Sulzberger, The NY Times and The CIA
@ Mon 26 July 2010 4:23 PM HKT by Tom LeggIt always makes me laugh when ignoramuses refer to the NY Times as a liberal newspaper. The NY Times has for the longest time been an establishment stalwart, more of a critical player in the secret government than most contemporaries would imagine.
As the story of the day is the NY Times acting as an emissary for the White House concerning the publishing of classified documents on Wikileaks from the US military, I thought it's be nice to repoint our faithful readers to this moldy oldy from Rolling Stone magazine from 1977 under the byline of Carl Bernstein.
Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the Agency were Williarn Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Henry Luce of Tirne Inc., Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the New York Times, Barry Bingham Sr. of the LouisviIle Courier‑Journal, and James Copley of the Copley News Service. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include the American Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps‑Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald‑Tribune.
By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc.
...
During the 1976 investigation of the CIA by the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Senator Frank Church, the dimensions of the Agency’s involvement with the press became apparent to several members of the panel, as well as to two or three investigators on the staff. But top officials of the CIA, including former directors William Colby and George Bush, persuaded the committee to restrict its inquiry into the matter and to deliberately misrepresent the actual scope of the activities in its final report.
That would be future President George HW Bush, father of President George W Bush.
The article also notes that among newspaper executives and the CIA the connections were primarily social with the notable exception being the Sulzberger's signing secrecy agreements with the Agency.
You can follow Greg Mitchell's updated press reviews and links at The Nation. We'll see how much difference there is between reports from The New York Times, which focuses primarily on the Pakistani ISI connections to the Taleban and The Guardian's primary focus on US/NATO/UK military and mercenary killing of civilians. Also it will be interesting to see whether there will be a discussion in the media of the NY Times acting as an intermediary once again on behalf of the US Executive Branch.
A Confluence of Pride in Greed
@ Sat 17 July 2010 11:56 AM HKT by Tom LeggSo as the debate raged in Taiwan over the signing of ECFA with the mainland, the DPP pointed to the bust that is HK's CEPA. Even Hong Kong's Oriental Daily went forward with an article describing the HK SAR government's negotiations with the mainland as a failure for 10 years. But Donald Tsang Yam-kuen responded that CEPA was a success, because it allowed for the Individual Visit Scheme from the mainland. The need to link the two scheme is a fairly clear example of how large a failure the negotiations have been by Donald Tsang and his predecessor.
But the HK SAR government in general trumpets frequently and loudly the benefits of mainland tourists coming to HK. They always talk about how much money they pump in to the local economy via tourist spending. This sets the primary goal of the program from the VERY TOP of the HK SAR government.
Early this morning (LegCo was still debating when I went to sleep around 2am), LegCo passed HK's first minimum wage law. The vote was 45-1. The one vote against the minimum wage was from the Tourism Functional Constituency representative. Currently many Hong Kong tour guides are not paid a wage by their employers, but make money solely from kickbacks (the industry calls them "commissions") from retailers where the tour guide herds her group. I've been proclaiming this as a sore spot of HK's tourism industry for well over 3 years on this blog (do a search for "kickback"). The lack of a set wage combined with the kickbacks places all incentives squarely on getting mainland tourists to spend, spend, spend. This dovetails precisely with the goals stated for the program as noted above by the Chief Executive himself.
The policy of getting mainland tourists to spend, spend, spend also dovetails nicely with a unique feature of HK, which is retail leases paying a commission of retail sales to the property owner beyond the base rent. This helps the cash flows of the primary commercial property owners, who also happen to be HK's tycoon property developers, during those periods when property sales are slow.
So as the video of Ah Zhen blazes across mainland television screens, I can only ask that mainlanders point at the National People's Congress for intruding in HK politics and propping up HK's functional consituency seats. The stranglehold on HK power by those that take supreme pride in being greedy ensures that common people will only be treated as ATMs to pump out even more money in to the greedy pockets of both HK tycoons and the CCP. Until that stranglehold is broken there will be no change and despite the complaints spanning more than 3 years, you'll hear that Ah Zhen was an isolated incident and then it'll be back to business as usual. Care for a little melamine in your milk tea while we wait?
The Face Of True Evil Is Often Quite Polite
@ Wed 14 July 2010 11:59 AM HKT by Tom LeggWhen faced with crowds of the hungry that worked hard but didn't make enough to afford food and shelter, what would Jesus do? He'd obviously say that we'd make sure that the views of their employers would be properly accounted for to ensure that none of them might have to suffer a loss in profits.
