Byrd's evolution on matters of race mirrors a nation maturing

The life of Senator Robert Byrd is a testament to how much we can all change in our lifetimes. Once a Ku Klux Klansman, Byrd spent more time apologizing for that episode of his life than he ever actually spent with the Klan.

Like many young white men of his generation in the 1940s he grew up when the Klan actually meant something. In small towns across the nation, and not just in the South, all the local political elite were members of the Klan. If you wanted to be something, you joined in. Even noted Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black was in the Klan in his native Alabama. That’s not to defend Byrd’s decision to join. The Klan was a hateful organization to its core, but in some places it was the only game in town.

Read the rest at The Loop.

Passed

Having passed my Masters Thesis oral defence I will now complete the administrative formalities and graduate in the next week and a half. Thank you to everyone who has helped me with advice, proofreading and critiques whilst I've been writing my thesis.

Thank you to Professors Chen, Wu and Leng for surviving my presentation and still passing me!

Michael Danielsen Takes Steve Tsang Apart

This is a response to Steve Tsang’s (曾銳生) recent article in the Taipei Times:

[LETTERS]

Wednesday, Jun 30, 2010, Page 8
Peace across the Strait

Stop your independence referendums and create peace is Steve Tsang’s (曾銳生) simplistic recipe for peace between Taiwan and China as published in this paper (“Now is the time to forge consensus,” June 20, page 8). According to Tsang’s standpoint, Taiwan will obtain peace by abandoning the fundamental of any democracy to hold referendums on “independence.”

He leaves the impression that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should seek to create a “consensus in Taiwan” on this repressive idea, disregarding all serious studies showing that Taiwanese will refuse to surrender to such a proposal.

In addition, he ignores that Ma’s China-friendly policies seem to have contributed to his low popularity.

Tsang’s proposal resembles a Chinese proposal from 1982, known as “one country, two systems.” The starting point for this proposal was a message to Taiwan on Jan. 1, 1979, from China’s National People’s Congress.

This was further expanded on in September 1981 by a nine-point proposal, which offered Taiwan autonomy and the right to retain its own social system and military.

This offer, however, hasn’t found support among Taiwanese. Since 1993, 68 percent to 80 percent of Taiwanese have rejected it and recently more than 80 percent have said no to the “one country, two systems” proposal.

It is daunting that Tsang denegrates the 72 percent of Taiwanese who want independence by labeling them aggressive and pointing out that China does not wish to see the DPP’s “aggressively pro-independence leaders return to power.” China uses such labels for opponents of their claim to sovereignty over Taiwan. Ma only avoids being labeled as aggressive by saying what China wants to hear.

The main problem in the conflict is China. It is Beijing that makes unfounded claims to Taiwan despite the fact that Taiwan was only a province of the Qing dynasty for 10 years, from 1885 to 1895. It is China that needs to realize its indoctrinated nationalism is the source of continued tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

Democracy has a hard time when people such as Tsang consider its elimination a solution to the conflict between Taiwan and China. It is a naive illusion to have confidence in the survival of Taiwan’s democracy if it is a part of China.

DaFydd Fell has a much more progressive proposal and suggests a consensus-seeking conference where taiwanese discuss the future (“How to achieve political consensus,” June 28, page 8). A lasting peace between Taiwan and China will only come when the world listens to Taiwanese and releases them from China’s grip.

MICHAEL DANIELSEN

Chairman of Taiwan Corner, Copenhagen

DPP ECFA Advert on Youtube

The DPP have produced these two videos below as criticism of the ECFA trade agreement and what they argue are its likely effects on Taiwanese. In the first we see a new well qualified graduate lose a job to a competitor from China and in the second we overhear a conversation by two businessmen celebrating ECFA's benefits for them. Interestingly, given recent discussion on the Taiwan blogsphere about the use of 'Dalu' or mainland by Taiwanese (indicating their internalisation of China as a bigger part of their own country), both videos below use the phrase repeatedly. I feel it might more benefit the DPP if they were more careful to use the word Chung-guo rather than Dalu where possible in future.

有ECFA真好?- ECFA哪裡好三部曲之二



早收清單---ECFA哪裡好?

Quotes of the Week - CNN on Taiwan

I caught these quotes tonight at a friend's house. A whole segment on CNN was devoted to the issue of the ECFA trade agreement. These words emerged from the CNN 'Asian expert''s mouth:

"Well we saw a few thousand people marching on the streets against the trade deal but if you are familiar with Taiwan, protests are to be expected".

"Taiwan's economy is doing very well. They posted their largest growth in the last 30 years".

"Gosh, China really is in all the news these days". (From the Anchor as his last comment before segueing into a new topic)

One thing did strike me though was that the old AFP 'split in 1949' formula was conspicuous by its absence and they skirted the independence issue calling Taiwan's status undefined.

Overall: 3/10 for what overall constituted utter drivel thereby winning CNN The Award For The Most Inaccurate And Inane Misinformation Farted Into The World's Consciousness.

Video of the Week - After Brokenhagen, what next?

The Guardian doesn't like to share its videos so here's a link to the video instead.

Respect

MT blogged the link for this but I thought it worth printing it (Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?). Below is the relevant piece as currently printed on the SI site:

It took a week, but finally, on the best tennis day of the year, we had our Grade-A upset of Wimbledon 2010. When Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer 16-14 in the fifth set of the 2009 Wimbledon final, it was devastating. But there were abundant moral victories and sources of pride. No shame in coming within a few points of beating the best ever. On Monday, Roddick lost 9-7 in the fifth set to little-known Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei * and, well, as Roddick himself was quick to note: "I'm going to be pissed when I wake up tomorrow."

* Note to the broadcasters: Despite what the ATP media guide might say, Lu is not from Chinese Taipei. He is from Taiwan, the capital of which is Taipei. Lu called his people "Taiwanese" and we should, too.

By

Jon Wertheim

Thank you Jon. A voice of reason in a craven and cowardly industry. Are you watching ATP? Your sycophancy got one hell of a beating!

