Roundup 9/16

New Kaohsiung line attracts 4,000 rush hour passengers (Taipei Times)

Go Kaohsiung!

Wang says KMT to push sunshine bills in new session (Taipei Times)

Yeah, right. They've been saying that since Ma's chairmanship.

Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) will ask China to stop saying "The Taiwan region of our country" when referring to Taiwan. How gentlemanly.

We need to read between the lines here: Chiang and the KMT firmly believe Taiwan and China are part of the same country; they just prefer that China avoid saying so, because saying this hurts the KMT's electoral hopes.

The KMT is very likely to push ahead with the CEPA pact in the name of saving the economy. Magic KMT formula for fixing everything: more China.

The legislature plans to formalize the reversion of Taiwan Post and TDMH to Chunghua Post and CKS Memorial Hall.

Ma calls on local governments to act as the Earth God (土地公), providing whatever the locals need.

Update: (quick note on this: I believe the phrase 有求必應, which Ma used to describe how the Earth God serves people in an area, is actually normally attached to the temples for 萬應公, who is the kind of god that problem gamblers , deeply troubled drug addicts and others at the end of their road go to ask for salvation).