While the French presidential saw a shift in power from one political party to another, parliamentary elections in Greece have led to the rapid transformation of that country’s existing political system. Voters went to the polls yesterday in Greece’s first major election following the February approval of a painful austerity budget mandated by the European Union. In response, voters severely punished both the center-right New Democracy and center-left PASOK (Socialist) parties, leaving them with only 19% and 13% of all ballots, respectively. Compared to the results of the last parliamentary election in 2009, in which these parties achieved 36% and 44%, yesterday’s vote represents a catastrophic defeat.

Antonis Samaras, the New Democracy leader, was expected to form a coalition government among other parties. However, he has already acknowledged that his party cannot form a coalition government with lesser parties to achieve a parliamentary majority. It now falls to the far-left Syriza party, which finished in second place with 17% of the vote (up from 4% in 2009) to form its own coalition government.  However, the prospect of a Syriza-led coalition further contributed to p0litical and economic uncertainty among the Greek political elite and the leadership of the European Union (EU). Although Greece must adhere to the terms of the bailout agreement with the European Union or risk future funding, parties such as Syriza rose in yesterday’s poll on the back of widespread opposition to existing austerity policies as well as the European Union. Over the past two years, Greece has been roiled by massive protests against the government’s adoption of austerity policies and its perceived subservience to EU and German leadership.

Graffiti at the Bank of Greece. Photo Credit: Reuters

If a future Greek government rejected the terms of the bailout, Greece would likely be forced to leave the Eurozone and default on its current debt obligations.

Other parties who successfully contested yesterday’s election in Greece include the ultra-nationalist far-right Golden Dawn party, whose insignia bears a curious resemblance to the Nazi swastika. Golden Dawn captured nearly 7% of the vote, a dramatic increase from its 2009 performance of less than 1%.

On the heels of a turbulent campaign, Francois Hollande of the Socialist Party won the French presidential election and defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. Exit polls show that Mr. Hollande has won the election by a slim majority of 52%. Mr. Sarkozy conceded defeat shortly after polls closed in France at 9pm local time. He said, “My involvement in the life of my country will be different now…I become a citizen among you.”

Francois Hollande. Photo Credit: AFP

Mr. Hollande’s victory was not unexpected as he successfully won the first round of the elections. However, the campaign was marked by a strong showing of the xenophobic far-right National Front party and Mr. Sarkozy’s attempt to rally these voters in his unsuccessful attempt to win the second round.

Mr. Sarkozy’s defeat can be attributed to a host of factors, both personal and continental. Widely derided for his flashy personality and high-tempo style of governance, Mr. Sarkozy alienated French voters who often saw him in the model of a American politician rather than a stately and regal figure in the mold of Charles de Gaulle. Economically, the former president was closely tied to the austerity policies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Known collectively as ‘Merkozy’, the pair cemented a center-right Franco-German alliance that imposed unpopular austerity policies both at home and throughout the European Union’s troubled economies.

With the rise of Mr. Hollande, the existing consensus regarding the austerity regime appears to be fractured. During his campaign, the Socialist candidate repeatedly asserted that the austerity regime had failed to solve Europe’s debt crisis. He further challenged the German position by suggesting that the European Central Bank, which controls monetary policy for the Eurozone, ought to print its own bond instruments (known as ‘Eurobonds’) to finance infrastructure projects as a means of stimulating economic growth. Combined with the historical memory of inflation during the Weimar Republic and the existing language of European Union (EU) treaties, the Germans have strenuously opposed such measures.

Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel. Photo credit: AP

Elections are also underway in other European countries at the heart of the debt crisis. In Greece, the center-right New Democracy and center-left Socialist parties are likely to experience their weakest showing ever in today’s election. Although New Democracy is expected to achieve a plurality of all votes, far-right and far-left parties will gain heavily in this election. The country’s striking political polarization has occurred during its complete economic collapse. Greece has effectively become a ward of the EU and relies on periodic bailouts from Brussels to fund government operations. In exchange for funding and inspired by German leadership, the EU has forced Greece to cut pensions, reduce the minimum wage, and raise taxes in an attempt right its finances. The effects on ordinary Greeks has been catastrophic as unemployment has skyrocketed, livelihoods have deteriorated, and nationwide strikes have become all too common.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden made the strongest statement yet by an Obama administration official in support of marriage equality. On NBC’s weekly ‘Meet the Press’, Mr. Biden said that he is ‘absolutely comfortable’ with gay marriage and that same-sex couples are entitled to the same rights and civil liberties as heterosexual couples.

Mr. Biden’s statement further highlights the shifting dynamics of the Obama administration’s position on marriage equality. Mr. Obama had remained non-committal on gay marriage throughout the first half of his administration. Yet in 2011, he ordered the Department of Justice to stop legal efforts aimed at upholding the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 federal law that gives states the right to abstain from legally recognizing same-sex marriages conducted in other states. Marriage equality was later passed into law by New York State in Summer 2011, becoming the first large U.S. to legally recognize gay marriages.

Student banner at Brooklyn College protest

City University of New York students at Brooklyn College held a raucous protest against tuition hikes and demanding greater accessibility for higher education on Wednesday, May 2. Organized by the Brooklyn College Student Union, students  dropped a large red banner from the fourth floor window in Boylan Hall that read ’1, 2, 3, 4 tuition hikes are class war. 5, 6, 7, 8 students will retaliate’.  About 60 students then moved into Boylan Hall and conducted a sit-in demonstration in front of office of the Brooklyn College president and demanded an immediate open forum to discuss their demands.

Shortly after, CUNY Public Safety officers supported by NYPD arrived on the scene and began to break up the demonstration. Officers pulled apart the seven students blocking the door to the President’s Office and began forcibly pushing students out of the building. According to the BC Student Union blog, officers shoved and punched students in the closely-packed hallway. One student who was previously injured at the eviction of Occupy Wall Street last November allegedly had her cane thrown from her by officers. Two arrests were made inside the building, one for disorderly conduct and one for assaulting an officer. As arrestees were being taken through the college gates and into waiting vans, students tried to block the vehicles by attempting a second sit-in, but those was also broken up by the police. The full student response to the arrests (including their demands) can be found here, and video of the clash within Boylan Hall is below:

Professors at Brooklyn College expressed their outrage at the police action in a letter to President Karen L. Gould. The Brooklyn College chapter of the Professional Staff Congress (the union for CUNY faculty) claimed that professors were pushed, shoved, and harassed in Boylan Hall alongside students. Their letter calls for the exclusion of Central CUNY security personnel from the BC campus, a campus-wide discussion on college demonstrations, the dismissal of all charges against students, and a meeting between students and administrators addressing their concerns regarding access to and conditions at BC.

President Barack Obama will make a visit to the Global Foundries Malta plant this Tuesday as part of a series of economic-focused speeches the President has been delivering in recent weeks.

Obama has visited the Capital Region twice since being in office. In September 2009, Obama visited Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y. and in January 2011, General Electric’s Schenectady, N.Y. plant.

The White House is expected to give details regarding the exact time of the President’s remarks this afternoon.

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released a yearly annual performance report today arguing that tax breaks provided by the state’s Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) are not effective in creating jobs. Tax breaks in the form of property tax and debt-financing exemptions are often touted as an effective way to lure businesses into local regions to boost employment. However, DiNapoli’s office has found no significant correlation between the provision of tax exemptions and the creation of new job opportunities. Since IDA tax breaks reduce the overall amount of taxable land and enterprises within New York municipalities, they effectively shift the burden of taxation onto local residents and small businesses. According to DiNapoli,  ”[t]axpayers are not getting enough bang for their buck when it comes to IDAs.”

