Bad idea, according to Sen. Pong Biazon who pointed out that a U.S. warship was not the proper response to a humanitarian issue. Biazon also wanted to know whether the Reagan had nuclear weapons aboard (which would violate the Philippine constitution that bars nuclear weapons in its territory).

Rather than go into its standard “We neither deny nor admit” response to address Biazon’s grandstanding, the Pentagon simply decided to move the aircraft carrier . . . and as it turns out, the rest of a carrier battle group which includes an Aegis cruiser, three destroyers and a guided missile frigate . . . to coordinates that are just outside Philippine territory.

The USS Ronald Reagan’s skipper must be shaking his head these days as he oversees his government’s timely and immediate response to a massive natural disaster that has claimed the lives of hundreds. While it should not be difficult to make sure that the waters under his high-tech bridge are not part of Philippine territory, he might be wondering why politicians like Biazon . . . who happens to be an ex-general . . . can’t see that there’s absolutely no point in wasting precious fuel to fly relief supplies and recovery personnel over a longer distance.

It was quite possibly by design that Barack and Hillary took the same jet and thereafter spent more time on the bus ride to Unity . . . which gave the former adversaries ample opportunities to joke around and do some serious bonding . . . that by the time they ascended the small stage it was abundantly clear that both of them had indeed buried the hatchet and were ready to work together on the formidable task of electing the first black US president.

If today’s hugely successful Barack-Hillary appearance is followed by a few more in the next couple of weeks, people might start getting used to what was considered near-impossible before today: a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket.

That tandem would undoubtedly be an unstoppable force on the road to the White House.

Her odd metric . . . pointing out that she has garnered more popular votes than Obama . . . can’t possibly set aside the reality that Barack has gone over the required number of delegate votes to be the Democrats’ presumptive nominee.

While I had said much earlier that “The man to beat is a woman.”, I now believe it’s time for Sen. Clinton to show some ‘testicular fortitude’ and deliver a concession speech within the next 24 to 36 hours.

компютри втора употреба

McClellan left the White House two years ago after serving Pres. Bush for almost a decade in various capacities but in his just released memoir ‘WHAT HAPPENED: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong With Washington’, he asserts that top officials allowed him . . . inadvertently or not . . . to mislead the public on the White House’s role in outing a CIA agent whose husband had declared that intel which was used to support going to war with Iraq was unverifiable at best:

“I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the seniormost aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.”

“There was one problem. It was not true.”

“I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president’s chief of staff and the president himself.”

McClellan’s book could not have come at a worse time for Republican presidential bet John MaCain. Earlier this week, the former POW declared that he “would never surrender in Iraq”. But Scott McClellan writes that the Iraq war is “unnecessary” so let’s see how the senior senator can extricate himself from the corner that he has painted himself into.

Looking back at an extraordinary sequence of events that have unfolded in the past couple of weeks, however, those of us who have been expecting Nani to join Romy Jalosjos in Muntinlupa shortly might as well perish the thought. Consider the following pertinent developments:

• Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez must have deemed that the opportune time to file charges against Perez has finally come because Jimenez . . . who has since withdrawn his lawsuit against Perez in what appears to be part of worming his way back into the good graces of the present administration . . . can no longer be expected to testify even as a witness for the prosecution.

• Instead of charging Perez and his cohorts with plunder inasmuch as $2 million converts to more than the P50 million minimum that qualifies a crime as such, Gutierrez inexplicably opted for extortion and robbery . . . which are both bailable.

• Sandiganbayan presiding justice Edilberto Sandoval has broadly hinted at least twice that he would dismiss the charges if Jimenez . . . who was noticeably absent at Perez’s arraignment last week . . . does not attend subsequent court proceedings.

• Both DOJ sec Raul Gonzalez and Palace chief legal boss Sergio Apostol are in sync in their unsolicited . . . if not improper . . . press statements that the pending charges against their former cabinet colleague are ‘weak’.

• Jesus Santos, who’s the First Gentleman’s attorney and spokesman is now officially lawyering for Nani Perez. And come to think of it, so are Merceditas Gutierrez, Edilberto Sandoval, Sergio Apostol and Raul Gonzalez . . . effectively, albeit unofficially. 

There’s a silver lining in all of these apparently orchestrated efforts to handle Perez with kid gloves, however, and I have a feeling that most opposition figures have already realized that Demavera has actually done them a great big favour by omitting a plunder case despite what has been described as a traceable paper trail on the alleged $2 million bribe.

