Hong Kong: Hundreds of thousands of protesters take to the streets over the Beijing's first real push to curb HK's special status:

"Return rule to the people," they chanted as the rally began to denounce the bill which critics say will impose Beijing-style control over free speech and the media.

As Bill Clinton was famous for saying, "Go, baby!"

Under the legislation, people can be jailed for life if convicted of subversion, treason or secession from China. It also allows gives police sweeping search powers without court orders.

But the government's much-criticized handling of the bill and many other issues may have set the stage for a bigger battle.

I hope so. I wouldn't want to be the apparatchik tasked with doing a Tienanman in Hong Kong. Those folks are rough-and-tumble capitalists of the first order. It's too bad we're not anymore; we should be sending them our support instead of thinking of their oppressors as 1 billion customers. What the hell do the Chinese buy from us anyway that makes it so important for us to stroke them? (That is, other than fast food franchises . . . )