DEADLY MOLECULES

Following three days of large scale demonstrations outside the Supreme Court, civil rights protesters gathered near the railway station in Beijing on Monday, May 25, 2009, to greet Speaker Pelosi with their high expectations. The banner reads, "Welcome Pelosi. Pay close attention to China's human rights. SOS." Photo: Boxun News

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t seems like I may have to reassess the scientific evidence that those dastardly, yet deceptively tiny carbon dioxide molecules can kill. Just the other day, a gorebal warmening activist tried to convince me with the ultra-scientific approach, saying, "If you don't believe that CO₂ is deadly, just put a plastic bag over your head. You're breathing it!"

But after writing off that experimental proof as something a fourth-grader could rebut (it's not the presence of CO₂ but the absence of oxygen, eh?), today I'm having second thoughts through a completely different observable phenomenon. Carbon dioxide molecules are the enemies of human rights — or perhaps more accurately, the irrational fear of carbon dioxide molecules is killing human rights defenders.

The great one-time critic of China's massive human rights violations, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is in China at the moment. I praised her highly when she led a congressional delegation to Dharamsala during the peak of the Tibet uprising last year, and I put the raw video of it on YouTube. She has supported good pro-Tibet legislation in the US, and eighteen years ago she unfurled a pro-human rights banner in Tienanmen Square. But when gorebal warmening is on the table, human rights are off it, apparently. Which will directly lead to more of these deaths.

Prior to her almost-top-secret departure, Nancy was asked point-blank about the issue. The reporter asks, "Will you make a case for human rights while you're there? Coming up to the 20^th anniversary of Tienanmen Square..." She first shows her annoyance that the Chinese government disclosed the trip, and that the US embassy had confirmed it. The Speaker's travel plans are supposed to be top-secret and highly classified, you see. No one is supposed to mention it — why, it's almost as dangerous as when former President Bush needed to travel unannounced into Baghdad!

Then she dances all around the question without even saying the words "human" or "rights" in a rambling non-answer:



(Sorry for the video player here, C-SPAN now uses streaming flash format. Finicky, but I couldn't find this bit on YouTube, what with everyone focusing on a completely different non-answer about her accusation that the intelligence services regularly lie to her.)

But for those "leaks" from the Chinese and US governments, she could have made it all the way to China in complete secrecy without nagging questions. As President and First Lady Bush did when travelling to China, she made a stopover in Anchorage. The Bushes also gave no interviews, but said "take all the photos you want." Photos of the Speaker were however strictly prohibited, as were any acknowledgements of her presence.

By contrast, everyone denied any knowledge of a Pelosi visit, even when security flanked the center and asked each other if "the speaker" had arrived yet, according to one earwig who was there.

Why all the secrecy? Chinese civil rights proponents knew she was coming, and gathered in Beijing on Monday to welcome her at the railway station from Shanghai.



The peaceful protesters were roughed up by police and non-uniformed thugs, and around a dozen were arrested, including a foreign reporter. Slogans such as "Bring down corrupt officials," "Restore human rights," and "Long live democracy," were shouted.

Also joining in the protest was Ms. Zhao Chunhong, a long-term protester from Hebei Province, who says she has desperately appealed for her rights for over two-years. With the help of another protester, Ms. Li Suzhen, Zhao unfurled a banner that says: "Welcome Pelosi: SOS – please pay attention to China’s human rights" and shouted slogans.

The Chinese police tried to take the banner from Zhao. Zhao, who is eight months pregnant, was dragged to the ground, and her legs were injured and her arms twisted. Several elderly women were knocked to the ground also.

The Chinese police manhandled the protesters and injured many people. Elderly people in their 70’s were pushed to the ground by hired thugs.

According to Mr. Zhou Guangfu from Chongqing, there were more than 2,000 protesters.

Large scale civil rights demonstrations had been going on outside the Supreme Court in Beijing over the previous three days (wai Gateway Pundit, who has more video).

And in a remarkable development, Scott Ott (editor-in-chief of the world-renowned satirical news agency ScrappleFace News Network [News Fairly Unbalanced. We Report. You Decipher.] acquired a top-secret draft of Speaker Pelosi's ultra-secret planned speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. Some notable passages, "leaked" via the Washington Examiner:

"History will judge how the Peoples' Republic of China, and the United States of America confronted the greatest threat the earth has ever seen. I speak of global climate change, of course, and nothing more."

"There is still time to reverse this deadly trend. China, free to bet on a better future, can cut its filthy byproducts by dismantling the obsolete machine, and unleashing the clean energy of her as-yet-untapped resources -- the power of sunlight and the wild sweeping wind of change. I speak of alternative energy, of course, and nothing more."

Didja see that? I bolded it so y'all couldn't miss it. The Speaker can almost bring herself to say it! Now we just need to work on changing that vowel in the middle...

(I repeat: that was satire.)
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Labels: China, Tibet, USA

- posted by Agam @ 5:04 PM 0 comments

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