The PM, presently in NYC to hector the UN,
and whine about how misunderstood he is back home,
has basically lost his home.

And apparently his political machine Thai rak Thai too.
Even if they anounce a state of emergency,
they must control more than a few troops to make that a fact.

I am safe on the island, but there is a curfew in Bangkok,
and TV and UBC satalite is now down,
except for a patriotic music video
about peasants, and brotherly love.

Now the PM was OWNER of the satalite,,
until he attemped to sell it to Singapores investment arm, Temasek.
That made the thinking people here go apoplectic.
And the deal is not complete, due to regulatory issues,
and not all the money is in his hands.

And so getting control of the uplink seems a prefectly plausible tactic,
to prevent the PM from rallying his minions,
and causing chaos.

Well there is an ancient chinese curse :
"May you live in interesting times."

This is about as interesting a location,
as I have ever been to.

If the internet is cut, it won't be for long,
so worry not, I will be back when I am back.

The General I saw leading things in a CNN.com report,
as always seemd a voice of reason here.
Same for the Democratic party.
No one in politicas has squeeky clean hands,
but these guys seem reasonable also.

All are steadfastly loyal to the beloved King Bhumibol.
Who is a more than competant bigband jazz musician and song writer.
I love the King, and wear yellow on Mondays in his honor.

There are tanks around the palace,
I'll bet anything they are
AIMED OUTWARD NOT INWARD...

I won't say I am siding one way or another...

But the PM has been trying for weeks to jigger the armey lists,
Putting in his Class 10 army college cronies,
and has pissed off too darned many people.
On all levels not just miitary.
It has been glaringly obvious, except to him.

He says lots of things about democracy,
but has used a flaw constitution,
to take more control for his clique's benifit
than the thinking populace can stand.

And doing it riding the backs of voting peasants,
who he has succesfully kept uninformed
as much as possible.
By intimidating or financially muzzling the press etc.
4 million baht lawsuits for saying things easily proved true etc.

Effectively excesive hubris run amok.

On famous recent line.
When told his second in command might leave he said basically ;
So he leaves, so what,
I am the only one who works here,
everyone else is just my helpers...

I am not at all surpriseed this has happened.

I also just went out to 7 11 for cigarettes.

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 19 September 2006 at 11:32 AM.]

But talking heads are on the local Thai tv channels on the satalite.
5 generals are seen making a speach,
it is all anti-Thaksin.

But also the cute girls on morning shows,
and other people, all weraing either yellow,
for the king, or green uniforms are talking.
Nobody seems too excited either...

My biggest problem is I need 180 sheets of plywood,
and the place I ordered from only has 40 today....

Life goes on.
The Thai people are very easy going
(an historic understatement)

I think with the current availability of media,
this won't be a long term thing,
they just want Thaksin and his cronies
out of the picture
till an election can be FAIRLY held.

From all appearances he has been buying, or bulling,
his way through all levels of Thai buracracy for 5 years,
legislative, judiciary, regulatory, etc,
and most thinking people are fed up.

I have no clue how long to fix the constituational flaws
he rode rough-shod all over.
They might want to do that 1st.

In any case my only concern is
What is best for Thailand and the Thai people,
as long as it doesn't screw farang guests in the process.

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 19 September 2006 at 07:57 PM.]

------------------
Mikey D...

He IS muslim, but a clear spoken moderate.

I do think Thaksin's gross mishandling of the southern situation,
attempts to make Sonthi take some blame,
even though his hands were tied from above,
and the last batch of bombings down south
weighed heavily in this calculation.

I was in Hat Yai a few months ago,
and Songkla too.

Sonthi has tried to open dialog with those in thge south,
who would deal with it in the open and fairly for all.
Thaksin prevented this on many occasions,
he didn't want to lose face by looking weak...

There are many there who want someone
from their area as governor,
not a non-listening stranger from Bangkok
lording over them.
This is not unreasonable, but Thaksin never listened to reason much
any time, anyway.

Sonthi is loyal to the King,
and Thaksin was loyal to himself.
End of story.

Ya know our drummer from the band for 8 years,
was muslim too. Not an issue with us, just another person.

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 20 September 2006 at 04:44 AM.]

( not trying to trivialize that, it IS a problem when you're trying to build a building!)

Stay safe, and I hope that all ends well for you.

------------------
David Collins
www.alpinesoap.com

[This message was edited by David Collins on 20 September 2006 at 05:37 AM.]

I hope that your village is out of harm's way.

JENNINGS

------------------
EMMONS D10 10-10 profex 2 deltafex ne1000 pv1000, pv 31 bd eq, + D'ANGELICO
N. 400

Steve I have never been to Hua Hin, close but not quite.
But it is one of the places on my list to go too.
One of the king's nicest palaces is there.