When faced with crowds of the sick and disabled wishing to be healed, what would Jesus do? He'd obviously tell them he was unable to handle the workload of healing them all, so he'd offer them a partial subsidy to go see some other for-profit healer.
What? Jesus wouldn't do those things? No, but a overtly pious little man who falls back on pompous versions of childhood taunts would. Of course what would you expect from a little man who claims victory for something that could only be accomplished by completely bypassing his powerless position.
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's responses in LegCo yesterday showed that he was the master of policy initiatives that were nothing but hand waving. When faced with the obvious fact that his housing policies have resulted in repeatedly blatant gaming of the system by his tycoon buddies due to its lack of transparency, he responded by saying that Hong Kong would have to wait and see whether the current rules about transparency didn't work. Sorry, Bow-tie, we've seen that your rules are a failure and your response shows that you have no real power to rein in the institutionalised corruption here.
When faced with obvious signs that his policies have not slowed the surge in property prices, despite claims to the opposite made to LegCo by his Secretaries within the last two months, he offers the minimum of fig leaves concerning possible subsidies towards the Home Ownership Scheme. Any word on pushing the ICAC to consider pre-land auction negotiations between bidders as a form of corruption? Any word on an actual expansion of land offerings beyond more luxury homes being built? I can look out my windows and see two of the plots on the Government's rosters that weren't triggered. Why not? Because the government's policy of high land prices can't be reversed, because Donald Tsang has no power to rein in the institutionalised corruption in Hong Kong.
When faced with issues of a balanced economic development, he promised to revisit his failed transit subsidy program of a few years back. Why do we have to revisit it? 1) Because the policy was so massively undervalued as to make it an immediate failure, which ensured that it wouldn't actually register on the budget due to a lack of people using the failed program. 2) Economic development under Donald Tsang has continued to be so lopsided, that folks in the New Territories are still forced to commute to find jobs within stumbling distance of the renovated with taxpayer money Executive mansion.
When faced with issues of providing adequate health care for Hong Kong, he promised to provide subsidies for the elderly with chronic health problems to visit private doctors. But exactly like the travel subsidy program it is so massively undervalued, that it's a guaranteed failure out of the gate. And since almost no one will actually use the health subsidies, it ensures that the implemented program will not be a drain on the public finances of Hong Kong.
So we see a hand waving charlatan, who proclaims policy initiatives designed as immediate failures and proclaims that we'll have to wait and see whether the emperor has no clothes, when everyone else can see it plain as day in real time. And if I were the LSD, instead of throwing prop pieces of silver at Donald Tsang, I'd just inform the radical Tsang Yok-sing that you have no questions for this powerless charlatan and that you're insulted that the Chair would fail to allow the honourable members of LegCo to question the real power behind the curtains instead of this bow-tied bozo.
Ripped From The Cover
@ Wed 14 July 2010 9:09 AM HKT by Tom LeggSo frackin' lame. Yesterday when faced with a barrage of "disrespectful questions" (clutch your pearls, you overly sensitive waste of space), Bowtie whipped out a phrase used by King Edward III: "Honi soit qui mal y pense".
Shall I be the one to make the commentary of Donald Tsang figuring himself as some sort of royalty separate and morally above the unwashed commoners of Hong Kong? Shall I post photos of his stupendously stupid grin while rubbing shoulders with real world leaders at APEC gatherings? ("Look at me, I'm important because I get to talk to important people." Embarrasingly useless.)
But thanks to Wikipedia, I can see it's not a matter of Donald Tsang actually being an educated man.
Another alternative translation : "Spurned be the one who evil thinks". The older (dark navy blue) British passport carried this message on its cover. The intent there was for the bearer to be pure in thought and intent if he/she was a carrier of that passport.
...
It is on the front of the current British passports.
UPDATE at Noon:
So reading an Oriental Daily story on this exchange, they mention Bowtie referenced the phrase was on a banner in the pre-handover Council chambers. In any case it's still just a pompous version of the child's taunt, "I'm rubber, you're glue, everything bounces off of me and sticks to you." Just a mighty L4M3 attempt to dodge the accuracy of the accusations against him!
Politics, The HK Economy, and Functional Constituencies
@ Mon 28 June 2010 12:59 PM HKT by Tom LeggSo Executive Councillor Leong Che-hung has called on people to leave behind the arguments over political reform, and to focus on improving people's livelihood. The only problem with this is politics is the argument over how best to improve people's livelihoods. As my Republican ward boss US Government teacher in high school said, "Politics is deciding who gets what, when, where and why?"
