Oh, to be the President's manicurist...

international headlines

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently appointed her personal manicurist and stylist Anita Carpon to the board of the Pag-IBIG Housing Fund. I have nothing against manicurists--I have many fond memories hanging around my auntie Poying's beauty salon--but this is just odd.

I'm all for having ordinary people represented in government agencies, but being "officer-in-charge of Madame President's ingrown toenails and cuticles" is not enough qualification for this job.

The president also tapped her gardener Armando Macapagal as deputy of the Luneta Park Administration, without any administrative experience. Goodness, nothing screams "banana republic" more than these examples of blatant political patronage.

from AFP:

MANILA — Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has named her manicurist to the board of a major government agency, her spokesman said Thursday. The appointment of Anita Carpon to the board of a body responsible for lending tens of millions of dollars for the housing needs of government employees has drawn sharp criticism.

Arroyo's spokesman Gary Olivar defended Carpon's new posting and confirmed her other job as the president's stylist... Local media reports say Carpon will receive a monthly salary of about 130,000 pesos (about 2,900 dollars), double that of the president herself. 

Update: Anita Carpon declines appointment. Good for her.

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President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to run for Congress!

Congresswoman?

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to run for Congress. There's something fundamentally wrong with this headline, don't you think? When you have been President of the Philippines, what do you have left to prove? Apparently running for Congress is up next for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Is she this power hungry, that being President for nine years is not enough for her? And I thought I've seen it all in Philippine politics. Can you believe the nerve of this woman?

From the Inquirer:

MANILA, Philippines-- President Macapagal-Arroyo ended on Monday, months of suspense over her political future by announcing that she would seek a seat in the next Congress representing the second district of Pampanga.

Ms Arroyo claimed her decision to run was the product of both her desire to pursue public service and heed what she called “clamor” by her province mates.

“After much contemplation, I realized I’m not ready to step down completely from public service,” she announced in a guided interview with the government-run “Radyo ng Bayan”.

...(As you all know, I have been asked by the citizens of my home district in Pampanga to stay on in public life), so after much soul-searching, I have decided to respond affirmatively to their call,” she said.

Oh come on, spare us the drama Madam President. None of this "I still desire to serve the people" crap. Admit it, you have just gotten so used to power, you are probably afraid you'll have withdrawal symptoms like a two-bit crackhead when your term ends. I could understand that. It's preferable than hearing these platitudes.

I was there, dude!

I have never been a Gloria hater, in fact I joined the mass protests at EDSA 2. I was in the crowd (with my cousin Majin) when she was sworn in as the second woman President of the Philippines . I think there was a lot to admire in her handling of the economy. And honestly I just did not pay that much attention to the shenanigans of politicians. Apathy is my middle name, you know.

So what should we make of this? The woman who became president due to a peaceful popular uprising turned out to be just as power-hungry as the rest of the men. I guess it was too much to hope that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would have even a little of the much beloved Cory Aquino's character and dignity. The first woman president knew when to relinquish power,the second clings to power like a desperate gecko (tuko!). I think when you are not secure about your presidential legacy, running for congress will do just fine.

Update: GMA is now congresswoman of Pampanga's 2nd district.

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Something hinky about "global warming".

manipulated graph showing warming

Scientists of the Climatic Research Unit - University of East Anglia in Britain are in deep trouble with the release of hacked emails that contained their discussions on hiding the decline of temperatures, even encouraging the destruction of data that might show that temperatures have been cooling the last decade.

From the UK Telegraph:

The conspiracy behind the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth has been suddenly, brutally and quite deliciously exposed after a hacker broke into the computers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (aka CRU) and released 61 megabytes of confidential files onto the internet.

When you read some of those files – including 1079 emails and 72 documents – you realise just why the boffins at CRU might have preferred to keep them confidential. As Andrew Bolt puts it, this scandal could well be “the greatest in modern science”. These alleged emails – supposedly exchanged by some of the most prominent scientists pushing AGW theory – suggest:

Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.

But perhaps the most damaging revelations – the scientific equivalent of the Telegraph’s MPs’ expenses scandal – are those concerning the way Warmist scientists may variously have manipulated or suppressed evidence in order to support their cause.

graph from unaltered data

It is outrageous for purportedly non-partisan scientists to do something like this. Although if one considers how politicized the debate on global warming has become and how much money is being poured on this kind of "research"--this is hardly surprising. Science is supposed to be about the raw data, so it is doubly alarming that respected scientists would so willingly fudge or try to hide results they don't like. This is not confined to Britain too.

From the Examiner

Climate scientists in New Zealand today accused the foremost climate-research institution in New Zealand of data manipulation of the same type as the East Anglia Climatic Research Institute (CRU) is alleged to have done.

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition today issued this paper saying that a graph published by the New Zealand National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) is not only wrong but is the result of painstaking and unjustified adjustment of raw temperature data covering the period from 1853 through 2008, Ian Wishart of The Briefing Room announced today.
At issue is a claim by NIWA that the average temperature over New Zealand declined from 1853 to 1909 and then began to rise, and has been rising ever since, at an average rate of +0.92 degree (Celsius) per century.

However, unlike the case with the CRU, NIWA's raw data remain readily available, at least to climate scientists. Richard Treadgold, of the Climate Conversation Group, and his colleagues requested and obtained the data used to produce the NIWA graph. Using these data, they produced a graph of their own. Their graph, shown here, displays no such decline from 1853 to 1909 and consequently no such steep increase from 1909 through 2008 as that shown on the NIWA graph. Instead, according to the CSC, the linear trend is a negligibly gentle +0.06 degree per century since 1853.

Read more here:

So the hysteria over global warming is encouraged by these poor excuses for "scientists". I'm all for being a good steward of the earth we live in. I segregate my trash, use environment friendly light bulbs and such. But I knew there is something not quite right with this global warming bandwagon that we're supposed to climb onto without question. Remember how when the temperature started dropping enough for people to notice, they started calling it "climate change"? So the whole premise of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signing the Climate Change Act of 2009 just a month ago is a fraud? How very sad.

Update: UN climate change panel based claims on student dissertation and magazine article

Update 2.0: Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995

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