Cross-posted from

What can wine tell us about the world? Plenty, it turns out.  It is one of civilization's oldest products.  At one time it was a necessity, when food was served rotten and water was where you washed and evacuated.  Now it is enjoying a resurgence.  It is an agricultural product, and a unique one.  You see, vineyards have kept records of temperature, yield, and ripeness-dates for centuries, giving us incredibly precise records that tell us reams about the global environment. It is also a luxury item, particularly at the top end.  As such, its sale and purchase can tell us volumes about the global economy.

Today, we travel to Hong Kong for a look at the world's economy, through the bottom of a glass.

This diary, my first at Dkos, attempts to describe my own experiences growing up around the world, and how this has affected by political beliefs and my decision to support Barack Obama.  While I probably would have ended up an Obama supporter regardless--I'm a college student in Illinois, after all--I've had some time to think about how and why exactly it is that I support Sen. Obama.

My early, early upbringing isn't particularly spectacular: my parents, both teachers, lived with me and my two younger brothers in suburban Minnesota.  I went to a public school and wasn't terribly concerned with politics. My earliest political memories are going to vote with my mom and dad (and hearing my dad say that he voted for a republican for mayor, since it was someone he knew personally and trusted) and some sort of fundraiser/campaign event for Paul Wellstone in 1996.  I'm not sure exactly what the event was, or how my parents got invited (although my dad did teach at the same high school as Sen. Wellstone's daughter), but my whole family somehow ended up at the event.  I remember shaking Wellstone's hand, and, for some reason, being very very impressed with the fact that the house had two basements.  Such was my 4th-grade state of mind.

China has decried the U.S. arms sales as a danger to its national security.

Arms sales to Taiwan that is.

That blockquote from this article pretty much explains the state of US/ China relations in my humble opinion:  America is a "danger to its national security."  And what do Republicans, who have the US military stretched the breaking point in Iraq, do?  They are out there in their arrogance threatening China by sending ships near China in response to the Hong Kong port call denials (by China).  (And the fact that America is menacing most major oil producers in the middle east doesn't help matters with China.)  This is just unbelievable:

Hong Kong has this dude, Leung Kwok-hung who is something of a radical lawmaker among the ordinary, dull, status quo bunch in their legislature.

So what does Kwok-hung do?

Each time the activist-turned-politician burns a photo of a leader, shouts slogans in the legislature or leads a motley group of protesters in a noisy rally, he's also a reminder of the greater freedoms Hong Kongers enjoy than their mainland neighbors.

http://www.iht.com/...

  If those who are in command of a state are unconcerned with the national interest (that of the welfare of that country's people), does that nation truly exist? I think not.

  But, if it is beneath consideration to those who could most benefit from it, what characteristics make it so irrelevant? I leave it up to the reader to draw their own conclusions.

In June of 2003, I walked along the legendary Yangtze River in Shanghai, China. On the one hand, it was one of the greatest moments of my life to see with own eyes one of the greatest tributaries in the world. However, the pollution I witnessed was one of the most tragic I hhave ever seen. Now comes a report what I saw nearly 4 years ago.

I just read this and loved it so I thought I would share it.

It is in The Standard China Business by: Michael DeGolyer.
The Standard

Not paying much attention to the US elections taking place Tuesday? On the other hand, are you interested but lost amidst all the political mud-slinging and partisanship?

Wondering what the repercussions might be on Hong Kong if, as most analysts expect, the Democrats overturn the majority Republicans have held in the House of Representatives since 1994?

Why should Hong Kongers care what happens in the US next week.

Well it does matter...after the fold

I used to think that Disney was as wholesome and american as  Apple Pie.  I think most people felt the same way.  But it appears that our favorite mouse has been hanging with the rats for far too long.  The PT/911 fiasco is one thing.  I trust most of you have read Terre's Diary.  But the thing that really bothers me about Disney is that it seems to be into the Sweat Shop business.  I don't think Disney can spin that one favorably.  Add forced labor to lies, and you get one pissed off diarist.

More after the flip...

So, I'm on vacation: flying to London to experience the new security regime first hand. (I do wish we had caught that Bin Laden fellow, but as Cheney would say, the Administration had other priorities).

My online access is spotty, but there have been quite a number of new developments in the growing Abramoff Scandal. Some have been covered in recent Diaries, like the coming trouble for Rove, a guilty plea from a DOI official, and JD Hayworth moving up the scandal ladder.

TPM Muckraker is on the case as well.

So it would have to be a big deal for me to break into my Holiday to post a Diary.

How about a reported link to Abramoff, China and the GOP: a link that seems to change minds on Most Favored Nation status for China in the late 1990s.

Well, that story broke in Hong Kong this morning.

To the jump.

 Just the other day I heard or read someone say that the USA was starting to look and sound like China where Civil Rights are concerned. Our world has changed so much in the last 5 yrs, that China/HongKong are beginning to look like us instead.

HONG KONG, Aug. 6 -- The Hong Kong legislature passed a law Sunday that allows the government, with the permission of a judge, to use telephone wiretaps, e-mail scans and other surveillance techniques in the name of public security.

Eighteen legislators left the chamber to protest the bill after almost 200 amendments they had put forward were voted down. The Interception of Communications and Surveillance Bill passed on a vote of 32 to 0 after a four-day marathon debate.

It's a short piece, so click here and ask your self where you heard all this before. http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

There's been a lot of confusion about Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and port security in the Bahamas, mainly because I think that the media reports on what's happened haven't been very clear. I didn't understand myself until last night what had actually happened and why it's a concern. And as much as I'd like the problem to be chalked up to the administration, or Hutchison (a company that charges me too much for my electricity), or even China, I think in this case it's actually (sort of) the Bahamas' fault.

Hutchison, controlled Hong Kong's Li Ka-shing, the world's 10th-richest man, is among other things the world's largest port operator: it has no ports in the U.S., but it does operate in Asia, Europe (Felixstowe in the UK and Rotterdam amongst other places), Mexico and the Bahamas...including the port of Freeport in the Bahamas, the cause of the current row.

Apparently over 900 protesters from South Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe the U.S. and elsewhere have been detained as a result of militant anti-WTO protests today in Hong Kong. Hundreds of of proteseters attempted to storm the WTO meeting, wielding bamboo poles in efforts to break through police lines while hundreds of other blocked major intersections

A video clip of the attempt can be seen here at Euronews.

According to the Bangkok Post

I couldn't help laughing this morning after reading the Taipei Times.  I had just finished getting outraged about the local Minutiamen stalking day laborers in Virginia.  The racist overtones got on my nerves, but what really irks me is that these idiots have all of this free time to hang out around 7-11s, taking pictures of vans.  I get two weeks of vacation a year, folks, and I'm not going to waste it on some racist make believe game.

Doesn't this piss you off?  I mean, who do I feel bad for here?  The guy who has to stand around in the freaking cold ass weather hoping someone wants him to paint something, or the guy who gets to take a day off work a week taking pictures of poor people, because he doesn't like the brown folks in his neighborhood.

So, what does this have to do with Hong Kong Monkeys?  Well, I read in the Taipei Times today that the Monkeys in that city are outbreeding the people.  And everything became clear, below the fold.

I think this is something you all should take a gander at.  It's cross-posted at my blog, The Fat Lady Sings and at Dark Wraith.  I got it from my good friend Brandy in Hong Kong.  She prefaced her email with: This is just so funny...Just goes to show how thick the lay Americans really are!!!  Leno mocks this particular brand of stupidity on his Jay-Walking segments.

On The Streets Of America

More below the fold.