Here come the speaker trucks and the white gloves!

[wagyl]

The Prime Minister, Mr They-change-so-fast-I-can't-remember-the-name-of-the-current-one has announced that he will be dissolving the House of Representatives for a General Election. Mainichi Shimbun is predicting a 9 December election date.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

The Prime Minister, Mr They-change-so-fast-I-can't-remember-the-name-of-the-current-one has announced that he will be dissolving the House of Representatives for a General Election.

As you'd normally do when your support rating is about 17%...Japanese democracy is certainly unique.

[wagyl]

I don't know, it could be a way to knock the Ozymandias named Ishihara off the block, to mix metaphors.

More to the point, I understand it is as a result of backroom deals, Noda was going to call, was waiting for a better time, the better time never came and his time ran out.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I don't know, it could be a way to knock the Ozymandias named Ishihara off the block, to mix metaphors.

More to the point, I understand it is as a result of backroom deals, Noda was going to call, was waiting for a better time, the better time never came and his time ran out.

Of course you're right, and once again the backroom deal dominates. Even so, it strikes me as a strange one for the LDP faction of the LDP (as opposed to the current ruling DPJ faction of the LDP), with right-wing forces aligning, its share of the vote can only be whittled away. Would seem better to wait six-12 months when everyone's forgotten about Hashimoto et al or they have been discredited (which is the only thing that can happen considering a> it's politics and b> the build-up has been as unrealistic as ever). But, ah, the far right has many legitimate faces and is strongly bolstered by the gerrymander...OK. I can understand what's going on. This is the chace for the far right to be gently eased back into the mainstream. Kinda like how the Nazis did things in 1928.

The left, meanwhile, as strong as any time that I've been here bar the summer of discontent when the consumption tax was first introduced, will meander along uselessly.

I hope the election is on the 9th so we can get the fucking thing over and done with....

[wagyl]

I hope the election is on the 9th so we can get the fucking thing over and done with....

My sentiments exactly. Even better that they are stifled by Labour Thanksgiving Day and Bonenkai Season.

PS: Godwin, so early in the thread???

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I hope the election is on the 9th so we can get the fucking thing over and done with....

My sentiments exactly. Even better that they are stifled by Labour Thanksgiving Day and Bonenkai Season.

So much for that, then...

PS: Godwin, so early in the thread???

Cheeky bugger! You some sort of fucken Nazi, then?
Actuallly, I haven't thought about politics for years and years....that made it seem like a long way in.
I do think this election will go a long way to legitimizing the revival of the far right. Everything is certainly falling into place perfectly for them.

[Russell]

Osaka politician has man arrested for peeing on his campaign poster

Last Sunday, a 40-year-old man in Osaka decided that his strong dislike of politician Kei Yamamoto needed to be expressed physically, and, spotting the politician’s face on a poster down a quiet countryside road, decided to let rip with a golden shower of contempt.

Unfortunately for him, who should be cruising by at that exact moment but the politician himself.

Spotting the alternative activist mid-flow, Yamamoto approached the man and asked him politely to stop.

The man simply replied “Can’t you see I’m peeing, here?” and continued to empty his bladder until he put two and two together and noticed the similarity between the face on the pee-soaked poster and that of the pissed-off politician standing behind him.

Yamamoto immediately contacted the police who came and arrested the man, who is reported to have begged Yamamoto not to tell anyone and who later returned with a bucket and detergent in the hope of removing any evidence of his crime.

The politician shot to Internet stardom immediately after the man’s arrest when he tweeted about the incident, saying “I have just returned from the police station where the police are investigating a civil servant who was caught urinating on my campaign poster.”

It turns out that the perpetrator was, in fact, a member of staff at Osaka city hall, which perhaps explains why he was so desperate to cover up the event and begged Yamamoto to keep it between them.

The city hall employee is quoted as saying that he had been “caught short” while out and about, and that “it’s possible that some urine had found its way onto the poster” as he relieved himself. This would be far more believable had the same man not been “caught spitting on campaign posters” in the past, according to Yamamoto.

But before we write the politician off as just another stiff in a suit, he admits that, “had it not been my poster, I probably would have laughed, too…” on his Twitter feed.

Twitter users were understandably amused by the entire episode, with some saying that the arrested man’s bad timing was nothing short of “hilarious” and that “shocked” doesn’t even begin to describe how he must have felt turning around to find the man featured in the poster staring at him.

You never know who’s watching.

[matsuki]

The Prime Minister, Mr They-change-so-fast-I-can't-remember-the-name-of-the-current-one has announced that he will be dissolving the House of Representatives for a General Election. Mainichi Shimbun is predicting a 9 December election date.

Write and rewrite the rules as they go along? Legitimate government? Even if the average salary man actually cared more about what was going on than who's working when at the local snack and the next AKB election,they'd probably still point out how outnumbered that are by the elderly voters who vote off of right wing hype and myth. TCIF (This Cuntry is Fucked)

Osaka politician has man arrested for peeing on his campaign poster

Leave it to the Japanese passive aggressive idiots to put tail between legs and cry innocence/victim when caught...any real man would have taken advantage of his target showing up in person and finishing the job on the real thing. Not to mention, the guy couldn't have just walked/drove away? Who waits for the boys in bruu to show up?

Politics aside, fuck that guy and I hope he gets fined. I can't believe how often I walk by places in the "nice" areas in Tokyo that smell like rancid piss. Sure, it's mostly homeless but we all have seen taxi drivers relieving themselves on the sidewalk/bushes/etc before. Fuck speed cameras, how about pee cameras in these places and start fining for public urination?

[yanpa]

Singapore can provide the urine sensors for elevators

[Coligny]

Leave it to the Japanese passive aggressive idiots to put tail between legs and cry innocence/victim when caught...any real man would have taken advantage of his target showing up in person and finishing the job on the real thing. Not to mention, the guy couldn't have just walked/drove away? Who waits for the boys in bruu to show up?

Sumbody be reading mah mind...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Sumbody be reading mah mind...

So that's what's been giving me nightmares....

[Coligny]

And you will soon miss this time... when you start -also- wetting your bed...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

And you will soon miss this time... when you start -also- wetting your bed...

God, been doing that for years....

...you oughta see me when I'm pissed....