Practicing what we preach?

Drudge has a "flash" regarding a protester at Chinese President Hu and President Bush's news conference today. Apparently, this woman (rightly so) called Hu on the carpet for China's human rights abuses, saying:

"President Bush: Stop him from killing" and, "President Bush, stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong."

And...

She also shouted in Chinese, 'President Hu, your days are numbered'...

And what was this woman's reward for practicing free speech on American soil?

The protester was waving a banner with the red and yellow colors used by Falun Gong, a banned religious movement in China. She kept shouting for several minutes before Secret Service uniformed agents were able to make their way to her position at the top of the camera stand. They dragged her off the stand.

According to Drudge,

On China TV: As Hu Jintao was speaking, as yells of protesters became audible, the screen went black. Feed then came back and once again went black when woman was once again audible. During CNN International's post-speech commentary, at mention of south lawn heckler, screen went black again... feed returned when topic was no longer being discussed...

..Question: Was the Secret Service treatment of this woman in accordance with the example of what we wish to give to China? Is this woman, rightly calling China for what it is, deserving of being carted off like a criminal, much like what would have happened in China? (although, admittedly, if this were to happen in China, she not only would have been carted off, she would have been tortured and murdered). What really threw me for a loop is this statement:

"It's hugely embarrassing," said Derek Mitchell, a former Asia adviser at the Pentagon and now an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

China "must know that this Bush administration is good at controlling crowds for themselves, and the fact that they couldn't control this is going to play to their worse fears and suspicions about the United States, into mistrust about American intentions toward China."

Sorry, Derek Mitchell. There is nothing "hugely embarrassing" about speaking out against atrocities. Not only that, but we--the United States--a free society, shouldn't be "good at controlling crowds." That's what China is good at. Does the term, Tianamen Square mean anything to you?

If anything, what is embarrassing regarding what happened is what we have done to deny a person's freedom of political speech, in full view of one of the world's worst violators of same. Hu and his Chicom thugs are the ones who should be "hugely embarrassed." After all, aren't they the ones that are still perpetrating atrocities carte blanche, even as this screed is being typed?

And lastly (though not least), you, Derek Mitchell, should be supremely embarrassed for making such an inane, sycophantic, apologetic comment.

(Filed under VOM)