Exit Polls Showing Greek Pro-Bailout Parties Taking A Beating

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An exit poll from Kapa Research showed that Greece‘s conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK blocs risked falling short of the 151-seat majority needed to form a coalition government after Sunday’s general election. The poll for Reuters and the newspaper To Vima showed New Democracy taking 16-19 percent of the vote, well below projections of up to 25 percent last month, with PASOK taking 15-18 percent. The anti-bailout Coalition of the Radical Left was set to challenge PASOK for second place with 15-18 percent of the vote. With a maximum of 37 percent of the vote, the only two pro-bailout parties, which have ruled Greece for decades, looked like they’d struggle to form a coalition. Analysts say the parties need between 35 to 40 percent to obtain a workable parliamentary majority.

6 May 2012

Dina Kyriakidou

Reuters

As quoted in Yahoo News

http://news.yahoo.com/greeces-pro-bailout-parties-beating-exit-poll-160244646–business.html

Editor’s Note:

Let’s see… the Left has won in Lithuania, Slovakia, France, and the UK local elections. It appears like the “conservative” austerity slimers are going down to defeat in Greece. If I were Willard Romney, I wouldn’t spend too much of my money on campaign ads. The trend is LEFTWARD. In order to win, VVP tacked leftwards, so, a Hard Right Mormon nutter (his father was born in a Mormon polygamist colony in Mexico) like Willard Romney has NO chance this November. Always keep Joseph Smith, the founder of his cult, in mind. That’s what Mr Romney believes in… rather odd, no? The recession’s been longer than necessary due to the Right’s coddling of the affluent effluent. It’s time to end the wars, slash defence spending, end foreign outsourcing, and go back to 1970s levels of taxation of the affluent. Reagonomics hasn’t worked.

It’s all there for those who wish to see it. The “conservatives” day is done. Mind you, they’re still going to hold power in areas were Born Again Know Nothings predominate… but nowhere else. It’s been “a long time coming”…

BMD

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Putin Attends Service at Novodevichy Convent at Time of Protest

A strong patriarch, Kirill Gundyaev (1946- ), and a strong “tsar”, President Vladimir Putin (1952- ), share the stage at the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow at the return of the Wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God “of Iveron”. Rarely does such a combination exist… a strong patriarch with a strong “monarch”. Holy Rus and Holy Orthodoxy are on the cusp of great things…

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On Sunday, as tens of thousands of people gathered to protest against his rule at a rally in downtown Moscow, President-elect Vladimir Putin took part in a ceremony to hand over an ancient icon to the Church. Putin, who will be sworn in as Russian president on Monday, handed over an ancient copy of the Wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God “of Iveron” that was previously kept at the State Historical Museum to the Novodevichy Convent in central Moscow. The icon came to Russia from Mount Athos in Greece in 1648. Putin said, “Let it [the icon] serve and help the people”, in praising the role of the Orthodox Church in Russian society and culture. After the ceremony, which Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias also attended, Putin visited the church of St Vladimir, his patron saint.

6 May 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/art_living/20120506/173273135.html

“Liking” Something on Facebook NOT Protected by First Amendment

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It should go without saying that you should be careful of what you “like” on Facebook. You should try not to “like” anything embarrassing or incriminating, lest it come back to bite you. A judge has ruled that “liking” something on Facebook doesn’t protect you under the First Amendment, which is bad news for at least one man in Virginia. Six people sued Sheriff B J Roberts in Hampton VA after he fired them. They say he fired them for supporting his opponent in his re-election bid, which would be a violation of their First Amendment rights. One of the six fired, Daniel Ray Carter, “liked” the Facebook page of Roberts’ opponent. Roberts claims that either fired them for poor performance or because supporting his opponent “hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office”. Judge Raymond A Jackson acknowledged that other cases involving written messages on Facebook protected the speaker with the First Amendment, but that clicking the “like” button is different and doesn’t warrant protection. A lawyer for the defence already said that they’d appeal the decision. This seems to be similar to the debate over whether or not Retweets are endorsements on Twitter, which leads to a lot of journalists including lines such as “RTs don’t equal endorsements” in their bio. Not everyone agrees the explanation’s necessary, and the debate can get a little ridiculous. The notion of a “like” implies an endorsement, but it’s also the only way to subscribe to updates from a particular page. I hope that this won’t lead to people writing, “’Likes’ don’t equal endorsements” in their profiles.

