I just receive an award just recently and it’s a very exclusive title since the giver is someone that I patronize so much for her writings, with her blog presenting significant issues that truly concerns the world today, like conflicts in Africa, the AIDS menace, spread of modern diseases, today’s feminism as well as many other topics like third world economy especially in the African continent. Ipanema had named me to be one among five blogs that she decided to be a thinking blog and I am so greatfully honored for that. I said to her that being on her list felt like winning the Oscars all by itself and although stated in a humorly fashion, it was in fact so close to the truth since I don’t usually get noticed or reffered to like this; and for one, we don’t get this kind of awards everyday and it becomes all the more significant that the reverence comes from a colleague I kno, she who is a thinking blogger herself. So to ipanema, thank you very much for this award. For this, I get to display this button on my site.

Now it’s my turn to name five blogsites or bloggers that I reckon to be a Thinking Blog and they are:

1. Inside The Mind of A Singl Guy—In the entertainment world, many says that it is so much harder to make people laugh than to make them cry. But in the blog world, sngl writes hilarious jottings of factual circumstances without any hint of difficulty, like humor runs in his veins and it’s undepletable, perhaps like fossil fuel underneath the hot arabian desert. Inside for me is a thinking blog because it captures everyday issues and turns it into a morsel of delectable posts that is easily readable but tells so much about what’s wrong or what’s right about a particular issue.

2. The Warped Zone—If I remember very well, Buffwings have never posted even a single posts that merely relays some passing things. I have such kind of posts once in a while; not very many but I think I had some posts that relates to no specific significant issue or issues in the past, those that merely connote a passing and temporary thing or occurence. We all do that once in a while. But in The Warped Zone, BW is so consistent with coming up with posts that tackles a singular issue, provoking thought and deepening insights. For that alone, it becomes a major feat for BW.

3. Wish You Were Here—Eric should have been writing for a daily for a long time now since his postings are often mind-opening especially his take on history which detail and intricacy is unparalled in the blogosphere and starkly reminds the reader of the special writing prowess of Ambeth Ocampo, the columnist from Philippine Daily Inquirer. For this, Wish You Were Here is for certain a Thinking Blog.

4. Under The Canopy—Ipanama had already garnered this Thinking Blog award twice already and it’s not difficult to see why her blog often becomes distinguished by her avid readers. I for one agree with that reverence to her 100% percent and as I stated above, Ipanema discusses issues that are very significant globally today and that makes her blog special and unique since nowhere else can you find that amount of focus to such issues and topics—at least not here in our sphere.

5. Ang Anino Ni Abaniko—Niko as he is fondly called by his close readership is statistician and we know that people who knows their math are surely smart enough to be part of a rocket making project. Niko’s blog is a Thinking Blog because for me he writes with a lot of confidence and becomes master of his own creation, like the combination of humor and sarcasm in his writings is an art form by themselves.

Like the ‘meeting bloggers’ meme, it becomes very hard for one to realize that one might forget to mention some important bloggers, those that should have been in the list, but for reason of forgetfulness, they weren’t. And in this meme (this is also a kind of meme by the way), it makes me doubly wary since I only have to name five bloggers whom I decide to be Thinking Bloggers. If I could have gone on with the list.

So to sngl, BW, eric, ipanema and Niko; congratulations for you have been awarded the Thinking Blog Award by The Citizen On Mars blogsite and you all deserved it to be sure.

I could admit now that I must have been too prompt on my views when I had boldly proclaimed that the Republican Party would most likely lose next U.S. Presidential Election unless a miracle happens—like the coming of a messianic “wonder boy” among their lot to present to the American electorate as someone not merely viable, but someone who could be amiable enough to defy and counteracts President George W. Bush continually unpopular Iraq War Strategy and record-low public approval rating.

I forgot about this guy named John McCain, the senior senator from Arizona and the one guy who could have been president now if President Bush wasn’t carrying his father’s heavy name in 2000 Republican Party primary polling. He subsequently turned down an offer to become the presidential running mate for the Grand Old Party in that year’s U.S. elections.

