Taiwan’s pariament is notorious for the rowdy behavior of its members. Fistfights are not uncommon, and occasionally shoes or chairs may fly across the room. Some Taiwanese lawmakers seem to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame when such goings on net them a bit of media coverage.

On Tuesday, legislators were meeting to decide if a proposal to buy $18 million in weapons from the USA should be put on their Friday agenda. Apparently this was quite a derisive topic, because a food fight broke out and the lawmakers began to throw their lunch boxes at each other.

“You’ve got no shame!” screamed Chu Fong-chih of the opposition Nationalist Party, after throwing a take-out box of chicken and rice at Chen Tsung-yi, a legislator from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party who backed the special budget.

Chen responded by accusing Chu of sympathizing with Taiwan’s arch-foe China, and flung his own lunch box at her.

And we think our own Oregon legislators sometimes act like kindergarteners! They have much to learn from Taiwan.

lawn chairs recalled at Walmart

21,000 Al-Aluminum lawn chairs sold by Walmart have been recalled. Chairs with green or blue plastic arms can break, leading to falls. Walmart has received more than two dozen reports of broken wrists and other injuries. Customers should return the chairs to Walmart for a refund.

In Oregon, there won’t be much need for lawn chairs for another six months or so. Be sure to check yours when you get them out of storage.

And, please note that the chairs being recalled are the ones with green or blue plastic arms. Chairs with beige or white arms are not being recalled.

There’s no mention of why beige and white are being left out of the recall, leading one to speculate if the pigment somehow makes the plastic weaker?

Pilot runs a ship aground — at the Sydney Opera House

Ten passengers and four crewmembers were enjoying a day of sailing the Sydney harbor in the yacht “FT Spirit,” owned by the Financial Times. FT Spirit is a 79-foot racing yacht that compted in the America’s Cup under the name “Spirit of Australia.”

Apparently following the lead of the Finnish commuter ferry captain who twice ran his boat into a pier, the pilot of FT Spirit took his passengers just a little too close to the Opera House. The keel bulb tore off when the boat struck rocks, causing several of the passengers to be flung into the water when the ship capsized. All of the passengers and crew were recused and nobody was injured.

The yacht has been towed to a slipway for repair and the incident is under investigation. Police reported that the skipper tested negative in an alchohol breath test.

I wonder if he was tested for kava?

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Republicans have called John Kerry unfit for the Commander In Chief job. Today Kerry turned the tables by saying that Dubya failed the “fundamental oblication” of that role — to keep America as safe as possible. Kerry accuses Bush of trying to hide until after the election the news that 380 tons of explosives were snatched from an Iraqi installation in the days following the invasion.

“He has stood in front of the American people day after day, telling us how much progress we are making in Iraq and how much safer we are under his leadership,” Kerry said. “And what did the president have to say about the missing explosives? Not a word.”

“Mr. President, what else are you being silent about? What else are you keeping from the American people?” he asked.

[…]Kerry also called Cheney “out of touch” for describing Iraq as “a remarkable success story” despite the steady diet of bad news — attacks on U.S. troops, the murder of Iraqi policemen, kidnappings and beheadings — that Americans get from television every day.

“They don’t see it, they don’t get it, they can’t fix it,” he said. “I can and I will.”

I dunno. It seems to me like Cheney may be in touch with Dubya’s supporters, who aren’t living in the real world anyway.

Kerry has pledged to spend $60 million more in homeland security over the next 10 years on screening cargo for nuclear materials, creating an integrated terrorist watch list and increasing the number of border patrol agents. I think I’d rather see that money spent here than in Iraq.

In other election news, Republicans are mobilizing thousands of volunteers to challenge voters they believe are not qualified to cast ballots. Democrats are mobilizing to guard against voter intimidation. Both sides are sending out an army of lawyers.

Republican Party chairman Ed Gillespie charged on Sunday that Democratic-backed groups had registered thousands of fraudulent voters.

In Ohio, he said there were “people with fictitious characters being registered to vote, Dick Tracy and Mary Poppins. In New Mexico, we’ve seen 13- and 15-year-olds get registration cards in the mail they didn’t even ask for. In Nevada, we’ve had illegal immigrants being registered.”

That’s not good, obviously. But is it really cleaner than what happened in several states including Oregon, where Republican volunteers were throwing away Democratic registration cards?

And then there are the new electronic voting machines — some of that print paper and some that don’t. And hanging chad in the states that still use punch ballots. And misread marks in the states that use paper ballots.

Dan Seligson, of the nonpartisan election information service electionline.org, said some problems that occurred in Florida in 2000 would not repeat themselves.

“Instead, we could find some new ones. Certainly, every vote will count. Whether it will be counted is another matter,” he said.

Iraq blames US

Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Tuesday that “major neglect” by U.S.-led forces was to blame for the murder of 49 Iraqi army recruits last weekend.

“There was an ugly crime in which a large group of National Guards were martyred,” he told Iraq’s national assembly.

“We believe this issue was the outcome of major neglect by some parts of the multinational (forces).”

Since we’re in this pretty much along, “multinational (forces)” be us.

Allawi has ordered an investigation into the incident. An unnamed senior Iraqi official has said that it appeared that the attack was well-organized and that the insurgents had good intelligence and potentially inside information on why the ambushed Iraqi soldiers were traveling without weapons or armed escort.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led forces in Iraq said that terrorists were to blame, and only they could be held responsible. He pledged cooperation with the investigation.

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