The Last Word On The Right's Glory In Defeat

Paul Krugman's column today allows me to not have to say another word on the childish behavior of the right over Chicago not receiving the 2016 Olympics bid:

“Cheers erupted” at the headquarters of the conservative Weekly Standard, according to a blog post by a member of the magazine’s staff, with the headline “Obama loses! Obama loses!” Rush Limbaugh declared himself “gleeful.” “World Rejects Obama,” gloated the Drudge Report. And so on.

So what did we learn from this moment? For one thing, we learned that the modern conservative movement, which dominates the modern Republican Party, has the emotional maturity of a bratty 13-year-old.

But more important, the episode illustrated an essential truth about the state of American politics: at this point, the guiding principle of one of our nation’s two great political parties is spite pure and simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for America.

If anything this has gotten far worse, even since the Clinton years. Now you have Republican candidates comparing themselves to doughboys fighting the Nazis. No, really: "I'm willing to interrupt (my career) the same way that somebody interrupted their career and joined World War II and went off to fight the Nazis." You have not activists, but the very top of the Republican Party valuing long-shot extreme-right troglodytes over winnable candidates. You have wingers measuring their dicks over Michael Moore's box office receipts as if it's a subject of world-historical significance.

They are not a political party anymore. They are just a collection of insults.

The Most Gracious Hosts

Those boffo Olympics are sure the talk of the town, aren't they? Breaking ratings records and world records! Excitement personified!

Here's what is happening off camera:

Six Americans detained by police this week could be held for 10 days, according to Chinese authorities, who appear to be intensifying their efforts to shut down any public demonstrations during the final days of the Olympic Games.

Since the Games began, no foreigners are known to have been detained for more than a few hours. Most of the approximately 40 non-Chinese involved in a handful of unauthorized, small-scale demonstrations have been deported.

A short statement faxed Thursday by Beijing police to foreign news agencies said the six foreigners were apprehended for "upsetting public order" and would be subject to the 10-day detention. It identified one of the six, detained Tuesday, as "Thomas."

These are mostly videobloggers from Students for a Free Tibet who had been broadcasting video of protests, sometimes using the live streaming technology of Qik, around the world. You always cut the communication lines first.

It could be worse, they could be this elderly couple, headed to the re-education camps:

In the annals of people who have struggled against Communist Party rule, Wu Dianyuan and Wang Xiuying are unlikely to merit even a footnote.

The two women, both in their late 70s, have never spoken out against China’s authoritarian government. Both walk with the help of a cane, and Ms. Wang is blind in one eye. Their grievance, receiving insufficient compensation when their homes were seized for redevelopment, is perhaps the most common complaint among Chinese displaced during the country’s long streak of fast economic growth.

But the Beijing police still sentenced the two women to an extrajudicial term of “re-education through labor” this week for applying to hold a legal protest in a designated area in Beijing, where officials promised that Chinese could hold demonstrations during the Olympic Games.

Their crime is APPLYING to protest. Not protesting, just wanting to do so.

I'm so glad China got these two weeks of free propaganda on the world stage! Never mind the illegal detention and the re-education camps. That Bird's Nest is exquisite!

People's Republic Of Perspective

So yeah, the Chinese added some computer-generated fireworks to the opening ceremonies, and one of the singers was lip-synching. Somehow I don't think these are the worst things the Chinese have ever done; I think the whole authoritarian police state that represses sovereign nations and commits untold human rights abuses. I'll give them the lip-synching.

In other news, apparently David Brooks performs the same reductivist psychobabble on foreign nationals that he does on Americans.

Olympics Protest Watch

Thumbs up to the protesters getting through the strict security apparatus at the Olympics in Beijing to register their voice in opposition to Chinese repression in Tibet and in their own country. Noel Hidalgo shot some qik video of protesters for the outside world to see and was deported, and then there was this protest at the equestrian event:

Two American activists from the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet unfurled the Tibetan flag among the spectators at the equestrian stadium in Hong Kong's suburban Sha Tin district.

