waitingman (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
waitingman) wrote2006-05-31 01:40 pm
waitingman) wrote2006-05-31 01:40 pm
Eating Their Words
Let's compare the behaviour of our politicians with others from around the world...
MPs' behaviour hard to stomach
May 31, 2006 - 11:56AM
Pandemonium broke out in Taiwan's parliament when deputies attacked a woman colleague for snatching and trying to eat a proposal on opening direct transport links with China in a bid to stop a vote on the issue.
Lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party charged towards the podium and protested noisily to prevent the review of an opposition proposal seeking an end to decades-old curbs on direct air and shipping links with China.
Amid the chaos, DPP deputy Wang Shu-hui snatched the written proposal from an opposition legislator and shoved it into her mouth, television news footage showed.
Wang later spat out the document and tore it up after opposition lawmakers failed to get her to cough it up by pulling her hair.
During the melee, another DPP woman legislator, Chuang Ho-tzu, spat at an opposition colleague.
"She spat saliva," yelled Hung Hsiu-chu of the main opposition Nationalist Party. versus
Gillard barred for 'snivelling grub' slur
May 31, 2006 - 11:13AM
Labor frontbencher Julia Gillard has been ordered out of the House of Representatives after calling Health Minister Tony Abbott a "snivelling grub''.
Mr Abbott had introduced laws paving the way for major changes to private health insurance.
But Ms Gillard, the manager of opposition business in the lower house, interrupted his speech on the merits of the bill.
"I move that that snivelling grub over there be not further heard,'' she said.
Speaker of the house, David Hawker, asked Ms Gillard to withdraw the comment, to which she responded: "If I have offended grubs I withdraw unconditionally.''
But Mr Hawker was not satisfied and asked her to withdraw "without reservation''.
Ms Gillard insisted she had acted in accordance with the speaker's ruling yesterday that Mr Abbott withdraw similar comments he made about Labor frontbencher Kelvin Thomson last week.
But Mr Hawker was not happy, and Mr Abbott asked that his opposition counterpart be ordered from the chamber.
With an overwhelming majority in the lower house, coalition MPs voted to remove Ms Gillard.
Under the ruling, she cannot return for 24 hours.
After Ms Gillard walked out of the chamber, her colleague, Anthony Albanese, accused the speaker of double standards.
"I do point out, Mr Speaker ... the Member for Lalor used precisely the same words, precisely the same words in withdrawing as the manager of government business did in parliament last Thursday,'' he said.
Mr Hawker refused to budge, but said he was happy to look at Mr Albanese's arguments.
"When a member is asked to withdraw, they withdraw without reservation and ... I made it clear in my statement to the House yesterday the way I would be dealing with this,'' he said.
"So, there is nothing further to add, but I will look at what the Member for Grayndler said and consider a response as appropriate."
I love to see robust debate & democracy in action... don't you??
On the other hand...
Outcry over launch of Dutch pedophile party
May 31, 2006 - 1:05PM
Dutch pedophiles are launching a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalisation of child pornography and sex with animals, sparking widespread outrage.
The Charity, Freedom and Diversity (NVD) party said on its web site it would be officially registered today, proclaiming: "We are going to shake The Hague awake!"
The party said it wanted to cut the legal age for sexual relations to 12 and eventually scrap the limit altogether.
"A ban just makes children curious," Ad van den Berg, one of the party's founders, told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.
"We want to make pedophilia the subject of discussion," he said, adding the subject had been a taboo since the 1996 Marc Dutroux child abuse scandal in neighbouring Belgium.
"We want to get into parliament so we have a voice. Other politicians only talk about us in a negative sense, as if we were criminals," Van den Berg told Reuters.
The Netherlands, which already has liberal policies on soft drugs, prostitution and gay marriage, was shocked by the plan.
An opinion poll published today showed that 82 per cent wanted the government to do something to stop the new party, while 67 per cent said promoting pedophilia should be illegal.
"They make out as if they want more rights for children. But their position that children should be allowed sexual contact from age 12 is of course just in their own interest," anti-pedophile campaigner Ireen van Engelen told the AD daily.
Right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders said he had asked the government to investigate whether a party with such "sick ideas" could really be established, ANP news agency reported.
Kees van deer Staaij, a member of the Christian SGP party, also demanded action: "Pedophilia and child pornography should be taboo in every constitutional state. Breaking that will just create more victims and more serious ones."
The party wants private possession of child pornography to be allowed although it supports the ban on the trade of such materials. It also supports allowing pornography to be broadcast on daytime television, with only violent pornography limited to the late evening.
Toddlers should be given sex education and youths aged 16 and up should be allowed to appear in pornographic films and prostitute themselves. Sex with animals should be allowed although abuse of animals should remain illegal, the NVD said.
