(Click to enlarge)

This was sent to me by a reader in Shaghai, and it’s too good to pass up. Here’s what they wrote.
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Last night I saw this article (below), in the Shanghai Daily. In a nutshell, Shanghainese can vote online for the colors of the city’s new garbage trucks. I thought this was amusing because on PD we have discussed how some Chinese leaders maintain that the Chinese people are “not ready” for democracy, meanwhile nothing is ever done to make them more “ready”.

Well, first we had voting for the Super Yoghurt Girl. Now we have voting for the color of Shanghai’s garbage trucks! I say elections of national leadership can’t be far off! 😉

Personally, I’m hoping Shanghainese readers will place their vote for the dark blue color scheme, which would add a dignified splash of color to the city. However, if the voters choose the day-glo lime green, I just may join those declaring that Chinese are “not ready” for voting.

Vote for construction garbage vehicles!

Winny Wang
Shanghai Daily
February 15, 2006

THE colorful fate of nearly 6,000 vehicles
transporting construction garbage in Shanghai will be
decided by an online vote at www.sh1111.gov.cn
starting today. The vote will close on February 25, by
9am.

The activity aims at changing the appearance of the
vehicles, to better fit in with the city’s image. The
government will award 100 yuan (US$12.42) to 100
voters from a lucky draw. Ten of the first 1,000
voters who pick the same winning color will win 1,000
yuan.

Shanghai generates more than 20 million tons of
construction garbage every year, which is carried by a
fleet of designated vehicles. These vehicles, which
are often driven and parked carelessly and seen as
ugly, and influence residents’ lives and the city’s
image.

The government will begin a three-year campaign to
improve the appearance of these vehicles before the
World Expo.

Photo via Jesus’ General, whose posts on Cheney the past couple of days are among the funniest things the blogosphere has yet producted.

Brooks tries to make liberals look like fools for questioning the circumstances of Dick Cheney’s shooting a man in the face with a shotgun whilst killing animals last weekend. It all could have been avoided if Cheney hadn’t delayed reporting of the incident, creating the perfect storm for conspiracy theorists. But the questions these “liberals” are raising are valid and we deserve an answer. One the one hand, we have the vice president of the United States who shoots a man in the face, says nothing to the world about it for 14 hours, remains silent and uncontrite for four full days and his story is full of holes. On the other hand, we had a president who got a blow job and hurt no one and the media — well, we all know what happened. Anyway, here’s Brooks’ rather foolish article. He tried to whitewash Tom Delay and now he’s doing the same for Cheney.

Places, Everyone. Action!

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: February 16, 2006

One of the most impressive things about us in Washington, you must admit, is our ability to unfailingly play our assigned roles. History throws unusual circumstances before our gaze, but no matter how strange they may at first appear, we are always able to squeeze them into one of our preapproved boxes so we may utter our usual clichés.
The Battle of Corpus Christi is but the latest example of our capacity to transform fact into stereotype.

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Mr. Vice President, It’s Time to Go
By BOB HERBERT
Published: February 16, 2006

It’s time for Dick Cheney to step down — for the sake of the country and for the sake of the Bush administration.

Mr. Cheney’s bumbling conduct at the upscale Armstrong Ranch in South Texas seemed hilarious at first. But when we learned that Harry Whittington had suffered a mild heart attack after being shot by the vice president in a hunting accident, it became clear that a more sober assessment of the fiasco at the ranch and, inevitably, Mr. Cheney’s controversial and even bizarre behavior as vice president was in order.

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Just a rumor, but keep your eye on this one, and remember the name Pamela Willeford. We’ll be hearing more about her soon.

Dick Cheney: Home of the Whopper? (Click to, ahem, enlarge.)

More sumptuous new photos of Yunnan province here.

Are there any corporate or business-focused blogs in Taiwan? I need to know for a project I’m doing, and so far I’m not coming up with much. If anyone can help me out I’ll be grateful. English or Chinese-language blogs, it doesn’t matter, as long as they can be used to demonstrate that the Taiwan business community is aware of bloggers and blogging. Thanks.

No wonder they love us everywhere we go. And no wonder Bush is fighting so hard to keep these photos secret. I feel so proud to be an American.

Link via Oliver Willis.

Update: Video, too. Shocking.

Heh.

Shooter Slips on a Silencer
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: February 15, 2006

Who did this old guy think he was, coming between Dick Cheney and his helpless prey?

The luckless 78-year-old Texas lawyer, Harry Whittington, is in intensive care after a heart attack, with up to 200 pellets riddling his face and body — one stuck in his heart — from Dick Cheney’s designer Perazzi Brescia shotgun. And still his friend, the vice president, is Swift-BB-ing him.

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Of course, compared to Google and Yahoo, AOL nowadays appears hopelessly uncool, almost something of a dinosaur, like ICQ and Compuserve. And yet I have to give them credit for proving that a huge American multinational can indeed say no to China’s governmental strong-arming without going bankrupt overnight. They’re out 1.2 billion customers, yet they still survived.

All of that was a preamble to my pointing out Rebecca’s fine post on AOL’s new and uncensored Chinese-language portal. It is intended for Chinese-American audiences, but according to Rebecca it appears to be accessible on the Mainland, at least for the moment. Better hurry if you want to check it out.

This is a guest post by William Stimson. It doesn’t necesarily reflect the site owner’s views.

Protesting The Caricature of Islam
by William R. Stimson

Granted, it would be wrong to caricature or ridicule the religion of Moslems, especially when they reside as guests in your country. But this is not the issue. The few Danish cartoons that have reached Taiwan don’t do that. They clearly lash out against a caricature of Islam by Moslems themselves, a sketch of the prophet Mohammed and his teachings that is blasphemous but has gone unchallenged by Moslems in Denmark and across Europe, and which encourages violent actions that insult the mores and religions of their host countries.

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