If the Executive Council had really wanted to improve the average HKer's livelihood, they'd have asked Beijing to remove the restrictions of the NPC interpretation and abolished Functional Constituencies the past week. This week, they'd resign and call for new elections of a new Chief Executive that has a popular mandate to work for what is best for all HKers and not just the small handful of HKers represented by the Functional Constituencies and that actually support the CCP's Liaison Office without being paid HK$200 and a seafood dinner. (What could be better proof that the Functional Constituencies and friends add zero breadth of representation to the Legislative Council than the need to either pay off or threaten the livelihood of their supporters.)
Watching bits of the LegCo debate I was struck by the anemic defense of the Functional Constituencies by their representatives. They went for the oldest canard in the debating book in saying they'd resign if abolishing Functional Constituencies would eliminate ALL of HK's problems. L4M3! They say they are pragmatic, but refuse to resign or abolish their own jobs based upon basic pragmatic utilitarian principles. The best policy is that which does the most good for the most people. Why do they fall back to this all or nothing position? Because even with only a Primary 3 grasp of math, the cost-benefit analysis of keeping the Functional Constituencies obviously shows that the current policies may have kept unemployment low, but that more and more of the HKers who are working are falling in to poverty. The Functional Constituencies and the Executive Council, including the representatives from the shoe-shining DAB and Federation of Trade Unions, are killing the dream of those working under the Lion Rock.
Much like young factory workers across the border calling for independent trade unions that they elect and actually represent them, the people of HK need full universal suffrage, including the abolition of small circle nominations that have produced wonders like Bowtie, Tung Chee-hwa, and diploma-mill graduate Philip "one-finger" Wong, in order to improve their livelihoods, because the folks in power now are only holding them back with empty words and empty promises.
Only Ones Looking Stupid Are HK SAR Govt - Liaison Office - NPC
@ Tue 22 June 2010 11:25 AM HKT by Tom LeggI understand the rift between the pan-democrats. There is no doubt that the amended bill on reform is no step forward towards universal suffrage. Of course no reform bill would really have been a step forward towards universal suffrage due to the National People's Congress' interference in the political development of Hong Kong. The pushed the same limitations on to their hand selected guy as they did on the evil-incarnate Chris Patten. So the National People's Congress looks really really stupid now. Especially the ones that claimed the Democratic Party's ideas violated the Basic Law and then changed their minds. Definitely shows the NPC still hates the rule of law when it might get in the way of rule by them.
The HK SAR government and Liaison Office come off smelling like pig farm waste. They look like the most mindless of shoe shiners. Instead of gaining praise from the community for being pragmatic and compromising with the Democratic Party, they look like idiots who have to have someone else do the thinking for them. The fact that every time that Donald "I promised a road map and gave you a road apple instead" Tsang and his band of untelegenic idiots went on television to berate Hong Kongers about passing their piece of pig waste package, the public support for it went down. Even in the polls by shoe shining groups like the One Country, Two Systems Foundation prior to the debate, the support was dropping like a lead weight. And after the debate, the government had to abdicate authority over the package.
What's really funny is that the HK SAR government and Liaison Office still seem more deluded than partiers in Mongkok on ketamine. They seem to think that somehow passing this reform bill will cover them in glory and prestige and reduce the pressure for radical action on universal suffrage. BWAHAHAHAA! The biggest positive thing it will do is reduce the ability of shoe shiners to fall back on blocking real reform by arguing that the Basic Law doesn't allow radical change towards universal suffrage. (It'll never get rid of their ability to fall back on this argument, because shoe shiners are like American tea partiers: immune to reality, logic, and truth.) Beyond this it will remind Hong Kongers that 2.5 times as many people voted in the LegCo by-election than are eligible electors for all 30 Functional Constituency seats combined and that even if voting for Functional Constituencies is expanded to the general pubilc, it'll still produce LegCo members not worth much more than the lowest-rated members like shoe shiners Mr "One Finger" and Mr "My Father Supported Sports".
After the passage of the bill, no Member's Bills from the pan-democrats will make it to the Chief Executive's desk. After the passage of the bill, there will be no change in the voting results for the Functional Constituencies in support of government bills and blocking all pan-democrat amendments to those bills. Nothing will really change and the anger that this will produce will be targeted directly at the next Chief Executive, the Liaison Office and the worthless National People's Congress.
I've Been Zapped By the Great Firewall Bowtie of Sir Donald
@ Tue 15 June 2010 3:48 PM HKT by Tom LeggWhile checking some network issues with a netbook at a local neighbourhood library, I discovered something interesting. My domain is inaccessible from the FreeGovWiFi provided by the HK SAR government. I told you they weren't interested in free and open public debate on the issues concerning Hong Kong.
