kamui

Once Upon a Time in Phuket / En gång i Phuket

 

Swedish 2011 relationship comedy. A middle class guy who lost the plot in his job and personal life goes to Phuket for a summer holiday. There he only meets other Swedish people.

Thai's don't exist at all except as silent, demure servants somewhere in the background.

 

An unintended study about Farangs traveling to the East who are completely stuck in their own extremely narrow comfort zone and who avoid any contact with Asia and Asians completely.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2082262/

 

It can be found at Piratebay

Was an interesting DVD...

 

Dreams From My Real Father

 

Frank Marshall Davis (1905-1987) was a Communist Party USA (CPUSA) propagandist in Chicago and Hawaii, as well as a writer and poet. The FBI had Davis under investigation or surveillance for 19 years, compiling a 600-page FBI file. He was on the FBI's 'Security Index A', meaning he would be arrested in the event of national emergency...

 

 

http://www.obamasrealfather.com/

 

 

Here is a review of the "documentary" by a birther.

Among others the "documentary" says that Obama had a nosejob for to look like his 'real' father.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcQmAcSfz58

 

Unless I'm mistaken, Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation, which includes what it spends on its students. I doubt if the lawmakers there are talking about increasing the amount spent on education, just re-apportioning the current amount that is spent. The best thing that a parent in Mississippi could do for the academic welfare of their child would be to move to another state. I would agree that television is used to much to pacify kids. My 4 year old cried when he thought I was getting rid of cable, including the Cartoon Network. Yes, I do take him to the library at least once a month to check out books to read. He and his mother go back to Thailand next summer and that will be the time to get rid of all cable in the house.

 

Education system in Mississippi:

 

In 2008, Mississippi was ranked last among the fifty states in academic achievement by the American Legislative Exchange Council's Report Card on Education, with the lowest average ACT scores and sixth lowest spending per pupil in the nation. In contrast, Mississippi had the 17th highest average SAT scores in the nation. According to the report, 92% of Mississippi high school graduates took the ACT and 3% took the SAT, in comparison to the national averages of 43% and 45%, respectively.

 

In 2007, Mississippi students scored the lowest of any state on the National Assessments of Educational Progress in both math and science.

 

Mississippi is currently ranked at the bottom of the American Human Development Index.

Wikipedia

Gun carrying man ends stabbing spree at Salt Lake grocery store

 

Must be an NRA nutter who should be locked up!

 

 

This doesn't seem to happen very often, otherwise the pro-gun lobby wouldn't ask for more guns after every mass killing.

On the other hand over 300 people are injured or killed by stray bulletts in the USA every year. More guns will of course make the worse (like during celebrations on Independence Day or New Year’s Eve)

 

http://www.youthtoda...article_id=5419

 

 

 

Strip Clubs in Tampa Are Ready to Cash In on G.O.P. Convention

 

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

TAMPA, Fla. — Over at the back door of the 2001 Odyssey, a limo-size tent with flaps — especially designed for discretion and camera-shy guests — is ready to go up. Déjà Vu is welcoming extra “talent†from around the country in its V.I.P. rooms.

 

And Thee DollHouse is all Americana: women plan to slip out of red, white and blue corsets and offer red, white and blue vodka. The headliner that week is expected to bear an uncanny resemblance to a certain ex-governor from a wilderness state, known for her strong jaw and devotion to guns and God.

 

“She’s a dead ringer for her,†said Warren Colazzo, co-owner of Thee DollHouse. “It’s just a really good gimmick to get publicity.â€

 

As Tampa gears up for the Republican National Convention, the biggest party it has ever held, the city and its businesses are primping and polishing for the August arrival of tens of thousands of visitors. Like it or not — mostly not, for city officials — Tampa’s well-known strip clubs have joined the welcome wagon.

 

Club owners here say they have schmoozed with their counterparts in former host cities, like Denver, and have been told that revenue pours in during conventions, sometimes quadrupling earnings from a Super Bowl week. As for party affiliation, this is one place where the country’s caustic partisan differences fall away, owners say.

 

 

Angelina Spencer, the executive director of the Association of Club Executives, which serves as a trade association for strip clubs, said an informal survey of convention business in New York and Denver had determined that Republicans dropped more money at clubs, by far.

