Chinese Govt: Mad As Hatters [and criminally insane!]

Could CPC’s criminal insanity be due to mercurialism from coal fires?

Chinese police arrest quake critic on secrets charges!

Huang Qi, 45, a Chinese Political activist who runs Tianwang Human Rights Center was arrested for “possession of state secrets” in quake-hit Sichuan province on June 10. Yesterday, police informed his mother of his formal arrest on secrets charges.

Although little information is known about his arrest, it is believed that his offer help to parents of children killed in the Massive May 12 earthquake may have led to his detention.

“The police didn’t say why, but we think it was because of when he went to help in the quake area with food and money and met many parents who’d lost children,” said his wife, Zeng Li.

Activist Huang Qi is among dozens of writers and lawyers detained during a pre-Olympics crackdown on dissent. Among off-limits topics: complaints from grieving parents that schools that collapsed in the May quake, killing thousands of children, were poorly built, above. (Undated Family Photo). Caption: Washigton Post.

Huang’s concerns about shoddy building and non-existent safety checks, as well as his contacts with foreign journalists may have angered the officials, she said.

Military and police personnel guard the entrance to the Juyuan Middle School where about 280 children died in last month’s earthquake, in Juyuan town near Dujiangyan city in Sichuan province June 12, 2008. Grieving and angry parents on Thursday marked one month since China’s devastating earthquake toppled schools, demanding an explanation and apologising to their loved ones buried under the rubble. Parents of children who died at the Juyuan Middle School said that their planned memorial service at the site was being blocked by police who went from door to door warning them to stay away. The sign reads: “Restricted area. No entry.” REUTERS/David Gray (CHINA). Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!

Huang has been denied a lawyer and visitations rights, said Zeng.

“Huang has been arrested solely for peaceful expression of opinion,” said the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group.

Chinese authorities have attempted to silence protests and collective mourning by the bereaved parents who tragically lost their loved ones when shoddy school buildings collapsed like cardboard boxes in the Sichuan quake.

(L-R) Chen Hupei, Zhang Xiaojun and Qiu Yiping cry as they hold pictures of their children at a road intersection, 14 km (9 miles) away from the earthquake-hit area of Hanwang, Sichuan province, May 23, 2008. Students died when the quake struck on May 12, 2008, causing the buildings in Wufu Primary to collapse on students who were attending school. REUTERS/Nicky Loh (CHINA). Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!

Related News Links:

• China launches widespread crackdown
• China arrests quake critic on secrets charge
• China’s Silencing Season

Related Links:

• Chinese Government Prevents Aggrieved Parents Lodging Lawsuit

• China earthquake: Teacher left students behind as he ran to safety
• Chinese quake investigator pinpoints school failings
• China “quake lake” fears compound survivors misery

Analysis:

• Why Didn’t China Prevent the Loss of 86,000 Lives?
• The Anguished Cries of China Quake Nurse
• Chinese paratroopers rescuing survivors or preventing plague?
• How Many More Survivors?
• Heavy Death Toll, Corruption, Criminal Incompetence
• Why Was the Girl Removed from Family?

• Chinese Leaders Incapable of Handling Quake Aftermath
• Bigger China Disaster Unfolds

• China’s grieving quake parents start to voice anger
• Beijing’s quick response to disaster won’t cover cracks of corruption
• Almost five million left homeless, China says
• Corruption blamed for rising death toll in China
• Parents’ grief turns to anger at shoddily built deathtrap schools

• Earthquake Predictions In China Are Also Political

China Dead and Missing Nos Climb, Again!

80,000 people are dead or missing in China’s earthquake, 300,000 injured

The government’s figure for the dead is 51,000 with 29,000 missing. It’s not known how many survivors were rescued from the rubble. In Beichuan county, about two-thirds of the population were killed.

[You Killed My Baby!] “A mother gestures as she confronts Zhu Qi (R), education dean of Mianyang city, while she and more than 100 parents attend a memorial service for their dead children at the destroyed Fuxing Primary School in the earthquake-hit Wufu town of Mianzhu county, Sichuan province May 21, 2008.” REUTERS/Jason Lee. (Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!)

