Politics
30 hours long talkathon at the US Senate, eh? The entire thing sounds, well, childish. Here’s an interesting tidbit…
Because Senate rules require agreement from both sides to quickly confirm a nominee, the GOP cannot force a confirmation vote as long as a Democrat is present on the floor to object.
But if they fall asleep or stop paying attention, the GOP will immediately confirm the nominees….
Doesn’t that sound just like little kids fighting with each other? “Is Not! Is Too! Is Not! Is Too! Is Not times infinity!” Ah well, ’tis politics. By the way, no matter how much I try, I just can’t get into Canadian politics… it’s just… well, boring. Apparently Dalton’s complaining about debt and is scaling back his promises (as expected), a left wing guy became mayor of Toronto on a platform of “I will not build that bridge”, Chretien is doing his politician about to retire thing trying to pass funny bills left and right, and Paul Martin’s running around doing stuff… and I shrug my shoulders.
While we’re on the subject of politics, South Korea seems to be just going up in smokes - militant unions are swinging metal pipes and throwing molotov cocktails at the police while bunch of striking union members at a shipyard are refusing to bury couple of dead guys (one guy committed suicide, I don’t know how the second one died) who’s been dead for about a month, so there’s a guy up at a large crane surrounded by dry ice and a guy down at the pits in a refrigeration van. The union at Nestle went on a strike demanding say in company’s management, so Nestle HQ got pissed off and are shutting down all the factories… Bah, it doesn’t make any sense to me, but then again, I’m a conservative, pro big-company, small government type of guy. Then I read about kids commiting suicide because low entrance exam grade, president trying to veto a special prosecution bill that aims look at corruption in his own inner group, not to mention entire North Korea thing.
Reading up on these things makes me want to backpack around Korea. 
Bah, if only the POSTECH thing went through…
And last thing - for over a year, Bush put on a protective tariffs around steel products. Now that they’ve been ruled illegal by WTO, Bush can either bite the bullet and get rid of tariffs (and lose whole chunk of votes in states that depend on steel mill jobs) or continue the tariffs (and get retaliation tariffs from EU, Japan, China, Korea, and piss off a lot of company who use the said steel in US). It’s an interesting mix of politics (remember, election is coming up fast) and economics. This will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Oh yeah, and I’ll be nice and warm in Corpus Christi, Texas during Christmas break 
Maybe I’ll buy my camera there.
L Said,
November 14, 2003 @ 5:25 pm
US Politics is waay too polarizing. My officemate’s boss almost worships Clinton. She also has a vile hatred of Dubya.
I listen to Right-wing radio sometimes (Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, etc) and yeah there’s a lot of name calling. I can’t get into US Politics too much because I don’t see a place for centrists like me. But yeah politics pervades everything…even the handling of that California fire.
Canadian politics is more interesting because there’s so much more stuff going on: the union of the right, speculation about the future Liberal government under Mr. Martin, the next crazy thing to come from Svend Robinson… Toronto politics isn’t all that interesting. Mel was a character. This year’s candidates were not. It’s surprising that Chretien coasted by three terms on a “do nothing” agenda. What is his legacy? Regulating new reproductive technologies? Changing the definition of marriage? Decriminalization of Marijuana? Toughening up child porn laws? Not at all….most of those initiatives died on the order paper when he closed parliament. So what has he accomplished? The only thing I can think of is getting the chance to be in a photo with me ^_^. (http://members.rogers.com/llam-to/CHRETIENs.jpg) Where it gets as polarizing as in the states is on the contentious culture war-related issues (Family Values vs. Sexual Revolution). The debate over culture has gotten bad because one side accuses the other of bigotry. Now that’s uncalled for…that’s what this filibuster is all about. A bunch of qualified judges and lawyers get appointed by the President. Instead of celebrating the honours of hard working individuals, the democrats need to cry about how these people don’t share their values. Accusing them of racism and bigotry because some of them say that the Constitution should be interpreted as it is, or because they are pro-life. Even the black judges get accused of racism. Wtf?! This is why I don’t like US politics. Because the Democrats are so far to the left and so homogenous whereas there can still be some good NDP and good Liberal MP’s and good PC’s here and there in the Canadian system.
In the US, it’s been a mixed bag of political developments. The ban on Partial birth abortion was signed…but already suspended by a bunch of courts. Bush vows a good fight. Terry Schiavo gets saved by Jeb Bush. But at the same time the 10 Commandments is removed from the Supreme Court because of this so-called separation of Church and State. Corpus Christi is Latin for “Body of Christ”. When will the city get sued for its name?
T Said,
November 17, 2003 @ 10:49 pm
Say what? o.O
*confused as hell*
Trinh Said,
November 18, 2003 @ 10:37 am
Lolz.. I can’t believe you read the whole thing T.. I can’t even read about politics without falling asleep.. but then again.. I can’t even read normally without falling asleep.. =)
Hi danny! No post on 5stooges? =)
PakG1 Said,
November 21, 2003 @ 3:26 pm
@@ You know you’re supposed to have snow during Christmas break, you freak. :p
Daniel Said,
November 21, 2003 @ 4:05 pm
I get snow _before_ Christmas, and for 3 months _after_ Christmas! Cut me some slack