KMT Winded From Recall Effort

Back in June, the KMT was champing at the bit to call non-confidence votes aimed at bringing down cabinet after cabinet.  I said this at the time:

Maybe [the KMT] can get away with toppling one cabinet, maybe even two.  But voters aren’t stupid, and the KMT can’t keep doing that with impunity for the next two years.

As it turns out, even THAT appraisal of the KMT’s public approval was optimistic.  Not even ONE cabinet has been toppled, and already voter disenchantment has already set in.  The KMT can read its internal polling, and is calling it quits…for now:

KMT spokesman Huang Yu-cheng added that following tumults brought by anti-corruption activities aimed at ousting the scandal-ridden President Chen Shui-bian and the vote on a motion to recall Chen in the Legislature, people need a breather.

…[the] KMT will let people rest and build up their strength for a while, Huang said.

Ignoring the loaded language, it’s instructive to remember that something similar happened back in June.  The KMT failed in getting the president recalled; their chairman lost public approval, and the KMT backed off.  Now, they’ve declared another moratorium, since their chairman’s dropping in the polls in the wake of the redshirts’ disruption of Taiwan’s National Day.

Count on history repeating itself.  They’ll be back.

“They Are Shooting Them Like Dogs”

Saw the CNN footage of PLA soldiers gunning down Tibetan refugees a few hours ago.  Sunday’s China Post also covered it.

They also carried a report a few days earlier:

A [Communist Chinese] official told Xinhua news agency that a small squad of soldiers found nearly 70 people attempting to illegally cross the border from Tibet into Nepal on Sept. 30 and "persuaded them to go back to their home."

"But the stowaways refused and attacked the soldiers," the state news agency said, without stating whether they were ethnic Tibetans.

"Under the circumstances, the frontier soldiers were forced to defend themselves and injured two stowaways," the unnamed official was quoted as saying.

Busted.  The refugees were trudging through the snow single-file, not being transported as "stowaways" on a truck.  Furthermore, we don’t see any hostile action coming from the Tibetans; instead, we see PLA soldiers firing on them from a ridge.

But then, one doesn’t really need to see the footage to know that the Chinese story was bogus from the get-go.

UPDATE:  More here, including links to the video.  (Hat tip to AsiaPundit.)

Multilateral Or Unilateral Talks With North Korea?

[Technically, that should read “Bilateral”…]

Jonah Goldberg says it doesn’t matter either way:

Lawyers say hard cases make for bad law…

Proof that North Korea is a hard case can be found in the fact that the Democrats and Republicans have switched sides. Ordinarily multilateralist Democrats are now unalloyed champions of unilateralism, in the form of face-to-face negotiations with North Korea, while President Bush — that infamous go-it-alone “cowboy” — has embraced international teamwork. Both approaches are flawed for a simple reason: North Korea wants a nuclear weapon because it wants a nuclear weapon.

The Jimmy Carter vision holds that North Korea’s nukes are coupons to be redeemed for groceries. But the North Koreans pocketed U.S. concessions after face-to-face talks in 1994 and continued pursuing nukes because … they wanted nukes. Bush’s strategy has been, first, to declare that advances in North Korea’s nuclear program are “unacceptable” and then do nothing, and second, to insist that the U.S. can’t accomplish anything because our “partners” won’t cooperate.

The North Korea dilemma — much like the threat of Islamic fanaticism – is Aesopian. The frog in Aesop’s fable did not wish to be stung by the scorpion. The scorpion’s position? Wishing’s got nothing to do with it. Americans tend to think — and Europeans consider it gospel — that all differences can be negotiated. The truth is that only negotiable problems can be negotiated. Just ask Hamas if everything can be bargained for around a table. Their one non-negotiable principle is that Israel must cease to exist. Beyond that, they’re open to all sorts of creative proposals.  [Emphasis added]

Darth Vader’s Less Illustrious Brother, Chad

Meet Chad Vader – Supermarket Dayshift Manager:

Chad Vader, Episode 1

Chad Vader, Episode 2

Chad Vader, Episode 3

Chad Vader, Episode 4

Other Chad Vader stuff:

Chad Vader Music Video

Chad Vader Mailbag

Non-Chad Parodies:

The Emperor Takes an Important Phone Call

Star Wars (Phantom of the Opera Version)

The Three Stooges Celebrate Double Ten Day

Hey Moe, it’s Taiwan’s boitday!  We forgot to get ’em somethin’.  Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

I’ll give YOU somethin’, you knucklehead…

(Finger in eye)

The Three Stooges. Larry and Moe hold Curly's head.

