Blasting away

Not much time for an entry today. To either ruin or inspire your day, depending on your political alignment, there’s the writing duet of Bel Cunanan and Emil Jurado who are warbling and croaking, respectively, the official, authentic, Palace party line on, you know, the conspiracy thing, which was defended with operatic fervor by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago in the Senate yesterday (Paeng has an, uh, graphic response to her speech that’s neither kind nor diplomatic). You can’t beat Newsstand for brevity (with a punch) in summing things up:

That [her speech] is not an argument; that is merely the residue of a very public meltdown.

Dong Puno doesn’t exactly toe the Palace line, but does brood, rather darkly, that some sort of life-and-death struggle is going on. My former teacher Alex Magno reports on Bangkok envy (which I’ve felt, too), but I’m not convinced about his assertion that the Thai PM doesn’t do grandstanding or indulge in politicking. At least Magno didn’t resort to that tired old refrain, “you know, the Thais have a king, maybe we could do with one, too…” Tony Abaya is playful, today, waxing positively Grimm (Brothers, that is) in the imagery of his column (mixed, uh, symbolism, or is it metaphors aplenty: the President as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, FVR as the wicked witch from Sleeping Beauty, toy soldiers, and even a pterodactyl!).

Heres Report A and Report B on de la Salle Brother Dizon quitting the charter change consultative commission (an interesting tidbit from Report B: “Lorenzana also said that a one-month debate between federalists led by Abueva and supporters of a unitary government led by Cebu Governor Pablo Garcia will take place to achieve better proposals for the Charter amendments.”). The Inquirer editorial takes a look at the Senate President’s woes and proposes an Antidote; Senators, however, seem to be getting weak in the knees; Sen. Ralph Recto sees the Senate President’s impending doom.

I’m sure you’ve heard of that old favorite topic for idle high school and college conversations: that the Smurfs were Communists, right? Finally tracked down a site with not one, but two, articles on the subject. My favorite Communist blogger writes a charming blog entry on penguins inspiring continued class struggle. I liked the documentary very much, too, by the way.

Belated readings and news department: Read Red’s Herring on executive orders, Hail Mary passes, the Federalists and such; and Another Hundred Years Hence launches his own movement.

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Manuel L. Quezon III.

19 thoughts on “Blasting away

  1. aaahhh… miriam. how we missed you. you really make life here interesting. love you or hate you, whenever you throw your lightning people really watch, don’t they?

    rumors abound miriam is eyeing the senate presidency. hell, why not?! it will make our otherwise bland local political scene (HA!) a wee bit interesting, won’t it?

  2. Drilon will have to go,like in a game of cards he played his hand badly.His a loser just like all those identified w/ him.
    Cory must discontinue her “holy war” unless she is going for the grestest “moralist” of the decade?
    Manolo, I alredy mentioned other times that what is going on is a “do or die” game.
    I have always woundered why is it so that when the administration cries distabilization or demolition job, nobody pay atention.But when it’s oposition people who get hit,it can only be a disatb job.
    I admit Miriam can be quit a character.I think that being a personality oriented society we must learn to separate the person from the facts.
    It seems as this drama unfolds we will discover the true intensions of all this hiting PGMA.
    Maybe the truth has always been staring us in the eye but since we want entertainment and not work hard so we will never see it.
    maybe at the end it’s all because we have been so superficial.
    yesterday I watched Chaves in a news up-sound
    as he was filling his protest in the SC repeating the typcal line of the opposition “PGMA lied, cheated & stoled the election”.Accusations come chip in this country.It’s all about playing w/ peoples minds.
    Maybe Cory must discontinue her “holy war” unless she his trying to win a Nobel prize.
    If she is bragging that she left the presidency w/ clean hands.The next qiestion to ask is after she brought back the institution of democracy, what else did she do to make use of the momentum she had?her theory that she being honest therfore everybody else will follow.I think she only thought of her self.She has clean hands cause she did not do anything.She did not risk anything or did anything unpopular.She was one world and the Philippines was another world.Did she do anything about our energy problems?Being a minimal achiver of a President I think it’s stupid to be moralizing using an immoral source such as the tapes.
    Sure Manolo it’s a free country.It’s democracy at work.But what signals are we sending.If you Nation wide press con does not work than go talk to people who will not contradict you & spice it up w/ morals?
    Drilon take care of the political side she take care of the moral.
    what a great team they are!

