Plus

the security forces of Thailand simply do not inspire the level of confidence that is required

It wasn't really security forces fault, it was political ineptitude of their top commanders.

Regardless of speculations and conspiracy theories that can go in all directions, whoever was in charge shouldn't have allowed reds to pass through cordons. The fact that they didn't issue orders to stop them shows how deeply corrupt and irresponsible they are - they haven't even thought about the damage it will do to the whole country, they had only their own, narrow interests in the minds.

So we have reds trying to chase Asean away, we have security forces with minds of their own (and feeble ones at that) and we have Democrats who try to put a brave face and apologise for their countrymen's uncivilised behaviour.

That's Thailand in the nutshell for you.

So, given a choice of red monkeys, green conspirators, blue provocateurs, and Democrats - is it really a choice?

When the "elites" were in charge the coutnry at least looked a lot more presentable.... Now it's "democracy", so we get "the government we deserve" so to speak, and we obviously don't deserve much, and the neighbours look at us in disbelief - what kind of progress is that?

The people of Bangkok had finally seen through this man.

No, it's just that Bhichit Rattakul presented a fresh alternative.

Chamlong has always portrayed himself as a virtuous man but if you look at what he does and not what he says a different picture emerges.

No, it doesn't.

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I'm don't know if it's Chamlong pushing for a new party, on the national level Phalang Dharma never achieved anything, rural politics are dominated by local feudal lords, people there don't vote independently for whoever they like. Things have changed, allegedly, but I seriously doubt PAD will break into local politicians strongholds.

Twenty years ago Phalang Dharma was an alternative to Democrats but Dems have a lot better image now and PAD comes with a baggage.

Perhaps creating a new party will influence OTHER parties to consider PAD ideas, just like Dems picked up TRT's populist policies.

If they manage to make reforming politics a part of a national discussion, it doesn't really matter if they win or not, the society will move in the right direction, what more do you want?

Correction:

"..if the PAD get their hands on modelling the system as they see fit, god WILL help this country."

In some areas they can easily get 30% of votes considering the alternatives. The mighty PPP got only 36%, afterall.

I finally got my video drivers working, haven't seen one "clean" restart yet, but I'm hopeful.

Another accomplishment is sorting out auto login issue - win key+r - Control Userpasswords2 does indeed allow you to set one account logging in automatically, it's in the next prompt after you click "ok".

The easiest way is to create another admin account with a passport, then downgrade your original to user level, then set it to autologin. That way you won't lose any settings in any programs.

The benefits are immediately clear if you poke around your computer - you can't see system files, you can't even go into program files, you can't change any settings, can't even delete shortcuts that are not your own, can't see contents of other users folders, too.

Now whoever is using your computer can't possibly screw it, unless you give them the admin password.

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Ubuntu's burning tool is called Brasero, I think, it's in applications/multimedia.

Of course, in the end, most people will go with their spur of the moment decision and not think of 4-5 years down the road (which is the only thing keeping Chevy, Hyundai, etc. in business here)

That's true, but more competition is only better.

Fortuner hasn't had a new model for five years now, only one minor face lift.

They might very well split voters between Democrats and their own candidates and thus allow a third party win instead, ie 30% Dem. 30% PAD, 40% PTP.

It wouldn't matter in parliament or on party list ballots, but in local consituency votes, and they still supply most of the MPs.

In the big scheme of things it doesn't really matter what they do as long as they are doing something. Maybe three years from now we'll look back and think - PAD would have achieved more if it remained outside politics. So what?

Right now the decision needs to be made either way, so whatever their hearts tell them - go with it.

Perhaps PAD needs to fall on its face so that the rump can start afresh without the baggage that comes with PAD brand.

The problem is at some point there will be another election. However, unless osme consensus is found it will be yet again fought under a set of rules that people dont agree on.

People have been polled several times and the result is always the same - there's nothing wrong with the constitution, it's not a priority.

Reds now have time to sit back and look at from outside, and it looks crystal clear - the fight PTP is putting up in parliament has nothing to do with people at all - "we need to address the suffering of 220 politicians affected by 2007 constitution", as one committee member said yesterday.

Also yesterday the committee agreed on several things, one of them being that 1997 const gave us stronger government and 2007 stronger people's rights. When public discussion is shaped that way, even the thickest reds would realise that irrelevance of their "true democracy".

I don't think this struggle can be so easily drained of ideological content.

It's my view that the ideological content has never been there, and I am always looking for signs of it, to the best of my abilities. Much of the "evidence" I dismiss as baseless. Some of it might stick, eventually, but nothing so far.

There IS a feeling of injustice in the society, but I'd say this feeling doesn't have a defining color.

