MikeLigalig.com

But many wondered if he shouldn't step aside for the younger generation, especially when Plushenko himself kept making a big deal about how it was a miracle he could even skate and stay healthy. How was he ever going to make it through the entire Games?

"I'm alive," he crowed after one of his performances in the team competition. "I already win for myself."

This was the beauty of the guy: He was all about himself and in such a wonderfully unapologetic way that he was actually good for figure skating. He was, if nothing else, a character, perhaps an unappealing character to some, but at least a genuine one in a sport with an abundance of flash and flare and rhinestones.

"If the Olympic champion doesn't know how to jump a quad ... now it's not men's figure skating, now it's dancing," Plushenko ripped back then.

During the medal ceremony that night he made clear his displeasure with the judges by walking over the top spot on the podium anyway. It was classic.

That was expected to be the end, but against the wishes of some, he refused to retire and showed up in Sochi. He skated well in helping Russia win team gold last week, earning a medal in a fourth Olympics, a figure skating record.

"I like to ask you," Mishin soon begged to the media. "This is not a tragedy what happened to Evgeni. I was able to work with him for almost 20 years. During that time we mostly had success. We mostly won.

"Don't push him too much. Don't kick. Don't criticize him too much. Try to tell about him more positive than negative."

Plushenko won the individual silver in 2002, gold in 2006 and a bunch of world and European championships over the years. He quit for over three years, then unretired and took silver in 2010 in Vancouver. He was convinced he was cheated, though, mostly because a lot of people don't like him. So he smacked American Evan Lysacek for somehow taking gold even though he didn't do a quad jump, which, of course, Plushenko could do in his sleep.

His coach, Alexei Mishin, was soon defending him and the seriousness of the injury.

"In the future, figure skating could be inside the Paralympic Games," Mishin said. "In this case, he already ready to skate in the Paralympics."

Ah, what? Mishin laughed at his own joke. Just about all the Russians laughed with him. So who knows? Seriously, the "Evgeni Plushenko Reality Show" has always been a wild one and it went out with a bang.



He was never just going to quietly retire via a Facebook post.

It was then announced he'd withdrawn for "medical reasons," and he limped to center ice as one last ovation roared down on him and he bravely waved his hands to the fans at Iceberg Skating Palace.

Immediately the Russian media were skeptical that his was just all one final act, that he could've known sooner and dropped out for a younger skater, or spared everyone the curtain-call introduction scene or even just never bothered to attempt to compete again at age 31 and a dozen surgeries in his past.


Evgeni Plushenko speaks with an official prior to pulling out of the men's short program. (AP)

They can tear down legends here, too.

Injury gives 'Evgeni Plushenko Reality Show' the most perfect ending

By Dan Wetzel
14 February 2014



SOCHI, Russia â€" Evgeni Plushenko was one of the great divas in the history of figure skating, a prickly, trash-talking, over-the-top and outrageously talented showman, sort of the sports wrestling heel for all these years. He's a dime a dozen in the NFL, but in the kiss-and-cry world of figure skating, he was one of a kind. Only those who didn't accept the act for what it was were ever offended.

So it was probably always going to end like this: Plushenko getting introduced as the next skater in the men's short program here on Thursday at the Winter Olympics, but rather than performing, he dramatically skated to the judges' table with his face in a grimace and his hands on his lower back like someone had just beaten him with a baseball bat.

Quote from: hubag bohol on February 13, 2014, 11:38:49 AM
Wa na bitaw ang "Home" page. Malagmit gitangtang ni Mr. Webmaster as part of TB's evolution process...

evolution?  glad lolla mentions now and then the phrase "tb planeteers".  that means evolution of planets and not of man.  the latter may tempt me to imagine we may be apes here at different stages of evolution.  which may not be a bad idea at all, on sekand tots. 

same to you, loll!

and to all triples, quadruples, one-halfs, one-thirds, etc....

BRING THEM ON AND ENJOY VALENTINE'S!

arang pod bitaw ning sense of humor ug mga norwegians.  naa pa ra bay duwa nga curling nga di gyod ko kasabot.  a silly uniform for a silly game?  nothing could be better than that.

aherm.  

Quote from: hubag bohol on February 13, 2014, 06:06:47 PM
Well, some pieces will have been lost. Lisod na, kasingkasing nga pangag...

kanyahay ra ang pangag tapakan na lang ug okra.

Quote from: hubag bohol on February 13, 2014, 06:03:38 PM
Hmm, imohang sayal? Unya, ma-scent pa kaha na without the scenter suffering dire consequences?

aw, taga-balingsya na man lang gyod ang scenters, no probs.  anad na silag ginamoz.

but there's a catch...

Since taking the ice at Sochi, the team has donned a number of "crazy pants" that has drawn the ire of the competition. In addition to distracting competing teams, some have raised questions the legality of the pants and if they violate International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules. A debate has started as to whether or not the pants are part of the "official" uniforms provided by the team's home country.

In an act of protest over the silliness created over Norway's silly pants, the team was photographed pantless.



http://www.out.com/

in 2014 sochi winter games, the norwegians didn't disappoint.  one of their many funky pants:


Norwegian curlers wears rose-painting knickers during curling training at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2014, in Sochi, Russia.

