Watching City Hall #426 (2-2-06)

Chronicle censorship worse than PRC’s

(telling lies worse than half-truths)

Showing a level of chutzpah amazing even for San Francisco, the morning Chronicle ran a front page story by Ellen Lee attacking Google’s censorship on behalf of the Communist dictatorship in China while reprinting a series of lies by staffer Vanessa Hua which sought to minimize the extent of the PRC’s persecution of the Falun Gong. Thus, in one edition, the Chron was able to both oppose and practice censorship.

Hua repeated her lies (seen in no other publication in America) that only a few hundred Falun Gong had been arrested and that, there were less than 2 million Falun Gong practitioners. In fact, there are over 110 million Falun Gong in China alone, over 100,000 of them are presently imprisoned and 3,000 of the peaceful meditators have been tortured and murdered.

I don’t know Vanessa Hua and I hope she isn’t such a lousy fact-checker that she normally get’s things 99% wrong. I further hope that she didn’t make the personal decision to tell lies and keep telling them, over and over and over and over. I’d prefer to think that she wrote an accurate account of the facts and had them changed by John Diaz or Chuck Finney. Reporters at the Chron tell me that this is the way things usually work until you get the hang of when to tell the truth and when to lie or omit and are thus, able to censor yourself.

Lyndon Johnson (among others) said that if you get the same lie out to a variety of media branches often enough, people will accept it as a truth. The Hearst corp. perfected this technique and with a couple of hundred media outlets, they are able to play it to the hilt. Locally, their TV outlet (KPIX #5) has contributed to the coordinated trivialization of this ever accelerating Chinese genocide. And, get this straight, this is not about a parade. This is about greedy American capitalists enabling mass murder because doing the right thing (condemning it, or allowing the news about it to spread) … doing the right thing would cost billionaires money and dictators power. This is about valuing money more than life and that’s why I’m concerned for Aaron Peskin’s soul.

Peskin disgraces family name

San Francisco Board of Supes President, Aaron Peskin used a cheap parliamentary trick at Tuesday’s meeting of the full Board. He did it in order to slander the name of a new religion and thus imperil their existence by further empowering their enemies. What he did was to make certain (or, so he thought) that the last word on the Board’s actions in accepting a resolution condemning persecution of the Falun Gong … that the last word would be Peskin’s own word and that it would be slanderous of the sect.

He did this by first voting without comment, against the Falun Gong at the end of the scheduled discussion of the item (he and Barney Rubble where the only one’s voting in favor of persecution), then using his comment period during the supes Roll Call for Introductions to pour slander upon them with no allowance for their defense. “I asked the City Attorney and I can do this!” said the ever-resourceful ex-Progressive turncoat. He poured it on. You said the Falun Gong are homophobes and against inter-marriage and on and on. Hell, he might have been reading from the bible (Old or New Testament) or the Koran or the Torah. Nothing the matter with this, if he’d done it during the period of time allotted for a fair debate during which he could have been asked a few questions. For instance, how do Jews feel about inter-marriage, Aaron? Let’s get it out there. Could you tell us where the term ’shiksa’ came from? Is it true that when the whole family meets, the shiksa gets the seat of honor at the head of the table? Do you favor stoning adulterous women in the square accross from City Hall? You have judged the Falun Gong, Aaron. How do you feel about having the Jews judged?

Like a bully and a coward, Peskin didn’t allow rebuttal. He glanced over at Chris Daly a time or two and Daly simply gave him a baleful look and went back to shuffling papers. Then a wonderful thing happened. The Falun Gong themselves came back dozens strong during Public Comment and politely kicked his hypocritical ass.

Oh, he tried to stop them! “You can’t speak about the resolution in Public Comment because it’s on the Board agenda for today.” The mild practitioner nodded and replied: “I am not speaking about the resolution.” It was beautiful. After absorbing a few metaphorical kicks in the nuts, Aaron turned the poldium (OK, there’s no podium anymore, Peskin gave that away too) turned the gavel over to Chris Daly, of all people. He returned to his office to listen to a couple of profanity-laced messages I’d left for him.

Sensitivity training can be tough

You don’t see Evil and its supporters so clearly defined very often so get the names right. Peskin is by far the most dangerous of the lot. You can no longer trust anything the man says. Compounding that, he is media savy and supports handing control of SF Wi Fi over to Google corporation who will be allowed to mine our email. We already know how good Google is at making history disappear for a price. Last year he traded the possibility of Municipal Cable & all that could mean for alternative news and free speech … traded it in for a 30 minute TV show about him and Rose Pak and another starring 2 of his legislative assistants. His ‘no’ vote on the Falun Gong resolution means that he, effectively, supports their harassment, imprisonment, torture and murder.

Watch the show, folks. Full Board, 1-31-06. Items 20, 34 & 35. It’s ugly but, until DTIS and Comcast alter or destroy it, it is honest & unvarnished history. Religious freedom, greed, dictatorship, crooked politicians and a silently persevering and representatives of a non-violent oppressed minority from a gigantic Asian nation. Shit, it’s Gandhi all over again.

The solution

Freeze prices and double the money supply. Divide the new money amongst the 90% of the population who work as slaves for the top10%. Make it illegal to pass cash or property (foreign or domestic) valued at over 100 million dollars on to your heirs. That’s a good start.

Conclusion

I believe in God. Not in churches. Not in religion. Those things only divide people for the purpose of increasing the power of the people doing the dividing. I think the world’s biggest problem is greed and the resultant maldistribution of the planet’s wealth. I believe that the next largest problem we face is global warming. Then comes religious fanaticism (of all stripes). After that, I fear overpopulation, nuclear weapons and, of course, the Dodgers.

I believe that our human identities are only a tiny sliver of our total immortal identity. Personally, I hope this isn’t my best sliver but I do believe that we are all graded every moment of every day no matter what our abilities or station in life may be. I think that the greatest sin is to knowingly profit from the suffering and oppression of others. I believe that when we see this happening, we are morally obligated to step up and oppose it. Defend the defenseless. Speak for the speechless. And, most of all … stand up to mother fucking bullies.

Happy Groundhog’s Day,