Policy
I thought I was having some sort of post-traumatic flashback this morning. I was reading the WaPo, and there was this article. It said - I can hardly write it even now - that the US was going to question China about a human rights case. That can't be right, can it? This Junta has never cared about anyone with less than seven digits on their bank statements.
These are the cross-eyed marksmen who danced a jig while people drowned and starved in New Orleans. These are the guys putting the black hoods over peoples head like the government in V for Vendetta (the movie). They torture. The kill prisoners in their custody. They sit with popcorn and watch the genocide in Sudan. They deny health care to the poor and never seem to notice that lots of poor people die premature deaths because of it.
These guys care about a human rights case?
And yet, there it is.
Reading the article was chilling, because I remember when the US used to stand for the human rights of the downtrodden and oppressed around the world. Before John Bolton became the spitting asp of an American foreign policy that said: "we are all the counts in the world and the interests of our elites will be preserved and protected before and instead of any other consideration."
But there it is: the plight of the North Korean escapees to China who are often scooped up by that government and returned to face death and horrible imprisonment in North Korea. Yes - it's a real plight of people who have no tangible assets to provide the US. Just to see that in print. Gee.
But wait, no. Of course, they had to ruin it. Three things popped up and ruined the image.
First, it's the evangelicals who decided that the North Korean woman matters, and they pulled their magic string to the White House. Clearly, pleasing the base is a top priority - the only priority - and in this case, it's so easy to do. Ask the Chinks about the NK chick. See - good guys after all.
Second, Georgie really hates Kim Jung Il, the NK leader who was captured in the brilliant biopic "Team America - World Police." I suspect it's because Il gets to have harems and total domination and millions of slaves and that sort of thing - it will be another couple of generations of the Bush Junta before President for Life Prescott Bush VI gets to have slaves and harems. Georgie was just born too soon so he resents his totalitarian brethren Il for his perks.
So naturally, that spells "find out what happened to the NK woman." Also because - who knows? - maybe it'll catch fire with CNN and Fox News like all those missing white women have.
Third - and most importantly - nothing has been or needs be done about it other than the press release - a perfect Junta policy.
"But Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and others complain that personal commitment is not translated into enough action. In 2004, Congress passed the North Korean Human Rights Act, which created Lefkowitz's position. But the administration has not designated money to implement the law or offered asylum to any North Korean, according to a Feb. 21 letter to Rice signed by Wolf and eight other lawmakers.
Some administration officials said the State Department is more focused on North Korea's nuclear arms and has not made human rights a priority. "He is completely right," one official said of Wolf's criticism. Another official said "it's been a struggle" to get the administration to pay attention. During a White House briefing on Monday discussing issues at tomorrow's Bush-Hu summit, no official mentioned North Korean refugees."
So there you have it: smoke without fire, personal jealousy and hate from Georgie, and a cookie for the religious nuts.
Perfect.
These are the cross-eyed marksmen who danced a jig while people drowned and starved in New Orleans. These are the guys putting the black hoods over peoples head like the government in V for Vendetta (the movie). They torture. The kill prisoners in their custody. They sit with popcorn and watch the genocide in Sudan. They deny health care to the poor and never seem to notice that lots of poor people die premature deaths because of it.
These guys care about a human rights case?
And yet, there it is.
"She showed up at a school in a coastal city in China nearly five months
ago and begged for help. Instead, she was deported to her native North Korea and
never seen again.
Now the case of Kim Chun Hee has made its way to
the desk of President Bush, threatening to complicate the first White House
visit of China's leader tomorrow and further irritate an irritable
relationship."
Reading the article was chilling, because I remember when the US used to stand for the human rights of the downtrodden and oppressed around the world. Before John Bolton became the spitting asp of an American foreign policy that said: "we are all the counts in the world and the interests of our elites will be preserved and protected before and instead of any other consideration."