Why not make a short side trip down to Koh Samui?
There are short jump flights to Surat Thani.
Maybe I could pull a motorcycle road trip with Chacha.
Though it is a long drive, but pretty.

The nucleous of my band is Rick, Roland and me.
This is Rick's second coup, one in Cambodia,
and now this one.

Roland's up to 3 now, Thailand'91, Cambodia and tuesday.
His comment was interesting.

"So cool, not a shot fired,
and business as usual the next day.
It is sooo Thai!"
"I haven't even bothered to follow it much,
unless someone calls me with something."

Thanks for all the thoughts for my safty.

The biggest problem here...
was simply getting things sent down from Bangkok,
on wednesday...
And the bank holiday.
It took me an extra hour and 10 min this AM,
to get the cash back for a secured letter of credit,
because it wasn't signed off on yesterday...

The cabinet ministers who have been trying to
horn in on the land rush down here,
have suddenly and abruptly left the country.

Roland called some Bkk friends and they said;
"Oh were heading down to take some pictures,
in front of the tanks, to send to friends,
call ya later!

I don't think the PM will be able to rally much support from anyone in a position to be useful.

His election voter base is the least educated, generally most gullible,
and certainly most manipulated segment
of the "peasant" rural population.
Basically good people, but being fed
pure BS for years,
and not hearing anything different.

Because violence, intimidation and legal suits for huge sums,
were used to shut off dissenters in the press.

The only thing censored in the last few days was HIM... "Toxcin"
for a few seconds, like a 7 second obcenity delay on a live TV program.
Oops there he is,
hit the button till the scene switchs.

I am still 700 km south of Bkk, and out in the Bay Of Siam,
and the area NEVER was pro Thaksin.

Another thing that sealed Thaksin's fate,
was insulting the monach at his 60th Jubalee.

Rather than observe long standing protocal,
and let the King and Queen great each visiting royal themselves,
royal to royal, as befits the worlds longest reining monarch.

Thaksin insisted, against advice,
to meet each visiting royal himself,
before the King did.

An ego so far out of control it beggars description.

He was both Thick Faced,
as in doesn't listen,
and Thin Skinned, not taking ANY critisism well.
and Square Head,
for both the shape and general attitude,
A blockhead CEO style is no way to
run a country.

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 21 September 2006 at 08:19 AM.]

Bigger, wider, taller, and suitable
for driving through mountains,
without tunnels installed.

It gives you that feeling of saying;

This was to be a pretext for THAKSIN declaring martial law,
and reshuffling the army cards his way.

Essentially giving him meglomaniacly total control.

That's why he had a emergency declaration
in hand to read on tuesday. No conincidence,
or improv on the spot.

He had tried to negociate his staying on
another day
to pull off his plan, and was turned down.

So this coup was a pre-emptive strike against
Thaksin's coup in the works.
It was pretty clear he was setting up something,
now this confirms what I
had been grasping in between the lines of
the last 2 months of dual newspaper analysis;
the Nation and Bangkok Post...

Thaksin was dangerously meglomanical,
and desperate to save his huge fortune,
from taxes at minimum, if not full confiscation.
He was fully ready to sacrafice the country
to keep his gravey train going.

I saw a poll in yesterdays paper.
80% of Bangkok people are for the coup,
83% in the country side are for the coup.

In Chang Mai, the home base of Thaksin,
there were pictures of children sitting
in the tanks with army helmets on,
getting family photo ops with the smiling soldiers...!!

Baby's first coup!!
Something for the family scrap book!
Only in Thailand. Oh my Budha!

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 22 September 2006 at 03:58 AM.]

quote:

---

Premod, Bro D ain't got that short
all he's got's is that Chuck Berry tune "No Money Down" & a funky elephant
the one that brings in the plywood - Crowbear

---

Love ya,
D2

[This message was edited by Donna Dodd on 22 September 2006 at 05:11 AM.]

This is actually my greatest danger here,
insane drivers who only live in the moment.
Oh yeah, they like to pass on the inside, coming into blind corners too.

I was just looking at another Thai centric forum I get,
and I heard explosions, I though some fool
was drunk, in a fight and hauled out a 10 mm.

Nope, 2 days after a Coup d'Etat,
a wedding down the street
decided to have their fireworks display anyway.

Who in their right mind would set off,
explosive devices in a country that hasn't totally settled in from an army take over?????

There is an small army base down near
my studio project, with a radar instalation,
and a small naval suport base.

I am SURE someone there went short term
apoplectic at the sounds, till the
guys up the mountian saw the fireworks.

I called Roland after I saw the firewroks over my house, and he just laughed.