South Africa's Refusal to Allow Dalai Lama to Participate in Peace Conference Actually Encourages Bad Chinese Diplomatic Behavior: They'll Do It Again

South Africa set off a wave of protests and threats of boycotts of it's soon-to-be-held peace conference when it knuckled under to Chinese diplomatic pressure and refused the Dalai Lama to participate in the conference by denying him a visa.

Former South African President FW De Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu announced that they were boycotting the conference until South Africa reversed its position and allowed the Tibetan leader to come.

South Africa is more worried about the 2010 World Cup, and its own interests, rather than the interests of the peace conference that they're hosting. They've lost a lot of credibility around the globe while earning China's praise. Costly move, because now the Chinese government knows it can bully the South African government around whenever China's interests are at stake.

For a democracy to cave in to China is disturbing. De Klerk said it best: "South Africa is a sovereign constitutional democracy and should not allow other countries to dictate to it regarding who it should, and should not admit to its territory - regardless of the power and influence of the country."

Perhaps South Africa should ask another nation to host this peace conference.

More Democratic Waste on the Way: Pelosi Says to Keep the Door Open on Second Stimulus

Not content with their fill of pork, Congressional leaders appear to be lining the little piggies up for more of the same, saying that they needed to keep the door open for a second stimulus package.

When will this utter stupidity come to an end? When the country is bankrupt from all of this garbage that they're signing off on?

Generational theft doesn't come close to covering what they're doing. It's so vile and obscene that the current English language doesn't come close to having a term to describe what the Democrats are doing, along with Republican turncoats who are supporting the Democrats.

Those who vote "NO" are doing us and themselves a favor; they'll be proven correct soon enough. And I dread the day when that prediction comes true. Money doesn't grow on trees; it has to be generated, and it won't be generated until the workforce is back on it's feet and producing, and people are buying their products.

But they're spending money that is years away from being generated by the economy. They shouldn't be gambling with money that they don't have and doesn't belong to them.

Obama Administration Back-Pedals on Habeus Corpus at Guantanamo and Human Rights in China: MAJOR Disappointments

In the space of one week, the Obama Administration decided that the writ of Habeas Corpus doesn't apply to the prisoners being at Guantanamo Bay, and abandoned challenging China to improve it's domestic human rights policies.

These are MAJOR let-downs as far as I'm concerned.

I had hoped that the Obama Administration would turn things around quit feeding the Constitution to the shredding machine, but sadly, it isn't going to happen.

When are defenders of this Bush-era doctrine going to realize that if we do that kind of crap to foreigners, that the same treatment is only a few steps away from being carried out on American citizens as well? Invoking national security to hold onto someone we don't like will prove to be too tempting for a government to resist. It's only a matter of time now.

Secretary Sniper-Fire announced during her first visit to China as Secretary of State that she's had these discussions with Chinese leaders for the last decade, and both sides know what the other's position is. That's NO reason for backing down from China. And I don't care how much we need China's money either. We need to keep the pressure up on China.

Habeas corpus is NOT optional either. Setting our own Constitution aside for the moment, we agreed to it in the United Nations charter, having pushed the organization to adopt it over the objections of the Soviet Union. We need to live up to our international obligations NOW, not when it's more convenient.

If Obama wants to clean up America's image, he needs to get with the program and start DOING it.

Russian Professor Predicts U.S. Will Collapse and Break Apart in 2010: Russian Media Loves His Predictions

A Russian professor has predicted a 45%-55% chance that the United States will collapse under the economic strain that it's under, a second American Civil War will break out and several new nations will emerge from the wreckage.

Yeah, right.

But his wild predictions have found an audience in the Russian media, which has been interviewing him like crazy. Despite his reputation as a KGB analyst, he couldn't predict the breakup of his own country in 1991, yet he's prognosticating an American collapse in 2009-2010. His anti-Americanism has found support in Russia and in the Kremlin, who blame Washington for everything.

His description of the six new American nations to emerge from the article: California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

Thhhhp!

My prediction: 2009 will come and go. So will 2010. America will emerge from it's economic woes sometime in 2010, with a new focus on paying off the sizable debt that is currently being accumulated.

This guy has read too much Harry Turtledove (an alternate history author). Too many of his ideas look like they've been plagiarized from Turtledove and other "what if" authors that I've read.

China Cheated at Gymnastics: Some Chinese Athletes Are Not Old Enough to Compete

China's Deng Linlin compared to 16-year old U.S. gold medal winner Shawn Johnson. There is no way that the child being held in the photo at left is 16 years old. Johnson is what a 16-year-old SHOULD look like, with adult teeth.

