Archiv der Kategorie: politics

German Politics

Auch wenn man es eigentlich nicht glauben will…

Kein Wunder, daß die Bundesregierung nichts von den illegalen CIA-Gefangenentransporten durch deutschen Luftraum wußte – sie wollte ja gar nichts wissen…

Bundesinnenminister Schäuble hat es vor dem BND-Untersuchungsausschuss abgelehnt, dass der Verfassungsschutz die Aktivitäten von US-Geheimdiensten in Deutschland mit nachrichtdienstlichen Mitteln beobachtet. Die US-Regierung habe erklärt, dass sie im “Kampf gegen den Terrorismus” die Souveränität und Gesetze anderer Staaten achte. “Ich habe keinen Anlass, daran zu zweifeln”, sagte Schäuble. (via fefes Blog)

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US Politics

Surfing USA.

Wow. Who would have ever imagined that I would recommend something written by William Safire? Certainly not me. But there you go. Here’s his interesting take on the ethymology of “water boarding.”

Why did boarding take over from cure, treatment and torture? Darius Rejali, the author of the recent book “Torture and Democracy” and a professor at Reed College, has an answer: “There is a special vocabulary for torture. When people use tortures that are old, they rename them and alter them a wee bit. They invent slightly new words to mask the similarities. This creates an inside club, especially important in work where secrecy matters. Waterboarding is clearly a jailhouse joke. It refers to surfboarding” — a word found as early as 1929 — “they are attaching somebody to a board and helping them surf. Torturers create names that are funny to them.”

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US Politics, USA

Hillary Clinton’s math problem seems controllable.

This is probably what Obama’s campaign will focus on next – if Hillary Clinton doesn’t win pretty much all of the upcoming primaries, and the bigger ones with a, say, 60-40 ratio, she will not be able to get more pledged delegates at the Democratic convention than Barack Obama. Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter draws the conclusion that this means that winning Texas and Ohio by only rather small margins actually dealt her campaign a technical K.O.

“Hillary would then have to convince the uncommitted superdelegates to reverse the will of the people.”

Sure, in that case, everything would depend on the votes of the unpledged superdelegates, and I think it is fair to assume that most of them would not want to risk alienating “the will of the people”. Alas, or fortunately, that’s not as easily done as it seems, simply because “the will of the people” cannot be as evident to a party official from, say, California, as it appears to a journalist looking at the nation-wide delegate count. What’s more important to said superdelegate? Supporting the candidate chosen by the voters in his or her home state? Or the one with the higher total number of pledged delegates (assuming they are not the same)? As superdelegates do not appear to be representing states proportional to the number of superdelegates, I’d suggest that the nomination is indeed still an open race, and possibly will be even at the Convention should both campaigns still have the same “momentum.”

Maybe it’s deal time now that John McCain is officially the Republican nominee. Why not have an “unbeatable democratic ticket” by guaranteeing Obama an active vice presidency to get the experience he still needs (at least for the campaign) and let the two agree that Hillary Clinton will not run for a second term… we’ll see.

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Datenschutz, German Politics, Germany, internet, privacy

“The privacy and integrity of information processing systems”

Striking down state (Land) legislation from Nordrhein-Westfalia that allowed the use of trojan software to spy on individual’s computers, the German constitutional court (Bundesvrfassungsgericht) has derived from the fundamental legal premises of the German constutiton a new basic right to “privacy and integrity of information processing systems” (my quick and dirty translation). As a basic right, it can only be infringed given very specific circumstances – in this case, the court explicitly mentioned “specific” threats to the life and liberty of individuals, or “concrete” threats to the state.

It will obviously depend on legislative interpretations of the court’s ruling to see whether it’s possible to speak of a “loophole” in the basic right, as Spiegel Online English does. My guess is not, as politicians will not want to get slapped in the face by the Constitutional Court again, and the court will rule on two more privacy related cases soon.