I think the next big battle will be against politicians in general, and people will drop their red/yellow labels and start a NEW movement. Realisitically, though, yellows have a necessary structure in place already, would be shame not to utilise it. I don't think reds are ready to go on ASTV to have a go at Chalerm yet, but that wouldn't that be grand?

You said that the Nation's deterioration is all Thaksin's fault

I said that Thaksin has been gone for a lot more than a month, and the Nation keeps deteriorating

You now say "not even a full month yet"

Financially it's still in the same position Thaksin forced it years ago. They still can't afford qualified staff.

"Blabbering" about Thaksin is not a sign of deterioration, I thought you meant spelling mistakes on their website.

But for unknown reasons skid-Mark and his cronies thought that they were all holding their breath

They realised that the schedule is not acceptable, though, didn't they?

How's FengShui on that thing? It's "sinking" looks really disturbing for my eye. It's just wrong.

all sides need to recognise that the yellow and red represent huge bodies of national opinion, and cannot just be dismissed or expected to fade away.

Oh they will, given certain conditions, they will, both of them.

Yellows have already melted away, there's only one issue that might bring them back - amnesty for Thaksin. If that condition is met, you won't see yellows anymore, except for reunion parties.

And reds are in the process of dissolving, too. Songkran riots blew the wind out of their sails, now it's only die hard nuts and rabid leaders left.

If Abhisit manages to confine red leaders to fighting in parliament, you won't see red rallies on the streets.

Even red supporters have realised that they've been drafted into politicians, not people's war. When will our "progressive" analysts see it, too?

There's no class struggle here, no farmers vs urbanites, no poor against middle classes, no "rift" that pitches people against each other. All those reasons were made up by leftist academics ala Giles to justify drawing their salaries.

There's nothing more to this battle than Thaksin mobilising his supporters to save his own ass, despite his democracy propaganda . It hasn't grown into anything bigger.

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So, if red leaders are prohibited from organising any more rallies, peace will return very very soon. But, as with disrupting Asean, it's their right, they are allowed to stir up shit all they want for now. They will eventually totally discredit themselves and become harmless, but it will take just a but longer.

There's no reconciliation on the horizon.

The only way forward is to let red menace die its own death, and the leaders should be jailed, if you really want peace and quiet. If they are let free, there's always a chance they'd disrupt the meetings even without public wide support, it's not illegal, per se, they'd do it just for kicks, to annoy Democrats.

There's also a chance that Thaksin withdraws all funding and support and Jatuporn and Co will start charting a new course of their own and it turns out to be less disrupting. I think there's a good chance that without funds they'll cease their political activities altogether.

DTV was closed for inciting violence and rioting, not for being "red". It would have been closed in any country on earth, and stay closed.

Why do the reds must apologize for what they did not do?

And here is the crux of the problem - reds cannot even admit they did anything wrong, let alone apologise for it.

Neither has the government apologized for the attacks by the Blue Shirts.

And even if they admit something happened - they won't apologise until someone else goes first.

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Believe what you want, but people like this cannot possibly lead the country towards democracy.

They might get some rural support on their own - it's irrelevant - Thaksin has a lot more support and there's nothing democratic about it.

If they goal is to have hordes of clueless people dressed in colors marching up and down Rajadamnoen, then reds will be with us for some time. If the goal is to have broad democratic movement - it ain't gonna happen with the present bunch.

So here is my assessement - there's not a single ray of hope that anyone in the red camp really wants to promote democracy in Thailand. Nada, Zilch. It's all crystallised idiocy. The so called activists wouldn't have stayed with reds for long if they had any dignity and self respect. Now it's like looking for a bride in a whore house, decent people just don't stay red through this mayhem.

It's easy to disprove my statement - just give an example of any promising red leader or "activist".

If you believe that a possible future collaboration may be "delusional", then you clearly have ignored Sondhi L.'s statement in English (published in Nirmal Gosh's blog), in which he has not denied the possibility,

Oh come on, half of what Sondhi says is delusional. Yes, on the surface it appears that reds and yellows share some common goals, but without sunstance, without dedication, witnout being truthful to the cause, it's unsustainable.

Here's another observation - there's not a single item on the red agenda that comes from the people themselves. It's all shaped and promoted by Thaksin and his advisors. Again, it's very easy to disprove - just show me anything that genuienly comes from people and would benefit the people and not the politicians.

Re. aircard - just a guess - is the PCI slot it's plugged in properly working? Maybe you should update PCI, too, the same way PCI card readers are updated.

As I had installed Windows 7 on a few old computers from 1999 onwards, I didn't have that problems and on all computers it boot's and work's fast. The slowest machine is an Pentium 3 900 from 1999 with 512 MB Memory only.

