Purchased at the Russian-owned convenience store next to my place in San Francisco:

Discuss.

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There is no better illustration, I think, of how GMA’s KarlRovean tactic — of equating any sort of dissent with “destabilization” — has been parroted by both (alas) members of the media and the academe, than by the constant repetition of the catchphrase “people power fatigue.” I read it as glib pseudo-sociological shorthand that both legitimates and reproduces acquiescence to GMA’s vision of “order.” Such “fatigue” is clearly contradicted by the mass demonstrations held both in Manila and in the provinces, both now and during the Hello Garci scandal (to name just two instances). The phrase — an easy journalistic entree into understanding Those Wacky Filipinos — (un)wittingly pathologizes opposition as being harmful to the body of the nation; it is “gulo,” after all, and “gulo” apparently must be quelled through preemptive strikes.

Perhaps GMA herself said it best in her radio announcement proclaiming the “lifting” of 1071, when she thanked the Filipino people “who understand that the best way to a bright future is through hard work, not taking to the streets.”

(Actually, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has an even better quote in the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

“I think it has some sobering effect,” Gonzalez said when asked whether PP 1017 had been effective when applied to the media.

“Even the most critical media had started to reexamine their policies,” he said, adding that PP 1017, like all laws, had the effect of “sowing fear” among the people.)

Meanwhile, here’s something backchanneled to me, and I’ll let the unnamed person have the last word anyway:

as far as i am concerned, my wish is to see every demonstrator on EDSA arrested for destabilizing the Philippine economy. they have no viable replacement for GMA and they are making the philippines an undesirable place for any sort of investment. what alternative do the demonstrators have in mind? another “free election?” none of the street actions have, in any way, shape, or form brought a solution to the increasing gap between those who have and those who don’t.

randy a martyr? good lord, after his support for Erap? while i am not an admirer of GMA, neither am i a fan of a loose coalition of FVR, Erap and FPJ sycophants, Marcos loyalists, Utrecht puppets, and glib neo-leftists. and that aquino widow should use her time putting some sense into her talentless daughter’s brain before she wastes her energies on EDSA.

also, instead of focusing on that entire Garci incident, maybe those demonstrators should begin by locking up every member of the Marcos family and administration and making them accountable for what the Philippines has become today.

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In what I hope will be an ongoing series, my brother Bulletproof Vest goes nuts with Photoshop (or whatever it is he used) and Google Images — read the rest of this comic epic. (We were chatting last night and we figured he could do an entire series on the two above panels alone, a la Get Your War On.)

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Ah, the cluelessness of the rich and corrupt.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s “What’s President Smirk having for dinner?”

Representative Imee Marcos — yeah, makes your eyeballs roll, doesn’t it — has the menu for the 2,000 peso-per-head banquet:

She said the native dishes would include “adobo” in olive oil, milkfish belly with mango sauce dipping, Filipino-style beefsteak, fried rice with smoked fish, and crisp-fried pork skin.

Native delicacies will also be served, such as roasted pig, “puto-bumbong,” “lumpia,” ice cream, pork and chicken barbecue, chocolates, “halo-halo,” and “pan de sal” with an assortment of spreads.

Someone else can have fun with this: Texas chicken? Kalderetang tuta nang kano? (We already have a reading list; what else should he eat?)

Representative Crispin Beltran is asking for a full accounting of Malacanang’s expenses:

“Bush is going to stay for a mere eight hours in the country, but already, the administration has used up millions to make his short visit as comfortable and welcome as possible, even if they’re all at the expense of the people’s economic and political interest,” he said.

Economically, of course, this is a big thank-you note for the military package and state dinner GMA received earlier this year. And President Smirk gets a loving ally in his “war on terrorism” — and a guarantee of more years of support now that GMA is running again — and the head of Father Rohman al-Ghozi to boot! And a performance by Lea Salonga! Nothing to make our American guests feel more welcome!

And as Rep. Marcos — now we get to the clueless part — said:

“President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo must really mean to impress her visitors,” said Marcos… “Our countrymen should feel proud that we could feed our guests so well even though in their homes, many poor Filipino families would be sharing a can of sardines and a packet of instant noodles.”

Classic. Like mother, like daughter.

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