This weekend, 700,000 people in Catalonia are eligible to vote in the region's first ever referendum on independence from Spain.Organised by activists and volunteers, the vote is not officially binding but it is taking place at a tense time in relations with Madrid. Supporters hope it is the first step towards a formal ballot for a separate state.
This weekend, 700,000 people in Catalonia are eligible to vote in the region's first ever referendum on independence from Spain.
Organised by activists and volunteers, the vote is not officially binding but it is taking place at a tense time in relations with Madrid.
Supporters hope it is the first step towards a formal ballot for a separate state.
The last Catalan elections were in 2006, so there will be new elections to the Catalan Parliament in 2010. It is not unlikely that Laporta would run on an independent(ist) list. He doesn't bring it up, and gives a non-denial denial when the possibility that he'd go into politics is mentioned by the interviewer. Before 2003 he was closely associated with Angel Colom and Pilar Rahola, then leaders of ERC, the left independentist party.
The figure of 700,000 "eligible voters" in this popular referendum should be compared with the following figures from the 2006 elections:
Convergència i Unió 935.756 31,52% 48 seats PSC-Ciutadans pel Canvi 796.173 26,82% 37 Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya 416.355 14,03% 21 Partit Popular 316.222 10,65% 14 Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds - EUIA 282.693 9,52% 12 Ciutadans-Partido de la Ciudadanía 89.840 3,03% 3
Zapatero and his Vice-president have dismissed today's vote as "going nowhere" (it is non-binding) and "not having any legal consequences" but they might have political cnsequences. I think if 700,000 Catalans decide to really press for independence like they haven't so far things might get really "interesting". En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
This is, of course, a self-selecting sample. Only municipalities where the local government is independentist had a referendum, and the coverage was about 12%. Only between 1/3 and 1/4 of the population cared enough to send a signal to go out and vote yes in a nonbinding vote. And 1%-2% of the population is opposed to independence and takes this weekend's vote seriously enough to go out and vote no. But the result does indicate support for independence Catalonia-wide is close enough to 50%.
The organizers are demanding a "binding" referendum for next April (around the day of Sant Jordi, or Saint George, Catalonia's Patron Saint). En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The new EU president, Herman Van Rompuy, is planning to shake up the regular gatherings of EU leaders to make them less formulaic so that they result in decisions that have immediate relevancy. The summits, which take place at least four times a year in Brussels, will have their attendance streamlined and will produce conclusions which are "operative" and contain a message which is "readable and visible" for the European public. Until now, summits have been numerically weighty affairs - involving over 50 people including foreign ministers, and often resulting in impenetrable conclusions the length of a short novel. This is partly due to the fact that the post-meeting statements are carefully pre-written by ambassadors before being passed up the political food chain and partly as a result of the EU increasingly feeling obliged to take note or react to certain political situations beyond its borders as a matter of rote. Speaking about future meetings of EU leaders, which he will start to chair from 2010, Mr Van Rompuy on Thursday evening (10 December) said: "We have to constitute a group, a club, that gets on, that works for the same cause, namely the European Union."
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The new EU president, Herman Van Rompuy, is planning to shake up the regular gatherings of EU leaders to make them less formulaic so that they result in decisions that have immediate relevancy.
The summits, which take place at least four times a year in Brussels, will have their attendance streamlined and will produce conclusions which are "operative" and contain a message which is "readable and visible" for the European public.
Until now, summits have been numerically weighty affairs - involving over 50 people including foreign ministers, and often resulting in impenetrable conclusions the length of a short novel.
This is partly due to the fact that the post-meeting statements are carefully pre-written by ambassadors before being passed up the political food chain and partly as a result of the EU increasingly feeling obliged to take note or react to certain political situations beyond its borders as a matter of rote.
Speaking about future meetings of EU leaders, which he will start to chair from 2010, Mr Van Rompuy on Thursday evening (10 December) said: "We have to constitute a group, a club, that gets on, that works for the same cause, namely the European Union."
[Bulgarian] "Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, welcome to euronews. Are you worried about possible energy cuts, particularly gas supplies, in the coming winter and a repeat of what your country experienced last year?" Borisov "It's normal that we're concerned because of our previous experience. I really hope that relations between Ukraine and Russia don't worsen as happened last year. Right now, we are building up reserves in our tanks at the Chiren natural gas storage facility, where we have the amounts we need, and at the same time we are setting up a gas link to Greece. That way we can get gas if there are shortages." euronews "If there were another crisis between Russia and Ukraine, could Bulgaria cope without any problems?" Borisov "I hope that we wouldn't be part of that." euronews "You hope, but you're not sure?" Borisov "No, quite simply that will depend on how long the crisis lasts, if there is one."
[Bulgarian] "Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, welcome to euronews. Are you worried about possible energy cuts, particularly gas supplies, in the coming winter and a repeat of what your country experienced last year?"
