By a wide margin, exit polls in the Andean nation of Ecuador point to a “yes” vote of approval for the new constitution proposed by the hard leftist President Rafael Correa. The polls show Correa’s new ‘Socialist for the 21st Century’ constitution winning 65% to 75% of the vote. A report from Al Jazeera:
Ecuador’s president has claimed a “historic victory” in a referendum on a new constitution, as exit polls showed 65 to 70 per cent of voters backing his vision of a “21st century socialism” for the Latin American nation.
Rafael Correa says his proposed social reforms will benefit the hardworking majority and diminish the power of a political class he says is responsible for making Ecuador one of the region’s most corrupt countries.
A quick-count by Participacion Ciudadana, a pollster authorised by the election agency, showed Correa winning 65 per cent of the vote as polls closed on Sunday.
An exit poll by Cedatos-Gallup, a private opinion research firm, said 70 per cent of the 9.6 million voters backed the new charter that gives the president more power to regulate Ecuador’s economy which is based primarily on oil exports.
“The new constitution has won overwhelmingly even here,” Correa told cheering supporters in Guayaquil, an opposition stronghold.
The trend towards to the right in Europe continued today with early results from Austria’s parliamentary elections with the hard right parties making strong gains at the expense of both leftist Social Democrats and the centre-right Austrian People’s Party. Preliminary results show the Social Democrats losing ten of their 68 current seats and the People’s Party losing 15 of their current 66 seats. The two far-right parties, the Freedom Party and the Alliance for the Future of Austria combined polled 28.99% of the vote compared to 29.71% for the Social Democrats and 25.61 for the People’s Party. Again combined the two far right parties stand to take 46 seats in Austria’s new parliament up from 28 in the outgoing parliament. In European elections over the past, only Spain and Slovenia have bucked the rightist trend in Europe.
Austria’s far-right parties made huge gains in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results, while the Social Democrats took the most votes but saw their worst results in decades.
Interior Minister Maria Fekter said the center-left Social Democrats had 29.71 percent of the vote, followed by the conservative People’s Party with 25.61 percent. The two parties had been part of a so-called grand coalition that fell apart in July, triggering the early election.
For both parties, the results were the worst they’ve seen since the end of World War II, political commentator Peter Filzmaier said.
The election’s biggest winners were the far-right parties, whose performance together was close to the count for the Social Democrats. The Freedom Party received 18.01 percent of the vote, while the Alliance for the Future of Austria had 10.98 percent, preliminary results indicated.
The right-wing parties had not been expected to consider joining forces, given a past of frequent squabbling. However, Alliance leader Joerg Haider said Sunday it was something worth thinking about. And Freedom Party chief Heinz-Christian Strache suggested he was interested in becoming chancellor.
“Today, we are the winners of election night,” Strache said.
A Survey USA (SUSA) poll in Missouri (link is to US Census demographic data) shows the race in the Show Me state a dead heat with a narrow two point lead for Senator McCain over Senator Obama, 48% to 46%.
In an election for President of the United States in Missouri today, 09/25/08, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama finish effectively even, though McCain has a nominal 2-point advantage, 48% to 46%, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted for KCTV-TV in Kansas City. The results are inside of the survey’s margin of sampling error. With its mixture of 2 big cities and rural and southern regions, Missouri is a great laboratory for studying who is voting for whom.
McCain is backed by voters age 35+, by whites, by men, by those who do consider America to be a Super Power but who do not consider themselves to be an intellectual, by those who do own a gun but who do not speak another language, by those who are Pro Life and by those who attend religious services regularly. Obama is backed by blacks, by voters under age 35, by those who do not own a gun, by those who are pro-choice, by those who almost never go to church, and by those who are lower income. St. Louis and Kansas City vote Democrat. The Ozarks, the Boot Heel and North Central MO vote Republican.
In Iowa, a new poll from Rasmussen Reports finds Senator Obama leading Senator McCain comfortably by an eight point margin, 51% to 43%. Previous polls from Survey USA and the Des Moines Register for Iowa had Obama leading by a low double digit margin. While this might represent a tightening of the race in Iowa, it is doubtful that McCain can make a push to make Iowa a competitive battleground state.
Barack Obama now leads John McCain 51% to 43% in Iowa, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state.
Last month, Obama saw his lead cut to five percentage points after leading by ten in June. Iowa is viewed by some as a swing state, although the 2004 election was the first time in 20 years that the state had gone for the Republican presidential candidate. President Bush carried the state by less than 10,000 votes that year.
