LawnGnome

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith, said Sivarak Chothipong would be released Monday.

As far as has been reported, Monday was coincidentally also the day that the 3 requests for a pardon were going to be submitted.

One from Chavalit, one from a group of PTP MP's, and one from Sivarak's mother.

None of them had been turned in yet, as far as all available news reports go.

Amazing Cambodia!

Cue Thaksin's comments on the situation. I am sure he will play the "humble card" (Yeah right...lol)

The actors in this stage play have flubbed their lines for Act III, Scene 2

They've jumped ahead and are reading the lines from Act IV, Scene 1

The pardon has been granted before it was even requested.

Of course. The charge, the trial, the verdict, and the pardon were all known in advance. That way, the trial can be used as a tool to educate the public on the wisdom of the Cambodian government's decision....

Money from Takki Shinegra doesn't hurt the cause either.

This is all about money. Nothing else, just money.

The Red shirts held a protest with no violence. I applaud them for that, and hope it continues. They can shout until they are blue in the face. As long as they don't park NGV gas trucks next to apartment buildings and burn city buses...

Well of course he did. I'm sure it happened as soon as Thaksin's "investment donation check" cleared....

I actually think most Thai people will recognize this for what it is - a farce.

In the previous post, which I will not delete, it's a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

I wasn't aware that "Lawngnome" was a rank used in any kind of military organization. Maybe the Teletubby Expeditionary Forces.

Back on Topic, I have no problem with THAI sueing the PAD. They were crazy to disrupt the airport, and I am also not happy that judicial proceedings against them are moving so slow. That being said, I don't think I have ever seen the Thailand Judiciary move fast, ever, so this is just more of the same.

(It serves as a foil for the "Shotgun" trial of the Thai man in Cambodia. Change 'im, Try 'im, Hang 'im, Next!

"Oberkommando" was a rank in the Nazi Germany armed forces. That tells me all I need know about the poster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberkommando_der_Wehrmacht

A good thing.

42 billion baht or 4.2 billion baht? Even 4.2 billion is 140,000 baht per student teacher, and 30,000 teachers is a lot. Where are the classrooms?

I assume they are empty, wasn't there a large projected shortfall of teachers? In any event, money to train teachers is needed. I hope current training methods will produce better quality teachers. Education is the only way for Thailand, or any country, to advance in the world.

(Cue the TV brigade who will squawk - the elite don't want to educate the Thai people, etc etc etc)

Swift "Justice". Gotta love it. Cue Thaksin to swoop in, to arrange a "Pardon".

I see this topic has brought out the veteran TV members (4 posts, 2 posts etc...) LOL

Thanks guys. If anyone does have some experience purchasing this type of sofa, and could point me in the right direction, I would be most appreciative.

Discovering that my 3yo son has a severe allergy to dust mites, has prompted us to think of buying a new couch (sofa). We would like a nice leather coach, and if we would find one that had a fold out bed (Sleeper/sofa bed) that would be a bonus.

I have never seen anything close to this in places like Index, etc.

This is what I would like (or somehting to the effect)

http://www.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6.aspx?DeptID...0Sleeper%20Sofa

Where can i find one?

Any help would be appreciated.

Last night I was downtown at Democracy monument, playing with the Thailand Philharmonic, in front of a crowd of over 1 million people. The sight of so many, celebrating HM's birthday, was truly breathtaking. May HM live forever!

I hope that at some point these cruel excesses can be eliminated. Everyone has the right to a save work environment.

Man has certain bonds with some animals - a kinship that is felt with dogs, horses and the like. Those bonds are not a new thing, but go back thousands of years. This basic point is what so many feel revulsion to the concept of eating certain animals.

Right or wrong, that feeling is present in some but not in others. If you do not share their palate, don't go there, or don't patronize the establishments. It is about all you can do.

Any animal that is killed for meat, should be killed as humanly as possible - my own opinion.

Hi All,

I have always enjoyed Sichuan Food (the Chinese hot/spicy style), and I was wondering if there were any good places to get it in Bangkok?

Any help would be

Try bringing someone who speaks Thai to come with you. Someone who actually understands english would be a bonus.

It is amazing how fast the police find suspects in the crime, when the bereaved is a police general.

This topic came up last year when the ban was initially enacted, so actually this isn't current news. Do we have to rehash the same old replies?

Hun Sen may have others backing him in this little dispute. Thailand is a little bit of a big boy in SE Asia and there are those who probably want to see it lose some face.

The big crack in Thailand appeared during the summit in Pattaya. That was not only embarrassing for Thailand it also put some leaders in harms way. I don't think leaders like that very much. The Chinese in particular may harbor a grudge.

Which is probably why Thaksin hasn't been reported as being in China recently... red shirt leader and all.

As an ex-Khmer rouge criminal Hun Sen should be on trial at Den Hague... right now

As an ex-Khmer rouge who defected to Vietnam in 1977 after his disgust with the KR, and his part in planning and assisting the overthrowing of the Khmer rouge in late 1978 you mean?