Lots of Videos of Chinese Flame Protection Unit in Action

And in the following video, which is entirely in French, it was not French officials who doused the flame and leaving the runners speechless--it was the Chinese. The broadcast is in French.



So much for unity. Sure looked like the Chinese vs. everyone else, including the London police and the French runners.

China Demands Apology from Western Media for Correctly Labeling Chinese Actions in Tibet Barbaric: No Apology is Necessary

China has demanded that CNN apologize for comments that commentator Jack Cafferty made on the April 9th edition of his show. In my humble opinion, no apology is necessary as Cafferty told it the way that it is.

Cafferty was criticizing the idiotic Chinese government by calling them a group of "thugs and goons" over their treatment of their own people and the Tibetans and calling Chinese products "junk."

If China's government doesn't want accurate labels assigned to it in the West, then perhaps they ought to clean up their act and start acting like proper Olympic hosts.

China's conduct is responsible for the reception that their torch relay has been given in recent days. If China wasn't busy shooting people in Tibet, their damned relay would be going a lot smoother. And the press isn't to blame for that, either, so this demand for an apology is entirely baseless.

IOC Allows Disrupted Olympic Torch Relay Event to Go On Despite Protests: Will Reconsider It for Future Olympics

The International Olympic Committee has decided to allow China to continue it's highly disruptive international spectacle with the Olympic torch.

The Torch relay was disrupted in London and Paris, and officials in San Francisco changed the route of the torch to avoid tens of thousands of protesters that awaited it. Additionally, the flame was extinguished three times in Paris, which (supposedly) has never happened before. The flame is on it's way to Argentina, where there's not expected to be much of a protest.

I think the IOC should have canceled the rest of this ridiculous relay as China continues it's crackdown in Tibet and hasn't put any pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the killing in Darfur, which in turn has turned the torch into a political target. It's not supposed to be that way, but China has done nothing to ratchet down the tensions.

Instead, they've sent Chinese military guards (in the blue and white jump suits seen above) to guard the torch and act like the thugs that they are. They're members of the 70-man Beijing Olympic Games "Sacred" Flame Protection unit; their division of the Chinese People's Armed Police are also responsible for the recent crackdown in Tibet. They've gotten into fights along the route with protesters and wore out their welcome in France and in Britain.

Hopefully some of the other nations on the route deny entry to these Chinese military guards as they are an insult to the Olympic spirit which China has been trumpeting about on their torch relay web site. And they continue to debase the word "sacred" while in context to the flame.

The IOC is going to look at future requests from host countries to do similar relays. These relays should be conducted in the host countries alone; they don't have a right to disrupt international cities as the Chinese have done in the last ten days.

Free Tibet Protestors Disrupt Olympic Torch Procession: Unfortunate Situation is Responsibility of Chinese Government

I see that protesters have disrupted the Olympic flame procession in Great Britain and in France, where the torch was extinguished three times. By Olympic tradition, the torch is supposed to be lit in Greece, then goes around the world before arriving in the host country. In this case, it's the People's Republic of China.

But their brutal suppression of the Tibetan people and the recent violence in that Chinese-occupied country has lead to worldwide protests, and protesters have targeted the Olympic torch.

It is most unfortunate that this tradition has been disrupted, but the sole responsibility for this fiasco lies with the people who are in charge in Beijing. It was their orders that sent their army in to put down a legitimate protest in a country that does not belong to China, with more than a hundred lives being lost. The Tibetan people have a right to practice their religious beliefs in spite of the heathen communists.

China is not being a good Olympic host.

And the IOC should put a stop to this fiasco before it gets any worse. They were opposed to this multinational torch tour in the first place; and where Tibet is concerned, the unity propaganda coming from the Chinese government rings hollow.

And for the Chinese foreign minister to call the Olympic flame the "holy flame of the Olympics" is just plain offensive. Communists don't believe in anything being holy. The Chinese government has also denied that the flame was put out in France at all, telling it's people in official Chinese news broadcasts and print media that the relay in France was "successfully completed." NOT!!

Just take the damned torch to China and let them parade it around there.

Tibetan Monks Strike at Chinese Propaganda Machine During Media Visit to Tibetan Capitol: Can We Ignore Their Courage?

Tibet's monks embarrassed China yet again by staging a demonstration in front of foreign journalists who were brought in by Chinese occupation authorities to show off the fact that Tibet was calm after a week of riots. The monks proved that theory wrong big-time.

That the Tibetans chose to break cover with a Chinese crackdown in progress is amazing. The talking heads and conventional wisdom was that the Chinese military had crushed the rebellion and Tibet's people were under Chinese control again. Everyone was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Are our political leaders going to allow such reckless courage to be ignored?