Earlier in the day, Hong Kong university student Christina Chan and another protester tried to unveil a Tibetan flag that was concealed behind a Canadian flag but security officers covered them with a piece of cloth before it was fully exposed.

Radical opposition lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung and a fellow activist held up a piece of paper that said «No dictatorship» and chanted «End one-party rule,» referring to the Chinese Communist Party's monopoly on power.

A Students for a Free Tibet statement identified the Americans as Matthew Browner-Hamlin from Anchorage, Alaska and Brianna Cayo Cotter from San Francisco, California.

I've known Matt through the blogging world for some time now, and can't help but be impressed with his commitment to free people.

Anyway, it's better than going to the Olympics to play some grab-ass.

(slightly related PS: In researching a different Olympics post, I came across this from my archives. Remember that four years ago, Bush ran ads with footage of the Iraqi and Afghan Olympic teams to prove how well things were going there? Amazing.)

Most of the Way There

The first 16 seconds of this Olympics ad are tremendous. They emphasize youth, the can-do spirit to get America working again, and the need to use our skills and abilities in service to a bright future. And I love that it's really talking about a green jobs program, in accessible ways. Then comes the final 14 seconds and the litany of sloganeering ("Create Five Million Jobs") that you see in every political ad.



The form can mirror the content here. An energetic, propulsive, forward-moving ad portends an energetic future. The litany at the end slows it down, makes it less melodic, and drops it into a pabulum of poll-tested slogans.

Earlier this week the ads were good for 10 seconds before the slogans and statistics. We're now up to 16. By the end of the campaign I think we'll get to 30.

Olympic-Sized Protest

Good.

Two American and two British protesters slipped through a smothering Olympic security net Wednesday, climbed a pair of lamp posts and unfurled banners demanding freedom for Tibet near the new stadium where the Beijing Games are to open Friday night.

The showy protest, which took place shortly before the final leg of the Olympic torch relay set out from Tiananmen Square to the cheers of bused-in crowds, constituted a substantial embarrassment for Chinese security forces, who have vowed to prevent political demonstrations by foreigners as well as Chinese during the games.

The four were led away by police but not arrested, according to Chinese authorities.

It's a global embarrassment that these Olympics are being held in China. They have rejected all the promises they made on human rights as a condition for getting the invitation to host the Games. The domestic protesters have practically all been locked up by the Chinese authorities. I'm tempted to not watch 10 seconds of this propaganda.

And free Joey Cheek.

Going Big

The Obama campaign is trotting out a $5 million Olympic ad buy. Considering that they can make that kind of scratch in an afternoon if they put their mind to it, it's a good move. The Olympics sucks up a lot of oxygen in the country and a Presidential candidate can't afford to go essentially dark those two weeks, so I'm glad he pulled the trigger. Bob Dole actually tried this in 1996 but he ended up buying one multi-minute ad - this appears to be a whole package including daytime coverage, so the idea is to find as many eyeballs as possible.

And I think the goal of this is to really raise his profile everywhere and help the downticket races, particularly in the US Senate. Obama's coattails should be able to bring significant percentages of new voters into the process, and just a slight uptick in places like Mississippi, which has a contested Senate race, could make a difference. And the Democratic campaign groups are more than ready to buttress the opportunity Obama presents, as they're flush with cash. We're already seeing statewide ad buys in Oregon, and talk of $5 million ad buys in Maine and North Carolina in the fall. Combine that with an exponentially larger number of paid staff, and you can understand why GOP Senators are nervous as hell:

Republican Senate leaders — terrified by the prospect of losing five or more seats in November — have freed their members to vote however they need to vote to get reelected, even if that means bucking the president or the party’s leadership.

