Plus

It's important to choose a rear-facing seat ...

A rear facing seat for a pickup driver?

It gets funnier and funnier.

Ooop, Ubonjoe deleted that spamming post already.

Seems like car buyers in Thailand disagree with you Plus, since Honda is selling better than Toyota. Month by month.

It wasn't long time ago when for every City there were three Vioses sold.

Doesn't mean that suddenly City has become three times better, though it's definitely a very attractive and very fresh looking - that's what Thai buyers really appreciate, just like they did with Vios and then Jazz not long time ago.

Yes, I mentioned that.

My point is that for better equipped models manuals are not even available.

In current politics people like Suthep are indispensable, he is a bridge that holds together the majority coalition of thieving bastards under Democrat control.

So far Dems interrupted three high profile money milking schemes by Newin and Co.

I think in some ways Thais are more advanced than Americans/Westerners. They are a lot more cynical about politics and democracy while 200 million Americans go ga ga over Obama like they've never been duped before.

Don't think so, regarding your first sentence. Eh, ever heard of Thaksin?

Oh, Thaksin...

Even in present day America no one can fool the people like he did, forget the 50s.

As for Obama - let's wait and see, I'm a bit sceptical about his ability to change anything, even if he is sincere. Just like Abhisit here - too good for the general electorate and too inconvenient for the usual power players.

the actual results as follows:

Mirhossein Mousavi: 19,075,623

Mehdi Karroubi: 13,387,104

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: 5,698,417

Official results are that Ahmadinejad won by 11 million votes. Just how big a sham of an election it must be if he "actually" lost by 14 million.

Iranian officials say that it's simply impossible to falsify that many votes even if all the complaints are true.

Even Thais wouldn't hang their shoes on crosses.

Swiss are just being ignorant and disrespectful. They've got money, though.

The offensive part of her speech was about fate of Nepalese monarchy, and you don't need a very high IQ to figure out that drawing parallels with Thailand would be very much unwelcome in this country.

But no, let's add some pictures from unrelated event.

For the sake of what? Derailing the topic?

The Nation

Academics claim "the elite, the military and wealthy people" are to blame for the slow progress of Thailand's democratic development.

Speaking at a panel discussion on the country's political progress to mark the 77th anniversary of constitutional monarchy, they agreed that negative behaviour by people from those groups had caused Thai democracy to go nowhere.

The event, entitled "Thailand's Political Development: From King Prajadhipok to the Age of Reform", was held at Parliament yesterday. Audience members included 200 high-school students from Bangkok.

Thongchai Wongchaisuwan, dean of Ubon Ratchathani University's Faculty of Political Science, said Thailand's elite, particularly the wealthy and the privileged, tended not to respect the law. He said they often bought their way out of legal troubles and that state officials were negligent in taking action against them.

"Business people and merchants are familiar with bribing and they avoid paying taxes. That led to the need for value added tax, in which rich and poor people are taxed at an equal rate. Is that fair?" said the dean.

Thanet Abhornsuwan, dean of Thammasat University's Faculty of Liberal Arts, said the main obstacle to progress in Thai politics over the past 77 years was the elite groups involved, including the military and the bureaucrats.

He was not convinced vote buying was to blame for the slow progress in Thailand's democracy. He believed that was an attempt to pass the blame on to poorer people.

He also did not believe that poor education was a major obstacle. "Education does not guarantee democratic development," he said.

Parinya Thewanarumitkul, law lecturer at Thammasat University, said failure in Thai democracy might be due to the fact that "we have no real faith in democracy."

He said that as long as the concept of "rule by the people" did not materialise, Thai democracy would be dominated by politicians.

"The military could stage a coup because they simply seized the power from politicians, and not from the people," he said.

>>>

That is why the goal of the red movement is return 76 billion to Thaksin and give amnesty to all vote buying politicians, and don't harp much about education.

Way to go, red democracy!

The standard difference between a manual and the equivalent specification automatic is Bt40,000.

I just checked Toyota website, it's true only for the same grade, but manuals are not offered for higher grades at ll, price difference between best manual and best auto for Vios is 150,000 baht, about a quarter of the price. For Altis the difference is 350,000 baht, nearly 50% more, if you want top of the range, 2l engine with GPS, comparing to the best available 1.6l manual.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows...ompare-editions

I'm thinking of getting it for an old notebook, and Home Premium doesn't offer "Windows XP mode" that is needed to install old drivers.