 

“Hands down, it was Republicans,†she said. “The average was $150 for Republicans and $50 for Democrats.â€

 

As further evidence of the clubs’ nonpartisan appeal, Don Kleinhans, the owner of the 2001 Odyssey, said when the Promise Keepers, a male evangelical group, came to town years ago, business was rollicking.

 

“We had phenomenal numbers all weekend, and they walked in wearing badges and name tags and weren’t shy at all,†he said.

 

James Davis, a spokesman for the Republican National Convention, declined to discuss Tampa’s prominent strip clubs.

 

“We’re expecting to have a great convention,†Mr. Davis said. “We’re focused completely on having a great convention.â€

 

To be fair, Tampa is known for other things: cigars, Ybor City — the historic district where Cuban and Spanish cigar makers first settled in the late 1800s — three major sports franchises, four Super Bowls and beautiful beaches a short drive away. It is the Florida Gulf Coast’s economic engine and hosts a raucous pirate party every year called Gasparilla.

 

But Tampa cannot shed its national reputation as the strip club capital of the country. “It’s not true,†said Joe Redner, the owner of the renowned Mons Venus and a man famous for fending off local attempts to close his club. “It would be nice, though.â€

 

The Tampa Bay Times has reported there are 20 strip clubs in Tampa and 50 in the Tampa Bay area. Per capita, it ranks behind Las Vegas and Cincinnati. But it is hard to be sure because strip club statistics are squishy, at best, and per capita numbers vary in a tourist town. Tampa does not have as many strip clubs as New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston, New York and Las Vegas, owners said. Miami boasts quite a few, too.

 

Mr. Redner, who has repeatedly brandished the First Amendment, has been arrested 150 or so times and has run often for public office, may be one reason for the city’s reputation. Savvy and colorful, he took on the city in 2000 when it tried to cripple his club; instead, it bolstered his reputation. A Tampa councilman back then, Bob Buckhorn, who is now Tampa’s mayor, backed an ordinance to ban lap dances by keeping customers six feet away from dancers. The rule, intended to curb prostitution and drugs, passed but is mostly not enforced.

 

During that fight, Mr. Buckhorn recalls saying that he “did not want Tampa to become the lap dance capital of the country.†But the statement got truncated and twisted, like in a game of telephone, then repeated, most recently during the debate over gambling in Florida.

 

“We wanted Tampa to be a place where we were proud to call home,†said Mr. Buckhorn, a Democrat. “But we have grown so much bigger and moved beyond that small city we were. We don’t think about it anymore.â€

 

Yet he is not without a sense of humor. “I wonder whether the look-alike will be able to see Russia from the stage,†he asked, a question meant for the ex-governor’s doppelgänger.

 

The spaceship, a much-talked about private V.I.P. room perched atop the 2001 Odyssey like a wedding-cake embellishment, has also helped burnish Tampa’s louche label. It is white, oval, with round windows, a rare prefabricated Futuro house designed by the Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in the 1960s and 1970s.

 

“It was named one of the seven wonders of Tampa Bay,†said the Odyssey’s manager, Todd Trause. The provenance of that distinction is hard to decipher.

 

Inside, Jazmin, 19, prepared to live-chat on a webcam to a faraway customer, one of the club’s new features. She is also preparing for the convention. Given the opportunity to stand up before a politician, she will do her job, naturally, but also share her own tale of financial struggle, as many voters here would do.

 

Laid off from a job in the Medicaid billing industry, she scraped by as a cashier at a grocery store. The paycheck scarcely covered her car payments, she said. Then a friend of a friend told her about the strip club, and now there she is, saving her money (the most she’s ever made) for nursing school.

 

“With the economy,†she said, “it’s hard.â€

 

NYT

I turned the TV to a Public Broadcast station

and could not believe what the person was saying.

 

It appeared to be a 1 hour documentary in which the producer

claimed the USA was #1 in the world in manufacturing!

#1 in manufacturing goods - not #1 in manufacturing employees.

 

I think what the USA needs is for our citizens to become familiar with our country - civic pride.

