Posted on 05/05/2007 8:45:01 PM PDT by Cincinna
PARIS, May 5, 2007 (AFP) - Millions of French voters casting their ballots for the right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy or the socialist Segolene Royal may be the last to discover the name of their new president on Sunday night.
French electoral laws, among the strictest in Europe, ban the publication of any opinion polls, estimates of results or angled news reports from the day before a vote until the close of polls, to avoid influencing voters' choice.
For Sunday's presidential vote, in which France chooses a successor to the 74-year-old Jacques Chirac, the ban runs from midnight (2200 GMT) Friday to the close of the last polling stations at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT).
In France's overseas territories in the Caribbean and north Atlantic, which vote a day early, television screens went blank Thursday at midnight, with all cable and satellite news broadcasts suspended for 24 hours.
National news programmes were carried with a delay, to allow editors to slice out any reference to the electoral campaign on the mainland.
But though strictly applied in France, with fines of 75,000 euros (100,000 dollars) for offenders -- the rules are not enforced in neighbouring countries or for websites based outside the country.
In practice, any French person with an Internet connection, or who can pick up Swiss or Belgian radio from across the border, can easily circumvent the law.
From 1630 GMT on Sunday, the first projections of the results, conducted by polling firms based on a sample of votes cast but not designed for publication, will be sent out to political parties and the media.
In the April 22 first round, these secret figures were leaked and released by foreign media almost two hours before official projections were published in France at 1800 GMT -- and the same scenario is likely this weekend.
One Swiss mobile phone operator, Echovox -- in what it admits is a publicity stunt -- is offering to send text messages of the projections across the border to French users, for a 1.50-euro fee.
With French bloggers also threatening to post leaked estimates on their sites from 1630 GMT, the French media stand to be among the last to publish the estimated results of the country's own election.
Critics in France, including AFP, argue that the law puts French-based news organisations at a competitive disadvantage in a globalised media environment.
"We're in an awful situation," said Denis Hiault, global news director at AFP.
"As a French registered company we have to abide by the law of the land, despite the fact that this law is in some way obsolete in the Internet age," he said.
In the first round of voting last month, AFP had to wait until 1800 GMT to give the results even though it had them in hand for an hour beforehand, Hiault said.
AFP coverage of the first round was a success overall, Hiault said. "We're confident that our strength on the ground will make a difference at the end of the day," he added.
"But it is a unique and frustrating moment for journalists to have to hold back information which is being used outside France by non-French media. That last hour before the official release of the results seems to drag on forever.
right-winger Nicolas SarkozySure, but is Segolene Royal a left-winger?
wow, you are a pro. thanks!
Tip o the hat to FReeper drzz:
Posted by drzz to All
On News/Activism 05/02/2007
Check for the results of the French elections on my blog on Sunday :
http://leblogdrzz.over-blog.com
I will be able to give you the results before the French people actually learn them.
The French are not authorized to see polls before 8pm. It’s an old law, which should not be still used in the era of globalization, but as we all know, French people live in another world where the globalization should be feared and the world wide web seen with suspicion.
No kidding.
Critics in France, including AFP, argue that the law puts French-based news organisations at a competitive disadvantage in a globalised media environment.
Har! France's socialist "mainstream" newsrooms are complaining about the fascist socialism they so relentlessly support? Hahaha.....! All you can do is shake your head at the irony and the hypocrisy.
Polls predict the French left will be badly beaten today !
Champaign bros, that’s a great day !!!
Sarkozy has been praised by Aznar, Bush’s former spanish ally.
http://leblogdrzz.over-blog.com
Do you have a link to Sarkozy’s speech condemning the 68-spirit? The left here in Sweden (which is almost every journalist and so called “intellectual”) or at least those who have heard about it have gone wild. Great fun! One foresees weeping and gnashing of teeth tonight.....
:)
The only thing that matters about this election in France is that Chirac is gone...joining Germany’s Schroeder and Canada’s Martin, Saddam Hussein, and every other major leader who opposed the Iraq War.
In contrast, President Bush and PM Blair and PM Howard are still in Office.
