Live Blogging High Court Verdicts

3:37 P.M. The high court clears the Democratic party of breaking election law because the election law ceased to exist when the coup leaders threw out the constitution. Can't charge people with laws that have been thrown out, now can you?

4:13 P.M. Now the high court is saying that the suit against the Democratic Party is actually still valid because "the alleged crime had already been committed." Oh. That makes sense.

Two other rulings against the Democrats are that the suit was filed properly, and that some procedural point that the Democrats complained about was moot. God, this is dull. I'm switching over to CSPAN-5 for some action.

4:27 P.M. Finally! Some real excitement! Two guys are standing in front of the courthouse holding a "mock-up constitution-carrying tray".

Waranchai says this tray carries the Constitution of BE2550. He says he wants the Constitution and the election, not the dissolution of political parties.

Two protestors at this early stage! The tension is so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Bangkok hangs on a precipice, ladies and gentlemen.

4:55 P.M. Prime Minister gives an interview and says that the situation remains normal, and reports that provincial governors report all is calm in the country. Guess those 13,000 troops really weren't necessary after all, eh? Well, sometimes you plan for a million angry protestors and only get a couple of guys with a "constitution tray". It happens.

5:26 P.M. The court rules that the Democrat Party is not guilty of inventing the phrase "Thaksin Regime" when advising people not to vote in the April 22 elections... because you know... inventing phrases is... well... somebody else said it before they did, so that's all there is to that. Good news, eh?

5:37 P.M. The head of the Democrat party is found not guilty of strong-arming small political parties into boycotting the April elections.

5:42 P.M. The court of Jil's opinion has ruled that the last 3 hours of talking was a complete waste of my time... except for making Homer graphics... that was fun. The Democrat party seems to be fully cleared of any accusations against it. (In case you're wondering, this means that we are only halfway through the verdict, since the next political party, the Thai Rak Thai party, now has to have it's verdicts delivered.) Hopefully somebody will be guilty of something before the end of the day.

6:01 P.M. Supporters of the Democrat party outside the courthouse are cheering because now they know that they have no reason to get the snot beaten out of them by 13,000 bored troops with nothing to do. Don't know what happened to the "Constitution Tray" guys. They sounded fun.

6:25 P.M. That's it. If I had known it was going to be this boring, I never would have tried live-blogging this p.o.s. My life is more valuable than this and I've got better things to do... such as eating dinner. Sorry folks... but you're on your own from this point out.

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UPDATE THE NEXT DAY:

The party of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, called Thai Rak Thai, has been disbanded and all of its 111 top executives are banned from politics for five years for "wrongdoings that have negative impacts on democracy system of the country", primarily stemming from the party's efforts to influence smaller political parties in regards to the April 2006 elections. None of this was unexpected. No demonstrations, protests, marches, or anything of the sort. The end.