Often enough I find Glenn Reynolds a great read. Sometimes I even admire him. But not today. The one thing to his credit is that he apparently recognized the stupidity — the destructive stupidity — of what he did and took the despicable post down.

This week the CCP made it quite clear who does and does not rule Hong Kong.

CHINA this week laid down the law in Hong Kong, stating that the territory should be ruled mainly by patriots which, when translated from officialese, means those favoured by the central government.

Giving up its usual shadow play, Beijing made clear its stance on the subject on Tuesday by releasing a statement through the state-controlled Xinhua news agency that cited ‘a relevant central government official’.

Before Tuesday, few Hong Kong people harboured illusions that Beijing would allow universal suffrage in the election of the next chief executive in 2007 and the Legislative Council (Legco) in 2008.

But they had hoped to be allowed some say in determining how the election systems could be changed in 2007 and 2008.

The toughly worded Xinhua bulletin, which states that ‘the Hong Kong government must listen to the central government’s opinions’ on constitutional development, extinguished any such hope.

It made it clear that Hong Kongers – and in particular the most vocal ones who belong to the liberal camp and are seen as rabble-rousers by Beijing – would have no sway over the subject.

A news analysis in today’s China Daily sounds especially ominous.

As in all other nations, there is legislation defining the limits of the rights and interests that come with citizenship.

In Hong Kong’s case, it is the Basic Law.

All the region’s claims for autonomy should therefore be in conformity with its Basic Law. One-sided accentuation of “two systems” goes against that law.

In those 100 years’ British rule, Hong Kong governors were appointed by the British Government and the locals could not have any say in it.

After the handover in 1997, its chief executive was selected through elections that have involved wide participation of people from all circles in Hong Kong in line with the Basic Law. It is only after Hong Kong’s return to the motherland have Hong Kong people begun to enjoy their political rights.

The step-by-step approach the Basic Law has prescribed for Hong Kong’s democratic process is based on the region’s political reality and aimed at preserving continual local stability and prosperity.

Hastening the process when conditions are not ripe risks political instability and will ultimately hurt Hong Kong’s economic well-being.

So we’re back to the old “instability” line. Mustn’t have any of that nasty instability (which, as always, means the leaders are terrified not of a direct threat to the people or the economy, but to the CCP).

It sounds like the reform-minded leaders are ready to play hardball with HK and are pulling out all the stops to make their point. Is it time to start thinking of leaving HK?

We saw China quiver when faced with a half-million-man march in Hong Kong. Will they do the same in the face of a petition challenging the CCP to better define its anti-subversion laws? The petition, a direct result of the government’s arrest of “cyber-dissident” Du Daobin, now has more than 800 signatures, including some of the nation’s top scholars. That doesn’t sound like a lot of names, but in China, it’s extraordinary. Each of the signers is putting himself at risk.

[The petitioners] point out that Du’s case is not an isolated incident – a reference to the recent spate of arrests involving Internet users who criticised the government online.

‘This means that the judicial interpretation of the anti-subversion law has completely strayed from what’s in the Constitution and the Penal Code, as well as the public’s sense of justice,’ the petitioners say in the unusually bold open letter.

‘And it shows that crimes of subversion are now determined by some unpredictable and arbitrary political yardstick instead of legal standards.’

Unless the Supreme Court clarifies the boundaries of the law and freedom of speech, ‘everyone of China’s 80 million Internet users is a potential Du Daobin’, the letter adds.

The petition marks the latest example of how China’s online community is increasingly using the Internet as a powerful conduit for social change and justice.

Whether or not the petition creates any change in policy or leads to greater openness remains to be seen. The mere fact that it has gathered such momentum is a positive sign.

This article spells out the complex issues that force so many Chinese immigrants from Fujian province to seek self-betterment abroad, despite significant risks. The human smugglers and gangmasters are only a part of the story. Economic conditions in the province, and the immigrants’ inability to get work permits in the UK, play a big role as well.

UPDATE: For the correct link, please go to the comments. For some reason I can’t correct it

A commenter alerted me to the new scandal kicking into high gear, this one about Kerry’s alleged adulterous affair with an intern he then urged to leave the country. Just like last time, this is being fueled by Matt Drudge, in an article punctuated with explanation points and clearly designed to get the press pack salivating.

