Friday, April 21, 2006

What country is this?

George W. Bush gave a murderous dictator a 21-gun salute yesterday. Feted him with pageantry.

And Georgie is apparently VERY ANGRY that his new friend, the murderer, actually had to hear something unpleasant.

The one off-script moment in an otherwise meticulously choreographed day came when a member of the Falun Gong religious sect that is suppressed in China screamed at Hu for several long minutes as he addressed hundreds of Bush aides and ticketed guests on the lawn. "President Hu! Your days are numbered," she shouted. "President Bush! Stop him from killing!" A startled Hu paused until Bush leaned over and encouraged him to continue. "You're okay," Bush assured Hu.

Bush, described as angry by aides who saw him afterward, apologized to Hu when they sat down in the Oval Office. "This was unfortunate, and I'm sorry this happened," Bush said, according to a White House official.

So Bush APOLOGIZED to the murderer for the unpleasantness.

And they ARRESTED the protester:

When she screamed from a press riser where cameras were recording the event, it took several minutes before uniformed Secret Service officers could get through the throng of photographers to remove her. Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said she would likely be charged with attempting to intimidate, coerce, threaten or harass a foreign official in the performance of his duties, punishable by as much as six months in prison.


I'm at a loss for words. In the United States of America, a New Yorker is going to jail for speaking her mind in the presence of a foreign dictator?

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