Miaoli Dapu Land Grab Continues

Now moving at an ever faster pace, Miaoli County Government has once again moved to clear privately owned land for developers whilst the victims of the land grab wait for a non-response from the Office of the President:

Dapu residents and their supporters held demonstrations in front of the Presidential Office and the Control Yuan on Wednesday asking for help, after excavators sent by the county government partially flattened the rice paddies of farmers who refused to give their land to the county government earlier this month.

At the time, the Presidential Office said it would look into the matter and reply to the residents within a week.

“Look at what the county government is doing now, even before a week has passed,” Dapu Self-Help Association spokeswoman Yeh Hsiu-tao (葉秀桃) told the Taipei Times by telephone.

At about 9am, close to 100 police officers were dispatched to block off roads to Dapu. Soon afterward, excavators moved into rice paddies that had been partially destroyed earlier this month.

“This time, they flattened everything, trucked away mud and rice plants, and turned the farms into a big construction site,” said Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), a National Tsinghua University student who witnessed the scene.

A video clip shot and uploaded by a self-help association member showed police officers trying to prevent the farmers from getting to their land and taking away those who insisted on doing so.

“One woman was taken in a police car and released somewhere on the coast kilometers away from the village,” Chen said.

That sounds ominously like PRC Government tactics. Relocate protesters away from sites of controversy until a time when their protests will be futile against a fait accompli. And since when were police the tool of County Government's to ensure the economic goals of private corporations? This dangerously sets a precedent of police being seen as partial and acting against the rule of law - one that says a person owns a property until they sign off on the land and hand over the deeds. In this case, several farmers have not handed over the deeds but the County Government is trying to bamboozle residents by saying that THEY have the deeds. Well now, BOTH can't have deeds to the same lands at the same time. I think this begs for the interpretation of the courts. I would advise Dapu residents to sue the County Government and police officials for aiding and abetting robbery. First on the list to be cited: Huang Chih-chun (黃智群), deputy director of the county government's Economic Development Department.

Terry Guo, your name gets muddier every day. Perhaps it would be best if you move all your businesses to China and leave Taiwanese alone. They need your economic beneficence like a hole in the head.

I'm not going to criticise you but I'll let the public decide whether you are ugly

Backhanded 'neutrality'? See:

Meanwhile, the Presidential Office declined to criticize former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).

“The public will judge whether former president Lee is bigoted,” Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said.

Seems not only Former President Lee is critical of the current Korupt Mendacious Traitors Administration:

The Dalai Lama told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) during an interview with Chinese-language reporters in Japan on Sunday that he did not know where the Taiwanese government was heading.

The spiritual leader made the comment after being asked if he would visit Taiwan again. The Dalai Lama said his visit to Taiwan last year seemed to create trouble for the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). He said some Taiwanese media had produced negative reports about him at first, but that the coverage turned positive after they learned more about the nature of his trip.

He said that when he met former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) in 1997, he told Lien he was not against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Lien, however, told him that his party was.

“What about now?” the Dalai Lama asked, adding that he was confused about the direction the KMT administration was adopting.

ECFA and a new chapter in CCP-KMT hegemony will be signed today. Although Lien couldn't have foreseen that in 1997, let's not forget that it was him and Soong that laid the foundations for ECFA with their Flights of Capitulation to pay tribute to Beijing in 2005.

The Arc of a Man's Life - Senator Robert Byrd Passes Away at 92

West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd dead at 92
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jun 28, 6:02 am ET

WASHINGTON – Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.

A spokesman for the family, Jesse Jacobs, said Byrd died peacefully at about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va. He had been in the hospital since late last week.

At first Byrd was believed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, but other medical conditions developed. He had been in frail health for several years.

Byrd, a Democrat, was the longest-serving senator in history, holding his seat for more than 50 years. He was the Senate's majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a fellow West Virginian in the Senate, said it was his "greatest privilege" to serve with Byrd.

"I looked up to him, I fought next to him, and I am deeply saddened that he is gone," Rockefeller said.

In comportment and style, Byrd often seemed a Senate throwback to a courtlier 19th century. He could recite poetry, quote the Bible, discuss the Constitutional Convention and detail the Peloponnesian Wars — and frequently did in Senate debates.

Yet there was nothing particularly courtly about Byrd's pursuit or exercise of power.

Byrd was a master of the Senate's bewildering rules and longtime chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls a third of the $3 trillion federal budget. He was willing to use both to reward friends and punish those he viewed as having slighted him.

"Bob is a living encyclopedia, and legislative graveyards are filled with the bones of those who underestimated him," former House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, once said in remarks Byrd later displayed in his office.

Rest of obituary at link above.

The President Comments on Byrd:

President Barack Obama says the country has lost a voice of principle and reason with the passing of Sen. Robert C. Byrd.

In a statement, Obama says Byrd had a profound passion for the Senate, and held the deepest respect for members of both parties. Obama says that as a young senator, he appreciated Byrd’s generosity with his time and advice.

He said that Byrd, in his words, was “as much a part of the Senate as the marble busts that line its chambers and corridors.”

Speaking earlier in the day at an event in Louisville, Ky., Vice President Joe Biden remembered Byrd as a tough, compassionate leader and said the Senate “is a lesser place for his going.”



The President wrote about Byrd in Audacity of Hope:

That said, Obama was well aware of how compelling it was to work alongside someone who, just a few decades earlier, had vigorously fought the very notion that an African-American should share the same rights as his white colleagues. In his book "Audacity of Hope", he wrote -- with wonder more than reverence -- of his first meeting with Byrd:

Listening to Senator Byrd I felt with full force all the essential contradictions of me in this new place, with its marble busts, its arcane traditions, its memories and its ghosts. I pondered the fact that, according to his own autobiography, Senator Byrd had received his first taste of leadership in his early twenties, as a member of the Raleigh County Ku Klux Klan, an association that he had long disavowed, an error he attributed -- no doubt correctly -- to the time and place in which he'd been raised, but which continued to surface as an issue throughout his career. I thought about how he had joined other giants of the Senate, like J. William Fulbright of Arkansas and Richard Russell of Georgia, in Southern resistance to civil rights legislation. I wondered if this would matter to the liberals who now lionized Senator Byrd for his principled opposition to the Iraq War resolution -- the MoveOn.org crowd, the heirs of the political counterculture the senator had spent much of his career disdaining.