On at least four votes over the past month — Medicare, housing, the GI Bill and the Farm Bill — Republican leaders haven’t even bothered whipping members to toe the party line or back President Bush’s veto threats. Instead, a GOP leadership aide says leaders have told vulnerable senators that it’s all right to “get well” with voters by siding with Democrats on anything but energy and national security.

That offers a moment to enact some decent legislation if the Senate so chooses, and also to push the GOP into really damaging votes. This actually started with getting the housing bill passed, as now seems likely, over a threatened veto. There's some garbage in that bill, like the Fannie and Freddie bailout, but there's also some real help for homeowners, as well as $4 billion in grants for local communities to buy up housing in devastated neighborhoods, which will be very beneficial. There's talk of a new economic stimulus focusing on infrastructure, too, another good idea in the main.

But the real point here is that Obama is doing a nice job pushing his advantage, and now this continues CULTURALLY, by branding him during the Olympics. This is a very smart move, and I'll bet the polls will bear it out from now to the Democratic Convention. He's already got McCain on the ropes (a win in Florida would be a knockout).

I get more optimistic by the day.

...That said, I would like to see the ads push the envelope a bit. Obama's ads have been stunningly conventional throughout this cycle, particularly the Presidential ones. He needs to have a bigger message than the small-bore "I worked on one wonky issue area" ads that we've seen thus far.

What About The Affront To The American People?

George Bush is very concerned about people's feelings:

TOYAKO, Japan (CNN) -- President Bush on Sunday defended his decision to attend next month's Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, saying that to boycott "would be an affront to the Chinese people."

Speaking to reporters ahead of this week's summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Japan, Bush said he did not need to skip the ceremony to show his position on religious freedom and human rights in China.

He said if he failed to attend the Games it would "make it more difficult to be able to speak more frankly with the Chinese leadership."

This is the guy who, when commenting on the 15 million protesters trying to stop the Iraq war, said he wouldn't decide policy based on a focus group. Unless, I suppose, that focus group is your banker.

Cleaning Up The Text

So here's a little article about Stephen Hadley's appearance on This Week, and their discussion of the Administration's position on boycotting the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

It would be a "cop-out" for countries to skip the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics as a way of protesting China's crackdown in Tibet, President Bush's national security adviser said Sunday.

The kind of "quiet diplomacy" that the U.S. is practicing is a better way to send a message to China's leaders rather than "frontal confrontation," Stephen Hadley said [...]

"We haven't worked out the details of his schedule at this point in time, but from his vantage point, if you listen to what he said, he has no reason not to go," Hadley said in broadcast interviews Sunday. "Because what he has said is we need to be using diplomacy."

Calling a boycott "a bit of a red herring," Hadley added: "I think unfortunately a lot of countries say, 'Well, if we say that we are not going to the opening ceremonies, we've check the box on Tibet.' That's a cop-out.

"If other countries are concerned about Tibet, they ought to do what we are doing through quiet diplomacy, send the message clearly to the Chinese that this is an opportunity with the whole world watching, to show that they take into account and are determined to treat their citizens with dignity and respect. They would put pressure on the Chinese authorities quietly to meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama and use this as an opportunity to help resolve that situation," he said.

Critics of China say that were Bush to avoid the opening ceremony, it would send a powerful signal of international anger over China's violent response to demonstrating Buddhist monks in Tibet.

"The whole issue of opening ceremonies is a nonissue," Hadley said. "I think it is a way of dodging what really needs to happen if you're concerned about" Tibet.

Nowhere in this story is the fact that Hadley confused Tibet with Nepal at least five times over the course of the discussion. You know, when the national security advisor to the President repeatedly gets the name wrong of a global trouble spot, you tend to get the impression that he doesn't give a shit about it. But fortunately for him, the AP cleaned up the comments. In fact, look at that last sentence:

"The whole issue of opening ceremonies is a nonissue," Hadley said. "I think it is a way of dodging what really needs to happen if you're concerned about" Tibet.

Tibet can't be inside the quote marks because Hadley actually said "Nepal." A peaceful kingdom. Not Tibet. Because he's willfully uninformed.