The latest numbers show Obama leading 53% to 33% among unaffiliated voters in the state. Though he has a 53% to 40% among women, Obama just edges out McCain among men by a 48% to 45% margin.
No worries for the McCain campaign down in Louisiana, the latest Rasmussen Reports poll has Senator McCain leading Senator Obama 55% to 40%.
While Barack Obama has gained ground against John McCain in many places over the past few weeks, Louisiana is not among them.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the Bayou State finds the Republican on top 55% to 40%, and those results are virtually unchanged from a month ago.
In Louisiana, McCain is viewed favorably by 63% of voters, the Democrat by 46%. For both men, those figures reflect a three-point improvement over the past month.
Fifty-four percent (54%) of Louisiana voters trust McCain more than Obama on economic issues while 41% hold the opposite view. McCain’s advantage on national security issues is even bigger—61% to 36%.
Just 10% rate the U.S. economy as good or excellent these days while 47% say it is in poor shape. Only seven percent (7%) say it’s getting better while 76% say it is getting worse.
Louisiana has nine Electoral College votes. The state has been trending Republican since the 1980s. It bucked that trend voting twice for Bill Clinton. In 2004, President Bush carried the state by an 11 point margin.
The above clip is the full presentation by Dr. Paul Krugman at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco from October 30, 2007 on the subject of income inequality in the United States. His comments run 40 minutes followed by a 20 minute Q&A session. A short five minute clip is below.
Unequal societies have throughout history been prone not just to social upheaval but also to economic turmoil. Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating after 1980, the US began undoing a series of policies that dated to FDR led to what historians call the “Great Compression” a flattening of income so that by 1964 the ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay was 24:1, the narrowest in the nation’s history. It is now around 400:1, or back to levels last seen in the 1920s. And this is actually down from a high of 525:1 in 2000 (the reason is that executive compensation is largely paid in stock).
In regard to inequality, over the past few decades it has risen more in the US than in most other advanced industrial countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, a group compromising the world’s wealthiest countries. Indeed, by most measures, the US ranks near the top (some might say the bottom depending on your perspective) in terms of household income inequality. The inequality gap in the United States is associated with higher levels of overall and child poverty relative to a majority of OECD countries and even some developing countries.
Here is the Sunday, September 28th, 2008 edition of what’s making news and interesting reads from around the world. Also please note that off to the left there are two widgets with updates on news from Asia and the world in a separate page: Around Asia & Around the World New Feeds.
Bailout Deal Reached
U.S. lawmakers on Sunday were set to sign off on a deal to create a $700 billion government fund to buy bad debt from ailing banks in a bid to stem a credit crisis threatening the global economy. After marathon talks into the wee hours of Sunday morning, congressional leaders from both parties emerged with an agreement that altered key parts of a Wall Street bailout program initially proposed by the Bush administration. The story from Reuters.
Bradford & Bingley (UK Mortgage Bank) and Fortis (Belgium) in Crisis
The banking crisis is quickly spreading overseas. Belgium’s Fortis is this weekend poised to become the first large continental bank to fall victim to the credit crunch, as the global chaos continues with Bradford & Bingley and American savings giant Wachovia both teetering on the brink. The Belgian central bank and the country’s regulator are paving the way for a bailout of the huge banking and insurance group, which has a £540 billion balance sheet and a market value of £12 billion. In Britain, the fate of Bradford & Bingley will be decided today. Fren-etic talks between the Bank of England, the Financial Services Authority and the government have been taking place this weekend to save the troubled mortgage bank. Stories from Times of London and from Euro News.
Austrian Elections
Austria votes today with the far-right expected to make major gains at the expense of the two largest parties. More from the BBC.
Bavaria Heads to the Polls
For decades, politics in Bavaria have been synonymous with the Christian Social Union, the state’s sister party to Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats. When voters go to the polls on Sunday, the party could lose an absolute majority it has maintained for decades. Is this the end of Germany’s last bastion of old-fashioned conservatism? Der Spiegel provides the coverage.
Afghanistan’s Top Female Police Officer Killed
Gunmen in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar have killed the country’s most prominent police woman, officials say. Lt-Col Malalai Kakar, head of Kandahar’s department of crimes against women, was shot in her car as she was about to leave for work. More from the BBC.
FBI Opens Investigation of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac
Here is Matt Gonzalez, Ralph Nader’s Vice Presidential running mate, with his take on the debate. He makes one rather interesting point regarding the Federal bailout of the financial sector. He argues that it is just as much a bailout of the two party system.
