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A protester is a protester paid or not. What legitimizes them is the nature of their protest. Are they rising up against a real injustice or are they mercenaries hired for the benefit of one man? The reds are just Taxsin's mercs.

Who decided that you can choose what "real injustice" is? The poor in this part of the world have been trampled on for centuries. Something tells me that the real Huey Newton is turning over in his grave.

See thats just it, he would be rolling over in his grave right now. Because he knew like I do, that a REAL political/social struggle over injustice is owned and opperated by the oppressed. That time were they just say "enough" comes and a leader rises from amungst them who's word's crystalize their plight and he/she leads them in their struggle.

Unlike whats happening here, a 2 bit criminal billionare is using his money to hire mercenaries to terrorize the capital under the rice paper thin guise of the struggle of the poor against the elite and the monarchy.

In True Struggles, a Bullet in the face of the leader dosn't end the struggle, hence the civil rights movement in the States after the murder of so many of it's leaders, ie MLK jr. Malcom X, and as you mentioned Huey Newton. Or even in India with the death of Gandi.

But let someone shoot Taxsin in his sqaure face and see how quickly the so called "oppressed" in this manufactured "struggle" fade back into the jungle.

In addition to cash, he also used populist policies to buy votes and populist policies would definitely sway opinion.

Populist policies; so winning an election with promises of free health care and social welfare surely means that government has bought votes and so therefore cannot possible have legitimately won the election!

Oh, hang on a minute; that was the Labour victory in the UK in 1945!

All parties in all democracies promote the policies they think will be popular come election time in order to persuade the electorate to vote for them.

One could argue that a democratic election is, at the end of the day, nothing more than a popularity contest; but I think it was Churchill who said "Democracy is the worst way of choosing a government there is; except for any of the alternatives!"

One thing that always puzzles me about being paid to vote for a particular candidate. As the ballot is secret, what's to stop someone taking the money and then voting for someone else?

Obama 2008

My In-laws from here in Chiang Mai all went to BKK a couple weeks ago as a fun road trip. They are not Thaksin supporters nor do they cheer the Red Tshirt movement. Their only logic was to make the 500 a day plus food which they saw as easy money since they usually just sit around on their lazy arsses waiting for me and my wife to pump money to them. They all saw it as a good time and a way to collectively make 2500 baht a day. Yippeee!