This isn't just a buried lede, it's a lede six feet under.

...also, you gotta love George Stephanopoulos not correcting him, even after the fifth time he screws it up. Believe me, a Democrat who made that mistake once would get rebuked.

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.

Security Van Relay Today In San Francisco

The phalanx of security around this Olympic torch relay in San Francisco is ridiculous. You probably can't even see the runners unless you're in a helicopter. Mayor Newsom truncated the relay from 8 miles to 3 just a few hours before the parade started. And they keep changing the route with each passing corner, as if they're making it up on the fly. Not sure why Newsom should have bothered at all. Hundreds of security forces forming a human chain - must be proud, eh, San Francisco?

There are some live photos of the protest here, including a bus driver coming perilously close to running over protesters.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has vowed to skip the opening ceremonies in Beijing. The will of the people is being democratically expressed.

Here's a live feed of the relay.

...There's also a liveblog at Daily Kos. Apparently the protesters got fairly close to the relay a couple minutes ago, halting it for a stretch.

A friend emails:

i just stood out on embarcadero for over an hour while the cops told us "it's coming, it's coming right along here." meanwhile the torch was already headed at its ponderous pace down van ness. fucking pissed.

Yes, the route apparently keeps changing. Apparently the protesters got fairly close to the relay a couple minutes ago, halting it for a short while. It's kind of a cat-and-mouse game right now. The torch isn't going anywhere near the scheduled finish line at Justin Herman Plaza, that's pretty clear. It's around Crissy Field right now, headed west toward the GG Bridge. And I guess there's an amphibious vehicle out in front of the relay runners. That torch may be getting wet.

UPDATE: AP: "Closing ceremony for torch relay will take place at an undisclosed location." Will Dick Cheney be lighting the torch with his eyes, then?

It's a good thing that the people of San Francisco were honored with the ability to have this ceremony hidden from them.

Support for Tibet Grows

Bob Brigham has some great photos of a peaceful protest today in San Francisco in support of a free Tibet. It looks pretty well-attended, but of course this is just the prelude to tomorrow's main event. And the protesters got a high-profile champion today - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Olympic Charter states that the goal of the Olympic games should be to promote ‘a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.’ The Chinese government has failed to live up to the commitments it made before being awarded the Olympic games to improve its human rights situation. In fact, there is disturbing new evidence that it is conducting a broader crackdown on human rights in China and Tibet because of the Olympics.

For the next four months, the International Olympic Committee and Chinese officials will parade the Olympic torch through dozens of countries and even through Tibet. The torch will be met by politicians and heads-of-state from all over the world along a ‘journey of harmony.’ It is the Chinese government that is making the Olympic torch relay a political event.

Freedom-loving people around the world are vigorously protesting because of the crackdown in Tibet and Beijing’s support for the regime in Sudan and the military junta in Burma. The people are making a significant statement that the Olympic ideals of peace and harmony should apply to all people, including those in Tibet and Darfur.

San Francisco is blessed by a large and vibrant Chinese American community. As San Franciscans, we embrace the diversity of our community and we value the contributions made in every corner of our great city. We also value free expression, and this week, many will exercise this right by demonstrating against the Olympic torch. I urge all those who protest to do so peacefully and respectfully. I commend those who speak out for their commitment to shining a light on the causes that challenge the conscience of the world.

All this public expression is having an impact. Dare we dream that President Bush would skip the opening ceremonies? Some think that wouldn't matter too much, but given the lengths to which the Chinese have tried to whitewash their image leading up to the Olympics, I think an opening ceremony empty of dignitaries would have a definite impact. China wants to be a player on the world stage, not isolated.

I'm sure we'll hear more tomorrow about these strange men in blue who will be protecting the flag relay tomorrow.

Little is known about the mysterious guards accompanying the flame on its "harmonious journey", apart from the fact that they are well-trained security officers under the remit of the Beijing Games co-ordinators, who have sweeping political powers in China.