These people thought it was important enough to get the word of their revolt out that they placed their lives in mortal peril, demonstrating in the presence of the reporters and armed Chinese occupation forces who were probably pointing their guns at the demonstrators. They've probably all disappeared and are either in prison, or dead. That's how the Chinese government deals with their political opponents inside Tibet, Hong Kong, and within China itself.

It's too late to move the Olympics, so all that the world can do is decide whether their leaders will boycott the Opening Ceremonies. Politicians over here are pressuring President Bush to reconsider his intention to go to Beijing. And I hope he does. By attending the opening, it's sending a signal to those inside occupied Tibet and free Tibetans around the world that the United States isn't willing to stand up for them.

And we're talking about a political boycott, not an athletic one.

Prediction: Taiwan Will Declare Independence From China During Beijing Olympic Games

I'm going to make a prediction here, because in a way it makes sense:

Taiwan will declare independence from the People's Republic of China just before the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing this August.

Just about every nation on earth will have Olympians at the Summer Olympics; and in the spirit of the games, 192 nations (every member state at the U.N.) have agreed unanimously to an Olympic truce through the United Nations. This truce is to be observed "individually and collectively." The Chinese Embassy to Jamaica even posted news of the truce on their web site.

But China has also said in the past that if Taiwan were to declare independence that it would attack Taiwan immediately and passed a law in 2005 that made war a mandatory requirement.

China has no more claim on Taiwan than it does on Tibet. But the Chinese are also bound to observe their own truce since they're hosting the games. Last week's riots in Tibet and the Chinese heavy-handiness in dealing with the situation were a major embarrassment to Beijing and highlighted the fact that they are still a violent police state, in spite of their claims to be a happy worker's paradise.

Taiwan is having important presidential and referendum elections on March 22nd. It's asking citizens if they should apply for membership in the United Nations as the Republic of Taiwan, and not the Republic of China. Both of the major presidential candidates have stressed the need for closer relationships with Beijing, but both have also said that Taiwan can govern itself without China's help.

There could be a lot of trouble going on by the time the Olympics roll around in August.

China Needs to End Their Illegal 58-Year Occupation of Tibet and Leave Them Alone

The illegal Chinese occupation of Tibet entered a new phase last week as demonstrators in the Tibetan capitol of Lhasa clashed with Chinese occupation forces. The anniversary of the 1959 riots were being observed, and the demonstrations turned violent. The Chinese opened fire and killed up to a hundred people.

It's not known if the protesters setting Chinese shops, cars and interests on fire caused the troops to open fire, or if the shootings happened first and then the protesters started rioting. In any case, it doesn't really matter. Tibet remains under Chinese occupation. Tibetans across the border in actual Chinese territory have been demonstrating in three Chinese provinces against the Chinese aggression.

The Chinese living in Tibetan territory have established a two-tiered apartheid system, which makes Tibetans second-class citizens in their own land; is it any wonder that the demonstrators targeted Chinese-owned businesses only?

The International Olympic Committee is busy telling the international community not to respond to China's continued heavy-handed tactics in controlling Tibet, and that boycotts of the Beijing Olympic Games will only hurt athletes. Yeah, right.

So we're supposed to ignore the people that China's been shooting at for a week, in favor of the athletes? I think most of the athletes would be sick to their stomachs if they learned that the murders committed against Tibet's people is to be ignored so that they could compete for blood medals.

It should be noted that over a hundred Olympic athletes from around the world have joined "Team Darfur" to raise awareness of the huge crisis in Darfur, Sudan, and the slaughter that has taken place there. China is one of Team Darfur's targets as the Chinese government (and Sudan's largest oil customer) has been reluctant to put pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the killing there. So I cannot imagine the athletes turning their backs on the people of Tibet.

Communism is an abhorrent system of government that is incompatible with a religious culture, such as the one that has been suppressed for far too long in Tibet. They should pull their army out of Tibet and LEAVE TIBET ALONE. They were doing fine without the Chinese before the Chinese Red Army (aka the People's Liberation Army) invaded.

China Wants Satellite Shoot-Down Data: They Should Share Their Data on Their Shoot-Down FIRST

China's hypocrisy matches the hypocrisy coming out of Washington these days.

They started this mess last year when they blasted one of their old weather satellites with a missile test, creating a debris field that is still in orbit and still dangerous to satellites and spacecraft that need to share the same orbit.

The U.S. knocked a malfunctioning spy satellite out of orbit yesterday in a very low orbit that will be cleared of debris within a couple of weeks as most of the pieces of our satellite will re-enter the atmosphere and be destroyed by the fiery re-entry.

