Today was an amazing moment of confluence between events in China and inside the Democratic party. In each case, a ruling elite bent on retaining power lashed out against a perceived popular democratic threat with lies and hate-mongering. Who better than Hillary Clinton to tell us not to believe anybody’s sweet talk about what’s possible with a Barack Obama presidency. And who better than Red China to provide us with the exact same warning about the Dalai Lama. Using the politics of fear in a disgustingly obvious and disingenuous way, each camp portrayed the threat posed respectively by these two men as a sure recipe for disaster. It’s war, these so-called leaders are telling us, and we must realize the danger of following these phonies. It’s as if we’re all in chains, mesmerized by the shadows on the wall, and meanwhile somebody who’s been hammering away for years finally cracks through, and a shaft of light appears. The wizard behind the curtain freaks out, and has no choice but to pull out the Goebbels’ big lie. Obviously, these guys are really scared shitless, which is kinda exciting I think.
In other news today The New York Times, a newspaper that for a variety of reasons, mainly being a now somewhat lame, cow-towing, bleating, weak-kneed once great rag down on its luck, having dropped immensely in value and credibility and quality of writing and choice of subject matter and willingness to speak the truth over the last few years, did have a great issue yesterday. Once in a while a newspaper really just has a good issue, something you would want to stick in a time capsule, where everything just comes together, with stories that you won’t see anywhere else, and an overall appeal and effect that simply is far better than what we’re normally spoon fed. Wednesday’s issue was such an issue.
I will only cite two stories that set Wednesday’s Times totally apart. One is the story about Mudhir Abd al-Karim Thiab Abd al-Kharbit, a guy who was one of the main information sources and planners for the CIA pre-Saddam, and once Bremer and his gang rolled in and shut down the Sunnis, got in a heap of trouble and because the Shiites issued an international warrant for his arrest, Interpol nabbed him in Lebanon and he ended up in jail. It was a sad, pathetic, beautiful story about a totally wronged man languishing in prison. Even the UN’s refugee program investigated the charges and called them baseless, but nobody, including the US, is willing to lift a finger to help him out.
The other was Maureen Dowd’s editorial. Normally she’s irritating in the way any repressed, middle-aged, very white, seemingly oversexed, overly intellectual inside-the-beltway shrill-voiced politico can be (but she was the one who called Bill Clinton the “teenager in the White House,” so good for her). But she really nailed it with the Hillary Waltz. She basically said that the primary fight is actually good for the Democratic party, but she did it in a totally new way. She made her point in such a way as to not tear down Obama, but rather forced us to recognize the battle-worn advantages that Hillary has over Barack and brings not just to the campaign, but to the other campaigners as well. She said it’s great what Hillary’s doing, she’s a real American, and because there’s something contained about the race, she’s training Obama to deal with McCain and ultimately Ahmadinejad and whoever. She’s his sparring partner and it’s a good thing. It was a totally unique approach to this somewhat false debate, and she came up with it and put it out there.
