It's not my fault Prachatai does such a poor job justifying their claims of being "independent" or "journalists."

Independent when you are paid millions of baht by a foreign government, especially an organization like NED that has a long history of manipulating and overthrowing political systems around the world?

Journalists when you call an interview with a paid lobbyist of a man who's movement you are overtly supporting, "journalism?"

Pravit's questions to Amsterdam are essentially, as Thaksin's paid lawyer, what kind of man is Thaksin? Answer: Thaksin is a great man! ... what a surprise!

This is grotesque, insulting propaganda. It served no purpose other than to give Amsterdam a platform to make a case he is PAID to make. The real question is - if you are truly interested in the truth, objectivity, and rational debate, why are you not pointing out how poorly this interview compliments such ideals or the alleged agenda of Prachatai?

And Albert, you cite two articles published by Prachatai, where within each, Prachatai refutes and tries to frame as ridiculous the evidence provided by Sondhi - along with the torrent of insulting comments that followed, in addition to Prachatai's targeted censorship of my comments in rebuttal. I think you make my point in spades - thanks.

Betrayal against whom? Phuea Thai is run by Thaksin and his foreign sponsors, as is the UDD/red shirts, as is Nitirat. If by "betrayal" you mean the betrayal by this entire disingenuous "pro-democracy" movement, clearly yet another foreign-funded attempt by Wall Street and London to open up Thailand for their own self-serving machinations through the conduits of anyone duplicitous or ignorant enough to assist them - against those who in good will actually are naive enough to believe this is truly about "freedom," "democracy," and "human rights," then absolutely - it is a betrayal.

It is a betrayal that has been repeated from Tunisia to Thailand, acutely so during this past year under the guise of the "spontaneous" "Arab Spring."

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/12/2011-year-of-dupe.html

The answer to this is of course exposing all the frauds, from Thaksin down to UDD, Nitirat, and US-funded Prachatai, purge the movement of all ties to foreign meddling, and begin anew with pragmatic solutions to real problems. I can't really see how Nitirat's insistence on wasting time over whether or not Thais should have the right to slander their sovereign institutions during a time when foreign interests are trying to specifically undermine and remove them, trumps the need for improved education, better infrastructure, and widespread poverty.

Clearly the more pressing issues are socio-economic, not political - the average taxi driver needs more money, needs the ability and knowledge to earn more, needs a better roof over his and his family's head, better education for his children, healthier food and water to consume, and the assurance that this rainy season his home will not be undulated by floods - yet a cruel exploitative hoax is being played on him - to harness his time and energy to back a political movement of rival elitists and foreign interests instead of using that time and energy on pragmatic solutions to his very real and numerous problems. The betrayal is by those who insist such a man continue squandering his time for their pet projects instead of steering and determining his own destiny, that he don a red shirt, slap a Nitirat bumper sticker on his cab, instead of organizing locally to solve problems politicians are intent on exploiting rather than solving.