But there it is: the plight of the North Korean escapees to China who are often scooped up by that government and returned to face death and horrible imprisonment in North Korea. Yes - it's a real plight of people who have no tangible assets to provide the US. Just to see that in print. Gee.
But wait, no. Of course, they had to ruin it. Three things popped up and ruined the image.
First, it's the evangelicals who decided that the North Korean woman matters, and they pulled their magic string to the White House. Clearly, pleasing the base is a top priority - the only priority - and in this case, it's so easy to do. Ask the Chinks about the NK chick. See - good guys after all.
Second, Georgie really hates Kim Jung Il, the NK leader who was captured in the brilliant biopic "Team America - World Police." I suspect it's because Il gets to have harems and total domination and millions of slaves and that sort of thing - it will be another couple of generations of the Bush Junta before President for Life Prescott Bush VI gets to have slaves and harems. Georgie was just born too soon so he resents his totalitarian brethren Il for his perks.
So naturally, that spells "find out what happened to the NK woman." Also because - who knows? - maybe it'll catch fire with CNN and Fox News like all those missing white women have.
Third - and most importantly - nothing has been or needs be done about it other than the press release - a perfect Junta policy.
"But Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and others complain that personal commitment is not translated into enough action. In 2004, Congress passed the North Korean Human Rights Act, which created Lefkowitz's position. But the administration has not designated money to implement the law or offered asylum to any North Korean, according to a Feb. 21 letter to Rice signed by Wolf and eight other lawmakers.
Some administration officials said the State Department is more focused on North Korea's nuclear arms and has not made human rights a priority. "He is completely right," one official said of Wolf's criticism. Another official said "it's been a struggle" to get the administration to pay attention. During a White House briefing on Monday discussing issues at tomorrow's Bush-Hu summit, no official mentioned North Korean refugees."
So there you have it: smoke without fire, personal jealousy and hate from Georgie, and a cookie for the religious nuts.
Perfect.
posted by fiduciary at 8:46 AM
4 Comments:
How can you be obsessed with your hatred of Bush that you can't see through that to the fact that he's doing the right thing here ... he's trying to save a woman from dying in a concentration camp. Are you really trying to compare terrorists -- people who kill women and kids -- who are gaining weight in Guantanamo are on a comparable moral or legal plane to North Korean refugees? Do you really want him to order Khalid Sheikh Mohammed released?
Or didn't you know what this woman is likely going through? Or what will happen if she's pregnant?
If you're going to comment on human rights policy, you need to learn to make such fine moral and factual distinctions as the difference a gas chamber and a fart in a crowded elevator.
While I appreciate your response, I have to wonder what you're asking me about. Do I deplore what the NK's are doing to their own people? Yes - my point was that I wish we had a government that cared more often and in a more meaningful way.
Certainly there are distinctions to be made, but calling illegal imprisonment and torture a "fart in an elevator" is not a 'distinction.' It's a complete surrender to human rights violators.
You won't catch me comparing Gitmo to Dachau, but that doesn't mean that Gitmo isn't a bad place and a bad idea. Prisoners gaining weight is a statement with no meaning. Do they have access to a fair trial or a fair legal system? No. Are they being held indefinitely with no charges? Yes.
Feeding them Twinkies has no bearing on those facts.
If they really were terrorists - and not just a bunch of "round up the usual suspects" nobodies, why won't the government charge them with something?
The secret detention network being run in our name is not genocide - but it's a deep and abiding shame that we may never recover from.
If you can find one place in my 3+ years of blogging where I make the immoral distinction you accuse me of - gas chamber vs. fart - I'll stop blogging today.
I'm happy to discuss anything I write, but let's talk about something I actually said next time.
shame, shame, shame on you(American?)
Yes, that's about the speed of a reactionary Republican response. And it's as fact-filled as any Bush policy decision.
Gosh, how will I ever muster the information and logic to refute "shame?"
I wish you Rightists would make it even a little difficult to shoot you down. It's like a Cheney bird hunt. But much, much safer.
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