Borisov
"It's normal that we're concerned because of our previous experience. I really hope that relations between Ukraine and Russia don't worsen as happened last year. Right now, we are building up reserves in our tanks at the Chiren natural gas storage facility, where we have the amounts we need, and at the same time we are setting up a gas link to Greece. That way we can get gas if there are shortages."
euronews
"If there were another crisis between Russia and Ukraine, could Bulgaria cope without any problems?"
"I hope that we wouldn't be part of that."
"You hope, but you're not sure?"
"No, quite simply that will depend on how long the crisis lasts, if there is one."
The world's top natural gas producers meeting in the Gulf state of Qatar have agreed to strengthen their emergent organization and work together to push up tumbling prices caused by an unprecedented global gas glut. But there's still no sign that they will coalesce into a price-manipulating cartel with the market muscle of the 13-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that the three nations with the world's three biggest reserves of gas -- Russia, Iran and Qatar -- are pushing for. Talk of a possible major gas monopoly, dubbed a "gas OPEC," has unnerved Europe, which gets much of its gas from Russia. The 27-member European Union imports 61 percent of its gas needs, 42 percent from Russia. There are concerns too that a resurgent Russia, now vying with Saudi Arabia as the world's leading oil producer, is using its oil and gas exports as leverage to reassert its dominance over the states that comprised the former Soviet bloc.
But there's still no sign that they will coalesce into a price-manipulating cartel with the market muscle of the 13-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that the three nations with the world's three biggest reserves of gas -- Russia, Iran and Qatar -- are pushing for.
Talk of a possible major gas monopoly, dubbed a "gas OPEC," has unnerved Europe, which gets much of its gas from Russia. The 27-member European Union imports 61 percent of its gas needs, 42 percent from Russia.
There are concerns too that a resurgent Russia, now vying with Saudi Arabia as the world's leading oil producer, is using its oil and gas exports as leverage to reassert its dominance over the states that comprised the former Soviet bloc.
http://www.petroleum-economist.com/default.asp?page=14&PubID=46&ISS=25529&SID=723555
Russian investors are ready to take part in Bulgaria's nuclear plant project in Belene following the withdrawal of German utility RWE, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said Friday. "Russia wants to see the project continue and we are currently holding constructive dialogue with the Bulgarian government to find a fair corporate solution allowing us to secure the further development of Belene," Shmatko said after intergovernmental energy talks in Sofia. He said he had spoken to the Bulgarian government of "the interest of Russian companies to become shareholders in Belene." RWE's withdrawal from the 10-billion-euro (14.6-billion-dollar) project for a new nuclear power plant on the Danube prompted Bulgaria to seek new investors to take up the German utility's 49-percent stake in the project. Severe shortage of funding for the 2,000-megawatt plant also made Bulgaria's government consider selling part of its own 51-percent share in Belene, according to Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov.
"Russia wants to see the project continue and we are currently holding constructive dialogue with the Bulgarian government to find a fair corporate solution allowing us to secure the further development of Belene," Shmatko said after intergovernmental energy talks in Sofia.
He said he had spoken to the Bulgarian government of "the interest of Russian companies to become shareholders in Belene."
RWE's withdrawal from the 10-billion-euro (14.6-billion-dollar) project for a new nuclear power plant on the Danube prompted Bulgaria to seek new investors to take up the German utility's 49-percent stake in the project.
Severe shortage of funding for the 2,000-megawatt plant also made Bulgaria's government consider selling part of its own 51-percent share in Belene, according to Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov.
I've said it before, there is a saying in bulgaria that goes; "Italy has the mafia, but the mafia has Bulgaria".
Everything is available for theft. money has been allocated to the building of a metro system in sofia on two occasions. Each time the money is allocated in the budget, but then erodes during the contract awarding process.
The EU allocated a large amount of money to build a 150 km dual carriageway from Sofia to Kulata for the main road from Greece into europe while the Serbian road is "difficult". This road is now dual carraigeway for perhaps 30 km. The rest is upgraded single carriageway. The money that should have been spent ? who knows ?
A dam was built to provide drinking water for Sandanski. But when they started filling it, it began to leak because the concrete was sub-standard. Somebody charged for the good stuff tho' and made off with a large amount of money.
bulgaria is a country that has a shortage of electricity, but a huge potential hydro-electric potential. However I am told that nobody trusts the government or the contractors not to pull a trick and build the dam cheaply. Who wants to live downstream of a criminally weakened dam ?
