WannaGo

Jimmy Carter: Wilson comments 'based on racism' By GREG BLUESTEIN (AP) – 19 hours ago ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst to President Barack Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act "based on racism" and rooted in fears of a black president. "I think it's based on racism," Carter said at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president." The Georgia Democrat said the outburst was a part of a disturbing trend directed at the president that has included demonstrators equating Obama to Nazi leaders. "Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care," he said. "It's deeper than that." Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, was formally rebuked Tuesday in a House vote for shouting "You lie!" during Obama's speech to Congress last Wednesday. The shout came after the president commented that illegal aliens would be ineligible for federal subsidies to buy health insurance. Republicans expressed their disbelief with sounds of disapproval, punctuated by Wilson's outburst. Tuesday's rebuke was a rare resolution of disapproval pushed through by Democrats who insisted that Wilson had violated basic rules of decorum and civility. Republicans characterized the measure as a witch hunt and Wilson, who had already apologized to Obama, insisted he owed the House no apology. Wilson's spokesman was not immediately available for comment, but his eldest son defended his father. "There is not a racist bone in my dad's body," said Alan Wilson, an Iraq veteran who is running for state attorney general. "He doesn't even laugh at distasteful jokes. I won't comment on former President Carter, because I don't know President Carter. But I know my dad, and it's just not in him." "It's unfortunate people make that jump. People can disagree — and appropriately disagree — on issues of substance, but when they make the jump to race it's absolutely ludicrous. My brothers and I were raised by our parents to respect everyone regardless of background or race." South Carolina's former Democratic Party chairman said that he doesn't believe Wilson was motivated by racism, but said the outburst encouraged racist views. "I think Joe's conduct was asinine, but I think it would be asinine no matter what the color of the president," said Dick Harpootlian, who has known Wilson for decades. "I don't think Joe's outburst was caused by President Obama being African-American. I think it was caused by no filter being between his brain and his mouth." Harpootlian said he received scores of racial e-mails from outside South Carolina after he talked about the vote on Fox News. "You have a bunch of folks out there looking for some comfort in their racial issues. They have a problem with an African-American president," he said. "But was he motivated by that? I don't think so. I respectfully disagree with President Carter, though it gives validity to racism." Carter called Wilson's comment "dastardly" and an aftershock of racist views that have permeated American politics for decades. "The president is not only the head of government, he is the head of state," he said. "And no matter who he is or how much we disagree with his policies, the president should be treated with respect."

Good luck controlling baggage theft. I worked three years at the Miami airport and it seemed like no matter what the airlines, airport police and customs people did, someone always figured out a way to steal from luggage. Or, worse, to put cocaine and whatever else into luggage to forward it around the country. There are just too many people and trucks criss-crossing the tarmac to be able to track everything that goes in and out. Smoker: My first time at Charles De Gaul was in the summer of 2001. Apparently, someone had left a bag unattended and even before 9/11, the police were pretty vigilant about that. I was clearing customs when they used one of those robots to detonate the bag just outside the customs area. I guess they'd made an announcement in French, but I didn't understand it, so it scared the crap out of me when that explosion went off. Once I cleared and passed into the terminal, there were little bits of clothing scattered everywhere. It was an interesting welcome to France.

Have those of you who live there had any reason to be concerned about your safety during the political unrest of the last few years?

I consider myself reasonably computer literate, but I have been having a helluva time with the concept of browser hijacks. If you've ever had one of these, you know it's some kind of virus that takes over your Internet browser and automatically redirects you to a spam page that you can't get out of. If you click on anything on the spam page, you just end up downloading more malware. I keep having trouble with one called VirusDoctor. It takes me a page that supposedly runs a scan on my computer, finds viruses, then says I have to download their program in order to secure my computer. This, despite the fact that I run AVG anti-virus in real time, and regularly run Ad Aware scans and CCleaner wipes. When it happens, none of the malware or anti-virus programs seem to be able to detect it, although I'm going to try Malwarebytes the next time. I just don't understand how this virus even gets control of my browser. I use the latest update of Firefox, which is supposed to be reasonably secure, and I don't visit shady websites and never click on unknown links. What's odd is that it only happens two places: when I click links to news stories on newspaper websites, and when I'm playing the Gang Wars game app in Facebook. I'd love to hear from anyone who's had experience with this problem.

