30% of 46M voters = new President

—————————————————————————————————
Manual count set for 30% of precincts if machines fail

The Commission on Elections is prepared for a manual count of the votes in 30 percent of the “clustered” precincts in next May’s elections should the automated counting machines fail to work, Comelec Commissioner Armand Velasco told lawmakers Wednesday.

Ok, let us put that in perspective.

So we have 46M registered voters, give or take. History shows around 74% turnout of voters, so that will be around 34M … 30% of which is 10.2M votes.

That is scary. Possibly more than 10 million votes will be counted, transported, and canvassed the old fashioned way. The easiest-to-cheat way. The dagdag-bawas way. The Garci way.

Political consultant Malou Tiquia, in a presentation to the Ateneo School of Government, says that in a 5-way presidential contest, 10 million is enough to give you the highest post in the land. Ellen Tordesillas puts it in a more scary perspective:

“In 1992, Fidel Ramos won with only 5,342,321 votes (16.62 per cent of total registered voters) over Miriam Santiatiago who got 4,468,133.

“In 1998, Joseph Estrada got 10,722,295 votes (31.39 per cent of registered voters) over Jose de Venecia’s 4,268,483 votes.

“In the fraud-riddled 2004 election, Arroyo was proclaimed after being credited with 12,905,808 votes (29.64 per cent) over Fernando Poe Jr.’s 11,782, 232 votes.”

A couple more questions:

1. During election day itself, who will say that the automated process failed and that the manual contingency plan should be implemented?

2. The ballots are all pre-printed with candidates’ names, down to local positions. So delivery to each district should be very precise (Manila 2nd District should get ballots intended for Manila 2nd District, or else the list of local candidates would be wrong). Comelec has never done anything this precise before. Can the Comelec handle this? Can the delivery itself be sabotaged to create confusion, and possible failure of elections specially in remote areas? Comelec says the delivery will be escorted by the military. What a comforting thought!

Be vigilant people. Be very vigilant.

Pics of the day …

—————————————————————————————————-

Oo nga naman, nadurog yung airplane eh!

Who's awesome?

Thank you Holden …

—————————————————————————————————-
J.D. Salinger has always been in a self-imposed reclusion, never going public, almost never gives interviews, and lives in isolation. Last Wednesday, he decided he would permanently withdraw from society, and from this mortal life. He was 91.

If you have not read the Catcher in the Rye, please do. If you have read it before, now is a good time to reacquaint yourself with it.

“I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.”
– J.D. Salinger/Holden Caulfield

Regal baby

———————————————————————————————–
Mr. Palengke Mar Roxas, after being endorsed by Mother Lily:

“Ako’y nagpapasalamat kay Mother Lily. Biro mo, eh talagang out of the blue, hindi ko naman inaasahan; hindi ko naman siya talagang kilalang masyado at nagpaabot siya na ‘Mar alam mo, pinag-aralan ko yung pagkatao mo at lahat,’ pina feng shui daw nya lahat at sabi nga nya susuporta ako sayo.”

“Nagpapasalamat ako kay Mother Lily na isang Regal baby na din ako.”

Ms. Pearly White Smile Loren Legarda, after Mother Lily endorsed Mar Roxas:

“Alam nyo, ang pagkakaibigan namin ni Mother goes beyond politics. Openly, in many elections, palagi niya ako binibigyan ng presscon. Hanggang ngayon ay tinutulungan pa rin ako in many more ways than one. More than a press con.”

“Deep in her heart (Mother Lily), alam nya kung sino ang mahal nya.”

from PEP.ph

Ang mga nagnanais na maging Bise-Presidente ng ating bansa, nag-aagawan at proud na proud sa endorsement ni Mother Lily. Bow.

“The problem with political jokes is they get elected.”
- The Professional Heckler

“Politics is just show business for ugly people.”
- Jay Leno

Back home

Talk about being dirt poor

————————————————————————————————-
What is the worst thing you have eaten? Frogs? Fat worms? Fried flying insects? Consider yourself lucky.

Dirt cookies

Made from small amount of vegetable shortenings (butter, i guess), salt, and occasionally sugar, mixed with dirt and water. Dirt … lupa … putik.

