speak out against any oppressed people.”
She’s rather hollow.
3. Mark Noonan | March 22nd, 2008 at 1:38 am
Freedom,
I think no one takes a back seat to me in Pelosi-bashing…but this is a good deed, and I’m just going to leave it at that.
4. bongoman | March 22nd, 2008 at 1:39 am
Hear, hear Mark,
The story of Tibet is sickening. What an opportunity the forthcoming Olympics are to shine some light on human rights abuses in China.
5. Freedom1 | March 22nd, 2008 at 1:45 am
Good for you, Mark. However, the suffering of the Iraqis (being slaughered by Muslims), the Tibetans, the Thai Buddhists (being slaughtered by Muslims), the Christians/animists of Sudan (again being slaughered by Muslims) are all equally and prominently on my mind; and Pelosi is probably doing this more out of antipathy for President Bush than for genuine concern for the well-being of the Tibetans. Otherwise, it means that Pelosi just values the lives of Tibetans over the lives of Iraqis. It’s most likely political one-upsmanship on Pelosi’s part.
6. Diana Powe | March 22nd, 2008 at 1:59 am
Yes, Freedom 1, to paraphrase a story in another context, it’s Muslims all the way down. Just keep on hating. Now, if only the Speaker was a Muslim maybe you could double-hate her.
7. Freedom1 | March 22nd, 2008 at 2:09 am
Diana, you cover for Muslim murderers. I hope you are very proud of yourself.
Jihadis Declare Open Season on Buddhist Teachers… “Teachers targeted in Thailand’s deadly insurgency”
PATTANI, Thailand (AFP) — She was late and driving a motorcycle on her way to school on the fateful morning of December 21, 2006. Two young men, trailing behind the 34-year-old Buddhist maths teacher, suddenly sped up and shot her in the head twice.
Her lifeless body lay just a few miles away from her school, which like all public schools in southern Thailand has become a prime target for militants fighting a separatist insurgency in this Muslim-majority region.
“Luckily, students did not see the dead body. They were already in classrooms,” said the school’s deputy principal, who only gave his nickname Wee Takeh, for fear of attack by militants.
The shooting prompted seven other Buddhist colleagues to flee Pattani, one of three provinces hit by the insurgency, leaving 52-year-old Wee Takeh the only Buddhist teacher at this elementary school. [..]
Thailand is overwhelming Buddhist, with Muslims making up just four percent of the national population. But along the southern border with Malaysia, the proportions are reversed, with Muslims accounting for 90 percent of the region’s 1.7 million residents. Many are ethnic Malays whose language and culture are closer Muslim-majority Malaysia than Thailand.
Separatist violence has flared periodically ever since Thailand annexed the region a century ago. The unrest reignited in early 2004, killing more than 3,000 in almost daily shootings and bomb attacks.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5igHFHxxc-3jN_kgs9G0xeipIrv_A
8. congressive | March 22nd, 2008 at 5:59 am
And Bush is STILL going to the Olympics. Nasty Big Corporate TV (NBC-TV) will need the photo ops since the murderous regime won’t let them broadcast live from Tiananmen Square now.
Dick Cheney, when told of the disapproval being expressed at “White House of the Blogsphere” BlogsForVictory.com of Bush’s insensitive promise to attend the Olympics, responded:
“So?”
9. TiredofLibBullSh** | March 22nd, 2008 at 6:50 am
Re: Pelosi
A blind squirrel gets a nut now and then.
conregressive,
should we stage a MINI-boycott like your beloved French? Since you highly praised them in another thread, as a country having the “high moral ground”?!?
For those of you who don’t know - the mini-boycott is not attending the opening ceremonies ONLY!!! and not the entire Olympics.
Diana, hopeless as usual. Is it hate to point out the obvious??? You, like Pelosi, are not seeing the big picture and only focus on a infinitesimal time frame.
10. js | March 22nd, 2008 at 7:34 am
“it’s Muslims all the way down. Just keep on hating”"
It might just save your life one day.
11. congressive | March 22nd, 2008 at 7:37 am
Well, hey TiredOf, you know your name is an anagram of “Bible Dirt Fills Thou”? Are we allowed to use the “s” word? Just wondering…
Boy, you’ve really thrown in the towel, haven’t you. Some French guy says, “hey, mes amis, let’s be a little less than evil” and even with that, you say screw it, Bush is still the man.
You are belittling Mark’s suggestion, you know. He originally praised the Frenchman, not I.
I’d like to see oppression and death have some consequences. Yank the games. Move ‘em out. Spread ‘em worldwide. If Al Gore can stage a worldwide concert with a few months notice, surely they can cobble together a few dozen Democracies who’d be happy to host a portion of the games. Broadcast ‘em over the internet. Shut out the tyrants. Leave the Chinese murderers standing with their little xiǎo dìdìs in their hands. Bush will fit right in.
