First 100 Days

Mr.President gathers his thought during a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. They must have a discussion about the economic meltdown and financial crisis.

He returns a chair to its place after a meeting in the oval office.

Mr. President often replies many letters by his own hand.

Mr. President and Vice President join lunch in the private dining room. Two men find a meeting time once a week if they are in town.

Gordon Brown speaks with Obama during G20 meeting. They must discuss the global economic stimulus package.

He made unexpected visit to Iraq to meet with American troops, commanders, and consult with Iraqi leader. He told the Congress that he will plan to withdraw most troops by the end of August 2010 and combat mission will end. But, there will be about 40,000 troops remain to to assist the Iraqi military and protect the diplomats and civilians serving in the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. They will be withdrawn gradually by the end of 2011. That's not much different than the long-range plans of the military under the Bush administration. He plans to remove all US forces out of Iraq by 2011, unless the US was requested to leave troops at the request of the Iraqi government.

During his news conference, President Obama answered the question which was asked by journalist of The New York Times, Jeff Zeleny.

What has surprised him about the office, enchanted him, humbled him and troubled him the most?

pictures courtesy of Time Magazine and Baltimore Sun

Colors of Spring

I took the pictures on the way to home. I think the surrounding is excellent at this time . There are full of various colors of flowers. But at the same time, each flower produces the number of pollen grains, which causes seasonal allergy. Its symptom includes runny nose, itchy eyes, itchy skin or even acute asthmatic attack. I use this occasion to say goodbye to snow and the predominant colors of the winter-depressing grays and browns. All of that seems to change immediately when spring has come. The earth rejoices in a new season. Spring pastels are an integral part of that.

สีเขียวดูสดชื่น ช่างรื่นรมย์ในยามเช้า
นกน้อยก็ร้องเร้า ทิ้งความเศร้ากับความหนาว
ดอกไม้หลากสีสัน ประชันทั้งชมพูขาว
มากด้วยร้อยเรื่องราว ดุจหนุ่มสาวแตกเนื้อรุ่น

เกสรละลิ่วลอย ต่างเฝ้าคอยลมพาหมุน

กระรอกวิ่งกันวุ่น ชุลมุนจนยามบ่าย

ทุกสิ่งพลันกันตื่น หิมะลื่นละลายหาย

สายน้ำทอประกาย ระยิบพรายเมื่อต้องแสง

Spring from The Four Seasons - Vivaldi

Swine flu

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BO meets Bo.

President Barack Obama fulfilled a promise for his daughters with new puppy Bo, a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog, was named Charlie by original owner. But, Malia and Sasha gave him a new name Bo in honor of their cousin's cat of the same name. He wears colorful lei because the President's hometown is Hawaii.

pictures courtesy of whitehouse.gov

The light at the end of tunnel?

In Thailand, there have been seventeenth constitutions since 1932 and the 2007 Constitution represents the eighteenth. The United States Constitution was adopted in 1787. The above picture is the Democracy Monument, which is built for commemorate the change from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy. More importantly, it shows a three-generation family with different shirt colors. They were talking to one another. I hope to see all political factions to join the efforts to start a negotiation, end any conflicts, and bring the picture of "Land of Smiles" back again. Anyway, some politicians think the junta-installed constitution is the root of political conflicts and disunity in this country and amendment the constitution is the solution to put an end to the discord. Do you agree with them? But right now, constitution itself is not an issue to discussion. The most important thing is to be taking action on political reform to create a higher moral standard for politicians. I hope one day they will lead this country forward in the right direction.