In response, Mr. DiNapoli is calling for new legislation to ensure full transparency and accountability in the operation of IDAs. A central measure of this reform package would require that IDAs evaluate the overall economic impact of projects provided by tax exemptions, including assessments of the overall costs and benefits to taxpayers as well as assessments of the project’s success in achieving job creation and retention objectives. DiNapoli is also calling form legislative reforms to Local Development Corporations (LDCs), which are currently not subject to audits from the Comptroller. DiNapoli is seeking precisely this authority as well as new regulations that force LDCs to follow laws applicable to local governments regarding operational financing and control of public assets.

Occupy Wall Street and affiliates held massive demonstrations across the country, illustrating the continued strength of the movement despite its quiet winter. In celebration of International Workers Day, multiple marches took place throughout New York City culminating in the permitted Solidarity March in the early evening. Led by unions and undocumented workers from Union Square, the march was the largest event of the day and included an estimated 25,000 protesters and rivaled the initial Occupy Wall Street events of last October. Occupy protesters continued to voice their opposition to growing income inequality as well as the influence of major banks and corporations on public policy.

Union Square on May Day

Here in the Capitol Region, Occupy Albany held day-long events culminating in arrests in Lafayette Park across Washington Ave. from the New York State Capitol. During lunchtime, Occupy Albany protesters marched around downtown Albany with a long banner that read ‘Resistance is Fertile’, highlighting the group’s strong environmentalist stance and opposition to hydraulic fracking. Occupy protesters took to the streets on multiple occasions as well. At the intersection of State St. and Broadway, protesters criticized SUNY Administration for recently supporting tuition hikes adopted last summer.

Occupy Albany at State and Broadway

The day’s events ended with protesters submitting to arrest in Lafayette Park for violating the 11pm curfew. Uniformed State Troopers arrested about 20 protesters while supported by officers from the Office of Criminal Investigations. Readers may recall that the park’s curfew is a recent policy and was imposed just prior to Occupy’s initial occupation in October.

Around the country, Occupy protests were marred by violence in several locations. On the West Coast, Occupy Oakland saw running street battles with law enforcement and extensive use of tear gas and flash bang grenades. In Los Angeles, protesters attempted to shut down traffic into Los Angeles International Airport. Nonetheless, the vast majority of protests nationwide remained nonviolent.

Occupy Wall Street preempted NYPD’s response to May Day protests with two lawsuits alleging constitutional rights violations and demanding police accountability. New York City Councilmen Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane D. Williams, among others, are the primary plaintiffs in a suit against  New York City and police officials. The lawsuit claims that NYPD has repeatedly violated freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech in its response to Occupy protests. Specific incidents such as the eviction of Occupy Wall Street on November 17, 2011 at Zucotti Park (commonly known by Occupiers as Liberty Plaza) and the December 12 protest in the Winter Garden are cited as examples where NYPD ‘chilled the ability of many protesters to engage in Constitutionally protected speech’ by controlling entry and charging protestors with trespassing.

Plaintiffs also argue that the NYPD operates in a vacuum of oversight and accountability that contributes to police misconduct and the erosion of trust among New York City’s communities. You can find the actual lawsuit here and as well as a video documenting specific incidents of rights violations’ by NYPD here:

The second suit is a class action motion against specific police officers in NYPD. It alleges that police actions initiated by the officers ‘violated Plaintiffs’ clear and established constitutional rights, including their rights to freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, and freedom from unreasonable seizure’. It further cites the use of barricades in a tactic known among protesters as ‘kettling’ to restrict protesters’ movement through public spaces. In addition to demanding compensation for violation of their constitutional rights, the plaintiffs seek legal injunctions against the NYPD to prevent the unlawful use of police barricades and compliance with existing laws.

These lawsuits come on the heels of ongoing criticism of NYPD practices, including the controversial stop-and-frisk policy. State Senator Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn) and Assemblyman Karim Camara (D-Brooklyn) are  also seeking new forms of police accountability by introducing legislation to create an Office of Inspector General for NYPD.

What do Pirates, Charles Darwin, Queen Victoria, and a Dodo have in common? They are all in “The Pirates! Band of Misfits”, the latest outrageous comedy from Sony Animation / Aardman productions. Sailing in under the banner of the skull and crossed ham bones “The Pirates!” is a welcome change from the mostly mediocre product that has come lately from Hollywood and is one to go see more than once.

