CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada is envisioning a day when taxicabs might shuttle fares without a driver, or people with medical conditions that make them ineligible for a license could get around with a virtual chauffeur.
The concept took a big step when Nevada became the first state to approve regulations that spell out requirements for companies to test driverless cars on state roads.
“Then they have to take us out and prove that they can do it,” Bruce Breslow, director of the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, said of the autonomous vehicles. “They’re not ready to go to market yet.”
But Nevada intends to be ready when they are, and officials hope to stay ahead of other states such as Florida and Hawaii that are considering similar testing regulations, Breslow said.
Gov. Brian Sandoval took a test ride in a self-driving Toyota Prius in July. The car being developed by Google Inc. uses radar, sensors and computers that allow the vehicle to drive itself, though human drivers can override the autopilot function.
Companies that want to conduct testing in Nevada will need a bond of $1 million to $3 million, depending on the number of cars they plan to test. Firms also must lay out their specific intentions, such as testing a vehicle on urban roadways, or its ability to operate in the fog, rain or snow, and provide testing data to the state.
The cars must have two people in them at all times, with one able to take control. The new regulations approved last week also require companies to detail license requirements for people to operate them when they become available.
Cars must be equipped with separate data collectors — similar to the “black box” on an aircraft — that will “capture and store the autonomous technology sensor data for at least 30 seconds before a collision.”
The regulations go beyond testing procedures, anticipating the day when driverless cars become a reality on highways.
If a vehicle is certified as capable of being driven in autonomous mode without a driver, a person can operate the vehicle “without being physically present,” one provision says.
Whether there’s a human driver or not, the regulations hold the operator responsible regardless of whether the person is physically present in the autonomous vehicle.
The only exception to traffic laws is texting or talking on a hand-held cellphone. A law passed by legislators last year to ban texting while driving included a specific exemption for operators of self-driving cars on autopilot.
But the vehicles won’t be a substitute for a designated driver after a night on the town, Breslow said.
“There is no exemption for drinking and driving,” he said.
18 February 2012
17 February 2012
The rise of the 'militant secularists': Muslim minister calls on Christians to stand up for their faith
By Kirsty Walker
14th February 2012
Christianity is in grave danger of being marginalised, Britain's only Muslim cabinet minister will tell the Vatican today.
Baroness Warsi will call for Europeans to take more pride in their religious roots and for Christianity to play a greater role in public life.
She will attack the 'basic misconception' that Christianity needs to be 'erased' for minorities to feel welcome in society.
She also spoke of her fears for British society which she believes is being taken hold of by 'militant secularists' in an article for the Daily Telegraph.
Social cohesion will improve if individuals feel more confident in their religious beliefs, she will tell the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome, a college which trains priests for diplomatic and secretariat duties.
Baroness Warsi is leading a UK delegation to be received by the Pope at the Vatican today. With seven ministers, it is the largest ever UK mission to the Holy See.
The peer, who is co-chairman of the Conservative Party, said she feared that religion was being increasingly downgraded or dismissed as an eccentricity.
Baroness Warsi will call for faith to be given proper space in public life. 'People need to feel stronger in their religious identities, more confident in their beliefs,' she will say.
'In practice this means individuals not diluting their faiths ... and nations not denying their religious heritages. If you take this thought to its conclusion then the idea you're left with is this: Europe needs to become more confident in its Christianity.
'Too often there is a suspicion of faith in our continent. It all hinges on a basic misconception: That to create equality and space for minorities we need to erase our religious heritage.'
Her comments come just days after a landmark legal ruling banning the saying of prayers at council meetings.
Christians and politicians reacted with dismay after a judge overturned centuries of custom by stopping a town hall in Devon putting prayers on the formal agenda.
It prompted concern that it would pave the way for Parliament to abandon prayers before Commons and Lords business, mark the end of hospital and military chaplains, and even lead to the abolition of the coronation oath.
The ruling came on the same day that two Christian guesthouse owners failed in their attempt to overturn a £3,600 fine imposed on them for refusing to allow a gay couple to occupy a double room.
Before Christmas, David Cameron declared Britain to be a Christian country and urged people to 'stand up and defend' the values of the Bible.
Lady Warsi will say that centuries of Christianity have shaped British culture and civilisation and will praise faith for 'inspiring, driving and motivating' good works.
'You cannot and should not extract these Christian foundations from the evolution of our nations any more than you can or should erase the spires from our landscapes,' she will say.