(Hun Sen was a officer in the Khmer Rouge. After witnessing the excesses of the Khmer Rouge in 1976, he defected to Vietnam in 1977 and quickly became an important leader in the Vietnamese-backed resistance to the Khmer Rouge. When the Rouge regime was overthrown, Hun Sen was appointed foreign minister from 1979 until 1990, with a brief interruption from 1986 until 1987. As foreign minister Hun Sen was a key figure in the Paris Peace Talks which brokered peace in Indochina. He became prime minister in 1985, shortly after the death of Chan Sy . From 1993 until 1998 he was co-prime-minister with Prince Norodom Ranariddh. He has been reputed for using intimidation tactics in politics to remain in power. )

Or for not cow-towing to the uneducated Thais who still think they built the Angkor period temples and should have it all back with most parts of north-eastern Cambodia when in Angkor times Thailand didn't even exist? Why shouldn't the Thais be on trial for letting the British SAS and US Marines train the Pol Pot-led forces in a UN owned area in the south of Thailand. Or the killing of thousands of Cambodian refugees, men, women and children, when the Thai military pushed them back into the mine fields by Preah Vihear after they had escaped the Khmer Rouge in 1979/80.. ?

In the most notorious episode, in 1979, 42,000 Cambodian refugees fleeing the murderous Khmer Rouge were forced back down a cliff into a minefield by the Thai military. Survivors said many of them died.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/world/asia/18thailand.html

..Or for the murders and rapes of hundreds of Vietnamese boat people in the early 80s escaping the Viet Cong?

Table Removed.

Links:

http://www.fortunecity.co.uk/amusement/golf/200/viet.html

http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/arthat.htm

http://www.vietka.com/Vietnamese_Boat_Peop...eStatistics.htm

http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cutt..._14nov1989.html

http://www.newstatesman.com/200004170017

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-d...nsen_10-21.html

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/As...022-175254.html

..Or the almost weekly killings of (illegal) Cambodian loggers and mushroom pickers along the Cambodian / Thai border?

Hun Sen should probably be on trial for many things, and so should many Thais Americans, Brits and all kinds of other people.. But if you are going to talk of things you know nothing about, back it up with facts.. or else it's just like 90% of the posts on this forum. Bullshit..

I took up Mr. Paranoids challenge. I read all the links that he cited. Here is what I found.

1) None of the links deal with the supposed atrocities of Thais committed against Cambodians, as he claims.

2) While some of these may very well be true, and very tragic, they don't do anything to dispel the argument that Hun Sen has blood on his hands.

3) Actually several of the articles do reference Hun Sen's - as being the leader of a regime full of violence and savagery.

4) Two of the links are actually the same article, on different sites. That tells me he didn't read the articles before posting them.

I would take anything MrParanoid backs up with "Sources" with a grain of salt. Makes you wonder why he is defending Hun Sen in the first place.

I have no doubt that Thai authorities in the past have not been good to migrants. However, I can understand the pressure many probably felt. Imagine the millions who, if given the chance, would leave Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, for Thailand. That reason, however, does not justify killings, and I hope that things in the future will be more positive. Frankly, in the world of 24 hr news, none of these atrocities are likely to occur again. It is simply to hard to hide, when most people have cameras on their phones. There will always been some soft of photo evidence, in the modern world.

People will never think of buying the alcohol from the next aisle over and giving it with the basket.

Shhhhhhh, Not so loud !

Hoping for a bit of clarification. Another paper says that we was convicted on the charge of assault. It would be amazing that the maximum penalty for such a conviction is only 30 days in jail, but I suppose anything is possible in Amazing Thailand. Is the penal code really that light on assault?

It also pointed out that in court the convict refused to apologize for the attack and furthermore he stated that his actions were intentional.

While it appears that this is his first actual conviction, given his checkered past, as highlighted earlier, it seems incredulous that this person will remain as a Member of Parliament.

I also guess nothing developed further from his earlier troubles justifying the degree he received from a diploma mill in the Philippines.

He's a Thaksin bag man. Nothing really incredible about it. Takki Shinegra needs men of honor like this, to defend himself against the people trying to steal his lawfully earned money.

I wonder what that corruption index would be this year if he was incarcerated and serving a 30 year prison sentence (obviously based on convictions of his other pending corruption charges).

When people see someone openly skirting the law, they are more prone to skirt the same law themselves. It's not until that person is held responsible will be people sit up and take notice that corruption is bad. It'd be terrific to see him come back and face that sort of time in jail. You'd see that corruption index drop like a rock.

How spectacularly naive.It wouldn't make any difference of course.Corruption is pervasive in a very high degree in all aspects of Thai life including the corporate world politics, the military and the bureaucracy.A notoriously corrupt politician serves in a high position in the current government.It doesn't need Thaksin's presence to make an example of corruption.There are more than enough enough targets right here in Bangkok.The fallacy of course in the poster's comment is that corrupt though Thaksin was, this is the excuse not the real motive for the elite's hatred of him.

Have you ever seen any of the Thaksin haters question how General Sonthi (the leader of the coup against Thaksin) became a millionairre on his soldiers salary, just as an example.

ahhh - did you see what Clauswitz did? He is trying to create the idea that people who don' support the red shirts, are all staunch supporters of the coup and its leaders. Very clever, Claus, very clever. Its complete bullocks, however. The world is not made up only of reds and yellows. I can hate Thaksin and what he stands for, and yet, also equally despise the methods of the yellows and the military. That is something that probably drives you crazy, because you can't find a way take your potshots then.