Yet the Chinese are demanding to see our military's data on yesterday's U.S. anti-satellite operation, while at the same time refusing to share their data on their own test from last year. I think China ought to share what it has from it's own test FIRST before asking to see ours.

I might add that the Chinese operation was ill-conceived as their satellite was further out and the debris field now threatens spacecraft that have to either share or pass through the orbit that the debris now occupies. That was not very considerate of the Chinese to pull that kind of stunt. If one of our shuttles gets hit by debris from this Chinese satellite, they'll be the ones at fault if the shuttle is damaged and subsequently lost.

The U.S. operation, while I disagreed with it, was much more carefully considered. They waited until the satellite was within days of re-entering the atmosphere and Earth's gravity had captured it. The debris will re-enter the atmosphere and will be gone before the shuttle Endeavour takes off from Cape Canaveral within three weeks.

You see the difference in the level of expertise and professionalism between China and the U.S.?

My main point is that the U.S. criticized China's shoot-down, then did the same thing less than a year later. And both sides are criticizing the other for doing the same thing. Double-standards galore! Break out the wheelbarrows; the BS is starting to overflow its banks.

So when's Russia going to shoot down a bird? From the Russian point of view, they HAVE to now. And the U.S. and China have no credibility left to protest Russia's action if it chooses to show it's stuff. And it will.

After Months of Denial, China Shuts Down 180 Food Processing Plants Caught Using Banned Chemicals: Problem is Very Serious

More proof that we need to de-internationalize critical parts of our food supply:

China conducted an investigation into why pet food, toothpaste and other products were contaminated. They found that substances such as formaldehyde, illegal/banned dyes, and industrial wax were being used in the production of pickles, candy, crackers and seafood, among other things.

180 factories violating rules have been shut down. An additional 152,000 factories were shut down by another Chinese agency for doing the same thing over the last year. There are still 850,000 factories (mostly small operations) that Chinese authorities need to look at.

Formaldehyde??! As a preservative??! I wonder what that will do to global cancer rates.

This is probably just the tip of the iceberg as there are many more factories that need to be looked at. At least they're not denying the problem anymore. What a mess.

U.S. Doesn't Need Chinese Ingredients or Slave Labor to Make Food Products, Toothpaste or Pet Food: We Can Manufacture All Those Products Here

Why are we exporting OUR food production capability to China, which has a very checkered history of food contamination in recent memory?

We should be growing, producing and making our own foods, pet foods, and toothpaste HERE, regardless of other issues. This is a MAJOR national security problem that needs to be at the top of federal government's priority list. What good is securing our borders if our food supply is compromised and millions of people get sick?

Look at what's happened already.

Thousands of brands of pet foods were contaminated by something in Chinese wheat gluten. As a result, thousands of cats and hundreds of dogs got sick and DIED. Now discount store toothpaste has been contaminated by diethyl glycol (DEG), which is a poison that can cause kidney failure in humans if ingested. The discount store toothpaste was also produced in China.

It's apparent that we should be manufacturing these kinds of products here in the U.S., where our labs have quick and unfettered access to production facilities should a problem arise. China's been stalling on access to it's production facilities for weeks. Our own food production system is not perfect either, but at least our government and companies recall their products if there's a problem. All China's government did was deny the problems, or told the U.S. government that it was overreacting. Hooey!

Control of our food supply should not be internationalized for cost-cutting reasons. Corporations should keep their production facilities here, and not transfer them to China or India--for any reason.

There's a reason that certain pesticides were banned in the U.S.

It's because they were harmful to humans, but nations like China still continue to use them. I think these corporations should get their supplies from U.S. farmers and keep their business here. The food supply will be much safer, and we'll have answers much quicker should a malfunction occur during the manufacture of these products.

Dog Food Recall Goes International: 5,000+ Brands of Pet Food Now Affected

The pet food recall nightmare is continuing to unfold, and it has gotten worse and worse.

A careful review of all the current brands under recall at the FDA web site shows that over 5,000 individual brands of pet food have been recalled.

Now word is getting out that other countries have the same problem that we do: contaminated wheat gluten was exported overseas; it may have been fed to other animals, such as pigs, cows and other farm animals, which made it possible for contagions to enter into the human food chain as well.

The Chinese clearly aren't up to manufacturing food products for export; our FDA also isn't up to intercepting inbound poisons that made their way into the food chain from countries like China.

I think this shows that while we should be concerned about avian flu, we should be more worried about contaminated food, which has the ability to knock down many more people than bird flu would/does...and much faster too.

This definitely needs more attention from the government.