(Photo from University of Kansas-Lawrence.)

Quit clownin’ around, Einsteen, and tell the nice people about the boitday.

Why, sointenee!

The Taiwan News informs us of some of the goings-on:

Apparently aggravated by the seating arrangement, Kuomintang [KMT] Legislator Lee Ching-hua stood up during President Chen Shui-bian’s address and repeatedly shouted slogans, demanding that Chen step down.

Provoked by Lee’s efforts to embarrass the president, Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] Legislator Lin Kuo-ching took a swing at Lee and a brief scuffle erupted…

Watched some of the Taiwanese TV coverage yesterday, and saw a few men in suits trying to avoid police by ducking in and out of an official parade.  Since I don’t understand Mandarin, I had no idea until the next day about what happened:

…a group of [pro-Communist] People First Party lawmakers, led by [PFP Chairman James] Soong, disrupted the honor guard procession in front of the Presidential Office, marching along with the guards, shouting anti-Chen slogans and holding anti-Chen banners.

The incident turned into a cat-and-mouse game when the security guards were forced to chase Soong and his followers…who weaved in and out [of] procession and completely ignored the security guards’ instructions to move away.

Some DPP legislators, angered by the PFP’s obvious attempts to humiliate the president, ran up to the opposition lawmakers and began to throw punches at them.

The Taipei Times reported a few cases of KMT violence as well:

[There were] scuffles in which [DPP] Legislator Lee Ming-hsien (李明憲) and Sanlih TV staff were "beaten," as well as the egging of DPP Legislator Lin Kuo-ching’s (林國慶) car.

Not sure I understand the sneer quotes around the word "beaten".  They were either beaten, or they weren’t.  If instead, they were physically harassed, then the writer ought to say so.

Anyway.  Following the ceremonies, anti-[President] Chen protesters gave visiting dignitaries a memorable taste of Taiwanese hospitality:

Meanwhile, protesters had gathered around the fringes of the ceremony zone, and tried to block the four lanes of Zhonghua Road to prevent Chen Shui-bian’s motorcade from leaving.

Unable to tell which car the president was in, the crowd rushed onto the road from the sidewalks whenever an official-looking black car appeared.

Several of the entrapped vehicles were carrying top government officials and foreign diplomatic guests. Protesters encircled the vehicles, smacking and kicking at the cars while shouting: "A-bian step down!"  [Emphasis added.  A-bian is President Chen’s nickname – The Foreigner]

With the number of anti-Chen redshirts present, it could have been much, much worse.  Whether you believe the redshirts’ own attendance numbers (1.5 million), the China Post‘s figures (300,000) or police statistics (120,000), the protesters vastly outnumbered the 5,000-man police presence.  If the redshirts had actually followed through on their mooted plans to push through police barricades, things could have gotten really ugly.

(Wednesday’s China Post finally took a look at the color of the redshirts’ uniforms, noting, "They wore red shirts the way Benito Mussolini’s Blackshirts wore their black shirts."  Funny, but just a few days ago, the paper was comparing them to the Freedom Riders – the American civil rights protesters from the 1960s.  Which probably means someone at the China Post is a bit touchy that the redshirts’ leader, Shih Ming-teh, recently took a few potshots at KMT Chairman Ma-Ying-jeou’s own corruption record*.)

The Taipei Times noted that at the end of the day, all the theatrics failed to put Taiwan on the international media map – CNN was far more interested in North Korea’s nuclear test and in paramilitary death squad activity in Iraq.  Meanwhile, a Taiwan News editorial pointed out that independence parties will henceforth be loath to participate in National Day ceremonies (which they don’t have an emotional attachment to, anyway) now that the KMT has demonstrated its willingness to disrupt one of its holiest days for political purposes.  I’ll go a step further than that, though.  I think Taiwanese independence parties will nevermore be much inhibited from disrupting Double Ten Day themselves, if they calculate it being in their interests to do so.