Officially the minders are "flame attendants" employed by the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee (Bocog), which has organised the global relay. Their role, in theory, is to be constantly on hand to ensure the flame never goes out. At night and during airline flights, when the torch is kept in specially-made closed lanterns, three attendants guard it at all times. Should the flame be extinguished during a relay, they are responsible for relighting it.

So far, so good. But, although Commander Bob Broadhurst, the Metropolitan Police officer in charge of the route, insisted that flame attendants had no executive powers in Britain, their behaviour on Sunday indicated otherwise – or at least hinted that they were being allowed to overstep the mark.

Barging people out of the way, and even scuffling with some of the 1,000 police officers called in to provide extra security, the tracksuited guards made their presence felt across the capital. Their behaviour has prompted many to ask whether Scotland Yard deliberately turned a blind eye to their tactics.

Will San Francisco's police do the same? We'll see tomorrow.

T-Minus One for San Francisco's Torch Ceremony

San Francisco authorities are justifiably nervous about providing a platform for Chinese propaganda at tomorrow's Olympic torch relay. The number and variety of protests are great and go beyond protesting the situation in Tibet. The Falun Gong will call for religious freedom inside China. Human Rights Watch seeks to call attention to China's deplorable human rights record. The San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition will be massing to call for China's end to its material support for genocide in the Sudan (you can hear Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's talking about this here). There are all sorts of reasons to be concerned for China's ascension to this position of prestige by hosting the Olympics. And recent events along the global parade route, particularly from the pro-Tibet activists, are having a real impact.

As thousands of pro-Tibet protesters cut short the Olympic torch relay Monday in Paris, a new Zogby Interactive poll finds 70% of likely voters believe the International Olympic Committee was wrong to award this year’s summer Olympic Games to China because of its poor record on human rights. Dissatisfaction with the IOC’s choice is strong across the political spectrum, with 70% of Democrats and Republicans, and 68% of political independents who said they disagree with the decision to have China host the summer games. A Zogby Interactive poll conducted in May 2007 found 44% had a favorable opinion of the IOC’s decision to award the 2008 Summer Olympic Games to China, while 39% viewed the decision unfavorably.

So San Francisco ought to be concerned with the scope and force of protests tomorrow. They actually should acknowledge them by canceling the parade. What does it achieve? Will San Francisco cover themselves in glory tomorrow? The protesters will show that the entire city is a free speech zone, and they will show the importance and power of activism. But the city will just be giving a platform to the Chinese to sanitize their image and whitewash the deplorable spots in their record. There's no reason for this and the potential for some ugly outcomes is growing.

Authorities in San Francisco, which on Wednesday will host the only North American leg of the relay, said they had closely watched events in London on Sunday and in Paris.

"We have a lot of concerns," said Sgt. Neville Gittens, a San Francisco police spokesman. "I don't want to identify them, but this is not a contained route security-wise, and there are lots of opportunities for trouble. We're watching what's going on very closely and will make changes to our plans as we figure them out."

Mayor Gavin Newsom met with Chinese officials in San Francisco on Monday to review security measures, which include requiring all rank-and-file police officers to report to work Wednesday. Meanwhile, at least two neighboring police departments have been asked to provide reinforcements, the California Highway Patrol will be on hand and the FBI is on standby, officials said.

I'm not sanguine about the prospects of this relay tomorrow. London and Paris were just a prelude.

Tibetan Protests Rise In Europe

First in London and now in Paris, pro-Tibet protesters are disrupting the Olympic torch relay, and in the case of Paris, canceled the presentation.

A relay of the Olympic torch through Paris was canceled on Monday and the flame was put on a bus at the request of Chinese officials after pro-Tibetan protesters repeatedly disrupted its progress.

Chinese authorities decided to scratch the torch relay after human rights activists and pro-Tibet protests disrupted the passage of the flame in the French capital, forcing security officials to partly speed the flame through the streets of Paris in a bus.

