A new thread for the coming weekend….

The ever-on-message Bush crony Karen Hughes was just sworn in as the nation’s undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, charged with polishing America’s tarnished image in the eyes of a skeptical world. I don’t envy her her task.

I won’t go on about Hughes and her ability to lie on cue. Suffice it to say I consider her the second most loathesome menace in the Bush coterie, surpassed only by the Prince of Darkness himself, Karl Rove. I actually think Bush himself and Cheney and Rumsfeld, for all their shortcomings and crimes, have at least a semblance of a conscience. Not so Ms. Hughes, who will go to whatever lengths necessary to protect little boy George, no matter how shameless she has to be.

This isn’t a reverberation of the liberal echo chamber. Conservative talking head Tucker Carlson backed up these claims in an interview in 2003. Everyone who is tempted to believe even a monosyllabe that escapes Hughes’ lips should read what Carlson said.

I’ve obviously been lied to a lot by campaign operatives, but the striking thing about the way she lied was she knew I knew she was lying, and she did it anyway. There is no word in English that captures that. It almost crosses over from bravado into mental illness.

Hughes is the kind of [media]whore who gives PR people a very bad name. She is not human, she is a talking-points robot, a string of sound bites laid end to end. Check out the WaPo article linked above and see how to Karen, everything can be solved by following her talking points. No matter how dire the crisis, if we say it’s okay and all stay on-message, the little people on the ground will swallow it. Prepare for a full-frontal assault on truth as the message queen gets ready to bombard the world with her carefully crafted memes and blatant (but so sincere-sounding!) lies. She is symptomatic of everything that is rotten with this administration.

Update: This blogger is even more outspoken about Hughes than I am, if such is possible.

Can you live there and not become cynical? I honestly don’t think so, and neither does Dan.

You can read all about it over here.

I won’t bore you with the details of my 16-day trip to Asia, aside from some passing observations and choice details. Let’s suffice it to say that I loved Taiwan. And the Taiwanese. In fact, I loved it so much I will be uprooting and moving there in only eight days. I signed a contract while I was there for what appears to be my dream job. I won’t be teaching (my No. 1 choice), but most of my work will consist of writing and working with the media, two things I love to do. I already have my apartment, only a few steps away from a major university and a five minute bus ride from my new office. And so a new adventure is about to begin.

Jerome Keating, who has been a frequent guest writer here, was kind enough to show me around Taipei and help me choose the best part of town to live. We met nearly every day while I was there, and I was quickly brought up to speed on Taiwan’s history and political oddities, of which there are many. Jerome was an exceptionally gracious host, and a key influence in my decision to go to Taiwan. I met two other readers in Taipei and they, too, assured me this is where I belong.

Every time I go to the PRC, I love it more. My trips to Beijing and Shanghai were unforgettable. My stop in Shenzhen, while not quite unforgettable, was totally enjoyable, thanks in larege part to Sam, who was good enough to spend quite a bit of time with me showing me around.

In Beijing I met a total of 15 readers. I don’t know if it’s me or Beijing, but the city seemed quite a bit different from when I left in 2003. Maybe I was filtering things differently (things can’t change so dramatically over a year and a half, can they?) and not noticing things I’d noticed before. For example, there seemed to be way less spitting (same in Shanghai), slightly more courteous driving (with plenty of glaring exceptions) and a lot more general happiness. Same exact thing with Shanghai. I saw by far the most spitting in Shenzhen, though I have no idea why. Everywhere, the irrepressibility and optimism of the Chinese people was thrilling. Even some of those at the lowest rungs of the ladder seem so hopeful and determined.

In Beijing I was also given a tour of my beloved China Daily, where I really wish I could have donned a Peking Duck t-shirt. They actually have a nice office, and their canteen serves good food for those diligent journalists.

Shanghai was a riot, thanks to an incredibly fun dinner meeting with Shanghai Slim. I really love that city, and wouldn’t mind living there for a year or two. I also met another blogger in Shanghai for some great discussions about living in China, and many other topics. If you want to meet some really amazing people, start a blogging community.

An episode in Shenzhen took the cake for sheer strangeness. Walking through a huge department store with Sam (and I mean HUGE), who do I bump into but one of this site’s most notorious commenters, referred to affectionately by some as “Madge.” Considering how immense a city Shenzhen is, this was definitely finding a needle in a haystack — a needle I wasn’t even looking for. Suffice it to say the encounter was civil enough; I just didn’t feel I had a lot to say.

All in all, quite a great trip. Now I just have to convince my S.O. to go to Taiwan with me. It’s the one huge challenge I’m facing at this time and I can’t be completely at peace until it’s resolved. We’re both kind of in denial of the fact that I leave in a week, the idea of another long separation being impossible to deal with. It is completely unacceptable, and we have to work this out. Fast.

Needless to say, I am eternally grateful to guest bloggers Lisa and Martyn, both of whom outdid themselves and kept things going at an unprecedented level of activity (and quality). You are both invited to post here anytime. When I make my move, I might have to slow down drastically, at least for a while, so please don’t go too far away.

Via D.K.

…cause I don’t know about you, but I could use a beer…

No, not that kind of butchery. I’m referring to a real butcher in Shanghai who I will certainly avoid on my next trip there. Gross.

Be sure to see Angry Chinese Blogger’s translation of the document Shi Tao leaked, landing him in prison for a hefty ten years. Absolutely unbelievable. N o, make that all too believable. It illustrates just how terrified the apoplectic CCP gets when they even think about democracy and what it can do to them.

There’s a lot of talk about how Yahoo supplied the Chinese secret police with an incriminating email that helped them prosecute Shi Tao. I’m declining to comment on this until I understand it better. Meanwhile, ESWN breaks ranks with those condemning Yahoo and calling for a boycott. His argument is thought-provoking but I’m not fully convinced of his hypothetical analogy: shouldn’t Yahoo be forced to surrender an email if it could save the life of a kidnapped child? I’m not sure it’s a fair comparison. As with so much dealing with Internet privacy, this is a messy topic and there’s no simple solution. Obviously, in a life or death situation the rules have to be flexible. But does that mean the Internet companies have to acquiesce to every request by the secret police? I don’t know, but it’s worth considering. So for now, I won’t condemn Yahoo, though I’m thinking about it.

We all know how China keeps the media away from regions beset by controversy, be it bird flu outbreaks or peasant riots. They don’t want people to ever have the perception things might not be “stable” and “harmonious.” That’s a standard practice for a paranoid, frightened, prickly and insecure dictatorship.

To my true horror, it now appears our own president might be following the sordid CCP example, restricting reporters and photographers covering the New Orleans catastrophe. Who ever thought we would see this day? Maybe Philip Cunningham is onto something??