  3. i loved cory. history was very kind to the good widow, the wife of the hero. we overlooked her faults. when everything that came off the marcos era was destroyed, including the good ones, nobody complained. when doy laurel sounded off the alarm, and cory called her langaw, everybody just laughed. when she imprisoned manong johnny for “complex rebellion” nobody (especially the opposition) came to speak for jpe. when the kamaganak, inc were accused of stealing everything and anything, noone cried foul. when there were stories that marcos wanted to make peace with cory before he dies and leave his money to the people but cory refused, no one said “foul!”. but now, i think i have to say no to cory.

  4. Guys don’t get me wrong.Cory is a good person.She too did her bit for the Nation.she has her problems also,Kriss,hehehe
    But let’s face it, her actions have reasons we do not see & certainly are not good for the Nation. That thing about her being part of a plot.
    Certainly it’s not a literal meaning.
    Its really more of since Drilon,Cory,the opposition all share a comon goal – get rid of PGMA -.Their guns are surely pointed on PGMA.Someone else though will pull the triger who equaly wants to get rid of PGMA at all cost!
    That is the problem when one hangs-out w/ bad company.
    You can be just as guilty as the one who pulls the triger because you are also pointing the gun on the same subject.

  5. clearly, gantihan season is not yet over. also, the baseless attacks on drilon is vintage gma. they are trying albeit unsuccessfully to undermine the credibility of any man/woman whom they know can do them a lot of damage. they did this with dinky and now they’re doing it to drilon.

    by the way, i loved march of the penguins, too. the french did a good job on that. it’s been a hit in the states and did better, sadly, than the great raid.

    this is the 3rd time miriam has promised the country of killing herself. first, she said she will hang herself if she lost in the pres’l elections. she lost. second, she said she woulld jump from an airplane without parachute should erap be arrested. erap was arrested. now this. sana totohanin na this time. you never know, the 3rd may be it. 😉

  6. cory should first address the ghosts of her past. she was catapulted to power by the martyrdom of her husband. she owes the nation information on everthing that happened to the ninoy assasination. i think she knows more than what she is saying. all we know is that her late husband was coming home to report to marcos what the late strongman could not see through the cordon sanitaire. ninoy was warned by the marcoses not to come home because his plans puts his life in danger. the hero himself knew this for it was his thesis that marcos had created beasts that the latter could no longer control. then, as history would have it, ninoy was killed on the tarmac and the beasts, the masterminds, were never revealed to the general public.

    from what the friends and family of the martyr have said pertaining to the events leading to his death, it appears that to ninoy’s mind, marcos the person was not the enemy, but the marcos system of government that was out of control. why then was marcos turned into a boogeyman by the cory administration after he left? everything bad was attributed to him. he had to bear everything alone, with or without evidence. a deliberate effort of indoctrination was driven against marcos. what happened to the generals and the cronies that ninoy was saying as the real beasts? i am not saying that marcos was totally clean. i agree with the human rights case defeat of his estate based on command-responsibility but what about those whose liability is criminal? i can’t help thinking that those whose liabilities are not merely civil were still in power when marcos left. not one big player among them was jailed by cory. now the day of reckoning for cory has come. before she asks gma for the truth, it must begin with her.

    this, however, is not my formula that will compel gma to do the same. the moral high ground cory will gain for baring all is of no consequence to gma. that pretender’s sense of honor is bankrupt. i just want the truth and with cory, there’s a chance for it.

  7. bogchimash,i guess our human instinct will hold on to anybody who can give us the truth.
    I don’t wanna sound contrabida but.I think Cory has her reasons why she wants PGMA out she is just covering it up w/ w/ the moral facade.
    Honestly,what she is doing does not make sense cuz first she wants PGMA out than now she says she is looking for the truth, but than she is also colleting signitures,if she wants the truth than why is it that she holds her monologs? is she looking for the truth or telling the truth?Normaly when people are looking for the truth they go far away to meditate.They normaly don’t go making talks to people who don’t make them contra.Then, what is Cory really selling? what is she preaching?
    What are her real intensions?Is she testing the grounds if she still has the “cory magic”?
    Honestly, I don’t see a head or a tail in what she does.I have my doubts what kind of truth will come out from something strange

  8. God has not been generous with Miriam Defensor Santiago.

    Not only does she have the unflattering physique of a female bulldog, she also seems to be afflicted with Canine Distemper, a virus which is absolutely lethal! It’s started to seriously damage her (already warped?) looks and brain.

    I saw a picture of her on the that really was frightening…

    How extraordinary! In the final analysis, there is justice against the wicked.