The party also said everybody should be allowed to go naked in public and promotes legalising all soft and hard drugs and free train travel for all.
MPs' behaviour hard to stomach
May 31, 2006 - 11:56AM
Pandemonium broke out in Taiwan's parliament when deputies attacked a woman colleague for snatching and trying to eat a proposal on opening direct transport links with China in a bid to stop a vote on the issue.
Lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party charged towards the podium and protested noisily to prevent the review of an opposition proposal seeking an end to decades-old curbs on direct air and shipping links with China.
Amid the chaos, DPP deputy Wang Shu-hui snatched the written proposal from an opposition legislator and shoved it into her mouth, television news footage showed.
Wang later spat out the document and tore it up after opposition lawmakers failed to get her to cough it up by pulling her hair.
During the melee, another DPP woman legislator, Chuang Ho-tzu, spat at an opposition colleague.
"She spat saliva," yelled Hung Hsiu-chu of the main opposition Nationalist Party. versus
Gillard barred for 'snivelling grub' slur
May 31, 2006 - 11:13AM
Labor frontbencher Julia Gillard has been ordered out of the House of Representatives after calling Health Minister Tony Abbott a "snivelling grub''.
Mr Abbott had introduced laws paving the way for major changes to private health insurance.
But Ms Gillard, the manager of opposition business in the lower house, interrupted his speech on the merits of the bill.
"I move that that snivelling grub over there be not further heard,'' she said.
Speaker of the house, David Hawker, asked Ms Gillard to withdraw the comment, to which she responded: "If I have offended grubs I withdraw unconditionally.''
But Mr Hawker was not satisfied and asked her to withdraw "without reservation''.
Ms Gillard insisted she had acted in accordance with the speaker's ruling yesterday that Mr Abbott withdraw similar comments he made about Labor frontbencher Kelvin Thomson last week.
But Mr Hawker was not happy, and Mr Abbott asked that his opposition counterpart be ordered from the chamber.
With an overwhelming majority in the lower house, coalition MPs voted to remove Ms Gillard.
Under the ruling, she cannot return for 24 hours.
After Ms Gillard walked out of the chamber, her colleague, Anthony Albanese, accused the speaker of double standards.
"I do point out, Mr Speaker ... the Member for Lalor used precisely the same words, precisely the same words in withdrawing as the manager of government business did in parliament last Thursday,'' he said.
Mr Hawker refused to budge, but said he was happy to look at Mr Albanese's arguments.
"When a member is asked to withdraw, they withdraw without reservation and ... I made it clear in my statement to the House yesterday the way I would be dealing with this,'' he said.
"So, there is nothing further to add, but I will look at what the Member for Grayndler said and consider a response as appropriate."
I love to see robust debate & democracy in action... don't you??
On the other hand...
Outcry over launch of Dutch pedophile party
May 31, 2006 - 1:05PM
Dutch pedophiles are launching a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalisation of child pornography and sex with animals, sparking widespread outrage.
The Charity, Freedom and Diversity (NVD) party said on its web site it would be officially registered today, proclaiming: "We are going to shake The Hague awake!"
The party said it wanted to cut the legal age for sexual relations to 12 and eventually scrap the limit altogether.
"A ban just makes children curious," Ad van den Berg, one of the party's founders, told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.
"We want to make pedophilia the subject of discussion," he said, adding the subject had been a taboo since the 1996 Marc Dutroux child abuse scandal in neighbouring Belgium.
"We want to get into parliament so we have a voice. Other politicians only talk about us in a negative sense, as if we were criminals," Van den Berg told Reuters.
The Netherlands, which already has liberal policies on soft drugs, prostitution and gay marriage, was shocked by the plan.
An opinion poll published today showed that 82 per cent wanted the government to do something to stop the new party, while 67 per cent said promoting pedophilia should be illegal.
"They make out as if they want more rights for children. But their position that children should be allowed sexual contact from age 12 is of course just in their own interest," anti-pedophile campaigner Ireen van Engelen told the AD daily.
Right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders said he had asked the government to investigate whether a party with such "sick ideas" could really be established, ANP news agency reported.
Kees van deer Staaij, a member of the Christian SGP party, also demanded action: "Pedophilia and child pornography should be taboo in every constitutional state. Breaking that will just create more victims and more serious ones."
The party wants private possession of child pornography to be allowed although it supports the ban on the trade of such materials. It also supports allowing pornography to be broadcast on daytime television, with only violent pornography limited to the late evening.
Toddlers should be given sex education and youths aged 16 and up should be allowed to appear in pornographic films and prostitute themselves. Sex with animals should be allowed although abuse of animals should remain illegal, the NVD said.
The party also said everybody should be allowed to go naked in public and promotes legalising all soft and hard drugs and free train travel for all.