But, alas, NBC has profits to make and Bush doesn’t want to lose his premium seats next to Hu Jintao. They can compare notes…
12. TiredofLibBullSh** | March 22nd, 2008 at 8:22 am
uh, conregressive your post from the “Symbolic Boycott of the Olympics” thread:
3. congressive | March 19th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Mais oui, once again the French lead the way to the moral high ground.
Sacrebleu, before long you’ll be calling for a French-style healthcare system!
Peut-être pas…
Still no mention of Bush’s promise to attend. Interesting.
———————–
I won’t hold my breath for your correction….this is not praise for the french?
I never claimed Bush is “the man”. Sure I believe that the entire world should boycott the Olympics, but then again there are those who love communist regimes, so it won’t happen.
I have seen people drop out of the Olympics for their massive pollution (they are exempt from Kyoto) and I don’t see any on the left bashing them for their CO2 emissions.
I see this as a chance to expose China’s atrocities to the world. They cannot suppress all the media. NBC won’t be the only ones there.
Your BDS makes you illogical.
13. neocon | March 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 am
>>>I’d like to see oppression and death have some consequences. - congressive<<<
Really. Since when? Do your consequences only include boycotts? Which amounts to pouting on the sidelines.
And don’t Democrats advocate keeping the dialogue open with those we oppose? Pelosi went to Syria and was lauded. Obama was praised for wanting to talk with Chavez and Ahmendijad. So in your double standard, ignorant paradigm, where does dialogue with China fit in?
14. js | March 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 am
The problem with the French is that they take the easy way out, not always the right way.
What seems to be the moral high ground has them sitting in a situation where they have so many immigrant muslim in thier country that they really fear a civil war. Unless you have had your head under a pillow for the last several years, you can not but miss it.
15. neocon | March 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 am
But I thought the Demobots loved both candidates?
(CNSNews.com) - The lengthy Democratic primary contest bodes well for Republican chances of holding the White House, a new poll suggests.
16. TiredofLibBullSh** | March 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 am
Conregressive,
“I’d like to see oppression and death have some consequences.”
Oh, as long as they are not terrorists based somewhere else other than Afghanistan? Or some other leftist loved socialist disctators?
17. Some Assembly Required | March 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am
Well done mark. It’s good to see an open-minded post every once and a while. Giving “Credit Where Credit is Due” good on ya mate.
I do not think boycotting the Olympics is something the US should do. Why should our athletes be penalized and deprived of a chance at Olympic gold because of what China is doing. I think individual citizens have the power to make an impression as well. Stop buying anything thats made in china for instance. If the government came out with some kind of statement like “buying a pencil made in china is directly supporting oppression in Tibet”. Boycott their industry instead of the Olympics. I’m just curious, if this atrocity happened next year when the Olympics were over, what possible solutions might you suggest?
18. Nietzsche-Is-Pietzsche | March 22nd, 2008 at 11:42 am
Well welcome to the party Conservatives. You’re only about a few decades late on this. We “kooks” have been talking about this for a long time now. All of a sudden you guys present yourselves as always there?!! Isn’t it just like conservatives to take credit for what liberals fought for.
Same as civil rights, workers rights, child labor laws, social security, etc etc. (shakes head)
19. Almiranta | March 22nd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
What a hoot it is to scan the comments and see the typical, totally predictable, snarly and snotty comments by such as Diana, no matter how irrelevant they might be to the thread.
Hey, rabid Lefties—this is a discussion blog, not just a litter box where radical Libs can swing by to deposit their droppings.
We seen ‘em, we smelled ‘em, and we tried to ignore them, but there’s no way to pretend they are anything but what they are.
Personally, on one hand I would like to see American step away from the Olympics. China is very proud of getting them, and seems to be working very hard to try to make a good impression, so it would be a poke in the eye and worthy of a few chapters in history books down the road if were were not there, and stated that our absence was a protest against a violent and murderous regime.
On the other hand, I don’t like to see the Olympics politicized. I was totally ticked off at athletes who brandished clenched fists from the podium, and in general think the purpose of the Olympics is to rise above politics and compete for the sake of competition.
So I’d like to think that if we do go, we can find ways outside the sports arenas to protest against the harshness of the Chinese regime.
In the meantime, I love the way Cheney refuses to rise to the bait thrown out by you rabid radicals. His open disdain for your game-playing is great.
20. kimberly4victory | March 22nd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
For once, I agree with Pelosi.
I also believe America and other countries should boycott the Olympics. It would be a slap in China’s face.
“It’s good to see an open-minded post every once and a while.”
Yeah, try to find one on Huffington or dailykos!
And speaking of those two far left blogs, conservatives are continually banned from their blogs when trying to debate on the topic of the thread. However, Mark and Matt allow lefties to post on THEIR blog.
