Bob Dylan - Bleeding Shadows
43 minutes ago
Monday, 28 March 2011
German Greens hail state victory in vote overshadowed by Fukushima
Winfried Kretschmann is likely to become the Green party's first regional 'minister president' after exit polls suggested his party polled most votes in the Baden-Wuerttemberg state elections. Photograph: Uli Deck/AFP/Getty Images
The Green party has taken power from Angela Merkel's conservatives in one of Germany's richest states, preliminary results from the Baden-Württemberg elections show.
The chancellor's Christian Democratic Union party, or CDU, had ruled the region's state legislature for almost 58 years, but found itself on the wrong side of the nuclear debate following Fukushima. Even before the Japanese earthquake, the party was unpopular locally for sanctioning a multibillion euro project to build a railway station in Stuttgart.
Support for the CDU slumped from 44.2% in the 2006 state election to 39%, according to official results.
The state parliament's new leader would be Winfried Kretschmann, 62, a spiky-haired former science teacher. He is likely to become the Green party's first regional "minister president" after his party gained 25% of the vote; enough, when combined with the 23.1% for the centre-left Social Democratic party, to form a coalition. Minister presidents are powerful on a national as well as a regional level, because they have a vote in Germany's upper house, the Bundesrat, and can veto legislation.
It would mark a historic win for the minority party, which polled 11.7% in Baden-Württemberg in 2006. Even when the Greens were in government in a coalition with Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats between 1998 and 2005, and had Joschka Fischer as foreign minister, the party never managed to win a regional "Landtag" election.
"We have written history," said Claudia Roth, joint leader of the Green party, speaking in Berlin after polls closed. Dressed head-to-toe in green, including glittery emerald ballet pumps, she said the result would have repercussions far beyond the borders of Baden-Württemberg. It was, she said, "a resounding slap in the face" for Merkel's coalition.
Commentators have suggested that a dramatic CDU defeat makes Merkel's position untenable. It would be "the beginning of the end" for her, wrote one on Spiegel Online on Friday. Others suggest the leader known as Iron Angie will plough on until the general election in 2013.
Also voting on Sunday was Rhineland-Palatinate state, where an ARD exit poll saw the Social Democrats retain power but only by agreeing to a coalition government with the Greens. The SPD fell 10 percentage points to 35.5%, while the Greens appeared to have more than trebled their vote, with 17%, according to the exit poll, and will send representatives to that regional parliament for the first time. The Christian Democrats are seen gaining 1.2% to 34%.
But this did little to numb the pain in Baden-Württemberg; though the CDU did win more votes than any other single party, its preferred coalition partner, the pro-business Free Democratic party, performed abysmally. The FDP were at 5.3%, down from 10.7% in 2006. In Rheinland-Pfalz, the FDP failed to get the 5% minimum necessary to gain any seats in the state parliament.
This poor showing poses difficult questions for the FDP's leader, the unpopular foreign minister Guido Westerwelle. It could also call into question the national CDU-FDP coalition in power since autumn 2009. Within half an hour of the first exit poll, Daniel Bahr, an FDP politician from Nordrhein-Westfalen, told ARD his party needed to consider a "change of personnel".
The Green vote was helped by the argument in Germany over its 17 nuclear power plants, heightened by the Fukushima disaster. In the aftermath, Merkel performed an 180-degree policy change by announcing the closure of seven stations built before 1980. She also said she was committed to speeding up total withdrawal from nuclear power.
This was six months after she had ignored public opinion by extending the life of the 17 plants by an average 12 years; in this, one of her most vociferous supporters was Baden-Württemberg's minister president, Stefan Mappus; he paid the price for his loyalty.
Helen Pidd @'The Guardian'
The chancellor's Christian Democratic Union party, or CDU, had ruled the region's state legislature for almost 58 years, but found itself on the wrong side of the nuclear debate following Fukushima. Even before the Japanese earthquake, the party was unpopular locally for sanctioning a multibillion euro project to build a railway station in Stuttgart.
Support for the CDU slumped from 44.2% in the 2006 state election to 39%, according to official results.
