Dr. Hu

Emperor Hu of China had a great time in the U.S. Oh, there was that nasty woman who shouted at him during a White House press conference, which was loud enough to upset Smirk but apparently not enough to wake up the napping Cheney. But according to a PBS News Hour report, nobody in China heard about the shouting (she was upset about persecution of religion in China) or, for that matter, the napping---they just got great pictures of the 21 gun salute.

Hu got to be photographed at the White House and he met Bill Gates of Microsoft, and officially the U.S. got nothing--none of the agreements they wanted. But maybe they got some advice. So far (according to the PBS report) China has been pretty successful at free enterprise, including a free press---as long as they stick to celebrities, crime and local stories, that is. The Chinese strictly control political information on all media, including the Internet.

Though Bill Gates and other computer mavens are likely to deplore this publicly, they are all pretty much cooperating, and probably helping China devise more efficient means to police the Net. (Maybe there's a TV series in it? Drag/Net 2006?) Nobody has the guts to ignore the China market.

And maybe the Bushites got something out of Hu's visit after all. Thanks to the control of a few greedy and ideologically rightwing corporations, as well as timid and overpaid celebrity media "reporters" working for Cro-Magnon management too stupid to see that their efforts to appease the right are coming several years too late, when the tide is turning, Bush has had a pretty easy ride media-wise. The press has been in his corner and under his thumb for most of his tenure.

Though these days, not so much. So maybe Hu was able to give Bushites some tips on how China does it. Whatever ails Bush's control of the media, Dr. Hu can fix it.

He could also pass along data on how well the Internet controls are working. A free Internet, even as free as it is now, is not likely to last. Between greedy corporations and Bushite totalitarians, the whole blog thing could disappear overnight. Or just be gradually transformed into pay-per-view, open only to the same megacorporations that control just about every other source of information and "free speech."