(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Larry Jackson, the CEO of Loudmouth, told the AP there was an “onslaught of traffic” from people wanting to buy pants during the 2010 Olympics.

    “Sales have gone off the charts,” said Jackson, who adds that Loudmouth has “a few interesting pants” planned for Sochi.

    “It’s all red, white and blue. I do believe it’s going to be considered even more loud.”

Norway is among the favorites to medal in Sochi, but no matter how they perform, they’ve already won with these uniforms.


(Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

http://ftw.usatoday.com/

(Jeff Franko, Gannett)

The mastermind behind the bold pants is long-time Norway international curler Christoffer Svae. He told the AP that he wasn’t pleased with his team’s plain black and gray uniforms they had been given to wear in Vancouver and asked an equipment sponsor a month before the Olympics to make them something more colorful. But there wasn’t enough time. So he took matters into his own hands online where he found Loudmouth, an American sportswear company known for its “flamboyant attire.”

    “It’s definitely been life-changing for us,” Svae told the AP. “Not so much in the everyday but when we travel around the world for curling, it doesn’t always matter if we do well or not, people still think that we win stuff because we are always in the media.”

    “I don’t think you’ll see a lot of the other teams do the same that we did,” Svae added, “they feel it’s our thing.”

(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)

In Vancouver, the Norwegians shocked the world with their diamond-printed pants. And according to the Associated Press, the team will don four new versions in Sochi. One will have a zig-zag chevron print, another is black and flowery and called “rosemaling,” and a few others will be unveiled during the Olympics.

Cancel the Olympics because Norway's curling team has already won

With these amazing uniforms.

By Laken Litman   
January 21, 2014


(AP Photo/Cassie Kovacevich, Loudmouth Golf)

Move over, Oregon football team. Norway has stolen your uniform thunder.

Yes. The Norwegian men’s curling team, who earned the silver medal in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, is heading to Sochi. And so are their flashy pants.

Second, The multiple lie â€" a lie which, like an octopus, has so many tentacles and so many claims that ordinary minds get exhausted in comprehending it. The multiple lie was McCarthy’s specialty. He claimed that there were communists all over the US government and in American society. He was so successful, even Hollywood was subjected to a witch-hunt.

The tale of the whistleblowers, with so many witnesses, and Benhur-Luy forging countless signatures, is a multiple lie.

And so, with bated breath, I await Ruby Tuason’s testimony today. Let’s see whether she can advance the public’s hope that this costly Senate investigation will turn up a final nail on the coffin of the pork barrel, and help in nailing the DAP as well.

yenmakabenta@yahoo.com

http://manilatimes.net/

6. The Big Lie and the Multiple Lie

Finally, it is worth recalling that Sen. Joseph McCarthy gave his name to witch-hunting via the Senate inquiry process.

Richard Reeves, writing about Senator McCarthy, wrote about two kinds of lies that the public must zealously guard against. They are:

First, The Big Lie â€" a lie that is so gross, so big, that ordinary minds believe it. Adolf Hitler, said Reeves, was a master of the big lie â€", notably, his racist lie about the Jews which led to the Holocaust of the second world war.

De Lima’s” truckloads of evidence” looks like a prime example of the big lie.

The opposition for its part appears to be playing a crafty rope-a-dope strategy, hoping that De Lima, like George Foreman, will punch herself to exhaustion. The kiss-and-tell witnesses could be unreliable; they are singing in order to avoid prosecution.

If she can invoke basketball as metaphor, the opposition can use boxing in return.

5. A political or judicial exercise?

During the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona, the prosecutors and administration senators swore from beginning to end that the trial was a political, not a judicial, process. Only politics and numbers mattered.

Not so with the pork barrel inquiry. All the actors have carefully concealed the politics of the process. Senator Guingona and other administration senators have played inscrutable. The administration won’t say that it is just a political process. A game of numbers. That would give the game away.

The media is not just an innocent observer of the hearings. By putting every hearing on live TV, the networks have become a major player in this drama. If they drop the live TV coverage, public interest in the probe will be nada. The inquiry will stop.

There’s a lot of partisanship in the media, as well as a lot of superficiality. The personages touted as legal luminaries do not illuminate at all.

Print media has the advantage of having more time to put two and two together, provide more background, and research the finer points of inquiry.

The integrity of the inquiry hangs on this question. Abad could invoke executive privilege in order to prevent the truth from coming out. But if he does , public opinion will become critical. We will be in Nixon and Watergate territory.

Are the Opposition and the accused senators driving the inquiry through a clever defense strategy? They are the ones under constant attack, yet every time they punch back, the Administration’s destroy-the-opposition strategy is sent reeling. DAP is now a bigger headache than PDAF. Bong Revilla’s revelations have unhinged the scoring.

Guingona betrays his partiality by desisting so far from summoning Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and junior DBM officials to shed light in the inquiry. There’s a black hole in the P10-billion scam story, because no money could have been stolen without DBM collusion. This is absurd because a congressional investigation is an investigation of the executive acts. It is not an in-house ethics inquiry in the Senate. That work would belong to another committee.