I wondered if it should matter. Senator Byrd's life -- like most of ours -- has been the struggle of warring impulses, a twining of darkness and light. And in that sense I realized that he really was a proper emblem for the Senate, whose rules and design reflect the grand compromise of America's founding: the bargain between Northern states and Southern states, the Senate's role as a guardian against the passions of the moment, a defender of minority rights and state sovereignty, but also a tool to protect the wealthy from the rabble, and assure slaveholders of noninterference with their peculiar institution. Stamped into the very fiber of the Senate, within its genetic code, was the same contest between power and principle that characterized America as a whole, a lasting expression of that great debate among a few brilliant, flawed men that had concluded with the creation of a form of government unique in its genius--yet blind to the whip and the chain.

Those who always bring up Byrd's membership in the KKK, yes, it gives me pause. But, the man lived a long enough life to show the arc of it. Unlike a Jesse Helms, who, til the bitter end, acted like he longed for the America of slavery and Jim Crow, Robert Byrd had a long enough legislative life for me to believe that he had evolved. That he had gained wisdom for his previous choices, and to believe that he had come to regret those earlier choices.

RIP, Senator Byrd. You served West Virginia well.

The Supreme Court Says the 2nd Amendment Applies to All Citizens

High Court Rules in Favor of Gun Rights
By NATHAN KOPPEL

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court ruled for the first time that gun possession is fundamental to American freedom, giving federal judges power to strike down state and local weapons laws for violating the Second Amendment.

In a 5-4 ruling, the court held that the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right that binds states.
"Self defense is a basic right, recognized by many legal systems from ancient times to the present day," wrote Justice Samuel Alito. He was joined in reaching the result by Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

The legal question before the court had much to do with questions of constitutional history. Before the Civil War, courts held that the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government. After the Union victory, the Reconstruction amendments were adopted to elevate individual rights over state powers and cement the federal role in enforcing them.

I think I'm to the right of the rest of the bloggers here on this issue, but I agree with this ruling completely.

The only people in America, that cannot legally obtain firearms, are law abiding urban dwellers like me.

Suburban folks have them.
Rural folks have them.
The criminals that run rampant in urban areas CERTAINLY have them - the gun restriction laws have never slowed THEM down.

I'm not saying that I will run out and purchase a gun. The point for me was, if I wanted to, I should be able to, as a law abiding citizen of this country.

Coming to an urban area near you: the Crispus Attucks Gun Club.

Quote of The Week - More British Embarrassment

“It seems Britain is still the dirty man of Europe. These figures will shame the succession of ministers who promised Britain would be at the forefront of developing clean tech. As things stand, our economy is poorly placed to benefit from this century’s inevitable shift to low-carbon industry, while Germany looks well-positioned to gain from first-mover advantage.”

Thus spoke Ben Stewart, spokesperson for Greenpeace on news that new research (by ethical investment consultant Eiris) showed of Europe’s top 300 companies, more than 50% of those most engaged in carbon-polluting sectors were based in the Britain and of those companies in the top 300 dedicated to solving or mitigating the problems of climate change, only 3 percent were located in Britain.

Read the article here.

Sexual Competition + Concentrated Overpopulation = Unsustainability

Here are some disordered thoughts. Feedback and constructive and polite criticism is very welcome.

I've been thinking a lot recently about the connections between population densities, culture, innate human behaviour and environmental sustainability. In fact that last item should really be called human sustainability because the environment exists with or without us and sustains itself regardless.

To understand this one must reject notions of progress. It cannot be stated firmly enough that there is no conception of progress (here meaning improvement over time) in Darwin's theory of evolution. Adaptation does not have a subjective bias and is not concerned with comfort but rather with base survival.

Whilst humans have no doubt benefited from advances in technology that have allowed us as a species to live longer on average and to live more comfortably than before (at least for a small number of the world's population - e.g. toothpaste, medicine, ACs, heaters, oil based vehicles etc) and although we perceive this as progress, humans have not in recent years any more evolved to fit their environment as they have evolved to try to and shape their environment to fit their perceived physical and psychological needs.

If anything, we as a species are now more distant and estranged from our environment than ever before. Rather than try to understand the infinitely complex algorithm that is our global environment we are instead utterly slave to our impulse to reproduction and meeting our physical and psychological needs. Each advance in understanding our role in this system comes painfully slowly and at huge cost to us all in terms of sustainable use of resources. Partly of course this comes down to an individual's inability to perceive relationships between factors that happen on scales that are hard for humans to perceive. Even if we do perceive them, the tendency is to say that this is too big an issue and too much out of our individual control to do anything about it. But something else also lies behind our blind ransacking of the world's resources and common heritage.

Sexual competition between humans during the period of each individual's peak fertility necessitates that each individual will try to maximise resource consumption that will best enable them to compete for mates and the ability to produce offspring. Individuals will not likely forgo their own mating opportunities in order to consciously preserve their environment.

Human sexual competition is a dialectical system. Female sexual competition affects male sexual competition and in reverse. The male-female ratio in a given site is also a major influence upon the severity and method of that competition. One last key influence is the limited time span of female fertility. This induces males and females to concentrate a vast amount of effort into resource acquisition between the ages of 15 and 45 years of age. Add to that mix technology and you have an explosive equation of resource annihilation.

Between the ages of 15 and 45, males are driven by a need to achieve mating opportunities. At the same time, females are driven by a need to select mates that will not only provide offspring but, in our current gender culture, provide a steady supply of resources to enable females to raise offspring. Feminist ideology might wish to unshackle women from 'the kitchen sink' but by doing so it inadvertently increases competition for resources. Instead of mostly males competing for resources to supply to females, now both males and females are competing with each other for resources to meet their individual needs. This has exponentially increased pressure on resource acquisition. I do not wish either sex to be constrained into predefined and narrow gendered roles but at the same time I recognise that innate biological engines still drive males and female together - the reason being the need to reproduce ourselves.

Since females are the sex that builds and carries the baby, males are left with providing sperm and resources. Families are the product of the recognition of this biological division of roles.