However, the Cabinet minister will warn: 'I see a great danger to this confident affirmation of religion today. It is what the Holy Father called the increasing marginalisation of religion during his speech in Westminster Hall.
'I see it in the UK and I see it in Europe. Spirituality, suppressed. Divinity, downgraded.
'Where, in the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury, faith is looked down on as the hobby of oddities, foreigners and minorities. Where religion is dismissed as an eccentricity because it's infused with tradition.'
14th February 2012
Christianity is in grave danger of being marginalised, Britain's only Muslim cabinet minister will tell the Vatican today.
Baroness Warsi will call for Europeans to take more pride in their religious roots and for Christianity to play a greater role in public life.
She will attack the 'basic misconception' that Christianity needs to be 'erased' for minorities to feel welcome in society.
She also spoke of her fears for British society which she believes is being taken hold of by 'militant secularists' in an article for the Daily Telegraph.
Social cohesion will improve if individuals feel more confident in their religious beliefs, she will tell the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome, a college which trains priests for diplomatic and secretariat duties.
Baroness Warsi is leading a UK delegation to be received by the Pope at the Vatican today. With seven ministers, it is the largest ever UK mission to the Holy See.
The peer, who is co-chairman of the Conservative Party, said she feared that religion was being increasingly downgraded or dismissed as an eccentricity.
Baroness Warsi will call for faith to be given proper space in public life. 'People need to feel stronger in their religious identities, more confident in their beliefs,' she will say.
'In practice this means individuals not diluting their faiths ... and nations not denying their religious heritages. If you take this thought to its conclusion then the idea you're left with is this: Europe needs to become more confident in its Christianity.
'Too often there is a suspicion of faith in our continent. It all hinges on a basic misconception: That to create equality and space for minorities we need to erase our religious heritage.'
Her comments come just days after a landmark legal ruling banning the saying of prayers at council meetings.
Christians and politicians reacted with dismay after a judge overturned centuries of custom by stopping a town hall in Devon putting prayers on the formal agenda.
It prompted concern that it would pave the way for Parliament to abandon prayers before Commons and Lords business, mark the end of hospital and military chaplains, and even lead to the abolition of the coronation oath.
The ruling came on the same day that two Christian guesthouse owners failed in their attempt to overturn a £3,600 fine imposed on them for refusing to allow a gay couple to occupy a double room.
Before Christmas, David Cameron declared Britain to be a Christian country and urged people to 'stand up and defend' the values of the Bible.
Lady Warsi will say that centuries of Christianity have shaped British culture and civilisation and will praise faith for 'inspiring, driving and motivating' good works.
'You cannot and should not extract these Christian foundations from the evolution of our nations any more than you can or should erase the spires from our landscapes,' she will say.
However, the Cabinet minister will warn: 'I see a great danger to this confident affirmation of religion today. It is what the Holy Father called the increasing marginalisation of religion during his speech in Westminster Hall.
'I see it in the UK and I see it in Europe. Spirituality, suppressed. Divinity, downgraded.
'Where, in the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury, faith is looked down on as the hobby of oddities, foreigners and minorities. Where religion is dismissed as an eccentricity because it's infused with tradition.'
Conservatives and enthusiasts cheer the end of the long-gun registry
By Jeff Davis
15th February, 2012
OTTAWA — The Conservative government says its MPs will celebrate after a historic vote to end the long-gun registry Wednesday evening, despite vehement opposition to the move in Quebec and much of urban Canada.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told reporters Wednesday, hours before the vote, that the government’s actions are long overdue.
“It does nothing to help put an end to gun crimes, nor has it saved one Canadian life,” he said.
“It criminalizes hard-working and law-abiding citizens such as farmers and sport shooters, and it has been a billion-dollar boondoggle left to us by the previous Liberal government.”
Quebec MP Maxime Bernier said MPs and gun-rights advocates will celebrate together Parliament Hill after Wednesday evening’s vote.
Meanwhile, opposition MPs and supporters of the registry are expected to say the government’s actions are a step backwards, because the registry has been useful in keeping the country’s streets safe.
Bill C-19, the Ending the Long Gun Registry Act, is guaranteed to pass through the House of Commons, thanks to the Conservative government’s majority, but more political wrangling is expected to follow.
Liberals in the Senate say they have no intention of “rubber stamping” the bill, which they say needs time for sober second thought.