I could remember how he was so calm and eloquent in conversing issues during the presidential debates and I was sure that I had decided that if I were an American voter then, he was surely my man. With the kind of intelligence he had shown, it would be such a pity if he could not be president of the most powerful nation in the world.

Now if you ask if he could take the Hillary Clinton challenge, I can dare say that he is in fact the most probable candidate that could neutralize the highly perceived adroitness of Ms. Clinton—you could say mano-a-mano. If both would turn out to be the main contenders for next year’s U.S. elections, it could be the first time in years that we’d actually be regaled with two very intelligent and insightful presidential nominees especially in the series of debate to be had by then.

In fact by now, Senator McCain shows a clear advantage on issues, demonstrating heavy experience and sharp insights.

He called Hillary Clinton’s and Obama Barracks plan to reduce or withdraw troops from Iraq to be “lacking in logic” where he opined that subtracting forces from the region could mean disaster as this would lead to widespread genocide and ethnic cleansing. True to form, McCain’s ‘logic’ may be very valid at this time where in the northern province of Najaf in Iraq, 600 insurgents were thwarted by combined U.S. and Iraqi forces from massacring hordes of Shiite Iraqis bound to celebrate an important religious observance. 31 Shiite Muslims have died from that encounter.

And besides, Senator Clinton flip-flopping on the Iraq issue has now become so publicized where in the beginning she had supported the Iraq War—albeit conditionally—-and then detesting it now and calling it as “the war he (President Bush) had started”.

We could see now how on matters of issues and debate, Senator John McCain may be more proficient than Senator Clinton and may give her a good run for the money come 2008.

For the first time in many years (if not in decades), something interesting is brewing in American politics nowadays; I mean really interesting.

With the popularity rating of President George W. Bush at an all-time low—only better than of Nixon when he was about to abdicate—and with the Democratic Party having had the most dramatic triumph in 2006’s Midterm Election, ensnaring control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years, the democrats are bound for a smooth ride in the next U.S. Presidential Elections come 2008; unless something sort of a miracle happens on the Republican side by that time, pitting as a nominee a kind of a “wonder guy”, one that could overcome President Bush’s highly unpopular Iraq War strategy and low public approval. If no Republican messiah comes to save the day for the Grand Old Party within the next few months, then it would only be up for the democrats to choose their spear header and everything will come smoothly afterwards. Call this a bold prediction, but I think it won’t take a rocket scientist to anayze these things going on in the American political arena.

Now here comes the interesting part; the leading presidential contender is none other than New York Senator Hillary Clinton herself. Yes, the former first lady has gotten about 40% approval from polled Democratic Party supporters and that’s a whopping lead she got considering that the next other contender has only gotten some 17% in votes. So what we see here is the possibility of a first woman president for United States. Not that we should be happy about that (but I am sure feminists around the world could celebrate as early as now) but it is just that it makes American politics so interesting this time around, becoming worth watching out for. And besides, for a country like the Philippines, it is of moment who would be president for America after 2008, for it may affect some salient things about our country—like aids channels, military support, economic investment, tourism and so on and so forth.

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Finally, the result for this year’s much-anticipated Philippine Blog Awards is now out and true to form, the winners truly deserve the honors as well as those who were selected as finalists and semi-finalists. Actually, every blogger out there is already a winner for just having participated in this very veritable endeavor. The people behind the Philippine Blog Awards are worthy of our gratitude for having started this wonderful undertaking for surely, they inspire us all bloggers to always do our best, and even if we do not try as hard, still the Awards is a form of recognition that all of us bloggers should be thankful for. So, I thank the Philippine Blog Awards for the honor of just being included in this yearly contest. By the way, Where Now Is The Citizen On Mars? was also a finalist in the Best Informative Blog Category. My other site The Daily Prophet ended up in third place also in the Most Informative Blog Category.

