hardy1943

Nothing like throwing gasoline on a fire to help put it out.

Why was there no Martial Law while they had controlled the Airport?

Double standard again.How dare the reds make themselves heard!

You are not people get back in your place and how dare you to challenge the YELLOW ELITE!

Why did'nt the army and police force crackdown on the yellow protestors when they took over government house and the two Bangkok airports. If they had have done the present situation with the Red Shirts might not have happened.

You are right it would have never happen in a normal country,

but the elite been raping this country for years and then came the Thai Rak Thai and gave the working poor some hope and treated them as human beings and they will never foget it.This will keep on for ever.

6000 hard core reds. That sound manageable.

Pity they did'nt crackdown on the yellows previously, if they had of, maybe the reds would'nt have copied them. The two airports and government house were occupied without any resitance from the army or police. Double standards.

Thank you, the rest of world laughs and why take anything serious here. The cartoon goes on.

Slightly off topic, but, whilst the Red Shirts have protested and shut down the business district and caused the deployment of the Army and Police, on mass, has anyone considered the cost, to the current Government, of "fighting this domestic battle?" The Red Shirts can live on a cup of boiled rice a day, and we all know Mr.T is "chipping in" a few baht for them, but, economically, it's possible, the Government will not be able to sustain the prolonged cost of Army, Police and emergency services deployment.

All of these personel have to be paid, fed, housed etc. The logistics for all of this is very costly to Thailand. To some degree, as far as the defence forces of Thailand are concerned, Thailand is at war. Wars cost a lot of money and they are in this one alone, not with any "richer" allied countries. Add to the cost of the defence force, the local Police, Fire Brigade and Ambulance involvement, all staff at 24/7, and this mounts up to a HUGE bill, for the Government. The day may come when they can't afford to pay their Army, Police and other emergency services, plus, all the support staff for them.

Further compounding this cost is, which is on topic, the economic cost, in real terms, to the country. Not much money is "coming in." So, tourism, imports, exports etc etc are not generating their normal income. However, tourisms is the talk on TV and we know for a fact this is down.

The current Government must have a "cut off point" for funding all of this. After all, Thailand is not America, The UK or The EU.

I'm not sure The World Bank would be interested in loaning money to Thailand for this "project."

We all know the Red Shirts are "hitting" the Government, economically, but has anyone considered the economic cost of this "domestic war?" It's this cost that could bring down the Government, not the loss of tourism etc.

The Army, Police etc all have families and bills to pay. If you can't pay these people, there will have to be another coup.

I believe that the troops are fed and housed regardless of what is happening, so it is just another day in that respect.

Yep, no OT in the green machine. As for housing, didn't you see the nice comfy verandahs they get to sleep on? Nearly as cushy as arisman.

seriously, if they run short of money, they can just print some more and worry about inflation later. It's called running a deficit.

Do not worry.We have this elite genius from Oxford to fix all the problem.

patpong is far away from prathunam, where the protesters are.

why soldiers have decided to park on this very street and close the night market is beyond me - there are many other roads and places where they can be positioned (if they really have to be on the streets and not in the barracks) without obstructing the public.

blaming the reds, instead of blaiming the army, is illogical

Dude are you kidding me ? You criticize the army for obstructing the public yet you overlook the fact the for WEEKS, Reds have taken up the street where the biggest hotels and shopping hotels are located, causing huge loss of revenue. They were planning to take the Bangkok's financial district as their next move, until the army came in and prevented that from happening.

So what,take over the finicial district who does it bother the rich Elite, 99% of the population could care less included me.

patpong is far away from prathunam, where the protesters are.

why soldiers have decided to park on this very street and close the night market is beyond me - there are many other roads and places where they can be positioned (if they really have to be on the streets and not in the barracks) without obstructing the public.

blaming the reds, instead of blaiming the army, is illogical

I always thaught the red light district was owned by the same people that try to shut it down now.

[sarcasm on] Woooooow!!! Thai Bureaucrats make one intelligent move since 20 years! Amazing!

The next one we could expect by the earliest in 2020??? [/ sarcasm off]

Thank You Immigration Office!

Are you sure they all know about, I doubt very highly. No joking really.

This absolutely makes total sense. However this is Thailand so it may be some kind of late April Fool's Joke or some low level employee was thinking way out of the box and has yet to tell his boss.

