Frank is so much better than Dowd or Kristoff. The Times should hire him full-time. This is great.

What Is K Street’s Project?
By THOMAS FRANK
Published: August 19, 2006

Representative Bob Ney, the Ohio Republican who did such generous favors for the casino clients of Jack Abramoff, announced his retirement from Congress on Aug. 7; the next morning The Washington Post reported that he had acted under pressure from his fellow Ohioan John Boehner, who is said to have told Ney that, if he stood for re-election and lost, he ‘could not expect a lucrative career on K Street.’

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Those rude Iraqis. Above average; the last three grafs are killer.

Where Is Euphrates Etiquette?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: August 19, 2006

You know W. is burned up at the Iraqis.

You know Rummy got disgusted with nation-building ages ago. (In Baghdad in April, Rummy doodled at a news conference while Condi went on about her hopes for Iraq’s future.)

You can tell that Condi has grown fed up with the intractable mess in Iraq because she’s so focused on the intractable mess in Lebanon.

And certainly Dick Cheney has given up on those obstreperous Iraqis to move on to the more gratifying task of plotting how to liberate Iran and Syria.

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Of all the slimeball tactics employed by China’s secret police, this one is the most despicable: When a whistleblower wins too much attention, concoct some crime and throw them in jail for committing it. (We’ve all read about the reporters for Southern Metropolitan News who were charged with corruption days after exposing atrocious government scandal like the SARS cover-up.) And now, here they go again.

China has detained two of the nation’s top human rights advocates shortly before a blind rights activist was due to stand trial on Friday, marking what observers said may be a concerted crackdown on activists.

Xu Zhiyong, a law academic from Beijing, was held by police in eastern China’s Shandong province on Thursday, where he was preparing to defend activist Chen Guangcheng against charges of disrupting traffic and destroying property during a protest there in February, according to other lawyers defending Chen. Xu remained in police custody on Friday, hours before Chen’s trial was due to start.

Also on Friday, Beijing police told state media they had detained Gao Zhisheng, a combative human rights lawyer who has also campaigned for Chen’s release. Gao was held “for questioning for his suspected involvement in criminal activities,” the official Xinhua news agency said without offering further details.

Chen, 34, a blind, self-taught legal activist, drew international attention last year by accusing local officials of enforcing late-term abortions in a harsh population control drive.

According to a post in the forum (no link to the source article, sorry), they put a black bag over Gao’s head and led him away in handcuffs.

And we had such high hopes for the Hu regime. This piece from a year ago shouldn’t be forgotten:

For some Chinese political analysts and dissidents, these attacks on leading journalists dashed hopes that a new era of media freedom would begin when President Hu Jintao and his deputy, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, took power in early 2003.

There were encouraging signs when, soon after taking office, Hu called on the media to play a more active watchdog role in the battle to combat widespread official corruption and government inefficiency. However, by the end of 2003, critics complained that Hu had begun a campaign to suppress the media.

Kind of reminds one of Mao urging people to write letters detailing their issues with the government and letting 1,000 flowers bloom. They’re so good at raising our hopes, and even better at abruptly dashing them.

This story is being discussed up in the open threads, but it’s significant enough to mention here. It seems China’s amabassador to the UN totally lost it, and in his rage he let his true colors shine through.

China’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, throwing diplomatic language to the wind, told the US yesterday in no uncertain terms to “shut up and keep quiet” on the subject of Beijing’s growing military spending. Interviewed for a BBC radio program on the topic, Sha Zukang (沙祖康) also said China would “do the business” and sacrifice its own people’s lives if any nation supported a declaration of independence by Taiwan.

Responding to jitters within the {George W.} Bush administration about Beijing’s spiraling military budget, Sha said the US itself accounts for half of the entire world’s military spending.

“The Chinese population is six times or five times that of the United States,” he said. “Why blame China?… It’s better for the US to shut up and keep quiet. It’s much, much better.”

His voice rising, Sha continued: “It’s the US’ sovereign right to do whatever they deem good for them — but don’t tell us what is good for China. Thank you very much!” Sha was equally explicit on Taiwan declaring independence with US backing — a prospect that the BBC program, by former Beijing correspondent Carrie Gracie, called the motivating factor behind Chinese military spending.

“The moment Taiwan declares independence, supported by whoever, China will have no choice,” he said. “We will do the business through whatever means available to the government. Nobody should have any illusions on that. We will do the business at any cost.”

He added: “It’s not a matter of how big Taiwan is, but for China, one inch of the territory is more valuable than the life of our people. We will never concede on that.”

It’s that last highlighted quote that is so pregnant with meaning. It brings back the memories of Mao discussing with his aides the inevitability of a nuclear attack from the USSR. Mao, when told more than a million Chinese citizens would inevitably perish, shrugged his shoulders (“What, me worry?”) and blithely remarked that they were expendable. Some of that mentality seems to persist today – one inch of territory is worth an infinite number of Chinese lives. Chinese lives are still cheap.

Now, if someone suggested we had to give up New York City or any inch of the United States to some invader, I can see sending in troops to ensure we keep it. But here we’re talking about a piece of land over which the flag of China has never, ever flown, a country in which I can tell you from first-hand experience you’ll find precious few citizens who express any loyalty or sense of belonging to the PRC. And China would send their citizens to die for that? Once more, Chinese leaders live up to their old reputation for being prickly and somewhat hysterical.