If I did the conversion properly 75,000 baht is about $2,200 a month. If there's not really much work a foreigner can do, and you don't have a good retirement package, you're right, the idea of living there doesn't seem too feasible. What about a foreigner with some kind of Internet-based business selling products or services to people outside Thailand? I wonder if the Thai government would still consider that working in Thailand if you were based there and performed the work there, but the customer was somewhere else. That may bear some looking into. Doesn't seem like it would take much to generate the income mentioned above by selling on eBay or something. If you had someone in the States or elsewhere to handle logistics and you handled the business end from Thailand (and were allowed to do so), that might be a viable way of living and "working" there. What do you guys think?

Ha! I saw the Songkran videos. That looks like a blast! Although, if I was riding a scooter and someone suddenly threw water in my face and made me crash, I might be a little peeved. But still...it's very cool that you can have a holiday where people are so carefree and just having fun. And from what I could tell in the reading I did, the tossing of the water is actually supposed to represent bestowing a blessing and providing cleansing, so it's done in a good spirit. That's amazing. Try something like that in the States and it would turn into an ugly brawl or some kind of sexual assault. When I go, I may have to time it so I can visit in April. Thanks for telling us about this!

I use fish sauce sparingly. Matter of fact, I've been working on the same bottle in my fridge for several months now and should probably throw it out and buy another one. I love fish and all sorts of seafood, but have always found the strong odor of fish off-putting. Fish sauce is a nice addition to recipes, but definitely don't think I could use it as a condiment. On the other hand, I use Worcesterhire sauce almost on a daily basis and had no idea about the anchovies. Thanks for pointing that out. Typically, I use it to make marinades. Half Worcestershire, half soy sauce, a little hot chili oil and a splash of lemon juice. Marinate chicken in that overnight, then grill the chicken. Very, very good. Recently switched from Lea & Perrin's to Heinz Worcestershire when I discovered that the Heinz tastes the same at 2/3 the cost. One of my personal favorite sauces is peanut sauce, but I keep hearing that is not a Thai dish at all, even though you get it at Thai restaurants in the States. Is this true?

So far, I'm not crazy about the health care legislation that Max Baucus has proposed. No public option, which I thought was a great thing to include, a requirement that everyone who buys insurance through the exchange first be cleared by Homeland Security to make sure they aren't in the country illegally (meaning that DHS will able to track who has what kind of health care coverage...a little unsettling), and stupidest of all, fines for those who don't buy health care. Yes, let's take those people who can't afford health care and make them pay even more money they don't already have. Supposedly, the bill contains provisions that will exempt those who can't afford insurance from the fines, but I can already see the exemption process becoming a bureaucratic nightmare. Besides, why should the burden be on the public to prove to the government how poor they are? The Republicans, with their scare tactics, outright lies and distortions and town hall astroturfing, have just plain hijacked health care reform and gotten it so twisted around that we will not see any meaningful POSITIVE change in the near future. I bet there are a lot of very happy insurance company lobbyists right now -- and some Republica legislators enjoying some nice expensive perks, courtesy of those lobbyists. Oh, and there's also this little gem in the plan: Is it just me, or are these insurance companies, drug makers, labs, etc. not just going to turn around and pass all these fees right along to all of us, raising premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. That's just the normal course of business -- costs are passed on to the consumer. And nothing I've seen so far indicates that the bill would prohibit them from doing that. For what it's worth, I don't think we're going to tame our health care costs until we see a fundamental shift in the way we view the entire healthcare profession. We have to stop looking at it as a business and stop encouraging people to become doctors and researchers as a way to make a lot of money. Instead, we have to start shaping healthcare as a calling, so that people go into it for the same reasons they become clerics or firefighters or schoolteachers.

