啥米學者? 不過是個美國南加州極右派的過氣電視評論員

在野雞大學掛名鬼混!! 陳水扁去參加尼加拉瓜總統奧帝嘉就職

過境洛杉磯機場時，為了被時代雜誌選為全球第五大醜聞一事

刻意找人安排了幾位美國南加州媒體界人士，在機場安排訪問

原本寄望這些美國人士(包括這位賀去孫)會寫文章幫他

沒想到其中一位Tom Plate竟然寫了篇文章，諷刺阿扁是隻蟲

(所以阿扁這次不敢花錢請他到台灣來)  :

阿扁告洋狀惡形惡狀 反而被洋老爺譏諷一番是蟲體附身 

東森新聞報25日發表楊憲宏的署名文章說，著名的美國專欄作家TOM Plate寫了一篇文章，狠狠修理了陳水扁。文章說，陳水扁最近“過境”洛杉磯時，在機場飯店刻意找了TOM Plate與其他人聊天，席間陳水扁的發言，讓他們感覺十分唐突，也十分不得體。 

    TOM Plate的文章很正式，很嚴厲，把陳水扁當日的不當發言全都曝光，還加了很多註腳。看到了十分不堪的“臺灣之子”，據TOM Plate的評論，陳水扁變形成了一隻“政治昆蟲”(Political insect)。　 

    陳水扁在他的筆下，成了卡夫卡小說“蛻變”中的那個自我卑賤化的主角，從人變蟲。TOM Plate還更進一步，讓陳水扁從“政治昆蟲”變成“暴怒的蠍子”再變成“吐絲的蜘蛛”。這一連串的描述就在他的文章“陳水扁變形記”中，徹底的赤裸的出場。 

    楊憲宏說，在TOM Plate的文章中，很令人難以置信的是，陳水扁用各種偏激和非理性的手段攻擊臺灣媒體、司法與批判他的人。陳水扁指控臺灣媒體“假造民調”“毒害全台氣勢”。他甚至說：“我們的司法單位也被媒體誤導。我們的媒體包含一堆毫無分寸的記者。”這些話，如果不是TOM Plate轉述，真的無法相信，這是出自臺灣當局領導人之口，如此惡意而且仇視的談話，竟是一位曾經誓言要“捍衛民主自由人權”的“總統”。 

    如果TOM Plate的轉述是正確的，陳水扁應該要為他的不當言論向人民道歉。如果TOM Plate的轉述是錯誤，陳水扁應去函抗議，並且公開表示憤怒目前的局勢，對臺灣十分不利，TOM Plate的英文文章在網路上流傳很快，“陳水扁”三個字已經在英文媒體世界中成了笑柄。一個用詞如此不得體，態度如此的粗野的臺灣領導人形象已成了國際的刻板印象。  

    到底是誰那麼熱心把美國專欄作家請來與陳水扁閒談的？而TOM Plate文章出現之後，臺灣外交部與總統府完全“視而不見”，黃志芳與陳唐山是不是都該辭職了呢？ 

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=61487 

Chen Shui-bian's metamorphosis

陳水扁的蟲形附身----人形蟲化記 

Taiwan's embattled president had a few things to get off his chest with columnist Tom Plate

深陷泥沼之中且似乎心有千千結的台灣總統對洋人專欄作家Tom Plate傾訴他的怨與恨 

By Tom Plate
Pacific Perspectives Columnist 

bWednesday, January 17, 2007 

Los Angeles --- Seven years ago the man was elected handily by the people and became the first member of his party to become president -- and only the second truly elected president in Taiwan's short history as a democracy.

But somewhere in the dank confusion and disarray of his second term, Chen Shui-bian -- no longer the charmer of the Democratic Progressive Party -- woke up one morning and discovered he had been transformed into something like a political insect.

How else to describe a man whose political approval ratings now barely notch up into double figures, whose wife is on trial for corruption and whose son-in-law also stands accused of corruption? One prosecutor has said publicly that Chen himself is protected from indictment only because of the office he holds.

I threw all this at Taiwan's embattled president the other night as he was passing through Los Angeles International Airport on his way back to Taipei. We sat in a small conference room with a few of his aides and a small group of scholars. The conversation flowed surprisingly easily. Chen had made a special effort to meet with us and if it had not been for the need to jump back on the charter flight home, he might have stayed much longer. It seemed as if there were a few things he really wanted to get off his chest.

In fact, Chen took a strikingly aggressive approach to the cascade of attacks on him, whether coming from within Taiwan or abroad. He quickly dismissed his domestic critics with a scoffing hand wave, calling them all politically motivated; but when the subject came up of Taiwan's fiercely commercial -- and partisan -- news media, Taiwan's president turns into a veritable scorpion of rage.

Chen charged that the Taiwan media fakes public-opinion poll results, misleads the outside world about Taiwan and poisons the national atmosphere. "Even our judiciary is led astray by our media," he charged, adding: "Our media consists of reporters without borders!"

Such media overkill plays into the hands of the enemies of an independent Taiwan, the president argued, which includes, to be sure, China: "Eventual unification can't be the only conclusion, it can't be the only option for us. Unlike our opponents [the Kuomintang, or KMT], we do not say, there is a certain outcome..."

But the issue is emphatically raised of whether Chen's outspoken advocacy of a political future for Taiwan pointedly that excludes the mainland may unintentionally put his island of 23 million in harm's way. After all, China, with 1.3 billion people and a growing military, has repeatedly and consistently claimed that it would be an act of war were Taipei to declare formal state independence that would effectively preclude eventual mainland integration.

"Sovereignty and the issue of independence belong to the people of Taiwan," he replied, "and is not subject to the jurisdiction of China." Chen adds that his position on the issue of Taiwan's future is actually an advocacy of the status quo. In fact, as he says, Taiwan right now is a de facto state, recognized as such by 20 or so other nations and boasting something like the world's 19th largest economy. The island's average annual income is not far from a comparatively healthy US$30,000 per person, and the measured level of people living in poverty is said to be less than 1 percent. Why would the people of Taiwan want to merge with the mainland if it is doing so well on its own?

That's a fair point, of course, and the answer involves an unpleasant thought. It is that China might well take the question of Taiwan's destiny into its own hands and, one way or the other, seek to force the island to rejoin the mainland in the manner of Hong Kong. The sovereignty of the latter now officially resides in Beijing after the formal handover from London in 1997. The former British colony is now officially termed Hong Kong SAR -- for Special Administrative Region.

Chen's critics worry that by pushing the envelope, the embattled president might just push the mainland into rolling out and revving up the invasion boats. Better to low-key the independence drum-roll if the people of Taiwan want to sleep better at night: At any time Beijing's war of words could turn into a different kind of war altogether.

But the president was completely unmoved by this line of argument. "If I cannot defend the dignity and safety of this country," he replied, "I'm not worthy of holding this job."

With impeachment cries seemingly on the wane, that job is presumably his until sometime next year, when his second term formally runs out. That year also headlines Beijing's vaunted Summer Olympics. Once that spectacular is over and Beijing has time to take a good long look across the Taiwan Strait at what it regards as a "rogue state" and "breakaway province," Chen will no longer be in office.

The question, however, is whether the independence web spun by Chen over the last eight years will be too tensile for anyone on the island to take down easily.

The views expressed above are those of the author and are not necessarily those of AsiaMedia or the UCLA Asia Institute. 

Date Posted: 1/17/2007