rrePost:: Invisible platform : Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose :: The Long View

If machinery wins National Elections (I’m acutely aware that local elections can be won by a better party machinery) then Pichay should be a senator now. Obviously he isn’t. QED.
Wish people really call BS on these politicians. We would have a shorter news cast.

I have heard it said that Teodoro played a central role in formulating the NPC platform and he himself has been saying things that suggest familiarity with a draft platform. This has been particularly true in recent weeks, coinciding with the period work on a platform has been taking place, as Magno mentioned. The term “subsidiarity” that he mentioned at a recent forum is a vintage Christian Democratic one and is, surely, a hint of what the Lakas-Kampi-CMD platform might put forward. This inability to publish a platform means the ruling coalition believes Prospero Pichay’s statement that their candidate will win because of party machinery and not public sentiment.
via The Long View: Invisible platform : Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose.

Better Press Corp Please::Covering Washington like Kabul | FP Passport

This post should be titled better press corp and better electorate please. This is because the two sides are at fault for how lousy the coverage of elections has been. The blame goes to the people who now thinks of politicians as entertainers and vice versa (if I hear another question about Noy and Shalani  I’m going to puke.)
Where are we really. Let’s see.
We have the world’s longest ballot, with electronic elections that is unprecedented. We have 7.1 % unemployment rate. a 19.1% underemployment rate, we have what thousands of OFW in some of the most hostile social environments in the world, we have an education system in rambles, our general populace is scared whenever we see a check point. Our policemen/military can’t seem to understand that belonging to a political/ideological party is not a crime (bearing arms is). We have a few dozen warlords in the poorest provinces whose people are locked in a cycle of poverty , corruption and abuse.
And the question you would like to ask Villar is “Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura?”. Fuck, you people have no right to claim being the Fourth Estate or rather it is sad that maybe this is what or how the fourth estate should be if left to the devices of people who do not have any noble belief towards their profession.
In a better world media should be asking Gibo what he has done as Department of Defense? What Gordon did with the ZTE-NBN deal investigation ? Executive success of Noy? and the Peace and Order understanding of Manny Villar?
PS :: Mild Migraines again so grain of salt guys.
PS1: Prior to the C5 road scams my problems with Villar is that our economy may do well with his stewardship but that the Ampatuans and other rumored warlord families would only strengthen their grasp.

Covering Washington like Kabul

Posted By Annie Lowrey

On his New Yorker blog, George Packer takes aim at the “devastatingly unremarkable” bloviation of Beltway journos. He cites Washington Post columnist (and “dean” of the Washington press corps) David Broder’s analysis of a recent Sarah Palin speech as “[showing] off a public figure at the top of her game — a politician who knows who she is and how to sell herself.” He also offers up the New York Times‘ Adam Nagourney’s coverage of a recent Republican leadership conference: “Here in Honolulu, the strains within the party over conservative principles versus political pragmatism played out in a sharp and public way.”
These two characterizations from two top writers for the United States’ two leading papers, Packer argues, are but purple guff — in the words of Michael Kelly, examples of how the “idea of image” is “faith in Washington.” The journalists follow the same, strange, well-worn routine. They take the mundane comings and goings of major political figures, interpret them according to prevailing partisan winds, and write them up in the overheated, undercooked language of a harlequin novel. The result is airy nonsense that fervently insists on its trenchancy.
Packer further demonstrates the absurdity of this journalistic convention by satirically recasting the Palin passage about Afghan President Hamid Karzai: “Speaking at the presidential palace in Kabul, Mr. Karzai showed himself to be at the top of his game. He skillfully co-opted his Pashtun base while making a powerful appeal to the technocrats.”
The point is that Washington coverage of major political figures is not just bizarre stylistically, but dead substantively. To discuss for hundreds of words how Palin is at the top of her game is to spend hundreds of words not discussing her actual relevance to the fractured conservative scene. Foreign correspondence on major political figures needs to be more explanatory than illlustrative — and it would be better if coverage of Washington were more like the clear-eyed, clean-written analysis of Kabul.
via Covering Washington like Kabul | FP Passport.

rePost::‘Think twice,’ Ermita warns telcos – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

There was this The West Wing episode about a televised presidential debate. That episode is very meaningful here.
The Telcos are operating based on being able to use the electromagnetic spectrum. This is not their right but rather a massive gift to them from the government. To do something that is detrimental to our republic must also entail an equal or a more pronounced response. If they fear for their security then they have no right to enjoy the massive profits they get out of using a resource that is in some ways fully owned by the Filipino people. Withdrawal of support must mean withdrawal of use of the resource upon which the massive salaries of their executives/shareholders and workers are based on.

ON PROPOSED WITHDRAWAL OF POLL SUPPORT
‘Think twice,’ Ermita warns telcos
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 16:59:00 02/17/2010
Filed Under: Telecommunications Services, Elections, Eleksyon 2010
MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang on Wednesday cautioned telecommunications firms against backing out of its commitment to provide the main data center for the May election, saying national interest is at stake.
“I think they should think twice before they resort to what they say they may refuse because you know this thing involves the national welfare, it involves the national interest and very surely the Comelec would know what to do in order to ensure that the commitment under the contract will be fulfilled,” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.
The Palace executive was reacting to reports that Globe Telecoms and the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, which owns Telecommunications, have proposed to withdraw its offer to setup a main data center in its offices for the transmission of election results in the May 10 polls.
The firms have expressed fears of physical attacks against their facilities during the election.
via ‘Think twice,’ Ermita warns telcos – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

rePost::Revilla Jr.'s surname is now Bong Revilla – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News

Wow who ever is advising him must be commended this shows an amazing grasps of human psychology and some mental shortcuts people make!!! bravo!!! maybe the best move (in an intellectual sense) for the past 10 years!!!

So that he will be on top of the alphabetical list of senatorial candidates in the ballots, re-electionist Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. decided to change his surname to Bong Revilla.
Revilla’s lawyer, George Erwin Garcia, said the Cavite Regional Trial Court Branch 19 had approved the use of Bong Revilla as a registered family name last October 19, 2009.
“At least yung paggamit niya ng (his use of) Bong Revilla has the imprimatur of the court, it is perfectly legal,” Garcia said, adding that even Revilla’s birth certificate has been corrected.
Revilla’s decision to change his surname prompted a certain Mary Emily Verr Peji to file a disqualification case against him with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) last December.
via Revilla Jr.’s surname is now Bong Revilla – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News.