Teacup in a Storm, a 10-year-old HK political radio talk show will soon be yanked as tensions between HK’s media and their new government in Beijing appear to increase. This article recaps what’s going on and how things over at Hong Kong’s Commercial Radio may reflect deeper strains in the One Country/Two Systems paradigm.

Famously objective Spinsanity — it goes after Kerry and bush spinsters with equal energy — calls into question the ad and web site for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and points out how they subtly and dishonestly spin the truth.

[Update: Another excellent critique of the SBVFT can be found here]

This is just too terrible. Just when I thought the story of Henan province’s AIDS tragedy couldn’t possibly get any worse, China manages to surprise me. I guess I should learn by now that no matter how dreadful it seems, there’s always room for more despair when it comes to China’s disenfranchised.

I have deleted this post and its comments as I had serious cause to doubt its authenticity. My apologies.

A day or two ago I predicted that from now to November we will all be assaulted with references to terrorism from the government like never before. This is necessary, I said, because terrorism is seen as bush’s strong suit, so they need to keep it top of mind from now through the elections. It has to drown out Iraq and the economy.

So I’m not surprised (though I am sickened) to see how Tom Ridge and his Department of Re-election Security plan to further inculcate us with a renewed dosage of terrorism hysteria just in time for the RNC.

The Homeland Security Department is enlisting allies in its effort to prepare the nation for another terrorist attack: your kids and your boss.

Starting next month, children in grades 4 though 8 and employers nationwide will be asked to help get families and companies better prepared to respond to a crisis.

In schools, on the Internet and in TV and radio ads, youngsters will be introduced to a new Homeland Security mascot: a dog (an American shepherd) that will be named in a contest. The campaign, using the dog and a set of Ad Council advertisements, will encourage families to develop an emergency plan and talk about where kids should go, who will pick them up and how they will make contact.

Let’s see, September 11 was nearly three years ago. And now, 11 weeks before the election, they’re going to start brainwashing our kiddies with “Duck and Cover”-style bullshit about terror, as though we all need to be thinking about terror all the time.

Don’t get me wrong; we all need to have our eyes opened and be vigilant. But to start indoctrinating the kids like this in a subject over which they have very little control, and to do so at such a politically strategic time — well, suffice it to say I’m just a tad skeptical and cynical about the whole thing, and it fits hand in glove with my prediction of a sharp uptick in “terror awareness” (as if we aren’t already OD’ing on it).

And it’s going to get dramatically worse prior to November. They’ll stop at literally nothing, and there’s little Kerry can do lest he appear unpatriotic and unconcerned with terrorism, the buzzword of our age. Luckily, it’s not working so far, as people continue to cite the economy as by far their No. 1 concern when they step into the voting booth. And by playing fast and loose with the terrorism alerts, and by proving our ineptitude by outing a vital al Qaeda double agent who’d come over to our side, bush isn’t doing such a great job this week convincing us he’s the best answer to terrorism.

[Link via All Spin Zone.]

A lot of people are coming here (and I mean a lot, at least for this site) looking for a picture of the world’s hairiest man Yu Zhenhuan. You’ll find that photo here. Enjoy.

Update:
Oh, alright – here’s another.

As expected, “terror” has once more become the word of the day as the Republican convention approaches. Kerry and Edwards were dominating the news and despite lack of a dramatic post-DNC bounce, they’re now closing in dramtically on issues that bush “owned,” like terror. So, as we all know by now, the terror alert is raised, bush tells us all we are “in danger” and Ridge, who is never, ever political, tells us the latest threats were only discovered thanks to the bold leadership of gwb and his glorious “war on terror.” (Never mind that most — all? — of the “new information” was years old, the most recent being from 8 months ago.)

There’s an excellent piece in the Chicago Sun-Times by William O’Rourke that clarifies just how important the terror issue is to bush, and why it is crucial for him to keep it top of mind for everyone from now until election day.