A mother holding a portrait of her dead son confronts Zhu Qi (L), education dean of Mianyang city, as she and more than 100 parents attend a memorial service at the destroyed Fuxing Primary School in the earthquake-hit Wufu town of Mianzhu county, Sichuan province May 21, 2008. Parents said their children died unnecessarily because of the bad quality of the school’s classrooms. REUTERS/Jason Lee (CHINA). (Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!)

Related Links:

• Quake-hit leg of Olympic torch relay postponed [O RLY]
  
• Bigger China Disaster Unfolds

• China’s grieving quake parents start to voice anger
• China Earthquake, Heavy Death Toll, Corruption, Criminal Incompetence
• The Anguished Cries of China Quake Nurse
• Chinese paratroopers rescuing survivors or preventing plague?
• Chinese Leaders Incapable of Handling Quake Aftermath

• Beijing’s quick response to disaster won’t cover cracks of corruption
• Almost five million left homeless, China says
• Corruption blamed for rising death toll in China
• Parents’ grief turns to anger at shoddily built deathtrap schools

Video Links:

• Quake parents mourn their only child (Every Building survived the quake, except the school!)
• Quake parents grief turns to anger
• Terror in quake’s aftershocks

No Bravery!

No Bravery (A 4-minute Video)

“I just watched a piece on several networks about a little Iraqi boy that was horribly burned and disfigured! The piece showed how so many people came to his aid and how the Dr’s donated their time and skills to try and repair the damage we have caused!

“I’m sure that this piece helped many Americans to ease their guilt and let them believe that we, as a nation, are a loving, compassionate and kind people.

“It would have been far better to show the pictures of thousands and thousands of children that are dead, dying, crippled, disfigured, homeless, malnourished, without family, and many other horrible problems that the American people and our corrupted government have caused! We mourn our own dead, wounded, and otherwise harmed troops, and rightly so, yet we fail to comprehend the vast destruction that, we, the American people along with our Corporate controlled government have inflicted on this world, all in the name of greed!!” ~ Bob Egan

Support Impeachment Resolution 333

**Please circulate widely to friends, family, and listservs**

Send a Letter to your Congressional representative
Support House Resolution 333 for Impeachment!

We are asking everyone to take a moment to send a letter to their congressional representative to co-sponsor House Resolution 333 for the impeachment of Dick Cheney. Make sure your representative at least call for an open House debate on impeachment.

As we reported last week, House Resolution 333 for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney is off the House floor, and has instead been sent to the Judiciary Committee for “further study.” This maneuver, organized by Pelosi and the Democratic leadership, is consistent with their mantra that impeachment is “off the table.”

But not so fast. Some House members not associated with Kucinich’s resolution are now openly calling for immediate hearings into Cheney’s impeachable actions—specifically lying the country into a war in Iraq, and threatening war with Iran. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), not a co-sponsor of the resolution, has called for the Judiciary Committee to take up the impeachment resolution, admitting that,”Cheney and the Bush Administration have demonstrated a consistent pattern of abusing the law and misleading Congress and the American people.”

Because of popular pressure, even those who have wanted nothing to do with impeachment, are now willing to give impeachment its day in court. Congressional representatives are being deluged by their constituents demanding that the House act on impeachment.

Impeachment is on the move. We are asking everyone to take a moment to send a letter to your congressional representative to co-sponsor House Resolution 333 for the impeachment of Dick Cheney. Make sure your representative at least calls for an open House debate and hearings on impeachment. No more maneuvering, no more deception! Carry out the responsibilities mandated by the Constitution of the United States!

The movement is making progress that seemed out of reach just a few months ago. Make an urgently needed donation right now to help the movement continue to move forward. As Ramsey Clark said in his last email, “We need to run newspaper ads in the major national and regional papers to energize and recruit concerned persons. This needs lots of money. We need your help now.” Click this link to make an urgently needed donation right now.”

Keep up the pressure!

The Wardens of Freedom in Amerika

The Wardens of Freedom in Amerika: Lawyers, Judges, Israel Lobby, Politicians, Police, Scientists, Academics, Clergy, Reporters, Psychologists…

Where are the lawyers of America?