The state parliament's new leader would be Winfried Kretschmann, 62, a spiky-haired former science teacher. He is likely to become the Green party's first regional "minister president" after his party gained 25% of the vote; enough, when combined with the 23.1% for the centre-left Social Democratic party, to form a coalition. Minister presidents are powerful on a national as well as a regional level, because they have a vote in Germany's upper house, the Bundesrat, and can veto legislation.
It would mark a historic win for the minority party, which polled 11.7% in Baden-Württemberg in 2006. Even when the Greens were in government in a coalition with Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats between 1998 and 2005, and had Joschka Fischer as foreign minister, the party never managed to win a regional "Landtag" election.
"We have written history," said Claudia Roth, joint leader of the Green party, speaking in Berlin after polls closed. Dressed head-to-toe in green, including glittery emerald ballet pumps, she said the result would have repercussions far beyond the borders of Baden-Württemberg. It was, she said, "a resounding slap in the face" for Merkel's coalition.
Commentators have suggested that a dramatic CDU defeat makes Merkel's position untenable. It would be "the beginning of the end" for her, wrote one on Spiegel Online on Friday. Others suggest the leader known as Iron Angie will plough on until the general election in 2013.
Also voting on Sunday was Rhineland-Palatinate state, where an ARD exit poll saw the Social Democrats retain power but only by agreeing to a coalition government with the Greens. The SPD fell 10 percentage points to 35.5%, while the Greens appeared to have more than trebled their vote, with 17%, according to the exit poll, and will send representatives to that regional parliament for the first time. The Christian Democrats are seen gaining 1.2% to 34%.
But this did little to numb the pain in Baden-Württemberg; though the CDU did win more votes than any other single party, its preferred coalition partner, the pro-business Free Democratic party, performed abysmally. The FDP were at 5.3%, down from 10.7% in 2006. In Rheinland-Pfalz, the FDP failed to get the 5% minimum necessary to gain any seats in the state parliament.
This poor showing poses difficult questions for the FDP's leader, the unpopular foreign minister Guido Westerwelle. It could also call into question the national CDU-FDP coalition in power since autumn 2009. Within half an hour of the first exit poll, Daniel Bahr, an FDP politician from Nordrhein-Westfalen, told ARD his party needed to consider a "change of personnel".
The Green vote was helped by the argument in Germany over its 17 nuclear power plants, heightened by the Fukushima disaster. In the aftermath, Merkel performed an 180-degree policy change by announcing the closure of seven stations built before 1980. She also said she was committed to speeding up total withdrawal from nuclear power.
This was six months after she had ignored public opinion by extending the life of the 17 plants by an average 12 years; in this, one of her most vociferous supporters was Baden-Württemberg's minister president, Stefan Mappus; he paid the price for his loyalty.
Helen Pidd @'The Guardian'
As our German correspondent HerrB says:
"Ben Ali, Mubarak, Gadaffi, Mappus... HA!!!Victory ceremonies like in Kairo over here tonight!!!"
Prost my friend!
The Mekons & Kathy Acker - Pussy, King of the Pirates (1996)
"My Name Is O" 0:34
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(Right click/save as)
Artwork By - S. Clay Wilson
Banjo [Cumbus] - Blind Lugh
Bass - Sarah Corina
Drums - Steven Goulding
Engineer - Long Jon Gillver of Dubbe Island
Fiddle - Captain "Kidd" Honeyperson
Guitar, Vocals - Jon Langford, Tom The Cabin Boy
Recorded By - Baron Von Trumfio, Bosun Hagler
Vocals - Master Sally Bates
Voice - More-Than-Able Seaman Acker (tracks: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11)
Written by - Kathy Acker, The Mekons
Notes
Recorded September 1995 at Kingsize Studios in Chicago, and July 1995 in Leeds at an unnamed location.
Released concurrently with Kathy Acker's novel of the same title.