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MIG AYESA is finally aboard the ROCKSTAR.INXS finale which will be staged on Wednesday next week. Asked if how he had grown in the past weeks,he said without blinking that he is just all too happy to be part of the show. Now, that’s humility unparalleled. No wonder he is of Filipino lineage.

This sort of “good guy image” has certainly earned Migs a lot of votes across the Pacific basin but an INXS member (it must have been Gary Beers) had cautioned him that this overly sweet persona may do him more harm than good. He was told that he needs to have some kind of a “dark side” because as seen popularly, rockers are a little bit mean–meaning Migs must have some sort of an “attitude”.

And so Mig was made to sing Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black”, perhaps to check out if he has that “darker self”. If you asked me, the song may have the word “black” on it but it’s still difficult to hide his true self, where we all still know that he is such a nice guy. Could INXS take an overly nice guy as Michael Hutchence’s replacement in the band? Well, why not? As what Mig had said, the audience vote (he was never in the bottom three except this week) proves something– that he should be in the band.

And now there are only three surviving rockers going into next week’s finale—Marty, J.D. and of course the ever popular Mig Ayesa. having heard how these three men howled and crooned on the stage, it would be all too difficult to make predictions. They all have performed so extraordinarily well lately that according to Kirk Pengily “it seems unfair for us to make a decision”.

Of course my heart goes to Mig being our kababayan. If he were not rooted here, I might have seen him more of a pop star and not as a rocker although his vocal range is wide enough that he can resurrect any INXS song with ultimate ease. But as the INXS members noted in the interviews, he lacks that “rocker attitude”. Not that he has an attitude problem but what they could possibly mean is that, a proper rocker must have some sort of an “attitude”, a darker side, whatever that means. But Migs is surely popular with the girls and if he ever wins this contest, he could guarantee good sales for any future INXS record.

Now Marty seems to be most talented among the three and he had proven this when he sang an original composition of his titled “Trees”, and Dave Navarro instantly blurted “That’s a hit song right there”. The problem with Marty is that his voice and look is more inclined towards the American side of rockdom, like he can be mistaken for a lead vocalist of any grunge band anytime. If he fronts INXS, it could entirely change INXS’ image, like suddenly they have become an American grunge band and not the classic Aussie band that they have always been known for. One thing, Tim Farriss thought he was very controlling. Marty said he just wanted to take the band towards another level. These “brave” words from Marty may have trespassed some INXS ego. Who the hell is this guy telling us what to do? And that would be his own undoing. But on the one hand, he may just be exactly the guy that INXS is looking for—someone that is very talented and with a very strong personality; one that can get his own way almost always.

Now comes J.D. He almost matched the songwriting skill of Marty with his original composition “Pretty Vegas” and which was even voted as the one song that the audience wanted to hear as an encore. J.D. got that perfect rocker’s voice and he seems to also have that rocker personality although sometimes he looked like a boy band member—with his good looks and overly-cropped hair. And his strongest point is that his voice has a very strong resemblance to that of Michael Hutchence, rendering the same vocal inflections and emotional emphasis. In fact, when he sang “By My Side” as an encore in today’s episode, he sang it so good that I thought Michael Hutchence suddenly came back from the grave. When I close my eyes and hear J.D. without looking at him (with his boyish look), I thought I was hearing the same INXS of old. Would INXS settle for the one rocker that could clone Michael Hutchence voice? Or do they want something new and refreshing? It is very hard to tell at this time.

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Where Now Is The Citizen On Mars? is authored by Y.B. Masdal, who shall be known here thru the alias Major Tom. This blog was launched online sometime in February of 2005 using the Blogger platform and was envisioned to present socio-political issues in a manner that clarifies rather than complicates matters. At the same time, this blog also presents personal and other leisurely subjects thus broadening the scope of its subjects. It is a very young blog and may evolved into a form not similar to what it has right now. Flexibility is such a privilege. Y.B. Masdal is 33 years old and hails from Zamboanga City, Philippines. The design of this blog is hugely based on the the Wordpress Theme called Steam by Samir Nassar.