Sometime about 12 hours ago, there must have been a rumor started that gave a lot of action on InTrade... Pushed Royal up from 5 to 20! ... but the a precipitous plunge that has continued... now it is about at 1... losing over 4pts today by now.
Some betters made a killing on this ....
Anyone hear of some rumor during the night?
oops... “bettors”
Time for a Live Thread in Breaking News?
http://drzz.romandie.com/ 12:45 EST
Is it too early to open the bottle of... dare I say Champagne?
YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!
Kinda looked like Verdun circa 1917.
The French already know. I was walking by Picasso Museum this morning and saw two freshly torched cars. It appears the ‘youths’ from the ‘suburbs’ were warming up Sat night for tonite. We will see what transpires in the next two hours when the Sarkozy victory rally starts.
WONDERFUL!!!!
Sarko, I will toast you with a bottle of French wine.
A bas le socialisme.
It occurs to me that it would be useful to come up with a whole galaxy of "Liberals are so stupid that..." jokes. You know, like Chuck Norris jokes or Your Momma jokes. Seems like a real opportunity.
Like "Liberals are so stupid they think Ahmadinejad getting nukes is fine, but exhaling will destroy the world".
Or "Liberals are so stupid they thought 94% tax rates would bring in more revenue than 35% tax rates".
Or "Liberals are so stupid that after a blank check to run education anyway they pleased for two generations, when they fail tests they devised themselves they claim it is the test's fault."
Or "Liberals are so stupid they think throwing massive subsidies at the health care sector will make prices go down."
Or "Liberals are so stupid they think higher savings reduce economic growth."
P.S. I noticed a problem in your tagline - division by zero is undefined.
Liberals are so stupid they -
... think Ahmadinejad getting nukes is fine, but exhaling will destroy the world.
... thought 94% tax rates would bring in more revenue than 35% tax rates.
... think, after a blank check to run education anyway they pleased for two generations, that when they fail tests they devised themselves they claim it is the test's fault.
... think throwing massive subsidies at the health care sector will make prices go down.
... think higher savings reduce economic growth.
... think that it is too risky to drill for oil in a howling wilderness, on the off chance an accident might inconvenience a caribou, so it is safer to get our oil from places where thousands of armed men want to kill us.
... think it is a conflict of interest for a politician to accept money even in small amounts from numerous American corporations, but conscientious idealism to accept tons of money in one lump from a billionaire currency speculator with a massive short position against the US dollar.
... try to sell class warfare to the richest and most pampered middle class in world history.
... try to sell protectionism to the most successful free trading empire the world has ever known.
... favor marriages that can't produce children and oppose the other kind.
... think overpopulation causes poverty, when the world is richer and more populous than it has ever been.
... think technology is evil, when without it 95% of the human race would starve to death.
... are more concerned with the thickness of bird's eggs than the longevity of African children.
... think solar power is more practical than coal.
... think all cultures and opinions are equally valid and Republicans are satanic.
... oppose developments near people because they are unsightly and the locals might object, and away from them because that is "wilderness" and must be kept pristine.
... think chemicals are poison and anything natural is pure; try this idea at a water purification plant.
... oppose improved crop varieties and clean nuclear power through rank superstition and then pretend they believe in science.
... think of as mindless and stupid a military that has long since conquered the world.
... think a soldier willing to take a bullet for them is a brute, while ghouls promoting themselves reporting war are selfless idealists.
... think it moral to execute half born children but an outrage to execute copkillers.
... after they took power in the name of populism they decided, "first thing we'll do is all become lawyers".
... think Cheney must be corrupt because he worked for an oil company, while Gore is an idealist because he inherited his oil fortune without working for it.
... think multi-millionaires who got rich through inheritance, marriage, or lawsuits without a day's honest work are great populists. And that billionaires speculating with other people's money are even better.
... thought socialism would lead to material abundance, and when they found out it didn't decided they were against material abundance anyway.
... screech hatred of patriarchy for 40 years and then wonder why they aren't happily married.
... consider Republicans damnably judgmental and Islamicists misunderstood patriots.
... are more afraid of SUVs than of IEDs.
... think terrorists and prisoners of war deserve fair trials and must be let go otherwise, but that a Marine accused of an atrocity must be guilty as soon as an Iraqi stringer says so.
