Merry Christmas people!

WELL, it is the first of June and almost half of the year is over. You betcha Christmas will sneak up on us faster than you can sing 'Grandmagotrunoverbyareindeer!'

More importantly though, it's amazing that most of us are still on our feet. We still have our jobs, the love of family and friends, have a roof over our heads and can still eat three basic meals a day. Many of us are still relatively healthy, dear readers. Forget all the petty annoyances and insignificant idiots who sometimes make life hell for us. Let's just be grateful for being able to wake up each morning and getting up on our feet. And getting on w/ our lives. Woo-hoo!

(Another reason to rejoice: It's the first day of the new schoolyear so the kids in the village are outta here! Yay! It's so quiet I could cry, haha!)

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Just read this on the news: The runup to the presidential elections in 2010 sure looks tight if you read the latest survey of Pulse Asia.

Just look at this table of survey results:

(Screenshot of Pulse Asia survey results from ABS-CBN News)

Most remarkable of all is MAR Roxas, formerly a kulelat, is now among the top 5 candidates, after gaining 5 points since the Feb. 2009 survey. Would it be the Korina factor you think? Ooh, if this keeps up, I see a wedding by December. Joke!

Seriously, I think I'll take Korina over Nikki Teodoro anytime. The Defense Secretary, btw, is hardly rating. Then again, it's less than 11 months to presidential elections. Anything can still happen between now and May 11, 2008.

To be frank though, even if Gilbert Teodoro does do an FVR (i.e. form his own party, as his wife has threatened, ugh) if PaLaKa, the administration party, doesn't nominate him as its presidential standard bearer, I think he lacks the political savvy, charm, and connections of the old man. You may recall that FVR had been around the political universe even during Marcos' time w/c allowed him to tap those old powerful networks when he ran in 1992.

Teodoro has hardly the financial muscle and TV face time like his 2010 rivals, who've been hogging the headlines and airtime far longer than him. If only he can get his Tito Danding to drop Chiz Escudero, who really is much too young (not to mention, overmemorized) to be leading this country, then Teodoro has a larger chance to make the rest of the country know him a bit better.

(FVR and GMA Photo from Supreme Master Ching.)

Other than that, I wish the opposition can just get their act together and agree on one common candidate. It's the only way to defeat the PaLaKa/administration candidate, whoever it may be. It's time these guys think about the country for once, instead of furthering their own petty interests. Yun na!

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AY, hindi pa pala. How true is that FVR and the presidentita already kissed and made up? And over glasses of cognac? Click here. Well, should we have expected something more respectable from our 'elder statesman'? Ugh.

Pulse Asia: More Pinoys don't want Arroyo

Amid fresh allegations of corruption and bribery, President Arroyo suffered the highest disapproval performance ratings among the country’s top five public officials, the result of the latest Pulse Asia survey said Wednesday.

Pulse Asia said Mrs. Arroyo’s disapproval rating was 39 percent while only 30 percent of the 1,200 respondents approved her performance. Thirty-one percent, meanwhile, were undecided.

“The President scores the same overall approval rating in July and October 2007 while there are only marginal movements in overall indecision and disapproval ratings during this period (-5 and +5 percentage points, respectively),” Pulse Asia said.

Respondents from Metro Manila were the most critical of the President, with 51 percent giving her failing marks. The lowest disapproval rating was recorded in the Visayas.

(Click ABS-CBN News for the rest.)

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House committee junks impeach complaint in 43-1 vote

The House Committee on Justice on Wednesday dismissed the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Roberto Pulido against President Arroyo in a hearing snubbed by members of the opposition.

Voting 43-1, the committee declared the complaint insufficient in substance. House justice committee chairman Quezon City 3rd District Rep. Matias Defensor declared, "... the complaint is hereby dismissed."

The lone vote for the complaint's sufficiency in substance was cast by Laguna 4th District Rep. Edgar San Luis, the endorser of the Pulido complaint.

(More at Impeach rap.)

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NBI's antiterror unit disputes theory Akbar was bomb target

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Wednesday disputed the theory that Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar was the target of the bomb attack on the Batasan Pambansa Complex in Quezon City last Tuesday night as it took note that the device used in the blast appeared to be of the antivehicle type.

“It was apparent that [the blast] was directional but it was premature to say that Representative Akbar was the target or it could be that it happened that he was just there," Romulo Asis, chief of the NBI Anti-Terrorism Division, said.

"As of now we are still determining if it was just co-incidence or not that [the lawmaker] was there," Asis added.

Asis said the NBI bomb experts and chemists have gathered fragments from the blast site.

(Click GMA News for the rest.)

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ALL these news items look seemingly unrelated, but in truth, they only point to one thing.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I find it strange that right after the bomb blast at the Batasan, the Presidentita's text brigade was actively spewing out political statements attacking congressmen, especially Speaker Joe "Mickey Mouse" de Venecia. So can you blame me for my paranoia about this government? Methinks, someone is trying to scare congressmen and senators, especially of the opposition variety into submission.

Then check out this text from cell. no. 0906-6224-3584: "Initial findings show dat bomb target was Cong. Wahab Akbar. Congressmen shud leave deir political feud n their district n not n halls f Congres. Pity d innocents"

The text echoes the same spin of National Security adviser Norberto Gonzales to the unfortunate event. I suppose by "innocents" the text brigade of Presidentita is referring to her and her Palace cohorts, and not the bomb blast victims.