allan michaud

I'd like to see her visit Washington and see how the Obama white house treats here. Maybe they can fit her in between a dog walking photo op and the National Toothache Day ribbon cutting ...

In any case, not only wouldn't she get a state dinner, there would be no hamburger lunch outing with Obama either.

I don't know, if I was Obama I would go out of my way to meet here on the steps of the White House (steps outside only) and shake her hand and say 'Overcome to the USA'.

Hey look any time Obama has a chance to piss away taxpayer money on something frivilous for himself and his buddies, like a nice state dinner, he'd be up for it. Plus she's alot nicer to look at than the other bulbous headed leaders that visit! Maybe they could even shoot some hoops together!

Sorry, I feel the need to correct you here.

EVERY politician ANYWHERE is up for the chance to piss away taxpayer money on something frivolous for himself and his buddies, like a nice state dinner.

Well don't the Saudi's own huge tracks of agricultural land in the north, thanks to Thaksin, perhaps the Bahraini's want in on the act (these will be the farangs that own 30% of Thai land we heard about a few weeks ago ) OR the PM is secretly going to find out what she needs to do to get a Grand Prix in Thailand! On a serious note there is shed loads of massive business to be had in Oman. Perhaps its time to get more money on Siam Cement shares, as if Yingluck pulls anything off (in terms of business ) Lots of Thais will buy the shares and prices will go up nicely.

I hope you're joking, a grand prix in thailand? Most of the drivers here think they ARE in a grand prix already.

Surely you didn't miss all the talk of a Thai GP, it was a classic case of opening your mouth before thinking, like Disneyland and other grate ideas coming from the PTP geniuses.

40 tons? at around 1 million grams per ton (depending on your version of a ton) that's a hell lot of tablets. Are these numbers correct? I don't know for sure but I thought most pills were not much more than half a gram, even if they are 1 gram each that's 40,000,000 tablets. Seriously.

Sounds like a huge international problem that maybe WHO or UN should be looking at.

Some really powerful people are going to need to be jailed if anyone is to take the police follow up seriously.

The red supporters felt that the victims, who were sacrificed for the ruling party, were abandoned while the leaders are now rewarded with ministerial posts.

Golly gee, yah think? This is what you get when you SELL your votes. Live and LEARN.

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It was 500 in my wife village last time around.

I had to laugh when a friend of my wife told her that she and her boyfriend were going to join the protests in BKK. She was to get 500 a day, while as someone willing to get involved in violence the boyfriend was to get 1,000 a day.

What makes this so sad is the same couple happily joined an earlier protest for 500 a day. That was the Yellow shirt take over of the airport.

Both said at the time that they were Thaksin supporters.

What price integrity.

The Redshirts want the "wrongdoers" to be brought to justice. I agree so on another thread today an honourable honest Thai shows the lead with vowing to support the inquiry. Justice to be served also includes the main wrong doer being the leader and financier of the whole attack on Bangkok. If the Reds had any sense they should trade the hard arm constant threats for demanding in mediation to a Dems - Reds governance at the next election. They need to learn that the guy who is screwing them big time is the exiled one in Dubai...he is there for a good reason. He should stay there. Thaksin and the Shinawtra's rape and pillage is not what Thailand needs. The Reds would gain a lot if they were with a Dems governance that can make the Thai economy work even when it is under attack. Meanwhile if the crap and corruption is not sorted as it was righty applied within the final paragraph of this opinion as the existing final solution (as it will be until democracy can flourish} is the "keen eye" of the Army.

"Long live the Queens Brigade".

Small problem though. The reds will never join what they see as the Hi So Party. Despite the fact that the Dems do show some intelligence when running the economy, while PTP has been unbelievably incompetent and threaten to ruin the Thai economy. The problem is that the Dems have a long, long history of corruption, of lining Hi So pockets and ignoring the masses, so why should they believe Dems.

How this country desperately needs another option for the voters, rather than the self serving thugs, thieves and mafiosi that currently describe themselves as politicians.

No oxygen, no fire. So where does the oxygen come from? Does any guru know?