... think Al Gore is one of the great thinkers of our time. Jimmy Carter too.
... think Hillary is too far to the right to be trusted on matters of war and peace.
... pour massive subsidies into higher education to enable everyone to go to college, and then change the curriculum to basket weaving, video arts, and lesbian analysis of TV commercials.
... think the western tradition of reason and science is an ethno-logo-centric con job, and deconstruction is a vibrant idealistic philosophy.
... expect greater fairness and efficiency from unelected careerist bureaucrats than from free competition.
... oppose talk radio, Fox News, Murdoch papers, blogs, and the internet in the name of free speech.
... think the Sermon on the Mount is bigoted and oppressive, while the Communist Manifesto is idealistic and progressive.
... can't understand how institutional religion managed to survive the publication of The Da Vinci Code.
... think new age crystals and astrology and neo paganism are vibrant signs of progressive idealism, while philosopher popes are signs of the inexplicable survival of benighted superstition.
... think the United States is the focus of evil in the modern world, and that France is the shining light of civilization.
... see the economic differences between capitalist North America and socialist and populist Latin America and blame capitalism for exploiting the south into poverty.
... see the differences between North Korea and South Korea and say with a shrug, "who are we to judge?" and "war never settled anything".
... still won't admit that Alger Hiss was a Soviet agent.
... believe a neocon conspiracy between Bush and the Jews engineered all of 9-11 but couldn't even manage to plant some WMDs in Iraq.
... think it is sensible to put in charge of worldwide economic development for the next 50 years a man who couldn't even manage a vote recount in Florida.
... give Nobel prizes for "peace" to men who see to it that insane tyrants get or keep nuclear weapons.
... oppose nuclear power plants in the US for reasons of safety, but think Iran getting nuclear weapons is no big deal.
... think the way to bring about social justice is to empower a pack of shyster lawyers and sic them on people.
... think the US is no better than any other country in the world, and we must open the borders to let everyone who wants come here.
... think judges should not be constrained by the law but should be able to make up whatever they think is fair, and then try to address every public concern by passing a new law about it.
... think security will be ensured by checking IDs at airports but that it would be oppressive and unjust to check them at voting booths.
... circulate petitions and hold somber public meetings to declare individual buildings or neighborhoods "nuclear free zones", then studiously ignore it when lunatic-run countries defy the IAEA.
... claim all serious international disputes must be referred to the UN Security Council, and then ignore its decrees when they condemn enemies of the United States, and call actions to enforce said decrees illegitimate aggression.
... consider it the height of conscientious idealism to defer to third world tyrants and notorious mass murderers on what constitutes "human rights".
... consider terrorist mass murderers freedom fighters and the US military oppressive fascists.
... think it is risky to invest retirement funds in a balanced no load mutual fund but safe to give them to a government bureaucrat who promises he'll pay them back someday but spends them immediately.
... haven't had a real economic issue to run on in 75 years but construct their entire political ideology around failed economic prescriptions.
... consider themselves open minded and reasonable then boast that they don't know any Republicans.
... idolize a decade in which their own party split wide open and lost national political power indefinitely.
... pride themselves on having engineered the only US military defeats in its history by undercutting victorious forces in the field politically, and seek to renew and extend that tradition.
... insist that financial institutions make credit freely available to mascot groups without credit scrutiny, and then get upset when said mascot groups default more often than others.
... hire Democratic campaign officials and public spokesmen as reporters and political commentators, and then claim they don't understand charges of press bias.
... form cliquish in-groups in academia that ensure 95% of all professors are liberal democrats, and then expect to be believed when they pretend they are the unbiased incarnation of objective reason.
... conduct mandatory Stalinist brainwashing seminars in the name of tolerance and open mindedness.
... hawk for several generations an elborate psychology claiming that everything is about sex, and then excuse public misconduct of Democratic officials by claiming it is just about sex.
... preach liberation from civilizational repression through free love, and then denounce the slightest flirtation as sexual harassment.
... think a man may be considered corrupt if it can be merely alleged that he might make money through the war in Iraq, but can't be for actually being on Saddam's payroll if he opposed that war.
