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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - May 7, 2012
May 7, 2012
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Those @$#%* Foreigners:
Big doings overseas over the weekend, with a lot of folks in the financial field suddenly a lot more nervous:
--As expected Socialist FRANCOIS HOLLANDE was elected as France's first Socialist president leader since FRANCOIS MITTERAND back in the 1980s. He ousted center-right President NICOLAS SARKOZY with about 52-percent of the vote.
Hollande has already said he intends on doing what he can to scrap European Union austerity measures that Sarkozy had negotiated with German Chancellor ANGELA MERKEL. He's also promised a 75-percent top tax bracket, and a lot more government spending.
He rencently said, "My real enemy is the world of finance."
--And in Greece, things are just getting worse. Angry voters there went to the polls this past weekend and when the dust cleared, neither the conservative New Democracy party, nor the Pasok socialists had enough seats to gain a usable majority.
The far-left Syriza party took second place. (Pacelli)Is Russia on its way back to a dictatorship? It certainly looked like that yesterday, when Russian riot police were seen beating protesters with batons and arresting more than four hundred during clashes that broke out at a Moscow rally by protesters against VLADIMIR PUTIN, who returns to the presidency today.
Three opposition leaders were arrested as well. (Pacelli)Like you really care:
VANESSA HUDGENS believes life is better as a brunette. The actress bleached her signature dark locks for a role in "Spring Breakers" and couldn't wait to go back to the dark side. The "High School Musical" cutie tells AbsoluteNow.com it was "fun for a while," but won't work on a permanent basis. (Lee)
DONALD TRUMP does have a sense of humor. A pic in this weeks Star magazine shows the "Celebrity Apprentice" host standing in the middle of a protest in Scotland, his hair standing off his head while someone held a static charged balloon over it! (Myers)
Designer Update:
The designer who put LADY GAGA on the fashion map is working on a line of solar powered clothing. NICOLA FORMICHETTI says it will launch in an online-only format sometime next year. He told Women's Wear Daily that he wants to make clothes that could use solar power to charge the wearer's phone, or mold to the your body without needing a zipper. " (Bartha)
Grace notes from Vinny Marino:
ADAM YAUCH of the BEASTIE BOYS died Friday at age 47. He had cancer and died after a three year battle with the disease. Adam "MCA" Yauch formed the Beastie Boys in 1979 with MICHAEL "Mike D" DIAMOND and ADAM "Ad-Roc" HORVITZ. They were a hardcore punk band until Def Jam Records co-founders RUSSELL SIMMONS and RICK RUBIN groomed them to be rappers. The Beastie's major label debut album, "Licensed To Ill," was released in 1986 and it became the first rap or hip-hop album to make it to number one on the Billboard 200. That broke it open for rap to move into the mainstream.
All of the Beastie Boys used their money and fame to help out causes that were special to them. Adam's passion was Tibet and the plight of its people. He embraced Tibetan music, culture and Buddhism. Adam also opened a music and film studio called Oscilloscope Laboratories which helped small independent films get distribution. In 2009, Adam was diagnosed with cancer in his salivary glands. He was treated and was in remission for a while, but the cancer returned. Adam leaves behind a wife and a daughter.
Editor's note: I went to Edward R. Murrow high school with Adam back in the early 1980's. He wasn't much of a student, but even back then, he had a passion for music. (Marino) -
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