  9. a de brux, she’s pretty proud of her legs…

    Honestly though, I think it’s very petty and malicious to bring up her physical attributes. I’m not defending her (she’s always seemed a strange duck to me) but gee, c’mon…a little kindness for another of God’s beings won’t kill you.

  10. yah nga i agree, i too can’t stand Miriam myself, but i think that if we love our country more we will always take the upper ground in issues.
    a priest once told me that God makes the sine on the good and the bad and at the end of our road we will be judged by what we did.
    often times it’s not really the others that are the problem.
    it’s more of us have limited views.
    i guess we are all witnesses of the shit our country is and looks like it will even get worst.
    so waht do we do?
    do we take sides?
    Do we really think the Senators are using their powers fairly?
    what do we think are the root causes of all this shit?
    people, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that i think it’s better to practice our minds to think always harder.
    it makes life worth leaveing

  11. i agree with mitams and joselu… we should take these arguments to a decent level…meaning no personal attacks.

    miriam was wrong for calling noynoy “a mere shadow..” compared to ninoy, and saying she should’ve failed rolex suplico in aw school. (BTW, HOW COME NO ONE IS MENTIONING THAT ROLEX SUPLICO IS A CO-ENDORSER OF THE LOZANO IMPEACHMENT COMPLAINT, BESIDES MARCOLETA?!) as it is also wrong for the leftist to insult gma’s height (or lack of it).

  12. yah nga acidboy if there is any campagn we should do is to call the attention of politicians who make arguments below the belt.
    i think it’s a first step in correcting the so many wrongs in our society.just like when pimentel used harsh words on gonzales then.

  13. yah nga acidboy, if there is any campagn we should do, it is to make it know to our politicians that we do not like the chip language they use.
    maybe this is one of the many first steps to correct the ugly political culture we have.

  14. Even if this recent issue with Drilon did not surface, I believe what he did – publicly asking GMA to resign – was a disgrace. He’s part of this administration. He has a lot more responsibility to resolve the issues in a way least harmful to the stability of the country and the lives of its citizens. His coming out in public back then was just like him pissing on his office and the instituion he belongs to. It was exactly like telling the country and its citizens, “Hey look, I can’t do anything about these political problems – nor can our institutions.” What kind of a message is that to impart to a divided nation?

    I was disgusted and disappointed then and I still am now.

  15. yes mitaMS, i agree w/ you & until Drilon is Senate president the actions of the senate will always be suspect.

  16. Mita,

    You gotta be kidding! I was being extremely kind to that bulldog (check out her pic that appeared in the Tribune some 2 days ago – what an extraordinary likeness to James, my English Bulldog!)

    That woman – Miriam Defensor – doesn’t deserve any sympathy. She’s not kind nor generous to a lot of people either. She bullies people and insults them at whim from her senatorial pulpit. Do you think that’s being fair? Why should I be kind to her? Tit for tat!

    Sorry, I don’t think it’s petty or malicious to speak of a legislator’s physical attributes if theat person does not deserve respect.

    I don’t think she has any business firing away as she does against anybody that gets her goat using her senatorial privilege. Her position should cloak her with a bit of dignity but it doesn’t because she’s demeaned it by being simply, gratuitously MEAN!

    Have you seen her? Met her? Know her? I do. the legs you are talking about are like 15 1/2 inches in length altogether (bottom and upper parts). Proud of them? I suppose she could be, after all a bulldog is always proud of its undershot jaw.

  17. haha bringing up the drilon issue now is clearly a sign that malacanang wants us to veer away from the substance of the northrail contracts which at 800Mphp per kilometer is outrageous. in any case, drilon may have advised gma to say sorry but gma’s act was hilaw (she did not say sorry to saying ok ok to garci’s maayos naman ho ang pagpataas sa inyo ma’am) and then she blames the ones who advised her to do it after. paano mo babatiin ang hitad na yun?!!

    the nbi and MI should do us all a favor and certify to the non existence of the drilon/cory assassination plot and so we can have the best reality show live in the senate. and she blames the up college of law for being harsh to her son and his suicide? naman. that’s just plain denial.

    but malacanang will stop our intelligence agencies from clearing the 2 because it is in their interest to obfuscate the issues. they may even have planted the informant without miriam’s knowledge and miriam just unwittingly/negligently went with it.

  18. speaking of northrail, what happened to the partial release of the loan that was done last year? the money was released but the project has yet to start. where is it? who has it? we are paying interest for that already. i smell a rat…hiding in the bay city.

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