Meanwhile, the government of Quebec, meanwhile, has plans to take legal action against the Harper government for withholding Quebec-specific data, which is essential to its plans to launch a provincial registry.
The federal law will end the requirement for lawful gun owners to register their long guns, and it relaxes rules around selling or transferring guns. Gun licences for individuals will still be required, and the registry for restricted and prohibited firearms such as handguns will be maintained.
Gun control has been ferociously debated in Canada for decades, particularly since the Montreal massacre of 1989, when a gunman shot and killed 14 women with a rifle. This event prompted the Liberal government of Jean Chretien to tighten gun controls and create Canada’s first mandatory long-gun registry in 1995.
Hunters and sport shooters reviled the registry, and dismantling it became a central plank of Reform, and later, Conservative party policy.
Liberal Senate leader James Cowan said while the Liberals in the Red Chamber have no intention of filibustering Bill C-19, they’ll make sure it gets the serious consideration it needs.
Cowan said the Tories have taken five months to move Bill C-19 through the House, taking their time with an issue that pleases their base and is a good fundraising tool.
“We’re not going to rubber stamp anything,” he said. “But certainly it won’t be in Senate longer than in House.”
Cowan said he expects Bill C-19 to arrive at the committee on legal and constitutional affairs sometime in March, at which time the committee will hear testimony, which could continue for weeks.
“We want to make sure all sides are heard,” he said. “We are determined to use the powers we have to make sure the committee has a full hearing.”
The Harper Conservatives now have a commanding majority in the Senate, so while Liberal senators may succeed in slowing down the passage of C-19, it will ultimately pass.
According to Bill C-19, all data pertaining to non-restricted firearms will be deleted.
Michael Patton, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, said the gun registry’s central database is located in an RCMP headquarters in Ottawa. Since only data for non-restricted guns will be removed, the officials are still deciding how to carefully sift out what to delete and what to keep. He said he could not predict exactly how long the deletion of all long-gun data would take.
Patton said officials with the Canadian Firearms Program have not requested any additional money or outside assistance for this task.
Once the bill is finally passed into law, Quebec will immediately seek an injunction from the courts to halt the destruction of the registry data.
Mathieu St-Pierre, a spokesman for Quebec Public Security Minister Robert Dutil, said Quebec has the full intention of taking legal action against the federal government if it does not cough up the data it wants.
Appearing at a parliamentary committee in November, Dutil made clear his province’s desire to maintain the national gun registry. If it is scrapped, he said, Quebec should be given the data it paid for.
St-Pierre said Quebec can’t take legal action against the federal government until the bill passes. The only thing that will stop them now, he said, is if the government voluntarily transfers the Quebec-specific data from the long-gun registry.
“We will go before the courts if Bill C-19 passes, and if the (Quebec) government does not receive the data, our government lawyers already have their strategy in mind,” he said.
Jeff Larivee, whose wife was killed in the 1989 Montreal massacre, is a spokesman for the Coalition for Gun Control. He said he and many other Quebecers feel outrage at the Harper government’s determination to dismantle laws that, for many, serve as a memorial.
“I feel frustrated and I feel sad for my wife,” he said. “We are continually facing a government with an ideological belief that guns should not be controlled.”
While some lawyers doubt the constitutionality of provincial firearms registries, Toews has said that provincial registries are indeed legal.
“It’s certainly possible for a province to create a gun registry under property and civil rights,” he told Postmedia News in January. “I don’t see a constitutional issue there.”
Nevertheless, Toews said he is “certainly not advocating” provincial registries be set up.
Tony Bernardo is Canada’s leading advocate for gun owners, as executive director of the Canadian Sports Shooting Association and a lobby group called the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action.
“I’ve been working for 15 years to make this happen,” he said. “It’s a big deal for me.”
Bernardo says scrapping the long-gun registry is already a “defining moment” in Canadian people power.
“What you’re seeing here, this is democracy in action at its finest,” he said. “Millions of people spoke up and said we don’t want this, and the government responded and now it’s gone.”
[ed. Good call Canada. Gun control simply means the crooks control all the guns...]
15th February, 2012
OTTAWA — The Conservative government says its MPs will celebrate after a historic vote to end the long-gun registry Wednesday evening, despite vehement opposition to the move in Quebec and much of urban Canada.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told reporters Wednesday, hours before the vote, that the government’s actions are long overdue.
“It does nothing to help put an end to gun crimes, nor has it saved one Canadian life,” he said.
