Another Town Hall Meeting For US Citizens

[PigDogg]

You are invited to attend a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday. Ambassador
Eric G. John, along with other officials from the Embassy, will be
present to discuss the current situation in Bangkok.

The Town Hall meeting for American citizens only will be held on
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. at the S31 Hotel, 545 Sukhumvit 31,
Bangkok, in the large ballroom. The S31 Hotel can be reached at
66-2-260-1111, or at http://www.s31hotel.com.

Bring your passport or other form of U.S. citizenship! You must present
proof of U.S. citizenship at the door in order to be allowed in to the
Town Hall meeting. You will not be admitted without proof of U.S.
citizenship.

Acceptable forms of U.S. citizenship are:
--U.S. passport,
--U.S. birth certificate plus photo identification,
--Consular Report of Birth Abroad plus photo identification, or
--Naturalization Certificate.

This opportunity is intended for American citizens and is an
off-the-record meeting intended to inform American citizens about the
latest developments in Bangkok.

The American Citizen Services Unit of the U.S. Embassy can be reached by
phone at 66-2-205-4049 and by e-mail at [email protected].

[BlueBallz]

How ironic-you have to PROVE citizenship to get into the meeting yet in so many large American cities the cops cannot even ASK about your immigration status when you get ARESSTED!! Fuck me!

[Jake_Sully]

probably because politicians are cheap charlies and they know if they had only citizens in the US they'd be paying $10 for coffee every morning instead of $1.50.

If someone wants roof tiling or landscaping done, they'd be paying $15000 instead of $3000.

I'm not fond of it but the thing that scares me more is the anti immigration crowd and their holier than thou leaders a.k.a. Sarah Palin. For a party that stands for "less government" they sure like to tell everyone how to live. And they would be much worse than the previous government. I mean honestly this forum might be censored in the name of United States of Jesus.

So some loose strings are best left alone. Pull on one and our lives can unravel.

[thaibound]

(PigDogg @ May 16 2010,08:01)

You are invited to attend a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday. Ambassador
Eric G. John, along with other officials from the Embassy, will be
present to discuss the current situation in Bangkok.

anybody planning to attend that meeting?
any idea what 'american only' information he might share?
i'm guessing it'll match the travel warnings issued by the state department, but i'd be curious if he has details regarding geography, timeframe, resolution, best- or worst- case scenarios for ex-pats coming and/or going, etc. -- or something as dire as 'escape routes'.

i'd guess most of it would be as applicable to brits as yanks -- they probably required the u.s. passports so they wouldn't have to serve so much tea.

tia.

[sukhumvitpoler]

why cant the british embassy set up a tea and cake day for the brits?

[Road Runner]

(sukhumvitpoler @ May 17 2010,22:17) why cant the british embassy set up a tea and cake day for the brits?

Remember they spent all the tea money on cleaning out the moat, tuning the piano and carpeting the second home.

RR.

[Road Runner]

(thaibound @ May 17 2010,21:40) any idea what 'american only' information he might share?

That the Roswell alien was actually the prototype inflatable sex doll.

Area 51 is an initiative to encourage tourism to an undeveloped part of the US.

The X-files and Men In Black are in fact purely fictional.

RR.

[kahuna]

(thaibound @ May 18 2010,03:40) they probably required the u.s. passports so they wouldn't have to serve so much tea.

We fucking don't fucking drink fucking tea...

[guydesavoy]

Anyone from Bumfuck going ?

[deepthroat]

Latest reports now say the meeting will be a webinar or internet meeting... I forgot the details but check the latest news reports.

[deepthroat]

TOWN HALL MEETING CANCELLED!


WASHINGTON POST
Thai protesters steely in the face of deadly conflict

By Andrew Higgins
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 17, 2010; 4:06 PM
BANGKOK -- He's fearful of snipers lurking in deserted high-rise towers that, in normal times, bustle with bankers and businessmen. He's running low on food and water. He frets about the intentions of heavily armed Thai soldiers gathered just down the road on the other side of a flimsy stockade of bamboo poles, wooden planks and rubber tires.

Thai protesters steely in the face of deadly conflict
Thai Red Shirt offers cease-fire as deadline passes
Thai government pushes crackdown
View All Items in This Story
"We're scared," said Sakda Thongrath, a farmer from northern Thailand who has spent more than a month sleeping on the street outside the now-shuttered five-star Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel.

But, along with thousands of other Thai protesters, the 59-year-old farmer on Monday ignored a government order that he quit the paralyzed heart of this metropolis or face jail. "We're not leaving," said Sakda, defying a blitz of government warnings on television, loudspeakers and cellphone text messages.

The grim determination of Thailand's "Red Shirt" protesters to stay put is matched by an equal determination on the other side of the barricades to see them banished. "We will not retreat," Thailand's Oxford-educated prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, said in an address to the nation over the weekend. The army, he said, will "push forward."

The standoff began two months ago when protesters first set up camp in the center of Bangkok and pressed their demands for early elections to replace a government they denounce as undemocratic. But the confrontation has escalated sharply in recent days as troops have tried to choke off areas controlled by the Red Shirts, a cacophonous assembly of farmers, urban poor and die-hard loyalists of Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire former policeman who was ousted as Thailand's prime minister by the military in 2006.

At least 37 people have been killed in running battles since last Thursday along streets lined with luxury boutiques, Starbucks coffee shops and the villas of foreign diplomats. The dead include a renegade general, who died Monday in a Bangkok hospital. Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol, better known by the nickname "Commander Red," was shot in the head last week by an unidentified sniper.

Smoke billowed Monday from tires set ablaze by protesters and, as night fell, sporadic gunfire could be heard in an area near the U.S. Embassy, which is now closed to the public. Men in black T-shirt and bandanas -- apparently members of the protest movement's increasingly unruly security force -- roamed streets carrying M-16 rifles.

The American Embassy, citing security concerns, called off a town hall meeting scheduled Tuesday for U.S. citizens and announced the session would be held online instead.

[kahuna]

AMERICAN TOWN HALL NOTICE
Due to ongoing security and safety concerns, the Town Hall meeting
scheduled for Tuesday, May 18 at 2pm has been re-formatted into a
virtual Town Hall meeting to be held on-line.  This will allow for a
greater number of American citizens residing in Thailand to participate
in a discussion with the Ambassador, the Embassy Security Officer and
our American Citizens Services Chief.  We regret any inconvenience this
may cause but believe this will be a more effective means of reaching
the greatest number of people without putting them in harm's way.  The
safety of American citizens remains our primary concern.
The virtual Town Hall meeting will be held from 4 - 5pm on Tuesday, May 18.