Stephen Carter: Destroy the Pan-Blues

Stephen Carter, a former teacher at my university, had an angry editorial in the Taipei Times today that the paper entitled "Destroy the Pan-Blues." Carter, a pro-Bush Canadian who once, upon hearing me critique our incompetent and authoritarian President's foreign policy, asked me why I hated America. Carter's rant said:

The sad truth is that no KMT or PFP member has answered in a court of law for their repeated, routine and blatant acts of corruption. No KMT or PFP member has done the right thing and divested (or put into escrow) holdings which bring many of them into clear violation of conflict of interest rules. No KMT or PFP member has answered for the pathetic brawls they initiate in that august chamber.

Actually, quite a number of both parties have done time for corruption. Carter goes on to say:

Their anti-democratic demagoguery, their belittling of everything this nation tries to accomplish, their open consorting with a vicious, totalitarian enemy, their corrupt behavior in and out of the legislature -- they should answer for all of this.

Not likely to happen, just as Bush is unlikely to be punished for behaving in exactly the same way.

On other fronts, one wonders why in the world the story of the teacher who had sex with her 12 year old student and then married him after she got out of prison made the front pages of the Taipei Times. Guys? We got Darfur, the nuclear option, global warming, a thousand other things more important.

Annette Lu, an entertainment industry all by herself, expressed regret at the Legislature's manhandling of the National Assembly.

"In [last Saturday's] election, 83 percent of voters backed parties that support the constitutional amendment package, translating to 249 seats in the National Assembly. Supposedly the constitutional amendments would pass without the need to convene the National Assembly," Lu said.

Not only does the law governing the functions of the National Assembly require a three-quarters majority of votes, it also allows representatives to abstain, a move that the vice president was made "in bad faith."

Lu also said the legislature had turned the National Assembly elections into a joke by passing the law.

"What if some National Assembly representatives who were supposed to vote for the amendments abstain from voting? Should they still get paid?" she said.

There's something wonderfully local about that last comment. Well, Annette, if you people had conducted the legislative elections with a more localized, on-the-ground, get-the-vote-out approach, you might not be facing this problem, eh?

When asked about her teaming up with Shin Kong Wu Ho-su Memorial Hospital deputy superintendent Huang Fang-yen (黃芳彥) to run in the 2008 presidential election, Lu said she may do so, but only under the DPP banner.

Can't wait to see what Annette would say as President.

Meanwhile, Jackie Chan continues his pro-KMT, anti-Taiwan ways.

The GIO minister's remarks were in response to Chan's comments last Tuesday. When asked by reporters, Chan said that for the next four years, he will not step foot in Taiwan to avoid being attacked at the airport -- an implicit reference to the clashes that took place when Chinese Nationalist Party Chairman (KMT) Lien Chan (連戰) left on his trip to China last month.

Jackie, my man, we won't be watching any more of your movies. BTW, it is "set foot" not "step foot." Although I should add that the Taipei Times does a fairly good job of catching the boners, considering the time pressure and the multiplicity of languages.