grandpops

The Government is more in control that you think.

They have moved their meetings to get the PAD running round like headless chickens. Not only did they chase wild geese all day but they even managed to start shooting at some taxi drivers.

Just giving em enough rope and perhaps on one of these wild goose chases, there will be a real ambush and an end put to this madness.

Too late for the high season thought.

Can somebody start a post about cancellations! Sure to be tons.

Edited to applaud the post below this one. Well said Siam4ever, well said.

This lot should be very very easy to identify. The truck with its posters looks very distinctive.

I am asuming the tv footage is better in real life than on Youtube or bbc web services. It will have passed hundreds of traffic cameras and I am certain that many people watching this parade moving around will have pictures of it before the incident occurred.

Looks like one of the speaker trucks or portable stages to me, which discounts the statements that it is nothing to do with the Core of the PAD. Can't be many trucks like that moving around out there. Big white truck with speakers and a full length banner of their nemesis! Its even bigger and more obvious than one of those elephants the BIB fail to see from time to time!

As there were hundreds, if not thousands of well behave, public spirited, peace loving saints, surely it is only a matter of time before their names come to light I'm holding my breath on this one!... is that wise?

The fighting began when the government supporters began throwing rocks...

And of course, the proper answer was to shoot back with guns in the streets and to burn motorbikes.

Then when the police next fire tear gas at the PAD, they will be bleating and wailing about over reaction and there will be another 120 pages of angst on TV about over reaction.

Big network are taxi drivers and anyone in the past who has seen on slighted will know that this is not the end of the matter.

It does however look like it could be the begining of the end for the PAD.

This is a sad day. The film of the person opening fire with a revolver has been rapidly spread around the world. The effect on tourism is going to be enormous.

Like wildfire mate, with the exception of ASTV!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081125/ap_on_...AAf5gTlSSoBxg8F

Anybody with any tourist related business must be up in arms against this mob by now, even if they support the idea of getting rid of Thaksin.

It looks like the Government has given em enough rope as we say, and true to form, the PAD have set about hanging themselves with it.

Strung out and chasing the ghost of Thaksin all over Bangkok all day finally made em snap. Frustrated buy a lack of targets, they decide to run amok.

Easier now to clean em up and start bringing them to heel.

Rich Bangkok people loosing big money now with all those flights that will be cancelled or come in half empty tomorrow. Big Asian confernece going to Chiang Mai with all the loss of money that entails for the capital, in the middle of a recession.

Gonna spell trouble and thats for sure.

the situation seems to be getting worse if one takes into consideration the level of violence in the southernmost border provinces where more than 3,200 have died since January 2004.

abysmal and shameful to the governments, Coup leaders and un-elected transitional government, as it is, many reputable sources, eg. Reuters, AP, et al have put that number at over 3,600 in their recent reports.

Edited in Red for more accuracy.

And many of em killed during a Thaksin/PPP/TRT free era with a Muslim army commander at the helm!

i suppose all PAD guards I personally saw outside ASTV all carrying weapons of one sort or another were outsiders who infiltrated ASTV

< additional rehashing of old, disproven points regarding Oct 7 snipped >

(Tired jaded kneejerk PAD response snipped)

Sorry werbs,

The fact that they were there is not good enough. It does not fit with the PAD line that is been sung on here.

Most people do believe you. and I do mean most!

I've heard that the PAD are going to be moving to Suvarnabhumi next.

Close to home, want to know in advance if there's going to be traffic disruption. Can anyone confirm this?

They are going to be everywhere because they are on.... Slang dictionary at the ready

"A wild goose chase" organised by the government.

Anti-government protests have entered a second day in the Thai capital Bangkok.

The opposition People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has sent thousands of people to the temporary cabinet offices based at the old international airport.

A strike announced by public sector workers in sympathy with the PAD appears to be causing little disruption with few workers joining the strike.

Organisers say the protest is a "final battle" to fell the government, but may be losing steam.

