Arroyo ally Miriam wants to see the Senate abolished

We're so used to this admin's efforts to mislead the public, kesyo "bumaba" raw ang unemployment figures to single digits last year. O "nanalo" raw si Arroyo sa nakaraang election.

And now, the admin is using data magically produced out of their asses to come up with the "figures" claiming na pababa na raw ang population growth rate ng pilipinas.

Key point from DJB:

What the NSCB and the government are doing here is intellectually dishonest. Data projections like this could be used to justify the government's inaction on population explosion. In fact I would add that these NSCB projections are likely to be mathematically dishonest, because as any freshman student in Calculus knows, you can spot such dishonesty with the naked eye of mathematical aesthetics. I also caught my old friend from Harvard, Dr. Cory Raymundo and Prof. Ernie Pernia both of the University of the Philippines, talking to Ces Drilon, Monday night about this projection and how unbelievable it is, considering the government has in fact abandoned the use of legally and medically accepted forms of contraception and birth control during the 2001-2010 period. Now, by comparing the historical trend as shown above, I can say with some certainty that there is something mighty peculiar about NSCB's projections. It's almsot as if they decided to ignore the results of the 1990, 1995 and 2000 census count and draw a straight line from the 80s all the way to middle of the 21st Century. It's pretty obvious that this lil bit of prestidigitation with the numbers, means that the Palace can now make a self-serving but dangerous assertion: that population growth rates are trending down despite abandoning its support for serious birth control methods and effective family planning programs, apart from Catholic Church approved natural methods such as "Vatican Roulette." If it has been fudged for that purpose, and is inexplicably discontinuous from the 10 to 15 year trend of a plateau near 2.3% or so, this will result in a serious understimation of how many citizens the government should plan for in the first half of this century. It would be insanely irresponsble if that were the case.

Read this too: Arroyo's ultra-conservative and retarded policy on family planning

And more on the disputed population growth claims here.

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Arroyo's new favorite ally Miriam Santiago pushing for the abolition of the Senate, para raw makatipid ng pera.

Alam mo Miriam, mas mabuti pa kung i-abolish na rin natin ang House at i-abolish na rin natin ang elections (oops, i forgot... balak nga ng CHA CHA yang "No El" na yan, LOL) para doble doble ang matitipid ng taongbayan, at gawing president for life o Reyna na lang si Arroyo. Tanggalin na natin ang checks-and-balance at dissent sa gobierno, and we should allow this admin to harass or takeover the media whenever they please.

Here's a must-read Malaya Editorial on Miriam and her Cha cha cohorts.

Helga: Will the 51 Congressman stay the course?

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Hindi pa rin tapos ang pangha-harass ng Arroyo admin sa Batasan 5.

One of these days, yung mga dirty tactics na ginagamit ngayon ng mga officials ni Arroyo ay babalik rin sa kanila.

In other news, seems like maraming namamatay ng mga leftist leaders ng Bayan Muna under the Arroyo admin.

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga -- Just a day after Malacañang ordered a thorough inquiry into the unabated killing of militants, assassins posing as customers shot dead a Bayan Muna leader after ordering beers in a videoke bar.

The murder of Bayan Muna coordinator Manuel Nardo on Saturday night in this Pampanga city brought to at least 123 the number of leftist activists killed since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took office in 2001, according to an Inquirer count. Of that figure, 93 were Bayan Muna members.

Nardo was also the fourth militant to die by an assassin’s hand in five days.

Eto pa, as of today:

Another left-wing leader was killed by still unidentified gunmen in San Nicolas, Pangasinan, early Tuesday, bringing the death toll of leftists leaders to 122 since 2001.

Initial reports identified the victim as Jose Doton, secretary general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan. His brother, Diosdado Doton, is in critical condition.

The report said the two were ambushed in Barangay Cabuloan around 11 a.m. Tuesday

The killing is the fourth in the past seven days and comes less than three days after a Bayan Muna leader was gunned down in San Fernando, Pampanga, on Saturday.

Let me get one thing clear. Even though I don't agree with most of their issues and positions, I don't consider these Bayan Muna and Gabriela people as the "enemy" and I don't see them as a threat to national security. Maybe a threat to the fake president, pwede pa.

Yung mga hardcore communists like Ka Roger ang dapat na huliin at patayin ng militar, at hindi yung mga Bayan Muna, Sanlakas, Anakpawis, Gabriela types. Kung may solid evidence ang admin na may ginawang krimen ang mga leftist critics ni arroyo, eh di sampahan sila ng kaso at huliin sila.

And it is disturbing to see many of these people getting killed one by one under the arroyo's watch. Imagine people from MoveOn.org or the Sierra Club, or ANSWER and other dissenters and critics of the Bush admin getting murdered one by one under George Bush's presidency. Maybe rightwingers like Marcus Aurelius or Mindanao Bob would be happy with such outcome, but this is very troubling for me, even if I don't agree with their wacko lefty politics.

People are not complaining much right now because mga leftist critics ni arroyo lang naman ang pinapatay. Ano, hihintayin pa natin until tayo na ang tinatarget ng admin bago tayo magko-complain?

(And i won't be surprised either if we see more critics from the oppposition camp getting offed too one of these days kasi, sino ba naman sila, mga erap, lacson, FPJ supporters lang naman yan diba? We're "better off" without these "destabilizers", yes?)