UPDATED: Here's what you'll see when you use the free gov wifi and surf to a site with possible improper material.
click on the image for a larger version
The 17th Amendment And Universal Suffrage
@ Tue 15 June 2010 9:40 AM HKT by Tom LeggAs an American, here I'm referring to the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution. This isn't one of the big ones on US history or government syllabi. It is the implementation of universal suffrage for US Senators. Originally US Senators were to serve as the representatives of state governments and were elected by the legislatures of the individual states rather than by direct ballot from the people.
In the late 1800s the US went through the Gilded Age, which was gilded for the robber barons and filled with massive economic boom/busts that impoverished pretty much everybody else. At the forefront of protecting the institutional corruption that resulted in massively unequal economic distribution were the Senators elected by indirect popular votes. So as the Progressives pushed for an end to the institutionalised corruption in the US, one of the items on the checklist was the election of US Senators by the State legislatures.
Now why would I be posting on this obscure bit of information now? Because one of the key men at Beijing's Liaison Office opened his mouth on Universal Suffrage.
A senior official from the Beijing Liaison Office has attacked the Democratic Party's political reform proposals, calling them unnecessary, overdone, and legally groundless. Hao Tiechuan, the Director-General of the Liaison Office's Publicity, Culture and Sports Department, also insisted that indirect elections are 'a form of universal suffrage.'
Sadly, No!
Of course we forgive the Liaison Office for their ignorance of universal suffrage, since they've never bothered to implement it or live under it. And thankfully history from the US shows exactly why these Functional Constituencies exist: to protect the institutionalised corruption that maintains the massive inequality in society.
What If HK Students Were Rewarded For Failure Like Stephen Lam?
@ Tue 8 June 2010 12:33 PM HKT by Tom LeggSo the question becomes, did the HK SAR want their Constitutional Reform proposals to fail or are the folks in the HK SAR government and the local CCP Liaison Office dumber than stumps and more deluded than ravers on ketamine?
Secretary for Constitutional Failure and Mainland Shoeshining Stephen Lam told RTHK that every effort has been made to move democracy forward in HK.
The government announced on Monday that it will put its 2012 political reform package to a vote on June 23. There will be two resolutions - and the contents will be the same as the original proposals put forward in April.
The government knew the original proposals were doomed to failure, but decided that failure was more acceptable than actually allowing the HK people to choose their own leadership.
The overall sentiments of the people of HK are that the government proposals don't go far enough, even among the people who say they'll accept a half-assed package as better than nothing.
As HK's students sit for exams, the HK SAR government provides a fine example for them. If something is really urgent and important, it's best to neglect it for your full term and then try to cram all of your effort and studies in to the last minute. And when faced with a study plan certain to fail, you may not deviate from that study plan or take advice from others. After all if your parents won't forgive you getting an F on your exams, you can always say that you made every effort to pass your exams and the Party will be sure to forgive you and protect your job. As long as you shoeshine, the measure of what constitutes success is not on an A to F scale.
Hong Kong's Politicised Police
@ Sun 30 May 2010 11:46 AM HKT by Tom LeggPR blitz on political reform launched
hey've been going around Hong Kong in an open-topped bus and handing out fliers to passersby. But at one point, Mr Tsang was surrounded by a group of protesters chanting slogans calling for the scrapping of functional constituencies in Legco. Plainclothes police had to step in and clear a path for the officials, who were all wearing t-shirts bearing the slogan, "Act Now."
versus blitz on political opposition launched
Thirteen members of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China have been released from police custody, after they were arrested earlier today, for putting up two sculptures at a busy Causeway Bay mall without permission.
The permission that the Police state was missing was an Entertainment Event license, as if Lee Cheuk-yan and Szeto Wah would somehow be mistaken for G.E.M. or Leo Ku Kui-kei.
Furthermore, when the HK SAR government stated in LegCo a week or so ago that it didn't favour a select few private groups, there is the matter of public land usage near private and commercial property developments of HK tycoons. After spending years completely and utterly ignoring/burying their duty to protect the public interest, the HK SAR government has completely abandoned the notion of a public interest for future property developments by the tycoons and continues to put tycoon interests ahead of the public's interests in the usage of public land.
From SCMP 30 May 2010 p.3
It is a public use space, open to non-commercial activities and overseen by the mall management, Wharf (Holdings) {aka Peter Woo}.