... pretend proven Iranian support for Iraqi terrorists is a mere allegation while believing Moore and Rosanne drivel about 9-11 as insightful fact.
... think we forgot that they predicted disaster in Afghanistan and did not support it until after it worked.
... think they can sell economic doom and gloom to Americans with unemployment and interest rates both under 5%, inflation under 3%, and jobs, wages, the stock market, and national income all at all-time highs.
... think a few green activists can convince the American people to drive tiny electric powered cars, when Detroit's entire massive ad budget can't convince half of them to buy American.
... think the way to benefit workers in an industry is to unionize them and loot said industry by demanding all of its profits, instead of just asking for decent wages and investing some of them to share in growing corporate profits.
... think they are benefiting workers by opposing their right to work, and expect to be supported for doing so.
... can't understand why non-public union membership is at all-time lows after decades of using union funds to lobby the government in support of radical leftist causes.
... erect massive barriers to entry and merit-free, seniority-based pay for unionized teachers, who proceed to chase every politicized fad in educational methods, and then wonder why average test scores continually fall and educational achievement gaps widen.
... lionize violent antisocial thugs as authentic representatives of the underclass, and then wonder why the public doesn't support said underclass more generously.
... decide philosophically that nothing is true, major in journalism and treat everything as a matter of political spin, and then stare in blank incomprehension as hardnosed conservatives who go into business make more money and achieve more responsible social positions.
... peddle immoral and violent "entertainment" that lampoons the very idea of heroism and turns every subject into a leftist tirade, and then wonder why Hollywood has a poor public image and ticket sales decline.
... endlessly ridicule rural people as hicks and religious people as bigots and patriotic people as warmongers and then wonder why heartland America refuses to vote for liberals, and decide it must be due to "false consciousness".
... embrace a philosophy that proclaims every piece of writing or thought is just manipulative rhetoric for the sake of class interests and political power and then wonder why ordinary people do not trust liberal intellectuals.
... expect to be thought nuanced and thoughtful for saying something depends on the meaning of "is".
... decide that health, education, and software should be free, encourage these fields as careers for progressives, then complain they are underpaid.
... think that men holding cameras and writing stories have more real power than the men in front of those cameras or those they are writing about.
... expect to steer history from the sidelines by writing wry leading editorials, instead of founding great institutions or leading states.
... think swallowing reams of PC nonsense makes them independent thinkers while self-made businessmen are conformist Babbits.
... understand that Nazis were the epitome of evil, but say war never settles anything.
... were so bereft of ideas once socialism proved an economic failure, they replaced it with wholesale liftings from the right-wing German irrationalism they claimed to hate.
... approved state terror and gulags in the name of human progress, then denounced Solzhenitsyn as "mean spirited".
... pretend terror-famines were caused by the weather, but that the weather is caused by capitalism.
... defended the men and women who gave Joe Stalin atom bombs, and attacked as "evil" those who prosecuted them.
... they hold up as heroes, to this day, men who tried to start violent communist revolutions in other people's countries, and expect this to the popular with the masses.
... even their leading intellectuals welcomed the Iranian revolution and supported Ayatollah Khomeni as a thoughtful idealist.
... consciously put together a coalition of victims and misfits and then wonder why they lack first-rate intellectual and political leaders acceptable to mainstream America.
... teach their supporters that society is to blame for everything that is wrong in the world and then aspire to lead society.
... claim a right to lead based on their belief in equality.
... proclaim that no criminal is responsible for his own actions, being a product of his environment, then denounce Republicans for representing their class interests.
... denounce as chicken hawks anyone who supports the war in Iraq without being in the military, but refuse to consult the men actually in the field on whether to stay in Iraq and finish the job.
... claim they support the troops but refuse to even listen to them.
... claim that a war cannot be won that can only be lost by deliberately refusing to even try to win it.
... think the American people, who have been consistently smart enough through nine successive generations to navigate their country from a few million poor farmers in a colonial backwater to leadership of the world, undreamt of prosperity, and technical marvels beyond the wildest dreams of their most optimistic forebears, are too stupid to see through said liberals' vacuous piffle.
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