Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Edward Copeland needs a check up from the neck up

Why is it that as time rolls along, the Bush Administration resembles more and more the supposed bad guys in the world? They endorse the same propaganda techniques and media suppression as communist regimes like China. They try to create a Christian theocracy in the U.S. with as much zealotry as Islamic ones they fight against. Why do they use the excuse of "terrorism" to spy and try to silence people who would dare to oppose their policies like Quakers or government whistle-blowers who know that what is going on is very wrong? Enough is enough. I love America and I worship the Constitution -- it's time that the rest of the country demand the same from its government and fight this assemblage of incompetent crooks, zealots and power-mad charlatans at every opportunity and at every chance they get.

Boy, howdy! Mr. Copeland has shown incredible ignorance about the methods and extremes the People’s government engage in on a routine basis to provide “guidance” to its media. To claim that there isn’t an ocean-sized gulf between our government’s policies and respect for freedom of the press and China’s policies of shutting down websites, telling papers what to print, ransacking pressrooms that don’t abide by their directives, imprisoning journalists for purely political reasons, etc. is an insult to every single reader that checks his site. Copeland’s belief that Bush is creating a Christian theocracy at all comparable to Saudi Arabia or Iran is equally ignorant. Based on Copeland’s comments, I doubt he’d be able to tell the difference between Auschwitz and Amache.

My original post containing the relevant Chinese comments is here.

3 comments:

Edward Copeland said...

Imprisoning journalists is EXACTLY what they are threatening to do in their anger over the leaking of the warrantless eavesdropping program. Of course, they feel no such urgency in the case of leaking covert CIA agents' names when it suits their political purposes.

Edward Copeland said...

Of course, at least some conservatives and Republicans are finally getting it. Check out this and this

Jeffrey Hill said...

First off, kudos for not calling it a "domestic spying program."

I realize that there's probably a greater chance of bin Laden turning over a pacificist leaf than you admitting that there's the slightest possibility that maybe, just maybe, the NSA eaves dropping might have something to do with the war on terror. I would be relieved and ecstatic if you proved me wrong on that. Now - what threats of imprisonment are you talking about? Imprisoning journalists for political reasons, or subpoenaing them, if necessary, to get at the bottom of the leak? I happen to think the latter may be justified. Compare the national security issues at stake in the NSA matter with the purely political issues behind the Chinese imprisonments (note: China's not just threatening to imprison journalists, their doing it...a lot). Do you see a difference?

Here's a question: let's say you had a Chinese blog in Suzhou - roughly the equivalent of the blog you have now - meaning that you ridicule and bitch about the party in power. How long do you think it would last before being shut down? How many times would you be able to mention Tiananmen Square or Falung Gong or the names of any high profile dissidents before you heard a knock at the door? Are there any equivalent keywords (short of threatening a terrorist attack) that would elicit the same reaction here? Would you dare to have such a blog? Is there a Chinese version of the Daily Kos or a Chinese Michael Moore operating in the mainland - one that poops on its president every chance it gets?

Finally, I fail to see how you second comment relates to this thread.