Despite a heavy police escort, organizers had to twice extinguish the flame briefly after hundreds of pro-Tibet activists disrupted its progress.

The flame reaches San Francisco for its only American stop on Wednesday. Hundreds of police officers are expected to shroud the ceremony, and the route has been shifted and altered in an attempt to outflank the expected protesters. Meanwhile, European governments are mulling over potential boycotts of the opening ceremonies.

The situation is essentially that the International Olympic Committee currently has the most leverage over the Chinese government's behavior in Tibet, and their human rights record generally. And so these proposed boycotts, most recently discussed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, make more than a symbolic statement. Hillary Clinton is calling on George Bush to follow suit (which is unlikely, because he digs sports). Hold Fast Blog has a lot more.

UPDATE: There are now 3 protestors carrying signs on the spans of the Golden Gate Bridge. SFist has the story.

Repression In Tibet

The arrest numbers of activists yearning for a free Tibet continue to rise. Just between the publication of this New York Times piece and this Washington Post piece a few hundred were detained. Of course they've also opened fire on protesters as well. The way this is playing out is eerily similar to the way the military junta in Burma re-established order, by arresting everyone in sight and blacking out the global media. Now they're sending journalists in for a dog and pony show.

A small group of hand-picked journalists touched down in Lhasa on the first government-led tour since China closed the tightly restricted region to foreigners last week, but it was unclear how much freedom they would have to report.

Meanwhile, experts from the government-established China Tibetology Research Center echoed leaders in blaming the Dalai Lama for deliberately sparking the protests in order to separate Tibet from China and sabotage the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics.

China has been treating the broad unrest and, as of Tuesday, still-spreading protests as a law-and-order issue that has mostly been contained. But rights groups and foreign leaders continue to pressure China to exercise restraint, open Tibetan areas to foreign observers and sit down for frank talks with the Dalai Lama, with some even raising the possibility of a boycott of the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Repressive societies don't deviate much from the plan. Meanwhile the global community is finally coming around to recognize the scale of the problem. In addition to the expected outspoken human rights defenders, like Bishop Tutu and Avaaz (one million people have signed their petition), the world powers are stepping up as well.

European leaders sharpened their tone over Tibet on Wednesday, as President Bush telephoned President Hu Jintao of China and urged a resumption of negotiations with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader.

Even as Chinese diplomats sought to defend the crackdown on protesters in Tibet, officials said they were considering sending a fact-finding mission to Beijing, signaling an intensification of international concern over the violent repression in the region.

In London, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France told a joint session of the House of Commons and the House of Lords during a state visit that Britain and France shared a responsibility to urge the Chinese leadership to respect human rights and cultural identity.

That goal could only be achieved if there was “true dialogue” between China and the Dalai Lama, he said, a day after hinting that France might boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing this summer.

Obviously, the Olympics are a bit of leverage for the world, though it's silly that it should be (Bush, of course, isn't going that far). But China is very concerned about its image, and beating and jailing Tibetans isn't helping.

Speaking of image, if Gavin Newsom wants to become the Governor of California in 2010, he would do well not to hide the Olympic torch route and set up free speech zones to try and curtail expected protests. That's not going to put a smile on any liberal's face.

China is truly sacrificing their emerging status as a world power with this maneuver. I know they're an economic juggernaut, but this sends a message to the world that is being received poorly. The Tibetans can and will be free, and China's remaining in denial will only harm them more in the end.

Gun-Toting Lama

I've been very disturbed by these reports of violence in Tibet, as Chinese forces clash with monks and surround monasteries. But I've been more disturbed by the Chinese government's rationale for the violence, that the Dalai Lama is some sort of Bolivarian revolutionary who is trying to violently overthrow the government.

Premier Wen Jiabao accused the Dalai Lama and his supporters of orchestrating violent clashes to taint the Beijing Olympics, saying Tuesday that they were provoking violence to promote Tibetan independence.

