Shanghai Obamarama

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Being a historian by profession and on-again, off-again Democratic
Party ward heeler for my own megalomania, I made it down to
Shanghai's famouse Bund waterfront (with the view of the spacy Pearl
TV tower and Jetsonny skyscrapers you have all seen) to rub shoulders
with over 200 local swells and wannabes, drink $10 cocktails and
watch the Inauguration hoopla. In the warm-up the best part was
seeing Lord Voldemort-Cheney wheeled out in a wheelchair for the
ceremony (the official report said he had thrown out is back lifting
moving boxes! As if!). Our new Emperor looked fit, rested and ready
but he still inherits the Empire, such as it as. And while I was
moved momentarily by the fine words of his speechwriters (OK his too)
my reverie was broken by a man and woman just behind me having a
brief punch up which I had to help break up. Can't we all just get
along? Obviously not.

I had a dream where Wednesday comes along and Obama announces from
the comfort of his Oval Office Lay-zee Boy lounge chair that he has
no intention of doing jack as President as it will interfere with his
plans to play billiards and video games all day.

As this is China and the Central Committee still runs the show
despite Chinese Betty Crocker commercials on TV, this story ran a few
hours ago.

http://news. yahoo.com/ s/ap/20090121/ ap_on_re_ as/as_inaugurati on_china_
obama
Chinese translation cuts out parts of Obama speech
By ANITA CHANG, Associated Press Writer Anita Chang, Associated Press
Writer

BEIJING – The official Chinese translation of President Barack
Obama's inauguration speech was missing his references to communism
and dissent, while a live broadcast on state television Wednesday
quickly cut away to the anchor when the topic was mentioned.

At one point, Obama said earlier generations "faced down communism
and fascism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy
alliances and enduring convictions. " He later addressed "those who
cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of
dissent — know that you are on the wrong side of history."

The Chinese translation of the speech, credited to the Web site of
the official China Daily newspaper, was missing the word "communism"
in the first sentence. The paragraph with the sentence on dissent had
been removed entirely.

The censored version was carried by the state-run Xinhua News Agency
and posted on popular online portals Sina and Sohu. Another portal,
Netease, used a version without the paragraph mentioning communism,
but retaining the part about dissent.

The news channel of state broadcaster China Central Television
broadcast the speech live early Wednesday local time, but appeared
caught off-guard by the statement about facing down communism.

The translator had no sooner said "fascism and communism" when the
audio faded out from Obama's speech and cameras cut back to the
studio anchor, who seemed flustered for a second before turning to
ask an expert what challenges the president faces in turning around
the U.S. economy.

Wang Jianhong, deputy director of the CCTV general editing
department, said he did not stay up to watch the inauguration
broadcast but suggested the transition was a normal part of the
program.

"There are breakaways even when broadcasting China's own meetings,"
he said. "Americans might care a lot about the presidential
inauguration, but Chinese may not be very interested."

No one in the editing department of the China Daily Web site was
immediately available to answer questions.

China has previously altered the words of U.S. officials. A 2004
speech in Shanghai by former Vice President Dick Cheney was broadcast
live on state-run television at the insistence of U.S. officials, but
the Chinese transcript of the remarks deleted references to political
freedom.

In 2003, the memoirs of then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton were pulled
from publication in China after the government-backed publisher
removed references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests
and altered Clinton's comments about human rights activist Harry Wu.