The cause of the underground fire has not been determined so far and officials have been asking for help from other agencies to determine the cause.

Locals are of the belief that the phenomenon was caused by recent earthquakes in Thailand.

A old timber mill, a few years of debris forming over the top supplying a bit of pressure to damp saw dust and mill ends - presto spontaneous combustion.

One does not need to be a rocket scientist!

It would be interesting to know which other agencies they contacted, probably the local fire station.

If it's just a small timber dump they could probably dig it up and pump water in. I can't imagine it can be like the coal seam fires or like some huge waste dumps which also catch on fire and burn for decades. It all depends how much was dumped I guess.

No oxygen, no fire. So where does the oxygen come from? Does any guru know?

google pyrolysis dude

Thank you. I am now in search of a conical red hat sporting a large upper case D to wear as I retire to the far corner of the forum.

And so you should you naughty boy, fancy not knowing what pyrolysis means.... ah, got any more of those pointy hats.

As a victim of the 2011 flood ( house under 2m of water for 6 weeks nearly) I am very suspicious about the announce from the government , first reason no one can predict how much rain it will fall this year .... no one can predict if the same mistakes was be done again this year. I never get any money from anyone beside the 5,000 per person scheme that exist only in news paper but not in my pocket.

Sorry to hear of your suffering with the floods. It does say above that the govt has hardly spent any of it's 50billion insurance fund. Maybe you (and half the country) can make a claim. However, I'm guessing that money is only for rich people and businesses.

I think the floods that will come this year will have people wishing for last years floods to take the edge off the pain!! These are not singular events......get used to extremes of weather for years to come!!

The likelihood of another huge flood this year is very small. Historically these happen every decade or so. Yes the weather will get more extreme and these extremes will happen more often, but we are not likely to see such extremes every year.

4000 baht!

Nice to see they are concentrating on the "Big" dealers.

My thoughts exactly, but what an idiot, deserves whatever he gets... I don't think he will be lucky enough to get "transferred".

Nice easy target for the police though and they get to parade an evil Farang drug dealer to a big fanfare. See Thailands drug problem is all down to farangs.

The most likely reason for the Democrat win was the UDD did not fully mobilize in support of the PTP candidate. The reason for this is not known, but it could be due to UDD dissatisfaction with the PTP for allowing an MP for whom the UDD had spent a lot of effort in getting elected to just quit after 8 months and run in the PAO president race.

Another reason may be it is not so easy these days to get people all excited about the UDD’s cause as most everything they spouted was about an un-elected, appointed government run by the Democrats. Now that the PTP is running the government, there is little to complain about without addressing the issues the UDD’s behind the scenes supporters will not allow to be discussed. Things like land reform, income inequality, local monopolies, etc.

local Red Shirt aficionado nostitz's comments after the previous election would support your points as the UDD apparently played a major role in the previous PTP MP in Pathum Thani getting elected.

The the large working class areas such as Don Mueang, Pathum Thani or Samut Prakan especially have very strong Red Shirt organizations, also reflected in the elections in which you saw in those areas clear election victories of Puah Thai Party.

Edit to Add:

Hmmm... when that is coupled with the low voter turnout for this election, perhaps a lot of the Red Shirts didn't make it back in time from the Thaksin Tribute in Siem Reap, Cambodia and that cost the PTP the by-election.

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Except that less than 7,400 reds entered Cambodia (Cambodian figures) to see the big T, so unless they all came from Pathum Thani it had no effect

Certainly in Thailand more thought would be given to the planning and implementation of "vote for me" campaign promises made by politicians here.

About three in five said House Speaker Somsak Kiartsuranont should issue an apology for the incident.

They'll have to nudge him awake first....

It's the role model House Speaker and Pheu Thai MP Somsak Kiatsuranon.

otherwise, it might tarnish the Pheu Thai reputation.

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Is he about to reach orgasm?

It's all gone quite because they are all too busy looking at girly pictures on their phones.

