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The following appears in THE NATION: _____ Prices Hit 10-Year High By Petchanet Pratruangkrai The Nation Published on July 2, 2008 Inflation at 8.9% in June; Possibility of 7% Rate for the Whole Year Consumer prices hit a 10-year high of 8.9 per cent last month, heightening anticipation the monetary authorities will soon take interest rates off cruise control and shift up a gear to dampen inflation expectations. The Commerce Ministry said escalating oil prices helped push last month's inflation up to a level not seen since June 1998. With the world oil price pegged to soar to US$150 (Bt5,000) per barrel, the ministry has revised its oil-price base for inflation calculations from $105 a barrel to between $120 and $125. "The ministry expects the average oil price will be $142 a barrel in the remaining months, which would drive inflation to 7 per cent for the year," deputy permanent secretary Pairoa Sudsawarng said yesterday. Inflation in the first half shot up to 6.3 per cent, exceeding the ministry's whole-year target of 5.5 per cent. "Inflation in June surpassed our expectations and market consensus only to firm up the chances for a policy rate outcome of a 50-basis-point hike when the Monetary Policy Committee meets mid-July," Jun Trinidad of Citigroup wrote in a report entitled "Thailand Economic Flash". "We believe policy-makers may want to start rushing the adjustments to the policy-rate setting in view of the accelerating inflation momentum. Core inflation in June crossed 3.5 per cent, the high end of the Bank of Thailand's annual core-target range, a first since the Bank of Thailand adapted the inflation-targeting programme." However, the Commerce Ministry remains optimistic the oil-price spurt may have run out of gas and that oil prices will not rise as expected in the remaining months, so it has left its annual target unchanged at 5.5 per cent for the year. Oil prices averaged $103.80 a barrel in the first half, peaking at $136.50 late last month, compared with $65.70 in June 2007. Pairoa said last month's high inflation rate was acceptable for the economy and in academic terms, because it was due mainly to the skyrocketing oil price, which affected all other countries. In May, inflation peaked at 25.2 per cent in Vietnam, 10.4 per cent in Indonesia, 9.6 per cent in the Philippines, 8.2 per cent in India, 7.7 per cent in China, 7.5 per cent in Singapore and 3.8 per cent in Malaysia. However, the heat-up in inflation may suffocate consumer sentiment as the cost of living goes up, but incomes remain stagnant, she said. Prices of food and beverages increased 11.4 per cent last month, with flour jumping 35.8 per cent, pork 31.6 per cent and eggs and dairy products 11.1 per cent year on year. Non-food and beverage prices increased 7.2 per cent, largely from the oil price increasing 44.7 per cent and transportation and communications costs rising 16.8 per cent. Last month's core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, increased 3.6 per cent year on year and 0.9 percentage point from May. Core inflation in the first six months of the year was 2.2 per cent.

The following appears in THE NATION: _____ 3 Airlines Cut Routes to Save Costs By Suchat Sritama The Nation Published on July 2, 2008 Three low-cost airlines - Nok Air, One-Two-Go and Thai AirAsia - have cut and rescheduled flights in response to record-high jet fuel prices. Effective yesterday, Nok Air cut three domestic routes - Bangkok-Chiang Rai, Bangkok-Ubon Ratchathani and Bangkok-Krabi. It is also considering reducing its 21 flights a week to Phuket. Affected travellers are being transferred to Thai Airways International and Thai AirAsia. The domestic route changes followed the cancellation of its international Bangkok-Bangalore and Bangkok-Hanoi flights. "We're losing money," an airline representative said, who declined to confirm if losses were as high as Bt1 billion as had been reported. The reports have fuelled expectations that the airline would be shut down soon. Meanwhile, One-Two-Go has cut the number of Bangkok-Chiang Mai and Bangkok-Phuket flights from 28 per week to 21, starting yesterday. The flight frequency to Hat Yai has also been cut by half to seven, while those to Chiang Rai and Nakhon Si Thammarat are down from seven to two flights per week. The daily flight to Surat Thani is to continue. Thai AirAsia has cancelled the weekly flight to Xiamen, China, due to lack of passengers. Tassapon Bijleveld, chief executive officer of Thai AirAsia, said operating costs had jumped from 30 per cent to 50 per cent due to spiking oil prices. "However, we have no further plans to reduce or cut more flights," he said. The airline planned to add more international routes from Bangkok to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China, within the next two or three months. It is also studying scheduling flights to Bali. The airline recently started flights to Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City. Thai AirAsia has increased its flights to Phuket and Chiang Mai. The airline expected the number of passengers to reach 4.6 million this year, a 25-per-cent growth rate. To survive the lower passenger traffic due to higher travelling costs, the airline has approached 15 corporate clients to encourage more business travel. To boost loyalty, the airline has launched a programme paying up to Bt1,800 to compensate passengers whose flights are delayed more than three hours.