By Ralph Nader

The rogue regime of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney-so widely condemned for its unconstitutional, criminal Iraq war, its spying on Americans illegally, its repeated illegal torture practices, its arrests and imprisonment of thousands in this country without charges and its pathological secrecy and corporate corruption-still has not felt the heat of the 800,000 practicing lawyers and their many bar organizations.

Lawyer jokes aside, the first defense outside of government against the rejection of due process, probable cause and habeas corpus should come from the officers of the courts-the attorneys of America. With few exceptions, they have flunked, asleep at the switch or loaded with excuses.

The exceptions are a number of law professors such as David Cole (Georgetown University) and Jonathan Turley (George Washington University) and the magnificent one-year presidency of Michael Greco at the conservative American Bar Association.

Mr. Greco, appalled at the outlaw nature of the Bush White House, now wallowing in the pits of the public opinion polls, organized former counsel to the CIA, the National Security Agency and the FBI, among others, to produce detailed reports and resolutions assailing the Bush government for repeatedly violating the constitution in numerous ways. (http://www.abanet.org/)

Reports were sent to Mr. Bush personally. He did not even bother to acknowledge receipt. The ABA has over 400,000 members and is the largest bar association in the world. Not even a courtesy reply from George Bush, the American Caesar.

Unfortunately, the courage of Greco and his colleagues has not been contagious with hundreds of thousands of lawyers throughout America or the 50 state bar associations who might have taken some action or position to stand after the ABA stood tall in 2005-2006.

Mind you, the climate for lawyers defending the rule of law is quite enabling. Seventy percent of the American people want out of Iraq and nearly as many would like to see this Presidency end. A poll of soldiers in Iraq back in January 2006 registered 72% of them wanting the U.S. out of Iraq within six to twelve months.

In addition, scores of former Generals and high military officers, retired intelligence officials and diplomats have openly criticized the intransigence, incompetence and harm to the U.S. national security. These leaders include the national security advisers to Bush’s father, Brent Snowcroft, the anti-terrorism advisor to George W. Bush, Richard Clark, and many others who served in high government office.

With all this in mind, I have been asking lawyers why they do not become directly active in challenging what they themselves believe is a reckless above-the-law Presidency and its enormous concentration of unlawful power. Here are some examples of their replies.

–real estate attorney with a sterling civil liberties background says “I am just too busy.”
–numerous retired lawyers of considerable accomplishment simply say they are retired.

–mid-career business attorneys say they have too many clients who might object (too much wheeling and dealing to uphold the rule of law in Washington, D.C.).

–public interest lawyers say it is not within their declared mission-eg. environmental, consumer, poverty or law reform work.

–”Too controversial,” and “I’m not up to it,” announced a prominent trial lawyer.

–”I wouldn’t know where to start and I just need my leisure time,” replied a highly specialized estate and trusts attorney.

And so it goes. Too preoccupied, too many deals in the works, too controversial, too retired…

The Democratic leadership in the Congress has given Bush/Cheney a giant nod by taking a pass on holding them accountable through impeachment, through conditions in budget bills, through making them answer subpoenas by playing hardball on Bush’s nominees, such as his new choice for Attorney General.

It is up to the lawyers to rally for the Republic. This is deep patriotism, for without upholding our constitution, and the laws of the land, what will become of our country?

What will our children and their grandchildren inherit-a bankrupt government that contracts out more and more of its core functions to staggeringly expensive giant corporations seeking limitless profits, while they finance and corrupt politicians to turn their back on the peoples’ needs?

Lawyers are supposed to know how to apply law to raw power. They know how to use the courts, lobby (there are hundreds or thousands of attorneys in each of most Congressional Districts). They can cut through the arcane camouflage of legalese. They know when the laws are being violated and what the remedies are for the violators. They know how to draft legislation. They have contacts and money and are not supposed to be frightened of conflict. The super-lawyers invariably get their calls returned.

Where are the lawyers of America?

Two major terrorist strikes, with a messianic, compulsively-obsessed President, can do to America what 9 months of nightly bombing by the Nazis could not do to England-move us much closer to a police state.

Where are the stand-up lawyers of America?

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