Can Guingona prove that a scam was perpetrated without DBM confirming it and owning up to its release of the monies?

4. Who is driving this melodrama?

The Senate spectacle bears all the marks of a bad movie.

There’s plenty of overacting, plenty of platitudes, and plenty of hypocrisy and self-promotion.

After six months of inquiry, we still don’t know who is driving this probe. Is it the administration, with blue ribbon chair Teofisto Guingona as stalking horse? Is it Secretary De Lima, with her control of witnesses and witness protection program?

For what purpose did the Senate, through the blue ribbon committee, get into the act? Is it presuming to substitute itself for the justice department in investigating the matter. Is there any legislation contemplated or required? Is it investigating anything that is its business as a legislature, which makes the laws and then inquires into whether they are faithfully and efficiently administered and enforced.

If not, says Lippmann, the Senate would be usurping a power which belongs to the executive branch of government.

The great political philosopher Walter Lippmann cited the abuse that occurs when a congressional committee takes over powers that belong to the executive and to the judicial branch. He warns of a derangement of functions that would ensue. I paraphrase below his key points, and I submit that the blue Ribbon committee would do well to listen:.

“Since the Department of Justice was already investigating the P10-billion pork barrel scam, why is the Senate investigating it as well? If the department has found that wrongdoing was committed, then it is its dutyâ€" the duty of the Executiveâ€"to take the case to the courts.

If Americans distrust their public officials, Filipinos distrust theirs even more. Only the paid survey firms, SWS and Pulse Asia, talk about the people trusting government officials and phony trust ratings. Even our public officials, in their heart of hearts, do not have a high opinion of their calling; they are always talking about what other officials are getting away with.

The public’s hope is that what is learned in oversight will be reflected in changes to the laws that give agencies their power and operating funds. There is a command that every inquiry must be conducted in aid of legislation.

3. Congressional Oversight: linchpin of democracy

Congressional oversight is a major component of the constitutional system of checks and balances. The Senate, as well as the Lower house, exercise this function through hearings and selective investigations of executive actions in order to ensure that the president and the bureaucracy are carrying out the laws as Congress intended. How the executive implements the laws is often a point of friction between the two branches.

Author and constitutional law and civil rights litigator Glenn Greenwald contends that congressional oversight is “the linchpin of how democracy works.” Elaborating, he says:

“Oversight is critical, because as a country (meaning the US) we simply do not trust, and never have trusted our government officials to act properly when they can act in secret and with no checks.”

Our present Blue Ribbon committee consists of 17 regular members and three ex-officio members, nearly all senators, except three. Only senators Vicente Sotto III and Bong Revilla , and Senate President Franklin Drilon are not listed as members; they will resent the impression that they are not among the best and brightest.

Vigilant watchers of the inquiry will also complain about the claim to exceptionalism. The questioning of the witnesses has been second-rate, self-serving.and strictly for media exposure.

In American practice, when a panel is billed as “blue ribbon,” such as a blue-ribbon commission, it is to signify that it will investigate a grave question and the panel will be composed of “exceptional” personages. The “blue ribbon” aspect comes from the presentation of the panel as “the best and brightest.” It oftentimes includes experts and academics.

Two notable US blue ribbon panels in history are the Warren Commission which investigated the Kennedy Assassination, and the 9/11 Commission which investigated the September11 terrorist attacks in the US.

In this country, a blue ribbon inquiry is run of the mill.

2. The best and the brightest?

A second truth to ponder is that the term ”blue ribbon” may be a misnomer for the investigating committee.

Its true name, according to the Senate directory, is Committee on the Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations.

The retention of a blue ribbon committee in the current Senate is a concession to our history and tradition. The American Senate and other congresses do not have one. We created the first blue ribbon committee in 1949, when newly-elected senator Justiniano Montano of Cavite proposed it as a means to investigate the administration of then president Elpidio Quirino.

Frustrating and squalid though the probe may be, it would make matters worse to cut off the hearings without reaching a conclusion. This is a committee acting under the authority of the Senate and inquiring into the evident plunder of public funds by high officials of the government. The country needs to be shown to the bitter end, how billions have been misused or stolen for the pork barrel of our legislators.

the philippine senate blue ribbon committee continues its investigation of the pork barrel scam, with ruby tuason as the latest whistle-blower testifying today.  (the following are excerpts from Some sobering truths about the pork barrel scam probe by Yen Makabenta, The Manila Times, February 12, 2014.) a good read, i must say.
 

1. Six months, 16 days and no end in sight

It is now six months and 16 days since the blue ribbon committee started its hearings on August 29, 2013. Everyone involved has gotten older, hopefully, with their health intact (Senate minority leader Juan Ponce Enrile will turn 89 tomorrow). One accountant has calculated that the spectacle has already cost the government over ten million in precious funds that would have been better spent in creating jobs. After all the drama and senatorial posturing, few facts have been established. The public still does not know whether a scam was perpetrated at all, or whether Napoles or some senators were involved.

unsa man nang ilang gibuswat?

