Plea By Jim Clark, Frank Murkowski Chief of Staff, Means He's Helping Feds

Chiang Mai Time: March 4, 2008 1:50pm


Reading this ADN headline from Chiang Mai means everyone else knows a lot more about what's going on than I do.

Former Murkowski chief of staff pleads guilty to corruption

The charge to which he pleaded guilty, is relatively minor in the big scheme of things - charging $68,000 in political polls by Dave Dittman to Veco - but is bigger money than any of the three already convicted legislators saw.

Specifically, from the ADN link to the plea agreement, here's what he pleaded guilty to:

[NOTE: Double Click on the Images to Englarge Them]

For this, according to the documents, he's facing:

These are recommended sentences from the prosecutors. Nothing binds the judge, and all this is dependent on how well Clark cooperates, meaning how well he shares what he knows, testifies as a government witness in court, etc. The recommendation is for a three level downward departure from the sentencing guidelines. So far Judge Sedwick, in the one case of a cooperating witness in this series of cases - Bill Bobrick - has followed the recommendations of prosecutors.


From the ADN link to the Factual Basis for the Plea are more details:





More important, is that Jim Clark must have worked out a deal, meaning that he's been telling the FBI and Federal Prosecutors what he knows about the Murkowski administration. This could get interesting.

Thanks to the ADN for posting the court documents on their website.

Tarongchai's very special hand made cards

You never know what you'll see in the night market along Thanon (Road) Suthep. Mostly it's food, but there's a guy who just sells cardboard boxes, and stalls with clothing, and one with potted plants. And then we saw this one tonight.

These are popup cards that the man you see in the picture makes. A college grad, he finds this more satisfying. And his cards are really special. They all close flat like normal card, but they have intricate cutouts inside.




He gave me his card and I said I'd post his email. He has an online catalog he'll send you. There's a chance the email address isn't quite right. My email to him hasn't come back yet. So maybe it's ok.

ken-popup@hotmail.com

Bugs

The grasshopper was on our sliding glass door yesterday - on the outside.




On the east end of the Sunday night market there were lots of bugs flying around the lightbulbs in the stalls. They weren't very big and looked a little like termites. But then we got to a point where we could see the streetlight and there seemed to be millions of them.

Meetings

Monday night, March 3

I did my seminar this morning. We got into things like productivity and time management - particularly identifying the task people do then trying to connect them to the organizational goals. I've had several weeks to hang out with these people and the organization. They've got good documentation because they had to set up standard international mission statement, goals, objectives, etc. for their grant from Oxfam.

My Thai continues to frustrate me at work, but I had the Powerpoint (had to save my Keynote presentation as powerpoint then fix a few things that got lost in the transition - I have to see if I actually have a cord for my Macbook to a projector so I can just present from my computer) with enough Thai and pictures that everyone could understand what I was trying to convey. Well, even American students have problems with the concepts, but they at least understand the words.

When the boss came in - he had to go visit someone in the hospital and was late - my sense was that he was pleased with the message I was giving. At the end when I told them to talk among themselves, from what I could understand, he was reinforcing many of the things I'd been saying.


Then we all had a lunch that someone brought in. The afternoon was another meeting. Same six people with several more people from another office. The pictures are of the meeting, not the morning seminar. I tried to understand and I caught phrases and words regularly, but not enough to be certain what the point was for sure. It's clear that people's northern accents are one factor, but I just don't have the vocabulary I need. So when I heard them repeating a word, I tried to write it in Thai in Thai2English.com and see if I could get the English word. The problem was spelling it right because that program doesn't give you things that are close, only the right
spelling. At least in Chinese you write the pinyin (phonetic in western letters). But I did get, finally, ข้อมูล spelled right and learned it meant data, information.

The organization's candidate didn't win - #1 did. Apparently vote totals weren't available today, since no one new how many votes those two candidates got.

When I got home, J told me about her first Thai lesson. This is out of sync for the classes so she has a one on one lesson with what she described as "a real teacher" who knows how to get the most out of their time. She likes her so much, she rather go there than to the University class (which she checked out) even though the university is much closer.

We met Melissa for vegetarian dinner. This was the third time I've been there in a week and they were very nice to us and the food is really good. In the restaurant and in the shops I can tell my Thai is much more fluent than when we first got here, something I don't feel at the office where I'm always listening to and stretching for words I don't know. Talking about the meaning of efficiency, organizational goals and objectives, and how to measure one's work output is a lot more abstract than ordering food or asking if they have a lid for the frying pan.