^{So looking at a bit of smut is a hanging offense ?.....so what sort of penalty is attached to being drunk at a parlimentary debate then..?}

A blow job did it for Clinton! Anyway he should be hung out to dry for not listening during such an important debate considering his job and the side he's supposed to be on.

Are they going to publish their "clear" emergency plans so people know what to do?

I feel such relief, I am safe in the knowledge the Thai government is in control of things if we have any future earthquake.

Now I'm ashamed to be pro pheu thai.

Glad to see someone stood up and said that, respect. Too many otherwise vociferous PT supporters notably always fail to comment on obvious PT errors.

Why they had to make any comment to try to spin this is totally beyond belief. It's also somewhat insulting to the families of those who died. What was it in the end, 20-25% increase in dead and a tiny drop in injuries? and even these figures have apparently been cooked. Someone needs to get a grip on this dreadful slaughter, it's not rocket science, force the police to do their job and start imprisoning people for drunk or dangerous driving. Probably not enough room for 10,000's of thousands of drunk drivers, although I reckon if you did it just once then you would see a massive drop in accidents going forward.

They should name and shame the owners and developers of these resorts

They probably planned to but found that they were all Thai. I feel pretty certain that any foreigners would have been paraded publicly by now to a great fanfare. That or they are too well connected to be embarrassed in public.

And the 'Resort' thing is the same here in Cambodia, pretty much anything remotely touristy is described as a 'resort'. As a Brit personally I think of Butlin's as a resort, not my cup of tea, but at least they have a bit more than rooms and some chairs.

Great such prompt a decisive action... shame he couldn't do the same for all the illegal activities going on down there.

In Chinnicha's argument to the Supreme Court, she said she thought she did not have declare the debt because the assets had been ordered seized by the Assets Examination Committee.

Honest mistakes run in the family.

How many of the family have been banned now?

And amazing how big that family seems to be. I heard from at least 10-20 of them in key positions, police chief, Army leaders, MPs, two PMs.

Ability to be politician must be in the genes.

No, I think it's nepotism in the genes

What a shame! not

Let's face it, he is coming back. The yellows &/or Army can't come out because of the reds show of force in 2010. I can't imagine a few thousand yellows hanging around if 50,000 reds hold a rally right next to theirs. They'd need those brown pants. Therefore it's signed, sealed and delivered. Then the proof will be in the pudding. If he comes back & does a good job for the country many people will be eating their words. And vice versa if he doesn't.

Why wouldn't a few thousand yellows hang around 50000 reds? Oh, you probably mean because of the blacks in with the reds which case they would need their browns.

Thailand, hub of colours!

No, because it might finally get the message through their thick skulls that they are poorly supported and badly outnumbered by a group representing the majority of the electorate.

Might I humbly suggest you try using the "calculator" app on your computer. At the last election there was 75% voter turn out. Of this PTP scraped a little over 50%. Even if we assume that every single PTP voter is as deeply in love with the big T as some of our beloved posters on TV, that's still well under 40% of Thai voters.

Four months! So that's April... May... June... July... August. OK then, note to self, leave country by mid August due to impending nationwide riots and the all too predictable coup that will soon follow. Plan B, buy a big gun and a lot of supplies.

Just effin grate

A question, rhetoriacal as it may be, When the hell is Thailand going to wake up and stop this stupidity? Killing 320 people over a one week period is madness. To put his in a bit of a different perspective, this is the same as killing 320 people in the UK (population wise) in 7 days. Would this insanity be condoned there? I venture to say that the defication would contact the rotating oscillator, and some police and politicians a$$es would be in a sling. Why is it condoned here? I know TiT - This is Thailand....that bullshit answer no longer has any validity.

It might have something to do with the country being run by self serving incompetents for decades, totally corrupt police (well everything actually) and of course the phrase "mai pen rai". As for driving, I have ridden motorcycles in over 25 countries and spent most of the last decade in either Khon Kaen or Phnom Penh. I can say with a fair bit of confidence that the Khmers are by far the worst drivers I have ever seen, however the Thais are without doubt the most dangerous by a wide margin.