Quote from: islander on February 13, 2014, 12:38:03 PM
China, and also Taiwan, claim much of the sea through a nine-dash line on Chinese maps that encompasses about 90 percent of its 3.5 million sq km (1.35 million sq mile) waters. The sea provides 10 percent of the global fisheries catch and carries $5 trillion in ship-borne trade each year.

In an interview with the New York Times last week, Aquino compared China's claims to Germany in 1938.

"At what point do you say, ‘Enough is enough'? Well, the world has to say it â€" remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent World War 2," he said.

Beijing has called the comparison outrageous.

Quote from: islander on February 13, 2014, 12:51:31 PM
In truth, Mr. Aquino’s analogy from World War II emphasized the appeasement policy of the war-weary major European powers; they allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland in the (vain) hope that the takeover would satisfy Germany’s appetites. The comparison to the Third Reich was not the main point of the analogy. (Indeed, it was an Agence France-Presse report that asserted that Mr. Aquino had compared China’s leaders to Hitler; the President’s interview and an unedited transcript are easily available on gov.ph.)

worth counterchecking.  some news reporters can exceed their own imagination, if not their own sense of history and bias.

Quote from: islander on February 13, 2014, 12:41:45 PM
Provincial authorities on the Chinese island of Hainan, meanwhile, have extended fishing restrictions into international waters - a step that sparked protests from Hanoi and Manila.

Despite the lack of physical opposition to its moves, China appears to be wary about the proceedings in the court at The Hague.

Chinese officials have warned Hanoi against joining the case, Vietnamese officials have privately said.

Carl Thayer, a South China Sea expert at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra, said he had been told by Vietnamese officials that one such warning was delivered by Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a visit to Hanoi last September.

whew!  there it goes, the bullying...

Perhaps a better analogy to use would have been China’s tangled history of concessions, the occupation and administration of Chinese territories by foreign powers, particularly in the 19th century. (This history is part of the so-called century of humiliation that China endured, and which helps motivate present-day Chinese nationalism.) President Aquino could have used that analogy, where a weak China was forced to accept “unequal treaties,” and still ask the questions he deemed most important:

“If we say yes to something we believe is wrong now, what guarantee is there that the wrong will not be further exacerbated down the line? At what point do you say, ‘Enough is enough’”?

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

In truth, Mr. Aquino’s analogy from World War II emphasized the appeasement policy of the war-weary major European powers; they allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland in the (vain) hope that the takeover would satisfy Germany’s appetites. The comparison to the Third Reich was not the main point of the analogy. (Indeed, it was an Agence France-Presse report that asserted that Mr. Aquino had compared China’s leaders to Hitler; the President’s interview and an unedited transcript are easily available on gov.ph.)

The Chinese foreign ministry followed up with the diplomatic equivalent of the ignorant-leader critique. Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said: “As an unwavering upholder of international justice, China made [a] huge sacrifice and [an] indelible historical contribution to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. It is inconceivable and unreasonable to place the China-Philippines South China Sea disputes in the same category with the WWII history. The Chinese side is shocked at and dissatisfied with the remarks from the Philippine side” (quote as recorded by Vera Files).

After Mr. Aquino in a high-profile New York Times interview provocatively compared the present situation of the dispute with the failed attempt to appease Nazi Germany’s territorial ambitions in 1939, the first response from China was a signed commentary published by Xinhua, the government news agency. Mr. Aquino’s remarks, the commentator said, “exposed his true colors as an amateurish politician who was ignorant both of history and reality.” The commentary went on to say that the President, “who has taken an inflammatory approach … has never been a great candidate for a wise statesman in the region.”

It would be interesting to find out if a similar political opinion survey can be conducted in Chinaâ€"still a rare event, 35 years after Deng Xiaoping’s famous opening of the Chinese economyâ€"to gauge public reception of Beijing’s decision to ignore the legal process altogether. To be clear, the survey questions should not be phrased in terms of nationalism; we are only too aware that an increasingly capitalistic Communist Party of China has integrated an assertive nationalism into the governing ideology, and the hypothetical survey will in all probability reflect that. The much narrower issue involves the legal system created by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), to which China is also a signatory. Will a majority of Chinese citizens support Beijing’s rejection of Unclos’ own arbitral procedures?

We can only be certain of the Chinese government’s position, and those of institutions it controls, such as state media. (The so-called “patriotic youths” populating Chinese Internet sites do not qualify as a random sample.)

Editorial

Enough

Philippine Daily Inquirer
Thursday, February 13th, 2014

In the worsening dispute over China’s aggressive expansionism in the West Philippine Sea, President Aquino and the national government can rely on robust public support.

Last December, the Social Weather Stations polling organization included several foreign-affairs-related questions in its Fourth Quarter Social Weather Report. It found that, among Filipinos aged 18 and older, a great majority or 73 percent was aware of the dispute (“ang pagtatalo,” in the survey’s original Filipino) between the Philippines and China. A smaller proportion of 61 percentâ€"still a solid majorityâ€"was aware that the Philippines had filed a case against China with the United Nations; however, an overwhelming majority of survey respondents, or 82 percent, said they either “strongly agreed” or “somewhat agreed” with the filing of the case.

While no one had yet stepped forward "there is still plenty of time to do so," he told Reuters.