I will also be missing Aero, but that's not a very big deal.

I think you implied that foreign journalists have a god goven ability to deliver the final judgement on Thai political development, so I commented on that.

The part about junta and mafia needs no comments at all. Been done to death already.

There's a report on conclusions of charter amendements committee

They want senators and MPs allowed to work in executive branch, where all the money is, as legislating doesn't pay much.

They want to scrap party dissolutions and only punish designated scapegoats in electoral fraud cases.

They want amnesty for those currently banned.

They want to curb the powers of Election Commission and leave all electoral judgments to the court.

They want changes in the selection process, role and authority of the said court (among other agencies).

They want more money, welfare, and benefits for hard working politicians.

They missed lifting the limits on shareholding, however, so it's not on the cards and will likely stay as is.

The Nation

Hail the politicians!!!

She was refused bail for her own safety, as her speech was practically as provoking as that guy who destroyed Erawan shrine and was lynched on the spot.

Thais tend to take some matters very seriously, and the judges thought her life was in danger.

That's one possibility.Another is that any detailed public discussion on this type of offence is off limits as far as the hoi polloi is concerned.It was ever thus.

That, too, though I'm not sure you are talking about no bail part.

Reporting on and discussing her speech is certainly off limits in Thailand, Thai state prefers not to disclose the existence of such sentiments, and it IS a matter of national security it that discussion spills out of the courtroom and into the streets.

I suspect freedom of speech advocates here don't want to be responsible for consequences of that "freedom", they just want to see their favourite principle upheld, never mind the costs.

Bottom line - Unesco's listing created only more problems with preserving the site. They should definitely reasses their approach.

Look how he had drawn men kneeling around Neda - look how their eyes and eyebrows are drawn as a single line, they look very serious and sad, and determined, and very much Iranian at the same time.

At least their depiction was not meant to be funny.

Now, millions of hits and five star rating on "youdie" site is really a shot at us, at our enjoyment of being "part of history" by watching this girls death. We are all so sure and have all the answers, and we support Iranian rebellion from behind of our monitors, contributing keyboard strokes, but it's those men around Neda that are going to do it in real life, and they don't look as hopeful and optimistic as us, the Internet warriors.

And then we'll leave them hung and dry as Iranian state ruthlessly crushes them, and we'll go and contribute more hits to some Panda sneeze video. Mission accomplished.

We cheer them to fight and feel so righteous about it, but it's not us who get shot.

So go on, add another star to that girl's death.

Nothing more annoying than foreign journalists

Yes, their ignronace, pre-cooked stories, and supreme air of confidence are indeed annoying.

Yaris isn't older, maybe by a few months, it's a new platform comparing to the original used in first Vios. Altis indeed uses older engines and trannies, but it's got a lot more goodies like GPS and Start buttons that matter a lot more to Thai customers than transmissions.

And Camry - visually new Accord is a rip off in many ways, it's not a leader in any sense, just a good alternative to very sucessful Camry. Or wannabe bimmer, as they tried to sell it in Europe.

What's the official mooban policy? There must be an office somewhere.

If they don't have any clear rules or don't want to enforce them, then you have to deal with it yourself, and it can get confrontational and ugly, but it has to be done one way or another.

I think you are paying too much attention to this simple trick - let's never reveal who our test driver is. I bet they didn't even came up with it - the guy was wearing a helmet and they didn't have a chance to properly introduce him, so a "legend" was born.

Are Democrats going to amend constitution to save their asses? I don't see it.

Why do some people need to accuse them of everything under the sun - they avoid calling elections by citing the need to const amendments or do they must rush the amendments to avoid being ousterd?

You can't have it both ways.

Get yourself a Chuan thread if you wish, leave him, his brother, and his mother out of this, and comments about blondes and old cods - it's just asking for arguments.

Taken by phone camera, I think the Nation has decided not to show it on their net edition

I guess the idea is the high rating that attracts someone's death.

These seats come with extra cushions and seat straps for the safety of the kids.

Useless feature, kids are not supposed to be driving at all.

I've seen it in the paper but couldn't make heads or tails out of it.

Stephh has apparently lost his mind.