 

Not anymore:

 

The crossing Mekong refers to near Soi 22 is particularly hairy - the traffic is often belting down Suk at that point, having just waited for 300 seconds at the dreadded Asok intersection. Dont even get me started on the kamikaze motorbike riders ......

 

Reading this I wonder how I managed to survive my last holiday, since my hotel was across Suk Road, opposite to the SC side.

double post

National Security Threat: Obama’s Birth Certificate Proven Fraudulent

 

One of the biggest cover-ups in U.S. political history

 

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s cold case posse has confirmed that President Barack Obama’s birth certificate is “definitely fraudulent,†prompting the media and political establishment to launch a frenzied spin campaign in an effort to deflect attention from the astounding new evidence uncovered by the investigation.

 

In addition to the deluge of previous evidence clearly proving Obama’s long form birth certificate had been tampered with, including the fact that when analyzed the document clearly shows that layered text has been added in artificially and that the scan of the document is not an original, Arpaio and his posse unearthed tantalizing new information.

 

The most stunning revelation is the fact that in numerous places, Obama’s birth certificate has had information added at a later date than the original...

 

http://www.infowars....ven-fraudulent/

 

You know where this is coming from, right? The right wing crazy _County_ Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

 

No wonder that this is at infowars....

 

 

 

So when is Obama going to release his student records? He loudly insists Romney must reveal his tax records, but he keeps his own life private. His behaviour causes one to wonder what he is hiding.

 

 

Yes indeed, we all know that a students writings are absolutely the same as hiding millions of USD in a time frame of 10-20 years in foreign PO Box companies with foreign bank accounts and thus rejecting to pay taxes as any middle and lower class citizens has to do. [/irony Off]

 

I guess to have a tax cheater in chief will be the ultimate win of the 1% and the corps.

 

By the way, the Bain attacks show that Obama has finally left the high ground. It seems that it took him a long time that he understood that dealing with the current GOP you'll have to make your hands dirty.

 

It seems that just in the past months Obama as learnt how to create narratives which put the GOP in defense mode (women rights, gay rights, immigration). Even though those topics are not that essential for the near future of the USA they dominated the news cycles.

 

Actually I do not like Obama's Bain attacks that much, but it seems that Obama is now playing by the rules the GOP did force on the Dems in previous elections:

swift boating opponents and opposition research for character assassination.

What is in his previous years tax returns? That alone will swade a few of the independents. Few like a public figure tax 'cheat'. And then the Swiss bank accounts and the money down there in the Cayman Islands.

 

Romney did only publish the tax return from 2010. He promised to publish 2011.

By now a considerable number of conservatives have asked Romney to publish at least 5-10 years of returns and to do it soon. I guess the GOP is already feeling or fearing the impact of this matter, since this give the Dems a strong line of attack - even though the Dems don't have any details, keywords like Cayman bank accounts and Swiss bank accounts might stick.

 

Funny fact: When McCain considered Romney as vice president Romney provided 23 years of tax returns. Of course McCain now says that Romney's financial information didn't matter at all that he chose Palin instead...

 

We'll see if Romney is able to change the narrative about this topic. Currently he seems vulnerable.

Smoke on the water in advert...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HakOOJF6sz8

 

He had been receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer since last August.

 

 

 

The survival rate for pancreatic cancer is like 5% or so. It's a terrible way to go...

Someone should introduce Tom to LOS, since he seems to like his ladies between 25 and 33. It would be a lot less expensive.

 

But LOS might be a little bit more dangerous for him, considering his wealth. :-)

The Swiftboaters were based on fact, though exaggerated. I met a Navy vet who served in the same unit as Kerry and confirmed some things. This may be too ... but too soon to know. Tells you what kind of a person Obama is, if he allows it. JWB caught flak over the swiftboaters. Obie should for this too. Also, he should realise that two can play the game. Is he up for it?

 

 

The interesting thing is, that Obama is using the GOP playbook from the GOP presidential nomination process.

 

And Obama is def. up for it. The right wingers + Fox and co. try to smear him since years.

The difference: The Bain stuff seems to play well for a large number of the electorate. While the racist anti Obama stuff is putting off the center and independents needed to win the election for both sides.

Is Obama swiftboating Romney?