The mass sit-in by protesters at the prime minister's office in Bangkok has now turned into a rowdy caravan, as the People's Alliance for Democracy fans out across the city in search of targets.

But targets are proving frustratingly elusive.

On Monday MPs abandoned parliament, and the police simply stood aside and allowed the PAD to besiege an empty building.

The caravan has since moved north, to the old airport, which is being used by the cabinet as its own offices are still under PAD occupation. But there were no cabinet ministers in evidence.

Losing steam?

The government appears to have decided to let the PAD move freely wherever it pleases, and avoid the kind of confrontation with police, which caused so many injuries last month.

The tactic seems to be working.

The PAD has called this week's protests their final showdown to oust the government - but the numbers are smaller than they predicted, and the government shows no signs of buckling. Without any dramatic clashes, the chances of a military coup - always slim - are non-existent. After six months of almost continuous demonstrations, the yellow-shirted movement that has all but paralyzed the government, may be running out of steam.

Sorry I had to use the BBC for this source, but ASTV don't seem to be reporting this in the same fasion.

bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7747320.stm

They've been laughing about that interview on the PAD stage. He's let his guard down. His attempt to show himself to the ingenuous of the world, as some hard done by, misunderstood saviour of the poor of Thailand, indeed, the world (yoohoo, you listening Mr Head? ) has now taken such a severe knock, he's never coming back as anything than the richest inmate of aThai Home for The Bewildered, as we Irish say

Sorry to shock you there, but most of the rest of the world see this as an attempted coup against an elected Government. An unelected body ousted him 2 years ago and rigged the election and the courts and disolved his party and banned his supporters from gathering or protesting in Bangkok.

This must rank (as it is viewed outside of PADland) as a failure absolutely of the first order as he still managed to get elected despite all that. Thinking (as opposed to brainwased rhetoric) is that on a level playing field they could have won the election by a much greater margin than they did.

Thaksin really is viewed as very tame in a worldwide sense. Even if everything levied against him is true, it pales compared to most African nations, Burma, Tibet, China, Zimabwee etc.

Awaits Kneed jerk PAD response!

If PAD comes into power will the tolls be free to everyone?

For the 1000's time....THE PAD ARE NOT TRYING TO COME TO POWER!

The are simply protesting the res erection of the criminal Thaskin and his clan.

(If you speak Thai, listen to the chants.....GET OUT< GET OUT)

We are not all glued to ASTV. When we watch BBC, CNN, FOX, Bloomberg, NKG etc, we see another group of people calling for his return.

Get out more mate or learn to use your remote control on the TV.

Speaking of listen to chants, you are lucky that they can be heard. After the coup it was illegal to gather in groups of four or more or to protest against the Army.

Careful what you wish for here guys.

It has always been this way thats true.

If people in this day and age are stupid enough to give them money, they will always be here as well.

You should see "The great wall of Patong" in a morning. 3km of nose to tail tuk tuks with no customers. So tightly packed that you cannot get from the path to the beach in some parts. Must be a lot of people NOT using em or they would be running round with punters in the back.

Aggressive, rude, bullying, bone idle and only able to operate in a gang. This is what makes us westerners so attractive to Thai women. Well maybe a bit of the folding stuff helps But just look at the alternative.

Every cloud as they say.

Good to see the PAD damage control squad rushing to put out this fire!

Been a busy few days for them, what with their beloved squeeky-clean Democrat Governor of Bangkok having been indicted for corruption - Golly, what is the world coming to?

Common sense would make anyone realise that a h*ll of a lot of damage has been done to GH and its grounds, I personally would be suprised if the interior hasn't been looted to some extent. The explosion of self-rightousness by Plachon, makes me think that that this news item has maybe touched on a raw nerve.

You can add to the damage at GH, the cost of policing this "demo" and the cost to the country of the police having to act to save them doing the same to Parliament for starters.

110 pages about a mild police response to an armed mob moving on another Government Building. Not much outrage so far for these types of wanton criminal acts.

