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as a corrupt leader who spent billions of the government's dollars to amass a huge following among the poor and uneducated.
• But around here he is a saint.
• "Ten years ago, the road you drove on to get here was dirt. There was no electricity, there was no irrigation," said Pichai Poltaklang, a retired primary schoolteacher and local organizer for Thaksin's political movement, commonly known as the "Red Shirts." He ticks off government programs: the virtually free health care, the low-cost education loans, the old-age pension. "Before Thaksin came to power we were left out."
• As Thailand faces an immense social and political divide, a schism pitting the rural poor against a traditional urban elite that has again ignited bloody protests in the streets of Bangkok, places like Kambon are at the heart of Thaksin's power.
• ___

• NEW YORK (AP) -- Tramps like us, baby we were born to bid.
• A handwritten, working lyric sheet for Bruce Springsteen's 1975 hit "Born to Run" could sell for as much as $100,000 on Thursday, Sotheby's has predicted.
• The document used to be in the collection of Springsteen's former manager, Mike Appel, said Sotheby's, which did not reveal the identity of the seller.
• Most of the lines in this rough 1974 version, written in Long Branch, N.J., are apparently unpublished and unrecorded, but the manuscript does include "a nearly perfected chorus," the auction house said.
• The title track of Springsteen's 1975 album has revved up generations of fans -- some of whom still refer to themselves as "Tramps," like in the song.
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