Today's storm

A few storms are brewing here today.

The Tibet issue is getting a lot of play even in blue media, though obviously more on the green stations. In response to fears that Taiwan could become the next Tibet one day, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou made the brilliant observation that Taiwan is not Tibet or Hong Kong, but rather "We are a sovereign country, we have our own elections, we are not ruled by the Chinese." He goes on to censure China for using violence and suggests he wants Taiwan to take the roll of a "peacemaker" instead of a "troublemaker."

Ma is obviously missing/avoiding the point. Do I have to make any comments about this?

Second, loudmouth Chuang Kuo-jung (莊國榮) made some remarks at a rally yesterday that attacked both Ma and his deceased father, using rather crude language. Chuang has a reputation for inflammatory language, making homophobic statements and generally making himself look stupid. The Hsieh camp has made a bit of an apology for this.

For some insane reason, the green camp is still running on the green card issue, with Hsieh again insisting today that Ma did not fill out a form to drop his green card, thereby implying it was still valid. Legislator Trong R. Chai (蔡同榮) went a step further, showing a letter that he says "proves" Ma Ying-jeou still has a valid green card. Chai publicly bet his political life, in writing, on the validity of the letter's content, saying he would quit politics forever and immediately resign his legislative seat if he were wrong. Chai e

Chai refused to disclose the source of his information, saying it was done through "private channels" (read: very likely illegally if real) and he had to protect the source.

Chai said his American source did a valid green card check on both of Ma's English names, namely "Ma Ying Jeou" and "Mark Ying-Jeou Ma." The source wrote Chai back saying, "That person [which name???!?] does have a current alien registration number and a valid permanent residency card."

We'll see where this goes.

Update: Apparently the spelling checked was Ma Ying geou or mark Ying-geou Ma, at least according to this Liberty Times article. Liberty Times apparently got the spelling wrong in their article. Good job, guys! Hsieh has also offered to withdraw the election if Ma will prove his green card expired 20 years ago as he claims. Ma said he had no opinion in response.