Sometime in the foreseeable future when the weather right . . . as in ‘weather-weather lang’ . . . Perez will be charged with plunder, be barred from posting bail and woefully unable to invoke double jeopardy.

This time around, the relentless Rolex has come up with a witness who’s in possession of a slew of photos showing Pres Arroyo and her spouse Mike on the fairways of the Shenzhen golf course some five months prior to the actual signing of national broadband contract.

If the unidentified witness actually shows up at the next tri-committee Senate hearing and provides eyewitness accounts that would disprove the Palace spin that the unannounced Shenzhen visit was purely a ‘social call’, it may just be a matter of time before the beginning of an unceremonious end to what has become perceived as the most corrupt administration ever.

As a result of this unwanted development, I’ve decided to switch to Norton 360 which I believe offers much better Internet security than AVG Anti-Virus Pro that I’ve been using for the past several years.

Aside from running the usual spyware and virus scans, 360 also keeps an eye on other potentially exploitable matters such as easily-guessed passwords, browser security issues and the like.

I got the Norton 360 Premiere Edition which allows me to automatically back up my important files . . . up to 10 gig . . . to a secure online location free of charge. The best part: This Symantec product does not require one to have the skills of a techie . . . which I definitely am not.

The email’s original sender hints at possible kickbacks of 10% in the freeway’s construction which is obviously way under the 25% to 40% ‘going rate’ . . . an open secret going back more than a decade that has been publicly acknowledged and denounced by Salvador Enriquez who was Budget Secretary during the Ramos administration.

To be sure, there have been persistent charges of overpricing in the construction of the Japanese government-funded project. In fact, a joint congressional probe was conducted in 2006 by the Good Government and Oversight committees. However, ‘operators’ at BCDA may have succeeded in mollifying the solons because the project was allowed to proceed. But a special report 2 months ago by Newsflash is an eye opener:

“Apart from being Japan’s single biggest project loan to the Philippines, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway Project is also notable for another less edifying reason: It has the biggest cost overrun so far among the ODA-funded projects.

When NEDA approved the project in 1999, the cost was estimated at P15.3 billion. In 2000, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), which was implementing it, raised the cost estimate to P18.7 billion. NEDA approved this the following year.”But the lowest bid BCDA got when it auctioned off the contracts between September 2003 and January 2004 was P27 billion. Though it knew that costs had gone up to P25.1 billion, BCDA was hoping competition among the bidders would force down the price.”

NEDA refused to approve the higher cost, prompting BCDA to negotiate with the winning bidder to bring the price down to P20.1 billion. NEDA cleared the award to the Japanese companies but the latest indications are that the cost may go up to P32 billion.”

Which gives a new meaning to ‘highwaymen’.

As reported by Malaya . . .

“COCONUT farmers yesterday echoed the call of the Federation of Free Farmers for an investigation on a P2 billion salt fertilization project and corn seed program of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) for violation of government rules on procurement.”

“The coconut farmers belonging to the Pambansang Koalisyon ng Samahang Magsasaka at Mang-gagawa sa Niyugan called the program a waste of money. ‘Failure po ang corn seeds at hunger mitigation program ng Pangulo. Thirty percent lang ang germination rate ng mga mais at late ang delivery ng corn seeds na dapat May pa dumating, kaso dumating ay July at August na.’ ”

“‘Nasa $92 million ang gagastusin sa pag-iimport natin ng asin sa China. Bakit kailangan pa e ang Pilipinas, napapaligiran naman ng dagat. P25 ang cost nito kung bibilhin sa China pero sa palengke P5 lang,’ the group said.”

Why, indeed, was it necessary to import salt . . . at 5 times the retail price at any public market . . . when there has never been a salt shortage in our country?

Okay, there’s the matter of ‘tong-pats’ but who are these PCA people who had the gall to believe that they could actually insult the intelligence of our fellow Filipinos with this unprecedented level of greed and expected to get away with it?

But that ruse pales in comparison to the subterfuge that accompanied the Supreme Court’s favorable decision on Romulo Neri’s petition to clam up on 3 key questions that could have shed more light on key details of Pres. Arroyo’s alleged direct criminal complicity in the ZTE-NBN scandal.

As reported by Newsbreak, the majority’s decision, which was penned by newly-appointed Associate Justice Teresita de Castro and concurred in by eight more of her colleagues, was pre-cooked.

Justice de Castro reportedly had a draft of the 35-page decision on March 24th . . . which was the day before the high court went through the motions of rendering an en banc verdict. The justices voted 9 to 6 at around noontime of March 25th, without reading the final draft that was only submitted by ponente De Castro some 3 hours afterwards

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