"Thailand’s constitutional court on Tuesday disbanded the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and two of its coalition partners for electoral fraud. The parties’ leaders, including Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, have been banned from politics for five years. The announcement came hours after an antigovernment protester was killed at a Bangkok airport."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1202/p99s01-duts.html

Imagine if this whole situation had taken place here in America or in the ‘first world’ country of your choice.A It would have been like Waco.A And if not like that, at the very least the protesters would have been much more thoroughly brutalized by the police ‘tactical’ units and all swept into jail for ‘terrorism’ of some sort or another.A Think if it had been LAX…

In Thailand it resulted in a rolling back of yet another set of corrupt players.A I’m sure all of the ‘law and order’ types would say that this is *exactly* why we need police, SWAT, etc…A I gotta tell you, a change in government like this for us every few years would be a great thing.A As well as the ability to ban people from government office for x amount of years after they were thrown out.

For all the statists out there…A who really think we need all that overhead to get along…A I was actually in Thailand during the last ‘coup’.A Guess what?A NOTHING happened.A I could still buy groceries, I could still goto movies, etc…A A properly setup govenment in some ways should be so detached from daily life that when it is gone…A it takes a while for people to even notice.

addendum:A yes, I know how awful their prisons are.A yes, I know the USA has set up CIA extradition prisons there.A Nowhere is perfect and the USA can strong arm a lot of places.A But in general, yeah.A I would much rather live there than almost anywhere these days.