D-Day On The Radio

I'll be on the BBC's World Have Your Say programme (British spelling) in the next hour or so talking about the Beijing Olympics controversy and whether or not the President should boycott the opening ceremonies. You can listen live at the link.

This story about yesterday's ridiculous torch relay in San Francisco is pretty good, too.

...that came off badly. I was hearing myself in an echo and that kind of screwed me up. I got out the major points, but I would add that the caller from Seattle talking about how China's human rights record has markedly improved recently must have been on a trip since March 10 and the Tibet crackdown. The truth is that the Olympics are really the only chokepoint for China, they clearly see it as their coming-out party on the world stage, and therefore to squander that opportunity for reform would be foolish. And that means offering carrots and sticks, and right now boycotting the opening ceremonies is a stick.

...They had me on agains for the African version. So a Bushman of the Kalihari was hearing me, I guess.

One recurrent theme from those who thought world leaders should go to China was that a) they should engage China instead of isolating them, and b) the Olympics are not political. Not only is that a complete contradiction, but the Games most certainly are political. The Olympic torch relay was created as a propaganda event by the Nazis in 1936. It's hard to think of an Olympics that DIDN'T have political overtones ('68, '72, '80, '84, '88, '96...). China is taking the opportunity to have a coming-out party on the world stage and whitewash their record, and other world leaders should not legitimize that.

Big Media D-Day

The National Journal's Blogometer will be profiling me today. They sent me an email questionnaire a while back, and I don't think I considered that it would be used for publication when I returned it. Hopefully I won't be too embarrassed.

Also, I'm scheduled to appear on the BBC World Service's "World Have Your Say" radio program between 10 and 11am PST (1-2 EST) talking about impeachment. This isn't a subject I really cover on a daily basis, but I'll give you a preview of my thoughts. I think when you have a President who asserts the prerogative to ignore Congressional laws through signing statements, who eavesdrops on American citizens without a warrant, who holds detainees indefinitely in secret prisons and commits acts of torture, who uses the Justice Department to shield members of his own party and punish members of the opposition, these are qualities you wouldn't want to see in any President, Democratic or Republican or Green or Libertarian. These are activities for which impeachment was practically designed. But because of what happened in the 1990s, when an out-of-control, fever-mad Congress impeached a President over consensual sex, spent hundreds of millions of dollars on an independent counsel witch hunt, fully opposed by the American people, the well of impeachment has been poisoned and can no longer be seen as anything but a ruthless partisan act. And I think that's unfortunate. Sometimes, I think that the Bush Administration COUNTS on that fact.