rubl

A good summary of events. I think a mention should have been made of the clash between the PAD and the local villagers.

i have noted that whilst most Thais seem to support the Thai position,, they quickly avoid the question when asked why Thailand refuse the Indonesian observers. If this situation persists until Cambodia takes the ASEAN chair it could destabilise the entire ASEAN structure. This I think would mainly benefit China, Interestingly most of the Thai politicians and generals are of Chinese origins. :jap:

I don't think the clash between Surin villagers and the PAD should be mentioned again. But for those who want to know more maybe check this link for a previous discussion October 2010

'...Sounds like I was right on target'.

A magician maybe, but off topic and assuming the worst of the 'majority of farangs'. You also need to read more carefully and check up on 'sarcasm'. Too late to change your member name to 'Iknowgood', 'opinionated', 'HighTower', or something similar.

now please excuse me, I have to watch the weather

As it's too early to go off to the pub and have fun with the bar-girls, or make a baby with one of them or whatever else farangs are supposed to do according to themagician, let's just talk about the weather here in Bangkok. That's the topic I couldn't help but notice 'BKK prepares for summer storms'.

Well let me tell you:

2:58 PM, just started to drizzle a bit here in Dusit area. No signs of a summer storm yet

But he's right of course that the current government has copied his populist policies, though at a hugely greater cost (and that of course doesn't include the pandering at astronomic expense to the Thai armed services).

The 'hugely greater' cost and the 'astronomical' expenses are your opinion only I assume, or just an 'enormous exaggeration' of quantifying amounts

No it's not my opinion only.It's documented fact.Read the newspapers and no (see my earlier post) I am not going to provide you with "links".

My dear chap, that's what I would politely call 'the night soil of a well-fed male oxen'.

and have Chinese heritage!!! or actually be Chinese

that's an interesting point, i really would like to know which of the members of the actual government doesn't have chinese blood, cuz in wikipedia is written that abhisit family are akka chinese

D_amn. Well at least k. Abhisit is British and k. Thaksin Montenegrian

That's what they(agencies of deceptions) want to see. People who will parrot their statements of thought out strategies. Designed by the SECreTs

But he's right of course that the current government has copied his populist policies, though at a hugely greater cost (and that of course doesn't include the pandering at astronomic expense to the Thai armed services).

The 'hugely greater' cost and the 'astronomical' expenses are your opinion only I assume, or just an 'enormous exaggeration' of quantifying amounts

There is also this completely staged photo, as Obama aides openly admitted that there was no live video of the moments before, during and after Bin Laden was dispatched to meet his justice in the afterlife. The sole purpose of this photo was media spin. Interesting to note that Obama is visually the "smallest" person in the photo, but the "biggest" in the post-mortem displays to the general public. Very much a "visual" Freudian slip.

Staged? You must be kidding

Thaksin was a legally elected PM taken out by force by the army. Then he was "banned". No offense, but given the circumstances, he is perfectly within his rights to continue campaigning. He didn't give up and he ought to get some credit for that.

He was caretaker PM at the time of his ousting and following that he was found to have broken the law during his time in office. Had he not eroded away all the checks and balances, the judiciary would have brought his time in power to an end long before the coup. The army pushed the restart button. Unfortunate it had to come to that. Thank Thaksin that it did.

You ignore the reality that the cure was worse than the disease, and has brought Thailand to its current divided state.Thaksin could have been voted out by the Thai people: his inadequacies were widely known and this was reflected in electoral performance.Eventually he would have been ousted by the Thai people, not by a bunch of military criminals and their highly placed supporters in the elite..It is the Thai army that needs the reset button pushed but the damage it has done is irreparable.

"Eventually he would have been ousted by the Thai people", 'his inadequacies were widely known'. K. Thaksin's "we'll rule for 20 years' also. Why wait for the country to be ruined, the ousting of a (too much care) taking PM via a coup and new elections after a year seems to have worked. Of course the problem with polarization has two sides. Did you already read the HRW report ?

And yet there is that puzzling report from Shawn Crispin that a compromise may already being negotiated.Go figure.

Can't be, I was personally promised a coup

Another 'I have a bright idea, but can't tell you details yet'

NATIONAL

Thaksin uses Skype to make promises

By The Nation on Sunday

Published on May 8, 2011

Fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday said he had a project in store that would help bring unity among Thais and that the country would no longer be divided by political colours.