Anyway, I have no pity with Romney and the GOP, since swiftboating comes straight from the GOP storybook, and different to the original swiftboating campaign which sunk John Kerry then, Obama's campaign seems to be based on some facts...

 

Bain barrage worries Republicans

By: Ginger Gibson

July 12, 2012 05:56 PM EDT

 

On the facts, nothing terribly new was added to the Bain equation by the Boston Globe story charging that Mitt Romney controlled the company for three years longer than he previously claimed. Several fact-checking organizations said the charges aren’t exactly breaking news and Romney’s denials have some validity.

 

The problem for the Romney campaign, when it comes to the Bain issue, is that things are reaching the point where the facts don’t really matter. The bigger problem is that the Bain cloud now hanging over the former Massachusetts governor is growing daily, and the Romney campaign still hasn’t found a compelling way to respond to what’s becoming the driving narrative, fairly or unfairly, of the 2012 campaign.

 

After the Globe reported that Romney formally led Bain longer than he’d previously acknowledged — an allegation that Team Romney adamantly contests — Republicans worried that their soon-to-be nominee hasn’t sufficiently answered numerous questions swirling around his Bain tenure.

 

(Also on POLITICO: Obama camp wages war over Bain 'cloud')

 

A senior Romney strategist said Thursday that the campaign had a plan and wouldn’t be distracted from implementing it, despite pressure from outsiders. The strategist called the new charges part of an old line of attack that had already been thoroughly aired.

 

“We went through this in the primary,†the adviser said. “You have a lot of people inside the Beltway, who like to sit back and be armchair quarterbacks, strategists who talk to you and don’t go on the record. We have a plan. We know what the plan is, and we’re going to implement the plan.â€

 

The adviser added: “We aren’t reacting to what the Obama campaign does. … We aren’t reacting to what Republican strategists do. We’ve got a plan to win. We know what it takes and that’s what we’re going to do. All of this hew and cry, you know, from the bedwetters who get to sit on the sidelines, aren’t going to affect what we’re going to do and our plan.â€

 

In many ways, the Globe story didn’t break a lot of new ground, as several truth squad reportspointed out. It simply renewed focus on the fact that Romney has always stated that he technically left Bain in 1999 to run the Salt Lake City Olympics, while maintaining legal and financial ties to the company that didn’t include actively managing its affairs or investments.

 

There was no evidence that the newest allegations had changed that, although Romney’s campaign sought a correction from the Globe, a move they’ve tried with similar stories at other publications in the past. The Globe stood by its story.

 

The campaign released its first television ad responding to the claims that Romney outsourced jobs on Thursday morning, which pointed to fact-checking reports and used a four-year old video of Hillary Clinton admonishing Obama during the primary.

 

Fortune published a story on Thursday afternoon detailing confidential reports from Bain that were “obtained†by the magazine and countered the Globe’s timeline. [Fortune belongs to Murdoch... ]

 

But Republicans warned that none of that would make Bain go away as a political issue.

 

“Mitt Romney had an opportunity to answer these questions during the primary,†said Rick Tyler, who ran the pro-Gingrich super PAC that spent millions attacking Romney on the Bain issue. “ He did not answer these questions and now they’re coming up again.â€

 

Tyler warned that the newest Bain twist has the potential to inflict real harm if Romney doesn’t start providing answers.

 

“I saw Andrea Saul’s robotic response, which was the same as it’s always been,†Tyler said, referring to Romney’s press secretary. “That doesn’t comport with documents that have his name on it after 1999 that list him as CEO who was making money off of transactions. If he wasn’t making money from Bain, then his tax returns from the period in question would reveal that.â€

 

Tyler said Romney needs to be frank and provide all the details necessary to explain his role in the company after 1999. He hypothesized that there could be more documents to come.

.....

http://www.politico....0712/78459.html

Okay, I left it. Now what happens?

 

 

Everthing went downhill in the USA since you left...

And what of the medical professions' salaries? Are they as high in as the USA? And does an organisation like the AMA exist that does all it can to keep more medical schools opening to produce doctors?

 

 

In Germany, some docs, like dentists, are extremely well paid, country doctors aren't doing that well.