I've got some catch up posts and pictures and I'll do those separately.

Zohar Offers Onion Video and Other Good Stuff

I don't remember how I got to the The Zohar Class a while back, but I went back again today. It's worth plugging. (I have absolutely no personal connection to Zohar, just found him on-line, never met him, and think his blog is terrific.) He says he's a 'non-stop' reader and that's reflected in the kinds of things he finds to post and how he comments on them. Recent posts include videos on Facebook's and Google's threats to your privacy, books being given away on-line and why, what I think is Zohar's map of corporate connections, and this great video from the Onion.


Breaking News: Series Of Concentric Circles Emanating From Glowing Red Dot


Why great? Because it makes us to look at things we take so for granted that we don't actually see them for what they are. After watching this video, who can ever look at tv news visuals with a straight face again? Great satire.

I can only guess that the ridiculous cigar in Zohar's picture is also intended to be satirical, but I think he should get a new pic without it.

Dinner with Steven LB

I'd met Steve LB at the strawberry party last week and we said we should get together again. We met at the organic vegetable shop on the Chiang Mai campus where he left his bicycle - outside the gates after I learned that lesson last week - and we started to walk across the campus and caught one of the free shuttles that took us the center of the campus. From there we walked to the main entrance on the north, passing the department of statistics along the way.

Steven's been running a business that brings US students to cultural immersion programs in Nepal and Peru. He's spent nearly the last six months in Thailand and we went to the vegetarian restaurant I'd been to before. After dinner we had coconut ice cream - J and I had coffee and Steven had durian.


Then we walked through the night market behind the resturant - lots and lots of little shops aimed at the students on campus across the street. Steven found a new friend at one of the shops. They had a good laugh.

Steven is headed south soon so we probably won't get to see him again this trip, but we had some great conversation and we're sorry he's leaving. I'm sure everyone at the strawberry party last week has interesting stories like steven does.

Most of the day were stayed inside, resting, and I did some work for my seminar Monday.

Thai Elections - March 2, 2008

Tomorrow, Sunday, (it's Saturday afternoon in Chiang Mai as I write) is election day for the Thai Senate. I know an election is going on because of all the signs up and the election trucks. Plus where I work they are supporting one of the candidates and so there was election work going on and the truck have been at our compound. But I wasn't sure of the date.

Apparently, according to this Bangkok Post story not that many Thais really know that much about the election either.

There's a senate election?

By Mongkol Bangprapa

Despite campaigns by the Election Commission (EC), fewer than 30 per cent of Thais were able to tell a pollster that they know there is to be an election for 76 senators countrywide on March 2.

According to the latest Suan Dusit poll by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, of the 3,266 people surveyed, only 29 per cent could tell the interviewers how important the election is for the parliament, while 57 per cent said they had "scant knowledge" of it.

A surprising 12 per cent of respondents admitted they knew nothing of the coming election.

Most people surveyed admitted they were less aware of the senate election than they were of the Dec 23 election for House of Representatives.

There are 18 people running for the seat from Chiang Mai I was told - one seat per province - and the candidate my Thai colleagues are supporting is one of the candidates who has a chance to win. They think he needs at least 100,000 votes. This is for the Senate.

74 people have already been appointed to the Senate, according to MCOT English News. The rest get elected tomorrow.

Election Commission names 74 appointed senators

BANGKOK, Feb 19 (TNA) - Thailand's Election Commission on Tuesday announced the appointment of 74 members of the Senate who will represent half of the Upper House while the other half will be elected nationwide on March 2.

The 74 senators represent a ratio of 6 men to one woman. The oldest is 72 years old and the youngest 42.

EC secretary general Sutthiphon Thaweechaikarn said the appointed senators came from diverse backgrounds including academics (15), government officials (14), private sector (15), various professions (15) and other sectors (15).

They represent almost every field of career from university lecturer to former national legislator, lawyer, journalist, medical officer, nurse, engineer, architect, former provincial governor, farmer, university student, telecommunication specialist and financial expert.



Bangkokians dominate the list with 43 representatives while five are from the South, three from the North, two from the Northeast and 21 from the central region.

Asked if there has been behind-the-scenes lobbying for the seats, Mr. Sutthiphon affirmed that the screening committee has thoroughly and carefully studied the background of each appointee and the votings among committee members were carried out in an open manner.