Is this a lurid Republican smear job? Andrew Sullivan says it looks that way, and quotes an email from a reader that he says speaks for manyu Americans:

“Now, after all this, it appears that the conservative/Republican diaspora is preparing yet another round of peeping-tom character assassination rather than a substantive debate on the very important issues our country actually faces, using Drudge as its point-man. I just can’t take it anymore. I realize the feelings of one person are irrelevant in political calculations at this level, but if the Republicans really do take us back down the Lewinsky path, this is one vote they will most assuredly be losing in November.”

Sullivan: I agree. If the Republicans are behind this, they deserve to be trashed. This is absolutely not something that deserves to be a factor in our current debate.

After it came out that everyone condemning Clinton for adultery had also had extramarital affairs, you’d think they would want to steer clear of this can of worms. It will be fascinating to see how far this goes and whether it backfires.

Du Daobin, the most renowned of China’s “cyber-dissidents” following Liu Di (aka “Stainless Steel Mouse”), appears to be on the verge of going free. His case has generated petitions and protests around the world, and just like Liu Di, the public prosecutors are tossing the case back to the police, saying they don’t have sufficient evidence to take him to trial.

Despite police reluctance, Liu Di was finally released, and the smart money will be on Du’s release as well. There is simply too much international attention on the case, and the government now has little choice. Du’s heinous crime: writing and posting three articles on the flaws in Hong Kong’s notorious Article 23, since struck down following the unprecedented half-million-man march last year.

Wickedly, delightfully funny.

Via Andrew.

I just read a newspaper article by Gail Sheehy that had me so transfixed I forgot where I was. It was so gripping, I kept wanting to jump ahead to see what would happen next. If you think you’ve read all you ever need to about Septemeber 11th and what went on in those planes as they raced to their doom, you have to go read this article. I can guarantee, you will feel almost as though you were on-board those flights.

This article raises some terrible questions about the current investigation of the tragedy. Can we really allow politics to stand in the way of understanding something as monumental as 911? Can people really be suppressing such vital information as flight attendant Amy Sweeney’s incredible phone calls to American Airlines? If so, why?

Some of the discrepancies and holes in the story of what happened on September 11 are astonishing. I have not yet read an article that so convincingly illustrates how far the government is going to cover up aspects of what went on that day, mainly to protect its own. Absolutely, totally a must-read. Don’t wait.

Usually I’d leave this type of story to the Hong Kong bloggers, but it’s just too strange to ignore.

A 40-year-old man charged with the gruesome killing of two Hong Kong girls was said to have confessed to sexually abusing their corpses as part of a black magic ritual to create ghosts to haunt his estranged wife.

At the opening of his murder trial on Tuesday, prosecutors told the High Court that the accused allegedly abducted the two schoolgirls, aged 10 and 11, in December 2002 after his wife left him.

Duong Vinh Cuong, a Vietnamese immigrant, also faces an additional charge of attempting to murder his own three children, reports here said.

Duong, who claimed to have learnt black magic in Thailand, admitted to the police that he killed the girls, then sexually abused their bodies as part of an occult ritual to make them related to him by blood, the prosecution said.

He said he had to kill five ‘blood relatives’ and then commit suicide so that their spirits could torment his second wife, who had left him.

After the girls’ murders, he allegedly tried to gas himself to death with his three children – then aged 18 months, three years and five years – at his home.

Sounds like a very busy man. It’s sobering to realize that such people as this are actually out there walking around, even in our most civilized places, even now, in the 21st century.

This is really poignant.

A Chinese immigrant caught in a rising tide made a desperate cellphone call to his wife back home to tell her he was dying, moments before he drowned with 18 others while gathering shellfish in northwest Britain, a newspaper here reported on Wednesday.

Guo Binlong called his wife in the village of Zelang, near Fuqing in southeast China, as the tide rose around him while he was looking for cockles in the British town of Morecambe, said The Daily Telegraph.

“I am in great danger,” Guo said, according to the paper, which spoke to the relatives of the drowning victims in China. “I am up to my chest in water. Maybe I am going to die.”

As the water rose further, Guo, 29, a devout Christian, said: “Tell the family to pray for me. It’s too close. I am dying.”

A total of 19 died in the rising tide. According to the article Guo was paid $11-13 an hour. This conflicts with other articles I’d read, which cited far (and I mean really far) lower salaries for the Chinese immigrants.