Krauthammer on Obama urging Latinos to "punish their enemies"

How Film Piracy killed the Philippine Movie Industry

Critic Noel Vera suggested that the pirates should only sell Hollywood films on DVD and spare local movies:

Piracy is a serious issue, sure, but one disease at a time (or all at once, but someone better be getting paid here).

That said, there's an easy if dicey way out of that, something that General Petraeus implemented so successfully in Iraq: contact the pirates, negotiate with them to pirate only Hollywood movies and not local fare.

Alternatively, license them to do the distribution and production. They seem to do a pretty good job, speedwise (they just need quality control).

Selective enforcement of rules won't work either, because local films (where tickets cost P130 and up nowadays) cannot compete with easily available pirated DVD movies from Hollywood--pristine copies obtainable for as low as P10-15.

That's why nobody goes to the movies anymore. Watching pirated dvds is the cheapest form of entertainment nowadays.

Teddy Boy Locsin is a Tool

Jessica Zafra interviews Teodoro Locsin Jr. on the Automated voting system:

Why is there so much resistance to election automation?

It began in Congress, which passed the law with only one dissenting vote. Then the guys who delivered one million vote majorities to GMA in the House started opposing it. Which makes me suspect they don’t control one million votes.

Funny, I thought your committee report on Hello Garci whitewashed the whole thing.

Five House committees that heard the "Hello Garci" wiretapping controversy have adopted a final report, practically clearing former commissioner Virgilio Garcillano of the alleged rigging of the 2004 elections.

But while the report mentioned an opposition conspiracy to unseat President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, it also briefly questioned the administration's attempt to cover up the scandal.

"Malaca�ang was clearly at an utter loss to explain the tapes and, on at least one occasion, attempted a cover-up," said the report, which pointed to inconsistencies in presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye's statements.

Bunye had said there were two compact discs -- one version spliced and the other original -- that contained conversations between Arroyo and "Gary", initially said to be a political officer of the Lakas party.

In sum, the report said: "A conspiracy clearly existed to topple the President by embarrassing her with the so-called Garci tapes, but on the other hand, the administration could not and would not confront the tapes, and contributed nothing towards arriving at the truth about them, but on the contrary attempted a cover-up."

So, did the 1 million vote padding happen, or did it not? Here's a list of names who authored the report:

The committees behind the report are: public information, under Rep. Emmylou Talio-Santos of North Cotabato; suffrage and electoral reforms, chaired by Representative Teodoro Locsin Jr. of Makati City; public order and safety, under Rep. Amado Espino of Pangasinan; national defense and security, under Rep. Jose Solis of Sorsogon; and information and communications technology, under Rep. Simeon Kintanar of Cebu.

Ang Pekeng Opo-sisyon ng Nacionalista Party

Another Gloria Macapagal ARroyo loyalist na nagkukunwaring oposisyon at anti-kurakot ay itong si Abraham Mitra, senatorial candidate ng Nacionalista Party.


"Panahon pa raw ng tatay niya" na galit siya pangungurakot.

But that was during Marcos' time.

The Baham Mitra I know now is an Arroyo Loyalist.

He voted twice for killing the impeachment complaint in 2005 and 2006.

He was one of many congressmen loyal to Arroyo who received money from Jocjoc Bolante re the Fertilizer Funds scandal.

Yup, maka "opo-sisyon" nga.

Laughable Nacionalista Party ad

"Tunay na Oposisyon"? The ad wouldn't even dare mention Arroyo's name.


So how serious is Manny Villar about fighting corruption? Not so much.

As I See It
Villar won’t file raps against Arroyo

By Neal Cruz
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:02:00 10/02/2009

If and when Sen. Manny Villar becomes president, he will not, he said, file charges against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. But he would not prevent others from doing so. He would allow the wheels of justice to punish those who need punishing. But he will not interfere to save anybody.
...
Asked what would be his priorities in case he becomes president, Villar answered that it would be the economy and jobs. An improved economy and more jobs are important to raise the standard of living in any country, he said. With a higher standard of living, graft and corruption would lessen. People would not steal anymore because they are living well already.

Obviously, it's not a priority. Just lip service.

And how silly it is to see a Marcos in an anti-corruption ad. And Satur Ocampo and Marcos in the same ad, LMAO.

MORE: Villar blind to Arroyo's corruption

Why would Lacson want to kill Dacer?

just asking here, not buying the "lacson killed dacer" angle for a sec, but:

- if lacson really killed dacer, WHAT could be his motive? He doesn't know the guy all that much other than the fact that they (lacson and dacer) are linked to Erap

- I know many would say the motive is: Erap ordered the killing because of a fallout between him and Dacer. If that is the case, then why is this administration's PNP not going after Erap NOW?

- of course, if this admin will have erap arrested NOW, erap's candidacy will be damaged and he might even get disqualified.

- with erap out, NOYNOY will benefit by getting all the remaining anti-GMA votes. So why would this admin take erap the spoiler out of the race and damage the chances of their secret annointed--Villar?

From Lito Banayo:

A more cautious judge would have tried to determine if probable cause indeed existed to charge Lacson, especially in light of the selective prosecution by the DOJ (why only Lacson, and not Erap as well, who was also in the affidavits of Mancao and even Dumlao?).

Trends

Trends used to do interviews and data gathering for 3 poll firms in 2004 (SWS, Pulse, and NFO Trends)

Now in 2010 they're doing field work for Pulse Asia and Manila Standard Today's polls, and the numbers look similar:

In the SWS survey, which says it has its own field workers, had Noynoy Aquino at 42 percent and Manny Villar at 35 percent nationwide, an 8 percent difference. Erap Estrada was at 13 percent. Undecideds were pegged at 2 percent. Error margin was at 2.2 percent, plus-minus.

The Manila Standard Today (MST) also conducted its survey, with Trends utilized as its field workers’ organization, between Jan. 21 and 27. Respondents were 2,500. In its survey, MST had Noynoy Aquino at 36 percent nationwide and Villar at 34 percent, a statistical tie. Estrada was pegged at 13 percent. Check on the math for nationwide averages. It is clear that the MST’s survey is intended to deliberately bring down the numbers of Estrada, as Pulse Asia did and no doubt, SWS did too.

Pulse Asia also conducted a survey from Jan. 20 to 26, the same time frame as MST and to a certain extent, SWS’ time frame, also using Trends for its field work. Its respondent base was 1,800. In it, Aquino obtained 37 percent, Villar at 35 percent, or a statistical and Estrada at 12 percent.

As Trends was utilized by both MST and Pulse, validation by way of comparison, can’t be claimed.

Read the whole thing. Ninez explains why she finds the internal numbers suspicious.