Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States, has a big mess to clean up after George Bush. The highbrow crowd thinks Barack is a peach, while talk on the street says Obama is the shit. Whichever perspective is right, his soft and gentle touch should be a premium after the crap we’ve recently had.

After yesterday’s cowardly attacks against nearly 10,0000 people in Sofia as ordered by corrupt politicians in Bulgaria desperate to quash dissent, the coalition of demonstrators led by students, farmers, and environmentalists resumed their protest today in the capital.

Citizen leaders reminded the media that Wednesday’s embarrassing overreaction by the government was a manufactured crisis when none existed, using a handful of masked provocateurs — possibly planted — as a weak excused to attack thousands of peaceful Bulgarians exercising their constitutional rights, injuring an unknown number of persons, and imprisoning nearly 200.

By noon on Thursday, 15 Jan 2009, a crowd of more than 1,500 citizens gathered with people shouting demands for the resignation of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet. And all reports indicated the demonstration was growing larger.

Protesters remain peaceful and, so far, there have been no outbreaks of violence by police. Government public relations spinsters claim their anti-riot guards will be restrained today, but continue to blame the people of Bulgaria for yesterday’s beatings.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarian parliament ignored the public redress for grievances and instead opted to focus on critical issues such as nationally banning children from being out in public after 8pm without a parent. Sorry, Detlev, you can’t play outside this summer. Teenagers are now banned from being out in public after 10pm without a parent. Sorry, Ana, no more dance clubs for you.

By 1pm, media reports currently indicate the protest is over 3,000 and growing, Apparently, some opposition politicians have walked out of parliament and into the streets to join the demonstrations to lend it further support (and no doubt get themselves on camera).

UPDATE: The 3,000-strong protest was carried out successfully and has ended. Participants waved flags and banners, demanded changes in government, and read the Bulgarian Constitution out loud as reaffirmation of their rights as citizens.

Thankfully, there were no further incidents of police violence today. Organizers intend to stage a third and final day of political demonstrations on Friday.

Note: Special thanks to my friend, Виктор Анонимен, who has attended the protest and helped me gather additional information sources.

Last night in Riga, a protest calling for new government elections turned violent after police attacked Latvian demonstrators. After the attacks, police claimed a few drunk men as their reason for violent reaction against the general protest.

Today, in Bulgaria — right now — the expected protest in Sofia has suddenly turned bloody as the Bulgarian government apparently manufactured a bomb threat to generate pretense for an attack on students and farmers.

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UPDATE: The Bulgarian government is pretending the bomb threat came “from the internet” which is the thinnest of all possible veils. (Frankly, it’s an unmitigated crock of shit to be treated with the utmost skepticism and disdain. An evident lie.)

Using this alleged threat as an excuse to quash political demonstrations, the government ordered riot police to assault Bulgarian citizens in broad day light. Chemical tear gas mortars, nightstick batons as clubs, people slathered in red blood.

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UPDATE 2: Demanding changes to the government and justice for the people ignored by parliament thousands of demonstrators resisted brutal, pre-emptive clashes by police for hours. And other protestors fought back, attacking police barricades and riot squads in retaliation.

Even after 70 arrests, hundreds of people maintained their presence on the parliamentary steps, despite the government crackdown, while large groups cut-off from the main area took their protest to the streets.

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By evening, police continued to disrupt major streets and intersections, such as Tsarigradsko Shosse or Levski as the protest continued. After dark, reports indicate protesters have completed their demonstration and are voluntarily returning home.

Source: Angel-G.TV

UPDATE 3: With the protest completed, Bulgarian officials have fired up the spin machine to twist the perception of worldwide media. Mihail Mikov, the Interior Minister, spouts euphemisms of “moderate force” to describe the police beatings. He then goes on to blame students, farmers, and environmentalists as responsible for everything.

A classic script from the playbook of former-Communist parties: abject disregard for the rights of citizens, take any actions necessary to cling to power.