Those bagels are made by Continental Bakery. They may not be the same quality as you will find in mid-town Manhattan, but considering what is available in Thailand they're pretty good. Villa Market also carries frozen Lender's Bagels.

As if Sunee Plaza hasn't had enough troubles lately, now a bizarre shooting has occurred. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt. The following appears in PATTAYA ONE: See http://www.pattayaone.net/news_01_07_51_4.html for photos _____ Woman Shot Following Argument over Sunnee Plaza Bars In the early hours of Monday Morning, Police Lieutenant Colonel Sawai made his way to the front of the Car Park of the Yensabai Condotel in South Pattaya to investigate the aftermath of a shooting incident which injured a 23 year old woman. The injured woman was taken to the Pattaya Memorial Hospital by her brother, Khun Tanapon aged 29 who explained to Police that the two were sitting and drinking on the side of the road when a man known only as ”Hua” approached the brother and suggested he was taking care of bars in the Sunnee Plaza area. A verbal argument between the two men took place and Mr. Hua left the scene and returned with a gun. It is thought that he mistakenly shot the woman who was sitting next to her Brother. She was taken to Hospital with a leg wound and Police are now searching for the shooter who remains at large.

You need bigger bags . . .

"I love America. I love all the rights and freedom we used to have." - George Carlin (RIP)

On the face of it, the whole thing seems like a horrendous miscarriage of justice to me. I would like more details, though, before forming my own opinion. Two things in favor of the USA position, as I see it, are the fact that the USA officials who sent him on to Jordan had no way of knowing he would then be turned over to Syria and end up tortured, if indeed that really happened. Also, nothing in the article specifies the reasons why he was sent on to Jordan and why the Jordanian officials turned him over to Syria. If he was tortured in Syria, why? What did the Syrian officials want from him? Why did they torture him? What had he done or was suspected of having done? Why did they eventually release him? How did he hire an American lawyer to represent him? Wouldn't he have had to enter the USA to do that? If yes, then why would he be detained and sent to Jordan in one instance, and then allowed to enter the USA later? I'm no lawyer, but my personal logic tells me that if he was technically not on US soil, then how can it be justified that he was seized by US officials while in transit? Also, since he was held for several days, wasn't he held on US soil? Wasn't he on US soil when the actual decision was made to send him to Jordan? What bothers me is not so much that a decision was made to send him back to Jordan, but the fact that the US courts ruled that they won't even hear the case. Again, I'm no lawyer. If anyone reading this happens to be a lawyer, I would like to know your opinion. Do you agree with the court's ruling? This whole thing is now on my "I Don't Get It" list.

I don't know where you can get them, or even if you can get them in Thailand, but I would think your best shot at it would be at the Paragon, in Bangkok. What about that same Thai lady you had dinner with? If she's flying back and forth to LA, maybe you can get her to bring some for you.

bump

I have not tried it. That's because every report I've heard about it, to put it as gently as possible, was less than positive.

I was doing some web surfing this morning and happened upon a web site I think many of you will find interesting. Check it out: http://www.thailandvideos.net

It's hard to say. If they consider the photos pornographic, then you could have a problem. If they think any of the photos are of anyone under-age, then you could have a problem. Even if the photos are acceptable to them, you could still wind up on some kind of a shit list or subjected to humiliating questioning. Maybe you ought to be one of the people who Email's the photos to himself and wipes them from the computer or just wipe them and forget about them.

Here is the text of the PATTAYA ONE story. See ReneThai's link above for photos. The article says two boys were arrested, but looking at the photos, it sure looks like more than just two boys to me. Anyway, here's the article: _____ Sunee Plaza Underage Bar Workers Detained Following Police Raid Soi Sunee Plaza in South Pattaya is an area notorious for underage male bar workers who will sell themselves to foreign patrons, many of which are fully aware that they are employing the services of minors. Police and District officials are constantly raiding bars in the area and on Friday Night a further raid took place. This time, Police Lieutenant Colonel Chockchai, the Deputy Chief of the Crimes against Child and Women Division based at Chonburi Police Headquarters conducted a raid of the Villa Rouge Bar. Two boys aged 14 and 15 were found to be working inside and they, along with the nominated manager for the night, Khun Samat aged 19 were taken to Pattaya Police Station. A full report of the incident will be sent to the Banglamung District Licensing Unit who may decide to impose a temporary or permanent closure order on the bar.

