Friday, December 16, 2005

Worst Nightmare

The New Journalist has pulished its "10 nightmare ministers" edition.

Government Information Office Chief Pasuya Yao has topped the list. They arrived at the list of the 10 most unsuitable Cabinet ministers through interviews with 166 legislators.

According to the United Evening News last night, lawmakers cited Yao as being "unprofessional, careless, lazy, rude, and ill-tempered."

No argument here. I was telling this to a GIO employee last night and he said, "They missed arrogant."

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Apt comparison

PFP legislator Sun Daqian compared his party today to "a piece of toilet paper with a historical mission."

I'll go along with that.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Michael Turton has posted about Why the DPP Lost the Election. I agree with much of his analysis, but I also think that the DPP's attempts to capture the middle have also contributed to their problems.

Taiwan and the US are similar politically in that the vote is pretty much split down the middle. The DPP has been following an outdated strategy used by Clinton and Blair in the 1990s to reposition leftist parties back in the mainstream. But what Karl Rove has realized is that without a true left and with parties split down the middle, the key is to energize your base.

The blues, who have lost two straight presidential elections, are energized with the emergence of a viable candidate. Ma energized them even further by threatening to resign as KMT Chairman if the KMT did poorly in Saturday's 3-in-1 elections.

The greens, however, are alienating, rather than mobilizing their base by their attempts to move to the center. Taiwanese nationalists feel let down by a party that fired them up with calls for a new constitution and a new name for the country and then turned around and told them to forget about it.
There's also a lively discussion of Michael's post over on Forumosa.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Dog Day Night

Every dog has his day … and DogOfTheSouth had his Friday night. I have to say it was some of the best Chinese wedding banquet food I have had. And I was introduced to the magnificence of Maker’s Mark. I learned that Jack Daniel’s is not bourbon. All in all, a very productive evening.

I think we can excuse Dog for reduced posting frequency in consideration of nuptial-related activity … and Congratulations!