Thaksin was speaking during a one-hour speech through Skype to address a seminar panel at Sai Net market in Bangkok's Khan Na Yow district attended by Pheu Thai Party MPs.

"I have this project in my mind but I am not going to speak about it now because this government is a copy cat and is equipped with state budget for advertisement. They have even copied my first home project. So I will announce this project during the last corner in the run-up to the election,'' he said.

Thaksin, whose government initiated the One Million Baht Village Fund, said in order that money reach the grass roots, the fund should be increased by Bt1 million for each village.

He attacked the Abhisit government for its failure to stem rising prices, causing low-income earners to suffer.

"The government does not understand the suffering of the poor because government leaders have never faced economic hardship. They only talk to large traders. If I were them I would call a meeting of giant traders such as CP and Sahapat Group to discuss prices in order to get to know the real cost and bring about fairness to retailers and consumers."

He said the root causes of economic problems include the fast-changing world economy, the failure to bring about truly free trade, and corruption of politicians and state officials.

To solve the economic problem that people earn low income but prices keep rising is to have debt moratoriums, Thaksin said, adding that he supported the project to build more markets and stop street hawkers initiated by Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan when she was in office.

"We must give back pedestrians their walk path and increase markets."

Thaksin will today make his speech through Skype to the Pheu Thai Party seminar panel in Khlong Toei.

Meanwhile, Pheu Thai Party Bangkok MP Anudit Nakhonthap said election campaign signs of the party in 50 districts of Bangkok have been removed. He accused state officials of not being neutral and keeping the election campaign signs of some parties.[thenation][/thenation]

come on Don, you usually have something to say?

not backward at coming forward as i often say

so where are all these politically motivated newbies to TV coming from?

and why now?

cat got your tongue?

You're acting like you're in a playground. Possibly the reason that nobody is replying to you is because either they cannot see the point in doing so or else have you on their ignore list. Me? The former.

I like it when people realize they have nothing to said or add which might improve their status in a reliable or believable way

Well thank you for your kind reply, dear phiphidon. Still I'm not satisfied. Nothing to do with apologies or acceptance of them. No, much more simplistic. I'm waiting for a reaction on the HRW report, this time from UDD, PTP or some of the other red-shirt factions. As I said

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said that he felt sorry and that the organization should have been impartial and should have checked the facts before saying anything which tarnished Thailand's agencies or the image of Thailand.

So far I don't think I've seen any comment from H.M.'s loyal opposition (e.g. the PTP), from any of the UDD leaders, or for that matter anyone from the other red-shirt factions. Seen a few red-shirt sites in the USA stressing 'government to blame' while studiously ignoring other bits and pieces. The Robert A. site mentions 'Bangkok's daily newspaper The Nation is in full damage control over a pair of devastating reports'

An honest typo mistake

It's a shame that Thai Visa news does little more than recycle and glorify this kind of crap from 'The Nation'. This is a great hub for expats, but they do very little apart from riling the readers and filling them full of loathing and contempt for their host environment.

ThaiVisa is not a news agency. The forums are a service offered for free, Thai news is passed as is.

If you want more or other news sources, go look for them. No need to get 'riled' or 'filled full of loathing' here

As I wrote a while back a taxi driver from Korat told me 'Abhisit no good'. Yesterday I had one from Nakhon Sri Thammarat. This one told me Isaan people from North / NorthEast no good, 'lazy and dirty' about the friendliest words I dare repeat here.

So back to my suggestion of having a poll in the South showing strong support for the Dem's.

With two nice, predictable polls, we can start discussing the weather again (which I wrote on 2011-05-06 08:06:02)

I'm really and truly touched, thanks to TheNation in general and the BMA specifically:

"BMA prepares for summer storms"

My apologies, dear phiphidon, you're right. Don't know how that happened, maybe I got confused between

text

and "text" and 'text'. Please consider the blame on that part shifted

So, I'm still to blame for the other parts? Apologies accepted, but that's what happens when people remove the text in the quote boxes (presumably because they don't agree with it and can't stand the idea of seeing it in print again) people get confused and lose the thread (if not the plot in some cases )

I really like it when people know how to gracefully accept voluntarily offered excuses. Having said that ...

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said that he felt sorry and that the organization should have been impartial and should have checked the facts before saying anything which tarnished Thailand’s agencies or the image of Thailand.