Don't believe even half what you read sheeple, especially when it is from the mouth of Nattawut Saikua, one of Toxin's trusted lieutenants and verbal dogsbody.

Half! Don't even belive one percent of what you write when you use the inflamatory, incendiary tone you used in this.

You mean like you just used here?

They could also point out to Mr Raving Tampax, that a PARTY is something he can form and an ELECTION is something he can CONTEST.

or more like what you used later?

Could you or your fellow PADSHEEPISTAS go to any parliament, government

such tiresome hypocrisy... bash things about vociferously yourselves, but when anyone else uses colorful words... take on the role of Miss Propriety and pontificate on Proper Properness like Miss Manners....

give us a break...

Sorry it was wasted on you and that I have to explain. I was using that language to show him how offensive and childish it is! So for once we are in total agreement. You show a similar distaste for Plachons post as I did. So lets start raising the bar a bit and leave the Toxin's, The Padistas, The Thaksinists out of it eh!

I am worried on this thread that there is a total silence and refusal to post OT. A Government Building lies in tatters and Parliament is under threat of similar treatment.

Can anybody here defend the damage that has occured? Anybody want to put a figure on it? Anybody have a better suggestion than mine that The PAD clean up and rectify damages thus saving any arguing over amounts?

We have the usual smears and sneers as expected, but what about defending this level of damage.

PS Jack Spratt... I wasn't being simplistic enough.... obviously.

When Gen. Panlop wanted to take over PAD if Chamlong got arrested, anti-PAD squad was all over this forum.

Where are they with this Kattiya character and Panlop promising to dislodge Chamlong from the govt. house?

I guess they will come flying with condemnations if Kattiya says something in support of PAD, until then - no comment. Long live the red revolution in the name of democracy.

Give me just ONE name among anti-PAD red movement that you could trust with building democracy in this country? If PAD leadership makes them puke - what about the reds? Swallow it to avoid embarassment?

Plus you make a very very important point that the UDD draped in democracy brigade actually have little belief in democracy beyond having elections. Nobody should ever forget that they are trying to return to power Thailands biggest human rights infringer in decades. By being apologists and worse for the drug war the UDD/dodgy truths today mob identify themselves as having little belief in democracy and certainly fail to understand that a central facet of democracy is the right to trial, and I would also add the right not to be killed by some government inspired death squad on occasions led by lunatic power crazed government members some of whom were connected to abhorent forms of trade themselves. Of course the PAD are also undemocratic. They dont exactll hide it but we should never fall for the meme that the UDD equals democracy. that is pure spin. In this conflict it is all about power and nothing to do with democracy.

what can I add to that. Got to be the "sentence of the year".

When Gen. Panlop wanted to take over PAD if Chamlong got arrested, anti-PAD squad was all over this forum.

Where are they with this Kattiya character and Panlop promising to dislodge Chamlong from the govt. house?

I guess they will come flying with condemnations if Kattiya says something in support of PAD, until then - no comment. Long live the red revolution in the name of democracy.

Give me just ONE name among anti-PAD red movement that you could trust with building democracy in this country? If PAD leadership makes them puke - what about the reds? Swallow it to avoid embarassment?

Given you it before. Abhisit and the Democrats would do nicely for me. More so than the PPP! I am consistent in that. They were close in the last one and should have done better than they did.

You are totally missing the point. There are elections in this country and the PAD are welcome to participate. If they win it, they win it. No problem, its the peoples choice.

Let here it from you "New Politics" supporters. How are you going to rid the country of a non elected, imposed/appointed leader that is back by the Army? You are not, and should you be unhappy with the way they performed then there is squat you or anybody else can do about it and you then have a new Burma on the block.

There are checks and balances in place now, only because they hedged their bets about PPP getting in. There will be no checks, balances and disent if you get the PAD installed governent. As during the coup, the Army will be in control of the northern PPP areas rooting out disent.

The problem with the PAD that you have totally failed to see is that they are not the peoples choice. FACT! A lot of people see this FACT. Don't wish for something you don't understand.