“It fills your stomach. When we haven’t eaten anything, it fills our stomach. It is a necessary evil … but I have no choice: we are forced to eat it. It makes us sick, but not the way it would anybody who is not used to eating it. Our system is kind of used to it.”

the cookies, being prepared for sun-baking

not sweet, hard to swallow, and almost no nutritional value

sold on the streets, sometimes on credit pa

In Haiti, they eat this. No, not after the devastating earthquake. This report was filed way before that. This is part of their daily lives.

Oh, that’s nice. Stepping on their baking sheet. It is made of dirt anyway, right?

Pics of the day

—————————————————————————————————–

Paranormal insertion

Separated at birth? (from Professional Heckler)

Word of the day

—————————————————————————————————–
Hansard [han-serd]

Noun : The official report of the proceedings and debates of a legislature in the Commonwealth of Nations, especially of the British or Canadian parliament.
Origin : named after Luke Hansard (1752–1828) and his descendants, who compiled the reports until 1889

Source : dictionary.com

Usage:
“I demand that the statement be removed from the Hansard of this august Senate. That is an affront to my wife!”

Tonight, in the news …

———————————————————————————————
Last night’s news:

“The COMELEC says that the next 10 days is crucial for the poll automation. They will run the machines through a series of test to find out if the automated election would work.”

To find out if the automation will work!?!?!? The election is in May, and we are almost done with January … and you will test the machines JUST NOW “TO FIND OUT IF IT WILL WORK???” I was waiting for the actual sound bite from a Comelec official, but unfortunately the news program did not show it. God, I hope the news program just got it wrong and that the Comelec did not actually say that.

Further, Comelec said they are ready to do manual elections if the automation fails. Uh-oh. This prompted the CBCP (Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines) to state their fear that the automation may fail. CBCP also encouraged their faithful to vote wisely … unfortunately Wisely was already declared a nuisance candidate.
=========

In other news, the Senate started hearing arguments if Senator and Presidential candidate Manny Villar should be censured for the C5 road mess. Villar did not attend the session, prompting Sen. Jamby Madrigal to use her floor time to say:

Jamby: Nandito ang kanyang choochoo train and lawyers, pero hindi siya makapunta dito dahil siya ay duwag.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel took offense (either from the “duwag” term or being tagged as “choochoo train” of Villar), firing back:

Pimentel: That is an unparliamentary language!

Or something to that effect, and then much later, addressing Sen. Madrigal, he countered with a very parliamentary statement “At least hindi ako abused child.”
==========

Senator and Vice-Presidential candidate Mar Roxas then took the floor, also targetting Sen. Villar’s alleged insertion of amendments to the C5 road project:

Mar: I have no insertion in any matter. In fact, I have no insertion, period!

Sen. Pimentel, now on a roll, promptly took to the other podium and uttered what I think is a very historical Senate statement:

Pimentel: I am sure after your marriage, you will have your insertions.

A furious Sen. Roxas immediately returned to his podium and bellowed “That is an affront to my wife! I demand that the statement be removed from the record!”

To which Sen. Pimentel promptly volunteered to remove his statement from Senate records, thereby removing a great and historical utterance from the records of our great, great Senate.

The Senators of the Republic of the Philippines, ladies and gentlemen.

Really, Pat?

—————————————————————————————————
Pat Robertson, host of the Christian TV show The 700 Club, has this to say about Haiti and the recent earthquake that struck it:

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about,”
“They were under the heel of the French … you know, Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.’ True story. And so the devil said, ‘Ok it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another.”

Really, Pat? True story? Did your God whisper this to you again, just like all the previous senile comments that poured out of your pure lips?

Best before …

———————————————————————————————-

best before

Party-list 1-ABAA (1 Ako Babaeng Astig Aasenso) is proposing a law putting a 10-year expiry on marriage. They are saying this will spare battered wives, and other couples suffering from an unpleasant union, from lengthy and costly annulment procedures.

They promise to storm the halls of congress, and vow to gather support from multiple groups and personalities. Already, they have the support of women’s rights proponents and abuse victims, and are reportedly talking with Joseph Estrada and Manny Pacquiao. Mar Roxas, for his part, would like a couple more months to decide if he would support the proposal.

The secret of a happy marriage remains a secret. – Henny Youngman

Three rings of marriage are the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering. – Unknown