Wednesday Bullets

• -From PCIJ: NAMFREL part of the poll fraud coverup. Yup, matagal na nating alam yan, although si Bill Luz naging anti-Arroyo na. Ewan ko na lang kay Joe Con.


• -Manuel L. Quezon 3, on why he doesn't want a parliamentary system.


• -‘Kill impeach bid or we’re all dead’


• -JB Baylon: The best way to eradicate corruption is to shut down Congress, starting with House of Representathieves. Heh.


• -MLQ3: "Bong Austero of open letter fame, makes the transition from blogger to mainstream media opinion columnist." Now here's an easy question. Can you guess which paper he is writing for? Natch.


• -Will Senate President Manny Villar turn into Malacanang's puppet?
  
  Very observant rin si William Esposo:
  
  

  Notice how pro-Arroyo Senators are very sparing in defending her these days. Instead, they would prefer to take positions that only happen to reflect her side on a given issue. But they will be careful not to be perceived as defending her. Senator Ralph Recto will promote the EVAT but he will avoid defending Arroyo’s failed fiscal policies.
  
  Miriam D. Santiago is untypical of any of the other Senators yet even Miriam minimizes her defense of the Palace occupant these days. Miriam even announced last Thursday that she will file a bill to free media from government influence and interference which to me is an indirect broadside against Arroyo’s assault on press freedom. I don’t think that Miriam has altogether given up on her presidential ambition.



• -The news of the arrest of Chen Sui Bian's son-in-law arouses envy in China. Hoy! Hindi lang kayo ha! Ako rin naiingit... :(


• -So true. so true. I have experienced it first hand.


• -Technophilia: Five things you didn't know you could do with Yahoo!


• -Congrats to the Miami Heat! Boy, this guy looks stupid now, doesn't he?


• -Nicholas Kristof: In China It's ******* vs. Netizens
  
  

  To test the limits of the Internet in China, I started a couple of Chinese blogs - in which I huff and puff as outrageously as I can.
  
  For a country that employs some 30,000 Internet censors, that turned out to be stunningly easy. In about 10 minutes, I started Ji Sidao's blog - that's my Chinese name - on two Chinese Web hosts, at no cost and without providing any identification.
  
  Writing in Chinese, I began by denouncing the imprisonment of my Times colleague, Zhao Yan, by the Chinese authorities. I waited for it to be censored. Instead, it promptly appeared on my blog.
  
  In frustration, I wrote something even more provocative: a call for President Hu Jintao to set an example in the fight against corruption by publicly disclosing his financial assets. To my astonishment, that wasn't censored either.
  
  Desperate, I mentioned Falun Gong, the religious group that is the Chinese government's greatest enemy: "In Taiwan, the Chinese people have religious freedom. So in the Chinese mainland, why can't we discuss Falun Gong?" That instantly appeared on both my blogs as well, although on one the characters for "Falun" were replaced by asterisks (functioning as pasties, leaving it obvious what was covered up).
  
  Finally, I wrote the most inflammatory comment I could think of, describing how on June 4, 1989, I saw the Chinese Army fire on Tiananmen Square protesters. The two characters for June 4 were replaced by asterisks, but the description of the massacre remained intact.
  
  These various counterrevolutionary comments, all in Chinese, are still sitting there in Chinese cyberspace at http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1238333873 and http://jisidao.blog.sohu.com. (When State Security reads this, it may finally order my blogs closed.)
  
  All this underscores, I think, that China is not the police state that its leaders sometimes would like it to be; the Communist Party's monopoly on information is crumbling, and its monopoly on power will follow. The Internet is chipping away relentlessly at the Party, for even 30,000 censors can't keep up with 120 million Chinese Netizens. With the Internet, China is developing for the first time in 4,000 years of history a powerful independent institution that offers checks and balances on the emperors.
  
  It's not that President Hu Jintao grants these freedoms, for he has arrested dozens of cyberdissidents as well as journalists. But the Internet is just too big and complex for State Security to control, and so the Web is beginning to assume the watchdog role filled by the news media in freer countries.

  
  Let's hope he's right. Read the whole article. Thanks Peking Duck.
  
  UPDATE: Okay, both of Kristof's blogs (this and this) are gone now.