Clearing the Browser Tabs – Hu’s That Tyrant Thursday Edition

Yesterday, President Obama, leader of the most free and open nation on Earth, gave full praise and honors to Hu Jintao, head tyrant of China. The culmination of the visit was a state dinner at the White House, which leading Republicans refused to attend, much to their credit. I would have praised the President if he had set an empty place at the table for 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who could not receive his prize because Hu would not let him leave the country.

He could also have brought up the name of Gao Zhisheng, whose wife fears the worst since he dropped out of contact with her last April. Gao had already been tortured and imprisoned by Hu’s thugs several times before his latest prison term and his last communication with his wife suggested strongly that he was not entirely free. Instead, the First Lady is pushing a new initiative to get 100,000 American students to study and live in China so they can broaden their horizons or become a citizen of the world or something. I’m not sure how living under the absolute control of a bunch of old murderers is good for a young person, but obviously I’m not as enlightened as Michelle Obama.

And now, links!

• Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen is a reprehensible creature, worthy only of our scorn. The Republicans in that state should make it their goal in life to make his name radioactive and his re-election (in a very safe seat, I’ll note) a matter of shame for the Democratic Party. They should do this not for politics, but for honor.
• Not only is Sheila Jackson-Lee the Sooper Genius of the House, she’s also quite the lover of totalitarianism.
• What’s the very best way to get more civil public conversations? Old-school Classical Liberalism, which you might recognize as modern conservatism.
• Obamacare is officially on the chopping block. House Republicans, along with a few Democrats to make things nice and bipartisan, voted to repeal last year’s health care bill (via memeorandum). It will now move to the Senate where Mitch McConnell will push to get a vote no matter what Harry Reid wants.
• Are serial novels the next big thing for young adult sci-fi and fantasy novels? I don’t see why not. Both genres have deep roots in serialized formats, both in newspapers and magazines. Stephen King also had a good bit of success with The Green Mile, which was originally released as a monthly serial.
• Twitter loves Glee, and where one show found social media success, others will surely follow. I know that American Idol has a pretty strong Twitter following as did Sarah Palin’s Alaska.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Clearing the Browser Tabs – Mindblank Thursday Edition
• Clearing the Browser Tabs – Give a Veteran a Home Thursday Edition
• Clearing the Browser Tabs – Tone-Moderation Thursday Edition

Tags: Linky Love

Category: Links