More Acker downloads also available
@'UbuWeb'
Banjo [Cumbus] - Blind Lugh
Bass - Sarah Corina
Drums - Steven Goulding
Engineer - Long Jon Gillver of Dubbe Island
Fiddle - Captain "Kidd" Honeyperson
Guitar, Vocals - Jon Langford, Tom The Cabin Boy
Recorded By - Baron Von Trumfio, Bosun Hagler
Vocals - Master Sally Bates
Voice - More-Than-Able Seaman Acker (tracks: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11)
Written by - Kathy Acker, The Mekons
Notes
Recorded September 1995 at Kingsize Studios in Chicago, and July 1995 in Leeds at an unnamed location.
Released concurrently with Kathy Acker's novel of the same title.
More Acker downloads also available
@'UbuWeb'
Various - Deepgoa - Rumble In The Jungle 001 Mix
Markus Guentner - Dreiglanz
Keinzweiter - From Amsterdam To Mainz (Alexander Jannink)
Jak - Swaph
Lulu Rouge - U
Mick Thammer - Before After (Extended Mix)
Deckard - The Lone Ferry
Kabana - Flux
Dimitar Dodovski - Particle System
Cari Lekebusch - Abomination
Daniele Bazzanti- Clown
Phunklarique & Dejonka - Need To Change (Audiofly x Mix)
Session View - Boundless
Edson Byer - Anarcosfera
Bactee & Tito - 8 Channels
Phooka - Raining
Holger Nilsson - Volver
DML - Arbeitstitel
Santos Resiak - Check My Cumbia
Big Coal WikiLeaks Emergency in Bangladesh: Does Obama Support Removal of 100,000 Villagers?
When thousands of Bangladeshi take to the streets again on March 28th as part of a decade-long battle to halt a devastating British-owned open-pit coal mine, the world will not only be watching whether Bangladesh’s government will honor a coal ban agreement from 2006 or resort to violence.
In light of disturbing WikiLeaks cables, American and worldwide human rights and environmental organizations will also be questioning why the Obama administration is covertly pushing for Bangladesh to reverse course and acquiesce to an internationally condemned massive open-pit mine that will displace an estimated 100,000-200,000 villagers and ravage desperately needed farm land and water resources.
The short answer, from US Ambassador James Moriarty’s leaked memos: “Asia Energy, the company behind the Phulbari project, has sixty percent US investment. Asia Energy officials told the Ambassador they were cautiously optimistic that the project would win government approval in the coming months.”
Two years ago, an independent review of the coal mine by a British research firm warned:
“Phulbari Coal Project threatens numerous dangers and potential damages, ranging from the degradation of a major agricultural region in Bangladesh to pollution of the world’s largest wetlands. The project’s Summary Environmental Impact Assessment, and its full Environmental and Social Impact Assessment are replete with vague assurances, issuing many promises of future mitigation measures.”
For US-based Cultural Survival and International Accountability Project, the Phulbari coal mine is nothing less than a “humanitarian and ecological disaster.”
Last month, Cultural Survival and International Accountability Project joined with Jatiya Adivasi Parishad, Bangladesh’s National Indigenous Union, to launch an international campaign to stop the open-pit mine and raise awareness of on-going Big Coal human rights and environmental violations in Bangladesh...
Continue reading
Jeff Biggers @'AlterNet'
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine (2011 - Albumstream)
Scottish singer/songwriter Kenny Anderson is King Creosote, who has also been a part-time member of Magnetophone and U.N.P.O.C., and has performed with Adem. He had previously been the vocalist for Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra and Khartoum Heroes. Anderson has released two dozen CD-Rs on his own label, Fence, a collective assembled along with brothers Een (aka Pip Dylan) and Gordon (aka Lone Pigeon). In 2003 Domino pressed the first proper album Kenny and Beth's Musakal Boatrides, followed in 2005 by Rocket D.I.Y. Released in 2006, KC Rules OK included liner notes from famed Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin, and garnered both regional and international acclaim. Bombshell arrived in 2007, followed by Flick the Vs in 2009. The compilation Thrawn -- representing Anderson’s first official stateside release -- was issued in 2011, and Diamond Mine, a collaboration with British ambient artist Jon Hopkins, also arrived that year. (Kenyon Hopkin)First Watch
John Taylor's Month Away
Bats in the Attic
Running on Fumes
Bubble
Your Own Spell
Your Young Voice
album review by Steve Mcgillivray
ALBUMSTREAM
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