We don't have medical school, medicine is taught at all major universities. You need an extremely good college degree for to study medicine, since there are far more students than university places...

 

Actually, we have two-tier system: self-employed and high earners are mostly privately insured. They get a better service (like single rooms in hospitals, much shorter waiting times at doctors, e.g.), but if they get older they have to pay very high premiums. All others are covered by health care providers whose prices and services are mostly fixed. Those providers cover all basic needs, including chronic illnesses, cancer ops, dentist, eg.. Only elaborate dentist work or similar stuff has to be paid separately.

 

Only around 200.000 people (among 100 million) are uninsured. Unemployed or poor retired people are covered by the state and receive the same health care as others. And we don't have higher premiums for pre-existing conditions... Bankruptcies because of exploding health care payments don't exist in Germany.

 

But of course not everything is fine. The health care industry is extremely powerful. Prices are going up, while service are going down. The health care industry prefers completely privately insured people, because they can ask for up to three time higher prices for standard services.

 

 

 

Just got back from watching “Savages†in a local theater. Was released last week. Best known names in the flick were Bencio del Toro, Salma Haydek, and John Travolta.

 

A little over 2 hours of mayhem and madness. The “Savages†are the members of a Mexican pot cartel, eager to move in on a couple of local Southern California dudes who grow some “primo†stuff and have cut into the Cartel’s biz. Haydek is the head of the Baja cartel and Travolta is a “wrong†DEA agent who has provided the local guys with protection (naturally, for a price).

 

Del Toro is a henchman for Haydek. He is a genuine sociopathic badass. He’s also a turncoat, deciding to give his loyalty to another cartel and ditching Salma. (Who could do such a thing?)

 

Anyway, dual kidnappings, killings, double-crosses, and blood, gun-fire, shootouts make this an entertaining flick for those who like this kind of shit. Don’t leave until the credits roll. A bit of a surprise ending.

 

BTW, for those who fell in love with Salma in her younger years, this one is gonna make you cry. GAWD, she looks "old" now. But still do-able for sure.

 

HH

 

I just read the original story "Savages" by Don Winslow. IMHO it is by far not his best book.

You're right and wrong. Nobody pays a "TAX" if they already have health insurance. But even those who do have or buy insurance, are "taxed/penalized" via increased premiums.

 

You can't dance around that.

 

HH

 

Strange, in Europe health care is comparably cheap, because all people are insured. This should be possible in the USA as well if millions more would join health care.

Presidential canditate Romny booed during speech at NAACP today.

 

Boo came when candidate Romney stated he would do away with current health care.

 

I guess the NAACP audience especially didn't like that Romny used the GOP speech of "Obamacare". They might have seen it as a double attack...

Not really true, in that those who have their own private insurance have already seen their premiums increase and they will continue to increase. As for those who are tied to Medicare, while benefits may not decrease, the premiums will increase. So the middle class gets it in the ass by Obamacare. All of this shit cuz maybe 15% of the population doesn't have health insurance. Lots of reasons for that. In the meantime, lots of luck finding a doctor who will accept Medicare and these "exchange" policies. Many already do not accept those patients and even more limit the number of patients they see who are so covered. Obama doesn't give a shit. He and his socialist fucksticks don't have a clue what they are doing. Well, maybe they do. Put em all up against the wall. Obama has told so many lies and half-truths about his "signature" legislation, that it's tough to keep up. A couple of them are addrssed in the first 2 sentences above.

 

HH

 

I guess everybody knows that the US health care system is completely fucked up. You pay more than any European citizen while in Texas alone around 25% are uninsured. I have read that 1/3 of the bankruptcies in middle class families are caused by exploding health care costs.

 

I guess you have the health care system you deserve, because of your "each on his own policy" and because you let the health care industry let run the show. This policy doesn't work in health care. I's like being forced to pay for your own policemen or firefighter for your house...

This is for ChocSteve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtJF3veLzko

Hi,

 

 

 

Wonder if this was based on the comic of the same name.

Will keep an eye out for this as I rather like the comics.

 

Sanuk!

 

Yep, it's base on the french comic. First watch part one, if I remember right, it's close the original plot(s).

http://goo.gl/0k6nD