Smoker: This is interesting. Supports what you were saying. Swine flu death rate similar to seasonal flu: expert By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The death rate from the pandemic H1N1 swine flu is likely lower than earlier estimates, an expert in infectious diseases said on Wednesday. New estimates suggest that the death rate compares to a moderate year of seasonal influenza, said Dr Marc Lipsitch of Harvard University. "It's mildest in kids. That's one of the really good pieces of news in this pandemic," Lipsitch told a meeting of flu experts being held by the U.S. Institute of Medicine. "Barring any changes in the virus, I think we can say we are in a category 1 pandemic. This has not become clear until fairly recently." The Pandemic Severity Index set by the U.S. government has five categories of pandemic, with a category 1 being comparable to a seasonal flu epidemic. Seasonal flu has a death rate of less than 0.1 percent -- but still manages to kill 250,000 to 500,000 people globally every year. A category 5 pandemic would compare to the 1918 flu pandemic, which had an estimated death rate of 2 percent or more, and would kill tens of million of people. Lipsitch took information from around the world on how many people had reported they had influenza-like illness, which may or may not actually be influenza; government reports of actual hospitalizations and confirmed deaths. He came up with a range of mortality from swine flu, from 0.007 percent to 0.045 percent. Either way, having new information about how many people were infected and did not become severely ill or die makes the pandemic look very mild, he said. "The news is certainly better than it was in May and even better than it was at the beginning of August," Lipsitch said. H1N1 swine flu was declared a pandemic in June after flashing around the world in six weeks. Experts all said a true death rate would not be clear for weeks because it is impossible to test every patient and because people with mild cases may never be diagnosed. This lack of information made the epidemics in various countries and cities look worse at first than they actually were, Lipsitch said. People sick enough to be hospitalized are almost always tested first. "Yes, there's been hype, but I don't think it's been an outrageous amount of hype," Lipsitch said. Seasonal flu is usually far worse among the elderly, who make up 90 percent of the deaths every year. In contrast, this flu is attacking younger adults and older children, but they are not dying of it at the same rate as the elderly, Lipsitch said.

What kind of work is there for foreigners without a degree? Anything that would pay enough to live there for a little while?

Saw this in the LA Times, thought it was interesting... Hollywood producers are guilty of bribing Thai official By Ben Fritz September 15, 2009 Hollywood may be in for tighter government scrutiny of its overseas operations. Producers Gerald and Patricia Green were found guilty late Friday on charges of bribery and money laundering related to their running of a local film festival in Thailand, a decision that experts say could lead to further investigation into the huge amounts of business film studios do overseas. The two were convicted of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, eight counts of violating the act and seven counts of money laundering. In addition, Patricia Green was found guilty on two counts of falsifying U.S. tax returns related to the bribes. The jury was unable to reach a decision on an obstruction-of-justice charge against Gerald Green, and the government agreed to drop it. The trial lasted two and a half weeks; jury deliberations took one day. Under federal guidelines, Gerald Green, 77, and his wife, Patricia, 52, could each face more than 10 years in prison when they are sentenced in December, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Bruce H. Searby, who prosecuted the case. According to the U.S. government, the Greens paid bribes of $1.8 million to then-Tourism Authority of Thailand Gov. Juthamas Siriwan in order to run the Bangkok International Film Festival and secure two other contracts related to tourism. The contracts were worth more than $13.5 million, prosecutors said. "There were a series of different projects and opportunities for the governor and the Greens to make a lot of money," Searby said. "They would build the Greens' profit and bribes to the governor into the contracts." Thai officials closely followed the Greens' case and may use some of the U.S. government's findings to prosecute Siriwan, Searby said. The couple worked on the festival in 2003 and operated it from 2004 through 2006. Through connections made in that process, Gerald Green became an executive producer on the 2006 film "Rescue Dawn," which was shot in Thailand. He previously produced the 1986 Oliver Stone film "Salvador" and the 1976 film "Foxtrot," starring Peter O'Toole. Gerald and Patricia Green's attorneys both said they were disappointed by the verdict and were preparing to appeal. "It's a case of circumstantial evidence," said Marilyn Bednarski, who represented Patricia Green. She added that "the people of Thailand were not victimized in any way" because the Greens provided "top-notch services" for the film festival. Jerome Mooney, Gerald Green's lawyer, said he thought the case was a warning. "We understand the government was taking a shot across the bow of Hollywood," Mooney said. "We just wish the shell hadn't landed on our clients' boat." The prosecution of the Greens, which started in 2007, is the first criminal FCPA case brought by the government against film producers. James Tillen, an attorney at Washington law firm Miller & Chevalier who has worked on many foreign corruption cases, said one case in a certain field is typically followed by more. "Once the [Department of Justice] learns the ins and outs of a particular industry and knows where the FCPA risks are, they're more likely to keep their eyes peeled and go after others in the future," he said. Hollywood is particularly at risk for such prosecution, he added, because many overseas productions and distribution deals are done on a tight timeline, with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, so bribes to foreign officials can be considered a cost of business. Such legal violations can be very costly. In FCPA cases, Tillen said, all profits from the project can be confiscated, regardless of the size of the bribe.

