My original post is below, but the Korea-US Free Trade Area vote came up on the afternoon of the 22nd. The ruling Grand National Party pushed it through (thank god – because imports here are ridiculously overpriced and NTB’d).

But the opposition tried to block with what must be a new tactic in the history of legislative rioting – tear gas! Wow. Who saw that coming? In my original post, you’ll see that I expected hair pulling and chair-throwing, but not this. As Otter would say, ‘it’s a new low.’ For all my disdain of the modern American right at home, I still can’t understand the SK left. The Democratic Party here strikes as me so unbelievably immature – leaving aside the DP’s inability to see NK as more threatening than the US to SK sovereignty, why would an obviously trade-dependent state like Korea, where the trade surplus is reported on religiously every month, reject an FTA? And what is with all the rioting? These brawls happen now at least once a year. (Read this on the Korean case for the FTA, which is much stronger than for the US.)

But still the video is pretty hysterical. Enjoy with your Thanksgiving turkey:

————————-  ORIGINAL POST FROM YESTERDAY  BELOW ————–

The opposition Democratic Party is getting ready to physically block the Korus FTA legislation from floor consideration in the National Assembly this week. Read this. Time to riot! Just check youtube in a few days for flying chairs, fire extinguishers, and hair-pulling. Awesome.

If you’ve never seen an Asian parliament riot, you’ve missed one of the great pleasures of life in Asia. The above is a nice vid, from South Korea. But the Taiwanese have the best ones. Rumor has it they have breathalyzer tests before the biggest Taiwanese debates. Hah! I love it. Just type ‘parliament fight south korea’ or ‘taiwan’ into youtube and watch them for awhile. They’re hysterical. Here are a few. For my speculation on why these ridiculously embarrassing meltdowns happen, read this.