Video from site of recent massacre in Communist China

The blogosphere comes through

Excerpt:

Today Chinese officials came out and defended firing on innocent protesters in Dongzhou Village last Tuesday, December 6, 2005 where (they claim) three protesters were killed. Dongzhou villagers, however, claim that the death toll is much higher with as many as 70 protesters shot dead by authorities. China reported today that authorities have arrested the local official who ordered governmnet forces to shoot and kill the land reform protesters last week.

More from CNN

Excerpt:

Such incidents have alarmed communist leaders, who are promising to spend more to raise living standards in the poor countryside, home to about 800 million people.

By the government's count, China had more than 70,000 cases of rural unrest last year. Protests are growing more violent, with injuries on both sides.

President Hu Jintao's government has made a priority of spreading prosperity to areas left behind by China's 25-year economic boom. But in many areas, families still live on the equivalent of a few hundred dollars a year.

I say:

Gee, isn't it nice of them to be so concerned about the people they're gunning down?

Y'know, I don't think this idea of economic prosperity leading to increased liberty is working. I think maybe it's supposed to work the other way around.






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Joe Lieberman reports from Iraq

Not following the script

Excerpt:

I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.

Progress is visible and practical. In the Kurdish North, there is continuing security and growing prosperity. The primarily Shiite South remains largely free of terrorism, receives much more electric power and other public services than it did under Saddam, and is experiencing greater economic activity. The Sunni triangle, geographically defined by Baghdad to the east, Tikrit to the north and Ramadi to the west, is where most of the terrorist enemy attacks occur. And yet here, too, there is progress.

There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraqi hands than before. All of that says the Iraqi economy is growing. And Sunni candidates are actively campaigning for seats in the National Assembly. People are working their way toward a functioning society and economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi and American military there to protect it.

I say:

Not all Democrats put partisanship politics and ideology ahead of truth, decency and the future of freedom. Not all.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Lieberman could have beaten Bush in 2004. But the Democrat voters wouldn't give him a chance. They wanted electability. Unfortunately, they had no idea what constituted electability. Typical blue state shallowness. They bought a coiffure in a swift boat, and turned down a President.


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