So, I didn't understand the problems you have!

Last night the notebook was working fine, in proper resolution 1280x800, and even outputting VGA to a plasma TV. I've watched latest episode of 24 and then went to sleep.

Today, when I get home in a few hours, Windows will find new hardware - VGA compatible card, and start installing the drivers again, check Win update on line and so on. After about five minutes it will tell me the drivers are ready and Windows will tell me to restart, but then it will find new VGA card again, install drivers, tell me to restart, and again and again and again.

Eventually I will break the cycle and get drivers working without a restart, and I will watch some more movies on a big ass plasma, but tomorrow it will start over again.

Why doesn't it remember the drivers it happily used before the shutdown?

I'll feed it some better drivers today, newer versions, maybe get Intel settings program working, maybe this will satisfy it, I don't know.

Red and yellow cooperating is not as delusional as it sounds but it would require a few precursors. The yellows would have to be devoid of their royalist extreme which maybe has started. They would then be a middle class group. The reds would have to be devoid of Thaksin. That could be harder. Then they would be a pro-demcracy and rural supporting group.

I think its still delusional.

PAD is looking for new role in the society, anti-Thaksin battle is largely won, the leadership will most likely split and yellows as we know them won't exist anymore. Parts of the movement can easily join with any other pro-democracy group, united against common enemy.

Reds are more difficult - I don't believe they have ANY democratic elements there, certainly no credible leaders.

There are probably some ordinary followers that have rallied for both camps already, PAD in 2006 and UDD in 2009 but such "alliances" could be good only for a photo-op and a touching story - you need united leadership, not foot soldiers.

It's been a whole month since Songkran riots and not a single red came out with apologies and offered even a glimmer of hope and sanity. All those excited claims by the likes of Nick Noltsitz, or BBC hacks, or Nation's Pravit - about the birth and growth of democratic reds were, to put it mildly, premature. These guys were so wrong they should lose licenses to report anything to the public, ever.

Buried in the earlier post:

"In response to news that Thaksin had obtained a Montenegrin passport, Managing Director of the Network for Affirmation of the Non-governmental Sector, Vanja Calovic, contacted the Transparency International Organization to protest against the move.

European NGOs have demanded that Montenegro's interior ministry reveal the details of the issuance of the passport as well as Thaksin's qualifications for receiving it.

They claim he is not eligible for a Montenegrin passport because he does not have Montenegrin citizenship."

>>>

Looks like Nicaragua has lost their special ambassador, I wonder if similar objections by their MP regarding legality of Thaksin's passport played any role there. In both cases the President can apparently order to print a book with Thaksin's picture in it, but has no authority to grant citizenship, and no citizenhip - no passport.

When Pornthip's Forensic Science institute gave its conclusions that was basically the end of it as they were in line with what people saw with their won eyes (or on TV).

Then the police prodiced their own sham investigation that exonerated them and failed to produce any credible alternative explanation, and suddenly it is used as a reason to discredit Pornthip and call for a third body.

Duh.

This kind of machinantions happen here, on TV all the time, and involve the same type of posters.

When facing inconvenient truth they create a totally ridiculous diversion, demand legitimacy on the grounds of "freedom of opinion", then scream that acceptance of truth must be suspended because of ongoing inconclusive arguments over their fake arguments.

It is better to encourage the union or organisation leaders to run for election and campaign nationally or within their constituencies than to state that a given organisation should be granted a parliamentary seat.

Excuse me, but that's sheer nonsense. I don't even know what makes you hope that, after decades of trying in vain. No representative of teachers/farmers/small traders has ever made it into parliament. Never. Even dogs would eventually learn that it doesn't work.

A teacher representative, for example, will never ever get elected because teachers make only very small percentage of voters, and if they campaign for votes of the entire consituency they won't be representing teachers anymore. The system effectively bars professional representatives from entry into politiics.

That's why we have a nurse in charge of Information and Communications Ministry, before that we had a guy who couldn't use e-mail, and before that we had a spa operator. There's 21st century outside, for christsakes.

Are there any other countries with this kind of democracy?

Hong Kong.

a friendly game of golf at Alpine Golf Club on Monday

Snoh built this golf course on a land donated to a temple by a dying woman. I somehow don't think she meant to give it away to charity so that coutry's richest people can enjoy their golf.

I also don't think that those TRT champions of poor feel any discomfort about it. They do it for the "people".

I don't think Cambodia is very high on Thai polticians agenda, from Samak to Abhisit. Hun Sen, however, have never let it go since deciding to do a solo listing two years ago and keeps bringing it up over and over again under all imaginable pretexts. I don't know what it does for him domestically, but he seems to be very enthusiastic about it.