If Pres. Ahmadinejad came to the U.S. and found a relatively inexpensive hotel in Harlem (are there any left?) they would complain that he is a demagogue meddling in U.S. racial politics.  If he stayed in a slum in Indonesia the Jakarta rulers (is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono still prez there?) would scream with fear  and anger.  They would accuse him of encouraging terrorists.  When was the last time someone complained that a U.S. president travels with a huge entourage and spends millions of dollars at hotels?  When a future Isaiah or Savonarola comes along he will hold up Page Six of the New York Post as the finest exemplar of hypocrisy.   I am not advocating a Bonfire of Vapidities.  Gossip is the only thing that the Post actually does well.  And I like the fact that someone decided to use their gossip columns as a blackmail racket.  In  the U.S. gossip is politics by other means and the fact that the gossip mongers of the NY Post are pay attention to the personal preferences of Ahmadinejad must mean that somebody is actually worried about him.  Yoshie, I really think you should make that phone call to Fidel.  <div>On 5/12/06, Doug Henwood <<a href="mailto:dhenwood@panix.com">dhenwood@panix.com</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> New York Post [Page Six] - May 11, 2006 THE SUITE LIFE REMEMBER "the dictator in designer glasses?" That's what we dubbed Nicaraguan strongman Daniel Ortega after the Marxist was caught spending big at Cohen's Fashion Optical during a 1985 visit to New York. Now we hear Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is sleeping in the $3,500-a-night presidential suite at the Hotel Mulia in Jakarta during his three-day visit to Indonesia. The nukes-mad U.S and Israel hater, who drives an old Peugeot back in Tehran, is traveling with an entourage of 100, including 40 bodyguards. He supposedly planned to sleep at the Iranian ambassador's residence, but the Indonesians provided him with the hotel suite. Hamid Shaleki, the press attache at the Iranian embassy, told reporters, "It would not have been a good response for him to have refused." ___________________________________ <a href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk </a> </blockquote></div> -- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture <a href="http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/"> http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/</a> His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/">http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/ </a> Notes, Quotes, Images - From some of my reading and browsing <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/">http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/</a>