WinnieTheKhwai

Wait for the verdict? The last update was somewhat encouraging:

- By an unanimous decision, the prosecution is unclear on the extent of unusual wealth and how it is linked to abuse of office

That was a while ago though, no update since.

(Here: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/...y-30123503.html )

Maybe they sold some stuff? The article doesn't exactly go into a lot of detail on where the profit came from..

UPDATE

Court says coup order to appoint AEC legally sanctioned

Third legal issue is whether the coup announcement to form the AEC was legally sanctioned.

The high court ruled that the coup-issued law is classified as an equivalent to an act of Parliament, hence it is legally binding.

-- The Nation 2010-02-26

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Brilliant. Actions of a military regime are equivalent to an act of Parliament.. Sad thing is they probably genuinely believe it too.

Well, they could wait for the next scheduled elections, or when Newin & Banharn decide to jump ship again. I'd prefer that over a killing fields scenario. Other than that I agree with you completely.

True; I would agree with most of that. (I'd hesitate to call it 'good vs evil' though, that's too much of a hyperbole even for me. I know some Yellow/Democrat leaning people that I like. (My wife for starters )

No different from India. Gandhi was pretty peaceful. And 'taking matters into their own hands' can have VERY unpredictable outcomes. It's not like the entire underclass or indeed the entire Red movement sees eye to eye on everything. I see plenty idiots out there, along with the very sensible people. Would hate to see the idiots floating to the top.

great respect for the law and very democratic of them of them as ever;

"we want democracy" they say while violently trying to overthrow a democratic government

This government isn't remotely close to anything that can be called democratic. The current government was put into power by a military coup de tat not by free and fair election. The entire upper house like the judiciary aren't elected, they are handpicked by the elite.

None of the above is very accurate. I'd say it's 'reasonably democratic'. Anyway I don't feel like going into the complete history of events since the coup. I think elections would be a good idea so Abhisit can get his own mandate, but I would also not call the current situation unacceptable.

The red shirts (mostly peasants) may be a group of ignorant reactionaries but they have legitimate grounds to be angry.

Again I would not call them reactionaries. Those left-wing / right-wing qualifications don't really transform well to Thai politics. Either way there's a wide variety of causes, grievances and interests out there, again way to much to get into here.

Right, and a questionable report of what was allegedly said would be just the ticket to silence it, and further increase censorship.

Me thinks perhaps you are in the wrong city because there is no gate n CM named "South Gate".

It's just down the road from South Park.

Seriously, he provided no clear name or location, even though he said he got it from as guide book which presumably includes both a name and a reasonable location description.

I can't believe I'm even posting this.

My bet is on it being Ong Thipparot. This is just South from Chang Phuak (North) Gate. They open in the evenings. duh.

Can we close this one? It's an ancient topic, and Electronic Plaza is an excellent place.

The new place along the South moat is really popular and there's a big choice of everything. Some of the LED TV's are amazing. it'd probably be my first stop when shopping for electronic goods or kitchen appliances.

Thanks Earl. Best to stick to the facts in highly charged times. Before you know it one side or the other runs off the deep end.

nipping into downtown chiang mai in a minute so will report back in a bit. assuming i get back in one piece of course.

That's going to be uneventful. If you'd like to return with some meaningful observations, head to the Grand Warorot hotel. It's on Rattanakosin Road near Rama IX Bridge on the West side of the river.

What a thoroughly strange post. Drinking clearly is not the issue. The issues are simple:

1. You have different interests from your friends. Many people don't drink alcohol, and even gogo bars will happily serve you tea. The issue is that you don't like those bars, so find different friends.

2. You're shy to meet peopel in a nightlife environment. Hello, that's what social networking sites are for. Learn some Thai, join Facebook, Teenee, hi5 et al.

Next.

I'd be a bit careful by reporting highly charged but unverified reports from government or government-linked sources, very much including The Nation et al.

Unless it comes straight from a Red source or is otherwise verified I would practice some constraint.

That's a risk you take when buying.

... 772 User(s) are reading this topic ...

1. In Thailand if you want a view and keep it, you need to buy the view.

2. Yet another reason why renting is better than buying.

I think Suvarnabhumi is a pretty good airport, and much better than Don Muang. The only good point about Don Muang was that it was small, but Thailand just outgrew it. Also, remember the long hike from International to Domestic at Don Muang?? This is MUCH better at Suvarnabhumi; all in one big terminal that's uniformly laid out from A to Z. It's great!