“It criminalizes hard-working and law-abiding citizens such as farmers and sport shooters, and it has been a billion-dollar boondoggle left to us by the previous Liberal government.”
Quebec MP Maxime Bernier said MPs and gun-rights advocates will celebrate together Parliament Hill after Wednesday evening’s vote.
Meanwhile, opposition MPs and supporters of the registry are expected to say the government’s actions are a step backwards, because the registry has been useful in keeping the country’s streets safe.
Bill C-19, the Ending the Long Gun Registry Act, is guaranteed to pass through the House of Commons, thanks to the Conservative government’s majority, but more political wrangling is expected to follow.
Liberals in the Senate say they have no intention of “rubber stamping” the bill, which they say needs time for sober second thought.
Meanwhile, the government of Quebec, meanwhile, has plans to take legal action against the Harper government for withholding Quebec-specific data, which is essential to its plans to launch a provincial registry.
The federal law will end the requirement for lawful gun owners to register their long guns, and it relaxes rules around selling or transferring guns. Gun licences for individuals will still be required, and the registry for restricted and prohibited firearms such as handguns will be maintained.
Gun control has been ferociously debated in Canada for decades, particularly since the Montreal massacre of 1989, when a gunman shot and killed 14 women with a rifle. This event prompted the Liberal government of Jean Chretien to tighten gun controls and create Canada’s first mandatory long-gun registry in 1995.
Hunters and sport shooters reviled the registry, and dismantling it became a central plank of Reform, and later, Conservative party policy.
Liberal Senate leader James Cowan said while the Liberals in the Red Chamber have no intention of filibustering Bill C-19, they’ll make sure it gets the serious consideration it needs.
Cowan said the Tories have taken five months to move Bill C-19 through the House, taking their time with an issue that pleases their base and is a good fundraising tool.
“We’re not going to rubber stamp anything,” he said. “But certainly it won’t be in Senate longer than in House.”
Cowan said he expects Bill C-19 to arrive at the committee on legal and constitutional affairs sometime in March, at which time the committee will hear testimony, which could continue for weeks.
“We want to make sure all sides are heard,” he said. “We are determined to use the powers we have to make sure the committee has a full hearing.”
The Harper Conservatives now have a commanding majority in the Senate, so while Liberal senators may succeed in slowing down the passage of C-19, it will ultimately pass.
According to Bill C-19, all data pertaining to non-restricted firearms will be deleted.
Michael Patton, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, said the gun registry’s central database is located in an RCMP headquarters in Ottawa. Since only data for non-restricted guns will be removed, the officials are still deciding how to carefully sift out what to delete and what to keep. He said he could not predict exactly how long the deletion of all long-gun data would take.
Patton said officials with the Canadian Firearms Program have not requested any additional money or outside assistance for this task.
Once the bill is finally passed into law, Quebec will immediately seek an injunction from the courts to halt the destruction of the registry data.
Mathieu St-Pierre, a spokesman for Quebec Public Security Minister Robert Dutil, said Quebec has the full intention of taking legal action against the federal government if it does not cough up the data it wants.
Appearing at a parliamentary committee in November, Dutil made clear his province’s desire to maintain the national gun registry. If it is scrapped, he said, Quebec should be given the data it paid for.
St-Pierre said Quebec can’t take legal action against the federal government until the bill passes. The only thing that will stop them now, he said, is if the government voluntarily transfers the Quebec-specific data from the long-gun registry.
“We will go before the courts if Bill C-19 passes, and if the (Quebec) government does not receive the data, our government lawyers already have their strategy in mind,” he said.
Jeff Larivee, whose wife was killed in the 1989 Montreal massacre, is a spokesman for the Coalition for Gun Control. He said he and many other Quebecers feel outrage at the Harper government’s determination to dismantle laws that, for many, serve as a memorial.
“I feel frustrated and I feel sad for my wife,” he said. “We are continually facing a government with an ideological belief that guns should not be controlled.”
While some lawyers doubt the constitutionality of provincial firearms registries, Toews has said that provincial registries are indeed legal.
“It’s certainly possible for a province to create a gun registry under property and civil rights,” he told Postmedia News in January. “I don’t see a constitutional issue there.”
Nevertheless, Toews said he is “certainly not advocating” provincial registries be set up.
Tony Bernardo is Canada’s leading advocate for gun owners, as executive director of the Canadian Sports Shooting Association and a lobby group called the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action.