Terror alerts are mini-“October surprises” for this administration, ready to be employed anytime President Bush wants to move the Kerry-Edwards campaign off the front page for a few days. The ”cry wolf” factor is high. Tom Ridge’s claim that his Homeland Security Department ”doesn’t do politics” rings hollow, given his political background and the boss he is beholden to. Bush can shout, ”We’re a nation in danger” in the Rose Garden anytime he wishes, but the public may yet conclude that the danger is the president’s judgment….

There was a lot of talk among Democrats before the convention about the need to introduce Kerry to the nation. The GOP’s task is different. The public doesn’t want to know more about Bush, because when it has looked into his background, it has found a nest of bad news: Bush’s sketchy military service, his drinking, his various failed businesses. The two Kerry daughters managed to make their father seem like ”the real deal” in their convention speeches, but it is difficult to imagine the Bush twins introducing their father with amusing anecdotes about the early years with dad.

But Bush has been “born again” in a number of ways: his election to governor of Texas and his embracing of Jesus as his savior canceled, more or less, his previous history. And his presidency was born again on 9/11. The White House characterizes this campaign as one about the “future,” not the “past.”

Unlike Ronald Reagan, Bush is no father figure: He is the big brother who will beat up — or have beaten up — anyone who offends his family. The latest elevated terror alert will make it easier to turn mid-Manhattan into an armed camp for the upcoming Republican convention.

As much as possible, the Bush campaign will try to keep the public focused on the homeland. The 9/11 Commission has become a blessing for Bush. The hearings, as well as the president’s feints toward approving some of its recommendations — including another terror czar — lets what is happening here be the news throughout the fall, rather than what is going on in Iraq.

For what is going on in Iraq is more bad news for Bush. Al-Qaida in the Big Apple is, perversely, a safer topic. The president will keep reminding the public that ”We’re a nation in danger.” The photos associated with terror alerts are now familiar: police wearing layers of military protection, an arm cradling an automatic rifle. It’s the GOP convention theme to come — A Nation in Danger: Re-elect Bush-Cheney.

This is key: We need to be distracted from Iraq, not to mention our basket-case economy. The only thing that will distract us while at the same time reflecting well on bush is terror. So the message is, Be afraid; be very afraid. And because we are all in danger, we need someone who can stay the course and be tough on the terrorists. Never mind that in Iraq all of our resolve and toughness has wrecked our economy and divided the nation like nothing else since Vietnam. People remember only what’s in front of them, and if it’s all terrror all the time, Iraq will seep into the quicksand of memory.

So I hereby promise you, this will be National Terrorism Month. Expect more and more “top al Qaida leaders” we never heard of to be caught by Pakistanis and sent off to distant places for interrogation, where we’ll never hear from them again. Expect the Republican convention to be a veritable orgy of terrorism propaganda. Expect everything else to be sidelined and scuttled. Expect Kerry and Edwards to literally fight to be heard amid the din of the ominous terrorist threats. Expect “chatter” to reach alarming levels and more computers to be found conveniently diagramming all the buildings al Qaida intends to demolish.

The terror threat is real. Perhaps a lot of the information we’ve learned is really vital. But it is always delivered to the public in a manner that reeks of poilitics. It is used to instill panic and justify anything buish does. By politicizing it, by Tom Ridge telling us in the midst of his warning that we all need to be grateful to bush, by pressuring Pakistan to deliver the goods before the election, by keeping us in a constant state of fear and anxiety, and by making terrorism the issue for his re-election, bush has made us cynical beyond words.

Alabama Mail Room Veterans for Bush. Savage and funny.

Via The Drum.

I want to request any readers who come here for commentary on China to go read this post as soon as you can. I don’t know how I missed it when Stephen wrote it more than a week ago.

As I read it, I began to highlight paragraphs I wanted to include here, and then I realized that would be fruitless; you simply need to read the entire post. It’s beautifully written, and manages to build up to its climax in a way that leaves the reader speechless.