I was curious so I went and looked it up. I had no idea just how organized Buddhism is in Thailand. One of you guys who lives there correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like the organization that controls the monasteries is known as the sangha, and the government also has some control over Buddhism through the Department of Religious affairs. Apparently, the government even builds temples and provides some supplies to the monks.

Big events for me were joining the Army and going to the Persian Gulf (for the first one), moving to a big city (Miami) by myself, far away from anyone I knew, and hitting 30 several years ago. Now 40 is right around the corner, and I'm feeling the dread BIG time. Big events in my future: Finally saving enough that I can take some time off and do the traveling I want to do. My plan is to do Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan), then Australia and New Zealand, and then off to Central America. What is this splashing you guys are talking about?

Talking about Thai food made me a little curious about how healthy it is (especially since I often like trying to cook it for myself). Like I suspected, Thai food is actually really good for you. Turmeric (the yellow herb that colors and flavors yellow curry) and lemongrass, which is used in many recipes, both have anti-inflammatory properties, according to US-government funded studies and a university study in Brazil. Controlling inflammation is one of the keys to reducing heart disease. CNN had an article several years ago that Tom Yum Gung soup (hot and sour soup), which has shrimp and lemongrass, may have some properties that actually fight cancer. That is very cool, because I love this soup. Galangal (Thai ginger) also is supposed to help with digestion and is used as a treatment for nausea, just like regular ginger. I've never used galangal in my cooking because I always just use regular ginger instead, but I guess I'll have to try it. Apparently you can get it in the States at Asian markets. (Side note: I live in a smaller town in Florida right now. This morning, in the local paper, a guy commenting on one of the news stories was complaining about all the Asian restaurants here. Can you believe that? What a tool.) Supposedly, coconut milk, which goes into a lot of the curry dishes and deserts, has some healthy properties, such as boosting good cholesterol, but I couldn't find anything definitive about that. The only reliable source I found was a registered dietician on WebMD who recommended using lite coconut milk because the regular stuff is so high in fat. Also found something that said the chilies used in Thai food are supposed to help you sleep better. Anybody know anything about that? By the way, found some cool Thai recipes on the University of Hawaii website.

Thaimo, wow, small world. You'd be surprised how little has changed down around Wakulla Springs. And I like it that way. I've lived and visited all over Florida, even spent a couple of years living right on the beach, and Wakulla Springs is still my favorite natural place in the entire state. I love the park, and the springs with the mastodon bones, and the river. I'll never forget it was the first place I ever saw an alligator up close. You're right about some good food down there. One of my favorites is the little no-name place by the dock in Econfina State Park. They've got some great fish and you can eat on the deck right there by the blackwater river. A lot of the old places around Crawfordville/Panacea are still there. Outz's burned down and Posey's got flooded by a tropical storm, but they both rebuilt. That's cool that you can get food in Thailand that's similar. Do you live there full-time?

All we have to do is post about anything, and for every 500 posts we get a shot at a trip to Thailand??? I'm in. I can run my "mouth" all day long.