5 May 2012

Connor Simpson

The Atlantic Wire

As quoted by Yahoo News

http://news.yahoo.com/liking-something-facebook-not-protected-first-amendment-193018772.html

Editor’s Note:

President Clinton appointed Judge Jackson in 1993, which means that he’s a “Democratic” judge. No doubt, Judge Jackson and Sheriff Roberts are old political pals (if not pals in a social sense, too… Judge Jackson did graduate from a Tidewater college, after all). Remember, William Jefferson Clinton was one of the last of the Yellow Dog Dixiecrats… an almost-extinct breed at present. That is, most Dixiecrats were Democrats by party affiliation, but were reliably “conservative” in being pro-business and anti-union, along with being jingoistic, pro-“Family Values”, and nativist (with a strong streak of racism thrown in for good measure). Don’t forget, both James Carville and George Stephanopoulos were Clinton operatives, and neither one of them were (or are) defenders of social justice or social equity. The Clinton administration was the last hurrah of the “conservative” Dixiecrats… ergo, any of his appointees (especially in the South) could be “Good Ol’ Boys”, and so, this ruling isn’t surprising. Look for a higher court to strike this down… but the damage’s done… all government employees will be careful about what they post online, and that’s a shame.

BMD

Russian Police Break up Anti-Putin Rally

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On Sunday, police cracked down on an anti-Putin rally in Moscow, making arrests after hundreds of demonstrators broke through their lines in a bid to take their protest to the Kremlin walls. Protesters shouted as the cops reformed and the clash continued, saying, “Fascists! You’re breaking the law!” Police said that protesters armed with bottles and stones injured a number of officers. A number of police helmets floated in the Moskva River after protesters tore them from the coppers.

Violence flared up after protest leader Sergei Udaltsov led a mass sit-in and demanded the right to march directly to the Kremlin and for the annulment of President-elect Vladimir Putin’s victory at the disputed 4 March presidential election. Udaltsov, leader of the Left Front, was amongst those detained. Cops also nicked well-known blogger and anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny and former Yeltsin-era Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov. After his arrest, Navalny urged protesters via a Twitter post, “Don’t leave! Stay for as long as it takes!” Protesters erected three tents at Bolotnaya Square, the planned end-point of Sunday’s rally. A RIA-Novosti correspondent at the scene reported arbitrary arrests and said that eight cops arrested one protester for the apparent crime of wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, the symbol of the global Occupy Movement. Police also said protesters beat a number of journalists from the state-run NTV channel. Earlier this year, NTV aired a controversial documentary that alleged protesters were paid “cookies and money” to attend last winter’s For Fair Elections rallies.

Opposition figures and RIA-Novosti correspondents at the scene estimated a crowd of around 50,000. Udaltsov said in a Twitter post that there were “no less than 100,000” at the rally. A police spokesman said there were 8,000 people present and that Udaltsov had “been out in the sun too long”. A Just Russia parliamentarian Ilya Ponomarev also estimated a crowd of 100,000. Political analyst Dmitri Oreshkin told the Dozhd online TV channel {Dozhd is beloved by US neocons and interventionists alike… Katrina vanden Heuvel is in orgasm over them… caveat vidisti: editor}, “This wasn’t Udaltsov’s rally. This was a rally of angry citizens”.

Amidst allegations of election fraud, Putin won a landslide victory in the 4 March elections to secure a third term in the Kremlin after being forced to step down by the Constitution in 2008. Udaltsov said that police in several Russia regions had detained activists attempting to travel to the demonstration. As at previous marches, the protesters represented a wide range of political views and organisations, from communists to anarchists, from liberal reformers {“liberal” means “radical libertarian rightwing” in US terms: editor} to nationalists. Ahead of the march, websites of a number of independent media outlets reported coming under apparent hacker attack. Also on Sunday, Putin supporters gathered across town at a separate rally. Organizers said some 50,000 people attended it. Opposition figures accused the authorities of coercing government employees to attend previous pro-Putin rallies in recent months. Putin admitted earlier this year that the accusations could be true, but said that we “shouldn’t exaggerate” the effect on crowd numbers.

6 May 2012

Aleksei Yeremenko

Marc Bennetts

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120506/173266773.html

Editor’s Note:

There weren’t enough OMONtsy present to break up a determined rally of 50,000… that means that the number present was probably a figure in-between the police and protestor estimates, that’s to say, it’s very probable that there were 25,000 present, and a small group of maybe 500 broke for the Kremlin, a group small enough for the OMONtsy black berets to contain. When the hardheads provoked a response from the black berets, it’s clear that many of the rest of the crowd decided, “Discretion is the better part of valour”, and left the scene. In short, there’s NO popular discontent with Putin’s election. There IS discontent amongst some elements in the Two Capitals (Moscow and Piter), but nothing that the MVD can’t manage. Most of the hardheads are pro-American zapadniki lickspittles, as was shown by some of their leaders making the hajj to the American Embassy to kiss McFaul’s bum.

VVP’s not in danger from these sorts. He’s turned “Left”, and that’s all that there’s to say on the matter. Bet on RED, kids…

BMD