“I’ve been working for 15 years to make this happen,” he said. “It’s a big deal for me.”
Bernardo says scrapping the long-gun registry is already a “defining moment” in Canadian people power.
“What you’re seeing here, this is democracy in action at its finest,” he said. “Millions of people spoke up and said we don’t want this, and the government responded and now it’s gone.”
[ed. Good call Canada. Gun control simply means the crooks control all the guns...]
16 February 2012
Greek rhetoric turns into battle of wills
February 16, 2012
The battle of wills between Athens and its eurozone lenders has intensified, with Greece’s finance minister accusing “forces in Europe” of pushing his country out of the euro while his German counterpart suggested postponing Greek elections and installing a new government without political parties.
The tongue-lashing by Evangelos Venizelos, who is expected to stand in April elections as leader of the centre-left Pasok party, came as his government scrambled to meet escalating demands from international lenders that must be met if Athens is to avoid a full-scale default.
Greece took a step closer to meeting those demands when Antonis Samaras, head of the centre-right New Democracy party and the presumptive next prime minister, sent a two-page letter to European Union leaders on Wednesday vowing to implement the austerity measures included in the €130bn bail-out programme.
The letter, which came along with a similar missive from George Papandreou, the former prime minister who remains head of Pasok, was demanded by EU leaders as a condition of the deal. But the letter was received coolly in Brussels, particularly as Mr Samaras reiterated his stance that “modifications might be required” to the programme.
There were signs a group of triple A-rated governments, including Germany, Finland and the Netherlands, were hardening their stance towards Athens. During a conference call among eurozone finance minsters, the three countries suggested they may want additional letters from other smaller Greek parties and openly discussed the possibility of postponing Greek elections.
Ahead of the call, Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, said in a radio interview Greece might delay its polls and install a technocratic government that does not include politicians like Mr Venizelos and Mr Samaras, similar to the model currently in place in Italy.
Karolos Papoulias, the Greek president, fired back during a visit to military chiefs at the defence ministry: “We are all obliged to work hard to get through this crisis, but we cannot accept insults from Mr Schäuble. Who is Mr Schäuble to insult Greece?
“Who are these Dutchmen, who are these Finns? We have always defended not only the freedom of our own country, but the freedom of Europe,” Mr Papoulias added.
Meanwhile, a poll published on Thursday showed support for Mr Samaras’s New Democracy party slipping, although it would still win most votes if an election were held now. The poll by VPRC for Epikaira magazine put New Democracy on 27.5 per cent, with Pasok on 11 per cent, representing a decline of 3-4 per cent in ND’s share of the vote from previous polls, while Pasok’s share increased by the same amount.
The two parties may form a coalition government to implement reforms after a general election in April, according to analysts.
The three leftwing parties, which oppose Greece’ s second €130bn bail-out, together have the biggest slice of the vote, reflecting popular anger with austerity, but their fractious leaders would not consider co-operating in government, the analysts said.
Further increasing the pressure on Athens, eurozone leaders were preparing to move forward on a debt restructuring for private holders of Greek bonds without immediately approving the full €130bn bail-out. The move would continue to starve the Greek government of funds even as Greece’s private creditors agreed a separate deal.
According to a timetable obtained by the Financial Times, eurozone parliaments would be asked to approve €93.5bn in aid to begin the debt restructuring in a matter of days, but deliberate remaining funds for the Greek government in early March.
“We continue to work under the assumptions of the October programme with the clear intent to help secure financial and economic viability of Greece,” said a senior Dutch official. “But time is running out and we insist that the Greek political leaders help us help them.”
A Greek finance ministry official said Athens had agreed to other demands which lenders want ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Monday, including €325m of additional spending cuts, which were made primarily in the defence and local government budgets.
The battle of wills between Athens and its eurozone lenders has intensified, with Greece’s finance minister accusing “forces in Europe” of pushing his country out of the euro while his German counterpart suggested postponing Greek elections and installing a new government without political parties.
The tongue-lashing by Evangelos Venizelos, who is expected to stand in April elections as leader of the centre-left Pasok party, came as his government scrambled to meet escalating demands from international lenders that must be met if Athens is to avoid a full-scale default.
Greece took a step closer to meeting those demands when Antonis Samaras, head of the centre-right New Democracy party and the presumptive next prime minister, sent a two-page letter to European Union leaders on Wednesday vowing to implement the austerity measures included in the €130bn bail-out programme.