So I'm saving for a trip in the next few years. I'd like to be able to stay at least a month. Do you think $5,000 would do it for airfare, place to stay, food, in-country travel, entertainment, the whole bit?

A couple of weeks ago, I made some curry chicken at home with Thai Kitchen green curry paste, some fish sauce, coconut milk and green peas. It was pretty good, but I think I overdid it with the fish sauce because the taste of it kind of overwhelmed everything else. Served it over rice, which is what I do with just about everything. Growing up on my stepmom's Japanese cooking, it kind of became second nature to have rice with every meal. Since I live in a smaller town, we don't have any good Thai restaurants, but if you ever get to Tallahassee, the state capital of Florida, you should check out Bahn Thai. It's a little hole-in-the-wall place just down Monroe Street from the Capitol building. Sue, the owner, is from Thailand and is a great cook. A tough little lady, too. A few years ago, some guy tried to hold her up and take the restaurant's receipts. She fought with him and he tried to shoot her...but the bullet hit the bank bag and didn't penetrate.

Where do the monks get the money for this? Is it all donations to local temples, or do they have a more organized system like the Catholic church?

I did some martial arts training growing up and thought I knew a thing or two until I trained a little with a German guy who was a Muay Thai champion in Europe. He kicked me so hard with his shins that I couldn't walk right for a week. His elbow strikes were nearly as bad, even though I was holding up pads. And this wasn't even a guy who'd been training Muay Thai since he was a kid, like the Thai fighters. That's when I developed a whole new level of respect for Thai boxing. And a few years later, fighters begin to combine Muay Thai and the relatively new Brazilian jiu-jitsu to revolutionize ordinary martial arts into MMA (mixed martial arts). Organizations like the UFC wouldn't be anywhere that they are today without the importation of Muay Thai. Like I mentioned on another thread, it's awfully tourist-y of me, but I sooo want to go to Lumpini Stadium to see some traditional Thai boxing one of these days.

This seems odd to me...seems like a virus would spread faster in the population centers. Thailand's swine flu death toll reaches 130 Associated Press Thailand's health authorities say the country's death toll from swine flu has reached 130 after 11 new fatalities. The Public Health Ministry says more than 3 million people have been infected with the virus. A Wednesday statement says that figure includes those who have recovered or did not show any symptoms. The ministry's Deputy Permanent Secretary Paijit Warachit says six of the 11 new fatalities were women and the rest men. The disease's victims have increasingly been found in rural provinces. Initials cases were clustered in the capital Bangkok. The Government Pharmaceutical Organization says it will start distributing a vaccine for the virus in December.

Smoker, isn't it funny how middle and lower-income people, especially in the South, are the strongest part of the Republican base, even though they're the ones that Republican policies screw over the most? I live in Florida in a bright red county filled with people who would benefit from the things Obama is trying to do, yet they parrot everything Fox News tells them to say.

Expat, I'm with you. I think this health care debacle may do Obama in, and that is a damn shame. He has so much work to do to unfuck the nation from the Bush years, and he has so much great potential that it frustrates the hell out of me that he's put it all on the line with this over-ambitious health care plan. Hasn't he ever heard that old cliche about not putting all your eggs in one basket? Why did he have to try to do so much at one time? This has now become a do-or-die situation. He would have been so much better off trying to take on health care in small, more manageable steps. I think he got some crappy advice from his counselors.

Hi, I'm a n00b, too...and have never been to Thailand. It's one of the places on my list to visit in the next 5 years (Costa Rica and New Zealand are two others). My stepmother was Japanese and introduced a lot of that culture into your house, so I've always been fascinated with Asia. I'm interested in Thailand especially because it seems more free-wheeling than Japan and less polluted and restricted than China. Plus, the country is just so damn beautiful. I mean every time I see pictures of it, it's like a hundred shades of green. And, I'm a little embarrassed to admit, I want to do all the tourist things...see the Buddhist temples, see the villages where they use the elephants to work, go to Lumpini Stadium to see the fights. Who knows, maybe I'll even get lucky enough to live there for a little while.