Communities of humans mediate the intensity of this partnership. If all couplings are individual of communities then communities can no longer provide caring roles that reduce the competition for resources.

Gosh, what am I saying? Well, I guess that communities and extended families are important factors that reduce resource competition by reducing the pressure upon single couplings to provide all their needs themselves. If grandparents and uncles and aunts help each other and successive generations, then new families will not have to consume as much to achieve stable and better conditions for new generations.

This is not good for business. Our current business models are based upon a conception of ever expanding growth. That means creating not only new markets but also new consumers for new, but not necessarily needed, products - in turn adding consumption pressure to finite resources.

Both males and females are trapped in a system of gendered consumption that appeals to the individual and their fears and desires. Slow and steady growth is rejected in favor of a rate of production and consumption which our environment cannot sustain over the long run.

Living in cities might seem efficient for humans but in fact they are huge resource holes that do not replace the resources they consume. This generates higher demand which in turn generates conflict as cities and states seek more resources to sustain themselves

Finally, as each male and female seeks to consume only for their single coupling in the absence of extended community and familial support networks, more resources are drained from a finite supply.

This is why new family couples are often the most reluctant to effect changes to lifestyle and consumption that will increase sustainability for communities as a whole. Today's dictum is 'I'm looking out for my family only and I can't afford to do otherwise'. Social pressure acts to induce these families to be defensive to suggestions that they perhaps act in ways that might benefit the wider environment. Ask a mother or father to reduce their consumption and you will likely get the reply that they are doing what's best for their children. However, is living unsustainably really benefiting their children when their children will be the ones paying for it in terms of environmental destruction and unstable economics?.

A single male or female without offspring who questions this mode of existence inevitably gets dismissed as 'not understanding the real world'. How many times have I heard the excuse, and yes it is an excuse, that when I have kids I 'will understand'. I will understand, I am told, that it is inevitable that I will feel that same way about needing to wildly consume to meet my family's needs. Mothers are particularly vulnerable to this socially generated and culturally supported perceived need to consume to appear as a good parent. We are so concerned about the social judgment of others that we will attack anyone who suggests we scale back our consumption to meet wider needs. Thus many new mothers and fathers put their 'family needs' before the needs of their community for a sustainable environment and resource consumption. Add to this a culture of conspicuous consumption and you can say goodbye to sustainability.

Our lifespans are short. We thus concentrate our efforts on meeting our own needs in the here and now. Both males and females will not willingly reduce their ability to compete for partners and resources without a sense that all others are doing the same. We need an epistemological revolution before everyone really starts to put long-term needs before short-term desires but our lives are too short and hectic for people to concentrate and coordinate their activities and consumption patterns to meet wider environmental needs.

We also have a gendered culture that posits females as beauty objects and males as status objects. Sexual competition reinforces this dynamic. Males acquire resources to acquire status to make themselves more attractive to females. Females select on the basis of status and confidence of males. Females are unwilling generally to select on a basis of rational choice, trusting a more emotional and biological basis of choice over other means. Males in turn prefer to select on the basis of appearance, wasting valuable resources as they spend time and effort chasing unsuitable partners, psychologically and otherwise. Social pressure and business generated unrealistic ideals add to this wasteful process.

Females are not innately necessarily any more emotional or less rational then males. Both sexes have the same capacity for emotion and reason but are trapped in gendered consumption patterns dictated by social norms.

The end result is a constant cycle of increasing unsustainability.

Sh*t England Team Lose to Superior German Side

4-1 to Germany.

English defense running in slow motion.

Midfield. uh was there one?

Disallowed goal: blind robbery but that's what happens sometimes. You pick yourself up and get on with it.

Rooney: almost invisible in this world cup. Might as well have brought along a mannequin.

Hesky on for Defoe was a ludicrous and insane decision.

German counter attack was like the goals we used to score at my school at lunch. Everyone knackered and stranded upfield so 1 man left at the back to defend.

Trying to score with three of your players standing on each others toes won't ever work.

All in all - embarrassing and well deserved defeat. Capello to find a new job and most of the players to be replaced for 2012.

The President's Remarks on Wall Street Reform

hat tip-W.E.E. See You

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Lots of Charts

I've updated my Charts page. It's good stuff, if, you know, you're into that sort of thing. My favorite one is the first one showing how much Texas leads the nation in executions.

Somebody, Anybody, Nobody, Everybody

A strange tale in the Taipei Times today. A Taiwanese reported that a letter sent to him from the US marked 'Republic of Taiwan' in English and Chinese arrived with the aforesaid mentioned national title mysteriously blacked out:

A volunteer at a pro-independence organization yesterday accused Chunghwa Post of infringing his personal freedom and privacy after a package delivered to him with “Republic of Taiwan (台灣國)” in its address was tampered with.

Kuo Chien-kuo (郭建國), a volunteer for the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan, said a friend sent him the package from the US that arrived in Taiwan last Friday.

Kuo’s friend sent the package to the alliance’s office using the address “100, Chindao East Rd, Taipei, Republic of Taiwan.”

Kuo said that a security guard in the office building received the package on his behalf. When Kuo obtained it he was surprised to discover that the words “Republic of Taiwan” on the package, both in Chinese characters and in English letters, had been blacked out.

Kuo claims the US Postal service wouldn't have done this so that leaves someone at Chunghua Post (Formerly Taiwan Post, Formerly formerly Chunghua Post) as the main suspect. But Tseng Chin-hsiung (曾錦雄), director of Chunghwa Post’s mail and business operation department claimed that they hadn't done this because they wouldn't have had the time to do it (owing to the large volume of letters processed daily). Furthermore, he stated for the record that they had no right to make the changes or black out words in the address.

My intuition says that this is a classic case of 'Somebody altered the name but Anybody said Nobody could have done it so Everybody decided that it was best just to walk away from the question altogether'.

So ... to see if this was a one off I have asked a relative to send me a letter with the same address format and see if that too gets altered. If it does we can start to build up a case that this is either the work of rogue elements within Chunghua post or a systematic institutional policy.