Try and let the red mist disipate before you post!

Don't believe even half what you read sheeple, especially when it is from the mouth of Nattawut Saikua, one of Toxin's trusted lieutenants and verbal dogsbody. Use a little bit of lateral thinking and ask yourself why he might be making up some blatantly exaggerrated figures like this at this time, just when the stakes are being raised several notches in the game of do or dare being played on the streets of Bangkok.

And to suggest that the protestors took M16s or other weapons or "royal decorations" is just blatantly as incendiary as the evil stuff that comes out of that nutter Gen Kattiya's mouth, with the only intention being to create greater division, mistrust and eventually conditions for terrible violence to be unleashed on innocent people. Read your history books of 1973, 76 and myriad other bloody events in Thai history if you can't read the writing on the wall now.

Half! Don't even belive one percent of what you write when you use the inflamatory, incendiary tone you used in this.

Are you suggesting the Government House is intact? How much damage would you estimate?

Now, legalities. Is this not a criminal act, or is it a an acceptable criminal act? Could you or your fellow PADSHEEPISTAS go to any parliament, government house or congress in the world, do this type of damage and expect to escape scott free? My recogning is that a group this large invading the white house in this fashion could have expected much much harsher treatment, casualties and prison sentances. They (PAD) have been handled with kids gloves because the Courts were packed with their cronies during the coup.

The gist of this piece is that much damage has been done. That is FACT, not propaganda. The propaganda is in arguing how much or how little or in what exactly has been stolen. The FACT is that damage and a lot of it has occured.

If there is a problem with the amounts, perhaps Sondhi and his Pad followers can employ the contractors and restore it to its original state. Save arguing on costs if they just do the work and pay for it themselves doesn't it? Or am I being too simplistic?

I don't think we defend Thailand as much as we love to further irritate the wanke_rs that endlessly complain about everything they can't handle

There is also a beautiful gleaming airport in Bangkok along with other regional ones that can get these whinging sods out of the country.

Why don't they get on line and buy a flight out instead of wasting time complaining about Thailand.

mc2 --- plus is not running for political office in Thailand, thus he is not an opponent.

huh? I wasnt talking about plus.

Opps .. pardon, SRJ --- but the same statement stands. Do some reading!

One can only laugh.

Me too MC me too. Perhaps you could point out that if they did some reading... of a dictionary! they could learn what a Democratically Elected Government means.

They could also point out to Mr Raving Tampax, that a PARTY is something he can form and an ELECTION is something he can CONTEST. The Democrats could also WIN and ELECTION if they got their act togther.

THAKSINLAND... here we come....

According to Sakda, many Puea Thai Party MPs expected Mrs Yinglak Shinawatra [Thaksin's sister] to lead their Party and she would become the first Thai female Prime Minister. He believed the Shinawatra family is ready to administer the country, especially Thaksin’s brother Payap.

Do people want politicians or models?

You made my day. You always have excellent observations / statements.

We don't want a Shinawatra...

whether it's sister Yingluck Shinawatra...

or brother Payap Shinawatra...

or cousin Chaisit Shinawatra...

or son Panthongtae Shinawatra...

or daughter Pinthongta Shinawatra...

or daughter Peathongtarn Shinawatra...

or any other Shinawatra...

is that too much ask for?

Ok, lets hear it from you then.

Who do you want? Specific people please

post pictures of them?

Do you want them elected or imposed?

Whilst your on about it as well, do you ever visit Thailand, or do you just read about it and watch ASTV?

"And if Somchai is sincere in trying to shake off such image, the first thing he can do today is to revoke Thaksin and his wife's diplomatic passport.

- The Nation / 2008-11-13

The second thing PM Somchai could do is disallow Thaksin's incendiary phone calls from going through to the masses. The latest was a thinly disguised call to threaten unrest from mobs he controls. It was also a plea for a Royal pardon - which puts the HRM on the spot.

