Teabagging, Thai Style

From the pages of The Bangkok Post:

Red-shirt protesters splashed blood in front of the entrance to Government House late Tuesday afternoon, in a brahman-like ritual aimed at toppling the government.

Leaders of the anti-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), Natthawuat Saikua, Jatuporn Prompan and Arisman Pongruangrong, and a group of red-shirt followers arrived at Government House about 4pm.

The UDD leaders negotiated with Metropolitan Police chief Wichai Sangprapai after authorities refused to allow them through.

After talks, 100 red-shirts led by opposition Puea Thai Party MP Jatuporn and a white-robed priest were allowed through the police cordon.

The man, dressed as a Hindu priest, who carried a Buddhist statue with him, performed a ritual before protesters poured the donated blood around the front gate. Medical and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration personnel immediately cleansed the area and used chlorox to disinfect the blood stained road after the ritual was performed. There was no trouble and the red-shirts later returned to the main protest venue at Phan Fa bridge.

And in Washington today, a few hundred ninnies showed up to bleat about crap that is not even real.

We'll grant that control of the government was taken from them by a military coup, not an overwhelming electoral defeat, but that's nit-picking, isn't it? 'Baggers & Shirts are both rural types, hoping to make things easier for the rich, if we're to take the word of the BBC.

The red shirts oppose the 2006 military coup that toppled Thaksin Shinawatra.

They say Prime Minister Abhisit came to power illegitimately with the backing of the military and the Bangkok-based elites.

Mr Thaksin's main power base was in the rural north. He is now living in self-imposed overseas exile, after he was ousted amid allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

Last month the Supreme Court ruled that just over half of the assets ($1.4bn; £910m) belonging to Mr Thaksin or his family which were frozen since the coup, should be seized.

We suppose this won't be happening in these United Snakes:

The government is ready to help red-shirt protesters in Bangkok return home if they do not have their own transport, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Tuesday.

"Demonstrators who want to return home but cannot find buses to transport them can ask  government officials for assistance," Mr Abhisit said after chairing the meeting with the government's peacekeeping operations centre.
He said the government will not underestimate the situation and will continue keeping a close eye on the red-shirt rally,  regardless of the number of protesters, to prevent any violence occurring.

[Clever one-liner (or wise yet cynical, deep, & meaning-laden statement) to wrap it all up.]