The Dalai Lama urged his followers to remain peaceful, saying he would resign as head of Tibet's government-in-exile if the situation spun out of control. But he also suggested the Chinese may have fomented the protests in Tibet and neighboring provinces in order to discredit him.

In China's highest-level response to the unrest, Wen underscored the Communist leadership's determination to regain control of Tibet and nearby parts of China and reassure the world it is fit to host the Games.

Yes, the Dalai Lama is calling on his supporters to have arms taken up against them. That's the ticket. And it's amusing that Wen's entire concern is to make sure the Olympics are safe. Matt Browner Hamlin has a lot more at his site.

UPDATE: Tibet Will Be Free is a good source of information, too. Apparently the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing will feature "happy Tibetan dancers." Nothing like putting 50 years of repression on full display.

It Isn't Campaign Season Without Subtle Religious Bigotry

John McCain's 95 year-old mother decided to pre-empt any whisper campaigns against her son this time around by starting one of her own:

John McCain's 95-year-old mother, in a swipe at her son's rival Mitt Romney, said Friday that Mormons were to blame for the scandal that rocked the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

During an appearance on MSNBC, Roberta McCain laid out why her son, John, deserves to win the Republican presidential nomination. But in evaluating McCain's primary rivals, she criticized Romney's Mormon faith and his time in Salt Lake City.

"As far as the Salt Lake City thing, he's a Mormon and the Mormons of Salt Lake City had caused that scandal. And to clean that up, again, it's not a subject," Roberta McCain said.
John McCain quickly stepped in: "The views of my mothers are not necessarily the views of mine."

"Well, that's my view and you asked me," Roberta answered.

Honestly, I had forgotten that the Mitt-led 2002 Olympics were marred by organizers bribing IOC officials with hookers and the like. But apparently Mrs. McCain hasn't, and she's keen to blame "them Mormons and their magic underwear." It was one of those moments that could only come from someone who remembers a time of separate drinking fountains, and maybe not with regret.

Campaigns that are close frequently become nasty. This one's a nailbiter and there are a lot of big egos and reputations on the line. The claws will be permanently deployed for the next few months.

Crisis In Burma

Soldiers are firing automatic weapons into large crowds.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official told The Associated Press that several people, including a Japanese national, were found dead following Thursday's protests.

The information was transmitted by Myanmar's Foreign Ministry to the Japanese Embassy in Yangon, the official said on condition of anonymity citing protocol.

The chaos came a day after the government launched a crackdown in Yangon that it said killed at least one man. Dissidents outside Myanmar reported receiving news of up to eight deaths Wednesday.

Some reports said the dead included Buddhist monks, who are widely revered in Myanmar, and the emergence of such martyrs could stoke public anger against the regime and escalate the violence.

This will get worse before it gets better unless China can be prodded to help end the violence. They have been reluctant to join in sanctions so far at the UN. China seems to be very invested in the Beijing Olympics in 2008. If that's the way to get to them, so be it. Otherwise, there's going to be a lot more bloodshed. I don't think the Burmese people will back down unless they are exterminated by the thousands.

UPDATE: Or, you know, perhaps not:

China has interests and involvements in Burma, but limited leverage. Burma is not some kind of client state of China. It is a xenophobic, divided, tribalized country with a nationalistic government; it bears more resemblance to one of the less coherent sub-Saharan African states than to most other East Asian countries. It’s not an easy place to influence. Through most of the 1980s there was a Burmese Communist Party, which consisted primarily of the Wa tribe plus Chinese leadership. When the Wa decided to turn anti-communist in the late 1980s and chased the Chinese leadership into China, China’s influence in the country was drastically reduced but there was little China could do without military intervention. So Beijing basically sat by passively when it happened.

I guess there's always the "growing popular protests and international enmity" route, at which point you still need China to unify the Security Council powers.