July 4 in USA 2009

Jack and Jane Verburg said on Sunday July 5th, 2009 11:20:52 AM

Happy 4th. of July. Yes, you are right...Americans do not appreciate the freedom they have. There is nothing worse then listening to some person wine about THEIR government when they have never experiences 3rd. world enviroment.
Once you have, you are never the same.
I object to the statement that Canada hates USA!!!!Most of us love you and consider you a brother...although we have free health care...ha ha.
We have also been arrested for taking pictures, deported for helping the poor, and have also experienced the abuse of power by authority.
Hopefully the Phillipines will be kinder to you.
Blessings, Jack and Jane

Chuck W0W said on Sunday July 5th, 2009 01:34:21 PM

First rule of THAI CLUB !


FCCT board faces police probe over lese majeste
By Pravit Rojanaphruk
The Nation
Published on July 2, 2009

For the first time in its five-decade history, the whole board of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) has been accused of committing lese majeste, a crime with a maximum jail sentence of 15 years.

Laksana Kornsilpa, 57, a translator and a critic of ousted and convicted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra filed a lese majeste complaint against the 13-member board at Lumpini police station on Tuesday night.

Laksana was ed on ASTV Manager website as claiming the boards decision to sell DVD copies of Jakrapob Penkairs controversial speech at the club back in 2007 constituted an act of lese majeste.

She alleged that the whole board may be acting in an organized fashion and the goal may be to undermine the credibility of the high institution of Thailand.

ASTV Manager daily also ed Laksana as saying some major local newspapers may also part of a movement to undermine the monarchy.

FCCT president Marwaan Macan-Markar said the board members have decided not to give separate interviews. It issued a statement saying: The FCCT will cooperate with such an inquiry [by the police].

The board, includes three British nationals including the BBCs Bangkok correspondent Jonathan Head, three American nationals, including two working for Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, an Australian national and a Thai news reader for Channel 3, Karuna Buakamsri.

Social critic and lese majeste case defendant Sulak Sivaraksa, reacting to the news, told The Nation yesterday that the problem of [abusing] lese majeste law is now utterly messy.

The fact that leading world intellectuals like Noam Chomsky and others have petitioned to [PM] Abhisit [Vejjajiva to reform the law] is a testimony to it. If we let it goes on like this it will get even messier. Its time for the government to do something.

A source within the FCCT, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was surprised at the latest allegation, which came after two years of the speech being made, adding that it places Thailand in a very poor light.

DVDs were set up largely for club members who missed interesting talks and sales are restricted solely for FCCT members. Few copies of the Jakrapob talk are understood to have been sold because a manuscript of his talk circulated in Bangkok shortly after he was charged, and the video can be downloaded free from some websites.

In the comments section on ASTV Managers website, most posters expressed support for Laksana and praised her for the move.

One said: Put them in jail for 99 years.

Another asked the site to post a picture of Jonathan Head so the person could attack him if he or she ran into him.

(SEE LAST LINE ABOVE ^^ This is why Andy Doesnt Post his picture, Andy is a Smart man)

Frank said on Sunday July 5th, 2009 02:31:29 PM

Hi Andy,

I have to know - if you feel the US is so great - why have you stayed away for 11 years?

I think that you are wrong stating that the USA is hated by so many countries because the USA says stop abusing your people. In reality I think other countries hate the US because the common people of other countries know that we have over 700 military bases in countries all over the world and in the last 100 or so years the USA has overthrown 15 or so governments - starting with Hawaii and ending with Iraq/Afghanistan - simply because they had resources/markets US corporations wanted. Its funny how a taco vender in Mexico or a gardener in Jamaica knows this but most upper class US citizens dont.

I was at a party in the US recently and I asked several of the upper class and educated people at the party to name just one president or leader of another foreign country. Not one f@king person could - not one. Who is the president of China with 1.3 billion people? Who is the president of Mexico - our neighbor to the south? Who is the prime minister of Canada - our neighbor to the north? Do you know why none of these upper class and educated US people couldnt name another leader of a foreign country? - because they just dont give a sh$t.

Also, the taco vendors and gardeners of foreign countries know about World Bank, IMF and School of the Americas. They know who runs them and they know who benefits from their existence.

No - the few things you mentioned typically dont happen to US citizens in the US. However, they do happen daily to citizens of other countries because of the fact that the US government supported some leader who was friendly to US corporations. An example of this is when the US overthrew the democratically elected leader of Iran in 1953 because he wanted to use the profits of his counties oil to eliminate the extreme poverty in Iran and not have the money go to US oil companies. This resulted in the Iraninan revolution and further repression of the Iranian people. Trust me, this was only in 1953, there are still a lot of Iranians living that remember the US overthrow of their beloved Mossaddeq - that is why they hate us.

These are some of the real reason(s) the US is hated by other countries.

Best,

Frank

Little Blossom said on Monday July 6th, 2009 06:48:29 AM

Frank,

Bravo!

However, there are many, many more factual reasons than what youve listed. But I think you already know that. :-)

Bob L said on Monday July 6th, 2009 09:03:50 AM

Jack and Jane Verburg said: ***Happy 4th. of July. Yes, you are right...Americans do not appreciate the freedom they have. There is nothing worse then listening to some person wine about THEIR government when they have never experiences 3rd. world enviroment.
Once you have, you are never the same.***

From my perspective, there is nothing worse than someone whining about how their Goevernment is not doing enough about something or another. The less involved the Govt is in our lives, the better.

I have experienced the 3rd world. (OK, maybe the 2nd world....) It has made me complain about my Govt even more. I have seen what a Govt can become, and the more I complain, and the more I do the better of a citizen I am. We must fight every law and every decision that does not make sense. Even if it does not affect us directly at all. We must also consider what each law would be like if taken to the extreme, as laws tend to get stronger and more extreme over time. Recently our state made it ILLEGAL to have a diving board on your pool that is on YOUR property. I fought against this law, even though I do not have a pool and dont know anyone else that has a pool. I fight against tobacco taxes and regulations even though I dont smoke. Anything that can stop the encroachment of big governent. This will keep our country from becoming like the others.

You dont think it can happen here? I know a man that was working on a project that required taking a photos of the outside of courthouses around the country. He was repeatedly harrassed. In one case he was surrounded by SWAT like police and held for questioning. All in the name of Der Fatherland Security, or whatever. Did I happen to mention that this man was a retired judge?

I am more concerned about the person that does NOT complain about the Govt. It means he either does not understand, or is a sheep.

Bob L

patton said on Monday July 6th, 2009 01:52:25 PM

One is also reminded of President Bush’s Utopian attempt to bring democracy to Iraq. There is a passage from a novel by David Ignatius about Middle East espionage, titled Agents of Innocence. It expresses the damning verdict of an Arab who had been working for the Americans. At first he thought the Americans had the toughness to persevere. He thought they were “cynical enough” to liberate the Arab world (and t hereby do something good).

The disillusioned Arab wrote to his handlers: “I was wrong. Americans are not hard men. Even the CIA has a soft heart. You want so much to achieve good and make the world better, but you do not have the stomach for it. And you do not know your limitations. You are innocence itself. You are the agents of innocence. That is why you make so much mischief.”