I could go on .. and on keep to the Fen Causeway
Amazing! In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
Problem being that any journalist hwo tries to say this or, worse still, investigate and find proof, has a nasty habit of winding up dead. I think 6 died in suspicious circumstances during 2008. keep to the Fen Causeway
My body is "successful" but definitely NOT a democracy. My brain, i.e. the "government", runs the show absolutely, gets the best (glucose) of everything, is protected absolutely (blood/brain barrier, immune system tracking down foreign invaders or those pesky freedom fighters (cancers)), and frequently screws up under the influence of alcohol (self-induced) but gets away with it. Again, a biologically successful system. Like it or not our world society might be heading in that direction, and the only thing in its way may be extinction. In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
Like the President of Your United States, consciousness knows only a very small amount of what is going on in 'government' because at each stage up the chain from field to White House, people are collecting, collating, analyzing, filtering, discarding and passing up data in the form of recommendations for action. The President may get two recommendations: it's not hard to be 50% right. That's why clowns can be Presidents. They are not really needed - except to accept and convey the decision to 'non-government'.
President of the State of Mind: "I've decided to have a cup of tea."
<mumbling in the audience> Well of course you have you prannie, we've been telling you that for 10 minutes. You can't be me, I'm taken
23.00 Totalt har 968 demonstranter gripits. Av dessa greps 913 vid demonstrationerna på Amagerbrogade.
968 arrested in Copenhagen.
Unfortunately, the translate function in TribExt does not work for me anymore, or I would give you some translated quotes.
In short, after some broken windows the police arrested the end of the big demonstration in Copenhagen. The police kept the demonstrators in handcuffs on the ground for hours before they were transported to the temporary holding facilities dubbed Climate Guantanamo, to be kept in crowded pens, still handcuffed. Many are reported that they were denied the possibility of going to the toilet, leading to many peeing their pants. It is also reported that one police said that those that looked like Mr and Mrs Denmark would be released.
In all probability this will lead to more violent protests, which will be used to retroactively motivate todays arrests until today was not the day when the police pissed of thousands (the arrested, their friends, and people who happens to dislike what happened), but the day the police saved Denmark from the violent terrorists. Just wait and see. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
It suits the forces of control to find those (or invent them if need be) who can play their part of trouble maker and then characterise everyone in that light.
As far as the authorities are concerned, there is no such thing as peaceful protest that is different to violent protest. that's just semantics. All protest is de facto non-co-operation with the wishes of authority and is, therefore, opposed to the maintenance of order. So it is a disorder that must be opposed. If violence is a useful tool for the preservation of order, then it will be deployed without reservation.
The attack on the G20 climate camp in London exploded the idea that the forces of law and order would co-operate withe protest. There is no real right of protest when it inconveniences the state, and all protest or free speech even down to photography, can inconvenience the state or their operatives.
did anyone expect something different ? keep to the Fen Causeway
At least 30,000 people demonstrated in Copenhagen Saturday to pressure climate delegates to reach a pact at the UN Copenhagen summit. Police made 968 arrests, including about 400 members of militant groups from other parts of Europe.AFP - A planetary chain of protests headed by a mass rally in Copenhagen cranked up the heat Saturday on UN talks to roll back climate change as negotiators reported scant progress after six days of haggling. At least 30,000 people marched through Copenhagen in icy winds, demanding world leaders declare war on the greenhouse gases that threaten future generations with hunger, poverty and homelessness. The rally to the heavily-guarded Bella Center conference venue capped a day of lobbying by green groups around the world, staging peaceful, colourful protests from Australia to the Arctic Circle.
AFP - A planetary chain of protests headed by a mass rally in Copenhagen cranked up the heat Saturday on UN talks to roll back climate change as negotiators reported scant progress after six days of haggling. At least 30,000 people marched through Copenhagen in icy winds, demanding world leaders declare war on the greenhouse gases that threaten future generations with hunger, poverty and homelessness. The rally to the heavily-guarded Bella Center conference venue capped a day of lobbying by green groups around the world, staging peaceful, colourful protests from Australia to the Arctic Circle.
The algorithm functions best on Hemingwayesque text - at least in English to Finnish or Swedish. You can't be me, I'm taken
Former PM was happy to discuss invasion with Fern Britton on TV show - but the Chilcot inquiry will hear his crucial testimony behind closed doorsKey parts of Tony Blair's evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War will be held in secret, sources close to the hearings revealed last night. His conversations with President George Bush when he was prime minister, and crucial details of the decision-making process that led Britain into war, will fall under the scope of national security and the protection of Britain's relations with the US. But there are also suggestions by well-placed sources that anything "interesting" will also be shrouded in secrecy, leaving his public appearance containing little more than is already known.
Key parts of Tony Blair's evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War will be held in secret, sources close to the hearings revealed last night.
His conversations with President George Bush when he was prime minister, and crucial details of the decision-making process that led Britain into war, will fall under the scope of national security and the protection of Britain's relations with the US.
But there are also suggestions by well-placed sources that anything "interesting" will also be shrouded in secrecy, leaving his public appearance containing little more than is already known.