The problem is a few bars that flagrantly violate the laws and regulations. Some of these bars hire many under-age boys. Some have boys who they know are on drugs, likely buying and selling too. Some bars put on illegal sex shows. Fortunately it is only a very few bars that do this. You don't have a problem even if you are in one of these bars if a raid occurs. The police are not after you unless you're a pedophile. They're after the bars that continue to flout the law. If the bars won't put an end to it, these raids will continue to occur. But you do not have to worry about being arrested.

I don't understand why you told them that. Why didn't you just say you don't have those sorts of things with you? It would be the truth. Why volunteer anything else? It's one thing to be searched, but why do their job for them? The part I don't get is what these searches are supposed to reveal in the first place. I would think that anyone who is knowingly carrying illegal files in their computer, illegal photos, or whatever else, would simply Email those files to themselves or place them on some sort of a storage web site and retrieve them later upon entering the USA or any other country. That way, those kinds of files wouldn't even be on the computer at all. If they were really concerned that a thorough search could reveal files that were deleted, I would think after finding some way to get those files later, via an Email download or something, they would just buy a new hard drive and shit-can the old one before traveling.

Whenever I go to an ATM, I always make sure there are plenty of other people in close proximity. I don't know whether that is a deterrent of whether I have just been lucky, but so far I have never had anything happen to me. To my way of thinking, not that it can't happen, but the odds are far more in my favor that someone won't point a gun in my face when there are many other people right there than if there was nobody else there. I also try to avoid using an ATM at night. Still, with so many kids on these goddamned drugs, you never know how crazy they might be. I'd rather use a drive-up ATM, but so far in Thailand I've never seen any.

I was just informed that the police raided the Villa Rouge bar (formerly known as Kaos) last night. The bar had only recently reopened after being closed by the police during the last raid. I was not in Sunee last night, so I have no details yet. All I know, so far, is that a raid took place. I don't know if other bars were also raided and I don't know if Villa Rouge was shut down yet again. If anyone else has the details and can post them before I am able to get the details, please do.

I don't know if this helps anything, but those of you concerned about seating might want to have a look at the following web site: http://www.seatguru.com

As long as you're happy with it, that's fine. I see no reason why you should have to explain or justify yourself to anyone.

I can't help you in Bangkok, but if you come down to Pattaya I'll be glad to help you here, at least as far as showing you around and the gay scene. However, I may be much older, but I am definitely not the submissive man you want. You're on your own as far as that goes.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/42186.html _____ McClatchy Washington Bureau Posted on Wed, Jun. 25, 2008 U.S. Border Agents Copying Contents of Travelers' Laptops Federica Narancio | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — U.S. border agents are copying and seizing the contents of laptops, cell phones and digital cameras from U.S. and foreign travelers entering the United States, witnesses told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday. The extent of this practice is unknown despite requests to the Department of Homeland Security from the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution and several nonprofit agencies. The department also declined to send a representative to the hearing. Subcommittee Chairman Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said Homeland Security had told him that its "preferred" witness was unavailable Wednesday. Feingold added that he'd submitted written questions about the seizures of electronic data — and of some devices — to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in April. To date, Feingold said, he's gotten no reply. Chertoff's department provided a written statement that said it wasn't its intention to infringe on Americans' privacy but to protect the country from terrorists and criminals, whose electronic devices can reveal incriminating materials. During border searches of laptops, according to the statement, the department's Customs and Border Protection officers have found "jihadist material, information about cyanide and nuclear material, video clips of improvised explosive devices being exploded, pictures of various high-level al Qaida officials and other material associated with people seeking to do harm to U.S. and its citizens." Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, signed the statement. Some witnesses noted that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had ruled in a recent child-pornography case that federal agents could seize a laptop computer at the border without reasonable suspicion that its owner was engaged in unlawful activities. However, several witnesses said that the ruling, by the most liberal of U.S. appeals courts, didn't end their concerns about Homeland Security's refusal to explain the standards for its searches, how it protects privacy, how the seized material is used and who can see or use it. Three nonprofits — the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Asian Law Caucus and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives — filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year seeking Homeland Security's answers to those questions. They've gotten none thus far. They and other groups consider seizures made without probable cause to be an invasion of privacy that leaves the door open to ethnic and racial profiling. Farhana Khera, the president of Muslim Advocates, a San Francisco nonprofit, said they'd received complaints from Muslim, Arab and South Asian Americans. She said they also had been questioned about their political, religious and personal views. Retaining confidential computer files also worries business travelers and companies, said Susan Gurley, the executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, an international group based in Alexandria, Va.. Her organization surveyed its 2,500 members in February, Gurley said. Of 100 respondents, seven said border agents had seized their laptops or their files. Four out of five, she said, were unaware that border agents could seize their electronic data and devices. McClatchy Newspapers 2008