The EC allows 30 days for anyone objecting to the appointment to file his/her complaint while those disagreeing with the screening committee's decision can file their complaints with the Supreme Court within one year.

The appointed senators will be in office for three years. The other 76 senators, one from each province, will be elected nationwide on March 2. They will serve for six years. (TNA)

J's Back in Town

Friday, February 29, 2008 10:40pm (This is my Thailand time, the blogger stamped time is normal Alaska time)
Got up early and enjoyed the birds a bit.



I tell my students to do something you've never done before every day, so I decided to ride the bike to the airport and we could take a song tao home. The map showed a road that cut through neighborhoods and missed all the detours with the one ways at the moat around the city center.



I even asked a policeman if I could get to the airport taking that road before leaving the main road. He said yes, in Thai and English, with that "look the foreigner is riding a bike to the airport" grin on his face.

And the road was quiet and peaceful. Too quiet and peaceful for such a useful short cut to the airport. I stopped to get a picture of this delightful potted backyard fence. (Catherine, that one's worth double clicking on to enlarge it.) And then I took I got to a dead end. Various people assured me there was no link to the main road. I could even see the high fence of the golfing practice range that's there, but there were no ways to get through. But I got to the airport in time. Joan was ready to walk, not ride a song tao back. (I better put up a picture before long. It's a (usually) red pick up with a covered bed that has a bench on each side for passengers.







Two people walking with a bike (fortunately J didn't take much to Singapore and her small duffel fit into the basket) on Chiang Mai streets is not the easiest thing to do. As you can see, sidewalks disappear.




But sometimes we walked through parking lots, and this new building even had a ramp!





Before long we were at the vegetarian center - where'd I'd been taken for lunch once before - and stopped for brunch. The yellow sign says 0 Baht, You still can eat. This has some sort of Buddhist affiliation and they had clothing recycling, and there were separate garbage bins for glass, plastic, paper, food, etc.



Although the first block on my bike this morning felt chilly, it's been getting hotter - at least a lot more humid. When we got back from the airport, (It took about two hours including brunch, and we walked pretty slowly, hampered by my having to get the bike up and down curbs and steps along the way) I really wanted a shower. I shut off the water heater in the bathroom, the 'cold' water was even warmer than I wanted.

Then off to work to get my presentation ready for Monday morning. I think it will be fine. I've had different people look at different parts of the presentation, so there is someone who understands my intent and can help when I need the right word in Thai.

Taxi Drives from Discovery Side to HBO

The good news is that Discovery Channel has worked out a deal with HBO who will air, Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) feature documentary runner up, but Academy Award winning, Taxi to the Dark Side in September.

So my grim fear that Discovery Channel's link (through its Military Channel) to the Defense Department's America Supports You program that I discussed several days ago meant that their intent was to block it from being shown on television was wrong.

And in defense of AIFF judges, they chose a movie that had its own historical and Northern interest - The Prize of the Pole - about Robert Peary's grandson's quest to learn more about the Greenlanders that Perry took back to New York with him. Anchorage was an appropriate place for that movie to win an award as the movie examined how a Euro-American adventurer used Native peoples for his own glory with no apparent concern for the people whose lives he essentially destroyed. The legacy of similar ventures still plagues many Alaska Natives today.

Someone at PSI is Checking on Frank Murkowski

Performance Systems International is an international human capital consulting firm that helps build business success by enhancing and aligning organisation, team and leadership activity.

We work with our clients’ unique culture, challenges and business aspirations to convert strategy into practice, achieve meaningful change and realise long-term organisation development.

I don't know if it is idle curiosity or professional, but someone there looked him up today.


And someone at the National Futures Association looked up "fbi agent sean mcdermott."

National Futures Association (NFA) is the industrywide, self-regulatory organization for the U.S. futures industry. We strive every day to develop rules, programs and services that safeguard market integrity, protect investors and help our Members meet their regulatory responsibilities.

Managing risk by trading futures and options on futures contracts is a vital component of the global economy. Every business day tens of millions of futures contracts are traded on an increasingly broad spectrum of products, including agricultural commodities, oil, precious metals, equities, treasury bonds, financial indexes and foreign currencies.

Investor confidence is crucial to the success of the futures markets, and the best way to gain investor confidence is to ensure that the highest levels of integrity are demanded of all market participants and intermediaries.

In these cases if I reveal my sources, people will stop googling on their corporate internet servers and then I wouldn't learn these things. Is this a little like accidentally hitting redial on your cell phone and leaving a message on someone's voice mail?