Who dreamed that one up it actually makes sense and is against Thai logic

I do not believe the utmost stupidity that Thai lawmakers are showing. At first we get an man without a brain (Kasit) who himself is charged with economic terrorism who is accusing his opponents during a diplomatic meeting of terrorism. Yesterday we get the finance minister telling the world that bangkok is not safe because of militias and terrorists. Todat we find all over the net great clips in which protestors get killed in cold blood; (http://www.liveleak.com/player4.swf?config=http://www.liveleak.com/flash_config_new2.php?token=f44_1271214688%26embed=1) and now we are going to promote tourism by giving away free visas.

Now the Thai army had to admit that they killed people and given the fact that the Thaiu government is using the "T" word whenever they think it might bring them sympathy it is no time for tourism promotions.

Just announce that new elections will be hold not in 9 not in 6 but in 3 months and than you might be able to recoup what Suthep and Prayuth has destroyed within a few hours.

You are right but that is not Thai Elite logic.Why are they scared of an election?

Savannakhet in Lao, the thai embassy there said there were no free visa's this year, even though I tried to have it out with em. Pick it up on Monday so I will show them the news of the ministry website, and hopefully they might refund me.

Good luck

He likened Thaksin to an Al-Qaeda terrorist and past "elected" leaders such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini.

"Hitler was elected, Mussolini was elected, even Stalin could say that he was elected also but what did they do to their very society? This is the question," the top Thai diplomat said at a meeting with a small group of reporters and think tank heads.

Kasit, in Washington attending a landmark nuclear summit called by President Barack Obama, accused Thaksin of orchestrating demonstrations by his so-called Red Shirt supporters last week that led to 21 deaths in the bloodiest political unrest in 18 years.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow, this guy is a little upset it seems.

I often used to post how it is no government will arrest him when the crying about hime would appear here.The Ambassadore says that Thaksin travels and no one will arrest him.

You know why Mr. Ambassador?

Yes you do.

Because no government recognizes the charges from the current Thai government or in fact the current Thai government itself as being legitimate.

Maybe the over 20 coups have something to do with that.

Lets face it the military been running this country for many many years, every prime minister is a puppet and can be removed at anytime.

The only reason they have one at all is so they can call them selves a Democracy and can collect the foreign aid from the West.

Ironically, the current government is doing exactly the same things the Thaksin government was accused of, namely, media suppression, murdering of civilians, and massive corruption. Absolute hypocrites.

I for one am glad to see the end of Abhisit and his smug defiance.

Well said this before you put them all in a barrell pull one out they all look the same.Thai politics is just look a cartoon.

Sorry the little man had to die for it.

This does sound like a forthcoming face saving exercise, I would directly compare this to what happened to Samak due to his his TV cooking shows.

Thai politics as usual.No one should be really surprised!

what a farce.

So they decided to step down from government and push the election commission forward to avoid losing face themselves.

It is a little smelly.

Not sure if its the heat or just another crazy episode in thai politics --- well one this is for sure after two years of war in the streets - and the airport closures by the untouchable yellow shirts -- who is going to bother coming back here again for songkran or for that matter any other reasons to visit the "land of smile" - this has to be the death blow for the tourism sector - as if the world economy was not enough -- well maybe the PM can create a new project to plant more rubber trees and mass produce rubber duckies -=- VNAT - Vietnamese Association of tourism will be rubbing there hands in glee -the next major tourist destination - feel sorry for the hospitality industry workers also who are sure to face layoffs because of all of this --

if normal practice in riot control were applied -- and not the use of live rounds - things may have been a little different - maybe not - but without the high body count -- so much for the govt saying they were using international standards in riot control -- maybe i have missed reading something about the police and army shooting live bullets into the protesters - tear gas and water cannons are the most common methods used -

You are right visited Hanoi, first welcome to Vietnam at customs, then stayed at Ba Din district, the business district, was stopped at the street and asked to have my picture taken with their children, I am tall Vietnam Vet. Was surprised with their hospitality and made a few friends there which I am still in contact with. With LOS that left with this administration. Sorry I rather have the old military Generals back in power instead of this.

Given Thailand's ugly political and economic situation, why does the baht continue to strengthen?

The official line is that Thailand is growing in leaps and bounds and has sound finances. It is said tourism is unimportant. The baht has strengthened because of substantial inward investment creating even more demand for the currency.

It's a mystery to me, all I can see is less demand, and a general deterioration.

I agree with you,

One day it will collapse like it did before because of their own doing.

Remember the still blame George Soros for the 1990th financial crisis

but never themselves.