For the record, I personally don't like the term 'Republic of Taiwan', I think the name 'Taiwan' alone is good enough for the country - the Chinese 台灣國 as I understand it simply means Taiwan country rather than insinuating whether this is a republic or other political system.

I shall post again to let you all know the results.

Giles Perkins Calls For A Death Penalty Moratorium

Democratic candidate for Attorney General of Alabama Giles Perkins has called for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Alabama until the matter can be studied further:

Birmingham attorney Giles Perkins said Thursday if elected he would ask the Legislature to approve a moratorium to make sure the death penalty is being administered fairly.

His opponent in the July 13 runoff, Montgomery lawyer James Anderson, said he wants the attorney general's office to study the issue first. If problems are found, he said he would then favor a moratorium.

Their positions on the death penalty assure there will be an issue dividing the Democratic runoff winner and Republican nominee Luther Strange. A Birmingham attorney, Strange said he supports the death penalty and would oppose a moratorium.

Clinton Parties With The U.S. Soccer Team

Bin Laden Hunter Returns Home

The would-be Osama bin-Laden assain from Colorado has made it home after being found in the woods by Pakistani authorities with "a pistol, a sword and night-vision equipment.":

In Pakistan, [Gary Faulkner] told officials he was out to kill the al-Qaida leader. He was then moved to Islamabad... 

Faulkner is an unemployed construction worker who sold his tools to finance six trips on what relatives have called a Rambo-type mission to kill or capture bin Laden. He grew out his hair and beard to fit in better.

Orevwa Candy Cigarettes

Yep today is the first day that candy cigarettes are officially contraband.  Yes, they were stupid to begin with, but who didn't buy some as a kid?:

Banned by a smoking prevention law prohibiting candy and "fruit-flavored" cigarettes, the badass big brother of the Pez dispenser is officially contraband.

Protest Against ECFA in Taipei Tomorrow 6/26

Citizens demand a referendum [on ECFA] and oppose the "one-China" market
June 26 [2010], gather at 3 PM @ Wanhua Station and Dinghao Plaza
(Tip to Tim at Taiwan Matters for the Image)

The President's Remarks on the Resignation of McChrystal

Byrne Spins The Truth In New Ad

GOP candidate for Governor of Alabama Bradley Byrne takes some hefty liberties with his new ad*"more liberal than you know": attacking fellow GOP candidate Robert Bentley:

But a check of legislative records by The Associated Press shows Bentley's vote was cast on a proposal made by Republican Gov. Bob Riley and supported by the state Republican Party chairman. It passed 96-0.

The vote cited in the text of the ad also occurred in 2004 - four years before the teacher mentioned in the ad went to prison.

*Footnote:  If you missed the ad click the link above as I posted it earlier.

Christian Evangelists Arrested In Dearborn

LINK

Blues Café - Projecto de Design de Interiores

Blues - Restaurante, Bar e Discoteca

Proposta bares interiores iluminados:

Projecto de equipamentos, desenvolvido pela 4UDECOR, tendo como principal objectivo uma remodelação das zonas de bar, do espaço de modo a criar outro tipo de ambiência e imagem do bar.
Foram desenvolvidas várias propostas, tais como, a colocação de módulos de balcão/bar iluminados, a requalificação do balcão já existente colocando painéis decorativos na parte frontal e iluminação escondida no topo do balcão.
Para a zona interior do bar, projectaram-se sistemas de prateleiras iluminadas em vidro na horizontal com ilhargas verticais, estruturais.


Proposta esplanada exterior:

Projecto de remodelação da esplanada, desenvolvido pela 4UDECOR, de modo a dinamizar o espaço e a sua utilização diurna/nocturna.

Criaram-se zonas de bar com módulos de balcão/bar iluminados, zonas de estar lounge com sofás e mesas de apoio, e distribuíram-se os restantes equipamentos de modo a que o espaço de circulação não ficasse limitado. Foram colocados ao longo da esplanada vários vasos iluminados, servindo estes não só como elementos decorativos, mas também aproveitando a sua luminosidade e cor de luz para criar ambiência no espaço.

McChrystal Out

I am actually filled with overwhelming sympathy for General McChrystal, but having talked to a few officers they said this was inevitable and had to be done.  I guess "officially" McChrystal pulled a Tommy Tubberville and resigned, but whatever.  In any case, Barack Obama just went to the "dark-side" (not really, but it is funny).

Byrne Wastes No Time, Begins Attacking Bentley

GOP Guv hopeful Bradley Byrne has wasted no time in going on the offensive against rival Robert Bentley.  I will say that the fact they didn't say AEA 1,000 times surprised me, but the ad is an anti-AEA ad nonetheless.  It will hurt Bentley to respond in kind, so it will be interesting to see what he actually does:


***Footnote:  I know this is airing in  the Montgomery marker because it was on TV last night, but I don't know where else the ad is airing.



LINK

Tim Scott's South Carolina win is a loss for African Americans

The mainstream media portrays Paul Thurmond as the loser in last night’s Republican primary for South Carolina’s first congressional district, but that’s all wrong. The real losers are African Americans.

After Tim Scott’s victory, Republicans will treat us with a steady diet of “look how diverse we are.” One black face in a sea of white Republicanism doesn’t equal diversity, it’s more like a rounding error.

Read the rest at The Loop.

Tibetan Environmentalist: I was tortured in detention

(Tibetan environmentalist Karma Samdrup at Mount Kawakarpo Dechen, in China's Yunnan province, in 2008. Photograph: AP. Image from The Guardian)

Samdrup's wife, attending his trial on charges of robbing graves and stealing cultural artifacts, has told media that her husband was almost unrecognisable. Samdrup himself opened his defence with accusations of torture in the time since he was detained on January 3rd 2010:

• Beatings and physical abuse
  
• Sleep deprivation
• Injection with drugs that made his ears bleed

Samdrup is a famous, and wealthy, environmental activist in China and was named philanthropist of the year by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) for "creating harmony between men and nature". The Guardian report adds:

His siblings, Rinchen Samdrup and Jigme Namgyal, were arrested last August after their separate environmental protection group – Voluntary Environmental Protection Association of Kham Anchung Senggenamzong – sought to expose officials who hunted endangered animals. Namgyal is serving a 21-month re-education-through-labour sentence for "harming national security."

