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Ear to the Ground

Obama Has Tough Love for China

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Posted on Nov 16, 2009
White House / Pete Souza

The president boards Air Force One on his way to Asia.

President Obama’s remarks at a Shanghai town hall meeting Monday were unlikely to please either the power brokers in Beijing or the hawks on the home front. Obama said China and the U.S. were not adversaries, but he also spoke of “universal rights,” which he said should extend to “all people, including ethnic and religious minorities, whether they are in the United States, China or any nation.”

That reference to “ethnic and religious minorities” comes at a sensitive time for China, which recently executed eight Uighur prisoners on charges related to ethnic riots in Xinjiang.

Although he covered controversial territory, Obama took pains not to offend, saying, “We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation … .” Wait a second, haven’t we been doing that for years?  —PZS

BBC:

“We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation, but we also don’t believe that the principles we stand for are unique to our nation,” he said.

“These freedoms of expression and worship, of access to information and political participation—we believe are universal rights.”

Mr Obama added: “They should be available to all people, including ethnic and religious minorities, whether they are in the United States, China or any nation.”

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By johannes, November 16, 2009 at 5:06 pm #

Gerard, now you generalize this people, I am shure you will find every where good human people, but they have to go with the mainstreem or geth drowned.

People speak and write all the time about corrupt Afgaans or Iraquis, yes look one time from their side of the coin, if you have absolutly nothing, and an famelie, and the people around you are thrying to bye you, don’t forgeth it are the invaders who are corrupting this on educated people, wath should you do, and afther they are gone this freedom bringers, the population are left with lots of sexual illesses and other problems, I think we must defend this people against this satanic thinking.

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By gerard, November 16, 2009 at 4:13 pm #

This idea of American “supremacy” seems to almost be fed to us in our mother’s milk.  It goes back way farther than the discovery of the country in 1492 or whenever. Started as an ancient legend about a mystical “western paradise”, it has persisted in the delusions of grandeur, and especially in the rigamarole of secret societies, ever since the Middle Ages.  Columbus was looking for it and thought maybe he found it.  The Founding Fathers came here to build a paradise on earth of religious freedom—and soon started killing the Natives and stealing the land.  All was justified by a vast superiority complex that is present to this day—unfortunately. It prevents us from seeing ourselves as others see us. 
  Not that we don’t have our good points—but our judgments and the way we see others is skewed and unrealistic.  And not that other nations don’t think they too are superior—some do, for one reason or another. 
  But the bottom line is:  The earth belongs to all its people and they all have “human rights” to eat, have adequate shelter and hopefully, sleep well and wake up the next morning and laugh at the sun.  So . . . Obama in China ... good!  Say thank you when you leave, and invite them to come here.  Forget the “exceptionalism” myth in the interests of truth and peace on earth.

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By johannes, November 16, 2009 at 2:43 pm #

Well you can keep hammering on it, but if it helps so much as a penny I don’t belief it.

People who are govern us are bad in and in bad, if you reed this history of Guam and its people, done by also the humanist, Harold Wilson, makes you sick.

I thank you Mister Denk, for this small history, about the misbehavior of humand against humans, this time it are the Brits and the Yankees.

I am allways so happy I don’t know every thing, sure I could not sleep.

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By denk, November 16, 2009 at 1:49 pm #

**As the Americans began to arrive and build the base, Sir Bruce Greatbatch, the governor of the Seychelles, who had been put in charge of the “sanitizing”, ordered all the pet dogs on Diego Garcia to be killed. Almost 1,000 pets were rounded up and gassed, using the exhaust fumes from American military vehicles. “They put the dogs in a furnace where the people worked,” says Lizette Tallatte, now in her 60s,” ... and when their dogs were taken away in front of them, our children screamed and cried.**
http://tinyurl.com/6a5xo5

whats the mame of obama’s dog again, he looks soooooo cute ?

hell i could’ve written a 5000 pages book on the yanks antics, but i really have to call it a day now.

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By denk, November 16, 2009 at 1:42 pm #

or the natives of guam ?
http://tinyurl.com/nbjxv7

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By denk, November 16, 2009 at 1:39 pm #

does this “universal hr” thingee applies to those old farmers kicked outta their ancestral homes in korea ?
http://tinyurl.com/6gz3ot

mr “universal rights” obama ?

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By denk, November 16, 2009 at 1:34 pm #

**We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation, but we also don’t believe that the principles we stand for are unique to our nation,” he said.

“These freedoms of expression and worship, of access to information and political participation - we believe are universal rights.**


here’s the prez for CHANGE in action, rofl
http://tinyurl.com/yhg6g3h

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By denk, November 16, 2009 at 1:00 pm #

yanks have been having it too easy for too long now
http://tinyurl.com/dxy23z
do they think they are gods or something ?
its almost surreal
to paraphrase william blum
HYPOCRISY OF SUCH MAGNITUDE OUGHT TO BE RESPECTED

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By Howie Bledsoe, November 16, 2009 at 9:46 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

“These freedoms of expression and worship, of access to information and political participation - we believe are universal rights.”
Yes, and waterboarding is a great access to information, no?

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By bogi666, November 16, 2009 at 9:38 am #

Available to all except for Iraq, Afghanistan, those renditioned and tortured by the USG. The Chinese should laugh in President Obushama’s face for his hypocrisy.

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