Despite the childish insults toward the owners of this blog, despite the jokes about the name of their blog, they allow lefties to post. Freedom of speech is honored here, not on any lefty blogs. Well done, Mark and Matt.
21. Diana Powe | March 22nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I think Almiranta doth protest too much.
22. Mark Noonan | March 22nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
congressive,
Bush accepted the offer a while back ago, and there’s still time for him to change his mind about going…but changes in public attitudes don’t happen over night, and they take even longer to be reflected in government. On both sides of the aisle, most politicians and “experts” are convinced that trade with China is a boon to America and a vital aspect in preserving world peace. It isn’t a boon, and it doesn’t help world peace at all, but that is what has been drilled into the government mindset, and its not going to change quickly.
President Bush believes with most of the experts that engagement and trade with China is a good thing. I believe this is an incorrect way to go, but President Bush is a convinced free-trader and a person bearing the conviction that engagement helps liberalise tyrannical regimes. I think that the recent revelation that Gorbachev is Christian should start to put some modifiers on that concept - the “engagement = liberalisation” idea was boosted heavily by our engagement with the USSR prior to its disintegration…but we now know that at the helm of the USSR was a man who simply wouldn’t do the horrible things because he was in touch with God.
Now, had Gorbachev not had this connection, he might very well have chosen repression to save his regime and his empire…it would have only taken the order to the KGB to do so, and it would have happened. Now, the Chinese leadership may or may not have within it people who have turned an ear towards God and thus have some chance of just doing the right thing, even if it harms themselves…but we’ve seen no evidence of this, and our policy must be one of wariness.
If there are not in the Chinese leadership people who acknowledge God and thus are held back from Stalinist sorts of actions, then any attempt at freedom in China will result in massive repression - as we saw in Tienamen Square in 1989, and see today in Tibet. All of this brings me to the conclusion that our best course vis a vis China is disengagement - stop trading with them, stop pretending they are part of the normal world…all our engagement is doing right now is propping up people who are horrific in action…better to pull back, let them stew a bit and hope that wiser leadership eventually arises.
23. congressive | March 22nd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Heartfelt thanks, Mark, for not beginning with “congressive, you idiot…”
I agree, and I, too, hope that wiser leadership eventually arises, and though we may disagree on the nature of that wisdom, it seems more apparent every day that any sign of wisdom is sadly lacking in the current crop of Bush administration cronies and their Blue Dog Democrat enablers.
Hey TiredOf - I won’t hold my breath for your correction….this is not praise for the french? - please look up the definition of the word “first“. Words have meanings.
BTW, yes that is praise for the French. Sarkozy is a neocon Bill Gates buddy, but the French people rock. To borrow your username, they don’t take sh** from anyone.
24. neocon | March 22nd, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Blue Dog Democrat enablers. - congressive
Is that what the class of 2006 is now called? Just two years ago they were applauded, now theiy’re reviled.
How quickly liberals eat their own.
“Words have meanings.” - Congressive
“Typical white person” - Barack Obama
“…they don’t take sh** from anyone.” - Congressive
Except for the Muslim resident that constantly riot in the streets.
25. viperdisorder | March 23rd, 2008 at 12:37 am
She did good. This is going to get worse tho.
Things are bad enough for China with the horrible pollution and other things that are going to embarrass them. Boycotting them will get us nothing
26. Freedom1 | March 23rd, 2008 at 1:57 am
WOO HOO!!! The Muslims of Iraq are doing well! God bless them!
http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/48552.html
IRAQIS PREFER PRESENT TO PAST
ABC NEWS reports that a recent poll taken in Iraq finds Iraqis, unlike some Americans, do not think of Saddam’s rule as the good old days:
70% Say things are “Good” today in Iraq
56% Say their lives are better NOW than before the war
71% Say their lives will be better one year from now
72% Say schools are better today
56% Say household basics are better today
53% Say crime protection is better today
39% Support the presence of Coalition Forces in Iraq
51% Oppose presence of Coalition Forces but only:
15% Say the U.S. should leave now
10% Say the U.S. should leave in 6+ months
8% Say the U.S. should leave in a few months
78% Reject attacks on Coalition Forces
99% Reject attacks on Iraqi Police
79% of all Iraqis support a united, centralized government
Jobs, commerce and wages are increasing.
70% Trust Iraqi’s Religious Leaders, followed by the Iraqi Police and the Iraqi Army.
27. Casper | March 23rd, 2008 at 10:22 am
Freedom1,
Do you realize, that the poll you linked too was done in 2004?
Try this one, if you want something current.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3571504
28. Almiranta | March 23rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Diana—do you have a point? Or is your post just another example of the Lib obsession with saying something snotty even when s/he has nothing else to contribute?
29. Freedom1 | March 23rd, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Casper,
What are you talking about? The poll was posted on HNN on - Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 9:40 PM. Follow the link.