I must admit that I was perturbed when I read an email from Human Rights First yesterday...

It said that I should urge President Obama to speak out to Chinese President
Hu Jintao about China's "poor human rights record" and "censorship" of the
internet during the U.S. - China Summit that began in Washington D.C.
yesterday.

I was perturbed not because China is an "angel" in the areas of human rights
and censorship (the most notable concern being the imprisonment of Nobel
Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo), but because the United States is what I call,
"the world's greatest hypocrisy," constantly doing the very things that it
whines about countries doing whose governments it would like to have
overthrown or collapse, and constantly portraying itself as "the good guy"
while those others are "bad guys."

It didn't help that I had just read ongoing news and new stories that
confirmed the above.

So, here's what I wrote back to Human Rights First:

"I held off on sending the below reply to this email until after this important
meeting day was over.  However, I decided it was still important that you
read my reply of concern, and I would appreciate any response that you
have:

I think you had better first worry about the U.S.'s "poor human rights record"
and its "censorship" of the internet and violation of freedom of speech, print,
assembly, and freedom from warrantless search and seizure, etc.  etc..  
Didn't you hear how Cheney is boasting about how Obama has come around
to see that his and Bush's tactics had justification (i.e. "indefinite detention,"
that is permanent imprisonment; "harsh imprisonment & interrogation," that
is torture; "pre-emptive strikes," that is invading countries whose
governments we want to overthrow, etc. etc.  Haven't you been following the
Wikileaks censorship and the threats of death or imprisonment of anyone
involved with leaks and the censorship of all materials connected with it and
the threats to any who would try to expose U.S. Gov't wrongdoing?

Finally, just before I read your email, I had read two stories that should cause
YOU to speak out:
1- The teenager tortured in Kuwait last week with CIA involvement, and then
further abused by FBI interrogators. He is an American citizen.
2- The 33 y.o. scholar held and tortured in the U.S.'s Guantanamo Bay
hellhole for 6 and half years, NEVER charged or given an explanation, before
being sent back to Pakistan ... now waking up screaming every night as he
re-lives this horror.  Obama not only lied about closing this illegal facility,
but has now approved "indefinite" (i.e. permanent) imprisonments there and
elsewhere in the American gulags.
I will hope for your reply."

Wouldn't it be nice to see Presidents Obama and Hu sit down with each other
and say, "Hey, we can only help our people and the world by admitting to
each other and them that we have some destructive policies that need to be
changed.  We have been wrong (here) (here) and (here) ... and here's what
we need to do to make our governments work FOR people and not
AGAINST them."

... One can only dream ....