He is accused of illegally collecting information about the environment, natural resources and religion, organising petitions, and providing propaganda material for supporters of the Dalai Lama. Rinchen Samdrup is in custody but has not been tried.

According to the International Campaign for Tibet, this may be part of a new campaign against intellectuals.

The Washington-based group said last month that 31 Tibetans are now in prison "after reporting or expressing views, writing poetry or prose, or simply sharing information about Chinese government policies and their impact in Tibet today".

Accusations of police and prison guard brutality are commonplace in China. This month, Wu Lihong – an award-winning anti-pollution campaigner in Jiangsu province – told the Guardian he was beaten by guards during the three year jail sentence he has just completed.

Read the whole article HERE.

Either the President is the Commander-In-Chief, or he is not

hat tip-SouthernGirl2

From Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan was fighting for his job Tuesday after being summoned to Washington to explain a magazine profile that included derogatory comments about President Barack Obama and his colleagues.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Gen. Stanley McChrystal's comments were "distractions" to the war in Afghanistan.

McChrystal, who publicly apologized Tuesday for using "poor judgment" in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, has been ordered to appear at the White House Wednesday, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

He'll be expected to explain his comments in the magazine's profile, titled "The Runaway General," to the president and top Pentagon officials, officials said.

A top military official in Afghanistan told The Associated Press that McChrystal hasn't been told whether he will be allowed to keep his job. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions between Washington and the general's office in Kabul.

McChrystal spent Tuesday calling several of those mentioned in the article to apologize, officials said, including Gates and Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy to Pakistan.

Gates issued a statement saying McChrystal made "a significant mistake" and used poor judgment in his remarks to a magazine reporter.

He can apologize until Jesus returns.

McChrystal needs to go.



I can't see how this is anything BUT insubordination.

There are few things that are as explicit in the Constitution of the United States as 'THE PRESIDENT IS THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF'.

Doesn't say that the President is the Commander-In-Chief when you agree with him.

NO.

Despised Bush for 8 years, but he was the Commander-in-Chief.

IF you have a problem with that as a member of the military, then you need to either: 1)shut up and follow orders or 2) resign. As a member of the Armed Forces, these are your options.

McChrystal has openly disrespected and defied the President of the United States.

And, if Jonathan Alter's book is to be believed- it's not the first time.

Since he has issues with this President, he can take his government pension and go do whatever he does for fun.

Let's be clear: the President gave McChrystal WHAT HE WANTED IN AFGHANISTAN. He didn't go halfsies with him - he gave the man what he wanted. And now, that it's pretty clear that HIS idea really didn't work, he's trying to punk out.

He also needs to go for this reason:

From James Fallows of the Atlantic:

It's about civilian control of the military, respect for the chain of command, and the concepts of disrespect and insubordination. Every officer and enlisted person in every military branch is well schooled in what those concepts mean.

If the facts are as they appear -- McChrystal and his associates freely mocking their commander in chief and his possible successor (ie, Biden) and the relevant State Department officials (Holbrooke and Eikenberry) -- with no contention that the quotes were invented or misconstrued, then Obama owes it to past and future presidents to draw the line and say: this is not tolerable. You must go.

Another reason why he should go:
hat tip-lamh32

*
Tillman mother sought to warn Obama of McChrystal

The mother of the slain football player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman sought to warn President Obama against making General Stanley McChrystal his commander in Afghanistan.

Mary Tillman said in an unpublished interview this year that she wrote to Obama and called Senators and members of Congress seeking to block McChrystal's appointment when she learned that he was under consideration for the post.

She called the lack of deliberation leading to his appointment "disgusting" in the interview, given before today's Rolling Stone article spurred intense tension between the general and the White House. An audio recording of the interview was provided to POLITICO by the interviewer, who asked to remain anonymous.

McChrystal has been accused of involvement in covering up of the fact that Tillman had been shot by his own comrades, having approved a citation for a posthumous medal that attributed his death to "enemy fire," though the general also penned a memo warning the White House against describing the circumstance of Tillman's death for fear of future embarrassment.

Religion

Chart: Number Executed In Texas

Digging through the archives I found this chart I made two years ago for my classes. I could update it through 2010, but it would just show a longer line for Texas.

Toadying Up

'Provincial' President Ma (Lord Haw Haw) has once again proven that he lives in a Beijing pleasing Chinese bubble by absolutely unnecessary and self-denigrating comments he made yesterday to the effect that Taiwan was a 'province'. Witness thus:

Ma told Texas Governor Rick Perry during a meeting at the Presidential Office that the country’s relationship with Texas was a close one.

“In 1988, Texas and Taiwan Province became sister states,” Ma said. “Over the past two years, we have engaged in many exchanges in technology, culture, education and agriculture.” (Here Ma was technically correct since in 1988 Taiwan Provincial Government entered a sister relationship with Texas)

Ma thanked the Texas legislature for passing a resolution last year reaffirming the “sister state and sister province” relationship. ( ... but it is now 2010, not 1988. Ma seems to have forgotten this, instead choosing to live in the make-believe world that the period of 1991 to 2008 in Taiwan never happened)

However, Ma’s description ran counter to the one stated in Resolution 81(R) HR 1593 passed by the Texas House of Representatives in June last year, which states: “Texas and Taiwan are celebrating the 21st anniversary of their Sister State relationship in June 2009.” (Why let a little thing called reality get in the way of a hugely anti-democratic notion of Taiwan as part of a Greater China?)

Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠), a research fellow at the Taiwan Brain Trust think tank, said Ma’s logic made sense under the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution, which views China as part of its territory.

“But it is impractical and runs counter to political reality,” he said.

In the eyes of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Liu said the ROC was long subjugated when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost the Chinese civil war in 1949. For the DPP, Taiwan is an independent sovereignty whose current name is the ROC, he said.

Liu said he did not have any problem with the sister-state relationship between Taiwan and Texas in terms of trade. What worried him, however, was Ma’s backtracking to the former KMT administration’s “unrealistic” mindset that China is part of the ROC and the relationship between Taiwan and China is one of region to region.