A copy of the rules obtained from the court by Reuters last week does not mention third country interventions but gives the tribunal judges the power to decide on outside issues not covered by the document.

Clive Schofield, a legal expert at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong, said the wording of the rules allowed for considerable leeway.

"I do not believe that either one of the parties can block (third country) submissions should the tribunal members deem them to be helpful in determining the outcome of the case," he said.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, Manuel Mogato in MANILA and Stuart Grudgings in KUALA LUMPUR; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

http://news.yahoo.com/

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying reiterated China's objections to the Philippines' action and said China and Vietnam had reached an "important consensus" over how to resolve the South China Sea dispute.

"We are willing to maintain close touch with Vietnam and co-ordinate with them, to resolve the issue via friendly talks and consultation."

Manila's five U.S. and British lawyers are finalizing submissions to be put to the court before a March 30 deadline to show that China's "nine-dash line" claim is invalid under the Law of the Sea.

Philippines' lead counsel Paul Reichler, a Washington-based lawyer with the law firm Foley Hoag, said the arbitration tribunal had adopted rules that effectively allowed other states to apply to intervene.

"Vietnam has so far stood up to the pressure and clearly reserved the right to take any step if it feels its national interests are at stake," Thayer said.

Luong Thanh Nghi, a spokesman for Vietnam's Foreign Ministry, did not comment directly on Chinese pressure, including specific warnings from Wang, but told Reuters that Hanoi was closely monitoring Manila's legal moves.

When asked whether Hanoi had decided on whether it would take part in the case, Nghi pointed to previous statements that Vietnam would apply "all necessary and appropriate peaceful means" to protect its sovereignty and national interests.

Other Vietnamese officials said while it was unlikely Hanoi would join the case given its close but complex relationship with China, they were scrutinizing developments closely, including talking to foreign legal experts.

Provincial authorities on the Chinese island of Hainan, meanwhile, have extended fishing restrictions into international waters - a step that sparked protests from Hanoi and Manila.

Despite the lack of physical opposition to its moves, China appears to be wary about the proceedings in the court at The Hague.

Chinese officials have warned Hanoi against joining the case, Vietnamese officials have privately said.

Carl Thayer, a South China Sea expert at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra, said he had been told by Vietnamese officials that one such warning was delivered by Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a visit to Hanoi last September.

ASSERTIVE BUT WARY

China's state media has reported a patrol by two destroyers and a large amphibious landing ship at the James Shoal - about 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

While Malaysia's navy chief denied the reports, China's official Xinhua news agency has since described how the ships have continued south, passing through Indonesia's strategic Lombok and Makassar straits to reach the Indian Ocean.

Official Chinese reports last month also announced the basing of a 5,000-tonne civilian patrol ship in the Paracel Islands, which are claimed by Vietnam.

Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, and Daniel Russel, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, both voiced support last week for the Philippines' action in seeking a peaceful, lawful solution.

The U.S. comments came after increasingly assertive moves by China in the South China Sea in recent weeks.

"There is a growing concern that this pattern of behavior in the South China Sea reflects an incremental effort by China to assert control over the area contained in the so-called "nine-dash line," despite the objections of its neighbors and despite the lack of any explanation or apparent basis under international law regarding the scope of the claim itself," Russel said in testimony to a congressional sub-committee.

The issue could also come up when Secretary of State John Kerry visits Beijing this week.

China, and also Taiwan, claim much of the sea through a nine-dash line on Chinese maps that encompasses about 90 percent of its 3.5 million sq km (1.35 million sq mile) waters. The sea provides 10 percent of the global fisheries catch and carries $5 trillion in ship-borne trade each year.

In an interview with the New York Times last week, Aquino compared China's claims to Germany in 1938.

"At what point do you say, ‘Enough is enough'? Well, the world has to say it â€" remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent World War 2," he said.

Beijing has called the comparison outrageous.

Any final ruling by the court on the dispute, one of the most tense flashpoints in Asia, cannot be enforced but will carry considerable moral and political weight, analysts say.

"If a large number of countries, including members of ASEAN, speak out in support of the application of international law to resolve disputes, Beijing might conclude that flouting the ruling of the tribunal is too costly, even if China's nine-dash line is found to be illegal," said Bonnie Glaser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, groups four of the claimants to the sea - Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam - and six other countries in the region.

For South China Sea claimants, a legal venue to battle China

Reuters
By Greg Torode
13 February 2014


Chinese naval soldiers stand guard on China's first aircraft carrier Liaoning, as it travels towards a military base in Sanya

HONG KONG (Reuters) - When Philippine President Benigno Aquino compared China to the Germany of 1938 and called for global support as his country battles Beijing's claims in the South China Sea, he put the focus on a case that Manila has filed in an international court.

The Philippines has taken its dispute with China to arbitration under the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea and its lawyers say that the tribunal has discretionary powers to allow other states to join the action.

China is refusing to participate and has already warned Vietnam against joining the case being heard at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, sources have said. Hanoi has so far kept its options open.