เห็นต่างใช่แตกแยก คงจะแปลกถ้าคิดเหมือน
จำไว้เป็นเครื่องเตือน เราคือเพื่อนและพี่น้อง
ถ้าคิดแก้กฎหมาย เราทุกฝ่ายต้องเห็นพ้อง
มีส่วนและเกี่ยวข้อง ทุกข้อร้องต้องรับฟัง

In my opinion, narrowing or closing the socioeconomic gap between the urban and rural people is the long term goal of ending any conflicts. The red shirt grouup are mainly supported by underprivileged people, especailly the northern and northeasetern part of Thailand. Their non-poltical demand is socioeconmic equality. Whatever government should adopt a policy to provide equal opportunity. The first priority is to expand educational opportunity to improve the quality and relevance of education, and to increase the efficiency of the human resource,which is the most valuable and unique asset and plays a crucial role in the success of an enterprise and the development of a country.

pictures courtesy of flickr.com

Never judge a book by its cover.

With their appearances, you can hardly tell them apart at first time. You might think they are twin or sisters. But Janet and Jane are not twins. They aren't even sisters. They are mother and daughter. Janet(on the left of picture) confesses to having spent more than $15,000 on plastic surgery to bridge the 22-year old gap between herself and her daughter. This following picture shows herself before undergoing surgery.

I think the individual's human value is depend on performance, not on appearances. A few days ago, you can hear this name "Susan Boyle". A 47 year-old Scottish woman captivated the heart of the judge and people with her fabulous voice on ITV's Britain's Got Talent. Her video clip on youtube has been viewd more than 15 million times. She has become a celebtrity overnight and been inivited to appear on both Oprah Winfey show and Larry King live.

pictures courtesy of dailymail.co.uk and telegraph.co.uk

Is this the last round?

Red shirt demonstrators ended the rally. But, their leaders claimed that the retreat was not the defeat of the movement and they would come back again to continue protest after Songkarn holidays. After ending, many streets particulary Kho San Road, which is the most well-known place for Songkarn festival in Bangkok, are full of people that throw water on each other. Water festival in this year may have more fun than that in other years because they are eager to relieve stress that accumulated within a couple of days ago.

ขอทุกสีลดละซึ่งทิฐิ ตั้งสติทบทวนแล้วไตร่ตรอง
อบ่าให้ใครแบ่งแยกแตกเป็นสอง เพราะเราผองทั้งหมดพี่น้องกัน
ขอทุกฝ่ายหันหน้ามาร่วมมือ ร่วมหารือถกเถียงอย่างสร้างสรรค์
บนแนวทางบนหลักนิติธรรรม์ ตามครรลองประชาธิปไตย

pictures courtersy of thenation.co.th and manger.co.th

Songkarn festival ?

The Songkarn festival or Water festival in this year may be called the fire festival. Usually, people splash the water on each other by using squirt gun or water container. But this year, water is used to put out the fire instead. It was set by red shirt protesters in many Bangkok areas espically around Rajdamnoen avenue.

I think most Thai people do the same thing as a street cleaner did. She was praying for the supernaturality. She may have asked God to bless Thailand.

วุ่นวายกันไปทั่ว สร้างความมั่วความสับสน

ให้เกิดโกลาหล จราจลครั้งยิ่งใหญ่

พระท่านจงคุ้มครอง ช่วยปกป้องพี่น้องไทย
ให้พ้นทุกผองภัย สิ่งใดใดอย่าแผ้วพาน

pictures courtesy of thenation.co.th and timesonline.co.uk

Red shirt mob

"แดงเคลื่อนแดงเตรียมบุก แดงเข้ารุกเข้าโรมรัน
หวังชัยในเร็ววัน ทั้งปลุกปั่นทั้งโฟนอิน
เรียกร้องหาสิ่งใด หรือให้ใครพ้นมลทิน

หยุดเถิดท่านทักษิณ ก่อนแผ่นดินลุกเป็นไฟ"

Thousands of red shirt protestors especially taxi drivers block all main roads to Victory Monument, which is one of the busiest downtown areas in Bangkok. They want Thai PM Abhisit to resign or dissolve the Parliament. I think the real goal is to bring ex-PM Thaksin back to political track without any charges ,nevertheless, he was sentenced to two-year imprisonment for corruption and many accusations has been waiting for continuing the judiciary process.

pictures courtersy of nationmultimedia.com