It's not perfect of course, I can list some points of improvement, but not before stating that many of the flaws identified are actually related not to the airport but to other parties, such as the Immigration department and Thai Airways.

Specifically:

Domestic Thai Airways Lounge: (No fault of Suvarnabhumi)

- Half way down pier A, which sucks when your departure gate is B6.

- Those chairs are utterly ridiculous. Might as well be made out of concrete.

Buses instead of gates (Not sure if this can be blamed on Suvarnabhumi)

- Domestic flights often require being bussed out to the plane. This happens becuase some domestic flights are actually planes arriving internationally and continuing on domestically. So then they're parked at an international gate, meaning you need to be bussed out there. I'd say TG is mostly to blame here as well.

Gloomy. Bit like an underground car park with all the exposed concrete.

Aircon could be better.

No carpet

Automated Walkways: Situation has improved somewhat, but still could be better. The trek from Domestic to international when you remain air-side is really quite long, some kind of people mover train a la Hong Kong would be nice.

Seats now mostly have some cushioning on them, but still aren't very comfortable.

Overall though, it beats just about any Non-Asian airport.

Which rental shop was it? (if it was just one of the small ones then I don't really need to know, I just would like to know that it was NOT one like Northwheels, Ruby, etc.)

So if you rented it from something called Mr. Car from Thapae then all you need to say it was a small shop or agent.

The Red have proven themselves to be violant and evil. They are the one created so much violence and problem last April.

LOL!

How do we really know that the judge isn't being told at gunpoint what to say? What's the reason for no live broadcast and no television?

I honestly don't think it takes that much; they're very much part and parcel of the establishment; I think they readily take 'guidance', and I strongly suspect they consider that the right thing to do. Judges should be focussing on reconciling facts with the law. This, however, is Thailand.

I don't understand what the work that these judges are meant to have is after all they have allready been told what to decide haven't they?

Why don't you offer some proof for your libelous claims?

And while we're at it, let's ask the same from the Yellows:

"Samran Rodphet, spokesman for the New Politics Party, the political arm of the yellow-shirt People's Alliance for Democracy, claimed four judges in the nine-judge panel had accepted bribes."

Be very interested to hear why the above isn't a libelous claim.

Editorial in today's Nation focused on Chiang Mai : "Air quality will deteriorate without action now" [^]

"it is no coincidence that the proportion of lung cancer patients in Chiang Mai is higher than in all other provinces, including Bangkok. This should serve as an alarming warning."

We find the above editorial quite thoughtful

"We", however, don't believe it. There's no verifiable source for this claim. It also doesn't make sense, because other Northern provinces suffer as much or worse during the burning season.

Plus it's in The Nation.. you just can't take anything in there seriously, and especially not something that resembles a number or statistic.

You could alwayse use an external DNS server as a backup.

It's not his choice to make. It is (or should be) the people's choice. I for one would not disrespect by second-guessing them.

Just imagine: I wonder if anyone can think of any country where the military routinely makes threats or denials about an impending coup.. I mean other than a couple African basket cases. This truly should not be accepted.. As a coup would overthrow Abhisit's government, you'd think he would speak out, but ... I guess we know how much influence Abhisit wields in the scheme of things.

Just to remind when the coup happened Thaksin was

This is just laughable.. ANY point I make gets deflected to the same broken-record "Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin" drone. I DONT CARE about Thaksin. The topic is on the strength Thai democracy, or lack thereof.

Well well. 'attack' here means of course 'criticize'. That apparently is worthy of a coup threat. What a great army this country has.

Nice of the Nation to again pen up Thepthai's rants.

Perhaps he is referring to the riots outside Prem's Bangkok home, a couple of years ago, in which case 'attack' means exactly what it says ?

Let's for arguments sake assume that he was indeed talking about an event several years ago: why would a law enforcement issue be any ground for threatening a coup in any civilized country? There's really no way around this one, or if there is, I haven't seen anything yet that went beyond the usual bile against Thaksin and the Reds.

Three years ago surely, not "an event several years ago", unless you're talking about

I'm not talking about anything beyond what this guy said. I already stated that for argument's sake I would go along with your opinion.

Military coups are for basket case countries without strong democracies, especially if the only challenge is a demonstration or political speech. (freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, etc). Even when things escalate beyond the scope of those freedoms then it becomes a law enforcement challenge at best. Not overthrowing the government and once again shredding the constitution.

I passed five or more army trucks loaded with 100 or so troops dressed out in combat gear headed into the city.

Intimidation of the people. That's what the army is best at anyway. God forbid they ever have to fight an actual war.