When The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) decides to enter the annual Blood Island Pirate of the Year competition things seem in his favor due to his past failures. He seems a certain winner right up up to the moment that his three biggest competitors show up with more booty and flashier entrances. What chance does the Captain stand against the likes of Peg-Leg Hastings (Lenny Henry), Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) and Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven)?

It’s time for an adventure… to go and raise more booty! Along the way The Pirate Captain and his crew encounter a research vessel, The Beagle, with none other than Charles Darwin (David Tennant) aboard. Turns out Polly isn’t a parrot but a Dodo. Next thing you know the mission changes to a trip to London, home of the pirate hating Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton), to win the Scientist of the Year competition.

And of course what would a pirate captain be without his crew?  That depends. When the crew is a group of misfits that includes The Pirate with Gout (Brendan Gleeson), The Pirate with a Scarf (Martin Freeman), The Albino Pirate (Anton Yelchin), The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate (Ashley Jenson), and The Pirate who Likes Sunsets and Kittens (Al Roker) almost no subject or area is taboo or immune from harpooning… uh… make that lampooning.

“The Pirates! Band of Misfits” is based on the first of Gideon Defoe’s historical pirate novels “The Pirates! An adventure with Scientists”. Defoe’s novels are written for an adult audience. As a result younger audience members will be entertained but may not fully appreciate much of the witty humor. Many of the jokes count on a knowledge of history, especially a knowledge of Victorian history. There is even a whimsical appearance by Joseph Merrick who was also known as “The Elephant Man”.

Hopefully this will be the beginning of a franchise that will bring future installments from Defoe’s other novels. Just think, we can look forward to “The Pirates!” in their adventures with Whaling, with Communists, with Napoleon, with the Romantics, and with whatever else comes up.

When all is said and done be sure to stay during the credits to read the writing on the wall. Interspersed within the wall of paintings from their adventures are many postings and signs that further reflect the wit and wisdom of the creative team at Aardman. Go, enjoy, and then consider going again.

Rated: PG (1 hour 28 min)

Last week, the United States Senate failed to pass a bill that would require Americans earning more than $1 million to pay at least 30% of their income in tax. The requirement became known as “Buffett Rule”, named after billionaire Warren Buffet, who pays a lower tax rate than his secretary who makes much less. This would mean that the wealthiest Americans would have to pay their fair share in taxes, something most middle class Americans already doand have been doing for decades.

The bill failed on almost entirely partisan lines with Democrats pushing hard for this bill pre-election, and Republicans have slammed it as a political gimmick.

If you heard about the failure of the Buffett Rule and asked yourself, “How can this happen?” You are not alone.

The Buffet Rule would bring in billions of dollars a year in revenue to the federal government and simultaneously make sure that the wealthiest Americans aren’t taking advantage of our tax system. It would be beneficial and fair.

Republicans are right about one thing. This is a political gimmick. And you know what? People love gimmicks. Awareness brought to this issue will only make it stronger.

Middle class Americans aren’t split on partisan lines. Most agree that if they’re paying a certain amount in taxes, than someone wealthier should at least be paying the same amount.

Most Americans would probably also like to receive most of their money through means that would only require them to pay 15% in taxes like Mitt Romney. They’d probably also like to be able to keep most of their money in off-shore accounts to give them further tax breaks. Of course, these privileges are only awarded to the rich. Our government has a fatally flawed tax system. We don’t just need the Buffett Rule; we need to stop everything that keeps the wealthiest Americans from benefiting from tax immunity that the middle class can only dream of. As long as Americans stay fed up enough to elect legislators who have the courage to stand up to the rich, the Buffet Rule will live on. It makes no sense for people who can spend lavishly not to pay the most in taxes, especially when the middle class is struggling.

The Buffett Rule may only be the beginning of fixing a broken tax system. Let’s see it get passed.