Quote from: hubag bohol on February 13, 2014, 11:51:05 AM
Correction! Taga Dee-meow tawon ko...

i mean, naa ra na ninyong tulo mag-estorya kun kinsay gustog sayal nga ukay-ukay...

put the broken pieces back together again with okra.

Quote from: hubag bohol on February 13, 2014, 11:40:46 AM
Hmm, you mean you die daily?

abaw gid, mag-self pity man sad ta anang imong conclusion uy.

thanks for the info, rects.  iba na talaga ang naay techie dinhi.  

di lang ko magsaba nga guilty ko sa usa ana...

depending on whose side the authors of some articles and analyses are on, we can either believe that this exercise (made in late november 2013) was done in a "safe corridor" of a disputed sea, or as a warning to its neighbors who have "developed their naval capabilities".  what a doublespeak.

aaarrrggghhh!

moadto ba kaha ang ikatulong michael sa future winter games?

name is michael ligalig.

2004 Winter Games:

we now have this michael--

1992 Winter Games: The Philippines competed at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.

Athlete: Michael Teruel, (Alpine Skiing) Giant Slalom and Slalom
ranked no. 71 for Giant Slalom and no. 49 for Slalom

(couldn't find any image of this michael online)

1988 Winter Games: The Philippines competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. The nation returned after a 16-year absence since they last competed at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.

Athlete: Raymond Ocampo, Luge
ranked no. 35


Walking into the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games with Philippine luge athlete Ray Ocampo (http://www.parazynski.com/)

1972 Winter Games: The Philippines competed in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan with two athletes who competed in alpine skiing.

Athletes: Juan Cipriano and Ben Nanasca, (Alpine Skiing) Giant Slalom and Slalom

Ben Nanasca ranked no. 42 in Giant Slalom, Juan Cipriano was DNF; both were DNF in Slalom


Ben Nanasca

[Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian] said he could not understand why Hong Kong is insisting on an apology from Aquino.

“Hong Kong seems to put much weight on the apology and has totally forgotten the fact that the Philippine government has deeply regretted the incident and has profusely shown its compassion to the families of the victims of the Rizal Park tragedy,” he said.

He noted that in 2010, the administration ordered all flags flown at half-mast.

“I believe that was already a concrete gesture of apology,” he stressed.

“Even without the apology, Hong Kong should have felt and seen the sincerity of the Filipino people in conveying their utmost regret and grief by lowering the flags in half mast,” Gatchalian said. “Isn’t that acceptable enough for an act of apology?” he asked.

“The Philippine government must not back down to the coercive pressure of Hong Kong. The restraint alongside the visa restriction is an implicit assertion of superiority,” he said. “The issue of apology has become a political ploy anchored to a much bigger issue, which is the standing territorial dispute between the Philippines and China.”

more at http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/02/12/1289383/phl-committed-finish-intl-arbitration-sea-row

i wonder what some trapeze performers with colorful personalities may be thinking now.

http://www.allvoices.com/

AFP
The Philippines made its return to the Winter Olympics early Saturday, with 17-year-old figure skater Michael Christian Martinez carrying the flag during the opening ceremonies as the country’s lone representative to the Sochi Games. (http://www.interaksyon.com/)

i could not find online any name of anti-charter change members.  now i'm bursting with curiosity...

the west philippine sea covers only part of what used to be totally called as the south china sea.  the philippines formally named as the west philippine sea only that which is part of our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).  that means the west philippine sea is only up to 200 nautical miles seaward from our shores.  beyond that, the rest of the world can call it china toilet bowl for all we care.

so i would like to believe that this chinese carrier battle group did this exercise sayo sa buntag ala yoyoy villame outside the west philippine sea.  within is much too close, and that would have been the worst provocation ever.     

People rest in the aisle of a Publix grocery store after being stranded due to a snow storm in Atlanta, Georgia.

http://www.voanews.com/

Belgium's King Philippe (back C) delivers a speech during a traditional new year reception for international institutions' representatives, government members and business leaders at the Brussels Royal Palace.

http://www.voanews.com/

The Central Secretariat and Parliament buildings are illuminated during the Beating Retreat Ceremony at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi, India. The ceremony is a culmination of Republic Day celebrations, and dates back to the days when troops disengaged themselves from battle at sunset.

http://www.voanews.com/

Health workers in full protective gear bag chickens, suffocated by using carbon dioxide at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong. Authorities began culling 20,000 birds at a wholesale market after poultry from southern mainland China tested positive for the H7N9 virus, the first time it had been found in imported poultry in Hong Kong.

http://www.voanews.com/

Soldiers shovel the snow in front of a house after heavy snowfall in Vadu Pasii village, 120 km (75 miles) northeast of Bucharest. A powerful snowstorm hit southern Romania over the weekend causing traffic and heating problems in the Balkan country.

http://www.voanews.com/

Participants dressed as Vikings prepare to participate in the annual Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, northeast of Britain. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and culminates with up to 1,000 'guizers' (men in costume) throwing flaming torches into their Viking longboat and setting it alight later in the evening.

http://www.voanews.com/

Happy 2014 Valentine, TBland friends!