FINAL UPDATE: A second protest has been scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, 15 January 2009, until all imprisoned political demonstrators are released from detention by authorities.

A student was murdered in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. After a lack of action to protect the University area from such crimes, students previously protested the government but were essentially ignored by the government who dismissed the demonstrations as child’s play.

Farmers in Bulgaria have been pushing the government to obtain special EU funding, which collapsed under the weight of corruption within the government. As the Bulgarian farmers gathered from around the country into Sofia to protest government failure, the parliament simply recessed and fled the capital so as not to confront those farmers.

That same day, another political rally was held to protect Bulgarian forests from expanded construction work and deforestation. However, those seeking a change in environmental policy were equally ignored by the Parliament who left Sofia rather than be present for the protests, further fueling dissatisfaction.

The gas crisis and other local political factors led to a coalition of citizens groups all wanting to protest their government today, January 14th. Before the protest, police already warned of harsh reprocussions at the command of the government.

And now authorities are using an unconfirmed bomb threat as reason to beat Bulgarian citizens into submission for daring to criticize the powers that be.

Protest is a constitutional right in Bulgaria. Supposedly.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party is the reincarnation of the Soviet-era Communist party and has maintained virtual control over Bulgaria ever since the supposed democratization of the 1990s.

BSP is the equivalent of Romania’s PSD, the Social Democrat Party which is the euphemism of the Soviet-era Communist party in Romania (PCR) that has controlled most of the time since the 1989 revolution.

Is Romania watching our southern neighbors with any interest?

I believe Romanians should be contacting their politicians and demanding Bucureşti place pressure on Sofia to stop the violence against its people. The situation is too close to home, in a period where the situation could be reversed a year from now.

Like an ill-mannered 5-year-old, the Russians are throwing a temper tantrum.

RIA Novosti reports

Russian gas supplies through Ukraine to Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, and Turkey have been halted… Gas deliveries to the Czech Republic have fallen by 75%…

Puţin has been responsible for advocating a policy of holding Europe hostage during the winter.  His current Russian puppet president is pulled by the same strings, lacking the testicular fortitude to act in the manner he is legally entitled to and thereby demonstrating to the world-at-large that Puţin remains Russia’s communist dictator.

Portfolio notes two more victims.

Gas deliveries from Ukraine to Hungary have stopped… Slovakia is prepared to declare a state of emergency…

Apparently, the Russian government believes itself clever. They’ll send out a slew of junior varsity spokespeople to tell various media outlets that, of course, Russia will honor its contractual obligations to provide gas to Europe and would never purposefully seek to kill Europeans in winter so European governments might bow down to Russia’s whimsical ego.

BBC discovered

The move [to cut gas to Europe] came after Mr Putin held talks with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.

Twitterbrains who watch TV shows like 24 or, say, Lombarzilor 8 might believe the talking heads who regurgitate press statements as fact.  Those of us who engage in a little critical thinking or favor investigative journalism might not have ever been fooled in the first place. Or so our egos allow us to muse.

Opening our eyes, you can see China View added another to the list of impacted countries.

Russian gas supplies to Croatia were completely cut off Tuesday… The underground storage and the gas produced by the INA cannot make up for the shortfall…

Contracts and obligations mean nothing to Puţin.  He runs roughshod over the Russian Constitution more disastrously than George Bush over the American Constitution, which defies imagination.  Puţin is throwing a temper tantrum over the lack of respect he commands from Europe by cutting off gas supplies that flow through Ukraine to Europe.

Reuters points out Russia is

…threatening disruption as far west as Italy and Germany…

Why?  Simple.

Russia still owns Belarus by the short hairs, but they lost control of Ukraine in 2004.  It was the Orange Revolution which brought some measure of real freedom to Ukraine.  That victory is equally important for Romania as well.

The political party formerly known as Communist now goes by the PSD — “Social Democrats” is their destept euphemism — and has had a corrupt choke-hold on Romania ever since they themselves deposed Ceausescu in order to propel themselves to power.

