Good Guys 1, Bad Guys 1

The international arena saw two examples of how to handle pressure from Communist China and its satellites. Interestingly enough, the right way (with resolve, determination, and pluck) came from Europe, while the wrong way (appeasement, obfuscation, and cynicism) came from Washington.

The European Parliament awarded Hu Jia the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought this week (NRO - The Corner). One MEP, Helga Trüpel of Germany, detailed the efforts of the cadres to intimidate her and her fellow MEPs into backing down (Epoch Times). The editors of the Washington Post also note that a decision by the cadres to keep slightly looser restrictions on foreign journalists may well have been done "to stop the measure" - and that wasn't all the regime did, as the Post editors document.

Thankfully, it didn't work; even the American State Department took the opportunity to call for Hu's release (Boycott 2008). Sadly, there was far worse news coming from Washington.

One Free Korea goes deep into the wickets of the "agreement" that got North Korea off the State Department terrorist list. It's a shocker; the Communists' Korean colony did not have to agree to anything concrete about its nuclear weapons program. The big, painful requirements were put off to be negotiated at some future date - making just who ends up in the White House more dramatically important than could ever have been imagined just a week ago.

Of even deeper irony, as the Washington Times notes, this is one issue where McCain is the departure from Bush Administration, while Obama would preserve the horrific status quo for a regime so awful not even the UN can mitigate it (BBC).

While the corruption (Epoch Times) and repression (Epoch Times) continue, today was a revelation for determining how the free world will respond to future challenges from the tyrannical one. The glass is only half-full, but that could change for the better on November 4.