The Boehner of the Week

There really is only one candidate for Boehner of the Week this week, President George W. Bush for hectoring Chinese President Hu about free speech after a woman was hauled off to jail for speaking freely. Hell of an example there, W. It pains me to live in a United States where the shining light of freedom and democracy has become a sputtering lamp filled with imported oil and waiting for a stiff breeze or an oil crisis to be blown out. President Hu rightly told us to mind our own business on human rights. Under W, we really don't have a leg to stand on. We have political prisoners - the woman who shouted at President Hu committed no crime other than to embarass W yet was hauled to jail, even if on a misdemeanor charge. She's a political prisoner. Even without mentioning the litany of Neocon human rights violations, we can come up with ample examples of America's decline into, what? W-ism?

Yet all this is old news. The Boehner Award is given for stupidity and it was extremely stupid to open a dialog on free speech after aresting someone for speaking freely. Bush deserves to be heckled as does President Hu for their records. One woman had the guts to stand up and do so. She is a hero. CNN rates a close second for calling her a blemish on the pomp and circumstance. Once a formidable, respectable news organization, CNN has become a blemish on the business of broadcast journalism, yielding to spectacle over substance, appearance over content, Anderson Cooper over real reporting. The blemish was not a heckler in the crowd, it was the absence of protesters or their banishment to a "free speech zone" too far away for the camera man to walk. Even the existence of so-called free speech zones is a tribute to the decline of American liberty - the free speech zone established by our constitution is the entire nation.