UPDATE: For those of you unable to read the post in China thanks to the government’s paranoia, here it is in full:
—————————————————————————————–
China like Beijing a Conjuror’s Trick

She calls it a “city of the future”, a

“…vast ‘Star Trek’ city of huge glass domes, mirrored skyscrapers reflecting the sun in a thousand directions, neatly gardened boulevards, and mammoth expressways that circle the city, some of them 10 lanes wide and all with traffic that seemingly never sleeps.”

But unlike so many of our politicians and captains of our industries, journalist Georgie Ann Geyer can see past this facade that is modern day Beijing.

In her article “China’s Communist party Governs In Name Only” journalist Georgie Anne Parker recounts a recent trip back to Beijing, a city she first reported from 21 years ago as a correspondent/columnist and which she has has visited several times since, the last over 10 years ago.

Parker talks about the new Beijing, it sensuousness, it’s color, it’s embrace of everything new. Of how, in a resort city she visited there are pictures of “smiling Mao Tse-tungs, Chou En-lais and Deng Xiaopings, all telling visitors in Chinese lettering to please enjoy themselves in China.”

But this new Beijing, this new China does not fool her as it does others. She rightly points out that

“It was easy in the “old days,” she says, ” when I first came here, to feel and see how repressive it truly was.”

Something that the world seems blind to but Geyer sees

“One of the tricks of this complex new order is that the sheen and glitziness of the cities make it easy for foreigners to think everything has changed. ”

“Yet underneath that seductive surface, no one seems to care too much about the old concepts of human rights”

Now the endless line of foreign dignitaries and captains of industry jostling for position to sup at the table of this emerging world economy are greeted by an illusion. An illusion of breathtaking change that they either actually believe goes right through the fabric of Chinese society or perhaps “choose” to believe it in an attempt to assuage their own consciences as they line their country’s or company’s pockets.

Behind this facade that is the “New China” remains the” old China.” The China of cruel repression, of false imprisonment and death. As the glass skyscrapers of the new China catch and reflect the light so a person can not easily see inside so to does the new China attempt to hide itself behind the “sheen”, as Geyer puts it, of modernity. But it is but glass and despite the glare it can be seen through if one wants to.

Only 15 years last month the Tiananmen Square massacre occurred. The world was justifiably outraged. The European Union slapped on an arms embargo the Australian prime minister of the the time even cried at the news.

Five years ago this month the persecution of the Falun Gong began which has according to some sources seen the deaths of up to 5,000 people and the torture and incarceration of up to 30,000. The world initially took notice but despite the persecution continuing unabated the world no longer seems to care.

Seven weeks ago China, without one skerrick of concern for international opinion, kidnapped and held incommunicado Dr Jiang Yanyong a man of international prominence. The world for all intents and purposes ignored it.

22 days ago the Chinese government executed an Uygur for “subversion” and separatist activities, the third to be executed within ten months despite not a shred of evidence that there has been one “terrorist” type incident carried out by the Uygurs since 1998. The politicians and the captains of industry response? They do not care of this death or the others.

Ten days ago the Chinese arrested 100 underground Church leaders holding a meeting in Xinjiang. Were they plotting to overthrow the government to warrant such a heavy handed response from Beijing? No, they were meeting to discuss some strategies to convert Uygur muslims to Christianity.

We see what we want to see, we believe what we want to believe.

Magician’s tricks are truly magic if we want to believe them to be so or are correctly seen as just sleight of hand if we do not. In China’s magic act we seem to want to choose to believe the conjuror.

We have given China the Olympics supposedly a movement that mirrors the highest and purest ideals of humanity. What have we got in return? 12 pieces of silver for selling our souls.

And there can never be enough. This one, First Draft, is manned by the bloggers who stood in for Atrios last week when he was at the DNC. It looks promising.