Chris Cox, who chaired the committee which wrote the report which has everyone freaked out about Chinese Spies and Cold War Episode II: The Asian Menace said, when asked what should be done with Chinese Americans convicted of helping leak nuclear secrets to China that they should be executed.

In a column this week, William F. Buckley Jr., our most age-addled pundit from the right wing, agreed with that sentiment, writing that we should "try to hang the traitors."

I'm hopeful, at this point, that the general public wouldn't tolerate executions of Chinese-American citizens. For now. The real propaganda war is just starting to gain steam. Headlines which proclaim China a new rival world power are just now becoming common. Of course, all the right wing weirdos out there are already paranoid, but that doesn't say much about mainstream America. Conservatives are easily frightened, but like Sand People, they soon return and in greater numbers.

Never mind that the Los Alamos employee fired over this espionage mess has still not been charged with anything. FBI spokespeople have basically said they don't have much -- that at worst, so far, he mishandled some data. It's a far cry from our lab employee meeting Chinese contacts at an all night Teriyaki stand, passing plans underneath the gloopy rice in a chicken bowl.

"Now, you will give us the sweet and sour sauce," sneers Fu-Swhing Mann.

"No," says the spy. "First, the check."

"You'll be paid," Mann smiles. Or is he smiling? It's hard to tell with those inscrutable orientals. "In the fortune cookie."

"Wait a minute," the spy says, "How do I even know you're Chinese? You might be Korean, or Japanese, or Vietnamese, or Eskimo..."

"Yes," laughs Mann (or is he laughing?) "We all look alike. Wanna go see a Jackie Chan movie later? Twin Dragons is Double Good."

That's a parody, by the way -- it's what Buckley thinks happened. But it didn't. So far, our beleaguered lab employee is an innocent man out of a job. The FBI recently admitted that they're so intent on getting him for something that they're going to launch a major investigation until they found he "spit on the sidewalk" and charge him with that. Funny thing is, conservatives want Janet Reno fired for not -- wiretapping the guy's office.

But Reno did the right thing by not ignoring the rights accorded a citizen of the United States. Reno should be fired for ordering wiretaps when she has no cause or evidence and she should be praised for showing restraint. I'd figure the Republicans would back her on this one -- aren't they supposed to stand for less government intrusion in our lives?

Back to this business of execution -- the Rosenbergs were murdered for passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. Open and shut, right? Except that they have been at least partially exonerated in recent years. If not totally clear, at least we've learned that things were not so cut and dry as we thought when we sent them to their deaths. We generally believe that the Rosenberg killings were a product of the McCarthy society and the red scare -- we generally believe we're more enlightened now.

I'm not so sure. if they find the right scapegoat the combined PR might of the government, using the media as a tool, can make most of the country wish just about anyone was dead. Aside from murder, treason is the only other crime you can be executed for in this country. We should probably change that law since it makes no sense to have a culture based on free thought where you could be killed for having an anti-American political affiliation.

We should ask if the concept treason even applies in this case. Treason. Betraying your group to it's enemies. I've never considered China my enemy. I wouldn't want to live under their government, but I don't want to fight them either. I don't think they're my government's enemy either and I can tell because, since the Nixon Administration, the government has made China one of our favorite trading partners.

Cox and Buckley have offered the first grumblings that heads need to literally roll because of then China situation. Let's hope those grumblings don't get louder as this all progresses.

Michael Maiello likes his head right where it is.