While the court’s ruling will have to be studied in detail to understand its intentions more clearly, this is clearly a landmark decision with respect to the question of how to balance the state’s desire to gather information to protect its citizens and ensure the rule of law with the citizens’ right to privacy.

The Chaos Computer Club’s Andreas Bogk’s, who serves as an expert at the court, likenes the verdict to the census ruling in 1983, which derived a basic right to informational self determination and paved the way for privacy protection legislation.

Netzpolitk.org (German) has everything and then another link and quote regarding the verdict and the unfolding media coverage.

Some more links in English – BBC, WSJ, Bloomberg.

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battleofthesexes, quicklink, US Politics, USA

Estrogene Overload.

The NYT’s Maureen Dowd comes up with a rather counter-intuitive explanation for Obama’s recent success in the Democratic primaries: voters aren’t tired of feminity or scared of estrogene in their commander in chief, they seem to want more. But they just don’t believe they can’t get enough of it from Hillary…

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US Politics, USA

Bill Clinton’s libido is responsible for Iraq.

Well, at least in the sense that he caused the Presidency of George W. Bush. And it’s his fault, too, if his wife won’t be nominated or elected president. Sounds farfetched? Well, not to Bob Herbert. NY Times columnist, who argues, apparently seriously, that Bill Clinton’s famous touch has always been poisenous for other Democrats and that

“[w]hen Mr. Clinton left office in 2001, … , … the Monica Lewinsky scandal and impeachment had opened the door to the era of George W. Bush.”

A little too reminiscent of the tale of Sex, Lies, and Dossiers which a young Texan student called Amber told me in June 2003 on the train to Prague, the myth that Bill’s unsatiable libido can be blamed for just about everything from global warming to Abu Ghraib. Maybe that’s some kind of conservative Godwin’s law equivalent, but I just wouldn’t have thought this kind of thinking has made it into the NY Times. Well, maybe the Times are a changing.

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Bürgerrechte, Datenschutz, German Politics, internet, privacy

Stasi 2.0 – DEMO IN WIESBADEN

Der Flyer sagt eigentlich alles. Aus der Ankündigung –

“Parallel zur Großdemonstration in Berlin initiiert der Chaos Computer Club Mainz einen Protestmarsch in der Hessischen Landeshauptstadt Wiesbaden. Gemeinsam wollen die Demonstranten zeigen, dass sie nicht mit der “Sicherheits”-Politik hierzulande einverstanden sind. Sie Protestieren gegen den Bundestrojaner ebenso wie gegen die Vollprotokollierung der gesamten innerdeutschen Kommunikation.”

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German Politics

Franz, oh mein Franz.

Franz Müntefering (source:http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:FranzM%C3%BCntefering_mw1.jpg)Franz Müntefering demonstriert (wohl) unfreiwillig, wie sehr die SPD Führung, aber wohl auch die Basis der Partei im Moment an sich selbst und der Welt (der Linken) verzweifelt. Es ist schon ein wenig tragisch, mit ansehen zu müssen, wie eine Partei wie die SPD mit Bezug auf die glorreiche Vergangenheit jede Gelegenheit ausläßt, sich für die Zukunft zu wappnen. Die Auseinandersetzung mit der “Linken” – ob sie nun ein Ãœbergangsphänomen bleibt oder nicht – wird der SPD keine Wahlen gewinnen.

Die Dauerdiskussion über das Selbstverständnis, die den logischen Kanzlerkandidaten und Vorsitzenden Kurt Beck zum Direktor eines Flohzirkus macht, ist das dümmste, was die Partei zur Mitte der Legislaturperiode einfallen konnte. Andererseits ist das zumindest nicht wirklich untypisch…

WELT ONLINE – Müntefering will gar nichts ausschließen

SPD-Chef Beck würde gern sicherstellen, dass Sozialdemokraten und Linke auf Länderebene nicht koalieren. Vizekanzler Müntefering sieht das ein wenig anders. SPD-Fraktionschef Struck hat derweil errechnet, was eine regierende Linke kosten würde.

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