The letter, which came along with a similar missive from George Papandreou, the former prime minister who remains head of Pasok, was demanded by EU leaders as a condition of the deal. But the letter was received coolly in Brussels, particularly as Mr Samaras reiterated his stance that “modifications might be required” to the programme.
There were signs a group of triple A-rated governments, including Germany, Finland and the Netherlands, were hardening their stance towards Athens. During a conference call among eurozone finance minsters, the three countries suggested they may want additional letters from other smaller Greek parties and openly discussed the possibility of postponing Greek elections.
Ahead of the call, Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, said in a radio interview Greece might delay its polls and install a technocratic government that does not include politicians like Mr Venizelos and Mr Samaras, similar to the model currently in place in Italy.
Karolos Papoulias, the Greek president, fired back during a visit to military chiefs at the defence ministry: “We are all obliged to work hard to get through this crisis, but we cannot accept insults from Mr Schäuble. Who is Mr Schäuble to insult Greece?
“Who are these Dutchmen, who are these Finns? We have always defended not only the freedom of our own country, but the freedom of Europe,” Mr Papoulias added.
Meanwhile, a poll published on Thursday showed support for Mr Samaras’s New Democracy party slipping, although it would still win most votes if an election were held now. The poll by VPRC for Epikaira magazine put New Democracy on 27.5 per cent, with Pasok on 11 per cent, representing a decline of 3-4 per cent in ND’s share of the vote from previous polls, while Pasok’s share increased by the same amount.
The two parties may form a coalition government to implement reforms after a general election in April, according to analysts.
The three leftwing parties, which oppose Greece’ s second €130bn bail-out, together have the biggest slice of the vote, reflecting popular anger with austerity, but their fractious leaders would not consider co-operating in government, the analysts said.
Further increasing the pressure on Athens, eurozone leaders were preparing to move forward on a debt restructuring for private holders of Greek bonds without immediately approving the full €130bn bail-out. The move would continue to starve the Greek government of funds even as Greece’s private creditors agreed a separate deal.
According to a timetable obtained by the Financial Times, eurozone parliaments would be asked to approve €93.5bn in aid to begin the debt restructuring in a matter of days, but deliberate remaining funds for the Greek government in early March.
“We continue to work under the assumptions of the October programme with the clear intent to help secure financial and economic viability of Greece,” said a senior Dutch official. “But time is running out and we insist that the Greek political leaders help us help them.”
A Greek finance ministry official said Athens had agreed to other demands which lenders want ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Monday, including €325m of additional spending cuts, which were made primarily in the defence and local government budgets.
13 February 2012
French politicians refuse to help far right's Le Pen
By FRANCE 24
[ed. note the loaded "far-right" term throughout the article...]
Politicians among France’s mainstream parties were embroiled in a row on Monday over whether to come to the aid of the far right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.
Le Pen who leads the National Front party launched her presidential manifesto on Monday, but is still not legally allowed to run in the elections for the Elysée Palace.
To do so she needs signatures of support from 500 of France’s local mayors, but her party revealed on Monday they were still around 140 short. The first round of voting is now just under ten weeks away on April 22.
This week centrist presidential candidate Francois Bayrou called for France’s mainstream political groups, the UMP led by President Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party, to lend a helping hand or two to Le Pen.
The far right leader is regularly polling around 17 percent of the country’s vote and it is inconceivable to most that her name will not be on the ballot paper on April 22.
Bayrou, who heads the Democratic Movement Party (MoDem), believes Le Pen’s absence in the first round of elections on April 22 would create “disorder” around the ballot.
If the mainstream parties were game to discuss the issue then so was he, Bayrou said, because “democracy is more important than political parties”.
“If there is a political movement, even one that I have fought against all my life, that is backed by a large number of French people but cannot express itself then it is an issue for all supporters of democracy in France,” Bayrou argued.
His contentious proposal would appear to have the backing of the French public. An opinion poll taken last month revealed 70 percent of the public believe it would be bad for democracy if Marine le Pen was unable to take part in the presidential elections.
“Backroom politics”
But even if it had public backing, the notion that local mayors would simply sign up to back Le Pen against their wishes was ridiculed by the heavyweight parties.
“An election is supposed to be a meeting between a man or a woman - meaning the candidate and the people,” Manuel Valls, director of communications for Francois Hollande, told Europe 1 radio station. “It is not about meeting up in a backroom to divide up signatures saying ‘Here you have this county and I’ll have this mayor’,” he said.
