It's a Gas

Feel bad about the state of politics in your country? Leaders out of touch with the common people? Elections bought by special interests? Campaigns that seemingly drag on for years? Negative ad after negative ad?
Yes, politics are probably bad where you come from. But they are definitely not as interesting as Taiwan's. A little history first, before I tell you a great story that you may or may not have heard about.
The US has been selling arms to Taiwan for years. For the past two years, they have been trying to sell about a dozen patrol aircraft, eight diesel submarines, and Patriot anti-missile batteries. President Chen Shui Bian and his party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have been touting this deal as a way to make Taiwan more secure. The Kuomintang (KMT, the party that brought Taiwan 50 years of dictatorship) has been flipflopping on its support, mostly just delaying it's passage out of committee. Recently, the KMT came out strongly against the arms procurement and utterly derailed it in committee, guaranteeing that it would never see the light of day. Issue closed, right?
Well, independent legislator (and current candidate for mayor of Taipei, Taiwan's capital) Li Ao wasn't satisfied. He is vehemently opposed to the arms deal and wanted to ensure that it would never be passed. So what did he do?

If you guessed "Stormed into a committee meeting wearing a V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes mask brandishing an electric stun gun and set off a canister of tear gas ... you're absolutely right.

Here's a photo:


Legislators from both parties ran out of the room - most were coughing and crying.
Quoth the old man, "[Let's] see who dares to pass the bill [now]!"
Quoth everyone else in the room, "{Hack}{Hack}{Cough}{Cough}{Sniffle}"

The honorable Mr. Li was then referred to the Disciplinary Committee, because apparently setting off tear gas in a meeting isn't a real crime, and doesn't need the attention of, say, the police.
Say what you want about President Bush (or any US politician for that matter), but I don't really see him employing this tactic to disperse a committee meeting discussing repealing the PATRIOT Act or getting rid of reporters who are asking too many difficult questions. Then again, maybe now with Mr. Li's example of how politics should really be done, he will.