I cannot end without mentioning this irresistible detail:

A middle-aged woman caused a stir when, prior to the start of the ceremony, she threatened to immolate herself by igniting a bottle of liquid in the restricted area. Police carried the woman away, and the bottle was found to contain only water.

She tried to set herself on fire using H2O as an accelerant?

Now ain’t that just like a woman.

(Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo!)

Curly from The Three Stooges

(Image from Beckett.com.)

* Postscript:  A more probable reason for the China Post‘s pique: The View from Taiwan observes that Shih Ming-teh dissed [Taipei mayor and KMT Chairman] Ma Ying-jeou big-time "by not even bothering to apply for a permit to hold a demonstration," as well as by "constantly changing [the protest march] direction and completely fouling up the city’s traffic."

Shih made the KMT’s Golden Boy look ineffectual and weak, and so media adulation must be put on hold for a spell.  For now, try to remember: Shih Ming-teh is Il Duce.

UPDATE:  The View from Taiwan has a good round-up of what other bloggers had to say about the festivities.

UPDATE (Oct 16/06):  A Friday China Post headline: Controversy over control of anti-Chen mob.  From anti-corruption protesters to mob.  Further evidence the China Post is royally ticked with Shih Ming-teh, despite Saturday’s denial.

i-2

Looking A Gift Horse In The Mouth

Don’t people have better things to do than complain about a five-day weekend*? OK, fine, the announcement was handled poorly, given only seven days in advance.  But everyone should know that this is Taiwan, and sometimes surprise announcements like that are made here.

But we’ve already bought our train tickets, critics of the government whined.  Now we have to make A PHONE CALL to reschedule.  Imagine that.  In addition, some students who were scheduled to take a National English exam next Saturday will now have to endure the terrible ordeal of taking it on the Sunday instead.  I can just imagine the wailing and the gnashing of teeth:

"My English test was postponed by an ENTIRE day!  Of all the fates on heaven and earth, why did this one have to befall ME?"

Let’s be honest: students aren’t going to complain about something like this.  Kwitcherbitchin, already.  You got a five-day weekend out of the deal, so lighten up.

* The date of the Moon Festival is determined by the occurrence of the full moon according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar.  This year, it fell on a Friday (Oct 6th), so that made for an automatic 3-day weekend.  But Taiwan’s National Day, which always falls on October 10th, was only two days later.  So the government said, let’s give folks Monday off too, to make it a continuous 5-day holiday.

UPDATE (Oct 16/06):  23 million people living in Taiwan, and the China Post can’t find ANY who are pleased that they had a five-day weekend last week?  Not a one?

More unhappy campers here.

Chiang Kai-shek: Embezzler

Heh, heh.

…DPP lawmakers also accused Chiang Kai-shek of embezzling state funds, and provided some examples.

"On Jun 13, 1961, Chiang Kai-shek used NT$4,560 ($100 US)from state funds to buy milk powder imported from abroad.  On June 14, 1963, he used NT$1,676 ($50 US) to buy medicines, picles and cigarettes, among other items.  On Sept. 14, 1973, NT$18,265 ($550 US) was used by Chiang for his grandson Chiang Hsiao-yung’s wedding photos," [legislator] Kuan [Bi-ling] said.

Does this mean Shih Ming-teh’s "anti-corruption" red shirts will start demanding the removal of the generalissimo’s statue from public places in Taiwan?

Not bloody likely.

Can We Really Be Sure They Were Compliments?

President Chen recently visited Taiwan’s Military Police Academy, and was warmly received.  Maybe too warmly, it seems:

…we were surprised and shocked to see footage of the cadets being led in bizarre cheers for President Chen, including calling the president a "handsome boy" and "my chocolate".

The China Post denounces this as toadyism and a breach of the military’s political neutrality.  As far as I’m concerned though, being called "handsome boy" and "my chocolate" by a group of armed men in uniform sounds a lot more creepy than flattering, any day.

UPDATE (Oct 12/06):  In the impartial style that it calls it’s own, the China Post reports how these cheers were later repeated during Taiwan’s National Day:

[When Chen Shui-bian appeared at the ceremonies,] opposition leaders [taunted him with] the toadying mumbo jumbo of Military Police Academy cadets: "President, President, you’re my chocolate!"

I can’t help but think that the officers of the Academy deliberately ordered the initial chants because they knew how ridiculous they were, and they knew the mockery the president would subsequently be subjected to.