Well said. Having just finished a masters thesis on Taiwan's sovereignty, a whole section of which is dedicated to Ma's 'rewinding of the clock', I'm spoiled for choice of evidence to present by which to prove that 'President' Ma is to Taiwan's hard fought-for popular national democratic sovereignty what President Bush was to raising US diplomatic prestige and respect around the world. No wonder so many people are calling him 'regional leader Ma' and his popularity remains at less than 30%. Toadying really doesn't get much more toady than this. Roll on 2012 and the ROC centennial will likely be only celebrated by Ma, King and the inner circle of KMT quislings. The Taiwanese meanwhile are no doubt starting to think about making Ma a one-term President - can they afford to do otherwise?.

Give the Earth a Hand

The Story of Stuff

Buffett To Play For Free In Gulf Shores

Jimmy Buffet and a few friends will perform for free in Gulf Shores on July 1 to try and help bolster the floundering economy:

Buffett's website says the concert is meant to demonstrate support for the people, businesses and culture of the Gulf Coast. It will be broadcast live on CMT.

Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band will be joined in Gulf Shores by Sonny Landreth, Zac Brown Band, Kenny Chesney, Jesse Winchester and Allen Toussaint.

A special souvenir T-shirt will be designed for the concert. It will be available online and at the show.

Don't Piss On The Rattlesnakes

Sharron Angle Runs From Her Positions

Sharron Angle took some principled, but very controversial positions in the campaign to be the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in Nevada this year.  A local reporter caught up with Mrs. Angle and she has begun the "moderate" shuffle back to the middle:



LINK

H/T - Wonkette

Quote of the Week - Koreans

(Image from Taipei Times)

Apparently a true veteran of the May 20th 2008 - June 20th 2010 'Foot-in-mouth' outbreak, Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) didn't dissapoint this week when he made these choice comments on the sidelines of his speech on Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) system at an international conference held by the ­Washington-based Center for Strategy and International Studies on Friday: (Yaung was omparing national health insurance systems in different countries and mentioned how South Korea transformed its multi-carrier national health insurance system into a single national health insurance ­system after a group came to Taiwan to visit him and to learn from Taiwan’s example.)

“But South Korean people would never say they copied from Taiwan,” Yaung said.

“It’s just like when [South] Korea also said Confucius was from [South] Korea. I detest(討厭) Korean people.”

(Apparently realizing his blunder, he quickly said): “It would be terrible if this is broadcast.”

Way to go mending fences. At this rate we'll turn fairly solid friendships with Japan and Korea under the 'provocative' Chen Presidencies into a China-pleasing state of mutual distrust and antagonism.

Of course, Yaung will resign stay in his job.

Taiwan Dayz

Last year, a friend and I made three short YouTube movies to introduce Taiwan to the world (well, actually it was mostly the work of my friend who is a rapidly improving director and excellent editor). Some people have said that they really like the style of the shorts. We would very much appreciate it if you took a little time to visit the links below to check out our work. Comments very welcome ...

Taiwan Dayz 1 ... aka "Scooter"

Taiwan Dayz 2 ... aka "Accessorize"

Taiwan Dayz 3 ... aka "Good Morning Taiwan"

Toy Story 3

If you go to see one movie this year, check this one out. I hadn't seen parts one and two but was familiar with the general story line. Nevertheless, this movie works on its own anyway but those who have seen the first two will find this to neatly and wonderfully wrap up the series. We watched it on IMAX 3D in Kaohsiung and although the 3D didn't really add that much to it, it was a work of mastery in story telling, animation and character development. There were many moments when the whole audience were reduced to little kids squealing in delight and laughing out loud. SUPERB. 10 out of 10 stars. Go and see it with a partner or with your kids. They'll love it, and you will too.

President Obama's Weekly Youtube Address

Free Burma Concert Kaohsiung 19th June 2010

On Saturday, EVA and I travelled south on the HSR to Kaohsiung to visit a small concert at Central Park held for Aung San Suu Kyi's 65th Birthday. There were two stalls and a small tarp to cover the performers from the scorching sun. As well as Burma activists there was a stall highlighting the issue of land grabbed for the Central Taiwan Science Park and the pollution caused by Acer and AUO (AU Optronics).

I'm really starting to like Kaohsiung more and more. The renovation of the city center and efficient MRT line makes Mayor Jason Hu's efforts to 'prettify' Taichung pale into comparison. As you walk out of Central Park Station, this lovely station exit /entrance design greets you (What do you offer Taipei? Taichung?).


The concert was held just outside the MRT entrance, a perfect location to grab people's attention. Just for the record, I didn't see one police officer or official. It was relaxed and very friendly.

This sculpture next to the MRT entrance is called 'Eye on the Future'. It is based on "the future expectations and hopes of Kaohsiung and symbolises flow and change in the city".

One of the posters marking the event ...

Nuno Chen of Nuno's Live House up in Donghai was the first to perform. He has a great voice and his songs were simple yet moving.

Next up was renowned indigenous singer Panai who is both a consumate performer and warm-hearted host.

Panai was joined by Bunun singer Nabu for one song which describes the experiences and emotions of an indigenous person who goes to work in the city.

As usual, activists in Taiwan made sure to decorate their stall in innovative and eye-catching ways.

A message that applies to Taiwan's (China/Singapore/Vietnam) Government as much as for Burma's?

We also took advantage of the goodies on offer to snap up some t-shirts and CDs, including 10 Conditions of Love. I bought the white anti-land grab (CTSP) shirt whilst EVA chose the pink Burma one.


It was a small event, probably only attended by about 50-70 people but it was both a sign of freedom of expression in Kaohsiung and Taiwan's solidarity with the Burmese people. I hope someone in Burma was able to know that there are many who stand with them in their hopes for a democratic and free country (not that China would want that on its border).

Finally, there was a promotion activity for the conversion of an old railway line in Kaohsiung into a new MRT line. Below you can see the area under consideration for development and the line the group is suggesting be turned into an MRT / historical building tour. The existing old railway lines are unused and would be perfect for renovation as a tram service.