Xavier Bertrand, Labour Minster for Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party also rejected a request to discuss the issue.
“I am mayor of Saint-Quentin. My signature will go to Nicolas Sarkozy and nobody else,” he said.
Green Party presidential candidate Eva Joly also waded into the row. “Its not my problem so don’t count on me,” she said. “Rules are rules and they should be respected.”
For her part Marine Le Pen insisted on Monday that she would not be “begging” mayors for their signatures. Her preferred solution to a growing predicament is a change in the law which would allow the officials to give signatures anonymously.
The question of whether the National Front will gain enough signatures is not new to the 2012 presidential election, a point not missed by politicians and the French press.
Many believe it is just a stunt to gain attention.
[ed. speaking of extremists...]
“It’s the same old song at every election,” said left wing newspaper Humanite. “Apart from 1981, the far right has always managed to put forward a candidate”.
Humanite’s views were backed by Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
“She will have enough signatures. The National Front play this game every election,” Fillon said in an interview with French daily Le Monde.
A “transparent”country
Le Pen shrugged off the issue Monday to announce her presidential manifesto.
In a clear bit of electioneering, Le Pen vowed to cut the number of MPs and senators from 925 to 750 and reduce the salaries of both the head of state and ministers. She also said all their expense accounts would be published on the internet and elected representatives would have their pensions capped at €5,000 a month.
Her proposals would create an “exemplary”, rigorous” and “transparent” country, Le Pen insisted. She also vowed to destroy the political structures and reconcile “the elite and the people”.
The proposals were announced outside the Palais de d’Iéna in Paris, home to the Economic, Social and Environment Council (CESE). It was a “symbolic” location Le Pen said because it was an example of a costly and “useless” state institution, which she vowed to tackle.
Le Pen is unlikely to win enough support to ever be in a position to introduce these proposals. But what is more worrying for her is whether she will even get the opportunity to campaign on them.
With her rivals turning their back on her she will need to find support from somewhere.
[ed. note the loaded "far-right" term throughout the article...]
Politicians among France’s mainstream parties were embroiled in a row on Monday over whether to come to the aid of the far right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.
Le Pen who leads the National Front party launched her presidential manifesto on Monday, but is still not legally allowed to run in the elections for the Elysée Palace.
To do so she needs signatures of support from 500 of France’s local mayors, but her party revealed on Monday they were still around 140 short. The first round of voting is now just under ten weeks away on April 22.
This week centrist presidential candidate Francois Bayrou called for France’s mainstream political groups, the UMP led by President Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party, to lend a helping hand or two to Le Pen.
The far right leader is regularly polling around 17 percent of the country’s vote and it is inconceivable to most that her name will not be on the ballot paper on April 22.
Bayrou, who heads the Democratic Movement Party (MoDem), believes Le Pen’s absence in the first round of elections on April 22 would create “disorder” around the ballot.
If the mainstream parties were game to discuss the issue then so was he, Bayrou said, because “democracy is more important than political parties”.
“If there is a political movement, even one that I have fought against all my life, that is backed by a large number of French people but cannot express itself then it is an issue for all supporters of democracy in France,” Bayrou argued.
His contentious proposal would appear to have the backing of the French public. An opinion poll taken last month revealed 70 percent of the public believe it would be bad for democracy if Marine le Pen was unable to take part in the presidential elections.
“Backroom politics”
But even if it had public backing, the notion that local mayors would simply sign up to back Le Pen against their wishes was ridiculed by the heavyweight parties.
“An election is supposed to be a meeting between a man or a woman - meaning the candidate and the people,” Manuel Valls, director of communications for Francois Hollande, told Europe 1 radio station. “It is not about meeting up in a backroom to divide up signatures saying ‘Here you have this county and I’ll have this mayor’,” he said.
Xavier Bertrand, Labour Minster for Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party also rejected a request to discuss the issue.
“I am mayor of Saint-Quentin. My signature will go to Nicolas Sarkozy and nobody else,” he said.
Green Party presidential candidate Eva Joly also waded into the row. “Its not my problem so don’t count on me,” she said. “Rules are rules and they should be respected.”
For her part Marine Le Pen insisted on Monday that she would not be “begging” mayors for their signatures. Her preferred solution to a growing predicament is a change in the law which would allow the officials to give signatures anonymously.
