Billboards are everywhere (only in Chinese) but they are mostly state propaganda, not part of the “booming” economy in advertising.

A huge percentage of advertising is bilingual in Urumqi, and 100% of the state propaganda is.

“I have a reservation,” I said in Japanese. The concierge, a female, smiled and said:

“We do not have reservations.”

“I don’t understand?!” I said.

Dude, your problem was you spoke in Japanese. My Japanese friends in Urumqi got bothered every day.

But it is not as easy to get to Xinjiang if you are a foreigner. Beijing does not want you to be here, to see that not all of China is proud and happy. Once the Han Chinese regretfully admit your determination and allow you here, they try to get you to leave in the most forceful way that traditional Chinese manners will allow. They behave very very rudely.

Funny, they let me run all over the place for more than two years. And they were usually sweet. Then again, I’m not Japanese.

So many streets are named for the Prosperity and the Joy of the Party that it must drive the few remaining Uyghurs crazy to give directions.

How many times has this guy been to China?? Tons of cities in China still have the Communist Revolution inspired names, from Dalian to Shanghai to Kunming. Granted, though, Urumqi has more Cultural Revolution aftertaste than most and it does drive Uighurs crazy.

After that, he gets kicked out of restaurant and someone refuses to sell him postcards. That’s it. That’s all the article has, people giving him poor customer service. Nothing else. What a self-centered jackass.

The other China articles are similarly arrogant in tone and short on facts, with no reference links. Give that section a miss fellas.

“I make no secret of disliking the War on Terror, which seems to me to be code words for “War to Acquire Control of Petroleum Supplies”…Once the poor of America have gone to fight wars to make Chevron and Halliburton safe, they are discarded.”

I think we know where we are going here.

“And to anyone who argues the wars are being fought to protect freedom, consider the issue of “Stop Loss”. When active duty personnel come ot the end of their contracts, they are being forced to remain in the military if they’re in a unit that’s about to head to Iraq or Afghanistan. I could make a snide comment that, having run out of Native Americans to break treaties with, the US government is turning on its own citizens, but I’d rather get on a high horse and point out that the government of “land of the free” should not be behaving in such an oppresive fashion.

“In a related issue, even people who managed to get honorably discharged from the armed services are being involuntarily forced back into active duty.”

Anyone who has served in the military knows that the contract includes the military having the option of keeping you on active duty beyond your ETS date or to recall you to active duty if you have already ETS’d and are still in the Inactive Ready Reserve. My full commitment to the Army lasted from Oct 91 to Oct 99 with 3 years 17 weeks (Feb 92-Jun 95) on active duty. There’s no oppression here. Everybody knows this.

“The parallels to Russia become evident. Some of the parallels are to the Tsarist era, some to the Communist era, others to the modern, Kleptocratic era. Forced military service, ignoring the veterans, benefits for the apparatchniks, it’s all there. We even have suppression of free speech and samizdat.”

What universe have I stumbled upon? Forced military service? We have a volunteer military. However cirticisms of VA medical care I can vouch for. I spent several years trying to get the VA to take my injuries seriously and it was not only a waste of time but one of the most frustrating experiences I have ever had. But it gave me a direct personal experience of government provided health care which I will oppose to my dying day.

“I don’t want to bother to allege the CIA has plants in every major newspaper or that the executive branch exerts considerable pressure on the press and media – although I could make that case. Rather, the truly insidious nature of the major media in the US is evident in just how chummy the press is with the government. The major outlets recycle official press releases without criticism or even analysis and treat the government with kid gloves so they don’t lose their precious “access” to those seats of power. While the press is legally free, it has voluntarily enslaved itself to the government, making it every bit as reliable as Pravda or Izvestia were in their Communist heydays…”

I don’t doubt that media outlets recycle official press releases, but that’s just because they are lazy. “Voluntarily enslaved itself to the government”? But if “slavery is freedom” then we have a free press right?

“…I mentioned the New York Times, which is famous for repeated cases of plagiarism or made-up news. Although it’s broken many good stories, too often it’s used as a house organ for the ruling party.”

This is so divorced from reality (except the plagiarism and made-up news part). The New York Times is the “house organ for the ruling party”?

This is a website that thinks the New York Times is too right wing.
Alright then…