We should all be outraged at this story. And I am.
The highest court in the "communist" dictatorship of North Korea has now convicted 2 American journalists of an unspecified "grave crime" and sentenced them to 12 years in a hard labor camp. (I don't know why the terrible North Korean dictatorship is referred to as "communist", for it outlawed the Communist Party in 1977.)
The 2 women worked for Current TV, a media company led by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt.
This punishment is horrible news - for the journalists, their families, and the free flow of ideas.
I'm waiting for the wingnut response. The modern strain of American conservatives usually claims to be big defenders of Red, White, and Blue, but how do they act when Americans are in trouble abroad?
Gingrich neorightists were the first people in America to defend Singapore in its caning of a young man who didn't even receive due process at his vandalism trial. And the Bush regime was notoriously weak on getting Americans out of trouble in right-wing theocracies like Saudi Arabia.
The rightist excuse is always that "it's their law", so foreign dictatorships can violate inalienable human rights if they please. Obviously, this "it's their law" business didn't work for U.S. states that had their consumer protection and other laws "preempted" by Bush, so you have to wonder whose side they're on.
Everyone knows North Korea is run by an insane dictator, so I don't know if wingnuts defending the regime will gain as much traction as defending dictatorships that are considered American allies. But I sure haven't seen the right-wingers get too upset about this story like we are.
(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hM96sRn69bkN1XDLqb2_pkmFxqdgD98M8TL00)
Monday, June 8, 2009
Wingnuts gonna defend this?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
North Korea calls itself a democratic republic, but really, do you think that's what it is? All parties except Kim Jong Il's Korean Workers Party, which is Stalinist/Marxist (meaning communist) are effectively outlawed -- two or three minor, allied parties are allowed to exist, but it's only for show. By law, they can never replace the dominant party in power.
ReplyDeleteWhere did I say North Korea is a democratic republic? I said quite the contrary.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Communist Party has been banned there since 1977.
The KWP is a communist party. No one would seriously dispute that.
ReplyDelete