The question of whether the National Front will gain enough signatures is not new to the 2012 presidential election, a point not missed by politicians and the French press.
Many believe it is just a stunt to gain attention.
[ed. speaking of extremists...]
“It’s the same old song at every election,” said left wing newspaper Humanite. “Apart from 1981, the far right has always managed to put forward a candidate”.
Humanite’s views were backed by Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
“She will have enough signatures. The National Front play this game every election,” Fillon said in an interview with French daily Le Monde.
A “transparent”country
Le Pen shrugged off the issue Monday to announce her presidential manifesto.
In a clear bit of electioneering, Le Pen vowed to cut the number of MPs and senators from 925 to 750 and reduce the salaries of both the head of state and ministers. She also said all their expense accounts would be published on the internet and elected representatives would have their pensions capped at €5,000 a month.
Her proposals would create an “exemplary”, rigorous” and “transparent” country, Le Pen insisted. She also vowed to destroy the political structures and reconcile “the elite and the people”.
The proposals were announced outside the Palais de d’Iéna in Paris, home to the Economic, Social and Environment Council (CESE). It was a “symbolic” location Le Pen said because it was an example of a costly and “useless” state institution, which she vowed to tackle.
Le Pen is unlikely to win enough support to ever be in a position to introduce these proposals. But what is more worrying for her is whether she will even get the opportunity to campaign on them.
With her rivals turning their back on her she will need to find support from somewhere.
Greece riots as new austerity measures passed
http://www.myfinances.co.uk/investments/2012/02/13/greece-riots-as-new-austerity-
measures-passed
February 13th, 2012
The Greek parliament has approved a new set of austerity measures even as thousands of members of the public demonstrate against the plans.
A new set of measures which include reducing the minimum wage by 20 per cent, a further 15,000 public sector job cuts and the liberalization of labour laws was passed in the Greek parliament by 199 votes to 74.
Scores of deputies were expelled from their parties for not voting for the bill. Passing the new laws is one condition demanded by the eurozone and IMF in return for Greece receiving a €130 billion bailout that it needs to make the next repayment on its massive sovereign debt to avoid going bankrupt.
Protestors outside parliament rioted and clashed with police as stones and petrol bombs were thrown and buildings set on fire. The protests extended to other cities away from Athens, including the islands of Crete and Corfu. Dozens of police and protestors were injured in clashes.
The public believe that the price for the bailout funds is too much and that the bailout funds are not worth the price of the austerity measures.
Greek Prime Minister, Lucas Papademos called for calm and said that the new austerity measures would “set the foundations for the reform and recovery of the economy”.
The new laws will now need to be ratified by eurozone ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday before bailout funds can be released.
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that the situation is changing quickly and that the question was not "whether some salaries and pensions will be curtailed, but whether we will be able to pay even these reduced wages and pensions".
"When you have to choose between bad and worse, you will pick what is bad to avoid what is worse," he said.
If Greece were unable to pay its debts and went bankrupt it could start a break-up of the euro.
measures-passed
February 13th, 2012
The Greek parliament has approved a new set of austerity measures even as thousands of members of the public demonstrate against the plans.
A new set of measures which include reducing the minimum wage by 20 per cent, a further 15,000 public sector job cuts and the liberalization of labour laws was passed in the Greek parliament by 199 votes to 74.
Scores of deputies were expelled from their parties for not voting for the bill. Passing the new laws is one condition demanded by the eurozone and IMF in return for Greece receiving a €130 billion bailout that it needs to make the next repayment on its massive sovereign debt to avoid going bankrupt.
Protestors outside parliament rioted and clashed with police as stones and petrol bombs were thrown and buildings set on fire. The protests extended to other cities away from Athens, including the islands of Crete and Corfu. Dozens of police and protestors were injured in clashes.
The public believe that the price for the bailout funds is too much and that the bailout funds are not worth the price of the austerity measures.
Greek Prime Minister, Lucas Papademos called for calm and said that the new austerity measures would “set the foundations for the reform and recovery of the economy”.
The new laws will now need to be ratified by eurozone ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday before bailout funds can be released.
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that the situation is changing quickly and that the question was not "whether some salaries and pensions will be curtailed, but whether we will be able to pay even these reduced wages and pensions".
"When you have to choose between bad and worse, you will pick what is bad to avoid what is worse," he said.
If Greece were unable to pay its debts and went bankrupt it could start a break-up of the euro.
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