Bring in the Clowns

With Apology to Joni Mitchell, my mind often free associates wild and sometimes unkind images with reality, rather like viewing the Bible through a drunken kaleidoscope, overlaying it's Godly blunt trauma wisdom with a visually imperfect tower of Babel.  Especially if it is 1:30 in the morning as I just awoke from a dream in which I had tossed a bobcat into the bed of a sleeping BenK. He sleeps in gold satin sheets, I would note. The bobcat sliced and diced the sheets and him, much as BenK does to President Aquino. Only the cat used claws instead of words.

The drama attached to the foiled Arroyo flight plan is better than most Ludlum books, Jason Bourne not withstanding.

Please paste "allegedly" wherever you think it belongs in the ramble that follows.

I rather see the entire Arroyo reign as circus-like. Here is this devoted, pious Catholic woman whose photo was plastered all over the nation at road construction sites bragging about how she is good for Filipinos whilst behind the scenes she was conniving like the Joker on steroids.  I'm talking about Batman's Joker, not that Arroyo relative Joker. Although now that I am in free visual association mode, the wild-ass, conniving gleam in the eye seems the same for every Joker named Joker.

Here is a woman who packed the Supreme Court with her cronies, those at the heart of the Philippine old-boy network. They are engaged in the "trade of favors" as a primary currency more important than the law as a foundation of Philippine social values.

Here is a woman who tried to ramrod a new Constitution down the throats of the Philippine population, including a farcical midnight raid hoisted by her congressional cronies, even though the existing Constitution provides a perfectly fine foundation for law. She wanted to extend her reign, using the same moral mechanics that won her the election.

The existing Constitution is certainly in better condition than the values of judges in the Philippines who interpret it. You know, those sloppy, inefficient, ponderous people who one has a hard time addressing as "Your Honor". A more fitting title is "Your Despicable". What a pack of buffoons this Supreme Court has proved to be, relegating the highest court in the land to the irrelevance of politics and favor over truth and justice. Judges. Operating under oath. We don't have to mention the local judges who give out justice according to the size of the payment buried in a packet of papers slipped slyly by some rat attorney underneath the nara wood judicial bench.

I wonder what devil they all worship.

But I digress . . .

Here is a woman whose husband is an archetype big shot power mongering Filipino, buffooning his way onto the platter of roasted pigs like Tita Nina's fat pink hog puffed up on the finest slops of the land. Selling used helicopters to his pals in the Army for new-helicopter price, the taxpayer who loyally shelled out 12% VAT making up the difference. Trading fertilizer like counterfeit money. Wheeling and dealing construction kickbacks like Uncle Louie, the mafia con man.

Here is a woman who crassly passed out bags of cash to her congressional puppets. Only to find that a few had values higher than hers, and would not accept them. It was like cracking a joke, but people did not laugh.

Here is a woman who tried woefully and pitifully to wheel her way to everlasting freedom past the people, the President, and the law, but instead forced the President's hand and wheeled herself off to jail. Her itinerary? For health reasons, of course:  any country without an extradition treaty to the Philippines.

That is buffoonery, folks. When you try so hard to game the system that you end up with your own boot where it does not belong. And sticking it there is hard if you are wearing a neck brace.

Now, forgive me, for I am sure, to their friends, it is I who am the buffoon. They believe they got screwed by a President who would not play tit for tat. After all, Ms. Arroyo pardoned ex-President Estrada of his corruption. Such audacity that President Aquino would not join this club of slimy self-dealers.

Frankly, I have not heard such woebegotten whining since Grandpa Jones came down with the clap after attending regular Sunday bible lessons with Preacher Cole's wife. He blamed it on the devil.

Oh, my.

Only in the Philippines (and Tunisia, Egypt, Lybia, Syria, Iran and the Gaza Strip) do Presidents and judges not grasp simple concepts, like . . .

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time.

            Abraham Lincoln.

But I digress . . .

Kudos to the very honorable Justice Secretary Leila De Lima. She is a woman of purpose and action. A woman of courage.  A noisy woman, too. Like, man, quotable.

May she have many honorable successes in her endeavors.