Quote from: islander on February 12, 2014, 10:16:56 AM
I worked simultaneously for four senators, preparing and following up project proposals with the agencies. I’d buy fruits, noodles or cakes for my contacts to speed up the paperwork. I got to meet my employers’ favorite contractors/suppliers. Every time we got the SAROs they’d all be waiting at the senators’ offices or at (nearby hotel). They’d give boxes carefully gift-wrapped. I always wondered why, since it’s not the senators’ birthdays. I later learned it was kickbacks from projects. It was always a son or daughter who would receive the money.

goodness me.  even sons and daughters were on the game!  whew!  who are these sons and daughters?  where are they now?   searching... searching... i am searching...

Quote from: islander on February 12, 2014, 10:16:56 AM
When the boss died, another friend gave me “consultancy” work. Trained by my first boss to deal with government officials, I became friends with Cabinet secretaries, U-Secs, and bureau directors.

senators of the 1990s who had already died - year they had died:

Marcelo Fernan - 1999
Neptali Gonzales - 2001
Blas Ople - 2003
Renato Cayetano - 2003
Arturo Tolentino - 2004
Raul Roco - 2005
Robert Barbers - 2005

let's just hope that the current crop of senators, masad-an o di, don't get voted into office ever again.  manglansar pa man gyod na sila kay mga baga god ug nawong ug bulsa, but they're all tainted.  as a collegial body, the fault of one is the fault of all.  exception: grace poe.

hinaot mobalik si juan flavier.

A good friend handling the projects of another celebrity from (Luzon province) confided to me. All the projects were being handled by the construction company of the senator’s celebrity-sister. She cornered everything, left nothing for small contractors, not even scraps. She and the senator also got kickbacks from foreign-assisted projects, since the senator headed the committee overseeing those.

Access the files at DBM, and you will see why these legislators gave more of their pork barrels for medicines, computers, textbooks, farm-to-market roads, dredging, irrigation, solar driers, seedlings, livelihood projects especially cattle raising, street markers, reflector studs, etc. That’s where kickbacks were easy.

Till next time,

  Jason


http://www.philstar.com/

A son of one of my employers introduced me to this big contractor from Isabela, who did most of the senators’ projects. One time I was instructed to hand over the newly released SARO to the contractor and his wife. They had big boxes, the size of beer cases, inside the Ford Expedition. Inside the boxes were tons of cash, in P1,000-bills. I’d never seen so much money in my life. We went straight to the home of one senator, a former (high rank), in (subdivision), Alabang. They turned over the boxes. Then they offered me a ride home. We stopped at the house of the son of another senator in (subdivision along EDSA), Quezon City. They delivered another box of money.

A supplier of medicines especially to the Armed Forces was able to break into the circle of two senators, both former (profession). She befriended me and was soon offering me rides to my daily visits to DBM or DPWH. Little did I realize she wanted to meet all my contacts. She got big projects for the V. Luna Hospital, and the senators’ medical missions. She also gave 50-percent “rebate” upon release of the SAROs.

During one such mission we noticed that the medicines looked discolored. One of our staff commented that they were fakes. No wonder she was able to give that big a cut to the bosses â€" and the wives. Oh yes, she also treated (names of two senators’ spouses) to Hong Kong.

A big-time supplier, Nilda R., would deliver money to the house of Senator (name) at (subdivision), Quezon City. She dealt in textbooks, distributed by DECS, funded by the pork barrel of whichever senator. She often treated the celebrity-wife to Hong Kong trips.

I met Nilda while following up papers at the DBM, where suppliers usually hang out waiting for release of SAROs and NCAs. She gave away 50 percent of the allocated amount of the project. So if the fund is P10 million, she would give P5 million to that celebrity-turned-senator.

Lots of times I encountered two or three contractors for the same project. It turned out that the three children of (name of senator) were competing with each other in bagging the big-funded projects. Mrs. L from Cagayan Valley once confided that in 1998 she gave a cash advance of half a million pesos to that legislator’s daughter, now active in (name of an anti-Charter Change group). But she wasn’t given any project, only promises. Another friend, from (name of big construction firm), also gave an advance to this same lady. Again, no projects.

The siblings were always nag-uunahan, to the point that they’d have their father sign documents, and then they’d hurry over to the DBM with their lists. Once I was asked by one daughter to follow up some papers at the DBM. It turned out that the son had arrived there earlier and got the SARO.

When the boss died, another friend gave me “consultancy” work. Trained by my first boss to deal with government officials, I became friends with Cabinet secretaries, U-Secs, and bureau directors.

I worked simultaneously for four senators, preparing and following up project proposals with the agencies. I’d buy fruits, noodles or cakes for my contacts to speed up the paperwork. I got to meet my employers’ favorite contractors/suppliers. Every time we got the SAROs they’d all be waiting at the senators’ offices or at (nearby hotel). They’d give boxes carefully gift-wrapped. I always wondered why, since it’s not the senators’ birthdays. I later learned it was kickbacks from projects. It was always a son or daughter who would receive the money.

Aide recounts ‘pork’ scams since ’90s (2)

GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc
The Philippine Star
February 12, 2014

Continued from Monday is this précis of a 2007 series on senators’ pork-barrel scams. Source “Jason” narrated his sordid tasks as consultant for several senators since the 1990s.