Why Won't Sarah Go Away?

WTF - Time Travel Not All Its Cracked Up To Be

Someone actually took the time to look at 6 "time travel realities Doc Brown didn't warn us about."  It's actually quite good.

Peterson Endorses McMillian

Priceless:

Lest We Forget - Still Under House Arrest

(Aung San Suu Kyi in her 1970 passport photograph from the Aris family collection. Photograph: Anthony Aris - Guardian)

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's 65th Birthday is tomorrow. For the last 14 years she has been under constant house arrest by the Burmese Junta.

Republicans Say No to Helping Gulf Coast Victims of BP

Republican Party Spokeswoman Rep. Michele Bachmann came out against the idea of helping the victims of the Gulf Coast oil disaster - one of the biggest environmental disasters in American history. Instead, she took the side of BP, defending the company and encouraging it not to be chumps...basically encouraging BP to fight the claims from victims. She frames the compensation of victims as an attempt to fleece the company.

She was basically calling the aid an unjustified welfare program for the lazy, rather than necessary compensation for hard working fishermen & business owners who are trying to save their livelihoods. She describes the $20 billion aid fund as a redistribution of wealth... a government cash grab (despite the fact that the money will come from BP...a private entity, and the funds will be administered by a 3rd party).

Bachmann is one of the few spokespersons for the Republican Party. What she says usually represents at least the leanings of the Republican leadership, if not official policy.

Another Republican, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, claims that the $20 Billion compensation fund was an unjust "shakedown" of BP, and he even went as far as apologizing to BP CEO Tony Hayward because his company has to pay for the damages caused by the oil leak. Crazy enough for you?

But none of this matters unfortunately. The sad thing is.... Republicans are still going to win coast to coast in November's elections. The voting public in this Country, as a whole, is plain ignorant. As I have stated before... I have no faith in the American voting public. It is ultimately why this nation won't be able to effectively deal with the monumental problems it will face over the next 50 years. It is the reason why the U.S. is basically screwed.

Bill Withers - World Keeps Going Around

Awesome live performance - from the live @ Carnegie Hall album

Don't Forget About The Silent Truth

Don't forget about Lavena Johnson and the wider epidemic of assaults and attacks in the military, particularly against women. The Silent Truth, is supposed to premiere sometime this year. You won't see this on Faux News or CNN.

Related Links

A Look at The Experiences of Women in the Military

Rape & Cover-up in Iraq

Gasland - Disturbing Documentary on U.S. Gas Industry

Learn how the gas industry is polluting drinking water (and lying about it) and how the the U.S. Government, via the EPA, has dropped the ball. (Hear an interview with filmmaker Josh Fox.) This industry could be coming to a city near you...and there wouldn't be much of anything that you could do to stop them. It's amazing how this kind of corporatocracy has been allowed to take over the Country. Certain things just shouldn't happen in America considering the individual rights we supposedly have...rights that are supposed to be sacrosanct. But I have come to learn over the years that individual rights are only truly granted to those who can afford the money to take advantage of them. Rights concerning safety, health, and freedom don't apply equally to all in the real world. Much is determined by socio-economic status. The poor don't have the same rights as the well-to-do.... not in real terms. In other words, if you can't afford an expensive attorney to advocate for you, then you're screwed. If you can't acquire a legal dream team to challenge corporate lawyers, then you are at the mercy of big business. Government agencies aren't going to help you... they are either too bureaucratic and ineffective, or they are in the pockets of the corporations.

Corporatocracy rules America... It is why the British and the Canadians laugh at us when you explain our for-profit Health Care system to them. The U.S. sees the health and well being of people in a fundamentally different way than many other modern free Countries do. Here, the profits of corporations always seem to be placed above the well being of people. We see that story told time and time again. And in this anti-government, anti-regulation climate we live in - a climate that Republicans/Conservatives are shoving down our throats - this problem is only going to get worse. They swear by the idea that the private sector should somehow police itself and will fix everything (complete nonsense).

Trailer

Film will premiere nationwide on HBO on June 21st.

See interview from PBS.

See review from Indiewire

Websites for film

Gaslandmovie.com and the Gasland movie blog.

Interview with Hiromi Uehara

Hiromi performs 'Choux a la Creme' on NPR



Extraordinary pianist. She reminds me of Keiko Matsui, who is one of my favorite pianists.. although Matsui plays in a more melodic style.  Hear quick interview from NPR's All Things Considered.

Hear a more detailed interview w/ performances from Piano Jazz.

See report from CNN.

Article from The Examiner.

Eugene Robinson's Commentary on Obama's Oil Spill Response Hit the Mark

Eugene Robinson was pretty much on target with his commentary questioning Obama's response to the oil spill in the Gulf, and BP's negligence. It basically mirrors some of what I wrote on June, 4th. The Obama Administration should have been more aggressive in dealing with this disaster earlier on. The administration should have done more to get as much equipment as possible to help with containment and cleanup, and it should have forced BP to do more.

Obama's address to the nation on June 15th, and his follow-up the next day with concrete results were some of the first real indications that at least someone was at the wheel regarding the Gulf crisis. The speech didn't wow me... I think it fell a little short. Dailykos poster and fellow blogger Icebergslim shares some of my views. But at least he's trying. The $20 billion committment that he was able to get from BP is a start.

What happens now will depend on good policy and follow-up. I remain perturbed by the fact that BP still has control over so much of the process... that makes me a little skeptical. But I am willing to give the Obama Administration some time to get back on track (at least on this issue). As I mentioned in my comments under the speech post, the problem with waiting 4, 5, 6 weeks is that it allowed Republicans/Conservatives/Tea Party nuts to grab control of the narrative and poison public opinion. The lack of good advisers and strong PR has plagued Obama for a couple of years now...and I have been screaming about this problem online, via the blog and @ sites like the Dailykos (only to be criticized for not showing blind allegiance to Obama). The PR and media problems are issues for Democrats in general...but especially for Obama. And now it has been laid bare for all to see. The problem has always been there... but this disaster exposed it in a way that other situations had not been able to in the past.