Wow, what a choice to have to make! As many of you know, one of my favorite restaurants is Cherry's. Recently, Cherry's moved to their new location around the corner from their previous location. We've tried it a few times already and it is just as marvelous as it was in their former location. Now, Khun Wi, the former manager of Cherry's has opened his own restaurant. Where? The former location of Cherry's on Third Road, across from the X-Zyte Disco. Geezer and I tried it last night and it was fabulous! The food is superb and the service is excellent. Khun Wi is a marvelous host and he makes sure you are well pleased. I spoke to Khun Wi and asked why he never said anything to us about opening his own restaurant. He said part of the agreement he had made with Cherry's was not to say anything about it until Cherry's completed their move and opened. He said it took him a week or so to be ready to open, and he did a soft opening. His kitchen staff is the old Cherry's staff. They stayed with Khun Wi rather than move to the new Cherry's location. The menu at Wi's Restaurant (that's the name of the restaurant) is virtually identical to the old Cherry's menu. That's good! I'm a firm believer in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and nothing about this restaurant or its menu needed fixing. The price for the nightly set menu has been raised by 70 baht to 495 baht, but it now includes a glass of your choice of a red or white wine. We tried the red wine and it was very good. When you read the flier, notice that Wi's Restaurant is offering a 10% discount until October 1. We received the discount last night. Meanwhile, just around the corner is Cherry's, also wonderful. It's going to be difficult to choose which restaurant to go to. We've pretty much decided that we'll probably alternate. Last night we at at Wi's Restaurant. Next time will be Cherry's. Then Wi's. Then Cherry's, and so on. What a choice! Two fabulous restaurants, both within about 150 feet of each other! The photos were taken at Cherry's, the new location. The flier is Wi's Restaurant.

The following appears in THE NATION: _____ Bangkok Airways to Launch Web Check-in Service By Jirapan Boonnoon The Nation Published on June 26, 2008 To improve the quality of services and ensure a smooth ride for passengers, Bangkok Airways will launch a Web-based check-in service in July. Bangkok Airways' Information System Department vice president Ping Na Thalang said the company will provide the service to passengers who do not have any check-in baggage. Such passengers will be able to get their boarding passes without having to go to the check-in counters at the airport. He said passengers can avail the services by logging on to http://www.bangkokairways.com. They can buy e-tickets, select seats and check-in to receive boarding passes over the Internet. The boarding passes can then be printed with the barcode. Passengers can check-in over the Web 48 hours before a flight's departure. The airline plans to launch the service for passengers traveling from Koh Samui airport to Suvarnabhumi Airport before expanding it to cover 23 more destinations. It also plans to provide services through smartphones in the future.

You might try asking people who actually live in Pattaya, rather than relying on the advice of those who don't live here and know only what they've heard. Yes, the dental clinic at Bangkok-Pattaya is excellent. No doubt about it. It is also much more expensive than going to a good local dental clinic. I am going to suggest the dental clinic I use. You know why? Because several of the dentists who practice there are the same dentists you'll find at Bangkok-Pattaya. That's right, the same ones. They have more than just the one practice. You can get their services at Bangkok-Pattaya or you can also get the same service from them at their local clinics for about half the price. I recommend the Modern Smile dental clinic. Their web site is http://www.modernsmiledental.com . I wouldn't dream of going anywhere else. By the way, my father was a dentist, so I have a pretty good idea what to look for in a dental office. That's another reason why I recommend the Modern Smile clinic.

Then I suggest staying that way. An old Rodney Dangerfield joke was, "My wife and I were happy for 30 years. Then we met."