The senators are described, not identified. Who they were in 1992 to 2007 are listed in the link: http://www.senate.gov.ph/senators/senlist.asp. The full texts of the three Gotcha installments â€" 7, 9, and 11 May 2007 â€" can be accessed in the archives below. More details on the pork barrel of the 1990s-2000s in my book, “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government,” available at all National Bookstore and Powerbooks branches.


Dear Mr. Bondoc,

To continue, I left my miserable life with that senator after x months. Years later a friend invited me to work for a senatorial candidate, now deceased. He won; I was absorbed into his staff.

My new boss was brilliant and kind, giving us financial assistance from his own pocket and sharing his food. Our chief of staff was the opposite. She collected receipts of even our personal expenses, have these certified as official business, and pocketed the reimbursements.

Our enterprising project officer took a cut from all the projects. She endorsed contractors to DPWH district engineers and regional directors. She got 50-percent kickbacks on mahogany seeds from the DA, children’s coloring books, barangay seminars, infrastructure projects, livelihood training (cattle raising).

central azucarera de mama?  ma-diabetes mo ana, hahaha!

makasabot ko nganong gustong magpalubong dungan sa pinanggang harley-davidson.  ang di nako masabtan ang ngano nga gipalingkod ra.  way klaro sa pahuway; uroy ug molarga nag kalit gikan sa ilawom.  gipahigda na lang unta silang duha ni harley-davidson, magdug.   

With the help of his two sons Pete and Roy, they created a 9 feet by 11 feet plexiglass box.

6 years ago, Standley purchased three plots in the cemetery next to his wife Lorna, so there's enough space for him and his Harley-Davidson.

Last year, Standley was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and he died of lung cancer on Sunday.

He was buried while sitting on his bike as planned.

http://www.yourjewishnews.com/

Bill Standley being buried

His daughter, Dorothy Brown, said that the idea for her father being buried with his beloved bike, came about 18 years ago when they were discussing what to do with this bike when he died.

Described as a kind of colorful personality, Standley was determined to take the bike with him when he departed.

"What am I supposed to do? I have two children, but only one bike,” he said.

His daughter suggested: "oh dad, just be buried with it."

Standley liked the idea, and went with it.

Dead man buried in transparent coffin while sitting on his Harley-Davidson

By: Anika Rao

A man who loved his bike a lot, took it with him when he died.

Bill Standley, 87, of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, spent many years traveling across the United States, on his 1967 Electra Glide.

Standley left behind three children, two sons and a daughter.

grabeha!  maglisod kog kaon sa laptop ug reebok da.  sige na lang ang dollar bills, morag makaya pa.

another excerpt:

Not all the world fell in love with this ringleted, dimpled, singing and dancing doll, though. The novelist Graham Greene, reviewing Captain January, found the film "a little depraved," adding: "Some of her popularity seems to rest on a coquetry quite as mature as Miss [Claudette] Colbert's and on an oddly precocious body as voluptuous in grey flannel trousers as Miss Dietrich's."

Greene, who had elsewhere referred to Temple as "a 50-year-old dwarf," went a great deal further in his review of Wee Willie Winkie: "Her admirers - middle-aged men and clergymen - respond to her dubious coquetry, to the sight of her well-shaped and desirable little body, packed with enormous vitality, only because the safety curtain of story and dialogue drops between their intelligence and their desire."

Twentieth Century-Fox (as it was by this time known) promptly sued.

Greene and his publisher, the magazine Night And Day, were subsequently obliged to pay £3,500 in damages to the studio and to Temple, referred to by Greene as "that little bitch."

While Greene's insinuations were snide, there were others who also felt that the presentation of Temple sometimes lacked taste. In Curly Top, for example, she appeared as a naked cupid, smeared from head to toe in gold paint, causing the film to be banned in Denmark for "corruption."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-560626/Shirley-Temple-superstar-childhood-destroyed-Hollywood.html#ixzz2t5dlUjvw

excerpts from the uk-based daily mail (2008):

In 2006, Temple received the Screen Actors Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award for having "lived the most remarkable life, as the brilliant performer the world came to know when she was just a child to the dedicated public servant who has served her country both at home and abroad for 30 years."

These claims do not seem excessive. This was one child star who did not self-destruct through booze, drugs or sex, who kept faith with the public, loved her country and justly became the world-wide cinematic legend and American icon that she remains today.

Her own assessment of her career is modest. "I class myself with Rin Tin Tin," she said once. "At the end of the Depression, people were perhaps looking for something to cheer themselves up. They fell in love with a dog and a little girl. It won't happen again."

And it hasn't. No child star since has ever won more than a fraction of the fame and popularity that Shirley Temple achieved.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-560626/Shirley-Temple-superstar-childhood-destroyed-Hollywood.html#ixzz2t5cWmtux

In 1972, she underwent successful surgery for breast cancer. She issued a statement urging other women to get checked by their doctors and vowed, "I have much more to accomplish before I am through."

During a 1996 interview, she said she loved both politics and show business.

"It's certainly two different career tracks," she said, "both completely different but both very rewarding, personally."

http://movies.yahoo.com/