AFP - Britain would have backed the invasion of Iraq even if it had been known that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), former prime minister Tony Blair said Saturday. Blair, who is to appear before a long-awaited official Iraq war inquiry early next year, said London would have used other ways to justify its support for the 2003 US-led war to oust Saddam. "I would still have thought it right to remove him. Obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments, about the nature of the threat," he told the BBC. "I can't really think we'd be better with him and his two sons still in charge but it's incredibly difficult," he added, according to comments released before the programme was broadcast.
AFP - Britain would have backed the invasion of Iraq even if it had been known that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), former prime minister Tony Blair said Saturday.
Blair, who is to appear before a long-awaited official Iraq war inquiry early next year, said London would have used other ways to justify its support for the 2003 US-led war to oust Saddam.
"I would still have thought it right to remove him. Obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments, about the nature of the threat," he told the BBC.
"I can't really think we'd be better with him and his two sons still in charge but it's incredibly difficult," he added, according to comments released before the programme was broadcast.
In a democracy this owuld be an outrage. This inquiry should be stopped instantly because there's no point from here on. Does the Executive seriously think anyone will believe the result from here on in ? It's like Barry Bonds baseball home run record, it'll always have an asterisk next to it cos it was a result of cheating. When they say "well we had an inquiry and all were found innocent" we will just say "inquiries in secret, where the public aren't told is no inquiry worth the paer it's written upon" and demand a proper open inquiry.
But we'll never get one of those, just some other broken trickery to punt the issue down the road until the guilty have finished living their comfortable lives and only grandchildren might be remotely disturbed by finding their ancestors were criminals (like it matters). keep to the Fen Causeway
Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Madrid on Saturday in a protest called by the two main Spanish trade unions against the Socialist government's plans to reform the job market. Spain's jobless rate is at nearly 18 percent. AFP - Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Madrid on Saturday in a protest called by the two main Spanish trade unions against the Socialist government's plans to reform the job market. With the jobless rate running at nearly 18 percent, the UGT and CCOO unions called the march in Madrid to warn Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero against going ahead with the proposed changes. Many of those marching Saturday called for a general strike to resist the government, but that is not an option currently favoured by the main Spanish unions. Earlier this month, Zapatero suggested that Spain's employers and unions discuss moving towards a reform of the labour market based on the German model.
AFP - Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Madrid on Saturday in a protest called by the two main Spanish trade unions against the Socialist government's plans to reform the job market. With the jobless rate running at nearly 18 percent, the UGT and CCOO unions called the march in Madrid to warn Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero against going ahead with the proposed changes. Many of those marching Saturday called for a general strike to resist the government, but that is not an option currently favoured by the main Spanish unions. Earlier this month, Zapatero suggested that Spain's employers and unions discuss moving towards a reform of the labour market based on the German model.
... Spain's employers and unions discuss moving towards a reform of the labour market based on the German model.
And this means ... what? In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
PARIS -- Dominique Broueilh is an unlikely cyberdelinquent, much less a political dissident. But earlier this year, Ms. Broueilh, 50, a homemaker and mother of three, found herself the target of a police investigation and a lawsuit from a French cabinet official because of a comment she had posted online.Ms. Broueilh had come upon a video of the official, Nadine Morano, the secretary of state for the family, caught in a seeming untruth regarding her presence at a 2007 conference. "Oh, the liar," Ms. Broueilh wrote, under a pseudonym, in comments below the clip. The judicial police called in May on a weekday afternoon."I said to myself, `This must be a joke, it's not possible,' " Ms. Broueilh recounted in a telephone interview from her home in St.-Paul-lès-Dax, south of Bordeaux. "It's ridiculous, after all."The police said Ms. Morano, a combative politician and one of President Nicolas Sarkozy's closest allies, had subpoenaed Ms. Broueilh's Internet protocol address, obtained her identity and brought suit against her for "public insult toward a member of the ministry," an offense punishable by a fine of up to $18,000.
Ms. Broueilh had come upon a video of the official, Nadine Morano, the secretary of state for the family, caught in a seeming untruth regarding her presence at a 2007 conference. "Oh, the liar," Ms. Broueilh wrote, under a pseudonym, in comments below the clip.
The judicial police called in May on a weekday afternoon.
"I said to myself, `This must be a joke, it's not possible,' " Ms. Broueilh recounted in a telephone interview from her home in St.-Paul-lès-Dax, south of Bordeaux. "It's ridiculous, after all."
The police said Ms. Morano, a combative politician and one of President Nicolas Sarkozy's closest allies, had subpoenaed Ms. Broueilh's Internet protocol address, obtained her identity and brought suit against her for "public insult toward a member of the ministry," an offense punishable by a fine of up to $18,000.
Is our comment safe from this ? keep to the Fen Causeway
