XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: peederphiles@sfmayor.org   
      
   Who says democrats aren't ignorant?   
      
   SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — In the face of widespread international   
   condemnation and the threat of punishing new sanctions on the   
   Russian government, voters in Crimea appeared Sunday to   
   overwhelmingly back a measure to break away from Ukraine and   
   become part of Russia.   
      
   Passage was expected to deepen the rift between Russia and the   
   West, where such a move is widely seen as a blatant theft of   
   Ukrainian territory.   
      
   "In this century, we are long past the days when the   
   international community will stand quietly by while one country   
   forcibly seizes the territory of another," White House Press   
   Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement Sunday that called on   
   other nations to "take concrete steps to impose costs" on Moscow.   
      
   The response of Russia's key trading partners could come as   
   early as Monday, when foreign ministers from the European Union   
   gather in Brussels to discuss imposing sanctions on Moscow.   
      
   With half the ballots counted, Mikhail Malyshev, head of the   
   Crimea Election Commission, said in televised remarks that more   
   than 95% of voters approved the option of annexation to Russia   
   over a second option offered, which called for seeking more   
   autonomy within Ukraine. Final results were expected Monday.   
      
   Even before Malyshev's announcement, reports of exit polls   
   showing that trend drew a roar of jubilation from several   
   thousand people gathered beside a huge monument to Bolshevik   
   leader Vladimir Lenin in the central square of Simferopol,   
   Crimea's capital.   
      
   Secession was widely expected to win approval in a region not   
   only controlled by Moscow until the collapse of the Soviet   
   Union, but also dominated by Russian-speaking residents and home   
   to Russia's Black Sea fleet.   
      
   http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-ukraine-crimea-   
   referendum-20140317,0,87510.story#ixzz2wCKwEJaM   
      
        
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)