News of the Day (February 22)

From here to the great beyond: Happy 274th Birthday to George Washington.

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: The Korea Liberator has some food for thought on the prospect of the liberation of China from within. TKL also examines recent signs of anti-Stalinism in the North, the dovishness of South Korea's youth, and the role of Congress - in particular Jim Leach's office - in pushing the State Department to follow the North Korean Human Rights Act.

More on the Communists' Korean colony: Daily NK reports the latest (and very good) comments from North Korean Democratization Alliance head Hwang Jang Yop. In The New Republic, T.A. Frank has the latest "Today in Despotism" installment (the Stalinist regime is the last item).

Japanese Trade Minister meets Wen Jiabao: Trade Minister Toshihiro Nikai's talks with the Communist premier included "the disputed gas fields in the East China Sea, which both countries want to exploit" (BBC, see also tenth, sixth, fourth, and fourteenth items).

Chen stands by pledge to scrap moribund unification group: Why are so many people are worried about the fate of the National Unification Council (sixth and third items), which hasn't met in six years, and its National Unification Guidelines, which predate the island's transition to democracy? Because scrapping them, asn Taiwan's elected President Chen Shui-bian wishes to do, would get the Communists upset. Luckily, Chen, who called the guidelines "absurd products of an absurd era" (BBC), is made of sterner stuff.

Dalai Lam visits Israel: Tibet's spiritual leader took questions about everything from the occupation of his homeland by the Communists to the obsession of money (Epoch Times).

Communist China pushes Google for openly acknowledging censorship? Communist China, to whom Google surrendered, may still kick the firm out for " operating without a licence" (BBC). However, the real problem may be Google's insistence it report each and every time it knuckled under to the cadres' censorship demands; China Business Times demaned to know: "Does a business operating in China need to constantly tell customers that it's abiding by the laws of the land?" This quarter's question: will Google give up what little high ground remains?