Thai gov't will censor a female nipple shown on TV, but it won't censor potentially incendiary messages sent out by a convicted felon - broadcast to the masses. Such messages, by the way, coming from a man who has repeatedly stated he was done with politics.

1. There is a right to gather and protest that was enshrined during the coup. It was seen as only being used against Thaksin et al if they were re-elected (which they were) so wasn't detailed enought to prevent him addressing the largest rally of supporters yet seen. It was basically meant to allow the PAD a free run of the capital to protest against him, which they have been allowed to do.

2. Are you seriously saying that this right should be removed from one side and not the other? Saying that to ban Thaksins followers from assembling is ok but leave the PAD and Sonthi in place? NO, its sauce for the goose and you don't like it.

3. All politicians at some stage feign disinterest in power. Look at the party leader contests in the UK. Most candidates appear saying "I have no plans to be PM.."

I think you and the PAD are left clutching at straws these days here if you seriously believe he is likely to pull out because of that statement.

This after years of complaining that there are too many tourists coming here. Guess all those asian package tourists didn't spend the big bucks they were hoping for.

Visa changes forced a fair few out and guess what! they are now "enjoying" those forced months out of the country in Cambodia, Laos and the Phillipines.

Many here have not forgotten how unwelcome they are made to feel in times of plenty and will be more discerning now that there are other places opening up to take our money.

I have speak with some people in Pattaya whos have explain that they became 300 bhat per person to assist in PAD demonstracions.

Hose make many noise became 500-600 bhat.Hose have a Van became 2000 bhat per day.Who can stay in Gouvermetn house for more then 3 monts without salary?

We foreigner dont now to much about Thai history.But we now what is Democratics rule. It mean 50%+1 vote you have reight to compose government.Rabbele from the stret and barricade can not in Democrat Country desolate legal vote Gouverment.This is the way how Nacis came on power. PAD are NAZIS group.They are using like Nazis propaganda with many lie.But 100 time spoken lie became to be truth.In Democrat Country ho make barrikade on the street, and occupy Goverment house will be whip of with Police and if necessary with army.And became baton on the back,and put in jail.In eeach democratic country

PAD are NAZIS

Can we get a translator, please?

It's your english that is shaky if you can't make out the meaning of this. If you want it in kindergarten english, ask your mummy to do it after she has fed you.

Typical smear, riducule and knock the messenger tactics. Again, a ruse the the Nazis perfected. Don't become part of it.

Post on an English based site if foreighners confuse you.

Sondhi, chamlong and their nutty crew really get into this stuff. Here is something from two years back.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/03/15...es_20002785.php

12:04 am: Two senators - Karun Sai-ngarm and Pichet Phattanachote lead the protesters to curse Thaksin in response to a superstitious rite they says Thaksin is having a Cambodian witchdoctor perform in Buri Ram.

Karun asks the crowd to put Thaksin's photos or name under women's crotch and curse him three times.

Karun asks women to stand up for putting Thaksin's name and photos under their legs. Karun and Pichet lead the crowd to curse Thaksin three times.

They ask the crowd to curse Thaksin to leave office, and flee Thailand to Singapore.

He did flee didn't he? Now they say he shouldn't have and want him back?!@$#$

Maybe they will get their wish and he will come back. But if he comes back to take charge of the country, they will then ask him to flee again.

Bpai maa, bpai maa. Can't win with the PAD can you.

Sondhi, check he isn't under your bed tonight...

Gov burns 8 tonnes of Melamine Tainted Products

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=131934

But it doesn't say what brands

Is this because it would cause embarrasment to the companies?

I've got unsweetened condensed milk in my household, one of the products destroyed .

Goddamn it, what brands have, " HIgh levels"

And just what are the symptoms of melamine poisoning?

I"ve yet to see one news report that states this.

It is worrying isn't it.

I'll have a google around.

Will the television station there be free of those those red-shirts that laid siege to it?

Yes. It could have been held in the capital and all those millions of baht could have poured into the Capital.

Government house would be ideal.... Is it free of muppets per chance?