It so happens that in 2004 the legitimate winner of the Romanian presidential election was being railroaded into accepting a fictitious loss, but the protests in Ukraine brought unprecedented media coverage to the region.  Some of that spilled over into Romania.  Just barely enough international attention that Basescu was able to brush aside the hoţi and claim his rightful victory.

That brought huge changes to Romania.  In the past 4 years, the lives of average citizens all over the nation has changed dramatically for the better.

Russia is unlikely to control Romania again any time soon, but they do scare the world into letting Moldova remain prisoner.  Russia would very much like Ukraine back into its pocket and is quite upset that freedom continues in Ukraine despite the on-going internal political upheavals there.

The current tactic is to cut off gas supplies flowing through Ukraine, the major pipeline for natural gas delivered to Europe.  Puţin’s intent is for Europeans to suffer and die in the cold winter, so they’ll demand their government “do something” about the problem.

…the EU is reluctant to get involved in what it describes as a commercial dispute – reflecting Europe’s own deep divisions on how to respond to Russia.

Naturally, the Russian communists want Europe to become frustrated with Ukraine, to be disillusioned with Ukraine, to break faith with Ukraine, and to abandon Ukraine to stand alone in the cold, dark twilight of this early uncertain century.  They want Ukraine to collapse and return to horrors of soviet life.

The impact here in Bucureşti today?  No hot water as the nation tried to conserve gas for use that the centrala.  It’s the centrala which pumps hot water to residential radiators to keep them warm in the winter.  It appears other hot water uses are considered optional in the hierarchy of priorities.

A wise choice, if one has to make it.  However, Romania seems ill equipped to deal with the shortage.

Politicians need to ensure city administrators have proper plans and procedures in place to swiftly redirect energy supplies from well-established gas reserves when an event like this occurs.  It’s not as though this were completely unexpected.  Russia has been mumbling for quite some time, if anyone will listen.

In order for politicians to react, the people must not tolerate a loss of hot water.  It may be a typical side effect of life in an emerging nation such as Romania, but that does not mean we must suffer in silence.  Elected officials generally understand the need to serve the masses, so it is incumbent on the people to make rational voices heard loudly in demand for proper municipal governance.

One doesn’t want to ignorantly scream “do something” when that something could be just what Puţin hopes for.   Instead, complain about the lack of city energy planning and demand politicians properly direct their administrators to adequately establish reserve distribution procedures if they want your vote next election.

Constructive criticism will get positive results.  Romanians, you deserve better.

Tonight, for now, the hot water has been restored.  At least in the central part of Bucureşti.  I can only imagine half the city is scrambling to take a shower in case the water is out again tomorrow.

“Imports of Russian gas are now reduced by around 75 percent,” Transgaz director Ioan Rusu told Reuters by telephone. “But we can overcome this winter without problems.”

The economy ministry said in a statement that measures had been taken earlier in the day to ensure constant gas supplies to all Romanian consumers.

I’ll take this opportunity to explain to corporate shill Ioan Rusu, the fascist ministrul economiei şi finanţelor Varujan Vosganian, and their shady gaggle of pro-Russian cohorts who suddenly reverse their roles and undermine Romanian policy — no doubt in anticipation of making a large profit from the arrangement — how exactly it is that one determines whether there is a gas problem.

Hop into your tub or shower one Bucharest morning and crank on the hot water; if you suddenly feel as though you can relate to these Romans, well then you know the score, bubba.

Persoanelor sub varsta de 18 ani le este strict interzis accesul in locuri unde se servesc bauturi alcoolice.

Adica, daca esti un criminal legal… deci…

Truth is, I think it’s great in the sense of freedom. Despite the ubiquituous signs indicating alcohol will not be sold to persons under 18, no one is really bothering to enforce it.

Seems that most Romanians are pleasantly self-regulating in this social context. You don’t see kids out drinking illegally, but parents and older siblings feel comfortable asking a teen to responsibly pick up adult products.

In the sense that people outside Bucureşti seem to tend to trust each other, it’s a healthy sign.