We all remember the stories last year about Chinese tourists creating a stir at the Hong Kong Disneyland due to their, um, unique approach to lines, hygiene, and basic social considerations. (An earlier post on this topic generated lots of interesting comments.) Now, as more Chinese travel overseas, it appears the government’s worried their tourists’ lack of charm will tarnish the country’s reputation. Time for a new public awareness campaign.

A Chinese etiquette watchdog has launched an education campaign to correct the embarrassing habits of Chinese tourists at home and abroad, a state newspaper reported on Thursday. The official Spiritual Civilisation Steering Committee’s “Campaign to Promote Civilised Chinese Travellers” will last until after the Olympic Games, the China Daily said, and comes as a response to negative publicity garnered by Chinese tourists’ behaviour overseas.

“Currently, the behaviour of our country’s tourists is not compatible with the rapid development of the tourist industry, nor with China’s international standing,” the committee said in a statement on its Web site.

In May, the official Xinhua news agency cited Singapore media reports of airline and hotel staff complaining about Chinese tourists spitting, talking loudly and being rude….

The committee cited some Chinese tourists’ lack of concern for appearance, hygiene, courtesy, the law, the environment and public infrastructure, as damaging “the image of China as a civilised country” and generating “widespread attention and criticism domestically and overseas.”

Such campaigns have a history of limited success. I remember when I was there the government was trying to convince Beijing men that it was uncouth to walk around in the summer with their shirts rolled up to their necks. And there’ve been several anti-spitting campaigns, most of which were ignored (although the last time i was in China I saw a marked decrease in the number of phlegm-throwers, for whatever reasons). There was also the safe driving campaign this year, with sickening photos of maimed car accident victims plastered around the city. Has the driving improved? (Serious question.) Maybe this campaign will be successful, and it’s good that they are trying to improve China’s image. My heart just goes out to them, because it’s so difficult to wean people away from their time-honored habits. And it goes a lot deeper than spitting anywhere and everywhere or being inconsiderate to those around you; it’s a matter of recognizing that you and your families aren’t the only souls in the universe, and that part of the social contract is mutual respect. They’re getting there, slowly but surely, though there’s quite a way to go.

Social reforms in China continue at an astonishing pace; after my last trip there, I was struck by the new open-mindedness and freedom to be the person you want to be – as long as you don’t mess with politics. This would have been unthinkable as recently as four years ago.

Beijing’s first government-backed Internet forum for homosexuals has slowly begun to take off, despite initial reluctance by authorities to give it too much publicity.

Fu Qingyuan, an official with the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control of Chaoyang District, said the centre created the forum two months ago but did not publicize it until Sunday because they did not want to cause unnecessary public debate.

The forum was created to promote HIV/AIDS prevention awareness among China’s homosexuals and offer professional assistance to the group, Fu said. It has two chatrooms: one for same-sex lovers to share their emotions and experiences, and the other for health advisors to offer counselling and advice on HIV/AIDS.

However, Fu admitted the forum had failed to attract postings on the notice board of www.cystd.com, the centre’s official website to spread HIV/AIDS prevention knowledge, due to lack of publicity. Fu said the centre was considering launching a moderate media campaign to publicize the forum.

“We’ll remain cautious because this is the first government-backed forum in Beijing to openly discuss same-sex love and it’s a highly sensitive issue in China.”

They’re still taking baby steps, and they always seem to take two steps forward and one step back. But that’s okay. Progress is progress. This is very good news for China’s gays and it says a lot about the government’s efforts to promote tolerance. Again, considering where they were just a few years ago, it’s extraordinary.

Via CDT.

Herbert can be a windbag and a broken record, but today he’s neither. This is a scary column.

The Tyranny of Fear
By BOB HERBERT
Published: August 17, 2006

Abdallah Higazy was on the phone from Cairo. ‘To describe it as frustrating would be an understatement,’ he said, ‘because you know you’re telling the truth. And you know the people speaking to you have incorrect information about you.’

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Higazy, the son of a former Egyptian diplomat, was in a room on the 51st floor of the Millenium Hilton Hotel, directly across the street from the World Trade Center. He was a student at the time, having won a scholarship to study computer engineering at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn. The Institute of International Education had arranged for him to stay at the hotel while he looked for permanent housing.

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That should be the name of this newly discovered blog, which I can promise you’ll all find well worth a glance. The writer is an actual China Daily editor, and he’s definitely got style. (Scroll down past the football post to get to the China stuff. You won’t be disappointed.)

A Chinese journalist expresses his anxiety over China’s controversial SARFT regulations. He expresses it very well. Don’t miss it.

I plan to phase out the NYT columns, offerin gonly the ones I think are indispensable. Like this one.

Big Talk, Little Will
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: August 16, 2006

The defeat of Senator Joe Lieberman by the upstart antiwar Democrat Ned Lamont has sparked a firestorm of debate about the direction of the Democratic Party. My own heart is with those Democrats who worry that just calling for a pullout from Iraq, while it may be necessary, is not a sufficient response to the biggest threat to open societies today – violent, radical Islam. Unless Democrats persuade voters – in the gut – that they understand this larger challenge, it’s going to be hard for them to win the presidency.

That said, though, the Democratic mainstream is nowhere near as dovish as critics depict. Truth be told, some of the most constructive, on-the-money criticism over the past three years about how to rescue Iraq or improve the broader ‘war on terrorism’ has come from Democrats, like Joe Biden, Carl Levin, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Bill Clinton.

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