Who cares what the Americans think

Excuse me, but you are confusing Americans with the US Government. Americans don't care about what is happening in Thailand. American's only care about comforts and McDonald's. True just go visit any city and see how many cars are line at every McDonald's that is on every other block. Who does care?

You are really informed you must be one that stands in line in BKK.

True the uneducated and low income are there for there supersize.

Just look at the old clunkers they drive does that give you a clue.

However many tens of millions of us have boycotted McDonald's and Walmart for many years.

Who cares what the Americans think

I wudn't... but our Oxford guy might have to somewhere down the line.

Wait until they quit giving their foreign

4 soldiers dead and hundreds wounded....

If thailand had a professional police, with anti riot force to front the insurgents, special forces to quickly and clean arrest the red leaders, they had no needs for the intervention of the Thai Army.

But cops are too busy to count the baht made with their corrupted activities and to scared to face to face a mob.

Excellent post.

Thai army is probably the worst in the world in anyway. The weakest / spent money. They lost against Laos and they'd lose against Cambodia.

Abisith is also 100% responsible for the yesterday drama. He never tried to understand the other opinions. Friday, Thai police and Thai army tried to solve the issue in a Thai way but at 10 PM, Abisith put some oil on the fire.

Thank you, for your clear thinking! Unlike the usual propaganda listed here.

Dissolve parliament NOW. the situation is out of control,

we do not want more deads ( at the moment 5 persons have

been killed ) nor a coup.

Dissolving the parliament now to have a snap election would throw the country into a spasm of violent Redshirt-Thaksin intimidation and assaults against the electorate and for the destruction of the democratic process and of democracy itself. Thaksin and his Redshirts are frantically desperate to seize control of the government and state power or they will forever be shut out of the picture, hence as we again are witnessing, they will do anything to seize power especially if the violence and force can bring an end to democracy once Thaksin and the do Reds seize power and assure there never will be another election in Thailand. The attitude is that the Redshirt-Thaksin peasants have absolute power but we Thaksin and the Redshirt leaders exercise the power model of government, the disastrous Mao model. Wanting a snap election in the present environment and atmosphere does not define one as a democrat. It defines one as a Redshirt-Thaksin collaborator or fellow traveller.

People are entitled to their own points of view and to advocate, and this is my two cents of it.

Wish it have never come to this look at the list of dead on both side all people used as pawns, elite, generals and red shirt leaders sitting in their ivory towers, let the little man die, thats great we have millions more.As a Vietnam Vet. I know who does the scarifying. Sad day for Thailand.

Well there were some whining that Jingthing's reference to a POLL was wrong and biased.

Here's their chance to VOTE ONCE, and we can see what TVF people think of the situation.

So far lets just say, it appears 'Statistically significant'.

One man, One vote.

Trouble is I suspect that a lot of these 'political debators' , have multi accounts, multi pseudonyms, and will probably have been reincarnated 6 or 7 times before Sunday

The vote will still show at least 3;1 against the reds, unlike what the red supporters say/believe.

Personally I voted B.

LOL

Rich Elite Yellow shirts who can use the Internet on the latest Mac PC with a 10MB broadband connection in their AC "study room" can each vote once.

Red shirts out on the streets or working in the factory or on the farm with no internet connection and no PC can vote, but of course, will not be able to.

LOL

It's a vote of Thai Visa users. Not an national poll.

We have no business getting involved.Like I have no business telling my wife how to vote.Frankly I am tired of the hype THAI VISA makes of this.

Let foreigners do what they want. Foreign born and foreign educated Abhisit seems to be doing just fine!

And yet he speaks Thai better than 99% of Thais.

He has 1000 times more education then the Thai.

Did you ever hear of anyone ever coming here to get an education?

I guess we all are in a way

This is Thais' politic, STAY OUT OF IT.

We DO NOT need any interference (pro or against).

Agree Then quit feeding us this BS every day and then become THAI VISA again.

dissolve parliament is the best way to end this protest.

I been saying this for months What is every one afraid off?

It's about time! Totally justified for all the world to see.

A message to the good people of Thailand.

I can tell you with confidence the vast majority of foreigners support your honorable PM Abhisit in his valiant effort to fight anarchic red shirt's illegal attempt at revolution and the rule of a violent mob. Good luck to and best hopes for a PEACEFUL resolution.

No chance of that, way past that point now...

Had to happen with Songkran on the way, if they don't do something before then it will be chaos on the streets - government already under huge pressure to act.

The taking over of the Airport made Thailand as the biggest joke in the world.Still have relatives and friend that will not visit me because of that. They are scared to get stuck here and loose their jobs at home.