So far I don't think I've seen any comment from H.M. loyal opposition (e.g. the PTP), from any of the UDD leaders, or for that matter anyone from the other red-shirt factions. Seen a few red-shirt sites in the USA stressing 'government to blame' while studiously ignoring other bits and pieces. The Robert A. site mentions 'Bangkok’s daily newspaper The Nation is in full damage control over a pair of devastating reports'

So let's repeat from the beginning of the HRW report, quoting from the PDF made available:

"Based on investigations conducted in Bangkok and in

Thailand’s central and northeastern regions from June 2010 to

April 2011, this report provides the first full account of the

violence and the reasons behind it. The high death toll and

injuries resulted from excessive and unnecessary lethal force

on the part of security forces, including firing of live

ammunition at protesters, sometimes by snipers. Soldiers

fatally shot at least four people, including a medic treating the

wounded, in or near a temple in Bangkok on May 19, despite

army claims to the contrary. The extensive casualties also

resulted from deliberate attacks by militant armed elements

of the UDD, whose leaders contributed to the violence with

inflammatory speeches to demonstrators, including urging

their supporters to carry out riots, arson attacks, and looting.

The heavily armed “Black Shirt” militants, apparently

connected to the UDD and operating in tandem with it, were

responsible for deadly attacks on soldiers, police, and

civilians."

Copyright © 2011 Human Rights Watch

There is no "clear proof Cambodia is trying to encroach", the land is only being disputed by Thailand, to the Cambodians the land is theirs and they have asked the ICJ to clarify the 1962 ruling to that effect.

With equal right and validity:

There is no "clear proof Thailand is trying to encroach", the land is only being disputed by Cambodia, to the Thais the land is theirs and the Cambodians try to use the ICJ ruling on the Temple complex and a further interpretation by the ICJ to suggest the land is theirs.

When does his 5 year ban end? anyone know? I think it must be this year sometime.

I think the ban started around May 2007, that would mean end in May 2012. Mind you for a political career for k. Thaksin it doesn't really matter too much as with his criminal record and outstanding jail time he's not eligible to stand, maybe not even to participate.

As I wrote a while back a taxi driver from Korat told me 'Abhisit no good'. Yesterday I had one from Nakhon Sri Thammarat. This one told me Isaan people from North / NorthEast no good, 'lazy and dirty' about the friendliest words I dare repeat here.

So back to my suggestion of having a poll in the South showing strong support for the Dem's.

With two nice, predictable polls, we can start discussing the weather again (which I wrote on 2011-05-06 08:06:02)

Whoa, there Tonto! It was he who writes in Zen Haiku stylee, aka Animatic that asked for those stupid insignificant details, not me. I could have googled to see if the black shirts had invested in sky hooks so they could cleverly shoot from above and behind the special forces troops on the BTS tracks so they could blacken the name of the thai army, but I just wrote it off as a "I've got to come up with something" moment on his behalf - so don't go blaming that BS on me.

My apologies, dear phiphidon, you're right. Don't know how that happened, maybe I got confused between

text

With the usual jayboy / jdinasia bickering going on, I can only assume there's nothing more serious going on at the moment. Ah, Friday night, relax and have a beer

Jf, for the sake of completeness I think you should have posted the rest of the above article. Here it is.

"Now, I don’t want to appear to be so callous. These are kids and I can’t help but sympathize somewhat over their situation. May they manage to live good lives and at least attempt to redeem themselves and try to make up for the tragic losses they are responsible for – and they are responsible. However, I believe they have gotten off on the wrong foot by having mommy and daddy elite take care of their legal responsibilities.

The truth is that these kids have become lightning rods for the hate that the aristocracy in Thailand has brought upon itself over the years. They symbolize the enemy; rich, uncaring, reckless, and protected. A true democracy in Thailand could ultimately solve this problem. That's why the people want it and the elite/military establishment are so opposed to it."

Now where I agree with elite getting away with too much, I do not see the 'automatic' inclusion of the army.

The elite includes a few famous names, including k. Chalerm's sons (not shooting anyone) and k. Thaksin's daughter caught cheating at a Chula exam. No double standards, please

Fog of War. Obama was not there and a little helmet camera does not give the whole picture. It would also take several days to properly debrief the Seals.

If that is the case then why did they give everyone a bullshit story to start with. They shouldn't have told us what happened before the Seals where debriefed, otherwise it is just a guess and that is what has caused the confusion.

True, but after things happened the US government felt / had a need to say something. It's not like 100 - 150 years ago when a country could sent a gunboat, shoot some locals and tell about it months later. If it's not big brother watching you it must be CNN or one of the others